Ostendo Update Notes from 12 April 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 12 April 2007 – What’s New

New Updateable Version of the Ostendo-MYOB Integration Module

We have upgraded the Ostendo-MYOB integration module to include additional data validity checking and also the function for that module to have it’s own version checking routine (like the Ostendo EXE has currently). So in the future the module will auto check for updates every 14 days (also has a separate button for forcing the check). Please download this version to replace your version (There is an upgrade option, so it retains any mapping and configuration previously done).

Microsoft Outlook 2007

In this update we stopped the security warning messages appearing for Outlook 2007 (Previous versions of Outlook had already been catered for).

Assembly Order Receipt Costing

We have added the ability to define the style of costing for Assembly Order Receipts (Either Planned or Actual). Previously the default receipt cost was based on the Assembly Order planned rolled up costs, now in the Assembly Rules screen you have the ability to set the default to ‘Actual’. Actual style will default the cost to a ratio of the total issued costs to-date – please see the help file for more explanation.

Various Fixes

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

Ostendo Update Notes from 2 April 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 2 April 2007 – What’s New

By-Products & Co-Products for BOM’s and Assembly Orders

We have added the ability to define either By-Products or Co-Products against both Bills of Material and Assembly Orders. This feature allows for where there are multiple products (Co-Products) manufactured in one order, there are products that could optionally be manufactured (By-Products), or there are multiple steps of manufacture and there is the possibility of receipting intermediate assemblies (By-Products).

Scrap Recording for Assembly Receipts

We have added the facility to record scrap quantities and a corresponding scrap code when receipting assemblies. There is an extra screen in the Assembly Settings menu for defining scrap codes and appropriate cost centres for financial reporting.

BOM Change History

From this release on, all changes to BOM’s are automatically logged with the User, Date and Time. This information is then available via a new report that has been linked to the Reports button in the BOM screen.

Label Printing (Inventory, Purchase Receipts & Assembly Receipts)

There is an additional screen for printing labels from the main Inventory Module, the Purchase Receipts Screen (Related Button), and the Assembly Receipts Screen (Related Button). The default format has been designed for the DYMO brand of label printer, however this can be altered in the Report Layout Editor (Form name is ‘Inventory Barcode Label’).

Actual Issue Extensions

If Purchase Receipts or Invoices are booked directly to Jobs or Assembly Orders, additional information is transferred to the Issue line. This gives traceability back to the originating transaction for that booking. If timesheets are used the timesheet batch number is also recorded for any labour bookings.

Task Bill Enhancements

When in a Job with Task Bills, there is a lot more visibility and flexibility of the task bill content lines. We have also added the ability to add Catalogue Items to the Task Bill lines.

Negative Stock Options

There is now the facility to disable negative stock for the entire company (by flagging this in the Item Rules), or selectively disabling negative stock by specific items (In the Additional Settings popup screen in the main Items Screen).

Job Order Value Bar

There is the ability now to display a dynamic Job Values bar while in the Job Lines tab (Displays Job Value, Job Cost, Job Margin & Job Mark-up). This feature can be selected for each Job Type in the Settings Menu.

Additional Default Values in Rule Screens

There are a number of new default settings for such things as the default Line Type when creating new Orders. Please look through the Rules screens for all of these.

Notes Edit Popup Screen

When editing or viewing note fields you are now able to use function F2 (or click the new icon that is displayed in the top right corner of the field) to popup a full sized window.

Advanced Searching

There is a new setting in the System Settings screen called ‘Advanced Searching’ which if selected, includes searching of all the properties associated with the records being searched (also includes Supplier Item Codes for Items). As an example, if there was an Item with multiple cross-references, you could set all the cross-references up as properties for that Item, and then by typing any one of those cross-references the appropriate item would be selected.

Manual Invoice Numbering for Direct Invoices

In the Sales rules screen there is a new option to select ‘Manual Numbering’ for creation of direct invoices only. All other invoices are automatically numbered.

Item & Descriptor Base Unit Swap Utilities

There are 2 new Utilities called ‘Item Base Unit Swap’ & ‘Descriptor Base Unit Swap’. These utilities can be found under the System Configuration menu and provide the ability to change the Base Unit of Measure for existing Items and Descriptors. For Items you must have already defined the new unit in the specific Item Units screen and it must have a conversion factor of 1.

New Chart & Pivot Analysis Screens

You will discover that there are some new Charts & Pivots views under various View Menus. The Pivot (OLAP style) views in particular provide a very powerful and flexible means of reporting. Please experiment with these to understand how they might be used for particular environments (refer to the help file for explanation of how to modify, filter and sort the views).

General Scripting Enhancements

There are a large number of scripting enhancements included in this release. There will be a separate paper sent out giving more detail in the next few weeks. A few of the main points are:

• The ability to read and write directly to excel formatted spreadsheets
• The ability to import such things as: Timesheets, Sales, Job, Assembly and Purchases using simple functions

Updated Ostendo Installer (For Windows Vista & Multi-Processor Servers)

The Ostendo install routine has been upgraded to detect Windows Vista and will install appropriately for the new security settings. We have also included a check for Multi-Processor Computers and allow for selection of specific processors for the database server operation.

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

• Job & Assembly Outstanding Purchases
• Purchase Invoice Listing
• Purchase Receipt Listing
• Sales Back Order Reports
• Costed Bill of Material Report
• Bill of Material Change History Report
• Inventory Labels