Version 4.2.594.2229 is available

Bank Recon 4.2.594.2229 is available for download from the Twenty57 website.

It contains a fix for the Transaction Details link on the Manual Recon screen when you group transactions which was not working.

It feels like there have been a flurry of releases lately with bug fixes, most of them small. While I don't like bugs creeping into our software, the fact they are being discovered means people are using Bank Recon and upgrading regularly which is great to see! These are all bugs introduced because we have been busy improving existing functionality (sometimes big changes, sometimes small tweaks) to make your daily experience better. Thank you for sticking along with us and for your patience with the bugs. I hope we are meeting your expectations in fixing them quickly, and of course we are doing our best to keep all gremlins out of the system!

Bank Recon 4.2.590.2222 is available

One fix is included in this build. It will affect you if you are installing Bank Recon on Windows Server 2008.

We perform dependency checks as part of the upgraded install. The MSDTC check on Server 2008 was failing in some instances. This build addresses that. Please download version 4.2.590.2222 from the Twenty57 website.

Bank Recon 4.2.588.2218 is available

Bank Recon 4.2.588.2218 is available for download from the Twenty57 website.

It contains a critical bug fix if you have any Auto Recon Rules with 'Run across Accounts' active and no account id specified in the sort order or match definition of your rule and are running version 4.2.446.1978 (released 22 March 2012) or later. Manual Recon across accounts and Transfers (auto and manual) are not affected. Normal rules which match within an account are also not affected.

The rules were not creating the cashbook balancing entries needed to keep the accounts balanced. The different recons per account and the transfer batches were being created. If you think you may have been affected please contact me so I can help you sort out any incomplete recons which may have been made and provide upgrade support if necessary.

This build also contains some memory usage improvements around the Suggest process.

We are now redesigning the Manual Recon screen and Helper Data process to make it easier to use the details imported in reconciliations. This will be the next major release of Bank Recon, I will provide time frames on the Road Map soon.

Msi changes in the latest release

In yesterday's blog post I forgot to list one of the biggest changes released in version 4.2.580.2206. Our much more streamlined, much easier to use msi! You can get this version from the Twenty57 website.

• There is only one install option instead of three
• Bank Recon will automatically populate the install path with the one you are using (from the registry) for an upgrade. This msi will 'remember' your path so you will need to select it once more. Thereafter it should be remembered
• You can now specify an existing database on a clean install. Bank Recon will check if the DB exists and if yes, then update it. If not then Bank Recon will try and create it
• Test your Database Connection before you proceed. For an upgrade we test the connection to the Database specified. For a clean install we only test that the credentials supplied can connect to the server. We don't validate the database since we don't know if it exists or must be created.
• New Database Updater (on the off chance you need to use it). It allows you to specify the timeout (in seconds) which is very useful if you are updating a very large database. 

I hope this makes upgrades and installs much less painful going forward.

Bank Recon version 4.2.580.2206 released

There is a new build of Bank Recon available. Please download version 4.2.580.2206  from the Twenty57 website.

We have made changes which will make it easier for you to manage your accounting periods and help you simplify your recon rules. And we are continually making small changes to all the interfaces which should improve everyone's experiences - whether you are a daily or occasional Bank Recon user.

New Features

• Auto Refresh of the Dashboard. Default Refresh time is 10 seconds. You can change this in the Setup>Site Configuration>General screen
• Menu Items Domain Group Wizard and Domain Wizard have been removed. Please set up a Daily Process Schedule instead
• Process Dashboard: Display User who initiated the Daily Process Schedule. If the process is on a schedule display "ScheduleUser"
• Cashbook Batches Screen: Show actual create user not current logged in User
• Recon Rules: Only show Active GL Accounts in the GL Account Mappings dropdown list. If you currently are mapping to an inactive GL account your rules will still run. If you open the rule to edit it you will need to remap the GL Accounts.
•  Recon Rules: Only show Active Bank Accounts when mapping GL accounts per account
• Recon Type column added to the Recon table to more easily identify Auto matches (Id 1), Manual Matches (ID 2) and Suggest Matches (ID 3).
• Manual Recon Screen: Tool tip on Tag Count which shows the names of the associated tags
• Popups: Allow users to interact with the screen while popups are open (Help tips on the Setup screens)
• Performance improvement when Manually transferring a large number of Cashbook Transactions
• Accounting Periods: Accounting Period will now be created automatically if it does not exist when needed (imports, reconciliations, transfers). The default period is one month. If you need anything else you can still create it manually. Old account periods cannot be edited or deleted.
• Easy Recon Rules: Group by added to Easy Recon rules. In the Dataset Selection and Criteria you can specify a Group by clause. ID is always included as Count(ID) so we can identify the underlying transactions that need to be reconciled. You can set up all match definitions as you currently do and all Regex supported in the Advanced rules is also supported in the easy rules.

Bug Fixes

• Search across Accounts: Match Selected Transactions
• Manual Recon Screen: Fix Tag link error

Thank you to Jai and the team for the work. The next piece of functionality we are tackling is the helper data. We want to surface the helper transactions imported to make it easier to use them in Manual, Auto and Suggest Recons and allow you to do partial matches. To do this effectively we are redesigning the Manual Recon screen. We won't remove the current one immediately - don't worry! Both will exist side to side while we test and refine the new screen and the helper data process.

So if you have any thoughts and concerns around Helper data please let me know.

Bank Recon 4.2.517.2101 is available

Bank Recon version 4.2.517.2101 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains a number of small tweaks on the Manual Recon screen and the Open Cashbook Batches and Transactions screens to make using Bank Recon easier.

Manual Recon Screen Features:

• Easier Balancing Entry allocation and reconciliation process. It is now simpler to add multiple allocations when you create the balancing entry, we prevent you creating the entry if the amount and allocations do no match and instead of having to save the balancing entry, then go back to the manual recon screen and click Reconcile, you can now 'Save and Reconcile' in one step.

• Removed the vertical scroll bar from the transaction frames
• Move transactions to the matched section without refreshing the entire screen
• Clicking Back on the browser from the Balancing Entry Cashbook Allocation screen no longer creates the entry in error.

Open Cashbook Batches and Transactions Screen Features:

• Highlight the allocated amount in red when it is different to the batch or transaction amount
• Only show the Approve batch tick if the allocated amount equals the batch amount
• Order the Cashbook transactions by reconciliation status, allocated amount<> transaction amount and then date. So the Unreconciled transactions will be on top, then those which have an incorrect allocation and then everything else
• Move the delete icon for Unreconciled transactions in an open batch to the left so that it is easier to see and link to the correct transaction
• Enabled the Back button on the Remove reconciliation screen so you can return to the transactions easily

Remember, you can only delete a transaction in an open batch if it is Unreconciled. You can fix an incorrect allocation for any transaction though, reconciled or unreconciled. You do this by clicking on the allocated amount link - which will be in red if it is incorrect. 

Other Features:

• Enable Match Selected on the Bank and Cashbook Transaction screens for Search across Accounts selected on accounts where transfer of transactions is allowed.
• Rollback the last imported Bank Statement. There is a new screen Transactions>Rollback Bank Statement which will allow you to rollback the last imported statement per parser. So if you import statements from different banks you will be able to remove the last one of each of the banks independently. Only the last imported statement for each parser is shown and rollback will remove any tags and recons associated with the bank transactions. Admin and Managers have access to this screen.
• Import a Bank Statement across an entire Domain Group

Bug Fixes:

• Test Bank Details Import definition is now working
• Removed error message shown on Tag screen when there is no email address in Active Directory

Search from the Manual Recon Screen Demo

It can happen that the transaction(s) you need for a match have already been reconciled. It used to be a time consuming process to navigate to the View Bank/Cashbook Transaction screen, try remember what you need to search for, find the transaction, break the existing match, go back to the Manual Recon screen, find the transaction you have just unreconciled, load it into the matched section and finally create the right reconciliation.

All that has changed.

There is now the ability to search directly from the Manual Recon screen for those transactions you just can't seem to find in the unmatched transaction list. I hope you enjoy the new functionality. Watch the video for a short tutorial (2:20 min) on how to use this feature. The video is hosted on you tube so it displays at 360p by default. Which is fine if you view it in the blog directly but looks a bit fuzzy if viewed in full screen. If you want to view it in full screen mode change the quality (click on the cog on the bottom right between the cc and the clock icons) to 480p or 720p depending on your bandwidth.

If you would rather read about the new functionality please go to the Bank Recon webhelp.

This is our first Bank Recon Demo video so let me know what you think and if you found it useful. I plan to add more help videos and introductory demo's soon.

Build 4.2.479.2038 is available

Version 4.2.479.2038 is available from the Twenty57 website. 

The Same-side Cashbook Helper Auto Recon rules which are often created as part of the Bank Details Helper Process were failing when run as part of a batch of rules. They were running when executed separately. 

This has been fixed and the rules now execute successfully as part of a batch of rules ran together.

Bank Recon 4.2.468.2025 is available

A new version of Bank Recon is available from the Twenty57 website. Build 4.2.468.2025 contains the following:

Features:

• ABSA ASCII bank statement enhancement to import statements with the same statement number and zero balances.
• MT940 bank statement change to import based on Process Date.
• Reconciliation Rule name field increased to 100 characters and remaining characters shown to user.
• Save Tag tab renamed 'New Tag'.
• Add a pop up message on Suggestions when the 'x' is clicked to inform the users what will happen.
• Changed the Process Dashboard details message wording for bank statements imported out of sequence.
• Added From and To Date parameters to the General Ledger Detailed Report.
• New Reports: Current Reconciliation with Tag Type Summary Report, Historical Unmatched Transaction Details with Tag Info Report, Historical Current Reconciliation Report.

Please load the reports from the Reports UI Interface to see both the changes to the existing report and the new reports.

Bug Fixes:

• Suggestion count delay in dashboard fixed.
• Error message on tag screen when User's email is not found in AD fixed.
• Disable Import button on Bank Statement import screen to prevent duplicate imports. 

Bank Recon 4.2.446.1978 is available

The next release of Bank Recon is ready and can be downloaded from the Twenty57 website. It has been a while in the making but the wait is worth it. There are a number of exciting new features that will enrich the daily user experience.

Webhelp will be updated to reflect these changes and they are all listed in the release notes as well as on the Bank Recon download page on the Twenty57 website. I will also post specific How To posts and videos for some of the bigger changes.

So what are these features?

1. A new look for the Landing Page. For each account we show you the number of outstanding tags you have, how many Unreconciled Bank and Cashbook Transactions there are as well what Suggestions are available for you to look at. Each count is a link which will take you to the relevant page.

2. Search Account on the Landing Page. Useful if you work on many accounts. Start typing any part of the account name into this box and Bank Recon will show a list of accounts which match the criteria. Use your mouse or the arrows and enter to select the required account and it will be loaded on the home screen so you can then navigate to your required screen.

3. Email a Tag. You can now send an email to anyone from the Edit and Add Tag screens. Check the 'Send Email' box, type in the recipients and message and chose whether to send it now or later. The tagged transactions, description and any comments will be included in the sent mail. The subject is defaulted to the Tag Name and Type but can edited. The email will be sent from the logged in user's email address so any replies will go to that user's inbox. This will only work if you use AD (windows) authentication. It doesn't support forms authentication.

Please add the following to the <appSettings> section your web.config file and replace the values in <> with your smtp settings.

    <add key="Host" value="<SMTP Host settings>"/>
        <add key="Port" value="<Port number>"/>
        <add key="EnableSSL" value="false"/>
 Add following settings if the email sending does not work.
        <add key="UserName" value=""/>
        <add key="Password" value=""/>

4. Search Transactions from the Manual Recon Screen. There is a new Search box at the bottom right of the Manual Recon screen that allows you to search across all transactions, reconciled and unreconciled, for transactions which may relate to the ones in the matched section. You can search on amount range, date range and a reference. Amount and Date are defaulted based on the match difference and newest date of the selected transactions. Reference is free text and will search all the reference fields to find a match. You can configure default date and amount tolerances per account.

5. Load transaction into the Matched section of the manual recon screen from the View Transaction Screens. Once you have clicked search from the Manual Recon Screen, the results will be loaded on the relevant View Transaction Screen with the criteria you searched for shown. If you find your transaction, break the existing match if needed and then select the transaction(s) and click on 'Match Selected'. They will be loaded into the Matched Section of the Manual Recon screen automatically. 

6. Recon rule changes. To improve the rule execution performance even further we have changed the rules to run on Unreconciled Transaction tables instead. These tables are BankTransactionUnreconciled and CashbookTransactionUnreconciled and they have been denormalised and should contain all the columns you need to design and run your rules. Existing rules will need to be updated to query these tables to take advantage of the change and all new rules should be designed on these tables. Existing rules will still run on the old structure but we will be phasing it out in future builds so it is advisable to update your existing rules. If you need help changing your rules please let me know. 

7. Minor enhancements:

• Test button on Cashbook Import Definition Screen will also ensure that the required columns are included in the query and all the columns can be mapped. 
• Back button on Recon Details screen will retain the search criteria and loaded transactions on the View Transaction Screens.
• Spaces are now allowed in the Account column alias's.
• If any of the Bank Statement files in the multiple file list is selected, the 'Multiple File' radio button will automatically be selected.
• Recon Id and totals and difference of each side is shown on the Tag Details screen.
• The following web services have been removed: GetDetail, GetExceptions, GetHistory, UpdateException, DeleteDetail, AddDetail
• Standard Current Reconciliation Report has been updated to show the correct percentages. Please reload the report from the UI to see the changes.

8. Bug fixes: 

• A domain group administrator can now view the Process Log and Audit Log screens correctly. 
• Recon rule run user is specified as batch create user for any balancing entries instead of defaulting to User ID 1.
• Remove Suggestions if a Bank or Cashbook Batch is removed.
• Cleanup Tags and Tag delete timeout resolved.
• Edit the current Profile bug resolved.
• Configure the number of times Bank Recon should attempt to connect to the Database server when the service is restarted to ensure Suggest and Process Schedules load correctly. Add the following to the processservice.exe.config file in the <appSettings> section

                   <add key="ServiceStartMaxAttempts" value="3"/>

                  <add key="DelaySecondsBetweenAttempts" value="60"/>

A very big thank you to Anand and the team for the fantastic development work done and their patience as features, layouts and colours were tweaked and tweaked again. And also to Carien and Franz with the help on the usability and graphics side.