aebrown wrote:Nothing in Sunday's MLS message on the topic of MLS 3.5 talked about Finance issues in regard to this upgrade (except for a vague reference to updated finance functions). And yet you just said that finances will be temporarily locked and that units will be getting a finance refresh file. That makes me a bit nervous, given some of the challenging experiences we had during the CUBS upgrade. Is there any chance that anything could go awry in processing the finance refresh file? Are there any financial reports we should be printing out before the upgrade, just in case?
Also, with the CUBS upgrade we were told specifically when it would happen for each unit, which was very helpful. We then knew when we needed to print out reports, and when we would be locked out. In the MLS 3.5 upgrade message, we were simply told that it would happen "in the next few weeks." As we get closer to the actual release date, will we receive more specific communications regarding the date of the upgrade? Some of those lists we are asked to print out will change over "the next few weeks," so it would be good to know when the upgrade is coming (once you know more specifically) so that we can print the reports just one time right before the upgrade.
Let me talk about the schedule first. Currently we only have a handful of units running 3.5. We will be expanding more throughout this week as part of our initial beta release. I can't name specific dates for the final release at this point but I will suggest to those that make this decision that we send some sort of communication out as the dates are known. At the very least we can post something here as we have done in the past. I know how quickly printouts of various organizations can become obsolete.
Finance. A big change in 3.5 is the way mls communicates with CUBS. CUBS has already put into production the changes necessary to support MLS 3.5, so when a unit moves from 3.4.3 to 3.5 mls first sends a message to CUBS to make it aware that that unit is now using 3.5. CUBS then send down a SYNC file (not a full refresh) used to verify financial data. Finance data isn't deleted then restored like a normal CUBS refresh file would do. I should update my previous post to reflect this as it isn't really a refresh file. In our testing we haven't felt the need to recommend the printing out of any financial data like previous CUBS upgrades.