New Features in G5, version 22.6
Here's a summary of the major new features in version 22.6 of Monitor G5, broken down by our teams that specialize in developing each area of the system. We hope you'll find this useful. For more information on all new development and changes in this version, read the Changelog at monitorerp.com/changelogs. There you also can watch a video rundown of the major new features in this version.
During this sprint, we’ve been able to put the finishing touches to many areas, and have also reduced our backlog of issues.
To minimize the need to enter the same dimensions (diameter, height, etc.) and select density each time a part is used in a BOM, it is now possible to enter default values for weight calculation in the part register.
In the recording terminal – both in desktop and in the web client – it is now possible to enter the site where the employee is currently located. This data is then visible in the Evacuation list and Attendance chart, so it’s easy to see which employees are currently working from home, or in which building their last recording was made.
To minimize the manual selections of this data, a default value for site can be set for the individual recording terminal. Default values can also be set for an employee, if this is required.
Development has been carried out to make it easier to select options in the product configurator. A search function has been added, as well as a new navigation layout where you can step through the selection groups one at a time, and also use the keyboard to navigate. Selection groups that allow multiple choices to be made have also been reworked, to make them more user friendly.
In Manufacturing order suggestions and Purchase order suggestions, we now show the causing order number on all parts, not just parts with the planning method Linked requirement. For Linked requirement, the order number is now shown in Italics with a descriptive tooltip. On other parts it’s important to remember that more than one order may be in need of the order suggestion, however, the list can only show one order number.
The same information is also presented in the Planning window in the Part register.
Previously, you had to report a checkbox, and after that, also set the status to OK for the row. And when everything was completed the status of the full maintenance had to be updated manually.
Now there is a hierarchy for these items, so if the row-status is set to OK, the checkbox will automatically be reported – and if, at the beginning, you set the status for the measuring to OK, you'll get a question with the option to set the status on all rows to OK.
The team has resolved 78 issues, of which 61 were reported by customers.
We'll now start work on a few larger items that may not be finished in the upcoming sprint. To name a few, we are working on a Mandatory comment when reported time exceeds planned time, and also, Creating monitoring tasks from different procedures in the system. In 22.7, we plan to deliver a number of updates to Salary export, and a function for inheriting options between order lines when using Product configurator, as well as some updates to Subcontract orders.
During this summer sprint, we've been focusing on multiple areas, and while doing so, also resolved 108 issues. (Team Sales/EDI).
We're still working with Customer order transfer, to make it better and better with each version that is released. Some other news is that our new team (Team Purchase), based in Gävle, is up and running.
We've added three new list types to the Invoicing log procedure:
These list types can be used to analyze the result against a budget entered on either customer, part or seller.
The document structure tab has been implemented in the Register quote procedure for quite some time, and is a popular feature in Monitor G5. During the summer we've implemented this feature in a lot more of the procedures throughout the system.
You can now find the document structure tab in the following procedures:
The delivery planning procedure normally takes the quantity per package on a part into account when calculating the delivery status on a customer order row. But sometimes, it may be necessary to discard the quantity per package and deliver the available quantity to the customer.
The setting is useful in this case. As mentioned before, we normally consider the qty/pkg entered on the part when calculating the delivery status, which means the delivery planning always wants to deliver "full" packages to the customer.
By unchecking Consider qty/pkg, the Delivery planning procedure will suggest all the available quantity as Ready for delivery.
We've made some changes to the user interface in the Register inquiry and Register quote procedures. Now you find the create, link to and preview buttons in the toolbar on the left-hand side of the grid.
We've made a change to how the upward adjustment calculation is executed in Register customer agreement. Previously, when changing an agreement during a period that had already been invoiced, an upward adjustment would be suggested for the whole invoiced period.
After this change, the upward adjustment suggested will calculate the amount based on the date the change was made.
For example:
I have an invoiced period of 2022-01-01 – 2022-12-31.
I'll now make a change to the quantity on the agreement row.
Previously, the suggested upward adjustment would calculate the quantity change from 2022-01-01 – 2022-12-31, and it will now calculate from today's date (2022-08-31) and suggest an amount based on that.
It is still possible to obtain a suggestion for the whole invoiced period, in which case you have to use the Future quantity field and enter 2022-01-01 as Future valid from, and the suggested amount will be based on the period 2022-01-01 – 2022-12-31.
Register customer agreement – Valid from/to on rows editable when using accrual accountingPreviously, it was not possible to edit Valid from and Valid to on a customer agreement row when using accrual accounting on a customer agreement. The reason for this was to prevent entering dates that are not aligned with the agreement basis, causing customer agreement rows to be incorrectly accrued.
We've now enabled these dates to be edited, and the user will receive a validation message if the Valid from or Valid to on the customer agreement row is not matched to any agreement basis.
Some customers want to be able to handle manual orders in parallel with EDI orders, for the same customers. In order to make this possible – and easy to handle – we've added a setting in the customer order type where the user can set the order type Exclude from EDI by default.
When entering a new order using an order type with Exclude from EDI checked, in Register customer order, importing an M2M-order, EDI-order or creating an order from a quote – for a customer configured for EDI – the order will now be checked as Exclude from EDI.
The setting Exclude from EDI is also available on the purchase order type.
Parts blocked for order entry are no longer transferred to customer order. When importing a delivery schedule where one or more parts are blocked for order entry, we now prevent the delivery schedule part from being transferred to customer order.
There is also a new EDI behavior setting where it is possible to let this type of transfer error set the EDI transaction to status Error in Manage EDI transactions.
If you have linked Packaging templates to your parts in the summary section of Delivery planning – list type Picking plan – it is now possible to get an indication of the total number of handling units for the selected pick lists (the left-hand part of the summary section) and pick list rows (the right-hand part of the summary section).
Clicking the adjacent folded button will present a grid with the number of packaging parts of each type used.
Team Sales/EDI have resolved 108 issues, of which 72 were reported by customers.
Team Purchase have resolved 52 issues, of which 40 were reported by customers.
We still have some work ahead to make it possible to include shortage rows on a normal pick list. We hoped to be able to release this in version 22.6, but found some issues, which meant we had to delay the release. Our goal is to make it available for everyone in next release.
We'll also start working on a proof of concept, called Report pick list. The goal is to make the picking process in Monitor G5 correspond more to how this works in reality. That is, making it possible to actually pick rows on a pick list, and that the quantity picked is transferred from one stock location to another.
There are many areas to investigate, and we hope this proof of concept will be a stepping stone for further development in the area.
It is currently only possible to see the agreement basis in the Agreement basis box in the Register customer agreement procedure. When applying a credit to a customer agreement, you can’t really see the credit anywhere in the procedure. We hope to make it easier for the user to see what has happened to a customer agreement when adding both agreement basis and credits in the Agreement basis box.
Our new team in Gävle will be starting to develop a new procedure called Register return order, where it will be possible to create a return order for a supplier, if, for example, you have received goods that are broken and need to be returned to the supplier. Since this is relatively major development, we don’t believe we will have anything ready for release in 22.7, and will probably keep working with this during the fall.
In parallel with the Return order procedure, Team Purchase will also begin developing support for distributed purchase, where it will be possible to distribute the purchase order suggestions between suppliers, with a percentage-model or an order-based distribution model.
This will also be an ongoing project during the fall, and at the moment we can’t say when it is scheduled for release.
We've managed to close 80 issues (111 support cases within issues and development items) in this summer sprint. Major development has been carried out for the web client, where there is now a brand new procedure for move stock balance – we hope you'll enjoy using it.
We've taken the functionality in Case one step closer, to be even more user-friendly, and you no longer have to jump between different procedures to create additional manufacturing orders or maintenance orders.
New functionality has been developed which makes it possible to add a sorting number to the location, to set the optimal path through the warehouse. This is included as a new list type in Location list, however, a prerequisite is that the locations need to be generated as physical locations. This new sorting order will be available in all pick lists in the near future.
The new procedure for Move stock balance is now included in the web client. We hope you'll like the new procedure, and that it will make your day-to-day work easier when transferring balances.
This is built to function like a “shopping cart”, where it is possible to scan through the warehouse, select parts to move and then decide where to place them.
A completely new face has been developed, which is the standard layout for all modern procedures. (This face will be reused in other “single procedure apps”)
New navigation has been developed to facilitate navigation through the tabs. Located at the foot of the window, this corresponds to the Part register in the Windows client.
New functionality within Part list is as follows:
Some highly request functionality has now made a return. Thanks to all of you that sent in requests to our Idea Forum at ideas.monitorerp.com
Further development has taken place to enable editing in the traceability tree. This has been done in combination with the manual level list. It is now possible to remove, add or replace a traceable part in the tree.
It was not possible to print the warning list in WIP, however, we have managed to build a new form, and it can now be used for traditional printing.
In total we have closed 45 development items during the sprint, which are a combination of country specific developments as well as standard functionality and UI/UX improvements. Below you can read a summary of some of the development carried out in this version.
In the Bank Settings procedure, it is now possible for users to activate the bank/bank format for payment files by themselves. Previously, these bank formats were free of charge options that had to be ordered, and required a system update.
The new solution is based on a new tab, Bank activation, in the Bank settings procedure. In this tab you can select which bank to use. When a bank is selected, the file formats for the selected bank are activated. When you update to version 22.6, your bank settings will be updated automatically – this means the bank and bank option you had installed will be available.
Another new feature in this procedure is the Payment methods tab, and the fields for entering the format of payment files. To the right of the field, you can click on a link to configure additional settings for the payment file in the Settings for export/import procedure.
We've had a lot of feedback from customers using Danske Bank concerning how payments were bundled in files. We've taken this into account, and made changes to how ISO payments to Danske Bank will be merged.
Previously, the payments were merged per supplier. The system will now merge all payments within the same day and currency into one payment record (PmtInf section), which gives the bank fewer lump sums to handle.
Parts that had been invoiced with the incorrect CN code, weight or transaction type were, in certain circumstances, not adjusted afterwards during reporting to Intrastat. If you want to adjust this information, you can click on the detailed row in the Intrastat export procedure and link to the Invoicing log procedure. We have added a new presentation, “Change intrastate information”, into the procedure Invoicing log and Detailed list type, in which you can change the CN code, weight and transaction type for the invoices. These changes will also affect the corresponding records in the Intrastat export procedure.
In systems with the EIM Workflow option, it is now possible to select when the feature will be activated. This feature can now be activated by the new system setting "Activate EIM Workflow". Previously, this feature was activated when you installed the option in the system. The system setting will be activated after the update, if you already use EIM Workflow. The system setting is deactivated by default if you buy EIM Workflow.
E-invoices distributed via Crediflow can now be sent via a test mode. You then test against Crediflow's sharp endpoint, but with test data. The invoices you send will be handled as real invoices when imported into Crediflow. However, they will stay with Crediflow and not go further in the flow (to the customer). This allows you to test that the invoice data is validated, status calls, etc. To activate test mode, activate the setting "Activate test mode for sending invoices" under E-invoice Crediflow in the Settings for export/import procedure.
The matching of price each on invoice row and order row will also take discount into account. If, for instance, you have price each and discount on the invoice row, while the order row only has price each, but the net price each is the same. The invoice will then not be sent for authorization, because there is no actual difference.
Parts that are blocked for registration and/or reporting of purchase order will no longer be included during automatic match and linking of order row against invoice row.
In the Basic data – Budget procedure we have added functionality that enables you to automatically create an even distribution of a budget chart based, on the number of periods entered.
The validation has been replaced with a warning concerning mandatory dimensions. This means it is possible to save an account without adding any dimensions.
The Danish banks Jutlander Bank and Sparekassen Vendsyssel have merged, to form Sparekassen Danmark Bank.
A link to VIES (VAT Information Exchange System) has been added in the Customer register and the Supplier register. VIES is an electronic system developed by the EU to control EU companies' VAT registration numbers when goods and services are delivered to other EU countries. The feature can be found via a new button next to the VAT registration number field. The feature will inform you whether or not the number is valid. Depending on the data protection rules for the country, the name and address can be displayed as they are registered in the national database. The system will also save a log record of the controls that have been carried out, and the results.
Previously we displayed the employee number, but now we have changed this to display the name of the project manager and seller instead.
The Total overdue column has been added into the list types for Age analysis.
When exporting an XML file, a KID number is now generated automatically for payment of the VAT report. This KID number is based on the company's ID number, and a check digit. The KID number is included in the XML file.
Please note! KID numbers are only generated automatically if the KID number field is empty in the Settings for export/import procedure, and the settings for “Mva melding”. If, however, the KID number is included, this KID number will be exported instead.
A basic setup of basic data for the fixed assets register is included in new installations of Monitor G5 using the Polish country package.
We have added the selection fields into the printout for several procedures, and improved focus issues in different procedures when adding/removing rows.
During this sprint we have closed 112 issues, where 23 have been patched and 63 are linked to support cases.
Performance improvements have been made in the Accounts payable list.
During the next sprint, we'll be focusing on the following:
One part of our mission as a team here at Web-Tech is that we are constantly helping other teams to achieve their sprint goals by providing technical solutions for them to build upon.
We have one group focusing on the infrastructure behind Monitor, and internal tools, and another one for the foundation, which is more focused on the Monitor client and its procedures. This means we have also been involved in the work of other teams in their presented changelogs (other than the ones presented here).
During this long summer sprint, we have prepared for the new authentication method for e-mail, and worked with the framework for time zones, to make it easier work with. And as always, we focused on resolving issues. Some feature highlights are shown below.
Follow this link for more information.
Almost 40 issues have been resolved in this sprint.
The 22.7 sprint will start with a week of productivity improvements, which will hopefully lead to reduced build times and faster startups, which in turn will result in faster development and happier developers!
Further on, we'll work on adding support for different types of file management systems, such as Microsoft 365 SharePoint, so they work with Monitor. The lookup function will also be improved, regarding how the sorting of lists handles entries.
Our focus on resolving issues continues, along with many general improvements to both MSQL support, performance, and database process handling.