Ostendo Update Notes from 16 July 2009 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 16 July 2009 – What’s New

Multi-Currency Sales (Complementing existing Multi-Currency Purchasing)

We have added in the Sales Multi-currency functionality complementing the existing Purchase Multi-currency and landed costing functionality.

1)       As with Purchasing, the currency codes and exchange rates are defined.

2)       Additional Cost Centres are now available against Currency Codes (eg: FX Debtors, Exchange Loss/Gain)

3)       Customers now have a default Currency Code, although it can be changed at order/Invoice time

4)       Price Levels can now be linked to a Currency Code

5)       Payment Accounts (Bank Accounts) can now be linked to Currency Codes

6)       Payments and Deposits have a currency (which can be different from the currencies of the invoices the payment is applied to)

7)       Customer Statements are generated by currency

8)       The FX gain or loss is calculated automatically when the Customer Aging report is run, based on the exchange rates for the report As At Date

Please Note: You can run multi-currency within Ostendo but post as local currency transactions to the General Ledger (See ‘Local Ledger Postings for Foreign Currency Transactions’)

Local Ledger Postings for Foreign Currency Transactions

We have added the ability to post all ledger transactions as local currency transactions, but still use the multi-currency features within Ostendo (File-System Configuration-System Settings-Accounting Link). This basically means that Orders can be entered, Invoices generated and payments taken in different currencies, but a single currency General Ledger can be used.

Custom Data Screens

We have added a new type of Script called ‘Custom Data Screens’. This allows for creation of what are typically called ‘Data Collection’ screens. In concept these scripts combine a user defined graphical front end with the power of the scripting engine. The design has also taken into account the ability to use a scanner, keyboard or touch interface simultaneously. Some samples of the types of applications this new style of script provides are:

1)       Shop Floor Data Collection (Time & Attendance)

2)       Job or Assembly Order Tracking

3)       Customised Picking Interface

4)       Touch Screen POS Interface

5)       Touch Screen Product Configuration

6)       Scanner driven Retail Product Lookup

We will be providing some samples of the above via a download link in the next few weeks. For developers we have also provided the ability to encrypt the script to protect IP (See the note about this at the end of these release notes)

Freight Descriptors

We have added the ability to define Descriptors as Freight Descriptors (in the new Freight Tab in the Descriptor Screen). Also available from the new tab is a new popup screen for defining rates for both volumes and weights. These rates are then used to calculate line prices (In Sales & Job Orders) on entry of the actual weight and/or the actual volume. See the help file for more detailed explanation.

Daily Summary Postings

We have added the ability to summarise Journal postings into daily transactions by transaction type (File-System Configuration-System Settings-Accounting Link). In other words you may wish to post only 1 journal per day for all Job Issues, rather than a journal for every job order that had issues in that day.

Audit & Notification Logging

We have added the ability to activate logging values on adding, modifying and deleting by table and field name. The logged records store the new & old values (where applicable), the user name and the date & time of the change. There are 2 purposes for logging; the first is for pure audit logging, and the second for notification logging. A simple example of what notification logging could be used for is say, automatically emailing a delivery confirmation out to the end customer on the delivery status changing from ‘Planned’ to ‘Shipped’.

Product Line Messaging

We have added the ability to define line messages against Items, Descriptors & Labour Codes for Sales (POS), Jobs, Purchase and Assembly Orders. These messages appear as an information panel while entering the order line and can include dynamic information from the code itself. In other words if say you wished to display the standard buy price while entering a specific item for a sales order, then the message definition might be something like:

The Standard Buy Price for [ITEMCODE] is [STDBUYPRICE]

Basically merged database fields are encapsulated with square brackets ‘[‘ & ‘]’ (this same syntax is used when merging fields in the email text).

Fixed Price Quantity Breaks

We have added the ability to enter quantity break prices for the calculation method ‘Fixed Price’. The only difference to quantity breaks for other calculation methods is that the fixed prices are entered as actual prices, whereas the quantity break prices for all other calculation methods are expressed as percentages.

Multi-Tiered Discount Structure

We have added the ability to enter up to 3 cumulative discounts in the Discount Matrix (Pricing-Discount Matrix), which then calculates the total discount to be applied. The idea of this is for industries where discounts are expressed as discounts on discounts (eg: If a customer is part of a buying group that receives 20% discount, but on top of that for a specific category of product they get another 10% after the first discount, then the total discount would actually be 28%).

Pack Size Enhancement

We have added the ability to display the Inventory Availability results in user selectable ‘Pack Sizes’. This is assuming that the item has been defined with pack sizes (Items-Order Dims). The idea of this is for industries that take orders from customers in different pack sizes, but stock and sell based on a standard unit of measure (eg: Used in the meat industry where pricing and stocking is in Kilograms, but the customer may very well order in a nominal carton size of say 50kgs).

Active Connections – Enhanced

We have added the ability to remove users from the Active Connections screen. This screen will now also appear on exceeding the Ostendo User count. In other words if you have say a 5 user licence, and the sixth user tries to login, the Active Connections screen will appear, displaying who is currently logged in, and if you have Administrator rights you will be able to log a user off.

Sending Invoices to a Different Customer than the Billing Customer

We have added the ability to send Invoices to a different customer than the billing customer. The set-up for this is done in the Customers screen. A typical scenario for this feature would be where there is Head Office who is paying for the Invoice, but the actual invoice needs to be sent to the branch for approval.

Job & Assembly Progress Inquiry & Analysis Views

We have added a couple of new Inquiries and Analysis views that graphically display the progress of Assembly & Job orders through departments (via the steps or tasks). These inquiries/analysis views simulate a manual planning board displaying the progress of the order and any issues (via the tracking code) colour coded.

Note: If the analysis view is linked to the Desktops views for a user, a timer can be set refreshing the view at predetermined intervals, in other words you could have monitor continuously displaying the order progress for a customer service environment.

Un-limited Order Line Scripts

We have added the ability to define unlimited order line scripts. This feature allows for additional functionality to be added to order lines specific to the site.

Script Encryption

As the power and capability of the scripting engine has continued to improve, the sophistication and value of the scripts being developed has also improved. We now have a number of partners developing scripts to do the following types of things:

1) Interfacing with Web Stores

2) Connection to CAD applications for automatic BOM & Order creation

3) Enhancing functionality in Ostendo such as POS with loyalty programs

4) Interfacing with PDA/PDT devices for Stock Counts, Receipting, Issuing, and Order Taking

5) Interfacing with other software applications

These are only a few examples but can add tremendous value to the Ostendo application. To protect the IP of the partner, and therefore facilitate the wider use of these scripts we have provided the ability to encrypt the script when sending out to others. It is a simple method of saving the script to a file (available with the Custom Script Editor) and selecting Yes to the encryption question. From there the encrypted file can then be sent to the recipient and loaded via the ‘Load from File’ option (available with the Custom Script Editor).

Ostendo Script Scheduler

We are in the final stages of testing a new scheduler that will allow scripts to be run at predetermined frequencies and times. This will be run on a server and execute scripts to do things like:

1)       Email out KPI’s or Notification Alerts based on specific rules

2)       Automatically pick up emails and create things like Timesheets and Orders

A separate email will be sent when this has been finalised.

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 11 July 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 11 July 2007 – What’s New

Foreign Currency (Purchasing Only)

We have added the ability to define the currency code against a Supplier (The currency code definition screen is under the Financial Configuration menu). By default if the currency code is left blank against the Supplier, the system assumes local currency (there is no need to define a local currency in the currency code table, the formatting for the currency symbol is from the windows regional settings – as they have always been).

When setting up the currency codes it is important to define the 2 cost centres for receipting, all foreign currency amounts are split out into 2 components, the amount in local currency and the amount for the currency exchange difference (please refer to the Reference Help for further definition).

A currency code can only be linked to a Supplier if that Supplier doesn’t have any existing orders in the system.

Purchase Shipments (Landed Costing)

We have added a new screen for recording Purchase Shipments (either offshore or local). This screen allows the recording of charges, such as freight and duty, and also the Purchase Orders that make the shipment up. The key feature is to calculate the landed costs of all lines in that shipment by spreading the additional charges incurred for that shipment, and therefore attribute those costs to either inventory or the specific Jobs or Assemblies they were ordered for. This functionality can be critical for companies importing goods, or where local freight costs are large and the company wishes to include those in the cost of goods for the purchased products.

Some of the features of this screen are:

1)        The ability to link purchase orders from different suppliers and currencies into a single shipment

2)        The ability to add up to 6 additional charges to that shipment with each charge individually allocated to all the shipment lines by (weight, volume, cost, quantity or duty precent), and each charge can have its own currency.

3)        The shipment can be tracked via tracking codes, estimated and actual arrival dates, departure and arrival ports, and numerous other fields for shipment information

Report & View Developer

We have added the ability to modify and develop new Reports, Pivot Views, Analysis Views & Charts. Previously there was only the ability to modify the report form layouts, now there is the ability to modify what data is available, the selection conditions and even which menus and screens the report or view is associated with. To allow for this we have designed into the reporting framework, 2 layers, the System layer and the Company layer. The concept is that any reports or views that have either been modified or created from scratch are stored in the Company layer, therefore leaving the System layer to hold the standard layouts and queries – this ensures that any updates we bring out do not overwrite any company specific changes.

Say you wish to modify the ‘Purchase Order’ layout:

1)       Firstly you would go to the ‘Report & View’ Developer screen and click the Add button.

2)       After clicking Add you will presented with the ‘New Data Output’ screen – from which you would select ‘Copy from another’ radio button

3)       Then lookup the ‘Purchase Order’ report and select it

4)       Once back at the ‘New Data Output’ screen the ‘Copy to Company’ radio button will be selected

5)       Click on the ‘Create’ button. This will copy the queries and selection criteria to the ‘Company’ layer in the database, and also make a copy of the actual report layout file into a sub-folder (the name will be the same as the company ID you are currently logged into) in the Ostendo Reports directory.

6)       Now you can modify the Purchase Order layout from within this screen (by clicking on the Edit button when in the Detail tab) or via the ‘Report Layout Editor’ in the Reporting Configuration menu

Important Please Note: By introducing this new feature for any reports/layouts that you have modified you will need to do the following:

1)       Follow the steps above for each of your modified reports (likely to be Invoices, Quotes, Purchase Orders etc…)

2)       Copy in your modified report layout (it might be wise to have a copy of all the modified report layout files in one place first) into the sub-folder (named based on Company ID – eg: DEFAULT for the main company) in the Reports directory.

Please refer to the Reporting Help file for further explanation of how this all works.

Creating Purchase Invoices from Purchase Receipts

We have added the ability to create the Purchase Invoice when posting the Purchase Receipt. Although the Purchase Invoice is created and all lines are matched, you will still need to pull up the Invoice for final signoff and posting.

Extra Fields for Items, Descriptors & Catalogue Items

1)       We have added Actual Area as a field in the ‘Item Dimensions’ screen to be used for calculating total surface area in the Jobs & Assembly modules.

2)       We have added Duty % to the Items screen, for use in the Purchase Shipments screen.

3)       We have added Weight, Volume, Area & Duty % to Descriptors for the same reasons as above.

4)       We have added Weight, Volume & Area to be used for calculating total weights, volumes & areas in the Jobs & Assembly modules.

Speed Order Entry

We have added a feature to all the Order Entry screens (mainly applicable to Sales Orders) for speed entry of lines. If the ‘Order Speed Entry’ is set in the appropriate Rules screen the following will occur:

1)       If the user keys in the ‘Code’ field and then uses the ‘Enter/Return’ key, the focus will be moved to the ‘Qty’ field and then if the ‘Enter/Return’ is used again, the current line will be saved and a new line will be inserted waiting for the next code.

2)       If the user wishes to adjust the unit price, instead of using the ‘Enter/Return’ key on the ‘Qty’ field, the ‘Tab’ key can be used to move to the Unit Price field and then after making the adjustment the ‘Enter/Return’ key then saves an creates the new line.

Financial Order Flows

We have added 4 new Financial Flow Reports (Sales, Purchasing, Jobs & Assemblies). These can be run from the General-Reports menu and pictorially display the (Debits & Credits) financial flow for each order style.