C9, and some of our competitor DMS platforms, offer the ability to query available stock while in the middle of point of sale.

In c9, you select a part on screen and press the 'F12' key. It will query for quantity held by the supplier.

For example:

For dealers, this ability is a massive time saver; and saves them the hassle to login to a dealer website and re-key the part number in order to query to see if the item is in the country; or call the supplier to query for the part.  The result is better experience for everyone, the spare parts manager, the supplier and importantly the customer on the other side of the counter.

For suppliers to offer this feature to C9 or other DMS they need to publish some sort of Internet based integration application programming interface that will allow DMS platforms to connect in.

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• Harley Davidson KPI reporting
• Workshop profit reporting ; added ability to slice/dice profit figures across different considerations. i.e. unit manufacturer, type of job etc.
  
• Export Price file : auto-create and default to a folder called pricefileexport
• Process web order : make view/merge screens more keyboard friendly so they can be stepped through faster
• Spares quote : default to either receipt or invoice depending on customer type
• Credit note - default cash refund based on whether or not original invoice was a receipt or invoice. Previous behaviour was to look at status of account customer only and default based on that.
• Miner - make report aggregation case insensitive. i.e. Suzuki, SUZUKI, and suzuki all aggregate to a single record
  
• Accounting package sync - MYOB sync appears to be silently failing for a customer; with no record anywhere as to why.  Added more logging information and application feedback in order to try and understand cause of the problem .
  
• Online backups - computer memory usage running very high on server.  Partial changes on server to fix this.  Further changes included in this release to further alleviate the issue (changes to network compression algorithms to not compress so aggressively)

Important Note:  Next generation SQL MYOB products, i.e. AccountRight 2011 and 2012 do not integrate.  MYOB's latest product will not integrate with any 3rd party software, not just c9.  MYOB have promised to rectify this oversight and make sure old integration features are eventually in the new product but no solution exists as yet.  In the meantime, make sure you get an older generation v19 based MYOB product. If you get the wrong one,  apparently MYOB can help you get an older one.  But keep in mind you cannot migrate data in newer product back to the older product.

The following explains how to synchronize C9 data into MYOB Account Right.

This step needs to be performed on the computer where MYOB is installed.  MYOB does not have to be open for the synchronization to work, but the process executes faster if it is - so it is recommended to open the company file in MYOB when doing this.

Synchronize from C9 to MYOB

On first synchronization, you need to tell C9 where MYOB is installed and what c9 suppliers map to what MYOB suppliers. You need to ensure that suppliers are created in MYOB first. C9 will not create suppliers for you.

To access synchronization goto:

• Business
• Synchronize

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Important Note:  Next generation SQL MYOB products, i.e. AccountRight 2011 and 2012 do not integrate.  MYOB's latest product will not integrate with any 3rd party software, not just c9.  MYOB have promised to rectify this oversight and make sure old integration features are eventually in the new product but no solution exists as yet.  In the meantime, make sure you get an older generation v19 based MYOB product. If you get the wrong one,  apparently MYOB can help you get an older one.  But keep in mind you cannot migrate data in newer product back to the older product.

C9 now supports integration into MYOB Account Right.  For integration to work you need to setup your Company files so that it grants permission to c9 to access and synchronize information.

Premier edition of MYOB should not require these steps.

Firstly, you need to register online with MYOB to indicate to MYOB that you allow C9 to access your software.

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MYOB Integration completed.  Initially supports synchronization of spares orders to MYOB (same as Quickbooks)

Wll add some posts shortly to explain how to

• Setup your MYOB so it will integrate with c9 ( AccountRight Standard edition only. Premier edition is supposed to work automatically)

• Perform synchronization via c9

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)

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• 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

• Another bugfix for regression bug in  release 4.203.  Credit notes were not appearing in cash till report.

• 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.