News and Blog
April 2008

Release v08.03
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008

This release included 87 changes! Some were custom, but the majority (77) were for each and every one of you:

  • 31 changes to Finance
  • 43 changes to HR/Payroll
  • 3 changes to System

Quick Links

Here are some quick links for the release that went out earlier this week:

Summary of Major Enhancements

This release includes some impressive activity and report enhancements:

  • We have expanded the search for vendors with over a dozen new fields, including City, State, Zip, 1099, Garnish, Hold Payments, and date ranges for payments and requisitions. We also added a section for independent contractors.

  • The new Receiving Report (ReqPay13) will show all requisitions with outstanding receipts. Requisitions with any line items not fully received will be included. The report will display all line items for the requisition, regardless of the line items receiving status, including requisitions that have never been received.

    This will help purchasing and AP users to quickly find 'uncompleted' requisitions, excluding requisitions that are in the Open, Submitted, Denied, Complete or Cancelled status.

    The report can be sorted by received date, department or vendor. Report criteria include requisition range, requisition type, PO number range, receiving date range and more!

  • The new Employee Snapshot provides a comprehensive look at the employee record. It details the information found on each of the tabs of the employee record. The snapshot is accessed through the Employees activity AND as an integrated report (so you can report on more than one employee).



  • Introducing a User Report (System02)! Now you can run a report that shows all of a user's information, including user-based permissions. You can also create a list of users. Both sort options have lots of criteria to select: User Id, role, has permissions, login disabled, name, and department. This will be a great time-saver for system administrators.



  • The way you enter leave transactions has been improved to make it easier to use. The biggest change is that we have moved the transaction list to its own tab. The other big change has to do with the default leave type. You can still define a default leave type, but you don't have to. It is no longer a required field.

    If you choose to leave the default leave type blank, then when you create a new item, the leave type will default to same leave type as the previous transaction.

    Finally, regardless of whether or not you have defined a default leave type, when you copy a transaction, the leave type will copy as well.

  • Comments. Comments. Comments. It is so important to document your changes. So, we have added new comment fields to positions, position detail and payroll adjustments.

Questions and Answers about Release v1.08.03
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Terri Hammond

Last week we had another release review webinar.  And, just like last time, there were some great questions submitted through the chat box.  We thought everyone would be interested in the questions and the answers. 
 
Q - How do I get the new Insufficient Funds task for Dept reqs?
A – Through user based permission.
 
Q – How do you enter more than one previous last name.
A – Separate the entries with a comma.
 
Q – Where were all the new comment fields again?
A – Position, Position Detail, Adjust Payroll and a new Notes tab in Position.
 
Q – Will Vendor Search have Category added?
A – Yes! It is currently available and was added in a previous release.
 
We are opening up the next review to all of our users because the v08.04 release is going to contain such fantastic features that no one will want to miss it!

Escape CASBO Update
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Ramona Marshall

Escape is back from the CASBO Convention in Anaheim. It was great to see so many customers!  We enjoyed the conversations with everyone. Over the next few days we will publish pictures of the visitors to our booth.  Here is the Escape CASBO Team, (Bob Towery, Ramona Marshall, Jennifer Escamilla and Kathy Carlson) along with, oops, future customer, we can’t mention her yet!

Visiting Sac City Unified
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Barry Collins

Last week I attended a Sacramento City Unified Steering Committee meeting for conversion of their financial system to Online 5 from Escape Classic. Sac City is one of our longest standing customers, and our largest single district customer. I accompanied Jennifer Escamilla, our project manager, to observe how the project was proceeding and to participate in a discussion regarding outstanding tasks required for rolling out the new system.

As a large district using all Escape modules, a complete system conversion like this is a major project. Sac City’s team has been very involved, and has done a great job moving things along. They have now reached the final stages of conversion, and are assessing whether they can meet the target of a July 1 for rollout. Go Sac City!

Visting South Bay Union
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Barry Collins

As part of my continuing effort to visit customers and share information about Escape Online 5, I visited South Bay Union School District last week. Terri Hammond and I went to South Bay to show them the software, discuss conversion requirements, and answer questions about benefits of conversion. South Bay uses our Finance and HR functionality, and is interested in using Online 5 to manage true position based budgeting.

In the morning we demonstrated the Finance module, in the afternoon we showed HR. A variety of staff attended parts of the presentation, with about 20 in attendance overall. As usual, the users love Classic, and were quick to see the similarities in Online 5. The meeting went well, and South Bay is now assessing next steps. Thanks to Janet Wraight and the South Bay staff for their hospitality.

Come See Us at CASBO!
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Ramona Marshall

This year will be my first year at CASBO, and I am very excited to meet all of the great Escape customers.

Some of you I have already had the pleasure to meet. I am looking forward to meeting and chatting with all of you. This year is especially exciting for Escape. We will be featuring Escape Online 5 LIVE. With 42 live districts, 25 current implementations and more in the hopper, we have a lot to show and tell.

So please join me, Bob Towery, Jennifer Escamilla, and at booth 200 to get a tour of the latest software and learn more about how you can start on your Journey to Escape.

We love our customers (they love Robin!)
Dateline: Roseville - April 2008 - Ramona Marshall

It's great to know when customers appreciate our service, even better to go all out and get their rep flowers! Robin recently helped one of her customers through a sticky problem. Way to go Robin and that special customer, you know who you are!