The following paragraphs contain information on features added to or changed in Version 1.60 of QuickFill with each build number that was released. You can see further information on a feature or change by clicking on the green underlined text.
You can now use the new Form Designer application to change the format of QuickFill bills, renewals and order acknowledgements
Previously the only way to customize the printed format of bills and renewals was to use the mail-merge feature of Microsoft Word or similar third-party software. Now you can change the format of the bills and renewals and print them from QuickFill without using any third-party software. You can move elements around on the page, add or remove text and change fonts and colors. You can also print your company logo on the forms.
You will find the Form Designer application on the QuickFill sub-menu, which you can reach by clicking the Windows Start button, then 'All programs'. If you do not see the Form Designer listed there on your computer, and your QuickFill system is installed to a network server, then you should re-run the Workstation Setup program which can be found on the server in the Workstation folder inside the QuickFill program folder.
You can have many different bill and renewal designs. Which design is used is determined by the "Form set code" listed on the bill or renewal package screen. This field was previously known as the "Form ID" field. When you create a new bill or renewal design you should assign it a unique form set code in the Form Designer, then edit the appropriate bill and renewal package definitions in QuickFill to assign them the same form set code.
All of the bill and renewal designs are stored in the FormLayout.xml file which is in the QuickFill program directory. This file also existed in QuickFill version 1.5 installations, but was not documented. The version 1.6 installation will preserve your original FormLayout.xml file, so if you edited it under the guidance of Tech Support then your changes will be preserved.
Important: In previous versions of QuickFill the fonts and top and left margins of the bills and renewals were controlled from the Page Setup screen in QuickFill. This is still true, as long as you do not change your FormLayout.xml file. Once you edit the FormLayout.xml file using the Form Designer, the fonts and top and left margins will be as you specified them in the Form Designer and the Page Setup screens in QuickFill will no longer apply.
We have a new supplier for the pre-printed acknowledgement, bill and renewal forms
Artina, also known as the Forms Fulfillment Center, is the new supplier for the standard QuickFill acknowledgements, bills and renewals. If you have been using the standard forms supported by versions of QuickFill prior to build 600 you can continue to do so. You can continue to order forms that are compatible with the old standard from your current supplier.
The Artina 8.5" x 7" forms are 100% compatible with the same size forms used by prior versions of QuickFill. These are the forms used for everything except the gift/group bills and renewals. You can substitute the Artina short forms for the old short forms without making any changes. The only difference is that there is no printed outline around the words "Subscription Invoice" or "Subscription Renewal". This is also true of the sheet-fed 8.5" x 11" forms with the blank tear off section on the bottom that results in an 8.5" x 7" form.
The Artina 8.5" x 11" forms are not compatible with the prior 8.5” x 11” forms. These are the forms used for gift/group bills and renewals that contain detailed lists of ship-to addresses. To use the longer Artina forms you must use the new bill and renewal layouts that we supply (see below), or use the Form Designer to alter the original designs to fit the Artina forms.
The layout of the standard bills, renewals and order acknowledgements has been redesigned.
The original QuickFill standard bills, renewals and order acknowledgements had some design flaws that could cause unwanted text to be visible through the envelope windows. This problem has been fixed by redesigning the standard forms. The new designs are set up so that the bottom half is the portion that should be returned by the subscriber instead of the top half. To see the new designs, use the following links:
Sample simple bill
Sample combination bill
Sample detailed bill
Sample simple renewal
Sample detailed renewal
If you started on QuickFill before build 600 and you take no action then your bills, renewals and order acknowledgements will not change. The installation procedure for build 600 (and later versions) will not replace your existing FormLayout.xml file. If you like the new designs then you can put them into effect by following the instructions that follow.
To switch to the new designs rename the FormLayout.xml file in the QuickFill program folder to "Old FormLayout.xml" or something similar, then copy the FormLayout.xml file from the Templates folder to the QuickFill program folder. You can use the QuickFill Form Designer application to make changes to the form designs, if you so desire.
The FormLayout.xml file that is in the Templates folder inside the QuickFill program folder contains both the original bill and renewal designs and the new designs that are compatible with the new Artina forms. The Artina compatible designs are designated as the "Blank" or default form set. The original standard designs are called the "LEGACY" form set.
The new designs for the simple bills, combination bills, simple renewals and simple order acknowledgements are compatible with the old "short" pre-printed forms. You can continue to use up your existing stock of forms. The new designs for the gift bills, gift renewals and gift order acknowledgements are not compatible with the old "long" forms.
Credit card numbers and user passwords in the database are now encrypted
Even if your database files are stolen, the thief will not be able to extract credit card numbers from the database files, nor will they be able to extract user passwords (which control authorized access to the card numbers in QuickFill).
Warning - do not store the credit card charge files any longer than you have to
The output files from the credit card update include credit card numbers and their associated customer names in plain text. This is unavoidable since the credit card processors that read these files do not allow for encrypted card numbers. For this reason you should delete the credit card update output files as soon as you know that they have been accepted by the credit card processor. If you fail to do this, a thief that stole your computer could easily use the files to obtain handy lists of card numbers and names. Not only that, he would know that the card numbers had been recently used and were therefore likely to still be valid.
The Lookup (Subs) screen now provides additional information for active, graced or expired subscriptions.
In the subscription summary line the status column includes the expire issue for active or graced subs or the last issue served for expired subs.
On the Lookup (Subs) screen the sort sequence of the subscription and prospect records has changed.
Unposted records are listed first, followed by the subscription and prospect records (newest first).
Detailed (long form) renewals can now be produced from a by-issues renewal series.
Previously, detailed renewals were only produced from a by-days renewal series. Detailed renewals contain a complete list of the names and addresses of the ship-tos for gift and group subscriptions. Detailed renewals are never created for single subscriptions, cannot be sent with the issue and cannot be sent to the ship-to. If any of those limitations are encountered QuickFill will automatically substitute a simple renewal without the list of ship-tos.
The presort label file format has changed.
The dBase files that are produced when you check the 'Presort' check boxes on the 'Shipping' tab of the publication definition screen have changed. The presort files now match the files produced by the Label Splitter. This change should not be significant to most users since the Label Splitter files are a superset of the original presort files, containing the same fields plus a few more. As a result of this change, the field on the 'Shipping' tab of the publication screen that let you choose between the 'ORIG', 'STD' and 'EXT' presort file formats has been removed. Click here for a list of the fields in the files produced by the issue label update and by the Label Splitter.
dBase or "DBF" files can be exported as Excel files.
All of the dBase files produced by QuickFill, including the presort files mentioned above, customer or subscription export files and the files produced by the label splitter can now be converted to Microsoft Excel format.
Specifying that renewals be sent to the ship-to now takes precedence over sending the renewal to an agency.
If you have an agency order and your renewal series specifies that the renewal should be sent to the subscription agency and the series also specifies that the effort should be sent to the ship-to, then the renewal will now be sent to the ship-to not the agency.
Company names are now included in the list of fields for which you can create custom choice lists.
On the customer address screen you can now create a customized list of company names that can be selected from a drop down list in the company field. Click here for instructions on creating a choice list file.
On the 'View Batch Log' screen you can create batch reports for printing at a later time.
A 'Print Later' button has been added to the 'View Batch Log' screen. If you select a batch and click the 'Print Later' button the report will be created but not printed. You can subsequently view it or print it from the 'Print Saved Reports' screen.
In all reports, where the publication name is printed on the page header, it now includes the publication code too.
The Renewal Inventory report now allows you to select the range of issues to be included in the report.
The "New orders" issue pointer can now be advanced automatically at the end of an issue label update.
This is useful if you want to schedule an issue label update followed by an export of the database to the QFIE server. Use this feature with caution. Click here for an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of this feature.
The Offer Definitions report now has a check box that limits the report to offers linked to active publications
If the 'Include active publications' box is checked the report includes only those offers linked to publications where the 'Should orders be accepted' box is checked.
The handling of shipping class changes in renewals of two-party subscriptions has been improved.
Suppose you have a two-party subscription with a current order that has a shipping class of 'S'. When the subscription is renewed the subscriber requests that it be mailed using shipping class 'T'. In version 1.5 of QuickFill this change would take effect immediately and all issues would be mailed using shipping class 'T' even though the current order specifies a shipping class of 'S'. This came about because the issue label update used the shipping class in the group member record which always reflected the most recent renewal. In version 1.6 of QuickFill the issues will be mailed using the shipping class specified in the current order. The group member record is automatically updated to reflect the shipping class of the current order. So in our example, issues will be mailed using shipping class 'S' until the current order has been served, then the issues from the renewal order will be mailed using shipping class 'T'.
The following change applies only to systems with the transaction import feature.
You can now set the date for new orders, payments, renewals, controlled subscriptions and requalifications.
The transaction import file format has a new date field named TRANSDATE. It is used to set the order date for new order, renewal, controlled subscription and requalification transactions, or the payment date for payment transactions. It is not used for address changes or cancellations. If the field is missing or blank then today's date is used. Today's date is always used for the batch date and in the subscription history.
The following change applies only to systems with the audit feature.
The Audit Issue Galley report now includes the order term for paid subscriptions.
This should make it possible to get a validated galley from BPA (see BPA rule B10.48).
The audit galley data files now include the customer's email address
The email address is needed for audits of publications using electronic delivery.
QuickFill now searches for the for the FormLayout.xml first in the database directory, then in the QuickFill program directory.
If you have more than one QuickFill database you can use QuickFill's search order to your advantage to create form designs that are specific to each database.
The maximum shipping charge on the publication definition screen has been increased.
Previously the maximum per-issue shipping charge was $99.99999. The new maximum is $999.99999.
Added a new credit card output format.
QuickFill now has a credit card output format for EBatch.
Extended the credit card output format for MAPP-PC.
The MAPP-PC credit card output format has been extended to include CVV2 data.
The following change applies only to systems with the transaction import feature.
The transaction importer can now process renewals at birth.
If the imported renewal contains a payment that is greater than the price and the prior order has an amount due then the transaction importer will automatically split the payment between the renewed order and the renewal order.
Added a new PUB_AUDIT_TYPE column to the PUB table in the ODBC driver.
The PUB_AUDIT_TYPE column identifies the specific audit agency and type of publication for audited publications. Possible values are ABC_BUSINESS, ABC_MAGAZINE, BPA_BUSINESS, BPA_CONSUMER and VAC.
Build 604 is a bug-fix release. It contains no new features.