MICROBASE AUSTRALASIA

Updates
Version Enhancements & Bug Fixes 2.6.1c


Blocked Accounts:
Allow a booking to be created but will display a warning that the client accounts has been blocked when attempting to create the job card.

Quotations:
All Buy-ins when a quotation is converted to a job will now be allocated the correct job number.

Estimated Time Allocations:
Allocation of estimated time when creating a job card will no longer be deleted from the diary table.


Version Enhancements & Bug Fixes 2.6.1b


Diary Display:
Now auto adjusts to the width of the screen

Labour Allocation Table:
The labour allocation table is displayed at the top of the diary screen; values can be calculated in two ways. 

  1. Total technician hours available minus the allocated total value from the technicians allocation screen.
  2. Total technicians time available minus the total estimated time for all jobs on the viewed day.


Technician Hours Available:
Ability to record days or periods when a technician is not available.

Bookings Response Tracking:
Allows the how did you hear of us option on the client card to print on any subsequent booking form print-outs. 

Work Descriptions:
Ability to not print work descriptions on booking forms

Vehicle Faults:
Vehicle faults reported on the prior invoice will display in the booking form with a red exclamation mark above the tab header.

Booking Form:
Two new fields have been added to the booking form – Type and seating capacity.

Loan Car Contract:
Allows you to edit the terms and conditions of the loan contract.

Viewing Bookings:
Loan car bookings are now represented by an orange bar in both day and week diary screens.

Site Details:
Ability to enter four text messages that are printed at the bottom of the invoice, client statement, sign off / authorisation and receipts. A fifth option tab is available to enter terms and conditions for the loan car contract.

Estimated Hours:
Ability to calculate from estimated time rather than technicians allocated times.

Security:
Ability to prevent the printing of job summary by user.

RTA #:
New field for in Site Details for registration number that needs to be printed on the invoice.

Email and Web:
Address fields are now case sensitive regardless of the auto format text settings.

Local Settings:
Ability to select the start up format, job view or task view.

Charged Clients:
Allows you to record clients that have charge accounts to display an asterisk in client listing.

Blocked Clients:
Ability to Block clients from any further sales.

Fuel Type:
Addition of Diesel / LPG to the fuel type menu.

Supplier Form:
Improved comments field (previously notes) on the supplier form plus any text entered for a supplier will display a note icon in the listing. A billing address can be entered by selecting the billing address tab from the supplier form.

Note: 
New note selection on the lower menu bar allows the operator to view job notes entered on the diary screen

Report:
Automation now has a modified job report that allows you to view profitability based on charged or actual hours.

Quotations/Estimates:
Ability to convert quotes to bookings or open jobs.

Parts Form:
Improved part form that includes a comments tab with a larger text area, also any comments included on the form will display a note icon in the parts listing.

Receipts:
Two new payment media types – Shell and Caltex cards.

New Bill Form:
Two new features on the bill form, you can now scroll back to view previous invoices for the same supplier or select next and create a new bill with the same date and supplier. A new sort option on selection will sort all items by part number.

Non Chargeable Time:
Ability to create multiple non-chargeable tasks.

Productivity Reporting:
Updated productivity report displays all clocked labour allocations by technician / job for a selected day. Chargeable and non chargeable times are totalised by each and all technicians.

Salary Sacrifice:
When this option is selected the contribution is not taxed and the value does not appear on the employee’s payroll summary.

Holiday & Leave Entitlements:
Ability when paying leave loading the value will automatically be entered based on 17.5% x holiday pay. The value can be edited if required.

Printer Selection:
Ability to connect three standard and one receipt printer.

Job Card & Invoice Format:
Allows the choice of three types of job cards and seven types of invoice formats.

Email:
Ability to send emails directly from the client, job card or quotation form the subject matter and reference is recorded in the task section with the ability to view the attachment sent.

Statement Creation:
Choosing the selective option allows you to select individual or multiple clients you wish to print or email statements for from the client list. Both options will display a list of clients with outstanding balances, you now have the ability to select by what means you wish to deliver the statement either email or printed.

Marketing Filter:
A new filter has been added to marketing / extract criteria that allows you to search for account customers only.

SMS Sending/Receiving:
Allows the delivery of two way SMS service

SMS Logging:
All SMS messages are recorded in a log file, to view / print.

Reports Saving To PDF:
Ability to save any report to a PDF file.

Site Communication:
On installation of version 2.6.1 your site will be registered on the Microbase server which allows our support staff to communicate directly with a site through Automation Premium application. This facility will primarily be used to enhance support procedures.


Version Enhancements & Bug Fixes 2.6.0h

A.T.O

Updated 2009/2010 Tax Calculation Tables to Payrol.
 

Version Enhancements & Bug Fixes 2.6.0g

Security
Added all Tax reports to the security profile function.

Trend Micro Internet Security
Corrected a problem where Automation would close unexpectedly after updating the Trend Micro Internet Security software.


Version Enhancements & Bug Fixes 2.6.0f

Job Text
Ability to select that a carriage return (moves to a new line) is inserted automatically between text in the work done and vehicle report fields located on the job card.

Invoice Colouring
Ability to select Colouring for the bars displayed on the invoice – the default is grey.

Diary Time Cells
7.00am time cell now displayed on the diary screen

Error Message -
Error 91 Block Variable Not Set
It has been brought to our attention that a few sites are having no response problems with the above message being displayed, these have been addressed in version 2.6.0f

Inventory Applied To Job Cards – Via Buy In Function
Ability to have inventory selections applied to the job card when processing a buy-in, user choice from settings. Inventory is automatically allocated to jobs.

Reports - Invoice Field Layout
Reformatted invoice field layouts to allow for more text in Work Done area.


Version Enhancements 2.6.0d

Loan Car
New report accessible from the Loan Car form: Loan car contract. Details of current client and loan car are automatically
inserted into the contract for sign off.
When a loan car is returned, user is prompted to enter current odometer.
We now store history of loan car movements – details include: Date, time out / time in, Registration, make / model,
odometer out / odometer in, Client, name.
New report from the reports menu: Loan car report – shows detail over a chosen date range for all or selected vehicles.
Ability to flag a loan car record as hidden.
Duplicates of loan cars or clients over the same period are no longer allowed.

Bookings
Ability to record an estimated time against each service.
Print a diagnostic work sheet directly from the booking form to assist problem solving.
Selecting the tech. time option will open the labour allocation screen.
Ability to display services and estimated times from the diary screen.

Client Form & Listing
Mobile number displayed in the client list.

Ability to record a billing address on the client form. Ability to tick a box (ticked by default) to indicate billing address is
same as client’s address. The billing address is displayed / printed on the client’s invoices and statements.

New payment button at the bottom of the client list – when activated displays the receive payment form for the highlighted client.
Bookings and payments now displayed in client history from the client form.
New option on the client form to indicate whether the user should be prompted to enter an order number when closing a job
for the client.
Revamped client history so that it shows all invoices, payments and surcharges, as well as a date range filter.
Double clicking on the balance field from the client list will take the user directly to the history tab of the client form.
Ability to send SMS messages from the notes section of the client form.

Credit Card Charges
Multiple credit card surcharges now available for Visa, Master card, Amex, Diners. Each card type can apply a unique surcharge.
Credit card surcharge now recorded in client history.
Payment receipt with a credit card surcharge is printed as a tax invoice, showing the surcharge and GST.

Parts
We now retain default display settings for the parts list when processing a buy-in.
Ensure all part numbers are Capitalised.
Have the ability to search by barcode (scan) from the parts listing.

Supplier Listing
Added a new field – Orders Phone, display in the supplier listing.
Ability to store contractor types.
Supplier listing now displays category.

Purchasing
When creating a purchase order from the stock function, we now list the parts by part number in alphabetical order.

New feature - Disallow buy-in purchases that are not allocated to a Job / Service – Option in settings.

Vehicles
Add to the vehicle type dropdown list: Coupe & convertible.
Added new field: Seating Capacity.

Bill Payments
Improved on processing time for bill payments.
Ability to search by invoice # from the bill payment form
.

Labour Cost Reporting
New cost per hour field on the employee form – Value is operator populated.
When selecting the profit report from the job card new calculation for cost of labour is available based on the following formula:
Allocated actual time worked x cost per hour by employee (value entered on the employee form).
Ability to use the above formula or current 90 day labour hours sold / total technician wage costs – option added to settings.

Technicians – Clocking On / Off
Allows for the clocking on / off of technicians via manual or barcode entry.
Record clocked time on job close.
Report on clocked time / charged hours.

Job Card Text
When inserting text from a list, the selected text is inserted at the point the cursor is placed not at the bottom.

Included work done functionality on the service text form – Including spell checker & ability to add work done, expanded field
limit to 64,000 characters.

Payroll
Tool and other allowances are now displayed separately on the on the pay slip and do not form part of the taxed gross.
Additional payment type to the drop down list - Other Allowances.
Added a new function to auto-run selected payroll transactions – the default values on the employee form are used, payments
are made from one account. Pay slips then print to finalise the process.
Integrated tax tables into the program using the ATO calculation including leave loading.
Print a PAYGW summary as per tax office format with allowances separated away from wage / salary payments.
Option to calculate employee entitlements (i.e. sick pay, holiday pay) on an hourly or daily basis.

Reconciliations
Option to show all / debits or credits only.

Security
Added a new option: User timeout – number of minutes. Default is zero (no timeout). If the program is idle for this period then
user is automatically logged out
.

Reports
New invoice format 1E.
Purchase Reports / Supplier Report By Item Category – Displays purchasing information by supplier including total spend and
last purchase date – including supplier contact details.
Sales / Exception Report – Reports on jobs / parts / both that fall below or above a profit % within a selected date range.
Purchase Reports / Purchases By Allocation – Displays allocation of Buy-ins and inventory items to jobs over a selected date range.

Marketing
Add search criteria that allows for extraction of client and vehicle detail for current bookings within a date range.

Additional Items
Add a button to the settings form to reset all pick lists to default size.
When creating a vehicle invoice, warn the user that the job will not be displayed on the diary screen.
Create a new pick list for other items (Expenses) similar to the list for buy-ins.
If an error in the program occurs, add a button to the error message form that when clicked will automatically send details of
the error to Microbase.


Version Enhancements 2.5.3c

Receipts
Ability to print vehicle and charge invoices from a slip printer.

Reports
Technicians Productivity report reformatted.

Online
Code re-write to Upload/Download function also accessible from File menu.
 

Version Bug Fixes 2.5.3

Buy-Ins/Purchasing
Code re-write to Buy-Ins/Purchasing and how Buy-Ins/Inventory can be Ticked/Un-ticked for assignment to the job card.

Printing
FFixed the prompt for number of copies/duplicate invoice printing.

Report
Corrected the Technicians incentive report.


Version Enhancements 2.5.2

Loan Car
Ability to add a note accessed from diary screen and ability to delete an entry.

Invoicing
 Invoice now displays information boxes even if the information is not available.

Report
New report added: Sales - Sales Performance.