Visual Cash Focus Update for Existing Users


This is the latest version number:

Software packageLatest version
Visual Cash Focus (Budgets, forecasts and cash flow).8.700

The version number of your software is found by clicking on About (under the Help menu on top of the screen). If you use Visual Cash Focus version 8.606 and above, there are updates for you on this page.

Important: Before installing this update, check that you are on version 8.606  (or higher). If you have version 8.605 or earlier then please update to version 8.606 before applying the current release.

Note: This software update is password protected. It is a service provided to our users with a current Visual Cash Focus maintenance arrangement. If you qualify you have been sent the password privately via email. If you do not have a password click here.

Download latest update below

Version 8.700 – get this update.

There is one file to download.

Click here to get Visual Cash Focus 8.700 update File name is: vcf8700.zip 13.407 mb

Instructions:

1. Download the file above into a temporary directory.

2. Unzip the file you downloaded to extract these 3 files.

3. Find the VCF8 folder on your hard drive. It is usually here:
C:\VCF8
(you may have installed VCF8 somewhere else).

4. Copy the 3 files (shown in the picture above) into your VCF8 folder, overwriting the files if they already exist.

5. Start Visual Cash Focus. Under Help, About check that the software is at the latest version number, 8.700.

New features added and fixes

Version 8.700
View results- cash flow – the cash flow report has always been correct. The drill down, however, only showed the transactions from one bank account. This has been fixed. The transactions for the bank account you select (all of just one) will now be displayed.

Xero – the interface to Xero has been updated.

 

Version 8.606
EBITDA– new option under Defaults (other): If an EBITDA row is printed, can change its description. Example: from EBITDA to Operating profit.

Cash flow profiles – these can be exported or imported using Universal import (and export) from spreadsheets (under the File menu). For those users who use the Show more function in cash flow profiles to change the linked accounts: There is a new item on the Import / export options page which enables these to be  imported and exported.

Version 8.604 & 8.605
Loan– rollover issue, now fixed.

Version 8.603
Import – improvements.

Version 8.602
Reports, actuals – remembers the last selection made for the period range. For actuals, these are now reset after a rollover.

Universal import of Actuals – after importing actuals using an actuals mapping set, it was found that immediately reviewing the mapping set itself gave an error. This has been fixed.

Accounts and budgets – one could always right-click on a budget amounts and choose Total to get the total budget amount. It now remembers the periods selected. This can save time the next time a Total is required for the same period range.

Report recipients – reports can be customised for different recipients. For example, management may want summary reports; one can select the level of detail for each recipient. This capability has now been extended to consolidations; consolidated models inherit the recipients that may have been setup in the individual models.

Version 8.601
Reports, actuals – the management reports 4a and 4b have been adjusted. For models that have Other income moved to another position, the All Revenues line will now display the information for the Expected and Original budget columns correctly.

Version 8.600
Reports – now remembers the last selection made for the period range. Applies to Reports – budgets and Reports – Actuals.
Ability to add account number to reports now also works with Balance Sheet reports.

Export data– several modules were worked on to make improvements and fix issues.

Versions 8.5-----

Version 8.503
Actual Reports – now remembers the last selection made on the Actual reports – options page. It used to default to the Actuals report; now if you have chosen another eg 4a, it will start with that.
Note: If you selected more than one report, it will remember the first one selected.

Activation – enhanced data checking.
Version 8.500

Divide by in Reports – the “Divide by” setting under Report options will now be remembered for a model. So the next time it is used the same Divide by number (e.g. 1,000) will be used.

Print account number in Reports – . This option is used when you want to include account numbers on reports.

For those users who use profit centers, this option has been expanded for Entire organisation profit and loss reports.

The Entire organisation report is a summation of the individual profit centre accounts, so there is no one account number to show on each row. Following a user request, now the “User stem number” (if used) will be shown for Entire organisation profit and loss reports. If that number is not required, report the Entire organisation with the print account number unchecked.

Export to ABC Focus option –

There is a new option to export a complete ABC Focus model (zip file) or an update file (CSV file).

You make the update file by selecting the period range e.g. -1 to 11. Then on the Options page, click that you want an update file (rather than a full new ABC model).
When you choose the latter, it will make a CSV file for Lines. In ABC Focus you will be able to import it via Universal import. The advantage is that if any new lines have been added in Visual Cash Focus they will also be added to the ABC Focus model.

Universal import of Actuals – mapping set. If used, now works with multiple periods in the “Actuals” import file.

 

Version 8.4---

Version 8.409

Universal import – when importing accounts, some of the options on the Import / export options page will be remembered for a model. So the next time it is used the same selections will be made (Account description, Is a folder, User stem no).

Changes were made internally to the cleanup section to improve efficiency.

Version 8.408

Account numbers (table entry) – an option under Data:

When Autofill is used and duplicate account numbers are detected, the software now allows the user to exit Autofill. The user can then choose another option which makes it easier to fix any duplicates.

Import actuals using a schedule

When importing actuals, a schedule can be used under options to map actual account numbers to VCF numbers. A new option has been added to enable the user to change the display order.

Version 8.407

Manufacturing: The expenses in a recipe can now be assigned to any profit centre.

Version 8.406

Report 3b – nomenclature fix.

Report wizard – actual opening balances revised..

Version 8.405

Miscellaneous items – name change. Now called Drivers!

Drivers is a more meaningful name, and better describes the purpose of this section.

In Accounts and budgets:

Previously it used to say Miscellaneous items, now it says Drivers. For example, if you have based a budget on Price per Miscellaneous item, it will now be referred to as Price per Driver.

Examples of Drivers: No of hotel rooms, Price per kg, Items sold.

The folder name is still called Miscellaneous items – this can be changed by the user.

Import and export – User stem number can now be exported and imported


The User stem number is useful if, for one account, the account numbers for each profit centre have the same stem no. For example, the account numbers could be RENT.AU, RENT.NZ, RENT.UK etc. For this example, the User stem number is RENT.

Universal import (Under the File menu, Import / Export):

  • When Accounts are exported, an extra column is now shown for the User stem no. (It will be blank if the optional User stem number has not been entered).
  • To import the User stem number: check the User stem number checkbox on the Import / export options page.
  • The Info button next to the checkbox has further information.

Note: The User stem number column in the exported or imported file is available for all accounts but, as balance sheet accounts do not have User stem numbers, any numbers entered for them will not be imported.

Profit centres (and hence User stem numbers) are relevant for Income statement accounts and Drivers / Miscellaneous items.

If your import file contains accounts for more than one profit centre, the last one in the file that has a stem no will be used.

User journals

Additional internal checks were added.

Version 8.404

Opening balances

We have added a new button to the bottom of the grid: Zero all opening balances. Use this to get a fresh start.

Autofill


Autofill is used to change the Account numbers to be based on the profit centre code. You find the Autofill button in the Accounts and budgets form, on the Account properties page, at the bottom of the grid (assuming you have profit centres).

It can be used to generate account numbers using the profit centre code together with the account user stem no.

If you have used this option before, new functionality has been added: Previously you had the option of adding the profit centre code to either the front or back of the account stem no. A new option has been added to allow you to put the account stem no in the middle of the profit centre code.

Example: Say your account number is: 23-241-12

The 241 is the real account number (we call this the account user stem no, or user no).
The other numbers around the 241 may designate cost centres, departments, etc.

To get the software to auto-number in this format, make the profit centre code: 23–12 (notice the double dash in the middle).
Then set up the auto fill settings to place the account user stem no in the middle.

The other settings for autofill would then be changed to:

a) First portion: Last character position no (for profit centre): 3
So it will take the 23- part of the profit centre (3 characters).

b) Then add the User stem no; you specify the length of the User stem no as 3 characters e.g. 241.
So it will have 23-241, to which it will add the rest of the profit centre code (-12) to give the 23-241-12 required.

Profit centres

The module for Adding a new profit centre has been re-written.

After adding a new profit centre, you do not have to exit – you can now add another profit centre if you wish.
Also, it will fill in a description e.g.: Write a name here
You should type in your own name for this.

To generate Account numbers for a newly added profit centre:

Previously you had to enter a code before adding the profit centre.
Now you add the profit centre, enter a profit centre code, and then if you wish go to page 2. Here you can use Autofill if you want to number the accounts based on the profit centre code.

Note: You can run this Autofill for an individual profit centre at any time. So if you change the profit centre code later, you can Autofill all the accounts to match the new numbers.

This routine is good for changing account numbers for one profit centre. There is also an option under the Data menu for bulk changes: Account numbers (data entry). This option has also been changed to match the new middle setting for Autofill (which was described above).

Version 8.403

Reindex revised.

Export enhanced.

Version 8.402

Reports – on the “Main reports – options” page:

  • New utilities have been added to the bottom right of the page.
    They may be useful on big models to check if any accounts or profit centres are unused.
  • For Enterprise users: Users requested that Report groups not remain selected if previously selected. This has been implemented.

Inventory – when the default inventory budget method was selected, changing the cash flow profile did not trigger an activation. It now does.

Version 8.401

1. Export

A new option is available to export Visual Cash Focus data to the software product: ABC Focus.

Note: ABC Focus is software for costing using activity based costing. Ask us to send you the ABC Information kit if you want to see what it does.

The new option is under the File menu, choose Export / import, then Export to ABC Focus.
Choose the period range and click Proceed. The Visual Cash Focus data will be exported into a Zip file that can be opened directly in ABC Focus.

Several options are available on the pages that make up this module. These can be used to change the way Visual Cash Focus data is exported to ABC Focus.

2. Account numbers (table entry)

When you do not enter an account number for an account in Visual Cash Focus, the software automatically assigns a number. These system provided account numbers begin with the # (hash) symbol. Example: # 123.

The software provides a way to change all the account numbers to user friendly names. The option is under the Data menu and is called: Account numbers (table entry). This is handy when you want to automatically use account numbers based on the description of the account.

This module has been further expanded. The Autofill option can create account numbers to any length between 10 and 19 characters. There are also additional functions to further manipulate account numbers: Substitute, Insert, Remove.

3. Other enhancements

Several minor enhancements and fixes were made to several of the modules.

 

Version 8.3--

Universal import / export options: Several enhancements were made to this section of the program, including:

1. Import budget data from named cells – this can now be used to import minimum amounts.

Note:

The “Import minimum amount” checkbox should be checked for minimum amounts to be imported.
This will be found in Defaults; on the Excel / graph page, at the bottom of the Excel box at the top of the page.
The info button there has additional information.

Example: a commission expense is set up as a percentage of sales. For those who also set up minimum amounts, these will be imported via the Import budget data from named cells button.
2. Period dates – now has been updated for the latest Excel version.
3. Import from Excel – we found that some users had unwanted characters (carriage returns, line feeds and tabs) in their import file. The import routine will now automatically clean the import file and remove them.
Note: The default is to remove these (recommended). For special cases there is a checkbox option available to not remove these.

Further enhancements were made to these options of the program:
4. GST / VAT / Sales tax – these accounts are under Other current liabilities. This has been improved. The software will now show these accounts only if they apply to your model.

The invoice or payment methods can be selected under Defaults. Most users choose the invoice method (it is the default option). Now when the invoice method is used (the default), the payment method other current liability account will not be shown. This makes the account display easier to read.
5. Organisation details – updated so that any changes trigger the automatic reactivation, as appropriate.
6. Report path – increased from 100 to 200 characters (available in some editions e.g. enterprise).

 

Versions 8.2--

Version 8.200

Report name for Miscellaneous items – this can now be changed. It can be specified under Defaults, on the Printer defaults page. For example, some users prefer to call the report Key assumptions or Operational drivers.

Reports – Actuals then budget – The column headings have been changed from Budget to Forecast for the reports that use the revised budget.

Example:

  • Reports 2b shows actuals then the original budget for future periods.
  • Reports 3b shows actuals then the revised budget for future periods.
  • Previously both reports used the word “Budget” for the column heading. Now 3b uses “Forecast” to indicate that it is the revised budget that is shown rather than the original budget.

Also, report 4b has been changed from Budget to Forecast. This distinguishes it from report 4a which uses Budget. Budget means original budget. Forecast means revised budget.

 

Versions 8.1--

Version 8.190

Fixed asset “Gain” column now in Excel – In Accounts and budgets for Fixed Asset: On the Budget per period page, one could always import depreciation amount (or %) and Additions via the Excel interface. This has been extended to now also import the Gain column.

Universal import – updated for the gain column.

Whatif (for Corporate, Enterprise and Service edition users) – can now use Whatif to escalate the Fixed Assets Additions column.

Profit centers that have no data – When a profit center had no data but was included in a report merge for report 4a, in some cases the zero profit centre interfered with the totals. This has been corrected.

Version 8.180

Cash Flow reports – there is a new option: Cash flows from operations can be revised to show inflows and outflows separately.
This option is available in Reports on the page: Main reports – options. It is on the right under Cash flow reports.

Report wizard: Miscellaneous items can now be excluded from a P&L report. When Run reports is clicked, go to the Options page to see “Remove miscellaneous items” option under Income statement / profit & loss options.

Excel interface – On the budget per period page, there is an interface to Excel. For accounts that are variable, usually the percentage can be imported. For those who need it, a new feature is available to also import minimum amounts. If this will be useful for you, use the new checkbox “Import minimum amount” in Defaults; it is on the Excel / graph page, at the bottom of the Excel box at the top of the page.

Example: a commission expense is set up as a percentage of sales. Previously the Excel interface allowed you to enter the percentages into a column in Excel. Now, for those who work with minimum amounts, you can also enter the minimum royalty per month into a column in Excel.

Import actuals -previously if the import sheet contained actual amounts for opening or closing retained earnings these were imported. However, they were not used by the software as they are always calculated from the initial opening balance for retained earnings. This update now won’t import them. Instead they will be shown on the import review page as not imported. An appropriate message is shown. You can either remove any opening or closing retained earnings accounts in the actual import sheet, or ignore the messages.

Note: To change the initial opening retained earnings amount for Actuals:

Choose Actuals entry on the map. Go to the balance sheet page. You will see a button for opening balances. That can be used to change the initial opening retained earnings value.

Reports – now remembers some key selections, so they are selected again next time.

Enterprise edition users: Bulk printing has been enhanced –

  • The “Main reports – options” page has a new option on the bottom right: Export file names. Previously one had to go to Defaults for these. They are now available in Reports via this button.
  • When several reports or groups are selected, where appropriate an additional combined Excel field will be created automatically. It contains a summary of the selection. This process has been improved to combine all the appropriate reports into one big Excel file.

Version 8.170

Ledger report – expanded fields to cater for big amounts.

Save model as – now goes to the model selector, where Save as can be selected.

Cash Flow reports – opening bank balances can be included for these reports: Entire organisation, Administration profit centre.

Version 8.160

1. Import actuals This is a new option available in some editions.

During the importing of actuals, this feature allows you to move actual amounts from one account to another.

How to use:

  • This feature can be found in the Universal import / export screen: select Actuals then go to the Import / export options page.
  • You can set up a schedule that specifies which accounts to move.
  • The checkbox that activates this feature is called: “Move some accounts during import”.
  • To use it, click the Enter schedule button, and read the information buttons there.

2. Zip and Unzip:

New feature: Now remembers the last used folders. This saves time as the last used folders will be suggested next time you zip or unzip.

3. Revenue in advance:

Fix: Where revenue is received in advance, and the cash flow profile is incorrectly specified to receive funds in period zero, the interest calculation was incorrect. Now corrected.

4. Accounts and budgets:

Minor fix: Drag and drop – when dragging, an account would not drop into a certain subfolder. Now fixed.

5. Opening balance – revenue:

Usually one enters opening balances for balance sheet accounts. However, the software also gives the user an opportunity to allocate some of the opening accounts receivables amounts to individual revenue accounts, and some of the accounts payables amounts to individual expense accounts.

Minor change: For revenue, one needed to set up a specific cash flow profile for such a revenue account for the opening revenue balance to be allocated. This has been changed so that it will also work if the default sales profile is used.

 

Version 8.155

1. GST and VAT rates: The software GST and VAT rates have been updated. When you start a new model, the new rates will be used.

2. Import data: Minor fixes.

3. Consolidation: Minor cosmetic changes.

Version 8.154

1. Reporting of actuals: The management reports 4a and 4b report actual performance plus expected outcomes (based on the budget for the rest of the financial year). However, at year end, you may wish to report just the actuals. There is a new checkbox for this: “Actuals only (for 4a or 4b reports)” . You will find it on the page where you select periods. It is also repeated on the page where you select 4a or 4b reports.

2. Import data: After you import data into Visual Cash Focus, there is a page where you can review which reports were imported, not imported or refreshed. If you want a quick report of these, right-click the Raw data button and paste the information into Excel. The data that is pasted has been improved to make it more meaningful.

3. Corporate and Enterprise editions users have the ability to create schedules for importing of actuals and consolidation eliminations – several internal improvements were made to these options.

Version 8.153

1. The Export to Other option has been enhanced. It now includes an ability to suppress accounts that are zero in all periods.

2. Import accounts: This feature has been improved to ensure that major folders remain folders. Previously the user could inadvertently create an import file that changed major folders to accounts. The software will now automatically change major folders to TRUE if required.

More regarding import of accounts: Import accounts into Visual Cash Focus

3. Import actuals: For Corporate and Enterprise editions users, the import file can now contain accounts that are not in Visual Cash Focus. During the importing of actuals, the balances in selected accounts will be moved (i.e. transferred) to other accounts according to your schedule. More regarding import of actuals: Import actuals into Visual Cash Focusc

Version 8.152

Graphing of actual data is= implemented.

Also note that, as any report can be exported to Excel, you can easily create your own graph in Excel for any of the results produced by Visual Cash Focus.

Version 8.151

1. When using multi-currencies, sometimes the software reported that the home currency is not set to 1.00 when it was correctly set. This has been fixed.

2. Enterprise edition users: bulk print export to Excel – previously Excel files had to be exported to the local (C:) drive. Now can export to a network drive (e.g. F:\).

Version 8.150

1. Enterprise edition users: bulk print export to Excel feature enhancements for all reports. New “Tidy Excel” feature.

2. All editions: several minor fixes

 

Version 8.108 – 8.110

1. Map: Name of model is now also shown in Window title.

2. Enterprise edition users: bulk print has new options.

3. Several minor fixes for Windows 7.

Version 8.107

1. Accounts and budget – on the Account properties page, a right-click on the Autofill button resulted in the toolbar becoming disabled. Now works correctly.

2. On the same page, some minor tidy-up of the display has been done.

Version 8.105

1. When the Organisation currency is changed. – any cost of sales accounts budgeted on a price basis now will have their price converted to the new currency, The tax expense account will also be converted to the new currency,

2. Report wizard – EBIT calculation for profit centre reports revised.

Version 8.104

Consolidation: An issue to do with choosing a part of the account number for both the balance sheet and income statement has been fixed.

Background:

Consolidation is done on the basis of consolidating accounts that have the same account number. If account numbers have a consistent format, consolidation can also be done on a portion of the account number.

EXAMPLE: in one model for company XYZ the rent account may be XYZ.123. In a second model for company ABC the rent account may be ABC.123.
To consolidate all the rent accounts, you can tell the Consolidation module to use the “123” part of the account number for consolidation.

Version 8.103

In actuals, the opening balance sheet: changing an account to a folder now handles any opening balances correctly.

Version 8.102

The following modules were updated:

1. Zip and unzip: now remembers the model description and business name.

2. Cash flow profile: can see which accounts use a particular cash flow profile.

3. Actuals import: this option now supports the latest versions of Excel and has several additional improvements.

Version 8.100-8.101

The following modules were updated:

1. Accounts and budgets: The tree will automatically display account names in full if they are too long for the display area. You can turn this off with the new Tree tips off checkbox below the tree.

2. Reports:

Print preview to screen: if you have a high resolution setting on your monitor, the print preview window will now show more periods automatically.

The export to Excel and bulk print features have been improved. In addition, there is a new checkbox “Simplify for export to Excel (data only)“. For Reports, it is on the page: Main reports – options (bottom right). For View results, it is on the Options page. This is only required if you export to Excel using the Data only option.

More information on: Simplify for export to Excel (data only):

  • The software has the ability to export all reports to Excel. Usually the export format “MS Excel 97-2000″ is chosen and this works well.
  • The alternative Excel export format is “MS Excel 97-2000 (Data only)“. This format is less popular as the export file has its formatting removed.
  • If you want to use this format, you may find that some of the columns in the export file are misaligned.
  • To fix this, check the Simplify for export to Excel (data only) checkbox on the options page.
  • This option simplifies the report, to help align the columns correctly.
  • Note: Usually do not check this if you are printing the report or exporting to a PDF – the report looks better with it unchecked.
  • For bulk export, when “Excel Data only” is chosen, the simplified format will be used automatically.

3. Import / export: Importing of data into the model has been updated. Also for users who have the latest edition of Excel – exporting and importing to and from this format has been improved.

4. Consolidation – Some minor issues were attended to when Consolidating over a network.

5. Had a case where inventory level was specified, but the user never went to the Budget per period page to specify the inventory level. This resulted in the A/P part of the transaction not being processed. Fixed.

6. Change the currency of a model improved.

To change the currency of a model:

  • Go to Organisation details, change the currency.
  • When you exit, it asks if you wish to convert the data in the model to the new currency.
  • Answer Yes and the entire model is changed automatically. The standard rate of exchange in the currency tables is used. The operation of the conversion has been improved.

7. Cash at bank – new info button added to Budget per period page.

 

 

Versions 8.0--

Version 8.008

The following modules were updated:

  1. Reports.
  2. Accounts and budgets (for Profit centre navigation).
  3. Import / export (updated for new version of Excel).

Version 8.007

Internal modifications to the initial startup of the software.

Version 8.006

The following modules were updated:

1. Accounts and budgets: If you used many account levels, the full account description was sometimes not easy to see. A new “Scroll right” checkbox is now available underneath the tree. When clicked, a horizontal scroll bar is made available below the tree. Tip: If you need to scroll more to the right, then right-click the “Scroll right” check box. That will increase the scroll range.

2. User journals: this module has been re-written to improve speed and presentation.

3. Import budget data from named cells: This option is under Universal import (and export) from spreadsheets. It imports the budget for ALL named accounts. In the Accounts and budgets form, on the Budget per period page, one can use Excel to bring in data for one account. If the spreadsheet has data for a number of accounts, this button will import the budget for all the named accounts. Some spreadsheets may contain relevant account budget information as well as named cells that do not refer to accounts. This option now ignores any named cells that are not relevant.

4. Elimination sets: This option is available for use during consolidation. It has been made faster.
5. Some calculation issues were fixed.
6. Some of the modules were improved internally.

Version 8.005

The following modules were updated to fix some minor issues: Reporting of Miscellaneous items, Excel interface, What-if, Menus.

Version 8.004

Source & Application of funds report – updated.

Version 8.003

Excel interface:Go to a/c button (on the budget per period page) – When clicked, it takes you to a schedule in Excel for the account you are on. A new right-click capability has been added to this button. A right-clcik will add a schedule for all the profit centresfor the account you are on.

Tip: The Excel interface to Visual Cash Focus is via the named cell feature of Excel. For those who are not familiar with thsi feature in Excel, we have written a new page iwith helpful hints on named cells. See: Working with named cells in Excel via Visual Cash Focus.

Actuals entry:

  1. The Totals button now displays extra information about the organisation if the P&L totals for a profit centre are all zero.
  2. In Actuals entry, the display of new accounts now shows in the correct sequence.

Universal import – Import budget data from named cells:

In certain circumstances the account numbers were not identified correctly. This has been fixed.

Currency conversion and equations:

A price was entered as a small amount of a foreign currency, example 1 Yen. When this price was converted to NZD, AUD or USD, it came out as 1 cent. If the user set up an equation, a large number could be multipled by 1 cent and that resulted in an inaccurate total amount. The software was changed so that an accurate conversion is achieved, even when the foreign currency is a small amount.