Version 6.56

This is a major release (in conjunction with version 6.48) with a many enhancements through-out Theatre Manager. The primary new features are the introduction of our outlet version capabilities and web sales (v2). Changes have alsobeen made to Donations, Web Sales, added support for PC Charge (and internet credit card authorization for some service providers)

Version 6.48 • Updates

Released Jan 2, 2005

Key changes:

in the area of web sales
fixes to gift certificate printing
changes to credit card nubmer storage and printing.

Note: Installing this version is fine if you are not using web sales. If you are using the web sales module and have not converted your web pages to cookies, you will need to convert most of your pages - be warned.

We suggest reading the release notes completely - especially for this version and version 6.48.

Preparing for the Update

Theatre Manager will

Reorganize the database.

The user will need to

Before upgrade

Complete your end of day. Deposit all funds, create all sales entries and post to the GL.

Verify the database using data utilities and ensure that everything is ok.

Make a backup copy of the database.

After upgrade

If you have not upgraded your web pages to support cookies, then follow all steps under version 6.48 release notes

Optional Steps

None if upgrading from a version after 6.48. otherwise read version 6.48 release notes

Time Required

It will take a long time from version 6.48 (see release notes)

From any verson 6.5x or later, it should be relatively fast.

Before upgrade	Complete your end of day. Deposit all funds, create all sales entries and post to the GL. Verify the database using data utilities and ensure that everything is ok. Make a backup copy of the database.
After upgrade	If you have not upgraded your web pages to support cookies, then follow all steps under version 6.48 release notes
Optional Steps	None if upgrading from a version after 6.48. otherwise read version 6.48 release notes
Time Required	It will take a long time from version 6.48 (see release notes) From any verson 6.5x or later, it should be relatively fast.

Web Sales

Resolved a problem when patrons were allowed to browse anonymously. If the patron attempted to log in and provided a valid email address BUT an incorrect password, the shopping cart would be lost and the seats released after the inactivity timeout. This version properly tracks incorrect log-ins and leaves the patron browsing anonymously if they do not log in correctly.

Resolved a problem where a shopping cart was transferred to the incorrect patron if the user clicked the add patron button, then went back and did it a few times in a row.

Changed the display of historical shopping carts to only show completed or in progress shopping carts. Also limit the number of old shopping carts in the history list to be the same number as the events list (as set up in default data). This resolves an out of memory issue in the web listener where some users had 200 or more historical shopping carts.

There is a bug fix for web sales on the checkout window. If a patron enters their card and expiry date – and then the card gets rejected, the list of choices for years on the credit card expiry list is now set correctly when the checkout window is next shown to the user.

A new feature has been added to do 'smart duplicate' credit card authorizations when checking ont via the internet. Some credit card authorization service providers allow duplicate card and amounts to be processed within the same credit card batch; others do not. For those that do not, there is a setting in 'default data->Credit Card' that is called 'Internet Duplicates'. During the upgrade, this is set to 'Smart Force Duplicates'; which means that TM will check for a second authorization of for that amount for the ppatron using the same card type and automatically turn on the 'force duplciates' flag. It will help those sites that were getting credit card rejections during peak sales periods where customers were buying 2 tickets at a time and returning for more.

Added the ability to comment HTML code and eliminate the comments from being sent out to the user's browser. Normally, comments in HTML code look like . If the opening tag is changed to , then anything within the comment is eliminated from the page

Some page changes for performance or for ehancements. If you have done very little customization of the TMTemplates or the rest of the pages (except the style sheets), then you could probably simply replace your site with the new pages and keep your old style sheets. Some key pages changed include:

TMCart.html
TMCheckout.html
TMtemplate/rowTicketEvent.html
TMpatronNew.html (added do not email example to page)
TMpatronUpdate.html (added do not email example to page)
TMSysInvalidFunction.html (fixed spelling errors and updated the error message)
all pages with<!-- comment tags in them (most of the pages)

Fixed a bug so that the shopping cart details are dispalyed properly when accessed from the emailed confirmation sent to the user after the purchase is completed.

The alternate venue name for general admission events shows up in the list of events for sale.

Reports

Fixed a bug in data export. If the sort fields had been set for the export and they happened to contain fields that did not exist in the records being export, then the export would be slow. Example, suppose the user was exporting donation information and the sort fields for the export happened to include a data field from volunteer history, the export would slow down by a factor of 10. This version clears out any sort fields not associated to the data record to ensure performance of the export.

Added the ability to put in different deferred tax accounts than the tax liability accounts in the tax rate detail. This means you can post taxes to a tax payable account..... Or you can post taxes to a deferred tax account for ticket sales, then on the day of performance, the deferred tax rolls over to taxes payable. Practically, what does this mean? It means that a venue can ‘defer taxes’; meaning you don’t have to pay the taxes to the government until the day of performance --- so you can hold on to the money for longer throughout the season and make some interest on it. Previously, a venue had to pay the taxes to the gov’t as the ticket was sold.... Now the option is there to pay taxes as the ticket revenue is earned.

there is a new field in the accounting tab called 'use common accounts'. If selected, it means that all 5 categories of accounts (regular, season, type 1, 2 & 3) all use the same accounts. This simplifies the entry of account numbers at some sites.

Added the tax totals to the GL tab on plays and dates.

End of Day posting of events now allocates taxes to the play so that they can be seen on the GL tab of plays and dates. This occurs, commencing with the next sales posting. If you wish, you may want to create a GL entry to set up and defer taxes to a show. If not, then during reconciliation of all current shows, all taxes for future sales postings will show up for the event, whereas taxes prior to upgrading will not be tagged to an event and you will need to take those into account when reconciling. The tax totals will be correct in the GL, just not split up amongst shows. All shows set up from this date forward (i.e. next season) will see taxes split out separately.

Theatre Manager now does one separate deferred to earned $ sales posting for each event in a day. The only money in that sales posting pertains to the account. This will make it easier to see money rolling into earned revenue on the 'revenue' tab and see a GL entry that relates specifically to it.

Payments

if you authorize cards for post dated payments at the end of the day, and you have duplicate credit card numbers/amounts for post dated card payments, you can now turn on a ‘force duplicates’ flag at the bottom of the deposit window. This will help if you cannot get some cards authorized because it is the second payment on a pledge.
Updated some of the settlement responses for PC charge. each serive provider gives different 'good batch' responses and TM has been updated to reflect those that we have tested and implemented at client venues.
Fixed a bug for printing credit card receipts at time of payment. The credit card was not being properly decrypted prior to displaying it on the ticket receipt.
added a fix to allow normal users to void credit card payments in the payment window.
For sites using PC Charge for credit card authorization, we now send the modem timeout to PC charge to that it gives up listening to the merchant provider at the same time Theatre Manager does.
Credit cards displayed in Theatre Manager now either displays the full credit card information on the patron window (or payment window) - or - displays only the last 4 digits of the card number. The rest of the card is replaced with **** **** **** in accordance with the requiremetns of prevailing privacy legislation in about 25% of the states.

Memberships/Passes/Gift Certificates

Memberships or passes can no longer be printed twice simply by clicking the 'print' button on the patron window. They now follow the same rules as tickets. Once printed, the membership, pass or gift certificate cannot be reprinted until they are first 'unprinted'.
During redemption of a pass, the user may print the remaining gift certificate amount at the payment window, even if the pass or gift certificate was previously printed. This allows the customer to take away a revised ticket showing current balance on the pass or gift certificate. Previously, if the gift certificate was marked as printed, the user could not print a revised certificate untill they went to the patron screen and unprinted the certificate.
The routine to verify pass totals was revised to address an issue wher rebuilding an order might cause the order balance to be calculated incorrectly if that order contained a pass.

Miscellaneous Changes

Fixed a bug in processing season subscriptions that prevented 'on account' from showing up in the paymenr window. The creaion of the season package now sets the owning outlet properly.
If a gift certificate is purchased from the patron window which has taxes applied, TM now calculates that properly and displays transaction amounts properly.
fixed a dispaly issue on the ticket sales winsow when displaying the composite map. If the user cliecked on a sold seat, the map would be changed to be the current performance. Howeve,r the performance list at the top of the window still had 'all' performances highlighted. The event seleted will now match the map.
Misc spellnig changes to various error messages.
Phone number fields now scroll properly everywhere to allow entry of long extensions in a phone number.
Export and re-import of ticket faces: if you exxport a ticket face for us to look at and we send it back to you -and- if you import it back in again, you will be asked if you want to replace that existing ticket face (or create a new one). This is handy bbecause it allows us to provide support on a ticket face and you no longer need to update all events and dates when it is imported.