What's new in the 2009 edition?
Enhancements and Changes
Table of Contents
2009
PROFITstar Budget ManagerPage 1
PROFITstar and PROFITabilityPage 4
PROFITstar PortfolioPage 5
Fixes (in2009.71,2009.70, 2009.62, and 2009.60)Page 6
PROFITstar® Budget Manager
”Branch Administrator” User Type
A new sub-level administrator User Type is now available. Branch administrators can perform budgeteer tasks and have the same reviewing authority as budget administrators—but just in the client application.
Exporting Consolidating Organizations
Budget Manager now lets you export and import data for consolidating—as well as standalone—organizations. If, however, the PROFITstar model is using one of the "Sum of subs" Consolidated Level Mode options, it will not be possible to select any consolidating organizations in the Budget Manager server-side screens.
”View Only” Accounts
When a Budget Manager administrator wants the budgeteers to be able to see but not modify the values associated with certain accounts, the accounts can be exported as View Only. This option is found in the Template Setup screen.
In the Budget Manager client application, the affected account values appear dimmed and are unavailable, like subtotals.
Exporting Other Liabilities
Other Liabilities has been added as an additional account category that can be exported and included in the budgeting process. The accounts included in this category are all those Balance Sheet liability accounts not already included in the Deposits category.
The data items and distribution actions available for these accounts are the same as those available for Other Assets.
Average Balance Available for Other Assets and Other Liabilities
When budgeting the Other Assets and Other Liabilities account categories, budgeteers can now choose between two data items—Month End or Average Balance.
Changes to the “Existing Depreciation” Subledger Account
The first thing that a budgeteer working with depreciation generally notices is that the system automatically creates an Existing Depreciation subledger account for each linked Operating Expense account. In the 2009 edition, the functionality of this special type of subledger account has been changed in the following ways:
The automatically created Existing Depreciation subledger accounts are now editable, like other subledger accounts. (Previously, these subledger accounts could not be edited.)
While the system will continue to automatically create Existing Depreciation subledger accounts for each linked Operating Expense account, each account's projected balance from PROFITstar will only be moved to a subledger if the Proposed budget option is selected in the Export screen. (In prior versions, projected depreciation values were always moved into Existing Depreciation subledgers, regardless of the Proposed budget setting.)
If you have depreciation subledger accounts and you import into PROFITstar and then re-export, with the Proposed budget option selected, the Existing Depreciation value(s) from PROFITstar will be netted against the values already defined in Budget Manager for other Operating Expense depreciation subledger lines. This behavior will prevent the overstatement of depreciation amounts. (Previously, it was possible to overstate the values exported into the Existing Depreciation subledgers.)
Client-Side Review Process
The Budget Manager client application now provides a mechanism that lets budgeteers and administrators communicate regarding the status of the organizational budgets for which they are responsible. In the Header bar of the main screen, several review process links are available that make it possible to flag budgets on the Organization List screen.
These new status settings are intended to be used as a means of communication between the various individuals working with the client application—they have no impact on whether a Budget can be imported or approved on the PROFITstar side of the program.
New Display View Option
The new Standard with Budget Display View option splits the data items associated with each account into an Actual/Proposed Budget and a Current Budget section. Budgeteers work with the Actual/Proposed Budget values, while the Current Budget values are provided for reference purposes only and are not editable.
Each account's Current Budget section represents the data item values at the time of the last Export or Check In—whichever was most recent. The Current Budget values in the grid will match the Budget row values displayed on the same account category's variance report.
Reporting Enhancements
Several improvements have been made to Budget Manager's reporting capabilities. These include:
Comments attached to subledger lines now show up on the "Budget" reports. (Client-side enhancement.)
A new Print button, on the Budget Manager Administration screen, lets you generate a User Setup Documentation report that lists all users, sorted by User Type. (Server-side enhancement.)
There is also a new Print button, on the Template Setup screen, which provides you with three options for printing Template Account Selections reports. (Server-side enhancement.)
”Approve All” Enhancement
Now that budgets can also be prepared for consolidating organizations, when an administrator is focused on such an organization, the right-click menu provides a new option—Approve All. This option finalizes the consolidating organization's budget, as well as the budgets in each of its nested entities.
After a budget is approved, it is possible to perform the same action and then select Disapprove Budget (or Disapprove All) to return the affected budget(s) to the previous state.
PROFITstar® and PROFITability®
Completely Redesigned Download - Beta
The Move & Link process (also referred to as the Monthly Update and the Download) is an integral part of the PROFITstar program and is used each month by most clients.
For the 2009 edition, this part of our application has been completely rewritten and greatly enhanced. The decision to redesign this part of the program was not taken lightly. However, the resulting improvements to functionality and usability have justified this ambitious effort. These include:
Improving the ease of use when adding to or modifying your Download settings and
Improving exception handling—allowing you to address exceptions before the Link process occurs.
Since the Move & Link is such a highly utilized, key component of our software, we understand the importance of making sure that this process remains intact during the transition to the new update features. This is why we are initially offering the functionality in a limited beta release—ultimately making sure that it is ready for your institution and ensuring that we are able to provide the appropriate levels of training and support during the transition.
When the general release of the new Download takes place, the migration of your data will be handled by a “hands-off,” fully automated conversion process—you will just have a few new screens to become familiar with.
Resizing Images in Headers / Footers
When working with headers and footers, if an inserted image was too large it was possible to end up with little or no room on the page for the actual report or graph data.
In the 2009 edition, a Size(%) setting has been added to the Select Image box, which lets you scale an image to more appropriate dimensions. This feature is available for the headers and footers associated with Report Wizard and Report Writer reports, as well as those set up for graphs.
Calculate Projections Option After Distributing Clearing Units
Running the Distribute Clearing Unit process on projected time frames can cause your organizations to be out of balance in those months.
To address this issue, the program now gives you an opportunity to launch the Balance Nested Units routine (which recalculates projections) at the end of the Distribute Clearing Unit process.
PROFITstar® Portfolio
New Data Lines Displayed in the Scenario View Grid
More information is now available in the Scenario View grid, including new Interest Not Yet Accrued and Interest From Reinvestment data lines.
”Include Archived Items” Option Added to Inventory Reports
Use this new option to add archived and matured securities from the current month to reports, so that activity report data can be created.
For example, if this setting is selected and the current month is July 2009, then any securities removed from the portfolio during the month of July will be available for inclusion in the report.
Fixes
While you are always encouraged to run the latest version of the software, please review this list of resolved issues to see if your institution would benefit from any of these changes.
Version / Release Date / Items Addressed2009.71 / 10/30/2009 / PROFITstar Budget Manager – Protected Subledgers
Re-exporting When Protected Subledgers are in Use
This version fixes an issue that could affect clients using the Budget Manager protected subledger feature.
In previous versions of Budget Manager, protected subledger numbers and/or comments were lost if the accounts affected by subledgers were re-exported, and the subledgers had been protected by someone other than the Admin user who subsequently performed the re-export.
Here is an example of how this could occur, in the prior versions of Budget Manager:
- An Admin user exports the budget.
- Another user (User B) checks out the budget.
- User B creates subledgers for an account—adding budget numbers and adding subledger comments.
- User B protects subledgers (as you might for salary accounts).
- User B checks in budget.
- Admin user imports budget back into PROFITstar.
At this point, everything is fine. The issue exists if the Admin user has to re-export the budget that contains totals from protected subledgers. If Budget Manager is upgraded to the 2009.71 version, prior to re-exporting, then no loss of protected subledger numbers and/or comments will occur.
Budget Manager users who utilize protected subledgers are encouraged to download and install 2009.71.
Note:To obtain this fix, it is only necessary to download the updated Budget Manager Server installation file. (When the 2009.71 version of the Budget Manager Server is installed, Budgeteers will automatically be prompted to upgrade their client applications the first time they log into the server.) As for your PROFITstar application, if you are already working in some version of the 2009 edition, it is not necessary to upgrade the PROFITstar files in order to run the latest version of Budget Manager.
Version / Release Date / Items Addressed2009.70 / 09/04/2009 / PROFITstar Graphs – Fixes
Error Returned when Utilizing the Preview Graph Option
In the prior version of PROFITstar and PROFITability, several actions related to previewing graphs—such as previewing a graph and then clicking the Close button—resulted in an error. In Instant Graphs, the previewer is found at Print Options > Preview Graph. In User-Defined Graphs, go to Show Graph tab > Print Options > Preview Graph.
Now, the Preview Graph option functions properly.
Saving a Multiple Graph Group to a PDF File Resulted in an Error
In prior versions of 2009, when the output from a Multiple Graph Group was a single page and the user attempted to save it to a PDF file, an error was received.
This behaviorhas been corrected.
Users with Limited Model Access were Unable to Create and then View User-Defined Graphs
Users with access to specific models, but NOT the base model,were able to create User-Defined graphs but could not subsequently view them.
This issue is fixed in 2009.70.
Version / Release Date / Items Addressed2009.70 / 09/04/2009 / Projections Module – Fix
Projections Balancing Routine Can Become Unresponsive
Previously, if a projection contained some very large (and potentially invalid) numbers, the balancing routine could appear to hang—making it necessary to end the task to recover from this condition.
Now, if the balancing routine is run on a projection in this state, the process will end on its own and will display a message stating that it is unable to balance in certain time frames.
Version / Release Date / Items Addressed2009.62 / 08/06/2009 / PROFITstar Reporting – Fixes
Most Reporting Functions Unavailable without Access to all Models
In earlier versions of 2009, users who did not have access to all models (as defined in User Permissions Setup) were not able to utilize the Report Wizard, Variance Reports, and Report Central.
This issue is resolved in the current release.
Working in Multiple Graph Groups, from within Report Central, Results in an Error
When Multiple Graph Groups were opened and the Page Setup tab selected, twiceduring the same session in Report Central, an error was returned.
This behavior is fixed in 2009.62.
Version / Release Date / Items Addressed2009.60 / 07/24/2009 / PROFITstar Reporting – Fixes
Problem Printing from Grids
In 2009.59, attempting to print a grid resulted in the generation of numerous blank pages and then the program would shut down.
This issue has been corrected.
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