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Ostendo Update Notes from 16 July 2009 What's NewMulti-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.
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:
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:
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:
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® adds advanced inventory, job costing, manufacturing, service and distribution to your accounting system.
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