NPD Update  3.41 (01/14/00)

About This Update

The following modifications have been added since the last update of 11/09/99:
  1. The sort of the PP Changes report was changed to match the sort on the Post’s Office Pay Credit List report.
  2. An error in the credit calculation for some service downgrades has been corrected.
  3. A new button, Replace Copies/Edition, has been added to the change of posted service changes. The main purpose of this button is to downgrade a promo end from DS to SO. (Sorry it took so long for me to do this one!)
  4. An Ad Code has been added to the Routes by Route No screen. This is for the zoning of ZIP codes for Giant Food ads. Place a code for each route. Use ZZZ for no Ad Code. The Daily Draw Sheet on the Prepare Daily Draw screen will then subtotal papers for each Ad Code. The Ad Codes are displayed on the two Driver Drop reports and, when Show Paper Counts is selected, on the Carrier Mail. Sample codes you may use are:
  1. The Financial Summary on the Financial Switchboard has been upgraded. Now you can specify the date range for the summary. This permits quarterly, semiannual, as well as year to date values.
  2. You may now pick the Ancillary Service Endorsement for your bills. This option is on the Bill Messages screen. While all four endorsements are available, only Return Service Requested and Address Service Requested will apply to most. If you select any other than the standard Return Service Requested endorsement, you are warned that you may want to check with your Post Office before selecting that endorsement.
  3. The Carrier Mail has a new option: Generate 2nd Notice. The 2nd notice feature was introduced with the last update. Due to your requests, it is now an option.
  4. A Bill-To Search button has been added to the Daily Mail screen. Use it to find a customer by its Bill-To address. Only customers with a different bill-to may be found this way.
  5. A Change Route Number has been added to the Routes Switchboard. Use this function to renumber a route.
  6. A Year Bill Type has been added. It will bill for exactly one year. The 52-week Bill Type bills for 52 weeks, which is not quite the same.
  7. The flaw in the paper counts on the Good Start Status reports has been fixed.
  8. The Y2K glitch that gave you a year of 200 instead of 2000 when you omitted the year during date entry has been fixed. In addition, a number of screens and reports have been adjusted to make sure enough space has been reserved to display the date. Send an email to NPD@ACORNDATA.COM if you spot one I missed.

 

For Your Information

 

  1. Get your NPD Updates On-line. – Now NPD updates are posted on our web page for downloading. The plan is to post the update just after the master update diskettes are sent off for reproduction. (It takes about three days to get the copies back, a day to stuff them into mailers, and a day or two for the post office to deliver them to you.) Downloading can get you the update almost a week earlier than waiting for the diskettes. If you would like to sign up for this, send an email to NODISKS@ACORNDATA.COM. Be sure to include your name in the message body, as sometimes I can’t figure it out from your email address.

    P.S. Those of you whose email addresses I knew were notified about the on-line program to adjust for the Post’s 2-day extension of the 13-week special. This happened so fast that emails to you and downloads from Acorn’s web page were the only vehicle available.
  2. Windows 3.1 and 3.11 – It has become difficult to continue to support Windows 3.x. The PC used for 3.x support had a hard drive crash. Since it was a 33Mhz 486, it was discarded instead of repaired. If you continue to need Windows 3.x support, please contact me. These update diskettes will not work on a Windows 3.x PC.
  3. Windows 2000 – NPD should work well under Windows 2000.

To install this update

Insert disk 1 of 2 and use Install NPD Update in NPD Tools. Be sure to select SETUP.EXE for the update file name.

 

Earl O. Merrill

Acorn Data Systems, Inc.