Release Notes

ChannelOnline Release 7.8.0

ChannelOnline 7.8 was released after hours on November 8th and we invite you to view of our pre-release training video.
If you have any questions about release functionality please contact: channelsupport@1worldsync.com

7.8 Release Notes 

Release 7.8 focused on backend improvements that will affect storesite administration and frontend cleanup, user permissions, item rule creation, account editing, supplier purchase order updates, and other minor enhancements.  Find out more about the latest features, changes, and fixes in ChannelOnline.



STORESITE 


Continued improvements have been made to existing store site themes.  Main updates include:
  • Layouts: Additional columns have been added to the Contemporary theme.  You can add one to the right or left side, or both.  Once added, select components from the Available Components area (to right side of the layout view) and drag them into position within a column on the layout diagram.  Components can also be removed from a column by dragging it into the Available Components area.  The Product Filters component can be placed in any of the three columns (these are the search result filters). 
  • Responsive (mobile) / Full width - Fine tuned the responsive feature so that it now works even better on multiple mobile devices.  This also makes the use of electronic signature more mobile friendly.
  • Increased available color schemes and font selections:
    • Fonts: Arial, Fira Sans, Georgia, Lucida, Roboto, Sans-Serif, Tahoma, Verdana, Work Sans, Zilla Slab
    • Color Schemes: Azure, Business Bold, Clean Denim, Emerald, Natural Green Magenta, Orange, Purple Amethyst, Retail Red, Sunny Gold, Teal, Advanced* (uses the advanced settings)  
  • Checkout: 
    • Custom Fields - Ability to enable up to 5 independent custom fields (text input, dropdown, or checkboxes) to the checkout on the Terms & Conditions / Agree page.  Sample use case: you are required to have end customers agree to your terms and conditions prior to completing checkout.
    • Images - Thumbnail images are in now appearing in the shopping cart.
    • Checkout Contact - Quotes will retain the originating contact on Quote if either another storesite user opens the Quote and checks out. The contact will still be switched to the approver for CPAS accounts.
Other additions:
  • Favicon - Add your own favicon to the browser tab for customers to know that tab contains your store.
  • Discount off MSRP - Added the ability to display on product pages the percentage discount off MSRP that the end customer is paying. To active, go to StoreSite Admin > Edit (desired store) > Settings > Product section and check the box next to "Show Discount off of List Price on Product Overview.".  This requires the "Show List Price on the Product Pages" to be enabled.
  • Set Favorites Lists - now part of default settings for self registered users.  
  • Featured Products - the display grid view can be set with the number of items to be displayed in each row.

Column Layout: drag and drop components to desired columns.
 		 Mobile View: use responsive settings to enable.
 
   


ACCESS RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS 

Access Keys

Improvements to user access make it easier to designate accounts, documents and price profiles access to specific users.  With the addition of access keys you can now move beyond just My Group and Other Group permissions by using a combination of Access Right Profiles and Access Keys.  


Sample Use Case 1: There is a user that is not part of your user group in the system, they are in Other Groups.  Because you don't want all other users outside of your group to be able to access your account or document information, previously you were stuck.  Now with Access Keys you can assign that one user, say it's a back up rep or support rep, access to your accounts, documents or price profiles with the correct level of permissions.  


Sample Use Case 2: There are four regional sales teams that are overseen by two sales directors.  Each director needs access to create, modify and delete for all price profiles, accounts and documents in the two groups of sales users that they oversee.  But they only need view access into the other two groups for accounts and documents.

How keys work
Access Keys are based on the existing system permissions that get assigned to group users and other group users.  The key difference is that these permissions can now be applied to a single user.  Use a combination of area permissions when creating a key.  Keep in mind that a user will still need to have the Access Right permission to perform that action that gets assigned through the Access Key.  For example: A user needs to have "Create / Edit Accounts" access right to edit an account they have access to through a Read + Modify setting on an Access Key.  Users without the "Create / Edit Accounts" access right in their access right profile will not get permission even if they are assigned it through an Access Key.
 
Permission areas: these are areas that a personnel user owns, and where others can be provided or denied access to.
  • Price Profiles
  • Accounts
  • Documents
Permission setting options: these are the permission options that are used to provide or deny access to permission areas a user owns.  Only one settings can be selected per permission area.
  • Deny Others Access
  • Allow Read Only
  • Allow Read + Modify
  • Allow Read + Modify + Delete 
 
Administration
Users with default access rights with Admin capabilities will have access to create and manage Access Keys automatically.  Other users can be assigned an Access Right that has this ability enabled.  All users have the ability to create their own Access Keys for other users.  

Access Right settings to allow users create and/or manage Keys are located in Admin > Personnel > Access Rights.  The first setting, "Set Read / Modify / Delete My Group permissions and create user's own Access Keys to share information (i.e. Price Profiles, Customers, Documents)", is for individual users to create Keys on their own. The second setting, "Create, edit, copy or delete Access Keys for other users (Admin > Personnel)", relates to administrative rights to Access Keys.



Create / Edit Access Keys.  Users with the ability to create, copy and delete Access Keys for other users will be able to setup keys within the Personnel section of Admin. To reach the Access Key management section go to Admin > Personnel > Access Keys.  Within the Access Key Management page you can sort by key owner, view/edit any existing group keys or create new ones.  In the key editor the following settings are available:  
  • Key Name: name for the key that should be unique from others.
  • Key Owner: the user permission area owner that the selected permissions providing access to. 
  • Price Profiles (permission area): select one permission level from list.
  • Accounts (permission area): this includes all contacts; select one permission level from list.
  • Documents (permission area): all document types the assigned user has access to edit with the selected permission level.
  • Assign Personnel: Assigning users that require the level of permissions granted by the access key. 

My Account 
Users can see which Access Keys they have created, or have been assigned to them.  To see these keys a user must go to their My Account page and switch between the two newly designed sub-tabs at the bottom of the page.  This section has been redesigned for the assignment of multiple keys.   
  • My Access Keys (default): here logged in users will quickly see the classic My Group setting at the top of the list.  Users in their My Group will experience no changes and none are required. Below it, is the section where access keys are created by the user (and assigned to others) will be displayed.  Users able to create access keys will see the Create New Access Key button.
  • Other's Access Keys: This is a list of access keys that the user is assigned to.  There will be one Other Group access key for each of the other users in the system.  If the ChannelOnline account has 5 users, 4 Other Group key will be present on each user's sub-tab.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Activation of Access Keys in the system will automatically create multiple entries under the Other's Access Keys sub-tab.

CATALOG & PRICING

Item (Filter) Rules

A new method has been introduced called Item Rules that allows a set of products to be defined by using multiple criteria for selection. These saved item filter rules are for use in catalogs and price profiles.  To access this new section go to Admin > Items Admin > Rules.  

Users build rules by selecting from the options in the Available Filters dropdown.  Select from one of four options to begin the process.  Multiple filters can be used but the must be added one at a time.  Selected filters will appear in the right column titled Selected Filters. Chose from the options that are contained within the filter results provide from your selected filter (example: chose a category, like Audio, from the category filter).  Some filters allow for multiple options to be selected.  Once the options are chosen, click the Apply button.  At this point another option from the Available Filters can be selected and added to the rule being created. Be sure to click Save to finish the creation process.  Things to know about creating item rules.
  • Creation takes place in Item Rules as described above OR you can save a search result string as a item rule.  Example: User browses for notebooks, then filters by Dell, then selects 16GB memory.  That string can be saved by clicking "+ Save As Rule" on the right in the breadcrumb row.  
  • When multiple options are selected from multiple filters the system will generate a Item Rule for each of the options selected.  Example: selecting the category filter and selecting more than one category option from the list will generate a rule for each selected category. 
  • As rules are created the name will autogenerate based on which options get selected.  For simple selected filters with a single category of manufacturer you can edit the name during the creation process.  For all others, multiple rule generating, the names can be edited from the Item Rules list page by clicking the edit icon.  It is important to use names that reflect the purpose of the rule created.  
  • Item attributes / tags can be used for rule filtering (item, catalog and pricing).  Tags can need to be created through Admin > Company Settings > Manage Tags.  After tags get created they can be imported (assigned) to items using the "Product Attribute Import" file, or assign on the item edit page.  To add attributes to the filter you can only have a single subcategory selected.
  • When applying filters and tags to catalogs and pricing they can be added as either an include or exclude.  For example, you can exclude a category from a manufacturer that you have loaded into your Include based catalog.
Creating Item Rules
Using Item Rules
To use Item Rules, new sections have been added for entry and display to both the following administrative areas.  Those sections refer to them as Attribute / Tag Rules.   
  • Catalogs: When creating or editing a catalog Item Rules can be added in the Item Attribute (Tag) Rules section by typing in the search box and selecting one of the returned rules.  Once Add New Rule has been click the new rule will appear in the Item Attribute (Tag) Rules list section at the bottom of the page.  
  • Price Profiles: When creating or editing price profiles, Item Rules can be added by clicking on the "Add New Rules" link within the Attribute / Tag Rules section of the page. In the Add New Attribute / Tag Rules lightbox, began typing the rule you are looking for in the search filed.  Select the one you are looking for, pick the rate and method, and then click on the Add Rule button in the bottom left corner.  This rule will be added to the price profile and displayed in the Attribute / Tag Rules section.   
NOTE: The "Create New Rules" button will allow you to create a new one that will be instantly available to be added to the catalog or price profile.
 
Automated E-waste Fees 
Items that qualify for electronic disposal fees for both US (California) and Canada have been programed into ChannelOnline.  When items that qualify for an e-waste fee are added to a quote, a separate line with the appropriate fee will be added alone with the item.  On the product page users will see the e-waste notification below the Customer Price in the header and in the Additional Details section of the overview sub-tab.  To active the automated E-waste Fee, select the "Enable E-Waste for states and provinces that charge E-Waste." checkbox at the bottom of the Tax Profile page in Admin.    

Linked to the item product line.



Product Page Updates
Header: Below the Customer Price on the right side of the header was added the E-waste Fee, MSRP and Discount off MSRP (when in use).

Overview Section: Added a new section to the overview tab for additional custom product information.  This section includes details that you can enable or customize per item.  Some of these items were previously displayed in the header but are now found here:
  • Recycle Fee displayed when present. NOTE: recycle fees are also shown in the header.
  • Item ledger codes
  • Category ledger codes
  • Integration type
  • Tags associated with the item
MSRP: It is now possible to update MSRP per item via item edit page.  This is helpful for doing discount off MSRP pricing of the MSRP is not being provided by the selected supplier. 

Product page Overview sub-tab: Additional Details section.



Item Condition 
Implemented the a condition attribute that can be applied to custom and supported products. This condition can be added to products through the item edit page or imported with custom items.  Condition options include: New, Used, Refurbished, and Damaged.
 
Product Selectors 
Product Selectors have an upgraded look and feel.  Plus, they now closely reflect the items available in each specific user's selected catalog.  No more listings of products that are not purchasable.


 
Service & Labor Items 
In continuation of the advancement in service and labor item, old service and labor items have been migrated to be supported by our newer system.  All of these items (old or new) will take advantage of the new fields associated with each item type.  For service items, the product page will display Svc Qty, start and end date fields. Service and labor items can only be associated with a single supplier.  If more than one supplier can be used for the same device, the item will need to be entered twice.  

Global Search Results Ranking

There is now a way to set certain manufacturers for a selected category, or categories for a selected manufacturer, so that they appear in the top portion of the catalog search results.  These global settings will allow a manufacturer, like HP to rank higher than other manufacturers in specific categories for all users.  To set these up you need access to Admin > Items Admin.  Once there, go to the Global Search Results Ranking section at the bottom of the page, and click Add New Rule.  In the lightbox:
  • Chose a manufacturer (single-select)
  • Select a category or categories from the multi-selected dropdown
  • Determine the method for ranking: High / Medium / Low 
Up to ten global ranking rules can be applied. 
 

Categorization (Beta) 

Launched a preview of the new three level categorization structure that will be used throughout ChannelOnline in our future releases.  To accommodate the higher degree of details in the categories you will now start with a collapsed view the presents only the top level, expand and drill down as needed.  If you are having trouble finding something the new way, just click on the "Category: New" button to toggle back to the old category browse structure.  Once on a product page you can compare the old values along with the new but looking at the breadcrumbs along the top of the page.

 Alternative Browse View  Breadcrumbs 
   


NOTE: Category mapping document is located in the Help Center under Documents, called Three Level Categorization Mapping.

ACCOUNTS

Customer View / Edit

Account edit and create pages have been refined to better align with the content widgets displayed on account view.  When clicking on an edit icon on the account view page you will be taken to a lightbox that pertains to the section you want to edit.  There is no longer the need to scroll through a long page to find what you are looking for.  The edit lightbox has built in navigational aids to move next or previous edit page.  Plus a dropdown to jump to a different edit page if needed. This modification spans all Account types (except supplier): Lead, Prospect, Customer, Vendor, Partner, and Other.  

Account Edit Lightbox (with select page dropdown)


 
Parent and Child Accounts  
Custom fields created at the parent level will now flow down the child accounts without have to recreate those fields at the child account.
  • Added these fields to the Copy Parent Company information functionality: Catalog, Favorite Lists, Payment Methods, and Shipping Rates.

Create VS Convert Access Rights

New account rights for creating and converting Leads, Prospects and Customers.  Now you can designate specific users the ability to create and edit certain account types and others the ability to convert them.  Account types are grouped as:
  • Lead and Prospect 
  • Customer
  • Vendor, Partner, and Other
The conversion setting controls who can convert leads and prospects to customers and other account types.

DOCUMENTS

Prefixes and Suffixes

Broadened the use of document prefixes and suffixes for the following document types.

Sales Orders 
Instead of inheriting the value from the quote, it is now possible to set a separate value on the sales order that can be different than that of the quote.  The set number of characters will remain the same but the value many be different.  Example: You have setup the system today to use "Q-" as a prefix for all your quotes and sales orders (because they are shared).  In 7.8 you can set the quote to have prefix "Q-" and the sales order to have a suffix "-SO" because they can different.

Purchase Orders 
Like with quotes and orders, purchase orders can be setup to contain a prefix or suffix and have a fixed character field length.  NOTE: The purchase order section is new for 7.8.

To enable prefixes and suffixes, go to Admin > Company Settings > Documents and select the document type that you want to enable.  In that section go to starting with "Use a static five character alphanumeric prefix or suffix on..." and follow the instructions on the page.

Proposals

Updated the footer and electronic signature actions to function the same as on a quote document.

ADMIN

Sections were added to both Items Admin and Personnel to support the new features described above in the Catalog & Pricing and Access Rights sections.  Be sure to familiarize yourself with the new Access Right settings as they will be enabled for all users assigned to any default admin profile.

INTEGRATIONS 

Autotask: Inserted the ability to send line item fees (includes e-waste) to Autotask.  To enable this, go to Admin > Integrations > Autotask > Settings, and click on "Map Payment Terms, Delivery Methods to Autotask Items".  In the first section there is a setting for Default Fee Type, select Non-taxable Products from the dropdown in the right column. 

ConnectWise: Creating catalog Items in Connectwise to handle mapping or line item fees into a specific category.  To do this, go into Admin > Integrations > ConnectWise, Map Product Info and set Product Type Fee as "Other Charge", then for Product Class Fee select one from the dropdown,  In the Fee Category Mapping section enter "Fees" (or something equivalent) as the value for both category and sub-category.

QuickBooks: Resolved trouble with some documents not syncing because of non document related issues. 

  • Messaging to handle the case where sales reps don't match: "There is an invalid reference to QuickBooks Sales Rep in the Customers.".
  • Messaging to handle condition were a product is already in use: "The name "00WW542-LENOV" of the list element is already in use.".
  • Bundles with qty greater than 1 not being synced to QuickBooks completely
  • Handling of exporting line item fees as an item into QuickBooks.

Salesforce: now capable of mapping a quote SalesRep from ChannelOnline to a Salesforce custom field.

SUPPLIER UPDATES

Duplicate PO Submissions: In order to prevent the possible submission of duplicate autofulfill POs we have added a thirty second timer before the submit button can be clicked again. This timer is in place for all suppliers with autofulfill capabilities.

Tech Data: When importing Tech Data Quotes into a ChannelOnline quote, it can be done by entering a date range or by entering the quote # into the search field in the import window.

SYNNEX: Employing validation on password entry for the use of characters that are not allowed in their XML passwords ( <  >  & % '  " ).  Fixed a Status Check & Update button`condition where it was not updating the items shipped and submitted statuses correctly at the line level resulting in additional submitted tracking containers to be generated. 

IMPORT/EXPORT/XML UPDATES

There are minor xml schema updates for 7.8 (see store custom fields). The link to the current schema is https://xml.channelonline.com/schema/7.8/schema.zip. 
  • Support was added for the new storesite checkout custom fields have been added to the order document response.  
  • Split up "ACH / EFT" and "Money Order or Company Check" into their own payment options. 
Refinements to Update Entity transaction include:
  • convert items to bundle (add items)
  • to unbundle items in the document
  • to delete a bundle
  • Added serial number and asset tag back to the correct line item on the SO
Import / Export Wizard
  • For subscribers of the Shopping Engine Export service we have added the ability to run a Full Catalog Export once every 24 hours.  In the zip file you will get two text files:
    • skus.txt which contains supplier names and costs for the items
    • products.txt which has the Product ID, Manufacturer Name, Manufacturer Part Number, Description, Category, Sub Category, and List Price.

ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS

  • Site Links now can use custom field values and billing or shipping fields.  Customers building internal site links in Company Settings can now add document custom field, billing, or shipping data to that string.  Available document custom fields can be found by clicking Document Custom Fields in the Select Field Type dropdown in the Merge Fields box. For billing and shipping fields, select the Document Fields in the Select Field Type dropdown. 
  • Editing favorites list on an account company settings, adds a record to the account activity log containing who changed it and when.
  • Ability for VAR or customer to delete tokenized credit cards entries instead of reaching out to support to have them removed (card data is not stored in ChannelOnline).
  • Support was added for populating document line item notes with generic import config.
  • Providing graceful and informative error messages and store closed pages with imagery. 
  • Sped up the import config to quote document process.
  • Improved our custom supplier imports service with support for SFTP.
  • System emails now support third line of an address in the Select Field dropdown on email templates.
  • Implemented better handling of serial/tracking containers on the PO line item when the supplier sends over incorrect info.
  • Refined the Manufacturer Name sorting in the dropdown filter on Reports to sort alphabetically by name.
  • For building Configurations.  The Services and Labor items are available to be used as options, and the 20 item search result limit has been raised allowing a large selection of returned items to appear.  
  • Updated document type validation for uploading images and adding attachments to documents. This includes when the file extension is in upper case.
  • Customers can pay more than a single billing invoice when viewing a recurring invoice on the store buy selecting Pay by Credit Card from the invoice's Schedule page.
  • Batch update is available for purchase order documents for updating prefix/suffix and assigning buyers.
  • Loaded security upgrades against cross-site scripting for hosted applications.  Some users using custom links might have to modify those links to function. 
  • Added a record to Activity log for whenever a contact gets deleted.
  • Updated validation message on password login /reset to prevent users from guessing valid usernames. New message: "Either the e-mail address or password you entered is invalid. Please re-enter your e-mail address and password again."

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where calculated tax was not updating on old or copied documents.
  • System would sometimes improperly display a tax calculation for a tax exempt customers. 
  • Resolved an issue for users adding products to Favorites Lists in Favorites Admin while using IE 11 browser.
  • Serial numbers being duplicated in Invoice synchronization to QuickBooks when the serial numbers were also on the originating sales order has been rectified.
  • Repaired an issue where users could not create a second RMA using the remaining quantity on a sales order.  Example: SO line item 1 has quantity 5, RMA 300022 was created for quantity 1 from line 1. Later another item from SO line 1 needs to be returned, users can now grab from the remaining qty of 4 to create another RMA. 
  • Issue where fields in the "Customer RMA Submitted Confirmation" email template are being received by the customer blank.  Fields are now being populated.
  • Disabling a supplier from list page and edit page will now properly removes the supplier activation.  Enabling it again is needed to restart it.
  • When copying a catalog with Exclude rules, the resulting setup page would have default Include setting selected instead of copied setting of Exclude.  Copy has been changed to keep the include or exclude setting.
  • Cleared up an instance where a deleted contact could show up on copied quotes.
  • Remedied an error that would occur on an Invoice or Sales Report with purchase order links selected.
  • Implemented correction to bundle headers to show the list price on print instead of $0.00.
  • Enacted required custom field check when orders are submitted through CPAS from a logged in contact's account activity document list.
  • Set character limit for Lead Source field to 30.
  • Instances where deleting a parameter from the search breadcrumbs was not removed that breadcrumb string in the results bar have been resolved.
  • Corrected print/print preview display where line items fees appeared as taxable even though they are non-taxable.  
  • Established that the carryover tax value from the sales order to the invoice so it will remain constant.  Example: If set at 0% on order it will carryover as 0% and not try to auto-calculate in the invoice.
  • Consistently applying sort, autocomplete, and contact filters for documents in account activity for end users on the storesite. 
  • Display issue when the name of the end customer is present in the Customer info section but does not appear on the preview or PDF has been fixed.
  • Resolved occasions when an incorrect manufacturer name could be displayed when an alternate name existed that was not the proper company business name.
  • Unresponsive "Remove From Hot List" button on the Hot List edit page has been rectified.
  • When adding related products to a quote via the plus button at the item line level it populates with the same selling price as the main product. 
  • Clicking on any unread message from the notification inbox will properly navigate the user to the document on the notice and mark the message as Read.
  • Time zones for system emails; environment time zone (update contact timezone) is being consistently used for the Customer Order Submitted Notification email.
  • Tracking not saving on labor/service item when entering, status to Delivery section and hitting save has been remedied.
  • Invoice send and PDF display when using Invoice specific custom fields now shows the fleld data properly on generated PDFs.
  • Payment Method was appearing as blank in sales order customer notification emails, is now being populated from the sales order.
  • All instances of Account Type 'Generic' has been replaced with 'Other' in the system.
  • Problem with adding a "supported" supplier to a custom product and it not appearing in search about the allotted indexing time has been remedied.
  • Reenabled the use of the search bar on the store to pull up an order using a serial number as the search perimeter, operates with Quotes & Orders.
  • Custom fields not displaying in assigned order in PDF generation.
  • System needs a store assigned print template to be the default invoice template that the customer is assigned to for auto PDF generation. The lack of a default caused the potential for confidential information to be displayed.
  • Customer self registration glitch resulting in contact being added to existing company but could also create a brand new company at the same time.
  • Corrected against conditions that allowed manually created bundles on a document in the back-end to be edited on the storesite.  Users can no longer delete bundled items on the store immediately after moving the quote to the cart.
  • CPAS "Use as default" group setting on the store was not saving correctly in CPAS admin page on store.
  • Live Cost Update on Essendant PO with more than 1 line item are again sending and updating properly.
  • Fonts will remain the same style when switching from Classic and Contemporary store themes.
  • Corrected and issue where all bundle lines needed to be selected to place a bundle on an invoice.  Attempts at partial invoicing of bundle lines was causing a document access error. 





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