Contents - Index

Fixed bug in Report Option pop-up that did not recognize certain data changes.

Changes to 4.0
Holy cow! I don't know where to start. Version 4.0 is a complete rewrite of ALMSys. Certainly a lot of the guts that made version 3.1 (and before) work so well have been copied into 4.0. However, ALMSys 4.0 is not based on the Borland Database Engine. (Good riddance!) It is instead based on Microsoft's SQL Server.

Database access is about 75-80% of the code behind ALMSys. Beings that I was going to change so much for version 4.0, I decided to kick it up a notch and change the user interface as well. So, more than a year later, this is the result. I hope you like the changes.

Major Changes
Lease Maintenance Area
The first screen that hits you is the revised main menu. The entire account notebook has been brought up to this level. A complete list of your lessees can be placed on the left side of the screen. Or, if you prefer, a search box can be placed there instead.

Much of the functionality of the old account notebook still exists and you will find some familiarity there. The new look uses a small, tabbed notebook to allow you to go from screen to screen. Unlike the old account notebook, you will need to save your changes on each page before moving to the next screen.

As you move from lease to lease, you will notice that ALMSys will keep you on the same display. In other words, if you are looking at the payment history for Smith and flip to the Jones lease, you will still be looking at the payment history screen.

Each screen in the new lease maintenance area may be printed, queued, or e-mailed. Cool, eh? The buttons in the speed button area are used for these tasks. Use these features with support calls and I will be able to serve you better!

The orange area in the middle of the lease maintenance area will show you who you are currently working on. It is similar to the green box in version 3.1. The pull-down is simply a list of all of the leases that this account has. Use this to select different leases for the same account.

As you move from screen to screen, you will notice an improvement of the information displayed, as well as some new screens altogether. For example, the payment history display is much easier to read and understand. Each of these screens have an associated help screen.

Better Payoffs
In helping with payoffs over the past 11+ years, I find myself asking the same questions over and over again. Well, version 4.0 now has a payoff wizard that asks these same questions and makes a good effort to select the correct payoff for your situation. It knows about deferred vs. due-on-delivery leases and even knows when the LEV at the end of type "1" leases will "get you."

The new payoff fax sheet will even convey your payoff selection.

Contact History
Of all of the new screens in version 4.0, the account contact history is one to take note of. This will allow you to better track your contacts with the lessee. It will allow you set reminders of future events as well. 

ALMSys Compliance
Compliance reporting is much easier. The compliance button is right on the main menu. Hit this on the first of the month and e-mail it to support via the button. It is just as simple as that.

For those that pay monthly maintenance, there is only one report to accompany your payment. If you prefer, you can pay your maintenance by credit card. Simply print out the Compliance Report, fill in the credit card information, and fax it to support.

(If possible, please always e-mail the Compliance Report, even though you may also be faxing or mailing it as well. This will help tremendously!)

Audit Trail
ALMSys now has the ability of tracking changes. You cannot "undo" from the audit trail, but you can certainly tell who posted a payment to the Smith deal or who purged a transaction from the Jones lease. See Tools-Overall Control to turn on this feature.

Reports
You will notice right away that most of the 4.0 reports are landscape. This allows more information to be placed on the report. Vehicle year, make, model, and VIN were added to as many reports as feasible.

There were many similar reports under 3.1. These have been consolidated in version 4.0. Looking at the list of reports available, you will notice that the reports have been categorized. Sorting on the category column will allow like reports to be grouped together.

Exporting has greatly improved. You may now create Word and Excel documents directly from ALMSys, using either the query or print queue as the source. In fact, ALMSys uses Word to perform the mail merge for delinquency letters. This way, YOU have control as to what the letter says; all you need to do is use Word to edit the base letter and then perform the merge. ALMSys simply creates the merge data file when the Delinquency Report is run.

Creating your own queries has greatly improved as well. With the ability of exporting directly to Excel, creating your own queries and reports is vastly simplified. With 4.0, you can query accounts and include balance information.

Late Charges
Outstanding late charges owed are looked at quite differently under version 4.0. By very popular demand, outstanding late charges owed are pulled out of delinquency calculations. To determine if a late fee is outstanding, ALMSys looks to see when the last time that the amount owed reached zero (or below). ALMSys considers this as "paid up" and any late fees charged prior to this point would be removed from "outstanding" status. The outstanding fees are still printed on the Delinquency Report and are still part of the breakdown by day chart. (They are, after all, still owed to you!)

There is also a new late charge type (4) for calculating late fees in billing. This is like type #2, except it only excludes those late charges that it considers delinquent.

Backup
ALMSys' backup is radically different. You will need to take some time to check out all of the new features available for backing up and restoring files.

One of the neatest features of the backup program is the ability to backup only one deal and e-mail it to support. You can also restore a single deal from an ALMSys backup. Better yet, you can restore a payment history for a single deal.

Even if you are on a network that is routinely backed up, I fully recommend performing weekly ALMSys backups just to have the ability to restore individual leases.

Minor Changes
There are far too many small changes to list them here. Go ahead and dive into 4.0 and discover them yourself!