EDGE are proud to be sponsoring Linda Larter in her presidency of the SLCC for 2019/20. Linda is one of our existing clients for our Epitaph software and InspectEDGE at Sevenoaks Town Council and we look forward to supporting her in any way we can during her presidency.
Click here to see the article about starting on her presidential journey.
Hello,
We would like to thank you for your custom in 2019, and you can find details of the support options available during the Christmas break below our newsletter.
Please click Christmas Newsletter, or click “Go to this Sway” below, and then scroll down through our newsletter (which is powered by Microsoft Sway this year).
| Merry Christmas and a happy New Year | |
| Click to see some of our 2019 highlights | |
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Christmas Support Options
Although we are closed from 1pm on Tuesday 24th December and re-open at 9am on Thursday 2nd January 2020, the following support options are available during this period:
Please note that unless you are an Epitaph Enterprise client or we have made alternative arrangements for you, any services required during this period may be charged at a premium rate.
Our standard contracts do not cover the Christmas period and therefore we will respond to emails, voice mail and jobs on EDITH when we return on Thursday 2nd January.
If you need any, further information or have any queries about anything in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact Andrea Rowley or Chris Edge on 024 7666 7337 or email support@edgeITsystems.com
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Andrea
EDGE really love to get out to our local councils, so we can share best practice for the use of IT and our Council Administrative Software, AdvantEDGE. We were invited to our local SLCC branch meeting in Warwickshire by Elisabeth Uggerlose FSLCC, and we jumped at the chance to meet everyone and share our insights and wisdom. We hope that all the attendees benefited from the talk delivered by Chris Edge and if you are interested in finding out more about our products and services that we offer here at EDGE, please feel free to contact us on 0247 667337 or info@edgeITsystems.com.
*Article published in the September 2019 edition of The Clerk Magazine
The September edition of The Parliamentary Review, a publication now in its fifth year of circulation, serves as a platform for educators, politicians and business leaders alike to share their knowledge and best practice. With an esteemed readership, including pertinent figures from both Houses, The Review maintains a non-partisan approach to sharing insight across a variety of policy sectors.
EDGE IT Systems was founded in 1989 and today they specialise in providing IT services and cloud-based software for local councils, cemeteries, and crematoria. In their Review article, they discuss the challenges and successes they have had over the years and look at some of the fundamentals that have continued to serve the business well.
Technology is surging forwards apace all across the world, and Britain is no exception. This year’s edition of The Parliamentary Review explains the progress that the industry has experienced on both a domestic and international level, while also highlighting pertinent issues for the future.
Co-chairman of The Review Lord Blunkett has already commented on the wide range and informative articles appearing in this year’s edition, stating that “The Parliamentary Review is a must for those who have the real story behind the scenes and a solid perspective for the future.”
Writing in The Review, the prime minister says that “British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review.”
EDGE IT Systems’s article can be viewed here: https://www.theparliamentaryreview.co.uk/organisations/edge-it-systems
Thank you Gary for 13½ years of loyal service, and especially for being the “go to” hardware engineer for our data centre !
We wish you a happy retirement and a happy 65th birthday.
Hello
It’s that time of year again and the end of the financial year is fast approaching. We have a number of Seminars and Webinars available in February and March 2018. These sessions are a great way of getting your Council prepared for the end of the financial year using AdvantEDGE Finance. We offer best practice, an 8-week plan and all the support you need to help you have a smooth and stress free end of year.
Please find below the booking form for the Seminars and Webinars, and an important information sheet for the Seminars. We look forward to seeing you.
Andrea Rowley
Business Development Manager
We are pleased to announce that EDGE are working with the Parkinson Partnership who will offer accountancy advice to our Local Council clients.
As an accountant with 30 years’ experience in the public sector and 14 years’ service as a Town Clerk, Steve Parkinson is able to assist all sizes of Local Councils and he specialises in providing advice on VAT, capital receipts, PWLB loans, charities and trusts.
This agreement with the Parkinson Partnership complements EDGE’s agreement with DCK Accounting Solutions who provide a full range of accountancy solutions especially for larger Local Councils.
6th December 2017
EDGE are looking for an IT and Product Support Engineer to provide technical assistance to our clients. You will help install, upgrade and troubleshoot hardware and software applications including our own software products for Local Councils, cemeteries and crematoria.
If you are computer savvy and enjoy supporting end users, we would like to meet you. To succeed in this role, you should have a problem-solving attitude along with the ability to give clear technical instructions. You should also be familiar with remote troubleshooting techniques.
Ultimately, you will ensure prompt and accurate customer service and increase client satisfaction.
Click here for the full job description. CV’s can be emailed to admin@edgeITsystems.com
Part of my brief here at EDGE is to ensure that all our users are using Epitaph correctly and to its full potential. In order to do this I have started looking at how Epitaph is used around the country. There seem to be a few general issues that are more common than they should be. Over the next year I will be calling all of you both to discuss both any issues you may have and to suggest more effective means of working.
I thought that before I did this, it may well be worth sharing the indicators that I look for when initially looking at your system; bear in mind that a database is only as good as the information entered into it, even a well used system will attract typos and needs checking on occasion.
The first screen I look at is ‘Booking Status’. The only services that should be listed in here are future bookings and recent ones that are awaiting the allocation of register numbers. There should not be any dating back any length of time. If there are you should make sure you have any other records you have to hand relating to the listed services and call me. Together we can get rid of the backlog and I can show you how to progress a booking through the system so that no backlog occurs in future.
The next part refers to burials only, but if you have cremation records the same principal applies.
The next screen, and perhaps the most powerful, is the ‘Graves Quick View’. When you first open this, it is arranged by Cemetery and then Grave Number. Even if you’ve only one cemetery, you should enter the Cemetery Name when creating the grave. Numbering the graves requires a little thought; if you number them 1,2,3 etc. they will not appear in the correct order – 2 would list after 199 and so on. The way around this is to enter leading zeros; so 1 becomes 001, 2 002 and so on. This will ensure that graves 1-999 will list in the correct order. Entering 01, 02 etc. will ensure that graves 1-99 will list in order and will work if you have no graves numbered higher than 99. If you have numbers in excess of 999, you should enter three leading zeros.
Assuming the graves have been numbered correctly you can start to look at the rest of the data. Remember to filter by cemetery first. At the bottom left of the page there is the option to reorder the data by burial date, surname and register number. Surname is a great tool for quickly finding someone where other details are not available but not of great use in analysing the data. I would suggest first ordering the data by burial date. Scan down and look at the first and last recorded dates – any 1017 or 2107 years can be quickly amended. Scan down through the records. Are there any burial with no dates? Do the Register numbers closely follow the date sequence? It’s not unusual to find errors in the date of burial; a simple slip can move an interment by a year, a decade even a century, even if only one digit is wrong. Once you’ve amended this close the page, reopen the page, order by burial register number, again these should list in order and follow the burial date very closely. There should be no gaps or duplicates. Ideally, if all of your records are in the system, each cemetery should have a set of records numbered from 1 to your last register number.
If after all of this you’re happy with your records, well done. If not, give me a call.
Ian Quance
07584 904258
02476 667337
Chris Edge, Managing Director of EDGE IT Systems Limited said;
“EDGE is an IT service company and our mission is to develop user friendly and innovative software for Local Councils, cemeteries and crematoria. However, when we were approached in 1992 by Castle Bromwich Parish Council to assume responsibility for Scribe 75 for larger councils we did not know that would be the beginning of a 25 year journey and in 2007 that we would be operating a data centre to host our software.
In 2017, after 25 years of working on our own, we welcomed the opportunity to work with DCK, because we have recognised for some time that our larger councils and a number of our medium size councils would benefit from professional accountancy services.”
Derek Kemp, Managing Director of DCK Accounting Solutions said;
“We are always ready, willing and able to work with any specialist software suppliers to bring our expertise to bear in order to improve the accounting protocols within their software products.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with EDGE, who are currently benefiting from our 20+ years’ experience in dealing with Local Council accounting problems and issues to develop and improve their AdvantEDGE accounting software. We look forward to this continued association to our mutual benefit.”
The AdvantEDGE online software offers 8 modules which are available on a monthly, 1, 3 or 5 year contract. Prices are charged according to the size of the Council so that even the smallest Council can afford to use the software on a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone with an internet connection. Upgrades and data backups are included in the service.
23rd August 2017
Click Here for the Memorandum of Understanding
Click Here for the press release from DCK Accounting Solutions
