TPH Global

Hi All,

we are increasing the price of all our products effective from July 1 2010. It’s the first price rise in over 8 years and I’m sure you will agree Eclipse is still very good value for money compared to other systems on the market that don’t even compare to the features and functionality of Eclipse.

We are also launching our new web based iEclipse program in late July. If you have been following my blog you will have a good insight into what iEclipse can do. What you might not realise are all the benefits. Firstly as it is browser based you don’t need to be on a PC. Fire up your Mac or Unix box and type in our URL. All printing and file downloading is handled by the browser so there is no messy Citrix connections required. This is a “cloud” application so you don’t need to invest in expensive hardware, networking, backup and redundancy solutions - we take care of that on our powerful servers. You can connect to your data anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection.

We use the latest technology to deliver a dynamic and scalable application that is fast, easy to use and packed with lots of useful features to make your job easier.

iEclipse does not currently have a payroll module. Instead we are offering payrolls with less than 100 crew a super cheap rate (see details below) to use iEclipse and our payroll service. As a promotional offer and for a short time only, we are also going to throw in EzyPO (our paperless web based PO system). Unfortunately the complexities and flexibility of our payroll does not lend itself to be easily re-written for the web. Those that want to do their own payroll and are happy with a standalone system we will still license and support that system.

All prices below are in Aus$ excluding GST per production, per 12 months.

**Software**
Eclipse Single User Standalone version $4,000 + $1,000 per additional user

iEclipse Single User web version $3,500 + $1,000 per additional user if used in conjunction with our payroll service + Free EzyPO offer for a limited time.

iEclipse Single User web version $7,000 + $1,500 per additional user

EzyPO $2,500 + $25.00 per user per month > 20 users ($50 if < 21 users)

Web Access ($100 per month) and Storage ($100 per month) charges apply after 12 months if not in production otherwise prices above apply.

**TPH Payroll**

Small Payrolls of less than 101 crew
$9.95 per pay

Medium to large payrolls of more than 100 crew
Crew .85% Gross + Fringe
ATL Payments $20 per payment
Extras and Stand-ins 3% Gross + Fringe

$250 minimum batch fee

Other charges and conditions apply.

This week I have completed the Petty cash Module - I’m sure once our QA department gets hold off it there will be some fix ups and the odd thing I missed but overall it’s a good feeling to finally knock the last module on the head. I’d love to share with you a bunch of cool “new” features I added to PC but there was really nothing more to add. I have however delivered all the “existing” cool PC features like the Excel PC Form Paste that were already available in Eclipse to the web.

As our testing intensifies over the next couple of weeks my priority will be to fix any bugs or functionality missing. There are also a handful of procedures I put on the back burner so I could get the PC module out of the way I need to finish. EzyPo also needs to be updated with the flexible chart and flags as well as keeping it in line with the features added to the the PO module.

We are currently on track for a release date of July however it will be towards the end of the month rather than the start.

Hi All,

In this blog I will cover what is new in the GL Module.

As I have mentioned in other blogs, you still have all the features and functionality of your windows Eclipse version and I am just covering what new features to expect.

We now have support for a two journal entry formats. The new format shown below is more in line with the rest of the data entry screens where detail lines are linked to a single header record keeping groups of records together rather than having to put them in separate batches. Of course if you like the plain old journal format then you can continue to use that.

I have made a small change to period close. You can now bind a date to the period. For those that prefer to work in dates I will be adding functionality to check dates before you post to ensure it does not mess up any previous reports you have run.

And now for the beast.. the budget worksheet. I actually had forgotten how much functionality and components were in the Budget Worksheet (BWS) until I had to re-write it for the web! Drill downs, distribution changes, multiple excel export and paste back in, reconcile functions just to mention a few… Anyway it is done and there are some cool new features.

For starters you can now nominate on the fly which columns you want to see. In the past there have been columns that some users just did not use and now you can customize it to what you want to see. I have also added several new fields to track Rebates (yes you can add a budget, EFC and notes for Rebates and the BWS will track period and to date variances for you) so it makes sense that you don’t want to see them when you are doing your normal cost report.

The Notes to Myself tab allows you to add your own generic notes to specific budget lines. These notes unlike variance notes will not be cleared when you close the period. You can also run a report and show all your own notes at any time.

I have removed the Transactions Tab from the BWS. Instead I have now added direct links from the first Tab to bring up the transactions.

In the image below you can now click on an amount in the period column and the transactions will be those just for that period. The same applies for the rest of the columns including PO’s. So now you don’t have to bring back all transactions if you just want to see the PO’s.

If you click the link on the variance column it will take you to a log of all variances and notes for that code

That pretty much wraps up the “new” features in the GL. There are a couple more “new” features for the GL that are in development that I will come back to after I finish the PC module. They are the “Dynamic BWS” (DBWS) and the Batch reporter.

The BWS has been part of our package for over 12 years now. I notice some of our competitors are finally adding such a useful tool. So to raise the bar we are adding the DBWS. It is a drill down financial report tool so you can use on TB’s as well as cost reports. It has all the functionality of the BWS but you can drill down through various levels of the cost report to more detail. So if you are working on a multi Currency, Location or Episodic show you can drill down from a summary consolidated report (in native, base or budgeted exchange rate) right through the detail to the native detail to the transactions to a copy of a PO and invoice as an example. Of course you can update your estimates along the way. Its like the BWS on steroids!

The Batch Reporter is a tool that anyone working for one of the big studios is going to love. Basically from one screen you can run all your weekly reports. I know I’m going to love it!

Until next time…

Hi All,

In this Blog I will cover what’s new in the AP and PO Modules.

For starters you can now drill down to invoices, Cheques, PO’s and PC per Vendor from the Vendor Master Maintenance Browse. Simply click on the vendor in the first tab and then click on the Tab you want.

From that browse you can then dump transactions to Excel and run reports.

Also, by clicking on a transaction and then the attachments tab you can then recall any attachments for that transaction. We have streamlined the entire scanning process so it is easier than ever and with very little effort you can attach copies of cheques, invoices, journal forms and petty cash to your transactions. I will cover this in more detail in a later blog.

In Purchase Order and Invoice Entry I have done away with tabs for Inventory, Rental\Hire, Car Hire Etc and instead add an xDtl button as shown below.

This flatter approach I think is more intuitive as everything can be seen in one place rather than having to click on various tabs to find the lines.

I have also flattened the AP\PO interface. The problem in the past was if you had an invoice that referenced multiple PO’s you had to drag the lines across, one PO at a time. The new approach solves that problem.

You will also be glad to know that all the old functionality like being able to copy and paste data from Excel like Cheque Requisitions, Vendors and distribution lines still exist in iEclipse.

Hi All,

in this blog I will cover some of the differences when running reports.

Firstly, you can now run all report from the reports menu.

If you select a data entry report eg Purchase Orders from the menu you will be able to run reports for each batch from the batch drop list.

If you click the reports button from the data entry screen (see Below)

you will be able to run the same report as you could have from the reports menu. However, if you tag or tick some items before clicking on the Report Button you will get another option, Use Selected Records (if you don’t tag any records then I assume you want them all and hide this option).

There are a couple of other things to point out.

You now just have 2 report type options - Preview and PDF. Preview renders a web version of the report so it is really quick. PDF, well I hope I don’t need to explain that one!

The other option you probably noticed was print spool. Now I hear you asking: “what the hell is that?”. I’m glad you asked. If you tick that option the report will run on a separate processor thread and log the report. In short this means if you are running a long report you can just keep doing other tasks including other reports without having to wait for the report to finish. The other advantage is that it keeps a log of all reports so you can go back and look at something you ran say yesterday.

I hope you found this information useful.

Until next time…..

In this Blog I will run through some new features in the Control Table module.

Firstly with our new flexible chart system and flagging we have added extra validation fields. On the chart system you can also setup production codes in addition to current: location/company and episode. For flagging we have setup extra tables to track rebates and added a generic “other” in addition to the existing fields: Free; Insurance and Tax Code. You have the option of having up to 10 flagging fields and they can be 5 characters long. Within this 10 flagging fields you can have multiple of the same type eg you might want 3 Free Fields, a Tax Field, 3 Rebate fields, a carbon tracking field and an Insurance Field.

On the Screen below I might want to use 1 rebate field to track Federal QAPE expenditure and a 2nd Rebate field to track State Rebate expenditure.

Secondly, you can now load all your periods and period end dates in Advance. When you roll your period it will now default to the next period which you can over-ride. Having Period end dates will assist users that like to range ledger reports by date and not period. It will also assist in running historic Trial Balances for given dates.

Lastly we have setup a new screen to enter company details. This will be linked to the Locations table. So if you are on a multi-company show we can now substitute company details. eg Email Remittance will now show the right company based on the location.

Hi All,

for those that don’t know me my name is Kevin Plummer and I am the chief software architect for Eclipse, EzyPo, Payroll Kiosk and our new product iEclipse.

After a trip to LA in July 2008 to try and get interest in our EzyPO (Paperless PO System) software I realized that there was not much point trying to introduce a new Production Accounting system unless it was internet based. You can always cheat this by using Citrix or GoGlobal as we have done in Australia but nothing beats a pure browser based system using AJAX for a dynamic application.

I was already using a web development platform for EzyPO and this framework was and still is being heavily developed. The catch for me was, am I able to link in my existing Eclipse DLL’s to re-use a lot of my existing code. After some successful tests I had the proof of concept! Although I could re-use a lot of my code to do with reports, data posting, Excel Dumps and Paste back in, all the GUI had to be re-done from scratch.

So in November 2008 we commenced development. Not that it wasn’t a big enough job alone to port Eclipse to the web, we decided to add in a flexible chart structure of up to 60 characters and give users the ability to have up to 10 flagging fields.

We made steady progress until May 2009 when I took a break and worked as Financial Controller on a Miramax job “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” using Eclipse. November 2009 I am in Post Production part-time and re-commence work on iEclipse. During this break the Web Framework I use have released a major new version with some exciting new features.

Fast forward to where I am today…

Control Table and Purchase Order Modules are completely finished and undergoing external testing. There have been plenty of technical walls to climb with the web completing these first 2 modules which has slowed my progress but I am about 70% into AP and I have been able to re-use solutions and fly through this module so far.

All in all am expecting all the major components to be complete in iEclipse by the end of April for it to be Beta tested on a production.

We have a bucket load of new features which I will cover in a new blog. I will also do a blog on important changes between Eclipse and iEclipse.

Cheers,

Kevin