Openbravo blogs - Open Source ERP Software

The Return of the Self Service Portal

Rob Goris — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:53:00 +0000

Portals have not always lived up to their expectations but this is changing now. Modern, integrated enterprise business software built on open standards can be deployed easily as self service portals for customers, suppliers and employees alike.

Some thirteen years ago, when I started working for a big blue consultancy company, portals were all the rage. Vendors were tripping over each other to create portal software and both media and technology companies tried to get their part of the portal market. At that time, web portals were used by many users as their point of access to the internet, hence its commercial importance. Companies also took great interest in portals for internal use. The promise of tying together information and applications of all kinds of legacy systems in one place sounded appealing. I worked on three intranet-portals in my first year. Although we made them all look great and both customers and users were excited at first, the productivity boost that we all expected, did not fully realize.

In hindsight the reason for the unfulfilled promise was simple: Just aggregating information from different systems in little containers (portlets) on a workspace does not add a lot of value if you do not have the possibility to manipulate it without leaving the portal. An example is an expenses portlet that shows employee expenses to be approved by a manager. In a millennium portal the user would be taken away from the portal to an external expense report application to approve the expense. The employee would then receive a notification in her expense portlet. The portal in this example solely served as a notification system! For this, you might as well just use email.

Open up your Business Application

Now, in 2013, portals seem to go through a revival. Thanks to improved integration, personalization, RIA (Rich Internet Application) architectures, workflow, customization, scalability, the possibility to create mash-ups and the usage of open standards, portals finally live up to their expectations. The most effective portals are part of the business application instead of imposing an additional layer on top of it. Openbravo 3 was architected with portal functionality in mind from the start using open standards and having a Workspace tab out-of-the proverbial box. In most implementations so far we have seen the Openbravo Workspace being used as an internal portal for staff using Openbravo to manage their business processes. But there is no technical reason to not widen the scope and give access to the Openbravo Workspace to customers and providers. With Openbravo you can open up your business applications to both ends in the value chain and provide self-service that will lead to increased productivity, reduced costs and higher customer satisfaction.

Establish a Relationship First

The idea behind the Openbravo self service portal is that customers, suppliers and employees have direct access to Openbravo. It is important to understand that self service starts after a relationship has been established with the customer or supplier. The Openbravo self service portal does not aim to replace your company’s branded web site. Converting prospects into customers and potential suppliers into trusted suppliers are activities that are best done with your existing toolset but once these parties are in the circle of trust they should be able to interact with your system in a more direct manner. Note that this is not because of security but more because of reduced guidance. To use an analogy for suppliers: If you let someone fill up your fridge when it is empty, this means that this person should already know where to find the fridge and what your needs are.

Dumb it Down

Enterprise business applications are complex by definition because of their breadth and depth in functionality. Users usually receive training and even then, ease-of-use is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of ERP systems. Among those, Openbravo 3 is probably the most usable business application suite on the market as it was redesigned in 2011 from the ground up with the end user in mind. However, this does not mean that you want to force your customers, employees and suppliers to use your system as-is. The best approach for a successful portal is to take out all functionality and GUI elements that are not absolutely necessary and only present that what is relevant to the user’s task at hand. In the first two examples below you can see that the only tab visible is the Workspace tab. We have taken out the multi-tab feature for the sake of simplicity. We did the same for the top navigation: the quick search and launch menus are hidden, as well as the application menu. Obviously it is up to you to decide what you want to offer to your users but we recommend to dumb it down as much as you can.

Examples

A few examples of self-service portals with Openbravo:

1) Customer Self Service for Coworking. With more and more independent professionals who are looking for a desk or a conference room, the coworking business has grown spectacularly. As in any other business, coworking needs contract management, resource reservation, invoicing and payments. Openbravo has recently successfully implemented a coworking self-service solution in one of the largest coworking spaces in the United States and two more European coworking spaces have signed similar deals. The Openbravo for Coworking Spaces solution will be launched during the Coworking Spain 2013 event.

Coworking Portal

2) Employee Portal for Business Consulting: expense reports, time allocation, team calendars, social media, requisitions, HR services, training. It is worth pointing out the difference with the expenses widget in a millennium portal that I referred to earlier in this post. In the Openbravo employee portal, the expenses are actually part of Openbravo rather than using an external application. This means that data only sits in one place and there are no delays in processing or synchronization.

3) Supplier Portal for Sports Equipment Retailer. Your supplier can manage many processes autonomously. Just to name a few: invoice submission, shipment tracking, master data management, payment terms management and contract management. Openbravo can manage all these applications in one single database that is accessed by the supplier. Obvious benefits are: better stock optimization, higher transaction speeds, less errors and greater supplier (and thus customer) satisfaction.

Supplier Portal

4) Customer Self Service for Opticians: Measuring, ordering and preparing subscription glasses takes substantial administrative overhead of which a large part could be done through customer self service. Especially for repeat customers this is a time saver but the retailer also wins with higher customer retention.

5) Partner Portal: Openbravo’s partner portal provides business partners direct access to contract management, subscription extension, marketing materials, training and more administrative tasks. This helps them become more productive and effective and leaves them more time attracting and serving their own customers.

Partner Portal

Improvements to Open/Close Period Control in Openbravo

Pandeeswari Ramakrishnan — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 06:58:31 +0000

Openbravo ERP, being a multitenant architecture application, a single client may have different organizations. The organization may be of various types like legal with accounting, legal without accounting or generic. For more details on organization types and their implications refer here.

Fiscal Calendar:

When the organization is of type ‘Legal with Accounting’, the Fiscal calendar needs to be configured in order to manage accounting. This can be managed using the “Fiscal Calendar” window. The purpose of this window is to create and maintain the calendar, years that are included in the calendar and the periods that are included for each of these years. For those wondering about the options “Close Year” and “Undo Close Year” which were part of the Fiscal Calendar earlier, these options are now moved to ‘End Year Close’ window as part of the improvements done in Open/Close periods which is described in brief at the end. These improvements are done to clearly segregate the calendar setup and maintaining open/close year transactions enabling better transaction history. These improvements are available from version 3.0 MP 22.

Open/Close Period Control:

The Open/Close Period Control window as the name suggests is used to Open or Close an entire period or open the period for certain document types. The main tab allows to control the Open and Close functionality at the entire period level while the sub tab Document Type allows to close or open a period at the document type level. The improvements made to this window from 3.0 MP22 are as follows:

1. Earlier, to close or open a period, we have to create a new row. But now all the periods of the fiscal calendars created will be prefilled. All we have to do is select and open/close the period.

2. Pictures does speak a thousand words. Now you can visualize the status of the period even without searching for the status field and then decoding it with the status values. The status values are marked in colour code to enable quick view of periods.

A period can be in any of the following status, “All never opened”,”All opened”, “All closed”, “Mixed”, “All permanently closed”. These are the colour codes and description for each of these status.

All Never Opened, colored in gray. Recently created Periods.
All Opened, colored in green. All the Document Types are open for this Period.
All Closed, colored in red. All the Document Types are closed for this Period.
Mixed, colored in orange. Not all the Document Types have the same Status value in this Period. For more information refer to the Documents Tab below.
All Permanently Closed, colored in red. All the Document Types are Permanently Closed for this Period.

As you can see it provides a clear picture of the period’s status even without getting into its details. Similar operations are available at the document level.

For example scenarios and more detailed explanation about the Period Control, refer to our wiki here.

End Year Close:

The ‘Close Year/ Unclose Year’ which was part of the Fiscal Calendar has been refactored as a new window End Year Close. You can select any of the available Fiscal Calendars and Close or Undo Close the Fiscal Calendar. The close year process is used to close a Fiscal Calendar. This process closes all the periods of the fiscal year permanently. The standard periods need not be closed prior to running this process, however it can help to keep tracking of the periods of the year already reviewed and closed. The close year process requires that the next year exists and the first period of the next year to be open. Once a year is closed, it can be reviewed in the Open/ Close Period Control window. All the periods that are closed through this process will be marked with the status ‘Permanently Closed’. It will be not be possible to create any transactions within that year anymore. To create any transaction the ‘Undo Close Year’ process should be run.

The close year process in general creates the following accounting entries:

1. The “Profit and Loss Closing” entry.

This accounting entry resets all “Revenue” and “Expense” Account Types and the difference is posted in the Income Summary account.
- In other words the “Expense” accounts are “Credited and the “Revenue” accounts are “Debited” and the difference if any is posted in the Income Summary account.
- Let’s take an expense account with a debit balance of 500,00. The P&L Closing entry creates a credit accounting entry of 500,00 in the Expense account of the example, therefore it gets a balance equal to zero.
- If the revenue accounts total balance is higher than the expense accounts total balance that difference is credited in the Income Summary account, that means a positive result or a profit.
- If the revenue accounts total balance is lower than the expense accounts total balance that difference is debited in the Income Summary account, that means a negative result or a loss.
This accounting entry is posted the last day of the last period of the year being closed, that is the “Adjustment Period” or “13th Period” of the year.
Openbravo does not create a G/L Journal for this accounting entry but just the accounting entry.

2. The “Closing” entry or “Balance Sheet Closing” entry.

This accounting entry credits all the accounts which have a debit balance and debits all the accounts which have a credit balance. The aim of this accounting entry is to get that Asset and Liability accounts get a zero balance.
- In order words, let’s take an Asset account with a debit balance of 8.000,00. The closing entry creates a credit accounting entry of 8.000,00 in the Asset account of the example.
This account entry is posted the last day of the last period of the year being closed, that is the “Adjustment Period” or “13th Period” of the year.
Openbravo does not create a G/L Journal for this accounting entry but just the accounting entry.
This entry is created only if the Reverse Permanent Account Balances check-box is set to yes.

Finally, if a Retained Earnings account is specified for the general ledger configuration, an additional entry dated on the last day of the year is created.

This entry moves the Income Summary account balance to the “Retained Earnings” account.

3. And the “Opening” or “Balance Sheet Opening” entry.

This accounting entry is the reversal entry of the closing entry.
- Following the example of point 2 above the opening entry creates a debit accounting entry of 8.000,00 in the Asset account of the example. That amount is the opening balance of the asset account for the new year.
This accounting entry is posted the first day of the first period of the next year.
This entry is created only if the Reverse Permanent Account Balances check-box is set to yes.

For a use case scenario on how to use the ‘End Year Close’ process and its implications on the Accounting entries refer here.

Filed under: Openbravo Tagged: End Year Process, Fiscal Calendar, Improvements to Open/Close Period Control, Openbravo, Period Control in Openbravo

Business Partner Blocking

Pandeeswari Ramakrishnan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:33:15 +0000

A Business partner in Openbravo is any third party like customers, suppliers, creditors etc. Even employees can be business partners. These business partners are segregated through Business Partner Categories. For more information on Business Partners refer here.

More often, companies are caught up in situations where they are not able to restrict a particular customer in case the payments are long due, or stop payments to a supplier. The problem with these cases is that deciding to block a particular business partner is a management decision and most of the time it varies on a case to case basis. Though there are already notifications like credit limit provided across all financial transactions, in most cases they are not enough to restrict transaction. This is where Business Partner blocking comes handy.

Business Partner locking is a feature where the client can block a business partner thereby revoking the privileges to fulfil a set of documents related to financial transactions. The following documents can be controlled while blocking a business partner

Orders (Purchase Order, Sales Order)
Goods Shipment / Receipt
Invoice (Purchase Invoice, Sales Invoice)
Payment Details (Payment In / Payment Out)

Note that Blocking a Business Partner for a document means that it will not be possible to complete this Document, but it will be possible to create a draft. For example, if a Customer is Blocked for Sales Orders, it will be possible to create a new Sales Order for this Business Partner in Draft Status, but it will never be possible to complete it while this Business Partner is blocked.

Customer Blocking
To block a customer, navigate to the customer tab under Business Partner and check the ‘On Hold’ check box. After it is checked it will provide the configuration options mentioned above. These are the default values for the configuration options. This can also be changed to suit the business needs.

Sales Order: Blocked
Goods Shipment: Blocked
Sales invoice: Blocked
Payment In: Not blocked

Note that the document is blocked, if the check box next to each item is checked.

Customer Blocking

Vendor Blocking
Similar to the Customer, to block a Vendor / Supplier, navigate to the Vendor tab under Business Partner and check the ‘On Hold’ checkbox. These are default values for the configurations for the Vendor. This can also be changed to suit the business needs.

Purchase Order: Blocked
Goods Receipt: Not blocked
Purchase Invoice: Blocked
Payment Out: Blocked

Vendor / Supplier blocking

This way the client need not rely upon manual discretion when handling a huge volume of Business Partners which is usually the case. The Business Partner can be unblocked at any point in time, thus providing greater flexibility.

Filed under: Openbravo Tagged: Business Partner blocking in openbravo, Business Partner Locking in Openbravo, Customer Blocking, Openbravo, Vendor Blocking

Customer Statement Report

Pandeeswari Ramakrishnan — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:13:16 +0000

In a finance driven ERP like Openbravo, the management of the finances is one of the key requirements of the clients. In a typical scenario, there are going to be a huge number of transactions between the client and various business partners. But the client needs to be aware of the financial status of the business partner (current credit balance, transactions made, delays in payment, etc) so as to plan the resources accordingly to improve the functioning of the organization. One such required information would be the revenue generated for a particular period for a particular customer. This is provided through the Customer Statement, a new feature that will be published in the upcoming MP’s. For impatient ones, you can try it from the Openbravo pi builds..:-)

Customer Statement is the consolidation of transaction history of a customer over a particular period. Only the transactions that are posted to the Finance are taken into account. Completed but unposted transactions will not be taken into consideration. The transactions are aggregated from various sources like Payments made through Invoices, Reconciliations, prepayments etc. The report is generated across a particular period and provides all the transactions related to that Customer done in that period. Here goes the sample output of the report.

Customer Statement Report in Openbravo

The Customer Statement in general provides the following details :

The credit/debit information with the document number for which the transaction was done.
The dates on which the transaction was done.
The dates on which the debit / credit from the accounts was done.
Accounts which are affected because of this transaction and the split up of credit / debit.
The document type of the transaction. Eg., AR Invoice, Financial Account Transaction.
The Net financial revenue after each transaction.
The Net financial revenue generated through the customer throughout given period. Notice that as a global standard, negative amounts are marked using brackets ().

In case the business partner is a customer as well as a vendor, the Customer Statement will show the transactions that are done as a Customer and does not take into account, the transactions that are done as a Vendor.

Lets understand this scenario by an use case. Bob is a business partner who buys from the client as well as sells few materials to the client. In this case, he is both a vendor and a customer. Now lets assume he does the following transactions in the last month.

Transaction 1 :

Bob sells 10 units of raw materials and generates a Purchase Invoice for the same. The Invoice document number is 3000045 for the document type AP Invoice.
Bob receives the payment for the Invoice.
This transaction is posted to the account

Transaction 2 :

Bob buys 20 units of products from the client.
The client generates the Sales Invoice for the same with Invoice number 1000087 for the document type AR Invoice
Bob makes a payment for the Invoice.
This transaction is posted to the account

Transaction 3 :

Bob sells 15 units to the client.
Purchase order has been created with document number 1000034.
The client makes a prepayment for the order before generating an Invoice.
This transaction is posted to the account

Transaction 4 :

Bob decides 20 units of products
A sales order is created by the client with document number 1000056.
Bob makes an advance payment for the order.
This transaction is posted to the account

Now if the Customer Statement is generated, the transactions 2 and 4 will be reflected and 1 and 3 will be ignored as they are transactions done by Bob as a vendor.

Thus the general purpose of this feature is to present a clear picture on whether the business with the Customer is profitable and what are the key areas that needs to be fine tuned to increase the process adherence.

Filed under: Openbravo Tagged: account transaction, Customer revenue statement in openbravo, Customer Statement in Openbravo, ERP, Openbravo, Openbravo ERP, technology

Openbravo WebPOS Demo

Shankar Balachandran — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:10:46 +0000

Filed under: Openbravo

Great conclusions after Expo ANTAD 2013 in Guadalajara, México

Xavier Places i Cano — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:22:00 +0000

Official Expo ANTAD 2013 logo

From 13th to 15th March, Openbravo and some of our mexican partners participated as exhibitors in the Expo ANTAD 2013, in Guadalajara, México, one of the biggest and most important retail events in the country and America.

Our conclusions can't be more positive. During the 3 days, we have confirmed the tremendous opportunity that Retail represents for Openbravo in México, in a moment where México's economy is growing fast, and companies with a strong growth and more complex operations, require a modern and affordable solution that ensures they are ready for the current and future industry challenges. Something we have already identified in the past, but again confirmed with some of our visitors, is the clear interest of big brick-and-mortar retailers seeking for a full web and mobile ready store solution, that integrates seamless with their current Tier 1 headquarters system. Most of these cases are SAP customers.

My colleague Óscar González, LATAM Channel responsible

Mobile was one of the hottest topics (in fact we were there presenting our support to smartphones), with most of visitors impressed by our support to smartphones and tablets, together with its full web capabilities, usability and flexibility. OnDemand is also seen as a very interesting option.

Smartphone support

We had the opportunity to talk with a number of retailers from different sub-sectors, sharing their requirements and confirming the value that Openbravo for Retail can bring to them. From small or medium retailers, up to big ones like a supermarket chain with more than 150 locations.

During the third day, I conducted a conference in the Retail Tech zone, called "Loyalty : challenges and trends in the multichannel retail", very well received and nowadays representing a hot topic in the industry. It was not an Openbravo for Retail presentation, but a business presentation, which demonstrates our interest to appear not only as retail software experts, but as true retail industry experts, which is fundamental to advise and support our customers in a fast changing industry like Retail. We will publish it during the next days.

Myself, during the conference

During the conference, I had the opportunity to present our colaboration with AppCard, a company providing a mobile loyalty solution that is changing the way brick-and-mortar stores acquire and retain customers. Merchants can easily create personalized offers and know their customers with more than 90 cloud-based analytics and business-intelligence reports, accessible anytime, anywhere. Customers can easily search for stores and promotions, and redeem their rewards to get discounts in their favourite stores. This collaboration will provide a stronger solution for our customers.

AppCard mobile application

The interest for Openbravo in México is also demonstrated by our frequent presence in media. This time and during the Expo, we were invited by ANTAD Radio and interviewed by some local newspapers.

Óscar González in ANTAD Radio

All these are very positive signs that confirm our 2012 official results in México. We have tripled our software revenue and average deal size, where Retail accounts for a relevant percentage, and a 70% growth of our partner network. Our new office in México D.F will help for sure to consolidate our presence there.

And after the Expo, some time for visiting the city during the weekend. Quesadillas and Mariachis in Tlaquepaque!

Quesadillas

Mariachis

Thanks Guadalajara : great business, food and fun !

See you soon!

Xavier Places

Openbravo's Reail Lead

Responsive Design For Mobile Retail

Rob Goris — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:45:00 +0000

Openbravo for Retail can now be used on smart phones. This article explains its responsive behaviour and ends with a recommended device strategy.

Although computer devices so far only come with rectangular shaped displays, the wide variety of screen sizes nowadays makes designing software that runs well on different devices a much harder task than a few years ago. Apart from different screen sizes, developers also have to deal with different resolutions, aspect ratios and different operating systems. As for the last factor, fortunately Openbravo for Retail runs in a web browser which makes it platform-independent. This leaves us with the factors screen size, resolution and ratio to worry about.

Screen Sizes, Resolutions and Ratios

Smart phones are getting bigger, tablets are getting smaller and more laptops have touch screens. It is clear that there is a lot of overlap in device categories when only looked at from a specifications point of view. Here is a rough categorization:

Traditional desktop and laptop computers that are operated using a keyboard and a point & click device such as a mouse or trackpad. Screen sizes vary between 11” (e.g. a Macbook Air or Netbook) and a 24” external monitor. Resolutions vary roughly between 1024x640 and 1920x1200 pixels with aspect ratios from a more traditional 16:12 up to a widescreen 16:9 ratio.
Tablets with touch screens that are operated by fingers or a stylus. These typically measure between 7” and 11”. With the introduction of Windows 8 it is expected to see much larger "tablets" because most Windows 8 laptops will also have a touch screen in addition to a keyboard. However, I believe that every device with a screen larger than 11” is best treated as a traditional computer since it will rarely be used on the go because of its sheer size. Tablets are operated using both hands but can also be placed in a stand and used with one hand or even an external keyboard.
Smart phones with touch screens that are operated by fingers or a stylus. These typically measure between 3” and 5” with hybrids (“phablets”) up to 6” of display size. Aspect ratios vary between 16/9 (e.g. iPhone 5) and 16/12 (e.g. LG VU II). Mobile phones can be held in one hand while being operated by the other. With a smaller display size or bigger hands, one-hand operation is common.

To add to the complexity, tablets and mobile phones screens can be used in either portrait or landscape mode.

One, Two and Three Columns

The best way to deal with such a vast array of screen sizes, resolutions, ratios, orientations and operation modes is to design for mobile first and to apply responsive design. Responsive design is a term that is used for web technology that adapts the rendering of pages depending on the screen space, browser and device used. These are identified by the Javascript framework and the best possible viewing and usage experience is subsequently offered. In practice that means that more components are shown when more space is available or these components are shown in a different, optimized way. Note that in our case this does not imply that you would have less functionality on smaller screens, it is merely a matter of not showing everything at once.

For Openbravo for Retail this works as follows:

Large widescreen monitors will benefit from a three column layout. Besides the ticket and scan/browse/search/edit columns, users will also see an additional workspace column on the left hand side. Note that the third column has not been developed yet but is part of our roadmap for this year.

Medium sized monitors and tablets in landscape mode will be using a two column layout. This is what Openbravo for Retail is currently using.

Smart phones and tablets in portrait mode will work with a single column and depending on the task at hand, the user can switch between the columns by swiping horizontally or tapping a pagination button.

You may wonder why we have put in pagination buttons when you can swipe horizontally. We could have used the precious screen space for something else, right? The answer stems from our design philosophy which assumes that it is unknown which kind of input device people are using. A typical retail point-of-sale setup will use a touch screen but many stores also need a keyboard and mouse to look up products that require keying in long product codes or keywords. It could also be the case that a retailer simply does not want to replace his current monitors with touch screens. Simply stated: Openbravo for Retail and Openbravo Mobile does not want to impose a device or input method.

Device Strategy

With such a large amount of factors choosing the best device for your context is not easy but with responsive design you will be able to run Openbravo for Retail on most devices if you take into consideration a few guidelines.

First, there is a minimum screen size. This has nothing to do with pixels but has everything to do with basic usability. If things get too small, you simply cannot read text anymore and controls will be hard to target. The minimum screen size for smart phones for Openbravo for Retail is 3.5”.

Second, there is a minimum resolution. The more pixels available, the more information can be shown. The minimum resolution for smart phones for Openbravo for Retail is 480 x 800 pixels.

Third, there is a minimum amount of memory and processing power that the mobile device needs to have to run Openbravo for Retail comfortably. Because everything runs inside a browser, theoretically the browser determines the need for system resources. As a rough baseline, make sure to have 512 MB RAM memory on board and a 1 GHZ processor.

Fourth, there is the need to use an up-to-date browser that is either Chrome, Safari or the Android stock browser.

Complying with the above, the remaining factors for choosing the right device will depend on your users and usage context. Sure, Openbravo for Retail now adapts itself to your device but picking the appropriate device for your users is as important as ever. We strongly recommend to spend some time investigating how Openbravo for Retail is going to be used. Is the device going to be used for client-side selling or as the main POS terminal? Does the device need to fit in a pocket or will it be attached to the wrist? What are the lighting conditions the device is going to be used in? I cannot stress enough the importance of doing contextual research. Observe and interview your users and try different devices before deploying any.

What you need to know to print your own checks in Openbravo

Patricia San Juan — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:07:00 +0000

Openbravo allows you now to print your own checks not only including the amount to pay in numbers but also in words and in the language required.

To get that working it is necessary to install below listed modules:

1. Check Printing module allows you to print a check or several checks at the same time and even search for and print a check again.

You can review the Check Printing Configuration Manual and the Check Printing User Manual to learn about how to configure and to use this feature.

2. Number to Word module provides the infrastructure required to convert numbers into words therefore it is specially useful while printing checks.

You can review the Number to Word wiki page to learn more about it.

3. Number to Word (Spanish) or the Number to Word (English) modules provides the javaclass which converts numbers into "Spanish" words or into "English" words for instance. Once installed the dataset which populates the corresponding javaclass that allow printing checks in a given language needs to be applied to the organization which requires printing checks in that language.

Technically speaking, these last javaclass need to extend the Number to Word javaclass as described below:

    public class MyNumberToWord extends NumberToWord

where "MyNumberToWord" is the javaclass which extends the NumberToWord javaclass for a given language.

Additionally, the Check Printing module and its Spanish translation are now part of the Spanish Professional Localization Pack for Openbravo 3 same as the Number to Word module and and its translation therefore if you install the pack those two modules will also be installed.

On the other hand, Number to Word (Spanish) module is not part of the Spanish Professional Localization Pack for Openbravo 3 therefore it should be installed separately.

Openbravo for Retail for Wholesalers with mobile sales

Xavier Places i Cano — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:17:00 +0000

Openbravo for Retail offers a complete functionality for multichannel retailers, from Sales and Customer Relations to Finance and Operations. Its HTML5 web POS can be run on modern tablet devices, helping to improve dramatically the employees productivity and customer buying experience.

However, Openbravo for Retail is not only intended for pure retailers. Are you a distributor who is struggling with your mobilized sales force? Do you have trucks, and lack of complete control over their inventory levels in order to ensure they can fullfill all orders? Do you want to provide your drivers with a powerful tool that helps them to avoid data entry errors, improve your data quality and therefore provide support for a better decision making process?

If you have answered positively to some of these questions, Openbravo for Retail is also a solution for you !.

Let me illustrate it with a simple business scenario. Imagine you are wholesaler who has a fleet of 3 trucks. Each driver follows a different route and sells and delivers directly to your customers.

How Openbravo for Retail could help you? :

Create each truck as a store in the Backoffice. Trucks are in fact mobile stores, right? In this way you will be able to assign to each truck a price list, an assortment and a warehouse. Maximum flexibility!
Having an assigned warehouse, will let you control exactly the stock level of each truck, either at the end of the journey if they don't have internet connectivity, or in real time if they have it, by synchronizing orders automatically with the Backoffice. This real time scenario, will let you decide to replenish a truck during its route, for example in the event of an unforseen new order or a higher ordered quantity of some products. No more stockout situations!
After that, you can set up a single POS terminal per truck, with its allowed payment methods
At this point, you arm each driver with a tablet. In the Central Office, at the beginning of their journey, they connect to the corresponding POS url to synchronize the initial master data : products, prices, promotions and customers. Better data quality for minimizing data entry errors!
If your customers can pay in cash, you will give some change to your drivers. By creating a deposit, you can easily register the ammount for each POS. Total control over the managed cash!
Openbravo for Retail is a full web application, but it doesn't require to be on-line:

Drivers have connectivity : all the orders will be synchronized automatically to the Backoffice, which gives you real time visibility about the served orders and remaining stock on each truck
Drivers don’t have connectivity : not a problem at all! Openbravo Web POS can be run offline. Drivers can do their job and synchronize all the information later in the Central Office

Armed with his tablet, the driver will start new sales, by selecting products and/or customers, creating new customers or applying automatic or manual discounts. Discounts and other options can be securized. Peace of mind about what each driver can do!
Do you need to provide a receipt for the transaction? The best option in this scenario would be to use a bluetooth printer. If card payments are possible, you could use an external payment device, integrated or not with the Web POS (see Note 1). Get maximum benefit from the solution interoperability capabilities!
For customers who pay later, you can use the credit sales functionality
At the end of the journey, your drivers will be able to close the day, thanks to the Cash Up functionality, a guided step-by-step closing process that updates all your financial accounts in the Backoffice. Full integration with the financial module!
Now you can replenish each truck and update their stock levels in the system (by using their associated warehouse) and be prepared for the next day!
In case you pay commisions to your drivers, it is really simple to calculate and process them
If you are also interested on a graphical information about the geographical spread of your customers, a better track of your trucks routes, or just a clear information about the customer adress you can think on integrating with solutions like Google Maps (see Note 2)

Picture 1 : Orders in a map

Picture 2 : Customer Address

Note 1: integration with a bluetooth printer or with a payment gateway can require customization
Note 2: Google Maps integration is not provided out-of-the-box, and is only available today in the Openbravo's online demo as an illustrative example. A Google Maps API for Business license is necessary for internal use

In case your drivers simply deliver the previously ordered merchandise (through any of your sales channels), you can also use the capabilities of the Openbravo 3 Mobile platform.

Do you have an existing headquarters solution that must be maintained? No problem. You will be able easily to integrate Openbravo for Retail with it.

If you want to learn more about Openbravo for Retail, visit our website retail section and read the solution description.

Enjoy and happy Retailing!

Xavier Places

Openbravo's Reail Lead

Publicación del Modelo 347 para 2012

Patricia San Juan — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:58:00 +0000

{This blog post announces the availability of a new version of the Spanish tax report "Modelo 347" therefore it is written in Spanish}

Ya esta disponible una nueva versión del Modelo 347 de la AEAT para el año fiscal 2012.

Esta nueva versión relaciona los nuevos tipos de IVA y Recargo de Equivalencia del módulo de Impuestos de España, vigentes desde el 1 de Septiembre del 2012, con los parámetros del 347.

El Modelo 347 se distribuyen bajo Licencia Comercial de Openbravo, sin coste adicional para los suscriptores de la Edición Profesional.

Les recordamos que existe una nueva versión del Modelo 347 (2012) en el programa de ayuda de la Agencia Tributaria "Declaraciones Informativas"" que puede descargarse desde el siguiente enlace.