• Tweaks and fixes
  • Qld Rego forms : updated new reg form to latest
  • General Ledger : Added a couple of  GL codes to track income tax
  • P/L : trading statement : cost of consigned units was not included in trading statement and instead showing as a P/L line expense, now adjusted.
  • Add parts to workshop job.  Record clerk on the workshop spares record as the entering clerk, not the original booking clerk.
  • Orderbook locking : would display wrong franchise name on a lock event.  C9 would try to lock the correct franchise, but on screen whould show wrong name giving misleading feedback to operator. Now fixed.

Paypal issues

Once again paypal have made 'changes' to their backend that introduce regressions. You'd assume because they are wildly successful their technology is excellent. You'd assume wrong.

The issue:  c9 does three things when it talks to paypal to capture money. (This is only necessary because of other issues BTW, if their API was designed sanely this would not even be necessary). It:

1. Gets a list of txns
2. Posts a capture
3. Regets a list of txns

Now step 2 to to 3, c9 assumed the txn you add in step 2 appears in step 3 straight away and made calculations based on this. As to two weeks ago this is not the case. Step 2 to 3 can be delayed by upto a minute. Txns you post are not visible when you query them initially. From a finances services systems architecture/design perspective this is quite an incredible situation. Yet here we are.... Again.

So previously, c9 would then try to recapture assuming the prior capture failed since the txn didn't appear in txn list. C9 can only assume sum of txns is what is in the list, but paypal doesn't give us the full list, or any other way to tell what has been billed so far. That capture would bork with an error. You'd need to bail out and reenter so c9 sees the eventually updated txn and computes things accurately.

So two things this ver of c9 now does:

1. it provides a manual refresh button so you can refresh
2. After you post a capture, c9 will go into an infinite loop  waiting until # of txns paypal reports is one more than what it was before. Until it does it stays in a retry loop. With a screen that looks like this:

So I contact PayPal to raise an issue. Their reply, 6 hours later: "due to coronavirus (COVID-19) safety precautions, we currently have limited customer service staffing".  Since this only started happening consistently two weeks ago, when we were already deep in the pandemic, so they have the capacity to make changes that inadvertently introduce regressions, but not fix them. Dickheads.

 

 

 

Consider the following set of variation data.

	2XL	3XL	4XL	LARGE	MEDIUM	SMALL	XL
BLACK/BLACK		2113439	2113447	2113436		2113434
BLACK/GREEN				2113457		2113455
BLACK/ORANGE				2113476		2113474
BLACK/RED				2113450		2113448
BLACK/WHITE				2113443	2113442	2113441
BLACK/WHITE/ANTRACITE	2113471
BLACK/YELLOW				2113462		2113460	2113463

 

Focusing on part 2113441, which is SMALL BLACK / WHITE.  THere is no part which is BLACK / WHITE and XL:

	2XL	3XL	4XL	LARGE	MEDIUM	SMALL	XL
BLACK/BLACK		2113439	2113447	2113436		2113434
BLACK/GREEN				2113457		2113455
BLACK/ORANGE				2113476		2113474
BLACK/RED				2113450		2113448
BLACK/WHITE				2113443	2113442	2113441
BLACK/WHITE/ANTRACITE	2113471
BLACK/YELLOW				2113462		2113460	2113463

 

So on website: when you drop down option, XL is greyed out. Because there is no way to get to it by changing size alone. For black white items : we only have LARGE, MEDIUM, SMALL. XL doesn't exist.

To work around this, whenever this happens on website  there is a dropdown called variations where you can eyeball stuff that is not directly reachable as matrix is not complete.

 

The variations drop down picks up anything which cannot be accessed at all from currently viewed part.

 

Consider this.

	2XL	3XL	4XL	LARGE	MEDIUM	SMALL	XL
BLACK/BLACK		2113439	2113447	2113436		2113434
BLACK/GREEN				2113457		2113455
BLACK/ORANGE				2113476		2113474
BLACK/RED				2113450		2113448
BLACK/WHITE				2113443	2113442	2113441
BLACK/WHITE/ANTRACITE	2113471
BLACK/YELLOW				2113462		2113460	2113463

Yellow 2113411 is where we start.

Green parts are ones we can get to just by changing One thing, size or colour. So from 2113441 to 2113448 we change from black/white to black/red. Size stays on 'small'

Orange parts are ones we can get to by changing two things. So from 2113441 to 2113450 we need to firstly change size to 'LARGE' (2113443) then change color to 'BLACK/ RED'

The red item is all by itself there is no way to get to it. Even though it is flagged as a variation, it has nothing in common with other items at all. So c9 website parks it in its own 'variations' catchall group.

 

For variations you pretty much want a matrix where every cell contains an item.  IF this is not possible c9 does its best to create an interface which allows users to move to variations.

 

 

Payroll changes

• Added a new Payroll item type + supporting GL codes: garnished wages for capturing child support
• Bank rec add other : new txn type to bounce garnished wages clearing liability
• Edit payroll records. Added alerts to steer users away from common input errors : -ve / +ve values for various payroll types and using advanced pay items without double checking.

Other

• KTM / Husky part image import. Skip over parts with placeholder image. mostly just straight up spares like screws etc and just clutter up the fitment web pages
• add/edit Website menu. Add new option to configure sorting of items in menu by list price or part number. Only works for v3 websites.
• Bugfix with recent multi image import support added for Fox. Was broken when reimporting fresh images : when reimporting would only grab the last image in the set (whereas a fresh import would work fine). Now fixed.

Tweaks and fixes

• Import part images
  • Import images + metadata for Fox Racing for website content.  Better, faster and more detailed dataset provided by Fox Racing, instead of using the b2b portal. Among other things it grabs a detailed part description and supports multiple images per part.
  • Tweak WPS to grab part list & description over encrypted channel. (Low risk issue but since I made newly added Fox use encryption might as well tidy up WPS)
• Bug fixes
  • Merge multiple pickups into one in point of sale. Base invoice would grab and apply original discounts, but the merged invoices by default would not have discount applied. Now fixed.

 

This post will remain sticky for next few months. For recent updates scroll down further.

Updated 10-Aug

Read more...

This version includes a couple of tweaks to make listing accessories on web a bit smoother / simpler. Specifically targeting Lusty.  Actual changes

• Lusty img import : import 'brand' attribute as 'webbrand' so it doesn't conflict with 'brand' attribute on price file. They are coded differently so compete to update same attr and order of things of doing img import vs price file update can have inconsistent and unpredictable effects because of this.
• Lusty img import : importing category attribute. Was being decoded poorly making website menu built from it a bit crap.  Now fixed ( lusty data uses '/' by convention for separating child menus, while c9 uses '|'.  Tweak code to make needed switcharoos).
• A more complex change, difficult to describe but will instead describe its effect. On creating a structure now, with 'automatic' setting in play, it is now possible & easier to map parts in multiply ways.  For example with lusty you can map by brand and the category to create a shop by brand structure, but also simultaneously map by category only to flatten it out without regard for brand. (allow multi field partmapping to website. tweak matching against existing structure to be stricter and more correct, esp when partmapping is in play).

Other changes:

• Stock take. On stocktake by partnumber provide option to key in part number ranges to stocktake. For dealers that substantially organise and stocktake by partnumber ranges (as opposed to bin locations).

 

• Couple of tweaks
  • Sell Do not discount parts onto workshop : was not carrying do not discount setting across, resulting in parts picking up invoice wide discount on workshop jobs. Now fixed (fix is not retroactive, only parts added after change will apply. For existing parts you need to set discount to $0.01 manually)
  • Select customer. Show mobile phone number as well as main phone number on select screen.
  • Charts tweak : add a chart to show weekly sales volume

 

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

Tweaks and fixes

• Shopify integration: update to API version 2020-01, as 2019-07 is being deprecated in a couple of weeks
• Print contract particulars. Rename build year to model year.
• Profit summary report run on a single user broken. Now fixed (Caused by unit cost profit summary changes in ver 4.810).
• Add purchase unit to sale/tradein/deal.  :  will alert if the full VIN is already on the system : to encourage operators to use existing record (via cust transfer if needed) instead of cloning the record

Tweaks and fixes

• Unit paperwork terms and conditions. Option to load in your own T&C in the preview paperwork stage. Will memorize T&C loaded and use that instead from now on. Must be a PDF file.
• Web order processing with credit cards and PC-EFTPOS when PC-EFTPOS will allow Moto.  Under some exotic scenarios it is possible have c9 load incorrect card details into point of sale. Now fixed. (Specifically, if you f6 a part mid point of sale and from there go bounce onto a different web order it can cause c9 to load card details of the unrelated web order into PC EFTPOS)
• Unit Profit report. Running report multiple times will incorrectly reprint the last subtotal computed from prior report run ontop of a newly generated report. Now fixed.
• Added new GL sales code : grant income
• Dealership details.  Make postcode entry a 4 character alpha, not a number. Numbers no good for NT as their postcodes start with 0. C9 will store it less the leading zero, which messes with single touch payroll

New version up that includes changes to Honda Magician check to work with SAP updates performed over the weekend.  Good luck.