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:
Special Order List Report
To allow for easier identifying and separating vendors and suppliers parts on the Special Order List of Parts Not Ordered, vendors/suppliers can be separated and totaled for each individual vendor/supplier on this report. Report Sequence of “Product Code” must be chosen in order for this to work. This is a great benefit, as it will no longer be necessary to “assume” the vendor/supplier for each individual product code. Thanks to Steve at Beemer’s and More in Fort Collins, CO for this suggestion, which we are confident will help all Counterman users.
Special Orders by Department
The ability to separate the report: “Special Order List of Parts Not Ordered” has also been enhanced to allow for separate Department output. You must
choose the Report Sequence of “Department” to use this new enhancement. Additionally, creating purchase orders can now be separated by department. When accessing the vendor for a Reorder List, Counterman will ask if the order should include all Departments, or just the Department for which you are currently logged in to? This is a great solution for users who need to separate their purchase orders by Department! This feature is NOT retroactive, so the feature does not record any past department
codes. This basically means that there will be a transition time required to get all orders placed before utilizing it. Because some Counterman users
may find this feature cumbersome, we can control this feature (turn it on or off) by renaming a file located in your CMAN8\DATA folder. A text file called:
“REQBYDEP.TXT” must reside in the CMAN8\DATA folder in order for this enhancement to be active.
Please call our tech support staff if you would like to enable this feature. Thanks go out to the crew at Eastern Performance in Gambrills, MD for this great suggestion!
Special Order Zero Quantity
Special Order transactions no longer allow zero quantity to be processed. Some users have been able to get by the normal process of not allowing zero quantities on special ordered items on a transaction. We have isolated this and disabled it. This “fix” is a result of several Counterman user requests.
Quick Books Interface
If you accept PayPal (or any type of payment method that requires a percentage of the payment) and use the interface process for Quick Books with Counterman, we now have the ability to allow for a percentage charge to be directed into a chart of accounts in Quick Books as part of the interface. Thanks go to Motorcycle Depot in Colorado for this nice added enhancement to the Quick Books interface.
Mail List ‘CSV’ File Generation
Ever have the need to supply a mail order company a list of customer names and addresses, in the form of a file, for a specific mailer you want to send to selected (filtered) customers? Counterman customers have always been able to generate ’CSV’ customer mailing list by using an external utility called “AddressExport” provided by us. But that process required you to exit
Counterman in order to generate the file. With this release, you can generate a ‘CSV’ (comma separated values) file (which can be opened in Excel or any
spreadsheet program) directly from inside Counterman! A new check box option inside Filtered Reports, Mailing Labels, “Create Alabel.csv File” will create a file called “Alabel.csv” in the DATA folder!
Disappearing Discounts?
Ever have a pre-set Discount for a customer, only to find this Discount mysteriously disappeared after saving a transaction for that customer? This intermittent issue has been plaguing Counterman users for a long time. But with strong determination, and the help from Hal at All American Motorcycles, Inc in Tucson, AZ, we were able to locate, isolate, and kill this little booger that has been a thorn for a long time. Whenan issue is not always there, or comes and goes, it is very difficult to find the cause. This one now taken care of. Thanks for your help on this Hal..
Service Order Part Number Duplicates
In the past, Counterman has allowed the same product code several times on a single Service Repair Order. Unfortunately, this has allowed for duplicate entries for the same part number within the same service transaction. When Service Repair Orders get rather large and all the items cannot be viewed on a single screen, duplicated items can be hard for you to detect and you may not even notice that the same part number is there more than once. With this release, if Counterman detects a duplicate item on the same Service Repair Order, you will need to confirm that you want to add the same item more than once. This will prevent duplicate entries of the exact same product code from being entered without your knowledge. Of course you can still enter the same item more than once if desired, it just depends on how you answer the question presented by Counterman once the duplicate item has been detected. This new enhancement will only be active on Service Repair Orders and product codes that are flagged as “Labor” will not generate the duplicate message. We appreciate the input from Steve at SKS Motorcycle in Lilburn, GA for another nice enhancement!
Additional Warranty Confirmations
With the release of the new Warranty processes in Counterman (released on the last update), a few customers have indicated that there should be a
stronger confirmation that the Warranty will be processed as expected. In an
effort to make this Warranty process even better, Counterman will now provide an Additional Warranty Confirmation window that will show the amount(s) to be charged or credited for submission to the manufacturer and/or for the ‘customer pay’ portion of that Warranty transaction. If you would like to know more about this newly enhanced Warranty feature, please read the previous Counterman Newsletter. There is a full article and full explanation available for you. Special thanks go out to Henry at Bikers Edge in Wichita, KS for his input on this added Warranty Confirmation window, which will insure that the Warranty totals are correct prior to processing.
Flexible Pricing Based From Inventory Costs?
This new feature will require some pre-explanation. Flexible Pricing, sometimes referred to as “Hot Rodding” is a process Counterman has always had available that applies percentage based changes to price book files. This process allows for changing the profit margins normally dictated by the supplier’s “MSR” (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail) price. The normal scenario would allow the user to base a different percentages, based off of the current Price Book “cost” or “MSR” price to be applied to the Selling Price. The Price Book file(s) would be updated according to the percentages you requested in Counterman. This new process will enable the ability to apply Flexible Pricing Based off of current Inventory Costs and have this process update the Counterman Inventory file instead of the Price Book file. This the goal for this enhancement.
So, in a case where the user purchases inventory in an aggressive manner that allows their “per item cost” to be much lower than the standard Price Book costs, having the capability to apply Flexible Pricing based off their negotiated cost would be a great tool to have. In these economic times, this is an approach that would help the profit margins and be of help to many Counterman users. This one is going to require you to contact Counterman if you’re interested in turning it on, as it requires a text file to exist in order to run the process. A special thank you goes out to “A Bikers Garage” in Texas for their input on this new feature.
Non-Taxed Transaction Detail
The new Non-Taxable Detail information that is now included as part of the Cash Drawer Report should make your accountants happy, as this detail now lists all items that were sold with no tax collected, and why. Non-Taxable items usually include things like Labor, Resale, and Out-Of- State mail order. However, because you have the ability to flag certain items as Non-Taxable, those items are listed here as well.
