v12.03 Survey Results

The results from the v12.03 CR survey are in!  Last Friday the voting closed with the majority of our customers taking part in the process for prioritizing which change requests (CR) will be included in the next release of Escape Online.

v12.03, due to be released  in early fall, was the topic of the survey. The survey gives customers the ability to indicate their priorities for the release. They get to vote for 5 CRs in each category. In addition, they can tell us which one of those 15 CR’s is the MOST important CR for them; that’s their number 1 CR.

Each release there is a new list.  Per customer requests, previous voting results do not count, because, as every one knows,  priorities can change and what was important to you in a previous release is not as important in the next.

Every survey includes three voting categories:  Finance, HR/Pay, and Reports.  For 12.03, there were plenty of choices, including 36 finance CRs, 40 HR/Payroll CRs, and 46 report CRs.

Here is each category with a list of the CRs with the most votes.

Finance

This category did not end up with five “winners” because after the first four, it was just a hodgepodge of CRs with two or three votes.

CR#	Subject	Votes
3959	Give warning when submitting/approving JEs that contain expired accounts	6
7158	AR Receipts search – add account components and change customer id look up to not fill in customer name	4
8478	Payment account distribution is not matching the Req Account distribution	4
11140	Stores Physical Inventory should default New Qty field in Issue Units instead of Order Units	4

HR/Payroll

Obviously, there was one winner in this category, following by six so-so vote getters. Escape Customer Care will carefully review this list and we will include what we can in 12.03.

CR#	Subject	Votes
9438	When vacation pay addon points to a position and there is an assignment change in a month then the units are not correct	5
11962	Generating PERS test files for future months should not require prior months to be closed/generated	3
11889	Position Account Retro – PERS Recapture should be retro’d when appropriate	3
11648	Extra Pay longevity addon is doubling when assignment adjustment is made	3
11489	Employee Import	3
10780	Ability to create supplemental STRS files in any given month	3
10497	Unexpected grant adjustments calculated	3

Reports

Report voting gained an extra CR with a four-way tie. Again, Escape Customer Care will look closely at the CRs with three votes to determine if all can fit into the release schedule for 12.03.

CR#	Subject	Votes
11851	Fiscal04 – Enhance the logic of the report to show calculated ending fund balance when appropriate	6
11591	Pay29 – Pay Rates for Employees – Daily, Monthly, and Annual Rates are not prorating on FTE	5
10631	Retire01 – Not picking up edited lines	3
11582	ReqPay11 – Board Report – add new sort Fund/Resource	3
9052	Pos02 – Add new option to show EmpId and other enhancements	3
10606	Pos New Report – Assignments that will not roll forward	3

Of course, the results of this survey become a guideline for what to include in the release, but government regulations and other regulatory changes also have to be included, along with new functionality that is spread over several releases.

We love hearing from our customers and think it is great how they have become a part of our prioritizing process.

Thanks so much to all of you who participated!

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12.02 Votes Are In

The voting results for 12.02 are in!  We are typically looking for the top 5 CRs in each category, but for this release, there wasn’t enough consensus among the voters to get a clear top 5 in each category.

As a reminder, per your request 12.02 has a very short development time line in order for us to deliver year end functionality before June. With such a compressed timeframe it may be difficult to complete all of the top CRs but we will try our hardest.

Top Finance CRs:

6722 – Add Line Item and Percentage Account Distribution to Requisitions

3959 – Tasks Copy and Reverse should not post JE with expired accounts

11483 – The FTE is overstated in Budget when an assignment is changed, including being cancelled and a new assignment created

10803 – Allow customization of automatically created Benefit accounts

Top HR/Payroll CRs:

10303 - Retro Position Account activity – remaining programming

11571 – Add accounts to additional pay activity in line editor

11706 – PERS Recapture should be reversed when appropriate

Top Report CRs:

11591 – Pay29 – Pay Rates for Employees – Daily, Monthly, and Annual Rates are not prorating on FTE

10804 – New Budget Report – Ability to select by both account and employee criteria and present data in account or employee orientation

11773 – Fiscal02 – Add Excel export option

10606 – (YE) – New Report – Assignments not rolled forward

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12.01 voting – Which CRs made it?

Now that 12.01 has been released to customers, I thought you might be interested to see which of the ‘Top 5′ CRs from each module actually made the release.   The few CRs that did not make 12.01 have been moved to 12.02 and many of them are already completed! 

 

HR/Payroll

11350: The system should not allow a user to setup an assignment – Completed in 12.01

10065: Grid – Add detail records to Employees activity data grids – Completed in 12.01

10780: Ability to create suplmtl STRS files in any given month – Awaiting meeting with STRS

10303: Retro Position Account activity – remaining programming – Moved to 12.02

7560: Rate1 needs to recognize ‘use adjusted rate’ during entry – Completed in 12.01

8737: Add flag to get hard error when assignment FTE entered exceeds – Completed in 12.01

9312: Change leave granting to work on each position – Moved to 12.02

 

Reports

10788: Fiscal12 – Cashflow – Add Excel Export sort option - Completed in 12.01

10759: Fiscal01 – Account Component (Object) Summary - Completed in 12.01

10935: Budget07 – GASB 54 – Changes to End Fund Balance components - Completed in 12.01

11438: ReqPay20 – Not adding invoice amount - Completed in 12.01

10824: Cred01 – New Report, Holders with Credentials - Completed in 12.01

11477: Pay51 – Modify column heading of existing FTE to ‘Person FTE’ - Completed in 12.01

7891: Pos04 – Timecard assignment future amounts - Moved to 12.02

9052: Pos02 – Add new option to show EmpId and other enhancements - Moved to 12.02

 

Finance

11472: (YE) – Start Bal JEs are being posted even if out of balance by - Completed in 12.02

10739: Chk for expd accts when a payment is sbmtd and provide a warning - Completed in 12.01

7638: (YE) – Stores returns for prior fscl yr should post in the current fscl yr - Completed in 12.01

7043: Change Roll Forward tasks to be run from cur fscl yr into next fscl yr - Completed in 12.01

7306: Add various selection criteria to App Req Search screen, list screen - Completed in 12.01

Thanks to those customers that participated in the voting. Your input is very important!  Now I’m off to tally the 12.02 votes!

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v12.01 Survey Results

Since the feedback from the “Version 11.04 Pick Your Top 5″ survey for Escape Online 5 went so well, we decided to do it again.

For that reason, a week ago, we conducted a survey to help us prioritize the change requests for our first release of 2012, version 12.01, due just before spring arrives.

The majority of our customers participated in the survey, and we are so grateful for their participation.

There were three voting categories:  Finance, HR/Pay, and Reports.  Customers had two weeks to vote for their top 5 in each category.

Here is each category with a list of the CRs with the most votes.

Finance

This category was a little difficult because after the first four CRs with the most votes there is a tie with three CRs getting two votes each.  Just like the last survey, Escape Customer Care will break the tie.

CR#	Subject	Votes
7306	Add various selection criteria to Approve Requisitions Search screen, list screen	4
7638	(YE) – Stores returns for prior fiscal year reqs should post in the current fiscal year.	3
10739	Expired Accounts – Payments: check for expired accounts when a payment is submitted and provide a warning	3
11472	(YE) Starting Balance JEs are being posted even if out of balance by Fund-Resource-Year	3
7043	Change Roll Forward tasks to be run from current fiscal year into next fiscal year	2
8973	Add  AR Invoice Comment to System Generated JEs	2
10136	Stores item lookup not correct when down arrow is used	2
10144	(YE) – Change Year End Closing list to display each account line on a row, for separate accrual	2
10351	(YE) – Ability to process Work orders through YE Closing activity list	2
11168	(YE) – Fiscal Year Status: add warning when closing JE includes non-end balance accounts	2

HR/Payroll

The votes were definitive for this module.   Escape Customer Care will be adding all of the following to the list for 12.01.

CR#	Subject	Votes
9312	Change leave granting to work on each position for an employee, or flag an assignment to not grant at all	4
10780	(YE) – Ability to create supplemental STRS files in any given month	4
7560	Rate1 needs to recognize ‘use adjusted rate’ during entry	3
8737	Add flag to get hard error when assignment FTE entered exceeds 1.00	3
10303	Retro Position Account activity – remaining programming	3
11350	The system should not allow a user to setup an assignment to a closed position from the Employee Management activity	3

Reports

Again, the votes were very clear.  All of these CRs will be put on the list for 12.01.

CR#	Subject	Votes
10935	Budget07 – GASB 54 – Changes to End Fund Balance components	5
11438	ReqPay20 – not adding invoice amount correctly or calculating expensed amount if liability account is used in payment	4
7891	Pos04 – Report Changes	4
9052	Pos02 – Add new option to show EmpId and other enhancements	3
10824	Cred01 – New Report, Holders with Credentials	3
11477	Pay51 modify column heading of existing FTE to ‘Total Assignment FTE’ and add a new column for Acct FTE	3

This process has been fabulously successful.  We are really excited about it.  We even added an element this time around so that customers could identify their number 1 CR (of the 15 they voted for).

This kind of information is like gold and we couldn’t do it without the help of our customers.  Thanks for participating.  And, if you didn’t get a chance this time, contact Escape Customer Care to ensure that you can vote in the next survey.

And now for the caveats.  Of course, we cannot guarantee that every one of these CRs will make it into 12.01.

There are unforeseen circumstances, like a new government regulation, a particular problematic programming issue, or difficulty finding consensus on exactly what the change should be (watch out for more surveys in this case).

Remember though, these CRs are marked in our process as your priority and ours.  Accordingly we will try our best to program, test, and document the change for inclusion in the 12.01 release.

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11.04 Is Full of Top Rated Features

COMING SOON  to a PC near you is the latest release of Escape Online, version 11.04.  This version is special because we did something totally different, something most software companies can’t or won’t do.

We polled our customers to find out what their top 5 changes for Finance, HR/Payroll, and Reports would be.  Now that may not seem so unusual, but what we did next was very exciting.  We made those OUR top priority too.

Working with our customers, we came up with a process to allow them to vote.  More than a dozen customers participated in the survey, and we are so grateful for their participation.  As I said, there were three voting categories:  Finance, HR/Payroll, and Reports.  Customers had two weeks to vote for their top 5 in each category.

Once we had the results, we focused on making sure those changes made it into the release. Of the 15, an amazing 13 made it into the release.  It was a real team effort: Customer Care, Development, Testing, and Customers all working together to make a better product.

Finance Top 5 CRs in 11.04

• 10399 – Budget/JE Approvals – allow users to get snapshot for All Journal Entries or for Selected Journal Entry Only
• 10544 – Add an ability to edit liability account amount from Vendor Requisitions Account tab after the FY has been closed
• 9895 – Add outstanding amount to Vendor Req list
• 10821 – Create New Task ” Recalculate Starting Balances” in Budget Management for MYP

HR/Payroll Top 5 CRs in 11.04

• 9868 – Late start adjustment not calculated when days worked precede first day of the first pay period
• 10195 – Change benefit calculation to accommodate mid-year increases, late starts, etc.
• 10778 – SURVEY – Employee setup and Adjust Payroll allowing use of expired accounts
• 7633 – Problems with ending manual calendar assignments early
• 6639* - Add ability to mass create employment records

Report Top 5 CRs in 11.04

• 10895 – Fiscal13 – GASB 54 – Changes to Ending Balance section of report
• 10086 – New Report – Certificated Seniority Excel report
• 10596 – ReqPay99 – Add text to indicate that req has an attachment
• 10795 – Budget05 (by Account) – Print Adjustments with label of Adjustment instead of Vacancy, add option to exclude vacancies.

As you can see from the list, the top 4 in each category made it into the release and, in that case of HR/Payroll when it became apparent that we could not finish the fifth CR in a single release, we took the next one on the list (marked with an asterisk above) and completed it!

The process was so satisfying that we are doing it again for version 12.01, due in early 2012.  To be even more transparent, we will be blogging about the survey results and our progress along the way.

Thanks to our customers for such a great idea and for taking the time to be a part of our priority process.

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Survey Says…

Have you ever wondered how we decide which CR’s will be included in a release?  According to Ramona, “It’s more of an art that a science” but we are trying to change that.  Although our customers have always had a good deal of influence over the contents of the releases, they have been recently asking for more precision in being able to determine which CR’s actually get completed in a release.

So for our next release, 11.04,  Escape added another step to further refine the process.  We asked all our customers to vote for their top 5 CR’s in Finance, HR/Payroll and Reports.  Although still not perfect, the voting process did provide some very valuable information and we are using the results to prioritize delivery of the CR’s that customers voted for.

From a tester’s perspective the survey results provide a look into areas the customer deems the most important so I can develop more tests, both in depth and breadth in these areas.  As an employee, it makes me feel good that I work for a company that takes the time to gather customer feedback and actually uses it!

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Survey Says: Rules for Entering Expired Accounts

Again and again, our customers come through with the advice we need to create the software you need. Our latest survey concerned entering expired accounts during payroll processing. We think these survey results created a great compromise that will give everyone the flexibility they need.

BACKGROUND: Payroll uses a lot of account masks and data entry techniques (like entering adjustments in advance) that sometimes result in the use of an expired account. The question is what do you want Escape Online to do when an entry results in payroll processing using an expired account?

From May 26th through June 10th customers were invited to participate in the survey, providing their feedback.

PROPOSED CHANGE: Currently, users can enter expired accounts without error. If payroll processes with the expired account, the user either has to create manual journal entries to move the amount to the correct accounts or unexpire the account.

In CR10778, several customers have requested that this be changed. The request is to generate an error when this occurs. This survey asked customers to vote on two proposed solutions: post the amount to the expired account or post the amount to the error account.

Customers could also provide a suggestion of their own.

SURVEY RESULTS: Thirty-five people responded to the survey. (Thanks so much to each and every one of you for taking the time to give us your opinion!) Three liked the idea of posting the amount to the expired account. Twenty-two liked the idea of posting the amount to the payroll error account (which is defined in the Organization record). Ten specified “other.”

The “other” responses mainly were concerned about how the error was going to be apparent to the user. Was it going to be “fatal” or was it going to be a warning? Was it going to be included on reports?

NEXT STEP: Based on these results, we have updated CR 10778:

• Users will receive a warning when they enter an expired account in either employee addon setup or adjust payroll.
• A labor error will show on the Payroll Errors tab and in the Payroll Error (Pay22) report.
• If the error is ignored, Escape Online will post to the payroll error account when payroll is processed.

This CR has been scheduled for release 11.04, available to customers in November. If you would like to have CR 10778 added to your list of CRs, please contact Escape Customer Care to add your organization to the list.

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