Giftcard refinements and cross dealership giftcards

This version of c9 does alot of ground work in order to accommodate ability to use giftcards between different instances of c9 for dealers who run multiple copies of c9 and want their different stores to share giftcards. In theory there is enough added into this version of c9 implement this but the feature is likely to be officially made available in mid November as further refinement and testing is likely needed. I need to press this version of c9 as part of progressing that work.

Functionally this version mostly fine tunes concurrent voucher locking & consumption between c9 store and website with more rigorous automated testing to verify all the various edge cases such as using a giftcard online exactly same time a giftcard is cancelled or modified in the shop for example, to make sure all the various timing issues are dealt with. This groundwork is essential for cross shop giftcard usage (for online sales it is less of a concern because actual transaction work happens back in the c9 system in store so remains centralised, but with cross shop giftcards, the txns happen in different shops so authoritative manipulation of giftcard balance is more diffuse and the shops need to coordinate precise status of a giftcard through all the things that can happen, such as cancelling a sale involving a giftcard, then undeleting that sale etc).

Work remaining on cross shop giftcards

• Configure giftcard prefixes to avoid giftcard # collisions
• make it impossible to disable online checks for c9 shops where cross shop giftcard sharing is enabled
• Define new Asset and liability codes for cross shop giftcard settlement, make sure these are baked into balance sheet and reconciliation tests.
• add new bank rec functions to settle cross shop giftcard settlement
• Verify issuer sync polling.
  • bake polling into scan giftcard and view giftcard to make it sync more instantaneously
  • Add server side sync poll so giftcard sync is faster.

Other tweaks and fixes

• Fiche diagrams. N/C Retail price displayed on this screen can be wrong in some circumstances. now fixed. PRoblem is screen doesn't pull back enough info in some circumstances. Specifics: packqty (likely a problem for BRP franchises because they code the price file to be packqtys), also daily/stock buy, for franchies where the dealer has configured a minimum margin in price breaks (rarely used but will be problematic for dealers who use this)
• add a setup switch in system/database to disable 4 hour auto logout feature recently added
• Add ppsr check button to add purchase unit screen
• Repriced parts : button to bulk reprice everything to older price, only for parts where older price is higher
• Tweaks and fixes with discount vouchers
  • Update Balance sheet so voucher liability excludes discount vouchers
  • Fix auto reconcile/reconciliation so it does not bark on discount vouchers
  • Long standing issue with contra GL code for discounts. Mixed 9-2600 and 5-5800.  Rationalised onto 9-2600. Deleted the code 5-5800
• Bulk bill pay / direct debit.
  • Customer BSB on screen was incorrect now fixed. (note exported ABA file is fine, just what was on screen was wrong).
  • Color code deleted lines so it is obvious when a highlighted line is also deleted (grey background, italic font). Previously couldn't tell if a highlighted line was deleted or not

Tweaks and Fixes

• SA Contract Paperwork
  • Include statutory cooling off rights  for used unit sales
  • New form : cooling off waiver
• Bugfix with add generic txn in bank rec screen. Under some exotic usage patterns the resulting posting can be a mashed together posting of 2 or more generic txns.  Now fixed. (abort txn on reconcile warning, change txn type and redo txn can trigger this behaviour)
• Some changes to help contend with with input credit pending floorplan bug fixed in 5.2.36 messing with reconciliation
  • Accounting reconciliation report: option to filter out auto adjust txns
  • Open floorplan report  - show gst pending figures at bottom of report
  • Open floorplan report - allow filtering on whether or not the floorplan came with an upfront tax invoice
• Print Payment remittance advise. Will print a detailed list of recociled txns instead of just the directly allocated txns. Only prints if following preconditions are met:
  • Is a payment or a billpay
  • all directly allocated txns belong to the same allocation event
  • all txns in allocation event tally to 0 and their allocation amounts match line txn amounts

Tweaks and fixes

• Estimates : heavily reworked estimates under structured estimates to be easier to use / drive. Uses alot of structures / idioms from website structure
  • Re-enable drag and drop. Was accidentally removed last time this screen was modified
  • Add website structure style move buttons
  • Reorganised how estimates display in structure. Previously any estimate younger than  3 months would display in structure. Now only estimates which are created explicitly in the structured estimates screen with display here.  For non structure estimates there is a checkbox on modify to drop them into the structured list of estimates.
• Website structure. Some low level tweaks in order to reuse the code here for estimate stuff described above. Some functional improvements
  • Inactive menu options are italic / grey
  • external links are blue
  • webclass customized pages are green
  • Smarter pre-expanded tree on opening window based on # of records in the tree
• bugfix with selling parts to a deal. If deal doesn't have a customer attached to it at time parts are ordered, on receive you'll get some screwy but ignorable errors that pop on screen at time of parts receive.
• constrain default discount manipulation on customer based on login. In login setting is a new switch. Enable it to constrain access to discount settings on modify contact
  
• linkint parts image downloader refreshed
• Low level bugfixs
  • Modify value of some unit connected txn postings via business -> activity, such as rebates would throw a nullpointerexception. Now fixed
  • Receive daily order. If you exit receive daily order, c9 wants to save work so far to a local file. IF this fails for some reason, e.g. windows file permission issue, c9 would throw a nullpointerexception. Now tidied to cope better with failure to save temporary changes
  • Under some very exotic circumstances with functions like modify connected txns, c9 could throw a NullPointerException. In specific case of modify connected a precondition of triggering the bug is you re-select the txn you are connecting : a redundant step so workaround is to not do this.  Now fixed (Bug in loadByQuery() optimisation when multiple txns but only one more needs to be loaded as others are already loaded )
  • Backdating a txn with deleted lines would fail. e.g. unit purchased flipped to goods only would delete bank payment posting. Then backdating that txn will not work. Now fixed (was not correctly materializing last supply/alloc dates on deleted lines, blowing up the db check constraints )

Since Friday (2-Sep-22) a number of c9 clients have reported c9 server down.

The common problem is antivirus software malwarebytes. It appears to be falsely identifying parts of c9 as being malware.

This is a reasonably common occurrence with antivirus software, known as a false positive. It is the first time this has happened wholesale with malwarebytes although.

The easiest/quickest repair to date requires changes to malwarebytes on server computer.

• Add the c:\c9db\ folder into malwarebytes exception list
• any files in malwarebytes virus fault which are in c:\c9db\ : restore them.
• restart computer

At time of writing, I am aware of 4 of our clients who have been impacted so far. The above repair worked for all of them.

As always contact support if still experiencing issues. Also consider using something other than malwarebytes. We consider the default AV built into windows, windows defender, generally adequate. It is difficult to make recommendations on antivirus, they are by design blunt and imperfect instruments: they generate false positives like this one, or false negatives (fail to detect an actual nasty), and there are plenty of actual cases where the AV software itself weakened security of the computer. So we are and always have been reluctant to give advise here, but internally, for windows computers we have at c9 we use windows default AV.

 

 

Tweaks and fixes

• Price file tweaks : clear variation info for superceded parts. Dataset is only useful for non super parts. Prior version would create extraneous variation datasets, especially with pricefiles that contain barcodes as well (e.g. monza)
• Update price file screen tweaks
  • Show age since supplier was updated in repo
  • Alert when a c9 update is needed to update a supplier (for future fenced repo versions)
  • Color code supplier list. Green: up2date. Red : needs updating. Purple : old or un-upgraded price file
• Bulk txn
  • Option to sort by supplier then date or just date (as it currently does)
  • Option to print bulk txn list
• Print deal part list : print deal no on the report
• sell parts to a unit. On the underlying created workshop job make sure job is tagged with default location.

Database: you need to log all terminals out during upgrade

Price files: Versions of c9 prior to this will no longer see price file changes. Keep c9 up2date to keep your pricefiles up2date

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Contract of sale terms and conditions changes

On consultation with solicitors c9 engages to create T&C's on vehicle sales, new T&C's are included in this version of c9 for QLD, NSW, VIC, SA & NT

All T&Cs have a new clause added as per below to contend with current climate of significantly delayed supply + steadily increasing costs.

Importing Part variants as part of price file updates

Some suppliers provide some good data on variations, such as size and colour information. Especially useful for apparel & armor, boots/helmets etc.  C9 can now automatically grab this data as part of price file updates. Price files in repo will now encode this information.

To date this has only really being useful for websites. But variation info is now also merged into alernatives.

Initially implemented with a couple of suppliers (Fox and Monza). We will assess repo price files one at a time as we process them to see if we can extract anything useful from other suppliers.

Example screen grab. Key in a monza part number in point of sale. e.g. AS201201497914

Symbol next to part indicates it has variants / alternatives. For variant only parts the symbol is red, if part has alternatives the original blue symbol is visible.

Press f7 and you'll see the lot.

Alternatively on website, variants are selectable for customers to fine tune what they want.

Other changes and tweaks

• various -ve workshop bug fixes. Workshop job is in -ve because $ value of  returned parts exceeds rest of invoice.
  • display -ve sign on all costs tab on fields that can -ve : Modify job, View job, complete job. Pickup job.
  • -ve sign inputs for discounts on above screens could be break discounting on -ve lines too. Now fixed.
  • On pickup would through a low level txn error. Now fixed.
• Bugfix with specific serious of events of adding a payment. Now fix. Add payment. Start with billpay, select amount and instrument and back out. then redo as bill+pay, would blow up with journal error and then a NPe on retry. Now fixed
• realtime reconciliation alert. Accidently disabled in prior version in an attempt to silence it when used in unattended mode. Now restored
• activity report, option to export list of txns linked to AR or AP open as of supplied start date (sort of halfway option between accruals and cash for those what want to deep dive txn listing of open txns).
• Activity report / BAS in cash basis mode : with recent introduction of split payments, spit invoices might incorrectly double up lines in these two parts of c9 on cash basis reporting as each split payment will cause underlying txn to be considered for cash reporting. Now fixed
• Edit price file, attribute value was only 20 characters. Extended to 200, to accommodate recent inclusion of multi supers data as an attribute for KTM group brands.
• Website slider / carousel.  Removed ancient settings  which only applied for v1/v2 era websites. Added settings to control sizing and animation speed for current v3 websites
• Paperwork / contracts
  • Vicroads forms :use registered owner not customer on key forms, e.g. for insurance written off claims.
  • Vic, SA, NSW, QLD & NT : update T&C's to include price change clauses
  • SA Changes
    • used unit contract: was emitting new unit terms, not used terms. Fixed
    • Paper size for new/used wrong. Was US legal, switched to a4 and reformatted
    • Changed T&C font size to make it consistent with other states

Part number 47030005144  ( CYLINDER W. FLANGE 85 SX 07)

It fits A few different SX 85 models between 2006 and 2009

The part supersedes, but instead of superseding to just one part as has been the convention in automotive for decades, it supersedes to all of the following....

   format    |            header             
-------------+------------------------------ 
 0025060256  | HH collar screw M6x25 TX30 
 0402040980  | NEEDLE ROL.DIN5402 NRB 4X9,8 
 0603061001  | CU-SEAL RING DIN7603-6X10X1 
 0770540020  | O-RING 54X2 VITON 
 0770800021  | O-RING  80,00X2,00  VITON 
 47130006000 | CYLINDER HEAD 85 SX 
 47130038000 | CYLINDER + PISTON 85 SX 
 47137007000 | CONTROL COVER 
 47137008000 | GASKET CONTROL COVER 
 47137020000 | CONTROL FLAP 
 47137086000 | STOP PLATE 
 47137091000 | GASKET RUBBER

Now KTM have a facility to create parts which are kits, which explode into component parts ( making reading their invoices painful whenever this happens ). They could use this facility in order to super such parts to a kit, preserving decades long automotive convention of many to one mapping for supersessions, but for the time being they have chosen not to do this, at least not for all affected parts.

Baked into c9's latest price file is some data to help partially manage / mitigate this

You key in such a part number into c9.

The parts description comes up warning you part is a multi SS.

F6 the part. For non stocked items goto modify price file then goto attributes tab. You'll see all parts listed in there as an attribute. For stocked items it will be under the attributes tab.

At time of this post, there are <300 parts in each of the brands in KTM group (KTM/HQV/GAS) price files that behave this way so it is luckily a rare thing.

One final point, years ago during early AX troubles for KTM and supers were also quite fucked, we added a switch into c9 to try and cope with their broken price files, where it would not clear supers incase you added some supers manually in order to workaround their inability to provide accurate pricing/supers info (a problem that now persists today with SAP too). This setting will interfere with above price file changes as in these parts previously supered, but now they don't, but if this setting is enabled, then updating price file will not clear them out. So you now probably want to get rid of the setting.  Edit franchise, advanced tab. Make sure the option is NOT set. The screen in question. Make sure the green section is NOT ticked. So looks the same as below.

 

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

Changes and tweaks

• Payroll
  • new report that shows leave accruals and estimated liability
  • Bugfix with modify staff, payroll stats tab was inaccessible. Now fixed
  • Super report : separate mandatory from additional contributions.
  • super report. Option to export as a quicksuper v2 CSV file
  • Add Member ID to staff, to support export function added to super report. Accessible in modify staff.
• Bugfix with auto adjust postings, was not factoring in whether or not floorplan unit had an upfront tax invoice and was assumption all floorplan units have a floorplan pending GST component resulting in inappropriate autoadjust postings. Now fixed. There is no ongoing compliance impact with this one, but was leaving a mess in reconciliation report.
• Realtime txn reconcilaition : would always pop an interactive nag, even on overnight auto adjusts. Now fixed to not pop a nag on overnight runs.
• View Journal: access txn details from here
• view unit. Access txn details from here.
• Added some GL codes: Dividends Received, Interest Received, Shares at Cost
• new WA paperwork form, VL12 : Application to Licence a Vehicle
• Fixed long standing bug, if you keep c9 perma-open, never open a new c9 and month rolls over into a new month, no new diagnostic data is captured for the new month. So when we need to deep dive into a diagnostic effort to figure something out, sometimes data is missing because of this. Now sorted
• Logged in but idle c9, will logout automatically after 4 hours of inactivity.

You can add a model range page into c9 which shows new vehicles of a specific type in a fairly fancy way.

We have preset data for a couple of suppliers. For example, Kawasaki

https://c8software.com.au/bikeshop/dev/modelrange/products/kawasaki

You can create your own pages on website the same. How to do this below

Read more...

Tweaks and fixes

• Print rebate : show wording tax invoice on print out instead of receipt
• Print spares invoice : Allow freeforms of zero qty to be printed with highlighted text. For embedding notes into a spares invoice
• C9's internal copy of c9 only : embed information about upcoming pricing rationalisation
• Support storing attachments externals to c9, e.g. in a dropbox share folder or network drive. Doing so removes storage restrictions in c9. See more details below
• realtime reconcilation check. Everytime a GL posting is add/modified c9 will verify that its presentation on balance sheet is consistent with P&L. It will nag if it is not. This is useful for detecting in realtime reconciliation errors, e.g. using no cash collected or AR debit/credit txn will always trigger the nag. Also more subtle scenarios, such as selecting tax coding of CapEx but not using a balance sheet GL code for the capital purchase. Mirrors behaviour of reconciliation report but does it in realtime.
• Select transaction : sort date field is showing wrong value on all tabs. Fixed.
• Modify workshop invoices so the invoice number doesn't have commas in it. This aligns workshop inv with spares and units. Apparently vicpol don't like commas in workshop invoice numbers, it messes with their delicate, IT systems. That's some mighty fine police work there Lou.
• Low level v5 bugfix. Exotic txn lifecycle would fail. Now fixed.
  • Specific scenario: record warranty on a supplier. Then delete it.  Then redo the warranty but changing the date from original recording to an earlier date, and the specific supplier happens to have open bill txns which are dated on a date the occurs after the new warranty date and the supplier is flagged as auto allocate.
  • Root cause: materialized last alloc/last supply computation broken in above specific scenario, triggering a database constraint error

Track bigger files in c9

C9 allows you to attach images and files to things like job cards etc. The size limits are very stringent although because our cloud backup services cannot cope with the c9 database being used as a generic high volume cloud storage system.

To workaround this, this version of c9 includes changes which will allow you to store attachments on an external source, such as a network drive or a locally mapped DropBox folder. With such a system in play c9 will no longer nag about limits. Downside is you need to manage backups for network drive yourself. A good solution is to get a dropbox account and use the dropbox share folder. Example screengrabs.

Setup -> main setup screen -> networking 2 tab. Navigate CDN option to point to where your share drive / drop box mirrors to. You may want to create a sub directory to keep c9 stuff distinctly separate.

Now attachments you have on jobs etc will automatically save into the configured sync folder, which in above example is a dropbox folder which will then automatically backup to dropbox