For MIDAS v4.37, we’ve made a couple of improvements based on customer feedback.

Manual quotation payments for tentative bookings can now update the booking’s type

“Tentative” bookings were first introduced in MIDAS v4.14 in 2016. Bookings of this type are automatically removed from the system if they’ve not ‘confirmed’ within a specified time frame or by a certain date/time.

In 2023, we also introduced a “quotation” feature. Used in conjunction with tentative bookings, you could generate quotations for clients when making tentative bookings for them.

If the client accepts and pays their quotation online, their ‘tentative’ bookings automatically convert to regular ‘confirmed’ bookings.

Of course, there may be instances when a client wishes to accept a quotation but pays ‘offline’ – perhaps over the phone or in person.

MIDAS can deal with ‘offline’ payments by allowing administrators to manually update quotations or invoices to reflect that a payment has been made against them.

Starting with MIDAS v4.37, if ‘manual’ payment is made for a quotation for a tentative booking, this can now update the associated bookings and make them ‘confirmed’.

Previously, this functionality was only available when an ‘online’ payment was made for a quotation.

Updating an invoice’s internal notes is now recorded in the Recent Activity Log

We appreciate that keeping an accurate audit trail is essential. The ‘Recent Activity Log’ in our software logs all user actions with date and time stamps. This useful log (which can also be downloaded) allows administrators to monitor how their booking system is being used.

Whenever an invoice’s status is updated, these actions are recorded to the audit log.

Each invoice can also have ‘internal notes‘ added to them. These notes are not visible to the recipient of the invoice, but are visible to administrators when viewing an invoice.

Until now, the action of updating internal notes for an invoice was not recorded to the ‘Recent Activity Log’ itself.

We’ve addressed this for v4.37. Whenever an administrator makes or updates the internal notes for an invoice, quotation, or credit note, this activity is noted in the recent activity log.

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Examples uses of Watch Notifications include:

• Staff members could be notified whenever they’re added to a booking
• Catering staff could receive notifications whenever refreshments are added to bookings
• A purchasing department could receive notifications when consumables are running low and need re-ordering
• A user could be notified should an unavailable venue/time slot becomes available again

For MIDAS v4.36 we’ve added an additional Watch notification option. This provides the ability for a user to be notified whenever a payment is made against a MIDAS generated invoice.

Now, MIDAS can automatically update invoices in its system when payments are made against them, however this new notification option allows a user to be notified whenever such updates occur.

The “Invoice Payment” Watch notification option is available to users who have been granted invoicing permissions within their MIDAS system.

When enabled, a new Watch Notification is generated for the user whenever an invoice has been paid in full, or when a partial payment is received against an invoice.

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From October 21st 2017 our BIC (Bank Identifier Code) and IBAN (International Bank Account Number) are changing. These are required for electronic bank/wire transfer payments made to us from outside the UK.

Why are BIC and IBAN changing?

After the recent global economic crisis, the UK Government put new rules in place to protect the economy and taxpayers in case something similar happens again.

The new rules state that banks have to keep their high street arms separate from their wholesale and investment banking divisions. This has been termed “ring-fencing”.

These new UK banking rules require all large UK banks to change their structure in the UK. Consequently, our bank is restructuring its operations to ensure it meets these new rules.

When do these changes come into effect?

The BIC and IBAN changes come into effect on 21st October 2017. We’ll be writing to all potentially affected customers in advance of this date.

Does this impact on electronic payments originating from outside the UK?

Yes – if you reside outside of the UK and make electronic payments to us, these are international payments which require BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers.

These numbers are changing. Any electronic payments made from 21st October 2017 will need to use the new numbers.

The new numbers will be present on all subsequent quotations, invoices, and on our website from 21st October 2017.

Until then, please continue to use our existing BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers.

Does this impact on electronic payments made from UK bank accounts?

No – our Sort Code and Account Number for making electronic payments from other UK bank accounts will not be changing.

The changes only affect electronic payments originating from outside the UK that require BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers to make an international payment.

Is anything else changing?

To coincide with these changes, we’ll also be taking the opportunity to update the postal address of our bank.

Our current bank branch recently closed, and accounts were transferred to a neighboring branch of the same bank.

No account numbers/codes or transactions were affected by this branch transition, and the old branch address continue to be accepted. However given the upcoming BIC/IBAN changes, from 21st October we’ll also be listing the new branch address of our bank.

For the avoidance of any doubt, our Bank, Sort Code and Account Numbers remain the same going forward. However, from 21st October 2017, new BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers and a different branch postal address will apply.

What if I mistakenly make an international electronic payment after 21st October using the previous BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers?

Our bank inform us that they’ll do all they can to ensure that payments made after 21st October using old BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers will still reach us. However, this is not guaranteed.

We would therefore encourage our international customers that any electronic payments made to us from 21st October onward should only use the new BIC/SWIFT/IBAN numbers.

What if I have further questions?

Please contact our sales team who will be happy to advise.

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