Includes database changes. You will be forced to log all terminals out after updating

• Web order emails are now better looking (HTML emails) and you can modify their templates
• Receive order : option to import order results from Honda's Dealer.NET website.  Automatically brings across Honda order number, pricing, qty and status of parts (on order, cancelled)
• Phonebook
• Bug with entries with long codes (i.e. franchises with long names). You could not edit them or search for them by phone number.
• Franchises and Accessory Suppliers now allow you to key in an alternate phone number
• Tweaks and fixes
• Browse received orders:  option to organise and find received order by suppliers invoice number
• Invoice received parts : only use the 'keep retail price at point of order' option if price at point of order is >0, otherwise use latest available price.
• Print receive order. Print item notes for items ordered for stock.
• Print receive order. Print item original order header notes.
• Miner : fixed field description for received order entity
• New UI Interface: bulk import missing from business sub menu. Added.
• Receive order : do not let user key in retail price if part is not stocked. (Retail price entered is only meaningful if part is stocked and c9 can adjust retail price on stock).
• Print Statements : option to not print statements in credit
• Tweak with monthly password test.  If client and server clocks disagree on current date pop up warning message and do not update 'last accessed' time tracked in c9 to what could potentially be a spurious date.

The next version of c9 will include much nicer looking emails sent in response to internet orders. You can also modify the email templates used (though modification is complex and you will probably require some technical support to make this happen).  Below is a screen shot of what will be possible.

Electronically import invoices into receive order

C9 includes the ability to electronically import invoices during receive spare parts.  At this time only invoices from other c9 powered dealerships are supported though we will quickly add other invoice types.  Starting with major suppliers such as Honda. Instead of having to key in prices and receive quantities this information is extracted electronically.  At the bottom of c9 powered invoices you will now see the following (only prints if you have online backup installed):

In receive order is an option 'F9 =Electronic Import'.  From here you key in the E-Reference number and it will import all the parts from the invoice automatically. Including correct quantities and pricing.

Electronically import price files from participating dealers

You can now import price files from other dealers without having to ask them for their price file or handle email attachments. In Import price file is a new option.  Import From other C9 Dealers. Upon selecting this, you can see all c9 customers that publish a given price file for a search type.  On selecting and clicking OK, c9 will download their price file right into your system without requiring any further effort from you.

To enable your franchises so other dealers can access them this way. You need to goto Spares -> Utilities.  Modify the franchise and check the option :  "Allow trade customers to access my pricing online".

Other changes

• View dealer units.  Show trust receipt and allow user to key in trust receipt into filter box to only show units on that trust receipt.
• Bugfixes and tweaks
• View invoice.  Would select the parent invoice to view even though user selected child invoice. Had to manually reselect child invoice. Now fixed.
• Weekly planner. Up/Down buttons not working correctly when in 'sort by promise date' view.  Also tweaked database logic to fix other logic problems and improve performance.
• Fiche Diagram.  when double clicking on an item where diagram says there is zero on diagram; add one to put on point of sale anyway.
• C9 new UI and taskbar. Make sure taskbar description of c9 reflects the major section the user is currently in.
• Another New UI tweak: relating to changing to different section. Do not force section change if user select same section.
• Accounts : print customer name/address.  Disable access if logged in user has miner access disabled

 

Includes database changes. c9 will force you to log all terminals out during upgrade.

•  Account Customers
• Accounts now have a suspended flag.  Cannot transact with such accounts.
• You can now write off bad debt on account customers.  Recorded as a different transaction type which appears as a separate line item on transaction tally and business reporting.
• When recording a bad debt the account is automatically flagged as suspended.
• View Customers: Enter key triggers view customers again, not modify. (Swap caused by recent UI change)
• Workshop
• Modified effort so it tracks as time interval measure. Not an arbitrary number
• Effort displayed on main select job screen
• Weekly planner
• Previously would only show rounded down effort summary. Now shows as hh:mm correctly added up
• Up/Down move buttons now allow you to organise order of items under a date.  Instead of just modifying the date of the highlighted item
• Ability to filter planner based on scheduled mechanic. (Notes are never filtered)
• Track date unit arrived in the shop as separate from start date.
• Estimates : set/modify effort. Effort is copied onto job when job is created based on an estimate
• Categorise job types into one of the following:
• Internal/Pre Delivery
• Regular Service (Periodic Maintenance)
• Repair (General Repair)
• Modification
• Warranty/Recall
• Other
• C9 now memorizes column widths for main workshop select screen and weekly planner
• Spares : if account has custom defined name of main/mobile then print that on A4 invoice instead of stock 'Mobile:' or 'Phone:'
• Misc
• Entering time fields now more flexible. Previously you could not key in '6' or '630' but it would accept '06' or '0630'.  Now fixed.  Other subtle tweaks too. i.e. ':30' means '0:30', where previously it was interpreted as '30:00'
• Colour coded list controls such a workshop job list would lose colour coding intermittently going back to plain uncoloured lists when doing operations that heavily manipulated the list ; for example move items up and down relative schedule.  Now fixed.
• Bug fix : F12 receive part would not work and not recognise parts ready to be received under some unusual and rare circumstances.  Following will replicate behaviour.
• Receive contains parts that have been superceeded and supercession was recorded after order was originally received
• In f12 screen there are invoices below the invoice being selected
• In f12 screen the last invoice on the screen refers to parts on order from a franchise that not the same franchise as the part system is trying to receive
• Remote access
• New version deployed to cope with time format input and colour loss bug on lists
• New version is alos now self signed.  Last few versions were not meaning you could not run remote client inside a web browser.  Should now be fixed.

• More work on tuning new UI
• Bugfix : Units profit report was not accesible
• Changes to improve screen real estate, especially with spares point of sale
• On login, remove the original menubar at the top (File, Database, Terminal), and locate it in the side bar under Main
• Remove header on point of sale and make it part of window title instead.
• Move things around to use available screen space slightly better
• Display shop name in top button menu bar
• Label printing : support printing in landscape mode.  Needed for Dymo printers.

Last version had a couple of critical bugs relating to images. Now fixed.

• C9 would lockup when trying to preview an invoice where the shop does not have a image logo configured
• C9 would lockup when browsing images; (i.e. adding images on a workshop job)

New c9 UI interface.  No other changes than this.  See prior post for details.

There is also a new version of remote access client available; to handle UI changes.

C9 as of version 4.344 is getting a user interface overhaul. This page explains the changes to c9 and how the look and feel of the application change.

In summary, all the menu screens of c9 are gone and are replaced with controls on the top and on the side of the c9 application.

Illustrating this by comparing old version to new version side by side.

Basic Navigation

To access functions in c9 you firstly click at the top to indicate the section you want to access. Then on the left you click on the sub option you want.

C9 only lets you have one thing on the go at a time (with exception of fiche diagrams, see below).  But the new layout means you can switch from one thing to another without having to exit one thing and enter another.  You can just jump straight there.

Other features - Memorization and Favourites

C9 memorizes your last selections and jumps back to where you were last.

Also c9 builds up a list of favourites in the sub menu.  For things you use alot , c9 will memorise these and make it easier to re-select these.

Other features - search

Under the main option, you can search for functions. Key in search type and c9 will allow you to jump to various sections that provide this.

Other features - fiche diagrams

You can now switch between fiche and point of sale using top menu structure without losing the diagram you are currently looking at.  Means you can look at diagrams while in the middle of other tasks and switch back without losing your progress. Also switch back to the last diagram you were picking from while in the middle of point of sale.

Keyboard control

Main menu options are hot keyed.  You can press hot key to access that option.  If you are on a screen that also has that hot key, then you can try and press Alt + Function Key to switch to the menu.

Another way is to press F1. F1 moves focus from the content part of the system to the menu part.  When focus changes, background color of the side/top bars changes to dark blue. To indicate keyboard focus is now there. Illustrating

After selecting an option you can use arrow keys to up and down to move around the sub menu. Use left and right arrow keys to expand/collapse options.

Also you can use letters corresponding to underlined options to jump to/expand sub menu options. i.e. Press 'S' for point of sale

Logging out/Exiting

To logout you now need to select 'Main' then logout.  To exit you can either select 'Main' then 'Exit' or as before either select 'File' -> 'Exit' or click on cross in top right of c9.

 

• Import Fiche
• Added support for diagrams from Piaggio website:  Aprilia and Moto Guzzi
• Tweak to MV Augusta import : could crash on bad login
• QLD paperwork : include Form 61 & 63
• Workshop promise report : print details on techs working on the job (clocked, scheduled and last techs)
• Receive backorder parts on accessories. Do not allow parts from different supplier to be added

• Restoring online backup has been modified so you can get system up and running from backup data much faster.  See prior post.
• Delete received ordered item in orderbook or in view order.  Now asks you if you want to restock the part.'
• Print Receive Order :  make back ordered items more visually obvious on printouts
• Edit franchise:  do not allow user to modify name or master flag for the special 'Accessories' franchise.
• Rollback unit :  c9 was putting spares back into stock but it was not creating a credit note record; meaning qty of spares sold in profit report for spares did not reflect parts returned to stock from a rolled back unit sale.  Only works for units sold after this update is applied
• Stocktake entry  : display max and min qty. Also pressing F6 view/change part does not move keyboard focus.
• Browse Workshop -  allow sort by start date or promise date
• Browse Workshop - unscheduled job listing not working. Now fixed
• Weekly calendar : option to jump to todays date.
• Allow ability to add part to stock (or pricefile) while in the middle of receive order