Major Performance Update
DEAR is happy to announce a major system update, which was done to improve the server, core and memory performance, on Sunday the 26th of April 2020.
During this system update, DEAR was assigned a new IP address. We anticipate that some users (those using WooCommerce and Magento integrations) will experience some synchronisation errors until it is possible to update the whitelist with the new IP address (23.96.51.98).
Thank you and apologies for any inconvenience.
New Features
Feature 1: Shopify – Temporarily disable sale order and stock level updates to DEAR during sale spikes
Impact area: Shopify Integration.
Introduction:
During sale events, there can be a large spike of transactions created within a very short time period. This requires a large number of queries to sync all of the orders to DEAR. Shopify limitations on large numbers of queries can lead to delays in data loading and updates to related operations such as stock level updates, shipment updates, etc.
To handle these cases, DEAR has introduced a new automatic backend configuration which checks for sales spikes and temporarily disables sale capturing and stock level updates to DEAR when Shopify API capacity is close to being exceeded. The pending sales will be logged and then uploaded with a single API call at 5 minute intervals.
Pre-conditions: Active Shopify integration.
Functionality:
- An automatic backend process will run every 5 minutes to check how many sales are being loaded to DEAR. When the sales rate indicates a spike, sale uploading to DEAR will be temporarily disabled and there will be no execution of API calls to update operations on DEAR end.
- Sales created during the disabled period will be uploaded to the “Logs” table with the newly implemented status, “To be loaded” to process them later.
- During the disable period, sales will be processed in DEAR at 5 minute intervals using a single API call rather than each sale being processed individually.
- Manual loading of sales is not affected and the setting will automatically be returned to normal when the sales spike is over.
More information: Shopify Integration
Feature 2: Shopify – Enable/disable backordering for individual products
Impact area: Shopify Integration.
Introduction: Currently, DEAR Shopify integration has the option to globally enable/disable backordering of Shopify products with the setting “Allow user to purchase item, even if it is no longer in stock”. DEAR has now implemented the option to enable/disable backordering at the product level.
Pre-conditions:
- Suppliers must be assigned to products to enable backordering of that product.
- Active Shopify integration.
Introduction:
On the Catalog and Bulk Listing tab of the Shopify integration in DEAR, a new column “Allow backorder” has been added. Clicking on the product to open the product management window allows the user to enable/disable backordering for the individual product.
By default, the “Allow backorder” column will inherit the setting from the global setting “Allow user to purchase item, even if it is no longer in stock”. Enabling/disabling the product-level setting will override the global setting.
More information:
Feature 3: Shopify – Capturing and displaying buyer notes on DEAR
Impact area: Shopify Integration.
Introduction:
In Shopify stores where buyer notes are enabled, buyers can add additional notes to the sale order. These notes are captured and added as a “Comment” or as “Shipping Notes” when the sale order is generated in DEAR.
These special buyer notes can be easily missed as they are not very obvious unless users go through the entire Sale order details. DEAR has implemented an improvement to capture these buyer notes as a special note within the sale order.
Pre-conditions:
- Active Shopify integration.
- Buyer Order notes on shopping cart should be enabled on the Shopify store – see Enable order notes on your cart page for more information
- This feature is only applicable to Sale orders made through your Shopify store.
Functionality: When a buyer leaves a buyer note on a Shopify order, DEAR now shows an alert icon next to the sale order number on the DEAR sale screen. Hovering over the alert icon displays the buyer note in a tooltip.
More information:
Feature 4: Shipstation Custom Store – Automatically add ShipStation shipping cost to DEAR Invoice
Impact area: Shipstation Custom Store Integration.
Introduction: Currently, orders are exported from DEAR to Shipstation Custom Store for orders to be fulfilled, and then Shipstation returns the shipping details back to DEAR. This new update means that DEAR also obtains the shipping cost value and automatically creates an invoice entry under the “Additional Charges” section of the invoice tab.
Pre-conditions:
- Active ShipStation Custom Store integration.
- Go to Integration → ShipStation → Custom Store and set Import Shipping Costs to enabled.
Functionality:
- DEAR now obtains the shipping cost value and automatically creates an invoice entry under the “Additional Charges” section of the invoice tab. This is only the case for invoices that have not yet been authorised.
- When DEAR receives the shipping details and tracking number from ShipStation, the system will automatically set the Ship tab to authorised if it has not yet been authorised.
- If a certain sale order is voided, the void status update notification will be automatically sent from DEAR to ShipStation so that ShipStation will not fulfill the order.
More information:
Feature 5: Production Module improvements
Impact area: DEAR Production module.
Introduction: The Production module is aimed at addressing the needs of the production process. New production features will provide our current customers with powerful, logical manufacturing solutions to add to their inventory solution. Following on from our most recent releases, we are continuing to improve the Production module functionality and add features.
Pre-conditions: None.
Functionality:
This release’s new production features are:
- Scheduler: “Urgent”, “Medium” and “Safe” text has been added to the coloured buffer filter labels.
- Production Order: Notes and Attachments fields from the Production BOM now display in Production Run as well as Production Order.
- Work Centres: Work Centres must be saved before the user can click through to “Deliver Components to” and connect a bin location.
Functionality:
Feature 6: B2B Improvement – Change to Menu Item column calculation
Impact area: DEAR B2B.
Introduction: “Menu Item” column on B2B catalog tab previously listed items according to menu item ID. This led to duplicate items in the column if the portal had several menu items with the same name. This change means only distinct menu item names are shown, removing duplicate items from the list.
Pre-conditions: None.
Feature 7: Avalara – export of predefined “Tax Lookup” rule to Xero fixed
Impact area: Avalara Integration, Xero Integration.
Introduction:
Currently, DEAR has a special predefined “Tax Lookup” rule for users in the US and Canada with Avalara enabled. All sales and sales lines have this tax rule and the user cannot change it, tax rules are then calculated by Avalara API upon authorisation of the document.
This was causing errors when this tax rule was being exported to Xero before Avalara applied the calculation. We have issued a fix ensuring Avalara calculations take place first before then being exported to Xero.
Pre-conditions: This only affects users of both Avalara and Xero in the US and Canada.
Feature 8: User Interface Update
Impact area: User Interface.
Introduction: The ongoing UI updates have now been rolled out to Workflows (Automation module), VAT Return (UAE only) and multiple integrations (Square, Etsy, Shipstation, WooCommerce, Magento 2, Magento, Shopify, Vend, DEAR API and Quickbooks).
Pre-conditions: None.
Documentation: HubSpot Integration
The documentation for our new HubSpot Integration has been added to the DEAR Knowledge Base.