What's New Archives

In this article, we maintain a comprehensive history of our updates and bug fixes. If you're new to Shop Manager, we recommend that you begin with the Training Tours.

 

The help system employs the HTML5 standard and requires Internet Explorer 9 or later, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or any other HTML5-compatible browser.

 

NOTE: Some training tours may be blocked in some browsers as they are in Flash format. Clicking on the security warning in the browser address bar will provide you the necessary options to allow the content to display. We are working towards updating all the tours to HTML5 format.

 

Version 1.0.18.11010 – Sunday, December 31, 2017

Favorites list

Enterprise contact attribute

DYMO Printer

Inventory

For enterprise accounts:

Bug fixes

A fix is now in place for the following:

 

Version 1.0.17.22120 – Sunday, December 12, 2017

The .Net Shop Manager has been upgraded to a new version as of Sunday December 12, 2017. New version is 1.0.17.22120.

 

This is an out of cycle critical bug fix update. We have discovered a critical issue with the duplicate ledger transaction operation. It is creating invalid transactions in the system. In order to prevent any further data issue we are issuing the update now. Every customer is advised to close all existing client and restart the client so that they get this new update.

Changes in this version

DYMO printer enhancement

Reports

Added Work Order # as a column to Service Package Sales by Technician/Service Advisor and the (User) reports.

Bug fixes

 

Version 1.0.17.22030 – Sunday, December 3, 2017

Shop Manager has been upgraded to a new version as of Sunday December 3, 2017. New version is 1.0.17.22030. This is mostly a bug fix update. Shop Manager will update automatically.

Changes in this version

DYMO label enhancement

ProDemand Settings

Other Changes

Bug Fixes

Version 1.0.17.21260 – Sunday, November 26, 2017

VERY IMPORTANT: Beginning with this version, Protractor DOES NOT SUPPORT either the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems. The application will no longer run on Windows XP. If a Shop Manager user launches the application on Windows XP, an error message may appear–or this popup window shown below will appear.

 

NOTE: Though Shop Manager may run on Windows Vista, we will no longer offer any support for any kind of issue for installations on that operating system.

 

Changes in this version

Support for DYMO Label Writers

 

Work order

 

 

Prioritization

Enterprise Bill

Transaction Duplication

Inventory Cleanup Duplicates

 

Reports

Supplier Connection

Enterprise

Bug fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

Version 1.0.17.20150 – Sunday, October 15, 2017

IMPORTANT: This is the LAST major update that will still support Windows XP and Windows Vista. In the next major update, the Shop Manager client will move to the .NET Framework 4.6. This means that by the next update, the Shop Manager client won't work on any Windows XP system. Also, even though Windows Vista can still have .NET framework 4.6 installed, Protractor no longer supports that operating system. Protractor will no longer support any technical issues on Windows Vista–no matter the cause of the issue.

Our operating system warning popup will reflect these changes, and any Windows XP or Windows Vista user will see a popup similar to the figure below. As before, the user will experience a delay of 45 seconds. This popup will appear once every 24 hours.

 

Changes in this version

Enter a bill for an Enterprise

Work order

Supplier connection

Purchasing

Receivable

Reports

Setup

Umbrella Warranty

Technical Support button

 

 

Bug fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

Version 1.0.17.19180 – Monday, September 18, 2017

Shop Manager has been upgraded to a new version as of Monday September 18, 2017.The new version is 1.0.17.19180. The update should begin automatically such that you will receive this new update when you connect.

 

This is not a mandatory update, which means that the version released on Sunday will continue to work fine. The update should proceed in the background. To ensure that you are running the very latest version of Shop Manager, simply close all instances of Shop Manager and launch it again. The automatic update will proceed automatically.

 

Changes in this version are as follows. The changes for the Sunday release can be found at the bottom of this page.

Deferral note

Bug fixes

Version 1.0.17.19170 – Sunday, September 17, 2017

This update only contains a small feature update and the bug fixes in the listing below.

Work order prioritization, General tab

Work order deferral

Payable quick payment

Security

Enterprise

Bug fixes

 

 

Version 1.0.17.18270 – Sunday, August 27, 2017

This update only contains a small feature update and the bug fixes in the listing below.

Integration web service

 

Bug fixes

 

Version 1.0.17.17300 – Sunday, July 30, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Operating System Version Warning

Protractor will stop supporting Windows XP and Windows Vista towards the end of 2017, so Shop Manager will display a warning to users that remain on either of these operating systems..

 

For such users, a popup window will appear after login that is similar to the figure below. It will display the date on which main stream support ended for the operating system version. Because this is such an important support issue, the popup window will remain in place for a duration of 45 seconds before the user may continue to the main Shop Manager window. This popup window will appear once every 24 hours.

 

 

Work Order

 

Prioritization

Catalog

Purchases

Report

Setup

Bug fixes

 

Version 1.0.17.17160 – Sunday, July 16, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Software component changes

The biggest change is that Shop Manager now runs on Microsoft .NET Framework 4.x instead .NET Framework 3.5. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 was released back in 2007. It has been 10 years since. We are now officially no longer supporting this out of date framework.

 

As part of moving to the new platform, any user may now choose to enforce the use of only TLS 1.2 for communication.

 

Keep in mind that Protractor will terminate support Windows XP and Vista by end of this year, 2017. Windows Vista has officially gone beyond Microsoft extended support as of April 2017.

 

We have also updated the user interface components that we are using to the latest version from the 3rd party vendor.

 

Chart (Report and Dashboard)

As part of the switching to the latest .NET Framework, one of the user interface components - the chart control does not work well with the new platform. As a result, we switched the chart component to a different one. This results in some changes, as given in the list below.

 

 

The Advanced tab has been removed, but all of the advanced settings are now on the Display tab. There is a new format, Percentage to the Data Axis, which gives the user the option of charting percentage values such as GP %. This format displays values percentages and presents a percentage axis instead of decimal. For example, a percentage that previously was given as 0.35 now will now display 35%.

 

The axis settings are slightly different because of the changes to the charts. Separate automatic minimum and maximum settings for the axes are no longer available. Now, there is a single automatic setting that sets the axis ranges automatically. Or, the user will need to enter both minimum and maximum to enforce a specific range.

 

The data axis no longer has a setting for axis origin. There is a new Zero Aligned check box which is enabled (checked) by default. This means that the X axis will cross the Y axis at value of 0. If it is disabled (unchecked), then automatic data axis might choose a different minimum value where the X axis crosses the Y axis.

 

There's no longer a setting for reverse axes.

The settings for pie chart are also slightly different. There is a new setting of Size, which gives the user the ability to adjust the size of the pie / doughnut. Also, there is now a Format by which the user can change the format of the values displayed on the pie chart to number / currency / percentage. (Previously the pie chart is displaying everything in number format.)

Online Appointments

Web Online Order

Report

Other Changes

Searchable service categories - All searchable service categories now display only the chosen service category name, instead of profit center - service category. The full profit center - service category is now given as a tooltip when the mouse pointer hovers over it. This user can now see the chosen service category better when the combo editor is not wide enough.

 

Payroll entry undo - After a payroll entry undo, the user gets a prompt to ask if they want to populate the data with the entry that was deleted. This is convenient for easy correction of any payroll entry by simply undoing and typing in a new value.

 

Utility > Part Search - Date ranges are different, and include the last 30, 60, 90 days, followed by the last 6 months, and the last 12 months. The default is set to the last 30 days, which includes today. This should make searching for parts a bit easier without the need to change the date range every time.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.17.16250 – Sunday, June 25, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Ledger account

 

 

Catalog

Reports

360 Payment Solutions

Enterprise

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

Version 1.0.17.15280 – Sunday May 28, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Ledger account

360 Payment Solutions

Other enhancements

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Upgrading to .NET 4.0

Shop Manager has been running together with version 3.5 of the Microsoft framework. On the very next update to Shop Manager, the plan is to migrate over to Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

 

If you are using Shop Manager on an older operating system (such as Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7)and have not yet installed .NET version 4.0, it will be necessary to install it in order for Shop Manager to function properly following the next update. Any user that is running Shop Manager on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 should be fine, since these operating systems already contain version 4.0 of the NET Framework.

 

Any user that is running Shop Manager on XP, Vista, or Windows 7 that does have .NET Framework version 4.0 should make preparations now. The installation of .NET will have no adverse effect on use of the application.

 

You can download .NET version 4.0 now and install it prior to the next update.

  

After installing .NET version 4.0, we also recommend that you download and install the 4.0.3 update.

  

Upgrading from Windows XP or Vista:  as of April 11, 2017, these operating systems are no longer supported by Microsoft. Protractor is also planning to update to the next .NET Framework version by end of 2017. This means that Shop Manager Client will no longer run on Windows XP or Windows Vista at that time. We therefore strongly recommend an upgrade to a version of Windows that Microsoft still supports. Windows 7 extended support will terminate on January 14, 2020. Allow us, therefore, to recommend a move to Windows 10.

 

 

Version 1.0.17.14300 – Sunday April 30, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Global date range control for Dashboard (new feature)

You can now place a date range controller onto the dashboard that will control all widget that are synchronized with it. To configure your dashboard with this feature, you need to enable it in at least one of the widgets. Open a widget and check the Use dashboard date range box in the widget setting panel (as shown in the figure below).

 

 

A set of date range drop-downs will appear at the top of the dashboard, along with an i icon that will display tooltip listing all of the widget(s) that the date range controls. This makes it clear to the user which of the widgets are controlled by the date range. See the figure below.

 

When the dashboard is saved, the last used date range will also be saved and the dashboard will use that date range the next time it is launched. The figure below shows an example of what happens when switching "Last year". Both of the widgets on dashboard switched to last year.

 

You may wonder why not simplify and have a single date range that controls all widgets. This flexibility permits some widgets to be, for example, on a "last year" setting, while several other widget might contain vital that follow a more narrow dashboard date range. Then, you can view the last year performance along with a specific period of interest for other metrics.  

Prioritization

Other features

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

Version 1.0.17.14260 – Sunday April 16, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Work Order

Payroll

Online Appointments

Reports

Other feature additions / enhancements

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.17.13260 – Monday March 26, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

New technician assistant feature–in the technician work order editor

Below you can view several screenshots of the technician assistant.

 

 

Online Appointment Booking

Network Connection Test Tool

This tool can be helpful when a user cannot connect to the Protractor server at all. The tool collects and logs a large amount of information and it can automatically email this information to support if the user's workstation email has been setup.

 

Access this tool from Application Menu > Manager Options > Tools. It's unnecessary to login or connect to the Protractor server to use this tool. If you get cannot connect, simply cancel and access the tool through the menu as shown above.

 

Click on Perform a network connection test to launch the tool.

 

 

Click on the Test button to start the test.

 

 

You can watch the progress of the test.

 

Once completed you will see this popup:

 

If the user's workstation email has been setup, the Email button will be enabled. Click that button to display the Email popup similar to the figure below. The email contains the entire test log in the attachment. This process only works if the user can access their email server, though they are having issues connecting to the Protractor server.

 

 

Connectivity Tracking Tool

This tool can perform a two-way test–both for the user and Protractor staff. Protractor staff can ask the user to begin the test, which sends data to our server for analysis.  

 

As with the Connection Test Tool, you can access this tool from Application Menu > Manager Options > Tools. It's unnecessary to login or connect to the Protractor server to use this tool. If you get cannot connect, simply cancel and access the tool through the menu as shown above.

 

Click on Show network connectivity report to launch the network connectivity diagnostic tool.

 

 

Here is the diagnostic tool window:

 

Keep in mind that this is a floating window, so that you can work on Protractor with it open. You can hide it, if necessary, while it continues to run. When you click on the Close button on this dialog, you'll get a prompt to continue collecting network metrics in the background.

 

 

Answering yes here will close the window but keep collecting the metrics in the background. This feature permits a user to collect statistics and review them later. The collection continues as long as the current application is running or until you open the connectivity report and close it again (and answer No to continuing metrics collection).

 

In the tool window, the top navigation buttons will move back and forward in a timeline. The << and >> goes for 6 hours at a time and < > button goes for 1 hour at a time. Scroll around to see historical results. Mouse over any point to display the result for that point. Not all metrics data will appear; only significant changes are shown–or long elapses in time.

 

 

Click the Go Live button to go directly to the current view–which will show the current results.

 

Two charts are available. One is ICMP ping. Protractor automatically and periodically does a ping to both the Protractor network and Google. In the example figure above, we see a relatively fast network connection. The red line is the ping to the Protractors network, about 16 ms and relatively consistent for the entire house shown (ignore the blip around 6:50 PM which we will cover later).

 

On the same ICMP ping chart, the blue line is the ping to Google. Of course, we know google has to be on a faster network than Protractor and we can see that on this same network, Google is blazing fast at 8 ms. Also you can see that the ping time to Google is also very consistent for this hour that we are showing.

 

There is  a second chart, Server Heartbeat. This one is where we send an actual Shop Manager request to the server and server simply replies back without doing any data processing. With this test, we can look at the response time without need to factor in the actual database. This means that even if database itself is slow, this heartbeat value shouldn't increase because of the database. In the example figure below, you can see that our server is responding normally (in 11 ms) and is fairly consistent along with the ping.

 

 

Now let's look at that blip on the screen. In the figure below, the ping to Google increases from 8 ms to 109ms. That's almost 14 times longer. Though it isn't shown here, the ping to the Protractor network also went up to 105ms (6.5 times normal). We can confidently say that there is a network problem, and the network issue is probably not on the Protractor side. This is because Google and Protractor both went slow together. It is highly unlikely that Protractor's network is having an issue at the same time as Google.

 

 

Also you can see that the Protractor heartbeat time increases from 11ms to 2822 ms. This response time from our server is actually 256 times worse. The 256 time doesn't really matter since clearly there was a network delay occuring at this time. And it was affecting both the Google and Protractor network. That's why our server is responding slowly. If a user is on Shop Manager at this time, s/he can expect a very slow response or disconnect.

 

 

In the two charts below, you can see where the tool indicates two Interruptions. This is the case in which we detect either a ping failure or the Protractor server heartbeat fails. Both are an indication that network is not only slow but physically down (even if it is momentary). The field at the bottom will list out all the interruptions detected for the day being displayed. Here it lists two: one is a ping to our network (firewall.protractor.com) for 40 seconds, and another for 22 minutes that our server heartbeat is lost. Scrolling with the navigation button to the time range where our server heartbeat is lost, you would see that on the graph, the result went to -1 ms–indicating a failure. It continues until just before 10:59 PM where it come back up again. But notice that at the same time the ping to both Protractor network and Google is steady. So in this case, it might indicate that the client is not able to actually connect to our server.

 

So what does a fairly good connection looks like? In the figure below, we see a case where the connection is good for over and hour. The ping times are all short–in this case both around 20ms and the heartbeat values are also short in the 20s. The few instances it went to around 50 ms are acceptable.

 

This tool gives the user some data, helping to paint a picture of what's good and what's bad–both for the user network and in connection to the Protractor network.

 

Other new features

 

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.17.12260 – Monday February 27, 2017

Feature Updates and Enhancements

Inventory Search

 

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.17.12190 – Sunday, February 19, 2017

General

Report

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for these issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.17.11290 – Sunday, January 29, 2017

General

Reports

 

Messaging

Inventory Transfer

Messaging integration has been added for inventory transfers. It's necessary to setup the messaging group for use in inventory transfers in Inventory Network > Settings. A new message will generate for each of the following:

 

One consequence of this new messaging integration is that any location that enables inventory transfer will automatically receive and transmit messages.

Security

Now, a user having security permissions to modify a ledger account can also change ledger transaction locking in Location Setting > General Ledger.

 

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below.

 

 

Version 1.0.16.22250 – Sunday, December 25, 2016

Catalog

Inventory

Inventory Transfer

Work Order

Report

Dashboard

General ledger

Messaging

Security

AutoServe1

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below.

 

 

 

Version 1.0.16.21130 – Sunday, November 14, 2016

  1. A check of the supplier invoice and returned goods data is performed, so that the user is prompted with the proper choice of if the item can be removed from supplier item or immediately update the returned items. This prevents confusion when removing an item and then only receiving a warning that the item cannot be removed during a save.

  2. The service package title field has greater width to accommodate longer titles.

  3. Live filtering capability is now available on a Catalog lookup. The filter text box will filter the display result (in real-time) to narrow down the list. For example, here is a filter to display only the "Gold" brake pads:

 

This can be used to filter the base on the line code or manufacturer name.

 

 

For a tire supplier, it can be used to filter down brands, tire type (if the data is available), and other tire data. For example, here we list only Michelin Winter tires in inSipely:

 

 

Here, we filter for only BFGoodrich 91H rated tires:

 

 

 

  1. The Mitchell1 ProDemand authentication code has been moved from the server to the client to allow for IP authentication.

  2. The Wholegoods credit slip now has update costs as part of the posting routine when the incremental quantity is zero.

  3. The core status printout has been removed, since it did not address the case in which a technician does not know if a core is to be returned or not. A new setting is available in the Advanced Option for work order document setting in the material session. If there is a check in the Display Core Status box, then the core status will be printed out if there is a core value–whether the core is returned or not. This can be used to indicate the status for the core on the technician document.

  4. Payroll profile:

  1. inSipely supplier connection:

  1. Report:

  1. Added a new Do not close Completed Work parameter to the AutoServer1 template in integrated service, which will allow the inspection order to remain open even if the work order is saved as Completed.

  2. The integrated web service now permits the scheduled time and promised time for an appointment to be updated by a 3rd-party integrator such as AutoServe1.

  3. The CRM web service and integrated web service now present the costs on the invoices.

 

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below.

 

 

Version 1.0.16.20230 – Sunday October 23, 2016

  1. Wholegoods

  1. Technician work order view

  1. User can now edit the contact on the last step of posting an invoice–by clicking on the Edit button next to the Email address. This is convenient for adding or editing the contact email address prior to sending the invoice through.

  2. Payroll Template

  1. Messaging

  1. Reports

  1. Protractor Embedded Browser

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below.

 

 

Version 1.0.16.20020 – Sunday October 2, 2016

  1. Resource Booking

  2. Work Order Flags

  3. Prioritization

  4. Wholegoods Template

  5. There is now an ability to search by line code plus a part number for a supplier that uses NAPA (Not Punchout), CARQUEST, or any supplier that currently uses ePartExpert as catalog.

  6. You can now click on the icon in front of the URL on the contact editor to launch to web pages or send an email.

  7. An online order for stores in an enterprise will now have a Network setting, to permit the setup of a list of stores in the network and also list the quantity in the Network column.

  8. There is a new Messaging tool that will appear for every user that use the online order feature. The user can define messaging groups, which can then be setup in the online order so that messaging alerts will appear when a new order comes in.

  9. The credit card payment amount can now be negative, which is useful for correcting previous payment amounts.

  10. Minor user interface tweaks:

  11. Reports:

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below.

 

 

Version 1.0.16.19120 – Sunday September 11, 2016

  1. We now include a new Work Order Flag feature, for applying color-coded indicators to work orders. The user can define a Name and Description, choose a Foreground and Background color and assign a single letter Code.  These flags can have various uses, including a customer "Waiter" status (as shown in the figure below),  "Need a Ride" or "Waiting for parts". After configuring these flags, the user can change work order flags to indicate a status change. Flags can be set in a particular order, and then re-ordered as necessary (by dragging and dropping).

 

Mouse over the flag to see a tooltip the flag name and description.

To check a box for another flag, click on the flag area–either in the work order editor or in the work order prioritization. See the figures below. 

 

Below we see a view of the flag popup in the Prioritization window.

 

  1. There is a new Wholegoods template.

  2. A work order will now display a color on each field when there is a warning that relates to the value in that field. For example, a pricing warning will cause the Pricing field to appear in a highlight color; a quantity warning will cause the quantity field to appear in a different color.

  3. A zero value for hour labor lines are now permitted, and zero values here will not generate a warning. (Previously, zero hour labor lines were only permissible a Concern or Inspection or if the service was sold as fixed total).

  4. Click the defered works link in the right pane to view multiple deferred work items that are rolled together. The individual work items will now appear as items beneath a category folder. See the figures below.

 

First, click the link:

 

The category expands to reveal the work items:

 

 

  1. When searching for Wholegoods inventory, a user can now add a new inventory item or edit an existing inventory item–directly in the popup.

  2. To reduce click mistakes, there is now a bit more space between the contact / service item information and the new [ Reassign… ] link.

  3. The core charge now prints on any work order document, even if document has been set to hide print pricing. Though a core charge will always print, no core pricing will be appear on a printed work order.

  4. In Advanced Options, there is a new Work Order print document setting that can enable printing of the VIN barcode.

NOTE: Whether the VIN barcode works for you is dependent on the capabilities of your scanner. The bar code is tested on iOS and Android based scanner that uses cameras. Old laser scanners might not work.

 

  1. Prioritization now displays a holdover with the full work order information.

  2. Inventory search now launches with the last used sorting order.

  3. When editing the supplier setting on the contact editor, the user will get a prompt to setup the payable account if there is no payable account setup for the supplier.

 

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the issues below. We also deployed an incremental update on September 13 that includes a few more bug fixes that were found in the September 11 update.

 

Version 1.0.16.19110 – Sunday August 21, 2016

  1. On the right of the Work Order Summary, there's a new [ Reassign… ] feature on both the Contact and Service Item (Vehicle). The user can click this link to open a popup window and perform a reassignment of the contact and/or service item.

  2. When reassigning on work order or estimate using the new feature we describe above, the current contact / service item is automatically chosen and shown first. This is to provide a point of reference, from which the user can then search for the desired contact / service item.

  3. A user can now perform an entire invoice reversal for Wholegoods invoice, if there have been no modifications to the inventory batch. If any adjustment has been made to the inventory batch, then wholegoods invoice cannot be reversed and the user must make a manual adjustment to the batch.

  1. Wholegoods invoice and Wholegoods credit invoice information is now shown on the inventory material history. To see the invoice / credit invoice, the user can double-click or use Invoice / Credit Invoice button.

  2. Scheduler now displays the appointment information as the header for the day. (Previously, the information would appear in a tooltip popup when mousing over the header for the day.)

  3. After a new inventory material is created–or an old inventory material is saved–the user will get a prompt to enter a sell price if the sell price is not defined.

  4. Reports:

  5. The Ledger transaction export now supports the CSV file format.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.16.17240 – Sunday July 24, 2016

  1. There are a number of enhancements to the Wholegoods feature for automatically updating inventory, including:

    1. The new registry account, "Wholegoods other charge income", needs to be mapped in Setup > Location Setup > Ledger Settings.

    2. Old "Wholegoods" mapping has been removed, since the inventory value will now updated automatically.

    3. When setting the Type to wholegoods, the user can now search for an inventory item and specify a quantity. (For used car, this quantity should be 0; for manufacturing, the quantity will be the quantity of the result items).

    4. The wholegoods type and the associated inventory and quantity will appear in the work order information section.

    5. The impact to inventory by a wholegoods invoice will be evident when posting any wholegoods inventory.

    6. When posting is complete and the wholegoods quantity is zero, then the inventory automatically recounts down to 0 and again recounts up to the quantity, and also the invoice value is added to the total cost.

    7. When posting and the wholegoods quantity is not zero, the inventory is recounted up to the specified quantity and the invoice value will be the cost.

    8. An invoice posting ledger transaction now completely covers the entire transaction, including the increment in inventory value.

    9. For existing wholegoods work orders, the user simply needs to click on the wholegoods type and specify the inventory to complete the posting.

  2. The workflow stage of a work order now appears in the work order information area, and can be changed without needing to close the work order.

  3. A service package will now prompt the user if the length is too long and will prevent the entry of text that exceeds the maximum length. A watermark also appears in the background when there is no text value, to help the user discern which field is the title and which field is the description.

  4. The Scheduler now displays the appointment count and availability hour information on the week and day view–when user mouse over the day header or the all-day event area. The information appears as a small rectangular tooltip.

  5. There is a new type of contact attribute known as List, in which a user can enter a list of items that can be chosen from the list. The user can also choose from another list to set the value.

    1. The user enters one item per line to construct the list.

    2. Adding an item of "*" without the quotes will permit free-form text entry, as well as the ability to select the rest of the item from the list.

    3. Adding an item of "_" (underscore) will include a "< None >" item–which has a blank value.

  6. When creating a new ledger transaction or new bill, the Date no longer defaults to today's date.

    1. The date combo will automatically drop and the user must choose/enter a date.

    2. When creating a new entry and tabbing through to the grid, the first line will automatically appear and the account list will appear in its drop-down.

  7. When associating the first contact to a receivable account, the contact address and email address is automatically set as the statement address and/or statement email.

  8. There is a new Export tool for the General Ledger, which gives the user the ability to specify a setting to export the entire ledger to a single Excel file for a specific date range:

    1. The accounts can be exported in full detail or in summary. Also, the user can choose not to export the accounts.

    2. The account settings are saved for the user and will be available to that user at the time of the next export.

  9. The ledger account drop-down list in various pop-up windows now contains as many as 15 items. For a new bill, the account list may contain as many as 20 items.

  10. The profit center is now available in the Line Item Sales by Contact and the corresponding enterprise report.

  11. There is now an option for External Fill / External Report , which indicates that the report is filled externally (such as AutoServe1) and/or an external report is sent on Service Package Sales report.

  12. AutoServe1 now has these features:

    1. The appointment closing is sent to AutoServe1 when the appointment is deleted.

    2. There is new processing logic for how phone numbers are exported to AS1 and how phone numbers are updated.

    3. There will be no more saving of blank phone number or URL values (to reduce blank fields).

    4. There is a new parameter for the AutoServe1 template, in which the user can specify not to have contact and/or service item updated by AutoServe1.

  13. A vehicle unit # can now be used in the CRM, using the merge variable @@Vehicle_Unit@@.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.16.16519 – Sunday July 10, 2016

  1. Users can now drag-and-drop to arrange the order of technicians on the prioritization screen. This order is saved for that user and restores this ordering if the prioritization for that user upon reopening. There is now a Reset Layout that will restore the default technician ordering.

  2. The technician work-in-progress feature now displays a workflow icon.

  3. The technician work-in-progress feature also has an Update Status button that changes the workflow stage without opening the work order.

  4. If a vehicle has a valid VIN but not a valid vehicle specification, then a warning icon and message will appear on the work order wizard–and in any work order editor–to prompt the user to decode the VIN.

  5. There is now additional support for the WHI catalog situation in which some of the part search results might not contain price or availability. The user can now click the Check Availability button to check for pricing and availability on such parts. Note that WHI controls which parts will contain pricing and availability and which parts will require the user to click on the Check Availability button.

  6. There is now a Date Format option for a cheque date.

  7. The payroll slip and the payroll check stub now use the date format of the operating system.

  8. The ledger transaction feature now displays as many as 20 accounts in the drop-down list.

  9. For both the balance sheet and the income statement, a check box is now available to show a comparison of the current period with the previous year.

  10. There are new Enterprise catalog settings for ACES and ePartExpert.

  11. Added a new User report: Service Package Sales by Service Advisor / Technician.

  12. Report with group-by will now export to Excel with the exact same expanded/collapsed state as shown in the on-screen report grid. For example, if a group-by is expanded on the report, it will export to Excel as expanded. If a group is collapsed, it will export as collapsed.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

 

 

Version 1.0.16.16519 – Sunday June 19, 2016

  1. Wholegoods is now a licensed feature, which means that a customer send a request to Support to enable this feature.

  2. When converting an appointment to a work order, Shop Manager now preserves the original schedule time for the appointment as follows:

 

  1. Tire fitment is now accessible on the vehicle editor.

  2. Shop Manager now includes these AutoServe1 enhancements:

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.16.16120 – Sunday June 12, 2016

 

  1. We now have initial support for the Wholegoods feature:

 

  1. ProDemand is now accessible in an Estimate.

  2. You can now post an invoice for service items (not vehicles) with 0 usage. Zero usage appears with a warning color on an invoice posting but does not prevent posting. However, a zero (0) odometer for vehicles will continue to show as an error warning color and cannot be posted.

  3. Full contact details now appear on the Taxable Sales Summary Report.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.16.15220 – Sunday May 22, 2016

Changes:

  1. The catalog setting no longer requires a default catalog ID. The user can simply select Canada or USA as the catalog type. Existing users should have their setting migrated during the upgrade. If the setting does not migrate, go to Setup > Catalog Settings and ensure that all inputs are valid and Save to commit your changes. Log out, then login again on all clients and the new setting should active.

  2. Expanded the warning for the line code field when the line code is populated but Part Number field is blank. Now the warning covers the following pop-ups:

 

  1. The Payroll Entry Hour (Quantity) column now supports up to 4-decimal entry. You can use this for percentage entries with 4 decimals, which means that you can effectively input 2 decimal percentage values (1% = 0.01).

  2. Added a Tax 1 and Tax 2 parameter and column to the Sales Summary Enterprise report.

Bug Fixes

Fixes are now in place for the following issues:

 

 

Version 1.0.16.14170 - Sunday May 8, 2016

Changes:

  1. Initial support of creating holdovers for work orders:

 

 

  1. During invoice posting, we now show that a service item / vehicle does not have any reminder item. The user can now edit the reminder item at that point and it will automatically update the automatically generated appointment text.

  2. A new setting that permits the appointment to be scheduled without the need for any reminder item. On the Setup | Location Settings | Work  Order tab, there's now a default appointment to __ days / months input field. This value is defaulted to 3 months, and can be turned off by setting it to 0. This permits an appointment to be scheduled even when there is no reminder items.

  3. Appointment creation during the invoice wizard will now automatically skip holidays and days shops are closed when suggesting the next appointment date.

  4. A new setting is available for a default interval such as (3 months) to schedule the next appointment.

  5. A new tool is available on the Utility tab of the Work Order editor for making a chosen work order service package into a template.

  6. Tax exemption is now working on credit slips. For reverse selected invoice lines, the credit slip will use one or more tax exemptions that are on the original invoice. For a general credit, the credit slip will use the tax exemption(s) for the current contact.

  7. Supplier connection web link enhancement to support different stores.

  8. Inventory search now has a check box under the Display Price Level to show on order quantities. The check box will be unchecked every time a new search is performed, but can be checked after the search to show on order quantities for the current search result.

  9. On completion of the inventory reorder wizard, the newly created / updated purchase order is now opened so that the user can confirm what's on the purchase order and can send the purchase order immediately.

  10. Added a warning red back color for part number field where the line code is populated but part number field is not.

  11. When an inventory material is set to lock to enterprise, you can now edit location-defined price levels. Enterprise defined sell prices will take effect on price levels defined at the enterprise. Location defined sell price will take effect on price levels defined at the location. Cost/MSRP information will still all come from enterprise since there should be only one cost/MSRP and that should come from enterprise to make sure the pricing is consistent.

  12. Bank account improvements

  1. On Setup | Inventory, added the Quantity field which is defaulted to 0. Now, the user can search within the setup for inventory with at least X in stock.

  2. Reports:

  1. Added the ability to set a location within an enterprise to upstream contact / invoice for reporting purposes, but does not have the ability to lookup contact / invoice or other shared data from other locations. This can be useful to create loosely-coupled franchise locations, in which centralized reporting is desired but each shop would remain as independent as possible. Set the location on the location setting on the enterprise. General tab. "This location can look up data from other location(s) within the enterprise" check box.

 

Bug Fixes:

 

 

 

Version 1.0.16.14170 - Sunday April 17, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Version 1.0.16.14030 - Sunday April 3, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Version 1.0.16.13130 - Sunday March 13, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Version 1.0.16.12280 - Sunday February 28, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

Version 1.0.16.11310 - Sunday February 14, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

 

Version 1.0.16.11310 - Sunday January 31, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

Version 1.0.16.11170 - Sunday January 17, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

Version 1.0.16.11100 - Sunday January 10, 2016

Changes:

 

Bug Fixes:

 

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