• Unit sale bugfixes
  • Could not delete purchased unit off a deal, now fixed
  • deal to sale with deposit : disallow account sale for now (I will revisit this later to convert deposit into payment)
• Workshop Timesheet report : size fonts for smaller blocks and if start=finish then do not print expanded line to fit as many techs onto the page as possible
• Miner : bug fixes with printing address labels via miner : did not work in some circumstances. Also include option to print one or multiple labels per customer. Defaults to one.

Recently added ability to pop reminders in c9 can be constrained based on the login user you login as.

You login as sales:

For a given customer reminder, you can make sure only people logged in as sales, get that reminder, instead of all users, so spares and workshop users are not bothered by reminders relevant to sales side of the business only

To add new login user, Setup -> Other Settings -> Login Users.

For those who need more nagging in their lives, c9 can now nag you relentlessly about things it thinks require doing. Such as:

• Open spares quotes
• Parts that needs to be ordered
• Stock that needs to be re-ordered
• Parts that were ordered but taking a long time to arrive
• Parts that have been waiting for a customer to pickup for a while

For suggestions on more things to add into c9 to monitor/remind please contact us and we will look at adding them into c9

To enable these: goto Setup -> Other Settings -> Notifications/Monitors.

Click on Insert to add a new notification, the system will ask you what type of notification to add. You can then tune things relevant to that type of notification.

Once added, the nag will appear in notification section in top right of c9:

Includes database changes. You will need to log all terminals out after upgrading

• View orders. Relocated view supplier button so it does not cover over search string
• Select any part . Make Add part button hotkeyable (Alt+a and InsertKey)
• Bugfix with view/edit franchise. Could not access archived franchises
• Bugfixes/improvements to receive order to better cope with recently added flexibility of receiving with accessory suppliers where accessory suppliers can be alternative suppliers for parts tracked under a franchise
  • Electronic import can now cope with importing on accessory supplier where parts may not be accessory parts
  • Receive backorder on accessory would not work for parts on backorder that were franchise parts.
  • Display franchise: would display a franchise of one of the parts on the receive list as opposed to the actual supplier.
• Workshop timesheet : allow user to indicate reporting period. Also compress report output a bit to fit more into a single page.
• Workshop estimate : collect and print order number and odo
• Customer reminders : include ability to limit reminders to specific logged in users. By creating a 'unitsales' user for example, you can set things up so only these users receive reminders tagged for unitsales
• Messenger : include ability to disable auto-start of messenger on a terminal, to cope with dodgy terminals auto-starting messenger
• Include new feature : monitor/notifications.  you can configure c9 to now nag you about various things, parts not yet ordered, open spares quotes, parts on order for more than a week, parts on back order for more than a couple of months, etc etc. I will write up a separate post on this shortly.

Unless you've been living under a rock avoiding the news, you've probably heard about shellshock by now.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-26/shellshock-bug-leaves-up-to-500-million-computers-at-risk/5770952

The shellshock threat did impact c9 servers, they have now been patched.

The threat to c9 servers and websites hosted on c9 is virtually non-existent though.  It is difficult for me to explain the nature of shellshock to a non technical audience, but I'll try to explain the risks by analogy.

The analogy is this: with a bank. You have the main doors, guards, alarms, security cameras and the vault.  Now someone has figured out how to easily pick the lock on the vault : this is shellshock.  But as long as you have systems in place to ensure no-one gets near the vault you are okay. The risk though is that people forget about the vault, assume it is rock solid, so they design their bank such that they don't mind people walking past it.  Suddenly, it is now a problem.

To the best that I can tell, and the best of my knowledge, shellshock could not be exploited with the systems and services c9 has setup; but there is still a risk that something deep in our website design would do something that would potentially open up a path to shellshock.  So to be sure I've updated our systems anyway, because I'd rather have a solid vault than a vault that can be easily picked, even if it is cordoned off.

The wider implications of this for the IT industry will be interesting to see as it develops.  Shellshock is not straightforward to exploit : you don't just download a magic hacker tool, point it at a heap of websites and hope for the tool to discover an opening. It requires skill, patience and care for a hacker to discover a vulnerability that allows them to get 'close enough to the vault', so to speak.  We may hear over the next few weeks or months news of high profile IT companies and websites being exploited, or maybe the whole thing will blow over and nothing at all happens.

Update: since writing this post, I've been thinking about this more. I generally don't go for sensationalist news stuff, but Shellshock is indeed a very serious security problem and it is actually fairly straightforward for hackers to search for and find systems that are compromised by it.  C9's systems should be secure though, and I am fairly confident that during the time c9 wasn't patched, our systems weren't actually vulnerable anyway.

C9 allows you to record comments against customers.

In view customer, you can click comments and add comments.  These comments can be dated with a reminder. Example:

Now when the reminder date rolls around, you will see in the top right of c9 a reminder notification.

You can review/modify and clear reminders here:

Bugfix with version 4.453 : complete job window had the new 'set ok' checklist toggle button on all tabs, not just checklist tab, so it covered over the total field in costs/tallys tab.

Now fixed, also tidied up tab order a bit in checklist tabs on key windows. (modify/complete/pickup).

C9 now allows you to print statements that contain discounts if bills are paid on time or penalties for non payment on time.  The discount/penalty is applied automatically by c9.

An example bill with this on it:

How to configure

Read more...

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

• Added ability to automatically define discounts and penalties on early/late paying statements. Will include a separate post on how this works shortly.
• Workshop checklists: include an easy option to toggle individual/all check options.  On most checklist screens is a button which will allow you to toggle status of checklist from not set/set/not ok/Not applicable.  If selected on top of checklist structure, it will toggle all options to OK.  Works on enter key or Double click

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

• Bugfix with fiche diagram import for Triumph.  Buggy HTML on Triumph website was breaking c9 import
• New workshop job : provide option to print a deposit receipt
• Units : new web publishing option to publish units on transmoto website
• Customer reminders : c9 will now automatically alert when customer reminders are due.  Will appear as a alert notification in top right of c9
• Automated SMS based workshop recall reminders
  • C9 will now send SMS recall reminders automatically
  • You can now configure default recall date in months. Complete a job and recall date will default to today + configure # of months
  • Above config can be set on a per unit type basis. i.e. so you can recall road bikes every 12 months and offroad bikes every 6 months, for example.
  • Recall date can be manually modified

Configuration options for above found in Setup -> Main Setup Screen. New table 'Workshop notifications

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