Stock Record Maintenance Improvements

This release brings the improvements to Stock record maintenance options that were introduced in earlier releases for the Sales/Purchase Account maintenance screens amongst others.

The first change is to the menu options available – an ACTION button has been added which, when selected, lists the options available in more detail than can be shown on the individual buttons (you can select the action from here also). In addition a CLOSE button has been added, wherever you are in the option selecting this will abandon the current process and return you directly to the menu.



The second change gives you a utilities and enquiries panel on the right of the screen allowing access to various system tools and enquiry options.

The Utility panel, generic for all applications, allows you to see:

Graph – displays chart showing sales and cost values for the last 12 months together with demand values.

Web – link to the website (if recorded against the stock record). The Web link is only active if a data item named WEB (or WEBSITE / WWW) exists on the stock file and contains a website address.

Mail – launches your email client pre-set with the email address (if recorded against the stock record). If more than one address recorded then a pop-up will allow pre-selection of the address to use. The mail option is active when a data item named EMAILx (where X is space or number) exists on the stock record.

Word – shows any existing Microsoft Word documents created against the stock item and allow amendment / print of these documents and the creation of new ones.

Image – shows any image linked to the stock record. The image option is active when a data item named IMAGEx (where X is a space or number) exists on the stock record and contains a JPG or BMP filename.

Links – opens a ‘Windows Explorer’ folder for this stock item. Within this folder you may have files such as excel spreadsheets, PDF files, etc. If right-click and choose NEW then various options will be available depending on the software installed on the pc.

Map – links to a map website showing the location derived from any post code recorded on the stock record. The map link is active when a data item named POST-CODE exists on the stock record and contains post code data.

Zoom – transfers to the ledger enquiry option for the Stock Record (subject to authority levels settings within the ledger enquiry manager)

Memo – adds / updates the memo recorded against the stock record.

Scans – shows any existing scans created against the stock item and allows addition of new scanned documents.

The Enquiries panel allows you to see (subject to authority level settings within the ledger control manager):

Trans – view the transaction history for the stock record

Sales – view the sales order history for the stock record

Purchase – view the purchase order history for the stock record

Works – view the works order history for the stock record (where the item is used as a component)

Batches – view the batch detail for this stock record (where appropriate)

Installation

DATAFILE.INI

These options are available via amendments to the DATAFILE.INI. The INI file is usually located in the main DFWIN (or DF) folder for your system and can be edited with any text editor.

 If you add the line:

 R65LOOK=TRUE

 to the DATAFILE.INI then this will enable this option together with similar features in the other application maintenance screens. If you have any existing RXXLOOK entries then this new command can replace these.

If you have not enabled any RXXLOOK options previously then in addition to enabling this option the font size will be reduced, throughout the system, in order to display this extra detail. The font size assigned is 9 point on an 800x600 resolution, 10 point on a 1024x768 resolution and 12 point on higher resolutions. You can amend the font size via an entry in the DATAFILE.INI if desired, though we do not recommend this as, depending on fonts some screen display problems may occur. The option to amend the font size that can be added to the DATAFILE.INI, though it must be added after the R65LOOK entry above, is:

 FONTSIZE=X,Y,Z

where X is the point size at 800x600, Y is at 1024x768 and Z is any higher resolution. Note: Datafile recommend a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768.