Lettronics Support

Hi,

I must start out by saying great little program you have here, does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it well. Got a few feature requests that would make it even better though, if theres a way of doing any of the below in the current version please let me know how).

1) The label/barcode printing idea is great, and works well when a barcode font is used, but currently is is quite limited being only single labels. My current project is to help out a company that sells very large items and its not ideal to have barcodes on each item. The shopstaff know the items there selling just by looking at them, so I want to use their knowledge alongside the barcode system. What would be fantastic is a section where you can print a selection of labels on one sheet, ie an index of barcodes with many items on it, so the staff can just scan the items of the index sheet. These could be manually seleted by the user, by category, entire, ect ect

 2) For each item you have a quantity in stock and a reorder stock level, I couldn't find anywhere a report is generated to tell you what items are due to be reordered. So the request is for a report form that displays items that are currently below minimum stock levels. This will give you a quick and easy way to see items that need to be reorded, maybe on this form you could have supplier, supplier stock code, cost price and units needed. IF ITEMCODE(CURRENT_STOCK) < ITEMCODE(MINIMUM_STOCK) ADD TO REPORT

3) Moving on from number 2 this it could be made more advanced by adding form that cross checks sales history (editable) to current stock levels so you can do a report showing items based on sales history that will run out in the near future. IF SALES(LAST_7_DAYS) > ITEMCODE(CURRENT_STOCK) ADD TO REPORT

4) Better error trapping.I have had a few instances where data was entered outside out the database specified range, i.e. entering too many characters for a categories, and this gives an error and quits to destop. Is there any way these errors can be captured informing the user it is out of the specified range but letting the user reenter or just going back to the previous section.

5) Add a way to remove categories, customers, items, suppliers or at least have a hidden option so they can be globally turned on/off in config section. If the option is turned to hidden, then they will not be seen in PCTill/SCM. If this is not advisable due to audit history, how about a new table being formed, and deleted/hidden entries are moved to the new table so the audit history is still there, but the data is hidden from the main program. (I know you use the discontinued flag on items so they dont show up on certain reports, its a more advanced/extended idea from this)

Thanks for your time and keep up the fantastic work, it is appreachated!

Regards
Lee
Panther Computers

Thanks for the comments. We read and discuss them all.

The software has to cater for the majority of users, and that is where we concentrate our efforts.  If you need extra functionality not currently present, probably the best way is to write a simple utility to do exactly what you need.  However, in the case of printing out a list of common barcodes etc, maybe the report generator build in to MS Access, or similar software such as Crystal Reports, may suit your needs.  I believe there are some low cost report generators available.

I would have to look at the minimum stock level reports - the functionality is in the code, so should be there.  I wonder if the user interface bit has gone missing.  What version are you running?

Again, making the reorder report more suitable for your needs, maybe a seperate report generator may do what you require.  Although I do like your idea of having a report which has some hint of sales history on it, so I am keen to get it added.

Error trapping is not good.  Due to the architecture, generic error trapping will not work, so we have to trap them individually as they happen. This is a permenent ongoing task. 

 Your point 5 sounds interesting, and again it will be discussed. Need to decide if it will be useful to the majority of our users, and prioritise based on that.

Thanks again for your comments and ideas

Hello,

Glad some of my ideas maybe useful to better the product. To answer your question, I am currently testing version 3.4.1 which I believe to be the latest build. Within the reports section, I have found a bit where you can report on specific items, there is a check box for Only Display Reorder Items, I will try this to see if it activates the reorder stock code you mentioned was already in place.

Another thing that has jumped to the foreground is within the PCTill you can activally go below zero stock on an item, which is a major concern if it is running in a tradecounter enviroment where customers are buying stock there and then, you could sell an item you dont have in stock which can make your company very unprofessional. Is it possible to add some sort of failsafe so if the stock number is or will go below zero that it is flagged up as out of stock. Maybe display the line on the till as RED and showing OUT OF STOCK on the line also, or some such ?

Also do you want me to post bugs that I find as I go along testing the software, one for example is within SCM DB Populator, the category is sorted by database listing instead of alphabetically, also another is if there is no default printer set up, the application bombs out with a runtime error when trying to create a new till.

Thanks
Lee

3.4.1 is the latest version available for general release.

Please post up bugs, or apparent bugs, as you find them please, so we can error trap the ones we've missed (probably lots!).

The original client who commissioned us to write the software specifically request that items could be sold seemlessly, despite not necessarily being in stock.  We still have to obey that in some way as part of the agreement we have with them about releasing software which they paid to develop as freeware. We will discuss it with them, but the flagging up as a different colour may well be acceptable, and very useful.

PantherComputers:

Another thing that has jumped to the foreground is within the PCTill you can activally go below zero stock on an item, which is a major concern if it is running in a tradecounter enviroment where customers are buying stock there and then, you could sell an item you dont have in stock which can make your company very unprofessional. Is it possible to add some sort of failsafe so if the stock number is or will go below zero that it is flagged up as out of stock. Maybe display the line on the till as RED and showing OUT OF STOCK on the line also, or some such ?

V3.5.0 does display a small stock warning in red if not enough stock to cover the item sale when entering the quantity.  We have had to implement this in such a way that it is not overly intrusive.