Archive for April, 2012

Post

2.4 Preview – More Receipt Improvements

In Version Updates on April 24, 2012 by mhoggatt Tagged: , , ,

We’re putting the wraps on Ascend Version 2.4. It will be available for our Early Release dealers on May 14th and for all dealers on June 11th.

More Receipt Improvements

In Version 2.3 we spent time improving customer receipts.  We added the ability to specify your own custom footers and to email a receipt from the Change Due box.  With Version 2.4 we’re including more receipt improvements.

You’ll have options for what appears in the top header section of your large receipts.

You can use the current header that prints the information from your Location record.  Or if you want to use pre-printed stock with your store information at the top, you can choose to leave the header area blank.  Or you can choose to upload an image of your own.  The image must be less than 200kb in size, 1.5 inches in height and 7.5 inches in width.  Here’s an example of a receipt using an image I created.

We’re also making it easier to print these large receipts.  With 2.4 you’ll have an option to print them from the Change Due box.

2.3 critical update

Two weeks ago I told you about recently discovered issues that you need to be aware of.  Click here to read the details.  They are critical enough that we didn’t wait for version 2.4 to fix them.  Last week we released a critical update of Version 2.3 to our Early Release dealers.  It’s available now for everyone.  To update, simply click on the Internet Update icon and follow the instructions from there.

Leave a Comment

Post

2.3 Critical Update and 2.4 Release Schedule

In Version Updates on April 17, 2012 by mhoggatt Tagged: , ,

2.3 critical update

Last week I told you about two recently discovered issues that you need to be aware of.  Click here to read the details.  They are critical enough that we don’t want to wait for version 2.4 to fix them.  We will be releasing an update to Version 2.3 to our Early Release dealers this week.  We’ll make it available to everyone next week.  Watch for the update alert in your Ascend Alerts & Reminder pane.

2.4 release schedule

It’s hard to believe but we are already putting the wraps on Ascend Version 2.4.  It will be available for our Early Release dealers on May 14th and available for all dealers on June 11th.  If you’re interested in joining our Early Release team, let us know.

Watch this blog in the coming weeks for a preview of the new features and enhancements.

Leave a Comment

Post

Version 2.3 Issues and Analytics Update

In General,Inventory,Version Updates on April 10, 2012 by mhoggatt Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

We’ve recently discovered two issues with Version 2.3 that you should be aware of.

Trekfest on sale not importing:

Dealers running Version 2.3 cannot import the Trekfest on sale using the Trek Sale Wizard (Desktop > Integration > Trek > Sale Wizard).  The problem is related to the attribute we added to the On Sale record that allows you to indicate if the sale is in-store only, eCommerce only or both.

In order to import the sale, you’ll need to run a query first.  For multi-location dealers, you just need to run it at one of your locations.  Then you can use the standard on sale download function for your other locations.  The query is available on the Downloads page at www.ascendrms.com.  If you need any further assistance with this, please contact the Ascend Support Team.

Inventory not reconciling

In Version 2.3, we’ve also discovered an issue with the Reconcile Inventory function (Desktop > Tools > Reconcile Inventory).  After reconciling the quantities for the file you imported, in-store products that had a quantity discrepancy are not being marked as reconciled.  An easy workaround to prevent this is to simply click and highlight a line in the grid before clicking the Reconcile button.  If you do, all in-store products in the file will be marked as reconciled.

We apologize for these issues.  Before any release goes out, it goes through extensive internal and external testing.  Unfortunately these issues made it past those screening processes.  In the next two weeks, we will be issuing an update to Version 2.3 to fix these issues.

Analytics Update

In my last blog, I mentioned that it’s been taking longer and longer for the previous day’s numbers to appear on Analytics. Our standard is to have Analytics updated every day by 7:00am Central Time, 8:00am Eastern Time. We have taken immediate steps to return to this standard. For the past week, this standard has been met every day.  We will continue to work on steps to make sure this standard is met in the future.

One step we’re taking is to set the Analyzer to compile data on demand.  We have been compiling Analyzer data for every dealer every night.  This adds a lot of time to the nightly process and has been a big contributor to the previous days’ data appearing late.  Now, when you click on the Analyzer button you will see a progress indicator showing the data being compiled.  Once it’s complete, click the Analyzer button again to view your data.  Once you’ve compiled the data for that day, it will not need to be compiled again.

Leave a Comment

Post

“Where are my Analytics?” and “Where did these work orders come from?”

In General,Version Updates on April 3, 2012 by mhoggatt Tagged: , ,

“Where are my Analytics?” and “Where did these work orders come from?”

We’ve been hearing these questions often. Here are the answers.

Waiting for Ascend Analytics:

Over the last several weeks it’s been taking longer and longer for the previous day’s numbers to appear on Analytics. Most recently it was taking until well into the afternoon. The short explanation is our systems were overwhelmed with the amount of data to process every night. Not only do we have the Analtyics numbers to process, but we’re also handling the growing volume of eCommerce exports to SmartEtailing websites and Trek product registrations.

We apologize for this situation. We know that many of you look at Analytics the first thing every morning to see how your business is performing. Our standard is to have Ascend Analytics updated every day by 7:00am Central Time, 8:00am Eastern Time. We have taken immediate steps to return to this standard. This morning, the update was complete by 6:40am Eastern Time. We will continue to streamline our overnight processing to make sure this continues for now and in the future.

Reappearing Work Orders:

Since upgrading to Ascend Version 2.3, many of you have called to tell us that finished work orders reappeared.  Here’s what happened.  With Version 2.2 a bug was introduced.  Work orders that were paid in full but not marked complete stopped showing up on the Work Orders Due screen.  We fixed the bug in Version 2.3.  So when you upgrade, any work orders that you didn’t mark as complete while running Version 2.2 will reappear.  To get rid of them, all you need to do is to open them and mark them as complete.  If you need assistance with this, contact the Ascend Support Team.

Credit Card Processing Outage:

One final note:  Our support line was flooded Sunday afternoon when many of you couldn’t process credit card charges.  A technical problem affecting the entire Visa network stopped many people around the United States from using their credit and debit cards for about 45 minutes on Sunday from 2:40 p.m. to 3:20 p.m Eastern Time.

Leave a Comment

« Back to Home
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: