Chris Sturm speaks on Winning NKY Chamber Success Award

Simple Way to Learn the Internet

I found a cool book style designed web publication that explains the 20 most common things about the Internet in simple terms.  I strongly recommend everyone reading this book.

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/en-US/home

Team Capsoft.us Runs for Patriots

The ladies of the Capsoft.us running team took to the course this 4th of July in the Edgewood KY Patriot Race. The team looked strong in this 5K challenge.

Jill, enlisted our the two oldest Sturm daughters, Payton 13, Ciara 10 to join in the race and they did great.  Each of them finished the race in under 30 minutes and came in 2nd and 3rd in their age groups.  Chris as usual watched from the crowd with the younger 2 daughters. 

The Capsoft.us team encourages everyone to get out this July 4th and celebrate our great country with friends and family.

Capsoft.us remembers work and fun when traveling

The Capsoft team visited customer, the City of Montgomery Alabama on Friday while in route to florida.  The fun part was getting a guided tour of the city from our hosts Chuck and Cindy Wilson.  Many people think of the civil rights history in Montgomery like the Rosa Parks museum but we saw so much more.

Anyone know this building?  This was the president's home for the confederacy during the Civil War.  Montgomery is the Capital of the State of Alabama and below is the Capitol building.  Visit and you will be amazed that every building is pure white.

Montgomery is home to the late great county music legend, Hank Williams.  The Capsoft team and the Sturm family joined the tour for pictures.  The grave has amazing details etched in marble.

the military has always played an important part of Montgomery so next we visited the Maxwell Airforce base for some awesome pictures of past aircraft.

Many do not realize the Wright Brothers opened their flight school here in Montgomery.

Imagine flying a WWI bomber, a huge helicopter or check out this HUGE B2 bomber.

What an amazing tour.  Be sure to  visit Montgomery Alabama.

Capsoft.us Cycles for Breast Cancer Cure

The Capsoft team led by Jill Sturm got up early saturday morning to cycle 26 miles along the Ohio river raising money for Breast Cancer Research in the Cincinnati Area.

Jill convinced Chris to bike the full distance and wear his "cool" biking helmet.

It was announced by Senator Rob Portman that thanks to the fundraising efforts of this race, this local chapter had just raised its one millionth dollar.  That is very exciting news for such a worthy cause.

Over 1000 cyclists traveled the beautiful scenery.  Chris commented that he was surprised that he did not see anyone he knew at the event and Jill was quick to remind him that he nor his friends exercise.  Chris' favorite part of the race was the Gatorade and PB&J sandwiches at the rest stop.

Capsoft is proud to support worthy causes such as this race.



Pennsylvania GFOA learns Query Writing

The Pennsylvania Government Finance Officers Association offered a Visual Reporting session at their 2011 spring conference taught by Chris Sturm, Capsoft, and Dennis McGovern of McGovern Consulting.  Over 45  finance officers participated in this multi-hour session.

"It was an exciting session because we taught the students how things work behind the scenes," commented Sturm.  "This approach puts them on better footing when they need to interact with their vendors."

Dennis McGovern led with topics including integrating financial statement with Excel for eye popping charts and graphs.  "I wanted to keep things usable.  We have found that users are often discouraged with trying to use visual tools in their financial reporting because it seems difficult," says McGovern. "I wanted to break down those barriers and show them how quality fund accounting products like Sage MIP make interaction with products like Excel easy and friendly."

Chris Sturm added sections on query writing, crystal reports creation, internet based reports and new audio visual tools on the market.

To learn more about visual reporting for government you can contact 

Dennis McGovern / McGovern Consulting Group 888-876-1544

Chris Sturm / Capsoft / 888-553-9991

Capsoft Advanced Property Tax for Maryland

Capsoft is welcoming the City of Aberdeen, Maryland as the newest Capsoft property tax billing software user.

Penny will lead the Aberdeen team as they process over 5,000 real and personal property tax bills.  The Capsoft system is using the new assessment import wizard to creat a map for the Maryland state assessment file.  This import wizard will give Penny total control over the import process which is something only provided by Capsoft.  While onsite for training, Penny told the Capsoft team that she believes the Internet search and pay portion will have a big impact.  She fields over 20 calls per week from mortgage and title companies that now will go to the Internet site.

Capsoft welcomes The City of Aberdeen, home of Cal Ripken's training stadium.  It is cool, you should check it out.

Point of Sale processes all payments in Virginia

Gretna, Virginia is excited about easily processing a payment from one screen for whatever a customer wants to pay using Capsoft Point of Sale Collection Module.  Gretna collects thousands of payments for utility bills, real and personal property taxes, business licenses and more.  Now with the new Capsoft POS module, staff

can scan barcoded bills and instantly locate a customer's bill across any revenue application.  Officials, like Wendy Scearce, Town Clerk, have integrated WASP point of sale equipment offered by Capsoft to eliminate keying errors, improve customer service and present a professional image.  The scanner reads the bill.  The system 3 inch wide thermanl printer generates a detailed customer receipt.  The cash drawer secures good audit controls. The keyboard mag strip reads credit cards and the pole display shows user controled messages to the customer during the transaction.

Capsoft Point of Sale is affordable and installs in minutes.  Best of all, it can be installed in remote offices as long as they have an internet connection.  Image accepting payments at parks, stations and various location throughout the community.  If you have an interest click on this product page link on the Capsoft website.  Give the Capsoft sales team a call if you are interested in consolidated counter collections in your office at 888-553-9991 x2.

Amazing Growth with Warsaw KY

About six years ago, Capsoft sent all its customers a nice little 6 inch tall potted plant.  Well Carolyn Marksberry is serious about growth.  Here is the Warsaw KY Capsoft plant today

Jeff McDonald, Manager was onsite configuring their Capsoft Wasp Point of Sale Solution and found this beautiful plan by the window.  For those of you who know Jeff, he is all of 6'4" and he said this plant was taller than he is.  Wow, you can grow them Carolyn.

City of Montgomery renews over 18,000 business licenses with Capsoft

The City of Montgomery Alabama will process over 18,000 business license renewals using their Capital Software, Capsoft Tax Collection Management System.  This automation has saved over 3 months of preparation and processing time from their old system. 

Montgomery is excited to enter into phase two where they will allow their customers to process their sales tax returns online.  This process has the potential to save over $100,000 in processing.

Correcting Dropped UDL Connection in 2011 Installs

In the new 2011 installs of our suite of software’s there is a new file that is created in each product folder. The file is called a UDL file. (UDL is the extension on the file i.e. License.udl) It acts as a front door that points the system to the correct BDE entry. This new feature allows us to have multiple installs of the same product on one server or machine.

We have discovered, through extensive beta testing, that it is possible, however unlikely, to corrupt this file. This may occur if the network drops the connection as a user is logging on.

If an alert is received saying that the BDE entry is not registered check the UDL file within the product folder first. The file can be edited in notepad.

A good entry looks like this: (for this example the License software is being used, Prop32 or Utility may be substituted)

{dbase}
BDE=LICENSE;Data Source=C:\capsoft\lic32
(The data source would be the path used on your particular server or workstation)

Eastern Virginia User Group Meeting 2010

User group meetings are a great opportunity to get together and discuss new ideas.  Because of the economy our users have been unable to travel the past few years so with our users' help Capital Software is launching a new and exciting idea.

ON LOCATION USER GROUP MEETINGS

15 Eastern Virgina Municipality Users joined us on location in Virginia.  One City graciously hosted all of us.  Jeff McDonald, Capital's Manager of Client Services, traveled onsite for a one day visit covering a variety of topics.  Following a tight agenda, Jeff was able to highlight exciting new features in the 2010 updates, discuss and teach situational processing and everyone had access to an indepth question and answer period.  The energy was great.

We received many positive emails from these users about the new release and the overall team approach to learning and future product development.  One such nice comment was sent by Neil Showalter, Finance Director of Mt Jackson VA.

"Hi Jeff,

Just wanted to thank you for coming all this way to meet with us in Woodstock yesterday. I thought your presentation was informative and helpful and a productive use of time for all of us there.
Hope to see you again soon."

"The local user group idea makes it possible and affordable for all of us to get together while being smart with time and money.  We are going to work with other regional users across the country to schedule more dates.  It is very exciting," added Jeff McDonald.

To discuss hosting a regional users group contact support at support@capitalsoftwareinc.com.



Using Terminal Services with Capital Apps

The more complex networks get and security rights become, the harder installation, setup and overall performance is slowed down.

We are encouraging our clients to consider using Microsoft Terminal Services to win the network battle.

Brief explanation: Capital Applications are installed on the server. Users use a brower to securely access their Capital application on the server from anywhere.  Reports are configured to run naturally on your local printer.  The benefit is that network traffic is eliminated, setup is easy, issues with workstations are minimal and updates take place on the server making it easier to manage.

Amber at Christiansburg, VA had this to say about using her property tax program with Terminal Services
"We recently started using Terminal Services after having many issues of slow posting, error messages, locking up, etc. Since then, all of our cashiers have been able to post at the same time and the processing time has decreased incredibly. I can do my corrections much faster that we have ever been able to in the past. It would take a very long time to process when writing off multiple years of interest, especially if someone else was trying to post a payment at the same time. It has really improved the speed and efficiency in which we operate and has really improved our processes. I wish we would have did that much sooner!"

Terminal Services is very affordable and we encourage you to talk with your network person about implementing Terminal Services.  Often you can install Terminal Services on a newer existing server.

Email Capital Support if you have an interest in discussing using Terminal Services.

Chris Sturm

Printing Crystal Reports in a Terminal Services Environment

If a terminal services environment is being used to run Capital Software applications there is one thing that must be done on the server for the crystal reports to work.

On the server there should be a folder called c:\windows\crystal, copy the crystal folder (holds reporting .dll’s). Once copied, in Active directory, each user should have its own home directory defined in the properties of his/her account. Under that folder there should be a windows folder, paste the crystal folder that was copied before into each of their windows folder in their home directory. This should take care of the reporting issues that are being observed.

Date Driven Reports in all Capital Programs

In the 2010 product releases, users will enjoy more date driven control in financial reports. These reports are based upon the gl transactions created behind the scene by the products so it is important to understand these reports in order to get the most out of the software.

In all Capital Software revenue programs, when a charge is added, modified or paid the system will create historical transactions at the time of the transaction (AR transactions must be turned on in the tran code in order for the system to make entries when charges are applied or edited).  Capital recommends turning your AR transactions on for every tran code to enhance your reporting experience whether you are tracking AR entries in your accounting software or not.

The 2010 products include new or improved reports in the following areas:
Daily Balancing Cash - This report displays all payments by session in detail and is a critical daily balancing tool.  This report reads directly from the gltran database so if a payment was made it will appear on this report.
AR Distribution - Whenver a charge is applied (like a billing or monthly interest) or adjusted your Accounts Receivable is effected.  You can run this report for any date range and see the amounts. This is only AR not payments.
Fiscal Audit with Ageing (GL AR BASED) - Enter a starting and ending date and this report will display (by due date) all charges that have been billed, adjusted, penalties, interest, payments, credits, reversals, writeoffs and ending balancing as of whatever ENDING date you enter.  This is a great audit tool when looking at a specific fiscal year.
Aged Trial Balance by Code (GL BASED) - Enter an ending date and this report will display every tran code outstanding as of the ENDING date.  Each tran code is grouped by due date so you know what is applied, received and outstanding for that code/due date as of ending date.
Aged Trial Balance by Due Date (GL BASED) - Enter an ending date and this report will display every tran code outstanding as of the ENDING date for a due date.  You know what is applied, received and outstanding for that code/due date as of ending date.
Trial Balance Account Summary and Detail (GL BASED) - These reports allow you to analyze a single account or multiple accounts.  The report will display every line item on an account in the start and ending date range entered.  This is very helpful when looking at an account over time and explaining what has occurred.

CHARGES TAB vs. GLTRAN
Older reports like the original aged trial balance (which reads data from the Charges tab) are still available in the system but these reports are not date specific.  Some reports like the applied charges have been removed in exchange for the new GL based reports for created accuracy and to take advantage of the new system features.

We hope you enjoy these new reports.  Remember that the system will make AR entries from the point you turn the AR function on in the system.  It is not retroactive and can not recreate old transactions.

Thank you,
Capital Support Team.

Important Note about the Transaction Journal Reports

Capital Software has within its applications a large arsenal of reports in which to access and display our client’s data. Two of the most utilized weapons in that arsenal are the transaction journals. In particular the Transaction Journal by owner which is a detailed report that displays all pertinent detailed billing information for each individual account, and the Transaction Journal by Service which is a summarized report showing again all pertinent billing information for each charge line or Tran Code that has been place on each account. In more simple terms these reports show our clients the data for every bill that is being sent to their customers.

These powerful tools are real time reports. For example,this meaning that when any payments or reversals are performed the data changes to reflect these changes. These reports are entirely parameter driven (as are all crystal reports) and in this case that parameter is the due date. It is important to keep in mind when using these reports if the due date that is listed on the charge tab within the program does not fall in between the date range entered when launching, the data retrieved on the report may not be what was desired.

It is import to again state that these reports are real time and due to this feature this report is not capable of pulling information from a fixed point in time. There are points in time reports that may be used for that function. Using a report for a function that is was not designed is not recommended.

If the reports that have been provided within our software do not pull the information in just the format you require, please contact Support@capitalsoftwareinc.com and let us know what you desire. We will be able to let you know if a report already exists that will show that and if not we will research the issue and let you know if it is possible to create the report and if so the any possible fees.

Important Reminder when Running Delinquent Reports

It is important to remember when running any of the delinquent reports with in CSI software to first press the Delinquent Query for Reports-Run First Button. This will launch a sql query that will pull all of the delinquent information into a data base file called Delinquent Master , allowing the delinquent reports to pull their information from this table. If you attempt to run the reports with out first pressing the button your delinquent information may be inaccurate.

CSI Upgrade Installation Instructions

Upgrade Installation Instructions

Welcome
Thank you for selecting a Capital Software application. Please read this entire installation instruction sheet to ensure a satisfactory installation.

Contact Information
If you experience any problems during the installation process, you should email your question to support@capsoft.ws. Email submissions will be answered in the order they are received.

Location of Installation
This program is to be installed on the computer that houses the old program. If you are working on a network environment then this needs to be done from the server. If you are working on a standalone computer, this installation needs to be done on that computer.

Standard Installation Process

1. Receive Download site or CD
2. Print installation instructions (pdf)
3. Install version
4. Upgrade from existing Capital Program(s).

Note – The new 32 bit application you are upgrading to must be completely installed.

Step by Step Install Instructions

1. Download or insert CD into computer.
Click START / RUN.

2. Type d:\setup.exe and push OK. Replace d with whatever your CD Rom drive letter is.
When the screen launches, click YES to continue Upgrade install.
When the Welcome screen appears, click NEXT.

2a. If the setup.exe is downloaded locate the setup.exe and double click it.
When the screen launches, click YES to continue Upgrade install.When the Welcome screen appears, click NEXT.

3. Click NEXT for the default directory (UPGRADE) and NEXT for the application name. Click INSTALL and wait for progress bar.

4. Double click on shortcut.

5. Choose the type of system you are upgrading from, 16 bit or 32.

6. Then choose the program you are upgrading. Then click NEXT.

7. Click the choose directory.

8. A windows browser will appear. Choose the capital program file folder. Click OK, the Click NEXT.

9. Click Upgrade.
It will say at the bottom Process Finished. Click the close (X) in the top right corner.

Congratulations, you have upgraded your software with your existing history from your old program.

How to chage the system defaults within CSI Applications

1. Click on System Setup and Edit System Default Controls

2. Type in the Organization Address press Tab

3. Type in the City, State, and Zip

4. At this point any of the other fields may also be filled out.

5. When all desired fields are filled in with your organizations information click Save and then close this window.

Note: If at any time it is noticed that the organizational information is incorrect on a report or bill format then the information is incorrect on this screen and should be updated. (This holds true unless the report is hard coded and the report does not pull from this table. If this is the case contact support for assistance.)

How to add fields to the quick searches within CSI Applications

If an additional field, other than those setup as the default in the quick search drop down are desired follow these steps:

1. Go to the server and log in as administrator, or if you are a standalone user, this can be done from that workstation.

2. Left click on your start button and click all programs.

3. Click on CSI Maintenance

4. Click the Configure Maintenance Icon.

5. Click the left arrow until you see util32 in the database and Property in the table.

6. Enter the search name that you want displayed in the software in the T# field (NO SPACES).

7. Enter the program field name that you want to add to the search in the E# field. These have to be the field names that are used in the background of the program. These are not what you see on your screen.

8. Once that is complete, run the maintenance and you should see your new search option.