Conversion: v9 to v10

Can Procare 9.1 and v10 co-exist on the same computer?

Yes. You may wish to have version 9.1 available to look up historical information.

Do Procare 9.1 and v10 need to be on the same computer?

No. You may export data from 9.1 to any location, such as a USB flash drive, then import the conversion file to v10 on a differe

How Agencies Differ in v10 from 9.1

Procare v10 handles agency accounting more effectively, but differently from version 9.1. If you previously did agency accounting in 9.1 you’ll want to review this article to understand how and why things work differently and what to expect in v10.

Agencies in 9.1

In Procare version 9.1 agency accounting was loosely organized and inefficient.

Payments Posted One Family at a Time
Credits and payments were recorded one at a time to the agency ledger of each family. When you received a check (that applied to many different families) you had to post the portion that applied to each family separately. Although you received a single check it would show up as dozens of items on the deposit report. Since each item was recorded separately the system had no way to know it was really one large payment.

Limited Tracking of Agency Balance and Missed Payments
Although you knew the amount owed for any given family – that amount was nothing more than a balance due. Since agencies always pay a month or two in arrears you had no way of knowing which specific fees had been paid by the agency, nor which were still due. Most agencies have a limit to the length of time (perhaps 90 days) that you may challengea missed payment, or underpayment, which meant you could leave money on the table because you did not know which items had been paid and which had not.

Aging Reports Assumed Oldest Debt Paid
Aging reports always assumed any payment paid off the oldest debt remaining on the account – which may, or may not have been the case. For example let’s say an agency owed you for February, March and April. When you posted a payment it was automatically applied to February (for aging purposes). You had no way to indicate the month for which the payment was actually received. So there was no easy way to tell if the agency had missed a payment, or underpaid, for a particular month.

Multi-step Parent Transfers
In some cases, when the agency paid less than the full amount, the difference became the responsibility of the parent. In other words, you would want to transfer the unpaid balance to the parent. This required a two step, manual process of posting a credit (for the unpaid amount) to the agency ledger, then moving to the family ledger to post a charge for the transfer amount.

Changing Entries and Your Audit Trail
Things were wide open (in version 9.1) allowing you to post items in a very haphazard manner including changing and voiding entries after the fact, even after payment had been received. Allowing these types of changes made your audit trail ineffective at best.

Agencies in v10

Agency accounting in Procare v10 is very efficient and tightly controlled.

Payments Posted for All Families at Once
Payments are no longer recorded on individual family ledger cards. Instead, they are efficiently processed all at once using the Agency Payment Posting screen. This way a single check is applied to specific charges for each child. You may even make adjustments by writing off an under payment or transferring the remainder to the family for payment. You can also “save” a posting for later meaning you can start it now, save it, then return to it later for completion.

Item by Item Balance Tracking and Missed Payments
With v10 agency payments are applied to specific fees. When you receive a check to pay for the month of March you’ll apply the check to items charged for that month for particular children. You’ll be able to see at a glance if there are any outstanding amounts due for previous months. This way you’ll be able to keep on top of any missed payments, or under payments, and report them to the agency before time expires.

True Aging Reports
Since payments are applied to specific charges for past months aging reports reflect the true amount due for particular time periods like 30, 60, and 90 days. If an agency usually pays within 30 days and you have amounts that are past 60 days you’ll know it is time for follow up with the agency.

Easy Parent Transfers
Transferring a portion of the agency balance to the parent is easy using an Adjustment Code like “Parent Transfer”. The transfer (credit to agency, charge to family) is handled in one step (on the Agency Payment Posting screen) and may be done at the same time the agency payment is recorded. In other words, part of the amount due may be handled with a payment and the remainder transferred to the family, or written off.

Correcting Entries & Your Audit Trail
The audit trail in v10 is very tightly controlled. Changes and voids on agency ledger cards are not allowed once payment for those items has been posted – at which time the items becomes locked. Of course a Correcting Entry may be made at any time which preserves your true audit trail.

May I combine multiple locations from 9.1 into a single v10 location?

Yes. Since the conversion process adds to data already in v10 (for the location you specify) you may convert one location, then another and another from 9.1 to a single location in v10. Or you may choose to convert each 9.1 location to it’s own separate location in v10. See full article on Converting Multiple Locations.

May I convert individual modules separately?

No, not if they are part of a larger “main” module. For example all the family related items convert together as part of Family Data & Accounting. You cannot convert child attendance (Attendance Tracker), or ledger cards (Family Accounting), or meals served (Food Program/Meal Tracker) separately from Family Data, nor can you convert Payroll separately from Employee Data. You may, however, convert families and employees separately.

Will all my data convert to v10?

Key family, child and employee information like names, addresses, classrooms, ledger card activity and payroll history will convert from version 9.1 to Procare v10. However, some things (such as Billing Box information) are structured in a substantially different way such that it is not feasible to convert them. See the Conversion Table for details.

May I convert more than once?

You may convert each main module just once. For example, you could convert Family Data & Accounting now, then later convert Employee Data & Payroll (see Payroll Conversion). The conversion process adds to any data that is already in v10. If you convert the same module more than once (for the same location) you’ll end up with duplicate copies of each family and child as well as duplicate records of their attendance, accounting information, etc.

May I practice in v10 prior to converting?

Yes, but be sure to backup v10 before entering any practice data. Read the full article “Practice in v10“.

Why do some of my Chart of Accounts numbers have A01 at the end?

When you import your version 9.1 Chart of Accounts, an account that would be a duplicate is renamed to keep it unique in the Chart. See Converted Chart of Accounts for details.