New Features in ManageMore
Version 8.0 (revision A)

Visit this page often for the latest enhancements to the ManageMore business software suite.  We strongly recommend you read all revision notes up to the last software revision you are currently using. 

Version 8.0 (revision A)    

IMPORTANT Notice for Existing ManageMore Users who upgrade to this revision.
Please be aware of some major changes that might temporarily affect you.
1. The Inventory attributes fields have been eliminated from ManageMore to make way for a true Matrix Inventory capability that will actually do something useful with attributes of an item. If you previously used the attribute fields to store some miscelleneous info, then the upgrade process will not actually delete your data, but rather move them to hidden User-Defined fields within the Inventory Database. Please contact Technical Support if you have questions regarding this.
2. Major improvements were made in the Security Administrator with respect to Security Groups and a new way to set up security based on a simpler strategy referred to as "Program Areas". Please re-review your security settings for all login users after upgrading.
3. As of this release, all areas of the application are using a minimum 1024x768 video resolution format. This allows for much more space to provide more information to view in one area. If you are unsure of your video resolution, please check your Windows Control Panel for your Video Settings.

KNOWN UPGRADE ISSUE: A very specific upgrade issue exists that will affect some existing users. In particular, if you currently own a ManageMore Version 7.0 multi-user license and have upgraded from older versions in the past, then this issue may affect you. You may experience a reset of setup values if you have any workstations set to Custom Setup. This issue only occurs if you have never re-saved the setup values on each workstation after upgrading to Version 7.0. The key settings affected by this are the Credit Card Payment Authorization fields and default Printer settings. If you fall into the criteria mentioned above and want to avoid losing any of these custom workstation settings after upgrading, then we recommend you do the following prior to the upgrade.
A. Go to each workstation that uses custom settings and login with Full privileges to the Setup area of ManageMore.
B. From the main menu, go to Setup... Application... and then press the Save button.
These 2 steps will ensure that your custom station settings are permanently saved.

Changes to ManageMore Business Software Backend
Since the inception of ManageMore over ten years ago, we have always integrated a point-of-sale solution as part of the features of our entire accounting solution. Back in Version 6.0, we did some significant improvements to our POS solution, but still fell short of our expectations of a robust POS system that was easy to use for a wide customer base, worked for many different retail operations, and was completely customizeable.

After 10 years, we believe we have now created a POS system that is flexible enough to address dozens of verticals markets without cluttering up the screen with features that don't pertain to your business model! In fact, the POS portion of ManageMore has changed so much, that it ultimately becames its own application.

Starting with Version 8.0, we will no longer support any direct POS capabilities from within the backend ManageMore Business Software. In other words, ManageMore Business Software and ManageMore Point-of-Sale are now two different products you run separate from each other. Both are still totally integrated to the same database for accounting purposes and both use the same Security Administrator for securing the product. But one does not have to use ManageMore Business Software on a regular basis for handling the basics of point-of-sale, inventory, time and attendance, and cash drawer management. This ultimately means that the POS menu item option, POS related toolbar shortcuts, and POS Setup will no longer be available from within the ManageMore Business Software.

The segregation of these two applications now allows for a much better design with the POS system and how it handles Login/Logout and cash drawer management. If your business model revolves around face-to-face customer sales transactions, you will likely find that your employees only need to use ManageMore POS for the day-to-day operations. Those involved in other areas of the company (administration, customer service, accounting, purchasing, etc.) can continue to use ManageMore Business Software as usual.

It is also important to note that the creation of ManageMore Invoices using the backend ManageMore Business Software should now be considered an Accounts Receivable transaction only (i.e., invoices that apply incidental charges to customer accounts). We are still allowing the Accounts Receivable invoice screen to accept direct payment, but strongly discourage its use as a POS invoice in this fashion.

The main reason we suggest this is because our traditional A/R invoice layout lends itself to many accidental data entry errors and security flaws when used as an over-the-counter sales tool. The traditional ManageMore A/R invoice (and even our older basic POS screen for that matter) was built around flexibility and not truly designed with speed and efficiency in mind. As you will soon discover, the new ManageMore POS screen addresses these issues with a more bullet-proof design that minimizes on common input errors and delivers the fastest way to do over-the-counter sales.

New Touch Screen Compliant POS System
Much has changed in the way of technologies for the retail marketplace in the last several years. The most significant change is the increasingly popular acceptance of Touch Screen technology. There is no arguing the advantages of Touch Screen technology. It is quick, convenient, space saving and very professional.

Today, any business can purchase Touch Screen Monitors for well under $399 or buy Touch Screen overlays for under $200. The expensive part has traditionally been the purchase of SOFTWARE that is Touch Screen compliant... until now!

New to ManageMore Version 8.0 is a POS System that was designed from the ground up to be Touch Screen ready. Some of the benefits for considering the use of Touch Screen technology in your business include:

• Extremely fast input which translates to better customer service
• Touch interfaces effectively increase operator accuracy, reduce training time, and improve overall operational efficiencies, thus keeping costs down.
• Touch interfaces ensure that no space on the desktop or elsewhere is wasted, since the input device is completely integrated into the display
• Touch interfaces make everyone feel like an expert the moment they use it
• Touch Monitors are made of glass or a similar hard-coated surface. So it's easy to clean and extremely durable in all sorts of business environments.
• Virtual elimination of errors because users select from clearly defined menus
  

Don't worry if you are not ready to implement Touch Screen Technology in your business yet. That's because the new POS interface works very well for mouse/keyboard users too.

With the new POS system, comes a more intuitive login/logout system that works great for businesses sharing a single pc among a few employees for point-of-sale transactions. It also integrates ManageMore's time clock feature to easily allow employees to clock in/out without disrupting an ongoing sale.

Also, the new POS system can now support resolutions of up to 1280x1024. Users with larger monitors may want to experiment with the resolution that looks best for daily POS use.

New Banner Ad feature for the POS system
When using the highest screen resolution supported by the POS system (i.e. 1280x1024), your POS system will now be able to utilize the expanded screen space to show banner ads to your customers/employees.

You can create as many custom advertisement banners (max size 243x1024px) as you wish using your own graphics designer program like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paintshop Pro, etc. Simply drop your creations into the designated ManageMore Banner Folder and the POS system will handle the rest.

Use banner images to attract customers attention to promotions you are offering, special deals, or upcoming products/services.

New Touch Pad feature for the POS system
Arguably the best feature of Version 8.0 is the new Touch Pad interface that is integrated right inside the point-of-sale screen. The Touch Pad is a completely customizable area of the POS screen that allows you to create buttons of multiple sizes, colors, shapes, etc. that can be used like Hot Keys to quickly handle dozens of POS functions.

Upon upgrading, ManageMore will provide a basic Touch Pad menu for you to start off with. We recommend most users to explore the Touch Pad Setup area and experiment with programming your own Touch Pad layout. Also important to note is that ManageMore includes a very useful Touch Pad Wizard process that can help build your Touch Pad menu's quickly if you have setup your inventory correctly. In particular, it is extremely helpful if you have already implemented inventory categories and/or departments to help identify products that are related to each other. The Touch Pad wizard can group related items and automatically create meaningful menus of your inventory quickly.

For more on setting up your Touch Pad, please launch the ManageMore POS, login to Manager Mode, and from the menu go to Setup... Application... Point of Sale... Touch Screen...

New POS Themes for the POS system
ManageMore now provides you the ability to customize your POS system like no other product can. Choose from dozens of professional background themes to liven up the look of your Point of Sale and give your business a real professional look. Some of the themes included with this release are ideal for business models that are involved in apparel, food and beverages, electronics, cellular phones, automotive supplies, beauty salons, jewelry, etc.

You can also create your very own POS theme to suit your own corporate image. To try out the different themes, please see Setup... Application... Point of Sale... Screen Layout...

Look for future Theme Packs we plan on releasing which will offer many more out-of-the-box layouts to choose from.

New Quick Pay feature for the POS system
A new quick pay feature now exists to help speed up the POS process and reduce data entry errors as well. With one click (or touch of a finger), you can tender out a sales transaction when your customers provide you a common demonition bill like $5,$10,$20,etc. This is real helpful for businesses who constantly receive a single bill to pay for items.

To use the Quick Pay feature, please see the Touch Pad setup area of the program mentioned above and then assign a button to this functionality.

• linking to your company's web advertised price list or shopping cart
• linking to a competitor's web advertised price list for comparisons
• linking to web based calendars/events for managing personnel
• linking to web based email services
• linking to a company contact page for findng phone numbers and addresses

To use the Web Site Linking feature, please see the Touch Pad setup area of the program mentioned above and then assign a button to this functionality.

To use the External Program Linking feature, please see the Touch Pad setup area of the program mentioned above and then assign a button to this functionality.

New capabilities with Coupons/Redemption items
A Major improvement/addition was made to ManageMore's redemption item feature (only available to Standard,Professional,Complete Edition users). This new feature allows a redemption item to be associated to specific item(s) and therefore cannot be entered at the POS unless the intended item(s) for discount is first scanned/entered into the transaction. You can also identify whether this redemption item qualifies for all matched items on the invoice or just a specific quantity only.

This features opens the door to many popular marketing techniques that you can now setup quickly without the worry that an error is going to be made at the point of sale. You can mail-out coupons or advertise rebates that provide discounts for select product categories (e.g. all video games are 10% off with Coupon XYZ, $50 off Power Tools with limit of two, etc.) or select departments (e.g. all items in the Kitchen Dept are 15% off, Take 10% off all items in the Electronics Dept., etc.). You can also mix and match items and preclude items that you do not want as part of your redemption offer.

The best part of this feature is how simple it is to use at the point-of-sale. Simple scan your mailed out coupons like you would any regular product. Your user doesn't have to pay attention to whether the coupon qualifies for items already scanned or whether it is expired. This feature alone will be a BIG help for the holiday rush.

For more on this feature, please see the supertrack inventory section of ManageMore and select a redemption item. You will see a new Redemption Tab that contains this capability mentioned.

New Refund Process for all Invoice Transactions
An entirely new and improved sales refund process was developed to reduce mistakes that happen during the invoice reversal process. Prior versions of ManageMore would auto-fill all items for consideration in the sales refund process. This method lent itself to possible data entry errors where the employee could identify the wrong item being returned.

The new refund process involves individually scanning or entering the item code being returned. ManageMore will automatically figure out whether that item is from the original invoice and take into consideration any redemptions applied to that item as well.

Improved POS Security and Error Prevention Features
This version introduces many security and error prevention improvements to the POS system. Some notable security improvements include:

• Recording a "No Sale" transaction when a user aborts a partially filled sales invoice
• All POS function keys and Touch Pad keys can be password protected and/or locked
• POS functions not needed by your business can be removed from user access
• Removing individual items after being scanned/entered at POS can be blocked
• Cash Drawer management requires proper open/close money tallies when using POS
• You can no longer haphazardly change scanned/entered items within a transaction
• Location Id is now station based to avoid accidental invalid login of a location
• Easier design payment process which allows you to set valid payment methods to use
• POS system redesigned to separate Manager functions from POS functions
• Improved Refund process which reduces errors made when items are returned
• Change Due warnings if tender amount is extremely high
• Restriction amount limits can be applied for any payment tender
• Reprinting of sales receipt is now password protected

Seasonal settings for better statistics
Seasonal periods can now be defined for your company to track sales/collections/item quantity statistics based on a period of time. These statistics can provide more meaningful information to companies who are affected by specific seasonal trends (i.e. holiday seasons, sporting seasons, climate seasons, etc.)

Statistics will start recording the moment you upgrade to this version and can be seen by going to any item in supertrack inventory and viewing the item statistics.

Improved Security Administrator
For some time now, ManageMore security has always been a bit too complex to setup for small companies with less than 10 employees. Although the Security Administrator has always allowed comprehensive control over what to secure, it was not always easy to accomplish this based on Security Groups that were intended for larger organizations with many departments and managers who oversee company functions.

To alleviate this issue, we introduced a new "Program Area" security scheme which basically lets you select specific job functions that the security user will perform (i.e. Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales/POS, Inventory Management, Banking, etc.) in a simple-to-use selection format. Besides the benefit of a simpler setup, you also alleviate the headaches associated with software updates and new security resources that get introduced with each new version of ManageMore. New program functions are automatically placed within the appropriated program area security.

Existing ManageMore users who want to switch to this security model will need to re-edit each security user and follow the new User Wizard design. You will be prompted to select the security model on each security user you add to the system.

The Security Administrator security groups also got a major overhaul with respect to many new security resources introduced and a better breakdown of the security groups that models after the menu layout of ManageMore.

IMPORTANT: As a result of the above security improvements, existing ManageMore users may find themselves locked out of some features they previously had access to under the original default Security Groups. If so, you will have to revisit the Security Administrator and determine whether you want to start using the new "Program Area" security or whether you need to join a security user to more than one default security group template.

Improved Setup Area of Application
With over 600 settings that control ManageMore Business Software, the program setup area has become complex to navigate through many different windows to find where a setting may be located. In an effort to make things simpler, our new Setup uses one window with a single tree view that navigates to the program settings desired.

Furthermore, we simplified the Custom Workstation Settings used by those who run a multi-user license of ManageMore. A simple drop list on screen will tell ManageMore that certain settings are custom to that workstation only.

The Setup Area can now be accessed from the backend ManageMore Business Software and from the ManageMore POS software. However, the POS software is limited to setup related to point-of-sale and can be locked down from features controlled by the backend ManageMore.

New Customer Photo Image Settings
It is now possible to associate your customer records to a digital photo of your client. The image will appear on the customer record, customer care, and when doing customer searches. This feature is particularly useful for business models that deal with a select client list for memberships and/or special cases where it is important to have accurate client identification when face-to-face. To activate this feature, please see Setup... Application... Customer/Prospects... Display Fields... and check on Photograph Image.

Improved Funds Transfer Features for POS
You can now easily transfer funds to better manage your cash drawer batches during the day. Using the improved Funds Transfer feature, you can now have options to record transfers of monies to and from any open cash drawer to another or to and from any bank account to any open cash drawer. The cash drawer batches will take these money transfers into account automatically when reconciling totals at the time of closing.
This is extremely useful for businesses that have busy periods where one cash drawer may start running out of change. You can create a funds transfer transaction to account for monies being replenished by another cash drawer or from a designated bank account like a petty cash account, office safe, or other bank account holding. This feature can also be used to relieve excessive cash build-up from a drawer during the day without having to force the employee to completely shutdown and close his/her cash drawer batch.

Miscellaneous Improvements and Fixes
1. New Sales Summary Report by Hour.
2. Cash Drawer Management can now be done by Station Id versus Location/Employee. It is now our recommendation that most existing users consider switching to the Station Id method of managing Cash Drawers. Please see Setup... Application... Banking... General Options...
3. The POS application now has a new Inventory Receipt process for those small business owners that want a simple way for updating inventory quantities. This is primarily for the simple user who wants to avoid using the backend ManageMore Business Software.
4. Sale Unit of Measure can now be changed using Aliases. Using the Alias Inventory feature, you can now sell the same item with different sale unit of measure by simply creating a variant item code. This is most common with businesses who sell items measured by volume (i.e. Paint Supply Store, Chemical Supplies, Propane, etc.)
5. Improvements with Void/Inv Adjustment Reports which allow Reason Code filter.
6. Fixed performance issue with Time Clock and Internet Time Verification
7. Fixed issue with Time Clock and Bi-monthly payroll schedules. Bi-monthly payroll required adjustments to how normal/overtime hours are calculated.
8. Improved Time Sheet Review Window to make it easier to review the records.
9. Added security resource to Inventory Explorer Delete Button
10. Improved Time Clock window layout.
11. Improved setup for Receipt Printers - Test Button added and default printer codes added when a receipt printer model is selected
12. Fixed issue with Receipt Printing of bar codes
13. Improved Payroll Export Wizard process reduces chances of sending wrong payroll details
14. List and Label Manager now provides an option for setting a default Label Printer
15. Fixed issue with Cash Drawer batches not totalling properly when a cash drawer was not closed in the same day.

Do you still need to know about software revisions prior to the ones mentioned above?  If so, please click here for older revision archives.