What’s new in Unit4 Financials Continuous Release?
December 2021
What’s new in Unit4 Financials Continuous Release?
New functions rolled out under recent Unit4 Financials quarterly releases have significantly enhanced the user experience, further enabling your finance team to streamline business processes, reduce operational risk and free up resources for value-added work.
Here’s a summary of what has been added since October 2020, along with a closer look at some of the most noteworthy enhancements…
At a glance: release date summary
| CR 2021 Q4 (7th December 2021) |
| CR 2021 Q3 (14th September 2021) |
| CR 2021 Q2 (9th June 2021) |
| CR 2021 Q1 (9th March 2021) |
| CR 2020 Q4 (8th December 2020) |
| CR 2020 Q3 (14th October 2020) |
| V14 R16 (27th July 2021) |
| V14 R17 (end November 2021) |
- Hotfix to protect Unit4 Financials in the Log4j Java library
- Table Link Transfer Client
- Billing: Use Structured Output on Final Issue
- Billing: Copy Attachments on Posting
- Invoice matching: Set number of background matching threads
- Structured Output – UBL 2.1 Transformation: XML can be validated against the UBL 2.1 Invoice schema
- Attachments can now be managed from within the Billing Browse screen
- It is now possible to attach the PDF Invoice or Credit Note to the Billing document on final issue
- Scheduling a task of type Print Invoices now permits you to generate structured output for invoices (for example, XML in UBL 2.1 Transformation)
- Purchase orders approval can now be viewed across company in read-only mode
When you save masters, trailing spaces are now automatically removed. Print invoicing functionality is also improved, including support for XML formatting, as well as for invoices in pdf format.
- Documents outputs can now be written to an SFTP location
- Leading and trailing spaces are automatically removed when updating master names and short names
- The ‘Print Invoices’ function now allows an XML invoice. Transformation to be generated and sent. A pdf from a print format can be attached to the Finance document as its primary attachment
- The ‘Remove’ checkbox for additional lines in input is now positioned on the right-hand side by default
- Structured Output – UBL 2.1 Transformation: the generated XML file is now validated against the UBL Invoice schema
- Structured Output – UBL 2.1 Transformation: new vocabulary available including IBAN, attachment ID
This release included a number of enhancements that actually go a long way in improving the user experience. Examples include the new option to sort a paylist in descending order. There is also a new ‘element authorisation status’ for the financials selector master, which means that an element that isn’t authorised for changes can be excluded automatically without having to send a reminder or statement.
- Download XL for Unit4 Financials
- Document master setting to prevent the user who originally posted a document to the intray from posting the document to the books
- Pay/Collect summary now displays the pay proposal list by Pay Date in descending order
- Element authorisation status added to financials selector master
- New Punchout parameter added, user email
- Review Punchout items screen has new ‘select all’ and ‘deselect all’ buttons
- Punchout website now appears in a new tab in the browser
- Structured Output has a new transformation available, called ‘FEC’ Transformation (Fichier des ecritures compatables)
- Structured Output now allows zip file compression
- Structured Output can now generate .csv files without quotes
The new Tablelink for Cloud feature helps to simplify cloud migrations, removing the need to rewrite interfaces using web services and APIs. The release also included SFTP support, along with the ability to create comma-separated files that can be transported. e-Invoicing capabilities were also enhanced.
- Structured Output – CSV Transformation
- Structured Output – Output to SFTP
- Structured Output – Output to HTTP POST
- Tablelink for Cloud – Helper and API
- Improvements to upgrade Scripts
- e-Invoicing enhancements (Dutch XML invoice load)
- Unit4 Financials Idealization Process
Version 14 of Unit4 Financials saw the introduction of a new billing module. Among other enhancements, the 2020 Q3 continuous release saw an extension of these billing features.
- System users with OpenID Connect
- Billing – Quantities copied to Finance
- Billing – Print Preview
- Structured Output – Message Hub Output
- Unit4 Extension Kit – Samples
- Structured Output – GDPdU (local German product)
Having introduced a wide range of new features in the previous quarter, the 2020 Q2 release was focused mostly on routine product maintenance. However, there were a couple of new functions added. These were a scheduled task for reconciliation, along with changes to the Avalara export to accommodate HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative.
- Scheduled task for Reconciliation
- Structured output changes – Avalara XMI export
This was the first release under Unit4’s new quarterly roll-out model (‘Continuous Release’). It introduced a wide range of new features.
- Schedule Task for hierarchy updates. You can now schedule new tasks for hierarchy updates and asset depreciation
- Submit orders on auto convert from requisitions
- Browse Transactions: Raise Corrective Journal
- Browse Transactions: Copy Document
- Deep link ‘balance’ drill to browse transactions
- Schedule Asset Depreciation
- Element template customisations copied via copy company. Element template customisations are now copied via the ‘copy company’ functionality
- Billing Copy Document
- Reconciliation Date & User. The introduction of this feature allows users to do retrospective reconciliation reports. In addition, the same level of functionality available in ‘browse details’ has also been extended to ‘browse transactions’
- Browse Transactions: Drill to Account Summary
- Browse Transactions: Edit Comment via related information panel
- Browse Transactions: Workflow Actions
- Provisional and Undo Year-End. Learn more about these features here
- Migrate customisations from test to live
- Allow change to balances on company master
- LRN Housekeeping without posting
- Reference Attachment Hyperlink as Direct Link
- GDPR for Element history
- Make use of address categories in Procurement Ordering
- Add Element Flexi-Fields data to Copy Company
- Change Pay Period. This is the ability to be able to change the period during a pay proposal
- Interco control to contain customer/supplier elements
Should you upgrade your Unit4 Financials software in 2022?
Support for Unit4 Financials V13 has already been withdrawn. Support for V14 will expire at the end of 2022. Failure to upgrade before then increases the likelihood of incurring extended support charges from Unit4.
Upgrading enables you to:
- Access the latest functionality
- Reduce operational risk and processing costs
- Continue to access Unit4’s “in support” software maintenance and support package
- Ensure you are up to date with Unit4’s latest software security package
As an Elite Unit4 Partner, Millennium Consulting specialises in delivering a seamless upgrade, while also ensuring your upgraded solution is fully aligned with organisational requirements.
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V2020
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V2020
This post shares all the functionality available on Unit4 Financials V2020. If you are upgrading from an older version of Financials, you will get all of the below features plus all the very latest features from V13, V14 and Continuous Release.
The naming convention may have changed, but the latest version of Unit4 Financials offers all the new features you would expect. Unit4 Financials V2020 (rather than V15) is available now.
If you are on V14 remember that at end of 2022 it will fall outside the Unit4 supported software window. If you don’t upgrade before that date, you may incur extended support charges from Unit4.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.
New features arriving in V2020 include:
- Element Authorisation
- Change Log Anonymisation
- Provisional Year End
Plus a wide range of technical improvements…
Along with the additional functionality, V2020 brings a new approach to regular updates – adding a version number to the end, based on the quarter it is released in. For example, the current release is V2020 Q3.
It is also important to note that V13 and all previous versions of Unit4 Financials will no longer receive full support.
What's new in V2020?
Full Year End
- Sum all the profit and loss accounts, posting the NET figure to retained earnings in the balance sheet
- Post the closing balance sheet figures to the period 0 of the following year
- Close the year of the Year End being processed, preventing any further postings
Provisional Year End will perform all the processing of a full Year End, but will not close the year being ended, allowing you to continue posting to that year.
Any subsequent Year End processing will perform incremental postings for those applicable to the year being ended. These postings will have an input date greater than the one specified for the last provisional Year End.
Example: If your Year End is 31st December, you can run the process before 31st January in provisional mode, so that your balance type reports will capture carried forward balances in period 0 when you run period end reports for period 1.
Undo Year End
You can now undo both provisional and full Year Ends. This will cancel all Year End journals posted to the final (9999) period for the latest year in which a Year End has been run, and to the opening (0) period of the next year.
If a full Year End is undone, the minimum year will be reset to the previous year. The Undo Year End process undoes all the Year Ends that have been run in the selected year, not just the last Year End process itself.
Example: If you undo the year 2019 in 2020 (having also run 2017 and 2018 Year Ends in 2020), it will undo all three years.
Browse Transaction Enhancements
Browse Transaction gives you a more powerful way to interrogate the database, using the metadata in a way that provides the same functionality as Browse Details.
Company Master
You can now specify an address category on the Procurement tab to automate the selection of the ordering address in Procurement.
This overcomes a previous issue that meant it was only possible to set one default address for a supplier record, which had to be set correctly for remittances. This new feature allows multiple default addresses based on the function module.
It also allows you to change the Actuals and Turnovers balance codes on the company master after documents have been posted in the company.
Intercompany Control Account
In the intercompany module, you can now add a customer or supplier to the control account specified in the destination and receiver masters – as well as to elements inserted when those accounts contain wildcards.
This means that one company can now send a sales invoice document to another company, and it will be received as a purchase invoice document.
Pay
The payment period and/or date can now be changed on a payment proposal after it has been generated via a new ‘Change payment period’ option on the Pay/Collect actions menu.
This feature is controlled by functional security on the Capability Master and allows you to amend the payment period without aborting the proposal.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation will now record the date of reconciliation. This will default to today’s date unless a date is set via the Reconciliation Master, or at run time.
The Finance user that ran the reconciliation process will be recorded as the Reconciliation user.
The Reconciliation date and user are also available as vocabularies for use in Selector and Presenter masters for use in reconciliation reports.
Fixed Assets
You can now set up scheduled tasks to depreciate assets.
Invoice Matching
It is now possible to input a non-matchable invoice or credit note where the invoice total is a different sign than the tax total.
LRN Housekeeping can also now be run without posting a journal to Finance.This resolves two previous issues:
• When running housekeeping, a journal was posted to Finance which meant that you had to cancel the document
• If the Right Left lists had been changed in Financials since the receipt of the goods, this meant that housekeeping would fail
Procurement
Orders that are automatically created by conversion from a requisition can now be automatically submitted to workflow, removing the manual steps for browsing and submitting to workflow.
Billing
It is now possible to copy a document in Browse.
Unit4 XL (CodaXL)
XL is now fully compatible with 64-bit Excel, in addition to the 32-bit variant.
Public Bulk Data Web Services
V2020 now provides:
• Generic Browse/Select Chunked
• Generic Browse/Fetch
This gives you the ability to query exceptionally large datasets with an interface spread over multiple requests.
Customiser
You can now generate and customise forms created at runtime – as well as import and export customisations.
Browser Warning
A warning is now displayed if the results of a browse have been limited by the security settings.
If the user is restricted to certain accounts in their capability settings, the user will be warned that not all the data has been returned.
Copy Company with Finance
You can now copy element flexi-field data when using ‘copy company’ to copy elements.
You can also copy element template customisations when using ‘copy company’ to copy element template masters.
OpenID Connect Authentication
User claims for OpenID Connect can now be configured from the Security section of the Administration Console.
A painless Unit4 Financials upgrade starts here
If you are on V14 remember that at end of 2022 it will fall outside the Unit4 supported software window. If you don’t upgrade before that date, you may incur extended support charges from Unit4.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V14
February 2020
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V14
This post shares all the functionality available on Unit4 Financials V14. If you are upgrading from an older version of Financials, you will get all of the below features plus all the very latest features from V13, V2020 and Continuous Release.
If you are on V14 remember that at end of 2022 it will fall outside the Unit4 supported software window. If you don’t upgrade before that date, you may incur extended support charges from Unit4.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.
Element Workflow
To ensure the accuracy of master data and minimise the risk of fraudulent creation or modification of key master data, capabilities have been added for creating and approving master data.
Flexi-Fields
The Flexi-field capability at element level has been extended to transaction level, which allows you to capture unlimited amounts of business-specific dimensions, perform more detailed analyses and calculate more detailed KPIs and intelligence, in order to support both strategic and operational decision making.
Billing
Replacing the legacy e-billing module, the new billing module is fully integrated with the core of the financials framework.
Financials new features:
- Element Authorisation
-
- Element authorisation rule master
- Element authorisation workflow process
- Import/export of element authorisation rules
- Flexi-fields for finance transactions
- Transaction Flexi-fields in table link
- Browse ledger and aged analysis
- Multiple attachments for finance documents
- Assisted element template.
- Identification of cancelled transactions
- Input–derived fields
- Revaluation chain – dates
- Intercompany – copy attachments
- Reconciliation – scroll folders independently
- Currency write-offs
- Element finder – IBAN code now added
- Pay proposal codes – now display the full proposal code
- Payment reference number
- Unique payment reference generation
- Matching – write-off tolerances now defined in home, dual and matching currency
Administration New Features:
- Capability by company
- Inactivating users - active until date specified on master
- Change password and locked users
- Password parameters – specify number of uppercase and lowercase
- Diary notifications and scheduled task
- Scheduled Tasks: Allocation, allocation chain, balance audit, currency revaluation chain, currency revaluation rule, diary notifications, document audit, generate pay/collect proposal, generate reminder letters, intercompany processing, table link document load, table link element load and tax transfer
- E-mails subject and sender configuration in workflow
- Menu content provider - enables you to store defaults for selectors and presenters
- Downloads – downloads section on administration console, print formatter and workflow designer
- Application header text - define application header text in application parameters
A painless Unit4 Financials upgrade starts here
If you are on V14 remember that at end of 2022 it will fall outside the Unit4 supported software window. If you don’t upgrade before that date, you may incur extended support charges from Unit4.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V13
Discover the latest Unit4 Financials features in V13
This post shares all the functionality available on Unit4 Financials V13. If you are upgrading from an older version of Financials, you will get all of the below features plus all the very latest features from V14, V2020 and Continuous Release.
If you are on an older version of Financials (lower than V14) you have may have already fallen outside the Unit4 supported software window and maybe incurring extended support charges.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.
Element Workflow
To ensure the accuracy of master data and minimise the risk of fraudulent creation or modification of key master data, capabilities have been added for creating and approving master data.
Flexi-Fields
The Flexi-field capability at element level has been extended to transaction level, which allows you to capture unlimited amounts of business-specific dimensions, perform more detailed analyses and calculate more detailed KPIs and intelligence, in order to support both strategic and operational decision making.
General:
- New framework for user
- All applications accessed from one menu
- Save activities to a favourites list
- Retains history of recent activities
- Receive workflow messages as alerts
Financials:
- Enquiries
- New aged analysis
- Reference date on browse ledger
- Browse transactions (new) uses metadata
- Credit Management
- Diary uses metadata selectors & presenters
- Diary manager linked to user master
- Credit Manager maintenance
- Print statements – similar to sales invoicing
- New aged table object on Print Formatter to include ageing on customer statements
- Add elements directly to group masters
- Add attachments to elements
Administration Console:
- Workflow
- Housekeeping
- Financial attachments
- Tasklist
- Completion workflows
- New scheduled tasks
- Print invoices
- Print statements
- Ledger maintenance
- Populate link tables
- Customizer integrated into the application
- Metadata – add new joins and vocabulary to existing views
- Create and maintain repository folders
- Printing & emailing
- Email template master – subject body and signature for use in invoices etc.
- Print options master – links print formats, output device, and email templates
- Print format watermarks
- Export/import print format masters
- Filter element selection within generic browse by filter on user’s role
- Link table import routine from source files
A painless Unit4 Financials upgrade starts here
If you are on V14 remember that at end of 2022 it will fall outside the Unit4 supported software window. If you don’t upgrade before that date, you may incur extended support charges from Unit4.
Now may be an ideal time to look at the options that are available to you and the benefits you will gain from an upgrade.