**The latest Inform upgrade includes features and fixes from all previous upgrades. Please review the upgrade notes for any additional versions that fall between your current version and this upgrade.** New Features Improved Google Calendar Synchronization **All customers currently using Google Sync must re-authenticate their Google Account using the Configure Google Synchronization (Beta) screen under the CRM (Beta) menu** Google authentication now requests permission from Google to manage your calendars. This resolves several issues with Google synchronization, including errors that displayed when trying to add a task or event. Maintain Cost by Warehouse Now maintain separate costs and/or list prices by warehouse location. Develop warehouse-specific Price Rollups and Price Changes to increase gross profits. This option requires a consultation with DDI Customer Care to configure. Please contact DDI Customer Care to schedule a consultation. Restrict Items for Specific Customers Using Customer Certification Codes Restrict selected items to only be ordered by customers with the appropriate certification code entered in their customer master. Enter a Certification Code for the restricted item under the General tab in the Product Master. To add this item to a Sales Order, the customer must have the certification code entered in the Product Certification Codes field in the Customer Master. Customers may have multiple Certification Codes for permission to order multiple groups of restricted items. Users will see the message above when attempting to add the item to an unapproved customer s order. The Certification Code fields are available in Customer Mass Change and Product Mass Change. Customer Consignment Warehouse Create and replenish consignment warehouses for customers. Link a customer to the consignment warehouse, transfer materials into it, assign consignment products to it with inventory minimums for purchasing projections and bill your customer for what they use. This option requires a consultation with DDI Customer Care to configure. Please contact DDI Customer Care to schedule a consultation. NEW! Cut Materials Functionality Inform Upgrade Version 20.0.77.77 Designed for cutting pipe, this new feature allows you to break one product (ex. one 24ft Pipe) into smaller component products (ex. two 12ft Pipes), while factoring down the average and landed costs. Before using this feature, please contact DDI Customer Care to schedule a consultation that will include a review of item setup and use of the Cut Materials screen.
Set Monthly Quotas for Salesmen Set monthly sales and gross profit quotas for your salesmen. Print or export a Sales Quota report to compare your quota, actual and last year values. Report cost and gross profit information is based on your Sales Order GP% Cost Column, set in your Company Master. These values will not affect the calculation of your salesperson s commission. Monthly Quotas can be set in the Salesman Commission Matrix, by clicking on the Salesman tab and then the Monthly Quotas tab. The report is also run from this tab. Line Item Cost Validation Identifies Vendor Pricing Discrepancies The Line Item Cost Validation system prevents Stock Receipts from being linked to an A/P Invoice where the cost of the item on the invoice or receiving ticket differs from the cost on the Purchase Order. Pricing by item is verified when the Stock Receipt is entered. If there is a difference between the Net Price from the Purchase Order and the Invoice Price, the system will send a message to the Accounts Payable department, notifying them that a variance exists. If a user attempts to enter an invoice for a receiving that has a variance, it will not let them link the receiving to the invoice until the variance is reconciled. A variance can be reconciled by changing the Net Price on the item (accepting the new price from the vendor) or changing the Invoice Price to match the original Purchase Order (rejecting the new price from the vendor). Please contact DDI Customer Care to enable this feature on your system. Improved Advanced Report Writer (Beta) Using feedback from our users, we ve redesigned the backend of Advanced Report Writer to allow for improved flexibility when linking multiple files. A new Preview button allows you to preview the first 10 results for the report to check the layout and calculations. Set reports to Export Only instead of previewing and then exporting the report. Additionally, when designing your own report layout, fields now display the friendly name under the Bound Fields folder (shown to the right). The friendly name is now used as the Data field for Group Headers and in calculated fields.* This change resolves previous issues using fields with numbers in Calculated Field formulas. *Due to this enhancement, it may be necessary to rebuild some reports that you have created if they use Group Headers, Page Breaks or Calculated fields. For reports with complex layouts, you may choose to edit the report instead of rebuilding it. Please keep in mind that our Advanced Report Writer is a beta screen. We appreciate our customers testing and reporting any issues that they encounter to support.
Speed up Sales Order Entry by Skipping the Backorder Window For customers using Quantity Pick Logic - Choose to hide the Backorder window that automatically opens in Sales Order entry by unchecking the S/O Quantity Override box under the Defaults tab in the Branch Master. The window will no longer appear when users tab through the Quantity Ordered field, but can still be accessed by right-clicking on the item and selecting Backorder from the menu. The system will still automatically calculate the quantity to ship and the quantity backordered. Enhanced Fuel Charge Maintenance Add or remove Fuel Surcharges from orders directly from the Truck Manifest screen using the FC checkbox (shown below). Enable this feature by setting a Miscellaneous Charge Code for Fuel/Delivery Charge and a Fuel/Delivery Dollar Amount in the Company Master, under the Sales tab. If you do not have these fields set in the Company Master, the checkbox option will not appear. Miscellaneous Charge codes and amounts already set on the Customer Master will override the default set in the Company Master. The Truck Manifest Beta screen must be enabled to use this feature. Click the Beta Screen button in the bottom left corner of the screen to enable this. Record Customer Sequence Numbers on Order Forms for Easier Customer Ordering This feature allows your customers to order by the line number that the product appears on their Customer Order Form, instead of indicating the product number or description. When printing from the Customer Order Form screen, check the Save Line Seq Numbers box. This assigns a sequence number to each product, based on their line number on the Order Form. When searching in Sales Order entry for the customer, you can enter "+1" or " `1" for the product on line 1 of the customer's Order Form. Sequence numbers also display in the Customer Order Pad and are reassigned each time you print the order form with the box checked. This option must be enabled in the Company Master, under the Sales tab, by setting the "Record Line Seq Numbers from Customer Order Form" to "Y".
Additional Features Access Levels -New Access Level available for opening attachments in the Customer Master called View Customer Attachments. Users will still be able to see the name of the attachment under the Attachments tab, but will not be able to open any attachments to view them. -New Access Level for the Stock Transfer Entry and Stock Transfer Receiving screens. Automatic Backorder Release -New option reschedules orders when they are released for picking on their scheduled Ship Date to the next available date based on the customer s Truck Route. If there is no Truck Route available, it will reschedule the order for the next business day. Currently the system will reschedule orders if the Ship Date is blank or has already passed. Please contact DDI Customer Care to enable this feature on your system. Check Stub Report -New report button in the Accounts Payable Check Payment Inquiry screen allows users to print a report of the check stub including the check number, invoices that the check was applied to, and amounts. Company Ship Via -Wireless Warehouse Only For companies using the Job Queue to pick orders on the guns, this new option allows you to choose when the Sales Orders appear in the Job Queue by Ship Via. Choose Individual S/O (immediately upon saving), Truck (when the truck is sent to the wireless guns from the Truck Manifest screen), or Exclude (never appear in the Job Queue). Customer Ledger -New option to generate Finance Charges for a disputed invoice. When disputing the invoice, check the Include in Finance Charge Update box to continue calculating finance charges. By default, disputed invoices are excluded from the Finance Charge Update. Customer Master -New feature to send Customer Price Letter to customer by fax, email or print. Set in Customer Master under the General tab. Customer Order Pad -Now checks the View Cost and Gross Profit access level when running the Customer Price Analysis report. -Now displays Future Adjusted Price in a tooltip when hovering the mouse over the Current Price. Customer Price List -New option to print a Customer Price List from the Customer Order Form or Customer Order Pad screens. The Price List includes products that the customer has purchased with the Current Price only. It will include items as far back as the Maintain Customer Sales History # of Years setting in your Company Master, excluding items that are hidden on the customer s Order Pad. Customer Statements
-Print options menu changed from a drop down to a checkbox. Checking the Print Only box will print statements for the selected group of customers, even if they are set to receive their statement via fax or email in the Customer Master. Inventory Adjustment -Now prevents users from adjusting items that are assemblies. Adjust the inventory quantity of an assembly by adjusting the inventory of its component products. Invoicing -New functionality to suspend invoice if the order results in a negative On Hand quantity for any products on the order. Enable this feature by setting the Company Master flag Suspend Invoice when On-Hand goes Negative to Y. -Now prompts the user to clear invoices when batch printing, in case the user wishes to print the invoices again. -Now automatically populates the current branch when the screen loads. Kit Production -Kit Production no longer requires components to be set when the item is created in the Product Master. Items can be marked as Kit Production under the Assembly tab in the Product Master and components can be specified when the item is assembled in the Kit Production screen. Pivot Views -New option to filter the Sales Pivot View by Price Group. Price Book Report -For companies using Cost/Price by Warehouse, the report now displays the cost/price associated with the warehouse attached to the branch that the user is currently logged into Inform. Product Analysis -For Wireless Warehouse Only the system now audits changes made to bins. -For Wireless Warehouse Only if the your system is set to not maintain Serial Numbers in the Company Master, the system will now allow you to edit Serial Numbers in Product Analysis. Product Import -For customers using Cost by Warehouse now allows user to select warehouse when importing costs or prices for products. Product Master -Now automatically updates the default units of measure if the product only has one and it is changed. -Products can no longer be set to Inactive if they are present on an open Price Quote. The item must be removed from the quote or the quote must be set to expire before the status on the product can be changed. Projected Purchase Order -Inventory grid now excludes Drop Ship, Return Goods and Inactive warehouses.
-Projected Stock Transfers now allows user to display From Warehouse information by checking the Display From Whse Info? box under the Options tab. -Now displays inventory information even when no warehouse is selected for the projection. Purchase Order -New workflow now prevents users from making changes to prices on a Purchase Order after a receiving has been processed. Price changes must be made through the Stock Receipts screen. -Now prevents the Warehouse field from being left blank. -Inventory tab now hides Drop Ship and Return Goods warehouses. -For customers using Cost by Warehouse now asks to recalculate costs if the warehouse for the order is changed after items have been entered. Sales Order -Contract prices are now considered One-Time prices on Sales Orders. One-Time prices are not used as the customer s Last Price Paid for the next order. This change ensures that when the contract expires, the system will revert back to using the last price the customer paid before the contract price. -For customers using Cost by Warehouse now includes the option to recalculate prices based on the warehouse. -Now prevents the Warehouse field from being left blank. -Fast Product Entry window now includes Volume field. -Now notifies users if the customer has open orders or open backorders by flashing notification under the Customer Number. This will only flash when the order is first created. -New option to print the Manufacturer s Part Number on the Sales Order only. Enable this option in the Company Master, under the Sales tab, by setting the Print MFG Part Number on S/O & Invoice field to S. -Now records and displays the Print and Sent status for Price Quotes under the Status tab. -New option to print an audit for products added to or deleted from a Sales Order since the last time it was printed. When the Sales Order is reprinted, it will include an audit at the bottom of any products that were added or deleted. Enable this option in the Company Master, under the Sales tab, by setting Print Added/Deleted Products from Audit since Last Printed S/O to Y. Sales Order Report -The report now checks to see if another user is running the report when you are making changes to it. If another user is running the report, when you click to save your changes it will prompt you that another user is using the report and ask if you would like to continue saving your changes. Salesperson Dashboard -Now allows users to sort under the Sales Analysis tab by clicking on the column headers. Stock Receipts -Can now edit and view product line item comments.
Stock Transfer Entry -Now displays the RF Scanned quantity for each line item and prevents users from changing a quantity once it has been RF scanned. -New option to generate customer consignment warehouse replenishment transfers. Please contact DDI Customer Care for a consultation when setting up a customer consignment warehouse. -For customers using Cost by Warehouse new option to enter freight for transfers. -Now indicates if a product on the transfer is a Kit Production item. -New option to hide or show freight for companies maintaining cost by warehouse. Enable or disable this option in the Company Master under the Pricing/Costing tab using the Cost by Warehouse Stock Transfer Freight field. Stock Transfer Receiving -For Wireless Warehouse Only Receive All button now enters the Quantity Scanned for the product as the Quantity received.
Miscellaneous Corrections & Adjustments Accounts Payable Check Print Accounts Payable Invoice Entry Accounts Receivable Aging Report Accounts Receivable Cash Receipts Company User Master Contact CRM Customer Mass Change Customer Trend Cut Material Executive Performance Summary Inactive Inventory Report Inventory Adjustment Inventory Adjustment Report Invoicing Opportunity Pipeline -Corrected partial payment error message. -Resolved issue that did not unlink the Stock Receipt when an invoice was voided. -Corrected display line issue in summary report. -Authorize.Net users only now supports issuing credits not linked to a transaction processed in Authorize.Net. In order to process unlinked credits, you must apply for Expanded Credit Capabilities (ECC) by completing the ECC Application found on the Authorize.Net website (www.authorize.net/files/ecc.pdf) and submitting it to Authorize.Net. -Corrected issue saving access levels for users. -Fixed intermittent issue that prevented users from editing template emails. -Resolved issue with conflicting Access Levels. Now checks correct Access Level for Customer Mass Change and not Access Level for Customer Master. -Corrected system errors that displayed when selecting criteria. -Corrected issue that did not clear the Balance Left field with the rest of the screen. -Resolved system error when entering. in the Quantity field. -Adjusted to exclude quotes from Open Purchases total. -Resolved export issues caused by double-quotation marks in product descriptions. -Fixed issue that did not look at the Product Line Inventory Account for adjustments. -Resolved issue that prevented the system from creating a new line when tabbing through. -Corrected issue related to Kit Production items that caused issues reconciling adjustment totals. -Now only includes adjustments when A is selected instead of all transactions. -Fixed issue updating the committed quantity for products when the system is set to cancel backorders. -Adjusted to only display quotes for the salesperson logged in when they are restricted from viewing other sales information.
Physical Inventory Price Book Report Price Change Price Contract Product Analysis Product Mass Change Product Master Projected Purchase Order Purchase Order Purchase Order Inquiry Release Orders on Hold Sales Analysis Inquiry Sales Manager Dashboard -Corrected issue that prevented users from selecting bins. -Resolved issue that caused an error to display when users tried to un-freeze a frozen batch. -Commas can no longer be entered in the Quantity field. -Adjusted system error that occurred when entering nonnumeric values into the Bin Location field. -Corrected access level issue running the report. -Now hides the Disable Margin Price column for companies not using Last Price. -Changing the Expiration Date on the contract now does not adjust the date set on the Customer Price Overrides. -Corrected issue with See Salesman Cost permissions. -Fixed issue with inventory rankings. -Resolved issue with conflicting Access Levels. Now checks correct Access Level for Product Mass Change and not Access Level for Product Master. -Corrected issue with See Salesman Cost permissions. -Adjusted Lead Time calculation to exclude transactions processed through the Return Goods warehouse. -Corrected intermittent issue that allowed the default pricing unit of measure to be disabled from sales. -Corrected issue that allowed duplicate vendors under the Vendor P/O tab. -Corrected problem that reset cursor to a different row when navigating to another screen. -Resolved intermittent error message regarding input format. -Fixed intermittent display issue of line extensions. -Corrected issue that caused Warehouse to reset when vendor was changed. -Resolved issue that hid non-stock message for line items added to the P/O from projection. -Corrected issue that enabled the Send button when no orders were selected. -Fixed intermittent issue with released orders still displaying in the screen. -Resolved incorrect sales totals for vendors. -Corrected miscellaneous display issues when filtering data.
Sales Order Sales Order Report Sales Tax Journal Salesman Commission Matrix Special Purchase Requisitions -Corrected issue that caused incorrect quantity rounding in the Backorder window when Quantity Pick Logic was disabled. -Discount price adjustments now check the Price Override Access Level. Users will be prevented from issuing a discount if they do not have permission to override prices. -Now displays updated Order totals for changes are made under the Shipments tab without requiring a refresh. -Adjusted display of Item Groups on Point of Sale Invoice. -When displaying Invoice History for returned items, voided invoices are now excluded. -Corrected rounding issue with costs when setting cost by Gross Profit. -Adjusted calculation of P/O Dollar Limit to account for cancelled backorders. -Fixed calculation of Ship Quantity for non-stock products when using automatic backorder flag instead of Quantity Pick Logic. -Corrected issue with Copy Order error message. -Resolved issue with backorder quantity calculation when converting a quote to an order. -Corrected Fast Product pricing issue related to Cost by Warehouse. -Fixed incorrect error that displayed when swiping a Credit Card for Authorize.Net. -Corrected intermittent error message concerning missing P/O for drop ship orders. -Fixed issue with ship quantities changing when Item Groups were modified. -Resolved issue that prevented the description for SP items from copying over to new orders when using the Copy Order functionality. -Corrected issue that prevented the report from saving the Based On field selection. -Corrected report totaling issue. -Fixed incorrect error message that displayed when setting the expiration date. -Now defaults to the branch that the user is logged into, not the default branch for the company.
Stock Receipts User Login Vendor Master -Resolved display issue for lines with a cancelled balance. -Fixed issue with display of Cancel Balance when using the Receive All button. -Corrected system error that occurred when switching users. -Resolved issue with conflicting Access Levels. Now checks correct Access Level for Vendor Mass Change and not Access Level for Vendor Master.