Auto Shop Writer Bulletins

PLEASE READ THIS FULL BULLETIN:

A new update has posted and it is 12.51.11.  If your DPP fees are current through the first quarter of 2025, it will appear on your computer on January 8th in the PM.  ( If the fee is not current, when received, your system will download the update ).

The changes here are based on client input ( and changing needs ).  In addition, some of our interfaces needed small updating due to the other providers modifications to their data or programs.  Here are a few things to note:

In some cases, configurations of the Technician’s Worksheet were not responding to the same “lines per page” number that is used for Invoices.  You can go to Tools -> Setup -> Worksheet and enter the best number of lines for worksheets, and it does not need to match invoices.

Several years ago we implemented a feature where the retail price was printed on invoices when the selling price was discounted.  This occurs with Level 1-4 pricing.  That may not be desirable in your situation.  You can now go to Tools -> Setup -> Invoices and set a Default to have it show, or not.  Even if you default to Yes, when the print dialog comes up ( where you can select Invoice, Estimate, etc and other factors ), you can change that on the fly and uncheck the box so it doesn’t show on that particular invoice.  BTW, did you know that you can use the Retail button on the Workorder Parts screen to set a retail price to any value ( even if it is something different in Inventory ?

Some people are using the Special Label feature to break out oil, or tires, or whatever.  ( You can also use the sort code for this … create your own codes ).  The Totals report gave a $$$ amount but not the quantity of times it was charged.  We added the quantity which we know will be helpful since this is sometimes used for reporting special tax items.

When making labor entries the prompt for recalculating always came up, and the default was Yes.  First, we changed the default to No in case someone just hit the enter key.  Secondly, we did some fine tuning so now it should only come up when a change is detected.  This also eliminates any chance of overriding a fixed labor charge setup in the glossary …

Along the way there were other touch ups and internal changes.  We are awaiting a major update to our core engine which will allow us to bring you even more exciting features in the coming months.

Every once in awhile we hear “Oh, I’ve had issues with that for the longest time”.  When problems are reported they are usually resolved within hours, or at most a few days.  However, we can’t fix anything if we don’t. know about it.  PLEASE email support@masterlinksoftware.com with any issues you are encountering.  

This update includes an updated core engine, some small enhancement requests from clients, and some new safeguards to prevent future problems that could occur, though not likely.

One important change you should note:

Currently you can set the Invoice and Worksheets to specific printers.  This is especially helpful when you want to print invoices on special paper, or worksheets in the service Bay Area.  The problem is this feature did not allow you to select an alternate printer.  The print system wasn’t built to handle that option.

Remember that this setting can be different at each workstation.

Now, if on a workstation, you wish to select different printers to send your invoice or worksheet, in Tools -> Setup -> Invoice ( or worksheet ), leave the printer selection blank.  This will allow you to select the printer to which you want to send the document.  It will, however, default to whatever printer is set as the default on that computer.  Thus, you may end up needing to Select Alternate Printer each time you want the output to go to a different printer.

We know this is not the most ideal way to handle the output.  In fact, it will likely only effect a few people, and others will continue to use the default settings in ASW Setup.  We are working to provide the option to have both a designated default output in setup AND the ability to select another printer instead.  This may take some significant recoding and will be established in a future update.

We hope your holiday season is magical … filled with many joyful events.