Below are a list of questions and answers culled from webinars regarding the updated Finance module in the 9.0 version of Shepherd's Staff. This has been updated with additional questions as we completed each webinar.
General questions
Q. Where can I watch recordings of the Finance 9.0 webinars?
A. The Shepherd's Staff 9.0 Webinar videos from this week (October 32, 24, 25 and 26, 2023) are now available in our help center. You can find them at the link below. You can also find them from within Shepherd's Staff, under Help>Training>Videos
Shepherd's Staff 9.0 Finance Videos
Q. Is there anything I should do before upgrading?
A. A few things. In fact, we have an article for this! You can check it out here:
Preparing to upgrade to Shepherd's Staff version 9.0
Q. Is there a guideline to how many account codes are typical?
A. Every church has their own unique circumstances, so we keep it pretty flexible. While each minor group under each major group can only have sequence numbers up to 99, that leaves tons of room for multiple major and minor group combinations under a given account type, so you can be as specific or as general as you like in terms of what you track under separate accounts. It's a good idea to keep it manageable by focusing on accounts for things you need to be able to report on and/or budget for
Q. Can the default Book be specified by user login?
A. Yes, you can do this in Tools/Settings, under User-specific settings.
Q. Should Auto-fit cause all my columns to show?
A. Auto-fit means to automatically make each column fit to the size of the data in that column, rather than to make all of the columns show in the view. It sometimes just isn't possible to fit everything without having to use the scroll bar, but If it helps, you can collapse/close the right-side "Favorites" section to give you more room to see more of the grid if you like, by clicking the little star icon with the arrow on the far-right side of the view.
Q. Has there been updates to the check style that we should order in 9.0?
A. The check style has not changed. Your existing checks should be fine, and you can always print a test to compare against your forms to make sure everything lines up well. There are adjustments you can make in that view like in 8.9 if necessary.
Q. Is there any benefit/disadvantage to upgrading now or waiting until the new year?
A. It's really up to you what works best for your needs. Some people may choose to wait, but there's nothing to stop you doing it now. Do keep in mind that some of the reports will look a little different, and that you'll need to recreate any of your previously saved/favorited reports in Finance.
Q. Would it best to start a new month with the 9.0 version instead of mid month?
A. There is no requirement as to when you should upgrade, but since you may need some time to recreate previously saved reports and get familiar with any new ones you might want to use, earlier in the month may be easier.
Q. Where is... ?
A. For all of the questions regarding locating things from 8.9 in 9.0, we have compiled a "Where is it now?" document you can find here: Where is it now?
Account/Book questions
Q. We have several old "books" that have closed. Will I have the ability to not have them listed on my new list of books?
A. All Books/Funds and Accounts that you currently have in Shepherd's Staff will still be there when you upgrade.
Q. How do you delete an account?
A. If an account has never had any activity and isn't tied to any recurrent transactions, you should be able to use the Delete button at the bottom of the grid. Otherwise, deactivating is your option unless you choose to use "Clean up your finance data" under Other tools in Tools/Settings. It is not generally encouraged, as there can be unintended consequences, but you can read more about this, and how to use the tool if you so choose, here:
Clean up your finance data
Q. Do inactive income and expense accounts disappear at year end?
A. No, deactivated accounts would still be there and they can be re-activated if you so choose.
Q. What is the benefit in clicking the credit card box when creating a Liability account?
A. That checkbox designates the Liability account in question as the representation of your credit card, so that when you pay for something with that card, you can create a corresponding charge payment in Shepherd's Staff.
Q. Is rebalance no longer needed?
A. That is correct. The redesign eliminated the need for it, as the values are calculated on the fly now.
Q. What is the red vs. green shading in the Income, Expense and Budgeting views?
A. This is a quick visual representation of accounts that are over/under budget.
Vendor Questions
Q. Where can you see activity for a vendor?
A. There's a section in the Vendor record for the activity, and you can also use the Vendor activity and summaries report in Other Reports.
Transaction Questions
Q. Has anything changed in how we handle transfers between 2 bank accounts?
A. No, you will still need to use a transfer account (like a Dedicated or Expense account) and create 2 transactions, so that you can use them when reconciling the statement for each account.
Q. Does "Stopping" a check make an entry as of the Module Date?
A. Yes, the reversing Journal Entry created by stopping a check will reflect the date the check was stopped, not the date it was created.
Q. If a check is returned as NSF. What are the transactions to remove from receipts and remove from contribution record. Or is it multiple transactions?
A. On the Contributions side of things, you would just find the offering and delete it. On the Finance side you can generally edit the Receipt that was created from the offering batch, and lower the total deposited into the relevant account(s) by the amount of the returned check. This won't have changed from 8.9.
Q. Can you still create a deposit (receipt) in Finance when posting your offering batch in Contributions?
A. Yes, nothing has changed regarding this functionality.
Q. Can you still copy a previous check & make changes for the new check?
A. Yes, you can do so with any transaction type.
Q. Can you edit a transaction after it has been saved?
A. Yes, there is an Edit button at the bottom of the grid, or you can double-click on the transaction to re-open and edit it up until the point that the transaction has been cleared in reconciliation.
Q. Can you pull up the last payment for a vendor?
A. Yes, when creating a payment, once you've selected a Vendor/Payee, you can click the "Get last payment" button to bring up the most recent (however long ago that may have been) payment for that Payee. Two things to note:
1. It will default to whatever payment type that previous payment was (check, EFT, etc.), but you can change to another type and retain the account/amount information if needed.
2. This button will not pull up a prior Pending transaction, only transactions that are Paid and/or Cleared.
Q. Can you use Charge Account on a Visa?
A. Yes, you can create a Liability account to serve as a Charge Account for any of the credit card companies.
Q. Can you use charge across multiple vendors and expense accounts?
A. When using Charge Account payments, you'd likely want to create individual transactions for each vendor/payment, but you can certainly use multiple Expense accounts.
Report Questions
Q. How do I get the line item description information to show up in my General Ledger report?
A. If you select the "Detail activity" level of detail, you can then, under Options, check the box for "Include additional information" to get the line descriptions to show.
Q. Can you select a prior year for finance reports?
A. Yes, in most cases you can now select a Finance Year (exceptions being things like the Chart of Accounts report, where the year isn't relevant).
Q. Can you save your report filters and options to re-use without having to select them again?
A. Yes, when you have made all the selections you want, you can click the Save button in the lower-right below the report setup screen and give your customized report a new name. It will be saved in the "My Reports" area in the collapsible favorites bar to the right of the main view. Any time you want to generate a report with those same settings, just click the name. Two things to note:
1. The reports saved are tied to the user who saved them, and won't show when another user logs in.
2. These reports save the settings, not the data. So each time you click on it in My Reports, it will be generating a new report based on your saved settings.
Q. How do you see line item detail info in the Dedicated Accounts report?
A. For Line item details you might want to use a different report or view. You can use the General Ledger with detailed activity for just the Dedicated account type if you want, or in the Accounts>Dedicated view, you can view detailed activity for an individual Dedicated account. You could also use the Ledger line search under Plan/Analyze and filter for just Dedicated there if you like.
Q. How can I run a Treasurer's report that includes or excludes certain accounts or sets of accounts?
A. You would want to use Responsibility and/or Church Body codes to group accounts, and specify those groups in the Treasurer reports views. For more information on those codes, see here: Responsibility and Church Body
Q. How do I use the "Use as the report title" checkbox?
A. This is for use with your saved/favorite reports under "My Reports". If, when you save it, you give it a new name, unique from the original report name, then when you open it again, it will show that name at the top of the report settings view. If you then check that box, the name you gave it will be printed in the header of the resulting printout as the title of the report.
Tools/Settings Questions
Bank Statement Reconciliation
Q. How to I get to the Bank Statement Reconciliation?
A. In Tools/Settings, in the top-right box, under Bank Statement, click the circle for "Bank statement reconciliation" and click Start.
Q. What will be automatically filled in when you do a reconciliation?
A. Currently, each time you start a bank statement reconciliation it will show a start date that includes the oldest uncleared transaction you have in your database, an end date of today, and beginning and ending balances of 0.00. You can fill in the dates and balances as needed based on the statement you wish to balance. When you change dates, as you tab out of the date field, the grid will update the listed transactions to suit the dates given.
Q. Can you "clear all"?
A. Yes, to the right above the grid of transactions there is a button with a check and a one an empty box - you can select all with the first, and de-select all with the second button.
Q. How do I mark a transaction as cleared?
A. You have options here:
-You can use the "Clear all" as described in the question above to clear all transactions at once.
-You can double-click in the checkbox to fill it in.
-You can highlight the row of the transaction and click the Clear button at the bottom of the grid.
Q. Is there a reminder to post your reconciliation if you forget to?
A. No. The reconciliation view doesn't provide a reminder to either Save or Post your progress, so be sure to click Save if you need to leave the view, so your work will still be there when you come back to finish it.
Plan/Analyze Questions
Budgeting
Q. How do you change the year when entering budgets, to enter next year's budget?
A. You can select the year you want to budget for in the Year drop-down on the main Budgeting grid before selecting a specific account to budget for.
Q. Are there year-to-date budget comparisons to actual?
A. Yes, the Budget vs. actual view in Plan/Analyze breaks down by month and by yearly total, but you can see Budget vs Actual for YTD in more than one report under Other Reports. The Treasurer's Report has several formats, including customizable options for this data.
Q. How to I save the spreadsheet I export from the Budget export to be able to import it back in?
A. Once you've exported it, you can use "Save As" and change the file type to ".xlsx" to make it importable again.
Q. Can you reimport a budget if changes are made?
A. Yes, as many times as you need to.
Q. Can you change the monthly budget after it is set?
A. Yes, just double-click on the account in question in the Budgeting grid to bring up it's budget and make the changes.
Bank Account Balance Analysis
Q. How does the Bank Account Balance Analysis handle future-dated transactions.
A. The analysis does not factor in transactions with a future date, or Pending transactions.
Activity and Ledger Line Searches
Q. Isn't a line item (in the Ledger Line Search) also a transaction (in the Activity Search)?
A. A line item is one part of a transaction. I could have a check that users 3 expense accounts. Each of those expense account amounts is a line item on it's own, but all together, along with the Asset account, they make up a transaction.