Welcome to the Power of Nine eNewsletter. The goal of this free newsletter is to provide TEA users with tips and tricks on using TEA IX as well as news and other information about TEA IX. Please feel free to forward it to your co-workers, or let them know that they can access it from the TEA IX website.
What's New !
TEA IX Industry Canada/FedNor Quarterly Report update for 9.12 Users Released
The latest update to the Industry Canada/FedNor Quarterly Report was officially released June 30, 2004, along with the Industry Canada/FedNor Online Quarterly Reporting Tool. More details directly below in the TEA IX Updates section.
TEA Support Website - Minor Facelift
The main TEA Support page on the website has been modified slightly. The new layout is a little more user-friendly and hopefully will help you find what you're looking for with less searching and with fewer "clicks" than before. More changes are coming so check the site regularly!
New Documents added to the Online Document Library
Several new documents are now available for download from the TEA Support website, including:
- Updated TIX Installation Guide - Workstation
- Updated TIX Installation Guide - Server
- Working with Desjardins Insurance
- Credit Agency Reporting
- Maintenance on the TEA Delinquency Journal
- Working with User-Defined Fields on Reports
TEA IX Updates
TEA IX Industry Canada/FedNor Quarterly Report
The Industry Canada/FedNor Quarterly Report update has been officially released. A working group comprised of CFDC representatives and IC/FedNor staff provided feedback to assist in the development of the new Community Futures Development Corporation Quarterly Report. We strongly advise that all OACFDC organizations complete this update, if you haven't done so already. You will find a copy of the new Quarterly Report Guidelines, Definitions and Instructions in your TIX directory upon completion of the update.
Here are a few items that have been added with the latest Quarterly Report Update:
- Loan Status Configuration - Committed status is now included in Quarterly Report results and should therefore be adopted into your process for entering new loans
- Client Group Setup allows users to specify which target groups in TEA belong to which Client Groups, as defined by Industry Canada
- A detailed breakdown of Applications has been added which includes the number and dollar value for Applications Provided, Received, Pending, Withdrawn, Declined and Committed
- Undisbursed funds
TEA IX v9.13 Update - Coming Soon!
We are excited to be releasing a new update of TEA to our users that addresses some minor database issues and adds some new features and available modules. Below is a brief list of some of the enhancements that have been made to the software.
- Entity Number added to the Business Module
- Manual Fees are now posted to the delinquency journal
- Added Canadian Payments Association (CPA) format for the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Module supporting RBC, CIBC, TD, Scotia and most Credit Unions
- Cashflow Report added that allows organizations to view future repayments based on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis broken down by primary transaction category (Principal, Interest, Fees, Insurance, etc)
- Support for Peachtree and MIP accounting export formats
- Grant Module now available to manage any Grant Programs (add-on module)
- Enhancements to the Credit Bureau Reportong Manager
- Many new fixes made to reports and various other features to be outlined upon release
Upcoming Events
No rest for the wicked they say! Here's a look at where we'll be travelling to in the coming months.
- NADO Annual Training Conference 2004
Orlando, FL - August 28 - 31, 2004
37th Annual Training Conference for the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO). NADO provides training, information and representation for regional development organizations serving small metropolitan and rural America. For more details, please visit the NADO website.
Scott Rowat and John Meredith will be attending.
- Atlantic Association Annual General Meeting
Amherst, NS - September 22 - 24, 2004
CBDC Cumberland is proud to be hosting the 2004 Annual General Meeting in Amherst, Nova Scotia. For more details, please visit the AGM website. We look forward to seeing many of our Atlantic Canadian users at the conference!
Training
Custom Report Builder Training Sessions
Custom Report Builder training sessions have been scheduled in various locations across Canada. This introductory course focuses on the basic aspects of developing custom reports using TEA's Custom Report Builder. You'll gain the skills needed to create dynamic new reports as well as the confidence to modify TEA's existing reports to suit your organization's specific needs and preferences.
This training course was designed and developed largely based on feedback from our users and requests for training opportunities. We are pleased to be able to offer this course now in response to those requests and we hope that many of you will take advantage of the session being offered in your area.
Course dates are fast approaching so show your support and sign up today for the session nearest you! Course agenda, schedule and registration information is available on our website.
For further information and available training options, please contact CommonGoals Software. Provide us with your specific training requirements and we'll be happy to provide you with a no cost, no obligation quote. You can also contact us anytime at training@commongoals.com.
QuickHelp
- Session Date - What is it and what does it do?
- Creating a Client from a Rolodex Contact
- Transferring Client Information and Contacts from Client Record to a Business Record
- Adding Payments to the Scheduled Payments List
- Changing which Report is set as the Default
- Grouping your Records
The session date is the date for which TEA will perform updates to the Delinquency Journal, Transaction Processing List and Charges & Interest. These updates must be performed in order to advance the session date.
The Delinquency Journal is updated every time that TEA's session date is advanced. Any payments that are due since the date of the last session date to the date of the new session date are automatically entered as a debit in the delinquency journal and classified as an invoice. The payment due date and amount are extracted from the current amortization schedule for each client.
The Transaction Processing section of TEA displays a list of loan payments due from your clients based on the session date. Each time you advance the session date from The Exceptional Assistant; the system will analyze your loan portfolio and produce a list of scheduled payments that are due. The transaction processing section is created based on the information from the amortization schedules section of the loan records. Because of this, it is very important that each active loan record has an accurate amortization schedule. If your organization uses floating interest it is extremely important that your floating rate tables are up to date prior to advancing your session date as this would affect your loan's interest calculations. If the floating interest option is selected, you are prompted to modify the prime rate table every time you advance the session date.
Charges (fees) and Interest charges are posted to the loans based on the Session Date. Each time you advance the session date the system will analyze your loan portfolio and post any fees or interest due as specified within the amortization schedules section of the loan records.
If you are using TEA’s invoicing feature, it is important to note that invoices should be generated prior to the current Session Date in order to obtain accurate invoice results. Therefore, if the session date is set to August 14th, 2004, you should invoice for the billing period of August 15 -31, 2004. Invoicing must always be generated in advance of the payment due dates. Rule: Always invoice clients for payments due subsequent to the current Session Date. This will ensure accurate invoice results.
TEA provides users with the flexibility to update the session date to meet their organizations needs. In most cases you would be advancing your session date on a daily basis but there may be times when you want to hold off on advancing your session date. Some instances where you might hold off on advancing your session date might be at month end or year end to give yourself time to balance to your accounting software. It is recommended that the session date only be advanced when all accounting information has been posted up to the current session date. In order to avoid confusion, the session date should not be advanced for more than one month into the future.
One thing to note is that once you have advanced your session date in error you can not change the date back to a prior date. This date can only be advanced forward. Once the session date has been advanced this is the date that will appear by default when entering notes, contacts, tasks etc. into TEA. This saves you time in having to enter the date, if you are advancing your session date on a daily basis.
It is recommended that one person within your office be responsible for changing the session date from day to day. If you only want certain individuals from within your office to have access to advancing the session date it is recommended that you disable this feature for all other users in your office through the Administration Module/User Management/Permissions/The Exceptional Assistant - Main.
Creating a Client from a Rolodex Contact
This feature allows a client record to be created using the information found on an existing Rolodex contact record. This time-saving feature transfers all information, including any associated notes, tasks, contacts, appointments and attachments over to the Client module in just a few short steps.
From the TEA main window, select the Rolodex module tab. If the last name of the record is known, type it in the Lastname field and click Start Search or if it is not known, click Start Search. Select the record in the grid so that it is highlighted. Next select Tools | Transfer Contact to Client from the main menu. The contact will be automatically removed from the Rolodex list and transferred to the Client list.
Transferring Client Information and Contacts from Client Record to a Business Record
Once you have associated your principal with the Business you have the option of transferring client information and all contact records to the Business Record.
From within the Business record select Edit | Transfer Info from Principal from the menu and double-click on the desired principal in the list to select. This time-saving feature transfers all address, phone number, email and website information from the client's record to the business record.
Adding Payments to the Scheduled Payments List
If you post your scheduled payments from the Transaction Processing List and a client makes an unscheduled loan payment, the payment can also be added to the scheduled payments list. Posting the payments this way saves the user time and effort when posting payments. Instead of posting each one manually in each loan, this can all be done through The Exceptional Assistant in one easy step.
From the TEA main window, select the Loan module tab. Select Tools | Transaction Processing from the menu. The list of scheduled payments will be displayed sorted by payment method. Click the New icon on the toolbar and enter the Payment Information. Click OK when you are done.
Changing which Report is set as the Default
When printing a report, there are often several variations of the report available to choose from in the Print Report dialog box. Because of this, you may want to change which report appears by default so that you don't have to select that report from the drop-down menu every time.
Open the Print Report dialog box of the appropriate report and click the Report Manager... button. In the Report Manager, select/highlight the name of the appropriate report from the reports listed. Click Properties. In the Report Settings dialog, check the Default check box. Click OK to save your changes and close the Report Settings dialog box. Click Close to close the Report Manager. Click Close to close the Print Report dialog box.
Grouping your Records
In the Exceptional Assistant, groups are used to organize items. There are different groups for each module (Rolodex, Client, Business, Loan, etc.). Groups may also be thought of as very specific searches. The result of the search contains only the exact records that have been added to the group.
A group can be one of two types, public or private. A public group is accessible by all users and a private group is only accessible by the user who created it.
There are four built-in groups that are found only in the client module. These groups are maintained automatically by the program and are based on the "Primary Category" field, found on the Details tab of all client records. The four primary categories for client in TEA are Loan, Self Employment Program, Technical Assistance and Training.
The following procedure for creating a group applies to any of TEA's main modules. Before beginning, make sure that all of the records to be added to the group are included in the current view. To create a new group, from any module in TEA select one or more records from the module. To highlight more than one item, hold down the Shift or Ctrl keys while selecting them with either the mouse or arrow keys. Click the Add items to Group icon on the toolbar located along the top of the window. Click the New Group option box. Enter the Name of the new group, as it will appear in the group tree. Select whether the group is a Public or Private group. Click OK to create the new group. When complete, the newly created group is now available in the left pane under the 'Group Tree' on the module screen. When that group is selected only records belonging to that group will be displayed in the module.
To add items to an existing group, from any module in TEA, select one or more records in the right pane. To highlight more than one item, hold down the Shift or Ctrl keys while selecting them with either the mouse or arrow keys. Click the Add items to Group icon on the toolbar. From the drop-down list of existing groups, select the desired Group. Click OK to save the changes.
For customer service or technical questions regarding TEA IX, please visit the TEA Support page on the web. You must use your assigned Username and Password to access the Support area. If you have lost or misplaced your login information, you may contact TEA Support and we will email this information to you.
As always, if you have any feedback regarding this newsletter, please email your comments to us. We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Power of Nine eNewsletter.
Best regards,
The TEA Support Team
Power of Nine
eNewsletter for TEA IX
August 01, 2004
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What's New ! |
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TEA IX Updates |
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Upcoming Events |
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Training |
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QuickHelp |
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