For Dealers with multiple brands under KTM Group, e.g. KTM + Husqvarna the following describes a possible mechanism for managing inventory and ordering.

The idea is to consolidate inventory into a single franchise.

Advantages:

• Have just one count of parts since there is alot of overlap between the parts. (e.g. for KTM + HQV 48% of parts overlap)
• When submitting orders to KTM, submit under the brand that offers the cheapest price. e.g. a histogram of price variations for overlapping parts for KTM vs HQV shared parts shows noticeable variation either side of 0 line (same price):
  

IMPORTANT! Caveats and consequences of doing this.

• Once you've merged everything into a single franchise it cannot be easily undone. So make sure this is what you want to do. Think through implications of this carefully for stock control, stock management etc before pulling the lever on this. Contact us if unsure
• This system only works in tandem with using c9 repository price files. There is critical information in the C9 repo which is needed to make this work which does not exist in the price file provided directly by KTM. This cannot work using manual price files. The key thing missing is an attribute tag tags the 'brand' to use for each part on generating export order files

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• KTM Umbrella brands : this version contains a very powerful change for dealers who carry 2 or more of KTM, HQV or GAS brands. C9 will now allow you to organise all parts into a single franchise. On export order c9 will emit different files for different brands, and it will automatically arbitrage to minimise buy price if there is a buy price difference. Gains from this:
  • Manage one set of inventory only, since high % of parts are common already
  • Always order the cheapest part
  • Details on how to make this work will be in a separate post. TBA
• Other tweaks and fixes
  • Remittance details print warning in red : Cyber Security: First time transfers call us to confirm bank details
  • Bug with Workshop Sublet  report. invoiced / not invoiced filter was working incorrectly. Tweaked to fix.
  • Some tweaks to cash till layout to realign some items on screen. Unable to replicate reported issue with misaligned stuff but hopefully some changes here will fix up the problem.
  • Triumph EPC importer updated. Should be working now
  • Tweak contacts general expense report to also include Goods only and CapEx data. Make audit field on report bigger.
  • Accounting reports: new option to export detailed txn listing that substantially feeds the accounting reports
  • Select transactions screen : add horizontal scrollbar
  • Unit purchase. Disallow combo of factory purchase + consignment. Does not work as expected so easier to just disallow this combo.
  • Import from E-Ref in point of sale: default proposed contact to create as a cash customer
  • View contact. From here access point of sale to do a sale with contact primed (via spares invoices tab)

This version of c9 includes some changes and tweaks relevant to remote c9 access.

There is a new version of remote c9 as well.  Downloaded here (https://c8software.com.au/remote/)

New C9/Remote are interoperable with older Remote/c9 but there are some niggles where things work a bit smoother with both upgraded.

Some specifics:

• Workshop Scheduler now remotely accessible
• C9 provides visual feedback if been accessed remotely (at top right bar). It will complain if accessing using older remote client
• Some minor visual tweaks
  • Notify bar now appears at top right
  • Some minor styling stuff, like border colors on top status bar backup/verify/version traffic lights
• Low level changes and improvements. Too difficult to describe in too much detail. Remote c9 and c9 in shop need to keep 'state' of screen widgets, buttons etc, their positions, size, contents etc in sync.  Some changes here to do this more robustly, better controlling flow of changes from remote to c9 and c9 to remote. Under some circumstances changes could pingpong back and forth which would result in some odd things happening via remote creating hysteresis effects; for example a selection on a list toggling between two different selections and getting stuck doing this. This issue is substantially caused by different hysteresis guards added into more recent c9s which didn't impact older remotes but were improperly implemented and become obvious on a remote client rebuild. New versions of both include a more robust mechanism for managing shared state between remote and c9 core and making sure changes annouced by one endpoint are less likely to be reflected back by the other.

Tweaks and fixes

• KTM Magician change. Tweaked to cope with AX returning multiple rows
• Staff availability bugfix. Certain input operations on edit leave record screen could break c9 now fixed (messing with day or week flags and then switching to non scheduler record)
• Print labels. Hitting enter key on part number would not re-highlight the part allowing you to quickly type a new part over top of existing part. Now tidied.
• deals screen. Tweak filter so it can filter unit particulars : make, model, VIN and reference. Works on any unit attached to deal, not just the visible unit on deal browse screen.
• honda opt2ma reporting. Tweak sourcing of data to use exactly same version of profit summary report as what you can see in business reports.
• Migrate parts. IS currently not migrating website part mappings. Now fixed.
• unit sales report. Reprint subtotals at bottom of report if in detailed view. Subtotal staff records separately as well for commission reporting.
• add location filter to following stock reports
  • Full stock report
  • Full stock summary

Includes DB changes, you'll need to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Tweaks and fixes
  • Scheduler : right hand job listing now has its own orderbook style search function.
  • Modify linked transactions : selector some tweaks to make ordering result a bit more intuitive.
    • Show created date separately. Show 'date' as being sorted date
    • Add a 3rd tab which sorts results same as view transactions screen, instead of screens default ( which is billpay due date then created date)
  • Bank rec code includes some stuff to efficiently determine which recs are good and which are busted. THere is a scenario where this fails, when deleting some transaction types, typically will happen with deleting a unit sale involving multiple units for example. Some other scenarios where it might happen too. THe rec might be repaired but c9 does not think so. This fix 'reindexes' the recs so their proper status is reflected and includes changes that will prevent scenario that caused this happening in future.
  • install price file : originally c9 would pop a screen to allow printing of labels for repriced parts.  This functionality was accidently removed around July. Readded
  • Browse prior bank recs : new default option to sort by reconcile period date (end date), not by when bank rec was created.  This sorting should be more useful/intuitive for most bankrec forensic deep dives
  • freeform stock take : is not following supercession chains, fixed
  • View/edit order : option to show finalized orders for historical digging based on ordno
  • Serco magician check
  • Stock checkpointing (what is used to figure out historical stock on hand) has been heavily reworked. Original code was written around 2011. Rewrite uses more robust/reliable techniques I developed recently with supers/masterfile tweaks as part of V5 work (sql trigger based instead of client side computation with lots of automated regression testing)
    • Prior checkpointing  would generate alot of extraneous/unnecessary records. Update of this ver hoses all this unnecessary data out
    • Move Part / Migrate part migration of checkpoints was broken by design. New implementation is more robust. Generally not a problem when migrating data into a sparse new franchise, but when mashing histories together the old code wasn't up to the task. Some things on the go here that are important (for dealers who are both KTM + Husky franchise holders, working on some tweaks to make life easier by smashing the two franchises together. More to come when ready, still alot of work to be done first)
  • Migrate webcontent : was not updated with recent heavy changes to how text+images link to parts so text/images would not move correctly. Now fixed in this ver.
  • Refreshed/Updated following 4 vicroads docs: registration. Online authoritory. Concessions. Rego Transfer.
  • Workshop modify / view job : show tally of quote component in quote disclaimer box.
  • Contacts: add a new icon for customers as a 'c9' icon.  Any contact you map from magician lookup screen or receive a weborder from which is submitted via 'export to other c9 dealer' web order option will be automatically tagged with this icon. Installing this version will retroactively tag contacts that meet this criteria.
  • Payroll : new option under employment type which filters wages entitlements for public holidays or globally enforced annual leave taking : for use with casuals.
  • Unit spares/profit new order option : sort by clerk + make

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

• Tweaks and fixes
  • Bulk export ABA file for Creditor Bill Payments. New option in modify contact to configure customer reference against each supplier for each creditor in ABA file.
    
  • Spares pro-forma with a configured discount. Print discount indicator to show parts will be discounted on supply/invoicing.
  • Accounting P/L : tweak output to separate out commissions from ordinary salary/wages

Fixes and tweaks

• Bulk txns (direct debit and bill pays). Option to do bulk email remit from view bulk txn screen
• Point of sale bugfix. If you put a part on order, goto next screen feed in a deposit etc but then bail back and change the qty to order as supplied : the quick sale button opens up. If you use quick sale instead this time around it doesn't zero out the deposit (or other costs like freight etc). This version locks quick sale functionality down if there is any extra cost on the invoice, or a customer, quick sale cannot be accessed.
• Workshop scheduler tweaks
  • Show remaining task time as a % of total of task duration on status line
  • Show 'traffic lights' for above. Green < 70%  Orange <90% Red >=90% of remaining time
  • Allow scheduler to be organised into 30min blocks
• Add image.  If image file name contains non LATIN characters can mess with online backup.  LATIN1 canonicalize image names on save. (At some point in distant future will move DB encoding to UTF8, but is a massive job)

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

Open style statement changes and fixes

• This version of c9 includes a fix for open style statements where under some exotic conditions the running tally will be wrong but final figure at bottom of statement is fine. Under some circumstances system would inappropriately filter counting of some lines if linking of payments to invoices was sufficiently spaghetti-fied. Specifics:
  • Payment outside of statement period but services an invoice in period. (so accounts that go into credit at start of statement period)
  • That same payment also services an invoice which is also outside of the statement period
  • That additional invoice will not list correctly, damaging running tally. It should be included in tally but it is not

This version also makes some visual changes to how open style prints to help minimise confusion of information on open statement. Consider following statement and highlighted bits.

The payment in reference 126171 is used to pay two different invoices. On statement is shown on statement 3 times.

• First time it is shown in part paying off WS job #143353
• Second time it is shown in part paying off WS job #126171
• Finally it is shown by itself itemizing the invoices it is feeding

If a payment only pays off one invoice it will only show once. But open statement design wants to also display where it is utilised if more than one invoice is serviced by the payment.

The result, previously was quite confusing.  The new one, possibly still confusing but hopefully less confusing. Because when displayed in payment context, it shows tally of debits in light gray : the light gray indicates that these lines are represented elsewhere in the statement too.  Light gray numbers represents duplicated entries which are not rolled into the running balance. So hopefully you can run your eye down the statement looking at black items only, but at same time if you want to know at a glance what invoices a given payment is servicing, this information is visible too.

Other changes

• Reconciliation edit screen : add a print button to print / export what you see on screen

Some EPC importer fixups

• Kawasaki EPC import : working again
• Triumph EPC import: working again

Tweaks and fixes

• Tweaks to ruleset stuff added last version : added a thing where it will forcefully recompute price breaks on parts if franchise ruleset changes. Option to run this manually too on edit franchise advanced tab.
• Harley spare parts order export. Tweaked the exporter so it can export an alternative order format that seems to be the format Harley prefer (pipe delimited). Unable to validate though if it works at time of releasing this version. This new format is disabled by default : c9 defaults to older format.
• Bugfix : POS margin test would not fire for line discounted items if margin test was configured to apply to discounted lines only. Effectively this setting was only validating globally discounted lines. Modified to more intuitive behaviour of testing both line & global discounts.
• Point of sale. If margin rule fires, then automatically pop margin breakdown screen on complete.  (This can be turned off in setup)
• Workshop new job. New setup config option to default print label  to on. Potentially useful for dealers whose service work is mainly not bikes. e.g. P/E and lots of tyre fitting work etc.
• View Spares invoice. Access add/refund deposit screen from here
• Consignments sold report added to unit reports