This FYI describes the new utility FINRPTS for processing reports after hours and for batch processing reports.
Many districts need to run accounting reports on a daily and weekly basis. This can be cumbersome because some reports require everyone to be out of the system when they are run. In the case of county offices of education, they may have to run these reports for more than one district, compounding the administrative problems.
The solution to this problem is to run the reports in batch mode after hours. So, Escape created a batch report utility, FINRPTS. This utility eliminates the inconvenience of getting everyone out of the system during working hours. Escape has implemented a batch processing system for the following reports:
NOTE: FINRPTS can be setup using the macro process or by following these instructions. If you want to specify fiscal year for the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures, Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, and Cash reports, you will need to use the macro process. See the Escape Finance Setup and Maintenance Guide for more information about creating macros.
To take advantage of the FINRPTS utility for running reports after hours, you need to create a setup file for each report.
The setup files save your entries in the appropriate report setup screen in the Chart module. Each screen contains a REPORT SETUP field where you can name the file where you want to save the report setup. Escape will create the file with an extension appropriate for the report type:
TIP: See the Chart User Guide for more information about all of the fields on the report setup screens.
Once you have saved the report setup, you can use a batch file to run the reports after hours. The following is a sample batch file that assumes you are using a virtual drive of K for Escape.
Where:
NOTE: FINRPTS.EXE must be in the ESCAPE\UTIL directory and the user who initiates the batch job must have rights to that directory, which is normally secured.
The process is basically the same for running more than one report -- the reports are setup in the database and listed in batch file. The difference is that the batch file lists multiple reports and multiple databases.
COEs would create a report setup file for each report for each district. For example, if you have five districts within your county, you would setup 15 report setup files - one for each report for each district in the database directory for that district.
The batch file to run the reports also needs to differentiate between the districts. The following is a sample batch file that assumes you are using a virtual drive of K for Escape. It also assumes that you remap this drive for each school district. In addition, we have used the same name for the report setup file for each district. You may define different report setup and file names for each district if you so desire.