What's New in HandicapMaster 8.3
Changes to HandicapMaster in Version 8.3 (2013 Edition)
- Player Records
- Competitions
- Order of Merit
- Best-of Series
- Eclectics
- Knock-out Draws
- Player Entry
- Central Database of Handicaps
- Letters
- Distribution Lists
- Master Scoreboard
- Reports
- Hosted Database
- Subscriptions Option
- Integration
- Other
Player Records
Changing AWAY member to HOME member
When changing an away member to a home member a new handicap record will always be started. Previously it was possible to reuse an away member's handicap record. With the widespread introduction of National Central Databases of Handicaps (CDH) this change has been implemented to prevent any potential data conflict on the CDH systems by mixing away and home entries in the handicap record of an away player converted to a home member.
Visitors
When adding a new visitor if there is a past AWAY member with the same name and home club, then this past AWAY member entry is re-named and the visitor record is added.
Competitions
When entering scores through the main HandicapMaster program, you may use a new FIND button to locate a player. This may be useful if the player cannot be found such as when the player has already signed-in or entered a score. This will also report why a player is ineligible for a competition and therefore not listed for that competition, or is not being allowed to book into that competition.
You may now limit entry into a competition to only those members in selected membership categories, through new settings in the template for that competition.
You may now limit entry into a competition to only those players who have a current Handicap on the system within a specified range (e.g. 'only players with handicap 18 and over may enter), through new settings in the template for that competition.
You may now process 'multiple-round' and 'alternative day' team competitions (such as Foursomes, FBBB, etc) through HandicapMaster.
You may now select 'Analyse Scores Entered' for competitions that are closed, as well as those that are open. This provides you access to statistics such as times players signed in and entered scores, and competition fees paid, without reopening closed competitions. When viewing the Analyse Scores Entered list for a closed competition, you may select a player/team listed and view and print the scorecard.
You may now change a competition template to use a different presentation of results (e.g. divisions) without affecting closed competitions, should any closed competition subsequently be undone and re-closed (for competitions originally closed using HandicapMaster 8.3).
List of Competition Templates now indicates which templates have limits on handicaps, age groups and membership categories.
Order of Merit
Up to 20 'Best Scores' may now be displayed on the Best-of Series report. When more than 10 scores are to be displayed, the report automatically switches to landscape mode.
A new pop-up menu option 'Edit Note' is added to allow Order of Merit Competition notes to be edited.
The time taken to analyse scores to generate a result is reduced.
Best-of Series
A new pop-up menu option 'Edit Note' is added to allow Best of Series Competition notes to be edited.
The time taken to analyse scores to generate a series result report is reduced.
Eclectics
A new option 'Include Countback Scores (display scores in small font)' is added to the Eclectic Wizard. This is selected by default. Un-tick this option to prevent the count-back details being displayed and for the results to be displayed in a larger font size.
You may now add notes to the end of the Eclectic report. These are also published to MasterScoreboard.co.uk. Also, a new pop-up menu option 'Edit Note' is added to allow Eclectic Competition notes to be edited.
Knock-out Draws
You may now change players in the first round to a 'Bye' after the draw has been made.
You may now add notes to the end of the Knock Out Draw report. These are also published to MasterScoreboard.co.uk. Also, a new pop-up menu option 'Edit Note' is added to allow Knock Out Draw Competition notes to be edited.
You may now select the member's preferred telephone number to include in the draw report. E.g. Telephone, Mobile, Fax. On the REPORTS drop-down menu select REPORTS AND LAYOUT and then the 'Competition Reports' tab. Note: if the preferred number is not available but another telephone number is available then that will be shown on the report instead.
Player Entry
Configuration and Management of Player Entry
Previously, configuration of Player Entry system in Premier and Network editions was based upon the Userid used to log into HandicapMaster and Player Entry. This is no longer the case. Instead, Player Entry 'profiles' are configured and administered from within HandicapMaster. Each profile represents a separate configuration of options.
When you start Player Entry, you will be asked which profile to be used (if you have created more than one). You may choose to make your selection a permanent choice for the computer you are running Player Entry on.
You may view a list of the profiles you have configured through an entry in the 'Competitions' place. Through this list, you may now add, edit and delete profiles from any HandicapMaster computer in your network.
You no longer need to exit HandicapMaster and log in again as a different user to reconfigure settings in a different configuration 'profile'.
Club edition users with the Player Entry option may now create more than one Player Entry 'profile', as required.
A new command line switch '/Profile' is added to the Player Entry program to direct Player Entry to use a specific 'profile'.
You may now remotely schedule a Player Entry computer to update the Ireland GOLFnet Players List file. This allows updates to take place unattended (e.g out of hours), without needing to restart Player Entry. (CONGU editions, Ireland only)
How players identify themselves at the computer
The options for how players identify themselves at the computer have been rationalised. For example, you may now combine finding a player by PIN number, CDH number or using CDH card (such as Ireland GOLFnet card) into one player entry configuration. The following new options are added; Allow players to ...
- use their CDH Lifetime ID to identify themselves (in the UK),
- use a magnetic swipe card reader and match the number to the 'national ID' member field.
- enter their Club Membership number,
- enter their Club Membership number or Membership Card/Card Number, or
- enter their Club Membership number or CDH Number.
A significant performance improvement allowing faster identification when identifying visitors using the Ireland GOLFnet Players List file is added. (CONGU editions, Ireland only)
Player Entry Messages (Premier and Network editions)
You may view a list of the messages you have configured through an entry in the 'Competitions' place. Through this list, you may now add, edit and delete messages from any HandicapMaster computer in your network.
Previously, you could limit the messages to only being displayed by Player Entry when Player Entry was started as a specific user. This option is no longer available. Instead, you may now limit messages to only being displayed when Player Entry is using a specific configuration “profile”.
You may now paste bitmap images (BMP) into the Player Entry Message window when configuring messages. Images are limited to 512KB in size.
Booking into Future Competitions
Your Members who have booked into a future competition are now given the option of viewing the full booking sheet through Player Entry (so they can see who they are booked to play with!). This applies where the booking arrangements are for players selecting a tee time themselves (and names of other players booked in are being shown).
When operating bookings for a singles competition, where your members are booking into their selected tee times, you may now offer the option for your members to book additional players into the same tee time as themselves. In other words your members may now be offered the option to book their friends into the same tee time. See new option 'Players may book others into the same Tee Time' in the Bookings template.
Leader board
You may now choose whether to display Gross or Nett scores (or both), from a singles stroke-play (medal) type competition, on the leader board. You may make this choice when opening or configuring an opened competition.
Central Database of Handicaps
Publish to UK CDH services
The facility to 'Find a Player on the CDH' is enhanced so that you may also find a player by their National Number. It is also possible when using this facility to swipe a magnetic card with the Player's National Number rather than type the number.
There is now an improved handling of timeouts when obtaining player details from the CDH programmed. This reduces the need to re-publish when there has been a timeout.
Receiving of Away scores; Away scores that predate the date of a player's First Award or Handicap Brought Forward record are now silently ignored. Previously an error message was displayed. An informational message is recorded in the Publish log for reference.
Publish to Ireland GOLFnet service
There is now improved processing and logging of data extract errors.
Letters
The following new fields are added
- <FutureCompsLadies> - A list of future competitions only open to Ladies
- <FutureCompsMen> - A list of future competitions only open to Men
- <MembershipCardNo> - Member's membership card number
- <PaymentMethod> - Member's default method of payment (Subscriptions option only)
The list of fields displayed is rationalised to aid locating items in the list.
You may now paste bitmap images (BMP) into the Body of Letter window when editing letters. Images are limited to 512KB in size.
The text of e-mails sent is now retained for 6 months. You may insert the text saved from a previous e-mail into a new e-mail being sent. In the New Message e-mail window select FILE menu 'Insert previous e-mail' to include the previous text.
To enable the sending of larger e-mails with multiple attachments the e-mail facility is enhanced to dynamically adjust the amount of time (up to a maximum of 300 seconds) that is permitted for sending of these attachments before a communication timeout is detected. Previously the default of 100 seconds was used.
The 'Send a Copy' option when sending e-mails now results in a single e-mail being sent to the sender regardless of the number of e-mails actually sent.
Distribution Lists
The following changes are added to significantly improve the flexibility of using distribution lists in HandicapMaster when it comes to communicating with your members by e-mail or by post:
Selection of Players into a Distribution List
You may now select players into a Member, Past Member, Visitor or Past Visitor distribution lists by one or more of the following criteria:
- Gender
- Age Group
- Handicap Range
In addition Member and Past Member distributions lists also allow selection by
- Membership Category
When printing address labels for Member, Past Member, Visitor or Past Visitor distribution lists an option to limit the address labels to those members without an e-mail address has been added.
Automatic updating of Distribution Lists
You may also now configure Member, Past Member, Visitor and Past Visitor distribution to automatically update when membership changes are made. This means that when you make a change to a member’s record (e.g. their age group) they will automatically be added / removed from the distribution list(s) as appropriate, when you come to use the distribution list.
The default is for distribution lists not to auto update, retaining the existing functionality.
These distribution lists may be used when sending e-mails or in the letter writer. In these situations they will auto update if the 'auto update' option is selected, when used.
Other
You may now edit Member, Past Member, Visitor and Past Visitor distribution lists to change the selection criteria.
Master Scoreboard
If you are using the 'individual passwords' feature on Master Scoreboard, you may now reset (clear) a member's password on the web site direct from HandicapMaster using 'Edit Member', without having to log into the Master Scoreboard Control Panel.
Order Of Merit; Support added for displaying up to 20 best scores for a player.
Eclectics; Support added for displaying of competition notes.
Knock Out Draws; Support added for displaying of competition notes.
Reports
Competition Results report; Nett Scores report for singles strokeplay competitions now reports the 'Lowest Gross Score' too.
Competition Results report; when reporting by divisions this report now includes a count of the number of cards in each division.
Handicap List report; When ordering names in the list in 'Alphabetical within handicap Category order' the report now includes a count of the number of members in each category.
Membership Summary Report; Is enhanced to include a 'Handicap Category Summary' section giving a count of members in each handicap category.
Analyse Scores Entered report; This report may now be run against a 'closed' competition, without having to re-open it.
Competition Fees; You may now view a summary of fees for closed competitions over a selected time period, through the “Manage Competition Fee’s” option (Premier and Network editions). This may be viewed as a report or exported to CSV file.
Officer Contact Summary report; This report has been added to provide a list of members who are officers of the club, their telephone number and their e-mail address.
Knock Out Draw Report; You may now select the member's preferred telephone number to include in the report. E.g. Telephone, Mobile, Fax.
Most Improved Golfer Report; The time taken to run this report is reduced.
Hosted Database
Using the HandicapMaster Network Edition technology, you may now choose to have the database installed on Microsoft’s global network of servers, making HandicapMaster available from any windows PC connected to the Internet (not just those at the club). This may help if you wish to offer the competition secretary, say, the option to control HandicapMaster from his home computer!
Please see hosted database option for further details:
This option is available with CONGU handicapping (only).
Subscriptions Option
'Membership Groups' is renamed to 'Member Subscription Pools' and moved to the ACCOUNTING menu and ACCOUNTING Place. This is to help avoid confusion as to the purpise of this facility.
A new facility to void a range of subscriptions is added.
When raising subscriptions for Members assigned to Membership Groups and you send the subscriptions by e-mail, and there is more than one subscription for the membership group then additional text is added to the end of the text of the e-mail indicating the number of subscriptions in the attachment.
The Player Import facility now includes an option 'Balance Adjustment' that can be used to set an initial Account balance value when it is zero, or record a payment to adjust an existing account balance. (Subscriptions option only).
A new payment schedule for Subscription and invoice templates is added. This allows for 4 monthly payments followed by a 8 month gap.
A 'Balance Adjustment' facility is added to allow for an initial balance to be allocated or an existing balance to be adjusted.
Integration
Configuration of Callback services is now included in 'Player Entry Profiles'.
Callback 46, 47; 'CommsTimeout' configuration setting is added to allow for adjustment of network timeout values.
Other
Backup and Restore
Improved detection of media errors when local backup to removable media is added.
HandicapMaster Performance
The time taken for the main HandicapMaster window to be displayed on program start-up is reduced.
Publish To Master Scoreboard; An improvement to the speed taken to extract data for publishing is added.
Publish to UK CDH services; A performance improvement when creating diagnostic (troubleshooting) log file when publishing is added.
Import; An improvement to the speed taken to read an import file is added.
Send Diagnostics to Support; A performance improvement creating diagnostic log files is added.
Deleting items on some lists; A performance improvement when removing the item from the list and the list sort ordering remains unchanged.
Best-of Series Competitions; The time taken to analyse scores to generate a series result report is reduced.
Order of Merit; The time taken to analyse scores to generate a result is reduced.
Start Sheets; The time taken to load, save and view Start Sheets is reduced in some circumstances.
General
For hosted databases, HandicapMaster now implements a minimum password standards policy (passwords must be 6 characters or more in length and include at least one upper case character, one lower case character and one number in the password).
There is improved presentation of pop-up (right-click) menus.
Send Diagnostics to Support; You may now request the diagnostic log files to be sent from another computer. This allows a Player Entry system to send the logs unattended and without exiting from Player Entry.