|
 
 | |
This is an up-to-date listing of changes to
ALEX. New developments will be posted here in date order with the
most recent date first.
Review this page often.
April 2004 (Version 2004 B)
 | Job Code maintenance now guarantees that no transaction has been posted
outside the effective dates of the Job Code. Transactions include both
allocations (via collections) and expenses. Changing a Job Code
will not be allowed until all transactions for the Job Code have been
corrected or the effective dates of the Job Code have been expanded to include
the dates of the transactions. |
March 2004 (Version 2004 A)
| Fee Demo rollover has been implemented! Job Codes that change at the
beginning of a fiscal year can now be setup with the rollover balance from a
previous Job Code. A checkbox has been added to each Job Code in Job
Code Maintenance to enable this rollover. When checked, you can select a
new Job Code to rollover the balance. The balance will be automatically
transferred to all Fee Demo Sites that use the new Job Code. The balance
for each Fee Demo Site will be determined by the transactions entered
between the effective and expiration dates of the old Job Code. The old
Job Code will remain in the database for reporting purposes. The
rollover can be rolled back, if necessary. | When any expense, including a salary expense, is entered for a Fee Demo Site
with a Job Code that is not set up for site expenses ALEX now asks the user if
they want to post the unusual expense. The user must answer Yes, in
order to post the Job Code anyway. Otherwise, the Job Code must be
changed or the Site must be removed from the expense.
| New GAO Categories for Fee Demo expenses have been added. Original GAO
category codes were not deleted. New effective and expiration dates have been added to
all GAO Category codes under Maintenance. A GAO Category will only be
allowed to be entered if the date of the expense falls within the effective
dates of the GAO Category code.
 | Effective dates have also been added under Maintenance to Budget Object
Codes, Budget Object Code Groups, Collection Sites, EBLI Codes, Employees,
Equipment, Forests, Fund Codes, Fund Types, Job Codes, Locations,
Management Codes, MAR Codes, Payables, Property Codes, Receivables, Regions,
States, Resource Areas, Salary Codes, Site Codes, Transaction Codes, Units of
Measure and Work Activity Codes. Selections will be validated based on
the date of the transaction being entered. Effective dates default to
the current fiscal year. |
| When an existing ALEX2 database is converted for this new version all
effective dates will default to the current fiscal year date range.
Codes that should no longer be used during the current fiscal year need to
have their expiration date changed to a date in the past. |
|
| Updated pricing structure to an annual subscription for current fiscal
year.
| A $375.00 annual subscription rate includes one full version, two
read-only versions and all updates released during the current fiscal year. New price is effective March 1, 2004. |
| Purchase of 10 copies will include one free day of classroom training at
your location and no extra charge for travel. |
| New key codes developed for both full and limited (read-only) versions.
Previous versions did not require a key code for a read-only version.
After 10 free trial runs, ALEX will shut down until a key code has been
entered. | | | |
July 2002 (Version 2002 D)
| The "Employee Hours Planned and Worked By Job Code" report is
back by popular demand. This reports all employee hours planned and
worked within each Job Code. Whereas the existing report,
"Employee Hours Planned and Worked" continues to list all hours
planned and worked for each employee. Both reports are now available.
|
June 2002 (Version 2002 B)
| Fixed problem with Equipment expense calculation. Expense was being
calculated on first equipment rate on file. This was not correct after
the first year of use. Expense amount is now calculated correctly
using the date of expense and the effective date of the equipment rates.
|
April 2001 (Version 2001 S)
| Created new report named "Employee Planned Days By Job Code and
Project" to list all planned days (or hours) for each employee by Job
Code and Project with totals.
| Renamed "Employee Planned Cost" report to "Employee Planned
Cost By Job Code and Project"
| Renamed "Employee Planned Hours" report to "Employee Hours
Planned and Worked"
| Renamed "Planned Cost" field in Project Work Plan to
"Planned Allocation" to denote the total allowed amount for the
project. |
| Rearrange header information on the printed Project Work Plan for easier
reading.
| Add warning indicator (<<<) to right margin of "Projects By Job
Code" report to flag projects that are out of balance with their
"Planned Allocation" amount.
| Added a Backup button to the Main screen to provide a quick way to compact
and backup the database that is currently connected. The backup can be
saved locally or anywhere on the available network.
|
| Allowed planning of employee time to be entered in days or hours with
automatic conversion between both values, based on 8 hours per
day.
| Added Budget Object Code Group to planned employees, equipment and supplies.
Totals for each Budget Object Code Group is then displayed at the bottom of the
Distributions tab in order to assist in determining the correct allocations.
| Created new report for "Expenses By Job Code and Project" with total
allocations, expenses and balances per Project and Job Code.
|
| Added Effective Dates and Comments to employee and equipment rates for
tracking multiple rates, better project
planning and easier data entry of expenses.
| Moved the Post button for Project Work Plans to the Distributions tab
since a project can not be posted until its distributions have been
completed. Renamed the button to Post Allocations.
| Added a Delete Allocations button to Project Distributions tab to delete all
allocations that had been posted for the project. Distributions will
be left in the Project Work Plan and will not be deleted.
| Deleting a Project Work Plan will automatically delete all planned employees,
equipment, supplies, MAR targets, sites and related documents.
Allocations can be deleted by using the new Delete button in Project
Distributions.
| Allow multiple database merges for the same location. User will be
warned that a database already contains data for one or more locations but
will allow user to decide if they still want to merge the databases.
Transactions (such as Allocations and Expenses) will be duplicated if the
same databases have been previously merged.
| Added flag to MAR Codes for "Required at 10 Months."
| Automatically update Project Work Plan just before printing it in order to
record any changes on the screen.
| Fixed tab order of Budget Object Code field in Salary Expenses.
| Added a message box to confirm the posting of a Collection.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
March 2001
| Recompiled for SR-1 and SP-2 (Service Release 1 and Service
Pack 2 from Microsoft) for
Office2000.
|
March 2001
| Added "Print All" button to Project List to print all Project
Work Plans in full detail. The projects will be sorted by Region,
Forest, Subunit, Location, Job Code and then by project Name.
Individual projects can still be printed by displaying a project and
clicking the "Print" button.
| Print comments for planned employees and distributions on the Project Work
Plan report.
| Added prompt in Equipment Update screen to ask users if they would like to
update any or all planned equipment rates in Projects. This prompt is
triggered if any changes are made to an equipment record. All projects
that are changed by this method must still be reposted in order to correct
allocations
| Default Project in Expenses and Salaries if only one Project is planned
for the Job Code and Expense Date. Otherwise, Project must be selected
from drop down list.
| Check for new updates to ALEX when closing. Added "Why?"
button to direct users to this page. Added animated screen to show
download in progress.
| Maintenance screen for Update Job Codes no longer requires a default
Program, Cost Org, BOC Group or Resource Area to be entered if Job Code is
not for Default Location.
| Budget Object Codes must be assigned a Budget Object Group when entered in
an Expense or Salary transaction. |
| | | | | |
February 2001
| Added a red flashing "Not Posted" alert to top of Project Work Plan if
project has not been posted as allocations. Project work plans for
collection revenue can not be posted since collections are not allocated or
appropriated. |
| Provided the option of having Project Work Plans be "out of
balance" when Posting as allocations. Users are warned
and must confirm that the Project Total is intended to be different
from the Planned Cost and Total Distributions. |
| Created Customer Support web pages for "what's new",
online help, questions, posting suggestions and problems. |
| Changed "Help" button in ALEX to a "Support"
button and set it as a hyperlink to new Customer Support web pages. |
Version 2001 (A - Q)
|
Automatic update from the Internet for future versions.
|
|
Project Work Plans for planning multiple projects per Job
Code. Employees, equipment, supplies, contracts and MAR targets can
now be tracked in ALEX per project.
|
|
Office documents like contracts, spreadsheets and
presentations related to projects can be linked and opened directly from
each project.
|
|
Projects can be prioritized for better planning.
|
|
Many new project reports.
|
|
Merging of multiple Alex2 databases into one.
|
|
Receivable invoicing.
|
|
Old EBLI codes have been changed to Program codes
|
|
Work Activity codes have been changed to Cost Org codes.
|
|
Old BLI codes have been added as Fund codes.
|
|
Salaries can now be capped for overtime for certain
employees.
|
|
Region has been added to Locations.
|
Version 10.4
|
Mass update to add a new Job Code to all transactions for a
given Management Code. This is now available in the Job Code
Maintenance screen and the Infra Code Maintenance screen.
|
|
Changed Expenses By Infra Code report to the new Expenses By
Infra Code and Job Code report to include total collected, cleared and
available balance after expenses for each Job Code used at a Fee Demo Site.
|
Version 10.3
|
New Location screen to enter the National Forest name,
Subunit number, Location name, address, phone, fax and contact person.
The Location name now appears at the bottom of every printed report. |
|
Fixed problem with Expenses By BOC Group report.
The report now includes BOC Groups without any allocations or
collections.
|
Version 10.2
|
New GAO summary report with a pie chart to display
distribution of total Fee Demo expenses for a district. This report is
available next to the GAO summary report by clicking the new button with an icon
of a graph. |
Click this button for a sample report:
|
Fixed problem with Planned Hours for Employees report. Report
is now completely dependent on Job Codes and not Management Codes.
Management codes will continue to be printed if an employee worked under a
management code. However, hours should no longer be planned by
management code alone.
|
Version 10
|
New control of reports. Reports can now be printed by
date range and a specific code for each report. |
|
New Job Code table and maintenance screen with a cross reference to
old Management Codes. |
|
New report for Allocations By Job Code. |
|
New report for Expenses By Job Code. |
|
New report for Summary By Job Code |
|
New GAO Code table for Infra Code / Fee Demo Expenses. |
|
New report for Collections and Expenses By GAO Code |
|
Allocations and Collections now require Job Codes and Budget Object Group Codes. |
|
Fee Demo Distributions (Infra Code maintenance) now require Job Codes. |
|
Employee Planned Hours now require Job Codes with effective
and expiration dates of planned hours. |
|
Expenses and Salaries now require Job Codes and Budget Object Codes. |
|
New report for Expenses By Budget Object Code |
|
Expenses and Salaries for Fee Demo now require GAO Codes. |
|
Expenses and Salaries reports now print Job Codes and Budget Object Codes. |
|
Allocations records are now accessed by Record ID. |
|
Allocation and Collection reports now print Record IDs and
Job Codes. |
|
Bill for Collection report now prints, sorts and totals
collections by Job Code. |
Last Updated:
April 04, 2004
|
