- Written by Steve Mahy
Saved Report Options
Over the years we have had numerous requests to change the default report option selections used for the Portfolio report. This has been difficult to address because different companies inevitably have different ways of working and want to include different record types or group the records in different ways.
The solution we came up with, first rolled out in October 2023, is called “Saved Report Options”. This new feature allows you to have whatever set of default options you want for your company. You can also create any number of other sets of Saved Report Options, which can be recalled in a couple of clicks.
Since then we have added Saved Report Options to some of the other most frequently used reports in JCS. This feature is currently available for the:
- Portfolio Report
- Fact Find Report (both Personal and Business versions)
- Commission Receipts Ledger Report
- Client Accounts Report (coming in February 2024)
Many reports have the option to filter records by date - for example Client Accounts “Transaction Date”, Commission/Fee Receipts “Received Date” / “Statement Date”. When you set up Saved Report Options for reports such as these, you may set date filters that are relative to the current date - for example “Today”, “Yesterday”, “Start/End of Current Tax Year”, “Start/End of Last Month” etc.
This screenshot shows how you might set up a Saved Report Option for listing all Ongoing Adviser Charges received in the rolling previous quarter, grouped by Provider and Policy Type…if that’s what you want.
We hope Saved Report Options will save time and help maintain consistency when using these reports. We intend to add this feature to more JCS reports, so if there is a particular one that you would find this useful for, please get in touch.
- Written by Steve Mahy
Expenditure Enhancements
JCS Version 31.100.03 includes a number of enhancements to the Expenditure page, which has had to grow a little, to accommodate some extra details:
The first thing you might notice is that every expenditure category may now be assigned a Priority: Essential, Discretionary or Luxury.
These priorities can be set at the summary expenditure category level (e.g. Client Home and Other Properties), or at the detail level (e.g. Client Rent). In the Expenditure by Priority section, a running total of the amount of expenditure of each priority is displayed. In a single click you can also produce a report showing a full breakdown of all the expenses and their priorities.
By default, this page is used to record expenditure in the current year but you may now also record estimated expenditure, in the years following the retirement of the client or partner. It takes just a couple of clicks to copy all the expenses and priorities from the current year over to one of the retirement periods. You may use these copied figures as a starting point, and edit them to suit.
Any of these sets of expenditure figures may be used for the What If? and Needs Analysis tools, such as the Income Drawdown Calculator or Planning for Retirement. The Choose Expenses to Use page has been updated to allow you to choose expenses from the current year, or from the year following the client or partner's retirement. You can then quickly select groups of figures, such as All Essential or All Partner expenses.
Some other enhancements to the Expenditure page are worth mentioning: Under Medical Expenses, a new slot has been added to record Residential/Nursing Home Fees. Each expenditure summary category also now has three user-defined expenditure detail categories, where any description may be entered.
You've probably already spotted from the screenshot above, a new section showing Income Remaining After All Expenditure. (These figures, calculated from Total Income minus Total Expenditure, also appear on the Income page).
At the foot of the Expenditure page there is also a new Notes field, which supports formatted text, which not only means you can highlight the most important bits, but you may also insert links to documents or webpages.
Finally, there's a new option to count policy contributions in the Calendar Year (01/Jan - 31/Dec), as oppose to the default Tax Year (06/Apr - 05/Apr).
- Written by Steve Mahy
Software Releases During the COVID-19 Pandemic
We would like to reassure our users that development of JCS during the pandemic is continuing as normal. At time of writing there have been 11 releases since March 2020, including software enhancements and fixes.
We normally recommend that all users sharing the same company dataset install the same version of JCS. Due to the high numbers of people working from home throughout the pandemic, and the difficulties some firms may have in ensuring all home workers are using the same version of JCS, for the last several months, software updates from within JCS have been disabled. Therefore, if you check for updates via File > About JCS > Check For Updates, you will likely be told that no updates are available, even if there is in fact a new version of the software ready for release. This has been done to help prevent users at home updating JCS and making their shared dataset incompatible with other users on earlier versions of the software.
When we know a new release of JCS is of particular interest to you, our Tech Support team will be in touch and will help you update your software. They will also advise if other users on your network also need to update.
We will continue to send emails with news of the latest software release and you may see details of all recent updates on our website:
For the foreseeable future, if you would like to upgrade your version of JCS, please contact our Technical Support team who will be happy to assist.
- Written by Steve Mahy
Workflow - Progress Update
Over the last few months we have been busy working on a suite of new features for JCS, which we plan to release by the end of 2019. “Workflow” is a broad term, meaning different things to different people, so here is an overview of what to expect in the initial Workflow release:
- The Workflow system is implemented by creating “Tasks” which are the individual elements (‘to do’) of each Workflow.
- It will be possible to create templates of Tasks, which are called “Workflows”. At any time, a user will be able to select from a menu of these Workflows to initiate a pre-defined sequence of Tasks.
- These Workflows may be a linear sequence of Tasks (where one Task starts after a previous Task is completed), a group of Tasks, which can be pursued simultaneously, or any combination of the two. The rules of Workflow templates will allow for a great deal of flexibility of Task progression, which will be able to model all real world scenarios.
- There will be a new concept in JCS: “Groups”. It will be possible to assign JCS Users to any number of Groups and you will be able assign Tasks to either individual Users or Groups. Users will be able to find Tasks which have been assigned to them personally but also Tasks which have been assigned to Groups of which they are a member.
- It will be possible to look at Tasks from the “higher” level of Workflows, to see which Workflows are in progress and what their status is. You will be able to drill down to see which Tasks in a Workflow have been completed, which Tasks are currently in progress and which Tasks will be created in the future when the current Tasks are completed.
- When upgrading to the Workflow system, Diary Reminders will automatically be migrated to “Tasks”. It will be easier to find Tasks which are outstanding, which are linked to particular Client or Case, or which are assigned to a particular JCS User.
After the initial release of these features we intend to continue to develop Workflow in JCS. Depending on demand, this may include enhanced reporting, greater automation of commencing Workflows, or integration with third party software.
We will soon be in a position to offer pre-release demonstrations of the features described above. If you would like to have a sneak preview then please contact us.
- Written by Steve Mahy
Client Production Summary Report
In the latest JCS version there is a new report, which we are sure will be of interest to many of our users.
The Client Production Summary report gives an easy-to-digest overview of the financial value of clients to your practice. In just a few clicks you can see a summary of records from the Sales Ledger, Time/WIP Ledger, Commission Receipts Ledger and Disbursements Ledger, within any date range, arising from any client in your dataset.
As well as working for individual clients, the report can total the figures for all clients of a particular Adviser and/or all clients of a particular Client Code.
If you would like us to add filters to the report options, so you can use the report for additional groups of clients, then please get in touch.
