what's new

August 2011

Awhile ago I added a "balance" field to debtor invoices to reflect the balance owing when progress payments are made. On the debtors screen clicking the transactions tab will show such payments and I've altered the Debtors statement printout to include any such progress payments. See an example

July 2011

print stock labels by entering your own text - read more
changed sms message for quotes in Repairs to say quote - more
added menu builder to assist in writing valuations - more

May 2011

added sold qty REQUIRES you CHECK FIELDS (from maintenance screen)
added wrist sizes to customer fingersize tab
added partner details to customer file
added set time field in ringbook
changed stock entry screen so ctlg is entered line by line
added customer wish list
added email and sms to enquiries screen
added supplier appointment form
added supplier issues list
added multiple item option to valuations.

Mar

added EFTPOS as method of payment when customer wants to split payments

Feb

New sales list shows qty in stock, qty on order and previous sales - just click the show stk option when selecting sales in lists
The ringbook now displays stock book photos - good for repeating items - or you can still load individual photos to the ring book.

Dec 2010

for product which comes packaged with a bar code ( and you use that barcode as the stkcode ) then on the till screen scan that barcode into the stkcode column to sell the item
introduced pdf files eg email a copy of an invoice to customer direct from debtor page or copy of a valuation to an insurance company.)

Nov

Created a gold buyers module which reads data from digital scales, not in JCT but available if anyone wants

Oct

Spell Checker option added to repair screen - requires dictionary download to work. Click on spell checker in options - repairs to start.
the label printer does NOT have to be the default printer anymore
export email addresses to gmail contacts for friend invitations with Facebook marketing

July

added post to web button to the stockbook so you can add (and delete) items to your JCT internet site, just as you can now with the ringbook. You select which internet page to post to and you can edit the accompanying text.
double clicking a picture ( in lists, repairs, stock, ring book, valuations ) shows the image full size

June

when viewing an order you can now change the order of the items by clicking on the title of the column to order by

May

added sum by Customer to sales summary. See which customers bought from you in a period. Refine search by stock category. Use results (right click on list) to export csv file for mailouts, to add customers to clubs or to tag customers. Set a threshold to take out low totals.
added gstrate column to sales to accomodate GST changes and track zero rated sales

April

added website search ranking tool. Makes it easy to check how your website rates for a variety of search terms . Access from the tools section of the till screen or lists screen top menu bar

Mar

added sms tab to repair screen so you can view text messages sent to that customer
added automated updating of metal prices to the jewellers calculator. Data is casting metal prices from Morris & Watson which they send me every day.

Feb

added automatic Daily report sent by text message or email to supervisor
added check couriers to till tools menu to take advantage of courierposts new track and trace webpage
Upgraded stockbook photos
Upgraded ringbook post to web function
Added fingersize chart to customer record
Added ability to email wage slips from cash book

Jan

for Pandora uses I have changed the till so you can enter the pandora stock code in the code column and get a list of serial numbers to choose from

Sept 2009

improved appointments to act as booking system for consultations with clients

Aug

added background colour to active edit boxes ( to help show where the cursor is )
added colour choice for displaying A grade customers. Set colour and grades in options/customer. Reclassify customers ( according to sales ) in maintenance,grades
added NZ Post Postcode database to assist entering customer addressess. Just type the street address ( or part of ), press tab and a list of possible locations is presented for you to choose.The suburb,city and postcode fields are then filled in for you, ensuring speed and accuracy in getting customer info.

July

added automated lookup for courierpost to check packets delivered
changed invoices so that you can choose between insurance and general, ie whether 'excess' or 'deposit' gets printed
updated category manager to accept sales/stock targets based on price ranges with in each category. Double click on category in codes list to see new layout. Click on new manager item on lists screen top menu to list open to buy and projected v actual sales
upgraded bar graph in sales summaries. Try summing sales by daily,week or month and clicking graph

April

added wholesale field to sold database. So when you reorder from the daily sales screen and then use the order to enter stock, the whoelsale values appear on the invoice.
added VPN (virtual private networking) so you can access your shop network over the internet. Requires a fast internet connection.

Feb

added optional customer loyalty program. When a customer's purchases hit a certain level they are rewarded with a credit to spend on their next purchase. The sales threshold and reward level are set on the customer page of the options screen.
New customers can be automatically assigned a tag (on the customer options screen). Use this tag to select customers in lists and then send them a welcome message via SMS text,email or mail merge.

Jan

added texting capability. Send text messages to customers on your database with mobile phone numbers. Automatically send text message to customers when repair job is marked as finished. Texts cost 20c each. Requires setup fee and min $10/ month spend.
added colour coding for customers in club 2

Nov 2008

create a gift voucher to give away to a customer. On the till click the credits menu and enter the value of the voucher in the retail column
support for customer display units (a little screen you place facing the customer that shows till price and total)
enter stock using different currencies

Oct

Discount buttons added to till screen to apply discount to all items
Where a shop has multiple cash registers you can list the daily sales separately for each one or for all registers.

Sept

Cash Out button added to till screen to record cash withdrawls via eftpos

Aug

staff can now log on/log off on the till screen for recording work hours
Logos now print on receipt printers
Sales receipts and Repair dockets can now be sent to different printers. Go to printer options and choose a repair docket printer and on the till options page select the paper size for sales receipts.
Repaircodes have been improved. You can now select which codes are displayed and you can multi select.
a restricted version of JCT that loads staight to the till screen is now available

May

You can now choose the font for the heading on printed documents ( eg 'Valuation' ). See shop options/printing page
"Box" labels, large format price labels for stock items. Uses avery style sheet labels. Access from print menu on lists screen.
in some lists the first column is locked so you can't accidently alter or delete. Locked columns have green font
Quotes upgraded so you can transfer to repairs when accepted

April

Category Manager improved with the addition of monthly sales targets and corresponding stock limits. Stock limits are calculated using estimated monthly stock turn. Open to Buy figure is obtained by subtracting current stock value from limit. Double click a category in the codes list to view.
Postcodes added to customer and supplier address for correct addressing. Customers can be selected by postcode for mail outs or sales analysis

March

Stock entry now available over the internet, either for entering stock from home or directly into another branch
repair jobs can be converted into stock items eg where repair job is for making a new ring.
Cashbook updated for Kiwisaver and new PAYE rates

February

The Health and Safety in Employment Act requires all businesses to have an active method of identifying, assessing and managing potential hazards in the workplace. If you have never bothered then JCT now has a Hazards list and Accident Register. The Hazards list is for recording potential threats and policies for dealing with them. The accident register is for recording all accidents or potential incidents.

January 2008

added Auto run option so JCT will run whenever your computer is turned on. Go to options, DB page and click on run JCT at startup at bottom of window.
enabled email backup option in backups so you can send backup files to an email address, even easier than using a pen drive!. I recommend getting a gmail address for this purpose because of the large amount of free storage space they give you. Add email address in options, backup, email address

December 2007

added Zodiac Signs and Birthstones to the till screen. Current Zodiac and Birthstone is displayed, click on current to list out the others

November

added Palladium to the list of metals in the Jewellers calculator
Enquiries database. Record customer enquries in a similar way to repairs. Access from orders menu in the till screen or from lists. Print copy for customer or to send directly to supplier. Another excuse to get the customer into your database
if you get the question 'Does this come with a guarantee?' I have provided an easy answer. By right clicking on an item in the Daily Sales you can print a guarantee. Select the time in years for the guarantee period or select 0 years to guarantee authenticity. Another excuse to get the customer into your database

October

in lists the whole row under the mouse cursor is highlighted to make reading across columns easier. You can choose your own colour in shop options, lists
blank heading added to valuations
number of clubs increased from 4 to 8
stock on layby identified by red serial numbers when listed ( including right click list in daily sales )
auto send emails when sending courier packs. At Sladens we can geneate an automatic email message when invoicing to warn the customer to expect a package. I have included this same function in the enter couriers screen.So if you are sending a valuable parcel to a supplier, repairer, valuer etc an email can be automatically sent. Details include tracking number.
Stock items, repairs and laybys can now be selected from lists and sold with a button click.

September

Print catalogues of ringbook photos. In lists, select some rings by some criteria eg gemstone type, price range and click the print pictures button across the top. In the layout column you select the number of photos to display per page ( down x across ). Hint: click the preview button to see what the different print lay outs will look like. Other options include printing ring book descriptions or blurbs alongside photos.

Aug

Virtual private network support added so you can view daily sales, stock lists, rings ( including photos) and repairs from another branch or from home.
Added Rate of Return (ROI) and Stock Turn to Summaries. Only included on Stock sales report with include stock option. To enable choose options ,report options on summaries menu and click landscape and extra fields at the bottom of the page.

July

have added a blurb field to the ringbook. Purpose is to store advertising copy which can be uploaded to the web or included in the ringbook brochure . Macro and/or right click text expander included to make entering common words and phrases easier.
you can now add another item to a layby. After selecting the customer the computer will check to see if an account exists for that customer. If one does then you can add to it or create another account.
similarly you can add a refund to an existing credit

June

Print note on repairs screen

prints notes on docket ( if any ) otherwise description
prints repairers name instead of customers
right click for print preview

May

Hotkeys F3 thru F9 are now user selectable. Go to options,lists to select which lists to use for each hotkey. F10 ( calculator ), F11 (jewellers calculator) and F12 ( save screenshot of window) remain the same.
Added Customer to sales summaries
Added Repairs to stkentry screen -when repair jobs come back from repairer, enter repairers invoice details and update the repair book ( price,status)

Mar

Added third logo option so you can substitute a bitmap for your shop name as printed instead of text. Other options are preprinted ( no shop name or address printed ) and the default ( shop name and address printed as per font details in user options )

Feb

Changed stock entry screen so you can
- enter stock in a foreign currency and JCT will compute the NZ dollar cost using the exchange rate you enter.
- enter and save Retail in a foreign currency and the till will convert back to $NZ at sale time
Added a field to sales record for recording duty free sales
made Backup a separate exe file. Added a Backup on Exit option that you can set to show the backup screen whenever you exit JCT

Jan 2007

Print Receipt - added facility to print sales receipt with out going to Daily Sales - on Till screen in Sales menu click print receipt and the last sale is displayed which you can print
Customer YTD sales - under Maintenance, grades you can now recalculate YTD sales for all customers. Select the start date and click start recalc

Dec

'Sale Mode' added to till to make entering discounts easier
a more sohisticated Repair entry popup for those who use repaircodes. In lists, repaircodes, in the addon column, type in the repair code or codes (separated by a comma ) which you want to popup for that particular repaircode. Just click to add to repair work

Nov

Repair entry popup - show popup message to remind staff to ask customers further questions eg add on sales like "do you want your strap cleaned?" or to point out existing blemishes "did you know the glass is scatched?". Go to options, popups to enable this feature and add your message
Pad Labels - same idea as address labels but for stock items. Prints price in large type
Ring Tickets added option to print price only on square tag in a larger font.
added a Map button on the customer file screen. Click it and see a google map popup showing the location of their address ( needs internet connection ) Very cool!!

Sept

Added option to choose your customer at the start of a sale (its a retail thing I'm told ). On the till screen click list customers, display customer, then click sell to button ( or take in repair / valuation )

Aug

extra menu items added to summaries to make selecting reports easier
Constants added to summaries. Summarize by serial number
Messages improved. (located under tools on the till screen, or under list on the lists screen). Designed to record telephone messages/ callers. Enter or select callers from customer or supplier database.Then everyone can find their messages and you have another excuse to get contact details from a customer for your database.

July 2006

Quotes added to lists. Write and record quotes. Print with optional text "middle" and "footer" sections. (see shop details under quotes)
Stock in Ring Book can be posted to your website. Obviously you need a website first.
notes added to repairs
outwork section added to track repairs\valuations sent out. Marks repair item as being sent to repairer and records courier pack used
couriers section updated for recording courier packs (in and out)
checks metal and code in stock entry screen against list
stkcode also checked in stockentry
receiver added to repair database so you know who took the job in
valuation fields added to ringbook so you can record valuations done before and/or after sale

Dec 2005

this page will pop up automatically when you update the program - needs new version of update as well
added facilty to access guarantee file from repairs eg if a customer brings a copy of a gurantee with the job you scan it and save an electronic copy
added optional reminder message to check eftpos accepted (see options, popups )
added choice of fonts to printing address labels
added extra comments field to orders
create and print staff roster (select roster from list menu on lists screen ). On roster screen right click below day name to add people to the roster. Right click on print button to preview print.
where repair codes added to repairs these are now visible ( replines ), by clicking on lines at the bottom of the repair screen or under lists, repairs, with showlines option checked.
clear button added to select screens to reset all choices
customer database number added to report page

Nov 2005

find a customer on the customer list window by entering their telephone number
option added to print dialog window to force printing of zero $ amounts
skype number field added to supplier
calculating change for customers tendering foreign currency reinstated
on the till under help, jewellery terms you can search the jewellers bench archive,wikipedia and google

Oct 2005

when printing a brochure from the ring book a new window allows you to choose which fields to print
when printing a valuation or sales receipt from the ring book you can set the title and disclaimer text in options
till reminder message comes up after pressing MOP on the till. Set your message by going to options and under the till2 tab type your message and check the box to activate
inv reminder message pops up when you press post in stock entry - set as above
true/false database fields changed to single letter eg Y or N ( for my benefit, to allow programming changes))
can print a guarantee for a stock item by right clicking in daily sales list

Sept 2005

optional addition of photos to repairs
addition of optional message to A6 letterheads eg to write "with our compliments"
more on the Reports page
in lists , laybys now displays 3 columns layby/payments and items on ( if showlines is selected)
in lists, laybys the check bal button checks balances
access to supplier websites from till
access to shop policies\ training manual \ Health and Safety docs from till menu
in summaries , in the total line average and mu show average int and markup overall
simple valuations now working
optional 2nd shop name on letterhead
improved access to help (press F1 key anywhere in JCT to see if you have help file installed)

Aug 2005

change to Mastercard completed
added daily sales total to summary reports
added 2nd comment line to invoice
back orders reinstated
print preview added
extra choice for printing a sales receipt (right click in Daily sales) as Tax Invoice or Replacement Valuation
added right click in stock book entry