Mothernode Software Update Available– Release (2A)
Mothernode Software Update
July 2013 – Release (2A)
New Updates
Date: July 8, 2013
July 2013 – Release (2A)
Users should take note of the following important changes and updates now available. As always, we encourage everyone to read the release notes. This release contains new features, enhancements and bug fixes.
Release Overview
Release 2A is a notable for both it’s size and scope. Included are significant enhancements to the Production, Vendor, and Inventory modules, as well as the creation of several new modules.
Work Order
The Service Order currently found in the Order record, will now be replaced by the Work Order. The Work Order provides users with an efficient method of communicating service needs to field technicians and service agents, contributing to timely execution and overall customer satisfaction.
Cases
The new Cases module provides users with a centralized location for customer service requests. Case records are used to track and report on issues, as well as to capture client correspondence. Users can also take advantage of webform integration to provide their customers with an automated portal to submit questions or issues.
Handshake™
Handshake™ allows users to refer or exchange existing contacts, customers and even opportunities with trusted business partners. Once the referral is received and approved, it automatically becomes a new lead within your account.
Shipping/Receiving
New Shipping and Receiving modules provide users with a simplified method to quickly and efficient ship Orders and receive PO’s without having to go through the process of opening the records, and drilling to a specific tab.
Details
Accounting
• Users can now filter and report on Credit Memos by using the Advanced Search/Custom Reports function in the Invoices Module.
When batch printing Invoices, the message “Continued on Next Page” now applies to each invoice separately. Previously every page contained the message.
• A pagination issue causing found when creating Credit Memos was corrected.
An issue found when attempting to print a batch invoice to the Report Archive was corrected.
Administration
• Leads and Opportunities has been added as an additional tab in the System Defaults module. Users can now define default values for Lead & Opportunity fields such as Opportunity Type, Selling Stage, and Estimated Close date.
A record clean up feature has been added for Leads, Opportunities and Quotes. Users can now have records closed automatically based upon predefined criteria. The clean up feature can be found in the System Defaults module, in the Lead and Opportunities tab.
As an added security feature, users can be restricted in viewing only records associated with their account. This feature can be found in the Permissions tab in the user account.
Users can now define whether the values in a Custom fields can pass forward in transactional documents.
Reporting
• Tax Rate has been added as a Batch Update option in Quotes and Orders.
An issue with automated reports distribution was corrected.
Some users had reported difficulty in reading the headers in the automated reports, the issue has been corrected.
Contacts
• Contact records now include a field for capturing the users business line extension.
The contact record now includes a Create New button (similarly found in the Customer record) for quick record creation.
A minor issue found when contacts were added to transactions has been corrected.
Customers
• A customer specific tax rate can now be set as the default tax rate for new transactions tied to the customer. A custom tax rate can be set in the billing tab of the Customer Profile.
When creating a customer from a lead, todays date will now default the Client Since field in the customer profile.
Notifications
• The Notification Management tab in the user account has an update interface for ease of use. Notification options are now grouped by module for allow for easier navigation
• Status changes included in the Activity Feed now include a date stamp.
• Banner notifications in the Ready for Invoice screen, as well as the Ready for Production screen have been replaced with a notification icon in individual records.
SideBar (Events/Tasks)
• SideBar events now display all the users tagged in the event.
• An issue identified with information being truncated when a “#” is used was corrected.
Leads & Opportunities
• In the leads & Opportunities list, records with associated Quotes appear in bold.
• The Primary Contact is now designated in the lead with a green star. Users can change this designation by clicking on the grey star of the desired contact.
• When converting a Lead to a Customer record, users now have an option to attach the Lead to any of the possible duplicates that appear.
• Users can now search for multiple records in the Leads & Opportunities list by entering those records separated by a comma in the standard search field.
• From the Advanced Search, users can now filter and report on records with attached quotes.
• The Groups field has been added as a searchable option in the Advanced Options module.
• A standard report for Leads and Opportunities by Groups has been added to the Leads and Opportunities module.
Quotes
• Users can now enter item notes by line items in transactional records (Quotes, Orders, PO’s, and Work Orders). Multiple notes can be made, with each allowing users to define whether or not they are to print in the printed document (Note: All line items notes appear in the Order Worksheet).
• A safe guard has been implemented to prevent users from creating an Order from a Quote with an Inactive status. Users attempting to do so will be presented with a warning message.
Orders
• Users can now enter item notes by line items in transactional records (Quotes, Orders, PO’s, and Work Orders). Multiple notes can be made, with each allowing users to define whether or not they are to print in the printed document (Note: All line items notes appear in the Order Worksheet).
• An issue was corrected in the Change Order print out, to match the Order.
• When using the option for a Drop Ship address, the Vendor Shipping address is now used instead of the primary address.
• An issue with the Vendor selection mechanism when used in the Drop Ship feature, has been corrected.
• Users had reported that the light blue highlight colored used in the Order Worksheet was hard to see and print. The color has been updated to black.
• The Ship Confirmation email header and footer was found to break on some email clients. This has been corrected.
• The Production tab found in the Order will now appear once the Order is process. (previously, the Order had to be accepted into production). The production calendar is not accessible from this tab.
• Users now have additional controls when printing production documents. Users can now select Production Documents from the print mechanism and select which production documents they would like to print.
• A new feature was added to the Construction tab within the Order. Users can now upload a message schedule for an entire order by clicking on the Import Message Schedule link found in the upper right hand corner of the tab.
Purchase Orders
• The process of creating a PO from an Order has been modified so that all records by default are uncheck. Previously all items were checked.
• The Order Reference has been added to the Advanced Search feature in the Purchase Orders list.
• Issue found in the Standard report and Custom report were corrected.
• An issue with the Vendor alerts in how they functioned within the PO has been corrected.
Production
• The scheduling tab found in the production order now prominently features important order information above the schedule (Due • • Date, Ship/Install date, Remake, Reorder, Priority).
• When scheduling, user can now define the start and end date for production. The scheduled end date defaults to the order Ship Date.
• When using the Auto Schedule Mechanic, the production schedule will include additional padding to allow more spacing between work center events.
• The process of adding additional work centers to a schedule has been updated so that multiple work centers can be added at once. Users also now have an opportunity to resort the work center events immediately after adding work centers.
Users can now schedule a flat time per work center. Previously this could only be done by manipulating the work centers volume per hour.
• Once a line item is scheduled, the scheduled information now displays with the event.
• PO’s associated to specific line items now appear as a schedule-able work center event . When using the auto schedule feature, • Items sorted after the PO will be scheduled after the PO event end date (default Required by Date in the PO). By default, the • PO will appear at the top of the sort order.
• The Production Calendar has been updated to include the total dollar amount due to ship by day, the total MH value scheduled to ship by day, as well as the total value of the orders due by date.
The Production Calendar has been update so users can now navigate to a specific calendar day instead of having to shuffle week by week.
• From the Production Overview screen, the 3 Month Forecast chart has been updated to categorize the dollar amounts displayed by the order ship date as opposed to the order due date.
• Work Center users now have the ability to view and add notes to the Order. Notes added from the Work Center screen will be tagged as being from production in the reference field, and users will have the option to tag users within the note.
Users running the Job Tracking reports from the Orders in Production list will have the option to print the notes from production.
• From within the Work Center screen, users can now see if an Order line item has a construction note associated with it without having to open the record.
Vendors
• A safety mechanism has been put in place that prevents users being able to delete a vendor record if it has PO’s attached to it.
• Users can now define default setting for vendor records from the Default Setting module in the Administration Menu.
The Vendor Import has been updated to include Product Categories/Capabilities, Description of Services, Terms & Policies, and Notes.
• The Mailcap feature has been added to Vendors, as as well as Vendor Contacts.
• The Advanced Options (advanced search/custom reports) feature has been added to the Vendors Module.
• The information in the Order History tab has been elaborated to include Order No., PO No., Qty, Unit Cost, and Ext. Price.
• Vendor locations are now available for update.
• Multiple issues related to open a vendor record after using the standard search feature have been corrected.
• The Vendor print out has been updated to include more information.
• An issue with the Vendor inadvertently being made inactive has been corrected.
• Users can now use the Batch Update feature to update the Active status of vendor records.
• A pagination issue found when perusing PO’s from the Vendor record has been corrected.
Products and Services
A standard import mechanic has been added to the Products and Services module.
The Transactions Tab has been added to Products and Services, allowing users to report on the sales activity for the items.
Inventory
• The Inventory Import mechanism has been modified so that users now have an option to update inventory, instead of just over writing or appending to the list. If an entry in the import file has an item number that matches an item in inventory, the item will be updated. If the item number is left blank, a new record will be created.
• The Advance Options module has been added to the Inventory module.
• The Inventory Category field has been added to the inventory record. The field can include multiple entries (comma separated) and be used to tag an inventory items with searchable data.
• Product price has been include in the inventory import. Users can now enter a product cost, and a product price without having to enter the product markup.
• Users can now add line item notes to inventory items. The note will then be added to the Quote, Order, PO, or Work Order when created.
• An issue with lost navigation with drilling into an inventory record has been corrected.
• When selecting a vendor for a specific inventory item, Shared Vendors will no longer appear.
An issue with displayed inventory items from the Vendor records has been corrected.
Invoices
User can now search for invoices by Customer name.
Batch printing invoices has been updated so that if under 20 records are requested, the user will receive it as a PDF instead of having to go through the report archive.
From the Ready for Invoice screen, users can now see which records have open PO’s or Work Orders tied to them.
If an record is updated in Ready for Invoice, the Invoice Date now will reflect the date of the change.
Webforms
• The Groups field has been added to Webforms.
• From the Webform list, users now have access to preview the form without accessing the record.
• Additional page control has been added the re-direct mechanic within the Webform to include options for opening in a new tab, and substitution of a target link.
• Rich text has been added to the Show Text window to allow for functional URL links.
• Users with complete SMTP settings can now take advantage of an auto reply feature to send canned responses to completed forms.
• Minor cosmetic changes have been made, replacing links with functional buttons.
• The Prospect field is not longer a required field within the Webform. If the field is not complete by the end user, the field will be populated with the submitters name automatically.
• An issue with Lead dispatch found in Webform generated leads has been corrected.
Miscellaneous
• The Sales Management Dashboards now includes the totals for the sales ladders for Leads, Quotes, Orders and Invoices.
• The subscription URL for use with web calendars has been made available in the user profile.
• The Mailcap BCC address has been made available from the contact card in the Lead/Opportunity or Customer record.
-The Mothernode Development Team
