Ostendo Update Notes from 9 May 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 9 May 2007 – What’s New

Colour Tracking in Order Screens

We have added the ability to define tracking colours for all order tracking codes. This colour can then be displayed in the opening lists for Job Orders, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders & Assembly Orders.

Expanded Job & Sales Quoting Options

We have added the ability to select 3 different styles of quotes (Formal, Letter & User) and have included an additional quotation options screen for defining the contents of the layout (eg: Letter body) and the amount of detail to print.

NOTE: If you are upgrading Ostendo the new Quoting functionality will only be available to you if you copy the ‘JobQuoteSheet.fr3’ and the ‘SalesQuoteSheet.fr3’ from the ‘Reports_Backup’ folder in the Ostendo ‘Reports’ directory.

Displaying Task Bill Contents on Invoices & Quotes

There is now an additional option in Job Orders (for Task Bill types of Job Lines) to select whether the planned or actual contents of the task bill is printed on the quote and/or invoice. Useful for where a fixed price is quoted for a task, but the customer still requires the material & labour breakdown (no prices for the content details).

NOTE: If you are upgrading Ostendo the new Quoting & Invoicing functionality will only be available to you if you copy the (‘JobQuoteSheet.fr3’, ‘SalesQuoteSheet.fr3’, ‘SalesInvoiceSheet.fr3’, ‘SalesProformaInvoiceSheet.fr3’) from the ‘Reports_Backup’ folder in the Ostendo ‘Reports’ directory.

New Job Issues Screen

We have added a simple issues screen (located in the batch toolbar of the lines tab) for high speed issuing while in a Job Order. This provides a fast method of creating both the job lines & actuals issues in a single entry.

Improved Inventory Replenishment

The speed of running the inventory replenishment for a large number of products has been significantly improved.

Setting Currency Decimal Places

There is now the ability to define the number of decimal places allowable for currency type fields (eg: Unit Costs & Prices) from 2 to 6. The default is set to 2, but can be altered in the System Setting screen (System Configuration menu).

Screen Sensitive Help

We have added the ability to display the specific screen help while in that screen by pressing the function key (F1).

Running Ostendo in a Scheduled Command Line Mode on a Server/Workstation

The Ostendo executable will now run in command line mode (non-graphical) if a script name is passed as the final parameter (eg: “C:\Program Files\Ostendo\ostendo.exe” SCRIPT=CallCentreEmailScript). See the ‘Scripting Enhancements’ for examples of how this can be used in a business.

Scripting Enhancements

We have added approximately 50 new functions to the Ostendo scripting engine. We are in the process of documenting and developing working examples. To provide an insight into what will be possible here are some typical uses:

• Importing Orders such as Sales, Purchases, Jobs and Assemblies into Ostendo from emails/web sites
• Importing Supplier Catalogues either manually or automated
• Automatically running reports at pre-scheduled times, and then emailing these to specific staff (an example of this will be provided)
• The ability for your customers to request copies of documents; such as invoices, quotes or delivery notes via an automated web/email solution (an example of this will be provided)
• The ability to capture requests such as: service or quote requests via a simple web form, and then have them feed automatically into the Call Centre Ticketing system within Ostendo (an example of this will be provided)
• The ability to automatically update web sites with new price lists etc (an example of this will be provided)
• Automatically create timesheet entries based on employees emailing timesheets in excel (an example of this will be provided)
• Provide the ability to automatically feed information into Ostendo from external sources (such as PDA’s and Data capture devices)

Reports. A few new reports have been added and some old ones upgraded. These are:

• Sales Invoices – We have modified the layout to include the additional Task Bill functionality (as covered above). NOTE: If you are upgrading Ostendo, to use the additional functionality you will need to copy the new form ‘SalesInvoiceSheet.fr3’ and the ‘SalesProformaInvoiceSheet.fr3’ from the ‘Reports_Backup’ folder in the Ostendo ‘Reports’ directory.
• Job & Sales Quotes – We have modified the layout significantly for these forms for the new Quoting functionality (as covered above). NOTE: If you are upgrading Ostendo, to use the additional functionality you will need to copy the new form ‘JobQuoteSheet.fr3’ and the ‘SalesQuoteSheet.fr3’ from the ‘Reports_Backup’ folder in the Ostendo ‘Reports’ directory.
• Delivery Pick List & Delivery Document – We have modified these layouts to display the contents of Kitsets. NOTE: If you are upgrading Ostendo, to use the additional functionality you will have to copy the new form ‘SalesPickSheet.fr3’ and the ‘SalesDeliverySheet.fr3’ from the ‘Reports_Backup’ folder in the Ostendo ‘Reports’ directory.
• Invoice & Statement Remittance Forms – We have included a remittance style of invoice & statement layout (CustomerStatementReportRemit.fr3 & SalesInvoiceSheetRemit)
• Purchase Receipts Not Invoiced – We have included 2 different styles of this report.

Various Small Fixes & Improvements

Various issues and enhancements that have been reported to us over the last few weeks have been fixed in this update.