Ed. Note: Yes, we know it's only been a week since our last E-News, but every year we get at least one or two customers who complain that we're not giving enough notice about our Annual Holiday Week. So I decided to publish an abbreviated E-News this week to give yet one more reminder. A full-fledged E-News will also be forthcoming next Monday with the exciting conclusion to our discussion on Setup Options in SAFE!  --MO'D

Holiday Notice: Mark Your Calendars!
Yes, it's coming up quick! The week we've been telling you about for all these months will soon be here. Are you OK? Any last minute things? As they say at the altar, 'Speak now or forever hold your peace!'. 

Being a family run business it is extremely difficult to get everyone together all at the same time. For our twentieth anniversary, we're getting everyone together from all four offices for a week-long love-fest in Dublin. And the net effect of this is:  we will be closed from business for all except absolute emergencies from Monday April 24 through Sunday April 30. We will re-open on Monday, May 1st. Again, if there are real emergencies (database crash, earthquake, etc.) there will be someone available to help, but unless it is urgent. please bear with us until we're back.
 

Ciaran's Corner: Quick Tips
<Heavy Sigh!> Pressed into service yet again for an extra issue. Curses. OK, fine. Here are a couple of quickies...

Q: We just set up our first customer for Summary Billing. I just tried to print an invoice for the customer and it won't let me. What gives?
A: You did want them to be Summary Billed, right? And that means that, in general, you're not going to be sending them individual invoices anymore. Right? So SAFE attempts to warn you against printing a single invoice for the customer. Need to send them a duplicate copy? Just ignore the dire warning and print away!

Q: Yesterday I printed my first Summary Bill. Today I tried to print another Summary Bill for the same customer and nothing printed!
A: Printing a Summary Bill has two phases:
a. Generating the Bill. This assigns a group of eligible invoices to the new Bill.
b. Printing the Bill.

To re-print a Summary Bill, you need to either select it in the Sales Order Browse, or by typing in the same Order ID in the Summary Bill Window in the Customer Master. My guess is that today you opened the Summary Bill Window and entered a new Order ID, even though you used the same date range. Since you used a different Order ID, SAFE assumed you wanted a new Summary Bill, and since you had already assigned all the invoices to the original Summary Bill, the new Bill is empty. Get it? Not really? Then just go to the Sales Order Browse, delete the new Bill and re-print the original. Then give it another think: When you generate a Summary Bill, you are linking those Sales Invoices to that particular Bill and not just to a date range.

The advantage to this system is that you can selectively assign which invoices appear on a particular Summary Bill rather than being forced to include every invoice (which may not be what you want in many cases. Your homework: See the OLH under the Sales Order Browse for details on how to exclude particular invoices when generating a Summary Bill.

Q: We have a remote warehouse and we would like to be able to print packing slips to that printer. Is there a way to print those forms out there but only for line items that should be shipped from there?
A: Sure is.... Oh you want to know how? SAFE has the ability to designate an Alternate Version of any form (Invoices, Packing Slips, Release Notices, POs, etc.) Each form can have a particular rule for when it prints and where it prints to. This requires you to purchase a new form (usually a one hour labour charge). Since this is a new form, you can specify a different look for the form which can be very handy---the remote warehouse can use a different logo or have any other changes you'd like for it's particular packing slip.

Til Next Time! (Which is sooner than usual!)

Ciarān Marron
Technical Support Manager
cm@suntowersystems.com

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End of E-News From The Suntower, Volume VIII #7