Auto Shop Writer Bulletins

On Friday, 1/18/2013, by 5:00 pm, PDT, your Auto Shop Writer system will likely update to version 9.30.00.  This update will occur automatically, and includes the new ASW release, a new Datamanager, and new federal tax tables.  Here are some important steps you will want to follow:

1)  IF you use the ASW payroll system, the 2013 withholding tables have been uploaded to your \ASW9s\MLS folder.  You will need to copy APAFTT.DBF and APAFTT.CDX ( using standard Windows copy and paste ) to the root \ASW9s folder.  If you do not use our payroll, you need do nothing !

2)  This version includes the new display options.  They can be set separately on each computer.  You have three options, but you will only use two at this time.   What you have used all along remains, and it is called Standard.  You can also use Widescreen which takes up the whole screen, and makes everything easy to read.  The third option, Tablet, is only used if you install the program on a Windows Professional tablet, and want to optimize your system to write workorders.  To change the screen settings, on your ASW menu, select Tools, then Setup and then Display.  Click on the value you want ( ie. Widescreen ), then save and exit the pop up window.  Exit ASW and immediately come back.  You will now be in full screen mode. 

3)  We have several other features that are now active in this update.  We will hold off describing them because we first want you to be sure there are no issues with this update.  Our next bulletin will talk about how to activate the automated email follow up system in depth.

4)  Your manual did not disappear.  So many people are confused about the MENU versus the Help button so we removed the button.  Your manual is still there under Help on the menu bar.

If you didn’t get this update, its likely that we have not received your DPP payment for the first quarter of 2013.  Once your payment is received,  and posted, you will automatically receive the update.

We had planned to post the new update tomorrow, but we want to do some more testing and documentation.  The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of client requests for assistance on “goofy stuff”.  These are the events that happen to computers without explanation, and are not anyone’s fault.  Fortunately, we’ve had 100% success taking care of these incidents.

The new update includes, but is not limited to:

• Three screen display options ( standard, widescreen, and tablet ), selectable on each computer.
• Email auto-followup system that sends your email text automatically to say Thank You the day after a customer visits, and then at 30, 60, 90, and 120 day marks ( unless someone returns prior to that ).  You do nothing except the initial setup and entering email addresses for your clients
• Royalty Rewards system:  Allows you to participate automatically in the Royalty Rewards program with your customers.  The system does all of the posting and submission in the background.
• New federal payroll tax tables:  Your congress was slow to get this enacted, but they are now available.  Of course some of you may have entered the data already.
• Update to the auto-updater … very easy to install ( instructions will be provided )

There will be no difficult steps or file upgrades to run.  Most of this is fully automatic … just one file to copy on the server ( or you can call us to do it for you ).

Please watch for a bulletin announcing the update release … it will have full instructions.