CCH Practice Management 2025.1: Release Notes
Prerequisites
Installing CCH Practice Management 2025.1
This release is installed using the Central Suite Installer. This ensures that all prerequisites are in place and that all the products for which you are licenced are installed in the correct sequence. Click here to learn about the Central Suite Installer.
Software Enhancements
Account Status - new account status type
The function behind the existing 'on Hold' has changed and a new account status type called 'Pending' has been introduced. The new 'Pending' has replaced all account status descriptions where the corresponding type was 'on Hold. '
The new 'Pending' status has inherited the old 'on Hold' function: i.e., The employee still receives the warning message in Timesheets, Expenses, and Disbursements when entering a client whose Account Status is set (where the Account Status Type = Pending).
New Task Permission
A new Task Permission has been added to allow firms to choose who can change the Account Status on the client's Default Tab.
Product: VPM
Client: #Client #Defaults # Account Status
By default, no permission has been applied, so upon upgrade, no users will have the ability to change the Account Status within the client's Default Tab.
Changes to on Hold
The following changes have been made to the Account Status Type = on Hold. If the account status is changed (on the client's default tab and saved) to a setting where the Account Status Type = on Hold, the following functionality is applied:
- The client is NOT available for selection within Timesheets, Expenses, and Disbursements
- The client is NOT available within Step 2 of Create Bulk Bill and Bulk Bill Extra Fields
- A message is returned when trying to raise a client invoice and the bill is NOT raised.
The following configuration key (found in File > Maintenance > User Defined > Configuration) PM_ClientOnHold has the following message: You cannot raise a bill for this client as their account has been placed on hold. This message can be changed by overriding the wording within the Key Value box.
Note: For the message to span multiple lines, put a \n between the sentences within the Key Value. e.g.: This account is on hold due to non-payment of debt. \n No further action can be taken on this account.
Find Client - new field - Account Status
A new field called Account Status has been added to the Find Clients Field Chooser. When dragged onto the Find Client list, the icon 
denotes clients whose Account Status (within the default tab) has been updated to a status (where the Account Status type = on Hold).
Data Security with Smart Reports
Practice Management Smart Reports to be included within Data Security
Previously, not all Practice Management reports adhered to Data Security. This has been amended and is controlled by the following Configuration Key called "SmartReportsDataSecurity". When the Key Value is = 1, and data security is active, the following reports will adhere to the standard Data Security rules.
Debtors:
- Adjustments
- Adjustments by Assignment
- Aged Debt by Assignment
- Aged Debt by Assignment Summary
- Aged Debtor Invoices
- Aged Debtor with Exposure
- Aged Debtors
- Debtor Statements
- Debtor Statements Balance Forward
- Debtor Statements Multicurrency
- Invoice Payment History
- Outstanding Sales Invoices
- Outstanding Sales Invoices by Assignment
- Receipt Allocation History
- Sales Control by Client
- Sales Ledger
- Sales Ledger Receipts
- Sales Ledger Receipts by Assignment
Fees:
- Bill Auto post failures
- Billing Clients
- Billing Summary
- Draft Bills
- Fee Recovery by Assignment
- Fee Recovery by client
- Fee Recovery by Employee
- Fees by Client with Comparatives
- Fees by WIP Employee
- Sales Day Book by Assignment
- Sales Day Book by Client
- VAT Invoices
Time:
- Disbursement
- Miscellaneous
- Timesheet
- Timesheets by Day of Week
WIP:
- Aged WIP by Assignment
- Aged WIP by Assignment Summary
- Aged WIP by Client
- Aged WIP by Code
- Assignment Cumulative
- Client Summary
- Client Time and Disbursements
- Control by Assignment
- Control by Assignment - Detailed
- Control by Client
- Control by Client (all WIP and Debtor Bals)
- Ctrl By client Exp (WIP clients and their Drs Bals)
- Current WIP by Assignment
- Current WIP by Client
- Total WIP/Debtor Client Summary
- WIP History by Assignment
- WIP History by Client
- WIP History by Employee
- WIP History Detail
- WIP Lockup Days
- WIP Lockup Days by Assignment
- WIP Provisions by Assignment
- WIP Provisions by Client
Note: It is important to note that when running certain Firm reports with data security and the configuration key active, the totals shown may NOT reflect the Firm's position correctly.
Multicurrency Changes
Multicurrency Bill Rate on Billing Wizard Stage Four
A change has been made to Stage Four of the Billing wizard, the 'Bill Rate' now displays under the Bill Currency to show what has been applied within the bill.
Bills Tab to show both Bill Currency and Rate
The Rate field has been added to the Field Chooser within the Client > Bills Tab, users can pull both the 'Bill Currency' and 'Rate' fields onto the grid to show.
Transaction window to show Currency
A new Currency field has been added to the field chooser within the Bookkeeping > View > Transactions window, users can pull both the 'Currency' and 'Rate' fields onto the grid to show.
Debtors Ledger / Receipting Changes
The multicurrency Debtors ledger has now been upgraded to .Net and firms are NO longer required to register files to enable access.
Click the Debtor enquiry icon 
from the Ribbon Bar to access the Debtors ledger.
By default, the screen opens in Ledger mode, and all invoices are displayed for the currency showing in the 'Currency' drop-down. Select the drop-down and change the currency to show invoices created against other currencies.
Select the Company drop-down and select to show invoices created against different Companies (if applicable).
Receipts
Click the Receipts icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to change the mode from Ledger to Receipts.
Select the Company drop-down to show the invoices required for receipting. Select the relevant Bank Account, Source, and Currency. Enter the Receipt Date, Number, and Description (where required). Enter the Cash Amount, then tab for the Bill Amount and Base Amount to be populated, add the value to the Cash column, and click Post.
Adjustments
Click the Adjustment icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to change the mode from Ledger to Adjustments.
Select the Company drop-down to show the invoices required for receipting. Select the relevant Currency. Enter the Adjustment Date, Number, and Description (where required). Add the value to the Adjustment, BadDebt or Discount columns and click Post.
Warning! Currently, there is a screen refresh issue when moving from Receipt to Adjustment mode or from Adjustment to Receipt mode. It is recommended to only move between 'Ledger and Receipts' or 'Ledger and Adjustments' and close the Sales Ledger window if you need to move between Receipts and Adjustments. This is to be resolved in a later release.
Allocations
To find out what receipts or credit notes have been allocated to a specific invoice, select the invoice/receipt and click the Allocations icon 
on the Ribbon Bar, the pop-up shows all the allocations applied to that invoice. To view allocations for fully allocated invoices, switch to Ledger mode, and tick the 'Show zero' box. 
Other Ribbon options
Export to Excel
This Export to Excel option 
on the Ribbon Bar is currently disabled and will be enabled with a later release.
Preview Bill
Select the invoice row and click the Preview Bill icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to open the invoice in MS Word.
Select the invoice row and click the PDF icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to open the invoice in Adobe (or the equivalent PDF reader installed on the workstation).
Select the invoice row and click the Email icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to open the invoice Outlook. Please ensure that a valid email address is available on the client.
Draft Report
Select the invoice row and click the Draft Report icon on the Ribbon Bar to open the Smart Report.
Client
Select the invoice row and click the Client icon 
on the Ribbon Bar to open the client record.
Notable Issues
Bills Ready to Send
This area was changed to improve performance within this window, which, unfortunately, has had a knock-on effect. This change only applies to firms with CCH Document Management installed AND 'email' or 'Publish to CCH OneClick' bills from within the Document Centre.
Previously, when a bill was 'emailed' or 'Published to CCH OneClick' from within the Document Centre, the invoice was removed from the Bills Ready to Send window. On upgrade, any bills that were processed via the Document Centre are re-shown in the Bills Ready to Send window. Please see the Knowledge Base article 'CCH Practice Management: 2025.1 Bills Ready To Send - Contains old, sent bills' (which contains a script to run to remove the incorrectly displayed bills).
This issue will be resolved in a later release.
Group Deletion
Currently, an issue occurs when attempting to perform a group deletion. The following message is displayed, advising that it is not possible and the only option is to click OK and cancel the routine. This is to be addressed as soon as possible.
Multicurrency - Billing wizard - VAT issue when using an exchange rate that is NOT the current rate
Currently, there is an issue with the VAT calculation when a Rate is selected on Stage 1 that is NOT the current exchange rate when the bill is posted from the Billing Main window. This is to be addressed as soon as possible.
Workaround
The following steps outline how to post an invoice (until the issue is addressed)
- Select Rate on Stage 1 which is NOT the current rate.
- Process Stage 2 and 3 as usual
- Click Next to Stage 4. Post the bill from this stage. Do NOT click finish to finalise the bill from the Billing Main window.
Where the user does not have the right to post the bill, click finish, but do NOT submit. From the "Bills to Approve" homepage, the bill approver must submit, authorise, and post from there.
Quality Improvements
ePay failing to generate a payment link
It has been reported that on occasion, while the link was visible on the document (when previewing), it failed to generate a payment link.
Bills ready to send - Timeout expired message
It has been reported that occasionally when selecting the drop-down for office in the Bills Ready to Send window, a timeout expired message was being received. Within this release, we have addressed the performance only and no functional change has been made.
Multi-currency - Billing Wizard - Rate displayed when currency is GBP
Previously, if the clients' currency matched the Company's base currency, the rate on Stage one of the billing wizard was showing incorrectly. The rate now displays as 1.
Multi-currency - Rate not displaying greater than 90 days
Previously, the rate drop-down did not display rates older than 90 days.
Multi-currency - Currency Rates window crashing
Previously, The Currency Rates window would crash when using either the Filter from Currency or Filter To Currency when in the File > Maintenance > Currency > Currency Rate window.