Version 4.1 enhancements

The 4.1 release is a small maintenance release fixing some problems in version 4.0. Below is a list of the items fixed in version 4.1.

The attended button did not work on the Add/Modify credits page.
Unable to import archived credits in Access 2000.
No screen scaling for different screen resolutions on several forms.
Removed old code remants supporting Access 97.

Version 4.0 enhancements

The overall theme of the new version 4.0 enhancements is the ability to limit and filter data.

The first data limiting feature is the Date Range in the program settings. The data range is simply a starting date and ending date that you enter and modify as needed. You then apply this date range to limit report data and also on-screen form data independently.

Because there is only one date range this new feature works best when your state assigns everyone the same compliance date. But because some states use compliance groups for assigning dates and still other states assign a unique compliance date to each employee the date range feature is too limited. We needed a date range that was more flexible.

So next we added the Month Span value. The month span value is simply the number of months your state compliance period spans. Using the Month Span value we now calculate a new date range based upon the employee's compliance date and the number of months in the Month Span value. Then as you run credit reports the program will calculate the new date range on the fly and allow you to use this date range for date limiting your report. If you select to use the Month Span date range, it will override the program wide date range in program settings if it is enabled.

We liked the Month Span value feature but saw that it also was limited because it only creates one date range. This works fine when you are tracking credits for only a single state. But since most everyone wants to track credits for more than one state we needed a way to provide multiple month span values for the different states.

We did it. We found a way to create a table of month span values and link them to the credit reports. This really opened the possibility for many new features. In addition to storing the Month Span values we also added the compliance date and the credit requirements for each state. Now we could have a single credit report for an employee for multiple states each with a different compliance date and different month span values. Basically we can have different date spans in the same report for the different states and provide credit checking for each state.

Now we can do credit checking. Column by column and total credit checking.
Beside multiple date ranges, the biggest benefit this new feature brings is the ability to provide credit limit checking.

So what if an employee meets the credit checking requirement? Are they in compliance?

Well we can't really say they are in compliance just because they have the right amount credits in columns 1, 2 and 3, etc and have enough total credits. So instead we say they have crossed the line in the sand. So we call this new feature "Line in the Sand" credit checking.

Line in the Sand - maximum credits allowed. (credit limiting). In addition to entering credit criteria for each column, you can also limit the number of credits for a particular column. Then before checking if an employee has met the criteria, the program will adjust the credits for each column first, and then calculate new totals and then it will check the new totals against the credit criteria.

All three of the dates limiting features are available for use in version 4.0. A great deal of work went into ensuring that each feature was preserved as a new feature was added. We did this because not everyone will want to setup credit checking right away. So they can use the Month Span and Date Range features and then enable the "Line in the Sand" credit checking at a later time.

Here is a list of new features and improvements in version 4.0

Security:

The program code was modified for the new Microsoft Access 2003 security requirements. You can now use medium security levels in Access 2003.

Improvements:

Auto-fill the credit Source field when adding new credit credits. - presently the credit Source field is left blank even though the rest of the form entries are auto filled.

Change the order of the seminars to show the latest ones first in the pull down menu when adding new credits.

Allow filtering the Credits Information page by State. (Ex. Filter by OH will show only OH credits)

Show credits earned in Seminar Attendance report.

Added database filename and file path to the Configuration and Maintenance & Information pages.

Added credit source to Sponsor Seminar Report.

New Credit Report option added. Added option to hide all credit details and display only the totals.

Enable subtotals of Credits by Source.
Added new program setting to enable or disable the grouping and sub-totaling of credits by credit source.

The Configure and Settings buttons are now displayed (if not hidden) at all menu levels. In previous versions these buttons were only available from the Main menu.

The option to track seminar fees and other expenses was moved from being a program based feature and is now part of the back-end database.

New report: Sponsor Costs, Fees and Credits - other States.

Import Archived data. You can now import credit information that was previously archived.

Menu changes - changed the layout of menu selections to put the most used menu items first.

Overhauled all reports. - cleaned up all reports to make them more readable and standardized.

Credit report. The credit report was completely revised to better utilize the available paper space. Credit type labels now use two lines to avoid clipping the credit type description.

New Sponsor codes.
You can now enter a 15 digit sponsor code that will appear in credit reports for approved sponsors.

Access 97 Support.
Most everyone is now using Access 2000, Access XP(2002) or Access 2003. We no longer develop updates for programs based on Access 97. We will continue to support those users however. All new program versions 4.0 and higher will be for Access 2000 and above.

New features:

Report Filters
Added various report filters to allow selecting Office, Practice Group, and State to limit reports. Pop-up menus will allow making selections. All selected report filters are included in the report footer. The pull down options for State will be limited to only those States that have credits.

New pop-up menu features.
The selected date range is now displayed in the pop-up menus as a reminder that the report will be date range limited. If you entered a Month Span value then there will be a checkbox to use the date range that gets calculated using the Month Span value and the ending date for the employee. The pop-up menu will calculate the date range and when selected this date range will override any date range previously enabled.

Also, when selecting a credit report for one employee the pop-up form will show an option button to display the employee note field in a pop-up window. This new button will show only if the employee has a note field. This will allow keeping track of any special reporting requirements before generating the report.

Show latest credits first on credit reports. (descending dates)
Show latest credits first on screen forms. (descending dates)
Added new options to change the order of credit information on forms and reports. So, yes you could have your screen forms show the latest credits first and your reports show the oldest credits first.