Ostendo Update Notes from 27 August 2008 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 27 August 2008 – What’s New

Lost Quote Re-Display & Activation

We have added the ability to select Lost quotes in the opening lists for both Jobs and Sales Orders. On selecting the Lost Quote you have the ability to click the convert button to change the status back to an active Quote status.

Job & Assembly Order Mass Closing Screens

We have added 2 new screens for the mass closing of Job and Assembly Orders (found in the Jobs & Assembly main menus). These screens allow for mass selection of specific orders and then a single button click to close those selected off (Only orders in the ‘InProgress’ or ‘Finished’ will be displayed). There are rules that are followed before allowing orders to be closed.

Job Orders

1.       A Job Order can’t be closed if there are linked outstanding purchase orders

2.       If there is an outstanding To Be Invoiced value for the Job, the user will have to confirm they wish to close the order by clicking on the ‘Allow Close’ check box

Assembly Orders

1.       An Assembly Order can’t be closed if there are linked outstanding purchase orders

2.        If the Completed Qty < Ordered Qty then the user will have to confirm they wish to close the order by clicking on the ‘Allow Close’ check box

Archiving Printed Reports

We have added the ability for companies to have pre-determined reports automatically archived. Basically this takes a snapshot of the printed output and copies it to a folder in the Ostendo Archive directory. This snapshot can then be re-printed or viewed at any time in the future via the Archive Viewer found in the main File menu. The archiving is activated by report in the Report & View Developer (File-Report Configuration menu). This feature would be most commonly used for such documents as Invoices & Statements.

Displaying and Overriding Standard Prices in Sales, Job & Direct Invoice Lines

We have added the ability to display, and if the user has been given the security rights (File-System Configuration-User Security & Options), the ability to modify the calculated standard price for the line. Previously if the Order Unit Price was changed, the discount was altered to reflect that change. In other words, we had stored what the calculated unit price was, based on the Customer price level; and then compared that stored price with actual order unit price to determine the discount (conversely, if we changed the discount percentage the order unit price changed). This basically meant that any deviations from pricing rules could be tracked. This new feature will allow that calculated standard price to be overridden, therefore allowing the user to set the Order Price & Discount to suit.

Order History Tabs for Sales, Jobs & Purchase Lines

We included an extra Order Line tab called ‘Order History’. For Sales & Job Orders this tab displays the last prices by order for that customer, for Purchases it displays all buy prices for that code from all suppliers.

Discount Matrix – Effectivity Dates & Pricing Group

We have added the ability to include Effectivity Dates against each of the discount matrix records. This allows for special or promotional discounting to be allocated to the customers price level (whereas our Special Pricing screen effectively sets a fixed price independent of the customers price level).

We have also included the extra option of ‘Pricing Group’ in the Product Level drop down.

Customer Payments – Prompt Payment Discount

We have added the ability to automatically calculate and apply prompt or early payment discounts. The terms for the discount are defined against the Credit Terms screen. There is a new drop down in the Detail tab of the Customer Payments (titled Payment Discount) that allows selection of the following:

Terms Percentage: Uses the pre-defined discount and logic from the Credit Terms settings

Fixed Percentage: Allow a fixed discount to be defaulted to all invoices

No Discount: No discount is automatically applied (you are still able to manually enter a discount amount)

Email FTP

We have added a new screen (File-Reporting Configuration-Email FTP) to allow email attachments to be sent via FTP. The reason for this, is that attachments can be blocked by a companies ISP or by their own security software. When this option is activated, whoever receives an email with an attachment will receive an HTTP link in the email body, so that they only need to click on that link to retrieve their file. Please see your computer support company for more information on how to set-up an FTP host.

Aging & Statement Periods – New Monthly Option Included

We have added an extra option to the Aging & Statement Period screens. You now have the ability to age customer invoices by the calendar month they were raised, rather than the terms or net days.

Mass Rental Availability

We have added a new screen in the main Inventory menu called Mass Rental Availability. This screen displays rental availability for all items for a specified category and specified date range (can also be run from the Sales Order screen if the Sales Type has been flagged as a Rental Order).

Rental Order Enhancements

We have improved the functionality for entering lines by:

1.       Item Codes can be swapped for the Rental Descriptor at the line level (applicable where there is not a 1 to many relationship between the charge out and items).

2.       There is a new rental line availability button that will appear for rental codes that dynamically displays the projected rental availability for the date range of the rental order.

Create Required Orders – Splitting Requirements and Fixing negotiated Buy Prices

We have added 2 new features to the Create Required Orders screen:

Split Requirements (Only applicable to Requirements generated from Replenishment)

This allows (via the Related Button) the requirement to be split across multiple Suppliers. Applicable where one supplier can’t supply the total quantity required.

Fixed Buy Price

This allows for fixed negotiated buy prices to be entered, and therefore passed through to the Purchase Order

Serial Kits

We have added a new screen called ‘Serial Kits’ found in the main Inventory menu. The idea behind this screen is to allow for the capture of components that are held against a serial controlled item. An example of this might be that a Computer system is purchased directly from a supplier and then sold on to a customer, however that computer system might be made up of several components, each having their own serial numbers and warranties etc. If a serial controlled Item Code is flagged as a serial kit (optionally a List can be defined, so that the contents can be populated automatically when receipted), a new record is automatically created in the Serial Kits screen when the Item Code is receipted, after which specific serial numbers etc can be keyed in against the components if applicable. You also have a flag against that serial kit indicating whether warranties should be created for the components.

Sales Deliveries – Process Enhancements & Scanning Mode

We have added several new fields (including employee, date & time) for capturing the delivery activities through the picking, packing and shipping process. There are also new rules defined in the Sales Rules screen to allow for alteration to that process (see Help).

To support the use of scanning (or speed keyboard entry) we have provided an additional rule in Sales Rules called ‘Delivery Line Entry Mode’. This has a drop down with 3 options:

Standard: This sets the mode of operation to how it works currently – All delivery lines are displayed in the top grid, and each have to be selected for picked lines to be keyed in.

Scanning: This sets the entry grid at the top and allows the user to scan/enter the code, serial number or barcode in any order (like POS entry), so long as the line is valid for that delivery and the quantity picked is within the customer delivery tolerance.

SingleScan: This is the same as the Scanning mode except for the fact the quantity is pre-filled with 1 and then automatically saves the line.

Inventory Availability – Free Stock Option

We have added the ability to display the Free Stock available, in the caption of the Inventory Availability button for each Order Line. This figure is dynamically calculated, and the logic comes from a new setting in the Item Rules screen called ‘Free Stock Option’ – the options are:

Not in Use:

The Free Stock is not activated

By Required Date:

The Free Stock is dynamically calculated based on the Required Date of the Order Line and the time the line was actually entered. In other words all order demands that have a required date on or before the current lines required date, are subtracted from the quantity on hand to give the quantity that is freely available to promise.

By Order Date:

The Free Stock is dynamically calculated based on the Order Date of the Order Line and the time the line was actually entered. In other words all order demands that have an order date and creation time before the current lines required date, are subtracted from the quantity on hand to give the quantity that is freely available to promise.

Colour Coding for Order Statuses in Opening Lists

We have added a new field into the Sales, Jobs, Assemblies and Purchase tables called ‘STATUSCOLOUR’, which if displayed in the opening lists (via the List Customisation) will display a pre-defined colour representing the order status (much the same as the tracking colours).

Job Task Bill – Price Changes based on Content Changes

We have changed the manner in which the option ‘Price is changed with Cost, Mark-up or Margin’ is treated when the task bill line contents are altered. Previously if any changes were made (new content lines added, deleted etc) the unit price for the task bill line would remain the same, but mark-up & margin would change; now we keep the mark-up & margin constant but change the Line unit price.

Job Calendar – Enhancements

We have added a few new features to the Job Calendar; following is some detail of each of the features:

Saving Filtered Settings

If the calendar is filtered via the various filtering options, these settings are retained when closed and re-opened later.

User Defined Info Hint

Against each Job Type (In the Job Types screen) we allow the definition of the hint text (with the ability to use merged database fields) that will appear in the calendar as you move your mouse across each job task. So this means that any information held in the Job can be displayed dynamically (eg: Phone, Contact & Address Details). See help for how to format the hint field.

Non-Scheduled Job Tasks

We have included a new field for Template Tasks and Job Tasks called ‘No Scheduling’. This option if selected, sets the duration of task to zero and also means the task won’t be displayed in the Job Calendar. The idea behind this is, there maybe many tasks in a Job, but say only 1 that is used for scheduling.

The other reason for this setting; is to allow Templates to be used when creating a Job from the Calendar, via selecting a time and then right clicking to create the Job (only templates that have 1 scheduled task will be available for selection).

Order Inventory Availability Screen

When companies stock, sell and use inventory, one of the biggest challenges and constraints is the prioritisation of that inventory – This is particularly relevant in Distribution or Manufacturing environments.

Some of the common questions are:

Which Sales Orders/Deliveries can be picked and shipped today?

Which Assembly Orders or Job Orders can be started today?

What shortages do we have if we were to meet the customer requirements?

Put simply this new screen addresses those questions and a few more.

This new screen can be found in the main ‘Requirements’ menu, with defaults for running the screen in the Requirement Rules.

When running the screen you are presented with several options:

Priority Sequencing

This allows you to define 3 levels of hierarchal rules when prioritising demands. You’ll notice that there is a Customer and Order Priority selection (Both the Customer and Order screens allow for entry of a priority number – the smaller the number the higher the priority).

How Stock is Allocated by Order

This drop down provides for 3 options (Determined by Order Full Delivery Flag, Only Full Order Fulfilment Allowed, Partial Order Fulfilment Allowed):

1.       Determined by Order Full Delivery Flag: Each order has a new field for setting whether or not the order needs to be fully picked or can be partially picked. The default when creating new Sales Orders comes from the Customer screen, for Assembly & Job Orders the default comes from the Requirement Rules.

2.       Only Full Order Fulfilment Allowed: If this option is selected only orders that can be fully supplied will be flagged as available (to pick or start)

3.       Partial Order Fulfilment Allowed: If this option is selected any order that can be partially allocated will be flagged as available.

Order Classes & Statuses

Allows the selection of the type of demand order to include and the status of each.

Demand Up to Required Date

This defines the demand order horizon date.

Future Supply Order Settings

This allows the selection of any future supply orders to be included in the shortages list. In other words what supply orders need to be followed-up / expedited for shortages.

Restrict Options

This allows the restriction of the run to either a specific site (this will only select demand orders for that site, and only warehouse for that site) or for a specific purchase receipt (this is pre-filled if run from the Related button in the Purchase Receipts screen). If a specific purchase receipt is entered only stock items on the receipt will be included in the run.

After selecting the appropriate options and clicking the OK button you will be presented with the Results screen. From this screen you are able to edit and perform various actions:

What can be modified in the results grid?

1.       Priority: This is actually the order priority, and if changed here will set the actual order priority to that value

2.       Available: This flag indicates whether this order can be picked or started based on the rules defined, but can be overridden. Remember this field is used when performing the various actions that are available from the toolbar (eg: Releasing orders, creating Deliveries & mass printing of order sheets)

3.       No Shortages Allowed: This flag indicates whether the order can be partially picked or not (comes from the actual order). If changed this will update the actual order.

Actions that can be undertaken

1.       Releasing Orders: If the order is a Job, Assembly or Counter style Sales Order, then the status will be changed to ‘InProgress’ if ‘Open’. If the Sales Order is a delivery style then Sales Deliveries can be created in mass assuming that there isn’t an existing delivery.

2.       Printing Documents: Order sheets and pick lists can be printed in mass for all Orders flagged as Available.

There is a shortages tab and report that provides a list of inventory items that were short for the demand horizon selected, and if supply orders were included, a list of purchases.

Order Creation – Improvements

We have added a couple of small speed improvements for order entry:

• We now automatically insert a new order line when a new order is created
• When in the Lines Tab of an order you are able to create a new order by using the Ctl-F5 key (rather than having to use the mouse to change tabs before creating a new order)

New Help Files

We have included 3 new Online Help Files in this version; they are as follows:

FAQ: Numerous Frequently Asked Questions that relate to all areas of Ostendo

Training: Various topics on working through operational processes

Tutorials: Short tutorials on functional areas of Ostendo

Various Small Fixes & Improvements

Various other smaller issues and enhancements that have been reported to us have also been fixed in this update.

Ostendo Update Notes from 24 July 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 24 July 2007 – What’s New

Project & Asset Split in Job Orders

We have added the ability to split out the Project and either the Customer Asset or Company Asset (dependant on Job Style). Previously if you had created a Job Style for ‘Customer Asset’, ‘Company Asset’ or ‘Rental’, you were unable to link the Job to a Project. This change means that no matter what style of Job it can be linked to a Project.

Recurring Invoices

We have added the ability to define both the Recurring Customer and the Billing Customer for the Recurring Invoice. This is important if the contract is for a Customer Asset, but the billing customer is a separate entity (common where there is a head office billing arrangement).

Override Default Warehouse & Location in Picking & Issuing Screens

We have added the ability to override the default Warehouse & Location pre-filled when issuing for Sales, Jobs & Assemblies. Previously this could have been done line by line, whereas with this update you can set the default warehouse & location for that session. Commonly used when picking from either different Branches in a distribution environment, or from different Vans in a contracting environment.

Changing Customer in Sales Order

We have added the ability to change the primary customer for a Sales Order up to the point that the first issue is made, or a Sales Delivery is created. On changing the Customer you will be prompted to either re-price the order/quote based on the new customers pricing rules, or leave it as is.

Weights, Volumes & Surface Areas for Jobs & Assemblies

We have added the ability to display the weights, volumes and surface areas against Assembly Orders and Job Orders. If this feature is turned on in either the Assembly Rules or Job Rules screen, the default unit weights, volumes & areas will be pre-filled automatically based on the Item, Descriptor or Catalogue values. You will then have the ability to edit the unit dimensions, from which totals for each dimension will be calculated. The header for both the Job and Assembly Order will also display the order totals for each dimension.

Actual weights, volumes & areas are also calculated automatically when any issuing occurs.

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.

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.

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