New Features in this Version

Here, we look at the new features in Pastel Version 11.

Foreign Currency Invoices

Exchange Rate

When processing documents for foreign suppliers and customers you need to ensure you have the correct exchange rate. A warning has been implemented to allow you to set a reminder when you are working in a foreign currency invoice to ensure you have the correct daily spot rate. You set this in the Setup Users / Passwords function.

Display of Local Currency Values

In South Africa the VAT Act requires that the value of the invoice be displayed in local currency. A field has been added to the Forms Designer that you can add to your invoice layout. This field will not print if the invoice is not in a foreign currency and a home currency customer is selected. The field to be included on the documents is: Total Invoice Amount Displayed in Home Currency.

Emailing Tax Invoices, Debit Notes and Credit Notes in South Africa – Only for SA

When sending Tax Invoices, Debit Notes or Credit Notes to your customers, all mandatory information required by the VAT Act must appear on these documents.

The following changes have been made in Pastel Accounting with regards to sending electronic documents:

• An option called Customer Accepts Electronic Documents has been added to the Processing tab of the Customer Account function to specify whether your customer has agreed to accept electronic documents. This agreement should be in writing. A sample agreement is available in the \CUSTOM\DOCUMENTS folder. You can print this document by going to View...Customers...Monthly/Periodic...Print Letters using Microsoft Word. For more information on printing letters using Microsoft Word, click here.

• A field called Computer Generated Document Label has been added to the Forms Designer. If you add this field to any form that you use to send out tax invoices, credit notes and debit notes, the wording Computer Generated will print on the form. This includes the forms used to email documents as well as print documents. For details on inserting a field in Forms Designer, click here.

• When you email an original tax invoice, credit note or debit note from Pastel and you have selected the option Customer Accepts Electronic Documents on the customer account, this document will be regarded by the system as an original electronic document. The email sent from the system, as well as any subsequent re-prints generated by the system, will display the wording “Computer Generated”, as long as you have added the Computer Generated Document Label to your forms.

• If you email an original tax invoice, credit note or debit note from Pastel and you have not selected the option Customer Accepts Electronic Documents on the customer account, the document will not be regarded as an electronic document. Even if you have added the Computer Generated Document Label to your PDF and normal forms, no “Computer Generated” wording will be displayed.

• All PDF files generated by Pastel will be 128-bit encrypted. For more details on this click here.

• An audit report can be generated displaying all electronic tax invoices, debit notes and credit notes. For more details on this click here.

Change to Tax Type Report

The tax type report displays the balance of the tax account at the bottom of the report. This amount should balance to the total of the tax report. If it does not balance the possible reasons for the difference could be:

• Transactions with VAT implications being back posted to a period before the start date of the Tax type report, or

• Transactions being posted to a Tax type that is not included on the report.

Any reason for a discrepancy will be shown as a note at the bottom of the report.

Faxing – Only for SA

Faxing is a service that is only available in South Africa and is a paid for service with a minimum monthly charge. When printing documents, it is also possible to fax these documents to customers and suppliers.
The faxing module can be activated by registration. For more details on Faxing click here.

Note: The Faxing feature is only available in South Africa. You should ensure that you are familiar with all the charges involved with this feature as this is a pay per fax service.

Bank Manager – Only for personal bank accounts

Bank Manager includes two additional banks for South Africa. These banks are Mercantile Bank and Bank of Athens.

A basic CSV format has also been included. This format allows you to import transactions in a simple format requiring only a date, description and amount.

The CSV format for South Africa allows users that don't have a bank listed in Bank Manager to still make use of the program. For more details on this click here.

Point of Sale

The following Point of Sale enhancements have been made:

• You can add a company logo or image to Point of Sale slips.

• A supervisor dashboard has been added for easier monitoring by a supervisor.

• You are now able to drill down on reports.

• The supervisor audit trail will track any changes made to any transactions that required a supervisor password.

• A touchscreen interface has been added.

• Support for Posiflex USB Cash Drawers and Pole Displays has been added.

Project Tracker

Projects have replaced Cost Codes and when registering for Project Tracker, the following reports are available:

• List Projects

• Project Summary

• Standard Income Statement

• Periodic Income Statement

• Budget Listing

• Budget Variance

• Detailed Ledger

• Cash Book Details

• Inventory History

• Exception Report

Cash Manager – This doesn’t work for Multicurrency customer’s

The following changes have been made to Cash Manager:

• Balance Forward customers are now included on the Age Analysis. No drill down is available on these transactions.

• A new window opens up for the drill down from Age Analysis to invoice. When you click back to the Age Analysis, the Age Analysis screen refreshes and the Age Analysis is now instantly available.

• Where a user has transactions for zero balance customers, the age analysis screen no longer hides these balances but will does not include the balances at all. The result is that the Age Analysis screen displays quicker once refreshed into the Access database.

• An additional filter option has been added to payment reminder email. Previously the user select by Ageing bracket – e.g. 30/60/90 days etc. The user now chooses to filter by number of days overdue. The user can now choose to use two filters simultaneously.

International: UK

A Reverse Charges VAT report has been added for users registered for the UK. The Reverse Charge Tax Report will assist the user in calculating the Reverse Charge VAT amount that should be entered on the tax return.

When completing the tax return, users will need to look at the existing Tax Box report in conjunction with the new Reverse Charge Tax report to get all the correct values.

Management Pack for Xpress and Xpress Startup

A Management Pack report has been included in Xpress and Xpress Startup.