New Feature
Feature 1: Return Merchant Authorisations (RMA) and return orders
Impact area: Sales module
Introduction: Returns involve an interlinked network of actions and decisions, including issuing credit notes, refunds, and initiating actions like inspection, repair, replacement, scrap, and restocking. The new RMA and return order features in DEAR now allow you to configure your organisation’s return policies, which are then used to streamline returns decision-making and automate much of the returns workflow.
Actions taken on RMA and Return orders are translated to combinations of DEAR processes (Sales order/credit note, Inventory write-off, transfer orders, and jobs) to correctly reflect the return in your organisation’s inventory and accounting records.
Pre-condition: None.
Functionality: See more information for detailed instructions.
More information:
Feature 2: Production module improvements – Production Orders and Production BOM
Impact area: Production module
Introduction: DEAR’s 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-condition: None.
Functionality:
- Production financial information permission has been added, so costing information can be hidden from factory floor staff.
- Tags can now be added to Production Orders.
- Ability to add, edit, or remove Notes and Attachments for production run operations. As well as static attachments to a production order, this function allows our users to make notes during the production process, e.g. temperature, quality control notes, etc.
- Reserve some or all of the stock components of a production run as soon as the production order has been released and split into production runs. Reservation or ‘hard allocation’ guarantees that these exact components will be consumed by only the exact Production Run for which they are reserved, and no other task can consume these components.
- Output tab is available as soon as production run is created, to allow input of serial/batch numbers.
- Pick validation for production orders. The user will be alerted in the following scenarios:
- Validation of Serial Number – product with a unique serial number cannot be picked more than once.
- User is alerted if the picked quantity does not match the required/expected quantity in the run operation and must confirm to continue.
- User is alerted if a new product is added to a production run operation and must confirm to continue.
- Cost Per Unit added for finished products in the output section of the production order. This reflects actual costs.
- Production Order list can be searched by Tags.
- New optional columns added to Production Orders List. Optional columns can be shown/hidden by clicking the Settings gear icon.
- Sales Order: Shows a link to the related sale order for production order if applicable.
- Comments: Click to expand and show Comments field from production order.
- Production BOM is now included in the Product Specification document. All versions of a production BOM will be printed in this document.
- The Production Order Traveler document has been extended with more information fields to be more useful by factory floor production staff.
- Products Product Name and Product Code
- Quantity to Produce – Production Order Quantity
- Production Cycle data
- Cycle Time
- Units/Cycle
- Number of Cycles in the operation
- Component Quantity per Cycle
- TOTAL Quantity of each Production step
More information:
Feature 3: Production module improvements – Co-manufacturing
Impact area: Production module
Introduction: Co-manufacturing operation is the outsourcing of part of the manufacturing process or full production process of a product to a third-party. Following on from our recent releases, we are continuing to improve the Production module functionality and add features.
The procurement for co-manufacturing can be carried out in two ways:
- Buy/Sell of products
- Transfer products to co-manufacturer
Previously, procurement mode was applied to all co-manufacturing work centres. With this release, procurement mode can set for each co-manufacturing work centre.
Pre-condition: None
Functionality:
The procurement mode of a co-manufacturer can be changed from the default procurement mode from the Work Centres page, Production → Production Settings → Work Centres.
If the co-manufacturer box is checked for a work centre, the procurement Mode can be changed. If the co-man box is not checked, this field will display N/A. Once a work centre is in use by one or more production BOMs the co-manufacturing procurement mode can no longer be changed.
More information:
Feature 4: New production module reports
Impact area: Production module, Inventory module
Introduction: DEAR’s 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-condition: None
Functionality:
- The following reports have been developed to give users further insight into their production process:
- Actual vs Planned Cycle Time: This report allows users to compare planned cycle time with actual cycle time for all completed production operations, production runs and production orders. Use this report to identify where production time is overrunning, and by how much.
- Finished Products Wastage Rate: This report compares expected production quantities with actual production quantities, showing wastage amount and percentage. This report measures wastage of finished products defined in a Production BOM. Intermediate products (inputs/outputs) do not appear in this report.
- Products used in Production BOM: This report shows a list of all products within a production BOM. Use this report to see a product’s BOM components and resources, and view quantity required for production for each BOM version.
- Production Cost Breakdown: This report shows detailed production costs breakdown including resource costs, material costs and manufacturing overheads. Components are not listed. Compare actual costs to planned costs and analyse cost overrun for different locations and work centres.
- Production Shortage: This report shows the quantity of components required for released and in progress production orders. Available and on order quantities of components are shown and compared to the required quantities, and displays possible shortages. The report determines possible shortages assuming that orders in progress will be picked first, and remaining orders picked in order of Required By date.
Please follow the links above to learn more about each report.
Feature 5: CRM module improvements
Impact area: CRM module
Introduction: While DEAR already had the ability to manage customers and sales, we have now expanded this to offer the most commonly requested features for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), such as lead management, opportunity management, and task management. Following on from our recent releases, we are continuing to improve the CRM module functionality and add features.
Pre-condition: None
Functionality:
- When using the Kanban view (CRM → Opportunities and set display to Kanban), opportunities can now be dragged between columns, changing their status automatically.
- Opportunity list displayed is limited to the most recent 1000 records to improve performance. The user can further filter records by selecting a custom date range.
- Opportunity list can now be filtered by In Progress status.
- Opportunities can now be printed, saved as PDF, and emailed.
- Opportunity document template now available for customisation.
- Tasks and Task list can now be printed, saved as PDF, and emailed.
- Task and Task list document templates now available for customisation.
- New notifications added for opportunities:
- Opportunity has been authorised
- Opportunity has been voided
- Opportunity has been converted to a sale
- Attachment has been added to an opportunity
- New notifications added for leads:
- Lead has been created/updated.
- Lead close by date is overdue
- Lead has been converted to a customer
- New notifications added for tasks:
- Task has been updated
- Task due date is overdue
More information:
Feature 6: Sales module improvements
Impact area: Sales module
Introduction: With this release DEAR has improved the functionality of some aspects of the sales module.
Pre-condition: None
Functionality:
- The Credit Note and Restock tabs of a sale have been merged. Authorisation of a credit note now also authorises restock for both simple and advanced sales.
- A Related orders section has been added to simple and advanced sales. It shows the following tasks with a convenient link:
- Dropship purchase orders
- Backordered tasks: Purchase Orders, Production Orders
- Assembly tasks (auto-assembly triggered by sale authorisation).
More information:
Feature 7: Product Family BOM improvements
Impact area: Inventory module, production module
Introduction: Product family production BOMs creates a general production BOM for the family (e.g. shirt) but allows other product family variations to be used as components (e.g. fabric). Production BOMs for each variation are auto-generated from the general BOM and the mapping values, saving our users lots of time when preparing production BOMs for many variations at once. Following on from our recent releases, we are continuing to improve the product family BOM functionality and add features.
Pre-condition: None
Functionality:
- Variations Mapping for product family BOM can now be imported and exported via CSV file.
- Average Cost for product family BOM is now displayed with Total Min Cost and Total Max Cost, to reflect differences in cost of variation components.
More information:
Feature 8: Clone Manual Journals
Impact area: Financial module
Introduction: Previously, it was not possible to clone manual journals – the user would have to enter all manual journal details for every new journal. With this release, manual journal entries can be cloned for easier input of repeated or regular journal entries.
Pre-condition:
- Only standalone manual journals can be cloned, not manual journals added to another task (sale, purchases, production, etc.)
Functionality:
- Go to Financials → Journals and select the manual journal to clone. Click Clone to create a draft journal with the same details. Fields can be edited before saving or authorising the journal.
More information:
Feature 9: POS redesign
Impact area: DEAR POS
Introduction: The DEAR POS application has been redesigned with a new look and feel to improve usability.
Pre-condition:
- Active POS integration.
Feature 10: BigCommerce integration
Impact area: New integration
Introduction: BigCommerce is a top-3 platform for e-commerce and provides a full package of services for e-store creation: sting, front-end design, SEO, payments and marketing tools needed to build an online store. Integration of DEAR Inventory module with BigCommerce allows our clients to get yet another powerful sales and promotional e-shop channel for growing their business.
Pre-condition:
- Master User BigCommerce account with the following configured:
- Products – add products manually or import from files
- Shipping settings
- Financial Settings (currencies, online & offline payment methods, taxation rules)
- Partner Profile (allows to configure company information, customer service policies, shipping options, return policy, privacy policy and tax information);
- Client ID and a Client Secret Key to access the APIs.
More information:
Feature 11: eBay – Cancelled orders in eBay can be refunded
Impact area: eBay integration
Introduction: Previously, cancelled orders in eBay would cause voided sales in DEAR. With this release, if a cancelled sale has refund data in eBay, DEAR will automatically create a credit note and apply the refund for the sale in DEAR. No user action is required.
Pre-condition:
- Active eBay integration
More information:
Feature 12: Production module added to Lot Recall report
Impact area: Reports module, Production module
Introduction: The Lot Recall report shows who has supplied or bought your product lots and batches. It also shows stock on hand of all batches. With this release, batches produced using the production module will also appear on the lot recall report.
Pre-condition: None
Functionality:
- Use this feature to track your lot/batch/serial number usage from Purchase/manufacturing through to Sell. Prepare recall letters for customers in case of a Recall event.
More information:
Feature 13: Account usage notifications for shared database users
Impact area: DEAR account and subscription.
Introduction: DEAR users have the option of hosting merchant data on a personal database or a shared database with other users. DEAR has set usage limits for each user based on CPU/memory/IO resources. DEAR has set a 100K limit on products and, with this release, a 400K limit for sales volume. With this release, users can see their percentage resource utilisation from the DEAR My Subscription page, and will receive email notifications when they are approaching their resource limit.
Pre-condition:
- Only users with shared database subscription are affected.
Functionality:
- Navigate to Account → My Subscription to view system capacity for products and sales volume as a percentage.
- When an account reaches 80% of their usage limit for products or sales volume, the master user of the account will receive an email notification.
More information:
Feature 14: Enhanced Amazon Settlements Report processing
Impact area: Amazon integration
Introduction: Amazon generates Settlement Reports for its sellers, providing breakdowns of Item Price, Amazon commission fees, shipping fees, and total amount earned by the seller – detailed information of a seller’s account activity for the settlement period. Approximately every two weeks, Amazon will deposit the sales money, minus charges for Amazon fees, in the seller’s Amazon account directly into the seller’s bank account.
Amazon and FBA sellers face challenges and too much manual effort when trying to reconcile their bank statements against their revenue and financial transactions, as the Amazon settlement report is a huge data file. Additionally, Amazon frequently changes the type of charges/fees on seller accounts which are easy for the seller to miss.
Currently, DEAR imports data from the Amazon settlement report and creates manual journals for transaction types mapped against DEAR accounts. With this release, DEAR has improved its processing of the Amazon settlement report:
- DEAR now also creates a money received task for the settlement deposit (previously DEAR did not capture this).
- DEAR captures all transaction types from the settlement report and notifies the user of any transaction types that have not yet been mapped to accounts in DEAR.
Pre-condition:
- Active Amazon integration.
- Process Amazon Settlements Report setting on Amazon integration must be enabled.
- Money Settlement Bank Account has been defined.
- Ensure Amazon Tax rules are mapped with DEAR tax rules.
- Ensure Amazon Payment methods are mapped with DEAR payment accounts.
- Ensure default customer is selected in Amazon setup.
- Accounts in DEAR are mapped to Amazon transaction fees.
Functionality:
- See detailed instructions below.
More information:
Feature 15: Amazon refunds and returns now supported
Impact area: Amazon integration
Introduction: DEAR supports two types of Amazon integrations, Amazon eCommerce integration and Fulfilment by Amazon. Previously, DEAR Amazon integration did not support Amazon returns and refunds, but with this release these functions are now supported.
Pre-condition:
- Active Amazon integration.
- Sale order must be fulfilled either by the merchant or by Amazon.
Functionality:
DEAR will process the captured refunds automatically every hour. When a refund or a return is captured from Amazon, DEAR will create and authorise a credit note and refund for the relevant sale order in DEAR. Amazon has different fees applied on refunds depending on product and location, which will be captured by DEAR as an additional charge. There will be no restocking done for Amazon returns during processing the returns and refunds to DEAR.
More information:
Feature 16: Confirmation added for UAE accounts before integrating with Xero or QBO
Impact area: Financial module
Introduction: When integrating with QBO or Xero, DEAR disables many features of its financial module – finances are then handled by the accounting integration. However, DEAR provides several UAE-specific financial features mostly related to taxation that are also disabled by this integration. With this release, users must explicitly confirm that these features will be unavailable and that this change is acceptable before integrating with Xero or QBO.
Pre-condition:
- UAE users only.
Functionality:
When a UAE organisation attempts to integrate with Xero or QBO, during onboarding or otherwise, they must explicitly confirm that they understand the DEAR UAE-specific financial features will be disabled before proceeding with the integration.
Small fixes and performance enhancements
- Fixed API: LastModified date updating for sales with the COGS data changes.
- Inclusion of advanced sales in Sales Order Details report if fulfilled, regardless of invoice status.
- Fixed UTF-8 conflict in ReadAsStringAsync() function for WooCommerce.
- Enabled bulk email function for advanced sales as well as simple sale.
- Turned off automation module features for accounts where automation subscription has expired.
- Sales filter “Archived” and “Rejected” renamed to “Archived Quotes” and “Rejected Quotes”.
- Improved loading speed of Bank Account Reconciliation report.
- Fields [RecipientName] and [RecipientEmail] can be added to B2B email templates