Megaventory Blog

Market research: myerp.com - the innovative SaaS ERP

2012-02-03T16:17:00.001Z

Next on our series of review posts for online ERP providers for small and medium businesses is myERP.com - always with an eye to cover the needs of your fictional MegaComp and of course we'll be reviewing myERP with our usual set of ERP selection criteria.

Features: Following the very positive and minimal first impression of myERP, you can see from the main menu that it address many of the most common everyday issues of a small business. From project management/time logging to CRM and from product/service to vendor management it has split all its tasks to intuitive commands allowing easy creation and viewing of business data. myERP also allows tracking of the company’s financials as well as report creation (P&L, Ledger, Balance, etc) - although there is no manufacturing module.

Data visualisation & export: Visualisation is simple and effective: pretty much everything is either in table or form format, inviting the user to familiarize themselves quickly - also to bore themselves a bit too. Export capabilities include the usual CSV and aesthetically laid out PDF files - always a plus to grab straight from the printer without embarrassing yourself to a collaborator. Also, the myERP API is still in development at the time of writing.

Usability: The most notable feature of myERP is its minimalism and its innovative interface which on the one hand resembles the Google homepage and on the other invites you to type natural language commands. This is impressive and appealing in the beginning but at the end of the day you keep using the main menu and the search bar kind of gets in the way of navigation. Although no help tips or a tutorial is available within myERP there is a separate community site dedicated on handling issues that may arise.

Security: Although not immediately obvious (had to Google search for it) your data in myERP is as reasonably secure as you’d expect. It supports the expected encrypted user authentication and database isolation and also the databases are backed up daily in Amazon S3. In general, myERP offers the levels of security, certification and redundancy offered by Amazon and its AWS given the entire infrastructure is on Amazon.

Data import: Nothing extraordinary or innovative here but the expected method of CSV, while also Quickbooks importing is also supported. It is however worth mentioning that there is some amount of integration with Google Apps if you already keep customer and supplier data there.

Maintenance: As mentioned, there is a medium-size community built around myERP with this and a blog being the primary method of support for any issues that arise. This should be adequate given that most of the problems that one might have with a traditional ERP are handled internally in the case of the Software as a Service myERP. For all other cases, the myERP staff should be standing by.

Miscellaneous: Preset options in many of the fields indicate that myERP taps on the industry’s experience in operations and can probably save you from some trial and error if you’re not from a relevant background. Our data integrity testing was not fully successful though; the gross profit report figures were not correctly updated after the deletion of some items in a document. That can be a quite serious glitch in the system.

Cost: Being free for two users and with any additional users meaning 29 USD per month per user, it’s quite a good bargain - especially given that you can experience the full suite of features before signing up even for a trial account. For MegaComp however, a 9-employee company, that would cost 203 USD per month so it can get quite expensive as users add up. The fact however that myERP is location agnostic helps in keeping costs down.

Overall, myERP is a solution to definitely consider. With a few tens of thousands of users from a 100+ countries and USD 4M raised there is bound to be a level of quality behind it. Polished as it may be though, we find the interface too bold for our preferences and would prefer a more traditional optional alternative. Unless of course myERP is preparing a voice operated version in which case we’ll wait for that...

megaventory 2.6 upgrade (code named: Roma)

2012-01-22T14:16:00.000Z

We are very happy to announce our v2.6 upgrade. This upgrade has introduced some breaking changes to the way Purchase Orders, Sales Quotes and Sales Orders are handled. We explain these changes below:

1. New interface

Since we have introduced a procedural, step-by-step, way to handle orders and quotes we needed to come up with an easy way to help users easily follow through the complicated supply chain steps of a Purchase Order, a Sales Quote and a Sales Order. Here's how the new template looks like (in this example a Purchase Order):

A Purchase Order in the new Template

Note that the text of the old status flags (In process, Invoiced, Paid, Cancelled) has now been reset to: "Custom Order Flag1, 2, 3, etc.". Users wishing to keep their old text in these flags should visit the 'Localize megaventory' page (under the admin panel), look for the 'Custom Order Flag' text and change it accordingly.

2. Multiple file/contract uploads per document

We now allow multiple file uploads per document. The upload mechanism can be found under the 'Related Contract or File' tab.

3. Partial Shipments/Partial Receipts

This feature has long being awaited by our user base and we are really excited to introduce it to megaventory. Users can now choose the quantity to receive against a Purchase Order or the quantity to ship against a Sales Order. Moreover, users can choose to ship/receive now and invoice later or even invoice partially a shipment. Here's how the interface looks:

Partial receipt of products against a Purchase Order

4. Complete History of user activity logs per document.

We now keep a complete history of logs per document so that anyone can see a detailed timeline of the actions performed.

5. Action buttons and related inventory transaction documents

The action buttons control all the operations of the document (in this example the Purchase Order) and all these operations are now performed using web-services so as to minimize page response times. Also, every related document to the order (in our case a Purchase Order) appears under the related documents tab. Here's a screenshot displaying both these features:

Screenshot showing the Action Buttons and the Related Documents tab

6. [Sales Orders only] The 'on-hold quantity' has been replaced by the 'non-shipped quantity'

We now allow a Sales Order to be created even if there is no availability for the products included in the Sales order. All availability information becomes visible to the user at the time of adding the product to the Sales Order. This is shown in the following screenshot:

Sales Order showing the availability information per product per inventory location

Finally, due to the way Purchase and Sales orders are now handled in megaventory, all existing orders (created on or prior to Tuesday the 24th [Jan-2012]) will be:

- Set to the 'verified' status if they were in the 'open' status or

- Set to the 'closed' status if they are in the 'fully shipped' status.

If you have any more questions regarding those breaking changes, please use the support panel of the application (under the help tab) to send us your support ticket. Also, if you want to give us feedback, you may leave your comments below.

Market research: Erply.com – the feature-full SaaS ERP

2012-01-06T12:39:00.000Z

Following up on the previous posts and in an effort to help people decide what is the best ERP solution for them we will be looking into other service providers in the industry. If you don't know what ERP is, you better read this thread instead and come back later.

We’ll be looking into Software-as-a-Service companies who have major offerings of ERP and operations management – perhaps complemented with a few other minor features. However, the emphasis will be on inventory and order management ERP software. ERPs that focus mostly in accounting will be excluded from this market research since these software form a category on their own.

In order to keep the comparison structured and easy to follow we’ll be following the criteria set out in the post explaining how to choose an ERP solution.

The concept of the market research it to look for a suitable platform for your MegaComp, a business with 4 locations and 9 employees in the apparel industry.

So, first on our list is ERPLY at erply.com.

Features: Simply logging into the service it’s clear that ERPLY is a feature-rich service which can cover Point of Sale (PoS), CRM, quoting, invoicing, making payments and purchases, handling inventory. Adding all these modules in a single interface surely needs a bit of effort which has not been done in ERPLY's case; the result is somewhat crammed and counter-intuitive. The capability to have an integrated POS (Point Of Sale) interface with just a click of the button is definitely a big plus for MegaComp and something we feel has been a huge driving force for ERPLY’s adoption and hype.

Data visualisation & export: Reporting is another section where it does well if you’re interested in having every possible feature available for MegaComp. However, the resulting output is -as far as we could see- entirely unstyled for our taste and simply lays out the data - one would expect something just a bit more fancy. Talking about data, the ability to import your business email in the platform makes for an important step towards integrating everything at a single point - definitely a step in the right direction.

Usability: We’ve found the interface overwhelming and hard to navigate. The design should help make sense of the numerous features but it ends up being simply like a spreadsheet with a few cells removed for clarity. On-site help and/or tutorials could have made a difference but they’re not there. On the other hand, the recently launched credit card reader for the iPad POS version takes the service and this particular user scenario to a whole new different level of quality.

Security: Security and backup is something ERPLY takes seriously by owning various servers across the world under specific protocol and surveillance. The various levels of security covering issues from credit card information storage to customer data being accessed only via ssh and https protocols are more than enough to relax even the most paranoid businessman - although there probably aren’t that many of those in the small and medium business tier (or if there are, their number is decreasing).

Data import: The data seem to be importable by the regular CSV method – although we had to verify that by a Google search instead of seeing an option somewhere on the interface. We should also mention of course that ERPLY integrates with established e-commerce platforms (e.g Magento, Opencart, etc) which makes it very appealing if you’ve already invested in them.

Maintenance: Support-wise there are adequate options in the shape of email, phone and a (rather sparsely populated) zendesk installation. As usual though, having a dedicated team protecting your data and handling all the platform maintenance issues (instead of you managing servers, software etc) removes a huge worry off your mind - especially when backed by a professional solution like erply.

Miscellaneous: We were pleasantly surprised by the fact that erply.com supports multiple languages and is partly localized to even include Greek company types in its categorization – although we’re not sure erply.com is as impressive in other languages. We bet that the extensive localization lies on the fact that ERPLY started in Estonia and the founders understand that there is a significant non-english speaking market for ERP SaaS offerings. Also, the capability to work offline is another serious plus especially if you want to take the POS module in an expo or generally in the field.

Cost: MegaComp -a 9 employee and 4 locations company- would have to pay 225USD/mo. That can be too much if the business is basically only now starting. On the other hand, the single location, 2 user version works with 50K product codes for 70USD/mo - a quite good value for money option.

In short, ERPLY is a feature-rich, very decent solution. One might say it is too rich in features and focuses less in the usability; its user interface is counter intuitive for the average employee who wants to get the job done instead of getting lost in the tool. If you are specifically looking for a POS software, then you should definitely consider it. But even if the POS is not your basic criterion, erply.com is a major player in the market and should be given serious thought.

Why megaventory?

2012-01-02T18:24:00.000Z

In some previous posts, we have covered the business software basics. For a review, see series of blog posts on what is ERP, why you need ERP, how to choose ERP and why cloud ERP is better. We also posted a very interesting study regarding business software adoption and what’s necessary for people to use ERP. The time has come to see how does megaventory stack up against those criteria and help you decide whether megaventory is the right tool for your business or organization.

For the sake of argument let’s assume you run an imaginary company, MegaComp Corporation, a 9-employee company in the apparel industry spread in 4 locations within North America with worldwide operations. Your MegaComp Corporation has not been around that long but it’s enough to start feeling the pain of holding it all together using Excel or Google Docs. As such, you are on the market for a solution to organize your business primarily in terms of inventory & order management.

Features: Megaventory lies in the sweet spot between features and usability. We are not SAP, Oracle or Netsuite and we don’t want to be like them. They are designed to cover large enterprises with hundreds of different operations. Small businesses like yours have completely different needs: you need a set of features to run MegaComp Corporation effectively but not such a heavy set that will distract you from getting the job done. The features should primarily aim at tracking the flow of inventory and the changes from sales and purchases. All interactions between MegaComp Corporation and your clients and suppliers should be handled and logged in a simple and easy manner. At the same time, a good reporting tool will give insights about which products sell best or worst, their availability and total inventory value - to name just a few of the figures you, as a manager, might need.

Data visualisation & export: Megaventory provides a pleasant and helpful platform where you and your employees can easily understand and follow through on what’s going on in the company at any given time. Obviously, the data should also be easily exportable in all common formats for use outside the application, for example by collaborators.

Usability: We have put a lot of effort to keep the learning curve of megaventory as low as possible with a design that is so simple and subtle that it doesn’t get in the way. Explanatory diagrams are important in the layout and bring to life what’s going on when someone performs an action. Online help tips provide on the spot clarifications eliminating almost any need to contact support. The initial set-up tutorial of megaventory is self descriptive and -at the same time- explain the basic functionalities of the software.

Security: The industry standard is present in megaventory.com with 128-bit encryption being used for login and data transfers while daily & weekly server backups provide insurance against disaster. All in all, we address most concerns a small business owner might have for his business data.

Data import: The usual approach of uploading a CSV with the various company data is available while we also offer spreadsheet templates which make data import as effortless and fast as humanly possible.

Maintenance: Since megaventory.com works purely on the cloud we take all of your maintenance worries off your mind and we handle everything in the background including hardware and software upgrades, repairs and backups. Other than that, there is email support for those rare times that something does go wrong or needs clarifying – and of course we’re available on this blog and Twitter!

Miscellaneous: In the latest update, we are pushing the necessary feature of partial sales and purchases and we’ll introduce history logs along with a number of other features. It is also worth mentioning that megaventory supports 8 languages other than English and can be seamlessly used from a tablet platform.

Cost: Our pricing is probably the sweetest asset of megaventory.com with starting packages going for as little as USD29/month for 5 users & 5 locations making it ideal for your MegaComp or any other small and medium business. That is as low as 6 dollars per user per month. You simply cannot get a better deal than that.

Megaventory scores high in all major points! It offers a feature-set that covers most needs of a typical multi-location small business while at the same time enabling a super rapid adoption due to our expertly designed user interface.

Delay in upgrading megaventory

2011-12-18T22:22:00.002Z

Dear megaventory friends,

the upgrade of today just got delayed for at least one more week. The reason is that the testing of the ordering module is taking longer than anticipated and we did not want to introduce a half-baked and buggy edition. We need a bit more testing before the new version goes live but we really believe that the result will exceed the expectations of our users.

We are sorry for the inconvenience,

The megaventory team

A study for business & manufacturing software

2011-12-14T10:49:00.000Z

Our previous posts on what is ERP, how ERP software can help your company and how to choose what's the best service for your business out there should give a nice introduction to our 'software for businesses' world. There's another important aspect however, before a company can benefit from ERP - its employees need to fully embrace and use it!

In 2011 a study was undertaken by IFS North America among middle to large manufacturer professionals in order to understand which type of software employees want to use so that they can actually do their everyday work without headaches.

The reason of the study was that very often companies spend considerable sums of money to set a management system that ends up being underused and the employees resorting to other solutions (primarily the all too familiar Excel spreadsheet). This results in lost value for the company which paid to buy the management system, less security when working outside the specified standards and less ways to attribute credit (and blame!) where it's due.

The highlights of this study are better understood by the feedback the participants gave - here are a few of their comments:

“The interface needs to be seamless and intuitive. We don't have learning curve time anymore”

“Make the transition between new and legacy systems less painful”

“Make it very easy to access -including from smartphones- and user friendly”

“The tools must be reliable & flexible, safe and secure over network access”

“Make it easy for me to use remotely but with fast data transfer speeds”

“Just show me the information I need and don't waste my time with 'pretty' graphics”

In essence, according to this study, for a new management system to be successfully adopted by the employees it should be quick to set up and ready to use as soon as possible (including importing existing information from whatever previous system is being used). It should ensure security in the transactions (whether on a desktop or a mobile device) and it should focus on the important information without too many bells and whistles (while at the same time of course being easy on the eye). Obviously all this should also come at an appropriately fair price, which is also flexible structured (who needs to commit to long contracts these days?).

Do you think the users ask much? We think they have the right to do so!

Megaventory Upgrade & Scheduled Downtime [Sunday, 18th of December 2011]

2011-12-09T09:22:00.001Z

Megaventory will be down for a scheduled upgrade on Sunday the 18th of December 2011, starting at 8AM (UTC). In this upgrade we will proudly introduce some very cool features, including:

New Improved Ordering Module:

Partial Sales Order Shipping & Purchase Order Receiving
Faster ordering page loading speed
Sales & Purchase Order history logs
Multiple file attachments per Sales & Purchase Order
Better Sales & Purchase Order integration with Inventory Transactions

Sub Location / Bin Location Support
ProForma Printouts
Contacts Import

We have also fixed more than 30 bugs based on the feedback we got from our users so, please keep the feedback coming. We are committed to make Megaventory easier and faster so you can run your business better!

What's cloud ERP and why it's better than traditional ERP?

2011-12-03T12:30:00.000Z

Once you're in the market for an ERP solution for your business sooner or later you're going to have to choose whether to have one installed in your offices or whether to use the more modern subscription based Software-as-a-Service (or 'in the cloud') approach.

The traditional solution means finding and approaching vendors who'll make you an offer in order to install and customise their desktop based (mostly PC-based) solution for your particular business needs - usually charging per user or installation plus monthly or yearly support fees. Once there, you'd have to devote (your or your employees’) time to learn the new way of handling things and later spend more for maintenance and extensions to it. You do keep the significant advantage that all your data and its handling is in your hands instead of an external party. However, that may also become a disadvantage: you're the only one responsible if something goes wrong or you have to call external help to handle it.

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The past couple of years the tables have turned and it's much easier, more flexible, cheaper and generally more efficient to allow your business to benefit from improved organisation. These days the sensible thing to do is to look for a cloud-based ERP solution. This practically means that you don't install anything in any of your company’s computers but rather you buy a subscription-based license to run an already installed package running securely somewhere on the internet. Moreover, the software runs from any web-browser so you can even access it from your smartphone or tablet device.

Without going into too much technical detail though, it most importantly means that somebody else takes care of pretty much everything non-core. All the installation, customisation and maintenance troubles go away which is a huge gain as it allows the employees to focus on work itself and not the tools. And - assuming your cloud ERP vendor has built an intuitive and quick to learn system, all you have to do is just choose a vendor and import the company’s data (also a largely automated process).

Overall cost is much lower this way and you get 'for free' what is complicated and expensive in the traditional method: the capability to use the ERP regardless of your physical location. So if your business has a number of venues spread across the country or countries, e.g. a number of shops with separate warehouse locations, you can benefit from a cloud based ERP for a fraction of the cost you would need with the traditional approach.

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If you want to quickly get an idea of how all this works in practice, go on and give megaventory.com a try, the perfect example of what an ERP that targets small businesses should look like these days. And don't forget to tell us your impressions!

How would you choose ERP for your business?

2011-12-01T14:44:00.000Z

Having asked ‘What is ERP’ and having shown what it can do, the question that comes naturally is how to select which solution is right for my small business or organization. The options are numerous and there is in fact an entire business ecosystem around this specific question (consultants, resellers and companies that help you decide and/or implement the solution for you). It's a huge subject but we'll try to cover the basis to get you started.

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Regardless of the specific nature of your small business, there are a number of criteria that you need to consider and apply in pretty much all cases. So here’s what you should take into account as a small business owner.

Features: Obviously whatever you choose needs to cover the basic aspects of your business requirements. Your choice will be different if you want to make your inventory management more efficient compared to handling better your customers and sales leads - or if you want to improve how you work on both fields. It’s important to prioritise your goals as most of the best solutions out there -targeted to small and middle size business- also focus on doing one or two things well. So, the feature set they offer should match your goals as closely as possible. Note that having more features than needed might sound like a good thing to have but, in reality, it adds unnecessary complexity and increases the learning curve (and drives hidden costs higher).

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Data visualisation & export: Can your ERP generate a printable report of all interactions with customers, suppliers, affiliates etc? How about aggregate data graphs or end of month/year reports? What level of detail can the ERP provide in how your business works? Again, simplicity but also completeness in data visualization is key to understanding your business with a snapshot. Can you easily share this information among employees? Also, if you decide to change systems in the future is your information locked in the current ERP?

Usability: Perhaps a make-or-break aspect is how easy it is to understand how the software works in a glance. Do you and your employees have to undergo lengthy training to learn and change the way they work? Or is the solution so well designed that you’ll hardly ever need a manual? The abundance of solutions out there makes this particular criterion potentially the decisive factor: The ERP with the shallower learning curve usually prevails over the ERP with the most features. This is true especially in very small businesses.

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Security: You’re trusting your crucial business data somewhere that at least initially feels foreign and you should be sure that proper encryption and security measures are in place where necessary. At the same time, security should be as much as needed, it shouldn’t get in the way of usability and you should ‘buy’ to the extent that you need it (e.g. there’s more reason for it if you know that in the past a competitor has been after your data)

Data import: It’s important to consider - especially if your business has been running for a few years now - how and to what extent will you be able to import your existing information into the new system. This is a function of what format your data are in currently, how well organised and easy to process are and to what extent you’ll need to manually edit in order to be able to start to actually work with them.

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Maintenance: Once the system is in place, it’s not the end of the story. You will not to consider who and how much it will cost to maintain it and in what way it can be upgraded to include further features or needs that will arise in the future. Also, consider hardware equipment and additional licenses you might need as well as what the backup scheme in case of disaster. Hosted or Software-as-a Service solutions usually offer this out of the box so small business owners do not have to deal with upgrades, maintenance and installations. All is needed in the latter case is a web-browser and an Internet connection.

Miscellaneous: Apart from the above points there are a number of other details that are easy to forget but can hugely limit your solution if left unchecked. Most likely the system needs to support multiple currencies (e.g. in its reports) or have product tracking capabilities. Furthermore, there might be industry- or business-specific individual needs that must be covered in your particular case. Finally, government or institutions might require that certain regulations are met and a system that doesn’t support them is of little use.

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Cost: Of course, once you have an idea of what you’re after, then comes the issue of what it costs both to begin with but also in the long run. Usually the core spend is a function of the users (or machines) the software will be installed for but other costs may also be involved.

Another important distinction is whether the ERP will be installed in your computers or whether it should run on the cloud. We look at this issue in the next post but before that let us know in the comments if you feel there are there any other factors that should be considered before deciding on ERP.

How we met Mark Suster: a non stalking approach

2011-11-29T19:26:00.001Z

VIP people are difficult to get a meeting with. So, how do you get to arrange a meeting with them? One may follow the stalking approach which Christine Comaford supports that worked for her every time. However, at the end of her post, she felt she had to ask for apology from the person she met (in her case Steve Jobs). Why? Because stalking just doesn’t feel right. And when you approach people in such ways, the problematic nature of this approach usually sticks around for quite a long time, even if the two parties grow a business or friendly relationship afterwards.

There are numerous alternative ways to approach someone famous; simple and innovative ways mostly work. If you are an entrepreneur, you should know that Mark Suster is a VIP in this ecosystem. Here is what we did do get to meet him.

Our technique was inspired by Alec Brownstein, who placed an Ad while he was looking for a new job. If you don’t have the time to go through the above post, here is a short video that explains what this guy did.

Brilliant! Think of it as waiting for the fish to come to the bait. Then, the only think you have to do is just wait (it is not unusual to forget you placed the bait out there in the first place). This is how our Ad looked like:

In our case, we got the idea a bit further by also adding a nice landing page. The landing page included a small gift: a handmade sketch of Mark Suster and looked like this:

(kudos to isketchyouridea for the handmade sketch)

So, not only you inform someone of your presence and intentions, you do it unobtrusively (no stalking) and you also give a small personalized gift that can draw a positive reaction and a smile. Here is how Mark Suster reacted (twitter screenshot):

Great! Everything is going according to plan.

So, next step is to connect. We screwed up a bit here because we did not know how to connect. The easiest think that comes to mind is to use e-mail and that was what we did. Unfortunately, Mark Suster is known for not responding much to e-mails and we did not do our prior research on that. So, two of our e-mails and reminders went unanswered and we thought that it just did not work out. Then, after nearly 3 months, an e-mail pops in our inbox:

“Were you the team that wanted to meet?”

Wow! Mark Suster was actually looking for us in the internet. He visited our website and made the step to connect to us. We replied back and at the same day we set up a later meeting in his offices in LA. The reason he searched for us after almost 3 months is that our approach towards him made a very positive impression. One that I doubt you could have with the stalking approach.

I am not suggesting you should copy the same approach nor that you shouldn’t do so. This post is about expressing innovation in the approach procedure just as you express innovation with your startup. It is an example of thinking out-of-the-box (again, the original idea is not ours but Alec Brownstein’s) to get from point A to B.

Why do you need ERP for you business?

2011-11-25T14:44:00.000Z

We briefly explained what ERP is and what’s its power is: that it can handle in a unified and efficient way - and as such simplify - many aspects of your business.
So, what can an ERP solution help you with? What problems can it help you solve and what does it allow you to do practically?

To begin with, it can allow you to properly keep your books in order. Hugely important and something every business needs to address from day one, getting your business financials straight is essential. That includes general budget uses, paying your employees their salaries and covering their benefits, managing your cash and assets, to name a few. Whats more, all this is laid out and organized to include all the best practices and industry and regulation standards - so that you don't have to implement them on your own.

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Other than that, ERP can help with the manufacturing aspect of your business. Taken in the most broad sense this means the entire process of taking one set of components, using tools or machines and/or labor and turning them into a finished product. ERP can be there for you regardless of whether you're making and selling shoes or microchips. It can handle work order, bill of materials, general inventory management, placement of orders and purchases, supplier interaction and many other things along those lines.

Core business aside, ERP can greatly simplify interaction with the customers and improve the sales process, including marketing, promotion, following up and processing leads etc, In addition to this, it can do that seamlessly either on the retail/B2C level (end users) or on the B2B level (affiliates, suppliers etc). At the same time ERP makes it easy to understand what's going on in your company (what's collectively called Business Intelligence) by allowing you to create reports, enable alerts and perform simple or complex data mining. It can let you assign metrics to actions and assets and to generally be able to better judge what works well and what doesn't in your business - which is a hugely important advantage.

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So, having this advanced level of organization is definitely crucial - but how does one select which solution is best for them? Again there is considerable literature on the subject out there but we'll give our version in the next post.

So, what's 'ERP' really?

2011-11-20T20:11:00.001Z

Since we've been in the process of explaining what ERP is via a video, we might as well put it in words for those who prefer this medium.

So, ERP (or Enterprise Resource Planning), is basically about how to manage whatever resources you have available for your business - simple as that. When you're just starting off and you're on your own or with just a few employees, running your company is quite straightforward; even pen and paper will do. But once business picks up and the customer base increases, you start expanding, hire more people, develop a broader range of products or services, etc, then things start getting complicated. Complexity can actually escalate pretty quickly and you need to be systematic and thorough to avoid mistakes and taking a loss - or worse.

The most immediate solution that people think of to solve this problem is to use a spreadsheet. Much as it is flexible and popular, a spreadsheet is simply not designed for this type of work and you will very quickly see its shortcomings. It takes a lot of time to do a simple job (especially given the repetitive nature of certain tasks), automation is limited and data entry errors start to become quite common. Also, connecting of the various spreadsheets between them can only go so far and it's generally hard or expensive or both to make a spreadsheet talk with the rest of the world. And even if somehow you can manage with the above, keeping all people involved synchronized and the business data updated is hugely impractical.

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Since it soon becomes quite a feat to handle everything simply by throwing spreadsheets at it (let alone pen & paper), a number of software solutions have been developed to help businessmen and employees save themselves time and avoid making mistakes. It is these solutions that are the ERP and they come in all shapes and sizes primarily depending on the target business size, complexity and industry. Some are broad and can cover all needs a large corporation might have (including direct monitoring of a factory plant, for example) while others are limited and can support only basic functions - which can still make a huge difference for the small enterprise though. Some are specialized for particular industries while others are generic and can work for many businesses with minimum customization. The field is only a couple of decades old but has evolved considerably both in breadth and width - the literature and experience available out there is immense.

Before moving on to the subject of how one picks the right ERP solution we’ll take a look at what specific needs it can cover in a business and give detailed reasons why it makes sense to use it. In the meantime, if all this struck a cord and it feels too close to home, let us know how you feel at the comments.

Check out our new Megaventory.com promo video!

2011-11-10T13:47:00.000Z

Given the major upgrade that took place here in megaventory.com (actually half of the upgrade, more features are coming up soon) over the past couple of weeks, we thought it'd be a good idea to create a short video explaining what it is we do and how you can benefit from it.

We hope you enjoy it and that you let us know what you think of it or share it with your friends or anyone who might have a business in immediate need of better organization. Also, huge thanks to isketchyouridea.com for putting it all together with love and craftsmanship.

Pre-Sales in Megaventory: Sales Quotes

2011-11-02T11:02:00.000Z

Since in the past couple of weeks we’ve been super busy implementing and smoothing the edges for a number of new awesome features and upgrades, it might be a good idea to go over some of the most important ones and show how dead simple it is to include them in your business work flow!

Don't just take our words for this. Just to illustrate, let’s assume that we’re looking at bountifulpantry.com, an actual small business that is using megaventory's modules to produce and sell food products in the US market. In particular they sell some delicious handmade soup products and Gluten Free Meat Mixes. bountifulpantry.com is based in the beautiful island of Nantucket, MA where they have their main workshop facilities, offices and e-shop - all in one location.

bountifulpantry.com's main B2B client is the imaginary Hyper Supermarket chain and it is once again time to prepare a quote for them. Hyper Supermarket has asked for a variety of a quantity of 100 soup mixes that bountifulpantry.com makes. Pat, the employee responsible for sending the quote clicks on Orders in megaventory’s main menu and brings up the Sales Quote form.

The Sales Quote process consists of 3 stages. First, the draft is created and Pat can easily retrieve all related client data (including the contact person) simply by selecting Hyper Supermarket from the Client menu.

Once there, it’s just a simple task of filling in the Black Bean Soup code (SKU) of BLBESOUP and the quantity requested by Hyper Supermarket. It is certainly helpful to know that you can use the 'tab' key to move around the text fields.

Note that a special discount (agreed between bountifulpantry.com and Hyper Supermarket) also applies in addition to the usual tax. Special Remarks can also be added on a per-row basis.

Once Save and Update is clicked the Draft is saved so it can be searchable within the Sales Quotes list; Pat can now go to the Quotes List, select the particular Quote and print it out or send it via e-mail to Maria, their contact in Hyper Supermarket.

Later, when Maria calls back with some changes for the quote, Pat can edit the Quote, change and update it and then send it for a further last check. When Maria eventually accepts the Quote, Pat selects the Accept Quote option and by doing so, the process can wrap up by completing the Sales Quote and creating an actual Sales Order (last step of the process) based on the Quote without further hassle.

Using the above procedure, the intuitive user interface of megaventory.com makes the tracking of the pre-sale process easy as a-b-c.

In short, this quick example shows how easy to use and intuitive megaventory.com is. Pat can go through the entire process in practically one -complete with helpful tips- screen and with most of the fields being automatically filled in. This means Pat had to spend only a few minutes and move on straight to the next item on her to-do list (while also saving time from the future job of placing the order). Finally, she could also be doing all this from the comfort of her home, as megaventory.com is web-based.

What does all that mean for you? It simply means that you can now better organize your sales efforts, regardless of where you are, save time and avoid mistakes during the early sales process of your company or organization. All around awesome.

Megaventory - Scheduled Upgrade

2011-09-05T10:09:00.000+01:00

Megaventory will be down for a scheduled upgrade this coming Sunday (the 11th of September, 2011), starting from 8 AM GMT (UTC). In this upgrade we proudly introduce some very cool features, including but not limited to:

-Sales Quotes

-Personalized Megaventory URL and Login screen

-Printouts of Picking/Packing/Delivery Slips

-Contacts Management

-Better & easier User Permissions (separate user permissions for Orders & Inventory Transactions)

We are committed to make Megaventory better and faster so, please feel free to send any suggestions or feedback you may have about this upgrade.

Happy Megaventing!

Geographical Distribution of Clients

2011-03-12T11:30:00.009Z

We have been analyzing statistics of our premium (paying) clients and the results show that the US is clearly leading the way in megaventory; more than half of our clients are US based companies/organizations. The US is then followed by European countries (EU & Switzerland) at 16% and then Middle East comes in with 7%. If we also consider the difference in internet users between US and EU [230M Vs. 340M] we see that the 16% EU figure is undoubtedly a very small figure.

To our understanding there are two main reasons for that a) Complexity of EU Tax requirements and b) unwillingness of EU users to work with cloud applications for their businesses (despite efforts put by EU to address that matter).

We'd love to see similar demographics of other -business related- cloud apps regarding their client distribution.

Delay in upgrading to version 2.4

2011-02-15T14:48:00.003Z

Hello folks!

We are experiencing a small delay in the implementation of version 2.4 which will introduce -among other things- a manufacturing (work Order) module in megaventory. We had to deliver v2.4 about two weeks ago but we are working hard to upgrade any time soon. We are really sorry for the inconvenience!

Megaventory new exciting features!

2010-12-20T11:12:00.007Z

We have been silent in the blog lately but that does not mean we are not active in megaventory. In fact it is quite the opposite: we are so busy developing megaventory that we do not find time to blog! Below you will find some of the major features of versions 2.1, 2.2 and the last 2.3 :

A new splash-screen (homepage) has been designed. The login page has been transferred to a clean separate page without images & brand logo
The live demo pages are now directly accessible from the menu (no typing is required)
All images have been added to an image sprite to increase the megaventory response time
All client side code (Javascript) has been merged to one file to increase the megaventory response/loading time
All Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files have been merged to one file to increase he megaventory response/loading time
A backup number restriction has been set to restrict users from taking an indefinite number of backups
All grids and reports are now exportable by a single click in the associated export filetype button
The product Import now includes a default supplier and a product category column
More Product attribute columns have been added to the On-Hand availability page
When a new user is set-up by the administrator, the system can automatically email the new user with his/her username and password
The Transaction/Order/Invoice form has been completely redesigned to speed up the form filling process (60-80% faster data entry)
The drilldown details of reports have been made customizable (columns may be added) and exportable
A calendar filter has been added in reports. Users can now filter by Current Month, Previous Month and Today.
The report graph has been made exportable in PDF,Excel & Image (png) formats
A new searchbox has been added in the dashboard page. It quickly fetches SKU related information (availability and Orders/Transactions) from the database.
The User Permissions page has been improved in terms of usability and speed.
When the user selects Location and Supplier/Client, prior to an Order or a Transaction, a business workflow image gets populated automatically to assist the user in understanding the options chosen

Next but not last, we will be very busy developing a manufacturing related module (Work Order from raw materials to produce finished goods) during the holiday season. We'll keep you updated on that!

Megaventory v2.0 Upgrade

2010-07-31T18:25:00.004+01:00

Megaventory is growing day by day and we are introducing new features together with improving the user interface so that our users -no matter how much of a computer experts they are-, they will nevertheless feel comfortable with any technical operation. Having said that, let us share our enthousiasm for our v2.0 upgrade. This is our biggest upgrade yet and we are proud to introduce some incredible features and improvements. As usual, we fix some bugs (!). Here is the long list:

[Generic] (Design)

All buttons have been iconized
All buttons have a different font and background color according to their usage inside megaventory
Messages, Warnings and Errors have been styled as such with appropriate container boxes and icons
A loading class is added to text fields fetching data with the autocomplete so the user will know that something is happening in the background
The menu has bee redesigned and made shorter. It takes less vertical space and enables better visibility
The megaventory logo has been made smaller in size and repositioned above the menu

(Navigation and Textual Changes)

Page Names have been changed to exactly match those of the menu.
"Upload Language Pack" has been renamed to "Use Language Pack"
"Clear User-Defined Strings" has been renamed to "Reset All Strings"
"Customize Megaventory" has been renamed to "Localize Megaventory"
"Account Logs" has been renamed to "Activity Logs"
"Ordering" has been renamed to "Orders"
"Reporting" has been renamed to "Reports"
"Home" has been renamed to "Dashboard"
"Restrict to one supplier" has been renamed to "Restrict to main supplier"
"Past transaction invoices issued under this transaction" has been renamed to "Past transactions already issued under this transaction"
"My Inventory (OnHand Inventory)" has been renamed to "OnHand Inventory & Alerts"
"Transaction Number Or SKU" has been renamed to "SKU or Row Remarks"
"Cannot be changed once transaction is created" has been renamed to "Cannot be changed once transaction type is created"
"Cancel and get back to the supplier list. Do you want to continue?" has been renamed to "Cancel and get back to the supplier/clients list. Do you want to continue?"

[Grid Pages] (ALL)

The Grid Fields can be chosen with a checkbox instead of dragging and dropping each one separately
A hover effect has been introduced to the grid rows
A new style has been introduced to the grid column when the column is sorted
A new style has been introduced to the grid row when the row is chosen
Grid buttons "Export", "Edit", "Delete" display the number of grid rows chosen by the user.
In multiple edit or export button at least one checkbox should be selected. If not, a message is displayed.
The filter row now filters by "contains" instead of "starting with"
The search term is yellow highlighted inside the grid
The "Clear Filter" text has been changed with an icon

[Dashboard]

Complete redesign of the dashboard to include just the critical megaventory operations.
A new panel has been introduced with the user saved reports. Users can now access their saved reports from the homepage

[Reports] (ALL)

The "Show More Fields" in Reports has been moved to the bottom as in other grid pages
The Currency icon and respective dropdown has been made a dropdown and moved to the top
The Date icon and respective chackboxes have been made a dropdown and moved to the top
The Save Report block has been made a modal box
The Saved Reports block has been made a modal box.
The Report Fields can be chosen with a checkbox instead of dragging and dropping each one separately

[Products] (under Maintenance)

A default -no image available- image has been introduced in case the user doesn't introduce a URL for the image
In multiple edit, the supplier price needs is taken out and a bug with a disabled button was fixed.

[Transactions] (under Maintenance)

The transaction description has been made unique. This is checked when the user creates it
The invoicing info has been included in the grid
A tick icon has been used instead of the "Show" text

[Suppliers/Clients] (under maintenance)

When child products were chosen to be moved to another supplier the application was throwing an exception if no supplier was chosen

[Orders] Order List

The search button has been moved underneath the radios & checkboxes in the header
The radios and checkboxes have been moved to a new section, next to the search textbox
The search textbox searches for SKUs and Order Remarks (instead of SKUs and Order Numbers).
The search term (of the textbox in the header) still filters the page even if the user navigated away from the page. To clear the filter a link has been added

[Transactions] Transaction List

The search textbox searches for SKUs and Order Remarks (instead of SKUs and Order Numbers).
The search term (of the textbox in the header) still filters the page even if the user navigated away from the page. To clear the filter a link has been added

[Generic] (Functional)

A new "Return type Transaction" has been introduced. The transaction when issued gets items inside the inventory locations and updates costs and -probably- revenues (according to the outbound transaction used to send things out).
The Warehouse Receipt or the Consignment Note can now be invoiced partially.

[Onhand-Inventory and Alerts]

New page design
The header has been redesigned. Each searh operation has its own panel
The inventory location abbreviations have been removed from each row and added on the header to remove unnesessary repetitions
The commited SKUs have been made a link to the Order List page. The page opens up prefiltered with open orders including the SKU and the inventory location chosen.
Added the unit price -as a column- in the Onhand-Inventory and Alerts inventory page
In the autocomplete search textbox, a JavaScript error has been corrected.
The pop-up products, if invoked from the On-Hand Inventory and Alerts page does not close the browser window once the user presses update

[Sales Order] (InvoiceMid.aspx)

A short tooltip is added to explain the behavior of the drop-ship Sales Order. The Wikipedia link redirecting to an outside link is deleted.
A short tooltip has been added according to the selection of the transaction type the user chose
Drop Shipment Order is now converted to a label for the respective checkbox [applies in Sales Orders only]
The plus icons have been made small links so that users can add on-the-fly new entities (locations/clients etc)
A watermark has been added to dropdown controls to help users understand the behavior of the drop-down controls in this page

[Trace Inventory Changes]

Results are not displayed before the user conducts a search

[Activity Logs] (under Admin Settings)

fixed a bug where the onhand inventory changes had an image similar to the supplier inventory changes

[Localize Megaventory] (under Admin Settings)

The success image is not displayed on blur if the user did not change the text

[Manage Currencies] (under Admin Settings)

A tick icon has been used instead of the "Show" text
The update costs button make it available if an exchange rate takes place

[User List] (under Admin Settings)

A circle icon has been added to indicate when a user is online (instead of text)
A permissions icon has been added instead of the "permissions" text

[Data Import] (under maintenance)

The page has a new design

[Inbound/Outbound Transactions and Orders] (inout.aspx)

When a user clicks the last (x) in the inout form, then the server was throwing exception. This is fixed.
A new order/transaction form design is introduced. When the rows exceed a number of lined, then the from is bounded by a box to ease visibility.

[Supplier Inventory]

the button has been deleted. The drop-down menu is used for the postback of data

Megaventory Upgrade to Version 1.2

2010-05-16T09:24:00.004+01:00

We just upgraded to version 1.2 of megaventory and we are proud to introduce some very exciting features such as the addition of Order Approval -which greatly simplifies procurement in large companies or organizations- or the mechanism to upload transactions by using a csv file. On top of those, we added two new account types to cope with the requirements of our large clients. As usual, we fix some bugs. Here is the long list:

New Account Types and discontinuance of the Basic (free) Account: (Generic)

Two new account types have been introduced to megaventory. The Enterprise Account supports up to 30 users, 20.000 SKUs and 15 Inventory locations. The Corporate Account supports up to 100 users, 50.000 SKUs and 20 Inventory locations. In the same context, the Basic (free) Account will stop to exist but users already subscribed to the Basic Account will still receive their services for free. Finally the Trial Account is now a 30 day trial (instead of 10 day trial) and creates a Premium Account (instead of a Premium+ Account).

New Order Approval Feature: inout.aspx (Purchase Order form page)

A Purchase Order approval is introduced to megaventory. This includes a complete approval history and an embedded alerting (by emails) function to notify users involved in the Order Approval process

New Transactions Import Feature and Bug Fixes: ProductImport.aspx (Data Import page)

Feature: We developed a simple mechanism to upload transactions to megaventory which is using an Excel Template to be saved as a csv file and eventually get imported to megaventory. This can be helpful in companies already using an invoicing/Ordering system since now, they can export their invoices/orders/transactions and import them to megaventory in under a minute!
Bug Fix: The Tax and email field is added to the excel files (in supplier/client import)
Bug Fix: Updated some text in the excel files (import) because of introduced changes in the customization strings of the application

New Feature and Bug Fix: inout.aspx (Transaction - PO/SO Form page)

Feature: A new design is introduced in the transactions/order form. The SKU textbox gets focus automatically when the row is opened (no mouse action is required). We expect this feature to speed up the whole transaction/ordering process. In the same context, the quantity is automatically set to 1 (the field was empty before).
Bug Fix: A user with slow connection could click save multiple times when saving an order or a transaction. This could result in availability discrepancies (Gross Profit was not affected). This is now fixed. Two transactions of one megaventory account were affected by this bug and respective stocks of 7 products were reverted to their correct values.

New Feature: EditUser.aspx (Edit/Delete User page)

The email field been added in the Edit User page and is now editable.

Tutorial Bug (Home Page)

The tutorial was still showing the 1st tutorial part even-though the user has completed all required tutorial steps. This is now fixed.

New Feature and Bug Fixes: OrderList.aspx/InvoiceList.aspx (Order List & Transactions List page)

Bug Fix: The Total Value was not displaying possible discounts and taxes. This is now fixed.
Bug Fix: The Total Value/Quantity (in the transactions list) text can now be customized by the user.
New Feature: A column that displays the link of the uploaded document/file has been introduced to the list.

Bug Fix: Warehousestock.aspx (My Inventory page)

The user was not able to export individual location stocks in 'my inventory pages. This is now fixed.

New Feature: Report1.aspx (Product Movement Report)

The weight is now added in the Products Movement report page to help businesses dealing with bulk quantities.

Bug Fix: PrintInvoice.aspx

The supplier code was not displayed. This is now fixed.

New Feature: InvoiceMid.aspx (Create New Transaction/Order page)

A user is now able to add a new supplier/client, a new transaction type or a new location on the fly by clicking the (+) image.

Bug Fix: StockTrace.aspx (Trace My Availability Changes page)

The clear filter option was not displayed in the grid. This is now fixed.

Bug Fix: Generic

A bug prevented the URL parameters to redirect the user to the correct page when the session was lost or if the user was coming from an external page. This is now fixed.

That is all for the time being. Next scheduled upgrade will take place in 2-3 weeks with some exciting new features!

We are hiring!

2010-04-17T14:55:00.005+01:00

We are looking for the best junior guy/girl to market and sell megaventory. We offer a 6-month contract (initially) to someone who:

Thinks that he/she can get more followers than Ashton Kutcher
Thinks that he/she can sell better than Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

So, if you pursue the job security that a large company offers more than the job excitement that you get working for a startup company, please apply here: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/careers/

If not, send us an email at: info-at-megaventory.com with your CV and references. Don't forget that you will be getting more points if you have a relevant university degree, speak many languages and provide good references. You will be working from your home and your location is irrelevant to the selection procedure.

Megaventory upgrade to version 1.1b

2010-04-05T09:17:00.004+01:00

With a small delay (version 1.1b went live 10 days ago), we are listing below the new features and fixed bugs of the release of megaventory version 1.1b. This release mainly introduces the addition of discounts and taxes to megaventory inbound/outbound transactions (or PO/SO forms). As usual, we fix some bugs. Here is the list:

New Page: Taxes.aspx

A new page is introduced where Taxes and Discounts can be defined. These are available as a drop-down option when creating inbound or outbound transactions or Purchase/Sales Orders.

New tutorial design:

A new simplified design is introduced when starting a fresh megaventory account. This shall make the initial process simpler since two options have been removed (Purchase Order & Create new user).Finally, the user has now the option to hide the tutorial.

New design: Transaction - PO/SO Form

A new design is introduced in the transactions/order form. The 1st row of the form is now editable by default (user does not have to click to edit the 1st row). We expect this feature to speed up the whole transaction/ordering process.

New Feature: Report3.aspx (Inventory Value)

The weight field been added in the inventory value report

New Feature: Suppliers.aspx

Two new fields have been introduced: Tax ID and supplier Contact Telephone. Users may now also search their suppliers or clients by those new fields

Bug Fix: AccountDetails.aspx (Account Profile page)

Added a field for the telephone number of the megaventory account holder. This also appears in printinvoice.aspx when a goods inbound/outbound transaction (or a SO/PO) is printed or emailed.

Bug Fix: Warehousestock.aspx

At page load all items were shown as zero stock. When a postback to the server took place, the stock was appearing normally. This is now fixed

Bug Fix: Hardcoded value in the Database regarding the date a user has signed up

A database field that is used to hold the date field of the users sign ups was storing the wrong value. This is now fixed.

Bug Fix: PrintInvoice.aspx

The form was appearing distorted in the printout and in the email when a movement type transaction was loaded. This is now fixed.
The email was appearing distorted when some specific columns were present in the transaction form. This is now fixed.

That is all for the time being. Next scheduled upgrade will take place in 2-3 weeks with some exciting new features!

Megaventory v1.1

2010-02-18T21:08:00.003Z

We are very happy to announce the release of megaventory v1.1. This release mainly introduces transaction types with specific behavior, design improvements and a feature to email a transaction/order to an email recipient. As usual, we fix some bugs. Here is the list:

New Feature: New Transaction types:

Goods Transfer (Reduces Stock from one Inventory Location and Adds stock to another Inventory Location. Can be edited or deleted.)
Warehouse Receipt (Adds Stock without Updating Product Costs. Once its status is set to Invoiced, it must be bounded to a Purchase Invoice. Can be edited or deleted and the associated Purchase Invoice will be edited or deleted automatically.)
Consignment Note (Reduces Stock without Updating Product Revenues. Once its status is set to Invoiced, it must be bounded to a Sales Invoice. Can be edited or deleted and the associated Sales Invoice will be edited or deleted automatically.)
Purchase Invoice (Does not Affect Stock - Updates Product Costs. Cannot be issued independently but is bounded to a Warehouse Receipt having status set to Invoiced. Can be deleted. Can be edited only by editing the associated Warehouse Receipt.)
Sales Invoice (Does not Affect Stock - Updates Product Revenues. Cannot be issued independently but is bounded to a Consignment Note having status set to Invoiced. Can be deleted. Can be edited only by editing the associated Consignment Note.)

New Feature: Emailing of transactions and order

The emailing of transactions and orders has now benn made possible. Users can send transactions and orders by email to a recipient and may choose to send a copy of the email to themselves.

New design: Form editing

A new design is introduced when adding/editing products, product categories, transaction types, supplier/clients, inventory locations and users

New design: Transaction Form

A new design is introduced in the transactions/order form.

New Feature: Existing SKUs (next SKU suggestion)

When the user inserts a new product in megaventory, the system returns all similar SKUs already used in the autocomplete form so the user can select the next one in turn

New Feature: Clean login page

A new page is introduced, where users can use just the login form while all other elements in the page remain hidden.

Bug Fix: InvoiceMid.aspx

An exception was thrown in case no transaction was specified at page load.

Bug Fix: Default.aspx

The progressbar had an issue when localization was set to separate decimals with the comma character.

Bug Fix: Report1.aspx(Product Movements), Report2.aspx(Availability Levels), Report3.aspx(Inventory Value), Report4.aspx(Gross Profit), Report5.aspx(Order Report)

A bug was fixed that prevented the export of the reports to various formats (excel, pdf etc)

That is all for now! Happy MVing!

A sneak peek of whats to come in megaventory v1.1

2010-02-10T09:43:00.006Z

At steady pace -as always- we will be upgrading megaventory to introduce some new features and fix some bugs(!). The upgrade was scheduled last week but we postponed it in order to do some extra testing and solve some issues that came up in the surface. So, here is what you should expect to get introduced any time soon.

New Transaction types:

Goods Transfer (Reduces Stock from one Inventory Location and Adds stock to another Inventory Location. Can be edited or deleted.)
Warehouse Receipt (Adds Stock without Updating Product Costs. Once its status is set to Invoiced, it must be bounded to a Purchase Invoice. Can be edited or deleted and the associated Purchase Invoice will be edited or deleted automatically.)
Consignment Note (Reduces Stock without Updating Product Revenues. Once its status is set to Invoiced, it must be bounded to a Sales Invoice. Can be edited or deleted and the associated Sales Invoice will be edited or deleted automatically.)
Purchase Invoice (Does not Affect Stock - Updates Product Costs. Cannot be issued independently but is bounded to a Warehouse Receipt having status set to Invoiced. Can be deleted. Can be edited only by editing the associated Warehouse Receipt.)
Sales Invoice (Does not Affect Stock - Updates Product Revenues. Cannot be issued independently but is bounded to a Consignment Note having status set to Invoiced. Can be deleted. Can be edited only by editing the associated Consignment Note.)

New design in form editing

A new design is introduced when adding/editing products, product categories, transaction types, supplier/clients, inventory locations and users

SKU suggestion

When the user inserts a new product in megaventory, the system returns all similar SKUs already used so the user can select the next one in turn

Clean login page

A new page is introduced, where users can use just the login form while all other elements in the page remain hidden.

Well, that's about it.. more to be announced soon!

Megaventory v1.0

2009-12-30T09:40:00.004Z

Just before the end of 2009 We are very excited to announce the v1.0 release of Megaventory. In this release we introduce an extensive currency support that includes average costing reporting in multiple currencies. Note that very few ERPs can actually keep track of average costs in multiple currencies and be able to edit past transactions/invoices (not to mention their price). Number and date formating has also been addressed and so, formating can now be user defined. Finally, lots of work has been done in fixing bugs and get closer to take out the beta sign.

Ok, here is the list:

New pages added: Currency.aspx, CurrencyConversions.aspx, CurrencyEdit.aspx

These pages are related to more efficient currency management. and enable average costing functionality in multiple currencies.

New Features and Fixes: Report1.aspx (Product Movements), Report2.aspx (Availability Levels), Report3.aspx (Inventory Value), Report4.aspx (Gross Profit), Report5.aspx (Order Report)
- The currency option is now available as a drop down field. Costs and revenues are based on actual (or provisional) exchange rates set by the user in Report3.aspx, Report4.aspx and Report5.aspx (feature).
- The pop-up window (drilldown window) showing the details of the report4.aspx was not displaying results after page two in report4.aspx (fix).
- The inbound quantity has been taken out from the drilldown in report4.aspx (it was always empty since only out transactions were taken into account). Two more columns are added: COGS and Gross Profit per transaction (feature and fix).
- The pop-up window showing the details of the report5 had the header text set to 'transaction number' and is now changed to 'order number' (fix).
- Some data field option buttons were not colored red in report5.aspx (fix).
- The fixed width of the reports was causing some design issues (scroll bar was disappearing) after post-back (fix).
- When the category was collapsed by the user the bar graph was coming up empty in all reports (fix).
- A security issue existed under a certain scenario regarding the data in the bar graphs in reports (fix).
- The 'today' option in report1.aspx, report4.aspx, report5.aspx was not displaying the data according to the time zone of each account (fix).
New Fix: Edituser.aspx
- The administrator user of the account could be deleted (by the administrator) if the administrator username contained upper case letters. This is now fixed (fix)
New fixes: AccountUpgrade/AccountDetails.aspx
- The page did not show expiration date and respective button controls were not visible (fix).
- There was an issue with the time extension of a premium+ account (fix).
New Generic Features:
- Text has been corrected in various pages (fix).
- A support tag has been added to the browser window. The tag is sending support emails with a unique identifier so they can be handled more effectively by the megaventory support team (feature).
- Formatting on all pages can be set according to user selection. Data import now takes into account the formatting of numbers (feature).
- All textboxes are now displayed with rounded corners (feature).
- The time offset was set incorrectly for India and other countries with half hour offsets (fix).
- The currency management is added in the administrator dashboard/menu (feature)
- If an account expires, the users (not the administrators) could not see a warning msg (fix).
- if an administrator changes the initial password the new password was not updated in the respective database table (fix).
Fix: PickProduct.aspx
- The css file has been added to the header of the file so the page follows the generic design of megaventory (fix).