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Release 5.1.41 October 25, 2021 barney

Tweaks and fixes

  • Bugfix with Business -> Reports -> BAS. Was not tallying input credits on consigned sales. Now fixed
  • New option in setup to default memorize/reuse clerk key. Works on a per terminal basis.  Option is in setup, general settings tab.
Release 5.1.40 October 19, 2021 barney

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

Tweaks and fixes

  • Bankrec saga drags on....
    • cash till would not save in a very specific edge case. Now fixed. (if any of 10 txns in prior period have a reconciliation error that is cancelled out by time of current rec, they would incorrectly report a rec adjust. On save bank rec this would cause bank rec save to blow up)
    • Latest bankrec changes introduced significant performance slowdown in bank rec and cash till screens. This version includes a number of changes to underlying database queries to improve performance and generally now should be more performant than performance before this speed regression.  The result seems to work but I am not entirely satisfied with it as it is pretty complex and possibly brittle. Other, much more complex options are available if needed as a last resort (using trigger based materialized views to speed up get_ref_bankrec() db query)
  • Contacts -> View Transactions -> View Journal.  Bring up entire posting, not just the payment line
  • Contact Payments
    • Bugfix with Bill+Pay and zero GST. Zeo GST was not being applied isntead was defaulting back to default GST. Now fixed
    • Colour code GST field so it is obvious when it has been manually set
    • Checkbox on date : MemorizeDate. When selected next time payment is opened memorized date will be used instead of default (today)
  • Clerk keys
    • Added an option to allow memorize / reuse clerkkey for 30 seconds. To be used for repetitive data entry such as recording payments off bank
    • Added c9 support clerk key so we can move a bit faster through support work
  • Deals : tweaked wording so it is obvious refund / forfeit deposit button covers both refunds and forfeits.
  • Added a few new GL Expense codes Under 5-7000.
Release 4.904 October 19, 2021 barney

Old Version 4 only

Couple more tweaks to v4 to v5 migrator to get a few more dealers over the line.

Changed support phone number in help about.

Release 5.1.39 October 15, 2021 barney

Includes DB changes you need to log out of all terminals during upgrade.

This version includes further modifications to bank rec. (The 12th iteration since Oct last year, bankrec is hard and v5 is especially challenging because of how v5 allows you to re-code journals, modify values etc, something v4 didn't allow so the 'problem space' around bankrec is more complex and varied now).

Specifics of this one:

  • Fix an edge case where re-coded journal in a prior period (e.g. change payment method from cash to eft after fact) was breaking attempts to save a new later journal.  The later reconcile needs to treat the re-coded journal as a deletion but wasn't doing that. (Workaround to this is to redo reconcile for period covering the recoded txn, this change means this workaround is not necessary)
  • This version of bank rec is alot smarter about how to handle residual values from discordant transactions.  A new value is tracked in bank rec called adjusted value.  This value tracks what was previous reconciled and allows better management of incorrectly reconciled behaviours. Easier to describe with an example. Lets say cash closes at $100 and there is a $100 invoice on that day. The next day, you backdate a delete for that transaction. On next day you want to show a open balance of $100 and a discordant effect of $-100. Previously c9 would not make such a calculation. It now does by explicitly tracking the need to undo the effect of the prior, now broken reconcile. i.e. on screen:

    In txn details you'll see a new column ,adjusted ,exerting an influence on opening balance
  • Reconcile requires figuring out which reconcile is previous to current rec, chronologically and which reconcile to consult to figure out what reconciliation errors require attention. Usually but not necessarily they are the same. There are a class of errors that happen when reconciles are done in a haphazard way, e.g. going back a couple of days and saving a new rec but not rec'ing the following day, or saving a rec when the day has barely begun. This version improves how this reference recs are determined and we have improved our automated internal testing, hopefully now haphazard reconciliation hygiene should no longer cause issues with saving off additional recs.
  • Lots of other little tweaks and tidies to bank rec. Just to document briefly.
    • Repeatability of reconcile : if you redo a reconcile then discordant txn listing should be the same as what was previously computed. Previously would not necessarily work that way
    • Deleted txn include toggle, no longer influences open balance.  The old behaviour was a bit of a cludge to try and emulate removing incorrect influence of prev reconciled txns. Since adjusting for prev reconciles is now formalised and tracked separatly this is no longer necessary
    • New buttons to query prior chonological rec and reference rec as they can be different and difference can be important.

Other fixes and tweaks in this release

  • bugfix with tradein purchase on finance where purchased unit has dealer costs logged on it. Now fixed.
  • workshop invoices for insurance jobs : show outstanding balance line total
  • tweaks to historical aged balance report to show 6+ figure numbers. Currently clips to 99,999.99
  • tweaks to view transaction unallocated column.  For 6+ figure numbers it displays all hashes #####
  • Tender amount : allow inputting of 6+ digit figures.
  • cash till : reintroduce cash till counting for paypal.  Was forcefully disabled in v5. Although cash till is designed to be used for on premises assets which can be counted/settled on an everyday basis, some dealers have a workflow where they rely on this screen to help manage delayed settlement instruments too, such as bank and web integrated paypal
Release 5.1.38 October 9, 2021 barney

Tweaks and fixes

  • Business -> Reports -> audit. Was not printing customer / clerk correctly. Now fixed
  • Business -> reports -> Cash/Sales Recon. Was not working, wasn't converted to v5. Now fixed
  • Honda dealer ID for Honda API.
    • Tweaked wording in edit franchise to make it more obvious it is needed. Later ver of c9 will consolidate back into a single code. Reason for split is long forgotten but I suspect it was to help with Honda transition to SAP when they partially transitioned pre-SAP 4 digit dealer codes to 5/6 digit SAP dealer codes.
    • Import Invoice API, the screen would only accept 5 digits. Now fixed
  • V5 migration post installation : post install included some code that partially v5-ifies contact transaction lists (AR, AP & deposit txns). But code could fail in some circumstances when touching very old pre v4- general ledger (pre 2015) historical data killing c9 upgrade and preventing the upgrade from completing. The proper v5-ification is going to happen in v5.2 in a couple of months, so just pull this incomplete code out and implement it correctly there at a later date.
Release 5.1.37 October 5, 2021 barney
  • Fixes and tweaks
    • Giftcards
      • Sell Giftcard to account not working. Now fixed
      • Business -> activity. Giftcard sales would not show total on this screen. Tweaked giftcard selling so they display total on this screen
    • Cash reconcile : could not access gateway instrument (Paypal), now added
    • Cash till print details : would print all txns when it needs to constrain the output based on selected till #

Monday, 4 Oct a dealer reported that their website was not working when getting to it via a web search. The problem was identified and fixed 90 mins later.

C9 hosted websites with SSL certificates stopped working on some devices, such as iPhones. On these devices the web browser would report that there is a security issue with the website and that the websites SSL certificate had expired.

Root cause: c9 hosted websites use letsencrypt for SSL certificates.  SSL certificates contain a list of certificates in a 'chain of trust'.  The root of letsencrypt certificates expired a couple of days ago and was replaced with a new root.

The problem I believe is that c9's webserver was configured such that it didn't provide the full certificate chain, it only provided the top of the chain.  Most web browsers fill in the gaps using trusted chains they know about. But with transition to a new root, some environments did not have enough information to fill in the gaps and could not validate that the link to the website was secure/trusted.

The fix involved making sure c9 webserver served the full chain of certificates.  The webserver we use made this fiddly to achieve so took a little longer than it ordinarily should of to resolve. One longer term mitigation we will need to reconsider our webserver stack (consider nginx to replace lighttpd).