Ongoing issues with epc import. Recent changes to help with Triumph broke all epc importing : mashing results into a single diagram.

Now fixed here

PPSR lookup timeout.  It appears that PPSR service c9 uses has slowed down alot and is bumping into c9's default 10 second timeout.  Modified c9 to increase timeout to 45 seconds. One further tweak which will be finished off today : part of PPSR check will send original PPSR pdf report to sales email address to help cope with scenario where PPSR isn't delivered bc of network issue

New report for till / paypal  : Business -> reports -> Gateway Rec.  Payment Gateway Reconciliation / Journal.  Does what it says on the packet. Similar to reconciliation screen but provides a heap more detail / information. Showing gateway txns and their application within c9.

Bugfix release

Fiche Import bugfix

Recent changes to fiche import to allow editing of models gets sideways for epc diagrams where default epc model name is excessively long, >= ~ 70 characters.  Mainly impacts triumph importing resulting in import being badly scrambled.  Fixed in this version.

Also fixed another smaller long term issue where reimport would blat 'visible' setting on an epc unit making a unit previously flagged as hidden visible again

Add transaction : txn selector issues

Recent version of c9 included modifications to verify that selected txn list is what a newly minted payment actually links to contending with simultaneous activity occuring in other copies of c9.  This change was not properly implemented and didn't handle case where something like a supplier credit is unlinked and then bundled into a collection of txns to settle. Now fixed and working for this case too.

Other tweaks

• Local EPC import : a couple of tweaks for importing EPC in a very specific excel  / folder structure. This is targeting a very specific non motorcycle / small engine client of ours.  So of no interest to most everyone else. Documented here for completeness.

 

 

Bugfixes relating to web orders, tillpay and paypal

• Refund logic : c9 is only supposed to recommend a refund on tillpay/paypal when we are at the final txn in a web order cycle. A bug meant it would recommend refund early could inappropriately trigger an unwanted refund for insufficient funding to cover parts still on order  , freight not yet invoiced.
• Web order finalise logic : c9 would regard a reserve /pickup as finalised for signalling tillpay/paypal when to trigger a refund of over captured funds. It isn't.

Includes db changes you need to log all terminals out during upgrade

Pay online for workshop jobs

This version of c9 includes a very cool new feature where as part of outbound email /sms alert for workshop completion you can include a link for customers to prepay work.  Customers can prepay jobs and prepayment lands as a deposit on the job in c9 automatically.  The solution requires you run a c9 website and you have either paypal and/or tillpay integrated into the website.

On job checkout is a new option : send pay link.

On selection and press on email and SMS sent to customer will contain a link back to your c9 website where they can pay for the job (and possibly buy other stuff at same time)

Operator clicks on link and sees below:

Once paid , a deposit automatically syncs into your c9 for the payment on the workshop job.

In time the feature will be expanded to also cover accounts receivable payments and unit sales but for time being, will implement on workshop only.

Configuring this

For this to work you must have a c9 website and either paypal or tillpay card processing integrated. It only works with these two payment methods.

There is some configuration in c9 need to bring it together. You need to tell c9 where your c9 website is, and you need to configure SMS and email templates to include payment link.

C9 website : setup -> other settings -> dealership details. Website and email. There is a configuration slot for exact c9 website (as this may be different to website address you print on invoice)

SMS / Email templates.

Setup -> main setup screen -> notifications. You need to include {paysms} in sms template for include cost. Hit reset button to add it automatically.

Similar for email : notifications 2 if you've used custom url here. Modify email body and then click on reset.

Reconciliation Analysis

A new screen / report has been added to view journals / view details : it shows for a given posting what reconciliations that posting affects.  Can be useful for tracing / inferring impacts of changes made to payment methods etc. Accessed via reconciliation on txn details, or in browse journal. Example output:

Other changes

• Tillpay terminal surcharging : you can now configure tillpay terminals to compute surcharge for you instead of c9 doing the calculation and this will be sync backed and included in c9 tax invocie.  The advantage of terminal surcharging is that the terminal can be configured to surcharged based on type of card swiped : e.g. EFTPOS free by credit cards 1%. This is not possible in c9 because c9 doesn't know what sort of card has been swiped.
• Deposit refund on modify job : changes made recently to make sure customer deposit was available when adding deposit wasn't implemented fully; the case of refunding deposit back to customer wasn't done. Now fixed.
• View contacts : highlight if contacts has sms reply / comment or attachment.  Colour code buttons to show if there is anything there
• Delete job bugfix : if job has deposits delete triggers a deposit refund, but if refund fails for any reason such as backdating refund before a gl lock, the job will be deleted even though it still has deposit. Fixed so that the delete operation is aborted if the deposit refund fails
• Sell Unit : profit breakdown in sell screen did not show unit other costs as a separate entry. Now displayed
• New GL Expense Code : IT / Cloud / Hosting fees

Tillpayments terminal audit and error handling

This version includes a fix with tillpayments terminal integration.  c9 is supposed to permanently log a record of eft interactions for future reference but certain operations cause this log to be destroyed. Common one is a failed /declined txn and operator then picks manual txn. Now fixed.

further the manual option is pretty brutal in its behaviour and often the incorrect option to pick : so pop an alert to confirm this is what operator really wants to do.

Finally when a txn is declined failed etc, log it as failed not OK. Otherwise output in eft journal screen is confusing.

Other Tweaks and fixes

• Magician checks
  • Kawasaki  : make sure results displayed are for AU warehouse only : not combined AU+NZ warehouse
  • Link  : working again
  • Triumph  : working again
• Workshop deposits : modify job and deposit tweak was not providing option to use customer deposits. Now fixed

 

Include DB Changes. You need to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Tillpayments refinements and tweaks
  • bank rec : Tweak output to make it easier yo reconcile paypal / tillpay captures. Recent introduction of gateway clearing GL codes made it difficult in reconcile screen to match a payment to a txn in c9. Now sorted.
  • Disable INCAUTH as it is problematic for some bank issuers : like CBA. Only support DEBIT
  • DEBIT : change indicator for debit : from recurring to merchant initiated
  • Bugfix with terminal config. Live/standbox toggle wasn't working correctly
  • Cancel web order : auto pop tillpay / paypal to manage refund / void
• Suzuki Magician Check : reimplemented using a new system provided by Suzuki . MFA no longer required
• Statement penalties / discounts : not automatically applying after elapsed delay. Broken since migration to v5.2 . Now repaired.
• WA paperwork : couple of years ago incorrectly switched MR9B form for MR9.  Switched back in this version.
• unit deal : substitute unit with blank : would not clear model year. Now fixed.
• Workshop benchmarking - completely removed. Instead report accuracy of job effort on jobs vs charged labour. Affects staff and profit report
• SMS Reply Alerts - add ability to configure a courtesy alert email to send an email when there are unread SMS replies to review. Alert is only sent with first unread sms to come in. Subsequent unread replies will not trigger fresh emails
• Workshop profit - option to filter report by a specific mechanic who is involved in the job. Filters down to only jobs associated with selected tech : be it scheduled, or charged or clocked
• Modify Ar/AP payment bugfix : if you modify payment such that it reverses direction of the txn; from money leaving (e.g. pay bill) to money coming in (e.g. collect money to pay bill), the txn will fail with a journal error bc it would force the direction change on modify. Now fixed.
• Receive spares
  • Some txn combinations where GST is set to or near zero fail with a journal balance error. Root cause is a subtle bug with how GST is amortised across multiple lines and default rounding strategy.
  • When receival GST is zero, do not force GST to zero, instead change Tax Code to EXPENSE_FREE
• Other Misc tweaks
  • When reciving into stock a part for first time where auto stock take is in play, c9 would not update the last stocktake date and leave it blank. (Subsequent receivals would then fix it up). Now fixed so initial add to stock also performs an auto stocktake
  • Daily SMS templates : make them bigger in configuration
  • Job invoices : print claim number on insurance jobs without a unit (previously would only print if a unit was also assigned to the job)
  • AP Bill + Pay. Write the reference into both bill and pay lines.
  • Paypal void pre-auth. Looks like paypal auto voids preauth on full capture so do not trigger void. Previously with recent fix in last version paypal screen would pop to finalise an ordder and will nag void attempt failure.

This version of c9 fixes a subtle defect introduced around / after December in 2023.

Sometimes when you process a receival with some sort of small -ve residual in tally of parts vs invoice total if you selected 'ignore difference' c9 would sometimes fail with a reconciliation then journal balance error.

But previously it worked fine. Further if you go and attempt to do work on previously recorded txns, such as relink them, then the relink would fail.

The core issue is how a fixed gst amount as amortized across multiple lines, with some of the change added to parts and some added to the inverted delta posting. As part of v5.3 alot of work has been done to make amortization of tax more sophisticated; but this introduced some undetected edge cases for a receival where tax invoice tally is slighty less than tally of parts and proscribed gst amount variation exceeds this value.

This version also formally codifies build fixes described in update section of below (v5.2.102) update

 

There appear to be further build issues with v5.2.101.   If you goto biz activity and click on details for any txn involving AR/AP or deposits it will trigger an error. Even though problem was also obvious in AR/AP the exact issue was different from bug in 5.2.100 fixed in 5.2.101

Again problem is build system, not software code. Did a complete clean rebuild after a reboot / memory wipe. Seems to work fine now.

Update 4.6.24: detailed decompile analysis of version 99, 100, 101 and 102 show build process generated significantly different outputs for v100 and v101. v99 and v102 are the same for a key class.  Further analysis revealed an non deterministic issue with build process. The issue is now fully understand and expect it to not occur again.

more specifics : clarion->java interface autoboxing doesn't provide fine grained precedence for clarion to java type mapping; so java methods with different prototype signatures are considered functionally equivalent. So code written at java/clarion interface must enforce this contract. TxnItemType.get() and TxnLocationType.get() broke this contract : purely for purpose of automated regression testing and this break in contract on both these methods are responsible for problems in v5.2.100 and v5.2.101. Repaired using different method names.

There was an high impact issue with 5.2.100 related this morning. Most of AR/AP type txns would fail with an error. this version fixes it.

The root cause of issue wasn't a software code bug but with how new versions of c9 are prepared and uploaded. This is the second time we have been caught out in last couple of years by this.  Further changes have be put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again; as original tweaks made were not enough to catch this mornings issues.

Root cause : some sort of issue with incremental build for the main c9 software package resulting in corrupt compiled software : possibly a clash between in IDE incremental build process and command line build; switch to strict clean builds from now on.