This patch takes care of some minor bugs and adds new features:

New Way To Address COM Ports: It has been determined that printing to serial/COM ports has becoming troublesome on Windows Vista and newer revisions of Windows XP. We determined that COM port settings that are set in DOS or in the control panel were being ignored once a DOS application program started -- Windows is (for unknown reasons) reverting the settings back to COM port default settings. In order to overcome this Windows problem we have added the ability to have RTS-Advantage reset the COM port settings to user preferences based on environment variables. Two environment variables are recognized: ADVCOM1 and ADVCOM2. The settings for each of these variables is arrived at by adding up bitflags associated with the settings you want.

Here are the options:

Set the environment variable to the sum of the bitflags for the options desired. For instance, if you need your COM1 port set to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and even parity set environment variable ADVCOM1 to 251 (224 + 3 + 0 + 24).

This Earth change will take effect for all modules downloaded in this patch.

A number of fixes and improvements were made to System Administrator program 11 (Modify Reports) as we were developing the Windows version of this program. The changes made include:

• Would write bad records into the PL file if an image record was deleted.
• Copying a format did not properly write a new end-of-file record
  (no effect in the DOS product but caused problems for Windows)
• Better handling of custom settings for decimal fields
• Changed the default on printing negative signs from no sign to negative sign

Compatibility Changes:

• Additions to many System Administrator programs were made for compatibility with our forthcoming Windows Point of Sale module.
  
  
• When developing the Windows version of System Administrator program 7 (Update Files) several small problems were found and corrected in the DOS version.

New Feature: Payroll can now calculate and properly apply the EIC amount for each pay period. Previously, EIC amounts would have been manually calculated or simply entered as a standard flat amount for each pay period. Because EIC is a credit, we’ve added a new question--Negate Table Result--to the end of the tax tables. Program 58, Transfer Tax Tables, now includes 3 new EIC tables: Single, Married with 1 Certificate or Married with 2 Certificates.

To implement EIC with the new tables, transfer the tables in program 58, then create Deduction Types in program 3 that use the tables. Add these deductions to the appropriate employees as you would any other table-driven deduction, being sure to enter the appropriate frequency code.

Payroll program 15 (Calculate Taxes/Deductions) was trying to take into account pre-tax deductions when 'calculating' flat rate deductions, with the result that flat rate deductions were being pro-rated when they should simply be a flat rate as defined.

A new key file has been defined for the Payroll Employee Master on Social Security Number. New sort options were added to some printing programs in Payroll that can take advantage of the new key. In addition Payroll program 6 (Employee Master) will now show a warning if a Social Security Number is entered that matches that of another employee. In order to use the new key in employee lookup windows it will be necessary to delete any custom lookup files in the data directory named ADPRccLU.DAT (cc is the company number) and then recreate them by entering Payroll program 55 (Custom Sort Order).

A large group of employee information fields have been added to the reports for Payroll program 25 (Tax Returns) including address, phone number, hire and termination dates, etc. These fields have all been placed outside of the printable portion of the format in sections 12 through 15. If you would like to add them to the report use System Administrator program 11 to edit the formats.

Payroll tax tables for Maryland have been changed (yet again) for new rates. EIC tables have been added.

New Feature: You can now specify custom text descriptions for your payment types. Custom descriptions are set up in Accounts Receivable program 50, and are displayed in AR program 18 (Post Payments), Point of Sale 4 and 5 (Full/Quick Invoicing), Billing program 4 and 9 (Invoices/View Invoices) and Order Entry programs 1 and 6 (Orders/View Orders). This new feature allows you to indicate, for instance, that Credit Card 2 is to be used for Mastercard credit cards.

The screen form for Billing program 4 has been streamlined to free up memory which was getting tight in the program. No change in functionality.

New Feature: Point of Sale program 4 (Full Invoicing) has a new option to move a line on an invoice. To use go to the S (Select) field and choose 'O'. You will be asked for the line number you wish to move, and the line number you want into which it should be inserted (the current contents of that line will be moved down). The program will not allow you to move a line into, out of, or within a kit.

Main salesperson's name added to the print layouts for Point of Sale programs 4 and 5 (Full and Quick Invoicing).

Order Entry program 54 (Order From Estimate) now properly handles line and additional discounts when copying or transferring estimates to orders.

Updated print layout files have been provided for all modules. As we were developing the new Windows Modify Reports program we came to find that all the PLs had lots of minor problems in them (overlapping fields, inaccurate record counts, etc). The DOS product was seldom bothered by these minor problems but our Windows product is more choosy about its formats, so we have cleaned up all the print layout files so that they are happy and healthy. To clean up your company PLs, simply open the Windows version of SA11, Modify Reports, and select to edit any format in your company-specific PL. The program will then read through the file and make whatever corrections it needs to, reporting back to you on the progress.

NOTE: At the same time as this patch was released, updated tax tables for the following became available:

Maryland
Federal EIC

The EIC tables required a change to the way tables are entered and calculated, so they will not work unless you are current as of this patch. The updated ADPRTXTB.DAT file is included with the files downloaded for this patch or click here here to download the most current tax table file.

ADBL00PL.DAT: 4.04
ADBLSCFM.DAT: 4.03 *

ADOE00PL.DAT: 4.05
ADOESCFM.DAT: 4.05 *

ADJC00PL.DAT: 4.01

ADCI00PL.DAT: 4.02

ADBR00PL.DAT: 4.02

ADQS00PL.DAT: 4.02

ADST00PL.DAT: 4.01

ADTB00PL.DAT: 4.01

ADFA00PL.DAT: 4.01

ADFMDATA.DAT: 4.13

ADQUESTS.DAT: 4.02
ADLOOKUP.DAT: 4.02
ADSAPROG.DAT: 4.08

ADSA00PL.DAT: 4.01
ADSASCFM.DAT: 4.06 *

ADGL00PL.DAT: 4.05

ADAP00PL.DAT: 4.02

ADPR00FR.DAT: 4.02
ADPR00PL.DAT: 4.07
ADPRDICT.DAT: 4.05
ADPRTXTB.DAT: 4.21
ADPRSCFM.DAT: 4.05 *

ADAR00FR.DAT: 4.03
ADAR00PL.DAT: 4.03
ADARSCFM.DAT: 4.06 *

ADIN00PL.DAT: 4.08

ADPO00PL.DAT: 4.03

SA: New Windows Point of Sale module added

PR: New EIC options

AR, PS, BL & OE: Custom payment descriptions

Payroll
Accounts Receivable
Point of Sale

are updated for new fields and help articles and will also be dated 23-OCT-08.

1. As always, before loading any new software, make a backup of your data files.
   
   
2. Decompress PATCH36.ZIP into the APROGS directory, or, if you downloaded separate files, decompress the 36PROGS.ZIP file into the APROGS directory.
   
   
3. Move the 36DATA.ZIP file to the AUSER directory and move the 36SYS.ZIP file to the AFILES directory.
   
   
4. Go to the AUSER directory and decompress the 36DATA.ZIP file, allowing it to overwrite existing files.
   
   
5. Go to the AFILES directory and decompress the 36SYS.ZIP file, allowing it to overwrite existing files.
   
   
6. Go to the APROGS directory and use the DeltaDOS Utility to apply the DPF patch file. Click here for instructions on using DeltaDOS.
   
   
7. This patch adds fields to both Payroll (the new prompt for negating tables) and Accounts Receivable (the new custom payment descriptions) which means you'll have to run SA7, Update Data Files on all Payroll and Accounts Receivable companies after installing this patch.
   
   
8. For Screen Builder Users: Because of changes to the screen layouts held within the SCFM files, you'll need to update all of your custom SCFM files for the following modules: SA, PR, AR, PS, BL & OE.
   
   Click here for a discussion of how to update custom SCFM files.
   
   The specific programs affected are:

System Administrator 4 & 5: added new Windows Point of Sale module

Payroll 2, 3, 16, 25, 26 & 86: Addition of EIC

Accounts Receivable 18 & 50: Custom payment descriptions

Point of Sale 4: Ability to move lines

Billing 4 & 9: Custom payment descriptions

Order Entry 1 & 6: Custom payment descriptions

If you have customized screens for any of the above programs, you will lose those customizations and will have to redo them after applying this patch and updating the SCFM files through Screen Builder.