News From GMS a publication for GMS clients Volume 27, No. 2 GMS Summit 2015 30th Annual GMS Financial Management Conference June 21 - 26, 2015 - Denver, CO Don’t forget to mark your calendars and plan to attend the 30th Annual GMS Financial Management Conference to be held in Denver, CO, June 21-26, 2015. As in previous years, the conference will be divided into two segments with the regular conference June 21-24 followed by intensives June 25-26. Sunday, the 21st will offer registration during the day followed by our Welcome Reception on Sunday evening, featuring Frank Sinatra impersonator, Don D’Angelo. Our 2015 conference is being held at the Grand Hyatt Denver, conveniently located one block from the mile long 16th Street Mall, featuring a free shuttle, shopping, dining, and entertainment. Performing arts, museums, landmarks, and Colorado Rockies baseball are all less than 1 mile away. Denver offers something for everyone! February 2015 In this Issue   GMS Summit 2015 Early Bird Special Page 2  How   to Justify Conference Attendance Updating Multiple Databases Dates in RLSS Page 3  GMS Webinar - Cost Allocation Supplements Page 4  Conference Attendance/Benefits Worksheet For complete conference information, please visit the GMS 30th Annual Summit site at https://www.gmsactg.com/gms-summit-2015.html. This site includes everything you need GMS, Inc. including the agenda, accommodations, special offers and a place to register online. Also, 10559 Metropolitan Avenue Kensington, MD 20895 watch future issues of News from GMS for a brief description of each session. Who Attends the GMS Conference? Phone: 800-933-3501 Fax: 301-933-3502 E-mail: [email protected] If previous years are an indication, we can expect close to 300 participants from GMS client organizations located throughout the country. Attendees include fiscal staff, auditors, revolving loan management staff, Executive Directors, human resource staff and program managers. Many GMS clients view this as annual in-service training for their fiscal personnel. In addition to the scheduled sessions, the conference offers a great opportunity to discuss issues and solutions with other GMS clients Last Call for Special “Early Bird” Pricing! who might be experiencing the same situations as your agency. Are you planning to attend the GMS Summit From strictly a GMS viewpoint, we wish all GMS clients could 2015 this June in Denver, CO? If so, time is attend, since the conference is our best way to provide you with running out to take advantage of our special the most up to date information on using GMS software, audit “Early Bird” pricing. standards, human resource issues and other information important to all GMS clients. Every member of the GMS staff will be REGISTRATION FEES at the conference providing a tremendous opportunity for face-to Regular Conference “Early Bird” fee is $425; after February 15, 2015, $495 -face consultation and assistance. Special 1 1/2 Day Intensives Continued on page 3 “Early Bird” fee is $325; after February 15, 2015, $395 Register HERE today! Page 2 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS Present versions of Software are: How to Justify Conference Attendance By Mike Doyle As a manager you may often be faced either with your own need to attend a professional conference or requests by your team members to attend one. Professional conferences can be expensive and not all budget managers understand their importance or the benefits derived by conference attendees. In this article, Mike Doyle discusses how to go about justifying the expense of attending a conference and provides some handy worksheets you can use to do so. As a manager, how do you propose any allocation of resources in your organization? You need to understand two components to make decisions:  Expense (the investment)  Return on Investment This article provides some easy-to-use tools to help you calculate the investment and identify your return. Understanding Your Conference Expenses Conference expenses are affected by a number of factors. Before you can even begin to justify conference expenses, you need to calculate what those expenses are. To do so, use the following Expenses Worksheet to develop a cost estimate for attending your selected conference. Expenses Worksheet Expense Conference Registration Pre & Post Conference Class Registration (if applicable) Materials Fees (if any) Flight Lodging Guideline Cost $ $ Usually optional $ $ $ Transportation: Airport to hotel & back Mileage Reimbursement Parking Reimbursement Books? Software? Media? Airline websites Conferences usually have special rates with the hotel If flying: Taxi? Car rental? To conference or to airport & return For flight or at hotel Food Per Diem Your Agency’s policies $_____ Subtotal $ $ $ $ Multiply by number of employees attending Total cost (may not need mileage & parking reimb for all employees) #_____ $ Continued on page 4 Dates in RLSS When entering Loan Activity in the RLSS software since you’ve updated to a new computer, are you receiving odd dates in the New Paid Thru Date and Next Payment Due fields? If yes, this can be easily remedied. Exit your RLSS System. Left click on your Windows Start button. Select Control Panel. (Control Panel may be found under Settings on some computers.) For Windows 7 machines, select Clock, Language & Region followed by Region & Language Options. On the Formats tab, change “Short date” to be MM/dd/yyyy. This will correct the date issue. While on this same tab, we recommend you also select Additional Settings, Date Tab and change “When a 2-digit year is entered, interpret it as a year between” to be 1960 to 2059 to avoid future problems with your Aging Report. Once you’ve made these two changes, click on Apply followed by OK on both screens. VOLUME 27 NO. 2 Accounting 1.2.300 RLSS 1.0.0.11 Updating Multiple Databases Part of your Year End procedures may include making a copy of the previous year’s database, placing it in a separate folder and point the ODBC setup using convert1 or convert2, etc. This is particularly useful to allow you to go back to a previous fiscal year and generate a report without having to go through the reverse roll forward process. If this is a practice your organization follows, it is imperative that as you receive GMS software updates from our office, you follow the update procedure and update all accounting databases you access through the GMS software. This is necessary to help assure you will be generating accurate reports from all fiscal years. This rule also applies if you have purchased additional databases from GMS for multiple companies. Page 3 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS GMS Summit 2015 VOLUME 27 NO. 2 Computer Clinic In addition to specific sessions, the Computer Clinic is open throughout the regular conference giving you an opportunity to test drive any GMS product. GMS staff members are available in the Computer Clinic at all times to answer questions and proSession Highlights vide assistance. In the Computer Clinic you can experiment and In addition to sessions led by GMS staff featuring training on the practice as much as you want! GMS Accounting and Financial Management and the Revolving Loan Servicing System, we will offer new sessions on the Super One-on-One Appointments Circular plus an internal controls session, both presented by Get the most value for your conference attendance and schedule CPA, Jason Brooks. Additional new sessions will be Remaining a one-on-one appointment with one of our Service & Support Healthy in an Office Environment plus for our Revolving Loan Specialists to discuss face-to-face your specific issues. A limited Clients, BMI will present On-line Pre-qualifications and Loan number of appointment slots are available and must be preApplications! scheduled by contacting Robin Berseth. Her phone # & email are listed at the end of this article. Training will take place during the regular session and also in the intensives to be held immediately after the regular conference. As in the past, the computer clinic provides an excellent oppor- Intensives The post-conference Intensives are always well attended as you tunity for hands-on training and working with all aspects of the have the opportunity for a very detailed session on your topic of GMS software. choice. These 1 1/2 day concentrated courses have been refined with years of experience and are in great demand year after year. Up to four concurrent sessions are scheduled in each time slot providing a choice of topics useful to your organization. Choose from any one of these topics: continued from page 1 Accounting Sessions Accounts Payable Processing Payroll Processing Month End Processing Basics of Year End Part 1 and 2 Report Writer Basics Part 1 and 2 Report Writer Advanced Bank Rec and Other Tools Functions Accounting Setups & Master Files Overview of Accounts Payable Supplements Overview of Payroll Supplements Overview of Selected GL Supplements Overview of Year End and Audit Supplements Accounts Receivable & CR Processing Importing, Exporting and Paperless Filing GMS Cost Allocation Options Q&A with Accounting Staff Balance Sheet Reconciliation NEW! Super Circular by Jason Brooks, CPA NEW! Time & Attendance by Debbie Sabin NEW! Sessions for RLSS System Users RLSS Setups, Master Files and Schedules RLSS Reports and Master Query RLSS Features and Supplements Handling Special Situations within GMS-RLSS On-line Pre-Qualification and Loan Applications NEW! General Sessions for all Users   Remaining Healthy in an Office Environment NEW! Design and Implementation of Internal Controls by Jason Brooks, CPA “They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.” ~Bil Keane Training on the Accounting Software Year End Procedures/Preparing for Audit Laptop Training on RLSS We hope that we will see you at GMS Summit 2015 in Denver. For further information on conference activities, please feel free to contact Robin Berseth, our Event Director at 800.933.3501, extension 403. Page 4 NEWS FROM GMS A PUBLICATION FOR GMS CLIENTS How to Justify Conference Attendance  continued from page 2 Understanding the Benefits VOLUME 27 NO. 2 Training. Will there be workshops designed to teach attendees a special skill and/or help your team overcome current or future challenges? Quantifying the Benefits Let’s face it: many benefits from conference attendance are hard to quantify. For example, many experts agree that the top benefit of Although you might understand the benefits of the conference that conference attendance is networking value. Where else can you interests you, your manager may not. Therefore, to be most effecfind so many industry contacts facing the same issues as your ortive in justifying the conference, you need to clearly articulate the ganization? Are there solutions you’re not aware of? connection between your organization’s knowledge requirements Although networking is undoubtedly the most important aspect of a and the conference program. DO NOT assume that your manager conference, it is also the toughest for which to quantify any value. will be able to automatically make those distinctions. On the other hand, if an employee came to you and said, “I want you to fund me for $4000 and I don’t know what it’ll do for you,” then you would likely scoff at the offer…and maybe even mumble a few colorful metaphors about his/her suggestion. When you propose a conference for approvals, don’t focus on how much you want to go; focus on what you will specifically bring back to the organization as payback for the investment. Some specific details you’ll need to identify include:    Session content. What sessions have particular relevance to your organization’s work? Specifically identify:  Tools (authoring tools, content management systems, etc.)  Technologies (XML, DITA, etc.)  Processes (structured writing, single-sourcing, etc.) Vendor contacts. Will the conference showcase vendors with tools you use or are evaluating for potential future use? Is this an opportunity during which you’ll be able to compare competing tools? Best practices. Will there be training sessions in areas that will immediately benefit your group? To support this process, use Benefits Worksheet below to help you focus on the benefits. Use whatever makes sense for your particular organization and conference, and omit the rest. It’s All in the Selling After you have identified the specific knowledge benefits, you’ve provided both the expenses & benefits your manager needs to decide the value of your proposition. Salespeople work the same way. They don’t let customers infer the value of what they are selling, they make that leap for them. Sell your conference proposition! About the Author Mike Doyle has been in the technical documentation & training business for almost 25 years, as a manager, author, teacher, & conference organizer. He founded the Documentation & Training Conference (www.doctrain.com). Reprinted with permission of www.writingassist.com Benefits Worksheet Your Organization’s Benefits *be sure to change these topics to fit your agencies needs Networking Benefits Teambuilding (if sending a group) Specific Needs & the Sessions That Meet the Need This conference will allow (specific team members) to network with other professionals & vendors in the industry. We will be able to take the pulse of what is happening for tools, technologies, & processes & hear ideas we weren’t even aware of. This conference will help build our team, providing a forum for team members to discuss tools, technologies, & processes & how we might apply them in our company to improve our information products, workflow, & processes. Current Tools Future Tools Exploration Current Technologies Future Technologies Exploration Current Processes Future Processes Exploration Vendors with Tools & Technologies That You Are Exploring