Our Goal is to continue to improve!
As we continue to make improvements for Counterman
Pro, we will inform you of these updates and
enhancements in this section. We strive to provide
the tools and features Counterman users have
requested. Listening to your comments and suggestions
provides us greater insight to your software
needs. We encourage you to contact us with these
comments and suggestions by email or phone call.
There are very nice updates for this release:
Xactfit-Counterman Interface
Santa Maria Software has been working with Xactfit
and now has the interface in place. If you don’t
know what Xactfit is, simply put, they provide a
method of locating items by year, make, and model
(similar to how an auto parts store would). Xactfit’s
focus is on the Tucker Rocky parts, with additional
vendors following suit soon. Parts Unlimited, Drag
Specialties, Western Power Sports, Motorcycle Stuff,
and Custom Chrome are slated to come on board
soon! The idea is to display a list (with pictures) of
items available that only fit on specific make(s) and
model(s). The interface Counterman has is when
the items are selected, you can drop them into the
POS screen.
For more information about Xactfit,
they can be reached at:
Xactfit Phone: (866)951-MOTO (6686)
Website: www.x-actfit.com
On-Screen Help File
We have just finished converting the entire Counterman>
Complete Manual into a help file format that has
a full Table of Contents and a full Index. After this
update has been ran, a simple F1 keystroke will
open this mouse driven help file, which is similar to
most Windows® based help files. You can click on
particular chapters, or go into the index portion to
find the topic you need help with.
Set Inventory Discount Flag (globally)
Profit Margins have always been a major concern in
any business. If you have ever been at a Counterman
Training Class, you know that we make every
attempt to help you understand this process and
have shown you several tools Counterman DMS
Software has that can help with increasing your
profits. Unfortunately, many suppliers do not understand
the level of profit margin that is necessary to
maintain a retail shop. These suppliers allow for a
“shorter than needed” profit margin, resulting in less
than adequate profit % when their items are sold. This
new process is another one of those tools that can
help with your profit margin, while targeting only those
suppliers with short margins. There is a check-box for
each individual inventory item called “Discounted”,
which allows Counterman to apply a discount when
selling that item from point of sale. By default, the
Discount flag for all items is checked to allow the discount.
This tool is now available from the Utilities
Menu and allows you to globally affect all inventory
items within a specific vendor code or a specific category
by un-checking the Discounted box. The result
is, all items within the selected vendor code or category
can no longer be discounted. So even though
there is a “short profit margin”, at least you will not be
discounting those items any further.
Email PDF Files of Invoices/Quotes
PDF (acronym means: Portable Document Format)
documents are vastly becoming the industry standard
for computer documents. They are relatively small
files that are easy to send and easy to open through
email. In the past, Counterman has had the ability to
send invoices through email in a TXT file format. But
different resolutions, font issues, and Windows® versions
have made it difficult to maintain the spacing in a
text file. Add to this, new security issues in all the
different email programs and you end up with a mess
on your hands (or rather we do). This update helps
solve these issues and more, by streamlining the
email process into a PDF file that can be transmitted
directly from Counterman. This update should have
installed all the files necessary to make this all happen.
However, some setup changes need to be made
in Counterman in order enable it. First and foremost,
you will need internet access from your Counterman
computer. Additionally, your email service provider
assigns to you a SMTP (acronym means: Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol) address that is needed in order for Counterman to access your email account, which
ultimately sends the email. As long as you have these
two things, we can likely have you up and sending
invoices and/or quotes in a PDF format, though your
email in no time at all. If you are interested in this
function, we can certainly help. Please have your
SMTP information at your disposal when you call us.
Special Order Prompt
We have made several efforts to help prevent negative inventory balances (like making the balance available RED when zero or less are available) from P.O.S.
However, negative inventory items usually end up being a Ònecessary evilÓ that have to be investigated and adjusted as part of the month end processes. As of this update, when you enter a part number that has a zero balance, Counterman
will see it (right after you enter a quantity that is greater than the available
balance) and put a question on the screen that asks: "Item Not In Stock, Would
You Like To Special Order?". Answering "No" to this question will still allow you
to sell into the negative. Answering "Yes" will automatically flag this item for Special Order. Thanks go out to Steve at SKS Motorcycles in Lilburn, GA for
this great suggestion! NOTE: If you like the old way of doing this, we can easily
turn this function off, just let us know.
Send Email, History, and Print Special Orders - Hot Keys Added
In an effort to help maintain eye contact with your customer Counterman usually
negates the use of the mouse when possible when navigating from the
P.O.S. screen. However, these three functions (Send Email, History, and Print
S/O) did not have pre-set Hot Keys associated with them when using the F12,
Edit Customer process form P.O.S. but now they do! Just press the #1, 2, or 3
key from the customer name field to use these processes and negate the
mouse. Of course the mouse can still be used if desired.
Time Clock Display - Insert Key Added
Adding additional records to the Time Clock Display has been made easier, just press the Insert key! When using the Time Clock function, it sometimes becomes necessary to edit or add a record. Prior to this update, adding a record was not possible without clocking in and/or out first. Now you can go directly into the Time Clock Display, enter the employee code that you need to add a record for, then press the Insert hkey. This will insert a blank line and put today's date in for you. Alternately, you can change the date to whatever date you need. Then just enter the time(s) you need to add.
Labor Hours Added to the Service Department Report
Dollar totals and sub-totals have always been a part of the Service Department
Report because we felt this was the most important data to print on
this report. A recent request from Steve and Roxanne at Beemer's & More in Fort Collins, CO, has shown us the importance of having the actual number
of hours on this report, in addition to the dollar totals. The number of
labor hours is already there, we just need a way to add them all up. With
this update all labor hours will be calculated and summarized at the bottom
of the Service Department Report. Additionally, because this is an actual
calculation of existing data, Service Department Reports from past dates
can now be ran to print the summarized labor hours. This new feature is
available from both the "Detail" and "Summary" reports. Thank you,
Beemer's & More for this great suggestion!
Clipboards and VIN Windows Now -Centered-
Due to different computer monitors and different computer resolutions
keeping each display window can be a challenge. Some users have said
the VIN window (when using the Service Order or Warranty Order process)
was cutting off the right end of these windows, resulting in difficulty seeing
"all" of the information within the VIN window. This update addresses this
issue and the VIN window is now centered. Alternately, the VIN window
can also be moved if desired, to enable viewing what's behind it. We have
also done something similar to the clipboard windows. From blank POS
(column of buttons shows on the right of the POS screen), F5, F7, F8, and
F9 are all "Clipboard Windows" that have particular, date sensitive information
that gets printed and/or displayed, depending on the process. A similar
issue that was cutting off the right side portion of these windows has been
addressed with this update by -centering- these windows.
