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Release 5.2.46 November 14, 2022 barney

Includes Database Changes you need to log terminals out during upgrade

Tweaks and fixes

  • Quick Supper file export. Make reference field more compact to meet QS 20 char limit
  • Print Statement, on email from print will default to account email not main email
  • Fixed a small annoyance with general ledger chart screen, when you change date range the collapsed GL lines are forgotton and everything resets to open. Memorize what has been collapsed when refreshing the chart.
  • Tweak f12 magician to allow longer qty descriptions, to better fit revised output from gas imports which it itemizes the different warehouses.
  • Suzuki Magician - MFA
    • Magician check working again (some changes to MFA webpages broke c9. Now fixed)
    • Disabled Suzuki Magician integration into c9 dealer websites for the time being. Current magician MFA integration is currently not stable enough for this.

GL Chart Locking / Cash Rec and Bank Rec

This version of c9 includes the ability to lock activity on specific general ledger codes. In Business -> general ledger you'll see a new column and a new button to manipulate this column.

The new column lock indicates a date where any thing that happens that modifies the effective opening balance on this lock date will not be allowed. So any txns backdated, or modified or deleted before this date will trigger an error.

On same screen is a new button modify lock which allows you to manipulate this

On cash till screen are now lock check-boxes which automatically set this upon saving a cash till count.

The lock flag which you can toggle will add (or remove) lock  upon performing cash till save.

A similar mechanism is in place for bank reconciliation screen near the save button:

 

Release 5.2.45 November 8, 2022 barney

This version includes changes to Suzuki Magician to cope with multi factor authentication.

On login you need to provide two sets of logins, the multi factor auth login (email+password) and ordinary suzuki login.

On login c9 will, as needed, prompt to you key in the MFA code that is SMS'd to you.  Doing this once will set things up for all terminals.

At this time unsure how long MFA authentication lasts before it required feeding in a new SMS code. Expect you'll need to relogin every now and then, hopefully not often. That is at Suzuki's discretion.

Release 5.2.44 November 2, 2022 barney

Tweaks and fixes

  • Stock list / Stock summary option to enable / disable last buy/stock buy variance. Disabled by default. Lots of queries on this one and 99% of the time it isn't useful/ interesting information so hide it by default
  • Tweaks to mojo EPC importer makes it significantly faster (originally the API had traffic throttle limits in it, these have been removed so I have removed rate limits on c9 side of things)
  • Business -> reprint deposits not migrated to 5.2 correctly. Fixed up here.
  • Ficeda Integration
    • Part image importer for ficeda added
    • Ficeda magician check reimplemented. (No login required. )
    • Note ficeda repo price file now embeds variant and meta data for sizing and colours.
  • New GL expense code for Labour Hire /  Subcontracting
  • Dealer unit screen : show unit # and $ cost tally on key tabs (on floor, open floorplans)
  • New login setting to restrict access to freeform spares sales.  Enabled by default on all accounts on upgrading to this ver of c9
  • Some tweaks to how recently added discount login setting works. On upgrade to this version, the flag will be set for all login users if not set on any user yet : in order to align this settings behaviour with how all other login settings work, including newly added freeform setting.
  • Review charts in c9 (Business -> charts). Alot of these were never upgraded to work with v5.1. Now substantially fixed (17 different charts updated)
Release 5.2.43 October 11, 2022 barney

Includes Database changes you need to log c9 out during upgrade

Refinements & bug fixes for cross dealership giftcards

  • v4/v5 patch for discount voucher behaviour  was not applying for external vouchers. making external discount vouchers unusable. Now fixed
  • Bugfix with external voucher use sync back to issuer. Was generating an unbalanced GL posting making sync impossible. Now fixed.
  • Tweak GL codes used to sync vouchers back to issuer for discount vouchers (sync to contra code)
  • External Voucher rollback on txn error was broken. Writing wrong state forcing voucher to be consumed.
  • Payment methods, never grey out giftcards for dealers that can use ext vouchers. Although they may not have any local vouchers, they might be able to access external vouchers

Other fixes:

  • Recent changes to Unit Stock take report broke grouping of units in the report. The report correctly prints all units and info, but it messes up the now they are grouped (new, used, floorplan, etc). Now fixed.
  • Bulk floorplan payout was not migrated to v5.1 : now done
  • quicksuper export, date encoding was incorrect (quicksuper documentation is likely wrong). Now fixed, switched to DD/MM/YYYY format
  • free nsw rego check disabled, appears NSW state gov made changes to their website which broke the scraper. Since we now have a professionally supported service, support for free scrapers will be gradually removed as each one fails due to website modifications.
  • print deals, have option to apply filter inputted into screen to the report as well
  • found another example of circular network graphs of spares invoices where it was not possible to print an invoice. Now fixed.
  • a previous version of c9 (5.1.43) disabled ability to merge invoices into a new reserve invoice.  Some refinements here to enforce this behaviour. Some workarounds were possible to get around this constrain.
  • Link Int magician check : working again.
  • Mojo EPC importer : a couple of breaking API changes made/advised by Mojo's vendor. Implemented here.
  • Cancel part on order book for workshop job. Under some circumstances (e.g. ordering the part a couple of different times on different spares invoices) would result in ord qty on workshop job being incorrectly updated. Now fixed
Release 5.2.42 October 9, 2022 barney

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

 

Whites Power Sports part renumbering.

Recently WPS renumbered their parts but their price file solution does not include a mechanism to supercede the old numbers to new.  Working with WPS we asked them to make changes to their their Price file API so that we can source old partnumber and link it to the new. WPS made those changes last week. This version of c9 includes further modifications to make use of those changes.

Spares -> utilities -> import price file. Pick whites and pick Whites Power Sports (New) import method. Push through and result should be old numbers  superceding to new numbers, like screengrab below

 

Bug fixes  and important tweaks

  • Whites Power Sports price files, as described above
  • PDF import for Toro.  Cope with fact that in toro parts the dashes as important and parts where only difference is dashes can describe completely different parts. e.g. : 3219-6 is a Hex Nut but 3-2196 supercedes to a Sheave. Made tweaks to PDF importer so it is a bit more Toro aware.
  • Bugfix with unit sale, if sale fails to write, e.g. because you select No on reconcile alert, and then retry c9 will double up all GL postings. Now fixed.
  • Stock take report tweaks and fixes
    • Retain capitalisation on floorplan make sections
    • Was incorrectly listing goods in with receipt units as not owned. Now fixed
  • View spares invoice : would fail to show results if somehow operator created a circular graph of invoices now fixed
Yamaha Pricefile Changes October 4, 2022 barney

5Yamaha have published a new price file which includes very dramatic changes in pricing.

C9 cautions care with installing this price file with respect to existing stocking to minimise risk of losses.

For example, part 90176-10078 (NUT, CROWN) which fits a large number of bikes.

Prior to today, the part's RRP was 16.27+GST.  To buy it on stock it cost 9.52

Today, that same part's RRP is now 10.84+GST.

So to sell this part at todays prices for a part you brought a week ago, your margin has shrunk from 70% to 14%. Factoring in typical fixed costs, it is now a loss.

To help mitigate this, c9 contains some tooling which you can use to set pricing at prior RRP. Suggest you set pricing at prior RRP, and then over a few months revise pricing as you cycle stock through and purchase stock at newer, cheaper price.

Downside of this tooling is that you can only do this one part at a time. But you can click the button quickly to move through all your stocked items

  • Spares -> Reports -> items repriced.

C9 will look to rush modifications to be ready later today so that you can reprice anything whose price has lowered as a simple bulk operation.  More details to come. [ Update: 5.2.41 version introduces a bulk price change option in items repriced report. Does exactly what it says on the packaging. ]

 

 

 

Release 5.2.41 September 29, 2022 barney

Giftcard refinements and cross dealership giftcards

This version of c9 does alot of ground work in order to accommodate ability to use giftcards between different instances of c9 for dealers who run multiple copies of c9 and want their different stores to share giftcards. In theory there is enough added into this version of c9 implement this but the feature is likely to be officially made available in mid November as further refinement and testing is likely needed. I need to press this version of c9 as part of progressing that work.

Functionally this version mostly fine tunes concurrent voucher locking & consumption between c9 store and website with more rigorous automated testing to verify all the various edge cases such as using a giftcard online exactly same time a giftcard is cancelled or modified in the shop for example, to make sure all the various timing issues are dealt with. This groundwork is essential for cross shop giftcard usage (for online sales it is less of a concern because actual transaction work happens back in the c9 system in store so remains centralised, but with cross shop giftcards, the txns happen in different shops so authoritative manipulation of giftcard balance is more diffuse and the shops need to coordinate precise status of a giftcard through all the things that can happen, such as cancelling a sale involving a giftcard, then undeleting that sale etc).

Work remaining on cross shop giftcards

  • Configure giftcard prefixes to avoid giftcard # collisions
  • make it impossible to disable online checks for c9 shops where cross shop giftcard sharing is enabled
  • Define new Asset and liability codes for cross shop giftcard settlement, make sure these are baked into balance sheet and reconciliation tests.
  • add new bank rec functions to settle cross shop giftcard settlement
  • Verify issuer sync polling.
    • bake polling into scan giftcard and view giftcard to make it sync more instantaneously
    • Add server side sync poll so giftcard sync is faster.

Other tweaks and fixes

  • Fiche diagrams. N/C Retail price displayed on this screen can be wrong in some circumstances. now fixed. PRoblem is screen doesn't pull back enough info in some circumstances. Specifics: packqty (likely a problem for BRP franchises because they code the price file to be packqtys), also daily/stock buy, for franchies where the dealer has configured a minimum margin in price breaks (rarely used but will be problematic for dealers who use this)
  • add a setup switch in system/database to disable 4 hour auto logout feature recently added
  • Add ppsr check button to add purchase unit screen
  • Repriced parts : button to bulk reprice everything to older price, only for parts where older price is higher
  • Tweaks and fixes with discount vouchers
    • Update Balance sheet so voucher liability excludes discount vouchers
    • Fix auto reconcile/reconciliation so it does not bark on discount vouchers
    • Long standing issue with contra GL code for discounts. Mixed 9-2600 and 5-5800.  Rationalised onto 9-2600. Deleted the code 5-5800
  • Bulk bill pay / direct debit.
    • Customer BSB on screen was incorrect now fixed. (note exported ABA file is fine, just what was on screen was wrong).
    • Color code deleted lines so it is obvious when a highlighted line is also deleted (grey background, italic font). Previously couldn't tell if a highlighted line was deleted or not
Release 5.2.40 September 14, 2022 barney

Tweaks and Fixes

  • SA Contract Paperwork
    • Include statutory cooling off rights  for used unit sales
    • New form : cooling off waiver
  • Bugfix with add generic txn in bank rec screen. Under some exotic usage patterns the resulting posting can be a mashed together posting of 2 or more generic txns.  Now fixed. (abort txn on reconcile warning, change txn type and redo txn can trigger this behaviour)
  • Some changes to help contend with with input credit pending floorplan bug fixed in 5.2.36 messing with reconciliation
    • Accounting reconciliation report: option to filter out auto adjust txns
    • Open floorplan report  - show gst pending figures at bottom of report
    • Open floorplan report - allow filtering on whether or not the floorplan came with an upfront tax invoice
  • Print Payment remittance advise. Will print a detailed list of recociled txns instead of just the directly allocated txns. Only prints if following preconditions are met:
    • Is a payment or a billpay
    • all directly allocated txns belong to the same allocation event
    • all txns in allocation event tally to 0 and their allocation amounts match line txn amounts
Release 5.2.39 September 6, 2022 barney

Tweaks and fixes

  • Estimates : heavily reworked estimates under structured estimates to be easier to use / drive. Uses alot of structures / idioms from website structure
    • Re-enable drag and drop. Was accidentally removed last time this screen was modified
    • Add website structure style move buttons
    • Reorganised how estimates display in structure. Previously any estimate younger than  3 months would display in structure. Now only estimates which are created explicitly in the structured estimates screen with display here.  For non structure estimates there is a checkbox on modify to drop them into the structured list of estimates.
  • Website structure. Some low level tweaks in order to reuse the code here for estimate stuff described above. Some functional improvements
    • Inactive menu options are italic / grey
    • external links are blue
    • webclass customized pages are green
    • Smarter pre-expanded tree on opening window based on # of records in the tree
  • bugfix with selling parts to a deal. If deal doesn't have a customer attached to it at time parts are ordered, on receive you'll get some screwy but ignorable errors that pop on screen at time of parts receive.
  • constrain default discount manipulation on customer based on login. In login setting is a new switch. Enable it to constrain access to discount settings on modify contact
  • linkint parts image downloader refreshed
  • Low level bugfixs
    • Modify value of some unit connected txn postings via business -> activity, such as rebates would throw a nullpointerexception. Now fixed
    • Receive daily order. If you exit receive daily order, c9 wants to save work so far to a local file. IF this fails for some reason, e.g. windows file permission issue, c9 would throw a nullpointerexception. Now tidied to cope better with failure to save temporary changes
    • Under some very exotic circumstances with functions like modify connected txns, c9 could throw a NullPointerException. In specific case of modify connected a precondition of triggering the bug is you re-select the txn you are connecting : a redundant step so workaround is to not do this.  Now fixed (Bug in loadByQuery() optimisation when multiple txns but only one more needs to be loaded as others are already loaded )
    • Backdating a txn with deleted lines would fail. e.g. unit purchased flipped to goods only would delete bank payment posting. Then backdating that txn will not work. Now fixed (was not correctly materializing last supply/alloc dates on deleted lines, blowing up the db check constraints )
Malwarebytes killing c9 server September 4, 2022 barney

Since Friday (2-Sep-22) a number of c9 clients have reported c9 server down.

The common problem is antivirus software malwarebytes. It appears to be falsely identifying parts of c9 as being malware.

This is a reasonably common occurrence with antivirus software, known as a false positive. It is the first time this has happened wholesale with malwarebytes although.

The easiest/quickest repair to date requires changes to malwarebytes on server computer.

  • Add the c:\c9db\ folder into malwarebytes exception list
  • any files in malwarebytes virus fault which are in c:\c9db\ : restore them.
  • restart computer

At time of writing, I am aware of 4 of our clients who have been impacted so far. The above repair worked for all of them.

As always contact support if still experiencing issues. Also consider using something other than malwarebytes. We consider the default AV built into windows, windows defender, generally adequate. It is difficult to make recommendations on antivirus, they are by design blunt and imperfect instruments: they generate false positives like this one, or false negatives (fail to detect an actual nasty), and there are plenty of actual cases where the AV software itself weakened security of the computer. So we are and always have been reluctant to give advise here, but internally, for windows computers we have at c9 we use windows default AV.

 

 

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