ECi DDMS Year-End 2009 for ASP Customers
ECi DDMS ASP Key Operators:
Dec. 30, 2009 — It will soon be time to close your books for year-end. In this message, you will find the
answers to a few of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that we get from ASP customers,
including the following:
A. Why Do I Personally Need to Do Year-End Procedures?
B. How Are Year-End Procedures Different for ASP?
C. Do I Need to Call Support for a Backup and Day-End?
D. What If My Fiscal Year Does Not End in December?
E. What's New for Year-End 2008?
F. What if I have other questions about Year-End?
A. Why Do I Personally Need to Do Year-End Procedures?
Due to the uniqueness of every business, many of the steps require your judgment and
decision-making. Since year-end is not a process we can efficiently automate for you, you
must perform the year-end procedures yourself.
However, as part of our responsibilities for maintaining your ASP server, we automate a
significant portion of your other period-end procedures:
- We automatically backup your data at 9:00 PM your local time each evening.
- We perform your day-end procedures at 10:00 PM your local time each evening.
- On the last day of most months (typically January through November), we perform your
month-end procedures. (In December, your fiscal year-end procedures take the place of the
automated month-end procedures. If you inform us that your fiscal year ends in another
month, we will adjust your month-end schedule accordingly.)
- After year-end, we move your monthly sales journals onto a separate unit, and merge
them into a single year-to-date history file for easier reporting. We also maintain
copies of the individual monthly journals for archival purposes.
This automated maintenance makes your year-end procedures easier than for most customers
who maintain their own servers.
B. How Are Year-End Procedures Different for ASP?
To help you perform the year-end procedures easily and efficiently, we provide a special
ASP edition of our Year-End Key Ops newsletter. It includes all the updated features of
the standard Year-End KeyOps, including answers to many frequently asked questions and
new instructions related to recently released features, such as options for printing W-2s
and 1099s and for using the new graphical General Ledger applications.
The ASP Edition also includes special features just for you as an ASP customer:
- The ASP Year-End Road Map on page 2 summarizes just the steps that ASP customers must
take, including steps for asking Support to back up your files and perform day-end
procedures, and for notifying us if your fiscal year does not end in December.
- The ASP Year-End Tips on page 3 includes information about when your ASP server is
available for you to perform year-end procedures, along with additional details about
ASP-specific (MK) period-end procedures and backups.
- The ASP Year-End Backup and Day-End Schedule on page 4 includes a calendar explaining
if and when you may need to call us to schedule your backup and day-end procedure, how
much advance notice to give us, what must happen before the automated backup can begin,
and when you can begin your year-end procedures.
- The FAQs on Renaming and Merging Sales Journals on page 8 describe how ASP Support
maintains your sales journals, where they are stored, when to rename your December Sales
Journal, and what naming convention to use.
- All procedures have been reviewed to ensure they do not include any steps that do not
apply to you.
The ASP edition of the Year-End KeyOps newsletter is posted on
our Web site at
www.DDMS.com/Resources/Support/keyops/2009/koyr09asp.pdf.
PLEASE REVIEW THE ASP YEAR-END KEY OPS NOW.
C. Do I Need to Call Support for a Backup and Day-End?
You may need to call Support for a backup and day-end procedure. It depends on when you
do year-end and whether you do business on a day when ECi is closed for the holidays.
(ECi is closing to observe the Christmas holidays Dec. 24-25, 2009, and the New Year's Day holiday on Friday, Jan. 1, 2010.)
For example:
- If you plan to do year-end on the New Year's Day Friday holiday when ECi is closed, you only have to call Support to schedule your backup and day-end if you do business after the backup is complete on Thursday, Dec. 31.
- If you plan to do year-end on weekdays when ECi is open, you only have to call Support to schedule your backup and day-end procedures if you want to run year-end immediately AFTER doing business for the day but before the standard backup schedule.
Please read the ASP Year-End Backup Schedule on page 4 of the ASP Year-End 2009 Key Ops. Find the date when you plan to do year-end on that calendar, and follow the directions for that day of the week.
D. What If My Fiscal Year Does Not End in December?
If your fiscal year-end does not coincide with the calendar year-end (December), NOTIFY
SUPPORT so we can run your normal month-end procedures. (We do not run normal month-end
procedures for customers who are closing their books, because year-end procedures
duplicate the related month-end functions.)
Even if you do not close your fiscal year at the end of December, you must still close
payroll. We include instructions for closing payroll on page 13 of the ASP Edition of the 2009 Year-End Key Ops.
E. What's New for Year-End 2009?
There are no changes specifically to ASP year-end procedures since last year. However, we have updated the file names to be renamed or copied wherever they indicate a year. So, 2009 was updated to 2010, and 2008 has been updated to 2009.
What if you cannot find a file listed in the Year-End KeyOps to be renamed or copied? If the original files do not exist on your system, you do not need to rename or copy it. It may mean your dealership does not use those particular features, depending on how your parameters are set up and how you purge A/P, A/R, P/O, and Payroll data.
For your personal reference, we are including a worksheet for you to review your naming conventions for the journals you rename throughout month-end, year-end, payroll, and general ledger procedures. (See the back page of the ASP Edition of the 2009 Year-End Key Ops.)
F. What if I have other questions about Year-End?
For procedural assistance with your DDMS and related software, you can contact ECi DDMS Technical Support four ways:
If you have feedback or comments on the Key Ops newsletter itself, please email keyops@eci2.com. We welcome your suggestions!
We hope this information is helpful as you begin a very happy and prosperous new year.
Sincerely,
ECi DDMS Technical Support |
