We are excited to announce the latest update to DEAR Inventory user interface, which will be released on Monday, February 3rd. The user interface enhancements implemented are largely cosmetic in nature and bring consistency to layouts and colour schemes. The enhancement will be released in parts to ensure minimal disruption to your daily operations, Sale module is the first to be released. The most substantial changes you will encounter will be in Advanced Sale where the Fulfillment, Invoice and Credit note navigation menu has been relocated to the left side of the screen to bring consistency to the new menu design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL4uEQ4QSS0&feature=youtu.be

The enhancement is a necessary move considering the increased competition and general market conditions and will help DEAR Systems remain a leader in cloud inventory management, which will, in turn, allow us to continue to work on features that deliver the most value to your business.

If you would like to test out the updates, you can do so in qa.dearsystems.com, you will need to create a new trial.

We are committed to ensuring long term success of your business on the DEAR platform and in addition to cosmetic user interface changes, a considerable amount of efforts went towards enhancing the performance of DEAR products across the board, load times of screens and general navigation ( e.g. View All Sales List), especially with large data sets, have been improved.

Your data has also been migrated to an individual database structure, improving the general stability of the system as well as extending the longevity of your account (before performance degradation due to large data sets).

We have several exciting releases coming up in 2020, we will notify you of an upcoming update webinar shortly, the webinar will recap some of the key releases from 2019 and discuss what’s coming next.

We thank you for your continued feedback, and please keep it coming, you help us become a better product daily!

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Inventory Management 101

How to Find the Right Inventory Software

New Features

Feature 1: Support for weight-based product pricing in DEAR POS

Impact area: DEAR POS Integration, DEAR POS app

Introduction: DEAR POS adds the outlet-level capability to handle weight-based pricing ideal for use in butcher shops and similar stores.

Pre-conditions

• Products have been set up in DEAR Inventory.
• Products in the outlet have been mapped to DEAR products and assigned outlet-level SKUs.
• The outlet has weighing scales capable of printing the weight-based barcodes (optional).

Functionality: In DEAR Inventory, go to Integrations>DEAR Point of Sale, click the store, then under the Setup tab, set Advanced Barcodes from the default Product-based to either Weight-based or Price-based. Then click the Barcode setup tab to configure the barcodes for use in your outlets.

Next, create outlet SKUs for your products via the Outlets tab. Select the outlet, click Set product outlet level SKUs for advanced barcodes, then either manually create outlet SKUs for your products one-by-one or import a template file with your outlet SKUs into DEAR. For more information, see Managing Outlet SKUs.

On the DEAR POS app, go to Inventory>Products, add the DEAR products to be sold on weight basis in the outlet. When selling on DEAR POS app, add a product to the sales order and optionally set your weighing scales to print the weight-based barcodes. For more information, see DEAR POS Integration Settings and Selling in DEAR POS.

Feature 2: Enhanced Search-As-You-Type Capability in DEAR POS

Impact area: DEAR POS mobile apps

Introduction: The DEAR POS Android and iOS apps have been enhanced with the search-as-you-type capability, allowing instant feedback while typing a query.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: On the DEAR POS mobile apps, when searching for a product under Sell>Register, search for a product using the Search bar. For more information, see Selling in DEAR POS.

Feature 3: BOM Component Details Report

Impact area: Reports

Introduction: This inventory report shows products in DEAR with Bills of Materials (BOM) along with the details of the components under each BOM.

Pre-condition: Products with BOM have been set up in DEAR Inventory.

Functionality: Go to either Reports, then look for the BOM Component Details Report under Inventory Reports. For more information, see BOM Component Details Report.

New Features

Feature 1: Single Sign-On with Xero

Impact area: Registration

Introduction: If your organisation uses Xero, you can sign up for a DEAR account with your active Xero account. This is the same functionality as single sign-on with your Intuit account if you are a QuickBooks, TurboTax or Mint user.

Pre-conditions: Active Xero account

Functionality: Go to the DEAR website and click Register on the topmost right. On the DEAR Login page, click the Sign in with Xero button. For more information, see Signing Up for DEAR with Intuit and Xero.

Feature 2: Use of Credit Accounts in DEAR B2B Portal

Impact area: Sale>Customers, B2B Portal Integration Settings

Introduction: Credit accounts can now be used for B2B Online Portal transactions. 

Pre-conditions: 

On the DEAR B2B Integration page, the following is required:

• The Create Sale as option must be set to Authorised Invoice.
• A Credit Account payment method must be specified.

Functionality: Once DEAR is set up to handle credit accounts (see Settings Related to Credit Accounts), your customers can use these accounts to pay for their transactions on the B2B Portal. 

For more information, see Using Credit Accounts in B2B eCommerce Portal Transactions.

Feature 3: Improved Filtering and Bulk Listing of Products by Brand and Availability in Other Sales Channels

Impact area: Integrations (DEAR POS, Shopify, Vend POS, Magento 2.x and 1.x, WooCommerce and Square)

Introduction: For some eCommerce integrations, products can now be filtered and/or bulk-listed by Brand and their availability in another sales channel or store.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Integrations, then the respective eCommerce integration pages. Click Bulk Listing and filter accordingly using any of the available options, then go ahead with the bulk listing of the filtered products. See the following integration-related KB articles for more details:

• DEAR POS Integration
• Shopify Integration
• Vend Integration
• Magento 2.0 Integration
• Magento Integration
• WooCommerce Integration
• Square Integration

Feature 4: Attachment of a Document to an Email Template Used in a Workflow

Impact area: Automation

Introduction: Documents can now be attached to email templates used in workflows.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Settings>Automation, then follow the usual process for creating workflows. When adding a Notify or some other action to an event, the document can be selected, then attached to the email template. For more information, see Attaching a Document to an Email Template Used in a Workflow.

Feature 5: Automatic Email Sending in Workflows

Impact area: Automation

Introduction: Email notifications can now be automatically triggered to deploy based on certain parameters as well as additional attributes set on the customer and sales levels.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Settings>Automation, then follow the usual process for creating workflows. When adding a Notify or some other action to an event, you can set the action to automatically be triggered once defined parameters are met. For more information, see  Managing Workflow Automation in DEAR.

Feature 6: Assignment of Pickers to Sales Orders

Impact area: Sale, DEAR WMS

Introduction: When processing Simple and Advanced sales, it is now possible to assign specific warehouse pickers to a sales order, although any picker can handle a sales order by default. These assignments are carried over to the actual Pick, although it is still possible to change them at that point. In addition, several sales orders that have yet to be picked can be scheduled for picking and pickers assigned to them at once. Orders with a scheduled picking date can also be rescheduled for picking at a later date.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to either Sale>Simple Sale or Sale>Advanced Sale. When creating a sales order, a picker can be selected from the list (by default, this field is set to All pickers). For more information, see Processing a Sale, Advanced Sales – Multiple Fulfilments, and DEAR Warehouse Management Solution.

For the bulk assignment of picking tasks, go to Sale>Sales, then on the Sales page, position your mouse cursor over the underlined General View, then select Fulfilment View. Select an order or orders with Status = Picking from the list, click the Picking button, then select the appropriate option. For more information, see Sales Views.

Feature 7: Warehouse Details Report

Impact area: Reports

Introduction: This report shows warehouse details for fulfilled sale orders over a specified date range. It shows the number of orders and SKUs that were handled by your pickers, with the aim of helping managers make better decisions on warehouse operations.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Reports, then look for the Warehouse Details Report under Inventory Reports. For more information, see Warehouse Details Report.

Changes in DEAR API v2

There have been recent improvements to DEAR API v2 in response to customer feedback and our own use – yes, we do use our API internally. For more information, see Recent Changes to DEAR API v2.

New Feature

Feature 1: Default Setting for Adding Sales and Purchases in DEAR

Impact area: Purchase, Sale, General Settings

Introduction: All sales and purchases will be created either as Simple or Advanced Sales/Purchases, based on the available default options in General Settings.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Settings > General Settings, then enable the Default Load Advanced Purchase Order setting under the Purchase process customisation section to let DEAR create all future POs using the Advanced Purchase module, with the exception of purchases entered directly through the Simple Purchase module.

For sales orders, enable the Default Load Advanced Sales Order setting under the Sales process customisation section to let DEAR create all future Sales Orders using the Advanced Sale module, with the exception of sales entered directly through the Simple Sale module. DEAR will also load all sales from integrated sales channels as Advanced Sales when this setting is enabled.

For more information, see General Settings.

Feature 2: Streamlined Workflow Process allows Sales Orders without Invoices to be Closed after Pick-Pack-Ship

Impact area: Automation, Settings

Introduction: DEAR now allows creating workflows that automatically close sales orders without invoices after Pick-Pack-Ship has been authorised. This accommodates users whose process allows closing of uninvoiced sales orders and the issuance of a consolidated invoice at the end of a specified time period. Along with this change, it is now possible to customise workflows based on the additional attributes set on the customer and sales levels, in addition to the already existing pre-defined parameters.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Settings > Automation, then follow the usual process for creating workflows. After creating the workflow, add a Sale Shipment Authorised event and a Mark Sale as Closed event action to the workflow.

For more information, see Managing Workflow Automation in DEAR.

New Feature

Feature: Manufacturer Warranties for Sold Products

Impact area: Products, Sale, Reference Books, Users & Roles.

Introduction: Sellers are now able to manage manufacturer warranties for their products, helping facilitate the Return Merchandise Authorisation (RMA) process when products are returned during the warranty period. This leads to better customer support and helps track and reduce repair costs.

Pre-condition: None.

Functionality: Go to Reference Books>Warranty Setup to create a warranty. Only users with the correct access permissions can create warranties.

Once a warranty is set up, it can be applied to both new and existing products in Inventory>Products as well as product families in Inventory>Product Families.

Depending on the warranty setup, products with warranties that are included in Sales Orders are assigned warranty registration numbers during the Fulfilment, specifically the Pack stage. The process is the same for sales orders consolidated from third-party e-commerce platforms, e.g. Amazon, eBay, Magento and WooCommerce.

Users with the correct access permissions are also able to look up warranty registrations from Sales>Warranties.

Bug fixes

1. Sales for DEAR POS, Shopify, Vend and other integrations received by webhooks are now processed immediately upon capture when the ‘No Consolidation’ mode is enabled.

2. In sales orders, the company name is added to the billing address ONLY after the order has been processed in Shopify.