Usability issue/bug with last version.

Newly added 'do you want to close' nag screen on recieve orders was also popping up after receiving an order, misleading the operator into thinking the receive was not processed, clicking on F10 would double receive the order. Smartened things up so it only nags when something was likely modified and never nags after a successful receive.

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

• Spares
  • Allow 100% discount on invoices
  • allow change description on parts on invoice (affects invoice only, not price/master file)
  • Receive order : permit setting of daily or stock, system will default buy price for newly ad-hoc added items accordingly
  • Reserve/Pickup later : make it obvious on pointout whether or not money is still owing.
  • Bugfix: under some usage scenarios invoivling ad-hoc parts ordering it was possible for parts to be added into stock without a description, system was unable to utilise description keyed into the ad-hoc order item. Now fixed
  • Bugfix : pressing enter on qty req on edit in point of sale would erroneously show qty info that is only relevant when doing customer pickup. Now fixed.
  • Improved fuzzy part matching logic to simultaneously cope with both zero trimming and with configured prefix trimming, correctly selecting correct part number (especially useful for dealers migrating from biscount to c9)
  • Warn user when closing spares receive screen with parts on it, to help protect against accidental loss of work while receiving orders
  • Stock types : permit blank stock type for purposes of clearing a parts type
• Units
  • View all units : show customer name as well
• Workshop
  • Overhauled how workshop invoices are tallied so they are easier to interpret.  Spares/Labour/Other are separated into sub totals with line items for discount + final price for each sub group.
• System
  • Disallow user to key in date beyond 9999
  • Store dates beyond 9999 in database correctly. Previously would store '20150'  as '0150' truncating extraneous leading digits
  • Change workshop browsing to not throw errors on screen when jobs have ridiculous dates attached to them (i.e. 150 B.C. causing int32 numeric overflow error on the database).
  • Fixed annoying usability issue with scrolling lists. Some lists when scrolled to the right, would reset to the far left if you tried to then scroll the list up and down.  Now when lists are scrolled up and down the system should retain the horizontal offset of the scrolled list.
  • Very technical tweak relating to graphics subsystem required to make tweaks to point of sale to allow modification of part description. (after window is opened, wait until graphics operations have processed before continuing application logic behaviour so that any behaviour that relies on widget sizing information has access to size information after window resizing actions etc have completed, previously AWT event loop and clarion event loop would race and AWT event loop would usually lose that race).

A few minor tweaks and tidies in this version

• Dropped TeamViewer as our preferred remote support tool, now using Single Click Ultra VNC.
• General
  • new setup option to control whether system defaults to secure or reprintable gift cards
• Workshop
  • Select job type: now implements incremental search. i.e. type in 'MAJ' will search/jump to MAJSERV for example
  • Create new job from estimate, system gives option to use either pricing on the original quote or to use latest prices. (Previously would always use pricing on original quote)
  • Job locking, system no longer jobs job for stuff unrelated to modifying the job itself, i.e. view modify/customer, view unit etc, view the job (without modifying)
  • Job locking,  system allows you to goto modify job screen for a cancelled terminal lock, but you cannot modify/save changes made here. (c9 warns you of this)
  • Parts on order :changed nag screen on complete/pickup job to reflect what really happens when you finalise a job with parts on order. (Customer is billed for those parts)
  • Fixed some screen refresh bugs with warranty payment management
  • Fixed recently estimate move line item buttons, was appearing on every tab, not just cost/tally tab
• Spare parts
  • Import parts from  workshop estimate asks whether or not to use pricing on estimate or current pricing

• Tweaks to online unit rego query
  • Now works for Vic Cars/Trucks as well as Motorcycles
  • Added support for QLD and NSW rego query
• Workshop tweaks
  • Modify job, make it visually obvious that F10 saves job
  • Complete job, if user opts to cancel completion, ask them if they want to save changes made so far anyway (i.e. odo reading)
  • Estimates : allow user to change order of line items on estimate via modify estimate
• Other
  • Unit profit/spares report includes new ordering options to organise report by new/used, make/type and to summarise by clerk key who did the sale. Also permits only printing summary
  • F12 Magician, option to hide price incase customers are looking at the screen
  • Fixed contact details in help->about.

Includes database changes you'll need to log all terminals out during upgrade

Main feature in this release is Online unit detail fetch.  Type in rego number or VIN number and c9 will retrieve colour/rego expiry/vin/type/color/engine no etc.  Currently only works for bikes registered in Victoria.  If other state bodies (or suppliers) provide query tools, c9 can hook into these as well.

Other changes:

• Units
  • Select customer unit, ability to order or filter units by rego number. Useful for dealers that service large fleets, i.e. delivery/postie bikes.
  • Unit rego number lookup behaves like part numbers,  case insensitive and ignores dashes and spaces. i.e. AB-123 is same as AB123, same as AB 123
  • VicRoads rego query, as per above
• Other/System
  • Recent database updates caused problems for a couple of dealers.  Upgrade process could fail and leave database damaged if user tried to update c9 on two terminals simultaneously.  Generally rare, though a recent update conditions of this problem were reasonably likely to happen. Made changes so c9 enforces strict database locking and checking before proceeding with upgrade so terminals can verify whether or not an upgrade is already in progress and whether or not another terminal may of already performed the upgrade

Mostly tweaks in this milestone release of c9

Note one significant change is that clerk key required for no cash collected check is now permanently on.  There are a number of issues and concerns around no cash collected, specifically how no cash can be used by staff to potentially hide theft from within the business (of course other mechanisms are possible too, still the trust nature of no cash collected we feel demands special consideration).  Ideally I would like to remove no cash collected altogether, though last time I tried this some c9 users complained. There should be no legitimate reason for wanting to use this option anyway. Forcing clerk key check every time is seen as a reasonable compromise for introducing a change to c9 that will incur a regression-like behaviour change and resolving this security risk.  If you indeed have a legit need for no cash, i.e. you are a one man retail shop, contact Barney, he is able to tweak your c9 to regain this functionality if it is truly required.

• Workshop
  • Job cards/invoices/progress reports. Print checklists closer together to use paper more effectively
• Spares
  • Below RRP Report.  Show/print $ and % figures.
• Units
  • Show dealership units. Filter sold/tradein units to units sold/traded in in the last 3 months. You can change this filter date
• Other
  • Save as CSV now works via remote access
  • New print preview option : email as CSV
  • Ability to configure auto login: c9 on startup can jump straight in without username+password. (This is configured on login screen itself, under advanced tab)
  • No cash collected always requires a clerk key to approve.
  • Ability to open files which are opened by other programs. Some systems, for reasons I have not entirely isolated will not allow you, for example, have an excel file open and use c9's import generic on same file. Should now be fixed.
  • Tweak website structure so it is easier to move things around, especially when there are lots of things (i.e. after importing stock part meta data)
• Bugs
  • Any invalid delete (i.e. delete debtor spares parts txn), would cause system to enter invalid transaction state.

Includes database changes. You'll need to log c9 out during upgrade

Price file importing tweaks

• Bugfix with importing discount code, would not record discount code for new records but would record it for subsequent changes to existing records
• Bugfix with detecting changes on certain fields due to nulls in database, i.e. discount codes.
• Import generic : permit importing discount code from generic but not nag user to key in % if the csv file already contains independent info on stock/discount $/%
• Import from c9 repository : also import packqty/ order by pack flag and metadata if available

Includes database changes, you need to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Added created date to customer records. On upgrade system preset/estimate created date for existing customers by looking at first transactions/activity records/units owned etc.
• Workshop jobs : increase maximum size of job description to order number to 80 characters
• Bugfix with job notes and locations. Add/modify job note did not permit setting of location, meaning created notes would be invisible on terminals locked to a given location.
• Added new field to stocked items : when item was last stock taken. Intent is to help with managing inventory by being able to report on items not stocktaken for a while, to help hose out crap inventory data that has been present for years.
  • Under setup is a configuration option the automatically sets stock take date on stocked items whenever parts are received from suppliers to be stocked. This option (defaults to set) assumes restocker will verify and correct qty on hand from restocking sheets generated by c9 on receive/restock.
• New stock take methodology, freeform stock take.  See details below.

In c9 is a new stock take option which allows you to freeform stock take. The screen design is visually similar to point of sale but is geared towards stock taking.  System is designed for optimised use with barcode scanners, allowing you to either scan each item, incrementing the stock take, or scan once and manually key in new quantity.  System allows you to stock take stuff c9 doesn't think is currently in stock.

Spare Parts -> Free form spare parts.  Behavior should be reasonably intuitive/obvious.  For optimum use, configure your barcode reader to emit STX/ETX. See this post for more info.

http://c8software.com.au/wp/2014/08/point-of-sale-barcode-integration/

Bugfixes

• Manual Backup : Prior version 4.496 introduced a bug that caused manual backup to fail with an error message.   Now fixed.

Java 8 bugfixes

Java 8 has broken a couple of things in c9.

• Xero integration now fixed (generating security certificate in java 8 did not work, now fixed to support 8 and pre 8)
• Import fiche diagrams for Honda and Yamaha. Should now be working again. (also works natively in Linux and Mac now as well)

Inexplicably, infuriatingly, Java 8 removed a key piece of functionality (ODBC) used to talk to databases on windows platforms. Should never of happened but stuck with it. This has an ongoing issue with breaking integration with MYOB, at this time we are probably never going to fix this.  Oracle will argue that MYOB should provide a JDBC alternative, but MYOB will never do any such thing, Oracle should never of removed it. Long term plan is simply migrate to later versions of MYOB. If you need to run MYOB v19, you must stay with java 7.

Requires database changes, you'll need to log all terminals out of c9 before upgrading.

• Bugfix: Disallow selection of 'Spares' option when refunding via add transaction. use spares -> credit note instead if you want to refund parts
• view customer notifications, allow message info to be viewed from here
• Bugix: CSV export of times from miner tool broken. i.e. export of labour hours on job cards

This version includes a new feature when viewing customers you can quickly filter your customer list down by typing in pretty much anything connected to the customer, names, email address, prior invoice numbers, notes, comments, info from job cards etc. Example you search for 'andrew tappet'  and it will return all customers whose name is andrew who have word 'tappet' on their job card. Or, 'dickhead ktm vic', for all your customers who are dickheads that have KTMs and live in Victoria.  Searching for $ figures, like 19.95 will mostly work too, though the system is quite 'lose' about what it matches and may return a few more customers than you expect.  The performance should be instantaneous in shops whose database server is a reasonably modern computer with a decent amount of memory.