Release Notes – July 2006 – October 2006

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Order & Quote Entry System

1. New Report Option – The Order Fill report by PPO Product has an additional question – Skip Items without Sales Orders. If this option is answered No, the Product received on PPO’s that do not have Sales Orders will not be included in this report. The Order fill reports are located in Order Reports, Scheduling and Expediting Reports. These are very useful if you would like to produce a report of Products that came in on a particular day along with the Orders that are open for those Products.
2. New Function Key – When on the final screen in Enter & Edit Orders there is a function key – F11 that enables a user to sort the detail lines of the Order by different criteria. You now have the ability to sort by the Alternate Part Number in the Sales Order.
3. New Report Option – Open Orders by Salesperson – All Detail. There is a new question on this report, Print On Hand Lots & Locations. When this is answered Yes, the system will print the Lots and Locations for each Product on the report that has on hand inventory. The default answer will be No.
4. New Flag – Default Line Item Price on Credit Items. When entering a negative quantity on an Order you can now specify how you would like the default selling price to display. You can select Zero or Last Price. If you select Last Price, the last price that Customer Paid will be chosen. If you select zero, Users have sales history conveniently located within the sales order so researching the actual price the customer paid in the past is very easy. The last price your Customer paid is also displayed on the detail screen along with the date and quantity purchased. This flag can be setup in Entity & System Flags, Order Entry Flags.
5. New Flag – Include Closed Orders in Lost Sales. If you have the system automatically recording lost sales when line times are removed from Orders and Quotes this additional flag will also include Closed Orders in the Lost Sales information. When this flag is set to Yes and an Order is closed using the F9-Close Order function key in Enter & Edit Orders, the line items on that closed order will be recorded as lost sales. A comment will indicate that they came from a closed order. This flag is located in Entity & system Flags, Order Entry Flags.
6. New User Flag – Default # of Copies on Pick Tickets. Each User can now specify the number of copies that they would typically like to print when printing Pick Tickets. Each User can setup their own preference in F1-User Flags- Order Entry, F5- Document Flags. The defaults setup in this screen will be used when printing through the function keys, the menu and also when printing backorders in process. In the past, the backorders in process always defaulted to 1 order, 1 packing list and 0 pick tickets.
7. New User Flag – Allow changing Orders to Quotes. If this flag is set to No the User cannot change an Order to a Quote. This flag is located in User Flags – Order Entry on the second screen.
8. New Flag – Allow Terms Change during Order Entry. When entering a Sales Order, Users have the ability to change the Payment Terms on a Sales Order. If this new flag is set to No, Users will not have the ability to change the Payment terms on an individual Order. If this flag is set to No and the Payment Terms need to be changed, they can be changed in the Customer record. The Payment Terms are assigned to each Customer in Enter & Edit Customers.

If Users have permission to access Enter & Edit Customers they can make this change through the F6 key on the Heading Screen of Enter & Edit Orders.

9. New Security Level Flag – Allowed to Edit Prices. Specific Security Levels can be setup so that Users with that level cannot change prices on a Sales Order. If Users try to change a price, the system will display a pop-up message that says Security Check. In order to change the price on the line item a security code must be entered. If a valid security code is not entered the users will not be able to change the price, the system will display, Access Denied.

   This new flag is in Edit Security Levels – F5 Entry & Deletion Access, on the second screen. Once you change a security level, all Users which are assigned that particular level in Enter & Edit User Permissions will be affected.

   The security code to allow a User to change the selling price in Enter & Edit orders is located in. System Setup, Setup Miscellaneous, Entity & System Flags, Order Entry Flags. This code can be changed at any time.

Purchase Order System

1. New Function Key – When using the F8-Set PO function key during the entry of a Sales Order Detail Line, you can now view Purchase History for the Vendor you have selected. You can select a date range and the system will present all products that you have purchased from that vendor with the date range you selected.
2. Enabled Feature – You can now Fax a Processing Purchase Order from the Final Screen of a Processing Purchase Order using the F4-Fax Processing PO function key. Previously this key was on the screen but not available.Computer Insights, Inc. The BUSINESS EDGE
3. Additional Field for exporting – When exporting the Receipts Journal by Vendor the Inventory Classification will now be included. This provides more sorting capabilities.
4. New Feature – Enter PPO Definitions on the fly – You can now Enter or Edit a Processing Purchase Order Definition when you are in Enter & Edit Processing P.O.’s. When you are at the Detail Line screen where you enter the components needed to create the Product, there is now an F5- PPO Definition function key. If you enter a definition for the product that you are currently creating the PPO will be automatically populated after entering it here and returning to the detail lines.
5. New Feature – PPO Component Report by Product – This new report will provide you with a list of Products along with their PPO Definitions. Users can select any range of Products. When this report is printed or viewed in PDF format each product in the selected range will be presented along with the PPO Definition. When this information is presented in a scrolling box it can be exported to Excel or a text file. This new report is located in Purchase Order System, Processing P.O. System, PPO Reports.
6. New Feature – PPO Component Availability Planning – This new feature enables you to view a bill of material for items with Processing Purchase Order Definitions for planning purposes. The system will prompt you for the Product you would like and the quantity you would like to create. There is also an option to include sub-components.

   You will then be brought to a screen where you will see a listing of the components needed along with the quantity needed, the available quantity and costs. You can easily view a product inquiry for any of the products listed by simply pressing enter on the Product The heading recaps the quantity you requested to produce along with the maximum quantity available to produce and estimated cost.

7. New Feature – Enter & Edit Processing Purchase Order Definitions. This is now a menu selection in the Processing Purchase Order Menu. You can select any range of Products. They system will then give you the option to include all Products in the range that you selected or just the Products that either have a Definition or do not have a Definition.

   The selected products will be listed in a scrolling box. On the right side of the scrolling box a column will indicate whether or not a PPO Definition exists for that product. You can press enter on any product listed and either enter or edit a PPO Definition for that product. This new feature enables you to quickly enter or edit PPO Definitions for a range of products.

8. Function Key Change – When on the final screen in Enter & Edit Purchase Orders F8 was Print PO and F9 was Fax PO. F8 is now Print, Fax and E-mail options. F9 is now Consolidate Detail Lines.
9. New Report Option – Purchase Order Receipts in Process Report – There are now three options for this report. The default report is a summary by Vendor, this summary shows each Vendor along with the Purchase Orders received and the total dollar value. Additional choices now include – Detail and Detail with Sales Orders. When Detail is selected each line received on the Purchase Order will be presented with the quantity and value received. This report will also subtotal the receipts by Purchase Order. When Detail with Sales Orders is selected each detail line will be presented along with any open sales orders for each product. If you are using default locations by product, the default location will also be included to help with putting away excess stock.

   The flag to select the report option you would like is located in Entity & System Flags, Purchase Order Flags.

10. New Report Option – Open P.O.’s by Vendor. When generating this report you can now select to print the Line Comments when including the Detail Lines on this report.
11. New Confirmation request – When deleting a Request for Quote, the system will now ask the User to confirm before deleting the document.

Accounts Receivable System

1. New Option when Faxing Invoices in Process. If you are using the Fax invoices in Process feature the system can now automatically prompt the User to Update Invoices after going through the normal Faxing and Printing of the Invoices. This way Users do not have to update the invoices as a separate process. The Update procedure will prompt the User for Backorders if that flag is set to do so, it will provide and In-Process Register and then finally ask the User if they would like to Update.

   This new flag is located in Entity & System Flags – Accounts Receivable

2. New Function Key – When entering a deposit through Cash Receipts a function key has been added to give you access to your internal Customer Notes. While in the Check Heading Screen, the F3-Notes key will enable you to view existing Customer Notes or add new Customer Notes.
3. New Feature – Fax Un-sent Invoices. This new feature will function just like the option to Print Un-sent Invoices. You can select a date range and the system will check all Invoices in that range that have not been printed or faxed. If the flag in the Customer Master File is set to Fax Invoices Daily then the system will suggest that you fax those invoices. You also have an option to simply list the invoices that have not faxed.

   If it is your procedure to Fax all of your invoices over-night, you could run this selection in the morning and the system will re-try any faxes that failed the evening before. If you continue to have failed faxes, you would then want to print and mail those invoices. Using Print Un-sent Invoices will isolate those invoices for you.

4. New export fields – Customer Sales History – When in a Customer Inquiry and viewing F5- Sales History additional fields have been added when this information is exported to Excel or a text file. These fields include bin location, bin minimum, bin maximum and contract price for that item. This additional information makes it easy to create a file to put on the palm pilot for vendor-managed inventory, which includes all of the products that your customer purchases from you.

Accounts Payable System

1. New Feature – When in a Vendor Inquiry, F7- Invoices & Checks, F4- Show All Invoices now have options on what invoices you would like to see and in what sequence. After Pressing F4 in the past all invoices were presented in Invoice Number order. You can now select a Date Range and have options to sequence the Invoices by Invoice Number, Invoice Date or Due Date.
2. New Function Key – When entering an Accounts Payable Invoice for Inventory that was received and posted to Accrued Accounts Payable you can now view a P.O. or P.P.O. Inquiry. When you press F5-Po List, there is a F3-Purchase Order Inquiry that will bring you into the P.O that you have selected. When you press F6-PPO List, there is a F3-PPO Inquiry that will bring you directly into the PPO that you have selected.

   This new feature makes it very easy to troubleshoot discrepancies while you are entering vendor invoices.

Inventory System

1. New Information – While doing a Product Inquiry and viewing the Cardex, you can press enter on a Sales transaction and see the Invoice Number that the Product was shipped on. The Order Number will now also be displayed. This is helpful for companies that have different Order and Invoice Numbers.
2. New Field for export – Product Classification has been added to the data that is exported for the Product Activity Report. The Product Activity report provides a listing of items sold within a selected date range. Information included is the number of times an item was picked and the average quantity picked. This information can be very useful when trying to isolate fast or slow moving items. Some companies use this information to help design their warehouse layout.
3. New System Flag – User Short Range Available Logic. – The default calculation for Available Quantity in The BUSINESS EDGE is Quantity On Hand minus Committed and optionally adding in Quantity on P.O. and Processing P.O. This new flag will limit the Sales Orders that are considered in the Committed Quantity taking into consideration Sales Orders Scheduled for a future date. If this flag is set to Yes the Committed Quantity will only reflect Sales Orders that have a date requested that is less than or equal to Today’s Date plus the lead time of the Product plus 14 days. When the Available Quantity is calculated, it will then use this Committed Quantity.

   If this flag is turned on, the system will display the date that scheduled Orders will be included through on the General Product Inquiry Screen. If you are using the Consolidated Document Inquiry, this date will be shown there as well. When viewing the Open Sales Orders a line show the cut off between orders up to and after this Date. This flag can be turned on in Entity & System Flags – Inventory.

4. New Report Option – Dead Inventory Report – A new report option – Show individual Lots/Locations. If you answer Yes to this new question when generating the Dead Inventory Report, Products with multiple Lots and or Locations will appear multiple times. If you answer No you will see a single line for each Product. The default answer will be No.
5. New Feature – Substitutes – You can now enter substitutes for Products in the inventory master file. Substitutes can then be selected on a Sales Order or Processing Purchase Order through a function key.

   Entering Substitutes – In Enter & Edit Products press F5-Additional Information, F4- PPO Definitions, F3-Substitute Products. You can then enter as many substitute products as needed for the Product that you have selected. For each substitute product you can then indicate how it can be used with PPO’s and Orders. The choices are Perfect, Useable or cannot be used. There is also an option for a conversion factor if the substitute is not a one for one replacement.

   Using Substitutes – When you are entering a Sales Order or a Processing Purchase Order the system can suggest substitutes based on the products that you have entered.

   When in the Sales Order Detail Line, press F11 to see if there are any substitutes for the Product you have selected. You will be presented with a scroll box showing you the substitute Products, the type of substitution (perfect or useable) along with the available quantity and quantity on hand. You can also view a Product Inquiry for the substitute products by highlighting the product and pressing F3. If you would like to select one of the substitutes, simply press enter or click on it to select it. The system will have you confirm you would like to select the substitute part and then it will change the order.

   When in a Processing Purchase Order Detail Line, press F7-Subs to see if there are any substitutes for the product you need to send to the processor. You will be presented with a scroll box showing you the substitute Products, the type of substitution (perfect or useable) along with the available quantity. If you would like to select on of the substitutes, simply press enter or click on it to select it. The system will have you confirm you would like to select the substitute part and then it will change the Processing Purchase Order.

6. New Feature – Vendor Contract Costs – You can now enter Contract Costs from a Vendor into The BUSINESS EDGE. The system will automatically select the Contract Cost when creating a Purchase Order.

   Entering Contract Costs – Vendor Contract Costs can be entered through Enter & Edit Vendors or Enter & Edit Products. If you have multiple Products for one Vendor, it is more efficient to enter the Contract Costs through Enter & Edit Vendors. This can be done by pressing F5- Additional Information, F5- Contract Costs. If you would like to enter a new contract price, simply press Enter on New Line. If you would like to edit an existing Product, highlight the Product and press enter to select it. You can enter a Beginning Date, Ending Date and Contract Price and Contract Minimum Line Charge. If the date fields are blank, the Contract Price will not expire.

   If you are entering Contract Prices for different Vendors and Products, it may be more efficient to enter them through Enter & Edit Products. You can do this by Selecting an Item in Enter & Edit Products, press F4- Cost and then F4- Vendor Contract Costs. In this entry screen after selecting the Vendor you will enter the same information including Beginning Date, Ending Date, Contract Price and Contract Minimum Line Charge.

   The system will then automatically select the Vendor’s Contract Price when entering a Purchase Order through Enter & Edit Purchase Orders or when using the new Automatic Replenishment System. If you have entered Minimum Line Charges along with the Contract Pricing the system will increase the per unit price if you have not exceeded the minimum.

   Vendor Contract Prices can also be viewed in the Detail line of a Processing P.O. as well in a Product Inquiry, F6-Stocking Information, and F7- Contract Costs.

7. New Feature – Figure Inventory Stocking Criteria – This new feature can help reset Stocking Objectives, maximum Quantity to Stock and Re-Order Points. These fields are used in the Re-Order Point Reports and the Automated Replenishment System.

   Users are prompted for an Inventory range, whether to include PPO Definitions and then criteria to set the stocking values to. A different number of Customers and Number of Detail Lines can be selected along with different stocking objectives and Max Quantity to stock. A specific re-order point can be selected or the system can re-calculate the reorder point.

   The Re-Order Point is calculated based on Average Usage per day * (Stocking objective + lead-time). The Average Usage per day is calculated as Customer Usage of the Product for the number of months as entered in the # month’s usage. This is located in Edit Auto Replenishment Flags, in the Auto Replenishment System.

   This new feature is located in Inventory System, Re-Order Point System, Re-Order Point System Maintenance, Figure Inventory Stocking Criteria.

8. Field removed – Manufacturing Type is no longer used in the system and therefore is no longer located in Enter & Edit Products.
9. New Field – Auto Replenishment Type – this new field has been added to Enter & Edit Products. On a Product-by-Product basis, Users can specify the type. Choices include – System Suggest – this means that the system will figure out what type of document should be created based on the Auto Replenishment rules, P.O., RFQ, PPO or Work Order. If PPO or Work Order is selected and there is no definition, the Automated Replenishment System will default back to a Po or RFQ.

   This new field is located in Enter & Edit Products, F5-Additional Information. The default answer is System Suggest.

10. New field added to inquiry for export – Customer Alternate Product Code has been added to What Who Buys – This report will present the products purchased by a specific customer within a specific period. The information is presented in a scrolling box and can be exported to excel or a text file. When the information is exported, it will include the Customers Alternate Product Code.

    This inquiry is located in Accounts Receivable Reports, Customer Activity Reports.

Sales Analysis

1. When exporting Sales Journal information or Sales Journal Information with Detail you can now select a range of Customers. Exporting Sales Journal Information is available through the Sales Analysis System and the Utilities System.
2. Product Sales and Profit Report will now be presented in a scrolling box when output method of screen is selected. This will enable you to export this information to Excel or a text file. When running the Product Sales and Profit you can select any range of products and up to three date ranges.
3. When exporting Sales Journal Detail information one of the selection fields is the Alternate Part Number. In the past, the system would export the default Alternate Part Number. The system will now export the Alternate that belongs to the Customer if the customer record has been tied to the Alternate Part Number in Enter & Edit Products.
4. New fields – When the Customer Sales & Profit report is put into Excel or a text file the Customer’s Address information will now be included.

Utilities

1. New Feature – When entering a telephone or fax number in The BUSINESS EDGE, if a number is entered without an area code the system will assume that the area code is the same as your company’s area code and fill it in automatically.
2. New Security Level Flag – Allowed to Edit Prices. Specific Security Levels can be setup so that Users with that level cannot change prices on a Sales Order. If Users try to change a price, the system will display a pop-up message that says Security Check. In order to change the price on the line item a security code must be entered. If a valid security code is not entered the users will not be able to change the price, the system will display, Access Denied.

   This new flag is in Edit Security Levels – F5 Entry & Deletion Access, on the second screen. Once you change a security level, all Users which are assigned that particular level in Enter & Edit User Permissions will be affected.

   The security code to allow a User to change the selling price in Enter & Edit orders is located in. System Setup, Setup Miscellaneous, Entity & System Flags, Order Entry Flags. This code can be changed at any time.

3. New field for export – When export Sales Journal information you can now choose to include the User that entered the sales order.
4. New Feature – If you have multiple Entities, the system will no longer force the User to exit the system and re-enter.

Branch Related Features

1. Branch Option has been added to the Dead Inventory Report. The Dead Inventory report can be generated for a single branch or all branches combined.
2. When running the Branch Usage Inquiry you can now select All Branches, in the past only individual branches could be selected.