Feature Enhancements and Revisions by Version

2008

Description

Version 3.19 Customer Updates and Polling Updates to a customer record made at the polling location could be over written by the remote location if the update at the polling location was made within one day of the remote location making an update to the same record. The update process has been revised and the customer information saved at the latest time on any date is the information that will be kept after the polling operation is complete. Payment Entry The F2 Hotkey to "Auto Apply" the amount paid was not working. Fixed Now. Customer Export Now exporting the Salesperson name correctly. Version 3.18L Payment Entry Payment Entry could lockup on a paid out with thousands of available invoices. This was a regression in 3.15. Fixed Now. Drop Shipments Added the Waive Minimums flag to all drop shipment purchase orders. This should resolve an issue reported with SP. Maximize Button Maximize buttons on Contract Entry, PO Entry, and Rec Entry allowed the window to maximize instead of just filling the open space in the Frame's workspace. This was a regression in 3.15. Fixed Now. Prestige Medical EDI The IP address to their FTP site was changed, and has been updated. Sending EDI orders to Prestige requires this current version. Version 3.16 Dickies Medical Image and Stock Lookup Images for styles and their stock level can now be viewed from both the Inventory and Catalog Lists for Dickies Medical by using the F12-Show Image button. You can also view real-time vendor stock levels for Dickies Medical in the inventory list, on purchase orders, and while creating new sales orders. To activate these features, make sure your inventory is up to date with UPC's assigned to each Dickies Medical item, and you have set "Electronic Ordering" on the Purchasing Tab of the Vendor Form for Dickies Medical. Time Clock (Enterprise Only Issue) Time Clock entries modified by the polling location would be over written by a remote location if they were re-batched. Fixed so that entries modified by the polling location after the date last modified by a remote location will be retained. 3. Passive Mode. Added an option to Set Passive Mode ON or OFF for the connection to the developers website. The option is found on the maintenance menu right below the Updates option. Catalog Utility Catalog Item Lookup Regression Typing in a valid style, color, or size failed. Select Lists worked as expected. Update Style When using retail pricing levels and a style had the same pricing for all colors and sizes, using the calculate button to re-calculate the retail for the current level would not save the new price correctly. Fixed Now. Vendor Stock Status Revision Increased the time to wait for a Vendor's website to respond before assuming the connection does not exist. Work Orders If the values in a work order became corrupted, it was possible for the program to lockup trying to display the Work Order entry form. Fixed Now. Hospital Export The export was not properly displaying credits as negative numbers. Fixed Now. Dual Core Processors - Menu Revisions Dual core processor machines had been demonstrated to produce lockups on occasion when closing a window that has a menu that merges with the application frame menu. All merged menus have now been removed and the menu options are available on the popup menu. Version 3.14 Gift Cards Implemented Phase II for Gift Cards giving you the ability to sell a Gift Card. Gift Cards can be entered on a Sales Entry Transaction by entering "G + Amount" (ie. G10) in the Scan/Qty field, or by selecting "Gift Card" as the "Item" type on the Item Entry Form. Gift Cards can be listed on a Quote or Special Order, and even entered as a Special Order item, but the gift card number will not be entered until time of delivery. Both Gift card purchases and returns are authorized after payment is tendered. Gift Cards that have not been authorized show up as a Sales Entry Transaction requiring "Delivery" on the Sales List and can be authorized by using the F8-Deliver/Adjust option. Gift Cards sold at a off site sales location can be authorized by the main location after ownership is transferred and the Sales are received. To start using Gift Cards, you will need to set up an account with X-Charge, and set up a Gift Card payment method. Vicki Botten with X-Charge will help get you set up and can also help you with getting the right gift cards for your business. She can be reached at Vicki.Botten@camcommerce.com or 800-726-3282 ext 307. Vendor Stock Status Revised the vendor stock status feature to check for situations where the vendor's system is not available and to automatically handle this situation. Once a vendor's system is determined to not be available, the program periodically checks to see when the vendor's server is available again, and begins reporting stock status automatically. Prestige EDI EDI integration with Prestige is complete. Version 3.13L Sales Entry Simple POS The Simple POS screen was making the item column smaller after each transaction until it could not be seen. Fixed Now. FTP Some FTP servers were timing out during the polling operation. When this occured, the program was displaying a message that required the user to press OK. If a timeout occurs now, a Timer Message is displayed and the polling operation will continue. Also found that some servers prefer FTP clients to issue a "QUIT" when done. This has also been added to prevent hitting a session limit with some FTP servers. Sales Entry If you were delivering items and also refunded an item so that the current transaction was equal to zero, the program would report an error message. This has been fixed and was a regression that occured in version 3.06. Tag Printing for Transfer Out Lists Printing tags for a "Transfer Out" would produce an error message for each tag. Fixed Now. Version 3.12L Card Entry The card entry procedure was unable to read track II credit card data on some machines. Track II data is required for debit transactions. This appears to be a C6 regression that is now fixed. Vendor Stock Checking An error could be reported right after you close a window that was looking up vendor stock levels. Fixed Now. 3. Dickies Medical EDI. Resolved an issue with Dickies Medical being unable to process an EDI order with an item listed more than once on a PO. Fixed Now. Version 3.11 Hospital Sales Summary Added an option to include freight in the Net Sales. Sales List by Date The option to print each invoice (File > Print Each Invoice) would not skip invoices without a Balance when that's what was displayed on the List. Fixed Now. Inventory Search Improved working with the inventory search results by adding the ability to display the stock form when the "Show stock levels" is NOT selected. Just select an item on the results list and if there is more than one store that could be displayed, the user is asked to pick the store inventory to display in the form. UPS Shipping System Export Added the customer's phone number to the export. Version 3.10 New Real-time Vendor Stock Reporting There is no doubt we live in an ever expanding "connected" world. Just take a look at what key vendors have done to help make you more efficient and productive. Flash Video Showing Cherokee Stock Reporting Flash Video Showing Landau Stock Reporting If you have an internet connection, you can seamlessly "connect" The Uniform Solution to your vendors system (Peaches, Cherokee, and Landau 1st Qtr 2008) in such a way that you are able to see the vendor's current stock level for items on the Inventory List, in Purchase Order Entry, and for special order items in Sales Entry. Imagine how great it will be to place a special order item on a Sales Entry transaction and instantly know whether or not the vendor has it in stock, is low on stock, or has a back order date. See the requirements listed on the next page. Image Lookup with Stock Status With an internet connection, you will be able to highlight an item on the Inventory List and select "F12-Show Image" (Peaches, Cherokee, and Landau 1st Qtr 2008). The operation will connect you to the vendor's web site and display an image of the product with the color swatch and the vendor's stock status of the item. See the requirements listed on the next page. Getting Started with Image Lookup and Vendor Stock Status Both of these features are very easy to use, but they do have a few requirements. First, you need to use the Vendor Catalog to keep the styles, colors, sizes, and UPC barcode numbers you have in inventory consistent with the vendor. You will also need to set up each vendor for "Electronic Ordering - EDI" on the Purchasing Tab of the Vendor Form. The Vendor Stock Status feature provides real-time reporting of the current stock for a supported vendor. Vendor stock reporting is an option for Sales Entry (option on the More Tab), Purchase Order Entry (option in the lower right), and the Inventory List (options on the Stock for Color Tab and Product Tab). If you do not have a persistent internet connection, or your internet connection is not available, you will want to turn off the "Show Vendor Stock" option to prevent numerous error messages from occurring. Gift Cards Phase I Gift Cards are a great way to increase your sales by conveniently allowing your customers to purchase gift cards for their friends, co-workers, or employees. They are also a great way to issue a store credit. Phase I only allows gift cards to be taken as a payment or refunded for store credit. Gift Cards cannot be sold on an invoice. In Phase II of the Gift Card Implementation (due out in 4-8 weeks after the 2008 release), you will be able to sell gift cards in Sales Entry. As a work around until Phase II is complete, if a customer would like to purchase a gift card, you can sell them a gift certificate and take their money, then create a Gift Certificate refund (a negative amount on a Gift Certificate) and issue the Gift Card for the refund. Getting Started with Gift Cards Step 1 - Get a Gift Card Processing Account The 2008 release of The Uniform Solution will enable you to issue, sell, and redeem gift cards using the X-Charge software program and an account with the X-Charge Gift Processor. X-Charge fees are approximately $12 per month and 26 cents a transaction. Vicki Botten with X-Charge will help get you set up and can also help you with getting the right gift cards for your business. She can be reached at Vicki.Botten@camcommerce.com or 800-726-3282 ext 307. If you would like to use another solution to track the balance on the gift cards you issue and redeem, you can use another solution from another company, but you will have to process the addition and subtractions for the gift card without using The Uniform Solution. Step 2 - Set up a Gift Card Payment Select Setup > Payment Methods to bring up the Payment Methods List and enter a new payment called "Gift Card". On the General Tab on the Payment Method Form, set the payment method to "Allow Refunds to be made" and set the Payment Processing interface to "Gift Card" if you will be using X-Charge. If you will be using another solution, set this to "None". Make sure the Special Payment Type on the Accounting Tab is set to "Gift Card". Payment Methods Simplified the special accounting considerations for setting up payment methods on the Accounting Tab of the Payment Method Form. Also added the option to define a payment method as a Gift Card and/or activate a payment processing interface that supports Gift Cards. Gift Card's issued are considered deposits for customers while Gift Cards redeemed are deposit credits that reduce the gift card liability. Product Lookup Windows Product lookup windows used for selecting a "Product" now display the product description. Credit Card Number Security Credit and debit card numbers can only be viewed in Sales Entry and the Card Processing Log if the User has the security to do on the Security Tab of the User Form. Reporting Enhancements Cash Flow Report Simplfied and expanded the Cash Flow Report. Payments received are presented in a simple table form that lists the payment type and amount - just like the Daily Report. An option does exist to print payments in the "Matrix" format like previous versions. If credit cards are processed with an integrated payment processing solution, the "Cash Flow" section now reflects the amount processed by each major credit card. This will make it easy to enter a deposit for each type of card processed if needed. The Cash Flow section also has a simplified presentation of Customer Deposits and Accounts Receivable. The Tax Totals section only prints if component tax rates or alternate tax rates are used and is are more straight forward and easier to read. See the Advanced Options Tab for the ability for the report to look much like it used to. Journal Entry/Accounting Export Revised the report and export to (1) make it easier to reconcile daily deposits with a bank statement and (2) handle gift cards deposits. A new journal entry labeled "Deposit" has been created that separates all monies received into Cash, Check and Credit Cards. If an integrated credit card processing solution is used, a separate deposit is credit for VISA/MC, Amex, and Discover. By creating separate deposits for the Undeposited Funds Account, it makes it possible to reconcile the cash and credit card deposits with your bank statement. Also, if you sell and redeem gift cards, a gift card liability account is used to track your outstanding gift card liability. Daily Report The Daily Report now breaks out the totals for each credit card processed in the Cash Flow Totals section when using an integrated card processing solution - just like the new Cash Flow and Journal Entry Reports. Sales Manifest Added an option to have the report print the net sales, freight, and gift cards sold instead of the sub total, amount paid and balance. Revised Sales Reports to Print "Net Sales" instead of Sub Total Net Sales does not include tax, freight, or gift cards sold. The sub total is a true sub-total of items sold, freight, and gift cards before tax. Sales by Customer, Clerk, Salesperson, and State These reports now print the net sales (gross sales less freight, tax, and gift cards sold) by default. An option has been added to print the sub-total if needed. Technical Improvements With the release of Windows Vista, we worked double-time to make sure The Uniform Solution would work on the new computers and Windows Vista. For 2008, The Uniform Solution has been re-worked internally to make it the most reliable, best performing, most feature packed, and the most connected it has ever been. Vista Compatibility (1) Replaced the Win32 Help system with a Vista compatible compiled HTML Help document and system. (2) Created a new installation routine for Workstations. To install the program on a workstation, map a drive letter to the main installation folder on the server and select "Setup Workstation Access" EXE in the installation folder. The workstation installer will create a shortcut to the main installation on the Workstation's desktop. (3) Revised the printer setup routines to see all printers installed on a Vista computer. (4) Revised the FTP update installer to be Vista compatible. Clarion 6 (1) Updated the program to use the Clarion 6 run-time-library with true multi-threading. (2) Removed the dependency of DDE on startup in favor of IPC. (3) Revised Tab to Enter processing to help eliminate a sticking Crl, Alt, or Shift Key. (4) Revamped automatic window sizing to be more XP and Vista compatible. (5) Serialized window startup routines to wait for new threads to start. (6) Used critical sections to make sure all read-write global data and global queues are "thread-safe". Miscellaneous (1) Digitally signing all EXE's and installation files. (2) Limiting the program execution to one processor in multi-processor or hyper-threaded PC's. (3) Compressed installation folders are now handled properly and FTP updates will work. (4) Data recoveries using TPSFix will now work with UNC paths.