Welcome to our March 2021 release notes, we take this opportunity to advise you of some new processes and importantly to advise of new features that have been developed that are now available for use.
Scheduled Monthly Server Maintenance
We manage our system hosting through Amazon Web Services (AWS) who are a leading hosting provider.
We use two AWS hosting centres, one in Sydney for the southern hemisphere customers, the other in the USA for the Northern hemisphere customers.
Last year we changed our AWS support arrangements to improve reliability and streamline server maintenance processes. We have implemented a monthly maintenance routine for our servers, during this time they will roll out server updates.
These planned maintenance outages are planned to take place in the last week of each month and outside of normal working hours. They will typically last around one hour, but may, in some instances, last longer depending on the work being undertaken.
We will continue to provide you with a notification email each month before the scheduled maintenance outage but take this opportunity to advise of the routine schedule as follows:
| Region/Day | Scheduled Time |
|---|---|
| Southern Hemisphere - Last Thursday of each month | |
| New Zealand | Midnight |
| Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane | 10 pm EST |
| Perth/Singapore | 7 pm WST |
| Northern Hemisphere - Last Wednesday of each month | |
| USA | Midnight Eastern Time |
| Canada | 9 pm Pacific Time |
| UK | 4 am |
Note: These times will be adjusted for Daylight savings time.
On occasion, we may need to undertake additional server maintenance to attend to less routine improvements and we will also send notifications in advance when these may occur, however by implementing the monthly schedule it anticipated that the frequency of these additional maintenance instances should now be more limited.
New Feature - Large Format sqm Price Setting
Item Type:- Large Format estimates/jobs using the square meter calculation.
Feature:- The new feature is visible on the summary screen and labelled as Selling Price per SQM. This is an editable field, allowing the user to specify a price per square meter that is unique to the estimate/job and which overrides the SQM price the system has calculated. You might use this if you want to round the SQM price up or down or to meet an agreement with a specific customer to charge a set amount per SQM.
How to use:- Generate the estimate/job, then at the summary screen click in the field labelled Selling price per SQM and enter in the proposed new value per sqm.
Please note:- The system will manage the calculations for Profit Margin %, Profit Margin $ and Selling Price per SQM in order of how they appear on the screen. Therefore it may be necessary to re-enter the Markup % or Markup $ values.
New Feature - Product Catalogue Price Matrix Cost Adjustment
Item Type:- Product Catalogue
Feature:- The pricing for a product catalogue item is determined when creating and saving a product the first time. This new feature allows users to edit the cost price in an estimate/job, essentially overriding the pricing matrix value for a one off change that is relevant to only the current estimate/job.
How to use:- Create the estimate/job using the Product Catalogue Item type. At the summary screen click the link for the Product Catalogue item as displayed at the top of the summary panel.
When the product screen opens you can then make the adjustment to both the Cost Price ($) [new feature] and Markup [as previously possible].
New Feature - Print Layout Manual Override
Item Type:- Sheet Fed Digital
Feature:- When creating an estimate/job the system will automatically determine the print layout of the proposed job.
There may be occasion where the estimator and production team may determine another print layout may be possible and need to manually override the system settings. This is now possible with a manual option contained within the print layout setting as shown below.
How to use:-To over-ride the system defined print layout, click the Manual option when building the estimate/job and enter the preferred layout value. You can re-run the item to make the adjustment if required.
New Feature - Markup on Individual Inventory Items
Inventory Markup Setting:- The ability to add a markup to Inventory items is available as a system wide setting (Costs & Markups).
Additional Feature:- Now you have the option of adding a markup to individual inventory items. (1)
Additionally, depending on the item you are adding, the layout of the dialog box has been rearranged, for example, when adding Papers, the Basis weight, Coated and Colour options will be visible on the left side of the dialog box (2);
How to use:- To make the adjustments, open the individual inventory item, enter in a % markup for the stock item.
Please note:-
- If you have no system markup the default value will be zero.
- If there is an existing system setting entered for markups, this value will appear in any existing inventory item.
- You will need to manually make an adjustment to take advantage of this feature.
- The value recorded in the individual inventory item will take precedence over the system setting, for example if you have a system wide default setting of 10% and you record 20% on some of the paper items, the 20% will be added not the system value of 10%.
New Feature - Delivery Notes
Item Type:- Delivery Notes - Select items to display.
Feature:- When creating a delivery note from an estimate or job, there may be times where you would like some items to appear on the delivery note but not other items. For example, you may have an item for Artwork or Freight costs that are not relevant or that do not need to be displayed on a delivery note for the customer.
We have an added feature, with the ability to choose the items to appear on the delivery note when they are raised.
How to use:- Create a Delivery Note, you will be prompted with a dialog box where you can select the items to add to the delivery docket, make your selection then click the button Create Delivery Note.
New Feature - Quick Quote- Add Another Button
Item Type:- Quick Quote
Feature:- When creating an estimate/job using the item type Quick Quote there is now an option to add another quick quote to the same estimate. Each time you click the Add Another button it will show as a main item in the subsequent quote.
How to use:-Create a new estimate/job, after entering the customer details on the first screen and selecting the item type - Quick Quote, the next screen allows you to enter some basic quote details. To add another quick quote to the same estimate simply click the Add Another button. Please review the video in the article Creating a Quick Quote to see the feature in use.
New Feature - Bulk Order Progression
Item Type:- B2B and B2C online ordering
Feature:- On the Orders page, there is now the ability to tick multiple orders using the drop-down options, then to progress them all to jobs simultaneously.
How to use:- View all the Online orders, by clicking Orders, then View All Orders.
(1) Using the tick-boxes to the left of the order number, tick all the orders to be progressed to a job.
(2) Click the master drop-down at the top of the screen.
(3) Select Progress to Job.
The next screen will allow you to enter in the specific details, for example, including dates, raising an associated Delivery Note, Purchase Orders and if a Prospect converting them to a Customer in the CRM. All the orders you are progressing will have these same settings applied, however they will appear as independent jobs with their individual job number. They will not be merged to a single job.
Note: Any order progressed to job will then automatically archive from the Orders view.
If you have any further questions, please contact Support.