CerTek Releases Artisan POS 3.2

• Enhancements to Quantity Break Charts, including:
  • Buy One Get One Free & other Buy Some Get Some specials (“BOGO”). (The BOGO feature requires Deluxe Edition.)
  • Line Items w/manual changes to price or discount are excluded.
  • Qty Breaks can be set for Retail customers only, or disabled.
• Read Driver’s License / ID Cards with Magnetic Stripe Readers:
  • Works with the same MSR you use for credit cards
    (or with a standalone MSR).
  • Swipe into Customer Record for Name, Address, ID #, Birth Date (DOB).
    • Zip/Postal Code requires a 3-Track MSR.
  • Swipe into Check Tender Info for License/ID #, State, Birth Date.
  • New “License/ID & Birthdays” pop-up in Customer Record for new info.
    • Related fields from “More Info” moved into new pop-up.
    • Birthday & Anniversary fields now take full date or just MM/DD.
  • License / ID info filled into Check Tenders from Customer Record.
  • Changes to License / ID info in Check Tenders saved in Customer Record.
  • New [LICENSE], [IDEXP] & [DOB] fields for AFD & RTF sales slip forms.
    • [LICENSE], [IDEXP] & [DOB] added to standard Rental Agreement.
• New option to Include Invoice Line Item Details in A/R Statements.
• New Sales Tax configuration options:
  • Options to round Sales Tax Up or Down, in addition to Nearest.
  • Option to apply Minimum amount to entire sale instead of each unit.
• New Gift Registry Action for “Gifts Due”:
  • Gives credit to Registrant instead of taking merchandise out of stock.
    (As before, the Gift Registry feature requires Deluxe Edition.)
• Enhanced Accounting Interface to QuickBooks, Peachtree, etc:
  • Clarified options on External Accounting Configuration screens.
  • New Accounts Payable Mode menu, including two new modes:
    • Export Vendor Invoices & Consignment Statements as Bills Due.
      (This is the new default mode for new installations.)
      – Includes new external account for undistributed shipping costs.
    • Export Consignment Statements Only – as Bills Due.
    • Immediate A/P Transactions for Receiving & Consignment Sold.
      (Equivalent to old behavior when A/P Account filled in.)
    • No Exports for A/P or Receiving (Enter Bills & Statements Yourself).
      (Equivalent to old behavior when A/P Account blank.)
  • Having Artisan automatically make deposit transactions is now optional.
  • Category & Vendor Overrides for general accounts can now be disabled.
  • New overall Non-Sales Income Account, overrideable by Category.
• New Shipping Cost Distribution option to NOT distribute costs to inventory items.
  • Use in conjunction with new Accounts Payable Mode above.
• Purchase Order enhancements:
  • Added printable PO Start & Cancel Dates, to bracket vendor shipments.
  • Replaced Expected Date with Start & Cancel Dates on standard PO forms.
  • New Purchase Order Screen Options in Configuration Settings:
    • Always Ask for Miscellaneous PO Information (including dates).
    • Always Ask for PO Shipping Address.
  • When putting items on a PO from a vendor not listed in the Item Record,
    combine the confirmation with a check-off option to use the Cost and
    Vendor’s P/N from the current Preferred Vendor instead of zero/blank.
    • Editions w/Multi-Vendor support also include a check-off option
      for making this the new Preferred Vendor, formerly a 2nd question.
• Vendor Invoices now include Terms, Due Date & Total Invoice Amount.
  • When the received cost plus shipping cost = Total Invoice Amount,
    the invoice is considered complete and ‘Closed’.
• New option on Bulk Change Preferred Vendor screen:
  • In Editions w/o Multi-Vendor support:
    “Keep Current Cost & Vendor’s P/N” (Previous versions always did so.)
  • With Multi-Vendor, the option is more specific:
    “Keep Cost & Vendor’s P/N if None for New Vendor”
• Address & Phone Defaults replaced by Customer & Vendor Defaults.
  • New (per-site) default settings added for Customer Type & Keywords.
• Additional control over pricing for Customer Types (Price Levels):
  • Category Records can now specify Mark UP as well as Markdown.
  • Category Markdown/Markup can be specific money amounts or percentages.
• Add count of total units & returns to upper-right corner of Cash Register screen.
  • All unit counts now count kit components unless “Use Kit” option used.
• New option in Inventory Numbering Schemes for numbers to Increase Only.
• Category Code for Item Records now defaults to Vendor’s Main Category.
• New Item Screen Layout Option to put Vendor Code before Category Code.
• Item Activity now gives a choice of many reports, like Customer Activity.
  • Applies to both Item Record More Info and the Inventory Reports menu.
  • In addition to current “Detailed List of Each Change”, choices include:
    Pending Layaways, Special Orders / Custom Orders, On-Hold Sales & Orders, Voided Sales & Orders, and (in Deluxe Editions) various Rental reports.
• Improved reporting for Rentals (in Deluxe Editions):
  • New Customer/Item Activity report for Rentals Past Due.
  • Option for Rental Reservations activity report to summarize by day.
    (This is just like the Rental Overbooking report, but isn’t just overbooked days.)
    • All Rental Reservations reports, including Rental Overbooking, are
      now in a sub-menu under Rental Reservations.
  • Rental Reservations (& voids thereof) now included in detailed Item Activity.
• Activity for individual serial #s now available directly from Serial # Record.
• Custom Payment Types can now prompt for extra info, like “Room #”.
  • Set Optional or Required info prompting for Name, ID & 1 custom item.
  • Applies to Deposit & Non-Deposit payment types.
• Improvements to Day-End Tender Detail report:
  • Handles new custom reference info (above) in place of “Check #”.
  • Day-End Tender Detail w/”All Tenders” now includes Non-Deposit types.
  • New Tender Detail option for *any* one specific payment type.
  • Configure automatic Tender Detail reports for specific Payment Types.
• Day-End Tender Adjustment screen is now configurable.
  • Configure any non-A/R payment type to allow adjustments or not.
  • Defaults match prior behavior: No for Non-Deposit types, Yes for rest.
• Add button to get from Tender Adjustment screen directly to Cash Counter.
• When Month-End Report includes CONSIGN SALES, show OWNED SALES too.
• Changes to Sales by Item section in Day-End Report:
  • Add a new ‘Short’ format, which includes Quantity On Hand (QOH).
  • The old ‘Short’ format becomes ‘Medium’ (automatically converted).
  • Add QOH to the ‘Long’ format, too.
  • Single-line formats are now always 1 line, even on receipt printers.
• Add option to include QOH in Best/Worst Sellers Report when by Item.
• Additional options for Inventory Change Report & Merchandising Reports:
  • New “Category Tree” option for Summarize & Group By.
  • Use “Super-Group” in addition to Summarize & Group By for a 3rd level.
• New Search Option for Category Records to show Category Tree Order.
• New Register Screen Option for 15-chr Item Codes, new Money Size choice.
• New (per-site) setting in Messages for Receipts (to customize terminology):
  • “Name for ‘Deposit’ on Layaways/Orders/Reservations”
• New Credit Card Setting to Require Approval Code on ALL Stations (per site).
• Added support for Secure Payment Systems (SPS) check processing.
• Simplified Customer ID bar code formats, optionally including any 8-digit number.
• UNC network paths (\\computer\share\…) allowed instead of mapped drives.
• Add “Export Sales Counts to Nielsen SoundScan” (Deluxe Editions only).

Late Breaking News: Additional features & improvements have been added to the 3.2 version since its initial release. Here’s a list of additional new features:

• Physical Inventory Counting Enhancements:
  • Record Last Physical Count Date & Time for each Item (per site).
  • New “Zero Out Items w/o Recent Accepted Counts” function.
    Use this when counting inventory in groups, over time.
  • Catch PDT scanning errors immediately, with Product Lookup Tables.
    • Supported on Metrologic brand Portable Data Terminals.
    • Shows Description, Price, and optional QOH on PDT screen.
    • Also useful for Price Checks and other PDT functions.
  • Preserve scans for inventory counting, etc, across crashes.
  • Show multi-location total counts even when partial, but follow by ‘~’.
• Remote Operation Improvements (in Deluxe & Multi-Store Editions):
  • Safely merge reactivated remotes even if already partly merged.
  • Safely merge remotes that have been discarded at main site.
  • Keep more detailed info on status of remote merges, discards, etc.
  • Remote transfer files renamed to reflect status of last operation:
    e.g. RemoteLoaded-*.zip; also Reactivated, Merged, Discarded.
  • “Refresh” operation (Merge plus Prepare New) added to Remote Menu.
  • When starting in Read-Only mode, go right to Get New Data menu.
• Enhancements to Bulk Change & Bulk Delete Operations:
  • Add option to Select Individual Items with check-off list.
  • Add Bulk Change Availability.
  • Allow ‘*’ & ‘?’ wildcards in “Include” filters.
• Enhancements for Serial-Numbered Inventory Items (in Deluxe Editions):
  • You can correct mis-entered serial #s via Inventory Activity screen.
  • New search options for Serial #s to show On-Hand & Out Only.
  • Serial # search options are now included in Search Option Defaults.
  • New Item Screen Layout Options for (not) showing serial #s on sales slips.
    Separate settings for normal sales slips & packing slips.
• Rental Reservations Improvements (in Deluxe & Multi-Store Editions):
  • Add Rental Period (“Days”) to Rental Reservations Pending by Item.
  • Clarify Total vs Available in Rental Reservation By Day & Overbooking.
    • Show both in F4 detail. New search options to show either in lists.
    • Set default search option in Sales Transaction Search Options.
• Forms Printing Enhancements:
  • RTF (Rich Text Format) forms can now print in one step w/o interaction.
    • New printer setting lets you still Open RTF Forms w/o Printing.
  • New printable “Customer Forms” fill in info from Customer Record.
• Day-End Tender Detail Reports now work on receipt printers, too.
• Add Tender Detail by Date Range to Daily/Monthly Sales menu.
• Day-End Cash Counter available in standalone mode when no sales.
• New Back-Order function in Cash Register (Ctrl-Z).
  • Moves one or more lines to new pending order & notes as Backorder.
• Shortcut key combination Ctrl-Shift-R for Bulk Return in Register.
• Enforce age restrictions w/new Driver’s License Requirements settings.
• New Category Special Handling options to change Customer Type for
  each sale w/o permanently changing Customer Record.
  • Useful for coupons that change pricing in more complicated ways.
  • Choose either a specific price level or the special “Escalate” option.
• Allow separate (BOGO) Qty Break charts for each price level.
• New Customer Search Options for Custom Fields 1 – 5.
• Allow Customer Lists to *exclude* as well as include categories, etc.
• New option to accept any existing Customer ID in a bar code scan.
• Updated SSL-40x label forms to allow 2 lines of Description.
• Expanded Gift Certificate numbers to allow up to 12 digits.
• New Inventory Task Authorization Level for marking waiting orders delivered.
• Added an Advanced Inventory Maintenance sub-menu to Inventory menu.
  • Moved “Bulk Delete Item Records” to this menu (from Bulk Changes).
  • Replaced “Reset All Quantities to Zero” in Physical Counting
    with enhanced “Bulk Reset On-Hand Quantities” here.
  • Added “Update Past Costs Using Current Standard Cost”.
• Added additional Advanced Maintenance functions to Database Maintenance.
• Consistency Check now has option to run w/o asking questions.
• Command-Line “Backup” command, for automated backups.