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.