Unit Deals is a piece of functionality added in version 4.314 of c9 that allows you to build up a unit sale over a period of time, as a purchase order.

The intent of deals is to simplify the process of managing unit sales, purchases and tradeins by making the process more intuitive and more forgiving.  Prior process for selling a unit in c9 required keying in all data in one sitting.  Unit sales can be complicated animals, and expecting a user to key in everything correctly on the spot is something of a task.

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Includes database changes.  You will be forced to logout during upgrade

This version represents a significant overhaul on how unit sales are managed.  In terms of unit sales a number of key things have been delivered

• The ability to construct a deal over time.  A deal remains open and tracks details of the deal over an extended period of time. Possibly weeks or months.  So instead of having to feed in a sale into c9 all in one go, you can slowly build up a deal over time, from expression of interest to final closure.
• Proper costing of line items on sold units.  So you can more accurately track profit on things such as passed on/discounted/waived  pre-delivery costs, document/inspection fees etc.
• The ability, via deals to track and manage deposits taken on individual units.
• The ability to record encumbrances owing on purchased units at point of sale (or on a deal)

Other changes in this version

• Gift card bug fix.  Certain rare sequence of operations will damage a gift card and render it unusable. Workaround is to cancel card and create a new one.
• New price file importer : John Deere.
• Note : John Deere file contains a huge number of supercession (4oo k) records that mostly fail (mainly dead chains). C9's current supercession resolver on import is not terribly efficient, nor in the past was it necessary for it to be efficient.  But with John Deere file it takes about 30 minutes to trace busted supercessions.  TODO : modify import to use a more optimized supercession check.  I have a tested solution in play, that is at least x10 faster, but will not be part of this release due to time constraints. Next one probably.
• Import price file : remove MCS from list. MCS now publish an Excel price file
• Suggested max/restocking rule. Redesigned window so visually more intuitive.  i.e. do not allow user to tweak rules unless last stock order for franchise in question used historical analysis method of reordering. Also fixed a NPE crash bug.
• Workshop job screen.  A glitched network error while trying to modify job record could cause the job record to be damaged effectively deleting it.  Improved error checking logic associated with workshop screen so network problems are handled more gracefully (and non destructively)

Today, the 256th day of the year is Programmer Day.  In celebration of this day a new version of c9 will be belatedly uploaded on Friday morning.

MYOB just made a press release regarding integration and their latest generation product AccountRight 2011 & 2012.

Hundreds of software vendors just like c9 use an integration method called ODBC, which is provided by older MYOB products such as AccountRight v19.  But later generation product does not support this or any other alternative method; causing programmer community that MYOB have built up around it alot of frustration.

MYOB have just announced that they are giving up trying to get the existing method of integration to work and intend to develop a wholly new system of integration.   The impression I get is that this is still in ideation and design stage and they are soliciting input from people such as myself to help steer this technology direction.  So probably looking at least 6 months away before first beta version rolls and probably 12 months before having anything I would feel reasonably confident about using and integrating into c9.

In meantime, need to stick with v19 of AccountRight until MYOB fix their train wreck, which will probably not be fixed until AccountRight 2013 at the earliest.

Online backup process sends a nightly email telling you status of backup.

The email will sometimes misreport an error with backup synchronization, especially over the weekend.  I've made some changes to the system to reduce likelihood of these annoying 'false positives'.

• Email now reports when last data copy occurred and when last verification occurred.
• Data copy is actual copying of data and it normally happens within 5 seconds of a change in c9, i.e. creating a new invoice
• Verification is a periodic check to make sure copy in c9 is exactly the same as copy in backup.  It typically happens after c9 has been idle for 20 minutes.  For a typical shop which isn't too busy, verification can happen 3 or 4 times a day.  Usually it happens at least once a day, but c9 can go an entire day without a verification.  This typically happens on very busy days where computers are turned off at the end of the day (e.g. Saturday)
• Email now only reports an error under following conditions
• If a verification error occurs (almost never)
• If verification has not been performed for over 7 days
• If there has been neither data copy or verification in past 2 days

This version includes database changes and will force you to log all terminals out during upgrade

• Spares - includes ability to calculate discount to arrive at a desired total invoice goal. i.e. parts = $30.80, customer wants to pay $25, work out discount $ and % to get there
• Spares - key in discount $.  C9 will now 'goal seek' to discover % that arrives at requested $
• Workshop discount. You can now discount the entire job, not just spare parts. i.e. 10% workshop jobs for loyalty card holders.
• Suzuki Warehouse Qty Check : was not able to login for a specific Suzuki dealer because their username/passwords are a mess for Suzuki suite of websites.  Tweaked to allow them to use the service.
• Units print paperwork :  initial versions of a few VicRoads documents.

• Prior version broke some functionality.  Under certain conditions emailing a report or saving a report as a PDF would crash c9.  Trying to email an invoice where there is no dealer logo setup on invoice would trigger the problem.  Generally any pdf containing a 'missing' image would falter. Now fixed.
• Dead stock report : you can now 'blank' the not sold since date field and the report will work like it used to, i.e. list stocked spares where max and min qtys are zero.
• Historical Stock analysis : recommend qtys to stock rounded to nearest economical reorder qty
• Historical stock analysis : minor redesign of the visual screen to remove/hide a confusing option.
• Some tweaks to Victorian Contract of sale.  Added in VicRoads forms, but not filled them in yet.  Next week.

• Workshop add labour : if you don't set hours c9 will back calculate them for you
• Unit costs : do not include workshop jobs billed to someone other than they dealer. (i.e. back to the supplier for warranty)
• BMW Price file : price is ex GST, not inc GST. Now fixed
• Paperwork printing : major internal workings and tweakings.  Hopefully Vic Contract of Sale should now print on Windows computers.

Bug with new stock take feature added in last version 4.308.  Consider a price file import involving a part and a part that superceeds to that part.

What was happening is that the qty is first updated to 1 and then it is updated to 2.  But typically what this means is that stock take did a stock take on 3 parts and considered them to be two different part numbers.  On file these need to be added together.

Change in this version will treat stocked items that are duplicated such as supercessions as adjustments. So inventory is initially adjusted to 1 and then adjusted by an additional +2.  Making final inventory 3 in above example.

4.310 - another bug, this time with handling of 'full' stock take.  Under some well defined circumstances, full would zero out stock listed in the import file. Specifically : if the qty on the import file already matched what was on stock file, then full directive would zero this out. Now fixed.

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

• Miner/Customer Query. You can now filter/selection first/middle/last name etc and filter on company vs individual entities
• Edit Customer : new ergonomic button to switch from individual to company would not work under certain button click sequence. Now fixed.
• Now support electronic stock taking. Merge in results of a stocktake tracked in a CSV/Excel file into c9.  More on how to use this feature in a separate post below.