• New fiche importer for Suzuki Online EPC.  Existing CD based import is still there but towards bottom of the list.  Recommend Suzuki dealers to do a full reimport of Suzuki diagrams.  This new importer provides a number of improvements.
• Older diagrams are hotspotted
• Diagram quality is generally better
• Algorithms for pruning diagram list, both units and diagrams on a unit are more sophisticated and better able to filter out units not shipped to Australia, and diagrams that do not apply for a given unit.
• Note that new importer, importing from a website, takes significantly longer to run.   Leave it running overnight.
• Import parts from EPC, such as YPIC etc.  Increase path length from 50 chars to 128 chars
• Receive Order. For workshop jobs print last mechanic/scheduled mechanic on the receive sheet

At present there appears to be multiple issues and problems with KTM & Husaberg pricing and ordering.

The following details things we have done at c9 so far to help compensate for these issues.

Read more...

• New main menu function. Search. Type in a search term,  c9 will make a heroic guess at what you want to do and allow you to jump straight to that function without having to navigate the menu structure.
• Browse EPC Fiche diagrams. Allow a diagram to mix parts from multiple suppliers. Previously assumed supplier of a part was the same as a supplier of the unit.  Some things brewing with KTM/Husaberg WRT to this.
• Import price file, setup option to not include discount code in description
• Phonebook.  Print supplier list
• View deal : display ID on screen
• Import price file.  If import deletes a stock item because it's qty, max qty and 12 month sales history  is zero, write a line on the log report: Part X (Loc) is no longer carried.  C8 used to do this but this functionality was lost very early on on c8->c9 transition.
• Setup - database tasks. Added a couple of functions to rationalise part numbers from KTM/Husaberg's currently problematic price files.  More on this in a separate post.
• Unit floor stock report. Print reference, not VIN
• Bug: Print receive order sheet.  Sometimes it would falsely print units information for a list of parts which are not even associated with a unit.  This is purely a printing artefact, not a problem with the underlying database. Fixed report to not do this.

• New fiche diagram importer : BMW
• Sell deal unit not yet on floor.  type [..] button takes user to wrong browse. Stock types, not unit types. Now fixed.
• Purchase unit : tab keyboard order of floorplan entry fields was a mess. Now fixed.
• Manual backup : reporting error with dopea_pk_seq.  Now fixed. Note that backups generated which report this error are accurate backups.  The error message is a false positive error only and can be ignored.   Always ensure your backups are good by periodically performing a test/dress rehearsal restore from backup.  If you are not doing this, and don't want to do this, you really should subscribe to our online backup service.
• Unit open floorplan report : new filter option: filter by location:  sold or on the floor.
• email spares order :  default email subject to the name of the shop. Also include order # in the subject
• Workshop job types.  Default notes is only permits storage of small amount of text. Increased x4 (to match notes on jobs themselves)
• Finance company customer; forces customer type to account customer.
• Miner - various fixes
• Regression bug fix.  Sorting numeric columns would sort them lexically not numerically. Example. Consider numbers 1,5,10.  Numerically their order is 1,5,10.  Lexically their order is 1,10,5.
• Tweaked way miner query results are internally stored.  Removes the 40 column limit and makes memory/processing of miner reports slightly more efficient
• Export to CSV.  " chars where being escaped with \.  This is not valid CSV.  Proper escape is to escape a quote with a quote. i.e. " ".  Now fixed

Requires database changes. You will be forced to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Added warranty registration export for Honda and Stihl
• Added tracking for consignment units
• Fix for regression bug introduced with deals.  Ability to print paperwork via view invoiced units was broken and would crash c9
• Bug fix with clipboard.  On windows under very rare circumstances clipboard operations will fail and crash c9.  Fixed so graceful handling is that the clipboard operation fails but does not crash c9

Updated: Jan 2024 to reflect significant changes to consignment payout made several years ago

C9 now contains explicit handling of consignment units.

Consignment units are modelled by a variation on floorplan tracking.  A consignment is simply a type of floorplan without interest payments/renewal etc. Specific changes:

• On purchase unit, view and modify unit, floorplan now tracking following two new pieces of information:
  • Type: floorplan or consignment
  • Provider: a reference to a customer in c9. Can be finance company (for floorplans) or any other user (consignment)

There are two ways is one way to bring a consignment unit into the system

• Purchase the unit from the specific customer and flag the unit as being on consignment
• Do a factory purchase, and flag the unit as being on consignment. Use the unit owner option to indicate who owns the unit
• Set the 'purchase price' of the unit to indicate the price you intend to pay the own upon sale of the unit.

In  view units, consignment units are color coded blue.

Selling a consignment unit is same as selling any other unit.

Paying out a consignment unit is same as paying out a floor plan. Select the unit via floorplan units and select the payout option.

Once a consigned unit is sold, the agreed consigned value is posted to the original owner as a deposit. To pay this out goto contacts -> contacts. Find the original owner, select view transactions and add a new withdrawal transaction to payout the consigned purchase. Alternatively can just leave deposit there to be used for other sales txns in future if that is what your customer prefers.

As of version 4.318, c9 supports online warranty registration for Stihl and Honda initially. As other suppliers make registration processes available we will integrate into them.

How it broadly works:

• As you sell (or quote) a new unit to be sold.  You will be presented with a new screen that captures two things:
1. Whether or not you want the unit to be registered online (default yes)
2. Supplier specific fields and questions relating to registration (e.g. intended usage, private/commerical)

• Periodically, say once a week, you will then use a function in c9 to generate an export file for warranty registration
• That file is uploaded to the supplier as per supplier instructions

Secondary notes/concerns:

• Units sold prior to upgrade of c9 to version 4.318 will not be automatically available for online registration. Only new sales
• You can manually modify the above behaviour via modify unit
• You can re-generate export files
• You can individually flag a previously exported unit as not exported (via modify unit); that unit will be re-exported on the next export run.

Read more...

Fixes for regressions introduced in prior version 4.316

• Analytics based reports, including profit summary no longer working.
• Quick Books synchronization contains a feature when you map a new supplier it would default payable/expense selection to the most commonly used one so far.  This was no longer working.

• Miner : added new advanced reporting sub system. See post below for more details
• Website : permit configuration of multiple separate website structures.  This is intended to be used to allow creation of multiple websites and/or different menus on a single website.
• Cash Till Report :  Control+T opens till
• Spares Profit Report : option to filter out web sales etc over counter sales
• Under some circumstances ability to remotely access database for maintenance/support purposes does not work; in situations involving change of IP addresses etc. Now fixed.

A source of pride in the c9 product for us has been the level of depth, sophistication and responsiveness of reporting available from C9.  Having professional experience in a broad range of IT operations, reporting is typically a difficult thing for a software company to get right.  C9 in comparison to other unrelated IT suppliers excels in this area.

C9 contains 90 built-in reports, which can be printed, emailed or exported into other systems such as an excel spread sheet.  In addition to this the miner system allows you to construct and build your own sophisticated queries, export the data or use it to facilitate a  SMS/Email/Letter campaign.

There is a growing trend amongst some C9 customers for even more sophisticated reporting demands to facilitate very specific requirements for inventory management,  staff rewards/commission structures and marketing among other things.   To even better serve this growing need c9 will shortly provide a service were we build for you customized reports.  The reports will be specifically constructed for your business according to your requirements and accessed via the miner sub system.  The reports will generally run alot faster than miner constructed reports with richer range of facilities and options available.   Reports are provided with a once off cost which also covers 12 months of maintenance support for the created reports.  Cost will vary depending on complexity of the report.  Typical  reports will cost ~ $150 per report to construct. They will be loaded into your c9 and you can run them as often as you like.

For a quote on a custom report contact Barney.

Normal work and enhancement on existing miner and built in reports will continue as always.  The advanced reporting service does not supercede this work. It is provided to assist operators with very specific and sophisticated needs that which we assess to not have broader appeal to all c9 customers. Similar to the niche that miner fills, but a solution that is even more rich and powerful, but not DIY.