Panopea Consulting - iMIS Blog

At Long Last - 10.6.29.06 patch available

ASI has released the 10.6.29.06 patch for the client and re-enabled the links for the other 10.6 patches on their website.

The GL_ACCOUNT lookup table

Common Problem: iMIS user selects the wrong GL Account from the lookup when setting up an event. Registrations are entered and so now they're going to the wrong GL Account.

Unfortunately, the way to fix them through the iMIS is to un-register all of the registrants, fix the GL ACCOUNT in the function set up and then register the people again.

To help prevent that from occurring, here's a great tip I learned from another consultant. The standard way to populate the GL_ACCOUNT table is to put the GL Account into the CODE field and a description into the DESCRIPTION field. An alternative method is to populate the CODE field with something more descriptive and put the actual GL Account into the EXPANSION field (and make DESCRIPTION be blank). So instead of my look up table looking like this:

4100-0001    (Dues Revenue)

4200-0100    (Conference Revenue)

4400-0240    (Workshop Revenue)

 

The table could look like this:

Annual Conf      4200-0100

Bob's Events     4400-0240

Dues Revenue   4100-0001

Sally's Events    4400-0240

And now it's a heckavu lot easier for Bob to know what account to pick for his events.

One last thing I'd recommend is that the GL Account look up does not have to include every GL Account you use in iMIS. Once you've got your basics set up, like your Cash Accounts, Dues products, Default accounts, etc., you're probably not going to use those GL accounts again or very infrequently. It's really only the Events people that have to use that lookup table on a regular basis. So just have the accounts you need to re-use over and over in the look up. The fewer accounts, the lower the likelihood you pick the wrong one.

Colors in the 10.6 Framework

Some time ago I posted an entry with my complaints about the 10.6 color scheme. I still don't like it and so far the clients I've shown don't either, but an important thing to remember about the framework is that it can be modified.

Making the modifications just got a lot easier thanks to Henry Huey of ASI. He's posted a tool for doing it on the imiscommunity website. If you have access to that site, you'll find it here:
http://www.imiscommunity.com/imis_framework_colors_utility

Haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet, Henry, but a big thanks for posting it. 

p.s. There's about a gabillion GREAT reasons to like 10.6 so don't let my snark about the color scheme seem like I'm making an overall comment about 10.6. I'll do that in subsequent postings.

UPDATE: I tried it on my test 10.6 environment and it worked great.

IRS is looking hard at 501(c)(3)'s

This is an article from Guidestar's website:

Enforcement: IRS Addresses Political Activities by 501(c)(3) Organizations

Earlier this year, the IRS released a report on political activity by 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, during the 2004 political campaign. Organizations exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code—i.e., private foundations and public charities, including churches—are prohibited from either supporting or opposing candidates for office.

The IRS found that "nearly three-quarters of the organizations examined under this initiative had engaged in prohibited political activities." Such activities included supporting or opposing candidates in printed materials, on Web sites, and from the pulpit; posting campaign signs; and giving preferential treatment to specific candidates by allowing them to speak at functions.

The IRS is continuing its Political Activity Compliance Initiative and has issued guidance for this year's elections. For more information on both the report on the 2004 election and guidance for the 2006 elections, go to www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=154622,00.html. 

Checkboxes on Crystal Reports

I can never remember the right character codes to use for making checkboxes show on a Crystal Report. Lucky for me, there's a great KB article on the Business Objects website that I look up to see the right values. These values work when formatted using the WingDing font:

CHR(254) - displays a box with a check mark
CHR(253) - displays a box with an X
CHR(111) - displays an empty box
CHR(252) - displays a check mark only
CHR(251) - displays an X only