EXPERIMENTAL

This release represents major changes to low level sub systems: user graphics interface, report printing and local file access (e.g. price files). As such it is considered experimental.  The main motivation behind these changes is:

• Create ability to allow you to login to c9 remotely. So you can access c9 away from the shop (e.g. from home) and so that Barney & Dave can provide better support by being able to access your c9 system more easily. Unlike services like logmein though, remote c9 will allow you to access your local printer and your local filesystem for generating backups, importing price files etc.
• This puts in place some technology foundations which will be used internally to implement a more comprehensive quality assurance/testing framework; with eventual goal to reduce occurrence of bugs in the software.

Actual changes:

• Printing - should now memorize printer options - such as tray selection and duplex mode.
• Printing - no longer pops up 2 print spools per report. Only one per report is displayed (only affects some rare printer model/driver combinations).
• Printing - spooling of big reports now occurs in the background. So you can continue to use c9 while large reports are spooling to the printer.
• Hotkeys - in some windows, hotkeys were confused. i.e. in workshop browse jobs, [Units] button was confused with [F6 account]. Pressing F6 or Alt+U could trigger either button. Certain combinations of keys where problematic.
• Support for remote access. (more on this in another post to come).

• Print Preview : include printer settings button so you can change printer or printer settings (i.e. source tray)
• Bugfix : receive back ordered parts was only displaying daily ordered parts; not stock ordered parts.
• POS Complete F8 profit changes. Discount is less GST.  Show net profit (less operating costs).

• Added notion of an experimental update. To separate stable releases from experimental releases
• Unit Invoices - only print notes once on the invoice; instead of printing multi times for every unit on the invoice
• SMS Mailer : warn user if SMS message exceeds 160 chars
• Convert Account customer to cash customer. Allow accounts in credit to be converted.
• Unit Factory Purchase : default trust receipt date to the transaction date
• Point of sale completion: Press F8 (invisible hot key) to display basic profit on the sale in progress for goods supplied.
• Orders
  • On receive order default to cost price at present time, not cost price at time part was placed on order
  • Provide option to propagate cost price changes to stock/master file
• Web Orders
  • Added notion of cascading items in menu to parent menu. Not implemented online yet
  • Other minor tweaks/suggestions
• Bugfix with parts on order report. Was not working when specifying accessory supplier or part type
• Bugfix with accessing alternate databases.
• Module packaging: removed notion of a 'units report' package.

Bug fix with SMS notification for parts on order ready to pickup.  Normally SMS should say something like this. "3/4 Parts ready...",  last few versions had a bug where / was missing. So instead it send "34 Parts ready..."

This version needs to modify the database. On upgrade it will ask you to log out of all terminals.

• Fixed completion logic on POS accept. If you for example type in order number, then press F2 key, order number input would not be accepted.
• Bugfix with recently added guard feature for bulk sms/email mailer. If message longer than 200 characters, system would crash.
• Bugfix with Workshop dependency report. Under some rare circumstances the report will not print all current dependencies
• Changes to spares order report.
  • Ability to print spares for all orders
  • Ability to filter only parts on backorder
  • Report now includes un-stocked items.
• Bugfix: if you rollback a sale and resell. The system defaults to GST exempt sale. It does not memorize prior setting on sale.
• On invoices tweaked printing of dealership address so it looks neater for single address line dealership setups.
• Web Site content: permit adding content details onto master file only items

Units stamp duty calculation. Add support for int() function; lost in migration from c8 to c9. Useful for calculating Stamp Duty in W.A.

Bugfix with calculating invoice where there is a spares deposit. System was subtracting GST Exempt discount, not GST inc discount from the final price.

This version needs to modify the database. On upgrade it will ask you to log out of all terminals.

• Bulk Mail merge. Allow user to access sms/email mailer from process query window.
• Master File import. In 'merge' stage provide user some progress feedback.
• Phonebook: Franchises and Suppliers.  Add a website entry. Key screens now have a 'website' button. Click on it to open franchise/supplier website.
• Phonebook no longer has to regenerate. Phonebook automatically reflects content of related elements. There is a manual re-generate option in phonebook just in case.
• Print Barcodes.  Select/add part no longer requires franchise to be selected. All stocked parts are available in the list.
• Quick SMS/email.  Allow creation and reuse of templates for common manual notifications

This version needs to modify the database. On upgrade it will ask you to log out of all terminals.

• Bugfix with recently added online website database items; were not backing up correctly
• Tweaks to online website database elements

This version needs to modify the database. On upgrade it will ask you to log out of all terminals.

• Support Long SMS > 160 chars. Note that messages longer than 160 chars will be split up and each 'message chunk' is billed as a single SMS
• SMS Mailer.  If Bulk SMS appears to be targeting same user/message then suppress sending of message.
• Web Orders : added email for various stages of ordering
  • Initial order accepted (fully stocked) / order completed.
  • Initial order accepted (partially stocked)
  • Order progressing (still only partially stock)
  • Cancelled parts notification
  • Backordered parts notification
• Website : added management for fancy web widgets : image gallery and logo+text.
• Recipient Unit invoices : do not print remittance details @ bottom of invoice
• Detect unpaid invoices on receive order, was not detecting other related, but unpaid receive order operations
• Aged Trial balance report: now prints much faster
• New report : historical aged trial balance
• New Report: workshop profit/activity
• Parts Magician direct link : bugfix with maintaining a stable network connection (was not transmitting keepalives)
• Modified job locking to reduce occurrence of stale locks

• Bugfix - recent addition of account emails broke ability to bulk print printer only statements. Now fixed
• Online backup.  Existing verification algorithm's are killing performance of c9 webserver. New algorithm is now 10x more efficient which is good for server and dealer database. Also added server side verification caching; to reduce server load further. No point verifying master file 3 times a day if it only changes once a week.