MoneyWorks blog

Newsletter March 2018

Posted on 31 March, 2018 by Grant

In this newsletter:

New MoneyWorks Mobile App

MoneyWorksGo Home screen
Selecting a customer

A new, free MoneyWorks mobile app for iOS is now available from the MoneyWorks Add-on Store. Although designed for an iPad, it is quite workable on an iPhone, and has the following capabilities:

  • Run any (authorised) report.
  • Customer management
    • Customer dashboard showing balances and historic purchases.
    • Retrieve any invoice for a customer.
    • Update customer details.
  • Enter new quote, sales order or sales invoice, with option to capture customer signature.
  • Record time and materials used on a job.
  • Do stock count with option to use iPad/iPhone camera as scanner
  • Record expense claim, with photo of docket/receipt.

The app works with MoneyWorks Datacentre 8.1 or later, or MoneyWorks Now, and data entered on the device can be sent live back to MoneyWorks. It is pre-configured to talk to a sample file in Brisbane, Australia, but you can easily reconfigure it for your own Datacentre or MoneyWorks Now file.

Note that when using the App with MoneyWorks Datacentre, it will use one of your user licences, and fail if this is not available. Guaranteed access for multiple users can be achieved with a special REST licence key. For use with MoneyWorks Now a REST multi-user key is required — for details of this please contact admin@cognito.co.nz

MoneyWorks Now expands to Singapore

Good news for businesses in Singapore and Malaysia who are looking for industrial-strength cloud accounting and ERP: we have recently commissioned a MoneyWorks Now Node in Singapore. People in Singapore/Malaysia who prefer to use the public cloud instead of the private cloud offered by an in-house MoneyWorks Datacentre should contact Mike Ong at LedgerWorks for more information.

NZ IRD AIM Initiative

We are working with the New Zealand IRD to implement both the AIM initiative and the electronic filing of GST returns direct from MoneyWorks Gold/Datacentre. For those not familiar with AIM, it is, to quote the IRD:

AIM is designed to fit better within the existing and ordinary processes of a business and is more reflective of the current year to date financial performance of a business.

Under AIM, provisional tax is integrated into business processes and payment amounts are based on current year tax adjusted income. This should provide businesses using AIM with more certainty that they are paying the right amount of tax as it will be paid as income is earned.

AIM is not compulsory, and indeed may in practice incur significant addtional accountancy fees. At this stage we are unable to give an implementation date, but will advise availability in a future newsletter.

Upcoming Training Courses

We currently have training courses scheduled as follows:

  • Auckland (March 20/21)
  • Sydney (April 18/19)

For more details, or to book your place, see cognito.co.nz/support/training/

End of Year Processing

With the financial end-of-year approaching in a number of countries, it could be a good time to review the What should I do at the end of the Financial Year post in the MoneyWorks forum. If you are using stock/inventory, the one thing you should remember to do at the end of business on the last day of the year is to start the MoneyWorks Stocktake, which takes a snapshot of your current stock holding and values.

MoneyWorks 8.1.2

The current version of MoneyWorks is 8.1.2, which was released on 25th January. If you are using an earlier version, please update as this addresses a number of issues discovered in previous versions.

Tips du Jour

Using Subscriptions to Advantage

The MoneyWorks Subscription service allows you to get MoneyWorks licences on a monthly basis, so is great if you have a sudden glut of work, or an unexpected visit from the tax department. Examples:

  • You have Datacentre, but need an additional user for just a month or two.
  • Simply subscribe to a MoneyWorks Gold (which will act as a client to your existing Datacentre).
  • You have purchased MoneyWorks Gold, but need an additional user for a short period.
  • Subscribe to a single user MoneyWorks Datacentre for the period. Your existing Gold will act as a concurrent second user.

Finding Backdated Transactions

Sometimes, you need to find transactions entered after a certain date, but dated before that date (a question that your accountant might have). These are easily found using the Backdated Transaction report, available under Reports>Audit>Backdated Transactions.

Reinstalling MoneyWorks

If for some reason you need to reinstall MoneyWorks, you can download the installer from the MoneyWorks Trial page. Choose the correct version from the pop-up menu, which includes installers for obsolete versions of MoneyWorks, going back to MoneyWorks 5. Note that older versions of MoneyWorks may not run on newer operating systems (and you need MoneyWorks 8 for High Sierra, the latest MacOS). Having installed MoneyWorks, you just need to activate it by entering your serial number into Help>Enter Serial (you can retrieve your serial number from the same place on your old installation).

Posted in News | Comments Off on Newsletter March 2018

Prompt Payment Discounts in the UK

Posted on 10 April, 2015 by Grant

The handling of VAT on prompt payment discounts (PPD) in the UK changed from 1st April 2015, essentially making it the same as most other countries.

MoneyWorks 7 users do not need an update to do this. Instead simply change the PPD Settings in the Document Preferences of MoneyWorks (accessible under the Edit menu) from the old UK settings (the third option) to the first option, as shown below.

MoneyWorks Prompt Payment Discount settings for UK after April 2015

You will also need to make your PPD expense account taxable (i.e. give the it standard V tax code).

Note that you are also required to include text with the following meaning on the invoice.

A discount of x% of the full price applies if payment is made within n days. No credit note will be issued. Following payment you must ensure you have only recovered the VAT actually paid.

The easiest way to do this is to just have the text in the message area of the invoice. Alternatively you can customise the invoice to have the text “hard wired”.

Important: If you are paying/receipting an invoice that has a PPD that is dated before the 1st April, you will need to temporarily reset the preferences back to the old UK option (and the tax code on the PPD expense account) in order for the discount to be applied correctly and the correct VAT calculated.

Posted in Accounting | Comments Off on Prompt Payment Discounts in the UK

MoneyWorks Accounting for Schools training courses

Posted on 9 March, 2015 by Grant

Accounting for schools has always been a major strength for MoneyWorks, with hundreds of schools in Asia and Australasia using MoneyWorks for their school financials.

The features that particularly appeal to schools are the departmental accounting (cost centre accounting), and the powerful report writers that are built into MoneyWorks.

Over April and May, we’re having a series of courses that are specifically oriented for school administrators. Presented by Peter Cook, a long term MoneyWorks Consultant with special expertise in school accounting, these are a must for any schools that are using or considering using MoneyWorks. For further details please visit the Training courses.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on MoneyWorks Accounting for Schools training courses

Ostendo release MoneyWorks Integration

Posted on 24 July, 2014 by Grant

Ostendo is “Operational Software” that includes advanced features for inventory, manufacturing and jobbing, and which now offers seamless, real-time integration with MoneyWorks Datacentre. In effect, Ostendo becomes an operational front end to MoneyWorks, adding powerful functionality for distribution, engineering and manufacturing, including:

  • Serial Number/Batch Tracking
  • Inventory and Purchasing
  • Landed Costing
  • MRP and Inventory Replenishment
  • Enhanced Job Costing and Projects
  • Labour, Timesheets and Job Tracking (includes Constraints Scheduling)
  • Distribution, POS and Service (includes Asset Preventive Maintenance)
  • CRM, Call Centre and Quoting
  • Manufacturing and Assembly
  • Configured Custom Products including Features and Options

Like MoneyWorks, Ostendo incorporates powerful custom reporting, graphical workflows, advanced scripting, and access from mobile devices, thus allowing for a high level of customisation to meet specific user requirements. For more information, visit www.ostendo.info or call +64-9-525-3612.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Ostendo release MoneyWorks Integration

MoneyWorks Tops Accounting Reviews

Posted on 14 July, 2014 by Grant

MoneyWorks Gold 7 was named “top choice” in a recent review of accounting systems in the USA, beating out QuickBooks and AccountEdge (formerly MYOB), and earning 4.5 points out of a possible 5. To read the full article, click here

Posted in Accounting, News | Comments Off on MoneyWorks Tops Accounting Reviews

Importing Bills of Materials

Posted on 19 December, 2013 by Grant

It’s been possible to import a bill of materials (BOM) into MoneyWorks since about MoneyWorks 3. However it always had to be done using some sort of script (AppleScript on Mac, vbScript on Windows), as there is no user interface for it in MoneyWorks.

However it is relatively easy to add an Import command by using a Report Script, and this also has the benefit of being cross-platform (Report Scripts were covered in this earlier post).

The sample report script below will read a text file consisting of three columns (no headings):

  • Parent Item Code: The item code of the product that is being built
  • Quantity: The quantity used of the component
  • Component Item Code: The item code of the component used

The line of the text file must contain these three values (no blank rows), and the file can be either tab or comma delimited (you specify when the report script it run). Note that you cannot edit an existing bill of materials for an item; it is completely replaced by the components and quantities specified in the file (which must be ordered by Parent Item Code). Also note that no checking is done: if the items or components do not exist (or cannot be used in a BOM) the import will silently fail.

To act as a report script, the “Import Bills of Material.crep” file must be placed in your MoneyWorks Custom Plug-ins/Scripts folder (unzip it first). You can then run it by choosing “Import Bills of Material” from the Command menu in MoneyWorks Gold/Datacentre (requires MoneyWorks 7 or later).

Download

Import Bills of Material.crep.zip

Posted in Technical, Tips | Comments Off on Importing Bills of Materials

MoneyWorks 7 Unicode support

Posted on 15 November, 2013 by Rowan

Up until now, MoneyWorks has used the native “code page” text encoding for the platform it is running on, and as these are different on Mac and Windows, accented characters have not translated between platforms, and support for special characters has been limited. In v7, all text is encoded as Unicode, so the full gamut of non-Roman and accented characters, ideographs, and other special symbols can now be entered into the database and are preserved across platforms. Files created on earlier versions will be converted when first opened in v7 (and if the file contains accented text, be sure to do the conversion on the same platform that the file has been used on, since that platform’s default pre-unicode encoding is what the file uses).

If you’re not accustomed to using accented characters, here a few tips for typing some common accents on a standard “US”-style keyboard.

Mac (using the US, Australian, or UK keyboards):

To get acute and grave, type option-e or option-`, then the vowel you want to receive the accent. E.g. for é, type option-e then e. For è, type option-` then e. Here are a few more:

              for       type…	
               à	option-`, a	
               ç	option-c	 
               è	option-`, e	 
               é	option-e, e	
               ê	option-i, e	 
               ë	option-u, e
               î	option-i, i	
               ï	option-u, i	
               ô	option-i, o	
               ù	option-`, u	
               û	option-i, u	
               ü	option-u, u	  
               ñ	option-n, n

If you are running Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks, you can just hold down the key you want an accent on, and a popup will give you the options:

Screen shot 2013-11-10 at 11.55.11 AM

Press the digit key for the character you want.

Windows (using the US, Australian, or UK keyboards):

For the occasional accent, and without changing your keyboard settings, you can type the “alt code” for the character you want. Here’s how:

  • Hold down the left-hand ALT key;
  • On the numeric keypad, type the 4-digit alt-code for the character you want;
  • Release the ALT key.
                        code		                code
               à	0224	               À	0192
               ç	0231	               Ç	0199
               è	0232	               È	0200
               é	0233	               É	0201
               ê	0234	               Ê	0202
               ë	0235	               Ë	0203
               î	0238	               Î	0206
               ï	0239	               Ï	0207
               ô	0244	               Ö	0212
               ù	0249	               Ù	0217
               û	0251	               Û	0219
               ü	0252	               Ü	0220

If you need to type quite a few accents, you might want to consider using the US International keyboard. See Using US-Int’l Keyboard Layout to Type Accented Characters.

Macrons for Māori

For our New Zealand users, who may need to type Māori long vowels, here’s how:

First, enable the Maori keyboard:

  • Mac OS X 10.6—10.8:
    System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources. Scroll down the input methods and click the check box next to Maori, and make sure the option “Show Input menu in menu bar” is turned on.
  • Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks):
    System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources. Click the +, select Maori from the list of input methods and click Add. Make sure the option “Show Input menu in menu bar” is turned on.

Now you can select the Maori keyboard from the menu next to the time in the menu bar. With this keyboard selected, just type option-a, option-e, option-u etc to get ā, ē, ū, …

Posted in News, Tips | Comments Off on MoneyWorks 7 Unicode support

MoneyWorks 7: Easier, faster search

Posted on 1 November, 2013 by Rowan

MoneyWorks 7 is now available, so we’ll be posting some articles on how to make the most of the new features.

While Moneyworks has always had quite powerful searching, it was not sufficiently accessible to users who did not know which field they wanted to search on. These days people are used to near-instant results from a browser search bar. So that is what we now provide. The new search field in the toolbar does a fast asynchronous full-text search (including sticky notes and transaction details).

The Cmd-F or Ctrl-F keyboard shortcut now activates the search box in the toolbar. Just type a word and MoneyWorks instantly starts searching the full text of the records in the list. As usual, the search applies to the current view, and the currently selected filter, if any. For moderately-sized data files, the search will be instant. For very large files, it may take a little longer, but results will be added to the list as they are found, and you can continue working as the search proceeds.


The new search box. The filter popup is on the left; type in your search term.

For users who want more control over searching, the usual Find by Field and Find by Formula are still available. Just press Cmd-option-F (Mac) or Ctrl-Shift-F (Windows) to bring up the usual search dialog. This mode of searching has also been improved for network users: Even very complex searches are now performed entirely on the server, for faster results and less network and server load.

For more details on the new searching, see Finding Records using the Search Box in the new online manual (Yep, the entire MoneyWorks 7 manual is available on the web).

Posted in News | Comments Off on MoneyWorks 7: Easier, faster search

British Columbia change back to PST

Posted on 21 March, 2013 by Grant

On April 1st 2013, British Columbia is reverting to the more complex PST tax system, reversing a change to the simpler HST environment adopted a few years ago.

As this is a structural change in the tax system, you can’t just change the HST rate to the new GST+PST rate. Instead you must set up a new tax (or, for users who have had MoneyWorks for several years, reinstate the old one).

We have prepared a document which discusses how you can change your MoneyWorks file(s) to implement PST. It would also be a good idea to refresh yourself on how MoneyWorks handles taxes by revisiting pages 202-206 of the MoneyWorks 6 Manual (available under the Help menu in MoneyWorks).

Download the PST Reimplementation Notes as a PDF.

Note: The notes were updated on 26 March to include a section on changing your MoneyWorks Locale to “PE” so that the standard invoices would print with PST and GST instead of HST.

Posted in News | Comments Off on British Columbia change back to PST

Mountain Lion Compatibility

Posted on 25 July, 2012 by Grant

MoneyWorks 6.1.1 and later are compatible with Mountain Lion (Mac OS X 10.8).

Earlier versions of MoneyWorks 6 (and MoneyWorks 5) may or may not work on Mountain Lion.

MoneyWorks 4 and earlier are not compatible, as they require the now discontinued Rosetta compatibility layer (which means that these older versions were not compatible with Lion either). Users of these old versions need to note that they must upgrade their MoneyWorks (and their data files) before upgrading to Lion/Mountain Lion, as the data conversion also requires Rosetta.

Mountain Lion Installation Note

MoneyWorks 6.1.1 installers (and earlier) pre-date Gatekeeper, the new security system on Mountain Lion. To install these version of MoneyWorks you will need to right-click on the installer and select Open, instead of double-clicking. This will give you access to the Open button to override Gatekeeper

MoneyWorks 6.1.2 and later have Gatekeeper-compatible signatures.

Information on Lion compatibility is available here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Mountain Lion Compatibility