Top 10 New Features in DDMS 8.22.0

This message covers the following timely topics:

What’s New In This Release?

Shortcuts for: All Dealers | Furniture | Machines

How Do I Get This Version?

What’s New In This Release?

April 20, 2010 — To take advantage of new technology, work more efficiently, and grow your business, get ECi DDMS Version 8.22.0 — a major release of 10 new features:

1. graphical Delivery Manifest
2. SQL Sales Tax Per Customer Address (ZIP+4)
3. password-protecting A/R (Customer) Deposits in Order Entry
4. expanding (L4) Federal Withholding Tiers
5. Order Notes for Furniture Manufacturer Options
6. Searching Multiple Staging Bins
7. using 3rd Party Bill's Taxable setting to determine tax
8. Call Monitor Print Preview
9. Work Orders Caption Bar and Last 10 Calls
10. streamlined BEI Export installation

Details are below. Log in to the ECi Customer Support Portal (https://support.ecisolutions.com) to get your software download.

This release includes enhancements designed to make it easier for you to take full advantage of new technology, work more efficiently, and grow your business.

DDMS customers received a shorter email message of this announcement. This is the extended version of the announcement, as it provides details of 35 other high-priority improvements to the usability and flow of your DDMS business system software. For details, read on below.

For All Dealers

Graphical Delivery Manifest

To help you streamline the delivery manifest process, we're releasing the new graphical Delivery Manifest application.

You no longer have to use the text-based (TS) Shipping Manifest screen. Like our other EBS programs — Price Modeling, Price Plans, and SQL Report Preview — the new Delivery Manifest gives you a user-friendly graphical interface, as shown below

You'll find the new Delivery Manifest in the Warehouse menu. The on-screen display is very flexible, allowing you to choose the display order of tables and determine what displays in each table. Then, you can:

• scan tickets
• add tickets based on limit criteria
• use manual entry
• create a new manifest
• append to an existing manifest

To get started, see Delivery Manifests (pdf).

Maintain Sales Tax Per Customer Address (ZIP+4) in SQL Tables

To make it easier to keep up with sales tax districts per customer address, you have the option to switch to our new SQL database for Address Taxability.

As you may know, sales tax rates vary not only from state to state, or city to city — but even within a zip code or city limits. The challenge has been to keep up with local sales tax district rates for your nationwide customers' many remote locations.

Previously, your DDMS system did not store the original sales tax amount in sales history. It recalculated sales tax based on the district percentage. This has made reprinting invoices difficult after changing a tax district. As a workaround, any time a state, county, or city changed tax rates, you had to keep the old tax districts for historical purposes, add dozens of new tax districts to reflect new tax rates, and mass change affected customers to the new tax districts.

If you switch to SQL-based Address Taxability, you can more easily update tax tables on a regular basis:

• You can record state, county, city, and other taxes separately — if for example a state tax changes, you only have to update one field instead of multiple tax district records.
• When you change a tax district or percentage in the SQL tables, the DDMS system retains the original sales tax amount per ticket in your sales journals, while immediately using the new rate for new tickets. No more having to create dozens of new tax districts for every rate change, and no more mass changing customers to new tax districts just to be able to reprint invoices or reports!
• Where an item is only taxable in a specific jurisdiction, you can set it up to be taxed correctly in the new SQL tax tables.
• Item taxability is no longer tied to the general ledger department or item SIC code. It eliminates double-use of these fields, and frees you to use item departments and SIC codes for other purposes.

SQL-based Address Taxability also makes reporting a breeze:

• A new Sales Tax (Address Taxability) report shows tax totals by state, county, city, and order number.
• A new exception report lists the addresses that were not added to the Geographic Location file (T-GEOCODE). The ability to print this report was added to the end of the ;SPC:ADDR program. After the conversion program has finished, the user is prompted to print the exception report and the printer to use. If Esc is pressed, the report does not print. (QC# 56546)

If you wish to use the SQL tables to maintain Address Taxability, it will require authorization — however, there is no additional charge! To get started, simply see Setting Up Address Taxability (pdf).

If you wish to automatically populate address-specific tax tables using CCH Tax Import subscription — instead of creating your own — please contact ECi Sales.

Password Protect A/R (Customer) Deposits in Order Entry

Now, you can set a password to prevent unauthorized access to A/R Deposits from Order Entry. You may enter up to four alphanumeric characters in the Access Deposits Password box in the Keyop Order Entry General Configuration window.

Once the password is set, if users select the Deposits option from the Order Entry menu (as shown at right), the system prompts them for the correct password. This password applies to Commercial, Furniture, and Serialized Order Entry. This password does not apply to the Accounts Receivable window, where existing access rules apply.

For more information, see your online help in DDMS 8.22 or higher.

Federal Withholding Tiers Expanded for $375,000 Gross Income

For those who use DDMS Payroll, the (L4) Federal Tax Parameter screen has been changed from 8 to 9 lines for Circular E (Single and Married) in compliance with 2010 Tax Withholding tables.

On Dec. 17, 2009, when the IRS published its tax withholding rates for 2010, the tables included a new tax tier. Since the (L4) screen was designed to accommodate only 8 tiers, this required a temporary workaround to specify the new tax withholding rate in the Personnel Master record for employees where the new tier applies:

• Single employees who will gross more than $375,700 in 2010.
• Married employees who will gross over $381,400 in 2010.

If you do not have employees who meet this earnings threshold, no action is required.

However, if you have employees who meet this threshold, we have updated Setting (L4) Federal Payroll Taxes for 2010 to show how to update your federal tax table parameters, and to reverse the temporary workaround for affected employees.

Other Changes for All Dealers:

This release includes dozens of improvements to the usability and flow of DDMS accounting, order entry, purchasing, and more:

• 56216 Corrected so when printing a Sales Tax by Order and a Sales Tax by Line report, the system displays the proper revenue information.
• 56294 Corrected the logic for printing zero cents on 1099s. Previously, when the dollar amount was even, such as 10.00 or 200.00, the system did not print the .00 at the end.
• 56388 Corrected so the system allows adding printers in the TBL Configuration window. Previously when clicking the drop down arrow in the Emulation box nothing displayed for the user to select. This has been corrected.
• 56152 Corrected so when going to Price Modeling, Imported Item File, and manually entering the system lets you type more than 10 characters in the Import File path.
• 56154 Corrected so when going to Price Modeling, Imported Item File, and clicking Browse, the system does not display an Unhandled Exception error.
• 56027 Corrected so when a user creates a price model and enters limits, the system properly prints the limit information on reports.
• 56029 Corrected so the system saves changes made to the grid in the Price Modeling window.
• 56330 Corrected to reduce the amount of time required to import an Excel file into the Price Modeling window.
• 55908 Corrected so when posting in the General Ledger window, the system does not allow the user to post for location 00 accounts are for 00 summary accounts.
• 56113 Corrected so when searching for an invoice in the O/E History window with a zero GP % and clicking the Forward arrow to view the next invoice, and afterwards clicking the Back arrow, the system displays the proper gross profit percentage for each invoice and not from the first invoice shown.
• 56151 Corrected so the first line of status 6-7 prepay tickets (paycode 4), do not display an invoice date since they have not yet been invoiced.
• 56344 Corrected by removing the W-Changes compression from the (MA) process. This streamlines day-end procedures, since the file is no longer being used by DDMS software.
• 55892 Corrected so the Pick Dump process is consistent when saving the order-taker numbers while performing a pay on pre-pay function and using either graphical or text-based software.
• 56503 Corrected so when attempting to install DDMS software, the system does not display the EBS Server Failed to Install Error Code: 1603 message. This occurred in the 8.21.41 installation.
• 56415 Corrected so if no limits have been set in the SQL Reports window, clicking the Remove Selected button does not display an Unhandled Error message.
• 56486 Corrected so when printing the SQL Statements report, the system allows the user to break and sort by department.
• 56450 Corrected so the graph information displayed in the Executive Dashboard window better matches data in the A/R, A/P and Bank files.
• 56178 Corrected to properly show all totals for all locations in the Executive Dashboard window. Previously the user could view only daily information for specific locations since monthly and yearly figures displayed for all locations.
• 56136 Corrected so the system does not display an Invalid Property Array Index error message when performing a credit return in Order Entry. This error only occurred when an item was brought up in order mode but not placed on the order, then the user returned to the Global tab to start a credit.
• 56244 Corrected so the Note Code in the Notes Everywhere window properly displays. Previously, it was showing Not on File instead.
• 56248 Corrected so the system displays a warning message that P/Os are not available to be printed in the O/E History window. Previously the system displayed an error when attempting to print a P/O for an order that had not yet been built.
• 56426 Corrected so tickets containing an initial deposit properly display in the Jour-P file. Previously, they were appearing as completely paid.

For Furniture Dealers

Furniture Manufacturer Options Easier to Enter in Order Notes

Sometimes, you have orders where you are not importing from a SIF file. However, manufacturers still require you to specify item options in order to process your purchase orders electronically.

The Furniture Order Notes (F11) dialog box now makes it easier to manually enter, change, or delete item option numbers and option descriptions as required. Previously, the Line Item Order Notes/Option contained only a single box to enter all the detail. This box has now been divided into two separate sections: Option Number (up to 25 characters) and Description (up to 500 characters).

Note: Manufacturers require you to enter the options in a specific sequence. Please refer to online help in DDMS 8.22 or higher for Viewing and Changing Furniture Order Notes, Line Item Option, or see What's New in Version 8 for details on Enhanced Furniture Option Entry.

Search For Multiple Staging Bins in Furniture Order Entry

For dealers who use multiple staging bins, the task of receiving split quantities into different bins may have been difficult. But now, Order Entry Change Mode lets you search for bins, entering the bin ID directly or to search within certain fields, such as Description, Code, or Type, as shown below.

To use this feature:

• In the (LG0) parameters screen, tab to the Split to a Separate Line Partial Backorders field, and set it to Y.
• In the (LF) parameters screen, tab to Split Lines on Partial Received Quantities field, and set it to Y.

In the Furniture Order Entry Change tab, select an item with a shipped quantity greater than one. Right-click and choose Multiple Staging Bins. When the Receive to Staging Bin dialog box opens, click the To Bin box and enter the bin number, or click to search for the bin using the Multiple Bin dialog box. Once the bin is selected, press Enter.

For more information, see your online help in DDMS 8.22 or higher.

Use 3rd Party Billing Taxable Setting to Determine Tax

As you may know, Third Party Billing (TPB) lets you sell items to a customer, but bill a third party, such as a leasing company, for the order.

Previously, DDMS tax calculations automatically used the end customer Taxable Y/N setting and tax district. However, certain TPB cases required dealers to remember extra steps to change the taxable party and tax district to properly calculate tax.

To streamline these processes and give dealers more control over TPB tax calculations, we've added a new field to the Third Party Billing dialog box and a new Order Entry parameter. With these enhancements, you can now set up Order Entry to use the third party billing customer’s Taxable Y/N setting, while using the end customer tax district.

• The Use Third Party Bill To Taxable Setting box has been added to the Furniture O/E Third Party Billing dialog box. If you check this box, sales tax calculations will consider the third party's taxability setting along with the end customer's tax district for the selected address. Each line item as well as the order’s taxable setting, stored in the P-GLOBAL file, is updated.
• A new parameter lets you specify that the Use Third Party Bill To Taxable Setting box be checked by default when the Third Party Billing dialog box opens. Go to the Order Entry General Configuration parameters. Set the Default to Use Third Party Bill To Taxable Setting box to Y. You can always change the setting in Order Entry as needed.
• A new Customer Shipto w/Tax District Report is available. To add it to Preview Reports, use the "Set up Reports" Task and select from the ECI2 folder.

For more information, see your online help in DDMS 8.22 or higher.

Other Changes for Furniture Dealers:

This release includes additional improvements to the usability and flow for DDMS office furniture dealers:

• 56423 Enhanced SQL Reporting by adding three new default furniture reports: Backlog Report by Salesperson, Salesperson Sales by Manufacturer, and Salesperson Sales by Manufacturer Detail. To add them to Preview Reports, use the "Set up Reports" Task and select from the ECI2 folder.
• 55815 Corrected Furniture Order Entry so the system properly posts deposits for partial billings where Prorate Deposit is turned on. Previously, if you had a ticket with a negative amount like a rebate, and create a deposit for the ticket, then invoice all items except the negative amount item, the system applied more than the deposit is for. This has been fixed.
• 56163 Corrected so prorated Accounts Receivable deposits do not allow the deposit to be posted when an amount has not been invoiced.
• 56288 Corrected so when all the lines have been approved in the Furniture Job Cost Approval window and the user selects to place them an on order, the system does not display an error message.
• 56497 Corrected so when attempting to change the order location of a furniture order, the system displays the proper warning messages when the lines on the order are invalid and cannot be changed.
• 56437 Corrected issues with the Furniture Order Summary Reports (Customer, Location and Salesperson). Previously, the data could be incorrect if partial data was added on later dates.
• 56305 Corrected an error in building the file for Herman Miller when marking multiple purchase orders to be sent to HMI in the Purchase Order Communicate window. The system properly creates the P/Os to be sent.
• 56307 Corrected so the system properly retains the customer's due date information in Furniture Order Entry Order Settings tab when the information is added in the Furniture Profile Settings tab.
• 55335 Corrected so purchase orders containing a negative cost only item properly posts to A/R and A/P when using the Furniture Work in Progress window.
• 55947 Corrected to the Furniture Work in Progress (WIP) records are going to the proper responsibility center (RC) inventory general ledger accounts. 56141 Corrected so when using the Furniture Project Overview window and selecting a date for an event, the calendar opens with the current month's calendar and the proper year. Previously the system was opening the next month's calendar and the year 2002.
• 56275 Corrected so when changing a furniture quote to an order, the system does not display a Run Time error message. This occurred when a salesperson number had been added and a ticket number was assigned.
• 56389 Corrected so when adding and Installation item on a furniture order, the system does not display the Installation address with the Please Tag As Follows message on the Name field.

For Machine Dealers

Call Monitor Print Preview Lets you Print, Email, or Fax Work Orders

For call management, we've made it easier than ever to communicate open call reports and call lists electronically.

• In the Machine Monitor window, set up filters as needed, and click the Print Preview button.
• When a tech is on vacation, for example, you can forward their open calls or call lists via printer, email, fax, PDF, or spreadsheet.
• You can use the same filters as the Machines Monitor Screen, and send whatever calls are displayed.

As a result, you no longer have to go into the text-based (EZZ) screen to print your call monitor.

For more information, see the Machines Monitor online help topic for Print Preview in DDMS 8.22 or higher.

Revamped Work Orders Window

The Work Orders window is easier than ever to navigate.

A caption bar on the Work Orders window displays basic call details as you move from tab to tab (customer’s number, department, and name, the machine’s physical location, along with the system, sub, and serial numbers, contract type, call code, call’s priority, item number and company).

Now you can set up the Work Orders Call Detail window to display the last 10 calls automatically before entering a new call. It's easy to pick an open call if necessary. To use this feature, go to the KeyOp menu, and open Graphical Parameters. Then select the Serialized folder and click General Configuration. In the Display Last 10 Calls List When Logging New Call field, enter Y.

For more information, see the Machine Work Order online help in DDMS 8.22 or higher.

Streamlined BEI Export installation

To reduce the steps required to update your DDMS software, we have re-incorporated the BEI Export software into the standard DDMS installation. As a result, you no longer have to download or install BEI Export separately.

For details on monitoring your machine service operations and technician performance with BEI Services, see Sending Data to Business Equipment Information (BEI) Services (pdf).

More Info On Recent DDMS Version 8 Releases

• What's New in Version 8
  (www.ddms.com/Resources/Doc/version8/whatsnew_ver8.pdf)
• Other Version 8 Documentation
  (www.ddms.com/support/doc/ver8doc.htm)

How Do I Get This Version?

Hundreds of ECi customers go to https://support.ecisolutions.com to log tickets, add attachments, add notes to Web Conversations with their support techs, look up their development status, and more!

Now you can securely download your DDMS software at your convenience! We've logged more than 750 downloads, with over 600 just for DDMS software updates. It's the method of choice for a majority of DDMS customers.

IMPORTANT: The ECI Customer Support Portal's page of Software Downloads is the primary method of delivery for all DDMS software. This became effective in June with the release of both DDMS 8.19 and the O/PUS 3rd Quarter Multi-Vendor Catalog Update.

It's easy to register if you haven't already. To log in, download and run the latest DDMS software update:

1. Go to https://support.ecisolutions.com.
2. Just enter your unique email address. If you already have a password, enter it and click Submit. If you don't have your password or have forgotten it, check the box for a temporary password, and click Submit.

   On the login page, you can view a 10-minute video guided tour to introduce you to using the ECi Customer Support Portal. There's also a new 2-minute video on using Software Downloads.

   1. If your email address is associated with a customer account in our system, you'll receive a temporary password. If not, email ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com to request portal access. Once we verify your account we will contact you with your Login.
   2. Once you receive your temporary password, you can log in.
   3. Change your password as prompted.
3. Click Software Downloads, click DDMS and follow the on-screen steps.

If you would like a copy of this software update on CD-ROM, we will be happy to ship it to you via United Parcel Service (UPS) Ground. You can request a software update CD by email support@eci2.com, including your DDMS account number, contact name, company name, shipping address, and phone number. Effective with DDMS Version 8.20 and higher, a $15 shipping and handling fee will apply for each software update CD requested.

Sincerely,

ECi DDMS Product Management & Technical Support
http://support.ecisolutions.com