RSS Feed c9 logo Australia's best motorcycle shop retail software
C9 Backup Management July 17, 2011 barney

You can never have too many backups.

Setup a tertiary backup solution over the weekend. So customer data using online backup service is now managed across 3 separate servers.

  1. Our primary web server c8software.com.au (hosted in Melbourne, Australia by cloud services company web24)
  2. A cloud VPS service running in the United States (hosted by a large cloud services company Rackspace)
  3. A new third server running on c9 premises

The new backup also replaces c9's backup strategy for c9 software and c9 assets itself.  Prior system used rotating offsite backup taken weekly.

The new system will bring in following over next few days as well

  • Two offsite backup locations.  One rotated every couple of days,  And the other rotated weekly
  • Regular snapshot/checkpointing of customer online backup data. Online backup server copies data instantaneously, to all 3 servers. But it only contains current data; snapshots/checkpoints is about recording data at a point of time; so you can refer back to  data as it was at a point in time in the past.  Currently checkpoints run at the start of the month.  New server will permit running a daily checkpoint (retaining upto 45 days of data).

Normally the unit profit report displays profitability on all units sold in a period (grouped by make and whether it is a new/used unit).

The following explains how to run the report so it only shows units of a certain make (e.g. Honda)

Read more...

Release 4.206 July 11, 2011 barney
  • Workshop status: added new status  - booked in.  Behaves almost same as in progress.  'In progress' jobs designate jobs where unit is in the shop and work has begun.  Booked In jobs are jobs where job is booked to begin, but is not yet in the shop.  You can order parts etc for booked in jobs. Main purpose for booked in status is to aid better planning, especially in weekly planner function.
  • Built in Spell Check for all text notes; such as workshop notes, ordering details, account notes etc.
  • Unit profit report. Display profit as a %.  Also group units into new sales - by type (i.e. Honda, Yamaha) and used sales (all used bikes grouped into a single grouping irrespective of make of unit)
  • Bugfix with process web order. Under some circumstances, N/C parts would have retail miscalculated, using the price breaks/markups from a completely different franchise.
  • Several spares stock reports include option to not print items where there is zero qty in stock
  • Print Barcodes, include option to add parts to print barcodes for based on stocking location
Release 4.205 July 11, 2011 barney
  • Another bugfix for regression bug in  release 4.203.  Credit notes were not appearing in cash till report.
Release 4.204 July 8, 2011 barney
  • Bugfix with last release: credit note on an spares invoices would not put a credit note on the account customer
  • Deferred invoice payments : on point of sale of subsequent invoice default deferred invoices to be paid, provide a 'lock' button that needs to be unlocked before these invoices can be modified
  • Top 10 spares customers : was incorrectly counting spares on quotes.
Release 4.203 July 6, 2011 barney

This version includes database changes. You will be forced to log all terminals out as part of upgrade

  • Bug with credit notes: GST not being recorded on credit note.
  • Major internal re-working of how deferred spares invoices are managed in the database.  Prior system worked under most circumstances but there are a few cases where it can break down. e.g. If you create an invoice which is deferred and then a credit node, the original invoice will automatically flip into a mode where system thinks the invoice has been paid. But this is not necessarily the case.  The redesign also corrects for other minor concerns relating to business reporting on deferred invoices.  Another scenario: dealing with paying a deferred invoice which has had some/but not all parts returned on credit note.  Redesign copes better with this too.
  • Credit note - if credit note is created on an invoice multiple times then subtract those parts from subsequent credit notes. i.e. smoother handling of multiple credit notes against a single spares invoice.
  • Profit Summary report - was incorrectly including 'profit' on spares quotes. Now removed.
  • Complete workshop job with parts on order - warn user of consequences
  • Pickup workshop job with parts on order - warn user of consequences. Cancel parts on order if user proceeds
  • Delete spares off workshop job. Previously system would just stuff part back into stock.  Changes provide more sophistication.
    • Create a spares credit note for the delete. This means that profit reporting will be more accurate
    • If part is on order, cancel the part on order
  • Credit note and restock. If part is not in stock, add it to stock.
  • Receive parts on order onto workshop job.  Deal with possibility that parts have been subsequently superceded
  • Workshop - modify spares on workshop allows user to partially return parts to stock/cancel order without deleting the entire part line item from the workshop.
  • Browse jobs -> customers -> view jobs.  Shows quotes and deleted jobs. Now filtered
  • View Account -> workshop. Display quotes/deleted jobs correctly.
Release 4.202 July 5, 2011 barney

Modifications with units rebates. Originally assumed that rebates where only relevant post unit sale; but this is not the case for some suppliers (i.e. Yamaha). Cleaned up the software so that it can better deal with recording rebates while unit is still on the floor or even during point of purchase.

Tweaks to sales full history. Was not taking quotes or credit notes into account. Same for application setup too rebuild monthly sales qtys

Important note, copied from Quickbooks Australia website: The QuickBooks products which use the API identically are QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise only. EasyStart, Accounting and Plus do not permit integration.

To Synchronize C9 to Quickbooks you need to run C9 on a terminal where quickbooks is running. Open you your quickbooks file then run c9. In c9 goto:

  • Business
  • Synchronize

Read more...

The section Managing Website Categories explains how to setup menu items that display on a webpage.

This section explains how to map spare parts and units into those categories so that they display.

You can map spares or units into website in multiple ways. You can either map them individually one item at a time or you can map them in groups. i.e. put all Yamaha parts or all Road Motorcycles onto a website with a single click.  The option you select depends on how you want to organise your data and how organised your data is.

Read more...

Managing Website Categories July 3, 2011 barney

On a c9 published website is a menu which web users can expand and navigate. To illustrate:

Read more...

« Previous PageNext Page »