Release Notes Ver.
7.1.0 build 77
Instructions on upgrading?
Click here.
How will
this affect me today?
2006-2007 updated
preprint file is available
The Company Maintenance
Screen
Set Charge – Adding sales tax to
Cell Cards / Prepaid products
Edit Company – BPS
handles multiple billers
Purge History for a
Single Customer/Maker
MO can be set to print
at time of transaction.
Check quantity is
displayed in the daily sheets
Averages are displayed
in the Transaction Summary Report
The Occupation field is included
Track Customer per Transaction
Daily Sheet – Session
dates match store
Support for
Reconciliation of Drawer
Deposit Reports Listed by
Date
Auto-Clear: Mark user as “Auto”
How
will this affect me today?
This upgrade is key to OTC users. The Chicago City Stickers have several settings that change from year to year. In order to make sure your stickers are ready to be sold, you must update to the 7.1.0 release.
Many stores are up and running with the Coinstar Cell Cards (sold through BPS). BPS was previously unable to process both a Commission and a Charge under the same transaction. This made it impossible to account for the sales tax that must be collected for these types of transactions. A charge can now be applied across all prepaid products by following the instructions below.
Third, adjustments have been made to the DDX system at both the store and main office levels. These changes were made to ensure flags and other information are shared with as close to 100% reliability as technically possible. Other changes were related to the new BSA portion of DDX (used to track customers and print CTRs). A Main Office upgrade is being released that reflects the store DDX adjustments. Those who have main office systems will have their software upgraded by DCS on or before May 26.
As
a reminder, upon download of any new DCS release, the teller has the option
to "upgrade later" when attempting to login into the
system. This will allow anyone to continue working under the old release
and upgrade at a time more convenient for your business. We recommend
having your tellers not upgrade their systems this Saturday through Monday as
support availability will be limited.
OTC
2006-2007 updated
This upgrade is especially important to anyone who uses the DCS Over-The-Counter (OTC) Chicago City Sticker program. With this release, the 2006-2007 updated preprint file is available.
Any issue, expiration, and proof dates are also updated. Some of these settings can be adjusted manually, but updating your system to this release will ensure correctness.
Unfortunately, the city did not deliver updated vehicle information in time to be included in release 7.1.0. A special June 15th release will contain a complete updated vehicle listing. Until that time, your tellers should simply give a “best guess” as to the make and model which is closest in the selection list. We realize the difficulty this causes. Please be assured DCS always does its best to get OTC information from the city in a timely manner, however it is not always provided as such.
The 8-digit preprint number
The preprint number has been bumped up from a seven digit number to eight.
In order to process any preprint forms, your system must be updated to this version. The new 8-digit numbers just won’t fit in the 7-digit field!
BPS
The Company Maintenance Screen
As DCS makes more products available, new set-up features are added to the Company Maintenance screen. In this release several changes have been made to this screen, each described here.
New Menu
Layout
With the addition of new companies, Cell Cards, PINs, and the Visa Gift Card, the list of available products has grown substantially. Previously, this screen consisted of all these products lumped together into one long list. Finding the right item was difficult. In order to more easily navigate these types of menus, the products have been divided into submenus. Click on the “+” symbol next to any of the headers to expand the relevant section.
Set Charge – Adding sales tax to Cell Cards / Prepaid products
Cell Cards and PINs were the first BPS items to require sales tax. This has now been completely incorporated into the system so that the percentage tax is added to each of these transactions. Highlight the Cell Cards or Cell PIN section and click the Set Charge button.
Choose the correct sales tax from the drop down menu. If the charge you are looking for does not exist, go back to the Setup menu and choose Fee Maintenance. Be sure to set it up as a Charge, and then return to the Company Setup menu to assign the sales tax.
Merging
When companies make changes to their account number, or a new name or upload id is assigned, a second item is sometimes added to the menu. A good example of this is when Nicor recently added a digit to their account number, forcing us to add an entirely new Nicor item to the menu.
In order to keep the menus as clean as possible, DCS created a new feature that moves the records of past transactions from one company to another. This way, transaction history can be searched under a single company, and older, obsolete menu items can be deleted.
To use this feature, highlight the older company that is no longer in use, then click the Merge button. The window above appears on the screen. It asks for the TRN# of the new company (where the transaction history will be moved to). If you do not know the TRN#, click Cancel. You can find the TRN# of any company by highlighting it and clicking the Merge button. The TRN# for the item in this example is 50.
NOTE: Merging a company is irreversible. Be sure the chosen company and TRN# are correct before clicking the OK button.
Edit Company –
BPS handles multiple billers
When adding and editing companies, a new screen-layout has been created to make this process as easy and intuitive as possible.
The settings in this screen are populated through automatic downloads that DCS sends out periodically—whenever there is a change to a company or a new company is added.
The main reason for the new layout of this screen is so that BPS can handle multiple billers. Instead of leaving it up to the teller to find the correct biller based on information found on the bill, BPS can now automatically match up the correct biller based on account number. This was a necessary step in the process of making BPS available nationwide.
The BPS Transaction Report
A brand new report is now available through BPS. By including a Transaction Report in BPS, users can control what is included in the report based on company, date of transaction, and the teller who processed it.
From the Reports menu, choose System Report.
On the left side of the screen is a list of companies, prepaid products, gift cards, and anything else offered through BPS. By default these are all selected. To choose an individual or small group of items, click the Unselect All button, and then go back and check the relevant items.
At the top right is the date selection control. You can choose a group of sessions by selecting the first one, holding down the shift key, and then selecting the last.
Beneath the date selection is the Select Tellers box. By default, all the Tellers are selected. To view the transactions of a specific teller, click Unselect All and then check the boxes next to the Teller name(s).
Under Type Of Report, choose Details to view every transaction, or Summary for totals of each company.
Sigcard
Purge History for
a Single Customer/Maker
Purging means deleting old data from the system. This is periodically necessary in order to maintain system performance as computers with little free storage space do not run efficiently.
Sigcard was previously set up to purge large groups of customers or makers based on inactivity over a certain period of time. Deleting a single customer or maker was a feature unavailable until this release. It is now simple to purge a single customer or maker from the system.
These options are found under the Maintenance menu, Purge History. In this example, we chose Customer, Single Customer.
The Search button brings up the familiar Customer/Maker search screens. Find the record you would like to delete, then click the Delete button. This process may take a few minutes.
NOTE: Purging a record is irreversible. Be sure the chosen record is the correct one before clicking the Delete button.
Altered Charge Report
The altered charge report is used to see when and under what
circumstances the fee was changed for check-cashing transactions.
Show Check
Images
Upon user request, the check images are displayed within the report. Owners can then verify that these checks fit the store criteria for acceptable fee adjustment. Only the checks that were scanned in the selected session are displayed. Checks that were not scanned are not included.
Reprint
report per teller
The history of altered charges can now be brought up per teller. To view it, the teller must be logged in under his/her password. From Sigcard, click on the Reports menu, Altered Charge Report, and choose Reprint. From the ATS teller menu, click on Reports and choose Altered Charge Report.
Flags changed log
One of the key tools in preventing fraud is utilizing a system of flags. Whether sharing them across a number of stores using the DDX system, or for a standalone store, flags keep the necessary information in the forefront at the time of the transaction.
When a flag is changed, it can be useful to know when it was changed and who changed it. A new report in Sigcard has made this possible.
Only users with high-level passwords have access to this report. It can be found under the Admin section of the Reports menu.
Notice the controls along the bottom of the screen. At the bottom left, choose between Customer or Maker flags. If you don’t see the flag in question, the date may have to be adjusted. Flag changes are displayed that occurred after this date.
Click on the light-blue headers to sort the data based on that column. Also, you can double click on any of the rows to jump directly to that Customer/Maker record.
License System
Newest
form types are now supported
The state occasionally makes changes to the License forms. DCS has updated the form settings so that printouts match the newest versions of each form. The currently supported forms are as follows:
RUT-25 6/03RUT-50 7/05Title & Reg 05/05
Replacement Plates/Sticker 1/03Title 7/04
The form type can be found at the top or bottom of each form. Please be sure that the ones you have on hand match these versions.
ATS
MO can be set to print at time of
transaction.
One of the features of ATS is the ability to print money orders automatically for certain transactions. This is most commonly set to “Vault Closeout” so that the money orders print at the end of the day. Based on store policy and the type of transaction, they can also be set to print when the teller closes out, and with this release, they can be set to print in real time when the transaction is placed.
This is set from the Teller Menu in ATS Setup. Find the relevant transaction and open the Liability option. Click Edit.
From the Payoff Time drop down box, choose the first option, Transaction Time. Using this sets the money order to print immediately after the transaction is complete.
Check quantity is displayed in the daily
sheets
When viewing the daily sheet, it can be helpful to see how many checks went into the Deposit. This information could previously be found through other DCS reports, but with this release the number is directly on the daily sheet.
Averages are displayed in the Transaction
Summary Report
Transaction Lists allow users to lookup individual or groups of transactions based on who processed them, when it was processed, and the type of transaction. They can be generated as a Details report or as a Summary report. Details shows each and every transaction, while summary gives the total for each type.
For Summary reports, a new option displays not only the totals, but also the average for each type of transaction. It displays the average Amount, Fees, Charges, and Commissions.
To see the averages, check the box marked Show Avg. This checkbox is only enabled for Summary reports.
Additional columns are then included in the report where the averages are displayed.
DDX
Client
Maker Flag – Bug Fix
Under specific circumstances, the Maker Flag was not being passed from the store to the main office. This has now been fixed.
Teller is alerted of error
Should DDX Client fail, Tellers are notified when they log in of the problem. This way, an issue on a back computer or support station will not go unnoticed. A message is displayed that informs the Teller of the problem so that they can call DCS technical support.
Main Office Applications
DDX – BSA / CTR
The
Occupation field is included
When tracking a customer at the store level, a new field has been included in the customer information screen. Under Additional Info at the bottom of the screen is a text-box for OCCUPATION. This field is used to populate the corresponding field in Part I, section A of the CTR.
Secondary
Customer
Occasionally, checks are cashed or other transactions are placed by one person on behalf of another person (or company). On the CTR report, there is an area in Part I, Section B for recording a secondary customer’s information. These fields are filled out by the teller at the time of transaction.
After the customer information has been entered, the following screen appears.
By choosing Yes, another customer search screen appears. This allows the user to search for a secondary customer that may already be in the database. If they are not, their information can be entered as new. The data is then passed to the main office so that all the relevant fields can be populated on the CTR.
Track
Customer per Transaction
A new field exists in ATS Setup related to BSA/CTRs. Track Customer forces the teller to record customer information when the dollar amount exceeds a certain limit. It can be set for any transaction.
From the Teller Menu, find the transaction you would like to track and click Edit. Expand the Track Customer section by clicking the plus symbol, then check the box. Key in the dollar amount and click Save.
Daily Sheet – Session dates match store
Previously, the session start and end dates were slightly different between the store and main office. This was due to different criteria each used to determine when the session started and when it ended. It was usually off by only a few minutes, but the difference was enough to cause confusion. With this release, there will be no more confusion because the start and end dates now match perfectly.
Foreign Currency
Support for Reconciliation of Drawer
The Foreign Currency module previously forced the teller to closeout with the exact count of each foreign unit, with no overage or shortage allowed. The user had to buy or sell foreign units so that their drawer matched the system values. DCS has changed this from a manual process to an automatic one. With this release, the user simply keys in the actual count of each foreign unit, and the overage/shortage is automatically calculated in US Dollars.
The system is now set up so that the teller keys in the actual count in their drawer for each type of currency. An overage or shortage is then calculated which can be viewed in the…
Overage/Shortage
Report
This report was necessary due to the closeout change mentioned above. The report is divided up based on type of currency and teller. It carries a year-to-date overage or shortage, displaying it in both quantity of foreign currency and US dollars.
From the Reports menu, choose Over/Short Report.
Payday
Loan
System transaction freeze – ATS users
When multiple users
are attempting to process the same Payday Loan transaction type simultaneously
(i.e. are Extension), the system would freeze for the 2nd user under
certain circumstances. With version 7.1, the system will now recover and allow
the 2nd user to finish processing their transaction. Once the 1st
user has completed their transaction, the system will stop hanging for the 2nd
user and allow them to complete their transaction.
NSF Fees:
Calculation correction
Deposit Report Listed in Date order
Auto-Clear Deposits and ACHs: Mark user as “Auto”
Loan History:
Display last 4 loans issued for customer
Bank info screen: Overdraft protection may
be saved
Accounts Receivable
report: Loans written off included in A/R
Current deposit
report: Include Borrower info
Loans Due report: Remove loans with zero
balance
Loan Transaction
numbering sequence
111-0 = Original loan
111-1 = 1st
Extension
111-2 = 2nd
Extension
111-3 = 3rd
Extension