New Release – January 2020 – New Feature: Production Module, Improved Xero Consolidation and Payments, Put Away Option for Stock Transfers, Pack/Ship/Tote Numbers optional for WMS, Enhancement for M2, Smart Reordering for Assemblies/Finished Goods, Stripe Authentication (SCA)

New Features

Feature 1: Production Module

Impact area: Production Module of DEAR Inventory

Introduction: The Production module is aimed at addressing the needs of the production process. In its current state, it allows for simple Assembly/Disassembly operations but does not address our customer’s more complex production needs.

New production features will provide our current customers with powerful, logical, manufacturing solutions to add to their inventory solution, and at the same time attract new customers who are looking for an easy and convenient tool to automate their production process.

The production process covers the steps through which components and raw materials are transformed into a final product. The goals of the new Production module features are:

• implementation of demand-driven manufacturing which provides the benefits for inventory management and timely manufacturing orders execution
• organising a smooth production process capable of timely delivery of finished goods
• components planning for the production process
• resources capacity planning for the production process (coming soon)
• scheduling the production process steps for control and timely execution (coming soon). 

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality:

• Factory Calendar – Factory Calendar defines the working days and working hours for the year. The calendar can then be used to ensure accurate capacity planning and scheduling (Capacity Planner and Scheduler coming soon).
• Work Centres – Work Centres define the area where a production operation takes place within the business (for example, a specific workshop, room or section of the shop floor). All components for a production operation should be delivered to the work centre in order for the production operation to begin picking.
  
• Logistics Path – A logistics path in DEAR reflects the physical movements of components and finished goods. This is used to generate Transfer Orders from storage locations to production locations and factor in the lead time for production components.
  
• Production Resources – Finished goods production is made possible with resources, e.g. tools, machines and people. For many businesses, resource capacity is the constraint when planning production runs.
  Knowing the capacity and cost of the resource, it is possible to calculate how much time and expense is required to produce a finished good (Capacity Planner coming soon).
  
• Production Bill of Materials – The Production BOM defines each step of a production operation, its duration, and the components and resources required to complete each step. Unlike the simpler Assembly BOM, it can define multi-step production processes.
  
• Production Orders – The Production Order defines the finished good to be produced, the location where production will take place, the date and time of production, and the quantity of components and resources required. The Production Order also defines the sequence of operations to be performed and the costs of finished goods. It is a vital part of the production process.

For more information, see Getting Started with the Production Module.

Feature 2: Improved Xero Consolidation and Payments

Impact area: Xero Integration

Introduction: Payments are consolidated based on the invoice ID in Xero, type of transaction (payment or refund), and account code. COGS and COGS Credits transactions are consolidated by Effective Date, Debit and Credit Accounts. If any changes are applied in DEAR to COGS or COGS Credit transactions, in Xero all transactions for COGS or COGS Credit are updated for the effective date.

Pre-conditions: Xero payments option on the Xero Integration page is set to Sync both ways or Pushed to Xero.

Functionality: All sales and credit notes in DEAR are displayed together with the corresponding consolidated invoice in Xero under the Consolidated Sales section of the Xero Integration page. For more information, see Xero Integration – Basic.

Feature 3: Put Away Option for Stock Transfers

Impact area: Stock Transfers in DEAR Inventory

Introduction: When applied to a stock transfer with or without a transfer order, the Put Away option allows you to specify the exact bin(s) in the destination warehouse where you want the stock to be ‘put away’ for future use.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: When performing a stock transfer via Inventory > New > Transfer, check the Put Away option box. Once the goods reach the destination warehouse, click the Put Away tab and select the products to be put away. For more information, see Managing Stock Transfers.

Feature 4: Pack and Ship, as well as Tote Numbers, are now optional in DEAR Warehouse Management System (WMS)

Impact area: DEAR WMS Integration, DEAR WMS mobile apps

Introduction: Currently, when completing a Pack function in DEAR WMS, the Ship tab is also authorised. These steps are now optional to accommodate customers with more than one freight carrier and who do not know which carrier to use until orders are packed and the total number/dimensions of cartons known. In addition, since some customers do not use totes, tote numbers are now optional.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: On the DEAR WMS Integration page, the Sale Order Packing and Sale Order Shipping options are disabled by default, meaning packing and shipping are always performed manually. To automate one or the other or both, set them to Automatic.

The Use tote # option, on the other hand, is enabled by default. If this option is disabled, the tote # will not be required when using the DEAR WMS mobile apps.

For more information, see Using DEAR Warehouse Management System.

Feature 5: Support for Multiple Stores and Added Capability to Update the Manage Stock setting in Magento 2

Impact area: Magento 2.0 Integration

Introduction: Magento 2 Integration is now capable of loading sales from multiple stores. In addition, the Advanced Inventory > Manage Stock setting for the products in your Magento 2 account can now be updated via an optional setting on the Magento 2 Integration page.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: Go to Integration > Magento 2 and set the Multiple Store option to either all stores or a specific store. Sales will be loaded into DEAR based on this option, which is set to Do not load sales by default. In addition, enable the Update Manage Stock in Magento option to have DEAR update the Advanced Inventory > Manage Stock setting for the products in your Magento account. For more information, see Magento 2.0 Integration.

Feature 6: Smart Reordering is Now Available for Assemblies/Finished Goods

Impact area: Smart Reordering

Introduction: The Smart Reordering feature in DEAR allows forecasting of future product sales and generating email alerts to reorder products from merchants. You can track inventory levels for each of your locations and configure the Inventory Velocity Report to run at scheduled intervals so that you can be kept informed when there is a need to reorder a product. This feature has now been made available for assemblies/finished goods.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: For more information on DEAR’s Smart Reordering feature, see Smart Reordering.

Feature 7: Stripe Integration Support for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)

Impact area: Stripe Integration

Introduction: The integration between DEAR and Stripe now meets the Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements set forth in the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) introduced in Europe in September 2019.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: For more information, see Stripe Integration.