Recreation Software Analysis: Rectrac Household Account Transaction History

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I recently performed an analysis and documentation of a household account within the VSI software Rectrac. We provided the customer with the following information based on their customers transaction history.

  • The household had a credit balance of $64.06 as of 11/03/2009 that was supposed to be zero. There were two payments of $32.03 on 9/17/2007 and 1/21/2008, never paid off correctly (missing a Trxn#) within RecTrac creating the credit balance in newer version.
  • To fix this issue of an overstated credit balance was to run the Credit Balance Refund (Daily > Global) program and use pay code 7 to remove balance from account.
  • Net causes were backdated fees and payments within Rectrac system putting funds into the Credit Balance Control Account. Linked to training from VSI trainer not understanding system and bugs enough.
  • Any transaction within the RecTrac database showing a fee should have a transaction (Trxn#) associated with it. When a payment is applied to the account, that transaction number will show the fee was paid off correctly. (Review transaction from 11/01/07. receipt number 24152)
  • Any credits created within RecTrac will have a zero transaction number because there’s no fee associated with the creation of the credit.
  • All transactions are based on the module that the fee and payment occur in. You could have a zero account balance overall, but have a -$100 credit within the POS module and a $100 debit within the Pass Membership module. If the account should be zero an administrator needs to realize this and Net the balance of the account thru Global Sales to use up the credit from one module into another. If not, then the customer owes $100 in the Pass Membership module and has a credit that can be used up in the POS module.
  • When adding notes or information changes to an account, you will not see any balance changes or amounts. (Review transaction from 12/07/08, receipt number 96818)
  • When statements are run, balances will be shown in the transaction history. (Review transaction from 11/03/09, receipt number 177561)

Rectrac Household Account History

Recreation Software Review – Rectrac Database Simple Functions

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The Rectrac software comes equipped with many simple functions that anyone, at any level in the administration of the software can utilize.

1. Keyboard Function Keys – F8 can clear fields in the software. This is especially helpful when the date field errors that you need one but really it’s not required. F1 opens the Help program on any screen you’re on so you can receive information as to what’s needed. F11 will tell you what program Rectrac is running. This is helpful when troubleshooting with the vendor VSI.

2. Rectrac Help – Using the F1 key or by clicking on the Help function at the bottom of Rectrac will open the Help dialogue screen. You will receive help for what’s on that screen or you can search based on keyterms for help information.

3. Spell Check – Use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT+F7 while the cursor is inside of a block of text to have a spellcheck option. You will need to have MS Word installed on the PC for this function to work in Rectrac.

4. Rectrac Lock-ups – If the Rectrac program seems to be locked up and you can’t wait for it to release or it doesn’t on its own, you can use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+PAUSE/BEAK to close the program and you can log in again.

These and many other quick shortcuts can be used in the software to make your Rectrac database work quicker for you and your employees!

Recreation Software:Webtrac/Rectrac Optimization Options

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To better optimize your Webtrac website you can add activity types and categories to your classes thru your Rectrac software. This will allow for Webtrac users to search by those terms and to narrow down the classes they want to sign-up for easily.

This is the simpliest way to better optimize the software and this will allow your clerks to find classes easier in Rectrac by using activity types, sub-types and catagories.

Contact Morse Associates today for a review of your database to better utilize your software today!

Get a recreation software support quote.

Recreation Software Cleanup and Optimization

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Today I would like to discuss how the RecTrac recreation software has many cleanup options available to users that want to make sure information comes up quick and easy for end users and/or clerks. Information can become slow and cumbersome to load when certain areas of the database have too much information in the tables. I will specify some areas to review when deciding on your process to cleanup and optimize your database.

  • Truncate BI File
    1. The BI File or Before Image File is what the live backup process uses to create your “live database backups” when the database engine is running.
    2. This file will grow larger as the database grows. It’s good to periodically truncate that file using the utilities provided on the server to run this.
  • Truncate Log Files
    1. As you add processes to RecTrac running Appserver schedules and Webtrac you will now have log files stored on the server, typically in c:\vsi\rectrac\logs\.
    2. These files tend to grow large if you do not truncate them manually (i.e. delete information from asrtlive.server.log) or as long as the log settings in the broker properties is set to Verbose or lower (Error Only) and the append toggle is not checked those files will be relatively small.
  • Household Merge
    1. Household data can get overwhelming in a RecTrac database if proper care is not taken to not duplicate records. But this does happen and to correct those duplicate households in the database, you need to do two steps.
      1. Run the Duplicate Household Listing in RecTrac.
      2. Run the Transfer/Merge Program in RecTrac.
    2. This doesn’t delete households or data but merges it into the correct household you should have in your database.
  • Purge Old files
    1. When you have been running your RecTrac database for a few years, depending on data retention policies in your Park District or Recreation Department, you can purge old information from the database.
    2. In the Period End function > System pull-down > Period End Purges you will find a list of purge programs that can be used to reduce the size of records in the database. As long as you have reported on any of these items in the list you can purge (as long as you have permission).
    3. You should always purge information from the database and not go into files and delete records for the best integrity of your database.

Recreation Software Database Size Extentions

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I would like to discuss some aspects of database administration and management.  As a database administrator it’s your job to maintain the integrity of the database, maintain up-time and to also monitor the size a database is expanding to.

A Progress database size limit is 2GB and if your database D1 file reaches that point it will shutdown and your access to the database ceases.  But we can avert that by watching database size and what size it’s expanding at per month as your Recreation Department operates and expands too.

We can help you plan and execute an expansion of the existing data file structure to your database.  This will extend your D1 file to a D2, D3, D4, etc so you and your district will not need to worry about your database being able to handle its future expansion needs.

Recreation Software Training Sessions Online

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We are offering to any Parks and Recreation or Park District the chance to have your new or existing staff go through a basic software training session free with us via the WebEx application on your own database.
This is a web-based remote desktop presentation software that any of your staff with Internet access can sign-up for online to see our presentation on your desktop.

These sessions will;

  • Help your new staff with basic software training
  • Allow for easy communication with us for question/answer sessions
  • Help existing staff refresh themselves or go over any new topics they would like to learn
  • Give you and your staff a trained expert in the recreation software you use
  • Help familiarize yourself on your own database.

Please contact us if you are interested in signing up for online basic recreation software training sessions today!

Recreation Software Help Desk Support

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Morse Associates has created a help desk support system for your recreation department to report to us your trouble or needs for help with your software. It will report your issues to us and will track your request from start to finish for a better fluid help desk support.

All email correspondence is tracked and for Morse Associates, we can track your support ticket and make notes about ways to correct your problem. You will always have access to your tickets and see the emails and resolutions. As a byproduct we will start to institute a knowledge base for your staff to use to troubleshoot easy problems in the future.

Morse Associates also prides itself on support help individualized for your Parks and Recreation department or Park District!

Stop by our website today to see what we can offer your department to help increase use of your software!

Recreation Software:Support for your Recreation Department staff?

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Morse Associates can help!

  • Does your recreation department lack a knowledgeable staff to help with your software needs and support?
  • Does your staff have troubles producing information needed and they don’t know the software enough to keep it functional?
  • Do you see a great need to increase productivity in harsh economic times?

We have a knowledgeable group that can help with the problem of running the recreation software, train and support your needs.

  • Produce SOP documentation for clerks, administrators, etc.
  • Help correct small problems with the software setup.
  • Show your staff all the tricks to produce all information and results the community is looking for.
  • We will come to your location to help out!

Please check out all our full service & support offerings at www.morseassociates.net and contact us today.

Recreation Departments – Increase Your Productivity!

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Learn to use your software to it’s fullest potential. Morse Associates, can provide the skill and help for your staff to improve the use of your recreation software and troubleshoot issues as they arise.

  • Use all available software features for marketing and information needed.
  • Procedure documentation, training sessions.
  • Documentation saved to network drives, produce PDF documentation instead of printing.
  • Offer training flexibility via email & phone through remote sessions.
  • Contracted consultant assigned directly to you.
  • Database cleanup, duplicate information removal, remote access to manage up-time.
  • Update and enhance your Website so that you can increase traffic and functionality.

Visit us at www.morseassociates.net for more information and a quote today!

Recreation Software:Complete Analysis of your Database

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Do you notice it takes too much time for your household look up, class look ups, etc… We can provide a complete analysis of your RecTrac or FinTrac database(s) to find issues with speed or how it can be improved for use by your employees or patrons online (If WebTrac utilized).

Contact us today by going to our website www.morseassoc.net to start the process. We provide free quotes and initial consultations to verify if your database needs to be optimized.

We have 4 years experience in utilizing the RecTrac and FinTrac databases and we can use that experience to help your Parks and Recreation Department or Park District use the products more efficiently today!