Access Practice Management updates

Released December 2023

Key features and enhancements

Rebranding

• Practice Documents tab renamed to Documents
• Client Portal tab renamed to Document Portal.

Contact Relationships

• Improvements to Contact relationships and related lists including the ability to invite Document Portal users, in preparation for the general release of Access Document and Document Portal.

Documents

• Access Documents and Access Document Portal will be available as an add-on subscription. 
• Users of Access Practice Management will have the ability to send documents to the Access Document Portal for eSignature requests from clients and have the ability to save and edit documents from within Access Practice Management.

Released October 2023

What new features are in this release?

• Rebranding 
  • New Application name ‘Access Practice Management’ and new logo
  • Open in HTC renamed to ‘Open in Tax’
  • Open in FA renamed to ‘Open in Ledger’
  • Help & Training new URL links and naming
• Chatter
  • Enabled on Access pages to allow for chatter by default

 

Configuration Guide available here.

Release date 15 September 2023

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2024.2

Daily Timesheets

• Improvements to extend the screen display to show more than 6 entries on the screen.
• Daily, Weekly and Monthly totals now show additional unit breakdown by: Client Units (Billable); Client Units (Non-Billable); Internal Units; and Total Units.
• Productivity % shown as [Client Units (Billable) + Client Units (Non-Billable)] / Total Units to provide a basic productivity calculation for the day, weekly and monthly summaries.
• The job task when selected defaults the ‘billable’ flag based on the job task rather than previous default of true for all job tasks.
• Automated timesheet entries will appear for user to edit and put in the end time and/or number of units to complete the entry.

Reports

• A new report to show the breakdown of the timesheet totals by employee is now available called ‘Timesheet Summary v3’ report which reflects the same totals the employee sees in their Daily Timesheets.
• A new report called ‘Aged WIP by Client’ is now available.

Debtors

• The ability to now print all debtor transactions (Adjustments, Bad Debt and Credit Memo) to PDF and choose to email using email templates, previously only available for Credit Memo.
• Reprinting invoices will now also display any approved debtor transactions that have been applied to the invoice in addition to the payments to show the true balance of the invoice outstanding on the invoice.
• The ability to produce a Debtor Statement as a PDF and email to client.
• Invoice narration on PDF when ‘Show Job Title’ flag is off will now left align and now have indented word wrap for better display.
• Invoice narration will show disbursements in date order not entry order for logical sequencing.

Other Updates

• Chatter – updates made to remove any Access Accountant Cloud dependencies no longer needed.
• Internal Time – if your practice wants to transition to the new internal time structure, please contact us so we can assist you in this transition from non-client entries to the new ‘internal’ time so you can take advantage of the new reporting available with the Timesheet Summary v3 report that includes productivity calculations.

Release date 28 July 2023

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2024.1

Enhancements

• Internal Client – add your practice as non-individual client record and mark as ‘internal client’. Add jobs for your practice to record your non-client time (eg. Leave, Admin, HR, Training) in our new Daily Timesheets.
• Daily Timesheets – a new application to enter time to simplify timesheet entry and adjustments and reporting on time.
• Introduced a new field ‘Job Title’ on jobs. For new jobs this populates from the master job name by default. For existing jobs, the upgrade will copy the existing Job Description to the Job Title.
• Create Bulk Jobs – using client lists, we’ve added the ability to create jobs in bulk based on your client criteria. This also includes the ability to ‘repeat’ jobs with this function.
• Disbursement types have been provided but you have the ability to manage and control the list of disbursement types to suite your needs.
• The ability to add disbursements to jobs to update your work in progress balances on jobs.
• Invoice Entries added the ability to allocate both time and or disbursement entries to the invoice amount, and automatically write off (on) the difference.
• Display disbursements on invoice by date and job type per job.
• Create a credit memo against invoices and send the credit memo to the client as a PDF using email templates.
• Create a bad debt write off against an invoice.
• Create a debtor adjustment against the invoice.
• New reports that showcase the new WIP and Debtor transactions:
  • Clients Jobs with WIP
  • Aged Debt
  • Debtor Transaction Listing
• Updated page layouts to reflect financial transactions for WIP and Debtor transactions at Client, Jobs, and Invoice level.

Minor Updates

• Renamed ‘posted’ to ‘completed’ for timesheet entries.
• Practice Details – updated ‘Show Job Type Names’ option to ‘Show Job Title’ to reflect the new Job Title now available on jobs.
• Updated fields in Job Tracker display for Job Title

Security and Permission Set Updates

• New permission set called ‘Bulk Create Jobs’ as either disabled or enabled to allow the bulk creation of jobs from client lists.
• New permission set called ‘Managed Disbursements as disabled or enabled to create and manage disbursement entries.
• Adjustment to ‘Client Invoicing’ Manager permission to
  • Create invoices on demand for jobs, not just on completion of jobs.
  • Delete non-approved invoices.

Release date 26 May 2023

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2023.1

Enhancements

• Batch Create Jobs for selected clients.
• Re-assign Job Tasks for a Job to another Employee.

Resolutions

• Improved the way the Job Task Ripple Dates are validated where previously an invalid date was returned.
• Creating new users from the employee record page now allows for over 50,000 records.
• Where more than one Job Task exists, and the status is changed to Complete, the Job Status now saves with the completed status and an invoice is created.

Release date 2 Dec 2022

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2022.3:

Client Management enhancements

We have added the ability to send bulk emails to the main contact from Client List screen. From here the user can filter their Client List and send an email to a sub-set of clients.

Job and Invoicing enhancements

The following enhancements apply to the Premium Edition of Access Accountant Cloud:

1. Payment details on invoices now include the name of the employee who received the payment. E.g., “Payment REC-00000001 Paid by Credit Card, Received by John Smith”
   
   
2. Invoice schedules which allow clients to be invoiced at regular intervals (Monthly, quarterly etc.) can now be added to existing client jobs. Previously invoice schedules could only be created at the time the job was created.
   
   
3. The Job and Job Task Assigned To fields have been changed to now display the employee's full name rather than just their surname.
   
   
4. When a Job is created with a Start Date equal to or less than today’s date, the Job and Job task Status fields are now automatically set to “Ready to Start”.
   
   
5. If a user manually changes a job’s Current Job Task field, it will now display and search for only Job Tasks associated with the current Job.
   
   
6. A Job Task management screen has been added to allow users to re-order Job Tasks by drag-and-drop and update the Status of multiple Job Tasks at once.
   
   
7. Further automation has been added to the updating of Job and Job Task Status fields and the tracking of the job Current Job Task field.
   
   
8. The process which automatically updates the Status of “Not Started” jobs to “Ready to Start” on their start date has been improved to handle more than 75 jobs starting on a date. It also now works for Jobs which have no Job Tasks.
   
   
9. Timesheet entries can now be edited and moved from one timesheet to another. Previously if a timesheet entry was added for the wrong date, the timesheet entry had to be deleted and a new timesheet entry added for the correct date.
   
   
10. Payments can now be recorded against approved invoices by any employee who has invoice manager permission.
    
    
11. The Create Client Invoice button process which creates a Job, Job Task(s), invoice and payment from a single screen has been enhanced to optionally allow a timesheet entry to be recorded at the same time.
    
    
12. If the Change Invoice Dates button is used to move (open) invoice entries to a different date which has an existing (open) invoice, and the original invoice has no other invoice entries it will be deleted.

User Interface (UI) enhancements

The following enhancements apply to the Premium Edition of Access Accountant Cloud:

1. Changed the “End Task” screen within the Job Task to make the buttons more intuitive and save the timesheet entry prior to updating the Job Task Status to “Completed”.
   
   
2. The invoice entry Description field length has been increased from 255 characters to 1,024 characters.

Resolutions

Fixed an issue where GST Free amounts were displaying on invoices with GST.

Release date 15 May 2022

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2022.2:

Access to Tax forms and Activity Statements

The integration between Accountant Cloud and HandiTax Cloud has been enhanced to allow users to:

• View a list of Tax Forms and Activity Statements from the Client record in Accountant Cloud
• View details of a selected Tax Form or Activity Statement
• Springboard directly into the selected Tax Form or Activity Statement within HandiTax Cloud from Accountant Cloud

Premium Edition enhancements

Jobs and Time

• Parent Job Status now automatically updated to Completed upon all related Job Tasks being marked as Completed

Invoicing

A new "Create Client Invoice" button on the Client screen, will allow users to create Job, Invoice and Payment Records for the selected Client.

• Remittance Advice improvements:
  • Configure accepted payment methods by Practice
  • Remittance Advice format will automatically change based on payment methods accepted
• Display related Payment records on the Invoice, adjusting Amount Due as required

Release date 16 March 2022

The following new features will be available with Access Accountant Cloud v2022.1:

Invoicing

• Create Invoices
  • Fixed Fee
  • Scheduled (monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual).
  • Partial
  • Multi-job
• Customise Invoice description, and Invoice to a different Client.
• Configurable Invoice Design
  
  • Practice Bank Account/E-payment details
  • Letterhead Design
  • Remittance Advice
  • Payment Terms
• Invoices automatically saved as PDF upon approval.
• Bulk-email approved Invoices to Clients
• WIP vs Invoice amounts
  • Displayed on Invoicing screen
  • Available as a Report
• Flexible Invoice Approval Process
  • Set up Invoice Workflows
  • Invoice and Payment Tracking
  • Allocate Payments to Invoices
• Automated Invoice creation on Job completion

User Permissions

• Invoicing Permissions
  • Manager
  • Standard
  • Disabled
• Client Bank Details Permissions
  
  • Write
  • Read Only
  • Disabled

Release date 11 November 2021

Job and Time Tacking
The Assigned To field for the following reports now show the Employee’s First Name and Last Name.

• Client Job Status Report V2.
• Client Timesheet Detailed Report V2.
•  Employee Task Report V2.
•  Fee vs WIP by Job Owner V2.
• Over Budget Jobs V2.
• Revenue by Partner V2.
• Timesheet Summary Report V2

The Assigned to field for the following dashboards now show the Employee’s First Name and Last Name.

• Revenue By Partner.
• Fee vs WIP By Job Owner.
• Over Budget Jobs.

The Remaining Units field in a Job Task will now show as zero when a Job Task is marked as Completed.

The Remaining Units field in the Job will now correctly calculate the Job’s Remaining Units for the Remaining Job Tasks even if earlier Job Tasks exceed Estimated Units.

The Job Progress % field will now correctly calculate the progress based on completion of each Job Task.

The Over Budget Jobs V2 report and the Over Budget Jobs dashboard will now show Jobs which are Not Completed and when either of the following conditions are met:

• Actual Units greater than Estimated Units; or
• WIP greater than Estimated Fee.

Release date 26 April 2021

This update for Access Accountant Cloud Version 2021.1 also includes information about the Integration Portal.

Features
Integration Portal
HandiSoft Final Accounts Product Setup and Maintenance (note 1, this feature requires access to Final Accounts licences).

• Final Accounts is now integrated with Accountant Cloud. This new feature is available in the Product Setup in the Integration Portal.
• Create and update Entities (and Client Groups) based on changes to Client information in other integrated products.

HandiTax Cloud Product Setup and Maintenance (note 2, this feature requires access to HandiTax Cloud licenses).

• HandiTax Cloud is now integrated with Accountant Cloud. This new feature is available in the Product Setup in the Integration Portal.
• Create and update Clients based on changes to Client and Contact information in other integrated products.

Data Mapping

• A new tab is available on the data mapping screen called Client Matching. This initial process allows Clients across different systems to be matched and mapped to facilitate client syncing.
• Integration Server automatically handles data mapping for Practices and Clients thereafter.
• The Organisation Admin can view these mappings and make any necessary corrections as required.

Sage Accountant Cloud
HandiSoft Final Accounts with Accountant Cloud (note 1, this feature requires access to Final Accounts licences).

Enable integration of Accountant Cloud with Final Accounts, allowing any change to client information to be kept in sync across all products.

HandiTax Cloud with Accountant Cloud (note 2, this feature requires access to HandiTax Cloud licenses).

• Enable integration of Accountant Cloud with HandiTax Cloud, allowing any change to client information to be kept in sync across all products.
• Client Bank Account Details are synced between HandiTax Cloud and Accountant Cloud.

Job Enhancements (note 1, this feature requires access to Accountant Cloud Premium Edition).

• Recurring Jobs can now be created weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
• Users can now launch to the relevant application’s login page to complete a “Prepare” type Job Task.

Reports and Dashboards

• The following new reports and dashboards are created to show the applications used to complete Client Jobs.
  o Accounting Application Used V2
  o Payroll Application Used V2
  o Financial Statements Application Used V1
  o Superannuation Application Used V1
  o Taxation Applications Used V1