Recent Software Developments
Listed below are a number of the key enhancements that have been added to axis diplomat and axis payroll.
Kernel (Core) Software
Company-Specific Email Configuration
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The SMTP Mail Parameters, used by axis diplomat to send emails directly from the system, are now dataset-specific; previously, all companies running on the same server shared the same parameters and credentials.
This now supports, for example, two companies using completely separate email servers (or different accounts with the same provider).
New axis diplomat Scheduler
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Scheduler is the main axis diplomat program from which users load the specific functions that they wish to run.
The axis diplomat 2020 scheduler is a completely new program, re-written from the ground up, to provide a new, contemporary, user interface, with a number of key improvements over the previous scheduler including:
- A number of built-in searches including customers, suppliers and stock.
- Complete flexibility over how panes are arranged.
- The ability to drag-and-drop panes out of the scheduler (ideal for multiple monitor setups).
- Built-in feeds for news and software updates.
A video demonstrating the new scheduler is available at:
www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/video/
Data Retention Policy for PDF files
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
axis diplomat is now able to automatically remove archived PDF copies of documents that have been generated through Document Designer once they are older than a specified retention period. Previously, these documents were retained indefinitely.
A new Supervisor Function, Maintain Data Retention Settings, allows you to specify the minimum number of days to retain these archived documents. You may specify a different retention period for each document type.
Documents that fall outside of the specified retention period will be removed as part of background scheduled clean up operations or they may be removed immediately by clicking the "Delete Documents" button within the function.
This new function allows you to reduce your axis diplomat's storage requirements and create smaller backups whilst still ensuring that documents are available to users for the time in which they are likely to be useful.
Please note that, unless you specify otherwise using the Maintain Data Retention Settings function, all archived PDF documents will be retained indefinitely.
SQL Export Performance
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The time taken to make the system fully available, following a software update or data restoration, is significantly reduced.
This has been achieved by improving the performance of SQL bulk export which now employs multi-threading techniques to export multiple tables simultaneously. In real-world tests, this has been seen to reduce the time taken by up to 50% when selecting Export All within the ODBC Interface.
Nominal Ledger & General Accounts
Goods on Account with Integrated Stock Ledger
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Goods on Account module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
With the release of axis diplomat 2020, enhancements have been made to Goods on Account when used in conjunction with the Integrated Stock Ledger module.
An asset account in the Nominal Ledger can now be used to hold the cost value of goods released to Goods on Account but not yet invoiced.
As goods are released to Goods on Account, the stock cost is journalled from the stock ledger's control account into this account. When a Goods on Account booking is released to invoice, the stock item costs are transferred from this account to the relevant Cost of Sales account. This ensures that the cost of goods is recorded in the Profit and Loss trading accounts in the same period as the sale.
The function Amend Goods on Account Booking has also been extended to allow reduction in booking quantities together with amendment of price and discount for stocked items on systems running with Integrated Stock Ledger.
Nominal Account Reconciliation
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new Nominal Account Reconciliation function has been added.
This function allows balance sheet nominal accounts to be reconciled to a given point in time in a similar manner to the Bank Account Reconciliation function, allowing individual items to be manually selected and flagged as reconciled and the reconciliation to be suspended to allow entry of any required correction journals. Nominal Account Reconciliation can be run for any balance sheet account which has been flagged as 'Supports reconciliation' in Nominal Account Maintenance.
The function also supports Importing Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and Comma Separated Values (.csv) format reconciliation files.
Sales Ledger, CRM & Sales Order Processing
Exclude Sales Order and Quotation Lines from Repricing
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
When adding or amending sales orders and quotations, it is now possible to mark individual lines to be excluded from future repricing.
The ability to mark specific stock items as excluded globally from repricing was introduced in axis diplomat 2018 (and pre-released to axis diplomat 2016 customers with Software Assurance). This latest modification extends this capability to allow items to be excluded only on specific documents.
Monthly Schedule in Sales Order and Quotation Monitors
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
14 new columns have been made available in a number of monitor tabs including:
- Sales Orders
- Sales Order Items
- Quotations
- Quotation Items
These columns show the value due in each of the next twelve months, with additional columns for overdue and beyond twelve months.
These columns allow the monitors to be used to provide a quick and easy forecast of expected revenue over coming months. This is also helped by each column being totalled at the bottom of the monitor tabs.
On systems with the Foreign Currency module, two sets of columns are available; one set of figures are provided in the documents own currency and one set in the base currency.
Quantity Break Pricing on Customer Price Lists
Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Date Specific Prices and Discounts module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
On systems using Date Specific Pricing and Discounting, it is now also possible to define quantity break pricing for specific customers, for particular products.
In this example, this one customer has an agreed price of £9.50 if they purchase up to 100 of this particular stock item, £9.25 each when purchasing between 100 and 199, £9.00 for between 200 and 299 and so forth.
As with the general Quantity Break Pricing module, up to five separate breaks can be defined for a given product, for a given customer - different customers and different products may all have differing break points.
Sales Ledger Buying Groups
Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
This module (standard with the axis diplomat 2020 Office Products module and available as an optional addition for other axis diplomat systems) provides a mechanism to link a number of customers together to share pricing without the combined accounting information that is a feature of using head office and branch accounts.
A member of a buying group may have their own agreed pricing for certain products but, by default, they will inherit all of the pricing associated with the buying group.
Date and Time Specific Customer Price Lists
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Date Specific Prices and Discounts module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Customer Price List entries can now be date and time specific.
This allows you to pre-load future pricing agreements and, optionally, specify an end date,
This ensures that special fixed period agreements with particular customers do not get overlooked, meaning that customers continue receiving special agreed pricing for longer than they should and that future price changes come into effect automatically on the specified date.
An added benefit is that, since the maintenance function shows all previous data and time specific pricing rules for this product, for this customer, it is easy to see, at a glance, what pricing agreements you may have had with this customer in the past.
Additional Columns added to Customer Transaction History Monitor tabs
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Customer Transaction History monitor tabs now have additional columns to show the Settled Date and Settled (Days).
Settled Date is the date that the transaction was fully allocated (for example, by making the final payment or allocating a credit note) and Settled (Days) is the number of days between the document date and the settled date.
Customer Price List Monitors
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new monitor tab type has been added, Customer Stock Price Details, which lists Customer Price List entries.
In addition to allowing all of the same filters normally available for customers and stock items (such as customer group, order source code or product group), the monitor can also be filtered by price type (for example, to just show fixed prices or those configured as margin on current cost).
It can also be filtered by the date last amended. This makes it a particularly useful tool for ensuring that any special agreed prices are kept up to date, helping to maintain margins.
New Companies House Lookup
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The facility to lookup a company's information based on its registration number has been changed to use the latest government portal, https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company
This can be accessed by clicking the button next to the registration number on the Account Details tabs in Customer Enquiry and Supplier Enquiry:
Quotation Validity Period
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
This enhancement formalises the validity period on quotations, defining a specific date at which a quotation expires, replacing the simple free text field previously available.
It provides a number of benefits, including:
- Preventing an out-of-date document from being printed or converted to an order.
- Showing the validity period on a document which has been calculated automatically rather than relying on the user to free-type appropriate text.
- Uniformly enforcing your organisation’s sales policy.
A system parameter defines a default number of days validity for your quotations whilst individual product groups may be defined as having a different validity period. This is particularly useful where, for example, some of your products have more volatile pricing and you cannot guarantee to hold a quoted price for as long as you would normally.
When entering a new document, the user, subject to the appropriate security controls, may elect to specify a shorter validity period but the document's validity period will always be the shortest of the user selected period, the overall system default and the validity period associated with each item's product group.
Repricing a quotation will reset the quotation date and its validity period. Editing a quotation beyond its validity period is allowed but the revised document may not be filed until it has been repriced. Quotations that are beyond their validity period may not be printed or converted to sales orders.
Quotations now also automatically maintain revision numbers. Each time a quotation is printed, the revision number is automatically incremented.
Quotation and Quotation Item monitor tabs, along with the Quotations tab in Customer Enquiry, have been extended to show additional columns for
- Valid until date
- Validity remaining (days)
- Revision Number
- Revision Date
Document Designers has also been extended to allow these fields to be added to document templates. By including the revision number and/or date, you can ensure that customers are referring to the correct version of the quote.
Sales Order Amendment History
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
With this new facility, an axis diplomat report file (.axr) is automatically created and attached to each sales order, when it is created and every time it is amended.
This allows the full history of changes to the document to be viewed at every amendment, including items and quantities, billing addresses and order notes.
The creation of these tracking reports is controlled by an SOP Parameter:
Trading Identity by Product Group
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Multi-brand Trading Identities module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Multi-Brand Trading Identities module has been extended to allow selection of the correct Trading Identity based on the product group of the items on the sales order when importing eBusiness orders.
The Import eBusiness Orders function will use the product group for the first item on the order to determine the correct trading identity and set the order source code appropriately.
Faster Invoice Document Generation
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Production of invoice PDF files for printing or emailing is now handled by a background process. By eliminating the need to reload the function and process document templates each time an Invoice is generated, the overhead of document production is much reduced.
Reschedule Sales Order Line
Available to Software Assurance customers with axis diplomat 2018
Release Date: 08/09/2020
It is now possible to change the due date on an individual sales order line via a right-click option within any of the following functions:
- Sales Order Line monitor tabs
- Customer Enquiry's Outstanding Order Items tab
- Stock Enquiry's Transactions tab
Purchase Ledger & Purchase Order Processing
Price Feed Calculation Rules by Product Group
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Supplier price feeds normally only recalculate selling and current costs when the number of current supplier price list entries reaches a fixed threshold.
It is now possible to define, for specific product groups, a lower threshold. This is ideal for more specialised items where perhaps there may be only one supplier. This provides the flexibility to ensure such items are repriced without compromising the averaging used for other products.
Additional Columns added to Supplier Transaction History Monitor tabs
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Supplier Transaction History monitor tabs now have additional columns to show the Settled Date and Settled (Days).
Settled Date is the date that the transaction was fully allocated (for example, by making the final payment or allocating a credit note) and Settled (Days) is the number of days between the document date and the settled date.
Supplier Price List Monitors
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new monitor tab type has been added, Supplier Stock Price Details, which lists Supplier Price List entries.
In addition to allowing all of the same filters normally available for suppliers and stock items (such as supplier group, product group or default department), the monitor can also be filtered by price category (for example, to show just your Category A suppliers for each product).
It can also be filtered by the date last amended. This makes it a particularly useful tool for ensuring that information on your agreed pricing is kept up to date, helping contribute towards better purchasing decisions.
Date and Time Specific Price Feeds
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Supplier Price Feed Foundation module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
For those using Date and Time Specific Pricing on their stock items, automated Supplier Price Feeds will now update the date and time specific current cost details for the items in a feed.
Send Shortcuts to Supplier Invoices and Credit Notes
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Adding to the existing capabilities for emailing other axis diplomat users with links to a customer, supplier, purchase order, etc., you now have the ability to email shortcuts to supplier invoices and credit notes.
Clicking the Send Shortcut button within Purchase Invoice Enquiry or Purchase Credit Note Enquiry will create an email including a shortcut.
Anyone receiving that email, provided that they are a valid user of your axis diplomat system with appropriate permissions, can double-click on the attachment and be taken directly to the specific document.
Stock Ledger, Bill of Materials & MRP
Additional Serial Numbers
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Stock Transaction Traceability module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
For serial number tracked stock items, you are now able to record up to three serial numbers. In addition, the third serial number may be up to 50 characters instead of the standard 30 characters.
This is ideal for situations where the manufacturer issues multiple references for one item (such as a serial number and a licence number) or where a single bought in item includes different parts that each have their own visible serial numbers which may be quoted by a customer in the future (for example smartphones which have a serial number and one or more IMEI numbers).
Landed and Supplemental Stock Cost
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
This new module provides greater control and analysis of the supplemental stock costs associated with purchasing stock. It will be particularly valuable to importers, who need to ensure that transport, duty and insurance costs are correctly analysed.
It is available as an additional option for axis diplomat 2020 but with no additional licence or support costs,
For further information, please refer to the Landed and Supplemental Stock Cost module overview at www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/modules/
Outstanding Order Items tab in Stock Enquiry
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new tab has been added to Stock Enquiry, showing outstanding sales order and/or quotation lines for the item.
Works Order Enquiry
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Compact MRP module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
axis diplomat 2020 features a completely redesigned Works Order Enquiry.
Included amongst the many improvements in this new function are
- the Works Order Details tab has been removed and the information that was shown is now featured in a header that is shown across all tabs
- the Components tab is now the default tab
- the Components list now shows more information, such as allocation status and issued cost
Most significantly, the new function also incorporates an Edit button to allow amendment of works orders.
Amending a Works Order makes it easy to add or substitute components by closing existing lines and inserting new ones.
Date and Time Specific Discount Matrix
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Enhanced Price / Discount Matrix module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
For users of Date and Time Specific Stock Pricing, the Discount Matrix has been extended to also allow date and time specific discounts to be provided, to override the base discounts from the matrix.
This example shows that customers in the Online Retailer discount group will receive 25% discount on products in the Machinery discount group between 1st November and 31st December.
Gross and Net Unit Weight on Stock
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
All axis diplomat 2020 systems now feature two unit weight fields on stock records. Net unit weight is used to record the weight of the actual product or material without any packaging whilst Gross unit weight includes its immediate packaging. For example, if selling jars of jam, the net unit weight would hold the weight of jam only whilst the gross unit weight would include the weight of the jar.
Users of the Intrastat module should note that the field used for Intrastat purposes is the gross unit weight since you are expected to report weights inclusive of immediate packaging.
Stock Transaction Reason Codes
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
You are now able to define a number of reason codes to be used when making ad hoc stock adjustments (i.e. those that are not associated with the day-to-day buying, selling or consumption of stock items).
This allows you to gain a greater insight into the reasons for stock adjustments, for example, whether a significant amount of stock is being written off due to damage or age.
A new Stock Ledger Supervisor function, 'Maintain Stock Transaction Reason Codes', allows you to define your own reason codes for making stock adjustments:
When making a stock adjustment, the operator simply chooses the reason from the list:
It is also possible to define a default reason for each type of adjustment:
The Transactions tab within Stock Enquiry and Stock Transaction monitor tabs provide visibility of the reasons specified for each adjustment.
Sub-Contract Manufacturing
Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Compact MRP module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new module, available as an add-on to Compact MRP, is available, designed to assist those businesses who issue stock to sub-contractors for the manufacturing process before receiving the assembled items back into stock.
It also manages the creation of purchase orders to the sub-contractors to cover their processing.
For further information, please refer to the Sub-Contract Manufacturing module overview at www.axisfirst.co.uk/software/axisdiplomat/modules/
Warehouse Management
Amend Delivery Address in Pack and Despatch
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Pack and Despatch function now allows Delivery Address information to be amended prior to consignment.
If using Best Delivery Method selection, this can also advise if a better delivery method then exists for the revised delivery address.
Faster Picking Note Document Generation
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Warehouse Paper-based Sales Order Picking module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
As with sales invoices, production of Picking Notes is now handled by a background process. By eliminating the need to reload the function and process the document templates each time a picking note is generated, much of the overhead of document production is eliminated.
UPS and Dangerous Goods
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Dangerous Goods module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The UPS interface now works in conjunction with the Dangerous Goods module in order to pass the additional information required to UPS based on the fields provided on the stock record.
Bin Pop Up in Handheld Goods Received
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Multi Location Multi Bin Stock module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
When receiving stock into a multi-bin stock location, the Handheld Goods Received function has been modified so that, when selecting by stock item, a pop-up dialog will appear to show a list of bins where that item is currently stored and to select the bin to be used to hold the newly received stock from the list if desired.
The list will include any bin that currently has that item in it or, if there no bins currently holding the item, any bin that has held that item in the preceding 60 days.
Integration with Weighing Scales
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Warehouse Management
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Warehouse Management module's Pack and Despatch process can now incorporate an automated real-time check of the actual weight of packages being despatched against the expected weight (calculated from the sum of the items contained within the package plus the weight of the shipping container/package).
This can help reduce the occurrence of under (or over) picks and, in particular, scenarios where:
- The correct item has been picked but with the incorrect quantity
- A case of the item has been picked instead of a single
- A single item has been picked instead of a case
This is achieved by interfacing with network-enabled weighing scales and currently supports the Ohaus Navigator range of weighing scales.
The weight checking mechanism is unobtrusive to the user and does not affect the Pack and Despatch process unless a weight out-of-tolerance error is detected.
The benefits of integrated weight checking include reducing the cost of re-processing and additional shipping costs in correcting an under-picked delivery (plus loss of customer good-will) and avoiding the costs of over picking (not only the financial loss of having shipped items that are not being paid for but also operational costs due to stock errors and higher than expected shipping costs).
eBusiness
Exclude Trusted Items from Repricing
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with eBusiness
Release Date: 01/10/2020
When orders are imported from an eBusiness site (whether axis vMerchant or other sites, such as those using Generic XML), any item marked as having trusted pricing is now automatically flagged as to be excluded from future repricing.
Trusted pricing is normally used only for situations where the site has calculated pricing that may vary from order to order and so may differ from the price held in axis diplomat, such as delivery charges and discounts.
Axis2Axis EDI using local folders
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above and the Axis2Axis XML Ordering module
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Axis2Axis EDI module allows two axis diplomat systems to exchange orders - sales orders raised in one system become purchase orders in the other.
This module has traditionally used an FTP server to exchange order files. This has now been extended to allow a local folder to be used instead.
This is ideal in situations where both systems reside on the same server, such as when multiple trading companies purchase their stock from a stock holding company, often using back-to-back orders.
Service Contract Management
Contract Request Validity Period
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The Service Contract Management module has been extended to provide the same range of developments relating to validity and revision numbering as released for quotations.
Please refer to the Sales Ledger, CRM & Sales Order Processing section for more information.
Contract Items tab in Stock Enquiry
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new tab has been added to Stock Enquiry, for items that are enabled for use on Service Contracts, listing the contracts on which the item appears.
Selections at the base of the tab allow the list to be filtered to show just service contracts, just contract requests or both and whether to include closed lines.
Start and End Time by Contract Line
Available to all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management
Release Date: 01/10/2020
Individual contract lines can now start and end part way through a billing period. Service Contract invoice generation will automatically determine the billing amount for items that start or end midway through the billing period on a pro rata basis.
Date and Time Specific Contract Pricing
Available to purchase for all customers with axis diplomat 2020 or above with Service Contract Management
Release Date: 01/10/2020
A new additional module for Service Contract Management users allows future contract pricing and costing to be defined.
You may either define a fixed contract price for an item or specify a percentage of the selling price of the item. You may also define different pricing for different contract types. This allows you to have different tiers of contract pricing for the same item.
For example, an extended warranty for an item might be 1% of its retail price per month for a "return to base" contract or 2% for an "on site" contract.
You may also specify an end date for the pricing or, by not supplying an end date, allow that pricing model to continue until it is superseded by a newer price rule.
Pricing that is marked as Enforced will automatically update all relevant service contracts during the next invoice creation. Pricing that is not enforced can manually be updated on a service contract by using the 'reprice' option when amending the contract.
Please note: you do not need to be using Date and Time Specific Stock Pricing in order to be able to take advantage of Date and Time Specific Contract Pricing.
axis payroll
PDF Payslip Attachments
Available to all customers with axis payroll 2020 or above
Release Date: 01/10/2020
The axis payroll can now create PDF copies of employee's payslips against their employee record. For security, each PDF is password-protected.
