FAQs: Converting to 21.500

Overview

This article answers some of the most frequently asked questions about converting to Tyler’s 21.500 Release.

Table of Contents

FAQs

Accounts Payable

  1. How does the new setting in AP Preferences (11-90-01), Auto Update to GL, work?

  1. If this preference is set to Y, after entering invoices or checks, Tyler will prompt the user with the option to update the entries, keeping AR current and generating no paper trail.

Accounts Receivable

General

  1. What does the new preference, Auto Update to GL (12-90), in AR Open do?

  1. With this preference set to Y, the system asks the user after the entry of cash receipts, adjustments or transfers whether they want to update those entries. This prevents the need to do all the updating at a later time and reduces the amount of paperwork generated by the system.

  1. Can AR laser statements be viewed on a spooler?

  1. No, instead we encourage users to save these files to PDF directly to your PC. PDFs offer search features not available on a spooler.
Printing

  1. How do I change my AR statements to generate in laser form?

  1. In Open AR Preferences (12-90), enter a Y for preference # 16.

  1. Can I use the new laser statement format for AR Revolving or AR Installment?

  1. No, not at this time.

  1. I have a logo that I am currently using on my sales invoices; can I use that same logo on my AR statements?

  1. Yes, go to AR Preferences (12-90) and select field 16. With a Y as the entry for this preference, pressing Tab or Enter from the field will open the separate AR GUI Laser Statement Preferences window. In the field titled Logo at Top of Statement, enter the exact name of the logo file used with your invoices.
    NOTE: Using your logo on Tyler forms needs to be set up on our servers. For more information on this contact your account manager. If you already have your logo stored for use on our system, the name of that file can be located in Invoice Preference (02-18-16). Select the Form L Apps tab and click the TP Printer 1 button. You will find the file name in the field titled ‘Logo at Top of Invoice.’

Display Issues

  1. The text on my screen is too large and is making some areas unreadable. What can I do to fix this?

  1. Try changing the crowd control setting for the font that’s giving you trouble. Choose Setup from the menu bar, select Preferences and then the Font Adjust tab. The lower the crowd control number, the closer together the font is spaced. Tyler recommends starting with a setting of +4; this is enough for most systems.

  1. My convergence screen has lines through all of the words, or, all of the words on the screen are underlined, what’s wrong?

  1. It sounds like you have the strike-out or underline effect activated for your fonts. From the main toolbar select Setup, then Preferences; choose the Font tab. It’s probably one of the Screen Fonts. Clicking any of the font buttons on this tab pulls up a separate Select Font window. In the Effects region of this new window, make sure that neither Strikeout nor Underline is checked.

  1. My screen font is extremely small and unreadable, how can I correct this?

  1. Make sure that you have designated a font for all seven Font selections. From the main Toolbar select Setup, Preferences and choose the Fonts tab. Tyler recommends using the Verdana font for all fields.

General Ledger

  1. How soon after converting to 21.500 can the new Bank Reconciliation selection (1550) be used?

  1. Tyler recommends operating for two to three months under the 21.500 release before utilizing this selection. For complete information on this including the setup procedure, see the Bank Reconciliation documentation.

  1. Can prior period journal entries be viewed through GL Inquiry (15-07)?

  1. Yes, both prior period entries and entries that have not been updated in the future file are viewable in GL Inquiry. Detail for offsetting entries is also included in the inquiry.

  1. Does the system post the Cost of Goods sold for Non-Inventory product types to the General Ledger?

  1. To enable this, go to Ticket GL Interface Preferences (02-18-13). It’s the first preference on the screen.

Inventory

  1. Has anything changed in physical inventory?

  1. Yes. In response to clients’ requests Tyler has implemented an even tighter inventory control. Now, prior to running the Actual Count Update (03-30-10) associated with a physical inventory, Sales Transactions Update (02-05) must first be run for all involved branches for the dates on or prior to the physical inventory. Tyler is also looking into additional options for weekly cycle counts with the goal of balancing convenience and accuracy.

Multi-Corp Same

  1. Has anything changed in Multi-Corp processing?

  1. Yes. With the exception of ML payments, sales entries no longer need to be manually reclassified.

Order Processing

  1. Selection (02-08-91-04) says “Reserved for Future Use.” Where are Order Processing tickets restarted now?

  1. The new selection to use is Order Processing Status (02-08-04). This now allows you the ability to view, maintain, ship and restart tickets.

  1. When trying to run a sales audit for the day what does the message “Orders exist with a shipping date on or before this date” mean?

  1. This message indicates that the shipping process was started but not completed for an OP order on or before the day you are trying to audit. You will either need to complete the shipping process for the order or unconfirmed it. The quickest way to find orders in this state is through Order Processing Status (02-08-04), looking for orders with a status of two or higher.

  1. How many days from the Start of Day date can the Audit date be set to when shipping an order?

  1. Five Days plus or minus the Start of Day date.

PDF Printing

  1. For which selections in Tyler can PDFs be generated?

  1. PDF can be used as the printer ID anywhere an invoice is printed. For example, it’s an option in POS (02-02), Order Maintenance (02-08-02), Invoice Printing (02-08-13) and Transaction Inquiry (02-15). It can also be used when working with Purchase Orders, like when printing Vendor’s Copies (04-03) or Warehouse Copies (04-05). Also, they can be generated for AR Open Statements (12-41). There are more selections that can generate PDF output. Look for the message, “Enter Printer or PDF” to see where else this is available.

  1. Where on my computer are the PDF files saved?

  1. By default, your PDFs are saved in the root folder of the Convergence installation, C:\Program Files\Convergence.

  1. Can PDF invoices be saved to a different folder than PDF Purchase Orders?

  1. Yes, you can set PDF export folders by document type for either your entire company (30-04) or by individual terminal (30-05).

Purchase Order Printing

  1. When I print my PO Vendor’s Copy (04-03), the print is running off the page at the bottom of the paper. What can I do to correct this?

  1. Check the PO printing preferences in (04-90). The Print Preferences window comes up after tabbing through the fifth page. There‘s a pull down menu in this window titled “Leave Extra Room at Bottom.” By default this is set to none but you can choose to add a quarter or half inch buffer to accommodate your printer.

  1. Can I print my PO Vendor Copy and Warehouse Copy to a continuous feed printer?

  1. No. These two selections can only be outputted to either a laser printer or as a PDF file.

RDB

  1. Can I write or request RDB reports out of Centralized Delivery data files?

  1. No. The Centralized Delivery files are not RDB compliant.

Rental

  1. Has anything changed in the Rental module?

  1. You can now omit credit balance accounts from Rental Statements (22-38).

Sales Analysis

  1. Has anything changed in Sales Analysis reporting?

  1. Yes. Tyler has added the GUI Reports selection (05-41) as well as enhanced the formatting of items generated in Today’s Sales (05-18).

  1. After converting to 21.500, do you recommended making any changes to my Job Stream (05-01) setup?

  1. Yes. Because some reports may have changed, Tyler recommends that all job streams be printed, deleted and then reentered to avoid any complications.

  1. If sales are updating daily will running Reset Monthly Sales History (05-80) still hit the COG (cost of goods) GL account at month end?

  1. No. The COG account is updated daily, along with sales in this case. Please review the Ticket GL Interface Preferences selection (02-18-13) to decide if NIPT (Non-Inventory product types) will update to GL. This flag replaces the question that is asked in (05-80) at month end. You must still run (05-80) at month end to zero MTD (month to date) sales dollars.

Sales Transactions

General

  1. When do sales start to hit the GL after converting to 21.500?

  1. First, sales have to be rolled over in Payroll Interface (02-24). After this, the daily updating of your sales transactions (02-05) will post to the GL. To verify that your company is updating daily sales, check the Ticket GL Interface Preferences selection (02-18-13), in the “Start of Daily Posting” field. If there is a date in this field, your company has already activated this feature.

  1. Do we need to use the GL Spreadsheet (02-40), GL Interface (02-41) and Auto Interface Posting Account Listing (15-12) selections any longer?

  1. After sales are rolled over with Payroll Interface (02-24) for the first time after your conversion to 21.500, these selections are no longer required for closing the month. However, the GL Spreadsheet (02-40) is still written to daily and can be reviewed when needed.

  1. What does the End of Day Cashout (02-09) selection do? Does my company have to use this?

  1. This is not a required selection. However, End of Day Cashout was created as an alternative to running the Cash Drawer Report (02-17) and the Amounts to GL selection (02-04). Running End of Day Cashout automatically prints a cash drawer report and does the work of Amounts to GL. The sales day is processed and updated to a G status. Next, you run a Sales Transaction Update (02-05) and then print a Sales Audit (02-03) if desired. For complete process and set-up procedures see the End of Day Cash Out documentation.

  1. There are a lot of new sales preferences in Transaction Processing Preferences (0218-01). Are there any resources that can help me understand what they all mean?

  1. Yes. Please see the Sales Preferences documentation for complete information.

  1. How do I activate the GUI (point and click) feature in Point of Sale (02-02)?

  1. To assist your company in making the transition to GUI Sales at your own pace, Tyler allows you to activate this feature by individual partition. To activate GUI Sales on a partition, open System File Management (30-01) and continue to page two. Enter A at the prompt, specify the partition you wish to change and tab through the information that already exists for that partition changing the entry in the “POS Mode” column to G.

  1. Does Tyler still offer the Express Ticket (ET) option in Point of Sale?

  1. Unfortunately not yet. The ET option was eliminated when the new GUI POS module was created. However, Tyler is currently working on a GUI version of ET, slated for the next release, 22.100.

  1. Does Tyler still offer the “Trade” field for use as a tender field?

  1. No. trade ins are now processed exclusively as individual detail lines.

  1. How do I process a Take With (TW) ticket with no detail lines?

  1. A video tutorial is coming soon on this subject. Please visit Learning Center Videos for more information.
Printing

  1. How do I activate laser invoices in Tyler?

  1. Each terminal is activated individually in System File Management (30-01), page 2. Change the entry in the “Invoice form #” column to an L for each terminal that you wish to activate.

  1. How do I activate laser invoices in Order Processing?

  1. Go to System File Management (30-01), page 1 and change the field marked “O/P INV” to an L.

  1. Can I print my laser invoices on an ink jet printer?

  1. Your ink jet printer may work with Tyler laser invoices; however Tyler does not support this printer type.

  1. When I print my laser invoices I’m getting a page with strange characters that do not resemble words, what’s wrong?

  1. First, confirm that your printer works properly outside of Tyler. If so, in the menu bar, click the Setup drop-down and choose Preferences. Check the Printer tab(s) and make sure that the Emulation Type is set to System.

  1. When I print my laser invoices I’m getting a page with distorted boxes and few words, what’s wrong?

  1. Check the Convergence printer settings on the PC that’s physically connected to the printer. Open Preferences from the Setup drop-down in the menu bar. In the Printer tab(s), make sure that the Right Margin setting is set to 0 (zero).

  1. The font on my laser invoices is too large, making some of the invoice unreadable. Is there a setting for this?

  1. Yes. Go to Transaction Processing Preferences (02-18-01), select field 8, and with a Y as the field’s entry, press Enter. A new window, Invoice Printing Preferences, opens. Select the Form L tab and look for the Font Scaler field; it’s at the top next to the Font field. A scale somewhere between 80 and 140 works in most situations. The lower the scale number, the smaller the font.

  1. Can I add a logo to my sales invoices?

  1. Yes. Please contact you marketing representative for licensing information.

Service

  1. Has anything changed in Service?

  1. Yes, the Search and Tender screens have been enhanced with a GUI.

Utilities

  1. Is there an easy way to download a spool job to my PC?

  1. Yes. Do an onscreen display of the desired job and pause it mid-display with F2. It’s important to pause the job mid-display because the save option for an individual job only exists while that job is displaying. Enter L at the cursor and you are returned to the spooler menu with a prompt to enter the save path for the file. The path you specify must already exist. Tyler will not create directories for you with this command.

  1. Can I download an entire spooler to my PC?

  1. Yes, option 12 in the Spooler menu does this and can be used with any spooler. Enter the full path where you want the files be saved. The path you specify must already exist. Tyler will not create directories for you with this command.

  1. Does Tyler work with Windows 7?

  1. Yes.

Highlights of What’s New

Accounts Payable

  • Auto Updates

Accounts Receivable (Open)

  • Auto Updates
  • Laser Statements
  • Optional logo on statements
  • Enhanced Account Activity (12-61)

Accounts Receivable (Installment)

  • Installment Cash receipts now have a laser form
  • Ability in Account Inquiry to scroll through sequence numbers
  • Ability in Account inquiry to use Page Up and Page Down
  • Calculator (13-64) now figures in disability insurance when the number of payments is between normal break points

Centralized Delivery

  • Enhanced Preference and labeling features
  • General Ledger
  • Enhanced GL inquiry
  • Bank reconciliation
  • Daily sales updates
  • Period Set-up for 5-4-4 accounting (15-90-01)

Inventory

  • Serial number/barcode validation rules (3-91-05)
  • Added restraints to physical inventory update for more accurate counts

Multi-Corp Same

  • Eliminated the need for reclassification in GL for most sales entries
  • Office Refunds now have a corporation associated in AP when writing from sales

Order Processing

  • User friendly Point and click interface
  • Extended password protection
  • Enhanced order processing status (02-08-04)
  • Download/Upload for Routeview

Purchase Orders

  • PDF Vendor and Warehouse copy printing
  • Purchase Order Lead Time Setup (04-54-60)

Sales Analysis

  • New and enhanced GUI reports

Sales Transactions

  • User friendly Point and click interface
  • Additional control/password options (02-18-01)
  • Environmental tax
  • Line by Line discounting
  • Room Entry
  • End of Day Cashout
  • Laser Invoices
  • PDF option in laser sales invoices
  • Optional invoice logos

Service

  • Enhanced Search and Tender Screen

Rental

  • Option to omit credit balance statements
  • Ability to scan items at POS with a barcode wand

Utilities

  • Ability to download entire spooler to PC
  • Ability to download single job to PC from spooler menu
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