C9 Software

Release 4.705 December 18, 2017 barney

Bugfix with last version 4.704. Receive spares order would fail with a journal error for invoice receive and if receive had freight component. Now fixed.

Release 4.704 December 12, 2017 barney

This version includes changes to receive spares to make process of receiving units for power equipment suppliers alot easier. The receive process can now be used to receive spares and units. Especially useful for P/E suppliers who will put things like trimmers etc on an invoice with parts.

How it works is that parts in c9 can be associated with basic unit particulars. For example in F6 view/change part:

Then in receive spares section parts and units are denoted with an icon on receive screen.

On modifying unit items, you can specify specific per unit particulars. Such as vin/serial numbers.

When using c9's Electronic import option, c9 will guide operator through process of filling in missing data as needed during receive. So receive process should be fairly intuitive.

Other changes:

Yamaha magician. Was not failing gracefully if username/password was incorrect. Now fixed
Units tweaks
- Modify unit with goods only : Remove extraneous 'owner' field. only applies for units under consignment
- Business -> Activity. Allow deletion of goods only units from this screen.
Workshop checklist tweaks and bug fixes
- Added a 'force refresh' button to refresh checklists based on template checklists from jobs and estimates. On key screens (modify + complete )
- Under some circumstances a checklist would not refresh correctly. For example, a job with a single estimate, if you removed the estimate checklists associated with that checklist would not automatically clear.
- Under some circumstances additions to a template checklist linked to a job type or estimate would not replicate perfectly onto the job checklist. Now fixed. (would only replicate if a base checklist item had been added. Would not replicate items deeper into the checklist tree)
- Check all options would not show deeply nested items as checked when printed out. Would only show immediate items below the checked item as checked. Now fixed
- Checklist printout : would not print complete group name under some circumstances with deeply nested checklists. Now fixed
AusPOST integration changes
- Bugfix with modifying page types in setup. Was not returning custom option. Now fixed, now possible to set for example, EP paper as a4-3pp
- Capture delivery instructions
- Allow configuration of delivery freight to 2 decimal places
- Allow label(s) to be forcefully recreated if needed. Saves having to delete a shipment and start over
Other tweaks
- Website structure. Do not show orphaned menu items
- Point of sale, web orders + reserve / pickup combo : default deposit to value of goods instead of $0
- Disambiguate Husky p/e and husky bike order export methods : tweak names in list

Generic Order Export – Advanced Options December 11, 2017 barney

Generic Export has been modified to allow for more flexibility and sophistication to allow exporting of orders to suppliers. The interface for accessing this is low level. This post explains how to manage the various options. The screen, at a glance:

Options in summary:

Mask : Control fields that appear in export file and order they appear
Header : Define a header in export file
Separator : define character that separates fields in the file. Typically it is either comma (,) or semi-colon (;)
Escape : control escape behaviour. Escape can wrap data in quotes (") if needed.

Release 4.703 December 6, 2017 barney

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

New feature Sales leads. Quickly record and manage interest. Capture minimal customer details and manage lead with followups etc
Generic Order Export changes
- Redesigned so it is more flexible. Advanced tab can be used to describe pretty much generic CSV file format
- Allow configuration of separator. So can be used to emit ';' as separate instead of ','
- Escape control. Only escape if necessary (new default), always escape (old behaviour), never escape
- A separate post will be provided that explains the advanced options in more detail
- Generic Order Export is now able to replicate behaviours of following export methods with correct advanced settings making them mostly redundant
  - Softway
  - Husqvarna P/E
  - Butmac (alot of brain damage the butmac specific export handles, so best to continue to use butmac specific one. i.e. coping with spaces in piston kit part numbers)
  - Mojo (Sortof : mojo expects xlsx, not csv tho)
Tweaks
- F12 pickup reserve / layby. Default to cash sale for account customers who have prefer cash set.
- Unit sale invoice : print unit colour if set. Requested by some finance companies
- Fixed Minor screen layout issues on modify deal and update contact
- Setup : generate chart of account descriptions to pickup changes in names of payment instruments and reflect them into GL Chart
- Restrict usage of bank and voucher in modify activity. Disallow modifying a record which was voucher or bank based. Provide some obvious warnings about risks of modifying activity records
- View transactions: display amount in two columns : a DR and a CR column to visually separate inputs/outputs
- Payrun finalize tweaks
  - Setup option to configure what money is recorded as removed from bank on payrun. Defaults to NET pay. Setup options to allow for NET+Withholding or net+withholding+super (default prior to this version)
  - On payrun finalize ask operator if they want to print/email all slips
Low level tweak to prepare for further changes to add support for Java 9. Java 9 not yet supported. This change is to try and minimize crappy anti-virus products (mainly Avast) from killing c9 installs when actual java 9 changes come in the next version or 2. Details : on upgrading only rewrite files if they have actually physically changed. Plan for java9 upgrade is to push a new startup.jar, but we don't want c9 to rewrite startup.exe with a duplicate because Avast will probably crack it again.

Release 4.702 December 1, 2017 barney

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

Bugfixes
- Contract particulars.
  - Compliance plate would print a completely incorrect 1800s date under some circumstances now fixed.
  - Sale with tradein. Printing particulars could lockup c9 under some circumstances. Now fixed
  - Sale with tradein. liabilities/encumbrances may not list under some circumstances. Now fixed
- Vicroads Authority to register paperwork was not being filled in. Now fixed
- View transaction : unlink. Certain usage patterns of this function would put c9 into an invalid txn state. Now fixed
Units + Deals and spares discount reworked
- On deals can now manage discount to apply to parts before invoicing them
- fixed a few obscure bugs and edge cases dealing with line discounts on uninvoiced items on a deal

Release 4.701 November 30, 2017 barney

Workshop tweaks and fixes
- print pro-forma tax invoice in non pro forma mode. Force date to be today
- Staff report. Broken with latest changes : would not work with either completed jobs or invoiced jobs option set as a filter. Now fixed.

Release 4.700 November 29, 2017 barney

Bug fixes for release 4.699
- Workshop profit report broken. Tested new code on wrong version of postgres. Now working with actual version of postgres running at dealerships.
Future interest estimatation fixes
- Consider both interest and renewal fee payments for figuring out interest from. More and more floorplan providers are charging 'GST' on interest so need to be recorded as renewal fees within c9 means interest to pay estimate in c9 is completely wrong.
- Bug with future interest estimation on units in deal screen. Was effectively showing floorplan costs with double the estimated interest (not quite double, but more or less doing this). Now fixed

Making using of workshop labour cost reporting November 29, 2017 barney

C9 incorporates new useful data on cost of workshop techs into key reports to provide better data on profitability and performance of workshop departments.

To use this data some setup and management is required also change in processes. Alot of setup involves enabling payroll functionality in c9. It doesn't require running full payroll through c9 to access the core useful functionality though the more the payroll data is used the more useful data c9 will provide.

Workshop techs must use clocking to enable new cost reporting features. C9 will not compute costs off hours entered on job since hours here are editable and designed to represented billed hours, not actual hours, it is computed strictly based on clocking activity.

First. Defining Efficiency / Productivity and Proficiency

Efficiency : Is the ratio of billable hours to clocked hours. The more time techs work on billable work vs unbillable work the more efficient they are. It is possible for a tech to have >100% efficiency if what is recorded on a job card for hours is more than what they actually timesheeted.

Productivity: Is the # of hours a tech clocked as a ratio of their agreed employment hours. So a tech can have >100% productivity if they work more hours than what their employment terms are

Proficiency : is Efficiency multiplied by Productivity. Is is effectively the ratio of the billable hours vs their contracted / agreed employment hours.

Setup requirement. From order of most important to least important and functions setup enables.

Setup	Functionality Gained
Techs to use clocking to clock onto jobs	Compute efficiency for proficiency report
enable payroll access Configure staff hourly rate or yearly salary	Track cost of labour on jobs. displayed in key reports
enable payroll employment types map types to staff	Fine tune accuracy of cost estimates to factor in actual work hours and overtime Compute productivity for proficiency report
Maintain leave and holidays data	Fine tune accuracy of productivity figures in proficiency report
Full payroll : implement pay runs	Provide non COGS labour estimates in profit summary report
Map staff to correct departments	Breakdown payroll figures in profit summary report based on department

Tech Clocking

To make use of data techs need to clock onto jobs in c9. Techs need to be assigned a unit clerk key.

Workshop -> Utilities - >Staff

Select staff member who is a tech and click change. Key in a unique secret clerk key for the tech. also tweak clerk settings for oher things in c9 techs can access. Select none of the options for techs that have no other responsibilities in c9 other than logging time.

Now tech can access clocking via 'Clocking' option in top of c9 or via view workshop jobs. They key in their clerk key and then key in job number they want to clock onto. Techs must clockoff end of day and also clock off when going on break idle etc.

You can configure non job related items a tech can clock onto. workshop -> Utilities -> Clocking reasons.

Enable Payroll Access

Setup -> other settings -> Login Users.

Select a privileged user and click on Change

Select payroll option and click OK.

Logout of c9 and re-login as the privileged user

Configure Staff payroll particulars

Now in Workshop -> Utilities -> Staff you can access payroll tabs. Key in either hourly wage or salary into appropriate slot.

Note: C9 cost computation adds a compulsory superannuation figure. Make sure wages or salary figure is before compulsory super

Tip : setting pay data only applies to clocking performed after the change. To help get things started to extract useful data after initial setup you and run a utility in c9 that will recompute cost of labour on already clocked time based on current payroll configuration. It is only useful for dealers that use clocking already though.

To access : workshop -> utilities -> recompute TS. Key in period (defaults to a month prior until today) and run recompute

Configure Employment types

Employment types allows you to configure typical weekly hours worked and overtime hours. you may need to configure more than one for techs that work different conditions. e.g. if your techs typically work monday to friday that would represent a base employment type, but if you have one tech that only works 3 day weeks, they will require their own employment type to manage the hours they specifically work.

To manage employment types . Business - >Payroll -> Setup -> Employment types.

Key elements as relevant for workshop cost computation highlighted below

Map Employment types to staff

Employment types are mapped to staff back in Workshop -> Utilities - >Staff. On payroll tab

Maintain Holidays and Leave

Public holidays and leave is managed via Business -> Payroll -> Manage Leave/Holidays

Full Payroll

too much to cover here to explain full payroll. In essence if there are payruns tracked in c9 c9 will use this data for profit summary report.

firstly need to define pay cycles. Weekly etc. Business -> Payroll -> Setup -> Pay Periods

Next, business -> Payroll -> payruns to create payruns. No requirement to finalise payruns to get data into profit report. Pay runs can be created and left in Active status and will influence profit summary report.

Map Staff to departments

Workshop -> Utilities -> Staff. On main screen is option to select department staff memory principally works in . This influences grouping in profit summary report

Orange zone : select on of these to flag staff member as a workshop tech

Green zone : non workshop roles that group within the profit summary report

Release 4.699 November 16, 2017 barney