Change Payments - it works

On our sister BLOG -- click here

How to change payment - it works - a small thing we may have forgotten

Next-Gen E-Cat learning tips

The next gen e-cat is new for Cdn jobbers ( the USA have had it for some time ) - so this tip is for the newbies --it was posted on the CARQUEST JOBBER blog ( handy to check it out from time to time

click here -- tranny fluid and spec width columns

Unit of Purchase - Unit of Sales - Quantity in Container

The Exploris system does seem a bit confusing when you are looking at how we buy and sell things --in an older system we had - we could say Unit of Purchase - Unit of Sale - Qty in Container ... like cigarettes ( back then most smoked ) - you can use them ( sell ) as EACH but you could buy as pac or carton or case.

Look at this example - it is a case of oil CQO 469-08 ( a cdn items - most seem similar ) -- can anyone say what the letters MSR mean ? It looks like store pack MSR should be case -- they show as EA and but have to open the BUY QTY RULE to see that our EA is translated to BOX when we send the PO -- who designed this system ... I for one fail to see the simplicity of design.

In another example we are urging Raleigh ( Adam Dawson - buyer for line BL ) to clean up the brake adaptor line nuts to reflect what is really going on --look up BL BLF53 and you tell me what is going on ... how do you train staff with this complex logic ?

The simpler we can make unit of sale - unit of purchase - qty in container --the easier it is for all ...

Trivial details -price changes

a couple of small things - price change reports - looking at how many parts confirmed as changed ( see image ) - Ed from help desk confirmed with Tier#2 that ONLY parts that changed show here - if you had a line with 100 parts and only 4 changed --it will show 4 ( not 100 )

Wish # 6046 - How to tell is a part sku has been updated in price

I see the price change report that lists by line by date - BUT - how can I look at a specific sku and tell the last time ( ever ? ) that the part was updated.

How can I get a list of parts that DID NOT update on a complete line price update - thus signaling that that part may be obsolete or in some way defective?

The Example I have attached is KST -=- recently they added ( for the first time ever ) a variable price logic -a LONG TIME in coming - and this part clearly is not priced as per the standard set in the chart.

I need to know what parts do NOT get price updated - these parts have to be flagged in some way as OUT OF DATE. This was call # 1175388 to Ed on the help desk. If it helps--remember that J-Con would tell us what parts DID NOT get updated.

Importing your X line data into Exploris

I have been asked by a couple of jobbers IF you can get your X line data into Exploris --- time to dust off a few older posts

Part #1 - click here - posted Feb 2008

Part # 2 - click here

Part # 3 - click here

Please leave a comment if something is poorly explained - and we can try to improve

If you are a member ( and it is free to join ) of the CARQUEST Jobbers Message Board --see this thread here .... www.cqhanover.com/forum - link - click here

You need to join and wait 24 hours so the system admin guys can move your application to the private side so you can see the confidential things and general things like this template

More about VPN - oh boy

The VPN is less disruptive than the older system we ha d- but still-the number of issues with VPN seem excessive. Today I had a problem with 'something' that stopped the Cisco VPN from updating ... the tech says that the Anti-Virus program can do that ( not in my case )

And the previous tip about restarting VPN doesn't apply --click here to see that

The solution -- call help desk and get updated version of VPNN - what a way to waste 20 minutes ... and at the start of the day

What version are you -- click the program and the ABOUT -- note -- after updating my system i still at .0140 while the CARQUEST purchased terminals are are .0148 ... so I have a few more updates .. ( smile ) ... or in my case --it knows I am running it on a Mac running emulation of XP.

Not many multi-store jobbers here - but good place to start a thread for all of us screw up on Multi-store options in inventory.

I asked Kelly on Help Desk and she told me of one store that wiped out all re-order levels ... ouch ... makes my error just a little less significant ...in a flash I copied stock levels from st#1 to other stores for line ANT - I was in there trying to see how it works and see if I can use some flag to identify price sensitive items. Too me a day to realize - the calls came in - hey - why am I getting a skid of AF ? .... hmm .... did I do that ...damm ....

So - I have to get back to work -- and do the stock levels ( set in PN Code )_ .... I can't screw this up --it is still only available the old fashion way --doing one store at a time --gee -- we don't even have a short cut to change stores .... at this point glad we only have 3 stores - if you have 10 - you would went to 'thank' someone for the extra work

Wish #6045 -- better stats on Sales by PN ( line ) code sales

This may turn into a long wish list of things to make review of line code sales better and easier --especially for MULTI-STORE jobbers - the exisiting reports are crude as best - and a long way off what one comes to expect in 2010. This request has been sent to Raleigh today.

I hope I can re-sort this - but for now - this is listed as I come across them

1) we need a MULTI-STORE report for sales by PN Codes ....

here is a sample we made from J-Con data ( this one is Dec 2006 data --the colors identified which store ( or count across - 1 -2 3 ) ...how you will do this with a 10 store chain - not sure - nice thing about excel -- it is very very wide

2) we need a way to IGNORE obsolete lines - since we can't delete data ( generally ) - we need some way to IGNORE the data ... maybe if we had an option in the line code entry screen to flag these lines as OBSOLETE --then we could do a couple of things --- see pull down window - for Parts-Labor-Freight -- how about an addition for OBSOLETE ??
- remove them from reports
- run inventory for all obsolete and verify all stock has been properly transferred

3) while we are in the Line Code Entry screen -- it would be really a great idea if we had the opportunity to have STEPS in our reports by line Code -- so we can see a progression of detail the deeper we go into any one store -or have a report at this 'level' across all stores in the multi-store jobber group.

Here is sample of data we where able to pull from J-Con and work our own BUCKET data for sales --I have blanked out ( in red ) some data as confidential - since this will also be posted on the internet

I wrote WISH #5681 on Nov 2006 requesting the basically same thing ... Here is a copy .....

Begin forwarded message:

From: Greg HENDERSON
Date: November 7, 2006 5:11:03 PM GMT-05:00
To: Rick Young , Greg Donnells , Joe Zucchero , Keith Swainey , David Credle , , Paul Pierce , Steve Gushie
Cc: Marc Blanc 'Marc Blanc' , Mike Washington , Larry Sloan , Moe Armstrong , Doug Crowe , 'Sheila Langteau'
Subject: Exploris Wish # 5681 - STATS - drill down stats

Hello Rick et al

This needs to part of the multi-store I.C. Review & conference call if
possible.

Stats in J-Con are really bad! Really bad! Good data really makes making
good decisions somewhat easier. We need to be able to see the possibilities
if we increased stock - what might it do for anticipated sales by group or
salesman.

We need the ability to have very general data ( TOTAL STORE SALES and
growth to last year - with options for YTD to rolling 12 months ) along
with optional inventory turns ....

Then we need ability to DRILL DOWN to get more detail ONE STEP at a time

- sales matrix of product BUCKETS ( eg. All things BRAKE ; or
UNDERCAR; or Welding & Industrial - with the number of buckets in the 10 to
20 range .... And since I said MATRIX --the other AXIS would be by
CUSTOMER TYPE or SALESMEN ( optional )

-then you could go into 'sub-buckets ( all friction within brakes ;
all chassis parts within Undercar )

-then you can continue to drill down to more detailed info
- by zip code
- by line code and sub/line code
- with inventory turns data at every step.

We needs CHARTS/GRAPHS as well as numerical data.

Regards




Here is another example written in 2007 .......


Begin forwarded message:

From: Greg Henderson
Date: December 3, 2007 2:57:14 PM GMT-05:00
To: Rick Young , Debra Rosenbaum , Greg Donnells , Joe Zucchero , Steve Gushie , Keith Swainey
Subject: Exploris Wish #5892 -Stats- Customer stats that compress-expand on demand

Hello Rick

Please accept this Exploris Request #5892 for Customer Stats in Exploris

We need to have complete customer stats that will expand and contract as the requirements dictate.. We need the ability to 'drill down' on specific issues or customers; but also have the opportunity to see the '20,000' foot level when only a summary will provide that kind of overview

I recently found a way to extract ALL defective returns from a 6-9 in J-Con to excel and then matched with sales data --so we can see the RATIO of defectives to sales by store - by store by customer - and by store by line - - by store by customer & line - for any given period (with graphs ) ... etc etc ....this is a most beneficial report for both the jobber and the warehouse.

We look forward to having that kind of power in Exploris.


Background -- a couple of unnumbered e-mails previously we have requested:
Date: October 26, 2004 11:08:25 AM EDT (CA)
To: Terri Ballard
Subject: Varying levels of customer stats ? In Exploris

Hello Terri

I have been invited to a National Accounts Customer Sales & profit review
meeting in Toronto on Nov 2nd ... So I am trying to prepare

Question - can we access some web based training for Exploris to see what
'Exploris' will allow us to see on various reports for customer
profitability?

Does Exploris allow us some flexibility to consolidate data - say - take all
brakes lines ( BDO-FRI-BRK etc etc ) and have one total for all brake sales
( or any user specified or system set ? ) by customer. We had something
similar in our previous Autologue system.


In another we explained the 'bucket' idea
From: "Robert Blair"
Date: November 4, 2004 2:33:47 PM EST (CA)
To: "Greg HENDERSON"
Cc: "Brian Taylor"
Subject: RE: Customer stats on Exploris - can anything be as bad as J-Con
Reply-To:

The only thing missing is the meeting in Toronto which Brian is going to set
up so now you can bug him to give you a date which will doubtless dispel a
lot, if not all, of your "anxieties"
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg HENDERSON [mailto:Greg.Henderson@wrenchead.ca]
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 10:04 AM
To: Robert Blair
Subject: Customer stats on Exploris - can anything be as bad as J-Con
Hello Robert

Forgive me if I have mentioned this previously - but the customer stats
from J-Con suck

Trying to prepare for the recent National Accounts meeting hi-lighted how
bad the stats resources are.

To use an analogy - I want the population for Canada - ok - now I want the
population for all provinces ... Ok now the same data by county ... List
the top 10 cities... Some way to go up and down theists of consolidation and
expanding the data headings.

In Exploris I should be able to apply 'grouping buckets' for lack of a
better word. In our old ACS system we had 24 buckets to use and
consolidate various line codes into.

So - I want detail ( like I have now - fine - by line by sub line ) -- but
if I want just ALL BRAKE LINES grouped together by customer - in
descending customer order and compared to last year -- and of course I
want this seamlessly exported to Excel. Looking for data that works and
fits on ONE PIECE of paper.

The silence of what Exploris can do is very frustrating. If there was more
known - then maybe I wouldn't worry as much?


Regards




4) we need EXPLORIS to have some way to make all LINE CODES common in all stores - at present it is a very time consuming job to go thru than match up the lines codes --for example Store # 2 has 4 MORE line codes than Store # 3 --and store #3 has 2 more lines codes than store #1 --so I can not just line upa nd clean up --I must find which lines are not shared -- a very time wasteful process....

It highlights some shortcomings in Exploris - like the inability to delete out obsolete line codes -- store # 2 has BA9 somehow as a EXPLORIS line --so we had to make BA9 in the other stores to help us better match up these lines for future use....


5) while we are at it -- what reports need accuracy to the penny and what reports DO NOT NEED PENNIES .... I think this report would be much cleaner if you set the format to DOLLARS ONLY for the sales & inventory data ...and set turns to just one digit of decimals

Addition for Wish # 6040

In this ( click here ) wish #6040 we had a number of small points -- one issue is setting the ASLES QTY so the suggested forecast will IGNORE your stock depth limits and suggest a order level ... well ...all fine & good -- but

In the original request --we wanted an UPPER LIMIT we could set --so if we have a stock depth of 5.9-- and sales of - say - 2 or more -- we would consider adding the part -- IF that part was LESS than .... say 6.9 -- but the part was rated slower than 6.9 --ignore.

Ran across a LOT of sku's in forecasting that are SUPERSEDED ... gee ... it would be obvious that you should have option to LIMIT/IGNORE any superseded part regardless of how many we have sold,,, hard to imagine this still exists -- but wrote up request # 1162717 to have this oversight corrected...

=======================================================

I would also like to have a moveup screen that is FLUID -- so I can re-sort on any column ... in the image here I would sort on mvt codes and focus on the movement codes outside my stock depth

Since just the independent jobbers use this moveup screen ( I assume ) we need more independent jobber input on idea's to make it better & quicker


===============================================

last - the ability to have full screen in moveup -- see image above -- have full screen button like we have in Parts Ledger screen - so we can see MORE sku's ( or same sku from more stores if you are multi-store )

=================================

Ok - this could be the last entry (smile) - image if we had the opportunity to export the moveup to Excel - do the changes and re--import back into EXPLORIS ... then we could get additional fields like Descriptions ( both ) -- how do we do moveups on retail lines without seeing the descriptions! Moveup continue to need additional thinking ...

Deleting EXPIRED price plans

We had heard the rumor that Billing Schedule Managers could DELETE expired price plans. I now think they where hiding the plans - not truly deleting them. Request #1158362 is posted to ask for an enhancement to be able to DELETE expired price plans ... start the clock - lets see how long this takes to get in place.

Our stores have a tremendous amount of price exceptions based upon the way that Exploris looked at the J-Con pricing plans exceptions. One big issue we found out after the fact - that could have made a big difference - is the retail pricing on parts on the front of the store. J-Con would apply movement code surcharges - so we would have to add an exception by MODEL to lines like EQP to sell at price filed #2 with NO Movement code surcharge ... so one line of code - handled all 21 sub lines - come to convert to Exploris and that one line now became 21 lines of code --and since we moved BEFORE Exploris had pricing model support - these 21 lines were applied to 1000 retail customers .... so one line has become 21,000 lines .... once we moved back to models --we expired these account exceptions - and were amazed how many we had. Our estimate is approx 500,000 expired exceptions.

So lets see if anyone can top our number of expired price plans ... ( smile ) and wait for the enhancement to allow us to flush out these dead issues. Spring time is the good time to WEED the garden -- in our Exploris