We are keen to meet with retail, trade, and contract businesses at the show and show you how our software and services can help Optimise your business while saving you money and time. If you could drop us an email at info@oltd.co.uk or call us at 0131 448 0483, we can send you some visitor’s passes.

Optimise Solutions’ stand number is E7. We are showcasing some new developments on both our software and web design fronts. New products include our trendy Showroom Display Label Ticketing software, Management Dashboard, RBS Bankline integration, Magento eCommerce two way integration, Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation services.

Do visit us at the show to discuss the software’s new features and functionalities.

To celebrate our 21st successful year, we have organised a user group meeting on the 22nd September 2010 at our offices in Edinburgh (10:30 to 16:30). We will be having presentations geared towards getting the best out of the Optimise System and we will be show-casing latest features and innovations.

This is also a great opportunity to meet other Optimise users. As well as inviting existing clients, we have also invited some potential customers.

Some of the many exciting features that we are going to be demonstrating

• eCommerce and Showroom Display Tickets Integration
• Coffee Shop and Restaurant add-ons with touch-screen interfaces
• Integration with EPOS Tills, Wedding and Gift Lists
• iPhone Stock Check App (check product data, while on the move)
• Bar-coding and Scanning for quick stock take

We look forward to seeing you there. To register for this event, please visit www.oltd.co.uk/register.

Peach is the new brand name for Chairshop Newcastle. Peach specialise in armchairs, recliners, settees, foot stools, ergonomic office furniture, and bespoke home furniture. Optimise Web delivered a fresh look and feel to Peach’s web design. The design, interface and usability has been targeted towards both mature and older customers.

Peach’s new website is powered by the Magento eCommerce platform. Optimise Web custom modified the eCommerce package into an online catalogue to meet Peach’s requirements. The staff at Peach and Optimise, worked hard to ensure timely launch of the website.

Optimise Web are specialists in web design and SEO for furniture websites. Talk to Sid on 0131 448 0483 for help with boosting your website’s performance.

Dot co could have a better appeal than dot com. Remember, someone else could buy your dot co TLD. If you think, the dot co TLD of your domain name will come handy in the future, just buy it! 123 Reg is a trusted registrar and their domain control panel is the best that we’ve seen.

Image Source : 123 Reg

123 Reg is the most popular domain name registrar in the UK. They host over 2 million domain names. The 123 Reg control panel comes with advanced DNS (Domain Name Server) tools that comes of use when hosting a website.

You do not have to host a website with the domain name. Just block your favourite domain names by buying them. You might wish to use them to create a website at some point in the future!

With this module you will want to promote the sale of gift vouchers. The module makes it easy for any staff to sell and redeem vouchers and, because all vouchers are printed by the system, you can relax, knowing that the proper controls are always followed making the system fully secure. Management reports let you see the status of vouchers sold, redeemed or expired giving full control.

Included in this module are. . .

• Sale of vouchers.
• Printing of vouchers (A4 or receipt printer styles), tailored to your requirements (within reason) including user-editable paragraph on the voucher.
• Voucher number check-digit security.
• Automatic calculation of voucher expiry date (with management override).
• Manager give-away option (e.g. for a radio campaign).
• Voucher redemption against a customer order.
• Optional voucher check of redeeming customer being same as issuing customer.
• Automatic printing of balance voucher if voucher is only partly redeemed.
• Management report on current status of vouchers.
• Protection from redeeming a voucher more than once.
• Automatic nominal ledger entries.

For a free trial of this module, call Optimise Solutions now on 0131 448 0483 and Gordon or Andrew will be glad to help you.

To access this program, from the main menu go to Accounts – Customer – Reports and choose Customer Review. After entering your criteria, a full screen of matches is shown with the option to drill in to the normal enquiry screen for a customer. After closing a customer’s screen the list remains for you to choose another customer or close.

To drill into a customer, either . . .

• use the up/down arrow keys to highlight the customer then press RETURN (or ENTER),
• OR double-click the customer,
• OR click on the customer then choose the DRILL option.

This is available free from version 3.12.0 onwards.

Thank you for your patience over the New Year / start of January period.

When you need to change the VAT rates for suppliers and nominals, download the program again from here and run the last options (8 and 9). The program will show you the options you have run already.

Below is more information about the change itself and what you have to do.

23/12/9: Version 5 released.

30/12/9: Version 6 released. Further FAQs have been added.

Note: Installing and running the VAT Change Program will not make any changes to the database until you select one of the update options. As there are more options available this year, it is worth installing and running the program to review the options.

IMPORTANT NOTE: AS THIS DOWNLOAD MAKES SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO YOUR DATABASE IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU BACK-UP EACH OF YOUR LIVE DATABASES BEFORE YOU START.

Wholesalers: You can use Version 5 or 6. The download below is Version 6.

Retailers: If you do not wish to invoice all outstanding sales orders now at the old rate and you do not wish to invoice the deposits paid against outstanding sales orders now then you can use Version 5 or 6. If  you require to generate special invoices in December for either the deposits paid or the full order value at the old rate then you will require Version 6. The download below is Version 6.

TO DOWNLOAD VERSION 6. . . Click the link below to take you to our “box” download site. You then need to click the “Download (160.6 KB)” button on that page.

FAQs regarding the VAT change have been provided at the end of this blog. Any queries, call the helpdesk on 0131-448-0483 or email support@oltd.co.uk. As our lines may be busy, please also keep checking back to this web page where we will post any other significant information regarding the VAT rate change.

Over the festive period we are operating the following service:-
Thursday 24^th December – Closed.
Friday 25^th December – Closed.
Monday 28^th December – Closed.
Tuesday 29^th December – Emergency Service (call 0131-448-0483 or email support@oltd.co.uk).
Wednesday 30^th December – Emergency Service (call 0131-448-0483 or email support@oltd.co.uk).
Thursday 31^st December – Emergency Service (call 0131-448-0483 or email support@oltd.co.uk).
Friday 1^st January – Closed.
Monday 4^th January – Open.

FAQs

Q. When should the VAT update be run (before or after month end and which month end)?

A. The sequence is as follows:-

1. Run the “Purchase / Nominal” period end for the end of November (if not yet run).

2. Finish posting all sales orders for December.

3. Complete normal end of day / month programs, such as SOP – End of Day – Invoice Summary / Update to invoice December’s invoices.

4. Download and run the VAT Change module (not options 7 or 8 yet).

5. Run the “Sales / Product” period end for the end of December.

6. Later in January, run the VAT Change module options 7 and 8 once the bulk of supplier / nominal postings for the old VAT rate have been posted.

Q. Do I need to download and run the program on our server?

A. No. use your normal client PC.

Q. Does this VAT Change module work for Southern Ireland?

A. Yes. The program knows your locality and will update your system with the VAT reduction.

Q. Does the VAT Change module change the customer’s selling prices on sales orders that are outstanding at the end of December?

A. The update will change the VAT Rate on sales orders outstanding to the new rate. If you have the Optimise Trade system then the goods value will not be changed – it is just the VAT amount that will be changed when the invoice is raised. If you have the Optimise Retail system then the goods value is reduced slightly (increased for Ireland) such that the total price to the customer is unchanged. There is an option to change prices but you have the choice of whether you run that option or not.

Q. If I have more than one database, do I need to run the VAT Change module on each one?

A. Yes. Best thing is to download it from the website and run it on the first database. Once finished, download again and run it on the second database, etc. You don’t need to run it on your test area but you may find it useful. If you have more than one database remember to back up each database before you start.

Q. Can I run the VAT Change Module on the server, e.g. using remote desktop?

A. Yes. It is designed to run from a client but should run on the server.

Q. Can I test the VAT Change program on our test database whilst users are logged into the live database?

A. Yes. When the VAT Change program runs you select the database to change. Only that database is changed and users only need to be logged out of that database.

Q. I downloaded Version 5 already. Should I run that or do I need to download and run Version 6 instead?

A. You should download the latest version now. However Version 5 will be ok to run, depending on your circumstances – refer to the wholesalers / retailers section at the top of this blog for information about which version to run.

Q. I have run Version 5 already. Should I run Version 6?

A. No. If you have run Version 5 and all options you needed were available then you do not need to run Version 6.

We have rolled out a new licensing structure, which will ease the burden on your cash flow. No more will you have to pay a high upfront cost and recurring monthly costs. Under the new structure, licences cost a flat £499 a year. This cost will cover the use of the licence and its support and maintenance for a full year. To extend the licence for another year, you just pay another £499.

What is the catch, you might ask? Actually, none! At the moment a new licence costs £750 upfront and £30 a month towards support. We did the math and found that we are spreading the total cost of the licence over 5 years. The credit crunch was tough on each one of you and this new licensing structure is our way of saying thanks to all of you for having trusted in us.

To purchase those additional licences that you have been putting away for a sunny day, call Optimise Solutions now at 0131 448 0483 and Gordon or Andrew would be glad to help you.