Development Update

You are receiving this email as an update of SGA’s current development process. We are in the midst of rewriting our entire accounting software package with Microsoft’s .NET platform. Utilizing Microsoft’s .NET platform we now have much more power in a programming language than ever before. .NET gives us a much greater ability to deliver efficiency and timeliness to our client base. By using .NET and SQL Server we now have the ability to become a one vendor solution – Microsoft. ASNA licenses will no longer be required.

Windows vs. Web

Web applications are wonderful since they deploy very easily and anyone can access them with a web browser. However, they lack many features which our clients have come to fully appreciate in our existing applications. Therefore, we have taken the point of view that SGA Accounting is primarily a windows application, but will have web extensions for the modules which need it. The web extensions we are planning to develop are budgeting, reporting and purchase requisition. Each of these will have a windows version as well. That way your primary accounting staff as well as your branch offices will have everything they need.

SQL Server 2008

Using the Microsoft SQL Server database enables us to have much better speed than we did on an Acceler8DB pc or the AS400. Reports run at a minimum three times faster up to as much as 25 times faster. With our new approach, the wait time for reports is just a matter of seconds. Additionally we have the capability of querying most anything you can think of. The bottom line is, there are hardly any limitations, if any at all.

Everyone has their own opinion of databases, but in our opinion, SQL Server is the most popular, the fastest and the very best database platform. It is a very stable database and makes retrieving and updating data fast, easy and efficient. The SQL Server Express edition, which is free, works great with our software. The primary limitation of the express version is a maximum of 4GB per database and only utilizing 1 CPU. If you choose to purchase an expanded edition of SQL Server then it is priced very reasonably.

New Features

Our new version will have many new features in addition to what you have now. The following is a detailed outline of those features. There will be many more to come, especially in the area of Accounts Payable and Purchase Order since they are in the early stages of the development process.

1.      General Features

a)      New MDI (multiple document interface)

i)        Layout allows you to easily have multiple screens up at the same time and have the main menu always accessible. This allows the user to very easily multitask.

b)      Move columns in the order you prefer simply by dragging them.

c)      Sort columns simply by clicking on the column header within a grid.

d)      Most grids have a view where you can choose which columns you want to show or hide, order them and save the view.

i)        Save views for all users, a group or a single user.

e)      The ability to print any grid is always available.

f)        Export any grid to Excel is always available.

g)      Favorites

i)        Each user has their own organized favorites menu for quick access to whatever they want.

h)      Activity Monitor

i)        Activity monitor is a new tool that enables an administrator to see all users who are currently logged on and gives you the ability to monitor their activity.

ii)       You can also take an entire database offline so no one else can log on.

i)        Attachments

i)        The ability now exists to include custom information, file attachments, comments to accounts, vendors and payers.

2.      Dashboard

a)      The capability now exists to create a customized dashboard for each user, a group of users or all users. A specific dashboard can be set to automatically load when logging on.

b)      You can now define the windows or reports as well as size and position of each window.

c)      A generic report writer, which is in the design phase, will report on any information from any table outside of SGA within the same dashboard. An example is Membership Management.

3.      Security

a)      Security has been changed so that a user can be assigned to multiple groups. We now have the capability of setting permissions per group and it will be applied to all users in a chosen group. Cloning of permissions to all users within the group is no longer necessary, thereby simplifying security.

b)      Logging has been added to every menu so that you can always find out who ran what and when.

4.      Report Writer

a)      “Canned” reports no longer exist.  Every report is now built in the report writer where the ability exists to customize the report in any way desired using either financial statements or the detail report writer.

b)      Each view is now listed under a user defined category.

c)      You can now add borders to your reports.

d)      General

i)        Every view has a description that you can see before you choose to display it.

ii)       Headers and totals can now be bolded.

e)      Select

i)        Currently when doing a selection or query, you can compare “Equal To”, “Not Equal To”, “Greater Than or Equal To”, “Greater Than”, Less Than or Equal To” and “Less Than”. In addition to the previously noted capabilities, we now have the capability to add “Contains”, Does Not Contain”, “Begins With” and “Ends With”.

f)        Rows

i)        We now have the ability to specify the column to show the item and description.

ii)       The ability now exists to show other column values on total rows.

iii)     We can now customize the item and description text displayed and place it in any column, not just the first two columns.

iv)     Custom Total

1)      Custom total is a user-defined total. The user defines the (multiple) query selections to include a description to go with it.

v)      Date Total

1)      This is a unique total that applies to any date. The user specifies the number of days to show a total for and it shows a total for each date range found.

2)      There is also an option to sum if older than a certain number of days.

3)      As an example, this function would be used to create an accounts payable aging report.

g)      Columns

i)        All columns are now specified on one tab. There are no longer two separate tabs for detail vs. amount columns.

ii)       Defaults to auto-size column widths.

h)      Counts

i)        Ability to add a count column and specify what row to count.

ii)       Provides the ability to define what you want to count rather than just the number of records.

i)        Provides the ability to specify the first or last value for detail columns.

j)        Ability to show a column value when only certain conditions are met.

k)      Drill Down

i)        The ability now exists to drill down on any total line, not just the body (detail) lines.

ii)       Users now have the ability to choose what view to drill down to.

5.      General Ledger

a)      Accounts – maintains an unlimited number of years of activity.

b)      Recurring journal entries have been greatly enhanced.

6.      Budgeting

a)      Completely customizable columns.

b)      Allows users to specify what columns they want to see and in what order.

c)      User defined variances and formulas.

d)      Unlimited number of years.

e)      Components

i)        Formulas with any number of columns are defined for a range of accounts.

ii)       The ability to create a formula with which to calculate membership accounts in detail now exists.

iii)     The user and date/time the budget was last modified is displayed on the screen.

7.      Accounts Payable

a)      Invoice entry will include a grid to enter distributions instead of having to enter a whole new invoice.

b)      Reports

i)        Will now execute in seconds, if not milliseconds.

ii)       Are now within a report writer so that every report is completely customizable.

c)      Checks

i)        Completely customizable checks with the ability to print name and amount in a secure font.

Implementation

At this point we have approximately 45% of the overall project complete and estimate completion by the end of the second quarter of 2010. The general ledger, budgeting and reporting modules are nearly complete. We plan on having these modules available before the accounts payable is completed. Meanwhile, accounts payable information will be imported into the general ledger.

The dashboard and reporting modules are complete and we are currently working to make them available before the other modules for those of our clients who want this product. If you are one of those clients then we can set up a scheduled nightly conversion to convert the data from ASNA to the new .NET platform. If you choose to go this route then your reports would temporarily be a day old on the new platform.

If you would like a demo of what we have done thus far or have any questions or feedback, please contact us at support@sgasoftware.com we would like to hear from you.

Email: sales@sgasoftware.com
Phone: 814-472-5158
Web: www.sgasoftware.com