Release Notes for ServiceCEO Office Edition

Last updated 4/29/10.

Overview

ServiceCEO Office Edition is primarily focused on streamlining Inventory Management functionality to - provide a "macro" view of inventory in your business; simplify and improve existing workflows, including the interaction between Purchase Orders, Jobs and Customers; and, introduce a capability for returns.

New and Enhanced Functionality

Database Documentation
Inventory Management
     Options
          Inventory
          Payments and Refunds
     Lists
          Inventory Return Codes
     Stock Locations
     Management Grid
          Filters
          Search
          Assigning Inventory to Jobs and Stock Level Violations
          Ordering Inventory
          Adjusting Stock Levels
     Purchase Orders
     Jobs
     Returns
     Customer Record
     Other
Refunds
New Platforms and Partner Products Supported
Crystal Reports
Misc.
     Customer Reported Bugs Fixed
     SQL Server 2005

Database Documentation

Due to the new and enhanced features in ServiceCEO Office Edition, the location of some information in the ServiceCEO database has changed. These changes may mean that some of your reports and applications using the API need to be updated.

All of the changes in the ServiceCEO database from 6.2 to Office Edition are located here: Database Changes from ServiceCEO 6.2 to ServiceCEO Office Edition.

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Inventory Management

Options

Inventory

• A next Purchase Order number can now be configured (this won't impact numbering on existing Purchase Orders).
• A new Task can now be created and assigned to a designated group when a Purchase Order is received.
• Approvals can now be enabled / disabled.
• There are now two methods for creating a Transfer Ticket when a transfer is required - Automatic and Manual.

Payments and Refunds

• Click the Edit Payment Types... button to view (and activate/deactivate acceptable) Payment and Return types.

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Lists

Inventory Return Codes

Under Tools > Lists > Inventory Return Codes, you can add, delete and activate/deactivate return codes, i.e. the various causes for the return of of a product from a Job or a Stock Location. For example, "damaged" or "wrong size" could be return codes.

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Stock Locations

ServiceCEO Office Edition introduces Stock Locations that are completely user-defined, i.e. Stock Locations are no longer based on company and Teams. These Stock Locations can have unique addresses. Each Team can be associated with a Stock Location, or multiple Teams can be associated with the same Stock Location.

In addition, stock levels within a Stock Location can be grouped into sub-locations (which can be of benefit - for example when performing physical counts). Use the Add Sub-Location button to create a sub-location. Double clicking on the sub-location name will allow you to edit the name.

• Pressing Add Child will add an additional tier to the sub-location
• Pressing Remove will allow the user to remove a sub-location or its child

Note: If the sub-location child currently has stock assigned to it and is deleted, this stock will be in the sub-location 'unassigned'.

In the Stock Levels tab, stock can be moved into and out of sub-locations by selecting the drop-down menu under the Edit Location column. You can also move multiple stock items into a sub-location at once by selecting the rows of the items and then editing the location of one. (You must then save your changes.)

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Management Grid

The redesigned Management Grid, the first tab of the Inventory module, is command central for inventory related functions. It allows the user to view the status of all inventory stock, order parts for jobs and restocking, manually adjust stock levels and assign inventory to Jobs. The Management Grid also includes a range of filters to assist in these operations.

Filters

There are a number of new and redesigned filters at the top of the Management Grid that allow the list of items to be refined.

1. View. The Job View displays inventory by active Job (Needed and Assigned by item by Job, as well as total Available by item). The Product View displays the complete list of inventory items and total Needed, Assigned and Available by item.
2. Job Date controls Needed and Assigned counts - as both are relative to Jobs - in both the Job and Product Views. (Availability is always relative to the current date.)
3. Stock Location filters Needed, Assigned and Available relative to the Stock Location.
4. Status provides a way to filter the Product View list of items for common scenarios, including Needed for Jobs/Restocking, Assigned, Must be Ordered (items for which Needed exceeds Available), On Order and Available.
5. Alerts. This filter will refine the list to Assigned items that are not in their final destination because either of the Purchase Order or transfer workflows is incomplete.
6. Vendor will filter the list to those items that are carried by the selected Vendor.

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Search

You can search the Management Grid by (internal) Product Number and by (internal) Product Name. The search logic for Product Number and Product Name are different. For example, searching Product Number for "123" will return "1234", "12345", "123456", etc. -  "123" is evaluated left-to-right in its entirety; searching Product Name for "widget" will return "copper widget", "plastic widget", etc. - "widget" is evaluated for where it is contained.

Note: If you want to search by Vendor Part Number or Vendor Description, you can do so in the Parts Catalog of the Vendor record.

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Assigning Inventory to Jobs and Stock Level Violations

You can assign inventory that is In Stock, On Order or assigned to another Job from either the Job or Product view. To do so:

• Click the number in the Needed column,
• From the Assign Inventory window that appears, select the inventory Source, the number of inventory items to use from that source from the Use column and the Transfer method.

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Ordering Inventory

You can order inventory for any Needed items from either the Job or Product view:

• Check off the box in the Select column for the item(s) that need to be ordered, and then click the Order button (at the top of the page).
• From the Purchasing Assistant screen that appears, select the vendor(s) from which to order the items, the Purchase Order (new or existing) and click Order & Assign.; ordering from the Management Grid will also automatically assign the items to where they're Needed - Job(s) and Stock Level Violation(s).
• Back on the Management Grid, an alert icon will be displayed next to the Assigned number for the item(s) just ordered, indicating that the Purchase Order still needs to be sent.
• Clicking on the Assigned number displays the number of items Assigned - In Stock  and Assigned - On Order.
• Go to the Assigned - On Order tab and click on the matching Purchase Order to complete the Purchase Order workflow.

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Adjusting Stock Levels

You can manually adjust stock levels from either the Job or Product view. There are two kinds of adjustments - positive (Add Stock) and negative (Remove Stock). To do so:

• Check the box in the Select column for the item(s) whose stock levels will be manually adjusted.
• Click either the Add Stock or Remove Stock button (at the top of the page).
• In the Adjust Inventory Available in Stock window that appears, complete the appropriate information and complete the operation.

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Purchase Orders

In addition to a UI, some new functionality has been added to Purchase Orders, including:

• a dedicated Shipping & Handling charge item which can be edited even after inventory has been received, i.e. the Receive step of the workflow has been completed
• a Requested For section which lists the Jobs for which the inventory was ordered based on - ordering & assigning directly for the Job with the Purchase Order or, assigning inventory to the Job from the Purchase Order while it was On Order, i.e. prior to the Receive step of the workflow

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Jobs

In ServiceCEO Office Edition, the inventory button on the Job record has been replaced by an Inventory tab where the user can manage the inventory items needed the a Job based on the product(s) selected in the Services/Product tab, including:

• Define the Default Stock Location which represents both to where the inventory must be transferred for the Job as well as where the inventory is to be withdrawn for the Job; the Default Stock Location is based on the Stock Location associated with the Team assigned to the Job, however, it can be changed by the user.
• Assign inventory to the Job from - a Stock Location, a Purchase Order (prior to the Receive step of its workflow), another Job or, for items drop-shipped to that Job's Customer, a Customer Location.
• Order & Assign inventory for the Job
• Return unused inventory assigned to the Job to a Stock Location or Vendor or write it off as a loss.

Clicking on the Available and Already Assigned counts for inventory items will display more detailed information.

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Returns

Returns is new inventory functionality being introduced with ServiceCEO Office Edition. Inventory can be returned from one of three areas within the application:

• Stock Location - for example, to return inventory that was damaged during shipment from a Vendor back to the Vendor
• Active Job - for example, to return excess Job inventory to a Stock Location
• Completed Job - for example, to return inventory that malfunctioned after Job completion to a Stock Location for repair (see Refunds section below for further reference)

Returns can be sent to - Vendor, Stock Location, or Discard/Loss. Inventory returned to a Vendor will appear in the Returns tab of the Vendor record where a Return Shipping Slip can be printed. Inventory returned to a Stock Location will appear in the Returns tab of the Stock Location record where the user can select it and Make Available which will make the inventory available again for assignment (as such, it will no longer appear under the Returns tab but under the Stock Levels tab).

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Customer Record

The Customer record now has a PO (Purchase Order) tab where the user can see and access Purchase Orders associated with Jobs for this Customer. (See Requested For in the Purchase Orders section above for further reference.)

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Other

• the Master Product List now has the same search capability as the Management Grid and filters for Inactive and Special Order items (a new standard attribute on Master Product records)
• the Parts Catalog in the Vendor record now has a search capability on Vendor Part Number and Description, as well as Internal Product.

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Refunds

The new Refund transaction in ServiceCEO Office Edition is designed to allow the user to refund a Customer for the cost of Product(s) and/or Service(s), to allow for the return of the Product(s) to a Stock Location or Vendor (or to be written off as a loss) and to receive a refund from a Vendor for such returned Product(s).

Note: Refunds cannot be used to put a credit on a Customer's account - instead, an Adjustment transaction must be used for that.

To initiate a refund, start in the Billing History tab of the Customer record and select New Transaction. From this window, go to the Refund tab. From here, the user will need to select:

• the completed Job for which the refund is to be issued
• the details of the refund
• the refund method
• The Product(s) and/or Service(s) to be refunded and/or returned by clicking the Add Item button and choosing the appropriate Product(s) and Service(s) from those on the Job
• (for returns) the quantity of a Product to be returned and the associated information, including the destination, reason, RMA number, Shipping information and - for a return to a vendor - the amount being refund to the company by the vendor

Once the refund has been saved, it will be displayed as an Open Refund in the Billing History tab of the Customer record and any returns will be displayed in the Returns tab of either the Vendor or Stock Location record to which it was returned.

To complete both the refund to the Customer including any returns, go to Office Duties > Refunds, select the refund to be processed and then click Export Data to send the information to your accounting package and to have the records in ServiceCEO Office Edition completed.

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New Platforms and Partner Products Supported

ServiceCEO Office Edition is now integrated with:

• Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit).
• QuickBooks^® US and Canada 2010 versions. (Support for QuickBooks 2008 was discontinued.)
• MapPoint 2010 version. (Support for MapPoint 2006 was discontinued.)
• MS Office 2010 (32 bit) version. (Support for MS Office 2003 was discontinued.)

Note: Versions with discontinued support may not work with ServiceCEO Office Edition.

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Crystal Reports

In order to accommodate the new and enhanced features in ServiceCEO Office Edition, some changes were made to the ServiceCEO database. These changes may affect some of your customized Crystal Reports.

To help you update your custom reports, you can use the Updating Reports for ServiceCEO Office Edition document, which details the steps you will need to perform to update any reports that won't run in Office Edition.

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Misc.

• You can now create a New Estimate by right-clicking on a Customer in the Customer list, as well as clicking on the button of the same title in the Jobs tab of the Customer record.

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Customer Reported Bugs Fixed

Fixed customer-reported bugs include:

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SQL Server 2005

With the release of ServiceCEO Office Edition, SQL Server 2005 (64 bit) and 2008 (64 bit) will be supported.

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Feedback

Please send any feedback about this document to documentation@serviceceo.com. Please note that this email will not go to Technical Support. To receive technical support, please enter a support ticket by logging into the member center at http://www.insightdirect.com/support.html and clicking the Log a New Support Ticket link.