Rebates release notes
Find out what's new and changed in each version of Rebates. This page lists all the releases in the last year, with the most recent release items at the top.
September 19, 2024 (Version 24.8.4)
You can now calculate rebates on a quarterly basis. Of the many variations of calculating rebates, a primary differentiator is the period of calculation and payout. Up to now, you could calculate for a period of a year or the calculation period. We are introducing more period options to allow you to calculate in smaller intervals within a period of a year. We’re starting with quarters but soon, we’ll introduce options for months and a fiscal year. The new Quarters option is being rolled out to customers in stages, so you should see it in your rule setups soon. See this page for more information and examples.
Phocas On-Premise: End of support notice for SQL Server 2014
Microsoft announced in July 2024 that SQL Server 2014 is no longer a supported product. Phocas will end support for SQL Server 2014 from November 2024.
After the end-of-support, you can continue to use Phocas; however, you won't be able to upgrade to newer versions. Some features and functionality may no longer function as expected.
Phocas encourages users to upgrade to a supported version of Microsoft SQL Server (2016 at least) or to contact us to learn about the benefits of moving to Phocas cloud to automatically access to new features and functionality.
July 31, 2024 (Version 24.7.2)
We added more retrospective options in the rule setup, giving you flexibility in calculating retrospective rebates. Watch the video for a quick overview, or read the user documentation.
May 21, 2024 (Version 24.5.3)
You can now calculate a rebate for a period of a year across calendar years. Previously, the calculation could only be performed within the calendar year, even if the cumulative year spanned across two calendar years. In the rule setup, when Amounts per = Year, instead of limiting calculations to within one calendar year (01 January to 31 December), the validation now limits the calculations to within one cumulative year, where a year starts from the That occur from date in a cumulative year. The cumulative total calculation will reset to zero at the start of the next cumulative period.
We fixed an issue with the Transaction Range = Custom setting on the rule schedule that occurred when you switched between a fixed and offset date range. The scheduled calculations now produce the expected results.
April 11, 2024
We redesigned the Brackets section of the rule setup screen to make it quicker to edit bracket parameters and add and remove brackets. We also added some validations, so you will receive messages helping you to correct any errors and prevent issues later.
April 9, 2024 (Version 24.3.7)
We made the following small changes in the Rule setup window:
We removed the blue borders that were displayed around some settings with dropdown lists. Blue borders should only display when you hover over or open such a list.
We removed the red borders that were displayed around some inactive settings. Red borders signify an error state, but this is not applicable in inactive settings.
In the Results tab when unposted results are displayed:
We removed the checkboxes from the grid. The checkboxes were redundant because you can must post or delete all unposted transactions at the same time; you can’t select individual rows to post or delete.
You can now select cells in the grid and see the average, count, and sum displayed underneath. You can also copy these values and paste them elsewhere.
February 26, 2024 (Version 24.2.1)
We made the following small changes:
Zero rows, which are result rows that contain zero (0.00) values, will now display in the Results tab of the project, highlighted in green. While you can click these rows to open the rule setup screen, there’ll be no results to view.
We resolved an issue with the rule validity date picker in the rule setup screen. The date was not displaying in the user’s desired format. The date picker now uses the user’s Language setting to determine their location and therefore, the applicable date format to use. We also changed the example dates to make the selected date more clear. For example, either 15/01/2024 (day/month/year) or 01/15/2024 (month/day/year).
February 7, 2024 (Version 24.1.3)
We made some enhancements to the rule setup screen:
In the Comments section, we introduced a maximum character limit to comments, so you can no longer post comments that have more than 1,000 characters. We also improved the messages that display when comment validation errors occur.
We updated the View Matching Transactions functionality to honor the Based on dimension setting, even when no specific entities have been excluded or included.
January 8, 2024 (Version 23.12.2)
We added checkboxes to the Rebates grids to make them more consistent with the grids in other modules and make it easier for you to select individual rows, and quickly select or deselect all rows. The screenshots in the user documentation will be updated progressively over time.
We made the following design changes to the homepage to reduce the need to scroll horizontally across the page:
The Last Calculated and Calculation Status columns are combined into one column called Last Calculated, in which colored dots represent the status of the build.
The Modified By and Modified On columns are combined into one column called Last Modified.
The Scheduled column used to show text but now shows a check mark or X mark instead.
We made changes to the process of viewing the results for a project, to better reflect your expected outcome and improve your user experience:
On the Results tab of a project, you can filter the list to view either posted or unposted results. If you select the Posted filter option, and then click a rule link to view the results, the rule setup screen now displays the posted results, as expected. Previously, the unposted results were displayed. Similarly, if you open a rule from the unposted results list, the rule setup screen displays the unposted results.
Continuing with the process above, now when you close the rule setup screen, you return to the Results tab from which you started, as expected. Previously, you landed on the Rules tab.
We added validation to the New Project window to prevent you from creating a project that has the same name as an existing project.
We implemented new technology that displays the options in dropdown lists faster.
December 6, 2023 (Version 23.11.2)
We fixed a SQL conversion error that occurred when running a calculation.
November 20, 2023 (version 23.11.1)
We made a change in Phocas Designer (typically available to administrators only) to prevent you from deleting any columns that are used in Rebates projects or rules, to avoid calculation failures. Now if you try to delete such a column, an error message will display, explaining which design elements are being referenced by Rebates.
November 7, 2023 (version 23.10.2)
In the rule setup, we continue with the incremental release of our new user-friendly designs:
We updated the design of the Categorization section.
We made two changes to the Description setting:
We moved the rule Description setting from the Name & Scope section down into the Categorization section. As the description is not required for the rule calculation, it does not need to be in such a prominent position.
Brief descriptions are now automatically generated for you, based on selections you make in the Based on, Include and Exclude sections. You can overwrite these descriptions as required.
October 23, 2023 (version 23.10.1)
We continue with the incremental release of our new user-friendly designs for the Rebates setup screens:
In the rule setup, we moved the settings in the Based On section up into the Name and Scope section.
In the project setup, we added a heading (General) to the first batch of settings.
When a database element that is mapped to either a project or rule is removed from the database, it causes Rebate calculations to fail. We made some changes to how we deal with such an event - you are now notified earlier and supplied with a clear message of the name and type of missing elements.
October 9, 2023 (version 23.9.2)
New and enhanced features
Rebates homepage - Now when you click Rebates in the Phocas menu, the Projects page opens automatically, acting as a homepage to let you get started with your rebates more quickly.
Seasonal calendar enhancement - We continue with the implementation of new user-friendly design and this time it’s the Seasonality Calendar setup screen. The functionality is the same but we gave this screen a fresh new look and moved some things around. Most notably, the total is more clearly visible, below the grid.
Resolved issues and small changes
We fixed a calculation error that occurred when columns in the database had either Unposted or Posted in their name.
We changed the error message
Cannot calculate. '{columnName}' no longer exists in phocas source dbto be more descriptive and helpful for troubleshooting purposes.We fixed an issue whereby manual calculations provided different result sets than scheduled calculations.
We fixed an error that occurred during the transaction download process when the project name contained special characters.
We fixed an issue with the sort order in projects - your order selection now persists across sessions.
September 2023 - New side menu in Phocas
We launched a new side menu to help you get around Phocas more easily and find all your important tools and data in a sleek, collapsible menu. We made some other navigation changes to simplify your screen and bring common actions closer to where you need them.
Side menu
Access your Phocas modules and open recents, favorites and dashboards.
Access the Administration menu.
Filter the items in each module, or in recents, favorites and dashboards. This option replaces the Navigate to search box that was in the top bar.
Launch the Resource Centre to access help and learning resources directly in Phocas.
Quick access to common actions
In a database, perform common actions from a new position near the database name. Simply click the arrow to view your options.
For more details, see Find your way around Phocas.
September 6, 2023 (version 8.1.32)
New and enhanced features
We have been busy developing new features and enhancements, so we have nothing new to release this time.
Resolved issues and small changes
We made several back-end changes in preparation for a change to the That occur from (validity period) setting in the rule setup screen (coming soon).
We added some functionality to the Calculate screen - when you click the Calculate button to run the calculation, the settings now become disabled and a spinner displays instead of a snack bar.
When you sign out of Phocas from any Rebates page, the standard Phocas sign-in page now displays rather than a Rebates-specific sign-in page.
We fixed the validation in the rule setup screen to ensure that the calculation period cannot span multiple years if the Amounts Per is set to Year.
We fixed an issue whereby you could save non-unique rule names by adding a space at the end of a name. This is no longer possible, as rule names must be unique.
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