xReporter accounting reports ....

SNF Lab Members:

A couple of folks have pointed out that the "My accounting" report is
broken. It should be functional once again. However, there are some
changes to our accounting strategy that should not make any difference
in the amount that you are paying, but should provide you with some
better information. Let me explain:

For a number of years, we have used database stored procedures to
calculate your lab charges. They have the downside that they are not
terribly easy to find problems, not easy to modify, and not particularly
easy to see exactly what algorithm is used to calculate the charges. To
address these issues, Bill Murray has developed a system called XCRML
(for eXtensible Cost Recovery Markup Language) that, in particular,
allows the flexible specification of the algorithm that is used to
determine charges. Of course, if the numbers are the same, why am I
telling you this? There are a couple of things that you may notice and
may be of interest to you.

1. In the past, if you exceeded 160 hours of equipment usage in the
month, you would see a separate line item for both the "normal"
eq_activity charges and a separate line item for the equipment usage
beyond the 160 hour limit that was described as the "eq_surcharge".
From this point forward, you will see only a single eq_activity line
that represents both the "normal" and post-160-hour charges for
equipment usage.

2. We are now able to provide better accounting details that can provide
the effective cost of each and every equipment usage during the month.
Furthermore, this scales the cost of each equipment usage properly to
properly allocate the impact of the monthly cap to each individual
equipment activity.

So, under the Accounting section of the xReporter section, you used to
see one report named "My Accounting". That report is still there and
will provide the charges for a given month based on the old, stored
procedure calculations. If you wish, you can use that report to confirm
that the charges determined by that calculation are the same as you will
be charged by the new XCRML-based calculations.

You will also see two new reports: one named "My XCRML Accounting" and
one named "My XCRML Accounting Detail". The "My XCRML Accounting"
should look very similar to the old "My Accounting" report in that it
will give you subtotals for equipment charges (type = 'eq_activity'),
training charges, staff activity charges, inventory charges and
subscription charges. The "My XCRML Accounting Detail" report will give
you the full details, including every activity during the month and the
amount that you will be charged for that month.

We hope that this additional detail will be of use to you by allowing
you to see the effective charge (including capping) of each individual
activity.

Please let is know if you have any questions or problems running these
new reports.

Thanks,

John