Fixes and Tweaks

• Cykel Magician check : now working again
• Workshop invoice and estimate printing changes
  • consolidated estimate print out to be visually nearly same as a tax invoice : solves a number of various issues with printing discount lines etc
  • Print config is now managed in Setup in new workshop 2 tab. Previously c9 would memorize prior setting. Now has its own default config setting
  • Tax invoice / pro forma : option to suppress part numbers or techs : for jobs in job list which are really quotes
• Payroll changes
  • Unused annual leave in severance pay is not subject to super guarantee. Tweaked rules a bit WRT computing severance
  • browse notifications. Filter out any message where header contains word 'payslip'.
• Backorder Cancelled order sms notifications. C9 is supposed to send SMS, one per customer to alert on backorders and cancelled orders and this setting is supposed to respect the individual invoice notification config but was not working properly. Now working. In event of a receival that touches multiple invoices for same customer, if any of the invoices that contain back order or cancelled parts satisfy rule the SMS message will advise on all relevant parts.
• System level changes
  • Backup verify status when reporting BADCONN would ordinarily wait 24 hours before retrying. Instead retry every 15 minutes. Some usage patterns are inappropriate for a 24 hour wait. (i.e. consistently tranistory internet access right on midnight would mean terminal always shows BADCONN)

• Tweaks and fixes
  • Import PDF invoices. Some oddness with Cox invoice encoding require a change to c9 itself to deal with. Now working.
  • Bank rec generic txn. Some txn types will silently fail to add but still will post a GL journal which cannot be deleted. Now fixed.

Some bugs in spares order receival for power equipment which contains units or a mix of units + spare parts. . Bugs became obvious with trying to import Husky PE PDF files where some Husky PE gear contains excessively long serial numbers which could trigger a cascade of issues.

• Unit spec on non stock items not being retrieved correctly. Would only track/retrieve details for items on stock file. Now fixed
• Add smarts to cope with PDF imported serial numbers being bigger than 20 chars which is c9s VIN limit. Bring in / display more than 20 but do not let user go ahead until shortened manually
• If more than one unit on import had same effective 6 digit trimmed VIN c9 would fail to receive the order because of resulting duplicate. Was not smart enough to make sure these were unique when considering other units on same receival, (but was smart enough to make sure they are unique WRT units already in the system). Which then can trigger our final bug:
• On reattempting to complete a receival that failed as per above, c9 would stuff up quantities in un-intuitive ways. Just two of many examples: it would reset qty to receive to zero and it would then double up qty to stock. c9 was not able to cope with retrying a failed receival. Now repaired.

This version fixes a bug with last version.  Spares refunds involving a discount would often generate a journal error. Now fixed.

Other:

• WPS price file import. For some reason WPS import is currently running dog slow, so slow c9 times out trying to grab price file. This version includes changes so c9 adaptively adjusts price file download to not trigger timeout. Download is still slow tho.

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

Cash Rounding Changes

This version of c9 overhauls the price/invoice rounding model in c9.   Previously c9 would apply a single global rounding and this is generally configured to be $0.05 or $0.10. (this was partially extended in the past to allow tweaking rounding on surcharges, but the surchange enhancement is very superficial, this goes well beyond).

The new version of c9 allows you to configure rounding at various levels:

• Default rounding as was previous. To be used now to set ideal per item pricing. So for example you can configure spares to round to 0.05 ideally
• Then rounding on a per invoice basis. So invoice can for example round to 0.01 cent boundaries to accommodate custom pricing, discounting schemes etc
• Then rounding on basis of payment method. so cash payments will round to 0.05 (default) and others 0.01 (default).

Other changes related to this:

•  Spares discounting, previously would round the discount figure which contains an implicit assumption that the amount being discounted is already rounded. Tweaked so that discounting can work and round even though the core price being discounted is not rounded: works by making sure discount, once applied yields a inv total that meets rounding criteria.

Shopify Integration & Paypal changes

This version of c9 includes ability to automatically sync shopify orders into c9's own web order pipeline for processing/fulfillment in c9. The integration only reads data from shopify at this time and only requires read permission. You'll still need to manually close out orders in shopify at this time but this will dramatically streamline/simplify the process of fulfilling orders through c9.Setup process:

• In shopify. Under apps create a new private app for c9, all options you see during this process leave on their defaults.
• Feed resulting  shop name, app key + password into c9 in business -> website -> settings. (Note shop name will be something like barneysbikesandbits.myshopify.com)

Warning,  part of changes made to accommodate shopify resulted in heavy modifications to existing code for managing paypal processing for c9 based web orders and c9 weborders in general. These changes have been thoroughly tested but please be mindful of processing in this part of c9 has changed in this version. The changes are low level technical and non functional.

• Supplier return tweaks
  • Update : allow edit of tracking field
  • Update : tweak naming of options a bit to make it clearer that finalization will automatically post a supplier credit within c9
  • Browse : allow view invoice from here
  • allow input of credit note reference # on finalization
• Other
  • Browse Workshop warranty. Show reference # entered on finalization.
  • Workshop scheduler, recent version changes killed ability to drag and drop.  Now restored this lost functionality
  • Various Workshop  Screen. Tweak line item qty displayed for Sublets to show sublet status instead of zero qty.
  • Unsupercede bugfix. Under some circumstamces unsuperecede might delete a random part, completely unrelated to the supercession you are removing, out of stock. Now fixed
  • Unit sale detailed notes. Option to print on contract particulars and/or print on tax invoices. Configured in main setup screen.
  • Tweaks to accounting reports to simplify reconciliation of presented data
    • Trading statement : separate out refunds from sales
    • bugfix, generic interest might not appear as an expense in P/L. Now fixed.

This page explains how to setup and drive c9's AusPOST integration.

What it does: automatically query prices from auspost. Print AusPOST/Startrack labels and generate shipping manifests.

Basic Workflow: How you manage your spares will influence how things will flow through c9. The general process is:

• Raise invoices in c9 as per normal but with some slight tweaks to indicate the invoice needs dispatching and optionally get shipping costs
• Package your invoices into boxes/parcels etc. Feed info about box sizes and weights into c9.
• Print labels for things you need to ship. Stick labels on boxes/parcels
• Indicate you are ready to ship. Generate/print a manifest. Either take parcels to local shop or wait for pickup (whatever arrangement you have in play)

Alot of variations are possible. Such as:

• Whether or not to package at point of invoicing or delay to a later 'dispatching' stage. Depends on your preferred workflow
• Whether or not to print labels one at a time as jobs come in or do a bulk/ batch print.

Initial Setup

Read more...

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

Spare parts supplier returns

This version of c9 provides a new streamlined process for managing spares returns. In point of sale return screen you'll now see this.

Process now not only lets you fine tune amounts but also allows you to flag return process as in progress with invoicing to happen later. Invoicing happen later is now tracked in a new section. Pending Supplier Returns. Spares -> Spare Parts -> Supplier Returns.

• Other Fixes and Tweaks
  • Spares. Logic added earlier in year to cope with c9 auto adjusting eaten customer deposit as operator tweaks things like freight etc broken under some circumstances and would auto amount to use incorrectly. Now fixed.
  • Trading statement was not rolling Goods in AP invoices into spares purchases. Instead was showing a weird computer code like line. Now fixed.
  • Bank Rec : on loan accounts allow full gamut of txns you can normally see on a bank account with other/misc. Previously would only let you access transfer functions
  • KTM Factory importing
    • Fiche & Parts : login not working. Working again
    • Fiche : redesign the screen a bit to show more of models to import / ignore.
  • Other supplier return polish
    • On selecting supplier return preset supplier based on parts being returned.
  • do not print label flag on some stocked parts. Option is toggled in F6 view/change part. The option is manually ignored when individually printing an item or manually adding to list to print.
  • No supplier selected nag on key screens when added rebate, on road costs, other costs etc on a unit
  • WA Form tweaks
    • Transfer form : swap VIN and engine number, was back to front
    • Transfer & Reg forms : tweak font kerning/spacing a bit to make fixed point font items like VIN fit better.

• Tweaks and fixes
  • Honda Magician check : Honda SAP can sometimes return -ve results. Clip to zero. This behaviour is also affecting bulk magician check : as this check cannot cope with -ves and assumes -ve items are supplyable.
  • Print Labels - some more UI design tweaks to minimize clicks and effort.  On print screen allow user to select layout format from existing formats, same way they can sue different layout sizes. See below.
  • More UI design tweaks for cust order select
    • Allow pgdown/pgup/home/end keys to scroll list while keyboard focus is in search box
    • Memorize whether or not last cust order ended at bottom or top or the list and apply that next time (this functionality was lost in recent UI changes, readded)
  • Unit sale and purchase. Add a number of guards to protected against simultaneous scenarios run across different terminals/instances. Such as:
    • Purchase, purchase factory unit with same reference #
    • Purchase, previously non existent unit from a customer which is simultaneously added on another terminal
    • Sell unit simultaneously on two different terminals
  • Print pay slip. Print full name instead of screen name if set.

Label config is complex. Though the underlying problem is complex.  Recent changes have make labels more flexible and logically consistent workflow but also more complex to setup. This post explains what is going on and a couple of suggested setups for simple workflows.

The core problem is we have potentially multiple printers, multiple label sizes, multiple label layouts/styles and multiple terminals. The complexity involves defining paths through al these. Illustrating.

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

• Payroll tweaks
  • Added a 'Uploading data to STP screen'. Typically STP upload is sub second, but I have seen some slight delays so added a screen to show things are happening.
  • Staff permissions, renamed payroll declaration permission to 'Payroll Manager' .  Prior naming was potentially misleading.
  • Payment summary printout : include biz name + ABN
  • Slight bugfix with setting up staff. If you key in a state which isn't uppercase would cause STP export to flip out with a XSD validation error. C9 now forces state to uppercase.
• Payments/Bills stuff
  • Select bank for payment. Option to expose loan accounts to allow payment against a loan record.
  • Add invoice: ability to select GL code . e.g. for quarterly sales targets kickbacks you can now record against spares income instead of default (other income)
• Financial year report tweaks
  • Tweaks/fixes to supporting reports used to validate data in Financial year report
    • Historical Recv report : was not capturing parts on reserve. Now fixed
    • Workshop history report : was ignoring internal/PD/warranty stuff. Now fixed
  • Trading statement / P&L : stock figures did not include units. Now fixed.
  • Business -> Activity. Added some type/taxtype filter options to make searching/diagnostic work in this screen easier
  • Way bank fees were written into c9 from bank rec was broken. Was being pulled into P&L as tho it was profit (bank interest). Fixed and added code to retroactively fix older records.
  • trial balance printout from General Ledger.
• Profit summary report bugfixes which cause profit to be understated.
  • Generic Expense items was showing expense including GST, overstating the cost. Modified to so ex GST only figure.
  • Profit summary was not reporting on generic income : failing to report on additional income. Now added.
• Customer Order selection UI redesign
  • Search mechanics now work similar to orderbook. Type and it jumps to right section, instead of filtering output. Next button to cycle through options
  • Display deposit remaining
  • Sort order ui system now has a sort drop down instead of fake columns to click on.
•  Other
  • Bulk stock take import. Was ignoring location in uploaded file, and only accepting global location setting. Now repaired.
  • Mcleods image import, working again.
  • Auto stock take received items option was not actually working and was not flagging items stocked as stock taken. Now fixed.
  • Labels : add option to quickly clone an existing label config. Useful for duplicating configs with intent of binding different 'labels' to different label layouts for rapid selection of layout.
  • Cancel order invoice / cancel part on order : Show deposit remaining on nag and confirm screens.
  • View Contacts : new tab to browse trade customers.
  • Tweak to accommodate one C9 user who is now de-registered for GST. Option to default point of sale screen to GST Exempt.
  • Import C9 E-Ref spares order from another dealer. Will pre-populate order number field. e.g.:
    
• Unit Sale Paperwork
  • Victoria T&C
    • Minor legislative changes in 2018 (minor change in wording)
    • Different versions of contract for new vs used vehicles
    • Particulars page modified to include a declaration as to whether or not the odo reading is considered accurate. (only prints on used units and if odo is non zero)
  • NSW T&C - minor changes to accommodate either/or new/used sales and updates on references to state legislation
  • QLD T&C - minor changes to accommodate either/or new/used sales + a couple of other minor tidies.
  • WA Paperwork - new forms. Rego, transfer & Stat warranty.
  • Paperwork preview : reworked. Generates more accurate looking result, but is slower.

Single Touch payroll support in c9 is substantially automated and normally processing payruns STP only adds a couple of extra clicks to capture authority to send.  Though there are a couple of things to setup and manage:

• Initial setup
• Submit on pay run
• Dealing with errors and issues

Initial Setup

Making sure all staff are setup correctly

For existing staff you need to make sure following information is in play

• Their Tax File Number
• Correct full name and address. (Name can be either in 'name' field' or broken apart into firstname/lastname fields. If firstname/lastname are empty c9 will break name into firstname/lastname for you)
• Date of Birth.
• Suggest : put in staff email address and phone numbers as these will be sent to ATO,

For new staff, from now on their first payrun will transmit alot more information. Critical things you must put in for their first pay run:

Read more...