NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Release Notes

For NV2 release notes, click here.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.38.3 – to be released

This is a service pack for version 2.38.

  • Basic Needs Table updated for 2024.
  • Student income from ODSP and/or OW was ignored when calculating net income. This release fixes the problem.
  • For Canadian EFT file creation, the File Creation Number did not auto increment.

    This error occurs when a Canadian bank’s “EFT USA Info” fields are populated (typically by mistake) and then deleted. This release fixes the problem.

  • Editing timecards could introduce history errors.

    When changing both the date and reference of a timecard header that has items below, the account histories could be improperly updated, resulting in incorrect history amounts. Users of timecards can run a database_utilities history check (line 5 in the database utilities dialog) to determine if any such problems have occurred in the set of books. Also in the database utilities dialog you can issue the Reorganize>Account History menu command to fix any history errors.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.38.2 – July 6, 2024

This is a service pack for version 2.38.

  • HSA minimum rent and HIL updates.
  • ILM and Section 95 utilities updates.
  • FICI2 service allowance updates.
  • A NewViews service creates a new executable for every database it manages.

    When a NewViews service opens an application database it launches a NewViews process to manage the database. Each application database is therefore managed by a separate process, improving the efficient use of computer resources. Starting with this version, NewViews also creates a copy of itself, i.e. a new executable, and launches the new process using that copied executable. The new executable is created in the NewViews program folder and it is given a file name that identifies the database that it manages. The main reason for doing this is so that the various processes can be better identified and managed, for example, in the Windows task manager. This is of little concern to most users but it should help computer administrators monitor real-time NewViews activity and performance on different databases.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.38.1 – January 12, 2024

This is a service pack for version 2.38.

  • Canadian payroll T4-XML file creation contained a typo.

    Employee T4 slip tag for the employer dental plan code was misspelled so the file could not be successfully submitted. This release corrects the problem.

  • The database_utilities operations could not be run from a command line.

    The database_utilities check and repair operations could not be run from a command line. This problem only occurred in the previous release, (2.38.0.20231227). This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.38 – December 27, 2023

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • Canadian January 01, 2024 tax calculation update.

    All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2024.

    This release includes Canadian payroll processing for federal taxes and 12 jurisdictions: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon.

    See the CPP2 Primer for updates required to your account setup before processing payroll in 2024.

  • For all Canadian Payroll users, there is a new section in the User Guide under Canada Payroll called CPP2 Primer (new CPP2 rules for 2024 as per the CRA). See the CPP2 Primer for updates required to your account setup before processing payroll in 2024.
  • Auto Reconcile windows had layout problems.

    The browser windows used by auto_reconcile rely on external JavaScript packages which are loaded from external sources. One of those sources for jQuery ceased to exist sometime between now and the previous release, resulting in a disconnect between the auto_reconcile tree and table windows. This release fixes the problem by linking to a different, more stable, JS package source.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.37.3 – November 20, 2023

This is a service pack for version 2.37. Note that version 2.37.2 was an internal service pack release.

  • Inserting a new row on an RGI Info table will now copy the last RGI item (if present) to make simple edits easier.

    Previously, a blank RGI item was created and it was tedious to replicate most of the data. Insert now behaves like a block copy/paste command.

  • The Go Home button will appear in the window toolbar in more cases (depending on access rights).

    The Go Home button will clean up (collapse) the database tree explorer pane and reset to exploring from “Home”. Previously, only users with access to the root OBJECT of the database (i.e. total access) had this toolbar button enabled. This release offers the Go Home button to anyone with access to a single point in the database (e.g. NewViews or Reports or Payroll etc.)

  • As clarified by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH), calculations for HSA/316 are updated to respect the following:

    If the ODSP benefit unit’s only non-benefit income is CPP-D or the OAS Allowance, the CPP-D or OAS Allowance amount is compared to the ODSP basic needs to determine the monthly rent rather than to the non-benefit income limit.

  • Database utilities check_dangling_index_records operation was improved.

    Additional internal checks are performed during this operation.

  • Database utilities repair_dangling_index_records operation was improved.

    This operation fixes problems detected by the check_dangling_index_records operation. It was upgraded to fix additional problems now also detected by the check_dangling_index_records operation as indicated in the above. In addition, it now also fixes dangling object references detected by the check_dangling_object_references operation.

  • Enabling a postings or transactions collection could cause a bug that may corrupt the database, possibly beyond repair. This will mean reverting to the most recent backup of the database.This update should be installed as soon as possible.When changing the Ledger Index field on an account or the Transaction Index on a journal from No to Yes, a bug could occur, resulting in premature shutdown. This was relatively rare; i.e. only on very large indexes and it was only encountered by a small number of users. This release fixes the problem.
  • Default values were reset to empty in some scripts.Version 2.37.2 dropped stored option values for some scripts and commands. New values entered during version 2.37.2 were stored and restored as usual. However, this version will revert to the values stored prior to changes made in version 2.37.2.
  • Tools>Auto Reconcile command did not recognize a tag. The tag ORIGCURRENCY and related tags were not recognized. They are now recognized but skipped.
  • Several progress bar glitches in database utilities were corrected. In several of the database utilities repair commands the number of operations was not being updated correctly.
  • Occurrences of the “empty command” bug were reduced. A source of this bug was eliminated and this should reduce the number of times it appears. However, we cannot report at this time that all instances of the problem have been eliminated.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.37.1 – July 28, 2023

This is a service pack for version 2.37.

  • Inability to edit Minimum Rent value

    A change to the handling of Minimum Rent (to respect the RGI item’s Effective Date) introduced an unintended side effect. It was no longer possible to edit the Minimum Rent to adjust it to individual user preferences. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.37 – July 10, 2023

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

Canadian payroll users in Manitoba will require this version to process payroll after July 1st, 2023.

  • HSA Household Income Limits (HIL) are updated.
  • HSA minimum rent increased to $136.
  • ILM and Section 95 utility tables are updated.
  • FCHI-2 utility and service allowances are updated.

Three mobile apps are currently offered for NewViews (Work Orders, Inspections and Time Cards). This release includes upgrades to better support mobile apps (for existing apps and planned new features) and for new apps in development.

  • HSA calculation bug when using the basic needs table is fixed.

    This issue applies only when a resident’s non-benefit income exceeds the threshold. The scale amount was used, rather than applying 30% of non-benefit income.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.36.3 – January 24, 2023

This is a service pack for version 2.36.

  • Canadian January 01, 2023 tax calculation update.

    All Canadian payroll users taking advantage of NewViews’ ability to calculate WCB will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2023.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.36.2 – December 28, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.36.

  • Canadian January 01, 2023 tax calculation update.

    All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2023.

    This release includes Canadian payroll processing for federal taxes and 12 jurisdictions: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.36.1 – November 25, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.36.

  • Basic Needs tables are updated for HSA/316 and ILM.
  • Under certain rare circumstances, a database could crash between safepoints, potentially compromising the internal recovery system that prevents data corruption.Database utilities checking for block_pointer_integrity and free_block_integrity sometimes reported errors that indicated a problem with the internal recovery system. In most cases, these errors could be repaired by running an nvreorg. In some cases, however, damage occurred in a critical area and could not be fixed by nvreorg. This release fixes the source of the problem that could potentially compromise the recovery system.
  • When using Block>Copy and Block>Paste commands for payroll timecard transactions, the start time and end time were not copied. This release fixes the problem.
  • A user transaction edit date range that spanned more than 68 years effectively locked the database to transaction entry/edit (e.g. 1950 to 2025). This release fixes the problem.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.36 – Released August 19, 2022

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • Minor improvement in underlying database management.

    PAGE encountered databases where very large text outputs were copied from web pages and pasted into transaction description fields. This resulted in huge database record keys in indexes which in turn could cause side effects such as memory overflow or sometimes freezing when deleting data. A slightly modified database algorithm avoids the problem but requires a pass on the database to check and update pages identified with the problem. That is one reason this fix requires a version change instead of just a patch release.

  • Prior to this release, selecting a transaction distribution item’s allocation tag appended the selected tag to the tag list if there was no allocation tag present, or replaced the existing allocation tag with the selected tag. This behavior occurred unconditionally.

    The prior release documentation explained that to apply two or more allocation tags you could manually edit the field.

    This release will prompt you to replace the existing tag(s) with the selected tag, or to include the selected tag in the existing list. It will simplify rapid entry of multiple allocation tags.

  • Database utilities has a new command line -command “check_all”.

    The new check_all command performs all ten of the individual database utility checks. This eliminates the need to run ten command lines to perform all ten checks.

    Several previously undocumented database utility repair commands have also been added to the list of commands available using the command line.

  • The Windows Service Installer can be run from the command line.

    You can install and uninstall the NewViews Windows Service from the command line.

  • repair_missing_base_object_ids command was added to Database Utilities.

    The Repair>Missing Base Object Ids command was added to Database Utilities. This command fixes a missing field in a NewViews object. PAGE has only encountered this problem once.

  • Print account ledgers froze.

    Various print account ledgers commands froze due to a bug introduced in the previous release (2.35.5). This release fixes the problem.

  • Bug number 314120210526105215 would appear intermittently.

    Bug text: odb_commit – invalid operation “odb_commit_now”,size==0.

    This bug has occurred from time to time, apparently randomly, starting in release 2.34.11.20210731.

    This release fixes the problem.

    .text {Encountered bug id:314120210526105215 – “odb_commit – invalid operation “odb_commit_now”,size==0.”}

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35.5 – June 18, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.35.

  • All tables (e.g. utilities, basic needs, etc.) and rules have been updated for all RGI types.
  • The gist is that in addition to having the freshest code, prior version code is kept as well. The RGI Effective Date governs the version that is chosen. An empty date means use the freshest. Effective dates that land in a prior period will use the rules and tables in effect at that time. This makes it easier to process prior rules and tables and to transition from one to the next.
  • Internal improvements were made to the underlying file system.

    These improvements may speed up certain operations such as traversing items in a table window.

  • A number of maintenance and stability updates are in this release, one being noteworthy:

    A bug that had been known for a long time was finally found and fixed.

    The error “Called empty command with args odb_get” was common but extremely difficult to find. A “reproducible” example never occurred. Several visual inspections of the code, and tests, failed to find anything wrong. Finally, an example that could be reproduced happened. The cause was discovered and fixed.

  • An error in the FCHI2 shelter adjustment amount relating to electricity has been fixed.
  • An error in the FCHI2 and HSA minimum rent amount has been fixed.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35.4 – March 18, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.35.

  • Invalid dates could be allowed into a database.

    NewViews was in the process of being prepared to allow dates outside the 1903 to 2037 date range. This feature has not been released but some date checks were inadvertently relaxed in the previous version, possibly allowing dates outside the restricted range to make it into a database.

    If such dates have been entered into a database, corresponding error messages may be displayed, in which case you can call QW Page customer support for assistance.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35.3 – February 14, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.35.

  • RGI calculations for HSA/316 had an error. Calculations for higher income units could result in a negative subsidy amount. This also affected Net Rent and Total Rent.

    This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35.2 – February 2, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.35.

  • The Windows Service Installer “Uninstall” command is more specific.

    In prior versions the Windows Service Installer dialog button actually uninstalled all currently running NewViews service hubs (and their affiliated service nodes). This was not an issue because in general there was only one service hub running anyway. However, it has become desirable in some circumstances to run more than one service hub, so with this release the button only uninstalls the service named in the dialog. Note that when running multiple service hubs, each must have its own unique name (and port number).

  • Backslashes are no longer allowed in Windows Service Installer file paths.

    We require the “/” (forward slash) character as the file path separator for the various paths specified in the Window Service Installer dialog. The use of a backslash was preventing the service from restarting in some cases.

  • For HSA/316 regulations the prior release incorrectly calculated the subsidy, net rent, and total rent. This release corrects the problem.
  • The Windows Service Installer manual page links were not working.

    When clicking a link to the manual from the dialog or from an error message, the manual page was not available. This release fixes the links.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35.1 – January 27, 2022

This is a service pack for version 2.35.

  • Print>Rent Receipts now processes complex transactions.

    The prior version of Print>Rent Receipts reported errors when it encountered ledger items with an empty Cross Account field. This release will instead process the ledger item’s detail distribution items, following the same pattern-matching rules.

  • A bug which caused an incorrect minimum rent calculation for HSA/316 has been corrected.
  • A situation could arise where no user could log into a database.

    A situation could arise where the server would shut down but not re-start. This situation was apparently random and relatively rare, and it could occur only when running the server as a service. Because the server had shut down and did not re-start, no users could log in to any of the databases managed by the server. Ultimately, the service had to be uninstalled and reinstalled before users could log in again. This requires access to the server computer to accomplish. This problem may have existed since version 2.34.5.20201218. It was particularly annoying and hard to isolate and correct, but this release should eliminate the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.35 – Released December 28, 2021

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • Canadian January 01, 2022 tax calculation update.

    All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2022.

    This release includes Canadian payroll processing for federal taxes and 10 jurisdictions: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon.

    T4A: Box 201 has been added to accommodate reporting of Repayment of COVID-19 financial assistance.

  • Payroll Process/Preview can be twice as fast.

    The payroll process and preview was modified to run much faster. The more payroll history in your database, the more noticeable it will be. Note that posting paychecks will still take the same amount of time.

  • Database utilities index_record_integrity is 25 to 40 percent faster.

    The index_record_integrity check is the last check line in the database utilities dialog. The database_record_integrity check takes the longest time by far, dominating the total time when all checks are performed. Speeding this check up is significant, especially for very large databases that could take a weekend to check.

  • NewViews service nodes display more information in the task manager.

    A NewViews server launches a service node for each open database. The Windows task manager displays a line for each of these nodes. In this release the line displays the database path of the database managed by the node, and also the service hub process id associated with the node. This should assist in managing NewViews when multiple databases are open, and also when multiple service hubs are running.

  • The session logout state was sometimes inadvertently set to “crashed”.

    This only occurred when NV2 was shut down by pressing or by clicking the button in the upper right corner of a workstation window. In that case, the session state was set to “crashed” and the session logout date was left empty. This release corrects the problem by correctly setting the state to “closed” and the logout date to the time of the shutdown.

  • Couldn’t convert numbers from scientific notation.

    Some multiply or divide computations resulted in extremely small numbers that could only be represented in scientific (exponential) notation. NewViews could not convert numbers in this format to its internal number representation. This release fixes the problem.

  • Couldn’t run database utilities commands from a Windows command line.

    The ability to run database utilities commands from the Windows command line stopped working in version 2.34.9. This release fixes the problem.

  • Geographic sales tax processing failed to respect sales journal settings.

    If a geographic sales tax table has a blank row, any sales invoice tax processing resulted in zero taxes. This release fixes the problem.

  • Minimum rent calculation errors occurred in some circumstances for HSA/316, ILM and FCHI2 regulations. This release fixes the problem.
  • FCHI2 adjusted shelter calculation errors occurred in some circumstances. This release fixes the problem.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.11 – October 6, 2021

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Canadian payroll users in New Brunswick will require this version to process payroll after July 1st, 2021.
  • Utilities tables have been updated for 2021.
  • Five Utility Zones were renamed.
    Old Name New Name
    Southern ON Union Gas Southern
    NE ON Union Gas North Eastern
    Eastern ON Union Gas Eastern
    NW ON Union Gas North Western
    Western ON Union Gas Western
  • Propane was removed from the list of possible energy sources.
  • The default minimum rent has been increased from 129.00 to 131.00.

There are four noteworthy changes to FCHI2 taking effect October 1, 2021.

  • The minimum rent calculation has changed.
  • The shelter component of social assistance is now adjusted by the new 2021 Service Allowances table values.
  • There are changes when an occupant’s income affects the social assistance benefits of other occupants.
  • Utilities tables for all provinces are updated.
  • RGI Calc Summary format changes.The HSA Calc Summary format has been changed to present the arithmetic more clearly. Numbers that are helpful to understand the calculation, but don’t directly participate in the arithmetic, are displayed in the text column. Also, in some cases, it is helpful to show negative numbers that participate in the arithmetic.
  • Entering a badly formed expression in a number field caused NewViews to crash.

    You can enter expressions in number fields. For example, entering “2+2” sets the field to the value “4”. If you enter a badly formed expression you should get an appropriate error message but in the previous release (2.34.9.20210416) a bad expression caused a GPF (general protection fault). This could happen in the server, bringing down the server and everyone connected to the server would lose their connection. This release fixes the problem.

  • Exiting NewViews with a remote server open could cause NewViews to crash.

    Shutting down a NewViews workstation when there was a remote server window open could result in a GPF (general protection fault). This did not affect the integrity of any databases. This release fixes the problem.

  • Aborting a database download could make the service node terminate.

    If you were downloading a remote database from a server using the File>Download command, and if you aborted the download operation, the remote process accessing the database would terminate. All users accessing the same database would receive “Lost connection.” notifications. Users could immediately log back into the database and users of other databases on the same server were not affected. This release fixes the problem.

  • Re-totaling an account could blow memory.

    The amount of memory needed to re-total an account grew with the size of the account’s ledger. Re-totaling extremely large accounts could actually blow memory and crash a server. The re-total algorithm has been re-designed. It is slightly slower but addresses the memory problem.

  • Attempting to Edit>Paste clipboard data loaded with a Block>Copy command crashed NewViews.

    The Edit>Copy and Edit>Paste commands are a pair to be used together, to copy/paste table cell values. The Block>Copy and Block>Paste commands are also a pair to be used together, to copy/paste table rows. Don’t mix them.

    This release will display an error when you mix commands.

  • Canadian payroll CPP deductions for a person turning 70 ran one month too long.

    CPP deductions are required for all pay periods ending in the month an employee turns 70. In prior versions this deduction continued for pay periods ending in the following month. This release fixes the problem.

  • HSA 316/19 Calculation Error.

    When determining rent for a unit with Adjusted Net Income (NOA+RDSP), the amount of benefit income included in the NOA amount was not subtracted before checking limits. And, when the limits were exceeded, the calculation used 30 percent of the NOA amount which included benefits. This release fixes the problem.

  • HSA 316/19 Minimum Rent Error.

    The minimum rent determined by the OW and ODSP scales was ignored when the amount was less that the default minimum rent. For example, if the scales indicated 85.00 it was incorrectly replaced with 129.00. This release fixes the problem.

  • The Tool>Import Records could cause a GPF.

    When the Tool>Import Records command encountered a badly formed date field in the import file, a GPF (General Protection Fault) would occur. This release fixes the problem.

  • An error could occur when converting older databases to the current version.

    The error was:

    “Could not find file “/odb/audit_record””.

    This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.10 – withdrawn and replaced by 2.34.11

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.9 – April 16, 2021

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • NewViews tolerates moderate system clock drift.

    Prior to this release, NewViews did not allow logging into a database if the system clock preceded the database’s most recent session login date. Also NewViews would not allow audited changes to a database if the system clock preceded the date on the database’s most recent audit record. These restrictions have been relaxed to tolerate up to a 30 minute difference. The system date can now precede the most recent session login date or the most recent audit record date by up to 30 minutes. This is more than enough to tolerate system clock drift typically encountered, and more commonly encountered in virtual machines.

    If the system clock precedes the most recent session login or audit record dates, but by less than 30 minutes, NewViews will continue to guarantee that session login and audit record dates strictly increase chronologically. This should eliminate the majority of problems relating to normal system clock drift, while catching potentially serious problems caused by intentional or accidental system clock manipulation.

  • Workstation crashes cascade to other processes.

    A workstation crash could cause connected servers to crash, and then the problem could cascade to freeze or crash other workstations connected to the server. Fixing this problem is the most important reason for this release.

  • Sessions were incorrectly being marked as “crashed”.

    Properly closed sessions were sometimes marked “crashed” instead of “closed”. This only occurred when running the server as a Windows service and only for the session where the last user logged out of the database. The database itself retained it’s integrity in all other aspects. There was actually no real crash in these cases; just an invalid marking of the session state. If you are using a Windows service there will be fewer sessions marked “crashed” from this point forward.

  • Database utilities Repair>Dangling Double Indirect Records command was broken.

    An internal error kept this command from running at all. This release fixes the problem.

  • Database utilities Repair>Transaction Amounts did not work on multiple tags.

    The database utilities Repair>Transaction Amounts did not work properly on transactions that had multiple tags. For transactions with multiple tags, the number of problems reported was overstated and none of the problems were actually fixed. On the other hand no harm was done. In any case, this release fixes the problem,

  • Abort did not work on several database utilities checks.

    This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.8 – March 1, 2021

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Some connection attempts to NewViews servers were being ignored.
    NewViews servers were never vulnerable to third party connection probes but some of these probes had resulted in the server shutting down and restarting. This behaviour was corrected in the previous release (2.34.7.20210223) but as a side-effect, some legitimate connections from NewViews workstations were being rejected.

    When attempting to open a database by double-clicking on a workstation login row, there would be a pause, often accompanied by an hourglass icon and then nothing; the connection was simply ignored. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.7 – February 23, 2021

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • New Database Utilities command Reorganize – Test Reorganizable. This new Database Utilities command tests whether a reorganization of the books would succeed and provides the test result in a fraction of the time it would normally take to check or reorganize a set of books.

    Regularly checking the integrity of your data is an important safeguard. As databases get larger over time, checking data integrity takes longer and becomes an impediment to what should be a routine task. For example, it could take a full day to check a 3 GB set of books, plus another full day to reorganize them. Running the Reorganize – Test Reorganizable command on that same set of books can tell you in about 15 minutes whether the books can be successfully reorganized if your data becomes corrupt for any reason (e.g. hardware failure). This makes it quick and convenient to incorporate a routine Test Reorganizable into your day-to-day operation.

    In addition, the Reorganize – Database command now automatically tests whether a database can be reorganized before performing the actual reorganization. This means you don’t have to wait for a reorganization to complete before you know if it will be successful. If there are any issues that would prevent a successful reorganization, they will be detected and reported before the reorganization begins.

  • Reinforcements to internet security have been added.

    Any computer connected to the interest is constantly under some form of cyber attack. NewViews has a stellar reputation for withstanding these attacks due to our proprietary technology and because we continually monitor evolving threats. This release incorporates a number of “under the hood” reinforcements that enable NewViews to continue to track and withstand attacks.

  • The Print – Rent Receipts command has been completely overhauled and provides three new print templates.

    The information collected by the Print – Rent Receipts prompt has been expanded and streamlined. When generating rent receipts, you can now specify any number of bank accounts used to deposit payments from members/tenants, as well as any number of housing revenue accounts to be included in and excluded from rent receipt totals. The prompt also supports the use of wild cards (*) to specify groups of accounts that have a common suffix (e.g. *.SUB to specify all accounts with the suffix .SUB or *.RGI to specify all accounts with the suffix .RGI).

    Three new Excel print templates are also provided:

    rent_receipt_single_total.xls prints a receipt showing the total amount received from each member/tenant marked in the block.

    rent_receipt_all_totals.xls is for internal use and prints the following information for each member/tenant marked in the block: opening balance of the account, total amount included in the receipt, total amount excluded from the rent receipt, total charges, total payments, total amount of the receipt, closing balance of the account.

    rent_receipt_statement.xls prints monthly amounts for each member/tenant marked in the block as follows: charges included in the rent receipt, charges excluded from the rent receipt, total charges (included and excluded), payment received, over/under amount and account balance.

  • FCHI2 utilities have been updated for 2021.
  • HSA housing income limits have been updated for 2021.
  • Speed improved for several checks in Database Utilities.

    The first four checks in Database Utilities (i.e. Check block readability, Check block pointer integrity, Check free block integrity and Check page integrity) all run significantly faster now.

  • Change to FCHI2 rounding.

    The RGI calculator now rounds minimum rent to the nearest dollar for FCHI2 RGI items.

  • Changing the account Ledger Indexed field could freeze.

    This happened only when accessing a remote application database (i.e. not a local database), and generally only when enabling the field the second time in the same session.

    The problem described above also applied for the journal Transactions Indexed field.

  • T4 slips and summaries incorrectly reported COVID-19 earnings with income in box 71.

    When box 71 income (Status Indian) was present, COVID-19 earnings were incorrectly reported on T4 slips and summaries. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.6 – January 17, 2021

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Critical maintenance release. Please install immediately.

    The previous release skipped an internal integrity check that could lead to data loss. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.5 – December 18, 2020

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Includes January 2021 tax calculation updates for Canada.All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1, 2021.

    T4As: Box 037 (Advanced Life Deferred Annuity Purchase) and Box 200 (Provincial/Territorial COVID-19 Financial Assistance Payments) have been added to accommodate COVID-19 reporting requirements.

    T4s: Boxes 57, 58, 59 and 60 have been added to accommodate reporting of COVID-19 pay periods.

  • 10% Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS) for Employers.The CRA announced a 10% Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS) for employers for a period of 3 months. If you are eligible for the TWS, you may need to fill out and submit Form PD27 (10% Temporary Wage Subsidy Self-Identification Form for Employers) for each of your payroll program (RP) accounts. The CRA will use the information from Form PD27 to reconcile the TWS on your payroll program (RP) accounts.

    For the 202o reporting period, we have provided a Form PD27 printing template to submit to the CRA. Use the Print>Payroll Report with the supplied template to generate the report.

  • Includes January 2021 tax calculation updates for the United States.All United States payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1, 2021.

    1099 Form Update: Reporting boxes have been renumbered to accommodate payments to contractors reported to the IRS.

    This release includes US payroll processing for federal taxes and 10 of the states that have released final specifications. These include:
    Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South Carolina, Yonkers local.

    We anticipate a final release of 2021 Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods and the next service pack should include updated withholding calculations based on Publication 15-T for the 2021 tax year.

  • RGI calculations based on FCHI-2 are now supported.Choosing FCHI2 as the RGI type for RGI items will calculate RGI in accordance with FCHI-2 regulations. Refer to the section Using the RGI Calculator in the User Guide for detailed information on adding RGI items.
  • The Housing Income Limit (HIL) Report provides new options for more detailed reporting.

    A Report Style option has been added to the Print>Housing Reports>Housing Income Limit (HIL) prompt.

    detail prints a report that lists the primary occupant and total income for each household.
    detail_all_names prints a report that lists all occupants and total income for each household.
    summary prints a report that summarizes all households by category.

  • The Income Review Required report now includes a new column that prints the RGI Description.
  • Backing up is faster.

    Backing up should be up to twice as fast. This includes the File>Backup command as well as other forms of backup such as logout backup and overnight backup.

  • Inserting a new row in a table of RGI items will automatically copy additional charges and final adjustments from the prior (most recent) RGI item, if it exists.
  • The Calc Summary tab now displays the shelter amount for Section 95 RGI items.
  • The Calc Summary tab now displays the bedroom count for HSA RGI items.
  • Choosing the Southern provincial zone in the Utilities tab for ILM and Section 95 RGI items now corresponds to Southern Ontario Union Gas.
  • ILM and Section 95 RGI items for stacked units were using electricity charges for row house units. This release fixes the problem.
  • There were some anomalies with regard to RGI calculations that looked up basic needs allowances as per Ontario Regulation 316/19. This release fixes the problem.
  • There were some discrepancies in date ranges used when printing the Housing Income Limit (HIL) report. This release fixes the problem.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.4 – August 13, 2020

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • The File>Backup is disabled on QWPAGE cloud servers.

    Users issuing File>Backup on cloud-based application databases can saturate the cloud server’s disk space. The File>Backup is disabled on QWPAGE cloud servers. There is no reason to issue the command in any case and we recommend instead that you use the File>Download command. This will create a backup in your workstation directory space and importantly, will create a backup copy that is separate from the cloud-based database.

  • RGI calculation type HSA using regulations 316/19 calculated the Employment deduction incorrectly.

    Prior to this release, the employment deduction was based on the number of people in the family unit earning income from employment. In this release, the employment deduction is based on the number of people in the family unit, provided one or more people earn income from employment.

  • There was a bug preventing the reporting of bugs.

    A bug in the loading of communication packages resulted in a problem reporting bugs. Generally this should not have had any effect on most day to day operations but was an issue in some service oriented situations. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.3 – August 5, 2020

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Improved memory handling.

    Moving accounts with many ledger items could overflow memory. This release fixes the problem.

  • Workstation items were not being committed.

    Changes to the workstation were not being committed if you exited the workstation (unless you issued a File>Save command first). This bug was introduced in the previous release (2.34.2.20200722). This release fixes the problem.

  • Selecting a printer didn’t work.

    This bug was introduced in the previous release (2.34.2.20200722). When you tried to select a print, either no printer was found or else an obscure error message was displayed. This release fixes the problem.

  • Rare problem with database utilities Reorganize>Free Blocks command.

    A problem occurred when reorganizing free blocks in the database utilties. This problem was so rare we are aware of it occurring only in once, in one database. This release fixes the problem.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.2 – July 22, 2020

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • New Rent-Geared-to-Income (RGI) regulations announced by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for operations administered under the Housing Services Act (HSA) come into effect on either July 1, 2020 or July 1, 2021, at the Service Manager’s discretion.
    • A field has been added to the My Company Address/Info View where non-profit housing providers can specify whether they are still calculating RGI in accordance with Ontario Regulation 298/01 (until July 1, 2021) or if they have switched to calculating RGI in accordance with Ontario Regulation 316/19.
    • A column called HSA Regs has been added to the RGI Info table. If 298/01 is entered in this field, the RGI calculation for that item is performed using the old rules in Ont Reg 298/01. If 316/19 is entered in this field, the RGI calculation for that item is performed using the new rules rules in Ont Reg 316/19.
  • Canadian payroll users in British Columbia and the Yukon require this version to process payroll after July 1st, 2020.
  • Blue progress windows are no longer always on top.

    Blue progress windows were always on top of other NV2 windows and this could be a nuisance. Now blue progress windows start on top and can be raised back to the top when new operations are started, but you can raise other NV2 windows over the blue progress window by clicking on them.

  • Download reminder prompt allowed multiple downloads.

    When you launched a database download from a download reminder dialog, the reminder dialog remained displayed and you could therefore launch yet another concurrent download. Although this works, it is unnecessary and potentially confusing, so now the download reminder dialog now disappears when you launch a download.

  • NewViews boots faster.

    NewViews was optimized to boot faster. The boot banner is no longer neecessary.

  • Print>Account Ledgers>Advanced is much faster when used to analyse flows in a multi-user situation.
  • Download displayed an error when run indirectly from the download reminder dialog.

    The error was “can’t read “Database”: no such variable.”. This release fixes the problem.

  • The File>Download command reported an error on large databases.

    The error reported that an integer was expected when the database size exceeded about 4 gigabytes (the maximum size handled by 32-bits). This release fixes the problem.

  • NewViews would not boot if the NewViews executable name contained spaces.

    This error actually occurred when a user downloaded the NV2 installation file twice and Windows appended the second execuable file name with “- copy(2)” or a similar suffix that contained spaces. The same problem would occur if the installed executable (nv2.exe) was renamed to a name containing spaces. Although this release fixes the problem it is highly recommended that you do not include spaces in file names in general.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34.1 – February 12, 2020

This is a service pack for version 2.34.

  • Includes Canadian January 01, 2020 federal basic claim calculation update.All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2020.
  • TeamViewer has made the decision to deprecate versions 5, 6 and 7. This service pack includes an update to TeamViewer to replace version 5 (which was included with NewViews previously).

    This NewViews Service Pack must be installed in order for our Tech Support team to provide remote support using TeamViewer and to transfer files between your computer and QW Page.

  • The non-profit Housing Income Limit (HIL) report has been updated for new household income limits and new high need thresholds.
  • File>Download is faster when the workstation and server are on same machine.

    When the workstation and server are on the same computer the File>Download command takes a shortcut. Instead of downloading through the net, the database is copied directly to the workstation’s directory space, which is the same as the server’s directory space when they’re both running on the same computer. This is the only change. For example, you still select the workstation folder for the destination of the “download”, and the file name given to the downloaded file is the same as before. The difference is that the download shortcut will be as fast as the File>Backup is on a local database.

    It is worth noting that some users do have scenarios where the workstation and server are on the same computer and the File>Backup command was used to create a hot backup. Often, a file explorer would then be used to copy the backup to a different computer. This additional copy is no longer necessary because the download can be directed straight to the desired computer within the workstation directory space.

  • File>Backup works on remote databases (again).The File>Backup command was recently disabled for remote databases and only allowed on local databases. For remote databases the File>Download command was introduced. By “popular demand” the File>Backup command can once again be used for remote databases.

    Also note that the name of the Database Multi-User Backup user option was recently changed to Database File Download. This option now controls both permission to perform file downloads and also permission to perform file backups on remote database.

  • Window>Copy Table Columns and Window>Paste Table Columns could break one or more column definitions. The broken columns would display nothing or the number zero, when this was clearly incorrect.This error only occurred in cases where the table you copied columns from included one or more control columns, and the table was nested within a private desktop setup. A control column is a column that, when configured, determines the values displayed in other columns (in addition to its own values). Examples of this would include trial balance Dr/Cr column pairs, actual versus budget with variance column triplets, etc.

    This release fixes the problem.

  • Spurious View>Additional Info String and Date columns appear on tables.

    There is a bug in NewViews and/or the Microsoft menu system that we cannot reproduce (which means the true cause cannot be found and corrected yet). When this bug occurs, the Microsoft menu “freezes” its normal behavior and all clicks to the menu cause a spurious View>Additional Info column to be appended to the active table (e.g. String 9).

    It is a priority to find and correct this bug but until it is found, you need a way to quickly and easily remove the columns created (they can be an enormous performance drag). If you notice tables with a tiny horizontal scrollbar thumb tack, or you see these columns, you can delete them quickly.

    Press or issue the Window>Define Columns command to display the Setup Columns window. Mark a block corresponding to the unwanted columns and issue the Block>Delete command  to remove them.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.34 – Released December 19, 2019

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • Includes Canadian January 01, 2020 tax calculation update.All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2020.

The File>Download command was created to enable you to download databases from a remote server (the cloud) to your workstation computer. This is especially important as it lets you create off-line (non-cloud) backups of your application databases. A File Download user option was added to control download permission for application databases on a user-by-user basis.

The File>Download command is issued on the open application (hot) database that is to be downloaded. A snapshot copy of the database is taken and it is the snapshot that is downloaded, allowing other users to continue working on the database while it is being downloaded.

The command also lets you download remote server databases. Unlike application databases, server databases have no users, and thus no user options, but they are password-protected. Since you have to open a remote server database in order to download it, download permission is in practice controlled by the server password.

In the user’s options, Multi-user Backup was changed to Database File Download and Single-user Backup was changed to Database File Backup. This change reflects the introduction of the File>Download command (see above). File>Backup is now used exclusively for local databases and File>Download is used exclusively for remote (cloud) databases. These two user options control permission to use the corresponding commands so they have been given more descriptive names.

The Block>Sum command is used to sum table columns that display numbers. Mark a block or a discontiguous selection and execute the Block>Sum command. A window will appear, with identical column titles for the columns that have numbers and 4 rows to display the Total, Highest Value, Lowest Value and Average. Note that the results window can be printed or previewed with your browser.

Ledger tables can now display the Cross Reconcile value. If you execute the View > Cross Reconcile command while positioned on a ledger, the Cross Reconcile column will be displayed. This can be used on a expense account, for example, to see if the invoice for any given expense has been paid. On a revenue ledger, the Cross Reconcile column will display the reconcile value of a bank deposit.

A fiscal year end (MMDD only) can now be set in your home table. It is used to control RGI utility calculations. Changes to the way utilities are calculated will be incorporated in NewViews NPH releases, but will not take effect until your next fiscal year.

A new View>Install>Wait-list External command provides a quick and simple way to begin tracking wait-list applicants.

A new View>Install>Other Info>Wait-list Internal command provides a quick and simple way to begin tracking internal move wait-list applicants.

Member/tenants now have an “Address History” feature. You can track the original, before first move-in address, internal moves, and a final forwarding address.

This release enables order entry for purchases and sales.

A new Tools>Import Records menu command allows you to easily import “Comma Separated Values” (CSV) files to import accounts and transactions.

Mail merge for documents relating to rent charges can now display the breakdown of additional charges.

  • The Print>Account Ledgers>Requisition output has been cleaned up and simplified.You can configure this output by using the Select Columns button and selecting only the columns you need. Also note that you can choose name columns (e.g. for accounts and journals) instead of path columns – names are shorter and can result in a simpler output.
  • The Custom Data window tab has been renamed to Other Info.
  • File>Backup can no longer be used on remote databases.File>Backup can still be used for local databases but for remote databases in the cloud the File>Download command should be used instead. File>Download was introduced in this release as described above.
  • When updating a workstation from a server, the download can be aborted.When you were updating a new version of NewViews on a workstation from a server, a red progress bar appeared until the download completed. The workstation, the server, and all other workstations accessing the same server were frozen until the download completed. The operation had to finish before anything became active again.

    With this release, a blue progress bar appears during the download. The server and any other workstations accessing the server are no longer frozen and you can abort a download in progress if you wish.

  • File paths entered in a server window do not need to exist.Prior to this release, the database file path entered in the File column of a server window had to correspond to currently existing files. This was often an inconvenience and, in any case, it was still possible for database files on the server to be renamed or moved, leaving dangling file paths in the server. Of course, file existence is always checked when an attempt is made to open the database file.
  • Table column default values for dates can now be set to “today”.Enter the character “t” in a date column and, while the character is still displayed (i.e. don’t move off the cell), execute the menu command Edit>Default Value>Set (or shortcut F12 ). This will set the single character “t” as the default and all new entries created will automatically default to the current date. To turn this behavior off, execute the menu command Edit>Default Value>Clear.
  • Changing a journal’s allocation tags could cause memory blowout.

    Changing a journal’s allocation tags forces NewViews to process all transactions that are affected by the change. The processed transactions include not only those on the affected journal, but also all transactions on any journal in the hierarchy below the affected journal. When large numbers of transactions were processed, memory blowout could occur, but sometimes the problem could result in a GPF (general protection fault) instead. This release fixes the problem.

  • Duplicate references were sometimes allowed when they should not have been.

    Moving a transaction from one journal to another could result in the transaction’s tags changing, because the journals could have different sets of tags. This was generally dealt with, but there was also a possibility that the transaction’s reference could become a duplicate on an account with a new tag, where that account did not allow duplicates on that view (i.e. as set in the account’s Unique Ref#s field). This condition was not detected in previous releases and could result in duplicate references being allowed on accounts where the references were supposed to be unique. This release fixes the problem.

    You can check whether this situation has occurred for any particular account. On the setup view of a report, each account has a Unique Ref#s field that can be set to default, debit, credit, ledger, or no. If the field is set to a value other than no, you can change it to no, commit the change, and then change the field back to what it was, and commit again. When you change Unique Ref#s from no to another value, checks are made to ensure that the ledger has no duplicate references, and an error message reports the first duplicate encountered. This is how you can detect whether unwanted duplicates have slipped through for any particular account.

  • The Tools>Import Records command recognizes utf-8 encoding.

    The Tools>Import Records menu command did not recognize the utf-8 byte order mark that indicates the file was exported in the utf-8 encoding. This release fixes the problem.

  • EFT file format for credit unions – last detail item not padded correctly has been corrected.
  • Adding a timecard to an employee’s collection of timecards, if that employee was not set up for timecard entry, caused an error. This is normal, but in this case the error was not checked soon enough and an item was created that could not be seen or committed or deleted. The only way out was to terminate the NewViews process with the task manager. This release fixes the problem.
  • Moving a member/tenant out with the Tools>Member/Tenant>Move Out caused an error posting to the vacancy loss account, but only when the member/tenant had no rent transactions.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.33.3 – Released May 16, 2019

This is a service pack for version 2.33.

  • New RGI items created with this release, with an effective date in 2018 or later, will have updates to: the ODSP Basic Needs table, CMHC utility charges/allowances, as well as new utility zones.
  • Performance has been improved in both speed and memory consumption.We have had substantial success reducing memory requirements on workstations and servers. The chance of “blowing” memory on large operations has been significantly reduced.

    Multi-user performance was improved by reducing the amount of network traffic without altering functionality in any way.

  • Transaction detail item tables can be sorted a variety of ways (e.g. Line number or Comment). Many users don’t know this, or don’t notice the chevron displayed in a column title, and are easily confused by a list of detail items sorted by something other than Line number. For example, an insert will add a new item at the bottom and “jump” the cursor (window) to the new item. If the items are sorted by Line number, the new item will appear where you’re positioned when you press insert. This is the normal case.The same problem was noticed many versions ago for a report’s table of accounts. For example, the accounts found on a balance sheet are typically ordered by Line number, giving the user the ability to insert items at the cursor position, and Block>Move items and groups of items.

    The solution for reports has been replicated for transaction detail items. When you attempt to sort by something other than Line number, you will be notified and reminded how to revert the sort back to Line number (i.e. click the Line number column title). Also, when you move to another transaction the detail items will be sorted by Line number by default.

  • RGI Calc Summary printouts for users with a long organization names are now formatted in a more pleasing manner.
  • The prompt displayed when you execute the menu command Go to>Find Column Value has been updated.

    An additional field displays the number of items selected. When the prompt is first launched, the number of items currently selected is displayed, and then updated as find operations are executed to find and select matching rows.

  • Server wouldn’t boot.

    Servers (including both a service and an old-style server) would not boot or re-start. This could happen when using the NewViews Windows service installer or when the service was attempting to re-start after a shutdown of any kind. “Technically” there was no actual bug. The problem occurred when the nv2_open_message.log file had grown “too large” and a delay was caused by a very slow low level processing routine. In this release the routine has been re-written and sped up significantly and the problem is fixed.

  • Print>Rent Receipts crashed when it encountered transactions of type PURCHASE.

    When Print>Rent Receipts was created it was anticipated that all transactions on tenant/member ledgers would be of type GENERAL or BANK. With this release transactions of any type are acceptable.

  • RGI Info items had two fields that couldn’t been cleared: Subsidy Override and Deposit. The behaviour is different if the fields values are zero or empty. Attempts to delete the values failed. This release fixes the problem.
  • Posting vacancy loss to tenant/member accounts with no RGI items crashed NewViews.

    To post to vacancy loss using the move out tool, the tenant/member account must have at least one RGI item. The market rent of the unit is being retrieved from the most relevant RGI item which is then used to calculate the vacancy loss for the remainder of the month.

  • CPP maximum was not respected when reached in a pay period with multiple checks.

    When the CPP deduction reached the maximum on the second or subsequent paycheck in a pay period the maximum was not respected and too much CPP was deducted. This release corrects the problem, and the debug log of the payrun (found in the payrun’s notes tab) has been updated to make the CPP calculations easier to follow.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.33.2 – Released January 24, 2019

This is a service pack for version 2.33.

  • United States 2019 tax calculation update.

    Includes seven newly updated states: Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.

  • Session states were sometimes incorrectly set to crashed.

    This problem only occurred when running a NewViews service; not when running an old-style server. When a connection item was deleted in a remote server, the user’s session state was set to crashed when it should have been set to terminated. Similarly, lost connections and workstation problems were set to crashed instead of disconnected. When the state was set to crashed the logout date was left empty. In this release, the session state is set to terminated or disconnected, and the logout date is set correctly.

  • Payruns processed in a multi-user situation will run much faster in the preview stage.
  • Changing views of a table using the window tab button now preserves the selected index, direction, and range begin and end settings. This will be a useful feature to users who use the Window>Define Columns prompt to add new views of tables.
  • A slowdown was experienced in the previous release.

    The previous release, 2.33.1.20181219, experienced a slowdown when using an old-style (-server) server, but there was no change for a service or for direct access. Some long-duration operations could take up to two or three times as long to complete.

    This slowdown was a side-effect of a fix, in the previous version, to an error dialog problem. Prior to that fix, an old-style server would restart for ordinary errors instead of simply displaying an error dialog. This release continues to fix that problem, but without the slowdown.

  • Bug encountered in window_template export/import.

    A rare bug could occur when object names contained spaces in the original window system from which window templates were exported. No templates pre-installed by NewViews contained such problems but the issue was encountered by a user who created custom window templates from an application database whose object names contained spaces. This release fixes the problem.

  • Pressing the Go Back button when positioned in a Tools>Pay Account preview/edit window or a Tools>Apply… preview/edit window could crash NewViews.

    This release simply dismisses the preview/edit and prompt windows.

  • The Tools>Pay Account and Tools>Apply… preview/edit windows display information about the active account. If the account’s name or description values contained a $ or square brackets (i.e. [ ]) NewViews crashed.

    This release fixes the problem.

  • Executing a Go to>Any Account command (i.e. ) followed immediately by rapid typing could put the typed characters in the field you where positioned on before the command.

    This release fixes the problem.

  • In some cases a “nothing” payroll timecard could cause a divide by zero error when calculating the distribution of employer contributions.

    This release fixes the problem.

  • Rarely, editing an RGI item could crash NewViews.

    When you attempt to edit an RGI item the rent journals are checked to see if the item has already been used to create a rent transaction. To find the list of rent journals the Tools>Create Transactions>Rent Register prompt settings are used. For example, if there are three versions of the prompt settings there are three possible rent journals to check. However, if one or more of the prompt settings did not specify a rent journal, NewViews crashed.

    In the release, prompt settings that do not specify a rent journal are skipped.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.33.1 – Released December 19, 2018

This is a service pack for version 2.33.

  • Includes Canadian January 01, 2019 tax calculation update.

    All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2019.

  • Includes United States January 01, 2019 tax calculation update.

    All United States payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2019.

    This release includes US payroll processing for federal taxes and 9 of the states that have released final specifications. These include: California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Indiana County, Yonkers local.

In most date entry cases, the initial value is empty so all 8 digits must be entered (i.e. ddmmyyyy). In this release, you only need to type the portion that’s different from “today”. For example, assume it is December and you need to enter a December date, just type the day number (i.e. the dd portion). To enter a November date, just type the ddmm portion. To enter a January 2019 date in December 2018 you still need to type all 8 digits.

Changes made in the prior release to permit transaction entry on ledgers in more circumstances caused an additional prompt to appear for many users that didn’t need it. This release restores the original behavior for those users.

  • A delay in opening a database (set of books) now displays a message instead of long pause.

    In prior versions, a workstation could be suspended while a user was trying to open a database. This occurred when trying to open a database that was in the act of performing a long-duration operation. In this situation, the workstation trying to open the database was suspended until the long-duration operation completed. A user might conclude that there was a problem with NewViews and would use the task manager to terminate the NewViews workstation. Had they waited, NewViews would have eventually opened the database and resumed.

    This release addresses the problem by displaying a message saying the server is busy, and suggests you wait a while and try again.

    A few examples of long-duration operations:

    • Converting a database to a new version, which also creates a backup.
    • Deleting a large block of items, such as transactions.
    • Backing up an application database (set of books).
    • Database-wide integrity checks or repairs.

    Note that this only applies to a database offered by a NewViews service, and not when offered by a old-style non-service (-server) server (see below for more on “old-style” non-service (-server)).

  • From time to time a red progress bar could “freeze”.

    If a long-duration operation is running on a database through a NewViews server, red progress bars will appear on workstations that have that database open. If a bug occurred in the server during this long-duration operation, it was possible for workstations with the red progress bars to appear frozen. In reality, the workstation would still be running but the mouse and keyboard would be disabled. This release corrects the problem.

  • A pet’s Age can now be entered directly.

    In prior releases, entering a pet’s age caused an error – you had to enter the pet’s birth date and the age would be calculated.

    Many members/tenants know the age of their pet, but can’t remember its birth date. In this release, you can enter either the age (which calculates a birth date), or you can enter the birth date (which calculates an age).

  • Old-style server restarted inadvertently upon encountering some errors.

    An “old-style” server is a server that is not run as a Windows service. Specifically, it is run using the NewViews>Server command in the Windows Start menu, or by specifying the -server option when running NewViews from a Windows command line. We now recommend running a NewViews server as a Windows Service, using the NewViews>Windows Service Installer command in the Windows Start menu.

    When a server or service encountered an “unexpected” error, i.e. an error was encountered while not processing a user-initiated action on the server, or by a workstation client connected to the server, then the server or service automatically restarted. However, in some cases, a regular error was inadvertently treated as an “unexpected” error. For example, suppose you were in the server windows system directly on the server computer, (i.e. an interface directly on an old-style server), and you entered the file path of a database to be offered by that server. If the file you entered could not be found you should get an error message to that effect but instead the server restarted. This would be confusing because there was no error message to indicate what went wrong.

    This release fixes the problem.

  • Checks/Cheques printed with negative amounts.

    Prior to this release, it was possible to print a negative check. Bank Payment transactions created in an Accounts Payable account ledger, could, in the right circumstances, set the stage for a negative check. These circumstances are now handled correctly and negative checks are no longer possible.

    Note: Remnants of the circumstances that caused this issue may remain in your books; cleaning them up is totally optional. For instructions, see Bank Payment Postings Flip.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.33 – Released October 31, 2018

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • This version introduces custom data, giving you the ability to track non-financial data for pets, parking and emergency contacts.
  • This version introduces the ability to print transaction receipts.
  • Vacant units and lost vacancy revenue can now optionally be tracked. The move out tool can record partial month lost revenue and the rent register tool can record vacancy revenue losses.
  • There are five new housing reports, created using the new command Print>Housing Reports.
    • Unit Specific AgePrints a list of all members/tenants in each unit, listing their age and birth dates. Sorted by unit number.
    • Age Group DetailsSame as Unit Specific Age but sorted by age instead of unit number.
    • Income Review RequiredPrints a list indicating when each unit is up for review. This report shows the next effective review date and how many days until that date. Units are sorted by urgency (fewest days until review).
    • Meeting Sign In SheetPrints a list of all members/tenants in the building. Note that the new Member/Tenant field in the Residents table must be set to yes in order for that member/tenant to appear on the report.
    • Housing Income Limit (HIL)This report is much more complicated than the other reports listed above. The HIL report calculates average incomes for RGI units and categorizes them into families, seniors, non-elderly singles and special needs (a new field).
  • In prior versions, there were two RGI information views for member/tenant accounts (Rent Detail and Rent Summary).

    In this version, there are still two RGI information views but the columns have been changed and rearranged. There is now a Rent Settings view and a Rent Summary view, with new columns for vacancy and household layout.

  • Every USER object created in an application database (to grant access) has a pair of dates to control transaction activity. Setting Transaction Edit Begin Date and Transaction Edit End Date values for a user allows you to “pin” the user’s transaction activity in that date range. For example, most users might be confined to the current fiscal year, but senior staff might have access to the prior year until financial statements and tax returns are finalized and filed.

    However, as NewViews users branch out their use of NewViews, this mechanism is too heavy handed (e.g. more complex budgets/estimates/bids, schedules/plans, contact activity, etc.). To help in these situations an additional USER access option has been added: Transaction Range Check Control. This access option is used to grant a user the right to control a new JOURNAL field: User Date Range Check. Every journal can now have transaction edit date range checks enabled or disabled, by a user granted rights to make the change. Typically, the financial transactions will continue to be checked, so the default journal option is to check.

  • In this version, you can be positioned on an amount column in the account table and add ledger items. If the ledger’s journal column default is set, it will be used. If it is not set, you will be prompted to select a journal (shown below). A list of all journals (respecting the configured pick roots) with a tag that matches the account table cell’s tag is presented for selecting a journal.

    It is important to note that creating ledger items (which are literally journal transaction items) can only be used to create simple transactions, or complex transaction headers.

  • This version also has relaxed the selection rules, by automatically populating the data of the transaction with values that will cause the new ledger item to be selected in your current view. For example, if you activate an account table cell which displays the closed amount for the month of January, then position in the companion pane ledger, and press insert, a new ledger item will appear. It will be dated the last day of January, and the Reconcile value will be set to closed. You can edit any default values offered.
  • NewViews has a feature that allows the addition of custom data fields to all objects in the database. All tables have the View>Additional Info command for creating custom character string and date columns. This feature exists because it’s impossible to anticipate every bit of information that may be needed to model a particular organization’s activity and workflow.This version includes “under the hood” preparations for a more formal and convenient approach to additional info, which will be released in a future version.

    Two of the many parts of this project are exposed in this version.

    1. A script to analyse additional info in a set of books. This script will find and report the locations and usage counts of all additional info.
    2. A script to analyse additional info columns in a workstation. This script will find and report the tables that have additional info and the column titles used.

    A future version will use these roadmaps to convert application databases and workstations.

  • Transaction duplicate command no longer copies transaction references by default.

    The Tools>Create Transactions>Duplicate dialog has a reference field which, if left blank, caused the source transaction’s reference field to be copied to the newly created transactions. With this release that is no longer true. Instead, when the dialog reference field is left blank, the reference fields in the newly created transactions will be blank. If you want to copy the reference from the source transaction to the newly created transactions, you have to type the existing transaction reference value into the dialog reference field manually. The theory is that copying the reference to newly created transactions is the rarer case and creating transactions with an empty reference is the more common case.

  • The menu command Tools>Create Transactions>Rent Register has been changed to remove Next Reference# from the list of required settings. Also, if the Next Reference# prompt setting is blank, then each rent transaction’s Ref # value will be blank.
  • The command Print>RGI Calc for a block of members/tenants now skips accounts that have a blank RGI Calc Summary.
  • The member/tenant RGI Type behavior has been simplified. Prior to this version the type values encoded the year (e.g. ILM2017). This version has removed the year encoding (i.e. the field value is just ILM) and when processing the year is taken from the effective date of the selected RGI item.

    This change relieves you of the task of updating ILM RGI types every year.

  • Services were “hanging”, becoming zombies.

    We have continued the search for, and elimination of service “zombies”. A service zombie is a service that has an error but which has entered a zombie state, where the service “hangs”, instead of shutting down and restarting. The previous release eliminated some causes of service zombies but several occurances due to other causes were encountered since that release. We continued to address this issue with further testing and several additional problem cases have been eliminated. There should be fewer (hopefully no) zombie services with this release.

  • System date problem occurred in a virtual machine.

    NewViews continually compares audit record dates to the system clock and reports an error if the system clock is before the last audit record date. This error started to appear when a NewViews server was running in a virtual box (the guest), and the difference between the guest and host system clocks tended to be one second. The most likely explanation is that the guest clock is corrected from time to time to comply with the host clock, and the change results in the guest clock moving backward in time by one second. For the problem to occur, it is also necessary that more than one NewViews object is changed within the same second. This release works around the problem by waiting until the guest clock catches up to the last audit record date (assuming only a small difference).

  • NewViews service Startup Type changed to Automatic (Delayed Start).

    The NewViews service Startup Type used to be Automatic. In Windows 10, the service re-starts more reliably when the service type has the new value Automatic (Delayed Start). Note that the Windows Service Manager will still initially display the field with the old value Automatic after installing the NewViews service, but it will change to the new value if Windows is rebooted.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.32.4
Released June 25, 2018

This is a service pack for version 2.32.

  • Four new mail merge options and templates for:
    • Notice of Rent Decrease
    • Notice of Market Increase
    • Notice of Market Increase (N2)
    • Notice of Rent Not Changed
  • The signature portion of the RGI Calc Summary has been updated to include the Property Administrator, and the dates each party signed the document.
  • Canada July 01, 2018 tax calculation updates (PEI only). Ontario personal income tax rates, brackets and surtax changes for July 1, 2018 (included in service pack 3) have been rescinded.
    • Version 2.32 service pack 3 included Ontario personal income tax rates, brackets and surtax changes for July 1, 2018 as proposed on March 28, 2018 by the Ontario Liberal government. On June 20, 2018, we were notified by the Canada Revenue Agency that senior officials for the incoming Ontario government had confirmed that it does not intend to proceed with the changes to the Ontario personal income tax rates, brackets and surtax presented in the 2018 Ontario Budget. Service pack 4 reverts back to the Ontario personal income tax rates, brackets and surtax as at Jan 1, 2018 as set forth in the Payroll Deductions Formulas, 108th Edition, Effective July 1, 2018, T4127JUL(E) Rev.1
  • No more File>Save confirmation dialog box.
    • You still have to confirm before the file save operation but a dialog box no longer appears after the operation completes. Users didn’t like the extra and unnecessary click.
  • Number of service nodes changed.
    • Before this release, the NewViews service initially created 5 nodes and always kept 2 idle nodes available for instant use. In this release, only 1 node is initially created and 1 idle node is kept available for instant use.
  • Service nodes are no longer recycled.
    • Each service node serves a single application database. If many workstations have a database open, the node serving the database will have that many connections. Prior to this release, when the last workstation released a database, the database was closed and the node was “recycled” to serve a different database. With this release, the node shuts down when the last connection is closed and when any database is first opened, it is opened in a brand new node, instead of recycling an existing node. This approach helps avoid a number of low-level technical efficiency issues that can build up over time. It is only mentioned here because node names are numbered sequentially, and you may have noticed the node numbers increasing due to a normal turnover of database open/close activity, where in the past the same numbers were reused.
  • The Create Transactions – Rent Register prompt has a Next Reference # field.
    • The journal selected (in the prompt) for the rent transactions also has a Next Reference # field.The old behaviour would auto-populate the Next Reference # value of the rent transactions. The new behaviour will not, if the prompt’s Next Reference # value is set to empty.
  • Services were “hanging”, becoming zombies.
    • In some cases where bugs or certain errors occurred on an old-style server, or on the newer NewViews Windows service, the server would “hang” instead of shutting down and restarting as it was supposed to, entering a “zombie” state. In this zombie state, the process would be visible in the task manager but non-responsive to attempts to connect. Also, importantly, since the process did not shut down, it could not restart. We addressed this issue with considerable testing and code redesign and believe that many problem cases have been eliminated. There should be fewer zombie services with this release.
  • Small change in account editing rules.
    • You cannot change TotalTo fields and the Ledger Indexed field (which turns the postings on/off) at the same time. Change one field and commit the account. Then change the other field and commit again. Note, you can still change both field types when you first add an account.
  • TeamViewer was not being installed.
    • Due to an oversight, several previous versions did not install the TeamViewer program. This was only an issue for users installing for the first time. The TeamViewer program is once again installed in the NewViews installation folder.
  • Several esoteric bugs fixed.
    • A dozen bugs that typically crashed NewViews were fixed. When these bugs caused a crash, you could just restart NewViews and continue.
  • Excel bug 0x8002000b {Unknown error} fixed.
    • Some users were having problems printing. The reason is interaction between NewViews and Excel. We have fixed this bug for all cases known to us.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.32.3
Released June 18, 2018

This is a service pack for version 2.32.

  • Four new mail merge options and templates for:
    • Notice of Rent Decrease
    • Notice of Market Increase
    • Notice of Market Increase (N2)
    • Notice of Rent Not Changed
  • The signature portion of the RGI Calc Summary has been updated to include the Property Administrator, and the dates each party signed the document.
  • Canada July 01, 2018 tax calculation updates. Includes Ontario and Prince Edward Island.
  • No more File>Save confirmation dialog box.
    • You still have to confirm before the file save operation but a dialog box no longer appears after the operation completes. Users didn’t like the extra and unnecessary click.
  • Number of service nodes changed.
    • Before this release, the NewViews service initially created 5 nodes and always kept 2 idle nodes available for instant use. In this release, only 1 node is initially created and 1 idle node is kept available for instant use.
  • Service nodes are no longer recycled.
    • Each service node serves a single application database. If many workstations have a database open, the node serving the database will have that many connections. Prior to this release, when the last workstation released a database, the database was closed and the node was “recycled” to serve a different database. With this release, the node shuts down when the last connection is closed and when any database is first opened, it is opened in a brand new node, instead of recycling an existing node. This approach helps avoid a number of low-level technical efficiency issues that can build up over time. It is only mentioned here because node names are numbered sequentially, and you may have noticed the node numbers increasing due to a normal turnover of database open/close activity, where in the past the same numbers were reused.
  • The Create Transactions – Rent Register prompt has a Next Reference # field.
    • The journal selected (in the prompt) for the rent transactions also has a Next Reference # field.The old behaviour would auto-populate the Next Reference # value of the rent transactions. The new behaviour will not, if the prompt’s Next Reference # value is set to empty.
  • Services were “hanging”, becoming zombies.
    • In some cases where bugs or certain errors occurred on an old-style server, or on the newer NewViews Windows service, the server would “hang” instead of shutting down and restarting as it was supposed to, entering a “zombie” state. In this zombie state, the process would be visible in the task manager but non-responsive to attempts to connect. Also, importantly, since the process did not shut down, it could not restart. We addressed this issue with considerable testing and code redesign and believe that many problem cases have been eliminated. There should be fewer zombie services with this release.
  • Small change in account editing rules.
    • You cannot change TotalTo fields and the Ledger Indexed field (which turns the postings on/off) at the same time. Change one field and commit the account. Then change the other field and commit again. Note, you can still change both field types when you first add an account.
  • TeamViewer was not being installed.
    • Due to an oversight, several previous versions did not install the TeamViewer program. This was only an issue for users installing for the first time. The TeamViewer program is once again installed in the NewViews installation folder.
  • Several esoteric bugs fixed.
    • A dozen bugs that typically crashed NewViews were fixed. When these bugs caused a crash, you could just restart NewViews and continue.
  • Excel bug 0x8002000b {Unknown error} fixed.
    • Some users were having problems printing. The reason is interaction between NewViews and Excel. We have fixed this bug for all cases known to us.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.32.2
Released March 8, 2018

This is a service pack for version 2.32.

  • If household income for a unit exceeds market rent, negative subsidy amounts were generated. This release fixes the bug and will automatically recalculate any RGI items that have a negative subsidy.
    • This bug was introduced in version 2.32.0 (released February 9, 2018) and will likely only affect changes to RGI information made since February 9.
  • For federally funded housing providers with final adjustments there are two bug fixes.
    • The first bug, introduced in version 2.32.0 (released February 9, 2018), did not include final adjustments (if any) in the total rent calculation.
    • The second bug, introduced in version 2.29.0 (released July 27, 2016), caused final adjustments (if any) to be added after the minimum/market rent calculation was made instead of before.

If you encountered the first bug you will have to manually trigger a recalculation. Note that editing an RGI item’s information will trigger an automatic recalculation. To trigger a manual recalculation without editing any data, position in the Description column of the affected RGI item and press [Esc] followed by [F5].

If you encountered the second bug you may choose to recalculate or not. This is not a common bug and the amount of the error is less than or equal to the amount of the final adjustments.

You could recalculate now and communicate any change to the member/tenant, or you could let the RGI item stand as is and have the correction happen automatically next time a change to the member/tenant RGI information occurs.

NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.32.1
Released February 13, 2018

This is a service pack for version 2.32.

  • Email stopped working. This release has the sole purpose of fixing the ability to send email. The previous version included a new low-level package supporting email security but that package had a flaw. This release reverts to the original security package.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.32
Released February 9, 2018

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

Includes United States January 01, 2018 tax calculation update.  All United States payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2018.

  • This release includes US payroll processing for federal taxes and 11 of the states that have released final specifications. These include: California, DC, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina.

A common task is to print the transactions in one or more journals, for a specific date range. Although any transaction can be printed using commands such as Print>All, printing multiple transactions can be tedious. The Print>Journal Transactions command is used to print many journals or journal transactions with one operation, and offers several additional features.

A new Pin button has been added to the tool bar. This button allows you to instantly pin (set) your preferred layout and view.

The RGI item detail window tabs Calc Summary and Calc Detail have been consolidated into one Calc Summary tab. The print output has also been updated to display more information about the unit, and the reason for a calculation update.

You can enter deposit amounts for the unit directly on the blue RGI, Rent Summary or RGI, Rent Detail view of a table of tenant/member accounts, or you can enter deposits on individual RGI detail items.

  • External IP address was added to Help>About and Help>Net Performance.

    When connecting from outside your LAN (local area network) or Intranet, you need the External IP which is the router/gateway external IP.

    Your organization’s router/gateway must be configured to forward incoming connections on port 7890 to a particular computer within the Intranet (the I.P. address of the computer running the NewViews server.)

  • Canadian T5 Statement of Investment Income box 30 {Equity Linked Notes Interest} added.
  • Inventory account unit of measure fields are now inherited from the branch folder above. All accounts in the folder do not need to be set individually if they are all set to the same values. Just set the values on the bold total row at the end of the table of accounts.

    The inventory unit of measure fields are found on the Trade/Tax Info view of inventory accounts. They are:

    Inventory Unit of Measure
    Purchase Unit List
    Sale Unit List

  • Print>Account Ledgers now prints transaction detail items in the user sorted order, not the order created.
  • The error “Expected a year in the range 1903 to 2037 but encountered 1902” occurred in rare circumstances.

    This error was caused by cases where a table’s column date setting would cause other columns to reflect the new date, like transaction aging. If, for example, you tried to age receivables or payables at Jan 01, 1903, the aging columns would try to reach back into 1902. This causes an error.

    There were a handful of other very obscure cases where this sort of thing could happen, and they have been fixed. Any configuration that causes a column to attempt to reach back before Jan 01, 1903 is pinned at Jan 01, 1903.

  • Print>Consolidation Analysis had a bug when underlining. In some cases, the row after an underlined row was omitted.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.31.4
Released December 21, 2017

This is a service pack for version 2.31.

2018 Canadian Payroll.

  • Includes Canadian January 01, 2018 payroll calculation updates.

    All Canadian payroll users will require this version to process payroll after January 1st, 2018.

2018 US Payroll

  • The IRS anticipates late release of 2018 withholding tables, publications.

    The IRS anticipate issuing the initial withholding guidance in January reflecting the new legislation.
    Since the forms and publications are not available, this release allows United States payroll users to use the 2017 information to process payroll after January 1st, 2018.

  • Some sessions were marked “disconnected”. Application databases accessed remotely often had their session state set to “disconnected” when they should have been set to “closed”. The databases were properly closed in any case, and no harm was done.
  • Attempting to execute an Audit command on a payrun’s paylist caused a crash.
  • Quick edits to tables stacked in a “companion detail pane” situation could, in certain circumstance, cause a crash. Careful examination of a single case suggested a “scrub and harden pass”, which led to 30 additional precautionary changes.
  • In NewViews release 2.31.3 a small change caused an unintended consequence: pressing the Copy (or New) button on a print or tool prompt did not auto-name the new option settings.
  • It was discovered that in some circumstances it was possible to crash NewViews by using a print or tool prompt, and then at a later date executing a Window>Default Setup command (to replace the window that originally launched the prompt), followed still later by the use of the same print or tool prompt.Failure to find the original launch window caused a crash.
  • In NewViews version 2.31.3, a new consistency check was added to the Tools>Mail Merge command. Instead of waiting for MS Word to eventually fail on a mismatch between template fields versus data file fields, the consistency is quickly checked beforehand by NewViews. Unfortunately, custom user scripts written to filter data were forgotten.This release skips the pre-check when a custom script is driving the data gathering process.
  • A few examples of “deleted object” tests were found to be missing. Many prompts for tools and printing have fields that allow you to choose objects (e.g. accounts to post to, etc.). In some cases, when a chosen object was subsequently deleted, by you or another user, the prompt would crash at launch.This release fixes the cases where this error can occur.
  • Accounts Payable – T4A slips always reported a SIN number of “000000000” for a recipient of type “individual”, whether or not the SIN for the individual was entered properly.
  • Canadian payroll – some T4 (and Releve 1) Summary List column totals were not calculated (e.g. T4 Box 40 or Releve 1 Box W).
  • Canadian and USA payroll – setting a T4/W2 reporting year outside the Unix date range (1903-2037) caused a crash.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.31.3
Released November 3, 2017

This is a service pack for version 2.31.

The new script name had name block_close_balance_forward.qw_script and it is found in the .../nv2/nv2.dat/scripts folder. This script is similar to the block_close script found in the same folder, in that you mark a block of accounts and specify a begin and end date, and the script will close the ledger items in the specified period for all selected accounts.

The main difference is that the block_close_balance_forward script also adds a balance forward transaction to each account, setting the closed running balance of the period to zero, and adding an equivalent “balance forward” open amount for the next period. This script is used in association with Print>Statements which normally prints open-item statements, but when used with this new script, can print balance-forward statements.

  • Connection monitor displays megabytes.Upload and download volume was displayed in bytes. They are now displayed in megabytes.
  • Utilities calculations now switch on the year to the appropriate utilities tables, and new tables for 2017 are included.
  • Calc detail panes now include space for signatures, and the header layout is more informative.
  • A new income type for WSIB has been added, which is treated like regular income.
  • The NewViews service could silently hang and not restart.

    Investigation revealed that the service could hang when the service port (usually 7890) was accessed by an unauthorized outside entity, whether inadvertently, or due to a hacking attack on the port. Normally when a bug is detected in the service, the service will restart and workstations are notified that their connections are lost. In this particular problem the service was not restarted and the workstations were not notified. All NewViews processes appeared to hang.Steps have been taken so that the service will ignore and survive such unauthorized access, without the need to restart, and these steps have been successful under this release. Note also that this problem and it’s fix also apply when running the NewViews server directly (i.e. not as a windows service).

  • Bugs in a workstation could shut down the server as well.

    When a bug occurs in a NewViews workstation it should shut down the workstation but it should not affect servers on which the workstation has open application databases. However, in the case where the workstation had a remote server database open, a bug in the workstation would also shut down the corresponding server, and this would also cause lost connections on other workstations connected to the server. The server should eventually re-start, but this takes a while, and in any case, all other workstations would have to re-open their application databases on that server. This release fixes the problem. A bug in the workstation should have no effect on any server or any workstations connected to those servers.

  • Changing total to’s when semiloops are allowed could blow memory.

    This problem only applies to databases where semiloops are allowed in the account total-to structure. Semiloops are allowed only in old databases that have been “grandfathered” but it can be an important consideration when eliminating semiloops in these old databases. Re-totaling accounts near the top of the total structure (i.e. proof accounts or accounts near it such as total assets or liability & equity) could cause memory blowout. This is not a problem for the vast majority of databases where there are no semiloops, but in databases that have semiloops, it can make it difficult to re-total accounts in an effort to eliminate those semiloops.

  • [F3] for edit assist on a server file could cause an inadvertent error.

    This rather obscure problem occurred when pressing for edit assist when selecting a database file to offer on a server, but the problem only occurred when performing the selection in a window on a remote server.

  • Executing Tools menu commands after selecting only the “Total” row of a table crashed NewViews.

    Many folders in NewViews display all the items in the folder and a “phony” total row at the bottom (or top if sorted in reverse order). Examples of this would include the AP folder for vendors, or the AR folder for customers. This total row does not really exist as an item in the collection. It is a row for the folder itself, showing totals for the folder.In prior versions, marking this single row with a block or selection command, followed by a tool command crashed NewViews.

  • Occasionally, launching a Print or Tools prompt crashed NewViews.
  • Executing a Window>Copy Table Columns in a table launched to pick an item crashed NewViews.
  • Entering a zero amount for trade tax on a SALES or PURCHASE transaction item, when the tax account is unspecified, crashed NewViews.
  • Using the Block>Paste command for transactions or postings did not set the transaction date(s) to the specified value, when the transactions in the buffer had no date.
  • Executing a Tools>EFT Payment or Tools>EFT Deposit command on transaction that had no Bank account specified crashed NewViews. The same bug would occur if the “contra” account was not specified.
  • Executing an command to navigate from a ledger item to the corresponding journal entry (or vice versa) would crash NewViews if the destination folder was hidden or the operator’s access rights prohibited viewing the destination data.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.31.2
Released August 23, 2017

This is a service pack for version 2.31.

  • Canada July 01, 2017 tax calculation updates.
  • Includes Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.
  • The auto-reconcile dialog has a new field containing a list of user-defined pattern/account-name pairs. When importing transactions exported from the bank, you can automatically post the imported transactions to different suspense accounts depending on the imported transaction’s description. When a pattern is found in the transaction’s description, that transaction will post to the suspense account associated with the pattern. Multiple patterns can post to the same suspense account. If no pattern in the list matches a transaction’s description, the transaction will post to the default suspense account exactly as it did prior to this release.
  • A rent transaction’s revenue account was restricted in prior versions to accounts under /ACCOUNT/SALES. This release lets you select any account; i.e. any account under /ACCOUNT.
  • RGI items now have a Review Date column and a Review Reason column, as shown below. Also, notice the blue account table now displays the effective RGI item’s description.
  • Underlines improved on reports.When printing reports, underlined amounts required an extra line. With this release, amounts can be underlined on the same line; that is without using a separate report line for the underline. This works whether printing a report to Excel or directly to the printer.
  • Manuals and help are now provided in your web browser.Before this release the manual, dynamic help and several reports were displayed in temporary Windows compiled help (*.chm files). With this release the manual and help are displayed in your default browser. Several related displays and reports such as the auto-reconcile report are now also displayed in your browser.

    As it is no longer necessary to include manuals in NewViews updates, update downloads are significantly smaller.

  • RGI subsidy calculation rounding improved.During an RGI subsidy calculation, rounding was performed too early. This release fixes the problem.
  • Change to rent transaction additional charges.You can now enter negative values in additional charges when generating a rent transaction.
  • The Tools>Create Transactions>Rent Register command would stop on the first error.This release will skip errors and report them as a list at the end.
  • Prior to this release, RGI Summary and RGI Detail views of the blue member/tenant table displayed numbers re-calculated in a manner that respected the configured Preview Date. Also true for a rent transaction run.This was done to respect the changing ages of the children, which can change the RGI calculation. User feedback indicated that a better solution is to ignore the month to month age changes. A child’s age is now computed using the RGI item’s Effective Date, not the configured Preview Date.

    RGI Summary and RGI Detail views of the blue member/tenant table now display numbers from the RGI item selected by using the configured Preview Date, without re-calculation. Again, also true for a rent transaction run.

  • Had problem importing old ROE codes from NV1.This release fixes the problem.
  • Mail merge had problem generating form letters.The settings for creating a mail merge were behaving improperly for defaulted values. This release fixes the problem.
  • Print and consolidation prompts did not do percent substitutions.The print and consolidation prompts did not do percent substitutions at all. So %_name, %_description and %_clock subsitutions were added to them in this release. Note that print detail windows use the Print>All prompt.
  • Allocation tag counts were reported incorrectly.Transaction allocation tag usage counts were reported incorrectly. This release fixes the problem.
  • Attempt to change audit trail field changes resulted in a crash.If you attempted to edit the field list table in the detail pane of an audit record, the NewViews workstation crashed with a general protection fault. This release fixes the problem.
  • The user option Reconcile Safety did not function properly when the option value was entered in upper case.This release fixes the problem.
  • In a household with multiple “Child of Household” tenants who are receiving income, the rules applied were to the sum instead of to each individual.This release fixes the problem by applying the rules to each child individually.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.31.1
Released March 31, 2017

This is a service pack for version 2.31.

  • The backup reminder prompt may appear when exiting NewViews. At that time you could backup the database and exit, or skip the backup and exit. Now you have a third option which lets you simply return to NewViews; i.e. abort the exit altogether.
  • Several small changes were made to rent receipts, including an important bug fix (transactions dated on the last day of the month were missed). Other changes include improved prompt help and field validation. Also, the print run no longer stops on the first error. Instead, it skips errors and continues, but accumulates a list of error accounts which are reported in an error window at the end of the batch.
  • Rent Receipts has also been updated to function on discontguous blocks (i.e. individual items selected with a control mouse-click, and groups of items selected with shift mouse-click or shift up/down arrow).
  • Several small changes were made to move in/out. Prompt help and field validation have been improved. A notify prompt window will now appear when a member/tenant is being moved with a prompt configured to omit financial transactions, and a confirm prompt window will now appear when the prompt is configured to create financial transactions.
  • Mail merge for interacting with members/tenants relating to RGI and other residency issues has been simplified. For example, the five views of RGI for members/tenants that display mail merge information now each have their own group of mail merge settings, offering only the setup and templates that correspond to the view selected. Also, the groups of settings are now pre-populated with the “usual suspects” making it easier to get started with mail merge.
  • This release includes a new Work Order template has a field for the Submitted By Member/Tenant.
  • Retotaling restrictions are not affected by empty-date transactions.Transactions are protected by the user’s transaction edit date range options, with begin and end dates defining an allowed range. Transactions dated outside the edit date range cannot be changed or deleted (with minor exceptions such as they can still be reconciled, for example). An additional restriction was that you could not retotal an account that had any transactions outside the allowed edit date range.

    The change in this release is that you can retotal an account if the only transactions outside the edit date range are transactions with empty dates. Note that it was already allowed to change the date of a transaction from non-empty to empty, or the reverse, as long as the non-empty date in question was within the edit date range. So this release simply makes account retotaling retrictions more consistent with the restrictions on editing transactions.

  • MS Word’s error for field mismatches between the template and NewViews data is awkward so it has been replaced by a pre-check by NewViews. This allows more graceful error handling with an explanation of the problem and guidance on how to correct it.
NewViews for Non-Profit Housing Version 2.31
Released February 24, 2017

This is a version change, resetting the service pack number to zero. After installing this version, each workstation, server, or application database is automatically processed the first time you open it. You will be asked for confirmation before any processing is performed and, as a precaution, a backup is made automatically before each conversion.

  • Includes tools for moving members/tenants in, out, and internally.
  • Creates all necessary transactions involved in the move.
  • Creates rent receipts for a block of members/tenants. Includes simple and detailed print templates.
  • The additional info string fields could not process quote or brace characters. These are the View>Additional Info Column>String Field>String 1-10 fields. They could display an error if quote or brace characters were entered.
  • Canadian EFT bank settings would not accept a Bank ID value of 0016 (i.e. HSBC).