Detailed What's New List (More Recent)

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Jewelry Shopkeeper New Features, Modifications, Improvements

 

Jewelry Shopkeeper is constantly being improved so it runs better and so your business runs better.

Here are some of the more recent changes.

 

Version 4.570                                                      11/14/2024

===============================================================

 

The Main Menu now has better support for high-resolution / large monitors.

 Previously the size limit of the Main Menu was about 2400 x 1400

 and now it's 3840 x 2160. This has no practical effect, but some users

 want to "hide" the entire Windows desktop with the VJS Main Menu when

 VJS is running.

 

 If your large or high-resolution monitor makes the Main Menu buttons

 appear too small, you can now enlarge them up to 300% by choosing the

 A-/A+ icon near the options button. Or click options then choose

 Menu Button & Text Size.

 

 In that same area, if you check the option 'Realign Buttons on Menu Resize',

 then every time you resize the Main Menu, the number of buttons per row w

 will automatically be adjusted to fit.

 (This is not always wanted if you want the buttons to remain in a fixed location

 where you know to click them.)

 

You can now realign the buttons on the VJS Main Menu (and other menus)

 by pressing the F5 key. F5 is a Windows standard keystroke to Refresh screens.

 

Sometimes users with multiple monitors or remote access get their Shopkeeper

 screens popping up off-screen. A change has been made to limit that.

 

 

As with many reports, when you run a Cash Register Journal Report,

 simultaneously an Excel XLS file is created in the VJS Reports folder.

 A change in this version is that extra columns have been added to

 the XLS file: Dept (sales department) Register (a cash register code)

 and the Clerk's initials. That way you can do additional analysis of

 payment activity using Excel.

 

 

Version 4.564                                                      11/08/2024

===============================================================

 

 

The inventory report XLS export file (which is simultaneously created in the

 VJS Reports folder when you run an inventory report) now includes a column

 for the Sku's Size.        

 

 In addition, when you run the report you can now type

 ANY in the size criterion box on the report selection screen to restrict the

 report to only those items that have  size filled in. (i.e. to exclude those

 with no size.)

 

 

Version 4.563                                                      11/06/2024

===============================================================

 

Adds improvements for the integrated payment processing with Podium Payments

 Speeds up addition of text-to-pay requests. Ability to have multiple text-to-pay

 requests pending on one sale. Easier cancellation of text-to-pay requests.

 Better handling of refunds.

 (Also see version 4.560 below)

 

You can now run an inventory report to focus on only those sku's which

 are still on order. I.e. where you made a purchase order and you have

 received fewer than the quantity ordered.

 To get this report, choose the Full Selection page of Inventory reports

 and set the option 'Zero Quantity Inventory' to On Order Only.

 

 In addition, the XLS export file (which is simultaneously created in the

 VJS Reports folder when you run an inventory report) now includes additional columns

 for  Orders Outstanding Quantity, Orders Outstanding Cost, Orders Outstanding Retail.

 

 

Version 4.562                                                              11/01/2024

===============================================================

 

The inventory reports can now be run to show only those items which

 were ordered via a purchase order and which have not yet been received.

 

Running inventory reports simultaneously creates Excel XLS files, which is

 not new. The change in this update is that for the ordered items that

 are not yet received, the Quantity, Cost and Retail of the outstanding

 items are now included in columns in the report export XLS files.

 

For sales that include repair tracking details, when you print a sales receipt

 you have long had the option to print the repair instructions and

 description details. New in this version is the option to include

 the alternative or original repair numbers which may be different than

 the sale number. (Those repair numbers are not automatically included on

 the sales receipts, but they can be added if you make custom layouts.

 Ask Compulink for more details if that is needed for your receipts.)

 

 

 

Version 4.560                                                              10/22/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 240 new items for Holiday 2024

 including additions for Stranger Things, many "Sparkling" items,

 Disney, Marvel

 

 There are just a few price changes since the last update.

 (But if you didn't yet run the October 1 update, there are over 2000

 price changes waiting.)

 

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

Adds support for integrated payment processing with Podium Payments.

 In addition to processing via credit card terminal, you can

 do text-to-pay where you send an SMS text to a customer who

 can self-process the payment at her convenience.

 

 

Modern oAuth2 authentication support has been added for Microsoft 365

 email and Microsoft Outlook Online email so you can send email

 through Shopkeeper using such accounts. ( Many business email

 accounts are set up on MS 365.)

 

You can now require certain Sku's have a zero price on a sale.

 Typically these would be notes-type Sku's

 To do this set the minimum price for the Sku as negative one (-$1.00)

 

 

Version 4.548                                                              09/30/2024

===============================================================

 

Resolved a problem whereby in the Picture Manager screen, it was

 possible to create a copy of the current picture by certain

 mouse dragging combinations. (Rare, but not unknown)

 

Version 4.548                                                              09/27/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for over 2,100 price changes

 for effect October 1st, 2024.

 There are only about a dozen new items and pictures.

 

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Version 4.547                                                              09/25/2024

===============================================================

 

As with many VJS reports, the Cash Requirements reports simultaneously

 create an Excel XLS file with the data from the report.

 In this update, the XLS file sees the addition of two more columns

 being the two invoice description lines.

 

 

The programs which update Shopify quantities in bulk have been updated

 such that they can be slowed down. This can help for those times

 when the Shopify computers are too busy and cannot handle many

 requests.

 [This can be an automatic slowdown or it can accept the

 CHUNK XX instruction - ask Compulink for details if needed.]

 

The WooCommerce programs have been updated to support inventory

 product variants.

 

 

 

Version 4.546                                                              09/17/2024

===============================================================

 

The Bulk Reprice screen has a new option to reprice merchandise

 based on new markup formulas you type in the major class codes

 and vendor profiles. I.e. if you revise the markup formulas

 in the major class codes and vendor profiles screens, each of

 which can have different formulas, you can revise prices across

 the board instead of repricing each section of inventory separately.

 

 Choose the Reprice method "Markup by Major Class or Vendor of Price-Point"

 As usual, the markup in the vendor profile takes priority.

 For vendors without a special markup, the markup formula will

 come from the major class code profile.

 If there is a markup in neither the vendor nor the major class,

 then the Price-Point markups will be used. (These are set up in

 Preferences under the Inventory section, but they are rarely

 used as most major codes have a markup.

 

 This page has the instructions for repricing inventory in bulk :

https://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?reprice-many-inventory-items-o.htm

 

 

 

 

Version 4.545                                                              09/09/2024

===============================================================

 

Miscellaneous adjustments to the Reprice Inventory (in bulk) screen.

 Require a comment, widen the Sku No column as the last digit was only

 half-visible before. Bypass a problem that could occur if many other

 people on the network are using the inventory file.

 

[IgnoreSaleInsufficientQuantity]

 

 

Version 4.544                                                              09/06/2024

===============================================================

 

The Gold and Platinum Price Scroller has been updated to show the

 Kitco price in most cases.

 (Kitco prices had previously been shown, but changes to the Kitco

 website had caused VJS to revert to the Comex Continuous Gold

 price in most cases.)

 

A change in the Memorized Report screen will help prevent inadvertently

 setting memorized reports as the default criteria for various reports.

 (It's still possible to set the defaults, but it's now less likely

 to be done accidentally)

 Also, clicking on the green "go" arrow will load the memorized report.

 Previously you had to double-click a memorized report line to load it.

 

 

Version 4.543                                                              09/04/2024

===============================================================

 

Includes an update needed to maintain compatibility with

 Google Gemini A.I., because occasionally Google makes

 changes to their system.

 ( Gemini A.I. can be used in Shopkeeper to help generate or

 rewrite long inventory descriptions for websites,

 Appraisals, etc. This is a Maintenance Plan-only feature)

 

 

Version 4.542                                                              08/20/2024

===============================================================

 

Includes Beta for Podium Payments.

 

[Antivew624]

 

 

Version 4.541                                                              08/19/2024

===============================================================

 

When running an itemized sales report sorted by brand and style,

 previous versions would have put the name of the Vendor in

 the group heading line, not the name of the Brand.

 That formatting has been corrected in this update.

 

 

 

 

Version 4.540                                                              08/12/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 190 new items for Late Summer 2024

 including additions for Disney, Lab Grown Diamond items, etc.

 

 There are no price changes since the April and May updates.

 A few prices in the catalog seem odd to us. We'll check with

 Pandora about those. If they need corrections, we'll provide a

 price revision.

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Some new utilities allow you to change the minor code of many inventory records at once.

 E.g. you could choose to set the minor code to 200 for all Sku's

 in major codes 101,187 and 347.

 Or you could choose to set the minor code to 300 for all Sku's

 currently in MINOR codes  200 and 250.

 Or you could choose to set the minor code to 500 for all Sku's

 currently in VENDOR code RLX.

 (Just as examples, of course. Also, the minor code in prior sales history

 would be updated at the same time.)

 

 If you suspect you'd like to use these utilities to rearrange your minor

 codes, ask Compulink for instructions because using these utilities without

 some guidance or discussion is not advised.

 

 

 

Version 4.539                                                              07/29/2024

===============================================================

 

The send-inventory-to-web feature now has a feature to include

 in the export excel file a column with a list of inventory locations

 and another column with a list of the corresponding quantities.

 This is useful if you are sending to a system that utilizes the

 location split information.

 As one example, the Tiara system from Rareworks can use this information.

 (In previous versions, certain location information could be exported

 but not in this same way.)

 

The formatting of one of the Inventory by Location reports

 (the Sku and Class layout) needed to be adjusted so the right-hand column does not partially fall off the page.

 

 

Version 4.538                                                              07/03/2024

===============================================================

 

Integration for the Wishfluence CRM / Clientelling system has been added.

 ( for product and contact information, see www.wishfluence.com )

 

The export-inventory-for-web feature now has an option to separate

 the quantities per location.

 [To activate this,  include the column "Location List" and the

 column Qty-Location List in the output and choose location semi-column.

       This is fairly esoteric so this won't be needed by most jewelers.]

 

There is now a button for sending an SMS-Text on the main/first page of the

 Customer Maintenance screen. This makes it a bit easier and quicker to

 find as previously this was available only on the Notes/second page

 of the Customer Maintenance screen (where the option still exists.)

 In addition, you can now select or change the message template from the SMS-text

 editing and sending screen.

 

 You can find information on the SMS-texting features available in VJS via

 this help topic in the FAQ pages:

         http://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?sms_texting.htm

 

 

Version 4.536                                                              06/21/2024

===============================================================

 

The Shopify Integration Module now allows bulk updating prices on Shopify

 to match revised prices in Shopkeeper.

 

Some inventory report formats were adjusted for better compatibility

 with PDF output. ( In certain cases, the Style would not appear for

 all items in the PDF output version.)

 

Some screen quirks were cleaned up, such as an artifact that could

 appear at the top right of the Inventory Status screen, or a jumble

 that could occur when switching between the Memorized Reports page

 and the Full Selection page of Report criteria screens, etc.

 

 

Version 4.534                                                              06/13/2024

===============================================================

 

The utility program to delete inventory in bulk has been modified

 to let you choose a date range. This is in addition to the

 previous options of major class code and vendor.

 This utility is primarily used when eliminating an entire section

 of inventory. [Instructions are provided on request, as it's not

 the type of procedure one wants to be run too easily.]

 

The "Save" button at the top of most Shopkeeper screens has been

 retitled "Save & Exit" to better reflect that, when clicked, it

 closes the screen you're on.

 

A new option allows you to forget the saved positions and sizes of all

 report preview screens and VJS forms/windows.

 E.g. if you change your multiple monitor layout, you might find that

 certain reports or screens end up off-screen and this feature will reset

 things to pop up the forms in the main monitor.

 From the opening File Center screen, choose Options at the top, then

 Forget Positions of Screens.

 

 

Version 4.531                                                              05/21/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 250 new items for Early Summer 2024

 including additions for Disney, Game of Thrones, letters, etc.

 

 There are no price changes since the April update

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

You can now change the colors of most of the text boxes in Shopkeeper.

 (The text boxes are the ones on-screen where you type information into Shopkeeper.)

 This is done via the Local Defaults P.4 within Preferences.

 Changing the colors at one computer does not change them at other computers;

 each computer has independent (local) settings for colors.

 

If you use two different datasets (i.e. both listed in the favorites list

 in the VJS File Center) now each dataset will remember its own

 last-accessed Sku.

 (In previous versions, only one last-accessed Sku was remembered

 but trying to land on Sku A when in dataset B isn't particularly helpful.)

 

 

Version 4.530                                                              05/20/2024

===============================================================

 

The newest David Geller / JewelerProfit Repair Blue Book

 is now available to add to Jewelry Shopkeeper.

 This is a catalog of around 5,000 repair tasks with

 revised pricing to help ensure you don't underprice your services.

 There are many increases from 20% to 100% over the last major revision in 2019.

 

 To use this feature, you may need to renew your Blue License from JewelerProfit

 and ask them to send us the OK for you to get the most current Blue Book Digital License.

 

 https://www.jewelerprofit.com/dropusaline.html

 

The Inventory Status screen will issue an alert if you edit a

 Sku that has no location code. Starting with this update,

 the pop-ups will be less insistent if the Sku also has zero        quantity.

 

An artifact (clutter) that sometimes appeared by the Sku number entry box

 of Inventory Status has been cleaned away.

 

On the reports screens of previous versions, accessing the Memorized Reports

 page could make the buttons to return to the Quick Selection or Full Selection

 pages difficult to click.

 

 

Version 4.524                                                              05/13/2024

===============================================================

 

Some additional sales receipt formats have been added - numbers

 15, 26,27 & 45

 These are hybrid sales receipt / job ticket receipts which can

 be useful for printing multiple repair tickets all together.

 When you print repair tickets from the repair screen, only one

 repair tracking screen can print on one ticket.

 

 They will print the repair details on the linked repair tickets

 even if you have set sales receipts to not normally print all

 the repair ticket details.

 They will not print the sale total if no sales price has been

 established yet.

 

Previously, the sales report sorted by customer which includes

 pictures would not show the totals if you selected the output to PDF

 version. Those totals will now print when using that combination.

 

 

Version 4.523                                                              05/03/2024

===============================================================

 

The Loose Stones Reports now has drop-down lists for selecting

 the Material, Shape, Color, Cut and Clarity so you can more

 accurately match the same wording used when you type in the

 loose stone details in the inventory records.

 

You can now classify a major class code as "Other", i.e. not "Inventory"

 nor Repair. Technically, a category classified as "Other" will function

 much like "Repair" categories in that it will inventory levels to NOT

 be reduced when you sell Sku's in that class. However, it will make your

 major class code listing appear more coherent.

 

 

Version 4.523                                                              04/22/2024

===============================================================

 

An earlier update (v4.502) added the ability to use your mouse's scroll wheel

 so quickly select dates on screen for date field boxes.

 In case some users find it easy to accidentally select dates this way, you can

 now make it require simultaneously pressing of the Ctrl key while you scroll the

 mouse-wheel. (or Shift or Alt)

 To enable that behavior, add the keyword CTRLDATEWHEEL or SHIFTDATEWHEEL or

 ALTDATEWHEEL anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options (or in the Local Defaults

 Miscellaneous Options) box in Preferences.

 Another option is to restrict the date wheel feature only when the date box

 has the "focus" / is the currently selected data box. For that add the keyword

 DATEWHEELWHENSELECTED in Miscellaneous Options.

         

 

When you select to see only Inactive customers in the Customer X-Tra Search

 screen, previously the search functions didn't work. I.e. it was assumed

 there would be only a small list of inactive customers and that you could scroll

 through it very quickly.

 Starting with this version, if you have search mode set to Automatic, you can

 type a name to search within the list of inactive customers.

 

 

 

Version 4.517                                                              04/15/2024

===============================================================

 

Printing reports, receipts and repair tickets will be faster in

 this update most cases for non-PDF output because 'picture resizing' is no longer

 on by default.

 [It can be turned on for special cases as needed.]

 

 (When sending print jobs to PDF, the picture resizing feature is still turned on

 by default in order to not distort the picture shape. If necessary, resizing

 for PDF output can also be turned off. That will speed up the PDF report printing

 but at the risk of altering the picture aspect ratio.)

 

In general, Shopkeeper leaves the printer options of 1- vs. 2-sided printing

 and color vs. black and white printing to the printer driver in Windows.

 However, some printer drivers can make it difficult to set these, so you can

 now add settings to Shopkeeper to override the print drive.r

 Within Shopkeeper Print Options (which appears just before printing), type the

 word SIMPLEX in the options box to force 1-sided printing, or BLACKWHITE

 to force black and white printing. (You can also type DUPLEX or COLOR if

 you need the opposite effect.)

 

 Those options added in that screen affect just that type of report or receipt.

 If you want to set a Shopkeeper-wide preference for all print jobs, you can add

 the keyword PRINTSIMPLEX or PRINTBLACKWHITE anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options

 (or local defaults Miscellaneous Options) box in Preferences.

 

         

 

[resize,resizefrxpix,pdfpicscale]

 

Version 4.515                                                              04/10/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has a minor change since the early

 April update. This adds three gift sets for Mother's Day.

 

Improved formatting for the checkbook transaction entry screen

 to leave more room for the descenders of lower-case letters        g,y,q,j

 

Improved behavior for the mini calendar icon which appears by date boxes.

 Now, clicking the calendar icon when the date box is not ready for

 data entry will pop up a warning.

 

Version 4.512                                                              04/03/2024

===============================================================

 

Previous versions could have difficulty letting you run

 purchase order reports for just one name assigned as the

 buyer, if the buyer name was entered with lower-case letters.

 That has been resolved in this version.

 

References to "Bard A.I." have been updated to "Gemini A.I."

 to match Google's branding changes.

 

 

 

Version 4.510                                                              03/21/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has been updated with over 600 price changes

 for April 4th. (Though you don't want to run the catalog update

 before that date.)

 

In the Add to Existing Sku Numbers screen, if you search for a Sku

 via the lookup list, the list will now default to including

 zero-quantity sku's in the list. Previously you would have had

 to click that zero-quantity box to see the zero-quantity items.

 The new behavior can be more convenient since you may well

 be adding stock to an out-of-stock Sku.

 

When you chose to send an appraisal to a PDF file, previous versions

 named the file something like Appraisal-Jones. Starting this version

 the file name will be something like Appraisal-Jones-5212-2024

 where 5212 is the appraisal number and 2024 is the year.

 

 

[merchantwarexping  emvtokentimeout=xx]

 

Version 4.508                                                              03/15/2024

===============================================================

 

For credit card processing with Genius terminals, this update includes an

 additional check in case of an ambiguous processing result.

 

 

[skipdoublecheckgenius, shopifydatelogs]

 

 

Version 4.504                                                              02/29/2024

===============================================================

 

As with many reports, the Inventory by Location report automatically

 creates a Excel XLS version at the same time as the usual report.

 In this update, the XLS file has the additional column for

 the Minimum Allowed Selling Price.

 

When you choose to sort the GMROI report by Turnover, it will now

 sort by the column called # of Turns per Year. ( It was using some

 other turnover figure before.)

 

[specialsventmrunlockallF, zzsalerep1]

 

 

Version 4.503                                                              02/25/2024

===============================================================

 

The sales screen will now issue a warning if you put a quantity

 greater than the known number available in stock.

 

Gift certificates over $100,000 could not previously be recorded,

 but now they can be recorded up to $10,000,000.

 

In Preferences, you can choose to force inventory descriptions to be

 recorded in ALL CAPITALS. In previous versions, that setting also

 forced the long inventory description for individual Sku's and for

 the long inventory description for the inventory Style were also forced

 to be ALL CAPS. These long descriptions are also transferred

 to the appraisal screen and to website export files.

 

 Starting this version, the All Capitals description setting

 in Preferences will apply just to the price tag description

 because it's rare that you would want descriptions on appraisals or

 on websites to be in All Capitals.

 

 

Various stability updates.

 

 

 

Version 4.502                                                              02/20/2024

===============================================================

 

You can now use your mouse's scroll wheel in data entry boxes to scroll through

 and select date values. If the date box is blank, it will start the date

 scrolling at today's date. You can also click the middle mouse button

 to return to select today's date.

 

[cczzlmini]

 

Version 4.501                                                              02/14/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 200 new items for Early / Spring 2024

 including additions for Game of Thrones, treated freshwater pearls,

 Pandora Moments, etc.

 

 There are tens of price and cost changes for the U.S. and Canada

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

An adjustment to the sales screen should

 

[-XXX.ini]

 

Version 4.500                                                              02/04/2024

===============================================================

 

An adjustment to the Loyalty/ Bonus points system allows you

 to create various Sku numbers with different pre-set

 numbers of adjustment or bonus points so you can create

 a list of Sku's for different bonus situations.

 

Adjustment to low price warnings on sales screen.

 

 

Version 4.498                                                              01/18/2024

===============================================================

 

When adding a new inventory item while making a special order sale,

 when you start typing the Brand code, the drop list (of suppliers)

 now appears automatically.

 

When you run the TSYS credit card transaction report, selecting a date

 now automatically switches the report type to Dates Detail

 (because if you type a date range, there's no point remaining on the

 Open Batch report which        doesn't consider dates.)

 

 

[SALEDATESYSTEM]

 

Version 4.496                                                              01/10/2024

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 50 new items for Late 2023 and Early 2024

 including valentines and including gift sets.

 There are few price and cost changes for the U.S. but there are

 1000's of price and cost changes for Canada.

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

One of the inventory report layouts has been adjusted because

 in previous versions, not all of the digits in the weight column

 were visible. This refers to the basic inventory report layout,

 sorted by Sku number, without images.

 

Various stability updates.

 

 

Version 4.494                                                              12/28/2023

===============================================================

 

In the Customer X-Tra search screen, you can now search for customers

 by typing their email address, if you have the Automatic

 search option turned on (which is the usual search setting.)

 This search method is not yet optimized so it's not as fast

 as searching by name, but it should be fine in most cases.

 In a future update, this search option will be made faster.

 

 

Version 4.493                                                              12/27/2023

===============================================================

 

This update includes a correction so that repair jobs that are

both unbilled and un-picked up are not moved to the "Archive"

 file during the year-end sequence.

 (If you already had jobs moved to the Archive file too early,

 you can run the utility u_unarc_no_pickup or ask Compulink for

 instructions.)

 

This update contains miscellaneous adjustments to improve program

 stability and to reduce miscellaneous error messages.

 

 

Version 4.492                                                              12/21/2023

===============================================================

 

The Hot-Seller and Reorder reports which summarize sales by

 the items' vendor style previously looked only at sales

 figures in the current sales files - i.e. sales from the

 past 2 to 3 years.

 This update allows that report to include sales from earlier

 than 3 years ago - to as far back as you have sales records.

 

 

Version 4.491                                                              12/20/2023

===============================================================

 

When you run a customer report and specify a date range for sales,

 the large export file contains a summary total of all the sales

 in that date range and it also includes the details the single last

 Sku number sold to that customer.  This version includes an extra

 column to indicate the sales person associated with that last Sku.

 Further, the column in that export file previously called "Clerk"

 has now been clarified to, "Clerk Assigned" because this column

 refers to the "preferred" sales clerk that you can optionally

 assign in the customer profile pages. (And any individual sales

 may use that Assigned Clerk, or any other clerk or none.)

 

 For more detailed information on which clerk or clerks helped

 customers on all their sales, you'd want to run the Sales by Clerk -

 Commission Reports, where you might choose Sort by Customer.

 Or,for a single customer, run the Entire History report via the X-Tra Search screen.

 

 

This update contains miscellaneous adjustments to improve program

 stability and to reduce miscellaneous error messages.

 

Version 4.489                                                              12/11/2023

===============================================================

 

A new option on the repair report allows you to select jobs assigned

 to a particular Sku No. This has to be the pre-Billing Sku that

 appears on the repair tracking screen. (I.e. if you leave the

 billing Sku blank and later, when you attach it to a sale

 you assign a Sku in the sales screen, you might leave the

 pre-billing Sku on the repair tracking screen blank.)

 

 

[tmrunlockall]

 

Version 4.484                                                              11/14/2023

===============================================================

 

 

The Customer Reports and Labels feature now allows you to select

 customers based on whether they have *any* phone number (Mobile/Cell

 phone number or Home number or Work number)

 E.g. this could provide you with a Call List.

 

 

Version 4.483                                                              11/10/2023

===============================================================

 

The Customer Reports and Labels feature now allows you to select

 customers based on whether they have a Mobile/Cell phone number

 filled in. I.e. you can select *only* customers with a Mobile number

 or only customers *without* a Mobile number.

 One use could be for when you plan to do a large SMS-text campaign

 and you want to export an Excel file containing only customers with

 a mobile/cell phone number.

 E.g. You can choose the option Only with Email or Mobile and set it to,

 "Mobile Phone Only".

 

[nolrnabtpaws]        

 

 

Version 4.481                                                              11/03/2023

===============================================================

 

The Zillion Insurance integration includes a change requested to

 Zillion to submit sales for insurance quotes just one time,

 not every time you reprint the receipt.

 (It remains possible to resubmit the sale, e.g. if you made a

 big change, but choosing, Options, More Options, Resubmit Zillion.)

 

 

The itemized sales report now allows you to select sales based on

  a customer number range. One example use is to run the sales

  report for only those customers who were added recently,

  which you can select because the newest customers would be

  assigned the most recent customer numbers.

 

Version 4.480                                                              10/27/2023

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 230 new items for Late 2023 and Early 2024.

 There are few price and cost changes for the U.S. but there are

 about 180 price and cost changes for Canada.

 

 Around 80 new pictures are included ( for both these new items

 and for recent items which didn't previously have pictures.)

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

The Customer Reminders Center now has the option to assign

 "generated reminders" to the sales person most associated

 with the reminder. E.g. it can assign the initials on a sale

 to reminders generated from sales, the initials on a repair job

 for reminders generated from repairs, etc.

 This option is on the Generate Reminders page of the Reminders

 Action Center

 

 

Version 4.477                                                              10/23/2023

===============================================================

 

Shopkeeper users with the optional Shopify program modules

 can now access the utility to update the quantities of all items on Shopify

 without having to exit Shopkeeper and going to the Utilities center.

 That update can now be done from the Inventory Status screen.

 {ask for instructions{

 

On the Print Options screen before printing receipts, there is a checkbox

 to Print Pictures. But it wasn't clear in previous versions that

 this checkbox's purpose was to enable you to temporarily turn off

 the printing of pictures on receipts, but it could not turn them

 on if the setting Preferences was off.

 In this version, the checkbox will not appear if pictures on

 receipts has been globally turned off in the Preferences ares.

 

On the bill Multiple Repair jobs screen, you can now click the icon

 at the top of the column with the checkboxes in order to check

 *all* rows at one time.

 

 

Version 4.472                                                              09/19/2023

===============================================================

 

In previous versions, the Tag Designer allowed you to add the major code

 number and the minor code number. In addition, starting with

 this update, VJS now allows you to add the major code description

 and the minor code description to tag layouts.

 From the Tag Designer, you may need to click Modify Palette

 to add those choices to the palette of available text.

 

In previous versions, there was sometimes a noticeable delay before

 the Main Menu appeared or was active.

 This has been reduced or eliminated in this update.

 

 

Version 4.470                                                              09/13/2023

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 500 new items for Fall 2023

 and there are many (over 1,000) price and cost changes.

 

 Around 200 new pictures are included ( for both these new items

 and for recent items which didn't previously have pictures.)

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Shopkeeper can use Google Bard AI (artificial intelligence)

 to write draft appraisals. It can also write draft long descriptions

 suitable for websites.

 (The Pandora catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Sales receipt formats have been adjusted because in some prior

 versions the "Price Each" column, there was not enough

 spacing to print the cents of the price, which made them

 look "cut off."

 

 

 

 

Version 4.456                                                              08/07/2023

===============================================================

 

The previous update caused the Inventory Status screen to not

 show the item's pictures in some cases; this update resolves that.

 

 

In fairly rare cases repair envelopes or appraisals or sales receipts would

 double-print pictures of items. This update should prevent that from

 occurring.

 

[zm:NOFRXPIXRESIZE  / os:NORESIZE  /KEEPTEMP]

 

 

Version 4.453                                                              08/02/2023

===============================================================

 

The program feature to export inventory for use in web sites and

 e-commerce sites creates files in several formats including CSV.

 CSV files can be susceptible to unreliability if the data includes

 quote marks. This was a concern because quote marks are commonly used by

 jewelers in        descriptions (such as for inches in chain lengths.)

 This version now creates those CSV files with a newer protocol

 that makes reading such files more reliable.

 

You might have configured your point of sale sequence to pop up a window

 to allow you to send a Review Request via Podium or Chekkit or Frogswing.

 If in *addition* you also have configured Shopkeeper top pop up a

 Zillion Insurance or Clientbook window, the pop ups could previously

 overlap in awkward ways. This update reduces the chances of overlaps

 or overlaying.

 

 

Version 4.452                                                              08/01/2023

===============================================================

 

Previous versions of VJS could present a scrolling and updating

 quote for Gold Prices and other metals.

 This feature got the metal prices from Yahoo! online quotes.

 Recently, Yahoo! started to return a future price quotes,

 which can differ from the spot price.

 This update now defaults to obtaining the gold spot price from

 www.kitco.com

 It can also optionally get the gold price from Google.

 

 

The Inventory Reports screen now allows you to filter the report

 based on the Part Number. You can specify a range of Part No.

 or you can specify a single Part_no or you can type NONE

 to show only items without a Part No.

 

 Note that you need to choose Full Selection to see this data

 filter choice.

 

 

Version 4.450                                                              07/29/2023

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 120 new items for Summer and Fall 2023

 including a number of Disney items.

 There are very few price and cost changes

 

 Over 300 new pictures are included ( for both these new items

 and for recent items which didn't previously have pictures.)

 

The Inventory Status screen can show the multiplied-out cost

 and retail value of parcels of diamonds whose base cost

 and price are by the Carat.

 This update ensures that the multiplied-out cost does not

 show if you normally show the cost on this screen in code.

 (or if the user doesn't have security clearance.)

 

 

Version 4.439                                                              07/05/2023

===============================================================

When sending reports (or appraisals or receipts) to a PDF file,

 the resolution of the inventory pictures has been increased

 to prevent fuzziness.

 

 

Version 4.438                                                              06/21/2023

===============================================================

 Miscellaneous

 Changes to Shopify integration features.

 Corrections for some misaligned screen elements.

 

 

Version 4.436                                                              05/25/2023

===============================================================

 Miscellaneous (extra log file information for diagnosing

 possible RFID tag printing problems.)

 

 

Version 4.434                                                              05/19/2023

===============================================================

 Miscellaneous

 

Version 4.432                                                              05/17/2023

===============================================================

 Miscellaneous

 

 

Version 4.430                                                              05/16/2023

===============================================================

 

When you get to the Print Options screen for a customer receipt

 or repair ticket or receipt, in case you are intending to

 email the printout, a "Lookup" button will let you switch between

 the customer's two email addresses - if there are two.

 

 

Version 4.429                                                              05/09/2023

===============================================================

 

Previous versions of VJS could present a scrolling and updating

 quote for Gold prices and other metals.

 Because this feature communicates with Yahoo! online quotes and because the Yahoo!

 quotes website changed, the scrolling quotes stopped working.

 This update includes the changes needed to again get those quotes from Yahoo!

 

[Shopify-sales-2-Qty]

 

Version 4.428                                                              05/01/2023

===============================================================

 

The E-Mail Receipt button on the sales screen (added in version 4.420) can now

 be removed in case you don't need it and in case it sometimes gets clicked

 instead of the Print Receipt button.

 This can be disabled by unchecking the new option

 "Show the Email Receipt Button on Sales Screen?"

 on the Receipts Options Continued page in Preferences.

 

 

Version 4.427                                                              04/28/2023

===============================================================

 

This version adds support for TracTech's mini USB single-tag at a time RFID reader.

 E.g. This reader can be used to look up individual inventory items

 in the Inventory Status screen or to sell items in the sales screen.

 (The usual RFID reader, the "wand" is used for reading many tags at a time.)

 

 See this page in the online FAQ help pages for details and instructions :

 https://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?tractech-usb-single-tag-reader.htm

 

The appearance of certain divider lines in report layouts was irregular

 in the previous update and that was tidied up in this update.

 

Version 4.425                                                              04/25/2023

===============================================================

 

When you print reports, receipts, appraisals, etc., the Print Option

 screen has long included an option to send the report to a file, which is

 a PDF (portable document format) file saved to the VJS Reports folder.

 These PDF's are useful for future review for emailing to customers or vendors.

 An issue in previous versions was that some pictures included with the print job

 (e.g. pictures on repair tickets, sales receipts, appraisals, etc.) could

 be distorted (such as stretching or squishing) if the proportions of the picture

 were very different from the proportions of the picture area on the printout.

 

 This version includes changes such that such images are scaled better to

 avoid the distortions.

 

In previous versions, a few printouts could result with some text lines printed

 with a half-height font, but stacked. This was seen with a number of HP printer

 drivers. There was a workaround (where users added the "80 option"), but this

 version update includes a change that should resolve the matter without you needing

 to use the 80 option.

 

Version 4.420                                                              04/20/2023

===============================================================

 

The sales screen now has a dedicated E-Mail button to "print" and email

 a sales receipt.

 Previously, e-mailing a receipt was possible by choosing Print a Receipt

 then at the Print Options dialog, choosing to email.

 However the new feature allows you to memorize a receipt layout

 that is suitable for emailing as a separate memory than then layout

 choice for print a receipt. This way you don't have to keep changing

 the layout selection when you alternate between printing receipts

 and emailing receipts.

 

 

The item list / grid in the Physical Inventory screen previously did not multiply

 the cost by the quantity for the Cost Extn column, but now it does.

 (This does not change the results of the physical inventory, but it's clearer

 while working with the list on-screen.)

 

[More Shopify Changes. Multiple Pictures, Track Quantity        ]

 

Version 4.417                                                              04/01/2023

===============================================================

 

When you print out a purchase order, previous versions of VJS

 would always print all items on the P.O. Starting this version

 you can optionally choose to print only the items which have

 not yet been received.

 

Accounts Receivable Statements or Layaway/Repair statements now

 have the option to print an alternative address on them.

 This would primarily be useful for wholesale accounts where you

 send the statements to a headquarters or accounting address

 different from the actual ship-to address.

 Click here for instructions on adding the statement address which are in this

 Layaway Reports help topic:

 

 https://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?simple_layaway_report.htm#StatementAddress

 

 

Version 4.416                                                              03/28/2023

===============================================================

 

TracTech RFID Systems now ships an improved RFID (radio frequency

 ID) tag printer, the P60. However, this printer uses a different printer

 language that their previous models.

 This update to Shopkeeper includes support for the P60

 RFID tag printer.

 

Version 4.415                                                              03/24/2023

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 290 new items for Spring and Mother's Day 2023.

 There are very few price and cost changes

 

 Pandora has not yet supplied the pictures for the new styles.

 

 

Version 4.413                                                              03/20/2023

===============================================================

 

TracTech, an RFID system vendor, recently started selling systems

 with a new printer for RFID tags, the P60 printer. This update

 to Shopkeeper now supports that printer.

 

Version 4.412                                                              03/09/2023

===============================================================

 

Customizable messages or alerts that pop-up when you make a new

 sale have been available for a few years.

 

 A new update in this area is that you can activate a special-purpose

 alert which requires the salesperson to double-check the accuracy

 of the customer's contact information is correct, and if not, to

 further pop-up the customer profile screen to enable corrections.

 

 See this page in the online FAQ help pages for details and instructions :

 http://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?sales_screen_customer_alerts.htm

 

[misc]

 

Version 4.410                                                              03/02/2023

===============================================================

 

Podium, the customer communications platform, has changed some of

 its technology, requiring changes in Jewelry Shopkeeper in order

 to continue to be able to send SMS-texts and review requests.

 This VJS update includes the changes needed for Podium integration

 from March 2023.

 In addition to a VJS update, you would need to obtain from Podium

 your new, longer 36-character "location ID" and add that to the

 Web Settings page of Preferences in VJS.

 

Some jewelers add repair tracking records to Shopkeeper, but never

 link them to sales tickets, whereas linking them to sales is

 the usual and preferred approach. One side effect is that such

 unlinked (or "unbilled") repairs will not get moved to the Archived

 files after a few years which means the Current repairs file can

 get bloated (in some cases with over 100,000 repairs) which can slow

 things down.

 Starting with the current update, repairs over 3 years old will be

 archived even if they are not billed / linked to sales.

 

A new credit card processing option is available: Burlington Bank Card

 Contact Compulink about this possibility if you are thinking of

 changing processors or if you have never integrated credit card processing

 with Shopkeeper for more streamlined point-of-sale transactions with

 fewer errors.

 

[delnegspecclean]

 

Version 4.409                                                              02/10/2023

===============================================================

 

The Inventory Report and the Itemized Sales Report have always

 had the ability to simultaneously create an Excel XLS version

 of the results in the VJS Reports folder.

 This update adds the WEIGHT column to both of those XLS files.

 

 

Version 4.407                                                                   01/25/2023

===============================================================

 

The Cash Register Journal Report can now let you report *only*

 the payment entries for refunds to customers by company check.

 This doesn't depend on your entering checks in the Shopkeeper

 checkbook ; just having identified a negative payment as by

 a company check.

 

[PAX]

 

Version 4.405                                                                   01/19/2023

===============================================================

 

Previous versions were not fully compatible with adding pictures

 to archived appraisals. (Typically those over 3 years old)

 It would work in most cases, but not all.

 This update allows adding to all archived appraisals

 

The feature to upload inventory to a website's FTP server has

 been adjusted to prevent the cases where some FTP servers

 would add parts of old uploaded files to the new uploaded files.

 

Version 4.403                                                                   01/06/2023

===============================================================

 

Certain "unusual" commissions approaches - such as specifying

 100% commission would cause errors in previous versions.

 That has been adjusted in this update.

 

Version 4.402                                                                   01/04/2023

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There are about 400 new items for Early 2023 and there are

 about 1,000 price and cost changes

 

 Pandora has not yet supplied the pictures for the new styles

 but they should be available later this month.

 

 

Version 4.400                                                                   12/29/2022

===============================================================

 

A new webcam "connection engine" has been added which enables

 Jewelry Shopkeeper connect to most webcams directly.

 (Since Windows 10, many Windows updates have interfered

with Shopkeeper's communications with webcams, so the

 best method of adding pictures became the screen grab

 approach. That method is still available and has some

 advantages, but it's also useful for VJS to be able

 to directly connect to webcams to take pictures.)

 

 

Version 4.393                                                                   12/09/2022

===============================================================

 

The bulk reprice inventory screen now has an option to select

 the list of items to reprice based on the memo status,

 such as selecting *only* on-memo items, or only *not* on-memo items.

 

Some VJS forms would not return to their last-used position.

 (Typically if form resizing were turned on but the forms

 were not actually resized.)

 This form position behavior has been improved in this version.

 

Version 4.390 - 4.392                                                                   12/07/2022

===============================================================

 

The ability of VJS to communicate directly with webcams since

 Windows 10 and 11 had become unreliable - needing reinstallation

 of webcam drivers after the frequent Windows updates, especially

 with Logitech cameras.

 Therefore the preferred way of adding pictures to VJS with a

 webcam was to screen-grab a "viewfinder" program such as the "Camera"

 program built-in to Windows. This grab method is reliable and has some other

 advantages, so you may well continue to use it.

 

 

 

 

 This VJS update includes a new "webcam communications" package

 to enable VJS to directly access the webcam and it appears

 stable.

 To use it, choose Take a Photo from the Picture Manager screen

 which you can access by double-clicking any "No Image Saved" box.

 

 

 

 A new short-cut option is to right-click the "No Image Saved" box

 and choose "Take a Photo." As in prior versions, you can select

 which camera to use and the image resolution. Some webcams are

 recognized and installed automatically by Windows, but if your

 webcam has its own installation program, that would typically

 enable access to more of the camera's capabilities.

 

 

Version 4.385                                                                   12/02/2022

===============================================================

 

The Inventory Search screen grid colors have been adjusted to

 improve readability.

 

 

Version 4.380                                                                   11/23/2022

===============================================================

 

When printing sales receipts that are two pages long, periodically

 users have encountered cases where the 2nd page with the summary

 doesn't print. This update has a change to help with that issue.

 

A second remote assistance program (beyond TeamViewer) has been

 added to VJS just in case TeamViewer every has connection problems

 [Choose Options from the top of the VJS File Center, then choose

 RustDesk, then let Compulink know the ID and the password.]

 Further, unlike TeamViewer, you are allowed to get a copy of

 the "helper" version of RustDesk to use from home at no charge

 from https://rustdesk.com/ ]

 

 

Version 4.378                                                                   11/17/2022

===============================================================

 

If you print tags and the printer was not ready or the wrong printer

 was selected and then you try again immediately using the

 right printer settings you may get no tags because the first

 attempt zeroed all the quantities-to-print.

 The current version will issue a specific warning about this

 in case you don't see that the quantities all went down to zero.

 

minimaintchktpod

 

Version 4.374                                                                   11/07/2022

===============================================================

 

The Loose Stones report used to have a compatibility issue with

 a very small number of computers that accessed Shopkeeper

 on a cloud-based server. This has been resolved in this update.

 

[wwdlloct22]        

 

Version 4.372                                                                   10/20/2022

===============================================================

 

The Lafonn catalog has been updated with about 700 new items for the

 October 2022. Prices and costs have been changed for about 1600

 previous styles.

 (This catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

When you create an inventory Sku on the fly during a sale, the new

 default        behavior is to require selecting an existing vendor, thus

 not allowing adding new vendors on the fly.

 This can prevent accidentally creating new vendors at a time that

 would not normally be done.

 (This can be overridden by adding the key word ADDINVADDVEN

 anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences.)

 

The Zillion Insurance integration at point of sale now allows you

 to manage two different store ID's from Zillion if you

 have two stores that are connected and run one "big" Shopkeeper

 dataset.

 (This is done adding the key word

 zillionstoreid=99999999-1111-aaaa-bbbb-2222cccc3333

 anywhere in the This Computer Miscellaneous Options box

 on the Local Defaults page 2 in Preferences.)

 

 

Version 4.371                                                                   10/14/2022

===============================================================

 

Integration has been added for Birdeye C.R.M - Customer Relationship

 Management / Clienteling.

 

The Learn About Tips on the Main Menu now appear only

 for users logged in at level 10

 

If you have multiple Genius terminals, you now have the option

 at each payment to select which terminal you want.

 E.g. if you have mobile terminals, the closest one may

 be different at different times.

 

When you choose to select a Sku number from the list and you're

 in the Repair screen or the Repair Billing screen of the Sales Screen

 the Sku number list will now default to showing only Sku's from

 repair major codes.

 

 

Version 4.362                                                                   09/14/2022

===============================================================

 

The position of X-Tra search screen for sales and repairs is

 now adjusted down enough so that the sales number box or

repair number box on those screens is visible and easy

 to click for cases where you want to search by sale or

 job number.

 

Further updates for the prerelease versions of integration with

 Zillions Insurance

 

Separate from the optional ability to require or suggest the

 cashier obtain an email address from customers, you can now

 require an email address when making sales to in-house

 charge account customers. The use of this option also prompts

 the cashier to verify with the customer the currently recorded email

 if one was previously entered. I.e. if you intend to email monthly

 statements, you will want to be sure to always have a current email address.

 To activate this option, add the keyword

 ARCHECKEMAIL

 anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences

 

[lessflicker z_misc]

 

Version 4.352                                                                   07/29/2022

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has updates for immediate effect.

 There about 575 new items for Late Summer 2022.

 But more significantly, it has about 1,000 price changes!

 

 Unlike other Pandora price changes which are signaled ahead of

 time but which you have to wait several weeks before applying,

 these price changes are to be applied starting now.

 To correct the prices and costs, it is important to run the

 Update Existing Items step before continuing to the Add Catalog items step.

 (This Pandora feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Version 4.350                                                                   07/27/2022

===============================================================

 

The Detailed Layaway Report & Statements module was made for reporting

 the details of outstanding layaways, special orders and

 repair-type sales.

 However, it's the only report which shows, together, the customer

 details, the Sku details of the sale and the payment details

 of the sale.

 This update adds the ability to run that report for all sales,

 even paid-up and cash sales and finalized layaways, in case you

 sometimes want to review all these details on one report.

 

 To access this option, set the "Special Orders, Repairs"

 criterion to read, "Any Sale Type."

 Note that this choice requires that a date range be entered

 into the Last Payment Date Range line, and note that the

 "For Balances over" option will be disregarded.

 

The new "oAuth2" feature to allow sending mail with Gmail        

 (See Version 4.345) previously could not enable an

 alternative "Reply-to" email address feature.

 E.g. you might *send* mail via goldace@gmail.com, but want

 replies to your messages to go to info@goldace.com.

 This update enables that feature.

 

 Separately, note that if you want your sent emails

 to appear to recipients to have actually been sent

 from an alternative address, that would require you

 to add further configurations within your Gmail account.

 For details on that, see Gmail's help page:

 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370

 

[lminmaintplan optn/chkt, custeditpic]

 

 

Version 4.349                                                                   07/08/2022

===============================================================

 

The sales screen has a new "Sale Recap" feature to show you

 a summary of the number of items on the sale, the total

 wholesale cost value, total profit and total discount.

 This is primarily of use for large sales - especially

 wholesale sales - where with all the wheeling and dealing

 you might to see the big picture summary before finishing

 the sale.

 

 With a sale in progress on the sales screen, choose Options

 at the top of the screen, then More Options, then Sale Recap.

 

Various updates for the prerelease versions of integration with

 Jewelers Mutual Care Plans

 Zillions Insurance

 Clientbook.

 

[mmicons]

 

Version 4.345                                                                   05/31/2022

===============================================================

 

The new version adds the advanced oAuth2 authentication method

 that will be required by Gmail going forward. (Google has

 threatened to cut off the standard authentication for a long

 time but they seem to be serious about it now.)

 If you send email from Jewelry Shopkeeper (including receipts)

 you may well need this feature. To actually use this feature

 you will also have to run a Google authorization step to permit

 Shopkeeper to continue sending out emails.

 That is done in the Web Settings are of Preferences.

 (Compulink will provide further details.)

 

oAuth2 security was also added for some other integration options

 which require updated security.

 

A repair report format was changed to better handle longer last names.

 

 

Version 4.340                                                                   05/21/2022

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has over 200 new items for Summer 2022

 and for new Pixar items. There are some price or cost changes

 but not a huge number.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

Version 4.338                                                                   05/18/2022

===============================================================

 

This update reduces the occurrence of "conflict" error 108 popups which

 could previously occur when sales are being made and when other users

 (or same user in another screen) need to modify the major code

 of an existing Sku number.

 

This update prevents the occurrence of "Error 5" popup when printing

 receipts. (Which was a problem only with Version 4.334.)

 

[Antview x4 w/o ocx]        

 

 

Version 4.336                                                                   05/11/2022

===============================================================

 

When you use a credit slip or gift certificate that is more than the

 sale amount, the usual result is that the balance is kept on

 the credit slip. Another option was to choose NO BALANCE to not

 keep the balance on the credit slip - so you could refund the

 difference another way.

 In this update another option is added NO REFUND which simply

 discards the unused balance of the credit slip. That can be

 useful for donated or promotion gift certificates which are

 designed for one-time only use.

 

 

Version 4.335                                                                   05/04/2022

===============================================================

 

When you attempt to exit a new sale that is flagged as a cash sale

 but it is linked to a repair ticket and the sale total is zero,

 you are asked whether the zero-dollar repair sale should be finalized

 (e.g. it's finished, but it's a freebie) or not (you don't yet know

 the price or it's not finished.)

 For this particular combination of details, in previous versions

 if you chose "No" (don't finalize) the sale would be flagged as

 Repair type. Starting with this version, this combination would

 flag the sale as a repair type.

 (A small change, but can be useful for certain reports.)

 

Version 4.334                                                                   04/29/2022

===============================================================

 

When you start a new sale for a customer who has an in-house

 charge account balance, you can now choose to make Shopkeeper

 pop up an alert about the balance.

 You can turn this option on in Preferences on the Sales Screen Cont.

 page, via the option "Alert for negative A/R balance when adding sales."

 

If you have turned on the (fairly recent) option,

 Start Receipt After Payment, the receipt would start

 even if you clicked on No Receipt.

 (This combination would not have been common, but could occur)

 

On receipts for layaways with over 10 payments, the payment

 history header line: "All Payments Received" could, in previous

 versions, print a few lines down in the list of payments instead of

 at the top of the list. This has been corrected in this update.

 

[ignr _bp_calc  spec->loc.refr]

 

Version 4.332                                                                   04/21/2022

===============================================================

 

The customer list export has six new columns which can help with

 your more focused marketing and customer relationship management

 whether you handle that yourself or export data to a third-party

 system.        The columns are "Male-First-Name", "Male-Last-Name",

 "Male-Full-Name", "Female-First-Name","Female-Last-Name","Female-Full-Name"

 For example, if you send customer lists to ClientBook, they need

 to have the Male and Female names in separate columns.

 This works whether you put the woman's name in the primary name slot

 or the "spouse" (or S.O.) slot. However, in order for this to work,

 you need to specify M or F next to each name.

 Note that the only export file version that includes these columns is the

 "Export List Large CSV"        option from the Customer Reports and Mailings screen.

 

 On a related topic, you can get an export list of only customers which

 have one or more missing M or F sex/gender indicators by typing MI

 (short for Missing) for the Male/Female report choice.

 

 

Version 4.331                                                                   04/11/2022

===============================================================

 

On the Style History page of Inventory Status, if you select a

 Sku with a different style, previous version would not immediately

 update the total quantity in stock of that style. This has

 been adressed.

 

When you reassign a sale to a different customer, previous versions

 didn't automatically reassign related refund credit slips

 at the same time, but the new version will.

 

Miscellaneous updates for Clientbook integration

 

[pop4check]

 

Version 4.330                                                                   04/06/2022

===============================================================

 

Shopkeeper is adding integration capabilities for Clientbook,

 a popular CRM "Clientelling" system.

 (Introductory phase - availability can be scheduled with Compulink)

 

Shopkeeper is adding integration capabilities for selling Care Plans

 by Jewelers Mutual Insurance at the point of sale.

 (Introductory phase - availability can be scheduled with Compulink)

 

 

Version 4.321                                                                   03/23/2022

===============================================================

 

In some previous versions, when closing the customer profile screen

 that was accessed via X-Tra Search, VJS would return to the

 Main Menu instead of back to X-Tra Search. This has been adjusted

 in this update.

 

The Credit Card Payments Report has an option to "Show Full Response"

 which reports the full response from the credit card processor

 when integrated credit card processing payments are made through

 Shopkeeper at point of sale.

 Usually the detail is far too long and technical but there may

 be troubleshooting uses for it.

 The small change in this update is that it will show the response

 for all the processors, whereas previously it would work only

 with some of them.

 

A utility for searching for missing inventory picture files has been

 revised to provide more information. (If needed, ask Compulink

 for more details.)

 

 

Version 4.320                                                                   03/17/2022

===============================================================

 

Shopkeeper now has support for Chekkit. With this you can send

 requests to your customers for on-line reviews and for

 sending SMS-Text messages to your customer via Shopkeeper.

 As with the similar service from Podium and FrogSwing, the

 on-line review requests form can be set to pop-up automatically

 when completing a sale, or at any time of your choosing.

 The SMS-text messages can be sent any time.

 

 This needs an account from Chekkit ( https://www.chekkit.io )

 and the integration feature requires a Shopkeeper Maintenance Plan.

 

On the Assemble Disassemble screen, it is now a bit easier to add a picture

 for the assemble item because at the top right corner of this screen

 there is now a Paste button. I.e. after screen-capturing the needed

 image to the Windows clipboard, you can paste the image with this button.

 This makes it like the other screens in Shopkeeper.

 

Also on the Assemble Disassemble screen, in the middle right section, near

 the picture of the component of the currently highlighted component,

 there is a green "Go" button to pull up the inventory status details

 of that component. In previous versions, that button was a bit "tricky"

 to click just right, and it might have taken a couple of attempts at clicking it

 at times to activate - but now it's more reactive.

 

 

Version 4.318                                                                   03/03/2022

===============================================================

 

Some adjustments of the behavior of certain keyboard combinations

 in the sales, repairs and inventory entry screen.

 

[irys,chekkt]

 

Version 4.315                                                                   02/10/2022

===============================================================

 

The Itemized Sales Reports and the Inventory Reports and the

 Sales Reports by Clerk - Commissions Reports

 have a new option to let you select inventory categories by

 selecting a Major Class Code Group Name.

 

 Normally, these group names are contained in continuous range and

 can be selected that way. E.g. selecting major codes 200 to 299 might

 select all Earrings. However, if you have assigned major codes 452

 and 680 to group name EARRINGS you couldn't select them by the major

 code range, but you could select them with the new option.

 

 These options also allow *excluding* a group.

 

 It's still recommended to restrict groups to a continuous range

 of major class codes but this new option may help retroactively if

 you have groups split among different ranges of major classes.

 

 The itemized Sales Reports screen also has a new option to *sort* by

         the Group Name

 

[sa_purge4dupjob_orderiss ]

 

Version 4.310                                                                   01/19/2022

===============================================================

 

The Sales Report by Clerk - Commission Reports now has the option

 to include or exclude a non-consecutive *list* of major class codes

 such as 100,315,622,752,822.

 

 To access this option you need to choose Full Selection at the

 top of the report screen.

 

 The usual *range* of major codes option still exists

 

The Inventory Status screen now shows next to the Cost and the Price

 boxes the total value of that Sku in cases where the quantity is

 more than one or for items which are priced by weight.

 E.g. Cost $1500 with 2 quantity also shows Total Cost $3000

 or Cost $2000 per Carat with 0.5C also shows Total Cost $1000.

 

The listing tab/page of the Major Class Codes maintenance screen

 now allows you to remove many different major codes from the list

 all at once. On the left edge of the list, you can check several items

 then click where it says "Click Here to Delete."

 

 This is primarily of use when you first set up your major codes list and want

 to remove a large number of        the entries on the pre-defined list.

 

 

Version 4.308                                                                   01/06/2022

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 200 new items for Early 2022

 including Valentine's and Mother's Day. There are very few

 price or cost changes.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

[clientbook]

 

Version 4.302                                                                   12/11/2021

===============================================================

 

The repair screen now shows an asterisk within the selector-tabs

 for the Extended Details and for Parts when you retrieve a job

 that has information on those screens. That is a visual indicator

 that you might want to check those screens to get the

 full picture of that job.

 

The Inventory Website Export feature can now upload to FTP sites

 that use SFTP protocol. (That is one of the security-enhanced

 FTP protocols that some web servers require. Prior versions

 could update only using normal FTP. Note that this feature

 requires the Maintnenance Plan.)

 

[highsaleok]

 

Version 4.300                                                                   11/27/2021

===============================================================

 

The Inventory Web Export previously would not export the

 longer pre-appraisal / Notes unless there was some data

 in the Style Detail page. Now that is not a pre-requisite.

 

Newly added inventory items can now have the first or second

 description lines start out with the major code description

 or the minor code description or both. (By default they start

 out blank.) This is similar to an option that was available

 in JS-Classic previously.

 

The repair screen now shows an asterisk within the selector-tabs

 for the Extended Details and for Parts when you retrieve a job

 that has information on those screens. That is a visual indicator

 that you might want to check those screens to get the

 full picture of that job.

 

[oAuth2 ]

 

Version 4.299                                                                   10/19/2021

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 450 new items for Fall 2021.

 The number of price changes is small, but there are hundreds of

 wholesale cost changes.        small number of price changes, but

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Version 4.298                                                                   10/06/2021

===============================================================

 

Ensure the sale number appears in highlight mode when adding a new

 sale so that it's easier to replace it from scratch.

 (This is a reversion to prior behavior, which changed in a recent

  update)`

 

Ditto for the the repair number when adding a repair ticket.

 

Adjustment to the tag layout selection list - which could be

 "jumpy" with the mouse movements in prior versions if the number

 of layouts in the list were small.

 

 

 

Version 4.297                                                                   09/29/2021

===============================================================

 

The current gold and platinum price now appear in the header of

 the Main Menu and other screens.

 (The list of price quotes could be customized, but that's an

 advanced setting requiring instructions which are available on

 request.)

 

This update has an update to help the situation where in some cases

 in previous versions the Main Menu didn't always appear on top

 of other programs after closing some VJS screens.

 

On the receive inventory screen, in prior versions, changing the

 major code of an item (and changing the Sku No.) that already had

 extended details could cause the detail to be discarded. Now the

 detail is brought forward to the new Sku

 

 

Version 4.295                                                                   08/16/2021

===============================================================

 

A new sales screen option can remove the step of clicking the Print Receipt

 button. If you turn this option "Start Receipt After Payment" via the

 sales page of Preferences, then after a sale is paid in full, the

 Print Receipt button "clicks" for you automatically.

 

This update resolves a "text highlighting" issue in the Customer X-Tra

 Search name box in the previous version, which was making it less easy

 to type in the next name you're searching.

 

Some other screen alignment issues from the prior version have also

 been addressed.

 

 

 [xsttbf]

 

Version 4.290 - 4.291                                                   08/10/2021

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 170 new items for Late Summer 2021.

 But more significantly, it has about 500 price changes for the U.S.

 and about 1200 price changes for Canada!

 So, it's important to run the Update Existing Items before continuing

 to the Add Catalog items step

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

Customers can be flagged as "Inactive" so that they will not appear

 on search lists or reports. This is done via the question,

 "Is This Customer Inactive" which is on the Other page/tab of

 Customer Profile screen.

 If you want to find an inactive customer, you can check the

 box Inactive on the Customer X-Tra Search screen.

 Note that sales reports will still include sales to Inactive customers.

 

 

 [regtitlebar][titlebarcol(219,183,255)]

 

Version 4.285                                                           08/05/2021

===============================================================

 

The "Select from outstanding purchase orders screen"

 now shows the description of each purchase order as you scroll

 down the list of ordered inventory items.

 

Almost all information boxes (fields) in Shopkeeper can now be right-clicked

 to show the options for Copy, Paste, Cut in order to facilitate

 copying data into Shopkeeper or copying data. E.g. to or from Shopkeeper

 and email or Word, etc. Unlike the standard Windows Copy feature, you don't

 have to first highlight text to be Copied; if no part of the field is

 highlighted, the VJS Copy option copies to the clipboard all the words in the box.

 (As before, note that the standard Windows short-cuts of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-A

 and Ctrl-X are still available for Copy, Paste,        Select All and Cut.)

 

Various menus of choices such as the right-click menus and the menus

 that drop down when you click on "Options" are now larger if

 you have resized the corresponding screen in Shopkeeper.

 (For more information on resizing Shopkeeper screens, see Resizing further

 below in this update list or in the VJS        FAQ help pages.)

 

The Bank Reconciliation screen normally sorts the list of bank transactions

 by the check (or transaction) number. That normally has the same result

 as sorting by the date - but not always. A new feature allows you to sort

 by the date by clicking the Date column heading - once or twice to sort

 up or down. You can revert back to the normal sort by clicking the Type

 column heading.

 

The Repair Quick Update screen now includes direct access to the Approval Date

 for each repair. Along with the access to the Estimate box, you access this

 by choosing Enable Direct Editing.

 

There are a number of refinements for the unattended website inventory upload

 feature, which works in conjunction with the Windows Task Scheduler.

 

 

 

Version 4.282                                                           07/21/2021

===============================================================

 

For inventory categorized as loose stones, sales receipts will now print

 the freehand inventory "Notes" in addition to the loose stones details.

 (Previously only the loose stones details would print for loose stones.)

 

 

 

Version 4.281                                                           06/25/2021

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 180 new items for Summer 2021

 along with new pictures. (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

The David Yurman catalog program has about 800 new items for 2021

 and has about 3,100 price and wholesale cost changes for July 2021

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

The Tag Printing screen now has the option to allow you to select

 inventory items by the range of the last 5 digits of

 the Sku number. This is an uncommon need, but there are sometimes

 situations where this would be useful.

 

When you a list of Sku numbers to the parts page of the repair

 job tracking screen, you can now change the description.

 This is useful when adding very generic Sku's as parts, such as

 "Assembly" or "Chain", in which case some personalization

 provides a better record.

 

It's possible to add PDF or MP4 or other file types as "pictures"

 for inventory or repairs. That can possibly cause errors when

 running reports for inventory or sales that include pictures.

 This update has some extra checking to not attempt to print

 non-standard image files on reports.

 

 

[norendercheck]        

 

Version 4.274                                                           06/03/2021

===============================================================

 

A new analysis option to show you a list of how many new customers

 you have added, month by month. To get this, choose the Date Added

 option from the Customer Reports screen, along with any of the

 Export options, and the results will be put in the Excel file

 New-Customers-by-Month.xls in the VJS Reports folder.

 

 You can add all other criteria as usual - such as zip code ranges

 or purchase totals, etc.

 

Various refinements to the reprice inventory feature added in version 4.270.

 

 [ RemoveFF ]

 

 

Version 4.273                                                                     05/17/2021

===============================================================

 

The Itemized Sales Report now has a Sort-By choice of Style Within Brand.

 This is the same as the previously available Sort-By option

 of Brand, which sorted the same way, but it wasn't as clear

 to the user that it would sort by style as well.

 

If your Windows Display Scaling is set to 125% or higher, that

 will cause Shopkeeper reports to enlarge resulting in the

 right edge not fitting on the page.

 The fix has always been to revert the Windows scaling back to 100%

 (and if many parts of Windows appear too small, you could reduce

 the Windows resolution setting.)

 Starting this version, there's another option in Shopkeeper to allow

 you to leave the Scaling at 125% or higher: On the Local Defaults page 3

 of Preferences, you can check the box: Reduce Report Size if Windows

 Display Scaling is Set Over 100%.  (Note that this can also have

 the effect of scaling down all parts of Shopkeeper, not just reports.)

 

 

After an update last month, opening Memorized Reports from the Main Menu

 could display an error message (which was ignorable.) This update

 prevents the error message.

 

 

 

Version 4.271                                                             05/03/2021

===============================================================

 

When you retrieve an existing job on the repair tracking screen,

 the tab at the bottom for Parts will now read "Parts **"

 if there is already a list of one or more parts for that job.

 (This is similar to how the Notes tab shows Notes ** if there

 are already notes on the Notes page.)

 

         

 

Version 4.270                                                        04/27/2021

===============================================================

 

A new repricing module allows you to reprice inventory in bulk

 such as for one or more major or minor codes or vendors

 or price ranges, etc. You can preview the proposed new prices

 and adjust individual prices before committing them.

 You can reprint updated tags at the same time.

 -> You will find the Reprice Inventory choice on the Inventory Menu.

 

 For some computers, choosing to print 2 or more copies of any

 document (such as a receipt) can make the printer assume 2 copies

 for subsequent print tasks even if you expect just 1 copy. If you

 encounter this situation, then on the VJS Print Options screen,

 next to the number of copies, click on the "Alt" box. This will

 force VJS to do an extra step to ensure 1 copies is set for the printer.

 

 

Version 4.261                                                 04/07/2021

===============================================================

 

You can now email a customer directly from the repair screen

 instead of having to open up the customer profile screen.

 This option is on the Notes page of repairs - near the

 SMS-Text option in the upper half of the screen.

 

When clicking the Go To button next to the website address on

  a vendor profile screen, previous versions of VJS would

  often use the older Internet Explorer web browser.

  With this update, it should in most cases select your

  default web browser (e.g. Chrome, FireFox, etc.)

 

The Repairs Due date calculation in previous versions sometimes

 did not calculate a due date if the lead time was very long

 and if there were many non-delivery days.  This was never an

 issue before, but with Covid, some stores lead times and

 the number of non-open days have increased, leading to a few

 rare combinations that didn't work. That has been adjusted

 in this update.

 

The customer reports have a new option to sort in order of

 the customer/account number. (For the most part this corresponds

 to the order in which they were added.)

 

 

 

Version 4.260                                                 04/04/2021

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has nearly 300 new items for Mother's Day

 and Spring 2021 along with new pictures.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

When you specify a Dept code to report or to exclude from the

 Itemized sales report, the title of the report will now

 show that selection. This helps remind you what criteria had

 been selected when reviewing the report printouts later on.

 

When you receive inventory from a purchase order, you have a list of

 ordered items which you can check off and select the quantity.

 A previous VJS update changed the order of the check boxes for

 received and delete items. It was considered clearer to have the

 check box *next* to the quantity that's being received -  and

 by extension less likely to cause accidental deletions.

 However, some users had gotten so used to the previous layout that

 the new one was awkward.

 While the new layout remains the standard one, you can now optionally

 switch back to the old layout.

 To activate this "retro" option, add the keyword

 OLDPOCHECKCOL

 anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences

 

 

 

Version 4.259                                                 03/26/2021

===============================================================

 

A new repair number assignment option helps for stores that

 both like to have Shopkeeper assign the next available number

 in most cases, but still need to enter special, unrelated,

 repair numbers for some jobs.

 With this option activated, the job number box is empty

 and if you choose OK or press Enter, the next job number

 is used and assigned and the sequence is incremented.

 This way one is less likely to accidentally change the number sequence.

 On any individual job, you can type an entirely different number

and that will not change the sequence.

 To activate this option add the keyword

 BLANKJOBNONEXTDO

 anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences

 

Dragging pictures *out* of Shopkeeper now copies them instead

 of moving (and removing) them.

 

 

Version 4.258                                                 03/11/2021

===============================================================

 

Includes an adjustment to the font of the customer name search box.

 

Includes an adjustment to the Print Options dialog box for tag printing.

 

The Reminders Action Center usually shows Completed items

 for the rest of the day on which they were finished.

 This update more clearly shows that in the list by

 having them crossed-out in the list.

 

The repair estimate history option (see version 4.255 below)

 now also takes effect for manually changed estimates, not

 just changes due to additions or subtractions of parts.

 

 

Version 4.255                                                 02/17/2021

===============================================================

 

Various tweaks . . .

 

Some commissions reports have a Markup column. This column will no longer

 appear when the logged-in user doesn't have access to the cost data.

 

For more discretion, the bank balance no longer shows automatically at the

 top of the Checks, Deposits & GJ screen. You can click it to show

 or hide it. The last-used setting is recalled the next time you open

 that screen.

 

If you add or subtract Sku's from the Parts list of a repair job,

 and if you change the estimate it's now possible to have a note of the

 previous estimate stored in the repair Notes page.

 This isn't automatic; to activate this option, add the keyword

 STOREPRIORESTIMATE

 anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences

 

The "Generate Reminders" page of the Reminders Action Center now

 shows the last date and time the reminders were last updated

 and keeps it current even if it was updated just a few moments

 ago at a different computer. (This doesn't change the reminders list,

 but at least you'd know whether or not the list had been

 refreshed recently.)

 

If you have VJS window resizing turned on and have enlarged the

 Print Options screen, this Print Options screen would previously

 show oversized when printing tags. (Because it shows only

 a portion of the full Print Options, but would use the full

 size of the full Print Options.) This has been improved

 in this update.

 

 

(ServiceStopTV,)

 

 

Version 4.250                                                 01/25/2021

===============================================================

 

In previous versions, if you use the Customer Reminders screen, it can

 be awkward to close all open data files, which is needed before running

 the month-end closing steps. This update closes all files used by

 the reminders, and closes any other screen (e.g. sales) when you

 run the month-end.

 

When you print sales receipts, the Print Options screen now has the option

 to temporarily turn off printing pictures. (Instead of turning them off

 more permanently in Preferences.) This can be useful if you occasionally

 need to produce a shorter version of a multi-item receipt that might be

 extra long with all the pictures.

 

 

[tvsvcoff]

 

Version 4.248                                                 12/15/2021

===============================================================

 

The Inventory Interstore Transfer Reports now simultaneously

 create an Excel XLS version of the report in the VJS Reports folder

 along with the usual on-screen or printed report.

 

For sales tickets which have multiple repair tickets attached, the

 repair ticket barcode now includes the -1 at the end of

 the job number for the first job. This helps avoid ambiguity

 when barcode-scanning jobs into the Repairs Quick Update screen.

 (i.e. scanning repair # 1234 alone is ambiguous if there exist

 jobs 1234-1, 1234-2, 1234-3)

 

 

[NP  desc]

 

Version 4.247                                                 12/08/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program adds a very small number (5) of new items

 but it adds over 100 previously unavailable images for prior items.

 

A fix for a sales screen formatting issue for the second description line

 

If you send email from VJS using a Microsoft email account

 [outlook.com, office365, etc] a recent change in Microsoft's

 email caused some unnecessary html text to appear in the messages

 that you send to your customers. This update overrides that.

 

[redoxygenurloption] [qtyorderinvrptxp] [class34ck] [qtyxvalchk] [addalternatetext]

 

Version 4.245                                                 11/18/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program adds about 240 new Autumn and Holiday 2020 styles

 and pictures. (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

The Sales Screen now shows the regular price on discounted items.

 (This can be turned off if necessary in Preferences by adding

 the keyword RegPriceDisplayOff anywhere in the Miscellaneous Options box.)

 

The Sales Screen now prevents the user from accessig the price

 box if the sku number is only partially completed. (Which

 had odd results if one accidentally did that.)

 

The inventory entry screen has a larger box for entering the style

 so more characters can be typed-in and seen without scrolling.

 

[sblinepricwhn]

 

Version 4.241                                                 11/13/2020

===============================================================

 

It's now possible to search for customers by a part of an address

 such as "789 FRONT" or "NIGHTINGALE" in case that's all you

 have to go on. This option is on the Full Selection page

 of the Customer Special Events Lists.

 

Version 4.240a-d                                                 11/02/2020

===============================================================

 

( * technical and security updates; encryption)

 

[40d/misclientnin/_b]

 

Version 4.231                                                 10/08/2020

===============================================================

 

The mini calendar icons that pop up the date selection calendar

 are now more responsive - i.e. easier to activate by clicking

 

The Customer Alert pop-up screens based on a list of special

 customer types that you specify in Preferences will no

 longer pop-up if you highlight a name in the Customer X-Tra Search

 screen but simply exit out of that search screen. (i.e. without

 choosing to make or edit a sale or a payment, or a credit slip, etc.)

 

In the Assemble Disassemble screen, clicking the Tags button in previous

 versions would print tags for the components. Starting this version

 it will print a tag for the "Master" item being assembled.

 

In prior versions, the accounts receivable past due aging report and

 the month-end statements printing where you selected *only* accounts

 with a 2-months past due status (not 2-months or more past due) would show

 all accounts which are past due. Those are resolved in this update.

 

The Export List Large option from Customer Reports now includes a column

 for the number of visits with purchases per customer

 

When you exit the customer profile screen with *no* customer selected

 the Email Address is Suggested prompt will no longer appear.

 (This is if you have turned on this alert option in Preferences.)

 

In previous versions, the quantities in the physical inventory list

 couldn't be changed in the on-screen grid after they have been added

 to this list; only deleted and re-entered. Starting this version the

 the quanties can be        changed in the grid.

 

 

[062020ww / skulistrdelnotabstop ]        

 

Version 4.22                                                 10/05/2020

===============================================================

The Sales Payment Spreadsheet report exports to an Excel file

 (For technical users only who can interpret the data as-is

 because there is not a user guide to explain each column.)

 

 Previously, the Inventory Status screen could show the cost code

 with an odd format under certain conditions. This update

 resolved that.

 

[addinvloc1blk/client9/util34]

 

Version 4.215                                                 09/14/2020

===============================================================

 

Podium (the online review and messaging company) is in the process of

 making technical changes to their system which require corresponding

 changes in Shopkeeper in order for it to be able to send on-line

 review requests and SMS-texting messages directly from VJS.

 This update includes the needed changes for the "v2 API" which you'll

 want to have in place before September 18, 2020.

 Further VJS updates are likely to be needed for further Podium

 changes to come by the end of the year.

 

 

The Notes box of the Customer Reminders and Other To-Do's has been

 lengthened from 50 characters to 100 characters.

 

 

Version 4.210                                                 08/28/2020

===============================================================

 

In previous versions, the inventory entry screen didn't show the

 extended cost (quantity or weight times unit cost) on each line.

 Starting this version, that will appear.

 

The TSYS/Cayan credit card report previously didn't show return charges

 as negative numbers. Starting with this version, they will appear

 with a "minus."

 

 

Version 4.200                                                 08/20/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program adds about 25 new Late Summer 2020 styles

 and about 430 picture files that had not been available for the past

 few catalog updates. (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 There is just a small number of price changes for the U.S.,

 but there are nearly 300 price and cost changes for the Canadian market.

 If you are in Canada, update your Pandora catalog only after August 27,

 which is when the pricing changes take effect.

 

 

The Lafonn catalog has been updated with about 250 new items for the

 Late Summer 2020 catalog. (This catalog feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

A new reporting feature has been added for Assembled Inventory. You can choose

 to select and to group by the finished Sku number (and to show all the components

 of each assembled item.)

 Or you can choose to select and to sort by the components (and to show which

 finished Sku they were added to.

 From the Reports Menu choose Assembled Inventory Reports and if you don't see it,

 choose Options at the top then Customized Menu where you can add that option to

 any menu you like.

 

 

When you use the Return to Vendor screen for Memorandum items, the printed returned items

 slips have shown the cost value as well as the zero return credit, but on-screen

 the Cost value is generally        shown as zero on that screen, because you don't exactly get

 a credit because the memo wasn't a payable in the first place.

 In this update, the cost now is visible for each returned Memo item, on-screen near

 the picture of each item, and the total original cost value shows at the bottom

 near the total creditable cost value.

 (Only when logged in a sufficient security level to view costs.)        

 

 

Version 4.197                                                 07/31/2020

===============================================================

 

The Lafonn catalog updated in version 4.196 now includes a more

 descriptive description. (Whether you want any prior descriptions

 in your inventory list updated is a choice you can make in

 the Lafonn catalog update program.)

 

The Sales by Clerk - Commission Reports now have the option to include

 the pictures of the items. Choose Full Selection to see this additional

 report option.

 

The Accounts Receivable Payment on Account screen now returns to

 the Customer X-Tra Search screen after completing a payment.

 This is useful if you process several payments on account in a row.

 

The repair screen has an option to unlink a repair ticket from a sale.

 The repair then becomes an unbilled job that can be billed on

 a sale for that same customer. Note that any sales line that

 was previously associated with that job will be left as is

 so be sure you don't end up with two sales lines for a single

 job. If the job did not previously have a job ticket number

 independent of the sale number, then a temporary job ticket

 number will be assigned.

 

The Relocate Inventory screen now has a drop-down pick list to

 help find previous relocation batches in case you want to

 reprint the list or add to an existing batch.

 

The Inventory Status screen has an option to allow all users to

 modify the inventory notes box even if your security settings

 allow no changes to any other box on that screen.

 (To enable that, add the keyword INVNOTESALLACCESS anywhere in the

 Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences, in addition to setting

 the usual security rule for Inventory Status, also in Preferences.)

 

When you change the style of a certain Sku number, Shopkeeper usually asks whether

 you want to update all of the Sku's which share the same style number.

 If you have many, fairly generic and duplicated style numbers for unique items

 a new option allows you to *never* be asked whether you want to update all the other

 Sku's with the same style - in order to avoid accidental mass erroneous changes.

 (To enable this option, add the keyword MODSTYLESKUONLY" anywhere in the

 Miscellaneous Options box in Preferences.)

 

         

 

Version 4.196                                                 07/20/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program adds about 150 new Summer 2020 styles

 and about 300 picture files that had not been available for the past

 few catalog updates. (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

The Lafonn catalog program adds about 120 new Spring/Summer 2020 styles.

 More significantly, it will update the cost and price of over 2700

 previous styles. The Lafonn pictures are also imported.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan)

 

The Cash Register Hourly Activity Report previously required that the

 user change the date range. (I.e., leaving the default of the past 4 weeks

 was interpreted as not selecting any dates.)

 

A new utility can export all appraisals to an Excel file.

 The result is Not formatted for printing, but it can be useful

 for quickly searching all the text and names of all the appraisals.

 (u_appraisals_xls on the Utilities download tab - ask Compulink for more details.)

 

A previous update required the user to type something like

 DELETE 456781 in order to delete a sale that you didn't want to save.

 This was in order to reduce accidental deletions. This version

 removes that requirement if the sales ticket was just started

 and there are no items and no payments in which case deleting it is not

 a delicate situation.

 

Workstation computers on a network now send the server a micro

 data request in the background a few times per minute as an

 effort to reduce brief 'autodisconnects' which some Windows servers

 are configured to do by default. Those can interrupt Shopkeeper sessions

 and it's hard to reconfigure that in Windows even for computer technicians.

 

 

Version 4.19                                                 06/18/2020

===============================================================

 

The QuickBooks Link program transfers special order and memo sales with

 different general ledger codes for income and cost that override the type

 for the sku. The updated version of QuickBooks Link allows you to choose to not

 override the Sku's usual general ledger codes for special orders and

 for sales of memo merchandise.

 

The number of eConduit terminals supported for credit card processing

 has been increased to six.

 

 

Version 4.189                                                 06/04/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program adds about new 320 picture files that had

 not been available for the past few catalog updates.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan.)

 

 

venmaintxundo, _ _spacewebheader

 

 

Version 4.188                                                 05/22/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 250 new items for Early Summer 2020.

 For the Canadian market, almost all the prices and costs have changed.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan)

 

 

Version 4.185                                                 05/12/2020

===============================================================

 

The Universal Inventory Web Export feature adds the ability to

 select only those inventory items with *any* Web Code or Web Category.

 Previously, you could select a list of Web Codes or Categories

 to include, but this option means you can pick all of them without

 having to list them out. In other words, this would exclude all items

 that do *not* have either a Web Category or a Web Code, and this can

 be an easier way for you to select which items should be exported

 from Shopkeeper to your website.

 

 

The FTP upload part of the Universal Inventory Web Export feature

 will name rename all image files on the FTP server with lower-case

 file names because some websites will not link pictures if there

 are any upper/lower case differences in the image file name.

 

 

 

Version 4.180                                                 04/21/2020

===============================================================

 

The Pandora catalog program has about 170 new items for Spring 2020

 and about 70 items have price changes.

 (This feature requires the Maintenance Plan)

 

The Universal Inventory Web Export feature adds the ability to

 include over 25 additional data fields from Shopkeeper, such

 as from the extended detail page, amongst others.

 

The Universal Inventory Web Export feature adds the ability to

 configure over 100 "placeholder" columns in case your website

 requires an import file with many esoteric columns. You can

 customize the names and positions of these extra columns.

 

For those with the Maintenance Plan, these extra columns can

 be further configured to either include fixed information

 (such as USD for currency, or mm for millimeters,etc.)

 They can also be configured to include "dynamic data" which

 is like Excel formulas in case data from column "A", for example,

 has        to be replicated or combined with other data in column "Z".

 

 

 

Version 4.175                                                 04/15/2020

===============================================================

 

The Universal Inventory Web Export feature adds a new Export file format, CSV,

 beyond the previously available XLS, XML and TXT formats.

 CSV can often be awkward if you have used quote marks in descriptions

 for inches, or commas but CSV is widely supported so is worth being

 available. A "pipe delimited" file is another newly available

 export file format.

 

For those with the Maintenance Plan the Inventory Web Export and also

 simultaneously create *and* FTP upload your files to your website's

 file server. Previously you had to use an FTP program to upload the

 export files that VJS created.

 

 For more details and instructions, see the VJS FAQ help pages:

 

 http://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?ftp_upload_inventory_export.htm

 http://www.jewelryshopkeeper.com/help/vjs/faq/?web_export.htm

 

 

 

 

Version 4.17                                                 03/31/2020

===============================================================

 

When you delete a sale, previous versions asked for confirmation

 (possibly two confirmations depending on the situation), and you

 could click buttons to confirm. Starting with this version, deleting

 a sale will require that you type DELETE XXXX (where XXXX is the sale number)

 This way, even when you're busy, you have much less chance of

 accidentally deleting a sale or failing to save it.

 That this applies both to a sale that's just been started and which

 you decide not to go ahead and save, and to a previously saved

 sale that you have retrieved.

 (As in all prior versions, for previously saved sales, you can configure

 security rules as to who can delete saved sales.)

 

 

If using integrated credit card processing with Blackline/eConduit, the

 module for issuing refunds to credit cards now includes more stringent

 checks on assessing the status of the return. E.g. in the cases of

 extra slowness of the customer using the terminal or internet interruptions.

 These changes are designed to prevent the cashier being uncertain and

 then possibly issuing a refund twice.

 

 

The universal inventory website export module is accessed via the Inventory

 reports by style. A change in this version is that instead of the

 inventory export files being put directly in the VJS Reports folder, they

 are now added to the folder Inv-Web-Export underneath the VJS Reports folder.

 The images to be exported are put in folders Image-Export and Image-Export-New

 underneath the Inv-Web-Export folder. This way, the inventory export files

 are somewhat separated from other files in the VJS Reports folder and put in a

 dedicated "staging" folder and this can        be more efficient if you use an FTP

 synchronization program to upload them to your website.

 

 A related change is that it's possible to override these staging folder locations.

 That is done via the Web Services Settings page of Preferences. You may want to

 ask Compulink for assistance on that override option.

 

 

[BLtimeout / ip ]

 

Version 4.16                                                 02/28/2020

===============================================================

 

A new SMS-texting / on-line review gathering integration has been

 added:        FrogSwing, which is in-between Podium and Red Oxygen

 in terms of features and pricing.

 

 For more information on their offering, you can contact them via

 their web page at:  https://www.frogswing.com/#mitmachen

 or call or text Thomas Roethling at (905) 099-0667

 

The Reminders Action Center now lets you to display just one

 single clerk's reminders.

 

A program module to import the David Yurman Catalog of over 15,000 items

 has been added to this Shopkeeper update.

 

When you create a new inventory item on the fly during a sale, the

 clerk assignments and commission rates are assigned to the

 associated sales line. This wasn't the case in previous versions.

 

When you create a trade-in inventory item on the fly during a sale, the

 clerk assignments are assigned to the associated sales line, but

 the commission rate is set to zero. (The assumption being that

 the commission is not reduced due to a trade-in. However, a

 returned stock item is still assigned the commission rate - which

 will be a negative on the sales by clerk reports.)

 

Notwithstanding the above default behaviors, you have always been able

 to override the commission rate and clerk on individual Sku lines

 of sales by choosing the in-line Options button, then

 

Price tags have had the option to print a second price in an Alternative

 Currency. This update increases the available length of that 2nd price

 which helps if the other currency may include many, many digits and/or

 a long currency symbol.

 

The Accounts Receivable contracts have additional features such as the option

 to print the customer phone number, and options to skip certain steps

 to get to the printing step faster.

 

[ltrsinmajlistrpt]

 

 

Version 4.150                                                 02/03/2020

===============================================================

 

Some Shopkeeper users experience situations where the Main Menu items are not

 correctly aligned and may even overlap. This can be righted by choosing

 Options, Realign Menu Icons. However, if this occurs too often, you can

 turn on a new feature "Always Realign Main Menu Choices" which is on the

 Other General Settings page in Preferences.

 

An accounts payable report which separates, sorts, groups and subtotals

 accounts payable by general ledger expense code has been added.

 Note that this is accessed (for reasons) via the Checkbook Report screen

 where you change the "Bank" option to "Accounts Payable by G/L Code."

 

Under certain conditions, the No Receipt button on the sales screen

 wouldn't activate by pressing the <Enter> key and instead had to be

 mouse-clicked. That limitation has been resolved in this update.

 

Repair tickets can now be searched by a partial repair ticket number

 e.g. typing 12001 can show 120011 and 120012 as possible results.

 

When searching for a repair tickets by number, previously only tickets

 in the Current file (past 2 to 3 years) were searched. Now the Archived file (older)

 will be searched as        well if the ticket number was not found in the current file

 

The activity page of the customer profile screen will no longer show a

 negative discount figure for items sold at a higher-than-ticketed price.

 (Because that's common for repairs.)

 

A new utility allows you to renumber a sequence of checks which may be useful

 if, for example checks 1500 to 1530 in Shopkeeper got printed on checks

 pre-printed with numbers 1501 to 1531. [ this is called u_renumber_cks  on

 the On Web Site page of the Utilities Toolbox.]

 

When you change the price of a certain Sku number, Shopkeeper asks whether

 you want to change the price of all of the Sku's which share the same style number.

 Starting with this version, Shopkeeper will at that point show you how many

 Sku's could be affected and will require you to type a confirmation, such as ALL 250

 if 250 Sku's of that style might possibly be repriced. This change is to avoid cases

 of accidental repricing where dozens of non-identical items share the same style number.

 

For Some Shopkeeper users experience situations where the Main Menu items are not

 correctly aligned and may even overlap. This can be righted by choosing

 Options, Reaign Menu Icons. However, if this occurs too often, you can

 turn on a new feature "Always Realign Main Menu Choices" which is on the

 Other General Settings page in Preferences.

 

An accounts payable report which separates, sorts, groups and subtotals

 accounts payable has been added. Note that this is accessed (for reasons)

 via the Checkbook Report screen, where you change the "bank" option

 to Accounts Payable by G/L Code.

 

Under certain conditions, the No Receipt button on the sales screen

 wouldn't activate by pressing the <Enter> key and instead had to be

 mouse-clicked. That limitation has beeen resolved in this update.

 

Repair tickets can now be searched by a partial repair ticket number

 e.g. typing 12001 can show 120011 and 120012 as possible results.

 

When searching for a repair tickets by number, previously only tickets

 in the Current file (past 2 to 3 years) were searched. Now the Archived file (older)

 will be searched as        well if the ticket number was not found in the current file

 

The activity page of the customer profile screen will no longer show a

 negative discount figure for items sold at a higher-than-ticketed price.

 (Because that's common for repairs.)

 

A new utility allows you to renumber a sequence of checks which may be useful

 if, for example checks 1500 to 1530 in Shopkeeper got printed on checks

 pre-printed with numbers 1501 to 1531. [ this is called u_renumber_cks  on

 the On Web Site page of the Utilities Toolbox.]

 

When you change the price of a certain Sku number, Shopkeeper asks whether

 you want to chnge the price of all of the Sku's which share the same style number.

 Starting with this version, Shopkeeper will at that point show you how many

 Sku's could be affected and will require you to type a confirmation, such as ALL 250

 if 250 Sku's of that style might possibly be repriced. This change is to avoid cases

 of accidental repricing where dozens of non-identical items share the same style number.

 

When you print sales receipts, a new option allows you to create an Excel file

 of the sale data. This would primarily be of use when generating a large wholesale invoice

 where the recipient wants an Excel file of all the items.

 [This is quite specialized, so ask Compulink for instructions if needed.]

 

 

[ SAVEALLRECEIPTS / SAVEALLRECEIPTSOPEN / SAVEALLRECEIPTSFOLDER / SAVELASTRECEIPT / SPECBUFFNOBLANK]

 

 

Version 4.142                                                 01/10/2020

===============================================================

 

The customer report with purchase totals per name now has a total

 at the end of the Number of Purchase Visits column. This can be

 used for various sales and customer metrics calculations; for

 example, the average number of Purchase visits and the average sales

 figures per customer per year have also been added to the bottom

 of that report.

 

Also on that report, the Purchase-Visits value was modified slightly such that

 if a customer makes multiple sales on the same day, that will now count as

 one visit - since that probably should not count as "return visits."

 

 A fix has been added for the occasional problem where the Inventory Status

 becomes hidden as it moves off-screen.