CLEARIFY® Sunsets a QQube™ Workhorse

Saying Good Bye to QQube Release - 5.76

QQube version 8.0 will be released sometime this fall, and that will mean the sunset of all QQube 5.x versions.

QQube Version 5.76 was a solid release, with no bug fixes necessary for approximately 18 months.  It had also pressed the limits of both the technology and architecture we used since the first version of QQube back in 2010.

Satiating the Desire to Get Better - Much Better

It is rare that a software company decides to re-architect its technology, but it was part of a strategy to do more with less, and to facilitate more out of the box metrics for the more modern tools of today like Power-BI, which seems to be taking the small business community by storm.

Not only have we added more analytic subjects, more fields, and more features for synching multiple company files, and the Excel Add-In, but we have made the most efficient use of transforming the spaghetti - called the Intuit SDK (Software Development Kit) - into something that is usable out of the box, without the need to work directly with tables, relationships, and weeks or months of reverse engineering.

We are also at a point in our current version, where we have fixed the bugs with regard to data accuracy, and performance (approximately 75 of them).

Two Years of Full Steam Ahead

We officially released the first architecture changes in QQube on October of 2017, and have released 10 major updates since then.  We are currently on version 7.4

Each release has been thoroughly documented in our announcement section, but here is a synopsis of changes, additions, and improvements.

NEW DATA MODELS

• For QuickBooks Enterprise Users
  • Profit and Loss with Actual/Budget/Forecast (36 periods)
  • Profit and Loss by Class with Actual/Budget/Forecast (36 periods)
  • Profit and Loss by Job by Class (36 periods
  • Profit and Loss for 52/53 Tax Year (3 years of periods)
  • Profit and Loss by Class for 52/53 Tax Year (3 years of periods)
  • Profit and Loss Freestyle (10 Years, Aggregated by Day for Actual/Budget/Forecast)
  • Profit and Loss by Class Freestyle (10 Years, Aggregated by Day for Actual/Budget/Forecast)
• For All QuickBooks Versions:
  • Profit and Loss Detail (contains Actual, Budget, Forecast - All Years)
  • Trial Balance for All Dates
  • Reworked Statement of Cash Flows (36 Periods)
  • Reworked Statement of Cash Flows by Class (36 Periods)

NEW FIELDS

• Sales
  • Max Qty for Inventory and Inventory Assembly
  • Document Discount Items Amount
  • Document Credits Amount
  • Line Sales Order Invoiced Amount Actual
  • Line Sales Order Open Amount Actual
  • Line Credits Applied On Document
  • Line Payments Applied On Document
  • Line Payments Applied To Document
  • Line Discounts Applied On Document
  • Line Discounts Applied To Document
  • Line Sales Amount (Foreign)
  • Line COGS Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Sales Profit Margin Amount (Foreign)
• Open Sales Orders
  • Line Sales Order Invoiced Amount Actual
  • Line Sales Order Invoiced Amount Foreign Actual
  • Line Sales Order Open Amount Actual
  • Line Sales Order Open Amount Foreign Actual
  • Line Sales Order Original Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Sales Order Invoiced Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Sales Order Open Amount (Foreign)
• Accounts Receivable
  • Line Original Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Applied To A/R Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Open A/R Amount (Foreign)
• Job Cost Details
  • Document Discount Items Amount
  • Document Applied Credit Memo Amount
  • Document Credits Amount
  • Line Credits Applied On Document
  • Line Credit Memo Applied To Document
  • Line Discounts Applied On Document
  • Line Discounts Applied To Document
  • Line Payments Applied On Document
  • Line Payments Applied To Document
  • Line Job Cost Amount (No Billable Status)
  • Line Estimate Income Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Estimate Cost Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Rate (Foreign)
• Inventory Management
  • Line Class for Inventory Adjustments (QB Enterprise Only)
  • Line Rate Calculation for Built/Pending Assemblies, Inventory Adjustments and Transfers
  • Max Qty for Inventory and Inventory Assembly
• Purchasing
  • Line Purchasing Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Calculated COGS Amount (Foreign)
• Open Purchase Orders
  • Line Sequence Number
  • Purchase Order Original Amount (Foreign)
  • Purchase Order Invoiced Amount (Foreign)
  • Purchase Order Open Amount (Foreign)
• Accounts Payable
  • Line Original Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Applied To A/P Amount (Foreign)
  • Line Open A/P Amount (Foreign)
• Payroll
  • Line Commissions or Piece Work Quantity
• General Ledger Detail
  • Line Budget Credit Amount
  • Line Budget Debit Amount
  • Line Forecast Credit Amount
  • Line Forecast Debit Amount
  • Line (Deposit) Payment Date
  • Document Total Amount
  • Document Total Applied Amount
  • Document Total Open Amount
  • Document Current Paid/Open Status
• Audit Trail
  • Source Name DIMENSION
• Calendar DIMENSION fields
  • Tax Week Number in Quarter
  • Tax Week Number in Year
  • Tax Week Number in Period (formerly Tax Week Number)

MULTI-CURRENCY

• All measures in detail analytics are shown by default as home currency
• Over 50 Foreign Currency fields to allow side by side view of home and foreign currency amounts.

CHANGES NEEDED SINCE VERSION 1

• Field formatting was changed across all analytics to ensure consistent behavior
  • A/R or A/P Interal Days, Avg Days to Pay, Days Paid Beyond Terms - Integer
  • Custom Fields - Varchar (31)
  • All Amount Fields - numeric (13,2)
  • All Quantity Fields - numeric (16,5)
  • All Rate Fields - numeric (16,5)
  • Exchange Rate - numeric (15,6)
• Fully Paid Dates are now correct for all analytics
  • All posting transactions that can appear in A/R or A/P will have no fully paid date value if open, and a Fully Paid Date if Paid
  • All other posting transactions that cannot appear in A/R or A/P will use the Txn Date as the Fully Paid Date
• Due Dates are now correct for all analytics
  • All posting and non-posting transactions which have a naturally occurring due date field will use the SDK results for that field as the due date.
  • All posting transactions that don't have a due date field, but have open A/R or A/P line items will use the txn date as the due date, otherwise there is no due date
• Document Total/Open/Applied Rules and Signage Rules are now correctly in place for all analytics - something that even QuickBooks doesn't do completely/correctly.
• Line Open/Applied Rules and Signage Rules are now correctly in place for all analytics. Again something that even QuickBooks doesn't do completely/correctly

To read about these improvements in detail review this release announcement.

SYNCH OPTIONS AND MULTI-COMPANY SYNCH IMPROVEMENTS

• Scheduled Synchs

1. Toggle to skip one, or more, files in your list
2. Clear all data everytime a scheduled synch starts.  Use to avoid synch errors which may occur due to merging of accounts, etc. - and avoid a second synch.
3. If a file has not been opened up since the last synch, it will be skipped - to save time.

• Manual Synchs

1. Will auto synch ALL companies, and ALL analytics listed in the manual refresh area.  This is used in conjuction with option 2 (Clear all data on synch start) to completely re-load everything from scratch
2. Used with option 1 (Run All) to clear everything from the existing database.
3. If a file has not been opened up since the last synch, it will be skipped - to mirror the option in the scheduled synch area..

• Company Names are now alphabetized in the company DIMENSION to make it easier to filter and aggregate.

CONFIGURATION TOOL CHANGES

• Manual Refresh Load Options reflect Available Analytic Areas

• Easier to read data synch information

• Improved log readability for the lay person

• Now contains previous log summary information

DATABASE AND TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS

QQube 5.76 was the last version using SAP SQLAnywhere 12.0   All current versions use SQLAnywhere 17.

The improvements in SQLAnywhere 17 allow us to perform more operations in memory (rather than disk, which was much slower).  Secondly, we were able to change our base architecture to "load once, refresh many", which is also much faster for the average user.

EXCEL ADD-IN

1. The Synch Status now shows on the Excel Add-In
2. Options to refresh or not refresh upon the opening of a spreadsheet (Global Setting)
3. Formatting to display only non-zero rows is now available for Financial Summary Analytics

Company Files are now in Alpha Order:

EXAMPLES

• Over 61 Examples Out-Of-The-Box showcasing 221 individual metrics.

• An additional 210 DAX Formulas for the Power BI Examples

• More Calculated Fields (Measures) in the Power Pivot Examples

• All examples (Except Microsoft Access) are read-only

DOCUMENTATION

• Each schema is fully documented directly on the CLEARIFY® web site.
• Bubble Text for both Folders and Fields

FOLDER BUBBLE TEXT:

FIELD BUBBLE TEXT

INSTALLATION

• Can no longer install under "all users". Installation for a single-user or multi-user server can only be performed under one specific user.
• Simplified Remote Desktop Installation, with fewer steps.

• Advanced Option Screen has been simplified

STRUCTURAL CHANGES

• The original QQube architecture had transaction detail folders that contained measures, e.g. amount, quantity, but also geography, document attributes, and line attributes.  This was terribly inefficient - and we have created new folders to combat this.
• Single Date Options vs Traditional Calendar Dimensions. We will continue to provide the detailed Calendar Dimensions, but have added a folder with single dates to allow Excel and PowerBI to provide their own "on the fly" date dimension extensions, e.g. year, quarter, month, day.

The structural changes are of the most concern to users upgrading from this version.  If the Excel Add-In was used to generate reports, there are no upgrading problems.   If custom work was performed, then spreadsheets would have to be recreated.