New Features in axis diplomat 2022

» Summary Only

Listed below are a number of the key enhancements that have been added in axis diplomat 2022, including those released under Software Assurance to subscribers with axis diplomat 2020

Showing 205 enhancements covering:

• Kernel (Core) Software
• Nominal Ledger & General Accounts
• Sales Ledger, CRM & Sales Order Processing
• Purchase Ledger & Purchase Order Processing
• Stock Ledger, Bill of Materials & MRP
• Warehouse Management
• eBusiness
• Service Contract Management
• Workshop Job Management
• axis payroll

Kernel (Core) Software

Increase to the Maximum Number of Concurrent Sessions

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 07/01/2021

The number of concurrent sessions allowed to run axis diplomat at any one time has been doubled, from five times the number of licenced users to ten times the number.

Each separate function (including the scheduler) is a separate session so, on average, each user can now run the scheduler plus nine other functions at the same time. This is a system-wide setting so typically, some users will be running more than ten functions concurrently whilst others run fewer functions at the same time.

Find All in Scrolling Data Lists

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 28/06/2023

Two new options have been added to Scrolling Data Lists to allow lists to be filtered to specific keywords.

The first option is to right-click on any row in the list and select Find (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl F):

In addition to the Find Next and Find Previous options, a new button has been added for Find All:

Clicking the Find All button filters the list down to just those rows that contain the search term:

This option will include any rows that have the search term anywhere, in any column.

To assist with filtering data from a single column containing a common word, use the following method:

Right-click on the column heading for the column that you want to search and select Set Filters:

You can now enter the search word(s) in the field at the bottom of the dialog and select OK:

This will now filter the list down to only those rows that contain the search term in the specific column.

New Scheduler now offers Dark Mode

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 07/12/2020

For those who prefer a software interface with more contrast, the new axis diplomat Scheduler now offers a Dark Mode.

Enabling Dark Mode changes the Scheduler to use a colour scheme that is ostensibly white on grey/black rather than black on white

Open Call Search Filter

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 02/08/2022

When using the Calls search within the 2020-style scheduler, it is now possible to choose a default search option of 'Open'. This then incorporates all calls that are not completed, including Call Back, In Progress and Outstanding.

Freeze Columns in Scrolling Data Lists

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 04/04/2023

Scrolling data lists, used throughout axis diplomat in functions such as monitors and enquiries, now offer the ability to freeze any number of columns at the left-hand side of the data list, allowing the remaining columns to be scrolled left and right in the usual manner.

This is particularly useful with scrolling data lists containing an extensive amount of columns since it allows you to freeze key data columns and keep those on-screen and in context while you scroll right through the various columns.

To use, simply right-click on the heading of the rightmost column that you want to freeze:

All columns up to that point are then frozen and the remaining columns can be scrolled:

Remember that if the column or columns that you want frozen are not already on the left-hand side of the scrolling data list, you can easily drag them there first and then freeze them.

Excluding Customer and Supplier Transaction Attachments from Backup

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 28/07/2022

A new configuration option has been added to the list of exclusions for full backups, allowing Customer and Supplier Transaction History attachments to be excluded.

On some systems, this can make a significant difference to the time taken, and space required, for scheduled backups and ad-hoc backups taken by functions prior to performing bulk updates. Backup exclusions should, of course, only be used where there is a separate backup regime in place for these supplemental files.

Export to XLSX

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 07/07/2022

When exporting to a Microsoft Excel Workbook from a Scrolling Data List, the spreadsheet is now created in XLSX formatted rather than XLS.

This allows the user to use the latest features of Microsoft Excel within the spreadsheet.

UK Postcode Format Validation

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 14/06/2024

There are many 3rd party services such as Delivery Service Providers (DSPs) that axis diplomat communicate with which require correctly formatted address information.

To help prevent situations where, for example, couriers are unable to consign a delivery due to an incorrect postcode, UK postcode format validation is now included as standard.

Postcode Format Validation is now provided within following functionality:

• Customer Account Maintenance
• Quotation, Sales Order, Service Contract, Contract Request and Workshop Job Maintenance
• Supplier Account Maintenance
• Purchase Order Maintenance
• Delivery Record Maintenance
• Import eBusiness Orders

Please note that this validates the address format only, it does not verify that an actual postcode exists. An additional axis diplomat Postcode Address Retrieval module is available which uses a 3rd party service to search and retrieve addresses from postcodes.

New Text Formatting Options for Scrolling Data Lists

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

It is now possible to configure your own personal preference on how individual text fields are displayed within Scrolling Data Lists.

This is particularly useful for those fields that often contain lengthy text entries, such as notes, stock specifications or Call History Events.

On a case-by-case basis, you can decide whether a column should be a single row and truncated or whether it should wrap onto multiple rows. For those columns that do allow wrapping, you can also specify the maximum number of lines before they are truncated.

fig 1 - A CRM Call showing Event Notes that have been truncated

fig 2 - Changing the column settings to wrap text and show a maximum of 6 lines

fig 3 - the same CRM Call Event notes now wrapped onto multiple lines

The settings are specific to a particular Scrolling Data List and apply just to the current user.

Document Designer Element Currency Code (ISO)

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 15/05/2024

Alongside the existing currency symbol and description document elements, Document Designer now adds a new element, Currency Code (ISO), which equates to, for example, GBP, USD or EUR. This offers several benefits:

• The ISO currency code provides a globally recognised and standardised way to represent currencies. This is especially important for businesses that operate internationally or deal with clients and suppliers in different countries.
• Using ISO codes like GBP, USD, or EUR ensures clarity and avoids confusion, especially when dealing with multiple currencies that have the same symbol (e.g., "$" for both USD and AUD).
• Many financial systems and software platforms use ISO currency codes for integration and automation. By using ISO codes in your documents, you can improve data exchange with other systems, reducing the risk of errors.

For more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217

Hide Disabled User Accounts from User and Group Maintenance

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 20/10/2020

Disabled user accounts are now hidden by default within the User and Group Maintenance function and a new checkbox has been added below the list of users if they need to be added back in.

This change will be particularly welcome to those with a higher turnover of staff, such as those employing seasonal workers.

Retaining Line Breaks in Documents

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 28/03/2023

A new document parameter allows Document Designer to preserve a stock item's original line breaks when including long descriptions in document lines. Previously, the two standard lines and/or up to six lines specification, would be merged into one long line, with breaks occurring wherever required to fit the column width. This parameter will force the lines to match the axis diplomat stock ledger.

The following example illustrates the difference that this parameter makes:

The invoice on the left is produced using the conventional long stock description whilst the one on the right is produced with the "Split long stock description" parameter set.

New Business Intelligence Selector Type - Is Not One Of...

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 18/01/2021

When creating Business Intelligence Selectors, it is now possible to use a clause type of "is not one of...".

The screenshot above, for example, shows a selector that will include every product except those in product groups 19, 20 and 21.

Maintain Background Printing Defaults

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 02/09/2024

A new supervisor function, Maintain Background Printing Defaults, is now available to define which printers are used for printing from axis diplomat scheduled background tasks. For example, if documents such as Picking Notes are printed automatically at scheduled intervals rather than manually by a user.

The function must be run on the axis diplomat server, ensuring that only printers accessible to the server are offered for selection. These defaults will be applied for all users but it is only necessary to set defaults for those labels and documents that will be printed from background processes.

Verification of Microsoft Graph API Credentials

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 06/08/2024

Microsoft Graph is the preferred technology for sending emails, both from axis diplomat and axis vMerchant. It is an authenticated mechanism for applications to talk directly to your Microsoft 365 account to securely send emails. One of the benefits of using the Microsoft Graph API to send emails is that, because of the strong authentication, delivery success levels are higher because emails are less likely to be treated as spam by the recipient system.

The function for configuring the Microsoft Graph API Parameters now includes a 'Test' button which will attempt to communicate with the Microsoft 365 account using the supplied credentials. If this is successful, the Display Name and Secret valid from and to dates are filled in, confirming that the credentials are valid. Note that no test email is sent - the test simply confirms that the Application ID, Secret key and Tenant ID are valid.

Telephony Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Telephony Interface module

Release Date: 19/01/2023

Available as part of the additional axis diplomat Telephony Interface module, the Telephony Monitor is designed to provide managers with a view of all phone calls and recordings in one place, supplementing similar functionality provided in the context of an individual customer/organisation within the Customer or Supplier Enquiry 'Events' tab. Call details include what number was called by who, when (date/time), and the call duration.

Accessible as a menu entry or as a tab type to be added to a new or existing monitor, this monitor includes a tab option whereby phone numbers are compared with those held in your axis diplomat customer and supplier accounts and this can be used to show appropriate organisation and contact details rather than just a sea of numbers!

Context menu options also provide links to the relevant Customer or Supplier account.

On axis diplomat systems which also have the Voice Recording Interface module, the monitor also indicates whether a recording is present for a call and (dependent on the user's security permissions) provides the ability to open/listen to the call recording.

Filters allow you to monitor by a date range, such as last 7 days or by source, as well as providing Customer and Supplier filters.

Nominal Ledger & General Accounts

Integrated Stock Ledger Support for 3rd Party Stock

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Integrated Stock Ledger module

Release Date: 13/05/2024

Implementation of the optional Integrated Stock Ledger module has not, until now, been an option for those axis diplomat systems holding supplier consignment stock or other stock owned by third parties. This has been due to the inclusion in the Nominal Ledger of the values of stock movements related to all stock locations and, whilst third party owned stock could be recorded in the system at a zero cost, it is more desirable to record a value for this stock in the Stock Ledger for insurance and reporting purposes and to exclude these values from the financial valuations for the company.

The implementation of the Integrated Stock Ledger module for systems with third party owned stock is now possible with the ability to flag specific stock locations as holding third party owned stock. Once set, this flag indicates that the value of stock and any stock movement transactions at this location are not to be included in the accounting records as the stock is not to be considered a financial asset of the company. Upon transfer of this stock into a company owned stock location, the transferred stock cost value is then held in the Stock Control nominal asset account with a balancing transaction in the Goods Received not Invoiced nominal liability account.

Additional selection criteria has also been added to Stock Valuation reports to allow these locations to be excluded.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Integrated-Stock-Ledger/articles/19560

More Nominal Accounts

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

With the release of axis diplomat 2022, you are now able to benefit from a tenfold increase in the number of Nominal Accounts, with 10,000 accounts now available.

This also means that Nominal Account Codes have moved from being a three digit code to four digits.

Not only does this provide greater flexibility in structuring your accounts, allowing greater granularity, but also means that anyone wanting to transition from using Sage accounts can retain their existing account codes.

Deferred Income Provision

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Deferred Income Provision allows income which has been invoiced in advance to be accounted for in the relevant month for which the services invoiced are deliverable. It provides the following functionality for all customers using axis diplomat 2022 or above:

• The ability to define a default deferred income nominal account in Maintain Nominal Ledger Parameters. This allows selection from a list of Liability type nominal ledger accounts.
• A Deferred Income Provision function to manually enter income which is to be deferred.
• Release of deferred income to update the profit & loss and balance sheet using Release Standing Orders.
• Visibility of number of months of deferred income remaining to allow reconciliation to the relevant balance sheet nominal code.

Using the Deferred Income Provision function to manually enter details of income received in advance

Domestic Reverse Charge VAT

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The domestic reverse charge VAT procedure is an anti-fraud measure designed to counter criminal attacks on the UK VAT system by means of sophisticated fraud.

It applies to the sale and purchase of specified goods and services:

1. Between UK taxable persons (i.e. with a UK VAT Registration).
2. For goods, where the VAT exclusive value of the supply is above the de minimis limit.
3. Where the goods and services are bought and sold for business use.

Where it applies, it is the responsibility of the customer, rather than the supplier, to account to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for VAT on supplies of the specified goods or services.

This additional module allows a VAT group to be flagged as subject to Domestic Reverse Charge VAT and for a de minimis limit to be specified where applicable.

The amount of Domestic Reverse Charge VAT applied to a sales order is visible from within the sales order and is automatically recalculated as sales order line quantities and values are updated and/or repriced. Sales orders imported from websites and third party systems via 'Import eBusiness Orders' may be passed through with Domestic Reverse Charge VAT values against the lines. Where an order is imported and the software determines that Domestic Reverse Charge VAT should be applied but has not been, the order will be placed on hold for manual review.

To handle suspected attempts to disaggregate purchases of items with de minimis values to avoid Domestic Reverse Charge VAT, a flag is available on 'Standard UK' customer accounts with a VAT registration number to disallow de minimis levels, applying Domestic Reverse Charge VAT to all sales of applicable items to that customer.

For purchase transactions where Domestic Reverse Charge VAT has been applied, Purchase Order Invoice Booking for suppliers classified as Standard UK Supplier offers an additional Treatment of VAT option for Domestic Reverse Charge. The VAT amount is not added to the invoice value but is recorded on the line. The use of Purchase Order Invoice Booking to calculate the tax implies that the items relate to the taxable supplies that the business makes and that therefore the tax should be reclaimed. Therefore, axis diplomat reports the VAT amount as Output Tax (Box 1) and Input Tax (Box 4), which cancel each other out. The net value is reported in Box 7 (Total Inputs) but not in Box 6 (Total Outputs).

For more information:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-vat-domestic-reverse-charge-procedure-notice-735#para7 

Improved Nominal Account Enquiry Loading

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/06/2024

The functions Nominal Account Enquiry, Nominal Account Maintenance and Cash Account Enquiry have all been modified to replace the 'Include history' checkbox on the 'Transactions' tab with an 'Include transactions' drop-down with options for 'Current Year', 'Current and Last Year' and 'All Transactions'.

Furthermore, the preferred response to this prompt can be saved using the 'Save current tab responses' option.

The functions have also been modified to only read transactions once the tab is selected and then only read the applicable transactions. This makes the function much faster to load and makes it easier to find the desired transactions.

Email Substitutions for Statements and Remittance Advices

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 04/02/2022

Email delivery of Sales Ledger Statements and Purchase Ledger Remittance Advices now supports substitution of any document field within the email body so that the emails being sent can be personalised to include, for example, balance or contact name.

A report of the full list of substitutions can be found by clicking on the Document Substitutions button on the Template tab of the document settings.

To use, simply use the appropriate column name from the report, wrapped in brace {...} characters.

Sage Export Invoices / Credits Enhancements

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Sage Line 50 Interface module

Release Date: 03/11/2023

For those exporting transactions to Sage Line 50, the 'Export Invoices/Credits' function has been enhanced with a new 'Documents to include' option. It is now possible to select

• Sales & Purchase
• Sales only
• Purchase only

An additional tickbox has also been added to 'Exclude unapproved purchase invoices and credits' which is available if the documents to include is set to 'Sales & Purchase' or 'Purchase only'.

You are able to use the ‘Save Current Responses’ from the File menu to change the default setting for both of these new options.

Sales Ledger, CRM & Sales Order Processing

Disable VCF Attachments by Default

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/11/2022

axis diplomat has been modified to default to not attaching vCard (.vcf) contact files when sending shortcuts. This is to ensure that personal data is not replicated in this way unless you have specifically chosen to do so.

A new system parameter on the 'CRM Database' tab in Maintain Sales Ledger Parameters allows the setting of "Attach vCard (vcf) files with call shortcuts" to be changed to Enabled.

Shipping to Freight Forwarding Addresses

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

axis diplomat users and their customers who ship goods outside of the UK may use a UK freight forwarder to export goods on their behalf. Prior to axis diplomat 2022, users needed to amend the delivery address on sales orders between that of the freight forwarder to produce delivery documentation, and that of the end customer to ensure the correct application of VAT.

axis diplomat 2022 introduces the ability to have an additional 'interim delivery address' on sales orders and delivery records which is the address to which the goods need to be shipped, prior to their export by the forwarder, to the end customer.

The option to enable the use of interim delivery addresses is set in Maintain SOP Parameters on the Delivery Details group of the Document Maintenance (cont.) tab. If this parameter is set, an additional 'Interim delivery address' section is available on the Terms and Addresses tab of sales orders.

To set a document to use an interim delivery address, select the 'Delivery via interim address' drop down and choose the appropriate address type. axis first recommend that a customer account record is created for each freight forwarder with its own set of contact records. The freight forwarder account is then selected using the 'Account address' option.

'Best' delivery method calculation will identify the best delivery methods by which the order can be delivered to the interim delivery address.

Delivery record creation and handheld order picking functions have been updated to prevent consolidation of orders for delivery to different interim delivery addresses in addition to not allowing consolidation of orders or deliveries to differing end delivery addresses.

Additional columns have been implemented in Sales Order and Deliveries monitor tabs for interim delivery address contact and address information. There are hidden by default and can be enabled on a user by user basis as per standard monitor functionality.

Interim delivery address contact details and address lines are available to document designer sales documents, including:

• Advice Packing Note
• Credit Note
• Customs Invoice
• Delivery Note (GOA, Invoice and Order variants)
• Invoice
• Order Acknowledgement
• Proforma Invoice (standard, Despatch and Quotation variants)
• Quotation and Quotation Order Form.

Calls Monitor

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A new Calls Monitor has been added, which can be found on the CRM Enquiries menu.

Whilst it has always been possible to add Call and Call Event tabs to custom monitors, this pre-configured monitor provides a great starting point for those beginning to use the CRM functionality of axis diplomat for the first time or for those who want a ready-to-go solution that lists their current calls as well as those for their group.

Tabs provided by the Calls Monitor include:

• My Open Calls and My Group's Open Calls, which list any call that is not complete for the current logged in user or their group, respectively.
• My Call Backs and My Group's Call Backs
• My In Progress Calls and My Group's In Progress Calls
• My Outstanding Calls and My Group's Outstanding Calls
• My Events and My Group's Events, which list any event added to any call, irrespective of that call's current responsibility, in the last week by the current logged in user or by anyone in the current logged in user's group, respectively.

As with any pre-configured monitor on the system, you can of course change the filters and column layouts to suit your requirements and add your own additional tabs too.

Additional Customers Monitor Filter and Column

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Price Feed Delivery module

Release Date: 28/05/2024

For those using the Customer Price Feed Delivery module to provide daily price and/or stock level files to customers, information on the type of feed configured for a customer is now available as an additional column on Customer monitor tabs.

Furthermore, these monitors can be filtered to only show customers with particular feed types, for example, just those customers with FTP, SFTP and HTTP-based feeds.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/modules/Customer-Price-Feeds/21931

Customer Block Amendment by Country

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 24/11/2021

The Customer Record Block Amendment function has been extended to allow the range of customers to be modified to be selected by the country of their account address.

This is useful if, for example, you want to move all customers in a specific country to a different customer group, order source code or pricing tier.

Point of Sale Invoicing and Insufficient Stock

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Stock Transaction Traceability module

Release Date: 19/04/2024

Point of Sales Invoice Entry now has improved capabilities for handling the sale of items for which there is insufficient system stock at the current location or where the serial number of a traceable item does not exist at the current location.

Stock discrepancies do happen from time to time, for example, due to human error when someone puts sample stock back on a shelf without updating the system. It is important that a Point of Sale system is able to cope with these scenarios since clearly the stock does physically exist.

For non-traceable items, the “missing” stock is automatically adjusted (received) prior to being issued on the invoice. A new system parameter allows a reason code to be defined for these adjustments, allowing them to be identified and the related discrepancies dealt with at a later point.

If the item is configured for serial number traceability and the item is in stock but at a different location, the item is transferred to the correct location before being issued.

Document Sub-Totalling

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Sub-Totalling for sales documents (sales orders, quotations and, for those with the Service Contract Management module, Service Contracts and Requests for Contract) was previously available as an optional module. This has now been enhanced and made standard on all systems.

'Sub-total' and 'Start Sub-total' lines can now be added to sales documents. All stock items between the Start Sub-total line and the Sub-total line then have their prices suppressed from documents. If no Start Sub-Total line is provided then the sub-totalling applies to all preceding items from the start of the document.

Sub-total columns on the Item Details tab then show the sub-totals for net and gross of the preceding items.

Create Linked Quotation from CRM Calls

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 22/10/2021

A new button has been added to the CRM Call dialog to allow a linked quotation to be created.

Previously, it was necessary to create a quotation separately, either by using the Enter Quotation function or via the Quotations tab in Customer Enquiry before returning to the CRM Call and linking the quotation via the Links tab.

In addition to saving valuable time in creating the quotation, this enhancement also helps ensure that quotes are linked to the appropriate CRM Calls as staff do not need to remember to carry out a separate stage.

Delivery Note Scanning and Sales Order Release

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A new 'Attach Documents' function is able to monitor the contents of a user-defined folder, checking for the presence of PDF files.

The scanned files are automatically associated with their relevant Sales Order using OCR technology and filed as an attachment to the Sales Order.

As each document is processed, it is added to an on-screen list of the related sales orders. Once all documents have been processed, the user is given the option to bulk release’ all of the order that can be released. Any which are on hold or have already been released are, of course, excluded. Orders are either released to invoice or to Goods on Account, depending on the setting on the relevant customer account.

A Desktop Scanner with Automatic Document Feeder

In practice, this means that a collection of Delivery Notes (for example, returned from a delivery run by one of your own vans) can be placed in a desktop scanner fitted with an automatic document feeder (as shown above) where the scanning software is pre-configured to save the scanned documents as PDFs in the same folder as axis diplomat is configured to look at from within the 'Attach Documents' function.

Suppress GOA Reference and Date from Documents

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Goods on Account module

Release Date: 16/05/2024

A new system parameter has been added to allow suppression of the header information that is normally filed as description lines on invoices generated for Goods on Account bookings.

These headers, of the format "Goods DD-MM-YY Ref: XXXXXX", are normally filed as additional invoice lines and so cannot be suppressed by changes to the document template.

This will be of particular interest to those who do not produce Goods on Account Delivery Notes since their customers will then not have the Goods on Account Booking Reference and suppressing the header information from invoices can reduce confusion.

Custom Data in Customer Monitor Tabs

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Customer monitor tabs now include columns for every Custom Data field.

These columns are enabled by default, if you have custom data fields defined for your customers, but, as with all monitor columns, you may turn off individual columns and so different monitors can include just the custom data fields that are relevant for your particular requirements.

Sales Order Enquiry Transaction History Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 29/07/2024

The Sales Order Enquiry function now includes an additional tab for the Transaction History, which lists the invoices (and credit notes if they exist) generated from the Sales Order.

This makes it easier to handle invoice enquiries, particularly where orders have been part-shipped in a number of instalments. In addition to providing a drilldown to the individual invoices, it is also possible to see the allocation of payments against those invoices, further helping to handle queries from customers and saving time.

EORI Column Added To Customers Monitor Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 10/12/2020

An additional column has been added to Customers monitor tabs to show the EORI number.

By using column filtering or sorting, this provides a simple method for checking which customers may need EORI numbers adding to their account where they are currently blank. This could be helped, for example, by filtering a Customers monitor tab to showing only export customers.

Type-Specific Filenames for Sales Document Attachments

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 14/12/2022

When editing sales documents (Sales Orders, Quotations and, for those with the Service Contract Management module, Service Contracts and Requests for Service Contract), you are able to create Word document attachments from templates.

These documents are now automatically created with a prefix indicating the document type and reference.

The filename format is:

{document type}_{document reference}_{template filename}

Where {document type} is ORD (for sales orders), QUO (for quotations), SCO (for service contracts) or RSC (for service contract requests).

For example, creating an attachment from a template called "Non-Disclosure.dotx" for quotation 16727 will create a document called "QUO_16727_Non-Disclosure.docx".

Additional Columns for Sales Item History Monitor Tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 17/09/2022

Sales Item History monitor tabs now have a number of additional columns:

• Unit price
• Price per
• Unit of measure
• Item discount %

Head Office Consolidated Invoicing

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 07/06/2023

Consolidated invoicing enables items from a number of deliveries to the same customer to be consolidated into one invoice (typically weekly or monthly).

This has now been extended to support consolidation of multiple branch account deliveries onto a single head office invoice.

This behaviour is controlled via settings on the Document Options tab for a given head office account:

Contact Groups on Customer Enquiry Contacts Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 18/05/2022

The list of contacts shown on the Contacts tab of Customer Enquiry now includes columns for the contact groups that each contact belongs to.

You may define a number of contact groups, which typically are used to indicate the type of job role the person performs or the type of communication that they should be included in. Each contact can be in up to four different groups, reflecting the fact that in many organisations, individuals fulfill multiple roles.

In the screenshot above, a campaign or emailshot, for example, to Directors would include three of the contacts whereas one to Purchasing contacts would only include two of the contacts from this account.

Amend Status of Customer Return from Customer Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 26/07/2022

A new right click option has been added to the 'Returns' tab of Customer Enquiry to allow the document status code to be changed without needing to drill down into Customer Return document itself.

fig 1 - simply rightl-click on the particular Customer Return

fig 2 - choose the new Document Status code there and then

Disable Sales Groups

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 08/11/2023

In situations where a Sales Group cannot be deleted (because it has been used in the past and so exists on archived transactions, for example), it is now possible to flag it as ‘Disabled’.

If a group is disabled, it will no longer appear in lists of available sales groups although it is still selected for analysis and historical reporting.

Amend Sales Order Location from Customer Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 28/10/2021

A new right click option within the Sales Orders tab of Customer Enquiry allows a sales order's stock location to be amended, Previously, this was only available via a Sales Order Monitor or by using the dedicated function, Amend Sales Order Location.

Security Permissions on Sales Transactions

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 16/11/2022

New advanced security permissions have been added to allow users to be limited on the range of customer's historical transactions that they can view, based on the account's order source code.

This restriction will then, for instance, prevent them from seeing some customer's transactions within a Sales Item History monitor tab.

This user, for example, is limited to only be able to see transactions for customers whose Order Source Code is 5.

Force entry of Sales Order Cost Centre

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 07/03/2022

A new system parameter allows systems to be configured to force entry of a valid Cost Centre when creating sales orders, thereby ignoring any user or customer-specific defaults.

The parameter can be found on the 'Document Entry (cont)' tab of 'Maintain Sales Ledger Parameters'.

Default Call Responsibility by User

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 21/04/2022

A new parameter has been added to the 'Accounts User Defaults' dialog within User and Group Maintenance. The default responsibility, found on the Call Defaults tab, defines the initial responsibility for any new CRM calls that the user creates. In addition to any current specific user or group, the default can also be set to the user themselves or to their group.

Support added for Excel Call Templates

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 11/04/2023

CRM Calls in axis diplomat have long had the ability to create document attachments from pre-defined Word templates. This capability has now been extended to include Excel templates.

Excel templates are simply normal Excel files that have been saved as a template (.xltx) instead of a worksheet (.xlsx). They do, however, support all of the same text replacements that Word documents allow, such as {Email} for the email address of the CRM Call Contact.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Creating-Templates-for-Call-Document-Attachments/articles/20208

Close Sales Order option added to Customer Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 23/12/2020

An additional right-click option has been added to the Sales Orders tab within Customer Enquiry to allow an outstanding sales order to be closed.

Filter Monitor to Calls Linked to Sales Orders or Quotations

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 22/08/2023

When setting up a monitor tab showing Calls, it is now possible to filter the list of calls shown to only those that are linked to a sales order and/or quotation, or only those that are not linked to a sales order or quotation.

This would allow, for example, the creation of a monitor showing open sales calls that are linked to quotations to encourage sales agents to follow up old quotes and update or close the enquiries as appropriate.

Exclude completed lines in Order Maintenance

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 07/10/2021

The Amend Sales Order function has been modified to add a tick box to show outstanding items only.

The initial setting for this can be saved using the 'File > Save current tab responses' option so it is easy for users to default to only showing outstanding items if they wish.

For those with the Service Contract Management module, this option is now also available in the equivalent Service Contract amendment function.

User Preferences for Showing Specifications in Order Maintenance

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 04/09/2024

When entering or amending sales documents, each operator can now decide for themselves whether the Item Details' Description column should include the product specification as well as the main description.

The setting is accessed by clicking on the Options button:

This setting can be accessed from all types of sales document, including invoices, credit notes, orders, quotations and, for those with the appropriate additional modules, workshop jobs and service contracts.

Sales Order Delivery Address Labels

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Bartender Bar Code Labels module

Release Date: 15/05/2022

A new right-click option has been added to Sales Order monitor tabs to print delivery labels. The function prompts for the number of labels required before using BarTender to print the labels.

Additional Columns in Sales Order/Quotation Maintenance

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/08/2023

Additional columns for “Commodity code” and “Country of Origin” have been made available within the Item Details tab when entering, amending or enquiring on sales orders and quotations:

These new columns are not enabled by default and so, to enable them, simply right-click on the headings and choose ‘More...’. You will be able to select additional columns from here (and re-order the columns for your convenience too).

Customer Discount Percentage column on Customers monitor tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 05/01/2021

A new column has been added to Customers monitor tabs to show the discount percentage set against each account.

As with all monitor columns, this can also be used for sorting and filtering. In the screenshot above, for example, the list has been filtered to show just those accounts with customer discount. This can be particularly useful when reviewing discount levels and schemes.

Sales Order Priority in Order Maintenance

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 18/10/2023

The setting of a sales order's priority is now easier to see and change following the addition of the field to the General Details tab when entering or amending sales orders:

Previously, it was only visible when filing an order or from a right-click context menu from, for example, a Sales Order monitor.

Customer discount % column in Customer Transaction History monitor tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 26/04/2022

A new 'Customer Discount %' column has been added to Customer Transaction History monitor tabs to show the discount percentage set against a given transaction.

Sales Order Monitors & Additional Stock Locations

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Stock Location Replenishment module

Release Date: 20/12/2023

Additional Stock Locations act as backup stock locations for order picking, typically in situations where a warehouse is split into picking and bulk locations.

Enhancements to monitor tabs now make this information easier to see, helping to identify when orders could be fulfilled by replenishing from the bulk location.

Sales Order monitor tabs now show a new status of "All stock available using additional locations" when there is insufficient stock available at the order's location but there is sufficient stock if the additional bulk location's stock is also taken into account:

Sales Order Line monitor tabs now also show further information, with separate columns to show the On Hand, Free, Available and On Order stock figures with and without the additional location included:

Right-Click Options for Goods on Account monitor tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 15/06/2022

Additional options have been added to Goods on Account monitor tabs to provide the following options:

• Amend Delivery Details
• Consign Delivery ¹
• Print Proforma Invoice
• Create Invoice

Note 1 - Consign Delivery is only available on systems with Despatch and Delivery Management.

Close Quotations by Order Source Code

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 14/06/2024

The Supervisor Function 'Close Quotations' has been extended to provide an additional selection criterion by Order Source code(s).

The function allows all quotations prior to a specific date, or prior to a specific quotation number, to be closed. This additional selection criterion now also allows the selection of quotations to be closed to be further filtered to just those for a specific order source code, or a range of order source codes.

This makes it much easier to close a block of quotations when, for example, a sales agent leaves or changes their area of responsibility.

Delivery Terms added to Sales Deliveries Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Despatch & Delivery Management module

Release Date: 10/12/2020

Sales Deliveries monitor tabs now include an additional column for the Delivery Terms.

A corresponding filter has also been added

Delivery Terms refers to the International Commercial Terms (normally abbreviated to Incoterms) used to define which elements of costs are to be paid for by the seller (consignor) and which by the buyer (consignee).

For more information:

https://iccwbo.org/resources-for-business/incoterms-rules/

Suppress Data Sheets from Quotations

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 28/03/2023

The standard behaviour of the system is to automatically append to printed quotations any data sheets attached to the stock items that appear on the quote.

A new system parameter has been added to allow these data sheets to be suppressed from quotations.

The parameter can be found on the Documentation tab of the Supervisor Function Maintain SOP Parameters:

Sales Order Invoicing Mode

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Goods on Account module

Release Date: 29/07/2021

Sales Orders now have a new Invoicing Mode, separate to the Release Mode.

This allows an order to be flagged as allowing multiple releases but one a single invoice. This means that each part-shipment will create a Goods on Account booking and the invoice is only created after the final shipment.

A Sales Order that can be shipped in multiple installments but can only have a single consolidated invoice once all shipments have been made

Create Invoices for Goods on Account will not consolidate bookings from orders flagged as single invoice with other bookings, instead creating a separate invoice for each such order.

Customer accounts now hold a default invoicing mode which is used as the initial setting for both orders entered manually and imported from external sources such as websites.

Customers, Sales Orders and Goods on Account monitor tabs have all been modified to show the Invoicing Mode where appropriate.

Prevent Filing as Quotation when entering Sales Orders

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2023

It is now possible to remove the option to file sales orders as quotes by suppressing the "File Quotation" button when entering sales orders:

A new option on the "Prompt Suppression" tab of "Maintain SOP Parameters" allows this to be removed:

This means that even operators who are allowed to enter quotes are prevented from starting to create a sales order but filing as a quote instead - they will need to use the Enter Quotation function.

This can help avoid errors where staff accidentally file a document as a quote when they meant to file it as a sales order.

Override Consolidated Invoicing by Document

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Goods on Account module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

It is now possible, when raising a sales order for a customer marked as having consolidated invoices, to exclude that specific sales order from being consolidated.

In addition, Sales Order monitor tabs now also include an additional column to indicate the Consolidated Invoicing mode for each order.

This functionality is controlled by a system parameter. To be able to override the consolidated invoicing mode, you must ensure that the parameter "Enforce consolidated invoices" is NOT set. This is found on the 'Order Release' tab in 'Maintain SOP Parameters'.

Validation of Quotation Delivery Dates

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 09/09/2024

A number of changes have been made to quotation maintenance to help ensure that planned delivery dates remain valid when quotation dates are changed:

• If a user changes the quotation date, a new delivery date is now calculated and updated based on the rules for default delivery lead time for the items on the quotation.
• If the delivery date is set to occur in the past, the software now offers to recalculate the delivery date based on the default delivery times.
• Any line items which currently have a delivery date earlier than the overall quotation delivery date are updated to match the new quotation delivery date.

Customer Enquiry Goods on Account tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Goods on Account module

Release Date: 04/02/2022

A new Goods on Account tab has been added to Customer Enquiry to show all Goods on Account bookings. By default only uninvoiced bookings are displayed but all bookings can be shown if the "Show invoiced bookings" option is checked.

Right-click options are provided to amend bookings, create invoices and print proforma invoices. It is also possible to drilldown to the original sales order.

Disable Address Postcode Validation on Quotations

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 05/06/2024

When entering a new sales opportunity as a quotation, you may not yet have the full billing or delivery address details. There is now a new system parameter to disable postcode validation for the addresses on quotation documents.

Please note that when a quotation is converted to a sales order, a valid postcode is then required.

JSON File Format Support for Customer Price Feeds

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Customer Price Feed Delivery module

Release Date: 29/10/2021

The Customer Price Feed Delivery module has been extended to support delivery of price feed files to particular customers using a post to a web service (http/https) with the data in JSON format. The connection details are set within the eBusiness/EDI tab within Customer Enquiry.

A limit to the number of items being updated per post has also been provided as well as being able to send updates containing only items that have changed since the last update.

Customer Mailing Labels (Bartender Format)

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Bartender Bar Code Labels module

Release Date: 22/07/2024

Those using the link to the third party label printing solution, Bartender from Seagull Scientific, are now able to print customer mailing labels in addition to stock labels.

This provides a completely customisable label printing solution, allowing users to choose which customer fields are printed on the labels and to match the template to the desired label size.

The Customer Mailing Labels (Bartender Format) function allows you to print labels for a range of customers at once, by ranges of customer group, order source code and account type, for example:

Note: Only the Bartender Automation Edition or higher provide an API for use by other software applications such as axis diplomat.

For more information:

https://www.seagullscientific.com/software/

Supplier Stock In Custom Build Dialog

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Custom Build Assemblies module

Release Date: 10/08/2022

An additional column has been added to the Custom Build dialog showing the supplier stock levels for each optional component in the configuration.

Additional Filters for Customer Assets Monitor Tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 23/01/2024

Customer Asset monitor tabs now include the ability to filter assets based on the presence or absence of a parent asset. When filtering to include only assets with a parent asset, you can further restrict the monitor to listing only assets with parent assets that have particular features.

This screenshot, for example, shows a Customer Asset monitor tab that is filtered to only include assets with a serviceable parent asset.

Sage Account Number on Sales order Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Sage Line 50 Interface module

Release Date: 15/10/2021

For those using the link to Sage Line 50, Sales Order and Customer monitor tabs now include columns for the Sage account number.

This makes it easier to see anomalies where Sage account numbers are missing, allowing issues to be dealt with before the invoicing stage.

Customer Assets Monitor Tab Enhancements

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 30/01/2024

Customer Asset monitor tabs now features additional columns showing linked call information.

The following columns have been added to show open calls linked to each asset:

• Open Calls is the number of open calls linked to this asset; more detailed information can be found by opening the individual asset and referring to the ‘Calls’ tab.
• Call Number lists each call number for the open calls linked to this asset.
• Call Subject displays the call subject for each open call linked to this asset.

A right-click option has also been added to allow a new linked call to be created:

For customers who also have the Service Contract Management module, further columns have also been added:

• Contractable Stock Item indicates that the asset is linked to a stock item that can be added to a service contract.
• Service Contract Links displays the number of open contracts linked to this asset.

In conjunction with the existing Serviceable column, which indicates whether the asset itself is serviceable, the Customer Assets monitor tab can be a useful aid to identifying potential opportunities for new service contracts.

Change History tab on Customer Asset Enquiry

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A new tab, Change History, has been added to Customer Assets. Showing much more detail than a simple audit trail, this shows, at a glance, every change that has been made to any field, including custom data.

Additional eBusiness Settings in Customer Record Block Amendment

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the eBusiness module

Release Date: 12/01/2024

The Customer Record Block Amendment function has been extended to allow setting of the following flags on systems with the eBusiness module:

• Create addresses for web orders
• Allow different delivery address on web orders

Asset Servicing

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Asset Servicing is a new optional module available for axis diplomat 2022 users with the Customer Assets module.

This new module adds the ability to create CRM service calls based on assets that are due for servicing, routine testing, maintenance or any other regular scheduled activity, such as warranty renewal.

It extends the information held against each Asset Type to include default servicing information:

Individual Customer Assets can then hold records of when they were last serviced:

The last service date, combined with the service interval, allows the system to calculate when each asset is next due for a service.

A separate function is provided to process all assets that are due to a service during a given time period and generate a CRM call for each one:

One possible use of this module would be to generate a CRM call for each asset that is due for servicing in a month's time and use those calls as triggers for the Customer Services department to contact customers and arrange services.

Automatically Create Assets from Stock

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 22/02/2024

Previously, axis diplomat was only able to automatically create Customer Assets on the sale of traceable stock items (meaning that this facility was only available to those who also had the Stock Transaction Traceability module).

This facility has now been extended to also allow automatic creation of customer assets for non-traceable items as well. This is controlled at the Product Group level:

Customer Assets tab added to Stock Enquiry

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 08/12/2022

A new Customer Assets tab has been added to Stock Enquiry / Stock Maintenance, listing the customer assets that are defined as being this stock item.

This provides a simple mechanism for users to locate assets of one particular SKU and would be useful, for example, when specific product recalls or updates are required.

By default, assets that are marked as disposed of are not listed but can, optionally, be included.

Klarna Integration

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Payment Service Provider (PSP) Foundation module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

This feature provides an interface between axis diplomat and Klarna.

Klarna is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) providing secure online credit card and debit card payment solutions for eCommerce transactions allowing consumers to pay in installments.

When a consumer places an order using Klarna, Klarna will register the payment value and make this available to the vendor. The vendor can draw down against the payment only after the order is shipped.

Klarna does allow for partial drawdown against orders that have been part shipped.

axis diplomat communicates directly with Klarna to import reconcilliation transactions, allowing the relevant control account to be reconciled efficiently.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Klarna-Payments/articles/19705

https://www.klarna.com/uk/business/

Stripe Integration

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Payment Service Provider (PSP) Foundation module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

This feature provides an interface between axis diplomat and Stripe.

Stripe is a Payment Service Provider (PSP) providing secure online credit card and debit card payment solutions for eCommerce transactions from online businesses.

The integration to axis diplomat also allows a payment request to be emailed to the customer from within the Stripe dashboard. Subsequently, the payment can then be imported into axis diplomat using the payment reference.

Consumer's payments by either taking the payment upfront or by taking a deferred payment and Stripe allows partial capture against an order for orders that have been part shipped.

A remittance report can be downloaded from Stripe and then imported into axis diplomat, which allows the Stripe control account to be reconciled efficiently.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Stripe-PSP-Interface/articles/19703

https://stripe.com/gb

Purchase Ledger & Purchase Order Processing

Reverse Supplier Allocations

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 05/04/2023

A new right-click context menu option has been added to the Allocation Enquiry, accessed from Supplier Enquiry's transaction list and Supplier Transaction History monitor tabs.

When selecting Reverse Allocations, following a confirmation dialog, all allocations displayed are reversed. Partial allocation amendments must be carried out using Manual Payment Allocation.

Easier Supplier Transaction Allocation

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 05/04/2023

New right-click context menu options now provide the ability to perform allocations from a list of purchase transactions in Supplier Enquiry or from a monitor.

Amend Supplier Transaction

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 05/04/2023

A new Amend Supplier Transaction function allows allow amendment of all fields on invoices and credit notes except for the ledger and supplier account.

If the document's total values are amended, target vales are updated to reflect this with the analysed values showing as carried through from the original document.

The document lines may be fully amended with the exception of the Nominal Ledger account for stock purchase order items if Integrated Stock Ledger is in use as this must be left set to the defined Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI) account.

For documents derived from purchase orders where line items' quantities have been amended from those on the original document, the invoiced quantities for the purchase order lines are updated.

Saving the amended document will file a reversal transaction which will be automatically allocated against against the original document and file a new document with the same reference. Both the amended document and the reversal transaction are filed in the current open Purchase Ledger period. For foreign currency transactions, the original document exchange rate will be used.

The same functionality is also available via right-click context menu options within Supplier Enquiry and monitor tabs listing supplier transactions or supplier transaction lines.

Reverse Supplier Transaction

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 05/04/2023

A new Reverse Supplier Transaction function allows users to remove transactions entered in error by entering an opposite transaction which is automatically populated with dates, lines, values, VAT and nominal analysis, automatically allocating the reversal transaction against the original document and creating an audit trail event against both documents. The reversal transaction is filed in the current open Purchase Ledger period.

The same functionality is also available via right-click context menu options within Supplier Enquiry and monitor tabs listing supplier transactions or supplier transaction lines.

Purchase Invoice Attachment Warning

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 22/12/2022

A new system parameter has been added to instruct the Purchase Invoice Booking function to issue a warning if no attachment is present when selecting OK to proceed to the analysis stage.

The parameter is accessed via the General tab of the function Maintain Purchase Ledger Parameters.

This is particularly useful for those moving towards systems with less paper, reminding everyone to ensure that copies of supplier's invoices are attached in the system.

Formatted Supplier Addresses

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Formatted addresses are those where there are specific fields for town, county, country, etc. as opposed to, for example, six lines of freeform text. Formatted addresses are required, particularly when interfacing with a range of third party solutions such as delivery service providers.

Formatted customer addresses have been standard within axis diplomat for a number of years and axis diplomat 2022 now extends this functionality to supplier accounts.

fig 1 - supplier account address maintenance.

Supplier Deliver From Addresses

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

An additional Delivery Addresses tab on Supplier accounts allows a number of 'Deliver From' addresses to be recorded for use when maintaining purchase orders.

Figure 1: Adding supplier delivery address

An additional Deliver From Address area has been added to the Addresses tab on purchase orders, allowing selection of the supplier address from which the goods are to be shipped.

Figure 2: Purchase Order Addresses tab.

The Deliver From address information has also been added as additional columns to Purchase Order monitor tabs and as fields within Document Designer for addition to purchase order documents.

Purchase Order Release Modes

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 29/07/2022

Two new prompts have been added to the Ordering Details tab on Supplier accounts to control the default release mode to be set on purchase orders for that supplier.

Separate settings are provided for stock orders (those being delivered to a stock location) and drop-ship orders (those being delivered to another delivery address).

The options for each are:

• Allow multiple partial deliveries (back orders)
• Single delivery (wait until all stock available)
• Supply or cancel (single delivery, unfulfilled lines closed)

These settings can be overridden on individual purchase orders. Online Order Processing also sends this information via EDI where suppliers support this within their protocols.

Deliveries tab in Purchase Order Maintenance

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The Purchase Order Enquiry and Purchase Order Maintenance functions now feature an additional tab listing any deliveries that include one or more items from the Purchase Order.

As with the similar Deliveries tab in Supplier Enquiry, a right click option is provided to drill down into the details of a specific delivery.

Automatic Allocations Include/Exclude Unapproved

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 29/05/2024

When using the 'Auto Allocation' option for supplier payments, the system is now able to either include or exclude unapproved transactions.

This operation is controlled by new setting in Purchase Ledger Parameters:

All-New Delivery Enquiry

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Despatch & Delivery Management module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The new delivery enquiry function gives a revised layout for improved visibility and clarity. It also includes support for the new interim delivery addresses functionality.

Import Supplier Default Category

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 03/06/2024

The function Import Supplier Records has been extended to allow importing of the supplier's default category.

This is the supplier category used by both supplier price feeds and Office Products product file imports when automatically creating new supplier price lists. It is also the default used when manually adding new supplier price list entries.

Invalid Items on Purchase Delivery Advice

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Purchase Delivery Advice module

Release Date: 12/03/2021

A new system parameter allows the default setting to be defined for the 'Show Invalid Items' tick box when using the 'Enter Purchase Delivery Advice' function.

Delete Purchase Delivery

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Purchase Delivery Advice module

Release Date: 27/08/2024

A new function has been added to allow deletion of a Purchase Delivery record provided that no receipts or dispatches (using online order processing) have been made.

You can select the delivery record to be deleted by specifying either the supplier's delivery reference or the internal delivery reference allocated when the record was created.

Alternatively, you can search through all relevant delivery records for a given supplier:

Once you have selected the delivery to be deleted, you are presented with the full details of the delivery before confirming deletion:

Delivery Method in Purchase Order Document Templates

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 03/09/2021

Support has been added for printing the delivery method code and/or delivery method description on document designer -based purchase orders.

Exclude Supplier Price List Entries from Cost Calculations

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module

Release Date: 28/11/2022

It is now possible to exclude individual Supplier Price List entries from aggregated cost calculations. This is particularly useful where a supplier has issued a price list with a known error in it; including that entry would skew the cost calculations, leading to unreliable margin calculations.

A new 'Exclude from cost calculations' tickbox has been added to the supplier price list amendment dialog:

To assist with managing these exclusions, a new column has been added to the Supplier Price List in both Supplier Enquiry and Stock Enquiry to show when an item has been excluded from cost calculations:

Import Supplier Prices

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 16/11/2021

An all-new multi-user 'Import Supplier Prices' replaces the previous single-user function. This new import function allows multiple profiles to be saved. Each profile records the mapping of columns in the file to possible fields within axis diplomat.

This is particularly useful when a number of suppliers provide price list and/or stock availability files, each with their own standard format because the function then allows a profile to be created for each supplier.

In addition to comma-separated (CSV) files, the function also supports files with columns separated by tab, pipe, semicolon or tilde characters.

Live Supplier Prices

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

When entering or amending a purchase order for a supplier that supports realtime online lookups for pricing and stock levels, these will now be displayed for all items on the order (open and closed). The applicable supplier price list entries are also updated at the same time.

As well as displaying the recalculated values, additional columns show the variance, both as a monetary amount and as a percentage variance.

Purchase Order Lines Comments

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 15/11/2023

An additional comment of up to 30 characters can now be added to each purchase order line. The comment can be seen as a column on the Order items tab, as a column on ‘Purchase Order Items’ monitor tabs and in 'Goods Received from Supplier'.

Document Designer has also been updated to allow the comment field to be added to the line detail section of document templates.

Consolidation of Purchase Invoice Booking Functions

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A single pair of Purchase Invoice Booking and Purchase Credit Note Booking functions now replaces the twin sets of functions previously found in the Purchase Ledger and Purchase Order Processing modules.

In addition to simplifying processes by only having a single function for each type of transaction, the functions handle the more advanced VAT requirements following Brexit. They allow selection, by line, between Reverse Charge and Import for lines flagged as Goods and Directly Related Services (for non UK supplier transactions, defaulting to Reverse Charge if the net invoice value is £135.00 or below).

Additional Purchase Order Items Monitor Columns

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 28/11/2023

Additional columns have been added to Purchase Order Items monitor tabs to help manage expected credits.

Three new columns show the current Credit Expected value, the original value of expected credit and the difference, expressed as a percentage:

Additional Columns in Goods Received Dialog

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 09/08/2021

When running the "Goods Received from Supplier" function, the following columns have been added to the Item Details tab:

• Received Value
• Outstanding Value
• Unit Cost

Specification on Purchase Order Items Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 15/11/2023

A new column has been added to Purchase Order Items monitor tabs to show each item's Specification.

As an item's specification can be relatively long, you can elect to restrict the maximum number of lines to display:

Cost Information added to Supplier Price List Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 24/02/2021

When looking at the Supplier Price List tab within Supplier Enquiry, additional columns now show the Standard Cost, Current Cost and Cost Per from the stock item.

This can help when comparing supplier prices against the costs currently held on the stock ledger, particularly when looking to see if updates are required or when exporting the list to a spreadsheet.

Open Purchase Orders from within Spreadsheets

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 15/04/2021

Axislink.exe is a utility that allows Excel (or other 3rd-party applications) to load axis diplomat object enquiries.

It has now been extended to support opening purchase orders. The syntax is:

• axislink.exe xxx POM "nnnnnn"

where xxx is the Company ID and nnnnnn is the Purchase Order Number.

For example, to open purchase order number 123456 on CO1, use

• axislink.exe co1 POM "123456"

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/AXISLINK/articles/18548

Purchase Delivery Advice Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Purchase Delivery Advice module

Release Date: 16/06/2022

A right-click option has been added to Stock Enquiry's Transactions tab to drilldown to a Delivery Advice from purchase order and goods received transactions.

Price Feed Information added to Suppliers Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module

Release Date: 28/05/2024

For those using Supplier Price Feeds, an additional column has been added to Supplier monitor tabs to indicate the type of price feed configured for each supplier.

Please note that the column is not enabled by default and so, to see the column, right-click on the headings of the monitor tab and enable the column named Price Feed:

Additional Columns for Outstanding Items

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Purchase Delivery Advice module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For customers using Purchase Delivery Advices, the Outstanding Order Items tab in Customer Enquiry now shows two additional columns:

• Next Expected Stock Quantity
• Next Expected Arrival Date

Exclude Price Feed Variance in Price Feed Report

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module

Release Date: 06/09/2024

Using a new Purchase Ledger Parameter, it is possible to adjust the Price Feed Report to exclude the Price Variance section, reducing the file size considerably. This change is ideal for systems importing multiple price feeds regularly throughout the day.

To change the behaviour, adjust the setting for ‘Report pricing anomalies’. Select ‘Compare with standard costs’ or ‘Compare with current costs’ if you wish to report supplier price list records that differ from the selection by more than the variance defined on the product group record (excluding those that are not resaleable or superseded). Alternatively select ‘Do not report anomalies'.

Purchase Order Amendments and Cancellation via EDI

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Ingram Price Feed module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Enhancements to axis diplomat's Supplier EDI module now support the ability to make changes to a purchase order (increase or decrease an order line item quantity; close or delete a line item; add a new line item) or cancel the order via EDI with the supplier.

This provides purchasers with the control to adjust or cancel orders after the supplier has acknowledged the order and confirmed the quantity of stock allocated.

Purchase orders can be amended and re-sent to the supplier as many times as is desired. Once the user is satisfied with their order, the instruction to release and process the order is then sent to the supplier electronically.

These facilities are dependent on the EDI capabilities of any given supplier and EDI implementation.
Full implementation of this functionality is available with the axis diplomat interface to Ingram Micro's EDI facilities (IM-XML). Support may be added for additional suppliers at any time so please check the axisfirst website for the current status of facilities supported for a variety of suppliers.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/supplierEDI/

Purchase Orders & Supplier Allocated Stock via EDI

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Ingram Price Feed module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Where a supplier confirms the quantity of stock allocated for despatch against your purchase order via EDI, axis diplomat 2022 now reflects this information within the Purchase Order line.

In addition to the 'Quantity acknowledged' (the order quantity accepted by the supplier) axis diplomat 2022 an additional 'Supplier Quantity Next Despatch' is shown, which is the quantity of stock which has been allocated by the supplier to your order. Both are shown within Purchase Order Enquiry.

This facility is dependent on the capabilities of the supplier's EDI systems and is currently implemented in conjunction with Ingram Micro EDI (IM-XML).

Support may be added for additional suppliers at any time so please check the axisfirst website for the current status of facilities supported for a variety of suppliers.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/supplierEDI/

Trade Supply EDI

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

An additional EDI option is now available for those operating within the EOS (Electronic Office Supplies) marketplace with the addition of Trade Supply to the supported list of distributors and suppliers.

With the addition of the Trade Supply EDI module, an axis diplomat 2022 system is able to collect stock and price feeds, place orders and receive acknowledgements, invoices and credit notes.

For more information:

https://www.tradesupply.co.uk/

Stock Ledger, Bill of Materials & MRP

Landed and Supplemental Costs and Integrated Stock Ledger

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The Landed and Supplemental Costs module introduced with axis diplomat 2020 has now been extended to function in conjunction with the Integrated Stock Ledger.

Both the Landed and Supplemental Costs module and the Integrated Stock Ledger module are no-cost options. This means that, whilst they are not included as standard, they do not have a purchase price or an-going support cost. Anyone wanting to implement Landed and Supplemental Costs (or Integrated Stock Ledger) only needs to factor in any deployment costs associated with consultancy and training.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/modules/Landed-and-Supplemental-Costs/20167

Stock Forecasting

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

This module, previously available as an optional additional item, is now provided as standard in axis diplomat 2022.

It provides functions to calculate and report recommended minimum (re-order) and maximum stock levels based on the average demand over the past three months and the number of months-worth of stock to hold. It is then able to update stock records accordingly.

The Stock Control Monitor is also used to show the current stock position (over/under-stocked) based on the past three months demand.

Default Stock Custom Data Schema by Product Group

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 01/03/2021

It is now possible to define a default for each product group to specify which Custom Data Schema is generally used when creating new items in that group. Since it is often the case that products in a given product group are similar and likely to share the same schema, this helps to ensure that custom stock data is added correctly.

Image Management Enhancements

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A number of general enhancements have been incorporated into Image Management with axis diplomat 2022. These enhancements apply equally to stock images and, for those using the eBusiness module, eBusiness Group images.

These enhancements include additional columns within the scrolling list of images to now include all of the relevant fields for each image.

It is now possible to drag-and-drop images onto the image list.

It is also now possible to copy images out of axis diplomat via the clipboard.

Stock Data Sheet Enhancements

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 13/04/2023

Enhancements have been made to the stock record's Data Sheet maintenance tab, including new buttons:

• Copy to Clipboard allows you to copy the PDF to your clipboard, allowing you to easily paste it into another application.
• Print opens a printer selection options including number of copies.
• Add / Amend allows the user to specify a new PDF document to replace the document that is currently being used.

Enhanced Stock Take is now standard

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Previously an optional additional module but now standard with axis diplomat 2022, the Enhanced Stock Take module provides the ability to create a location stock take file and carry out a stock take either by Stock Item or Bin.

Stock counts are updated using either handheld devices (for those with the additional Warehouse Management module) or keyed from stock take sheets.

The Stock Take Monitor is used to show details of all stock takes and previous closed stock take records can also be viewed using this function. It is also used to approve stock take counts before adjustments are filed.

Within the monitor, status icons for Counted, Approval, Closed and Adjustment Filed provide an overview of the progress of the Stock Take. Additional columns provide an indication of the value of any discrepancies.

The Enhanced Stock Take feature also adds a Bins tab to stock locations where a master list of bins for each location is held and maintained.

Reason Codes for Transfer Between Stock Items

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 30/10/2023

The Transfer Between Stock Items function allows stock on hand quantities to be transferred from one stock item to another. You can now specify reason codes and these can be different for the issue from the first stock item and the receipt into the second stock item.

The example above illustrates a scenario where safety goggles are sold individually and in packs of 5 and there is an unexpected shortage of the individual items and so the decision is made to split a number of packs of 5 to re-stock the individual items. The transfer shows a quantity of 4 x 5 packs being transferred to 20 single items with a reason code of "Split for Stock".

Cost Prices in Stock Search Results

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 05/04/2022

The list of search results shown in Stock, Stock Enquiry and Dcoument Maintenance functions will now, subject to the user having appropriate security permissions, show standard and current costs.

A Stock Keyword Search within Enter Sales Order

Supplier Reference Columns in Stock Control Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 31/08/2021

When showing price and availability information for specific a supplier within the Stock Control Monitor, an additional column now shows that supplier's own part number for the item. The column is headed with the short name from the supplier's account plus 'Reference'.

Stock Control Monitor showing Supplier References for supplier 'WESTCOAST'

Additional Columns for Stock Items Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 26/11/2020

A number of columns have been added to Stock Items monitor tabs, particularly to enhance the visibility of information that is particularly pertinent for international shipments post-Brexit.

Columns added include:

• Depth / Length
• Width
• Height
• Volume (calculated from the dimensions.above)
• Gross unit weight
• Net unit weight
• Net unit volume
• Sold by Weight/Volume
• Is a package

Cost Information in Stock function

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 21/02/2023

A number of additional columns have been added to the Stock function's search results:

• Standard cost
• Standard cost last updated
• Current cost
• Current cost last updated
• Cost per

These columns are hidden by default but can be enabled, subject to user permissions, in the usual way; right-click on the results heading and select "More..." and then highlight the required columns and enable by hitting the space bar or clicking on "Show".

Date Created for Supplier Price List Entries

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 22/09/2021

Supplier price list entries can now hold a creation time and date. This is automatically filled in when creating a price list entry manually, when an entry is created from a price feed import or from a stock import using Import Stock Details from CSV.

The new field appears as an additional column and as a filter for Supplier Price Lists monitor tabs and as an additional column in both Supplier Enquiry and Stock Enquiry.

The ability to use date range filters on a Supplier Price Lists monitor is particularly useful since it easily allows for the creation of a monitor listing supplier price list entries created this week, this month, etc., making it easier to keep track of new products offered by suppliers.

Default Delivery to Customer on Stock Monitor tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 10/10/2023

Stock Monitor tabs now have an additional column, showing the Default Delivery to Customer (in days):

This field is found on the General Details tab of Stock Enquiry and is the number of days that you would normally expect delivery of the item to your customers to take.

Identifying Closed Supplier Accounts When Filtering Stock Control Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 19/01/2021

When filtering a Stock Control Monitor by Suppliers, it is now easier to identify closed supplier accounts. An additional Account Type column in the supplier list identifies whether the account is Live or Closed. Furthermore, closed accounts are shown in grey.

Deleting Customer Price List Entries

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 18/06/2021

The Stock Price Maintenance function 'Delete Customer Price Lists' has been extended to add an 'All customers' tick box. This means that it is now very easy to remove price lists entries for all customers for a specific stock item in one operation.

Transfer Best Before End Date

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Stock Transaction Traceability module

Release Date: 10/02/2023

For systems using both the Compact MRP and Stock Transaction Traceability modules, a new system parameter has been added, configured within the Maintain MRP Parameters function, to allow the transfer of best before end dates from compnents issued to works to finished goods.

With this new parameter set, when receiving goods from works, if any of the issued components have best before dates, the best before date of the component with the shortest shelf life will be used for the finished goods.

Cost Type Columns and Filters added to Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 16/12/2020

An additional column along with a corresponding filter has been added to Stock monitor tabs to show the Cost Type associated with each item listed.

The same information is now also shown on Sales Order Items and Quotation Items monitor tabs.

Automatic Allocation of Batch References

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Auto Allocate Traceability Numbers module

Release Date: 17/05/2024

The Auto Allocate Traceability Numbers module has been extended to allow automatic allocation of Batch References as well as Serial Numbers when receiving goods from works.

The automatically created Batch Reference is a combination of the Works Order Reference and a sequential receipt number.

For example, with a Works Order 5678, manufactured in four batches, the four receipts would be assigned the Batch References 56783/001, 56783/002, 56783/003 and 56783/004.

The behaviour is controlled by the same MRP system parameter that enables the automatic allocation of serial numbers:

Customer Price List Maintenance

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Date Specific Prices and Discounts module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

It is now possible to maintain customer-specific pricing and discounting from with both Stock Enquiry and Customer Enquiry.

This means that it is equally convenient to maintain pricing, whether you have a single product where you need to apply a change for a number of diferent customers or a single customer with a number of agreed prices to configure.

When maintaining customer price lists through either Stock Enquiry or Customer Enquiry, bulk updates can be achieved by importing a text file (typically from a CSV file but a range of other delimiters are also supported).

Traceability Details Added to Stock Transactions Monitor

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Stock Transaction Traceability module

Release Date: 16/06/2023

For those using the Stock Transaction Traceability module, an additional column showing the Batch or Serial Number has been made available on Stock Transactions type monitor tabs.

Initially disabled, this additional information is enabled by going to Tab Options and setting Traceability to Enabled in the 'Amendable properties' group.

For traceable items, the receipt transactions are split into separate rows for each serial number or batch reference.

Delivery item flag on Stock Records

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

A new flag is available on the Pricing and Costing tab of a stock enquiry to allow a user to flag a stock record as a delivery item.

When an item is flagged as a delivery item, the VAT applied to that item is set based on the other items on the sales order.

If all items on an order are zero-rated, the delivery item will also be zero rated. If, however, any or all of the other items are subject to VAT then VAT is applied to the delivery item at the rate of the highest VAT rate on any item in an order.

Within the Sales Order and Sales Deliveries monitor tabs, it is also possible to see the value of the delivery charge that has been applied to orders/deliveries separated from the value of goods.

Please note that, since this flag changes the treatment of VAT in line with HMRC regulations, it is important that the flag is only set on items that are delivery charges and for which those rules apply. Setting this flag on other items, such as packaging or handling charges, may result in incorrect VAT being applied.

Print Stock Label Description from Stock or Order

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above

Release Date: 06/08/2021

A new parameter, configured on Documentation tab within Maintain SOP Parameters, provides configuration of which description to print on stock labels. Labels can now use either the standard description from the stock ledger or the description from the sales order, which may have been amended for this specific order.

Age Date added to Stock Transaction Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 18/07/2022

On systems with the "Use original receipt date" parameter set, an additional "Aged Date" column is is now provided on Stock Transactions monitor tabs. This parameter can be found in on the Picking tab of Maintain SOP Parameters.

This column has also been added to the Transactions tab of Stock Enquiry.

Quantity Break Price Applies in Stock Record Block Amendment

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Quantity Break Pricing module

Release Date: 25/04/2022

The Stock Record Block Amendment function has been updated to allow a selection of stock items to be flagged as no longer qualifying for Quantity Break Pricing.

CN Taric Codes in Stock Record Block Amendment

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Intra EC Trade Statistics (Intrastat) module

Release Date: 21/01/2021

For those using CN/TARIC Commodity Codes, Stock Record Block Amendment now allows you to assign a specific code to a range of stock records.

This provides a simple and quick way of assigning a specific Commodity Code across a selection of stock items if those items can be identified by, for example, a range of Product Groups or Sales Groups.

Works Order Reservations

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Stock Transaction Traceability module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those using Compact MRP along with Stock Transaction Traceability, this new additional module allows traceable components to be reserved against current Works Orders prior to them being issued.

Components are reserved through the Works Order Enquiry function.

Warehouse Management

Auto Feed Sales Order Picking by Despatch Value

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 17/05/2024

A new enhancement to the auto feed picking mechanism allows you to streamline your order fulfilment process by ensuring that the highest value orders are processed first.

Orders can now be prioritised by the total value of items available for dispatch, ensuring that high-value orders receive attention first.

This operates seamlessly within the existing order priority framework. For example, high priority orders will be sorted and picked by dispatch value, followed by normal and low priority orders, each in descending order of dispatch value.

This new option is enabled via a system parameter:

Despatch Advice Email Templates by Delivery Method

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 28/06/2022

Maintain Delivery Methods has been extended to make it possible to specify a different Email Template for each Delivery Method.

When modifying a Delivery Method, if an email template has not been explicitly associated with the Delivery Method but there is an associated Delivery Service Provider whose configuration specifies an email variant then this will be displayed. This means there is no need to navigate to the configuration file separately to see or edit this information.

Unconsign Delivery

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Despatch & Delivery Management module

Release Date: 26/04/2024

A new supervisor function has been added to allow the consigned status of a Delivery to be reset to 'Awaiting Consignment' and, where supported, cancel the consignment with the Delivery Service Provider.

Please note that the ability to cancel a consignment with the Delivery Service Provider is dependent on the functionality provided by their interface and its implementation within axis diplomat.

Once a Delivery has been unconsigned, an audit trail event is created. If the DSP interface supports cancellation, a second audit trail event is created to show that, not only was the delivery status reset, but that the DSP has confirmed that a cancellation has been accepted.

The delivery may be reconsigned with either the same delivery option or changed to an alternative by amending its Delivery Method.

The ability to unconsign a delivery is restricted via User and Group Maintenance:

In addition to running Unconsign Delivery from the menu, the same function can be run via the right-click context menu from a Deliveries monitor tab:

Picking of non-tangible stock

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 19/03/2021

An additional setting has been added to stock items that have a traceability mode of 'Serial Number' and a Stock take and picking mode of 'Intangible'.

When this new field, 'Traceable item selection in picking' is set to Auto, the system will automatically select serial numbers for the quantity picked on a FIFO basis, without user intervention. The user's experience will therefore be the same as when picking a non-traceable item.

Show Zero Stock on Handheld Bin Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 05/01/2024

The function 'Handheld Bin Enquiry' now includes a prompt to 'Include Zero Stock on Hand' for Single Bin Locations.

A user of a handheld device is now able to scan a bin to see what should be in it even when it is empty.

Pack and Despatch - Pack Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 08/12/2020

For systems using both Shipping Containers and Paper-Based Sales Order Picking, a new Pack tab has been added to the Pack and Despatch function. This provides the user with a secondary check mechanism as they pack goods into a container.

Once a packaging item has been added to the delivery, the user then scans or selects each line on the Pack tab to add the item to the shipping container.

This is particularly useful when shipping goods internationally because international shipments all need container information for customs purposes.

GS1-128 Bar Code Support

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 26/04/2024

Stock searches can now handle GS1-128 format bar codes in the search term. The actual reference is extracted from the GS1-128 barcode and the Match Type indicates that this is how the match was identified:

The functionality can be toggled on and off if required using the bar code button:

Delivery Enquiry from Outstanding Items Tab

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those using either the Scheduled Deliveries or Warehouse Paper-Based Picking modules, there is a new right-click option on the Outstanding Order Items tab of 'Customer Enquiry' to drilldown to the Delivery Enquiry if the item is on an outstanding delivery.

Picked Quantity on Stock Transactions List

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 15/11/2023

The Transactions tab of Stock Enquiry now includes an additional column for the Picked Quantity.

Enhancements to Handheld Bin Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 09/08/2021

The settings tab within HandHeld Bin Enquiry has been extended to include additional fields showing the bin's category, it's status and any remarks.

Multi-User Sales Order Picking Prompt Suppression

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 10/07/2024

When using the Handheld Pick Sales Orders function, it is now possible to suppress the prompt "Do you wish to assist with orders currently being picked?".

The prompt is issued when the order selected for picking is already being picked by another user. The user may still proceed to assist with a pick by manually selecting orders which show their status as ‘Being picked'.

Stock bin management reporting - Enhancements

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 29/09/2021

On systems using Multi-Bin Stock Locations, additional information can now be recorded against each bin, including:

• Depth/length (mm)
• Width (mm)
• Height (mm)

An additional flag can indicate whether the bin is used for a single SKU or multiple different items, For single SKU bins, you can also record the stock reference and capacity of the item that the bin can hold.

The dimensions are used on the Stock Bins monitor to show the volume and amount of free space within each bin and is available for both single and multi-SKU bins. This information is also shown within the function Handheld Bin Enquiry.

The suggested bin algorithm used by Goods Inwards, Goods Received and Stock Movement function now also includes every single-SKU bin associated which that SKU although there is no attempt to enforce transactions to only use those specific bins.

Additional Columns in Maintain Delivery Methods

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Despatch & Delivery Management module

Release Date: 04/12/2023

A number of additional columns have been added to the main scrolling data list in Maintain Delivery Methods:

• Request Notifications
• Consignment
• Delivery Weight Checking
• Delivery Advice Email Template
• Customs CN22 Declaration
• Packaging Stock Reference
• Packaging Stock Description

This makes it easier to manage Delivery Methods by reducing the number of times that you need to drill into an individual delivery method to see its configuration.

Goods Inwards and Inward All Items

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Purchase Delivery Advice module

Release Date: 16/02/2022

A new option has been added to the Goods Inwards function to Inward All Items.

Goods Inwards is used to receive items from a supplier into a holding area prior to transfer to the warehouse.

DHL Consignment Paperwork

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the DHL DSP Interface module

Release Date: 19/07/2024

DHL consignments to destinations that do not support paperless trade will now print the following physical documents as the final step in the process for release at the end of Sales Order Picking, or release from Pack and Despatch:

• An additional label (Way bill) to hand to the carrier. (Airway Bill Label (6"x4")
• A 'commercial invoice' (A4 document)

Barcode labels for stock items & shelves

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 18/03/2021

An additional pre-configured barcode label format (format 36) has been added. The label has a size of 38mm x 25mm and includes the following fields:

• Retail Price (Incl. VAT)
• Item Description Line 1
• Primary Reference (as a barcode)
• Primary Reference (as text)

Manually Control DSP Despatch Date

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Delivery Service Provider Interfaces Foundation module

Release Date: 04/04/2024

The ability to control a delivery's despatch date via a manually specified date has been added.

This allows the user to determine when to switch from consigning deliveries that are to be despatched (i.e. collected by the Delivery Service Provider) today and, instead, start consigning deliveries to be despatched on the next working day.

This can be controlled via an additional prompt on the DSP's supplier account or via the Delivery Service Provider Enquiry.

Handheld Goods Received Default Quantity

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management

Release Date: 14/02/2022

A new parameter has been added against each Stock Location to control the default quantity presented when receiving an item via the handheld Goods Received function. For each location, this can be set to None, Outstanding Quantity or Inward.

None forces a quantity to be entered for the receipt. Outstanding Quantity defaults to the consolidated quantity for all purchase order lines containing the item and Inwards is the quantity on the delivery note.

Goods inwards process

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Stock Control module

Release Date: 25/02/2021

The Handheld Goods Inwards function now presents a list of current/recently used bins as each item is inwarded in a similar manner to that seen using the function Handheld Goods Received.

Note that this is purely for informational purposes and can be used to allow a sort of the goods for the goods received process.

The Goods Inwards function provides an optional checking-off process for goods prior to them being Goods Recieved and may be used to record quantities against items on a purchase delivery advice.

Importing and Updating Barcode Label Printing Details

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Bar Coding module

Release Date: 04/06/2021

Import Stock Details from CSV has been extended to allow more label printing information for stock records to be imported.

This now includes the label format, number of labels and the per option.

Export Stock Details has also been modified to export this information to allow the information to be amended before being imported back in.

Alternatively, the Stock Record Block Amendment function can be used for bulk updates as this has also been modified to allow these fields to be updated..

Additional columns added to Sales Deliveries monitor tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Delivery Records module

Release Date: 13/10/2020

Sales Deliveries monitor tabs now include two additional columns.

• Date Consigned
• Consigned By

SQL monitors - New Stock Bins and Stock Bin Items tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Multi Location Multi Bin Stock module

Release Date: 23/11/2020

On systems with Multi-Bin Stock Locations, two new monitor tab types have been added:

• Stock Bins - this tab type shows a list of bins, detailing their location, contents, last stock check dates and more.
• Stock Bin Items - this tab type shows a list of the stock contained in each bin. including the last date of receipt, quantity on hand and the quantity picked.

Refresh option - Handheld Sales Order Picking

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 15/04/2021

Within Handheld Pick Sales Orders a new refresh button has been added:

This was added to assist users with auto feed picking enabled to more easily retrieve the next order if one was not present at the time the function was loaded.

Deliver To information for pickers

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 14/04/2022

A new 'Deliver To' tab has been added to the function Handheld Pick Sales Orders. This tab shows the delivery address and the delivery method as specified on the sales order.

Picking and Bin Categorisation

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 15/04/2021

A new parameter, configured on the Picking tab of Maintain SOP Parameters, has been added to offer a variety of options to sort pick lists:

• By Bin Reference
• By Bin Category and then by Bin Reference
• By Primary Stock Reference

Picking Monitor and Stock Availability

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 29/06/2021

A new column and matching filter has been added to Picking monitor tabs to show stock availability.

This indicates where a user has marked an item as unavailable.

This will be particularly useful for warehouse managers and supervisors who wish to monitor such items to, for example, instigate additional stock checks.

Picked Quantities in Customer Enquiry

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Handheld Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 12/03/2021

A new 'Picked Quantity' column has been added to the Outstanding Order Items tab in Customer Enquiry to show how many of an item have been picked so far for each item.

Merging Deliveries at end of Sales Order Pick

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 05/01/2021

Two new options have been added to the system for what happens at the end of picking a sales order.

The options, configured via the 'Picking' tab of 'Maintain SOP Parameters' both cause the system to prompt for delivery creation.

• Prompt for Create Delivery/Suspend/Continue (optional create delivery)
• Prompt for Create Delivery/Continue (mandatory create delivery)

If either of these options is selected then, when exiting handheld Pick Sales Orders, the user will be prompted to create a delivery. If a delivery already exists for that customer going to the same customer delivery address, then the user wil be presented with a message asking if they wish to merge the items they have picked with the existing delivery.

This allows a consolidated delivery to be created from multiple sales orders with a single consignment and delivery note.

Create Deliveries by SKU

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 01/04/2021

The function Create Deliveries has been extended to include additional selection criteria for a stock reference or range of stock references.

When specified, deliveries will only be created for any items containing one of the stock items specified.

One useful application for this enhancement is where a large delivery of a specific item has been received from a supplier that was on back order. This ensures that anything containing that item is treated as a priority.

Allow Pack and Despatch for SOs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module

Release Date: 22/06/2021

For those customers using paper-based Sales Order Picking, the Pack and Despatch function now allows the user to select either a delivery (previously, the only option) or a sales order.

This allows the user to pick from an Advice/Packing Note and then use Pack and Despatch from a workstation fitted with a barcode scanner to positively identify an item and pack in to a shipping container.

This is particularly useful on systems that run a single bin location as there is no need to identify which bin an item was picked from.

eBusiness

Stock Location in XML Orders

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the XML eBusiness Interface module

Release Date: 13/12/2022

The XML eBusiness Interface now supports importing sales orders with a tag inside the section.

This tag determines against which Stock Location a sales order is imported.

If it is not present, Import eBusiness Orders either falls back to the site's default location, the customer's default location (if enabled), the appropriate FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) location for the locale (if it is an FBA order) or the location specified by the operator (for a manual import) for sales orders and the default returns location for customer returns.

Animated Banners

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the axis vMerchant module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those with websites built on axis vMerchant Express, axis dipomat 2022 provides the ability to add animated banners.

Banners built using Adobe Animate can use sophisticated animation techniques to add additional visual appeal and impact when used in place of traditional static images.

In a similar way to traditional static banners, animated banners can optionally link to a particular page on your website and they can be specific to a product or product category. They can also have start and end times which is useful, for example, when pre-loading seasonal banners.

The axisfirst Web Services team also offers a banner design and creation service, for both static and animated banners; please discuss your requirements with us or visit the website for more information.

To see an animated banner in place on an axis vMerchant Express website, please take a look at the home page of our demonstration EGPL website.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/web/design/banners/

https://egpl.axisfirst.co.uk/

Auto-Populate Cross Sells

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the axis vMerchant module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

Cross Sells (typically under a "You may also be interested in..." section on a product page) are a great way of bringing alternatives to your customer's attention and up-selling more expensive (or more profitable) alternatives.

Maintaining specific links between products has long been possible with axis diplomat and axis vMerchant but identifying alternatives for every product can be time consuming.

axis diplomat 2022 can now automatically generate cross sells to supplement those that you have manually chosen.

Cross sells that have been explicitly configured are given priority but the number of linked products can now be padded out to a target number of links (subject to suitable products being available).

Links can be based on the other products in the same group or from across other sibling groups (i.e. those groups that have the same parent group as this product's primary eBusiness group). These auto-generated links can be limited to only those products that have a higher price, a higher margin and/or have available stock.

It is also possible to prioritise which products are selected for linking based on which are the most expensive, the most profitable or have the most stock available.

This is all configured via a single set of parameters within the Maintain eBusiness Sites function (on the Stock Parameters Continued tab):

With this development, it is now possible to focus on setting up up-sell links on the most strategically important products whilst knowing that the broader product catalogue will suggest appropriate up-sells where possible.

eBusiness Attachments

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the axis vMerchant module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

This module, previously available as an additional cost module, is now included as standard on all axis diplomat 2022 systems with links to axis vMerchant websites.

With this module, PDF manuals, COSHH sheets, specification sheets and a host of other documentation can be added to individual stock items or to groups of items.

In order to allow your website to differentiate between various types of attachment, you can define a number of eBusiness Attachment Types via a Stock Ledger maintenance function (just as you would maintain Product Groups, for example).

If your website is built on axis vMerchant Express website then no changes to the site are required - the site will automatically respond to the presence of the attached files. If, however, you have a bespoke website, please contact us to discuss how and where you wish the download links to appear on your site.

fig 1 - marking a Stock attachment as published and of type Brochure

fig 2 - stock item's attachments automatically appearing in a 'Documents' tab on the web page

Highlighted eBusiness Groups

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the axis vMerchant module

Release Date: 26/07/2023

It is now possible to mark individual eBusiness Groups as highlighted - either as Featured, Best Seller or Special Offer categories in a similar way to the existing options for individual stock items.

These settings can then be used on an axis vMerchant Express website to add a Highlighted eBusiness Group module to, typically, your home page:

Login Statistics

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the axis vMerchant module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those with one or more axis vMerchant websites linked to their axis diplomat system, it is now possible to see login statistics on the Contacts tab of Customer Enquiry.

Once a specific website has been selected, the list of contacts is updated to show the dates for the first login and the most recent login, as well as the total number of times that they have logged in to the particular site.

This can be particularly useful for account managers in a B2B environment, as it provides a simple overview of how much a particular contact engages with their account online.

Default for Allow Different Delivery Address on Web Orders

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the eProcurement module

Release Date: 26/09/2024

For those using the eProcurement module in conjunction with an axis vMerchant website, a tickbox on customer accounts determines whether the customer in question is able to specify a different delivery address at the checkout.

Under normal circumstances, this defaults to not ticked when setting up new customer accounts - i.e. the default behaviour is for customers to be unable to specify a different delivery address.

A new system parameter allows you to indicate that the default setting should be ticked (customers can specify a different delivery address).

This default only affects the creation of new customer accounts but the setting of existing accounts can be changed 'en masse' using the function Customer Record Block Amendment.

Notification of Online Statement Payments

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with eBusiness

Release Date: 15/07/2021

It is now possible to configure a website to send you a notification whenever an 'On Account' customer makes a payment against outstanding invoices on their account via the Statement page of your axis vMerchant website.

This is configured on the 'Email Parameters' tab within the Supervisor Function 'Maintain eBusiness Sites'.

Import Search Dictionary

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the eBusiness Search Dictionary module

Release Date: 23/01/2024

For those using the eBusiness Search Dictionary to provide finer control over specific search terms, these may now be imported from a CSV file.

The file should simply contain three columns (with or without a header row):

• Search Term
• Display Text
• URL

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/eBusiness-Search-Dictionary/articles/19577

All-New eBusiness Catalogue Maintenance

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with eBusiness

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The existing Maintain eBusiness Catalogue function has been replaced. The new function eliminates the need for separate tree and list view tabs and makes both views available on-screen at the same time.

If the group selected in the tree on the left contains subsidiary groups, these are listed in the top-right pane.

If the group selected in the tree on the left contains products, these are listed in the bottom-right pane.

The left-hand tree view will also show assigned stock and, for those with the Stock Lines module, Stock Lines.

This new function makes it easier to work with eBusiness Catalogues, especially those with larger and more complex structures. It also makes it easier to drilldown into items - for example, by right-clicking on a stock item as shown below:

Export Stock Details and Site-Specific Notes

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the eBusiness module

Release Date: 17/08/2021

The Export Stock Details function has been modified to include a new output option to include site-specific stock notes.

If selected, this will export the site-specific notes for the site selected (in the prompt above). These notes are included in a separate column specifically for site-specific notes. A second additional column shows the setting of the 'use site specific notes' flag.

fig 1 - choosing the 'Include site specific notes option

fig 2 - the resultant file loaded in Microsoft Excel, showing the two additional columns

Default Cost Centres by Site

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with eBusiness

Release Date: 31/03/2021

The Maintain eBusiness Sites function now allows specification of a default Cost Centre code to be used when creating retail customer accounts as a result of importing eBusiness orders.

Amazon Invoice Upload

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Amazon Seller Central Interface module

Release Date: 16/07/2021

A new parameter, called "Amazon Invoice PDF upload enabled", has been added on the Upload Parameters tab within "Maintain eBusiness Sites" when configuring an Amazon eBusiness site.

When this parameter is set, the system will, during invoice delivery (for example, when running the Print Invoices function) automatically upload any invoices for orders from this site directly to Amazon.

This can be particularly beneficial when selling to Amazon Business customers who can filter goods to sellers that are able to provide invoices.

Default Document Status Codes by Site

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with eBusiness

Release Date: 09/09/2021

It is now possible to define two default Document Status Codes to be used on orders imported from a website. One code is used for orders that are able to be processed normally whilst the second code is reserved for orders that are placed on hold (using whatever criteria has been configured for orders that are automatically placed on hold).

The default Document Status Codes are configured on the 'Download Parameters' tab of 'Maintain eBusiness Sites' and may therefore vary from one site to another.

Import Customer Returns from 3rd Party Sites

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the XML eBusiness Interface module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The API for the XML eBusiness interface has been extended to allow Customer Returns to be imported via the same interface that is used to import sales orders.

an example XML file featuring a customer return

Once a return has been downloaded by axis diplomat, an update is made to the site to indicate that the return has been imported.

Import Refunds from 3rd Party Sites

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the XML eBusiness Interface module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

The API for the XML eBusiness interface has been extended to allow payment refunds to be imported via the same interface that is used to import sales orders.

an example XML file featuring a customer refund

Stock Details Option added to XML eBusiness

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the XML eBusiness Interface module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

This functionality provides XML eBusiness sites with the facility to publish stock detail information to the external website.

This can cover a range of information for each item, including:

• Description
• Pricing
• Resalable status
• Discontinued status
• Sales Group
• Product Group
• Stock levels

eBay Managed Payments

Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with eBusiness

Release Date: 17/10/2022

eBay now require all sellers to register for eBay to manage their payments, providing sellers with one place to sell and get paid, and buyers with more payment options.

An additional axis diplomat module allows payment methods to be flagged with a Payment Service Provider of eBay which in turn enables the import of payment settlement details for eBay orders which have been paid for using eBay Managed Payments and allows reconciliation of cashbook transactions using a Payout file downloaded from eBay Seller Hub.

The Import eBay Managed Payment Report function will flag all matched transactions as reconciled in the Cash Book and optionally create journals for the costs of transaction fees deducted by eBay.

The module is included as standard with the eBay Interface but is now also available as a stand-alone module for those who want to work with eBay Managed Payments through their axis diplomat system but without the additional functionality to import orders.

For more information:

https://sellercentre.ebay.co.uk/selling/managed-payments

Service Contract Management

Service Contract Price on Stock

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 25/04/2023

Previously available as an optional feature, Service Contract Price on Stock is now standard as part of the Service Contract Management module.

It enables the addition of service contract pricing to a stock record so that a service contract can be built using pre-defined pricing for each element covered by that contract.

In addition to contract price and cost, you are also able to specify a range of parameters, such as a different sales group for contract revenue from the sales group used for sales revenue.

Calculate Projected Revenue

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 17/08/2023

The Service Contract Management module now maintains detailed and accurate forecasts of projected revenue for all contracts. These forecasts take into account both individual contract lines that are not yet active and lines that are due to terminate as well as the overall contract start and end dates. The projected revenue is also calculated for contract requests, so it is possible to include potential contracts in your forecast calculations as well.

This projected revenue is updated every time a contract is changed or invoiced and so is available for inclusion on any of the following monitor tabs without any additional overhead caused by incurring further calculations:

• Service Contract
• Service Contract Items
• Service Contract Requests
• Service Contract Requests Items

Due to the amount of information that can be shown, these additional columns are not enabled by default but can be added in by using the Tab Options on the required monitor:

You are able to include, for example, projected revenue for the current or following financial year, calendar year and/or have a month-by-month breakdown of the forecast.

The projected revenue takes into account both existing and planned future invoicing to give a complete picture of the expected income from the service contracts currently on the system.

In addition, since the forecast projections are calculated and stored in advance, they are also available to query via the SQL database, for example from Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PowerBI.

Additional Contract Payment Frequencies

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 02/09/2021

Two new options have been added for Service Contract payment frequencies. These are Two-Monthly and Two-Yearly.

Service Contract Enquiry Transaction History Tab

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 29/07/2024

It is now easier to manage billing enquiries on Service Contracts with the addition of a Transaction History tab to Service Contract Enquiry.

The Transaction History tab also provides a quick and simple view of how the contract value has changed over time; in the illustration above, for example, we can see that the net monthly contract value has steadily increased from £300 per month to £360.

Further Additional Contract Payment Frequencies

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 17/10/2022

With the release of axis diplomat 2022, three additional options have been added for Service Contract payment frequencies.

These are:

• Three Yearly (36 Months)
• Four Yearly (48 Months)
• Five Yearly (60 Months)

Consolidated Invoicing of Service Contracts

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Goods on Account module

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those using both the Goods on Account and Service Contract Management modules, contract invoices can now be consolidated.

This means that, where customers have multiple contracts, they can now receive one invoice covering multiple contracts. Only contracts with the same payment frequency are consolidated onto one invoice and each contract's document lines are kept separate. This means that if the same item appears on two contracts then the resultant invoice will still have two separate lines as opposed to one line with a higher quantity.

Validation of Contract Request Dates

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 30/07/2024

The Request for Service Contract maintenance function has been modified to add further validation on a request's next due date.

When amending the date, the function will now offer to update any line item with a date prior to the contract's overall date to that date (any line items with a date later then the contract date are not amended unless the user selects this).

Service Contract Revenue Deferred Income Provision

Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 17/10/2022

For those systems with the additional Service Contract Management module, Deferred Income Provision will also:

• Allow income generated from quarterly, six monthly and annual service contracts to automatically be accounted for in the relevant months for which the services are deliverable if the nominal ledger parameter to 'Defer service contract revenue' is set.
• Remove the requirement for manual adjustments to provide for deferred income relating to service contracts by creating the relevant transactions at the point of raising a service contract invoice.
• Provide a single function (Release Standing Orders) to transfer that month’s revenue from the ‘Deferred Income’ account to the relevant trading nominal account for all deferred income transactions.
• Allow service contract items to be flagged as invoiced in advance or arrears. Those items flagged as 'Arrears' will not have deferred income provisions for invoices generated even if the contract frequency is greater than one month. For example, a customer has a service contract for a photocopier where the machine rental is charged quarterly in advance however a 'per copy' charge is made in arrears. By flagging the 'per copy' stock record as 'Arrears', only the machine rental contract line will create a deferred income provision.

All service contract items will default to invoiced in advance. This may be amended from the Contract Details tab of the stock record or imported using Import Stock Details from CSV File.

Using Stock Record Maintenance to indicate that an item is invoiced in advance

Filter Service Contract Monitors by Automatic Price Changes

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 25/04/2024

It is now possible to filter Service Contract monitor tabs by the automated price change status of each contract.

This means, for example, it is now possible to produce a monitor listing only those contracts that do not update their pricing automatically. This would be particularly useful when manually reviewing those contracts.

Completed Contract Lines

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 07/10/2021

When viewing or amending a contract in Service Contract Enquiry and Maintenance functions, completed lines are now shown in grey. This is also the case with Service Contract Lines monitor tabs.

Additional Columns for Service Contract Monitor Tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management

Release Date: 20/08/2021

A number of additional columns have been added to Service Contract monitor tabs:

An "Automated price changes" column shows whether a contract allows automated price changes, with options of either allow, disallow or after minimum term.

The related "Automatic repricing allowed from date" column shows for first date from which automatic repricing is allowed on a service contract.

An "Earliest termination date" column shows the soonest data that a contract can be terminated, taking into account the minimum contract term and its start date.

Additional Columns for Service Contract Items Monitor Tabs

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Date Specific Contract Pricing and Discounts module

Release Date: 03/09/2021

A number of additional columns have been added to Service Contract Lines monitor tabs:

• Exclude from repricing
• Unit price
• Price per
• Unit of measure
• Item discount %

Workshop Job Management

Workshop Job Despatch Quantities and Picking

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Workshop Job Management

Release Date: 21/02/2024

Two additional options have been made available for users of the Workshop Job Management Module.

Workshop Job Despatch Quantities allows stock to be hard-allocated to workshop jobs. Working in the same way as sales order and works order despatch quantities, setting despatch quantities on workshop job lines protects that stock from being taken for other transactions. This option is available at no additional cost to those with the Despatch Quantity Recording module.

Workshop Job Picking harnesses the technology used by the existing handheld picking functionality for Sales Orders and Works Orders and is available, also at no additional cost, to users of the Warehouse Management module. The Handheld Pick Workshop Jobs function provides a picking list of items, sorted by bin reference, to a handheld terminal which the stores team then use to carry out the picking before passing the stock to the workshop to allow them to carry out the job.

.

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Workshop-Job-Picking/articles/21470

Linking Workshop Jobs to Assets

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 28/02/2024

For those with both the Workshop Job Management and Customer Assets modules, workshop jobs can now be linked to a specific customer asset.

This allows you to build a comprehensive service history for each asset (even when work has been invoiced to different customer records, such as finance companies or previous owners).

New asset records can also be created from within the Workshop Job maintenance function, which is helpful when creating a Workshop Job for a piece of equipment that has not been seen before. Conversely, it is possible to create a new Workshop Job from within an Asset Enquiry.

Links between Assets and Workshop Jobs are shown across various parts of the system, including a number of monitor tabs, such as ‘Workshop Job,’ ‘Workshop Job Items,’ and ‘Customer Transaction History.’ These now include additional columns for Asset ID, Asset Type, and Serial Number, as well as right-click menu options to drill down to the specific asset or workshop job.

Workshop Job Monitors and Assets

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above and the Customer Assets module

Release Date: 28/02/2024

A number of additional columns have been added to the Workshop Job and Workshop Job Item monitor tabs, designed to provide greater visibility of asset-related activities:

• Asset ID
• Asset Name
• Asset Serial Number
• Asset Type

These additions will be particularly useful to those who carry out routine servicing and maintenance on customers' equipment, whether vehicles, machinery, etc. because linking workshop jobs to specific assets allows you to build and interrogate the full service history.

Workshop Jobs and Back-to-Back Process Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2022 or above with Workshop Job Management

Release Date: 19/04/2024

Back-to-back order information has been added to the Workshop Job and Workshop Job Item as well as Purchase Order and Purchase Order Items monitor tabs. This enhancement is designed to provide greater visibility of linked purchasing activities.

These additions will be particularly useful to those who arrange Workshop Job specific parts for the servicing and maintenance on customers' equipment. From a Workshop Job or Workshop Job Items monitor, a user can view the purchase order number or even use a context menu (right-click) to view the Purchase Order in full. From a Purchase Order Monitor or Purchase Order Items Monitor, a Sales Order column displays the Workshop Job.

Users may track from Purchase Request to Goods Received. Purchase Invoicing may also be traced through Purchase Invoice Booking where Invoices booked against purchase orders, thus providing cost sheet details for the Workshop if required.

axis payroll

Additional Word Template Fields

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis payroll 2022 or above

Release Date: 26/04/2024

Microsoft Word document templates (.dotx) can be created for use within axis payroll.

In addition to the standard facilities provided by Microsoft Word, it is also possible to include in these templates axis payroll-specific substitutions that are replaced with the actual data from the employee's record when creating documents from the template.

The list of available substitutions has now been extended to include the following:

• {KnownAs}
• {Paypoint}
• {PaypointDescription}
• {StartDate}

For more information:

https://www.axisfirst.co.uk/documentation/Creating-Templates-for-Employee-Document-Attachments/articles/18856

Additional Columns for Employee and HR Monitors

Available to Software Assurance customers with axis payroll 2020 or above

Release Date: 12/11/2021

The Employee Monitor and HR Monitor have both been extended to include the following additional columns:

• Annual Holiday Entitlement (days)
• Holiday Entitlement Brought Forward (days)
• Additional Holiday Entitlement This Year (days)

eDoc Deposit Interface

Available to all customers with axis payroll 2022 or above

Release Date: 17/10/2022

eDoc Deposit is an online document delivery portal for the delivery of electronic payslips and payroll documents.

The axis payroll eDoc Deposit feature allows you to:

• Create the new employee account in eDoc Deposit when filing a new employee record.
• Deliver password protected payslips to the employee eDoc Deposit account.
• Deliver password protected P60s to the employee eDoc Deposit account.

Find out more on the eDoc Deposit website

For more information:

https://www.edocdeposit.co.uk/