Release Notes - Amazon S3 · Release Notes Version 141 5 Contents Contents Page No. Module 6 Sales Order Processing 14 Stock Management 18 Purchase Order Processing 19 Customer Maintenance

Release Notes

November 2016

Version 141

www.merlinbusinesssoftware.com

Release Notes: Version 141

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Did you know?Our Priority Level Process

Favourite Features

In an effort to improve the service provided by our Support Department, November 2015 saw the launch of a new three tier priority process for all Support Calls that are being transferred from Support to another department.

Priority Level 1

An issue which hugely compromises your ability to conduct business, and a workaround is not available.

Time frame for response:Within 24 hours

Examples:Business Critical Processes, Server Down, No Email being received, Web Services not accepting orders.

Priority Level 2

An issue which is not as critical but has a negative impact on your business, and a workaround may be available.

Time frame for response:2 - 5 Working Days

Examples:Advice on Importing, BACS Set Up, Printer Down, but others working, Single User Email problems, Cannot edit a stock record.

Priority Level 3

These are non critical issues, that whilst problematic are not business critical.

Time frame for response:6 - 10 Working Days

Examples:Report running 2 minutes slower than previously.

Stock Control:We have found Merlin to be a major benefit to our business. It frees up the purchasing departments time, improving productivity and saving money for the company. Having a system can be easily customised to our individual needs is also an advantage that we would now be lost without.Mayflower Washroom Solutions

SOP & CRM Application for Android™:The CRM App has been very beneficial to our company as it saves time and our salesman who is out [of] the office is able to enter sales orders or quotes and get the information sent into the office quickly which then means our customers get their goods quicker. Extratec Progressive Ltd

Data Management - Costs & Selling PricesThe matrix calculation manages the sales prices meaning we no longer miss out on margin when we have a price increase and by using the different cost types available on the stock record we can choose to maintain our selling price if we have a price reduction, rather than the sales team giving it away!S&A Builders Merchants


www.merlinbusinesssoftware.com 3

Featured


FeaturedeBay Sales Integration ModuleeBay Listings Manager• Allows you to have visibility of multiple eBay accounts with all of the

applicable listings, and view more than the 50 listing limit set by eBay using filters

• Enables you to review and end listings• Allows you to view the number of variations associated with a listing and

add a SKU code to each one• Using the Listing’s I.D in our search facility you will be able to locate specific

listings

eBay Order Processing• Your orders will be automatically transmitted from eBay into Merlin• Enables you to view orders by date• Allows you to filter orders by status (shipped, unshipped, cancelled)• Provides you with the ability to consolidate multiple purchases from a

customer into one order to allow for streamlined processing.• Prevents your unpaid orders from being despatched until payment has

been received.• Upon despatch, your order in ebay will be marked as complete.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the eBay Sales Integration Module.



4 www.merlinbusinesssoftware.com

Highlights

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New

Fixed

Changed

Highlights

Multi-Currency Cash Receipts

Special Offers Option

eBay Date Ranges

Quick Stock Create: Commodity Codes

Special Offers in Sales Order Entry

Full Tally Parts

Scheduled Picking List

Prevent Sales Order Processing Sub Menu Closure

Listings

Minimum Line Value

You will now be able to post in currencies outside of that specified on the customer’s account.

A new “Buy X of a range and get the cheapest free” Special Offer has been introduced as an option.

We have fixed the date range issue in the eBay module, along with the quantity issues when revising items.

We have changed the quick stock create screen to prevent users from manually entering commodity codes.

We have adjusted the special offers screen in Sales order Entry to include the product descriptions and last sale date.

When amending a Sales Order with a Fully Tally part, the quantity change is now pushed correctly into the associated Purchase Order.

We have altered the logic in Control Code SOP/21 to prevent the current issues with scheduled picking lists for orders processed through websites.

It is now possible to prevent users from escaping out of a Sales Order without meeting set requirements.

We have listened to your requests and added an option to set refresh times for individual Listings.

It is now possible to set a minimum line value for sales orders, which, once setup will provide users with a pop-up message notifying them if the value has not been met, along with the option to override the value or automatically increase the value of the line.



Contents


Contents

Page No. Module

6 Sales Order Processing

14 Stock Management

18 Purchase Order Processing

19 Customer Maintenance

21 Sales Ledger

23 Nominal Ledger

24 Listings Maintenance

25 System Administration

29 Document Management

33 eBay Module

34 Delivery/Van Routing

36 Third Party Carrier Integration

37 Adflex

38 Production Module

40 Website Maintenance

Merlin Business Software LtdChatsworth HouseMillennium Way Chesterfield, S41 8NDwww.merlinbusinesssoftware.com

Sales Enquiries: 01246 457 150 Technical support: 01246 457 170

Editors: Stephen Adamson - Marketing ExecutiveLaura Wright - Customer Service Co-ordinator

Email: [email protected]@merlinbusinesssoftware.com

Please contact either Stephen or Laura for queries, or alterations to the distribution list for the Release Notes.

Welcome to Merlin Version 141, the latest edition of our bi-annual gold build software release.

This update will contain information on all developments made since our last update.

Please read through this document to see how these changes could benefit you.

Release Notes Version 141



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Sales Order Processing


Full Tally Parts

When a Sales Order with a Full Tally part is amended, the quantity change is now pushed correctly through to the associated Purchase Order.

Despatch Email

A new despatch email layout (500) is available as an alternative to the Email Acknowledgement and allows users to notify customers of expected delivery dates, confirmation of the delivery address, and details of previous deliveries made against the order.

Outstanding Invoices

There is now the facility to print a customer’s list of outstanding invoices as message lines on their invoice.

This facility can be setup through the activation of Control Code SOP/192 and changes to the applicable layout.

If this feature is of interest to you, please contact our Support Team to discuss the setup with our Duty Trainer.




Price Book in Cherry Pick

It is now possible to view the price book applicable to a customer’s account through Cherry Pick in Sales Order Processing by selecting the new “Price Book” tick box.

Test Certificate Notes in Manual Stock Allocation

An additional field entitled “Test Certificate Notes” has been introduced to provide Test Certificate Notes when completing a manual stock allocation.



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Special Offers in Sales Order Entry

The Special Offers screen in Sales Order Entry now shows the Product Descriptions and last sale date.

Please note that Control Code Stock/54 must be inactive to allow usage of this feature.




Collected/Delivered Depots

In situations where there are two or more depots with varying stock, it is now possible to process an order at one and have automatic delivery/collection from another without effecting figures for analysation.

Using Control Code SOP/190 it is possible to specify which depot the orders will be despatched and collected from, following which, orders will be processed as if they have been placed at the depot which stock is being delivered from, but for sales analysis purposes the order will be shown as if it were processed at the original depot.

For Example:

Depot A - Chesterfield stocks all lines and maintains high minimum stock levels on fast selling items. Depot B – Littlefield can only stock small/light items and a limited amount of the larger items.

An example based on the Control Code being set to delivery from Depot A:

When an order is started from Depot B, a message will pop up asking whether an order is for collection or delivery, once delivery is confirmed it will be automatically fulfilled as if it were raised at Depot A, which creates a warning in red stating that the depot has changed, but, for sales analysis purposes, it will be treated as an order from Depot B.

NB - SOP/148 takes precedence for delivered orders if activated.



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Quick Stock Create: Commodity Codes

It is now possible to search for commodity codes in the Quick Stock Create screen by clicking on the underlined Commodity label.

A further change has been made to this function to prevent manual entry into the Commodity field forcing users to search for the applicable commodity code.




Tally Warning

When processing an order in Sales Order Entry, warnings will now be provided when attempting to select a timber tally or non-stocked item.

These warnings will show in red and be phrased as “Fully Tally”, “Simple Tally” and “Non Stocked”.

Control Codes

SOP/189 – Minimum Line Value

When activated, this control code allows a minimum line value to be set when creating a Sales Order.

To complete the setup, the minimum line value needs to be entered into the control code. For example, 100 would equate to a minimum line value of £100.00.

Once activated a pop up message will appear to warn users that the minimum line value has not been met.

The pop up message will be divided between Yes and No:

If No is chosen the requirement for a minimum line value is overridden, if however, Yes is chosen, the net price and line total will automatically increase to meet the minimum line value.



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SOP/191 – Maximum Cash Sale Order Value

This control code has been introduced in line with AWRS regulations and allows a maximum order value for orders (excluding VAT) processed on the cash sales account specified in SOP/25 to be set.

This control code will override the limit set in Customer Maintenance and provide users with a pop up warning message if the limit is exceeded.

Although no further lines will be accepted onto the order once the limit has been reached, users will be able to amend existing lines.

If the warning is ignored, the order will complete but it will not be possible to print picking lists, de-livery notes or invoices.

SOP/110 – Back Order Release Options

This control code has been amended to allow back orders to be sorted by either order number or date.

Once setup the back orders will be displayed in descending order.




SOP/188 – Despatch From Pick2

If activated, only picked lines will be confirmed as despatched and outlined on your Despatch Note.When an order is created, the lines are allocated to “pick1”, then once a Picking List of the items in stock is created, or the lines available are picked from a HHT, the lines will be allocated to “pick2”.

If control code SOP/188 is active, the lines in pick2 will be confirmed as despatched and shown on the Despatch Note whilst other unavailable/out of stock lines will be shown as 0 delivered.

Please note that is it necessary to use either a Picking List or HHT with this feature.

SOP/197 – Prevent Sub Menu Closure

When activated, this control code prevents the Sales Order submenu from closing when the Escape button is used unless one of the following has been completed:

• Print of a Picking List or Delivery Note

• Conversion to a quote• Void of the sales order



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Stock Management

Stock Management

Stock Sales History

Currency Unit Net Price and Unit Net Price fields have been introduced into Sales History under Stock Maintenance > History > Sales.



Stock Management

Special Offers

A new Special Offer option has been introduced – “Buy x of a range and get the cheapest free” which can be setup in three stages:

1. Control Codes Stock/60 and Stock/54 (either partially or fully) will need to be activated.2. A Voucher stock part will need to be setup.3. The Special offers screen under stock needs to be setup with the applicable rule, the

voucher part, break quantity and relevant stock parts.



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Stock Management

Stock Manufacturer

A new field has been introduced to the Purchase tab in Stock Maintenance which has been designed to store details of a product’s manufacturer.

Control Codes

Stock/63 – Matrix Tables

Once activated, any changes made to the matrix tables will be replicated across all depots.



Stock Management

Stock/59 – Allow Negative On Part Transfers

If activated, during a part transfer, if more stock is transferred than available, stock will go into negative.

Alternatively, if de-activated, a pop up message will now warn users if they are attempting to transfer more stock than is available.



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Purchase Order Processing

Purchase Order Processing

Complete and Voided Orders

When attempting to re-open an existing Purchase Order in Purchase Order Processing, if the order is void or complete, a pop-up message box now appears to provide warning.



Customer Maintenance


Customer Opening Times

A new tab has been added to Customer Maintenance which allows the entry of customer opening and closing times, including lunch hour closures where appropriate.

In addition, this tab has been added to Delivery Addresses to allow for separate opening times for individual branches.



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Customer Discounts

The contract field, which can be used when setting up a Customer Discount to identify specific promotions and contracts, has been added to the Summary display of the Customer’s discounts to allow for greater visibility.



Sales Ledger

Sales Ledger

Separate Credits

A new tick box is available in Cash Receipts entitled “Separate Credits” which, if used, will change the current sequence, where Credits are shown at the bottom of the list, to instead include them in the list in date sequence.



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Sales Ledger

Carrier Service Codes

Carrier Service Codes are no longer hardcoded into the program and can be amended in the Carrier Service Codes screen, which is available under Setup > Sales Ledger > Carrier Service Codes, and works with the information stored in the delivery codes.

Control Codes

Sales/72 – Multi-Currency Cash Receipts

If activated, Cash Receipts will allow posting in a currency other than the currency and alternate currency specified on a customer’s account.

Implementation of this feature will require chargeable Invoice Layout redesign to quote account currency, alternate currency and base currency. If this feature is of interest to you, please contact our Support Team to discuss the setup with our Duty Trainer.



Nominal Ledger

Nominal Ledger

Cash Book Display

To provide clearer differentiation between similar amounts on the cash book, a column detailing the year and period has been added to each of the four cash book sections.

Multi User warning in Cash Book

If a user attempts to access the same bank account in bank reconciliation as another user they will be provided with a pop up warning to notify them, however this will not prevent their access.



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Listings

Listings Maintenance

Refresh

In response to your requests, it is now possible to add a refresh time to Listings.

Each Listing can be setup with a separate refresh time which can be activated through Listings Maintenance.



System Administration


Alerts

An alert has been created which notifies users when goods, relating to an existing sales order that they have processed, have been booked into stock.

An additional alert has been created to notify users of accounts which have been put on stop or taken off stop, if the user has an outstanding order against the account.

If you would like to enquire about either of these alerts, please contact your Account Manager.

Archive Invoices Shortcut

An icon can now be added to the Merlin Main Menu which allows direct access to archive invoices.

Setup can be completed by clicking icons in User Maintenance and adding “Archive Invoice”.



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Password Formatting

A change has been made to the formatting of passwords to allow for both upper and lower case letters.

As all passwords were previously formatted in upper case, current passwords will need to be entered in uppercase upon initial entry to Version 141.

Import Routine

The import routine has been amended to allow SQL sub queries to be run as part of the insert and update statements.




Email Templates

It is now possible to add a file name to an attachment in Email Template. This will adjust the current title from “attachment.pdf” to a relevant name.

Control Codes:

System/17 – Display Local Currencies

When enabled transactional information will be displayed in local currency.



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System/21 – Open URL with MerlinWhen enabled, URLs in Merlin, such as a customer’s website in Customer Maintenance, will launch

through Merlin and when disabled they will be launched through your Web Browser.

System/22 – Password Reset ValuesThis control code can be used to set the number of days between when a password is chosen and when a new password is required.

It also allows an entry of the number of days in which a user can remain dormant before a password reset is required.



Document Management

Document Management

Direct Links to Documents

A “Documents” button has been added to the following screens:• Purchase Invoice Posting by Order• POP Order Enquiry • POP Reports - Purchase Enquiry• Supplier Maintenance - Purchase Transactions

This button creates a direct link to the related Supplier delivery notes and invoices in Document Management.

Purchase Invoice Posting by Order



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Document Management

POP Order Enquiry

Supplier Maintenance - Purchase Transactions

POP Reports - Purchase Enquiry



Document Management

Image Preview

A “Preview” button, which opens all image files in an image viewer, has been introduced into Document Management.

Invoices with Multiple Purchase Orders

Document Management is now capable of handling invoices with multiple purchase orders and displaying delivery notes and invoices for all related Purchase Orders



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Document Management

Visibility of all Invoices

When viewing supplier invoices in Document Management via Purchase Transactions, an option is now available to view all of the invoices for a specific purchase order.

This can be setup by using “Purchase Order” as a key in the Document Folder Setup.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Document Management Module.



eBay

eBay Module

Listing Manager

It is now possible to view more than the maximum of 50 Listings specified by eBay in Listing Manager by altering the date range.

Listing Variations

A new column has been added to display the number of variations each listing has, and there is now an option to add a SKU code for each variation of a product during the alteration of a listing.

Listing Search

A right click option has been added to the Listing Manager which allows for the search of a specific listing using it’s ID.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the eBay Sales Integration Module.



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Delivery/Van Routing

Delivery/Van Routing Module

Routing Departments

It is now possible to adjust the information visible to specific departments in the Route Planner ensuring that users only have access to information and deliveries relevant to their role.

This can be setup in Routing Department Maintenance which is accessible through Setup > Sales Order Processing > Routing Departments and requires the creation of a department code, department name, and the input of the relevant Routes, Delivery Codes and Users.



Delivery/Van Routing

Control Codes

Routing/03 – Alternative Display

Upon activation of this Control Code, the display of the Route Planner will adjust to show two days of planned routes on the left hand side of the screen, with the planned and pending orders on the right.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Delivery/Van Routing Module.



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Third Party Carrier

Third Party Carrier Integration

A new Third Party Carrier Integration Module has been introduced for Palletways.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Third Party Carrier Integration Module.



Adflex Module

Adflex Module

SOP/198 Adflex Settlement Warning

It is now possible to provide users with a warning if payment hasn’t been processed for an open order.

Please note that this feature requires the activation of SOP/197 which prevents users from Escaping out of a Sales Order without completing either a Picking List, Delivery Note, or alternatively converting the order to a quote or voiding the order.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Adflex Module.



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Production Module

Production Module

Production – Enhanced Traceable Production by Serial Number

An enhanced traceable record of materials allocated to completed production orders can now be recorded by activating Control Code Production/26. This implements a new WIPDET_TRACE table which makes it possible to trace and report upon the materials allocated to completed production orders in a single location.

Additionally traceable serial numbers can now be implemented for receipts of production order where the above control is set and BOM stock records are flagged as traceable and serial numbered stock records. Additionally Control Code Stock/61 allows the next serial number to be generate for each stock record sequentially rather than a serial number to be provided on receipt, as is currently the case for GRN receipts, which can be of particular use when you are the manufacturer of an item.



Production Module

Retaining Line Numbers

When removing a component in WIP maintenance the line number is now retained to allow traceability to the original drawing numbers when sequences are no longer required.

Route Card Amendments

If activated, Control Codes Production/26 and Production/9 will allow the allocation of material in Works Order creation and the activation of Route Card printing as a default, making the Works Order a Pricing list of stock to pick.

The Route Card layout can then be amended to print details of the traceable lot numbers allocated to the order recorded in the new WIPDET_TRACE table.

These layout amendments along with the Route Card print to WIP Maintenance will allow the easy printing of historical reprints of route cards for all works orders with traceable material allocations

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Production Module.



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Website Maintenance

Website Maintenance

Category Drag & Drop

A drag & drop facility has been introduced into Category Maintenance to enable users to re-order categories.

In the example below, the sub category of ‘Statement’ could be moved to above ‘Traditional’ or ‘Baths’ could be moved to above ‘Sinks’.

Amendment and Creation Dates

For reporting purposes, creation dates and amendment dates have been introduced into Webstock and Webcategory.

Please contact your Account Manager for further information and details of the costs associated with the Web Services Tool Set.



Notes

**Don’t forget you can access all the How To Guides via HELP from within Merlin**



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Notes



Notes

Chatsworth HouseMillennium Way, Chesterfield, S41 8ND

[email protected]

Sales Enquiries: 01246 457 150 Technical support: 01246 457 170