Volume 30, No. 7 July 2018

In this Issue

Accounting .net Conversion Process

Please Update Your Email Preferences

Register for the GMS RLSS Summit

Things to Do Along the San Antonio Riverwalk

Producing Reports from Your Old Fiscal Year

State Tax Changes

GMS Staff Anniversaries

Upcoming Webinar

Importing Budgets

Present Versions of Software:

Accounting 1.2.315

RLSS 1.1.1.15

GMS, Inc. 10559 Metropolitan Avenue

Kensington, MD 20895

Phone: 800-933-3501

Fax: 301-933-3502

E-mail: service@gmsactg.com

Accounting .net Conversion Process

We are currently scheduling conversions to the .net version of the accounting software. Processing in the .net software will remain the same and the reports are practically identical to the ones you have now. What is different is the navigation to access menus. The look of the software has changed in several areas, including all books of entry which are now organized neatly in a chart like display along with enhancements to Employee Master and Vendor files. These updates make our software much more user friendly and efficient to use. You can take a glance at the .net software screens on our web site, www.gmsactg.com, click on Client Portal, and scroll to the bottom of the screen and select New GMS Accounting Software: Walkthrough Videos. The process of conversion is quick and painless. We will send you an email with links to the .net software installation files and the update files, which are very similar to the update you now receive periodically to update your current software. You will use the instructions included in the email to install the new software and update your database. This process allows you to upgrade at your con-venience. We suggest you upgrade within a few days of receipt of the conversion information. It is recommended that you Archive your database prior to the conversion if you haven't done so in the last few years. (Refer to the Help instructions under Tools, Archive Database.) Please archive only one year at a time, therefore you may have to archive several times. If you choose to archive, once the archive process has been completed you will need to check the AP Analysis to make sure there are no "old" items appearing that should not be there. If you see items that should not be there, please contact service@gmsactg.com to help clear them out.

Continued on page 2

Calendar of Events

August 16: GMS Accounting Regional Training - Omaha, NE

August 22: Webinar - Report Writer

September 13: GMS Accounting Regional Training - Louisville, KY

September 20 - 21: GMS RLSS Summit

To view the entire calendar and register, please visit:

GMS UNIVERSITY The GMS office will be closed Wednesday, July 4th in honor of Independence Day.

Please Update Your

Email Preferences

We at GMS respect your privacy and want to remind you that we never rent, sell or share your email address to third parties. When you attend a GMS event with guest speakers and sponsors you can rest assured that your email address will not be shared, so if you wish to receive email communication you will need to sign up for their email lists directly. This is something we take seriously as we adhere strictly to the CAN-SPAM Act.

Additionally, we all understand how annoying unwanted email can be. At this time we would like to encourage you to update your email preferences with us. We want to be sure you receive the email that is important to you.

As you are aware, GMS has experienced incred-ible growth in recent years and has expanded

our plethora of training events available to you through webinars, regional training events, annual summits for both Accounting and RLSS users plus off-site training opportunities. We rolled out “GMS University” earlier this year to provide a one-stop shop for all of our training events.

With new training events continually being offered, the best way to relay this information to you is via email. We want you to receive the email that interests you and we don’t want to send email to you that you aren’t interested in.

Please visit our website HERE to update your email preferences.

Additionally, please connect with both GMS and our Events Director, Robin Berseth on Facebook as an additional way to stay up to date.

GMS ON FACEBOOK

GMS EVENTS ON FACEBOOK

Page 2 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS VOLUME 30 NO. 7

Things to Do Along the San Antonio Riverwalk

While attending the RLSS Summit in San Antonio on September 20 - 21, following are recommendations from www.travelchannel.com as to things to see and do in your free time.

Boat tour. The River Walk boat tour allows you to see many of San Antonio’s unique features just a few feet away – a statue of city namesake St. Anthony of Padua, the Ala-mo, the longest continuously operating courthouse in Tex-as, and the second-tallest free-standing tower in the US are among the sites you’ll see along the 2.5-mile route.

Museum Reach. This is an additional 1.3 miles that was added in 2009 to the boat tour. One of the highlights is The Grotto – a cave-like structure created by local artist Carlos Cortes.

Rivercenter Mall. This 4-level shopping complex has over 100 stores, 6 restaurants, and IMAX & AMC theatres.

Alamo IMAX Theatre. Watch Alamo: The Price of Freedom nearly 60 minute 3-D movie depicting the plight of the 189 Texans and settlers who fought to defend the besieged fort over the course of 13 epic days.

Esquire Tavern. Visit the oldest San Antonio Riverwalk bar. Established in 1933, the Esquire Tavern opened with a cele-bration at Prohibition’s end. It offers a full food menu along with adult beverages.

Casa Rio. A fixture of the Riverwalk since 1946, this Mexi-can restaurant sits on land first granted title in 1777 by the King of Spain. Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw dined here in 1972 while filming The Getaway.

Pearl Brewery. For over a century, this area operated as a brewery. Today it’s a popular culinary gathering spot with eclectic restaurants.

Arneson River Theatre. Built between 1939 and 1941 this open-air venue is a great place to catch a show, from folk music to opera.

Aztec on the River. This is the second most popular attrac-tion in Texas (behind the Alamo). Built in 1926, this theatre is one of the most lavish motion picture palaces built dur-ing America’s economic boom. Today, it is listed on the Na-tional Register of Historic Places, with lavishly restored col-umns, sculptures and murals.

Register Today for the GMS RLSS Annual Summit

Remember to mark your calendars and plan to attend the GMS RLSS Annual Summit to be held September 20 - 21, 2018. We look forward to seeing all of our RLSS clients in San Antonio!

Accounting .net Conversion Process continued from page 1

The file structure in the .net software is the same, so if you currently have your database on a network drive shared by several users, the .net software will be handled the same way. There is no charge for the upgrade, and all GMS Ac-counting users will be required to upgrade. It is our goal to have everyone using the.net software by the end of September, 2018. Please contact service@gmsactg.com if you have a pre-ferred date to upgrade your system. If we do not receive communication from you by July 15, we will select your date of conversion for you and notify you. If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to contact our service staff at service@gmsactg.com, place a service call on our web site www.gmsactg.com or call 800-933- 3501, ext. 1 and leave a message.

Page 3 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS VOLUME 30 NO. 7

Jill Siewert, Service and Support Specialist, will be celebrating her 28th anniversary with GMS on July 31.

The GMS Accounting and Financial Management System generates a wide variety of Financial Reports and detailed subsidiary ledgers. However, there may be times when you require information of a specific nature. Report Writer allows you to create customized reports driven by your agency’s needs. This webinar will guide you through generating specialized reports and is designed for those who are new to database technology and Report Writer.

Donald Cassady President/CEO

GMS, Inc.

Presenter

GMS Staff Anniversaries

Director of Sales and Market-ing, Era Williams celebrates 6

years on July 1.

Thank you, Jill and Era, for your many dedicated years

with GMS!

Producing Reports from Your Old Fiscal Year

To produce reports from your old fiscal year without reversing the roll forward process you will need do the following: Timing is very important in this process. After you have completed all year end activity and prepared your final reports and BEFORE you roll forward to the New Year:

Save a copy of the final year end database in a separate folder

Point the ODBC to tell the software which fiscal year you wish to access during the login process

Update the GMS Accounting System Login Screen in the Database you will be rolling forward. This will add the company name to your GMS Login choices.

Having access to the old fiscal year can be especially helpful during audit time when it is necessary to print reports requested by the auditor; or during a re-view process from a funding source.

This is a procedure that can be repeated at the end of every Fiscal Year so it is possible to have Financial Reports available for multiple previous fiscal years. Additionally, when you archive your database, the archived data will still be available in prior fiscal years.

Remember that the copy of the database you will be using for previous year reports is to be used only for report generation. Any sub-sequent changes that need to be made in the previous fiscal year will have to be made in the current copy of your agency’s database. Instructions for setting up this previous year folder can be found in the Help Manual under General Ledger/Year End/Year End Closeout Procedures/Saving a Copy of Your Final Year End Database.

State Tax Changes

Organizations may receive notifications of state tax changes in advance of the effective date of the

change. While we research each and every state’s web sites

regularly it would be helpful if you learn of a change to kindly let us

know.

“My bank statement is just a visual

record of bad decisions.” ~Unknown

Page 4 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS VOLUME 30 NO. 7

Importing Budgets Are you using the Budget Import feature for GMS budg-et entry? Many budgets change throughout the grant period, and if you find yourself going to the Budgets/PY data entry screen to make those changes manually you may want to try using the Budget Import feature.

You can create an Excel file to hold the budget infor-mation for a grant, and if any budget modifications are done you can easily change the amounts in the Excel file for the line items that have changed. You can then save the new amounts with a new file name if you choose, so that you can keep the original budget figures in the original Excel file.

The budget import feature allows you to import the budget amounts in the Excel file that you choose, and you can either Replace existing budget or Add to exist-ing budget. If you want to keep the entire budget in the Excel file, you can select the budget name you want to modify, select the location and file name that you want to import, and select Replace existing budget.

If you choose to do Budget Import for a new grant, you would first need to go to Budgets/PY, click on New Budget Creation, and create a new budget for that new grant by clicking on New, select Budget Type (typically Project), then select the project and assign a new Budg-et Name. You would normally NOT select an element. If you have several elements in a specific project, by not entering anything for elements, you will be able to use multiple elements that have been assigned to that project under the same budget name. After you have created the budget name you can then click on Budget Import and import the information you have saved for that new grant. (Hint: if you begin your budget name with the project number it will be easier to locate in the

future plus you will be able to easily distinguish it from earlier year’s budgets that may have a very similar name.)

In the case where the original budget is applicable in the old FY for a grant that crosses your fiscal year, but there is a budget modification effective the first or sec-ond month of your new fiscal year, you may need to change the budget depending on whether you are in the new or old fiscal year. For example, if you have not finished closing the old fiscal year that ends June 30, and you are now ready to process financial reports for July (new fiscal year), you would need to follow the in-structions and Roll Forward to the new fiscal year. Roll-ing forward the project that hasn’t ended yet will pull the budget that was effective in June into the new fiscal year. However, the budget was modified and effective July 1 there are new budget amounts for that grant for the remaining months of the contract. If you are man-ually entering the amounts, you would have to manual-ly change the budget amounts in the new fiscal year for the July financial reports. At the time that you reverse to the old fiscal year to process financial reports for the old fiscal year, budget amounts will again need to be changed. Having the budgets in an Excel file will allow you to easily make those changes with only a few key strokes using Budget Import, rather than manually changing the numbers. This could be a huge time saver for you!

To review the instructions on Budget Entry and the Budget Import feature, you can go to Help, General Ledger, Budgets and PY, and scroll down to the section on Budget Import. There you can see the file structure needed for the Excel file to be imported. If you follow this file structure and create Excel files for your budg-ets, you will find the import feature is your new best friend!

Sue Wood, Fiscal Officer at the Omega District in Cambridge, OH retired on June 30. Cindi Metz will be the new Fiscal Officer. We’d like to welcome Cindi to this position and wish Sue a happy retirement as she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, attend-ing their sporting events, and sleeping in! After 41 years with the Wayne County Industrial De-velopment Agency in Lyons, NY, Office Manager Ma-rie Leisenring retired on June 29. Enjoy your retire-ment, Marie!