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Release 4.797 October 29, 2019 barney

Includes database changes. You need to log all terminals out during upgrade

Database error connectivity tests and alerts.

This version includes some changes to alerts and tests on database connectivity dropouts. A recent issue with respect to processing a job when database connection failed caused the job to be re-saved incorrectly into c9.  This version specifically fixes that scenario but it also includes further changes that make c9 more aggressive in reporting database connectivity errors. These changes might make c9 generate false alarms in obscure parts of c9. Will hose those out if any over next few versions of c9.

Website groupings and variations

This version rolls in a significant enhancement to how parts on c9 websites can group together and is intended to replace the prior mechanisms of enforced stock only merging based on part description and part grouping. Prior mechanism, 8 years old now, is pretty limiting and difficult to wrangle so this improvement is long overdue.

Features of new system:

  • Works on non stocked and stocked items
  • Mapping by description is optional/opt in. Not enforced.
  • Manually mapping is now alot more intuitive. Instead of defining a common 'group' you link two or more parts together.
  • Grouping allows multi dimensional grouping tests. by default colour and size on this initial release but more are possible. On website they appear as separate drop downs.
  • On website side of things, page gen / refresh is quicker and website UI is more intuitive.
  • Only works for v3 websites. There is a manual enablement / opt-in process. To make it happen. This will be documented in a separate post.

Misc

  • Other Bigger Changes
    • The Spares Point of Sale screen has been redesigned to break it up into two tabs and fit everything on screen for computers with 720p screens. For people who drive point of sale via keyboard this will add 1 or 2 more key strokes (F10 vs Enter key workflows). For mouse users, one more mouse click.
  • Smaller Tweaks and fixes
    • View Unit : would incorrectly show floorplan cost as $100 when unit cost is set to $0. Purely a screen bug. Was supposed to show 100% as ownership, but instead is showing $100 as floorplan cost. C9 was incorrectly displaying the 100%  as a $100 cost on screen. Now fixed
    • Payroll staff stats. Show -ve signs in order to distinguish entitlements like annual leave when they are under-water
    • Print label on unit purchase broken due to recent changes to c9 labels. Should now be working again.
    • Import Excel files. A couple of files would fail with old c9 (SCP and Bikes and Bits). Updated propitiatory library c9 uses to decode XLS files.  Modify c9 to provide more useful feedback on error. Results:
      • SCP Still broken, but c9 now provides more useful info for reason why. Result: "unsupport excel95 format"
      • Bikes and Bits.  Still broken. Appears to be something broken with their file. If you resave excel file seems to come good.
    • Select customer. Include a couple of tabs to filter down to either account customers only or trade customers.
    • Sales leads. Filter option will now also filter on unit type.
    • Receive Order labels. New configuration options ( in setup -> orders ) that allow fine tuning of labels. Specifically:
      • Option to print one label per part number line item or one label per individual part. (Default being one label per customer order)
      • Option to print part description on label if per line item or per individual part is selected
      • Option to filter out workshop and unit based orders from label printing : so only print labels for spares counter / on reserve sales.
    • Map parts to website category. Allow mapping based on meta data. This new mapping system provides a couple of functional and technical improvements. Main functional improvement is that it will allow non stocked parts to be mapped to multiple locations on a website based on master file meta data parameters.
      • Edit web group. New fields to mapping a web page to parts with matching attributes
      • Create structure from attributes. New option that will feed new fields too, removing need to manually refresh mapping
    • Website settings: add a button that tells webserver to drop and regenerate page caches. Needed for moment while all new changes to page mapping and variations cycle through.
    • View invoiced units.  Show the involved customer, not just the seller. Make the differences between brought, sold, consigned, traded sales more visually obvious (with color coding & additional fields).
    • Spares Point of Sale. New Button next to tallies. When clicked it opens a new window that provides breakdown on margins on each line.
    • Move part : allow moving of history when moving an individual part.

I occasionally receive requests to integrate into Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services like AfterPay and ZipPay.

I have for the most part up until very recently strongly pushed back on these requests. I believe these services are predatory and harmful, and in particular predatory and harmful to our industry. I suspect that rollout of such services can, if circumstances are right, actually cause dealerships to become less profitable. That such a scenario is not just mathematically possible but quite likely to occur and eventually an inevitable outcome if BNPL services become a dominant method of payment. The exact rationale for my views here are covered in this document which I have shared with a few dealers to date and I am now making available on the c9 website.

Afterpay and other fintech solutions – impacts on retailers and ways to mitigate [PDF]

The core issue is excessive merchant fees for these services which can reduce effective profit on an individual sale by almost 40%. With sufficient channel cannibalization, (described in linked document above), your reported profit on your financial statements will be in total, actually drop by offering such services. You could install AfterPay into your business, increase your sales but actually, unintuitively, make less money as a result had you not done this.

These services may work well in high margin businesses but are risky and potentially harmful in low margin industries such as the motorcycle industry.

The mitigation strategy I proscribe involves adding surcharges to pass on fee costs to consumers. On assumption this was possible my position on integrating into AfterPay and ZipPay had softened in recent months and I was planning on integrating early 2020.

Except that Merchant Agreement all these services provide explicitly prohibit passing on surcharges. My willingness to integrate these technologies into c9 were contingent on being able to provide you with tooling to facilitate surcharging. Integration from c9 to any given BNPL service will not happen until that service permits surcharging.

There are many media reports over the last few days regarding Reserve Bank of Australia reviewing this as a matter of policy action. [Link from AFR]. I believe it is inevitable that relevant government bodies in Australia will compel AfterPay and others to permit surcharging for reasons I won't go into here as this blog post is already long enough.

The question is how quickly will Australian regulatory bodies move on this. Once this happens c9 will onboard with BNPL integration with AfterPay and ZipPay. Until this happens there will be no development effort committed to making integration happen. I am not prepared to lend my expertise and skill to aid an enterprise I believe is predatory and harmful, not without being able to add mechanisms that will help mitigate the elements I consider to be most egregiously predatory.

-- Barney

Relesae 4.796 October 2, 2019 barney

Regresson bugfix with  prior version of c9. Translist report was broken : was not paying attention to date range and instead would print all txn history. Now fixed.