News and Blog
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I am so excited that I get to tell you about one of my favorite activities: the Journal Entry Import. I just love it because it is so smooth and easy to use. It is bulletproof for someone like me that is not a journal entry expert. I created the screen shots you are about to see in less than five minutes. By no means am I an advanced user, so you fiscal experts out there should be able to do this in even less time! Let’s start at the beginning. I typed the JE info into a spreadsheet in the order specified in the How To (OrgId, FiscalYear, JEType, DeptId, BatchId, Date, Acct, Debit, Credit, Comment). Easy squeezy! |
My next step is to import that file. This is pretty dang easy too. I select the Journal Entry Import activity in the Processes group and enter my file name and a comment.
When I try to create the journal entry, Escape Online notifies me that I have typed in an account that does not exist in the system. No tears here, though, all I have to do is click the Create Accounts task and Escape Online will create the account for me! (Told you it was bullet proof.)
Now that my accounts are created, all I have to do is select the Create Journal Entry task and Escape Online creates the journal entry and presents it in a new tab for me to review and submit!
Now that’s smooth.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Annual Software Maintenance helps fund ongoing support and development of Escape Online 5. In each release we add lots of great features but with all the recent cutbacks our customers have experienced, one of these changes really stands out. In 10.05 we completed CR9704 which provided the ability to send payroll ACHs via email. This is a huge benefit to our customers, saving time and money by eliminating the need to print, process and distribute hard copies of ACHs. Across our customer base, this one change will save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. Paper, envelopes, folding/stuffing machines, postage and staff time are true savings which will be seen immediately. Not to mention a better service to the employees. |
I’d like to thank the Ventura County Office of Education for stepping up and being the pilot customer for this functionality. They set up test scenarios in their test system to ensure they understood the process and necessary setup. Since the test went well they rolled it into Production for the April regular payroll and emailed ACHs for 40 employees. They started cautiously with a small number of employees and are now ready to offer this functionality to more employees. In May they are rolling this out to another district and then in July county wide.
Thanks to Ventura’s pioneering spirit Sonoma, Placer and Alameda COEs and several districts are also in the process of conducting their own tests with plans to roll the functionality out progressively over the next couple of months.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Although we worked long and hard during the first decade of this century, building “the ultimate COE school business system,” I’m still amazed with the results. Last year Shasta COE became our eleventh COE customer on the Escape Online 5 system. Today I’m very proud to announce that San Joaquin COE is making it an even dozen. We got our signed contract about two weeks ago and are already underway with the project. This time next year the COE and 13 districts will be just about to go live. |
Between this project and some others on the horizon, soon we will push to over 250 organizations live on the system.
The number one reason for this success is what we call the Escape Family – our customers, our users. Back when this system was first going live in 2007-2008, life was not nearly so wonderful. Our customers stuck by us and helped us get the system to where it is today. I’m so very thankful for their ongoing belief and trust in us.
And we’d never get another COE implementation without their continued help and support, not to mention spending time working with COEs and districts evaluating our company and our system. Each new customer brings new requirements. We work with them to develop new features, helping the entire user base.
Jim, Karyn, K.T., Jeri, Kelly, Jerry and (another) Jim are top notch school business people. We are very excited to be working with them and are looking forward to a fantastic project. Our thanks to everyone on the SJCOE/district team for choosing to join the Escape Family.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Now that 11.02 is available and several customers already have it installed on their Test systems, I thought I would take a moment to point out a cool new enhancement that we made to lists. Prior to 11.02, data was paged into a list in 50 record blocks. We found a way to get the data to the list much faster, using something that we call "raw data transfer." In 11.02, when you request a list that is greater than 50 rows, the initial presentation is a little different, but I think you will find the change worth it because of how much faster it is! For example, prior to 11.02, if you requested a list of a few hundred employees in the Employee Activity, you would see the first 50 rows of data populated on your list and the message in the status bar would let you know there were more records. When the next 50 rows of data had been fetched, they would be populated on your list and so on, until your entire employee list requested was complete |
Now, in most activities in 11.02, when you request a list greater than 50 records you are going to see a slight change to the presentation while the data is being fetched. The status bar will tell you how many pages/records are being fetched, but we won’t actually display any of the data on the list until all of the records have been gathered.
Below are some testing results we experienced on our systems while testing the performance of this new enhancement. I think the change is well worth it and I hope you do as well!
| Activity | # of Records | Old Time | New Time | Improvement | |||
| Employees | 777 | 62 seconds | 23 seconds | 2.7 times faster | |||
| Accounts | 1622 | 51 seconds | 8 seconds | 6.4 times faster | |||
| Vendor Requisitions | 1322 | 93 seconds | 17 seconds | 5.5 times faster | |||
| Credential Majors | 14,365 | 14 minutes | 1 minute | WOW!* |
(*NOTE: The use of raw data transfer was released in 11.01 for the Credential Majors and Minors activities only.)
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Everybody loves money coming in, whether it is from last year or this year or next year. Keep it coming! Sometimes, AR Invoices are carried over through multiple year-end cycles. Escape Online understands this and calculates the amount received, amount unused receivable and amount remaining to be received for each current year account for the invoice. In this way, Escape Online can carry over an invoice year-after-year. Let’s take a look at how you do this on the Year End Processing list. |
Notice how the first two invoices (number 1) are coming from fiscal year 2010 (inv10-). All we have to do is say YES to process, and Escape Online will automatically calculate the correct amounts for each year and create the corresponding journal entries.
But that’s not all we can do from this list. We want the next invoice (number 2) to be carried over for $1,000. We clear the accrual and enter 1000 in the Carryover field. It is that simple!
But wait there is more. We can release money too. Look at the next invoice on the list (number 3); we want to release the funds. All we have to do there is enter zero in both the accrual and carryover fields. Escape Online automatically releases the money and close the invoice.
No matter what you want to do with this list, Escape Online automatically calculates the correct amounts for each year and creates the corresponding journal entries and moves (or not) the invoice to the new fiscal year.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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All of you that subscribe to our news feed and newsletter are familiar with the writings of Leslie Bailey, our Technical Writer. But there is something about her that you probably don’t know. In August 2008 Leslie began working part time to pursue her Master’s Degree in English at California State University, Sacramento. She juggled driving between Roseville and Sacramento, reading and writing assignments, attending development and customer care meetings, producing release notes, writing Friday Features, updating user documentation and responding to RFPs! Amazing, eh? Leslie did a great job keeping everything going, so much that none of you probably even noticed that she was working part time. In fact, Leslie said that her writing classes taught her to be a better and faster writer, so much so that when she came back to work full time this month she asked for additional projects, like creating more tutorials per release and other projects that customers will really appreciate. |
The past six months she’s been focused on completing her thesis which is titled “Using Blogs to Facilitate Collaborative Writing Projects Without Silencing the Individual Student Voice.” I’m happy to announce that on May 21st Leslie will graduate with a Master of Arts in English (Composition)! When I asked Leslie what inspired her to take on this additional workload she said “My mom and my grandma were my inspiration. My mom earned her degree in her 40s. My grandma earned her masters in her 50s.” She also mentioned that everybody at Escape was very supportive!
Please help me congratulate Leslie on this wonderful accomplishment!
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Bob Towery: Back in the 1980’s when Escape Technology was a two year old, one man show, I got a call from a client: “Bob, I’m working at a school district now, running the maintenance operation. We could really use some programming help like you have done for me in the past. There’s a great guy in the department, Barry Collins. I’m sending him over to your office to show you what we’d like to have…”
And so began a friendship and partnership of over 20 years.
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About a year and half later Escape would be a three person company, with Chad Guest (left) and Barry (at the wheel) joining me, with an intent to create “software for the business of education.” With the right people, a solid business plan, and a lot of dedication we have achieved a long term success. Each of us played a vital role and Escape wouldn’t have become the company you know today without each contribution. I want to take this moment to personally thank Barry and Chad for both the friendship and partnership. We did something special together, and it’s been a great ride. Now I’m happy to announce that Barry is moving successfully in a new direction! Without further ado, here is Barry… |
Barry Collins: When I was asked to write about my retirement, it took a while for me to warm to the task. Escape has been a huge part of my life for 22 years! While deciding to retire was not easy, I am confident that the timing is right. The company is in good hands, and I am still young and healthy enough for new adventure. Thanks to everyone, at Escape and at our wonderful customers, for many cherished memories. I will miss you all!
I don’t have big changes planned in retirement. I’m just enjoying doing what I love, without deadlines. I have a beautiful home in the gold country, where I hike the hills with my golden retriever, roam the property on my tractor, and relax with family and friends. I like adventure travel, and am considering options for a warm climate winter home. I try to give back with some volunteer work in my community.
Someone at the office said “Cool, every day is Saturday.” That seems like a pretty good start to me – we’ll see where it leads.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a Friday Feature called "Expanding Your Search Criteria." It was all about selecting multiple from a lookup. I slipped in a sentence about the selection process, "Now you can select multiple codes from the lookup using standard Windows selection keys (Ctrl for non-contiguous and Shift for contiguous entries)." But, I have come to realize that not everyone is familiar with this special way to select multiple. So let's go through this step-by-step. |
First, I want to point out that this is a Microsoft Standard so you can use this anywhere in any Microsoft Product (like opening multiple files in Word). So let's use the same location lookup from the other Friday Feature and see how I selected the locations.
Ok, now how did I get this list? First, holding down my Shift key, I click on location 014; then, without letting go of my Shift key, I click on location 017. This gives me the contiguous (or continuous) selection.
Then I wanted to pick some other locations, one-offs so to speak. Now, I hold down my Ctrl key and click on location 011 and and then on 041.
The secret to all of this is to always make your continuous selection first, and then click on your one offs.
Now that's a secret worth keeping!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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I hear that Ramona and the support reps are getting lots of questions about the status of 11.02 and since I’m on the front line in testing I thought I’d give you an update. We will finish full integration testing today then Thursday and Friday will be spent building and verifying the 11.02 installer. So Monday afternoon John will be ready to provide customers the installation package. We pulled out all the stops to ensure 11.02 would be released on time. This release includes the final changes for Year End as well as many fixes and enhancements, including a big surprise that we have in store for our users! |
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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You know me, all about efficiency. Well I like to save time when I type by using boilerplates. They cut down on typing and, more importantly, they cut down on typos. I have several boilerplates I use over and over and over again describing Escape Technology in 25 words, describing Escape Online in 100 words. But, boilerplates are not just for marketing, they also come in handy when creating purchase orders or invoices. For example, you always want a particular type of purchase order delivered in a particular type of way. Or, say you always want to print the same message on an invoice for COBRA. |
Escape Online gives you this capability through the Department - Messages activity. You can create as many messages as you need.
Then when you are creating the invoice or requisition, you can just select the message you want from a lookup window. And, you can decide if you want the message to be BEFORE the line item or AFTER.
And, if I want to change it a bit here or there, I can do that too using the Notepad editor built into Escape Online. Click the lookup for the field and the Notepad editor pops up, giving me the opportunity to change a date or extension or even some formatting.
And there it is on the PO. Now that's efficient. Less typing, less typos. Fantastic!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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Having expert knowledge of school business, our customers are the best resource for what is important and what works. When we receive a request that affects all customers, we like to get a consensus by conducting a survey. Background: We have had several requests to add more options to the SACS Extract (Fiscal51) report. Many of the suggestions are based on a custom report that is very similar, the Fiscal151. The Fiscal151 was created by special request for a handful of customers. For several releases, we have been maintaining both reports. We would like to merge these reports to make our change request process more efficient. |
Customers would not lose any of the current functionality of the Fiscal51. They would only gain additional functionality.
From April 11 to April 22, customers were invited to participate in a survey that asked if they would object to adding parameters to the Fiscal51 in a future release.
Proposed Change: Several options would be added to the SACS Extract (Fiscal51) report. No current functionality would be lost.
Section 2 – User Options
Section 3 – Original Budget Reporting Period
Section 4 – Interim Budget Reporting Period
Section 5 – Unaudited Actuals Reporting Period
Thirty-two people responded to the survey. Thirty-one said that they would like the changes to be made as long as they did not lose any current functionality. One person objected.
Since the feedback was almost unanimous to proceed, we’ll be in contact with the dissenter and make sure we cover his or her concerns. In the meantime, we created CR 10799 to track the changes suggested here. In addition, we have CR 10767 for a minor modification (Board Approved Op Budget and Projected Year should be the same when date is the same).
These CRs have not been scheduled for a release yet. If you would like to follow the progress of these CRs, please contact Escape Customer Care to have your organization added to the list.
We value customer input. If you have any suggestions for improvements to Escape Online, we are all ears.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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