Trying to recover from the long holiday weekend here in the states, so I am going to take this opportunity to answer some questions received recently (see below).

After last week's plug of Whitesnake's new video with a cameo appearance of the Club Prophet logo, Reb Beach sent us a couple photos of the CPS Cap on Tour. Below are pics of Reb from Chili with his new cross-stone gem and Athens Greece in front of the Parthenon. Last heard, he was off to Albania. If you happen to run into Alice Cooper, as often happens in golf circles, ask him to tell you a story or two about Reb Beach - they are priceless. If you run into Reb, don't listen to any stories he tells you about me!

Now, for some answers to some great questions I received recently:

Q1: I upgraded my Internet service to use a faster cable connection. Now my Online Reservations no longer work? What happened?

A1: A simple answer to a very technical question is that there are many pieces to this puzzle. There is the SQL Server that runs and holds all of the data at your facility. There is the Cable Modem/Router/Firewall that connects your site to the Internet and there is the Online Reservation Server that runs at CPS. When you switched to a new service, they provided you with a new static IP address. This address is keyed into our Online Reservation Server so that we can show your tee times on the Internet and book reservations on your Server.

Specific issues are:

• Now that the IP address has changed, we can no longer find you via the Internet until we know the new IP address.
• Now that your Modem/Router/Firewall has changed, by default, traffic cannot get to your SQL Server from Internet requests.

Resolution is:

• New IP Address sent to CPS Tech Support to key into the Online Reservation Server at CPS
• New Router reconfigured to forward the IP Address from the Online Reservation Server to be permitted to forward request to the SQL Server PC in your shop via Port 80 on the Router/Firewall

Q2: Updates, what do they do? When you install an update, if I am not told about all the fixes, I might continue to perform a task in an inefficient manner (a work around) because I didn't know about the fix. What is the progress of the updates? When are they coming? What will they do? Why do we need it?

A2: Sounds like an easy question - it's not. Here is why. Take a look at the PSK Options Screen. Most of those options have been added along the way as new clients request new features. Based on how options are set, there are literally an infinite number of possibilities for how your PSK product operates. Updates can include new features, fixes for old features, fixes for fixes, new reports, etc.

As you the customer call the CPS hotline, the call is recorded in our Call Log system and issues and requests are recorded in a tracking system called Gemini. The Gemini database drives our programming efforts. If you would like to track the status of a given item, ask the Help Line Technician to email you the Gemini number so you can reference it any time you call back. The PSK applications are not off-the-shelf products. We literally make changes to the product daily. They go through a rigorous testing and Quality Assurance program to try to minimize bugs. If you are not having any issues with your current installation and not waiting on enhancements, for the most part there is no need to update. Many of the fixes in a given release will have no effect on you unless you have the given options set where changes were made.

That being said, depending on the version you have, there is a list of changes and their associated Gemini numbers for reference. From v5.2, Go-To > Options and click on the Change Log button. This will list, in descending order by date, all of the changes for the product. We are looking into adding a similar feature for Release Notes in our v2.9 and v3.0 products.

Q3: Logging on to perform a fix. Many times your technicians log on to fix something. Usually, we are not notified of the resolution of that problem. They are just gone. Is my problem fixed? What caused it -- me or the software?

A3: With a few exceptions, our techs cannot login to your system. You must log them in. So most of the time, the process starts from you or your staff asking our techs to login to fix something. If it caused by you, then it is usually a matter of training you to perform the task a different way. If it is a software issue, then your software is being updated because a fix has been made to the code. In addition, any Gemini entry initiated by your facility is sent via report to the tech who took your call. They then follow up to apply a fix.

Q4: Exchanges and refunds. Why can't a member return one (1) item and then purchase another on the same transaction. The member would understand the transaction much easier.

A4: I couldn't agree more. There is a long technical explanation dating back to the early days of PSK that I won't bore you with. The good news is that this is now possible in Version 3.0 of PSK.

Q5: Sales tax. I have made some mistakes by not tagging an item as taxable. Why can't you set up the entire inventory category as taxable or not taxable? I know that I have many categories; taxable and not taxable are never mixed. If the entire category was flagged, I would not have to make up for uncollected tax.

A5: It amazes me that after 16 years of doing this, how often we get questions like this that are as obvious as the day is long. Yet here is another example of something we never thought of and nobody has suggested. This is why our product continues to change on a daily basis. This will be added to our Version 3.0 product.

Q6: Credit book. It's too easy to cheat. A clerk can, mistakenly or not, just go into a member's account and add or take away credit.

A6: Depending on the version, you can Password Protect the Credit Book. Additionally, you can set up your Cashiers so that they can only run the Sales screen and not get into the Inventory or Customer details to make changes. Contact our tech support staff if you would like to enable these features