Master Packs - overview

What is Master Pack Versioning?

Master Pack Versioning is a way of grouping changes within a master pack which allows those changes to be sequenced over time.

Two immediate benefits of master pack versioning are:

1. Master Pack Versioning allows different versions of a master pack to be assigned to the same client for different accounting periods.
2. Each entity will have its own separate versioning sequence and the release of a new version for one entity will not require any other entity to be updated at the same time.

What does this mean for CCH Accounts Production users?  

If a new master pack version is installed while accounts are out for signing, any changes in that Master Pack will have no effect on that data set as it will be still be using the earlier pack (unless the user has upgraded).

When opening an accounting period if a newer master pack is available the user will have a choice to either upgrade to a new version or not.

What does this mean for CCH Accounts Production Administrators?  

All Master Packs have the ability to be “published” to the rest of the users. Changes to a master pack can now be investigated and tested before being published and made “live” to the rest of the users.   As all changes are encapsulated within a versioned master pack, it is now possible to separate changes between packs and isolate them for approval.

Administrators can now isolate their own changes within a customisable global pack e.g. they can keep customisations for formats, chart of accounts, etc., this allows customisations to be issued once they have been tested/ approved, without being overwritten by subsequent CCH Master Pack updates.

How do Master Packs and Customised Packs work?   

Master Packs\Customised Packs work on a hierarchical basis.  

• A pack which ends .00 has been issued by Wolters Kluwer, CCH Software.  A pack that ends .01, .02, etc will have created by yourselves in-house.
• When opening an accounting period that uses Pack 1.01 the software will use what is in that pack first (I.e. the custom format).  It will then look in the next previous pack to obtain the required formats and so on until all the formats are “in place”.
• In this way the packs will contain the changes from the lastest pack. 

When a new master pack is issued by ourselves it will contain the changes since the last master pack we issued, this has the benefit that subsequent master pack updates from Wolters KLuwer CCH Software are smaller and quicker to install.

It is important that Master Pack edits are done within sequential pack versions.

Changes to Master packs will affect all later master packs regardless of when that pack was created. 

In other words do not work backwards, the higher number will trump the lower number  E.g. this means that even though Pack 1.06 was created after 2.01, changes made to 1.06 may affect 2.01.  This is because packs work on a hierarchical basis so that changes pass from a lower to higher pack.  Therefore packs should be published and when a higher release is received a higher practice pack then opened if required.  Changes should NOT made to earlier packs if later published ones exist.

Format update and format updater history   

With the introduction of Master Packs there will no longer be a need to use the Format Updater to manually update the formats that are issued with Accounts Production.  All formats issued from 2014.2 onwards will be installed as part of the installation/upgrade process of CCH Accounts Production and incorporated into the relevant Master Pack version.  If the Format Updater has not been run for one or more releases prior to the 2014.2 release it can still be run. The format updater will only update the Master Pack 1.00 formats.

The Format Update History is no longer relevant due to the implementation of Master Packs.