eoStar 2009 is coming...

When I first started this blog, I was planning to document our changes each week. This was an ambitious plan and it seems that it would be better if I just shoot for once a month. Of course, I will still try to document any big changes that warrant their own article separately.
As planned, eoStar 2009 has been release to our beta testers, Kent Beverage in Grand Rapids Michigan. Kent Beverage is a local Coors Distributor that carries many fine wines as well as energy drinks. So far things are running smoothly. We’ve ran into a couple of issues with the web service and the dot matrix plug-in but we were able to resolve them in a timely manner. Our official release date is March 30th, 2009.

The past few months have been busy months for our developers and there are a lot of new changes that I want to cover, in addition to the new functionalities and GUI changes, I should also mention that the entire communication structure between the web service and the handheld has been re-written. We also worked on the way we save and read the data files. In the past we’ve relied on the OS to move the data correctly which causes issues at times. I will cover the web service changes later on.

Laid-in-cost manager:
We have two types of cost in eoStar, the purchase cost which is the cost that is associated with a purchase order and the cost of goods sold which is the cost that will be sent over to the general ledger. This module affects the cost on a purchase order. Similar to the front line price manager you can enter an effective date for a cost type by supplier. For how to instructions read the following wiki article: http://www.wiki-eostar.com/index.php?title=Laid-In-Cost_Manager

Apply Hold Code:
The apply hold code feature allows the user to mass assign a no sell hold code to a group of customers based on pre-define rules. This is handy for customers that have violated their terms.
For how to instructions read the following wiki article: http://www.wiki-eostar.com/index.php?title=Apply_Hold_Codes

Order Type for driver charge invoices:
DRS driver charge orders can now be tagged with an order type for reporting purposes. This can be done from the database configuration screen.

Non-returnable items :
You can now define which items can be entered as negative quantities on an order by a user on the handheld. This can be done by defining a non returnable item set and assigning a password with the items. Read the following article for how to instructions: http://www.wiki-eostar.com/index.php?title=Overview:_Returnable_and_Non-Returnable_Items


Delivery handheld Check out sheet:
This functionality is only available on eoMobileCF handhelds version 9.1.7.23 and higher. This is essentially a blind count that allows the driver to confirm his inventory with the warehouse supervisor prior to leaving for the day. Read the following wiki article for how to instructions: http://www.wiki-eostar.com/index.php?title=Delivery_Handheld_-_Check_Out

GUI Changes
Along with new functionality they’ve been many GUI changes to the interface. The biggest change has been moving all the configuration screens that have been “sprinkle” in various parts of the application into one menu option. The File>Database Administration>eoStar>Setup menu has been removed. This means that users will notice options “missing” because of this change.

Additional GUI changes:
1. DRS – the transfer now have the time stamp displayed along with the expected date
2. Inventory Reconcile>Transfer screen now display the expected transfer date
3. SRS – You can now select multiple suppliers for exports
4. Auto Bump – replaced the customer entry screen with the customer selector
5. Fintech- There is a new export format since we now support X12 format under the view export screen.
6. Fintech – The hyperlink to change the invoice has been removed since it was redundant to have both the order hyper link and a separate menu to change the PO number.

As always make sure to visit our wiki site for the complete list of changes and enhancement.