The following paragraphs contain information on features added to or changed in Version 1.70 of QuickFill with each build number that was released. You can see further information on a feature or change by clicking on the green underlined text.
The database version letter has been changed from G to H (e.g. the files are named xxxxx_Hnn.QFDAT instead of xxxxx_Gnn.QFDAT). Your database will be automatically updated to match the new version of QuickFill when you open it.
There are now thirteen database files instead of eleven. As before, the key files are the last four files, that is xxxxx_H10.QFDAT through xxxxx_H13.QFDAT. Those key files will be recreated if you run the 'Rebuild key files' command. The file xxxxx_H08.QFDAT is a new file that contains 'served issues' records. These 'served issues' records are linked to the subscription records and are used for counting the copies served by subscription class, request type and service code. They are used by the audit reports and for determining when adds and drops occurred. File xxxxx_H09.QFDAT is a new file that contains 'served name' records that identify the customer names that the issues were sent to. The 'served name' records are created for audited pubs only so file 9 will never grow if you have no audited publications.
Added a new 'Lookup (Served)' screen which lists the served issue records for a subscription.
You can see this screen by clicking the "Issues served" button on the bottom right of the 'Lookup (Subs)' screen.
The Print Saved Reports screen now allows printing and deleting of more than one file at a time.
To select a range of files, left click the first file and then shift-click the last file in the range. To select a disjoint set of files, left click the first file and then ctrl-click the other files. The Print Preview, Email and Align functions work with only one file at time. The Details button has been replaced with a pair of radio buttons that let you choose whether the list displays the report descriptions or the file names.
Users can now change their own passwords.
The command to change your password is on the 'Other' menu. In order to change your password you must be signed on and not in lookup-only mode.
Creation and change date fields have been added to the customer record.
There are five new fields: the date the customer record was created and the dates of the most recent change to the postal address, email address, telephone number and fax number. These new date fields appear on the Customer Details screen, but are not editable. They do not appear on the Address Change screen or any of the other data entry screens because they are automatically maintained by QuickFill. These five date fields also appear in the subscription and customer export files, the ODBC driver, and are accepted by the subscription, prospect and customer data imports.
The 'Promotional Labels' filter has changed.
The filters for the 'Promotional Labels', 'Customer Directory' and other related reports and exports have been updated to include date filter ranges for the five new date fields in the customer record plus one more: last contact date. The last contact date is defined as the most recent of the creation date, the most recent address change and the most recent order for any subscription linked to the customer. There are now three 'Customer' tabs instead of two.
The "Last renewal order date" range that was on the 'Subscriber 2' tab of the filter has been removed and in its place an order date field was added to the 'Order' tab. This will allow more flexibility since you can specify whether you are filtering on the first, current or most recent order. If you really need to select customers with renewal orders received within a specific date range, then you should filter on the order date and on the number of renewals that ranges from 1 to 99.
The 'Marketing List' definition screen now includes a date field.
This may be helpful in tracking the age of your lists.
It is now possible to create subscription export files that include complete, unmasked credit card numbers.
There is a new option on the Subscription Export screens (regular and qualification filter) that allow exporting of complete unmasked credit card numbers. This option will work only if the user running the export (or the job list containing the export) has the appropriate user authorization.
The 'Renewal Rate' report now includes totals for all renewals (1st, 2nd and subsequent) when an effort analysis is included in the report.
Also a total block is added to the effort analysis when a secondary sort by expire date is requested.
The 'Subscription Statistics' report now allows you to choose whether single, two-party or group subscriptions are included in the results.
This is useful if you suspect that some of your gift subscriptions have been assigned to the wrong renewal series. You can now get a breakdown of the number of two-party or group subscriptions by renewal series.
The reliability of the 'Adds and Drops by Issue' report has been improved.
The data for this report is now obtained from the new 'served issue' records. The number served for issue N, plus adds, less drops should always equal the number served for issue N+1, despite any adjustments or other transactions that may have been made. You may still see a discrepancy between the number of copies served shown on the 'Adds and Drops by Issue' report and the numbers shown on the issue definition screen. Here are a couple of examples of why this might happen. If a new order is entered with a non-zero value in the "served" field,you are telling QuickFill that you have or will have mailed those issues separately; the issue label update does not serve those issues and they will not be counted in the issue table. However the 'served issues' records attached to the subscription do reflect these issues that were served outside of QuickFill and they will be counted in the 'Adds and Drops by Issue' report. Similarly, if a subscription is imported with issues served, those issues will not be counted in the issue table, but will be counted in the 'served issue' records. Finally, if a subscription is purged, the associated 'served issue' records are deleted and this will cause the issue table counters to disagree with the totals from the 'served issues' records.
If an update causes all of the other tabs to be automatically closed, then a lookup tab will be automatically opened when the update tab is closed.
Some users were confused by the blank screen that appeared when you closed the update tab and thought the database was closed. Automatically opening a lookup tab makes it clear that the database is still open.
Changes to the ODBC driver.
Added the SVD (served issue records) and SVN (served name records) tables.
Added the CUS_CREATION_DATE, CUS_POSTAL_DATE, CUS_EMAIL_DATE, CUS_PHONE_DATE and CUS_FAX_DATE fields to the CUS table.
Added the LIS_DATE field to the LIS table.
Removed the audit counters from the ISS table.
Removed the SUB_PRIOR_CLASS, SUB_PRIOR_QUANTITY fields from the SUB table.
Removed the SHP_PRIOR_QUANTITY field from the SHP table.
Replaced the CHN_SOURCE field with CHN_ABCBUS and CHN_ABCMAG fields.
The following changes apply only to systems with the audit feature.
Audited publications no longer require a qualification form definition.
If your circulation consists entirely of paid and/or verified subscriptions it is possible that none of your subscriptions need qualification data. Accordingly the publication definition screen no longer requires that you create a qualification form for an audited publication.
The rules for when qualification data is required have been relaxed.
If any questions were answered by the subscriber, then those questions marked as required on the qualification form must be answered.
If the qualification form has no required questions then qualification data doesn't need to be entered.
If the qualification form has at least one required question then qualification data must be provided except in these cases:
non-qualified and verified subscriptions do not need qualification data;
paid subscriptions do not need qualification data if the "Qualification data is required for paid subscriptions" box on the publication definition screen is not checked.
The date of qualification is required if the subscriber answered any of the questions.
Some of the existing subscription classification codes have been renamed and there are many new classification codes.
As time has passed the QuickFill classification codes have diverged from the ABC and BPA nomenclature. In order to conform to current ABC/BPA/VAC terminology we have renamed some of the classification codes. There are also some new classification codes.
The major changes are these:
The initial 'Q' has been removed from the paid classification codes.
The "single" classifications are now known as "individual" and the codes end with 'I' instead of 'S'.
The "Verified" classifications VI (Verified Individual Use) and VPP (Verified Public Place) are new. These are specific to ABC magazines. They do not require qualification data.
The VersionH program that upgrades your database from version 1.6 to version 1.7 will automatically make these code name changes both in your database and in your galley data files. If you have other programs that make use of the classification codes in QuickFill's exported files you may have to make changes to those programs.
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Old code |
New code |
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NPS |
NPI |
Non-paid individual |
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QPS |
PI |
Paid individual |
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QPG |
PS |
Paid sponsored |
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QPA |
PA |
Paid association |
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QPB |
PB |
Paid bulk |
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NPL |
Non-paid list source |
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PC |
Paid combination |
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PAN |
Paid association non-deductible |
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PM |
Paid club membership |
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PMN |
Paid club membership non-deductible |
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PD |
Paid deferred |
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PL |
Paid loyalty |
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PP |
Paid partnership |
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PPN |
Paid partnership non-deductible |
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VI |
Verified individual use |
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VPP |
Verified public place |
Click
here for a complete list of all of the classification codes with details
on how they are reported for each type of audit agency.
The method of tracking the number of copies served for each issue by classification and request type has changed.
In prior versions of QuickFill the number of qualified copies served for each classification was recorded in the issue table. This caused difficulties when new classifications were established by ABC or BPA because the database structure needed to be revised to include new counters. It also did not provide an audit trail—if the issue table stated that 10,000 paid individual copies were served the December issue you could not determine accurately just which 10,000 subscriptions were classified as "paid individual" at the time that issue was served. Subscriptions commonly move from qualified to non-qualified or from non-paid to paid. It was difficult to tell just how a subscription was classified when each issue was served. In order to remedy this QuickFill now attaches 'served issue' records to each subscription. These records record the exact classification, request type and service code when each issue is served.
You can see these new records by clicking the "Issues served" button on the bottom right of the 'Lookup (Subs)' screen.
The method of tracking which names were added or removed for each issue served has changed.
In prior versions of QuickFill the Issue Label update created Additions and Removals label files that listed which subscribers were added or dropped with that issue. These files needed to be preserved for use by the auditor. The Additions and Removals label files are no longer produced by the update. Instead there is a new 'Additions and Removals' report that can be run at any time. This report analyzes the 'served issue' records to determine when each subscription started and stopped receiving issues.
The ABC magazine Publisher's Statement report has undergone major revisions to conform to ABC's latest format.
Click here for details on the ABC Magazine version of the Publisher's Statement report. You can see the prototype reports on ABC's web site at http://www.accessabc.com/consumer/c_training_samples.htm.
Filtering by service code is now available on the Average Circulation report.
Because the numbers on this report are now obtained by scanning the 'served issues' records instead of the issue table it is now possible to determine the exact number of copies served by classification and service code. This is important for publications with print and electronic editions, or with regional editions.
On the ABC Magazine version of the report the Verified Individual Use, Verified Public Place and Non-paid Individual classifications are broken out by request type.
For ABC magazines the rules have changed regarding which subscriptions are subject to reclassification after three years.
Only verified individual request subscriptions (VI with request type INR), and NPI (non-paid individual), NPL (non-paid list source), NPA (non-paid association) and NPM (non-paid club membership) subscriptions are subject to reclassification under the three year rule.
Grace issues are no longer served to paid sponsored subscriptions if the publication is ABC audited.
BPA on the other hand does allow gracing for sponsored subscriptions.
On the Issue definition screen there are editable fields for 'Single copies' and 'Trade shows/conventions'.
Use these fields to record the number of non-subscription copies served outside of QuickFill that need to be reported on your Publisher's statement.
On the Channel definition screen the sales channel field has been split into two fields.
There is now one field for ABC magazines and a separate field for ABC business publications. The list of sales channels is different in each case. If you have ABC audited publications you should review your channel definitions before running the Publisher's statement report. BPA and VAC don't report sales channels in their publisher's statements.
The 'Order Sources' report is now called the 'Sales channels' report.
The menu indicates that this report is now used for ABC only. There is a new set of sales channels on the channel definition screen that are specific to ABC magazines.
The 'Make Trials' update can now be used to create non-controlled subscriptions with a verified classification.
The 'Make Trials' update can be used to create non-controlled subscriptions provided the subscription classification used does not require qualification data. This includes verified individual use and verified public place subscriptions, which never require qualification data.
The 'Make Controlled Subscriptions' update has been changed to allow creation of subscriptions with any classification except paid.
In particular, this means that you can use this update to create Verified Individual Use subscriptions from a prospect list. Previously this update only allowed the creation of qualified non-paid subscriptions.
The subscription import and export files no longer include PRSBCLASS and PRSBCOPIES fields.
The subscription classification and the number of copies served by the most recent issue label update is now recorded in the served issue' records and is no longer in the subscription record. Accordingly these two fields are no longer applicable.
In the dBASE Audit file format the PRSBCLASS field has been renamed to SUBCLASS
The 'Graced Copies' and 'Renewals' reports now allow filtering by subscription classification.
Windows Vista is now supported.
Previous versions of QuickFill had issues with ODBC access and with exporting reports to Microsoft Excel when running on Windows Vista. Please be aware that Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT will not be supported after June 2007.
Added agency code filter fields to the order tab of the Promotional Labels filter.
In addition to the Promotional Labels report this also applies to the Customer Directory and Blanket Renewals reports, and to the Subscription, Prospect and Customer exports.
Added exclude check boxes to the order tab of the Promotional Labels filter.
Exclusions are permitted only under some circumstances. See this note for an explanation.
Added customer demographic filter fields to the customer tab of the Change Billing Series and Change Renewal Series updates.
Added subscription start date filter fields to the Purge Expired Subscriptions update.
Specifying a date range is useful for publications that are for single products, not subscriptions. Orders for such products all start and end with a single "issue", therefore it is necessary to specify a date range to avoid purging recent orders .
You can now specify that premiums should be shipped using the same method as the subscription order.
There is a new check box on the 'Issue Labels' tab of the Publication definition screen that lets you specify that the labels for premiums will have the same shipping class as was specified when the order was entered.
Use this when you have high value orders where the customer specified and paid for expedited shipping and you want the premiums to be sent using the same shipping class as the issues.
The subscription date and/or the order date can now be printed on your bills, renewals and order acknowledgements.
The subscription date and order date are now listed on the Form Designer screen among the fields available for placement on your bill, renewal or acknowledgement designs.
There is a new gracing policy control on the renewal series definition screen.
In addition to setting your gracing policy on the publication definition screen, you can also control gracing on the renewal series definition screen. On that screen you will find a checkbox that tells QuickFill not to send grace issues to any subscriptions that are linked to that renewal series. You can use that feature to provide finer control over gracing than the publication-wide gracing policy.
Fixed a bug that could cause QuickFill to intermittently hang when opening a database or when opening a new tab.
If you have a multiuser license then please be sure to run the "Install Lock Manager" program which can be found by clicking Start, All Programs, then QuickFill. Do this on the computer that normally runs the lock manager.
The compiler used to build the QuickFill application has changed to the most recent version from Microsoft.
If you have a multiuser system you will need to run the Workstation installer on each computer that uses QuickFill. If you do not run the installer then you will see one of the following messages when you try to run QuickFill:
Windows 98: A required .DLL file MSVCR80.DLL was not found
Windows 2000: The dynamic link library MSVCR80.DLL could not be found in the specified path
Windows XP: The application failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect
Windows Vista: The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect
The 'Fix Orders' update has been added to QuickFill.
Use this update to:
Fix the price, term, tracking code or other characteristics of orders that were entered with the wrong codes.
Fix new orders that were mistakenly entered with the wrong start issue.
Remove orders and subscriptions that were imported incorrectly.
Extend and reactivate subscriptions that have expired.
Change the billing or renewal policies for orders that were entered with the wrong codes.
Change the classification or request type of orders (audit system only).
Remove the credit card numbers from orders where the payment process has been completed.
The maximum number of digits in a customer number or order number has increased from 8 digits to 9 digits.
The field width of the customer number and order number fields has been changed in the following files that are created or exported by QuickFill:
dBASE subscription export files
dBASE customer data export files
dBASE for NCOA customer export files
Fixed length customer data export files
dBASE files for gift recipient notifications
dBASE mail-merge bills and order acknowledgements
dBASE mail-merge renewals and blanket renewals
dBASE credit card output files
Galley data files (audit system only)
The customer and order number fields in the above files will not be filled to their maximum length unless you have ten million or more customer or order records in your database. Most software that can read dBASE files will accept a change in field length without complaint, but you may need to test this assertion if you have custom written software.
QuickFill will accept import data files with customer number or order number fields of any length.
There is a new format available for the ACS key field in the dBASE issue label files.
The ACS key field is a component of the US Postal Service's address change service. The original format for the ACS key field was all numeric and does not have enough room for the longer customer and order numbers. In order to accommodate the new numbers a new alphanumeric ACS key field format is available. You can make your choice of formats on the Preferences screen. You only need to use the alphanumeric format if you have or expect to have customer or orders numbers with more than 8 digits. If you change ACS key line formats then you will need to apply to the USPS for a new participant code. Existing databases will continue to use the original numeric format. The default for new databases is the alphanumeric format.
The Subscription Statistics report can now be sorted by Zip code.
In addition, the filter screen for the Subscription Statistics report has been expanded to include the same tabs and filter fields as the Subscription Export. If you have filters for Subscriptions Statistics reports saved in your job lists then you should review those filters to make sure they still include the criteria you originally saved.
The Combination Orders batch screen can now be opened using a button on the tool bar.
To add this button to your tool bar select 'Customize toolbar' from the 'Other' menu.
The filter screen for the Order Acknowledgements report now includes the order source field.
First name and salutation have been added to the list of available fields in the form designer.
The salutation field represents a best effort to construct a salutation for a letter. If a salutation was entered when the customer record was entered, then that text will be used. If the customer record has both the prefix and last name fields available, then those will be combined to form a salutation of the form "Mr. Jones". If either the prefix or last name is blank then the word "Subscriber" will be used. Please note that you can have QuickFill fill in the prefix field for you in all your customer records by running the 'Update Addresses' update.
The credit card output file for Authorize.net has been modified to include the CVV2 field from the credit card.
The limit on the number of future orders that can be processed has been increased from 20 to 40.
This change affects the issue label update and the cancel and reinstate transactions.
The default setting for customer export files has been changed from dBASE formatted to dBASE unformatted.
You can choose the format of the export file by making a selection in the format field of the export screen. This change only affects the format that you get if you do not explicitly choose a format. Saved export jobs will continue to use the format that was chosen when the job was created. Click here for an explanation of the difference between "formatted" and "unformatted" export files.
The following change applies only to systems with the audit feature.
For BPA audited publications, transitions from paid to non-paid or vise versa are no longer reported as additions and removals.
This change was made in accordance with BPA rule B7.1.6 which says that when subscriptions change from non-paid to paid they should not be reported as removals and additions. In order to make the numbers cross foot on the Form 1-2 section of the Publisher's statement, changes in paid/non-paid status are reported in a separate column labeled "Paid to non-paid transfers". This column contains the net shift from paid to non-paid. The number will be positive if there are more subscriptions going from paid to non-paid and negative if there are more going from non-paid to paid. This change applies only to BPA audited publications. ABC does not have a similar rule.
Build 706 was a bug-fix release. It contained no new features.
The /RUN command line option can now be used to run any job list.
Previously the /Run command line option could only be used to run the "Tonight's Jobs" list. Click here for more information on running job lists from the command line.
A 'Stop' button has been added to the duplicate detection and address matching screens of several importers.
When importing records QuickFill often has to stop and ask if the incoming address represents the same person as an existing address in the database. If this becomes too time consuming you can now click the new Stop button to stop the import. At a later time you can resume the import from where you left off by specifying the appropriate starting record number. This change affects the Subscription Import, Prospect Import, Transaction Import, Requalification import (audit systems only) and the Merge Duplicates update.
The following change applies only to systems with the audit feature.
The subscription import, prospect import and requalification import programs now accept either QDATE or QUALDATE as the name of the qualification date field.
The following change applies only to systems with the transaction import feature.
The transaction import program now accepts either QDATE or QUALDATE as the name of the qualification date field.
The transaction import program now allows the importing of subscription history comments.
There are two comment fields available, each of which can contain up to 255 characters of text.
The Issue Labels update now tries to protect you from running issues with dates that are too far in the future.
It is common to run the issue labels update for the February issue in January so that you can get the labels to the mail shop in time, but it would be unusual to run the March issue in January. QuickFill will now stop you if you try to run the issue labels for an issue that is more than one issue into the future. In some situations you may find that you actually need to run an issue unusually early. To accommodate such needs there is a new checkbox on the 'Issue Labels Update' screen that lets you bypass QuickFill's built-in issue date check and run issues with dates that are far into the future.
The filter screen for the Purge Prospects update has been changed to allow selection of prospects with active subscriptions.
You can now create lists of customers who received a particular issue.
This feature applies to the filters for the 'Promotional Labels', 'Customer Directory' and other related reports and exports. On the 'Subscription 2' tab there is a new filter field named 'Received issue(s)'. Enter an issue number or range of issue numbers and only those customers that received the specified issues will be selected. You can also enter a date range, in which case the calendar date of the issues served is matched against the date range you enter. The calendar date of an issue can be found on the issue definition screen.
Only one instance of the 'Print Saved Reports' screen can be opened at a time.
In the interests of reducing the amount of time it takes to display the list of saved reports, if there is already an instance of the 'Print Saved Reports' screen open then the 'Print...' command will bring the existing screen to the foreground instead of creating a second instance.
Updates can now be run or scheduled on a job list even if the selected publications have no orders.
Previously the Issue Labels, Billing, Renewal, Credit Card and Refund updates could not be run if no orders had been entered yet for the selected publications. With this change you can schedule updates in advance for new publications.
The 'About QuickFill' screen now includes the date and results of the most recent database check.
We recommend that you check your database for corrupted data frequently by using the 'Check database' command on the 'File' menu.
The transaction import and requalification import programs can now run in "test mode."
If you check the "Test run" box the importer will check the input data for errors but will not actually make any changes to the QuickFill database.
The following change applies only to systems with the QuickFill Internet Extensions.
The web import batch report now includes a summary journal entry, sorted by transaction type.