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Spring '24 Release Notes

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Overview

Release Frequency and Schedule

Updates to our release frequency and schedule include doing our best to have three major (Push) releases each year (Spring, Summer and Winter). These releases will be automatically pushed to sandbox and production environments. Each Push release will be preceded by two Preview releases that will be made generally available and are not automatically pushed. Since all our releases (previews and pushes) are cumulative, the latest release will contain all the changes from the prior releases. 

Our Release Notes for each Push release will be updated with the changes from each Preview release as they become available. Before the Push release is automatically pushed to sandboxes, these Release Notes will be updated with the changes made in that release as well. A good way to see incremental changes in each Preview and Push release is to view the respective “What’s New” video below.

Accounting Seed is excited to inform you of our Spring ‘24 release. This article presents information about the new features and enhancements available in this release. To print a copy of the Release Notes, right-click and select Print. In the Destination drop-down list, select a specific printer name or select Save as PDF. Then, click Save. 

Installation Notes

Our Spring ‘24 release was deployed to sandbox environments on Sunday, March 10, 2024. We will begin production upgrades on April 7, 2024. The installation links can be accessed by clicking here, if necessary.

Configuration Changes

This release includes configuration changes that can be performed by existing Accounting Seed customers. However, the “Add the Line Order” configuration for the Advanced Line Manager can be performed by new and existing customers. For information about the configuration changes, refer to the Spring ’24 Configuration Changes article. 

Our Convenience Fees feature includes some new fields on the related screens, which will automatically be added for new and existing customers. Configuration changes are only required if you have custom changes. For information about the related screens, please refer to the AR Automation – Convenience Fees section in these release notes.

Contents

New Features

Product Updates

Customer Requested Enhancements

Additional Enhancements

Software Corrections

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New Features

Accounts Payable Automation

AP Automation Overview
Email to Payable
Payment Proposals
Payment Services
AP Automation Onboarding Process

This release includes our new AP Automation features. AP Automation is available to all customers operating in US Dollars. To activate the features, please send an email to licensing@accountingseed.com.

 AP Automation makes it easier for you to bring your Payables into the system, plan and prioritize payments, as well as automatically distribute payments to your Vendors upon approval using various payment methods. Our partner in the Payment Services (invoice-to-pay) integration is Edenred Pay.      

AP Automation includes three main features:

  • Email to Payable is an easier way to create Payables using a Salesforce email service. When your Vendor emails you an Invoice, a Payable is automatically created. The enhanced Payable record detail page uses the Advanced Line Manager (ALM) to display the email attachment in a carousel to help with easier data entry.
  • Payment Proposals help you search for, prioritize and plan your spending with a simple user interface. With Payment Proposals, you are now able to easily search for your Invoices and Credit Memos using robust search capabilities. Additionally, you can easily add your Payables and Credit Memos to display a running total so that you can manage your spending. With an Approval Process in place, you can send a Payment Proposal batch of Payables for approval. Once approved, the automation picks it up for further payment processing, creating the Cash Disbursements and applying them and any Credit Memos to the Payables.
  • Payment Services enables you to easily pay your Vendors using Virtual Cards, ACH and Check payment methods. This feature picks up from the Payment Proposals automation, which creates and applies the Cash Disbursements to the Payables. When the Cash Disbursements are posted, the Payment Services automation begins to process the payment to your Vendor based upon their preference for payment. You can also use Payment Services in the Payable Pay and Pay Batch intermediate screens to start the automation process for Vendor payment on a single Cash Disbursement or a batch of them.

To see an overview of the AP Automation features, refer to the AP Automation Overview article. From there, you can view the AP Automation Onboarding Process article, which is listed in the order and process for customers to complete the necessary steps to get up and running with the AP Automation features.

Advanced Line Manager on Payables (with or without AP Automation)

As indicated in the Email to Payable information above, Advanced Line Manager (ALM), which has been in our Recurring objects for some time, has now been added to the Payable object. This functionality is the same as you have become familiar with in the Recurring screens, which makes it quick and easy to add Payable Lines, as well as modify line information.

There is a new Payable Lightning record page (ALM Payable Record Home), which will need to be activated in order to view the Advanced Line Manager in the Payable screen. Information to activate this page is included in the AP Automation Onboarding Process article. However, even if for the present time, you will not be using the AP Automation features, you can still take advantage of using the Advanced Line Manager by activating this new Payable Lightning record page. If you will not be using AP Automation, the activation steps can be found in the Spring ‘24 Configuration Changes article.

Note: While the Advanced Line Manager (ALM) is available to any customer who activates the new Payable Lightning record page, the ability to view Payable Invoices that were attached to emails (Email to Payable) directly below the ALM is only available with the AP Automation features.   

Advanced Line Manager - Set Default Values

The Advanced Line Manager (ALM) can set defaults and respond to changes. These two actions can be customized. For example, when a new row is added, you can set defaults for a new row. Or, when data is modified, the value of one field can be updated in response to changes to another field. For more information, refer to the Advanced Line Manager section in our Accounting Seed API Documentation.

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Large Data Optimizer

Large Data Optimizer
Create or Clone a Billing
Create or Clone a Payable
Create or Clone a Journal Entry
Calculate Tax on a Billing with Avalara’s AvaTax
Calculate Tax on a Billing with AS Native Tax
Calculate Tax on a Payable with AS Native Tax
Email a Billing
Mass Email Billings
Purge Data

The Large Data Optimizer (LDO) feature allows you to post/unpost more lines on Billings, Payables, and Journal Entries. To have this feature enabled, submit a case to our Customer Support team. Once the LDO feature is enabled, when you post/unpost any of these source documents from the detail page or the list view, the records will be posted/unposted asynchronously.

Note: The Large Data Optimizer feature is not applicable when posting via the API. The Post/Unpost Limits remain in place when posting through the API.

One of two new Posting Statuses (Posting in Progress or Unposting in Progress) will display while the posting job is running in the background. Once the background job is completed, an Automated Job Results (AJR) record will be created, which you can review for details, as necessary. For more information, refer to the Automated Job Results article. Additionally, if records fail to post/unpost, an Exceptions Report for Large Data Optimizer records will be available. You can view the Exceptions Report by clicking the hyperlink on the related Automated Job Results record.

To learn more about the new Large Data Optimizer feature, refer to the Large Data Optimizer article.

Important Configuration Change for All Customers: New Accounting Method field

As a part of Large Data Optimizer feature, the Accounting Method field was added to the Ledger object. This new field will automatically be available on the Ledger object for new customers. However, if you are an existing Accounting Seed customer, this new field will need to be added to the Ledger object even if you are NOT using the Large Data Optimizer. For information about adding this new field, refer to the Spring ‘24 Configuration Changes article.

Important: Once this new field has been added, display the Transactional Ledger record, and select Accrual from the Accounting Method drop-down list.

AR Automation - Convenience Fees

Cardknox Convenience Fees
Payment Processor
Charge a Customer Using Cardknox
Receive Payment Directly from a Billing
Receive Payments from Multiple Billings

With this release, if Cardknox is your Payment Processor, you can now include Convenience Fees on payments that are processed in Accounting Seed.

When configured, Convenience Fees will automatically calculate when you create a payment from an Account record, as well as on the Billing payment screens (detail and list view) based upon the selections that are made in the Payment Processor screen.

When a payment is processed with Convenience Fees charged, a Cash Receipt will be created that includes the Convenience Fee amount. This amount cannot be applied to Billings.

Convenience Fee Posting Changes

When the Merchant Download job runs, in addition to the other records created, two new Journal Entry Lines will be created on the Merchant Funds Journal Entry. These lines will post the Convenience Fees amount to the Convenience Fee GL Account and relieve the Unapplied AR GL Account. This posting change also applies to Convenience Fees that are charged via the PaymentSite.

If the Convenience Fee GL Account is not populated in the Payment Processor screen, when the Merchant Download job runs, and the final Journal Entry records are created (with Convenience Fees included), the two additional Journal Entry Lines will still be created. The system will create the normal debit Journal Entry Line for the Convenience Fees to the Unapplied A/R GL Account. However, the credit Journal Entry Line will be to the Merchant Fee GL Account to add the Convenience Fees (since the Convenience Fee GL Account was missing in the Payment Processor screen).

Important: Due to the way in which Convenience Fees are now posted, we recommend installing the Spring ’24 release after settlement batch completes (in other words, after all customer payments have been recorded for the day).

New Convenience Fee Fields

New Convenience Fee fields have been added to the screens below. If you are using our default Lightning record pages for these screens, the new fields will automatically display. Otherwise, if you are using a custom version, the new fields will need to be added manually.

For more information about using Convenience Fees, refer to the Cardknox Convenience Fees article. Additionally, you can view Convenience Fees information in the Merchant Funds and T-Accounts article to see an Excel spreadsheet with T-Accounts that include Convenience Fees.

If you are using custom permission sets and want to view the new fields that are related to Convenience Fees, refer to the Convenience Fee Changes (with Custom Permission Sets) section of the Spring ’24 Configuration Changes article.

New Convenience Fee related Custom SObject Fields

New SObject fields that were added as part of this release have been included in the Custom Metadata Types and Fields article.

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Product Updates

Financial Analytics Updates

Accounting Seed Financial Analytics

Our Accounting Seed Financial Analytics app, which was introduced in the Winter ’24 release has been updated to include the following:

  • The Profit & Loss Dashboard includes a visual indicator (values in green and red) to clearly distinguish increase and decrease amounts for the selected Accounting Period and the Last Period for Revenue, Expenses, and Net Profit / Loss.
  • For the Revenue and Expense Dashboards, if you have a Sub Type 1 that is explicitly defined as “Other,” this category will include the “Other” transactions, as well as uncategorized (Sub Type 1 not selected) transactions.
  • For the Balance Sheet Dashboard, if you have a Sub Type 2 that is explicitly defined as “Other,” this category will include the “Other” transactions, as well as uncategorized (Sub Type 2 not selected) transactions. The Transaction Listing will include “Other” transactions for both (if available) Assets & Liabilities.
  • The Balance Sheet includes a Receivables Outstanding Listing and a Payables Outstanding Listing with an Aging Bucket column heading.
  • As with other Dashboards, the Expense Dashboard is interactive. Therefore, when you click an Expense category in the right chart, the Operating Ratio and Total Expenses on the left will be updated based upon the selected category, and the Transaction Listing will also be updated.
  • The Transaction Listing on the Ledger Inquiry has been updated to include Inquiry Statistics (Opening Balance, Inquiry Amount and Balance) and Inquiry Result Count (total number of transactions).

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Customer Requested Enhancements

Tax Inclusive Calculations

Set up Accounting Seed (AS) Native Tax - Billing
Set up Accounting Seed (AS) Native Tax - Payable
Calculate Tax on a Billing with AS Native Tax
Calculate Tax on a Payable with AS Native Tax
Recurring Billings
Recurring Payables

Important: The Tax Inclusive calculation is only applicable if you are using Header Level Posting (HLP) with AS Native Tax as your tax method.

Tax inclusive is used in many countries that include the Tax Amount as part of the Unit Price/Unit Cost. The new Tax Inclusive checkbox provides away for the system to use a calculation to “back into” the Tax Amount on Billings, Payables, Recurring Billings, and Recurring Payables if you are using Header Level Posting (HLP) with AS Native Tax as your tax method. Additionally, the Combined Tax Rate that used to display only on the Tax Group object, is now available to include on the line objects for Billings, Payables, Recurring Billings, and Recurring Payables. To add these new fields to the related objects, refer to the Add the Tax Inclusive fields section of the Spring ‘24 Configuration Changes article.

To learn more about the Tax Inclusive calculation, refer to the HLP section of the Calculate Tax on a Billing with AS Native Tax article or the Calculate Tax on a Payable with AS Native Tax article.

Note: Tax Inclusive Tax Groups are not supported with this release when you Calculate/Estimate Tax on an Opportunity, Create a Billing from an Opportunity, or Create a Recurring Billing from an Opportunity. Tax Inclusive Tax Groups will be supported in these Opportunity intermediate screens with a future release. In the interim, when a Billing or Recurring Billing is actually created from an Opportunity, the tax values will display correctly on the actual Billing or Recurring Billing.   

Cash Receipts and Cash Disbursements – Approved Posting Status

Receive and Apply Cash
Create a Manual Cash Disbursement
Post a Cash Disbursement(s) from the List View

With this release, Cash Receipt and Cash Disbursement records must have the Approved Posting Status in order to be posted or auto-posted. This change makes these two objects consistent with our other objects and conform to the correct Accounting process. Similar to the other objects, if you attempt to post a Cash Receipt or Cash Disbursement while they are in any other Posting Status, an error message will display.

For the Cash Receipt, this change will be seen:

  • When Post is clicked on the record detail page.
  • When Post Cash Receipts is clicked on the list view. Additionally, the data grid now includes a Not Approved Status column heading.
  • On Auto-posting, if the Auto-Post setting for Cash Receipts is enabled on the Post Settings screen, and you manually change the Posting Status to “Approved,” the record will automatically post. Or, if “Approved” is your default Posting Status, Cash Receipt records will automatically post upon saving. If this Auto-Post setting is disabled, the record will not automatically post.

    Note: The Cash Receipt Scheduled Post job already functions in this manner, posting only “Approved” records.

On the Cash Disbursement, this change will be seen:

  • When Post is clicked on the record detail page.
  • When Post Cash Disbursements is clicked on the list view. Additionally, the data grid now includes a Not Approved Status column heading. Note: The Cash Disbursement Scheduled Post job already functions in this manner, posting only “Approved” records.

Note: For existing Accounting Seed customers, after installing the Spring '24 release, if the "Approved" value is missing as an option in the Posting Status drop-down list on the Cash Receipt and Cash Disbursement screens, refer the Add the Approved Value to the Posting Status drop-down list section in the Spring '24 Configuration Changes article. 

Payables – Pay & Post/Create & Post

Create a Single or Partial Payment Payable
Create a Batch Payment Payable

With this release, if the default Posting Status on Cash Disbursement records is not “Approved,” the Pay & Post button will display disabled on the Payable Partial Payment intermediate screen, as well as the Create & Post button on the Pay Batch intermediate screen. There will also be a warning message to indicate the Cash Disbursement record(s) must be in an “Approved” Posting Status.  

This release also includes the creation of an Automated Job Results record even if only one Cash Disbursement record fails to post. One or more failed records can be viewed on the Exceptions: Sched/Async Post Unpost - CD report. Additionally, a Task will now be created in an Open Status, as an alert to inform you that action is required on the record(s) that failed. 

Orders & Inventory – Comments column

Receive/Unreceive a Purchase Order (Average Cost)
Receive/Unreceive a Purchase Order (Standard Cost)
Create a Payable from a Purchase Order (Average Cost)
Create a Payable from a Purchase Order (Standard Cost)
Allocate Inventory to a Sales Order (Average Cost)
Allocate Inventory to a Sales Order (Standard Cost)

If comments were included on a line, they will now display in the new Comments column heading on the following Orders & Inventory intermediate screens:

Financial Institution Account field hover over

Bank Direct Connect – Bank Transactions Introduction

In Bank Direct Connect, from the Bank Transactions tab, you can now hover over the selected Financial Institution Account to view the full name of the institution.

Receive up to 200 Payments

Receive Payments from Multiple Billings

With this release, the batch Receive Payments screen has been enhanced to support up to 200 payments.

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Additional Enhancements

Auto-Reverse Journal Entries

Create or Clone a Journal Entry
Recurring Journal Entries

A new validation rule (No_Reversal_Period_for_Auto_Reverse) has been added to the Journal Entry object. When you attempt to create a Journal Entry from a Recurring Journal Entry record (with Auto-Reverse selected), if the subsequent Accounting Period does not already exist, an error message will display, which prevents the Journal creation.

Important Best Practices:

  • To avoid issues with using the Auto-Reverse feature, it is recommended that the related validation rules NOT be disabled. For more information, refer to the Auto-Reversal information in the Create or Clone a Journal Entry article.
  • If using the Auto-Reverse feature, future Accounting Periods should always already exist.

Receive Multiple Payments – Payment Method with long names

Receive Payments from Multiple Billings

From the Billings list view, when receiving multiple payments, if the Payment Method includes long names, the characters will be truncated to between 90-100 depending upon the text. You can hover over the Payment Method to view the Bank/Card type and the last four digits.

Accounting Home Enhancements   

We have enhanced our homepage to display information about new features, and we moved the release information to an in-app prompt. For this release, the new section focuses in on our AR Automation feature. Click the Learn more link for more information. Also, please note that there is a hyperlink to access the Release Notes at the bottom of this new section.

Spring_24.png

We have also added the in-app prompt to our homepage, which provides a brief look at what is available in this release. You can click the available hyperlinks for more information. For example, click the Large Data Optimizer hyperlink in the prompt for more information about this new feature. The in-app prompt includes a hyperlink to our Release Notes, as well as a link to our online community where you can provide feedback and product suggestions.

The in-app prompt will be updated with relevant information for each release.

Spring_24a.png

getSalesforceBaseUrl() Deprecated

In support of Salesforce’s deprecation of the getSalesforceBaseUrl() method in favor of the getOrgDomainUrl() method to get your org URL or getCurrentRequestUrl() to get the URL of an entire request on a Salesforce instance, we have followed the same path. This only affects Apex version 59.0 and above. In Accounting Seed, getSalesforceBaseUrl() has been deprecated on the following packages:

  • Financial Suite
  • FSL
  • Orders & Inventory
  • NPSP

Deprecated field and Visualforce pages

The Auto Post Source Documents field that was on the Accounting Settings page has been deprecated. This field was replaced a while ago with the Auto-Post Settings in the Post Settings screen.

The following Visualforce pages have been deprecated:

  • AccountAddressValidator.page
  • BillingAddressValidator.page
  • BillingApplyCreditMemo.page
  • CashReceiptApplyBillings.page

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Software Corrections

Bank Reconciliation PDF Summary

When the Create PDF Summary button was clicked on a Bank Reconciliation, the PDF file displayed with formatting issues, which caused a part of the software code to be visible in the “Outstanding Payment as of” section. This issue has been resolved so that the PDF file displays as expected.

Billing/Payable - Clone w/ Lines

An FLS (Field Level Security) error message displayed when cloning a Billing or Payable, which required edit access to the Tax Line and Reverse-charged fields on the respective lines. The error message prevented the record from being cloned. This issue has been resolved. The Tax Line and Reverse-charged fields will still maintain the intended non-editable status, but without error, which is the expected behavior.  
Billing Credit Memo aging inconsistencies

The aging calculation for Billing Credit Memos was experiencing inaccuracies. To address this issue, we have enhanced the formula by changing ROUND(Balance__c, 2) > 0 to ROUND(Balance__c, 2) != 0, which ensures the accurate aging on Billing Credit Memos.

Advanced Line Manager - Custom Field

When the Custom Field checkbox was added to a field set on the Advanced Line Manager (ALM), it displayed as a required field even if it was NOT marked as such on the field set. This issue has been resolved. The checkbox now displays accurately based upon the setting on the field set, which allows the line in the ALM to be saved successfully without error.

Receive Payment - Type drop-down list

A component error displayed when the value in the Type drop-down list on the Receive Payment screen was changed. This error specifically occurred when Cash Receipt Type was added to the Receive Payment from a Billing Record field set, which is not present there by default. The error message only displayed when the Type drop-down list was modified before the payment process was completed. This issue has been resolved. The value in the Type drop-down list on the Receive Payment screen can be modified without an error message displaying.

Sort Field on Billing PDF Format

When a custom field was entered in the Sort Field on the PDF Format record, the Billing PDF was not being sorted by this custom field. This issue has been corrected.

Create Amortization Entries

An insufficient permissions error message displayed in the Create Amortization Entries wizard during the Accounting Information & Create section. This message displayed when using the Accounting Manager and/or Cash Out & Banking permission sets due to Read access that was missing for the Sub-Total field. This issue has now been resolved.

Issue Refund from a Cash Receipt

When the Check Number field was cleared on the “Issue a Refund from a Cash Receipt” dialog box, an error message displayed. This issue has been resolved so that the Check Number field can display blank without receiving an error message.     

Purchase Order Notes & File PDF Attachments

When a PDF file that was previously saved in the Purchase Order’s Notes & Files tab, was attached using the Purchase Order Create PDF intermediate screen, the file extension was not being added. This issue has been corrected.  

Unposted Billing records using AvaTax

There was an issue that occurred when a Billing was unposted in Accounting Seed, the record in Avalara’s AvaTax continued to display as “Committed.” This issue occurred because the Active AvaTax Endpoint field that is a part of Tax Settings was pointing to the old Accounting Settings record instead of the actual Tax Settings record. This issue has been resolved. With this release, when you unpost a Billing, the record will display as “Uncommitted” in AvaTax.

Recurring Billing – Clone w/Lines

When a user with the Standard User Profile and AS Full Admin permission set attempted to clone a Recurring Billing with Lines, the “You do not have access to the Apex class named DeepCloneHelper” error message displayed. This issue has been corrected. You can now Clone w/Lines on a Recurring Billing without receiving an error message.

Purchase Order Lines on PDF

Prior to this release, Purchase Order Lines on a Purchase Order PDF file could not be sorted by the Product field. In order to sort by Product, edit the PDF Format on your Purchase Order and specify “AcctSeedERP__Product__r.Name” in the Sort Field.   

Salesforce Platform Licenses Error

In the previous release, users with Salesforce Platform licenses were seeing an erroneous message requiring them to give permissions to the Product object. This issue has been corrected.

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