(Archive) GOLD 9.1 June 2009

Fill Out Your Next 5300 Report on CU*BASE

The long anticipated 5300 Call Report software is now available in CU*BASE! When you get ready to fill out your 2nd Quarter NCUA 5300 Call Report in July, start with the new CU*BASE feature on the new MN5300 menu. 

(NOTE: self-processors will receive this update in your August PTF (9.2), in time for 3rd quarter reporting.)

This exciting new database contains automation routines that will calculate key figures for you and allows you to configure routines for many Account Codes, such as pulling balances from General Ledger, or obtaining loan information based on purpose codes/security codes, while still allowing you to manually enter data as well.

The following routines will be available for automatically populating member and G/L data to your Call Report:

·                        General Ledger quarterly account balances

·                        Loan counts and amounts by Purpose Code

·                        Loan counts and amounts by Security Code

·                        Member counts and amounts by primary General Ledger

For many of the Account Codes (fields) on the Call Report, you will be able to specify the G/L numbers or purpose codes or security codes that are appropriate based on how your credit union’s data is organized in CU*BASE. The software even has a few default automation routines (we call them “auto-pops”) for standard G/L accounts (for example, Cash on Hand will default to 739.00 – 739.99). You can easily adjust the default configuration if it is not appropriate for your CU and the system will recalculate the figure from your CU*BASE database.

NOTE: This is just the first round of automation, and we have a programming resource dedicated to adding more auto-pop routines on an ongoing basis. Our goal is to automate the collection of as much of the data on the Call Report as we possibly can from CU*BASE files (we’re even thinking about developing new database files to store miscellaneous activity that you currently have to track on a spreadsheet).

Although the software is actually being added in this release, because the tool relies on month-end data in the calculations, you will not be able to actually access the new command on menu MN5300 until July 1 (September 1 for self-processors). And to make sure the calculations pulling from the G/L are accurate, we also recommend that you wait until you’ve posted everything to the G/L before you begin. We will be sending a reminder email at that time with additional step-by-step instructions to get you started on your first Call Report.

In the meantime, keep an eye on the Kitchen page where we will be posting additional Q&A and instructions. Also take a look at the latest updates to the 5300 Call Report and CU*BASE Tools booklet. Contact Karen Sorensen directly with your specific questions at CallReport@cuanswers.com.  

Now you can advance cash from a member’s Visa and deposit the money to the member’s account in the same transaction!

The Teller Miscellaneous Advances screen now includes additional command keys to allow you more options, similar to the new features added to Teller Posting in the recent 9.0 release. Use F9-Bal Fwd/New Mbr to proceed to the account selection screen to make a deposit to a different member or use F11-Bal Fwd/This Mbr to move to the Main Teller Posting screen for the existing member (to deposit the funds or issue a check, for example).

This release comes with increased functionality of the CU*BASE Stop Pay feature. It now incorporates more flexibility to accommodate finding ACH stop payment exceptions. Although the existing stop payment code is still available for use in existing ACH records, the stop payment file has been expanded to use for those items that have not yet come through as a stop payment item or that can not be fully identified.

The new features will allow stop payments on share accounts as well as checking and incorporate the automatic purge of the records similar to the current draft items. We have also added a field with a descriptive ”company name” in addition to the stop pay comment field to provide a visual clue for you to use while researching any suspect items. (This is descriptive only and is not actually checked in the stop pay process). This new information has been added in a 2nd line of stop payment comments which is also available to view from the ACH exception screen. This option will not display all comments, but will filter and display only those comments pertaining to stop payments. This will allow the research to be done without leaving the ACH exception maintenance software and avoid the extra keystrokes of going into the inquiry option.

The biggest change is that ALL ACH debit items will now check against possible stop payment matches. As general ACH records (such as PPD) do not have a check number field, the validation for non-check ACH transactions will be done specifically against dollar amounts entered in the stop payment record. If an amount in the stop payment record for this account matches an ACH debit amount, it will except out as a stop payment suspect similar to the way that TEL and WEB transactions have been handled in the past. This may result in your having more “suspect” records when ACH is posted that you may have to monitor and handle, but will give you greater control over what posts to a member’s account and what doesn’t. These transactions will all be coded as an 08 code in both the ACH exception screen and on the ACH Exception listing (LACHXC) printed from the exception screen. The report will also add an asterisk to differentiate the stop payment suspect items from the stop payment hits (those records that can be matched to a stop payment record with a check# entry)

Additionally, new information has been added to the ACH Exceptions listing and the Stop Payment Listing. Some of the new items on the ACH Exception listing were added with the previous release as a precursor to this one, but additional items besides the previously added SEC code, check number (when applicable) and company entry description, include the new Standard Entry class code, city and state. The Stop Payment Listing now includes a new ACH Company Name column on the report.

New search options allow you to search not only for descriptions containing a selected letter or partial word, but also descriptions that begin with a certain letter, on the following CU*BASE features:

·                        MNACCK #1-Work with Outstanding Invoices

·                        MNACCK #3-Work with AP Vendors (and the Inquiry MNACCK #16)

·                        MNINVS #1-Work with CU Investments (and the Inquiry MNINVS #14)

There will now be two separate search options: Position to description (name) starting with... and Description (name) containing... so that you can either jump directly to a certain section of an alphabetic list, or like now, search for a description that contains any word or partial word.

·        Summary Report Now Available for Check Register Screen – In addition to a detail report, now you can also print a summary report from the Check Register screen (MNHTEL #17 or MNACCK #11-Check Disbursement Register).

·        More Graphs and Exports– GOLD graphs and export features continue to be very popular with our users. With this release you’ll see we’ve added back many of these features into the new GOLD look throughout CU*BASE.