I sent some comments regarding this to support, but I
thought I would initiate a discussion here, as well.

I am a recent convert from NAIC Desktop 2. I had purchased
version 3, but the new "features" were not so compelling ,
so I decided to try out Bivio.

I like it so far, but have a few problems and suggestions.

1. Auditing - new that it is year end, I'd like to do the
auditing of my last year's entries, and ran into some usage
issues. I did find the Auditing Help topic written by Jerry
and Rip.
a) Lack of a real hard copy Investment Detail Report as in
NDA 2 or 3. Paging through the Investment Detail on the
screen or even page prints is time consuming. A report that
lists each entry cronologically (not in reverse order) would
be most helpful and greatly speed up our auditing tasks.
b) Display 6 significant digits - Computershare, being one
of the biggest transfer agents out there, has many DRIP
accounts. They are using fractional shares out to 6
significant digits. i.e. 25.123456 The Bivio Investment
Detail only shows 4 significant digits.
c) Running share total - A running share total would be very
useful to verify correct entry of reinvested dividends.

2. Color in Reports - create a problem when printing on
those old-fashioned black and white laser printers or
copying with old-fashioned black and white copiers. The
colored printing is faded or appears fuzzy.

3. AIRR - sure would be nice to get the AIRR on the
Valuation Statement, keeping us from printing another sheet
or looking at another page.

Hi MG,

It's always difficult to change programs. I think some of your complaint
areas are valid. However, I think that once you get comfortable with bivio,
you'll be able to resolve some of these issues for yourself. For example,

> 1. Auditing

To me, the audit function in CA gave us a false sense of security. It
simply should have adjusted numbers as they were entered. This feature made
many a treasurer feel they didn't have to do anything else. Even with
AccountSync, I think it's important to perform a certain amount of auditing.
My club checks off all the check register items, and all the broker
statement items to make sure everything got entered correctly. Actually, we
balance to the penny every month. Then we run the reports and look for
anything out of whack, like miscoding of expenses, etc. These are things we
did with CA, too.

> a) Lack of a real hard copy Investment Detail Report ...A report that
> lists each entry cronologically (not in reverse order) would
> be most helpful and greatly speed up our auditing tasks.

Well, for starters, why would you need one? We used to hand out a report
like this until we came to bivio. Now, with 24/7 access by each member,
it's just not necessary. When we need detail on a particular stock, we use
the Accounting|Reports|Investment Report. I can click on the "detail"
button for any stock to come up with the detailed history, in the right
order from old to new. If I am auditing the broker statements against bivio
for year end (January, February, March, etc.), I simply run the main broker
account and check them off from the back page to the front. They are still
in order by date. I guess I just didn't think that starting on page 4 was a
big deal.

> 3. AIRR - sure would be nice to get the AIRR on the Valuation Statement

Yep, I agree. I got very spoiled by that, and it's the only thing I miss
about CA! Maybe if we're really nice to tech support this year...(!) <G>

Your complaints about 6-digits and color(fade) on black and white reports
don't really affect our club, but I think they are valid, nonetheless.
After 6 years with bivio, I can tell you that, when they have the time, they
have gone out of their way to honor all reasonable requests for improvements
to the site. So keep communicating in this public forum. I know they will
be keeping score to see how many chime in on certain requests.

Lynn Ostrem, President
garbagecop@earthlink.net
Crow River Investment Club
www.bivio.com/crowriver

Thanks for the reply lynn!

>
> > 1. Auditing
>
> To me, the audit function in CA gave us a false sense of security. It
> simply should have adjusted numbers as they were entered. This feature made
> many a treasurer feel they didn't have to do anything else.

I was only speaking about verifying our entered info. The
old NCA Audit was certainly mislabeled.

> > a) Lack of a real hard copy Investment Detail Report ...A report that
particular stock, we use
> the Accounting|Reports|Investment Report. I can click on the "detail"
> button for any stock to come up with the detailed history, in the right

In the reply from Bivio Support, they did turn me on to this
report and it is very useful. However, see below.

The comments I sent back are:
It would be much more helpful if this was a Report Menu
option and it created a report for mutiple securities and
had a running share balance. Having a real report would
certainly save trees. As it is, Bivio requires printing 1
page per security, whereas in NCA 2, I could print
4-6 securities per page.

In addition, this Investment Performance Detail page
Security Pull Down includes Inactive Securities.

>
> Your complaints about 6-digits and color(fade) on black and white reports
> don't really affect our club, but I think they are valid, nonetheless.

Bivio Support said:
> Our software uses 4 significant digits when calculating. The entries
> should match. When they don't it will be an insignificant amount due
> to rounding.
>

I can understand that it may be insignficant, however, when
the largest DRIP Transfer Agent (Computershare) out there is
using it, I think it is time for the software to display and
support it, regardless if it is "insignificant."

In fact, the Bivio Valuation Statement shows the Total
Number of Valuation Units to Date and the Value of One Unit
out to 6 (in)significant digits. <g>


> After 6 years with bivio, I can tell you that, when they have the time, they
> have gone out of their way to honor all reasonable requests for improvements
> to the site. So keep communicating in this public forum. I know they will
> be keeping score to see how many chime in on certain requests.

Glad you like the software. I like the options it provides.

mgk

Hi MG,

> In addition, this Investment Performance Detail page
> Security Pull Down includes Inactive Securities.

Actually, there's a checkbox on the main Investment Performance page (and
other pages, too) that will allow you to include or remove inactive
securities (or members as the case may be).


> I can understand that it may be insignficant, however, when
> the largest DRIP Transfer Agent (Computershare) out there is
> using it...

I can see your point. I will say that we are not yet connected to
AccountSync, yet we are also off by about $2.00 over a 6 year period, due to
rounding. I like the way Quicken does it! If the dollars and cents are not
equal, Quicken asks permission to change the unit share price. Works for
me!

I'd drop a hard copy of the securities report you like in the mail to Bivio
HQ. I'm sure they would take a good look at it.

Lynn