USAS v2024.9.0 Release Notes

Summary

This release of USAS-R contains the following improvements detailed in the release notes below.  Please keep in mind these release notes only reflect the changes included in this release.  There are many other features of the software that were previously released that will not be reflected in these release notes.  General information about all of the features available in USAS-R can be found in our USAS-R Documentation.  There is a section in the documentation that also details the significant changes between USAS-R and Classic USAS. 

Important Highlights

Improvements

• Implemented the ability to merge vendors.  Vendors can now be merged in USAS.  The merging of 2 or more vendors is based on the calendar year and require all vendors involved to have the same values for 1099 type, tax id type and TIN.  Additional details on this new feature are below.  The user documentation will be available soon.

Internal

• Corrected issue with recent spring upgrade 

Vendor Merge

You can now merge two or more vendors in USAS from the Vendor UI by clicking on the Merged Vendors button from the Vendor you want to merge into/keep.  For a vendor to be eligible for merge, the selected vendors are required to have the same values for the following fields:

1. Tax ID Type

2. ID #

3. Type 1099

When you select the Merged Vendors button a popup will display showing any vendors that have previously been merged, the calendar year and date they were merged.  To process a vendor merge, select the Merge Vendor button.  A popup will display the vendor number and primary name of the vendor you are merging into.  This popup will show the list of eligible vendors based on the above criteria.  You can filter the list of vendors if needed by number or primary name.  Select the vendor(s) you would like to merge into the vendor you're viewing and the calendar year you are processing the merge for.  The current calendar year will display by default.  Any future years that have been created will show from the drop down as well.  Once the vendor(s) has been selected, click the Merge button to merge the vendor(s).  Note: because 2023 has already been reported to the IRS, vendor merges should only be processed in calendar year 2024 and forward.

A confirmation box will appear asking you to confirm the merge of the vendor(s) displayed.  It also states: The vendor(s) being merged will no longer be active and the associated transactions beginning with calendar year YYYY (year specified) will now be linked to the primary vendor.

Once the merge is complete, a report will be generated showing all of the transactions that were updated as a result of the merge.  A copy of this report is automatically sent to the Calendar Year section of the File Archive.  You can also regenerate this report if needed from the Merged Vendors popup via the printer icon.  The vendor(s) who have been merged in will have a merged flag that is true (selected) and will be inactive.  These vendors can be modified if needed, but the vendor number, primary name, active and merged flags cannot be changed.  Please be aware we are currently reevaluating that decision and may prevent modifying a vendor that has been merged.

Until the unmerge option is made available this merge process is permanent.  We anticipate the release of the unmerge option on version 2024.10.0.

If there were any outstanding transactions associated with the vendor that was merged, those transactions can still be processed.  For example, you have a partially paid PO to vendor A, but then you processed a merge resulting in vendor A being merged in to vendor B.  Any new invoices will show vendor B but will also display the "original vendor" (A) on the invoice.  So any additional transactions will show both the vendor and the original vendor (the one you merged) as well.  If there were any invoices that had been processed but not yet paid, those will show on the Payable grid as highlighted.  This is to help the user realize these transactions were in process when the merge was performed.

There is now a Merge Info group on the vendor where you will find the following fields:

• Merged flag - true(selected/checked) or false(unselected/unchecked).  True means the vendor you are viewing was merged into another vendor.

• Merged Into field showing which vendor the vendor you are viewing was merged into.

• Merged Year - the calendar year the vendor was merged.

This process is audited and the information is available on the audit report.

Issues included on this release