JUNE 2009

Welcome to June’s Insider! Instead of a Featured Article this month, our General Manager, Will Anderson, has written a Mid-Year Update Letter to keep you “in the loop” as to our plans for continued success for 2009 and beyond.

The Important Reminders section provides information on changes to the Canadian Payroll tax tables effective July 1,2009.  Note that there are no changes to the U.S. Payroll tax tables for July.

Make the most of your Jonas Software! Take advantage of our online training through our economical Webinar courses.  Course descriptions and schedules are outlined in the Upcoming Training Webinars section.  Be sure to register early as space is limited!

Want to know who you’re talking to? Meet the face behind the voice, Umal Nurbhai, featured in this month's Know Your Support Rep section.

Do you think you’re a Jonas Software expert? Test your knowledge in our FAQ’s and Helpful Hints section provided to you by our support team.

Remember to keep your Jonas release up-to-date with the latest enhancements.  Go to Product Updates to guide you through this process.

We want to hear from you! If you have ideas or suggestions for improving the Jonas Insider, please forward these to us via e-mail.

Dear Jonas Clients:

Like pretty much the rest of the construction market, Jonas has found the first half of 2009 to be challenging. While we are continuing to add clients and install new systems, we are certainly down significantly from last year.  One bright spot would be that we have lost very few customers (we have had a retention rate of over 97% on our support contracts) which has given us the confidence to continue to invest in our product and service offerings in anticipation of better times. As we reach towards the midpoint of the year, we wanted to give everyone a quick update of the work that we are doing to improve our performance for 2009 and beyond. The highlights are as follows:

Support:
In the first half of 2009, we added two new staff to our support team to help us ramp up to offer Direct Answer support. Over the past ten years or more, Jonas, like most other software companies in our space, offered support through a call-back system - when you call, we triage the issue and have support rep's call the client back. In January, we started to experiment with Direct Answer. A support approach where the rep taking the call attempts to resolve the call on the first contact. Resolving calls on the first contact is obviously preferable for our clients and it improves our efficiency by eliminating the back and forth “phone tag” required in the call-back system.

At this point, Direct Answer is still a work in process for us. During our trial, we were taking about 10% of calls through Direct Answer and as of June 1, our objective is to achieve 50% and grow from there. All of that is to say that many calls will still go through the old channel as we roll this system out. Direct Answer is not a system that is going to address every call. The objective is really to take care of the less complex issues so that you do not have to wait for a resolution. More difficult issues will be researched by the Direct Answer rep but will still need to be escalated to more senior team members to resolve. This will still require a call back.

Direct Answer is very exciting for us as it is going to allow us to take a massive step forward in terms of the level of service. As we continue to roll this out, we are very interested in your feedback. Regardless if you have positive or negative feedback, please feel free to email our support director (Angela Brutto) to let her know how we are doing. We expect this program to continue to improve as we gain experience working with it.

Account Management
A little over a year ago, we created an Account Management group to offer more proactive service to our clients. This group started out working on mass communication programs including this newsletter, user groups and the eTraining courses. In early 2009, the group decided to embark on a program to ensure that all clients get a check-in call at least once a year (and preferably twice.) At present we are ahead of schedule with only about 200 more clients to contact.

The purpose of the client calls is to give clients an update on new enhancements and products and to give our clients a chance to tell us about any nagging issues that they may have. The Account Management team is also performing brief system audits to help our clients get more out of their Jonas solutions. If you have not yet heard from our account managers, you will soon. If you would like to speed that process along, please email Karoline Lapko to schedule an appointment with your assigned account manager.

Enhancements
We are now halfway through development of our version 12.0 product release (to be ready in early 2010). Over the past few versions we have made a number of major product enhancements including Project Management in job costing, Design Your Own Forms and tasking/checklists in service.  With these and other projects complete, we now feel that we have very strong functionality in our core products. With version 12.0 we are shifting focus slightly and are embarking on a program to review different elements of the system to improve ease of use. Jonas is a very large and powerful system but it is not always as intuitive as we would all like.

In version 12.0 the most obvious change will be the look and feel. We are making some improvements to the screen layouts to make the system easier to navigate. Going forward from that we will be picking elements of the system to review in detail to renew and rethink. The first of these projects will be a review of the Accounts Payable, Inventory and Purchase Order modules which will commence in the fall of 2009. We are currently mining our CRM system to capture all the issues and are engaging users on what they would like us to improve. While the prime objective of this program is to improve usability, we will also be adding in new functionality to these modules from our wish list so you will certainly continue to see some interesting new features added as we move forward.

New Product
From 2007 through to 2009 we roughly doubled the size of our development team. A large portion of this growth was aimed at building new modules to complete the Jonas offering. In the last two or three years we have released the following products:

• Jonas Mobile: Allows dispatchers to send work orders to field technicians complete with call details and equipment history on a mobile device. Technicians can also create their own work orders, quotes and purchase orders on the device.
• Jonas Digio (Document Management): A fully featured document management solution for Jonas. The product is fully integrated with Microsoft Office and Windows and certain elements of Jonas. We are in rapid development of this product to tie it tighter into the Jonas solution.
• eService: A product that allows our clients to let their customers log work orders and view account details such as invoices and equipment history online
• eTimesheets: Allows remote workers and foremen to log labour hours online rather than submitting Excel based and paper timesheets. We are in the process of adding calendaring options to help manage vacations and sick time.
• Project Management: A free upgrade to those clients who have purchased the comprehensive Change Order module. Project Management will help contractors manage RF’s, RFQ’s, submittals, transmittals and other documents related to a job.
• eRouting: COMING SOON - A Google map integration that allows service contractors to see GPS enabled trucks and work orders on an online map.

If you are interested in seeing any of these new modules, please speak to your account manager.

Jonas and Social Media
One of the projects I am most involved in is our experiment with Social Media using LinkedIn, Twitter, and various blogs to help keep on top of construction industry news and promote Jonas. I have to admit that I was dubious of these tools at first, but after using them I saw that my skepticism was misplaced. Using these tools, I am getting a constant feed of relevant information keeping us on the cutting edge of the industry. I have also taken to writing a blog on construction technology to share the information I have gathered by talking to customers, competitors, prospects and other industry professionals. Click on any of the logos below if you are interested in following Jonas in the Web 2.0 Space.

Of course there are other things happening. We are still selling new licenses and doing installs. We are expanding our eTraining courses and are looking at improving our online Knowledge Base and customer portal. It is sometimes daunting to see all these projects in front of us but we are by and large excited by the challenge and are encouraged to see ways to continue to drive improvement for several years to come.

I would like to close this letter by thanking you for your ongoing business and support. While we are not always perfect, I hope that you are seeing consistent improvement in the Jonas product and our services. As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me at any time. I am always interested in talking to Jonas customers to learn more about how we can improve upon our products and services.

Sincerely,

Will Anderson
General Manager – Jonas Software

The July 1, 2009 Canadian Payroll update can be performed in one of two ways – it is your choice!

Note: There is no need to wait until you have completed your final June 2009 payroll before applying this update. The Jonas system is date sensitive; thus it will process your payroll using the appropriate tax tables for the pay period you select.

METHOD ONE: For only versions 11.8, 11.9, and 11.2 the first method of performing the update is by simply downloading the current Jonas Product Update and running it.

If you are downloading a “Product Update” for the first time, please read the “Install Instructions” located below the list of available Product Updates. This will promote the successful completion of this process.

METHOD TWO: For versions 11.6, 11.8, 11.9, and 12.0 if you don’t wish to perform the Jonas Product Update you can download only the Payroll Update (July2009Payroll). This method applies to version.

IMPORTANT - BEFORE YOU BEGIN

If your company is currently running a version lower than version 11.6, please call Jonas Software at 1-800-352-6647 or 905-886-0544 to arrange for an upgrade CD.

ENSURE THAT no one is accessing any component within the Jonas Payroll menus before starting the update.

PERFORMING THE UPDATE

METHOD ONE – Updating Payroll via the Jonas Product Update
For version 11.8, 11.9, and 12.0

This method updates your Jonas software AND applies the new payroll changes.

If you elect to use METHOD ONE by downloading a “Product Update” and you are unfamiliar with this process click on “Step-By-Step Install Instructions” to review the process.

Follow the instructions in the “Step-By-Step Install Instructions” to apply the update.

Note: The instructions state that you can perform the Jonas Update with users accessing Jonas. FOR THIS SPECIAL PAYROLL UPDATE ONLY ENSURE THAT NO ONE IS ACCESSING PAYROLL for the duration of this update.

You can skip the following section and move to the section entitled ‘VERIFY THAT YOUR JONAS PAYROLL HAS BEEN UPDATED’.

METHOD TWO – Payroll File Update Only
For Versions 11.6, 11.8, 11.9, and 12.0

This method applies the new payroll changes ONLY.

1. From the Products Update screen, select the link July2009Payroll.

Note: Depending upon your Internet Browser settings you may be warned about ‘downloading malicious files’ or some other similar message. The Jonas update is verified as ‘virus free’ using McAfee VirusScan software. Simply select YES (or the appropriate response to allow the download).

2. When you are prompted to ‘SAVE’ or ‘RUN’, always select the Save button. The Save button is located on the bottom right of the screen. The download should now start (you should see a download screen indicating progress).

3. You will now be positioned in the ‘Save As’ screen. Select the “Desktop” icon, which is found on the left side of the display. You should now see “Desktop” at the top of the screen as the location where the update will be saved.

4. Now select the Save button on the bottom right of the screen. The download should now start (you should see a download screen indicating progress).

5. Once the download has completed select the CLOSE button on the download screen. You can also log out of the Jonas website and then close your Internet session if you’d like.

6. Go to your Windows desktop and locate the newly created icon, which should have a description of July2009Payroll.exe (or very similar).

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENSURE THAT EVERYONE IS OUT OF PAYROLL!

7. Select the July2009Payroll.exe icon and the update should commence.

8. A Jonas Welcome! screen will appear.

Note: If the Welcome! screen does not appear, repeat steps 1 through 8. If the problem persists, please email Jonas at support@jonassoftware.com or call Jonas Software at 1-800-352-6647.

9. Click on the Next button.

10. A screen indicating that Installation Completed! should appear upon successful completion of the update (you should see this screen within a minute or two, maybe even seconds).

Note: If you don’t see the Installation Completed! screen or the message “Unable to locate Jonas Software” appears, LEAVE YOUR TERMINAL ‘AS IS’ AND CALL US IMMEDIATELY at 1-800-352-6647.

VERIFY THAT YOUR JONAS PAYROLL HAS BEEN UPDATED

Note: This step is ESSENTIAL. DO NOT IGNORE this step!

1. Click on Explore to choose the network drive where Jonas resides (usually J: drive). Go to GJCWIN\PAYROLL and locate GJW18AJ.09.

Note: If you do not locate the program, go back to Step One. If the problem persists, please call Jonas Software at 1-800-352-6647 or 905-886-0544.

WHAT’S NEW IN PAYROLL FOR JULY 1, 2009?

Federal Changes

There are no changes to the federal tax rates, income thresholds or personal amount required for the July 1, 2009 Payroll Update.

Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI)

There are no changes to CPP or EI for July 1, 2009

Provincial and Territorial Changes:

Changes announced in recent 2009 Provincial Budgets influence only New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan. All other provinces have no changes to provincial/territorial tax rates or other areas relating to payroll.

2009 Provincial Budget Highlights

New Brunswick – Changes have been made, as follows, to the provincial tax rates and tax brackets:

• 9.18% (formerly 10.12%) on income less than or equal to $35,707;
• 13.52% (formerly 15.48%) on income greater than $35,707, but less than or equal to $71,415;
• 15.20% (formerly 16.80%) on income greater than $71,415, but less than or equal to
$116,105; and
• 16.05% (formerly 17.95%) on income greater than $116,105.

The provincial labour-sponsored funds tax credit (factor LCP) has been changed. Retroactive to March 18, 2009, the tax credit rate has been increased to 20% (formerly 15%).

Newfoundland and Labrador – In the provincial budget, the provincial labour-sponsored funds tax credit (factor LCP) has been increased to 20% (formerly 15%).

Saskatchewan – In the provincial budget, the provincial labour-sponsored funds tax credit (factor LCP) has been increased to 20% (formerly 15%).

For Additional Information:
Visit the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4127-jul/t4127-jul-09e.pdf

Inventory – Advanced Session

Date & Location: Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009  
Session Length: 3 hours
Session Time: 1:00pm EST
Location: Webex
Fee: $200 per connection
Trainer: Gary Nowak
Course Description: Learn how our multi-faceted, fully functional inventory tracking system can help you maintain complete control over your stock and material. The session will cover the following topics:

• Setup Inventory, Bill of Materials and Assemblies
• Inventory processing – charging parts to job, work orders, equip etc
• Serialized Parts, UPC codes
• Standard vs. Average Costing
• Warehouses – tracking and moving parts
• Parts invoicing
• Supplier & Seller’s price list
• Inventory Count & Update
• Scanning
• Best practices & Common problems
• Key reports

Spots are limited, so register now.

Job Costing – Advanced Session

Date & Location: Thursday, June 25th, 2009 
Session Length: 3 hours
Session Time: 11:00am EST
Location: Webex
Fee: $200 per connection
Trainer: Gary Nowak
Course Description: This session is designed to help you manage your jobs more profitably, more efficiently and more effectively. This session will explore the various methods available for you to collect and track job costs, revenue, labour and equipment hours, material consumption units and productivity units.  The session will cover the following topics:

• Job Cost System Profile – Key flags and options
• Job Estimates & Takeoffs
• Processing Invoices & Common Problems
• Holdback/Retainage
• Multiple Billing Options
• Various Progress Billing Options & Procedures
• Progress Billing Integration to AR and JC – Common Problems
• Forecasting
• Report Generation
• Integration into other Jonas modules
• Job Scheduler
• Review of Key Reports for Project Managers & Executive Dashboard

Spots are limited, so register now.

Purchase Order - Beginner Session

Date & Location: Friday, June 26th, 2009
Session Length: 3 hours
Session Time: 11:00am EST
Location: Webex
Fee: $200 per connection
Trainer: Gary Nowak
Course Description: This introductory course will teach you how to gain control over material purchases for jobs, inventory, work orders, equipment, and general accounts. We will cover the basic setup and procedures for purchase orders. You will quickly learn the daily procedures for creating, editing and completing a purchase order. You will learn how to assign non-inventory and inventory items to purchase orders and how to link them to GL`s, work orders, jobs and/or equipment. Understanding the integration to other Jonas Software modules will be reviewed. Various flags, rules and options available to you will be reviewed so you can adopt them based on your current company procedures. The importance of proper archiving and running key financial views will be reviewed.

Spots are limited, so register now.

Basic Report Writing - Beginner Session

Date & Location: Monday, June 29th, 2009 
Session Length: 3 hours
Session Time: 1:00pm EST
Location: Webex
Fee: $200 per connection
Trainer: Gary Nowak
Course Description: The session will teach you how to use our powerful built-in report writer.  The session will cover the following topics:

• Understand our pre-defined data dictionaries
• Build “on the fly” reports
• Secure reports
• Set conditions and parameters
• Establish calculations and design layouts
• Tailor reports and reporting codes to your operational area
• Create new report layouts – use headings & totals
• Smart viewer & ODBC options

Spots are limited, so register now.

General Ledger – Advanced Session

Date & Location: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 
Session Length: 3 hours
Session Time: 1:00pm EST
Location: Webex
Fee: $200 per connection
Trainer: George Jackson
Course Description: The session will teach you how to maintain all the proper information necessary to track profitability and make key financial decisions. The session will cover the following topics:

• GL Account Options
• Understanding General Ledger Integration with other Jonas modules
• User restrictions for GL
• General Maintenance – reconciliation, control accounts etc.
• GL Account Options
• Creating Budgets
• Out of Balance Issues & Common Problems
• Intercompany relationships
• Daily quick reports
• Financial Statement Design
• Company Groups
• Financial Views
• Automatic Allocations, intercompany relations, journal entries
• Year end procedures

Spots are limited, so register now.

Q. Why can’t I print my Design Your Own Forms documents?

A. You must first activate your DYOF.
To activate Design Your Own Forms, you must run a setup.exe utility to complete the installation process. 
Go to:
Your Jonas drive:\GJCWIN\Tools\DesignYourOwnForms\Tools\Install\setup.exe

If Microsoft Net Framework is not present on your work station, you will be transferred to Microsoft to complete that installation first. When that has been done, the DYOF installation will complete automatically.
You will know that your installation was successful by the appearance of the new shortcut on your desktop - Document Template Designer.

Q. What will happen if my integration set-up is incomplete?

A. First, make sure the suspense account is set up in the company profiles – options screen.



If you’ve missed an integration, the audit reports will show !*! on the posting line and that it posted to suspense because the integration was incomplete.

This prevents the posting from going out of balance and also shows what went wrong.  Get into the habit at the end of every week or month of checking that the balance in the suspense account is zero ( or not).  This will show postings to check.  It also prevents an error from occurring during the posting.

G.L. Account Inquiry

When first logging into Jonas the User is getting this message:
Unable to copy file Jonas drive:\GJCWIN\GJC\START_UP to C:\GJCWIN\DATA.

If users are receiving this message on the first login of the day, it is caused by insufficient permissions for the user on the local C:\GJCWIN\DATA folder.   On the first login to Jonas each day, the system makes an attempt to clear the stale-dated files according to the setting in System Administration for the # of days to store reports.  If the user who is logged into the NETWORK ( not Jonas) has insufficient permissions on the local folder,  the system will not be able to delete the stale-dated files and will also spawn this message.  It is important to have these old files cleared as over time they will accumulate taking up more and more disk space if this fails.



To correct, have the Administrator log onto that workstation in Windows, and add a user “Everyone” with Full Control permissions in the Properties/Security screen.

IS IT TIME FOR YOUR NEXT UPDATE???

It is important for Jonas users to perform Product Updates on a regular basis to ensure that you keep your Jonas Software current and problem-free. Check the website weekly as a new download is available every Tuesday. It is advisable to install it immediately.


CURRENT VERSION
The current version for Jonas Software is 11.9.


HOW TO UPDATE??
There are two procedures to choose from to obtain the latest Release.

1. Downloading from the Website.
2. Installing the Product Update from a CD.

Before You Begin:

Determine the version of Jonas that you are currently running. If you are unsure, open Jonas and check the version number located in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Ex. Version 11.6.034 (the release .034 indicates the release level).

Downloading the Product Update from the Website

1. Click on the Product Update that matches the version of Jonas software you are currently running. (Ex. 11.4 or 11.6) You cannot change versions via the website, only by loading a CD. Note that you might have to be above a specific Release level to be able to run a Product Update from the website. Notes at the side of the Product Update will tell you this.

2. Choose the Save option. You will be presented with the SAVE AS screen display below.  Save the Product Update in the X:\GJCWIN\CUSTOM directory (where the X: is the logical drive letter that contains the Jonas programs - usually J:). Note: This is just a suggested directory, but not a mandatory location to save the Product Update. Then you can open and run it. After successful installation, log off Jonas and log back in order for the changes to take place.

Installing the Product Update from a CD
Advanced Release versions do require all users to be out of Jonas for the introduction of new data structures. Loading an update from a CD sent by Jonas will always require all users to be out of the system regardless of the version.

1. Jonas recommends that if you are installing on a network that the Product Update be installed from a workstation. However, if installing the Jonas Product Update via Citrix or Terminal Server, it must be installed at the server console.

2.  Locate the Product Update using any technique (e.g. Windows Explorer or via the Run command on the Start button). Double click on the saved PUxxx.exe file.

3. Wait 5 – 20 seconds and a window will appear. Step your way through the Welcome screens by clicking on Next.

4. Choose the Destination Directory.  If the drive is not correct, please select browse and indicate the correct location. When the correct path is shown, click on Next.

5. The Installation Complete screen will appear upon completion of the installation.

6. Click on the Jonas for Windows icon. The program will automatically start rebuilding the screens and data files.