This post describes a possible way to manage selling electric Husky gear where an item bundled with battery and charger is cheaper than buying 3 items (unit + battery + charger) separately.

The brute force way to do this manually is to fiddle with unit invoice everytime you sell one in c9 until you land on correct price.

C9 potentially provides an easier option, by bundling the battery + charger into a part kit that is already discounted will save time with subsequent unit sales.

Consider a Hedge Trimmer.

The idea is we add a part with part number : 136LIHD45KIT that contains the 2 spare parts which are discounted to $250. This is achieved using part kits in c9. See following page on how to do this bit: http://c8software.com.au/wp/2015/05/how-to-create-a-spare-parts-kit/

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Some items may be supplied in packs and you will want to sell them individually.

To do this with a stocked item you F6 modify the part and modify details highlighted below.

Firstly, all numbers in c9 are for the unit price, not the pack price. Your quantity on hand, retail price, list price etc all need to reflect the unit price.  C9 converts to packs at only a couple of points, at the point where you interface with the supplier. Remember:  numbers in c9 are always individual unit.

• Pack Quantity. Here you set how many are in a pack
• Ec Re-Ord.   Here you set how many you want to reorder. This must be a multiple of the pack.  i.e. for a pack of 4, ec- re-ord needs to be 4, 8, 12, 16. For example if you set it to 12, c9 will want to reorder multiples of 12, or 3 packs.
• Received Price files:  Is the price on the price file from the supplier the pack price or individual price?
• Send order qtys.  When you send a qty to order to the supplier, does that qty need to be # of packs, or # of individual items

Similar configuration exists on price file for non stocked items. (Spares -> Utilities -> Edit Price File)

Finally, you can configure default pricing/order settings on  a per franchise. Setting to save having to key it in all the time.

One very last thing, when you import price files via Generic you have option to select pack if price file provides this (few suppliers provide this)

To send a bulk email/sms to everyone.

Important notes and caveats

Australia has strong anti-SPAM legislation in place.  C9 includes facilities to ensure you are on the right side of the law. SMS and email messages provide an automatic opt-out option in them. When users click this is on email or reply STOP on SMS this modifies the 'marketing' flag on their c9 customer record so they will not receive any further messages sent via miner

Miner email requires that you configure your c9 to use your own mail server.  C9 mail server will not send miner emails, again for anti-SPAM reasons.

Click here for info on how to configure

Some background information on why C9 will not send miner emails

SMS messages can be expensive if you use them to message everyone. C9 allows you to send messages to just a subset of customers, i.e. all customers that own a GSXR-750.  Look at 'Load standard query' option in miner for some prepared miner recipes for this sort of thing.

For SMS make sure you include the name of the business in the message body so people know who the SMS is from. Unlike normal notification SMS messages, bulk SMS is sent from an internal 04 number to allow people to reply to opt out so it will not be obvious to recipients of the SMS who the message is from.  Make sure you make it clear in the message text who is sending the message.

Basic steps:

1) Miner at the top

2) select Customers and click add

3) Select option Enabled under Bulk Email/SMS from this account record. Click done

4) Click f4 process query

5) Click F6 bulk mailer, select mail merge to email

6) Key in your message. Don't forget message. Recommend leave unsubscribe feature at bottom of email.

7) Click on Send Preview

8) Click on Send all

Personalising messages

There are some powerful options for personalising your messaage.

In add customer screen, put a * in every field you want to include for personalising

Now in compose screen you can drop down these fields and insert them into your message:

The final result:

 

C9 now permits selling items in units other than what the supplier provides them.  For example a 208 litre drum of oil can be sold by the litre at partial quantities. i.e. 2.6 litres.

 Details on how it works in c9

C9 always tracks items as they are provided by the supplier.  Pricing/quantities etc are always framed as they are expressed by the supplier. So a Drum of oil in c9 represents a drum, the price is price for the entire drum etc.  To sell a litre,  a fraction of the quantity in c9 is removed. e.g. A full drum at 208 litres minus 3.5 litres leaves a 0.9832 of a drum remaining (C9 tracks actual quantities alot smarter than this, to minimise rounding errors etc, this is just characterising what is going on).

When manipulating things in c9 you in most places in the software need to think in terms of what the supplier provides. Only on the constructed invoice itself do unit of measure conversions apply. So when modifying stock on hand etc, retail price etc, it is always price to sell the supplier unit (i.e. a Drum).

Each stocked item in c9 can be assigned as unit of measure.  Multiple items can share the same unit of measure. Unit of measure can cover things like:

• Ordinal quantities.  I.e. a pack of 24.
• Fractional quantities.  i.e. 2.5 litres.
• Lengths. Lengths allows you to measure a length then sell multiples of this. e.g. measure 2.5M of rope and sell 12 pieces cut to this length
• Areas : same idea as lengths.

Configuring Units of Measure types

Main screen to drive Unit of Measure config looks like this:

• Description - Describe the Unit of Measure type
• Base name - a short description of the unit supplied item. i.e. 'Drum' for a drum of oil. 'Pkt' for a packet etc.
• Unit Name - The unit name for the unit sold.  i.e. L  for liter, M for meter. etc
• Point of Sale - Here you indicate what can be sold at point of sale. If you don't to sell drums, just liters, select 'Unit Only'. Select other options if you want user to sell either or.
• Unit Type -  Whether unit is fractional/volume/area/length etc, as described above
• Unit quantity - Here you key in no# of units in the supplied item. i.e. 208 for 208 litres in a drum
• Min Price : - Here you set minimal price for selling one unit.  i.e. $10 for one litre
• Min Matkup : Here you set markup basis for the part. i.e. markup 20%

Price for a unit is calculated based on min markup or min price.  Say retail price of a a drum is $2500.  C9 will calculate 1/208th of $2500 and asd markup of 20%.  1/208 of $2500 = $12.02.  + 20% = $14.45.   If this is below min price then price is set to min price instead. i.e. if you set min price to $15,  then $15 is used, not $14.45.

Enabling Units of Measure on a stocked item

You need to add an item to stock first. Once added you then click on F6 to view modify part.

Click on UOM to enable a unit of measure on a part.  This will permit part qty to now be fractional.

Say you have 2 unopened barrels and one barrel with 100 L left in it. The way this is coded into c9 is as follows:

1. Key in 2 in Qty on Hand.
2. In Qty remain in open/used. Key in 100
3. C9 will automatically adjust 2.000 in Qty on hand to be 2.4808, to represent 2 and a bit you have on hand.

One handy thing in view/change part is it shows you unit retail price. Here you can modify this to arrive at your desired retail. It back calculates supplier (i.e. drum)  retail to achieve this.

Selling Units of Measure

Key part into point of sale as you would normally.

The system will indicate on quantity screen the UOM you are using and the price and the quanttiy on hand as a function of the UOM selected. If you sleected either, you can change whether you are selling say Litres or Barrels at this point.  On an invocie you can have same part but with different UOMs. i.e. 6x 2m rope + 2x 1.4m rope.

Current limitations/constraints

• Cannot order units of measure. You will always need to stock order and then sell out
• Cannot reserve/layby units of measure at this time. (You can quote them).

 

Formula for WA which implements the following from this website:

https://www.finance.wa.gov.au/cms/State_Revenue/Duties/Rates/Rates_of_Duty.aspx

Vehicle licence duty – Vehicle mass less than 4.5 tonne

$           0 – $25,000	2.75% of dutiable value (DV)
$  25,001 – $50,000	[2.75 + (DV - 25,000)] % (rounded to 2 decimal places) of dutiable value 6,666.66
$  50,000 and upwards	6.5% of dutiable value

Formula in C9 is:

int({DutyValue}*case({DutyValue},x<=25000,275,x>=50000,650,275+int((x-25000)/66.6666+0.5))/500)/20

For Suzuki, exporting is a one step process as the order is emailed to Suzuki from c9.

You need to contact Suzuki first to get permission to use this.

Step 1: export from c9

Spares -> Orders -> Export. Select Suzuki order you want to export.

Select export method 'OPEA'

Key in following:

 

• Company ID: SUZ
• Dealer Code :from Suzuki
• Dealer Phone : your phone numbeer
• Select Export settings to 'To Email'
• Email addr: xml@suzuki.com.au
• Set attachment name to Suzuki.snd

Click OK to send order

To upload an order you first need to export it out of c9. Exporting is similar to printing except it is saved as a file on your computer which is then to be uploaded into Yamaha YDC website.

Step 1: export from c9

Spares -> Orders -> Export. Select yamaha order you want to export.

Select export method 'Yamaha'

Key in following:

Dealer Code & User ID: As Provided by Yamaha

Optional details: shipping preferences.

Export Settings:  Setup a folder c:\yamorders\ or something similar.

Now when you click OK c9 will create the above file for you.

Step 2: login to YDC net website

Login to Yamaha Dealer Portal and select YDCNET: https://yvpn.ydcnet.com/

Firstly, select Parts, then Order and Send Order File

Click Browse to select the file exported from C9 in step 1 above. Then select submit.

To upload an order you first need to export it out of c9. Exporting is similar to printing except it is saved as a file on your computer which is then to be uploaded into Honda Dealer.NET website.

Step 1: export from c9

Spares -> Orders -> Export. Select honda order you want to export.

Select export method 'OPEA'

Key in following:

Company ID : Hond

Dealer Code: Your dealer code as provided by Honda MPE

Dealer Phone : phone number for shop

Export Settings:  Setup a folder and file name.  c:\honda\ and honda.snd works fine.

Now when you click OK c9 will create the above file for you.

Step 2: login to honda dealer net website

https://www.dealernet.net.au/members.aspx

Get username/password from Honda MPE

Under parts click on "Parts Quick Order" - this will take you to HOOS system.

Step 3: upload order

Click on DMS on the left hand menu, then click Load a DMS File

Click Browse, and navigate to where you saved the OPEA file (i.e. c:\honda) and select it. Honda.snd

From here you can then accept/approve order. Order should now be submitted.

 

Mail server configuration is accessed via messenger service for c9 which is a system tray service.

It will run on one computer in the shop only. Locate the computer, find the c9 icon in bottom right, press right mouse button on the icon and select Restore.

Then click on settings in messenger to access email settings.  As to what to key in, your email provider will be able to supply this information.

 

Moving c9 database server onto a different/new computer is reasonably straight forward.

IMPORTANT!!!

The critical thing to ensure is that you do not end up with a network where there are two databases running on the one network. Result of this can be disasterous.  So work through steps carefully and pay close attention to steps that are concerned with validating that the old server has indeed being removed

 On old server:

1. go into control panel/programs and uninstall c9 database installer
2. Make sure database is uninstalled by doing the following:
   • Confirm c9 can no longer run on the old server
   • Confirm there are no postgres.exe processes in process table (make sure you select show all processes in process table)
   • Perform both steps above after a reboot of old server
3. copy c:\c9db\ folder from old server to new server into a c:\c9db\ folder on new server
   • IMPORTANT: make sure you copy empty directories too! These are important and database will not start without them, some copy processes will skip over these, make sure you use a copy process that picks these up too. example folder that is usually empty: \c9db\8.4\data\pg_tblspc (there are many others too)

On new server:

1. download following from our website in downloads section (C9 database installer, contact us to confirm which version to download):  https://c8software.com.au/wp/downloads/
2. run the above
3. follow instructions on setup a new terminal on new server to verify c9 is working on server. (http://c8software.com.au/wp/2011/02/adding-a-new-terminal/)
4. For other terminals, follow steps 6 onwards in above 'how to add a new terminal' help page

Verification:

1. In c9 go and look at history/activity : in business -> activity, spares -> reprint invoices -> and/or workshop jobs to confirm everything looks like it should look and is up2date. That there are no missing invoices etc
2. Keep an eye on backup status in top right for next day or so.  If it goes from green to red let c9 know. Especially the verification status