What’s New Since Elliott V8.1

Below is a list of new features that have been implemented since the Elliott V8.1 general release.  Detailed information about these features can be found online at http://support.elliott.com. Please search there to locate the appropriate documentation if you wish to learn more.

Support Printing of PDF Files

With Elliott V8.2, we are providing native PDF support without using any third party software.  Therefore, you don’t have to install PDF software on individual workstations.  The system now allows reports to be displayed, spooled to disk, and/or emailed in PDF format. In the past, we supported the text file format. Even though other non-Elliott users could bring up the text files in Notepad, they often had difficulty printing them.  With the PDF format, this is no longer an issue.  Also, text files do not support images, line drawing, shading or barcodes.  Because of those limitations, in the past you could not print laser forms -- like invoices, for example -- to the screen, disk or email. Now, you can do that.

 

There is also a difference in file size. When comparing the same report in PDF versus text files, the size of the PDF file in the zip format is about 4 times larger than the text file format.  Also, the printing time may be 30% longer. Therefore, for any spooled reports intended for internal purposes, we recommend that you to continue using the text format.  For any printing involving laser form templates – such as invoices, purchase orders, or order acknowledgements, for example -- you should use the PDF format when spooled to disk.  If the spooled reports need to be sent to a third party to review, we recommend that you print to PDF format.

Support PDF PostOffice Feature

Prior to Elliott V8.2, you could print and create PDF files by using a third-party PDF writer application and creating PDF files by printing to that PDF "printer."  After the changes made in Elliott V8.2, you can now print and create PDF files directly without a third-party application. 

 

When printing a batch of invoices, the system will generate a single PDF file that contains all of the invoices in the batch. This PDF file cannot be sent to any of your customers since it contains all of the invoices in the batch. The system would need the ability to break this batch into separate PDF files and automate the process of sending these PDF documents to each individual customer’s designated email or fax number.

 

Elliott V8.2 provides that ability -- to split certain PDF printings into separate files per document, and then to automatically email (or optionally fax) each separate PDF document to the appropriate contact.  This feature focuses on delivering your business documents to your customers or vendors by creating PDF files and emailing or faxing them to the proper contact so you don't have to mail them through the post office.  Therefore, we call this feature PDF PostOffice. Not only does this speed up the delivery of your business documents, but also saves the cost of postage, paper, envelopes and labor, which can be significant.

 

The following Elliott business documents can be printed using the PDF PostOffice feature:

·         Invoices (normal, duplicates from history and pickup)

·         Purchase Orders

·         A/R Statements

·         Order Acknowledgements (Laser Form Option)

·         Order Quotes (Laser Form Option)

·         RMA Acknowledgements (Laser Form Option)

 

PDF PostOffice sends an email or fax based on the eContact for the Customer, Ship-To, Sales Order, Vendor and Purchase Order.  In the eContact feature, Web tab, "Email Docs..." button, you can determine which business documents will be emailed or faxed on a contact-by-contact basis.  When PDF PostOffice is enabled for a particular business document, during printing it will try to send an email to the contact's email address, if there is one.  If not, and the fax option is turned on, it will send a fax instead.  If no email or fax is available, then a hard copy is printed.

Drilldown Improvement

In various areas of Elliott, users can now access the Maintenance function from the Inquiry function.  For example, from Customer File Inquiry, the user can now change Customer information provided he or she has the security access to perform Customer File Maintenance.  The same principle applies to Vendor, Item, Employee, Ship-to, Order, and Kit Inquiry. Therefore, Elliott users are encouraged to use the Inquiry function to access a Master record and use drill down to the Change mode if necessary.  This will avoid potential locking issues in a multi-user environment. 

 

Item Inquiry can now be drilled down to from various features in Elliott, including Stock Status Inquiry, Item Generic Search window F4 Detail, Buyer’s Desk, Promo Desk, and BOMP Where-Used Inquiry. Again, from Item Inquiry, the user can drill down to change the item if the user has the privilege to do so. For Order Inquiry, the user not only can drill down to change the order, the user can also drill down to Customer Inquiry, and thus Change Customer.  Order Entry also supports Customer Inquiry and thus Change Customer. A similar principle applies to Cash Receipt, Cr/Dr Memo, I/M Inventory Transaction Processing, I/M Inventory Transfer Management, BOMP Work Order Inquiry, Employee Time Transaction, A/P Open Item Adjustments, and New A/P Transaction Processing.

Mass Change Salesman CSV Import Utility

In many companies, salesmen come and go.  When a salesman leaves a company, his/her accounts are often re-assigned to another salesman or a house account.  This can be a tedious process.  We now support changing a customer’s salesman through importing a CSV file.  You can prepare your changes in a spreadsheet first and, when ready, import the salesman changes to update the Customer file.  The import utility can also optionally update associated Ship-to, Open Sales Orders, and Attribute Owner (so the new salesman owns the attribute).

Real Time Aging upon Cash Receipt Posting

In Customer File, there are four aging periods showing the customer’s balance for 30, 60, 90 days…etc. This information is often used by credit managers to determine if a sales order should be released or not. Elliott has a process called “Age Customer Account Balance.”  It is commonly implemented as a Deferred Processing task, so that every night the new customer aging periods are updated.  Certain organizations like to run the “Age Customer Account Balance” many times in a day so the newly received cash posted will be reflected in the customer’s account.  This however, may not be efficient for database performance, and additional locking can take place.  The Elliott system will now dynamically update the customer aging periods for the affected customers during cash receipt posting, as well as A/R Credit Card Handling Posting. You still need to run the “Age Customer Account Balance” every night to update the aging periods for those customers that you did not receive payment from during the day.

Expanded Amigos Support

The term “Amigos” refers to Notes, Contacts, Attributes, Links and Events. The enabling of Amigos takes place when a Master record -- like Customer -- is brought up on the screen, and it goes away when the Master record is no longer displayed on the screen.  Because these features come and go at the same time, we called them the “Five Amigos.”

 

In the past, Elliott supported Amigos in various Master files.  This included, but was not limited to, Customer, Vendor, Item, Employees, Sales Order, Purchase Order, and BOMP Production Work orders.  In Elliott V8.2, we have expanded our Amigos support to many less-important Master files. This includes, but is not limited to, Item Substitute Class, Item Equipment (WMS), Item G/L Account File, Payroll Account File, AP Account File, AR Account File, AR Source File, State File, Bank Book Account File, COP Customer Item File, BOMP Operation ID, Department, Work Center, Feature/Option, and Vendor Service Address.

Line Draw Improvement

Various screens in Elliott V8.2 are improved with line draw to make them easier to read.  This includes, but is not limited to: A/R Adjustment Auditing Inquiry, COP Order/Invoice Inquiry by Customer, Customer Generic Search Window, A/R Account Inquiry, Summary Account Inquiry, ACH Queue and History, A/R Sales Cr/Dr Memo Processing, A/R Cash Receipt Processing, A/P Vendor Account Inquiry, Summary Inquiry, GL Account Inquiry, GL Statement Layout, Bank Book Reconciliation, I/M Stock Status Inquiry, Serial History Inquiry, Bin Inquiry Screen, Bin Detail Screen, ATP Inquiry/Processing Screen, Pegging Window, Transfer Detail Window, Location History, Inventory Trx Detail Window, Component Inquiry, Inventory Trx Processing, COP Reason Code File Maintenance, Future Price Processing, Contract Price Maintenance, and Forecast File Maintenance.

Create Inventory Transaction CSV Import

In I/M Item File Maintenance or Inquiry, we added a new feature called “Create Inventory Trx CSV Import.” You can use this feature to enter or scan a list of items, and then the system can create a CSV file ready for “Inventory Trx CSV Import.”  You can also simply use this feature to print a list of items. For example, some Elliott users use this function to handle returned items. Returned items are scanned and put away into their stocking bins. The created CSV file in this process can then be used to import them into Inventory Transaction as “Receiving” transactions to adjust inventory.

Support Payment Window from Order/Invoice Inquiry

The Payment Window can be accessed from Order Entry Billing Screen or Sales Desk.  However, after the order is selected for billing, invoicing, or posting, then the Order Billing Screen is no longer accessible.  With this improvement, users can now access the Payment Window from the Order or Invoice Inquiry Screen.

Support EDI Interface with SPS Commerce

With Elliott V8.2, we now support EDI orders with SPS Commerce. Additional attribute features have been added to support Elliott SPS Service. SPS Commerce is a major EDI service provider.  By working with SPS Commerce, you can now implement EDI solutions with great flexibility, starting from entry-level solutions like Web Form to those that are fully integrated with Elliott. Similar to SPS Commerce, Elliott SPS Service is a cloud computing solution available on a subscription basis.