Will include databases changes. You'll need to log all terminals out during upgrade.

SMS Followups

This version of c9 includes some refinements to followup SMS messages including ability to send follows on unit sales.

Firstly while in middle of a sale or workshop job you can flag whether or not to send a followup message

Next there is now an option to drop in a link for reviews. e.g. for google reviews if you google your shop and click on reviews, there is a button : get more reviews.

Here you'll see a link you can copy into a new slot in c9.

Feed this link into c9, make sure you 'reset' the templates for workshop and sales sms.

Start collecting up those sweet sweet reviews. Sample SMS outputs:

Tweaks and fixes

• Automated SMS followups
  • Add a new option into workshop so on complete/invoice you can disable followups, for the more 'difficult' jobs
  • Add followups for unit sales, also with an option to disable followups
  • Include an option to drop in a link to google review as part of followup to encourage people to leave reviews.
• Suzuki EPC : previously importing EPC required verification of access to suzuki by successful magician login, because of how sketchy this now is with MFA login required for Suzuki DealerNET , instead validate access is permitted but checking c9 Repo
• Deleted bank accounts : deleted bank accounts can be accessed via a 'deleted' tab and from here can be restored
• Add unit. IF you key in a duplicate reference, e.g. 27 once it runs out of letters upto 'Z' strange things happen. Improve things here to expand out into double and triple digit letter allocation
• WPS integration: remove old SOAP based API's. Now using REST API's only.
• Subtle defect with create a BAS defaulted to cash basis. The generated BAS figures actually start on accruals basis. You need to toggle basis from cash to accruals back to cash to get correct figures. Now fixed
• Bulk Payment : Enter key switches focus to list of can quickly select a heap of txns to settle without having to touch the mouse
• End of Day auto adjust posting : make sure it's posting date is before midnight, not after
• AusPOST shipping integration: default shipments without labels to not export as part of a order confirmation / manifest generation
• Remove pay salary option in generic txn.  This function is often misused when should be posting a more complex payrun gl entry. If any dealers have a genuine need to for txn type (highly unlikely), will need to now post as a manual journal entry from now on.
• Switches to configure PureMoto integration (more details to come)
• Workshop Promise : also track a promise time
• WA paperwork : better Form 4,  added Form 6
• Sale On road costs preloaded on a purchase are not being saved. Caused by recent changes/bug fixes here. Now working again.
• [X] add unit : plate only pops existing units screen if plate matches and other key fields are not yet filled in (e.g. VIN and reference)

 

 

Tweaks and fixes

• PPSR - C9 now emits original PPSR report by default. The c9 based report can also be accessed still. e.g.
  
• Payroll changes
  • Single Touch Payroll repairs requested by ATO.  Dates/timestamps recorded on a pay run are not 100% in spec. Specific changes:
    • PaymentRecordTransactionD is strictly payday
    • Use date+time when payrun was locked, not current date/time for submits/replaces
    • date+time clamping refinements. Only clamp if usedate is strictly after payday. Clamp to 11pm + a few milliseconds for each pay variation so that pay variations can be 'ordered' based on revision # at ATO end
  • New setting on casual employment types to permit preloading a payrun with a 0 hour wages line (previously would filter out anything zero)
    • In employment type you can flick this setting:
      
    • And result on payrun will be a default wages line with zero hours (where previously zero hours would suppress adding a payroll line)
      
• Website structure : under some exotic circumstances the represented structure would be incorrect and it would show results in wrong sections. Now fixed. Possibly could be an issue for workshop estimates too (Root cause, faulty assumptions about uniqueness of sibling order field could cause the resulting path to get messed up  )

This version includes a fix for a serious issue with unit sales. Finance based sales with attached on road costs will fail to save with a journal error. If you retry the sale will save but without correctly journalling the on road costs.

Root cause is a very low level programming error introduced in v5.2.53 two weeks ago related to fix for ability to edit ORC on resale unit costs

 

C9 can periodically sync data to Nidasu platform as part of reporting/analytics programs setup by OEMs. Currently integrated with Honda and Yamaha OEMs. It is expected to expand for other major OEM providers in the future.

Integration from c9 is fully automated. Once setup c9 will transmit data in background of you each night.

To setup:

Spares -> Utilities -> add edit franchise.

Modify the franchise in question (i.e. Yamaha or Honda)

Goto Magician / Network tab. Make sure following 3 things are set

1. Magician is mapped to correct OEM (i.e Spares -> Motorcycles -> Yamaha or Spares -> Motorcycles -> Honda)
2. Nidasu Username is set - to be supplied by Nidasu/your OEM
3. Nidasu Password is set - to be supplied by Nidasu/your OEM

 

Briggs have a programme in place where they will reimburse 50% of fees for any unit sold using Humm Finance. To avail to this reimburse you need to issue a tax invoice which Briggs will then credit parts account.

This can be modelled in c9 but it is a bit clumsy because of need to manage flows across creditor/debtor barriers. Some recent changes will make it easier in that they allow looser operations with things traditionally debtor/creditor.

To illustrate. Example sale, for $2000.  Humm charge $100, so Briggs will rebate $50.

Read more...

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

This version includes some tweaks to loosen up the pairing of Tax invoice = Accounts Receivable credit note = Accounts payable. Suppliers keep introducing increasingly complicated things such as requiring the dealer to raise tax invoices but then they drop them as credits on their parts statement. Since suppliers play loose with these terminologies c9 will need to play loose as well to keep things easy to use.  Specific concerns here:

• For unit costs + rebates you can now fine tune txn type. Screen grab of relevant section:
  
  • Tax invoice : for rebates, tag as a tax invoice but still track on supplier on Accounts payable
  • Purchase (Track on AR) : for costs, you can track a cost but instead of posting as purchase on AP it will post as a purchase on AR. This can be useful for modelling merchant fees for things like Humm
• For contact add transaction - there is a new suppler txn type. Tax Invoice. It generates a tax invoice but it tracks on AP/Supplier
  

Other changes

• Revised/Updated Paperwork for QLD TMR
  • Inspection  (F3529)
  • Registration  (F3518)
• View Bulk Txn screen : drop a print receipt button here to allow printing of individual remit advise
• Dead stock report : include retail price on report. Potentially useful info as aq nudge on what stock to focus on trying to move as a priority
• Old biz rule in c9 around part numbers not working correctly. If a part starts with 'P' look for matching parts without  'P'. Was supposed to only apply this rule where franchise name is 'POLARIS' but seems to sometimes trigger in other situations too. Tweaks to more thoroughly enforce the franchise test.
• Bugfix with claimnumber not printing on workshop invoices in some exotic instances ( where claim number is a pure number and > 2 billion will trigger this )
• Bugfix with recent unit changes : on purchase unit could no longer feed in default onroadcosts for subsequent sale. Now sorted.
• Some tweaks to help with Harley spares reporting requirements
  • price file : Import part class as an attribute
  • Spares sales report : allow filtering based on manually keyed in attribute (TODO: example below)

Support / Subscription policy changes with c9 from Feb 1 2023.

Starting Feb, your c9 must be kept up to date.  Once a new version of c9 becomes available you'll have two weeks upgrade your c9.

Upgrading c9 is easy, click on Main in top left then click on Check for updates. Only needs to be done on one computer.

If you allow your c9 to get older than 2 weeks then txn processing in c9 will progressively slow down with alerts until you install the latest version.

Tweaks and fixes

• More tweaks to Stihl warranty export. Modify date format to conform to strict iso-8601 requirements of zero padding date.
• Honda Magician check is a bit fragile for some users. Changes made which I hope will make it more robust (specifically flush all cookies on re-login attempts. I suspect stale cookies are causing problems sometimes)
• Payroll monies report. Rerunning the report would not reset allowances tally so allowances total line would keep increasing. Now fixed
• Some unit sale bugs and tweaks
  • System would let you add liability encumbrance to a resale unit. Removed as doesn't make sense here
  • Bugfix with a tradein where 'reconciliation warning' pops and user selects cancel.  If you retry save the resulting journal postings are a mess, doubling up on recipient invoice. Now fixed
  • Edit unit deal, resale unit, if resale contains onroad costs you could not do any further modification to these costs. Now fixed
• C9 Version policy changes. Changes coming to force dealers to keep their c9 relatively up2date. Once a new version comes up you'll have 2 weeks to install it before subscription becomes adversely affected
  • C9 now logs when you were alerted to a version change to help implement new policies coming
  • C9 license / subscription warnings will advise subscription is being affected by running an old version of c9
• Unit deals : add sell unit to order. Default unit type to 'New'
• Nidasu Integration: added a couple of slots in edit franchise to drop an ID + password for nisdasu data transport
• Piaggio group EPC importer : now working again

Tweaks and Fixes

• Tax invoice for Insurance job with excess. Bottom of invoice tallies are a bit muddled. Caused by recent changes in 5.2.50 to cope with using deposit to pay on account invoices in that it shows net accounts receivable now.  Tweaked workshop invoice so printed payment lines show excess as adding to this.
• WA paperwork - fixes to MTA form.
  • print dealer address under dealer section (not customer address)
  • Tweak monospaced alignment on following fields : plate number, license expiry, engine number, chassis number
• import parts from job, allow importing from invoiced jobs.
• complete job, do not nag about zero line items for parts on order

• Payroll super tweaks
  • New config switch to distinguish between compulsory guarantee and employer additional. Previously any manually added super record was assumed to be a employer additional. There was no way to add in compulsory guarantee records manually which meant it was not possible to fix super stuffups. Now sorted. STP export / Super Report to capture this tweak
  • Redesign add/edit payroll line item so additional settings are not so visually cluttered. e.g. if you pick super, you'll only see additional settings relevant for super
• F7 Import in spares: option to import from workshop jobs
• Deposit history screen, show status of lines to indicate deposit movement lines which have been deleted
• Stihl & Husky Bulk Warranty report : option to set a default email addr for customers who did not provide an email.

UX changes for bulk transaction/ABN and Bulk Warranty

These two screens in c9 have historically been difficult to drive. Their original design intent is to ensure that what is captured in this screen is exactly what could of ever been exported so that the screen serves as an audit of the export. But this design constraint is very non-intuitive and contradicts C9's general UX design approach of being loose / flexible  and un-opinionated and creates pressure to perform these two bulk operations flawlessly with little/no ability to tidy up mistakes.  So changes coming here:

Bulk Txn / ABA:

• Ability to preset txn date so you can forward date payments for example
• Export is accessible within create screen where it more intuitively belongs.
• A modify button which opens up the same screen as create so you can manipulate txns that are part of a bulk after initial creation
• Bulk Txn didn't respect selected bills to pay and would just apply default auto allocation rules. So if you bulk txn a bill who isn't the next to pay, the payment would follow auto alloc rules and attach to the next to pay.  Now tidied.
• Bulk Txn didn't aggregate multiple payments for a single contact.  Now tidied.
• Improved performance of View / Export bulk txn : with some database search optimization

Warranty Export

• Modify button which drops you straight into  view warranty
• Export button is in view warranty screen where it more intuitively belongs
• Within modify screen:
  • Modify button to quickly modify warranty details attached to a unit
  • Modify customer button to modify customer details
  • Delete button to quickly remove a unit from bulk warranty
  • Add button to add units (such as units removed using delete)

Other Tweaks and fixes

• Stihl warranty export
  • couple of header column names are backwards. I don't think it matters as stihls system ignores header and is sensitive to positioning only, but it is confusing to eyeball manually. Fixed
  • Tidy up options so they size nicely with resized view/modify window
  • allow exported options to be edited
  • tweak defaults a bit so easier to glide through warranty config,
    • advertising setting of no set will send no's to all questions
    • Indiciate which questions correspond to which ZN field so on errors you'll have a better idea what their website is whinging about
• Stihl  / Honda warranty export. Would misbehave with screen sizing. Now fixed.
• Invoice payment list, where operator has opted to use customer deposit to offset invoice, more clearly indicate resulting balance. (show balance after deposit not balance of txn overall)
• Spares invoices : print green 'PAID' vs red 'OWING' so it is visually obvious which invoices are paid and which are on account
• Lodge BAS.  Under some exotic circumstances BAS lodgement would fail to post a GL representing payment. (create a bas flagged as paid but with a date that overlaps a prior bas period). Now fixed.
• Disable manipulation of part number for price file backed stocked items. The price file is the authority on what a part number looks like
• BRP Magician query : working again
• Deals screen bugfix. $ figures display would max out at 100k. Internal representation of deal was fine and could still be finalised as expected, just the screen wouldn't show result. Now fixed.
• Edit sold dealer unit stock price from 0 to non zero, would throw a journal error COGS propagation recently added not working correctly in this precise scenario. Now fixed
• Internal changes for payroll / STP billing  to capture new pricing ( $3.50 per run. $0.05 per employee)