Accounts Production Release Notes

Version 2.1.071 - released 2^nd April 2013

The release notes for the TaxCalc 2013 module within the TaxCalc Hub are here.

Version 2.0.012 - released 21^st February 2013

Mail Merge

• Draft letters or send emails to any (or all) of your clients with a few simple clicks via Microsoft Word (2003 and later)
• Features Import and Export functions to use and amend your own templates
• Comes with free letter templates including:
  • Engagement Letters with optional Schedules of Services and Terms of Service
  • Disengagement Letter
  • Approval of Accounts and Tax Returns for Sole Trader, Partnership and Limited Companies

Task Management

• Create and manage single and recurring tasks for yourself and your colleagues
• Ability to assign tasks against clients
• View entire task history with one click
• Set reminders on tasks

Report Manager

• Run reports to view client and task data with a few simple clicks
• Features four built-in reports to get you started:
  • All overdue tasks
  • All outstanding tasks due this month
  • All clients contact information
  • All clients tax reference information

General

• General wording and grammatical improvements throughout
• General presentational improvements throughout the application
• Database error message warning if data is not successfully written to the database

Client Hub

• Added the ability for Individuals and Partnerships to have multiple trades (and therefore separate sets of accounts for each trade)
• VAT information added to client creation screens:
  • VAT registration/de-registration boxes
  • VAT return period and period end
  • VAT scheme options
• Flat rate scheme wizard
• Added the ability to set the Accounts status on a per accounting period basis
• Added a shortcut menu allowing the opening of Accounts Production from within Client Hub without going to the application launcher
• Added the ability to fully edit the details of existing client relationships
• Combined Tax Information screen with Tax Office screen in Client Hub

Accounts Production

• 'Investment Properties' have been re-located to the Tangible assets category in the Chart of Accounts
• Resolved an issue whereby the 'Debtors due more than 1 year' section was not appearing on the abbreviated accounts
• Added the ability to produce Income and Expenditure reports for Partnerships
• Added validation to check the name of the accountants signing the accounts
• Added the ability for multiple partners to sign the accounts
• Company Registration Number now validated to avoid data entry errors
• Added validation of the Companies House submission number when entered manually to avoid online filing issues
• Notes pages renamed to make them easier to find in the SimpleStep tree
• Addressed a minor rounding issue that can occur within a set of financial statements
• The Work Status of an accounting period now automatically updates after filing accounts to Companies House
• Added the ability to delete posting batches with correct the permissions

Version 1.0.365 - released 21^st December, 2012

Accounts

• Fixed an issue with manual entries in the free text box on the Tangible Fixed Assets 1 note. Comments entered in this box were causing online submission failures to HMRC.

Version 1.0.364 - released 29^th October, 2012

Program

• Minor changes for improved Windows 8 compatibility.

Version 1.0.362 - released 16^th October, 2012

Program

• Changed the default save location of database backups.

Reports

• Resolved a potential iXBRL filing issue within the Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses.
• Amended the default text of the Accountant's Report for Partnership clients to follow that of the Sole Trader format.

Version 1.0.345 - released 11^th September 2012

Limited Companies

• Added the ability to electronically file iXBRL full, abbreviated or dormant company accounts to Companies House
• Included the option to attach an Independent Auditors Report
• Capability to generate dormant company accounts
• Option to display prior year adjustments if applicable, including 'as restated' above the comparative columns
• Ability to include benefits in kind to the directors emoluments note
• Included new codes for investment properties in the investment assets category
• Included new codes for research & development in the intangible assets category
• A Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses (STRGL) can be included, if required
• A new officers screen, streamlining the process of adding and updating officers of the company and fixes an update issue when trying to change the company secretary
• Amended the balance sheet declaration in both the Full and Abbreviated Financial Statements to bring them in line with Companies House requirements for online filing
• Additional validations added to the notes to ensure that all required fields are completed correctly in order to ensure a valid iXBRL file
• Added the ability for more than one officer to 'sign' the directors report and balance sheet
• Implemented new intangible asset accounting policy screens available for Goodwill, Other Intangible Assets and Research & Development
• New and improved notes & disclosures included:
  
  
  • Creditors: amounts falling due after 5 years
  • Capital Grants
  • Ultimate Parent Undertaking and Controlling Party
• Fixed issue with resetting the Going Concern note text
• Resolved an iXBRL issue with some invalid characters (e.g.: colons) appearing in the company name
• Changed the behaviour of the Tax on Profit on Ordinary Activities note so that it will not appear on the reports by default when no tax balances have been posted
• Changed presentation of disposal of tangible fixed assets to display a loss on the Profit and Loss Account when necessary
• Corrected an issue with the previous year Operating Profit values not appearing if there is no current year operating profit

Partnerships and Sole Traders

• Added option to Sole Traders to generate an income and expenditure report instead of a trading profit and loss account
• Ability to create joint capital accounts within Partnerships
• Validation has been added to the Partners Capital Accounts screen to ensure that the total % split adds to 100%
• The full name of the Sole Trader is now shown on the opened tab to make it more clear as to which client is open
• Corrected an issue with automatic rounding difference not being applied to the Lead Schedule report and Tax Report, bringing the values in line with those on the Financial Statements
• Fixed presentation of the balance sheet where a bank account was a current asset in one year and overdraft in the other

Report layouts

• General improvements have been made to all client type reports:
  
  
  • Underlines
  • Capitalisation consistencies
  • Alignment of text and numbers
  • Positioning of dashes to represent zeros
• Other minor improvements (text, design and layout) and minor bug fixes

General

• Added ability to zoom in and out of all reports
• Added a shortcut to the Accounts Production screens to be able to quickly open additional clients and accounting periods without having to return to the Client Hub
• Additional codes in all chart of accounts (Sole Trader, Partnership and Limited Company)
  
  
  • Extra bank accounts
  • Bank charges within administrative expenses
• Added the ability to customise the default cover page and notes for all clients
• Tangible fixed asset headers can be altered
• General posting screen improvements:
  
  
  • Ability to insert rows above or below existing rows
  • Rows can be moved up or down
  • Option to automatically copy narrative from above
  • New posting batch types which will auto-balance to accounts other than suspense
• More validations added to the Edit Notes window to warn when notes are turned on or off
• General improvements to messaging on warnings throughout the program
• Improvements made to the importing screens to prevent users accidentally cancelling an in-progress import
• Added the ability to Export all Accounting reports to Word
• Implemented the ability to change the sorting of the Client List in Client Hub
• Incorporated an additional information box to the AML status area of Client Hub
• Added the ability to display additional addresses (such as solicitor, bank etc) on the accounts
• Added new work progress to the Tax and Accounts status within Client Hub
• Included the ability to set reminders on backing up the database
• Prevent other users from opening / editing client or accounts data when another user already has it open
• Added an icon to clearly indicate that a set of accounts has been locked
• Fixed a minor issue with the first Office details not saving when program is first run
• Improved the user interface when updating relationships (for example Directors) to avoid instances whereby duplicate relations could be created in error

Version 1.0.258 - released 25^th May, 2012

Program

• Maintenance update after recent release which automatically resolves some minor display issues on the Finanacial Statements and a potential issue with automatic handling of rounding differences.

Version 1.0.253 - released 17^th May, 2012

Program

• Implemented new algorithms to eliminate rounding differences in the Limited Company, Sole Trader and Partnership Financial Statements.
• Added the ability to open multiple clients and multiple accounting periods at the same time.
• Added the ability to quickly open and switch between different clients and their accounting periods from within an existing accounts production screen.
• Improvements to the Import and TaxCalc Bridge functionality (isolated some minor bugs) as well as related design changes.
• Several improvements to the Relationships wizard to streamline the process and prevent multiple copies of the same relationship being created.
• General text phrasing improvements throughout the program.
• Various speed improvements.

Reports

• General improvements have been made to the Financial Statements.
• General improvements to the layout and display of values within the Financial Statements (spacing, underlines, use of brackets around negative figures).

Validations

• Added validation to the Limited Company Financial Statements to ensure that the name and date of the Director signing the Balance Sheet has been entered.
• Relaxed Post Code validations so that Non-UK post codes can be entered.

Version 1.0.201 – released 28^th March, 2012

Program

• TaxCalc Bridge has been updated to allow linking to TaxCalc 2012 return files.
• The Client Hub will now allow users to import clients from 2012 as well as 2011 tax return files.
• The Client Hub will also allow linking to multiple returns from 2010-11 or 2011-12 tax years (or any number of periods for CT600 returns).
• To ensure that client information remains consistent, linked tax returns/clients remain associated and you may synchronise personal data between the Client Hub and the tax return files.

Version 1.0.195 – released 22^nd December, 2011

Program

• Some general interface refinements have been made.
• The default file type of the exported iXBRL files has been changed from .html to .xhtml. because this is more commonly preferred by tax filing software.
• Changing the salutation of a client will now automatically change their gender, where appropriate.
• The application will now accept and correctly display long and/or uncommon post code formats.
• You can now select multiple clients within Client Hub to perform bulk delete and archive functions.
• The amount of top-level information presented to the user when looking at a password protected client in client lists has been reduced.
• General improvements have been made to the Backup and Restore function’s user interface.
• Functionality to lock accounting periods from being edited has been improved.
• Made some improvements to the Posting window, namely in selecting partners/directors and in typing accounts by title rather than by code. Searching the Chart of Accounts will now default to filtering the list rather than find the first account that included the search term.
• The Windows service that helps TaxCalc Hub find the database on a network now loads faster following a restart of the computer.

Reports

• Some general layout improvements have been made, based upon valued customer feedback.
• Updated disclosure options within Limited Company financial statements concerning Geographic Turnover, Government Grants and Going Concern.
• Refined the logic behind the automatic display of some notes when narratives are being brought forward from earlier periods or when postings to the nominal ledger have changed.
• Corrected an issue with note numbering that could occur on the Abbreviated Limited Company financial statements.
• Trial balance report now displays accounts that balance to zero using hyphens rather than zeros.
• Further improvements to the presentation of financial statements created by using the Microsoft Word export function.

Validations

• Added new validations in the Check & Finish screen, specifically for Limited Company financial statements.

Version 1.0.169 – released 23^rd November, 2011

New Features

• You may now display financial statements in euros or US dollars, which will be reflected in all reports. For limited companies, this will also be reflected in the iXBRL. The option to change currency is displayed when selecting a specific accounting period to open and will affect all accounting periods for that particular client.
• Current account information (the name and code of the open client as well as the accounting period) now displays in the upper-right corner of the Accounts Production application, so it is always clear which period is open.
• Added a new Number column to the Share Capital Allotted note to allow entry of the number of shares (as is already available on the Shares Issued note).

Database & Program

• Generally, the program styling and messaging have been upgraded.
• Added Release Notes advisory and hyperlink to Help > About and the automatic ‘an update is available’ message.
• Added ‘Getting Started’ process for creating the admin user and office details when the application is run for the first time. This will not affect existing users.
• When starting the application, the username of the last user on that computer will be remembered.
• Upgraded client password protection across client accounts.
• Multiple minor amendments to the general functionality, such as ensuring the ‘automatically skip this step next time’ screens recall user choices.
• ‘Alternative Accountant’ option added to provide an address that is not a firm office address.
• Chart of Accounts printing amended so that footers display correctly.

Reports

• Generally, the report designs and appearances have been upgraded.
• Generally improved the refreshing of previews within notes screens.
• Presentation of Audit Trail, Nominal Ledger and Trial Balance reports improved.
• Provisions for bad debt (in Creditor’s Due note) added to Trade Creditors.
• Resolved issue with bringing forward opening balances into the Partners' Capital Accounts (Partnership accounts).
• Calculations for the previous year figure within the Deferred taxation note updated.

Validations

• Check & Finish messages logic has been upgraded.

Version 1.0.149 – released 4^th November, 2011

New Features

• You may now print the Chart of Accounts directly from the Accounts Production application.
• You may now export Financial Statements to MS Word.

Roles

• The permissions associated with roles, especially the Admin account, have been revised.

Licensing

• You may now licence through a proxy server.

Database & Program

• The Database Backup and Restore functionality has been stabilised, leading to smoother functionality.
• The supplementary Information within Client Hub has been upgraded, so that additional client data automatically displays (e.g. Tax Return Status, Engagement Status, etc).

Reports

• Generally, the report designs and appearances have been upgraded.
• Display logic enhanced for Debtor's note, such as Directors Loan Account entries and display values of 'Other taxes and social security'.
• Added subtotal to 'Obligations under finance lease' and another to 'Obligation under finance leases and hire purchase'.
• Where necessary, ensured instances of 'At start of period' and 'At end of period' display the start and end dates for that period.
• Display logic updated for Trade Debtors on the Lead Schedule report.
• Introduced non-FRSSE introductory text for Accounting Policies note.
• Minor amendments to the Lead Schedule report.
• Notes Preview refresh rate on the 'Tangible fixed assets and depreciation' note improved.
• Company information added to Notes Preview as appropriate.
• The year end date is now automatically incorporated within the default Accountant's Report.
• 'Signing' capability expanded: the Company Secretary may now 'sign' the Director's Report.
• Check & Finish messages logic upgraded.
• iXBRL tagging updated for items within the Tangible fixed assets and depreciation note and the Shares note.
• Bringing Forward of Opening Balances – directors or partners are now brought forward as appropriate.