What's new in Instant Quote Professional 8.40

Oct 27, 2014
  • New Feature! You can now Import a Quote from an Excel Spreadsheet! This powerful new feature will allow you to Map the 4 required and one optional field to your excel quote (part #, description, qty, price, and optionally category). Upon importing, and NEW parts will be added to the parts screen, and existing parts will be Updated. At the end of the process, a new Quote will be created based on the imported spreadsheet. To use this feature, open the Quotes screen, click the Lower-Half of the "Create New Quote" menu, then choose "Import Quote From Excel".
  • When manually pasting in parts into the Import Parts screen, completely blank rows will now be ignored, rather than counting them as import errors and leaving the parts there for review.
  • When copying a Quote to the same Customer, then Line Discount of the original quote will be preserved.
  • Added new merge field for the Excel based quote/invoice: [LineNotes]. Previously, any line notes would be merged into the part description column. Now you can split this out to a separate [LineNotes] merge field. If you leave your templates as-is, they will continue to merge line notes with the part description.
  • In the Make Payment window on the Invoices screen, if the default pay type, invoice # and amount is already filled in, then the screen will open automatically to the "Check No / Credit Card No. field". If you change Payment Type to a Credit Card Type, you will be moved to the CC# field automatically. Additionally, to prevent erroneous new payment types from being added, the system will no longer prompt to add pay types if an invalid pay type is entered into the dropdown list.

New in Instant Quote Professional 8.30 (Oct 27, 2014)

  • If using "Additional Price Levels" feature on the Parts screen, Part Setup Options screen, and you have the additional pricing columns set to be used as Cost Price, the system will now correctly recalculate the Selling Price based on the updated Cost Price by quantity.. For example, if you have a part set to have a new cost price of $100 if ordering 10 or more, the selling price will now recalculate using the new $100 cost basis.
  • Bug fix: If using the Configurator from the Invoices screen, when changing quantities on a Step, the focus will remain on the Configurator window rather than going to the Invoices screen.
  • Added "Customer Statement - Delivered Invoices w/Remittance" to the Reports screen, Customer tab. This is like the other customer statement forms except it only pulls Invoices with a "Delivered" status. This report can be filtered by selecting a Customer.
  • On the Quotes screen, if you are showing the 'Item Price (Discounted)' field on the quote layout, when you have a zero quantity to show an optional quote item, it will now show the discounted unit price, rather than showing a zero.
  • If you have the Manuf. Part # field enabled in Setup Options, Optional Features, it will now also display on the main quotes screen, right before the line notes column.
  • On the Reports: "Invoices with Delivered Status" and "Invoices with On-Order Status", if the Customer Company Name is blank, the customer name will now appear on the list, rather than a blank name.

New in Instant Quote Professional 8.20 (Feb 20, 2014)

  • New Setup Option to Auto-Lock all Quotes after you have Ordered an Invoice from the quote. This will prevent accidental changes to the quote once it has been sold. You MUST ENABLE this option for it to work. To enable: Click Setup Options, then choose Software Options section. Check the new checkbox towards the top of the screen "After Creating an Invoice from a Quote, Lock the Quote".
  • If you have the option enabled: "When creating new invoices, prompt if customer is Past Due", you will now also be informed if the customer has an Un-Used Credit. You can then manually go to the Payments screen to apply the un-used credit to the newly created invoice. (To apply credit, pull up credit payment on the Payments screen by clicking the View Details icon, then in the lower left of payment window, choose the new invoice to apply payment to).
  • Added a 4th Master Sorting option for Quotes / Invoices: By Part Number. To enable this option, go to the Setup Options screen, Report Options section, and change Master Sorting for Quotes and Invoices to "By Part Number".
  • Added Option to show the Customer PO Number on the Quote Form. To enable this field on the quote form: 1) Open Quotes screen, then click lower half of Preview Quote Menu, then choose Edit Standard Quote Layout. 2) In the edit layout screen, you need to add 2 items from the "Add Additional Field" dropdown. Add both 'Customer PO Number Label' and 'Customer PO Number' from the Report Header entries. You may need to click on each new field, then reposition them to fit with the rest of your layout.
  • The Report: 'Unpaid Purchase Orders' now allows filtering for a particular supplier.
  • The Automated backup feature was leaving previous weekday backups on Windows 7 systems and above. The system will now remove the destination weekday backup prior to saving, so that at most 7 backups will be kept.
  • Fixed Graphs button to correctly go invisible if it is disabled (Setup Options, Software Options, Menu Button Visibility).
  • If using sub-components you can now disable the prompting / confirmation you receive when changing the main / base part's quantity. By default, the system will give a message informing you are changing the base part's quantity. To disable this message, go to the Setup Options screen, then Click 'Optional Features'. Under the 'Use Sub-Components' section, you can check the new box to 'Disable Informational Message prompting when changing Quantity of base part".
  • When opening the 'Add Parts' browser, focus will go to the "Search For" field upon opening.

New in Instant Quote Professional 8.10 (Sep 18, 2013)

  • If using sub-components you can now disable the prompting / confirmation you receive when changing the main / base part's quantity. By default, the system will give a message informing you are changing the base part's quantity. To disable this message, go to the Setup Options screen, then Click 'Optional Features'. Under the 'Use Sub-Components' section, you can check the new box to 'Disable Informational Message prompting when changing Quantity of base part".
  • When opening the 'Add Parts' browser, focus will go to the "Search For" field upon opening.
  • When using button "Create PO from RMA" on the RMA screen, fixed message "Item not found in this collection" that was preventing a P/O from being created.
  • If the "Profit" information box is > 33 characters, the font size will decrease to 8 points from 10, thus allowing more information to show.
  • On the Invoices screen: When adding a part directly on a new line-item, the extended price was not carrying over correctly.
  • Fixed Issue with discount column when ordering a quote. The discount column would not carry over what was entered on the quote screen, and would instead look a the customer options for default discount, etc. This has been fixed.
  • Fixed error when running Reprint Invoices functions from reports screen: 'Error 94 Invalid Use of Null'. This was related to the new currency feature in version 8.

New in Instant Quote Professional 8.00 (Feb 20, 2013)

  • General Additions:
  • Replaced the Part Category Treeview Active-X Control with PC Expert's own control. This will solve All problems with the part category list not showing for those with 64-bit operating systems / office versions. Our TreeView control is superior to the Active-X control as it allows highlighting of the category so you remember the view is filtered, as well as the ability to use the up/down arrows to scroll through the categories. Finally, right-click functionality has been added to quickly view the details of the category, rename the category, and move it up or down in the list.
  • Users can now set the Office background color scheme (Blue, Silver or Black). This can be set using the lower half of the Setup Options menu button, then choosing "Background Color Scheme".
  • Time-Saver: When entering new Quote, Invoice, Job or Purchase Order line-items directly on a blank line, once you press enter, the system will automatically go to a new line, and put you in the same field. For example, if you go to a blank quote line, then type in P/N 1234 , the system will add part #1234, then go down one to a blank line to the same P/N field. This works for the P/N, Internal P/N and UPC fields on all 4 screens.
  • In the Part Information popup screen (double-click part description throughout the program), there is a new "Last Quoted" tab that lets you see the last quoted / lowest quoted price details and quoted history of the selected part.
  • There is now a new Currency setting where you can enter multiple currencies and exchange rates that your company deals with. The currency symbol and exchange rates can be entered in the Setup Options screen, Financial settings section, by clicking the new "Edit Currencies" button, or by using the small '+' button next to the currency select for Customers/Suppliers. Once you have your currencies and conversion rates, you can then set a default currency to be used for a Supplier (New Currency setting in Supplier screen) or a Customer (new currency setting in Customer Options screen). This is entirely optional.. Leave blank if you do not need this feature.
  • When copying Quotes, Invoices or Templates, the system will now look to see if the target customer has a default discount in their customer options, and if so will use their proper default discount. Previously the system would use the default discount of the quote or invoice being copied, or the template being copied.
  • Part Rules / Auto Additions: Fixed problem. If you were adding one main part that had an associated part, and the associated part had auto-add items, if you answered "No" to not add associated part, the associated part's auto-add items were still added.
  • Part Rules / Auto Additions: If a suggested part is added w/ confirmation or auto-added, if the part already exists on the quote, invoice or job, then the quantity only will be updated, and sales price if applicable based on qty levels, etc.). One exception: If the part is a sub-component the part will be added again rather than updated.
  • Customers Screen:
  • You can now search all additional Customer Contacts. This full-screen search facility can be opened by clicking the lower half of the Customers menu button, then choosing to Search Additional Contacts, or by using the lower half of the Search Customers menu within the Customers menu bar. As in the other full screen search facilities, you can search using any column, by clicking the small down arrow within the column's heading, then choosing what to search for. Double-clicking any entry will Open the Customers screen, switch to the correct Customer, then open the "Shipping / Additional Addresses" screen.
  • Quotes Screen:
  • The Preview Quote menu button in the top menu bar section is now a split button. Clicking the top half of the button will preview the current Quote with one mouse-click. Clicking the lower half will open up the previous menu choices.
  • The Supplier Bid Forms available from the Preview Quote menu now have a customizable unlimited text field that can be entered. This can be used to give instructions to the Supplier on how to process your bid request, etc. To enter custom text to appear on all bid forms, click Setup Options menu button, then Report options. Click the top button to 'View/Edit Customizable Text", then in the Quote Text tab, enter your bid form text under the new option for "Quote Supplier Bid Form".
  • For Customers where you have set a base currency (see item in General Additions above), you can now print or preview the selected Invoice in either YOUR local currency OR your Customer's local currency. To set a base currency for a Customer that is different from your own, go to Customers screen, Customer Options button and choose the currency. To toggle the printed quote or invoice to print in your currency or the customers, click the lower half of the Preview Quote menu, and choose the 2nd option, which acts as the toggle between your local and customers local currency. Once currency is chosen, you can then preview or print the quote form.
  • In the Quote Status Codes maintenance screen, you can now choose a color for each quote status. Then when pulling up Quotes, the Quote Status background will change to that color, thus giving a visual cue for the quote status.
  • Invoices Screen:
  • The Preview Invoice menu button in the top menu bar section is now a split button. Clicking the top half of the button will preview the current invoice with one mouse-click. Clicking the lower half will open up the previous menu choices.
  • The 'Quick Print' button is now customizable where you can set which invoice form to quick print. Choice are the standard invoice form, POS-sized invoice, or the Excel-based invoice. You can set which of the 3 using the lower half of the quick print menu button, then left clicking the form you wish.
  • You can now e-mail the Invoice Deposit Request Form. In the Invoice Deposit Request popup screen, use the new "E-mail" button to e-mail the request form.
  • Under the "Serial Numbers" entry screen, you will now see the Manuf. Part #.
  • For Customers where you have set a base currency (see item in General Additions above), you can now print or preview the selected Invoice in either YOUR local currency OR your Customer's local currency. To set a base currency for a Customer that is different from your own, go to Customers screen, Customer Options button and choose the currency. To toggle the printed quote or invoice to print in your currency or the customers, click the lower half of the Preview Invoice menu, and choose the 2nd option, which acts as the toggle between your local and customers local currency. Once currency is chosen, you can then preview or print the Invoice form.
  • The POS Invoice Form will now look at the Setup Options / Report Options setting to show part price w/ tax on printed invoice. Previously if you had 'show price w/ tax' checked, the POS Invoice was ignoring it.
  • Purchases Screen:
  • The Part Description will now be Editable. Previously, the part description used only the stock description from the parts screen. Now, however, this field will function as it does in the quote and invoice screens, where it will Copy the base part description, but allow editing.
  • You can now set the base currency By Supplier for printed / previewed purchase order forms. For example, suppose you buy from a Supplier in their currency, the Euro, and sell in your currency, the US Dollar. You can then pull up that supplier in the Supplier screen (or use the "View Suppliers Details" button in the Purchase screen, then change the new "Send Purchase Orders in following Currency" setting. Now when pulling up a purchase order for the supplier whose currency you have set, the preview PO menu will now preview the P/O in their currency. However, you can still print/preview in your own local currency. To do this, use the new toggle under the lower half of the Preview P/O titled "Preview/Print in Supplier's Currency". If this toggle is enabled it will preview in supplier's currency, if disabled, it will use local currency.
  • Service Screen:
  • In the Job Status Codes maintenance screen, you can now choose a color for each Job status. Then when pulling up Jobs, the Job Status background will change to that color, thus giving a visual cue for the Job status.
  • Reports Screen:
  • The Call Log Detail report will now show the start/end time of the call, AND will now sort first by call date, call start time, then by customer.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.81 (Jul 23, 2012)

  • With the new feature in v7.8 that would prompt you when making payment if a customer had an unapplied credit, you can now disable this prompt BY CUSTOMER. This need arose because many have customers setup for Cash Register's or Walk-In's. To disable prompting for customers created for POS or other reasons, go to the Payments screen, pull up the customer, then check the new checkbox towards the lower right "Disable prompt to assign unapplied credits". Note: you must do this for EACH customer you wish to disable prompting.
  • When partially receiving a purchase order, the system will no longer change the date received if a value has been previously entered.
  • When entering a new contact on a quote or work order, the system was giving an error 'can't find the field cboContact'. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.80 (Jul 17, 2012)

  • New Preview Menu option: While previewing any report, you can click the new toggle button "Keep Open" to force the program to keep reports open while switching tabs. This is handy when researching accounting reports, quote follow-up reports, etc. However, after researching, it is recommended to toggle the 'Keep Open' button back to off, as having too many reports opened could cause confusion. Users should note, however, that re-running an open report will NOT refresh the data, but rather switch to that already opened tab/report (behavior of the access development system).
  • Enhancements to Quotes Follow-Up List Reports: In the Reports screen, Quotes tab, running any of the Quotes Follow-Up List reports will now give the option to further filter the report by Quote Status, thus allowing you to print follow-up reports for your own quote status values, such as bid/lost, etc.
  • For those seeing the "Warning. Invoice does not pass validation.." error box, this box has changed to have an 'Ok' and 'Cancel' button. Clicking 'Ok' will recalculate the invoice, and 'Cancel' will leave the totals alone. The main cause of an Invoice not having tax calculated when the system determines it should is in the event that a part category is later changed from 'Tax Exempt' to 'Taxable', when there have already been previous invoices using parts from the category.
  • For those using the Components feature in the Quotes and Invoices screens, when changing the base part's quantity, the system will now inform you that any sub-components will have their quantities adjusted as well, including showing you what the adjustment factor will be. Additionally, for those who have had trouble with this feature in the past, it was determined that, if the base part had a Qty of zero, the system would not auto-adjust component quantities. This remains the same, since Zero means that it is an Optional part, however you will now be informed that components will NOT update.
  • New Feature: When using the 'Make Payment' button on the Invoices screen, the system now will inform the user if there is an unapplied credit on the customer account. If there is, a choice is given where the user is then taken to the payments screen to apply the credit to the invoice.
  • Enhancements to the "Select Items for Refund" function available in the Invoices screen, more Invoice commands menu. When creating a refund invoice, there is now a selection for "Payment Type" in the lower left of the 'Refund Invoice' screen. After setting the payment type to say, "Refund Invoice", then processing, the system will then automatically create off-setting payments to 'pay off' the resulting refund invoice, AND will also look at the original invoice. If the original invoice has a balance, another off-setting payment will be created to reduce the balance due on the original invoice. If the original invoice was paid in full, or still has remaining credit after the return, the system will create a new Unapplied payment, which is a credit that can be used on future invoices.
  • Service Screen: When an invoice is created before the job, you can now associate an existing Invoice with the selected job. To do this: First choose the job, then click the lower half of the 'Create Invoice from Job' menu button, then choose the last option: 'Associate Invoice with Selected Job". Finally choose the invoice in the popup that opens.
  • Service Screen: New Option in the "Setup / Screen Labels" button: "Use Job-Task Auto-Fill". Default is checked, and will cause the program to work as it did previously where new job task items will auto-fill the task description. Un-check this new option box to prevent the program from Auto-Filling the job task description.
  • Invoice Screen, Packing List Form: For those using sub-components, the packing list will now list any sub-components underneath the main component part line.
  • Enhancements to "Add Parts" browser. If left open, the screen will now detect if you have switched to a different screen, such as invoices or quotes. This will then cause the clicking of the 'add' checkbox to correctly add the part to the screen that you are working on. These fixes will add more usability to having the parts browser screen left open, such as searching for a part on the screen, then later creating a new quote and still being able to quickly add the searched part, or adding the searched for part to a new invoice after switching tabs, etc.
  • Reports Screen: The 2 reports, Print Invoices by Date Range and Print Invoices where 'Printed y/n' = No, will now inform you of how many invoices will be printed along with a Yes/No confirmation to abort the reprint invoices process.
  • Parts Screen Fix: Re-sizing the columns in the parts datasheet will now be remembered (with exception of the IPN, if enabled, which is a locked field).
  • Re-worked the Part Category Listing for those computers that do not support the old active x control (you will see a blank category list if your computer does not support this). The category list has been improved to show the main category at the top level, then only the sub-category name at the tree level, making the list much easier to read, and more like the active x treeview. To display the text version of the category listing, click the lower-half of the setup options button, then choose setup options - local pc only. Check the box 'Disable Treeview Control'.
  • Added New Report: Parts List - Active Only w/ MSRP to the Reports screen, Parts Lists tab.
  • Added company logo to the Part Specs form. Additionally, if "Show on Quote" or "Show on Invoice" is un-checked, the item will no longer show on the specs report. Finally, the Specs Report form will now sort based on your master sort settings for quotes/invoices (setup options - report options - master sort).
  • System Bid Sheets (available in Quotes screen, preview quote menu). The non-generic bid sheets will now have your vendor's Fax # underneath the other vendor name / vendor contact details. Adjusted the formatting of your contact details to be more prominent.
  • From Service screen, clicking the magnifying glass next to equipment to pull up the equipment record has been re-worked to be very fast. You will still be taken to the equipment screen, however, only the equipment record in question will be pulled up (by filtering the screen). You'll notice the lower area of the screen has a box that says "Filtered" in orange. Clicking this will resume showing all equipment for customer.
  • Fixed issues with Customer Equipment screen where screen *could* get out of sync with the customer name and equipment list when switching customers from outer screens, then switching back to Equipment.
  • The "Setup Spreadsheet Templates" window will now show the filename only for the list of available templates in the specified folder, thus allowing you to see the full file name.
  • The key will now quickly close the 'What's New?' screen.
  • Fixed bug when using the "Search For" tool in Parts or Parts Browser: If text you are searching for contained a ", an error would result, such as searching for 3.5". The system will now ignore the " character prior to initiating a search.
  • Fixed bug when using the tool to update the markups on price levels regarding "can't find input or table: qryPartsSubSearchDesc'.
  • Misc. Fixes and Updates.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.70 (Jul 17, 2012)

  • New Graph Sales by Part Type: In the Graphs screen, you can now view a new pie chart graph that shows sales broken down by part category type.
  • New Report: Sales Ranking Report by Part Category: In the Reports screen, Invoices tab, there is a new report for viewing total extended amounts on invoices ranked by Part Category. This will allow you to see which categories of parts sell the best.
  • New Graph Year Filter: The existing Pie charts now support filtering results by year. This will allow you to see if a trend is changing for the current year by filtering the results by year.
  • Backup Utility and Automated Backup: Fixed problem regarding users not using English as their main language. If English was not the main language, the backup utility would fail. This was because the system was looking for "Copy of Database.accdb" or "database - copy.accdb". If the system detects that the copy did not work, you will now be prompted for the English translation of the words "Copy" and 'Of".
  • In the Purchase Order Scratch Pad screen, added a new checkbox to enable you to ignore the notes fields so that parts with like part numbers and costs will combine into one line when creating p/o's from the scratch pad. You must check the new box for the system to ignore the notes fields. Otherwise, if box is left unchecked (default) the system will carry over notes, thus preventing the combining of like parts/prices.
  • New Option to Require Customer Type / Business Source Entry - In the Setup Options Screen, Optional Features section, you can now check a box to require Customer Type / Business Source fields when creating new customers. If checked, when you go to the customers screen and click 'Add Customer', the Customer Type and Business Source fields (newly added to this screen) will be required when clicking 'Finish'.
  • New Job Setup Option - Copy field to invoice body notes: In the Service Screen, 'Setup / Screen Labels' menu button, there is a new option: 'When creating invoice from job, copy the following to Invoice Body Notes'. You can select any of the unlimited text memo fields on the service / work needed screens to auto-copy to the Invoice body notes field when creating an invoice from a job. (Note: This will not work when using the function: 'Create One invoice from Multiple jobs').
  • New Customer Labels Option in Reports Screen: Added new option in Customer tab of reports screen "Customer Address Labels (Customers w/ no billing as of date) - LABELS". You can now enter a 'From Date' to print labels only for customers who had invoices prior to that date, but not since that date. This is useful for "We want you back.." type mailings. New Report: This data is also available as a report, and will show directly underneath the new option for labels, titled: "Customer Address Labels (Customers w/ no billing as of date) - REPORT".
  • When Quoting zero quantity of a part, restored the functioning of v6 and below where parts with zero quantities on the quote would sort at the very bottom of the form.
  • Line-Items notes will now print on the Quote w/Pictures form. They will print in the existing part description box, with a blank line after the description and before the line notes.
  • In the Sub-Components window on the quote and invoice screens, there is a new column in the very far right (must scroll right) called "Sub-Component?". Un-checking this box will give a yes/no prompt on moving the item back to the main screen so it will no longer be a sub-component.
  • The "Quote/Invoice Summary at a Glance" will now show the total cost of all items in the profit box.
  • Customer Phone/Fax will now appear on the Invoice packing list form.
  • Added Internal and External Notes fields to the Purchase Order Search screen.
  • In 'Search Customers' screen, moved the e-mail address to appear on the first section next to website. This way you can see the e-mail address without scrolling right.
  • You can now right-click on a part in the 'add parts' browser, then choose to 'add part' to selected quote/invoice/po, etc.
  • Job Reports: All Job Orders Not Billed, Completed Job Orders (& Callback), Job Orders by Customer and Billed Job Orders Not Yet Completed will now support exporting to excel while in preview mode.
  • Bug Fix: External Parts Browser: In the external parts browsing screen, an error could occur when checking the 'add/upd' checkbox, then clicking to 'add/update checked items' where the system would not add the part and say that '1 part did not need updating'. This has been fixed.
  • Parts Screen, Mass Update button: In the parts screen, Mass Update utility, you can now update the manufacturer name for all selected parts. In addition, while mass updating, the system will now tell you how many parts will be affected in the update process in the 'confirm' message box.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.60 (Jul 18, 2011)

  • New Customer Labels Options in Reports Screen: In the reports screen, the old choice "Customer Address Labels" has been enhanced to allow a choice of label sizes. After clicking "Print" or "Preview", the label printing screen will open allowing you to choose your label size. As an added feature, the "From Date" and "To Date" fields have been enabled. This will allow you to print labels for customers that have had invoice activity within the date range entered. If you leave the date range blank, ALL Customer labels will be printed where the customer is Active and not excluded from mailings.
  • New Quote Estimator Selection: A new field is now available in the Quote Screen for choosing an estimator. This is for companies who may have a sales contact assigned to customer accounts, but use different employee's to actually provide the estimate/quote. This field will be Off by default. To turn on the Estimator field, click the "Setup Options" menu button, then choose Optional Features. Under the 'Quote/Invoice/Purchase Options' area, click the box "Show Estimator Tracking Field on Quotes Screen".
  • Parts Screen, Import Parts: The import parts screen will now have an option to set the 'Serial Entry' and 'Purchase Type' setting for any new categories encountered during the import parts process. See the new selection 'New Part Category Settings' next to the Advanced Import Options label of the Step 1 tab.
  • Reports Screen: You can now click the label "Customer" to change the sorting to be by "Company Name". This will act as a toggle to allowing you to filter by Customer's Last Name or by Company Name.
  • Service Screen - You can now set a job status to any custom job status code when creating an invoice from a job. If you click the green '+' button next to Job Status, you can check a new option in the job status codes maintenance screen for auto-updating a status when the invoice is created.
  • In the "Search Customers" and "Search Customer Call Log" screens, there is now a Sales Name Quick Filter selection at the top right of the search screen. You can then quickly filter the search screen for customers for the selected salesperson.
  • In the "Search Customers" screen, Double-Clicking within the Trace Date, Trace Notes or Customer Status fields will now take you to the appropriate record in the Call Log / Contact Management Screen.
  • The report: Print Invoices where 'Invoice Printed?' = No will now print grouped by Customer, Last Name, then Invoice #. Previously the function was printing invoices in invoice # order. This eliminates the need to manually group the printed invoices by customer.
  • The report: Customer Parts History w/Serial Numbers will now also show the manufacturer's part number.
  • Quotes Follow-Up List Detail - By Customer or By Quote Number will now prompt you for displaying the cost information. If sending to the customer you can answer No to not show cost information.
  • Internal Quote Form will now show the UPC field rather than the Last price Updated On line-items.
  • Call Log Summary in the Reports screen will now sort by Date within each Sales Person Group.
  • Customer Call Log: Added internal notes field that can be entered for each call log. This field will also be searchable in the "Search Customer Call Log" screen.
  • The total tax box label on the Job Order form on the Service screen will now show the description from the Setup Options screen, financial setting section.
  • In the parts screen, the Parts Datasheet View selection for "Stock" will now show the sales price as well as on-hand, etc.
  • When viewing a previously entered payment for a customer or a supplier, a new 'unlock' button has been added. This will unlock 4 fields to allow you to make minor changes to the payment to correct a mistake, excluding the amount field.
  • Bug Fix: When using the 'Clone Part' function on the parts screen, the Supplier will be the same as the part you are cloning (Previously it was using the default supplier set in the Suppliers screen).
  • Bug Fix: When using the "Add / Update Labor Charges" screen, fixed problem with message "Can't find the field cboPartCat".

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.50 (Dec 21, 2010)

  • New Backup Feature: A new Backup screen will now open when starting Instant Quote Professional. You can also open this new backup screen at any time by closing open screens, then clicking the top left office button and choosing "Backup Instant Quote Professional Database". This screen will walk you though backing up your database. The last used location will be remembered. Once you click 'Start Backup', the system will record the date backed up, if successful, and will not ask you again when starting the program until the next day. This Backup screen can be turned off, by User/PC, by clicking the "Do not prompt me to backup.." checkbox. Backups are critical in being able to recover your data in the event that your database file becomes corrupted due to power loss, accidental deletion, etc.
  • Invoice Renumber Feature: In the event there is a mistake (unintentional gaps / skipped numbers) in your invoice numbering, you can now renumber an invoice. To do this, click the 'Setup Options' button in the main menu bar, then click the "Auditing / Tools" button. Click "Unlock" next to the "Renumber an Invoice" button to unlock this feature. If security / logging on is in use, you must be logged on as an admin user to use the unlock button. Next, choose the invoice to renumber, then enter the new number, and finally click the "Renumber and Invoice" button.
  • Invoice #, Quote #, Job #, PO # Disable Override Feature: Prior to this version, whenever a user began a new Invoice, Quote, PO or Job, the system would suggest the next available Invoice #, Quote #, etc., and would allow the user to override the next available number. This can lead to inadvertent renumber of invoices, quotes, etc. (The main reason an override was available was for new users to the program.) You can now disallow renumbering by checking a new setup option box. Go to the Setup Options screen, Software Options button, then check the new option box "Disable Overriding of Quote #/Invoice #/PO #/Job #". If Security / Logging on to Instant Quote Pro is in use, the system will first look to see if the new setup options disable box is checked, and if it is not, the system will now require that you are logged on as an Admin user in order to override the next available #.
  • Warn if items are out of stock when Quoting or Invoicing! In the Setup Options menu button, Software Options settings, changed and improved existing feature: "When adding to a quote, warn if items are out of stock", has been changed to now apply to Invoices as well. The old feature has been improved to not prompt unless the part category for the part being ordered has 'Purchase Type' checked (this means you will not be warned for labor, shipping parts, etc.). The old feature has also been improved to prompt for items added manually to new lines of a quote/invoice.
  • You can now disable being prompted to print a second copy of the pos invoice receipt in the payment wizard screen. The prompt will now have a 'cancel' option that will suppress further prompting. Prompting can be re-enabled in the setup options screen, pos invoice setup button.
  • The Part # (SN) column in the quote/invoice/po/job screens has been increased when clicking the dropdown arrow to choose a part #. This is to accommodate larger part # fields for easier selection.
  • The Office Button menu will now have an option to quickly close all open tabs so that the user can see / have access to all office menu functions (open iq pro database, begin new database, backup, setup options, etc.).
  • The Tools Tab in the main menu bar now has options for running a backup and exiting instant quote professional (using this button will allow the automated backup to run, whereas using the top right 'X' button will not allow the backup to occur).
  • If you have the Setup Option, Financial Options setting "Round Tax / Sales Price to the Nearest .05" checked, parts with a sales price of less than .03 will NOT round. A problem was occurring where a part with a sales price of .01 was being added with a zero sales price.
  • Increased Company Name field in the quotes by quote status and Aging report so that more of the company name field can be visible.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.40 (Oct 20, 2010)

  • New Screen: Invoice Related Graphs have now been added to the program! Next to the Reports menu button, there is a new Graphs button that can be clicked to open the new Graphs screen. 7 Graphs are now available. These new graphs visually show similar data from the Reports screen, Invoices tab. 4 of the new graphs show amount invoices per month, profit amounts invoiced per month, amount invoiced by year, and profit amounts invoiced by year. These 4 graphs visually show revenue trends for managerial use to see monthly and yearly trends. Additionally, 3 Pie Charts are available that will show, of the amounts invoiced, the percentages by Customer Types, Business Source and Sales Person. Note: If Security is enabled when starting Instant Quote Pro, you can prevent access to the new Graphs screen using the existing option to lockout Reports screen access. They will share the same security setting.
  • For some Windows 7 pc's (Ultimate, etc.) that have Office 2010 and / or Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, the part category tree listing may not display any categories. This is due to Microsoft phasing out certain 'Active X' controls. To fix this problem, v7.4 includes a standard listing of categories that can be displayed in place of the treeview control. This will show categories and sub-categories, but will not be in a tree-style '+/-' display. However, this will allow you to resume filtering by categories in the Parts screen and when adding parts to quotes, invoices, etc. How to turn on the new category list: In the main menu bar, click the lower-half of the Setup Options button and choose "Setup Options - Local PC Only". Check the new checkbox: "Disable Treeview Control". This setting is by pc, so if you have one pc where the treeview list is working, you can leave the new setting un-checked.
  • The Sales Ranking Report by Customer now supports exporting to Excel while in preview mode.
  • When clicking "Add New Customer" in the customer screen, a new popup screen will open asking for the contact and company name. They system will search for duplicates and alert you if found. This new popup will resolve issues when adding new customers with screen updates not being allowed, etc.
  • When e-mailing from the service screen, the subject line will now be set with your company name in the subject, as the quote and invoice e-mailing currently does.
  • The "Add a Part Wizard" (used for adding parts to quotes, invoices, etc.) will now show the MSRP price next to the sales price IF the MSRP field is enabled in setup options, optional features section.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed lockup / not responding error that could occur in some search screens when searching line-items and double-clicking to view an item.
  • The Excel based quote and invoice will now correctly show the unit price pre-discount if the quantity is greater than 1. It was incorrectly showing the discounted price, whereas the previous version added separate fields for the discounted unit price.
  • The Excel based quote and invoice will now correctly display the unit price when dealing with sub-components and multiple quantities of sub-components / main components.
  • Fixed error when using the secondary currency excel based quote export that would occur IF the discount field was also used.
  • When e-mailing a p/o, if you had the option set to show the customer name in the subject line, it was incorrectly doing this for purchase orders.
  • Sales Ranking report - The profit field was cutting off numbers longer than 6 digits.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.30 (Apr 4, 2010)

  • This Version will install a new off-line parts database browser (filename: TD.accdb). If you manually move updated files for new versions to multiple networked users, make sure to copy the new TD.accdb file that installs to all workstations as well, or errors will result.
  • New Feature: You can now show line prices including tax on the Quote, Invoice and Job forms, including the quote/invoice excel templates. To enable this feature, go to Setup Options, then click Report Options, and check the box to show prices w/tax on the quote/invoice/job forms. Note: The system will continue storing a total tax based on the grand total of taxable parts, therefore if you manually add all individual lines, including tax, minor rounding differences can result when comparing the total tax for all parts vs. Individual line item amounts.
  • New Option in Setup Options screen, Software Options button: You can now require that an 'Update' button be clicked prior to editing existing Customer or Supplier screen fields. To enable this feature, click the new checkbox in Software Options: "When updating information on the Customer and Supplier Screens, require user to click 'Update' button prior to updating fields". Checking the box will add a new 'Update' button on both screens and auto-lock all fields when opening the customer/supplier screens unless the new button is clicked. Additionally, this will lock the information on the new customer picture / notes popup, supplier information screen and customer notes available on the 'expand notes' button on quote/invoice screens.
  • Customer / Supplier Screens: If you change the name of an existing company or supplier, you will now be prompted with a warning message in the event the user had meant to click 'add customer' or 'add supplier'.
  • New Customer Price List Report: Reports Screen, Parts lists Tab. You can now print a 'Portrait Layout' version of the Parts list - Customer report. This report has a slightly wider part description, and narrower part # field then the landscaped version, however the page layout is set to Portrait, which potentially can decrease the # of pages of the price list.
  • In the e-mailing window there is a new option to also show the customer name in the subject line of the e-mail. This is useful for those who save sent e-mails in their e-mail software, as this would allow a sorting to show all items for the customer grouped together. To enable this option, click the e-mail button for any quote or invoice, then click the "Footer / From Setup" tab, then check the new option "Show Customer's Company in the subject line..".
  • New Purchases screen option in the Setup Options screen, Inventory / Purchase Options section. You can now check a box to be prompted to change the default supplier of the part permanently when you add a part to a purchase that is not set for the p/o supplier. To enable this, check the box: "When Adding parts to purchases, prompt to update default/current supplier IF the added part's default supplier does not match the p/o supplier".
  • External Parts Database: Ingram Micro - Ingram Micro has been redesigned to allow for importing of their new pricing.txt files. Previously, Ingram Micro browsing was allowed using their EPG.exe program, which is no longer available. To work with Ingram Micro data again, you will need to access your account on Ingram Micro, go to their FTP / Downloads area, and download 2 files: Pricing.txt and NewCats.txt. Pricing is the current list of all products, and NewCats is the part category cross-reference files, which is required in order to determine the part category. With the redesign, you can now select multiple lines to 'add / update', whereas previously you could only add one at a time.
  • External Parts Database: Synnex - The "Setup / Import External Data / Update Options" button will give a new option on the Synnex Setup tab: "Use Manufacturer Name as the Sub-Category Name when adding parts". Checking this option will direct Instant Quote Pro to auto-create main categories and sub-categories (using manufacturer name as the sub-category) when adding parts to the program. Ex: Box CPU (Main Cat.): AMD (Sub-Cat).
  • Service Screen Job Agreement and Job Task Forms: In the upper right-corner of both forms, in order to have a cleaner look, if items are blank they will be hidden, unless items further down the list are used. For example, if you are not using the 'job needed by' field, it will become invisible provided that fields below it are also not being used. Additionally, in the "Setup / Screen Labels" button, you can now turn off the use of the customer e-mail address field.
  • When creating a purchase order from the Quotes screen, order quote menu, provided that you are not using the option to 'send ordered items to the p/o scratch pad for review', the quote body notes will copy to the P/O's external notes field.
  • Added "Open Customer Notes / Picture" menu button to the Quote and Invoice screen menu's "More Commands" menu. This will allow user's to have the customer picture / notes popup screen turned off by default, yet still access the notes & customer picture screen quickly, if needed.
  • Fixes to Quote Form w/Pictures. Fields for price / extended price / part description are now wider. If you had overflows in the price fields, this was throwing off the box outline causing part description text to flow outside the box, and potentially causing a 2nd blank quote page. Additionally, If you have grand totals turned off, the border box will now turn off as well.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.20 (Mar 5, 2010)

  • There is now a 'Last Used' popup screen that will now open automatically when you first start Instant Quote Professional. This is a very handy, time-saving feature that will list the last quotes, invoices, jobs and p/o's that you last worked on (changed), in descending time order. Single-clicking in the list of last used items will show an expanded description / title and last used date, whereas double-clicking will open that item for editing. With the Quotes, Invoices, Service or Purchase screen opened, you can click a small button in the popup screen to see only the last modified items for the Customer selected (purchase will just show the last modified items). Clicking the button next to it with the 'undo' picture, will resume showing last modified items that you worked on. For each 'last used' list item, you can enter notes to remind yourself where to pick up with that quote or invoice, etc.. The list will show the last 10 items modified. The oldest items will drop off the list (including the deletion of your note), to maintain 10 items. However, if the selected customer button is clicked, the list will show all items descending by modified date. The window can be moved away from the main Instant Quote Pro screen, and you can click a 'save window position' button to save the new location of the window, which will be remembered the next time you start IQ Pro.
  • Customers And Suppliers Screens: Added a new attachments field that will support multiple attachments to picture files, pdf's, spreadsheets, etc. This field can mainly be used for the customer's picture(s), and other links to .pdf's, excel or word files, etc. For suppliers, you can easily link to common supplier forms, such as supplier specific RMA forms, etc. Clicking on the default picture image will reveal a menu for adding attachments or browsing through the attachments. For network users, it is recommended that you use a server drive letter so that all workstations see the files as the same path / drive.
  • Quote/Invoice/Service/Payments - Added a Customer Information popup screen that will place very useful information in a small window off to the side of the main screen. This is a powerful feature that will increase the productivity and knowledge of your sales staff by placing great information at their fingertips. The customer information screen will display: 1) Customer's Picture (new feature described above - links can also include multiple pictures, .pdf's, documents, or any type of links), 2) Customer Notes field, 3) Three buttons for opening the Customer's website, e-mailing the customer and opening a new informational file link (see info. Link feature below). Another nice touch is if you have the main Instant Quote Pro window sized (not maximized), you can drag the customer information popup window to the left or right hand side of the main IQ Pro window, then click a button in the new customer information screen to Save the window's position.
  • Customer Screen: Added new field for tracking an informational file link. This is a link to a file on your computer or network server and can be used for any type of file, such as a network map link, site map, customer document or summary, etc. For network users, it is recommended that you use a server drive letter so that all workstations see the files as the same path / drive.
  • In the Spell Checker screen, there is now a button to save the window's position. This will be remembered even after shutting down the program and re-starting. This is useful to control the position in which the spell checker opens.
  • In the 'Add Parts' browser, there is now a button to save the window's position, which saves the top and left starting position of the window.
  • In the Invoices screen, the system build notes / instructions will now print on the Job Sheet. For those not wanting to use the Service screen, this is a quick way to add instructions to an invoice for the on-site tech.
  • New option when creating new invoices for prompting to enter sales initials (salesperson field) when the default salesperson is not filled in in the Customers screen. This feature will be Off by default. To activate the prompting for sales person, click Setup Options, then the software options button. Check the new option "When Invoicing, prompt user if sales person is left blank".
  • Service Screen: Added "Callback Complete?" field. This field can be used to track whether a Quality Assurance (QA) / follow-up call has been made after the completion of a job order. Additionally, this new field will show in the "Search All Jobs" screen, next to the job completed date field.
  • Service Screen: Added new Report "Completed Job Orders Needing QA Callback". This report is located in the Reports screen, Service / Jobs tab and will report all Jobs where the completed date is Not blank (thus showing only completed jobs) and the new Callback Complete field (as described above) is Not checked.
  • The 'Send Bulk E-mails' tool will now allow multiple e-mail addresses in the e-mail field that are separated by a ';'. Previously, if you were using full outlook or easymail, multiple addresses was causing the e-mailing to fail. Additionally, the bulk e-mail tool will now remember the last subject, last body text and rich text preference used. Additionally, the e-mail quote / invoice window will now remember the last rich text preference used.
  • Added customer e-mail to the Job Agreement and Job Task Forms on the service screen.
  • When printing labels, the last used label style will now be remembered.
  • Bug Fix: For those using the default sorting of line-items for quotes, invoices, etc., fixed the line sorting problem that could occur if you copied an invoice or quote to a new one, or started a quote or invoice from a template.
  • Bug Fix: If you were using "MS Outlook 2000/XP/2003/2007" as your e-mail method, and using the 'attach pdf's or attach extra file in the e-mailing window, the program was inadvertently deleting the pdf or extra attachment after e-mailing.
  • Misc. Bug fixes.

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.10 (Jan 6, 2010)

  • For those using Netbooks, or those using Windows 7 who have a screen vertical resolution of 768 lines or less, you can now turn on vertical scroll bars. To do this, click the lower half of the Setup Options button menu, then choose "Setup Options - Local PC Only" and check the box "Use Vertical Scroll Bars". For those with resolution greater than 768 lines, checking this box is not needed.
  • For US customers only (hope to add support for Canada, UK and Australia in 2010), added a new credit card processing integration module. This is an add-in provided by Synapse Corporation using Marathon as the merchant processor. Using this feature requires a merchant account with Marathon. The 'make payment' buttons on the invoice and payments screen will now automatically process the charge IF you have a synapse user id and password entered in the Setup Options screen, POS Invoice Setup button. To get a Marathon merchant account, please contact [email protected] for more information. Integrated processing has the following features: 1) If you enter the details in the Make Payment button or Enter Payment in the Invoice or Payments screen, then press Finish, a Synapse Gateway screen will open allowing you to process the card. 2) In the payments screen, the authorization code, AVS and CVV responses are available if you view an existing payment. This means you can always see the details of the charge without looking at receipts for authorization codes, etc. The synapse gateway add-in supports card swipers and receipt printers, while Instant Quote Pro records the payment.
  • Customer Equipment Changes: Added 2 new fields to the Customers screen, Customer Equipment section: 1) There is now an equipment year field. This is especially useful for industries where the model year is important. 2) There is now a Page Count filed. This field is a numeric field that has a customizable label. For example, if you were tracking page counts for a printer repair business, you would leave the label as is. If you are in the auto-repair business, you would click the 'Page Count' label, and edit it to say "Mileage", thus using the field for tracking mileage. The 4 fields in the Equipment screen that have customizable labels now have a different background color: Serial Number, Page Count, Windows COA# and Win Version.
  • Customer Equipment Changes: Added the ability to quickly begin a new Invoice from an equipment record. To do this, go to the Customers screen, Customer Equipment button, click on the equipment record you are wanting to create an invoice for, then click the new button in the Equipment screen menu: "Create a New Invoice from Equipment Record".
  • Customer Equipment Changes: The Preview Repair History for Selected Equipment report will now show the main details for the equipment, any job orders create for that equipment, and a new section that shows all invoices created for the selected equipment (using the new invoice from equipment record button described above).
  • Customer Equipment Changes: Quotes Screen: There is now a function for creating a new Customer Equipment record from a Quote line-item. To use this function, pull up an existing quote, click within any line-item to select, click the menu "More Quote Commands", then choose: "Create Customer Equipment Record from Selected Line-Item".
  • Receipt Printer forms / POS Form changes: You can now select whether to use a new 80 mm / 3.14 in. receipt form for the POS Invoice form and the Job check in receipt. To change to the wider receipt form, go to Setup Options, then POS Invoice Setup, and check the box to use the 80 mm receipt printer paper size. By default this box will be checked when installing v7.1. To use the old size of less than 2.5 in, un-check this box. Additionally, fixed the paper sizes for the receipt forms so that standard letter or A4 will not be used. For testing purposes, added a "Preview POS / Receipt Printer Invoice" command in addition to the existing "Print" command.
  • When adding parts to a quote or invoice using the 'Add Parts' browsing window, the on-hand field, which has been moved next to the price, will now show in blue/bold if the on-hand is greater than zero. This will allow stocked items to stand out apart from non-stocked items while quoting/invoicing.
  • Added 'Check All' and 'Un-Check All' buttons to the "Delete Lines" screen in the Quotes Screen menu for deleting multiple quote lines at once. Added left & right align/scroll button for the part description field. This is useful for very large descriptions to quickly scroll to see the right-most characters so you can easily see which item to delete.
  • Added Total Cost & Extended Cost fields to the 'Quotes Follow Up List - Detail' reports available in the Reports screen, Quotes tab.
  • Purchases screen: When using the Copy Purchase button, you can now override the next purchase order number.
  • Added customizable text field for remittance / payment instructions. This field will print on the Customer History Statement and the Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices w/Remittance forms. To customize the text, click the Setup options menu button, Report Options, then View/Edit Customizable Text.
  • When using the Quick Invoice function (Ctrl-Z), you can now set an option to not be prompted for the next Invoice #. To set this option, go to the setup options screen, software options section, then un-check the 'prompt for invoice #' box under the quick invoice section.
  • Misc. Fixes
  • When using part rules, if you had a rule to add a part as a sub-component, the program would sometimes allow the deletion of the main part line even if it had sub-components. If this occurs, any sub-components will now be reset to a main part line.
  • Fixed The 'Add Parts to Current Quote/Invoice' browser and the Configurator window re-size issue. V7.0 stated that these windows would remember the size if you used your mouse to drag the window to a larger size. This was not functioning. These 2 windows will now correctly remember the size of the screen if you drag the screen to a larger size, then re-open the screen.
  • Adjustments to formatting and wording on the quote bid sheets. Removed category and added manuf. Part # to the detail of the forms.
  • Parts Export for importing into another database: This has been updated to include the new pricing columns and quantity columns.
  • When previewing or printing a quote, if you have just changed the quote title, quote body notes, or line notes, but have not committed the change by tabbing away from the field, the previewed quote was not showing the changes. Added new code to save these fields even if the user forgets to tab away to commit / save the field.
  • When starting a new quote, the sales initials for the previous quote will correctly clear out, as well as the quote body notes. Previously, the system was leaving the last quote's body notes and sales initials, even though they were not saved to the new quote.
  • If using Large Parts DB Mode, fixed the Service screen so it will now show part numbers AND Fixed the adding of parts directly on a new line in quote/invoice/service so that Part Rules will now be used, if present.
  • Misc. Report alignment fixes (Job Task Form, Job Agreement, P/O Summary & by Supplier).

New in Instant Quote Professional 7.00 (Sep 10, 2009)

  • Major Redesign for MS Office Access 2007
  • Removed "Disable Automated Compacting / Optimizing" feature. With this option checked, Exiting Instant Quote Pro was leaving resources open in the windows task manager, and the program would not properly close, which could cause corrupted program files.
  • With No screens opened, clicking the top left Office button will now give an option to Create a New Instant Quote Pro database. If 'security / log-in' is in use, Admin rights will be required.
  • The Payments Search screen will now show the Invoice. If one payment covered multiple invoices, this will show as follows: A new Pymt. ID (Internal) field will be displayed that will be duplicated for each of the invoices for the one batch payment.
  • Reports Screen: Added the ability to add a report to a new "Report Favorites" list. Simply click on a report, then use the new "Add to Favorites" button in the top Reports Menu to add reports. Once you have added reports to your favorites list, when opening the Reports screen, your favorites list will be displayed automatically.
  • Reports Screen: If you choose a report that has a part selection, you can now Double-Click in the 'part number select' box to open the 'add parts browser', which will allow you to easily find and choose the part.
  • The "Add Parts Browser" is now a sizable window. If you resize the window, the datasheet will expand. The height and width will be remembered upon closing the browser window, but will be reset to design defaults when loading new versions. Additionally, if you click on a line that has a part picture, the picture will now be displayed in the lower right corner.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.90 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature: If you are showing the Alternate Extended Price on the standard Quote or Invoice layout, the Price field will now show the selling / unit price using the alternate currency symbol and conversion rate, instead of showing your regional currency amount. If you don't want to show the regional amounts at all, you can edit the standard or alternate quote / invoice layouts under the preview quote or invoice menu, then click on the regional currency fields, and choose 'hide selected item'. You can still toggle between the alternate currency format layout and regional (main) layout using the O toggle.
  • Invoice Screen: If you record multiple payments on one invoice, the invoice form will now show more detail in the payment line. For example, if 2 check numbers are used to pay the entire invoice, both check #'s will show in the payment line.
  • In the Quote w/Pictures form, the system will now look at the font name and color changes from your standard quote layout settings.
  • Enhancement in the Quote w/Pictures form: If a part does not have a picture, the line will now shrink to take up less space on the quote. Parts with pictures will continue to show at the normal height.
  • Quote/Invoice screen: When using the double-click feature in the price field to change the markup/margin of a single line-item, the system will now suggest the last % amount used.
  • Bug Fix: When creating an Excel based quote or invoice, the part description field was truncating at 255 characters if you were using part specs, and garbage characters would occur after the 255th character. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: When using the e-mail window, fixed the error message that could occur saying that the customer store folder does not exist even when it does.
  • Fixed "Customer Call Log Detail" report so that the call log and result log notes will grow properly to contain large amounts of text.
  • Purchase Agreement from Quotes screen fix: Fixed quote notes field so that it can grow to hold large amounts of text.
  • Purchase order internal receiving form: If line-item internal notes are not used, the part description will now grow to 2 lines. This allows more of the part description to show. If there are internal line item notes for a part, the printout will continue to show as in past versions.
  • Bug Fix: When using components, fixed the main component's extended price. After adding sub-components and closing the components window, you had to click away from the main line in order to see the updated extended price.
  • When adding a new Supplier with the Parts screen opened, the parts screen Supplier dropdown will be refreshed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.80 (May 5, 2009)

  • The Vendor Part # field has been increased to 80 characters. Additionally, made programming changes to make it possible to have memo/unlimited text in the part description field, however, this will be by request only, and will entail sending your database to us so that we can change the field. A fee to do this will be charged, reply to this e-mail if interested.
  • 2 New Reports: "Quotes by Quote Status grouped by Business Source". One report shows all quotes, and one shows only quotes that have not been ordered into an invoice. These reports show a summary ranking at the top for Business source, and both reports can be filtered for a particular quote status, thus allowing you to analyze your marketing efforts. Note: Business Source can be set by customer in the Customer Screen, Customer Options button for each customer.
  • Added Save button's to the Service and Service Work Needed screens. This will visually show when data has been entered and not yet saved. If the save button becomes enabled, data has been entered and not yet saved. After saving, the button will grey out. Similar behavior has been added to the Customer and Supplier screens so you can visually see when data needs saving.
  • New Feature: When creating a quote revision (lower half of the Create New Quote button, Begin a New Revision..), the system will now place the original quote # in the quote title field (unless it is already a revision). Then if you create another revision for a revised quote, you will still see the original quote number.
  • When using the “Format the address above for label printing…” button in the customers screen, the customer reference # will no longer be copied to the clipboard.
  • Added "Assigned To" to the Job Agreement form on the Service screen.
  • Fix: The report: Quotes by Quote Status (All Quotes) was not showing the quote status criteria selection / filter.
  • Fixed Job Task Form. Previously, it was hard-coded to be saved as an A4 paper size (For A4 paper size user's, the system will set to A4 automatically, this was only a problem for Letter size user's).
  • Bug Fix: When clicking the "Delete Lines" button on the Quotes screen, fixed the error "Enter Parameter Value: SortID".
  • Fixed problem with the past due mailing screen "One or more e-mail addresses have not been filled in..". This occurred if an e-mail address was blank Even if the E-mail Y/N field was not checked.
  • Bug Fix: When quoting only labor items, an error would result: "11 – Division by zero MiscFunctions, CalculateTotal". This has been fixed.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.70 (May 5, 2009)

  • New 'Adjust Profit' enhancments for individual part items. In the Quote and Invoice screens, if you click in the Sales Price field of a part line-item, you will see the markup or margin for that part in the lower left in the blue system messages striped area (provided that you are not hiding cost prices). You can now adjust the profit for a single part by double-clicking in the Price field for that part. This will also work in the components window (if you are using the components feature).
  • Added the ability to generate an excel-based quote with individual part pictures!! 3 new merge fields are now available on the excel-based quote, one that will insert the new [PartPicture] merge field into any of your existing quote templates: 1) [PartPicture] - Insert's the part line's picture, if present, for a particular part, 2) [CustomerPhone] - Places the customer's main phone # in your sheet, 3) [CustomerFax] - places the customer's fax number in the sheet. Finally, the install will install a new quote template xls that contains the proper layout with part pictures. The new file, Quote_Template_PartPictures.xls, will install into the Templates folder under the Instant Quote Pro installation folder. If you want to have your excel based quotes include the new picture, you can set the quote layout to the new file (or edit your existing quote template.xls). To set to the new quote template, Click the Edit Excel Based Quote/Invoice/PO Layout under the preview Quote menu, then in the "Default Template and Directory", choose the new quote_template_PartPictures.xls file.
  • New Job Setup Option in the Service Screen, Setup / Screen Labels menu button: 'When creating an Invoice from a Job, mark Job as Complete (fills in Job Completed Date w/ today's date). By default, this setting will be set to Checked.
  • New Feature: When updating the quote Status, a new Quote Status Date updated field will be set. You can see the date the quote status was updated by hovering over the Quote Status selection in the quotes screen, or on the Quotes by Quote Status report. Additionally, In the customizable Quote Status setup screen, you can now set additional automatic update options for changing the quote status automatically when the following events occur: 1) Order Quote to Invoice, 2) Order Quote to PO, 3) Create Job from Quote, 4) Invoice Marked completed / delivered and 5) Job Completed. For 4 and 5, if a quote is associated with the invoice or job, and the invoice or job status changes, you can set the status to auto-update the quote to.
  • When e-mailing Quotes or Invoices, your Company Name will now be placed in front of the invoice or quote # in the e-mail Subject Line. If you do not wish to show your company in the subject line: click the 'Footer/From Setup' tab in the E-mail window, and un-check the 'Show your Company Name..' box.
  • 4 New Security Setup Options for those who have Security / Logging in Turned on. In the Security Setup screen, for each user, you can now:
  • 1) Prevent Quote Screen Access by user.
  • 2) Prevent a Locked Quote from being Unlocked by user.
  • 3) Prevent Instant Billing Add-in Access (now separate from Lock out Payments screen) by user.
  • 4) Prevent the Mass E-mail utility from being used by user.
  • New option in the Setup Options screen, under the 'Optional Features' section, Added an option: 'Enable updating of Discount % for quotes that are Locked'. This can be used in conjunction with the new security setup option regarding locked quotes, and is in response to user requests for a way to only allow the discount % field to be updated by sales people for locked quotes.
  • Added many new fields to the parts.xls importing template, as well as the Parts screen, import facility. You can now import: Part Picture Location, PDF Location, Internal part notes, NetWeight (and Net Ounces for non-metric), and default labor hours. As with other fields, if you don't use these, you can leave them blank when importing parts.
  • Enhancements to the Import / Export Parts window. When you use the "Export Active Parts formatted for Parts screen import" (under the export parts menu in the Parts Screen), the system will now include the sub-category, as well as the new import fields listed above. You can now easily export this Active parts list, then import into a different database. This is very useful for those who wish to sync up the parts from one database to another. Additionally, the system will now show the number of records as well as the current record in the 'system meter' area while parts are being added or updated.
  • If you use Reference Numbers on the quote/invoice screen, you can now manually re-order the reference numbers on the screen Without the screen refreshing / going to the top line-item. After manual changes to the RefNo column in the quote/invoice screens, you will see a message in the bottom status bar that tells you to double-click in the refNo field to refresh the screen's order.
  • For those who have disabled the showing of the "Tax Exempt" boxes on the quote/invoice screens, a label will now show on a quote or invoice if it was previously marked as "exempt". This will visually show the sales person that the customer is tax exempt.
  • Reports
  • The Sales Person will now show on the Internal Quote Form.
  • The Report: Invoices with On-Order Status will now support a date range, but will default to an all-encompassing date range.
  • New Report: Invoices with Delivered Status (Reports Screen, Invoices tab). This will show all invoices that have a delivered status in the date range entered.
  • Report: Parts not Received on Purchase Orders: This report now supports an additional criteria box: P/O Sent, which ties to the 'P/O Sent to Supplier?' checkbox on the Purchase Screen. You can choose "All", Sent or Not sent.
  • Report: Parts Not Received on Purchase Orders, will now show the p/o description and the p/o date fields. The quantity and quantity received (if you have this option turned on) will now show as one field: qty unrec'd.
  • Bug Fixes
  • Fixes to the External Parts Database Browser screen. If you were not using Ingram Micro, an error would occur: "c:EPGEPG.MDB is not a valid path". Additionally, the Search Text and form Filters were not working properly.
  • Fixes to the Lock Quote feature. Previously, if you were updating certain fields on the quote screen for a locked quote, the new value would display (even though it was not saved). Additionally, errors could result in the line-items section when trying to update locked quotes. Finally, fixed issues with locked quotes actually allowing edits in the sub-components popup window.
  • Fixed "Hide Cost" toggle, . If you were ordering a quote and have engaged to hide cost/profit, the profit was showing on the invoice screen after ordering a quote. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: If you have Quotes open and then use Job Tracking, whenever you change customer in Job Tracking the focus was changing to Quotes.
  • Added 'file exist' checking for checking the existence of critical database files on startup as well as the existence of pdf documents for e-mailing, customer store folders, etc.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.61 (May 5, 2009)

  • Bug Fix: Fixes to the sorting on the Quote/Invoice/PO screens. Particularly if you are using the master sort option by order added (RefNo). The quote/invoice screens were not always sorting by RefNo, this has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: Fixes to the code that detects new versions and upgrades your database. Many users reported having problems with the new fields that were added to the quote/invoice layouts for v6.6. In the quote screen, in particular, some users reported that the new fields were all visible and could not be hidden. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: When using components, the Quote form would print a section w/ many components properly, but the Invoice was set to "keep items together" in the detail, thus resulting in blank sections. The Invoice form is now set identical to the Quote, where the blank space will not occur.
  • Bug Fix: When updating / receiving items in the Purchase Screen, the P/O Status in the P/O Dropdown was not refreshing with the changes PO Status.
  • Bug Fix: When pressing in the P/O Screen, UPC field, the system will now go to a new line and set focus to the UPC field.
  • Bug Fix: When previewing Payments or Invoices on the Payments screen, if the report had no line-items (no invoice lines, etc.), the system would become unresponsive. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: When creating an RMA from an Invoice Serial Number entry on the Invoices screen, the system will no longer prompt for Supplier.
  • Bug Fix: When previewing the Specs report on the Quotes screen, the system will now show the appropriate Quote #, rather than the Invoice # that the report was showing.
  • Bug Fix: Fixes to code that opens the spreadsheet template setup window if a default template was not set (message

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.60 (May 5, 2009)

  • The program will now properly compact / optimize the program file upon existing IQ Pro automatically IF the program file size has exceeded a set size (40MB). Eliminated the startup message regarding the program size being too large, etc.
  • For those using the Components feature, the extended amount on the main component line for the Quote and Invoice screens will now reflect the sum of the sub-component prices.
  • New Feature: On the Quote screen, when you click the "Refresh Pricing" exclamation button, a new options screen will open allowing you to choose from 1 of 3 refresh options: 1) Normal (Old behavior when refresh was pressed: refresh cost and sales prices from the parts screen and customer options), 2) Recalculate sales prices only based on part costs entered in the quote, and any margin/markup/customer options and 3) Refresh Quote Part Costs only from the Parts screen.
  • New Feature: Added "Refresh Pricing" button to the Invoice Screen, with the new options described above.
  • New Feature: Added "Adjust Profit %" option screen. Now when you click Adjust Profit on either the Quote or Invoice screens, a new options screen will open giving you 2 options on how to apply the new profit %: 1) Adjust sales prices to the new % ONLY for parts that are based on margin (based on margin checked for the part in the Parts screen) and 2) Adjust sales prices to the new % for ALL parts on the quote or invoice, as long as they have a cost entered. Bug Fix: Previously the adjust profit was only using a markup based calculation. The system will now look at your Setup, Financial settings option for markup or margin calculation.
  • Increased Field Sizes for all phone number fields that were previously only allowing 15 characters. They will now allow up to 20 characters, with the exception of additional contacts, Phone, which will be increased to 25 to allow for a phone extension. Additionally, for the main Customer E-mail address and Supplier e-mail address, the 50 character limit has been increased to 255. This will allow users to put more than one address in the e-mail field, separated by a ';'. Such as: E-mail: [email protected];[email protected], etc.
  • New Feature: When you order a Quote or Create an Invoice from a Job, if you have selected an Alternate Contact for the Quote or Job, you will be prompted to choose whether the contact address should be used as the "Bill/Ship To" address for the invoice or just the "Ship To" address (using the main customer address as the billing).
  • External Parts Browser changes. If you don't use Tech Data or Synnex, but want to import your own data into one of the external parts tables (TD.accdb: PartsTD and PartsSynnex tables), you can now do so by disabling the "UseTD" check box in the setup screen button, combined options tab located in the External Parts screen. Additional Changes: For Citrix Server and/or Terminal Services users, you can now set an option that directs Instant Quote Pro to use the external parts browser database (TD.accdb) in the back-end database folder rather than the local program folder. This setting is in the External Parts screen, setup button, Combined options tab.
  • Customize Quote & Invoice Layout Additions
  • 1) Added a host of new detail / repeating fields to the Customize Standard Quote and Invoice Layouts screen: Manufacturer, Manuf. Part #, UPC, Line Discount % (number only) and Sales Price after discount (unit discounted price).
  • 2) Fixed color buttons for foreground/background to function properly.
  • 3) Added new "Copy Props" button that will prompt you through quickly copying the font/color/fontsize, etc. From one field to another.
  • 4) Added new details fields to the "Quickly Add a Group of Related Fields" dropdown. Using this will add both the new detail field you select, as well as the page header label for that field.
  • 5) Bug Fix: In the Customize Invoice Layout screen, a bug existed that prevented the hiding of detail fields.
  • 6) Finally, for those who want to show a straight discount % number, rather than the "Discount = x%" text, if you choose the discount % in the "Quickly add a group..", it will automatically hide the Old-style "Discount = x%" text.
  • Spell-checker enhancements: 1) Spell-check support is now available for rich text fields. 2) Spell-checker will now ignore website addresses (starting with http: or www.) 3) Once a misspelled word is hit, fixed the refreshing of the screen after continuing to check spelling. 4) If word begins with a number, such as 85MB, it will now be ignored.
  • New Feature: Added new Delete Quote Line-Items popup screen. To use, click the new "Delete Lines" button in the Quotes screen menu area. For those who have quotes with many line-items, and frequently need to delete many lines at once, the old method would refresh the screen after each delete, taking additional time. This new screen will allow you to quickly mark the lines you wish to delete, then the 'Delete' button will delete all lines at once. If you use the sub-components feature, this will allow you to quickly delete entire kits, as deleting a main component will delete ALL sub-components as well (you'll see a warning if you select a component line).
  • Fixes to the Mass Update Parts screen. If you were using the update buttons to automatically check all parts updated before a certain date, and had a category filtered, it would clear the filter and check ALL parts for updating. This would also happen with the option to mark all with on-hand = zero. This has been fixed. Additionally, You may now use both the 3 form filters AND the small down-arrow column heading filters, however, you must use one of the 3 form filters (category, supplier, active / inactive) FIRST, then use any column heading filters.
  • Re-adjusted the columns in the Sub-Components window so that you would not need to scroll over to see the prices.
  • If you have large database mode on, and receive the selection box for duplicate part, upc numbers, the form will now show the part cost, rather than sales price, as well as the manuf. Part #.
  • New Reports and Report Changes
  • New Report: Parts Sold by Category w/Profit & Notes. Available on the Reports screen, Parts Lists tab. This will show ALL parts sold and group by part category (similar to the Sales Report by Quantity Sold), however, rather than summing quantities of a part, it will show all parts line-items sold, with the option of displaying the line-item part notes. Included is profit / extended / cost totals by category and for the entire report.
  • New Report: Sales Ranking By Customer Profit and Sales Ranking By Customer Profit %. Both available form the Reports Screen, Invoice Tab. These will show the profit and profit % by customer. Additionally, added profit and profit % to the Sales Ranking by Customer report.
  • New Report: Job Orders by Customer w/Invoice Total & Paid. This is in the Reports screen, Service/Jobs tab. Supports date range entry, customer filter. This will show ALL jobs, grouped by customer, in the date range entered. Will also show the Invoice #, Customer P/O, Invoice Total, and Paid Total, if an invoice was created for the job.
  • New Report: "All Job Orders Not Billed". Similar to the Completed Job Orders Not Billed, however, this will show ALL jobs, regardless of completed date, where the "Billed?" switch is NOT checked.
  • New Report: "Billed Job Orders Not Complete". The opposite of the Completed Job Orders not Billed report. This will show all jobs where the "Billed?" switch IS checked, where the completed date is blank.
  • Report: Outstanding Balances and Outstanding Balances - Delivered Invoices Only will now have an *Optional* date range entry. Leave dates blank to see all outstanding accounts data, or to have a report showing balances as of a certain date, pick a very early from date (such as 1/1/1990) that will include all data, and the end date ("as of") that you need.
  • Report: Quotes by Quote Status now has 2 reports: Quotes by Quote Status (All Quotes), and Quotes by Quote Status (Quotes Not Ordered Only).
  • Added "Invoice #" to most Job related reports.
  • System Specs Form from the Invoice screen will now include the part picture, if present.
  • When using the Quote with Pictures form, the form will now look at the standard quote layout for label text and hidden status of the fields. Therefore, hiding a field on the standard layout will now hide the fields on the quote w/ pictures form.
  • Added the new P/O Description field to the P/O Summary Reports and the internal P/O Form. Due to the fact that many user's use the p/o description for in-house means of identifying p/o's, this will not show on the Purchase Order form that is sent to Suppliers.
  • The Customer History Report in the Reports screen, Customers tab, will now correctly show a Grand Totals page at the end of the report IF the report is not filtered for a customer.
  • Report: Unpaid Purchase Orders: This report will now show sub-totals within a p/o status, by Supplier.
  • The 2 Generic System Bid Forms will now show Manuf. Part # rather than the supplier part #.
  • Bug Fixes
  • Bug Fix: In the Quotes screen, if you have discounts turned on, and a discount already entered for a line-item, then went to change the sales price, then discount was ignored for the extended price.
  • Bug Fix: Part Category Setup Screen. If you have part category margins turned on, and entered a new markup/margin, you would be asked if you wanted to recalc the part prices in that category, however, the system would not update prices, and would leave the hourglass on. This has been fixed. Additionally, the Markup or Margin will now show as a % on this screen, so a preceding decimal is no longer required.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using transaction charges, fixed the error 'Invalid Use of Null' that could occur when copying an invoice to a quote.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed 'enter parameter value' boxes that would appear when running the bulk letters utility.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.50 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added "Setup Options" button to the main toolbar, as it was in all versions previous to version 6.0. Additionally, added "Edit Selection List Values" to the lower half of the new Setup Options button. Now you can edit selection lists without closing any screens by using the lower half of this new Setup button. Finally, from the Office button w/no screens opened, moved "Edit Selection List Values" to under the main office button, rather than buried under the Setup Options menu.
  • Added a new Country field to the Customer Screen, Supplier Screen, and the additional contacts screens. A table has been added to the database of all countries, allowing you to more easily select the country. Leaving the country blank will function like before when there was no country field. Filling in the country will cause the program to put the country on labels, quote, invoice, etc.
  • Adjusted the Import / Export screens for the Customer / Supplier screens to now support a Country field. Additionally, added country support for Importing/Exporting contacts to Outlook, and pasting in new customers from the windows clipboard. For adding new customers (Outlook, Importing or the clipboard), the program will recognize either the Country's full name, or the 2 - 3 letter ISO designation, and properly insert the correct country code from the Countries table.
  • Added 2 new Reports to the Reports screen to support the new Country field: Customer Tab: "Customer List by Country" and Invoice Tab: "Sales Ranking Report by Country".
  • Added 3 new "Save To Fields" to the Paste E-mail Definitions setup in the Customer screen: Country, Cell/Mobil #, and Website address.
  • Changes and Enhancements to the "Send Bulk E-mails" utility located on the Tools tab. For those using MS Outlook as the e-mail type, you can now check an option to Enable Rich / HTML Text!! Also, In the body of the e-mail, you can now use a merge field to insert the First Name of your customer by placing [FirstName] into your body text (this will default for you). E-mails pasted from the clipboard will not support the merge field [FirstName], as no first name will be available. Also Added 2 new Filtering Options: You can now use additional filtering for the new Country field, as well as a new filter for the selecting of sending bulk e-mails to customers who have been either Quoted or Invoiced for a particular part #.
  • Enhancement to the "E-mail Window" that opens after clicking E-mail Quote, E-mail Invoice, etc. For those using MS Outlook as the e-mail type, you can now check an option to Enable Rich / HTML Text!!
  • Added 2 New Fields to the Parts Importing screen: Manufacturer and Part Specs.
  • Added Fax #, Mobil / Cell #, and Country fields to the Additional Addresses / Contacts section on the Customers and Suppliers screens. Also added these new fields to the "Choose a Contact" / Contact Info screen.
  • For those using the Discount % field, you will now be prevented from entering a discount of > 100%.
  • Added "Validate Invoice" function, which is called any time an invoice is pulled up. This function will validate that tax has been added to an Invoice that requires it. This will catch a very rare problem that could occur where the total tax was not updated, due to an error, power outage, etc.
  • Added Sales Person, Tax-Exempt and Default Discount selections to the main Customer details screen. These fields will still be on the Customer Options screen, but in the event that they are the only options used, you will now be able to set the options without opening the Customer Options screen.
  • If you type a customer that does not exist into the Quote, Invoice, Service, Payment or Billing Records screens, you will be asked if you wish to add the customer. If you answer yes, you will be taken to the customer screen and placed into a new customer record (The "Add Customer" button will be automatically executed, so you can begin typing immediately into the company name / contact name field).
  • Added P/O Description to the Purchase Order screen. With this internal-use field, you can now enter short descriptions for your purchase order which will enable you to more easily find the purchase order. This new field will show in the P/O Select list, and in the 2 main Purchase Order search screens. Additionally, when creating P/O's from quotes or invoices, the quote/invoice number will now be copied to the new P/O Description field.
  • For those using Transaction charges option in the Setup screen, the Purchase screen will now automatically add/update the transaction charge based on the new Transax. Select field on the P/O, AND the transaction charge % for cash and non-cash settings on the Supplier Screen.
  • Added "Total Weight" to the Packing List form. If total weight is > 0 for an Invoice, the total weight will automatically show on the Packing List.
  • Added new Merge field to the Shipping Types tracking text: [CustPO#] will insert the Customer's PO number from the Invoice screen, Ship tracking section.
  • The system will now Automatically compact / optimize the program file upon closing Instant Quote Professional.
  • For those using the 2-Tax System (Canada, etc.), if you override the sales tax % and description for a Customer (Customer Options button in Customer's screen), the system will now look at this figure and apply the overridden tax rate for the 1st tax only, including override tax description. The second sales tax will not be affected.
  • 2 New Merge Fields for the excel based Quote / Invoice template. You can now show the part's sales price before and/or after discount. The existing merge field [SalesPrice] will continue to show the part's sales price for each line-item on the excel quote or invoice. You can now add a new merge field that will show the part's unit price after the line-item discount. To show this column as well, insert a new column in your xls template, add your own label, then add: [SalesPriceDiscounted] into the repeating / detail section. If you just want the sales price to show the price with discount, edit your existing xls templates and replace: [SalesPrice] with the new merge field: [SalesPriceDiscounted]. The [ExtendedPrice] merge field will remain unaffected, and will continue to show the price after discount. You can also show the discount % by placing: [LineDiscount] in a new column in your detail / repeating area of your template.
  • Added coding back in from Version 5 and below that would save the widths of the major columns throughout the main screens (part description, part #, price, cost, etc.). You can now resize the columns and the setting will be saved for most columns when the screen is closed (Note: Re-arranging the order of columns is not currently possible).
  • When creating an Invoice from a Job, the Job Title will now copy to the Invoice Title.
  • The Report: Quotes by Quote Status will now show ALL quotes, regardless of whether the quote has been ordered or not.
  • Bug Fix: When double-clicking a Report in the Reports screen, Report select window, the Num Lock key on your keyboard would turn off. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: When adding customers and switching tabs, fixed the refreshing of the customer select dropdowns that would sometimes not reflect the newly added customer when switching to quote, invoice, service, payments, or billing.
  • Bug Fix: The Report, Quotes Follow Up List - Detail (by Customer) was ignoring the Part # filter, if you were trying to filter the report for a particular part.
  • Bug Fix: On the Add Part Browser screen, if you click the Remove Filter 'X' button at the bottom, your "Sort By" preference was being lost. Additionally, if you are adding from the Purchase screen, the screen was not remembering your "Filter = On" or "Filter = Off" setting when adding parts or clearing the filter. Finally, after typing text in the Search For box, system will not search until you press .
  • Bug Fix: If you have Auto-Mark Invoices Delivered turned on in the Setup screen, software options tab, and the option to set the Sale/Payment or the Invoice Date = payment date, then If you entered a new payment and back-dated the payment date, the Invoice and/or Sale/Payment date on the Invoice screen would update to today's date, not the payment date. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: Increased width of numeric fields on the Sales Ranking Reports.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.40 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature: Added a Quote with Pictures form. This is a pre-defined form that will show individual part pictures for each line-item contained on a quote. The pictures will be taken from the Parts screen / Part Information screen for each part. To use the new Quote with pictures form, simply open the Quotes screen, then select which style of Quote you wish to use under the "Preview Quote, Choose Standard Quote or Quote w/Pictures" menu option, then select the Quote w/Pictures option. After doing so, whenever you preview or e-mail a quote, the new quote format will be used.
  • New Feature: For the first time in a number of years, Added support for a new vendor in the External Parts Database browsing screen: Synnex!! Instructions on how to import the synnex_pricing.txt file for external parts browsing is located in the lower half of the Parts menu button, then 'External Parts Database' screen. Once in the External Parts Database screen, click the 'Setup / Import External Data / Update Options' button, then select the new Synnex tab. In the Synnex tab, you will choose a default Supplier for any added parts, and also go here periodically to import your synnex_pricing.txt file. For those new to the External Parts Database screen, this screen enables you to browse data that is NOT in Instant Quote Pro's Parts screen, thus enabling you to quickly add only the needed parts permanently to the Instant Quote Pro Parts screen.
  • Added "Create Outlook Task" button to the new To-Do list screen. You can now click on a to-do item, and then use the new button to create an outlook task for that to-do item.
  • Added "Save to Outlook Task" buttons on the Instant Reminders screen. You can now save reminders to MS Outlook.
  • Service Screen: Added a button to the Job Check-In menu to Save job as an Outlook task. The reminder screen will open with the job number, and the button to save as an Outlook task.
  • Service Detail / Work Needed Screen: This screen now has it's own ribbon-style menu. In the menu, you can now create an Outlook task for each work needed detail line by clicking within a line-item, and pressing the new button in the Work Needed menu area.
  • Added ribbon style menu to the To-Do List screen. Additionally, when previewing the To-Do List report, the report will now filter to match the filters you are using on the main To-Do screen.
  • Parts Screen: Added Picture Location to the main datasheet view. Additionally, in the 'Parts Datasheet View' filter for the Parts screen, added 'Part Picture Location Column' view.
  • Enhancements to the Past Due E-mailing screen. The list will now only show customers with a balance due of greater than $1, and will also look at unapplied credit payments as part of this criteria.
  • Added "Delete All" button to the Instant Reminders Screen, View Reminders tab.
  • Bug Fix: When entering Serial numbers on the Invoice screen, you will now be prevented from entering numbers that are not in the serial number's selection list IF there are numbers in the list. If there are not numbers in the available serial numbers list, the system will assume you are not using the purchase screen, and will allow entry of any number.
  • Bug Fix: If you order a p/o from a Quote, and are not using the p/o review screen, the Quote # was not saving to the p/o notes fields properly.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using "Margin" rather than "Markup" in the Setup screen, Financial Settings section, the Profit box on the Quote/Invoice screens will now show the percentage as Margin. Additionally, if you are using pricing bands, and overrode the quantity, the system was calculating the sales price as Markup even if Margin was selected. Both have been fixed.
  • If you have set serial numbers to print on the Invoice and Packing List forms, serial numbers were not showing if the quantity of the line item was greater than 20. This cap has been raised to 50.
  • Instant Reminders: If you had created reminders not associated with any customer, a bug existed where you could no longer pull up that reminder. If you had set the reminder to prompt when due, the system would continuously prompt for the reminder even though there was no way to dismiss it. The Instant Reminders screen will now correctly show ALL reminders in the 'View Reminders' and 'Completed' tab, even if they are not associated with a customer. This will allow you to correctly dismiss reminders that are prompting.
  • If you are using "Order added to quote/invoice" as your Master Sorting option (Setup screen, Report Options section), the system was not sorting properly if you had set the quantity to zero on a quote. Additionally, if you have labor / shipping items, and use the 'refresh reference number' function, labor/shipping items will now sort to the bottom, as they must do on the quote/invoice.
  • Rearranged 2 fields on the bottom of the Job Order form to move them to the header section.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed the "Check all with delivered status" button in the export invoices to accounts screen. It was checking ALL invoices, even if already exported.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.30 (May 5, 2009)

  • Access 2007 Runtime SP-1 (service pack 1). This will enable functions that were broken in the first runtime release, such as certain right-click menu's not working, Outputting previewed reports to MS Word, e-mailing using the new Microsoft .PDF add-in, etc.
  • Added "Export to Excel" button in the Print Preview menu when previewing reports. This works a little differently from the similar button that was in version 5, as this will export the report's underlying data source to excel. Field columns may be different from the actual previewed report, but the data is the same.
  • New Feature: Added Past Due Accounts Screen. This screen can be set to automatically launch when starting Instant Quote Professional by clicking the 'Show this Screen the next time.." option within the screen. To access the Past Due Accounts screen, go to the Payments screen, and click the 'E-mail Past Due Accounts' button, or click the lower half of the Payments screen launching menu. This screen supports printing the statements, or batch e-mailing the Customer Statement w/Remittance to selected customers.
  • New E-mailing Feature: For those using either the EasyMail or the full MS Outlook option in the E-mailing method / SMTP setup tab, all quotes, invoices, po's, jobs and rma's will now attach with the appropriate number as part of the file name (including e-mails sent in the batch print process of the Instant Billing add-in). For example, attaching a pdf for Invoice #123, will now attach the file: Invoice-123.pdf. For those using the default MAPI handler Outlook Express or Windows mail, the attaching of the file is handled by the system, and there is no method for setting the file name.
  • Enabled "Export to Word" button in the Print Preview menu (menu available only when previewing a report or form).
  • Added new search facility for searching the Customer Call Log. This is available from the Search menu on the Customer screen, or Main Instant Quote Menu on the Customers button.
  • Service Screen: The Job Completed date will now highlight in yellow and change to bold when the date is not yet filled in, thus making it easier to see uncompleted jobs at a glance. Additionally, the "Search Jobs" screen will default to searching open jobs only (job completed date left blank), but can be set to search closed or all jobs.
  • Reports Screen, Added new Report: "Job Orders by Job Status w/System Specs". This is identical to the Job Orders by Job Status report, however it adds the system / specs and Item Checked in fields.
  • Parts Screen, Mass Update: If you use the column down arrow filters, these will no longer be ignored when using the "Check All" or "Uncheck All" in filter buttons.
  • Enhancements to Send Bulk E-mail Wizard. You can now check a box to import e-mails from the 'additional contacts' section of the Customer screen. Additionally, fixed error when filtering by sales person, customer type that would prompt for parameter value.
  • In the Invoice Screen, 'Export Invoices for Accounts Export', the line detail for part numbers was using an internal ID for the part. The system will now use the Internal part number unless your "parts datasheet view" in the setup screen, optional features tab is set to only show the Supplier Part number. In this case, the supplier number will be used for the part number.
  • Bug Fix: In the Parts screen, Import function, a bug existed where, if you had leading spaces in either the supplier part # or part description, the program would search either field without the leading space, yet save the part with the leading space, thus making finding matching parts for updating impossible.
  • The 'Add Parts Browser' will now correctly remember the "Sort By" setting, and apply the sorting the next time the browser is opened.
  • The Import Quotes screen, located on the More Quote Commands menu, will now correctly use the Quote Number that you used off-site, provided that the quote number is not already in use in the main/target database. Previously, even though the screen said it would use your number if not in use, it was always using new quote numbers (even if they were not in use).
  • For those NOT using Inventory Control (no on-hand tracking), previously the system would allow you to change a part number on an existing Invoice line, but would not update the part description, cost and sales price. These columns will now be updated. If Inventory Control is in use, the system will continue preventing you from changing part numbers.
  • If using Reference Numbers, when you pull up a different invoice, the next default reference number will set properly.
  • If you have the Credit Limit feature turned on in Setup, Optional Features, fixed error that would result if the credit limit field was left blank in the customer options screen.
  • Fixed "#Error" showing on the Reports Screen, Customer Statement report underneath the customer address.
  • 2-Tax System: Fixed the Purchase Order screen and p/o form to show both taxes in the one available tax box.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.20 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added 2 New Functions to the Customers and Suppliers screen. You can now use the 2 new buttons in the Customer and/or Supplier ribbon menu area to either 1) Save the current customer/supplier to MS Outlook, or 2) Add new customers/suppliers from MS Outlook Contacts. For most users with Outlook 2003 or above, you can save to an outlook contact.
  • Added 5 New Label Formats, including 4 Dymo Label Formats, to the "Print Labels" button on the Customer screen, Parts screen, and Purchase screen, Serial Number Entry form: Avery 5162 (1 1/3" X 4, 2 across), Dymo continuous label 30252 (1-1/8" x 3-1/2", 28mm x 89mm), Dymo 11354 (57mm x 32mm), Dymo 30573 Shipping Labels (2 1/8" x 4", 54mm x 102mm), and finally Dymo 30578 Return Address Labels (3/4" X 2", 19mm x 51mm). When printing the Dymo labels, Instant Quote Pro will automatically switch to any printer in the windows control panel containing the word "Dymo", then switch back to your default printer when finished.
  • Paper Size Fixes: Changed Printing process when clicking the Quick Print buttons to ensure that if you have A4 selected as your paper size, the program will change the paper size setting prior to printing directly to the printer. The change will cause you to briefly see the report when printing directly.
  • Added "Quick Print" button to the Purchase Order Screen top menu area.
  • Instant Billing Add-In: Added 3 New billing frequencies: Weekly, Bi-Weekly and Tri-Annual. For weekly billing, the system will take the monthly amount for a charge and divide by 4 (bi-weekly will divide by 2). For example, if you set the monthly amount of a charge to $40, a weekly billing frequency will set the charge to $10. Tri-Annual will take the monthly amount column and multiply by 4.
  • Instant Billing Add-In: Added "Billing Frequency" selection to the "Copy Billing Record" wizard. You can now set / override the billing frequency when copying billing records to multiple customers.
  • Added new Full screen search facility: "Search All Serial Numbers Purchased / Sold (Inventory)". This is located on the Serial Numbers menu on the Invoice screen, and the Serial Numbers / Locations menu on the Purchase screen, or from the Invoices and Purchases main dropdown menu. This screen will show all serial numbers purchased, and all invoices, with sold price, for Serial numbers that have been sold. Info will also include the details from the purchase order. For those who pay a % for only items sold, this will allow you to search the serial number's sold data and/or copy to Excel for paying Suppliers. Note: Assumption is that any given Part Number on an Invoice would NOT have different sold prices, or this will not function properly. Default sorting is to have all available serial numbers sort first, then those that have been sold on Invoices.
  • Improved the Serial Number Entry process in the purchase order screen. The system will now prevent duplicate serial numbers from being entered where the Supplier and Serial Number are duplicated.
  • The Reports: "Sales by Part Category Account Number - Any Status" and "Delivered Status" now has the Customer filter enabled. You can leave blank for all data (as previously), or choose a Customer to filter the report.
  • The Report: "Purchases by Part Category Account Number" now has the supplier filter enabled. You can leave blank for all data (as previously), or choose a supplier to filter the report.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed Refresh buttons on all search screens. If you switch tabs to make changes to the underlying data, then switch back to a search screen, the refresh will now function by refreshing the data displayed.
  • Bug Fix: Job Workcard was showing a hard-coded "VAT Reg #" at the bottom, this has been removed.
  • Bug Fix: If using company name text instead of a company logo, the customer's company name was printing on the top of the job forms, this has been fixed to show your company name.
  • Bug Fix: If you e-mailed a purchase order in a format that should support a logo, a text logo was shown instead. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.15 (May 5, 2009)

  • Opened up the E-mail Button on the Reports screen so that any report can be e-mailed. It will now function regardless of whether the Customer or Supplier filter is enabled, and regardless of whether or not you choose a customer or supplier. This allows network users to e-mail reports to corporate / main offices, etc.
  • Added sub-totaling on the Quotes by Quote Status Report.
  • For Serial Number entry records, the system will now warn when deleting line items or decreasing the quantity (on Invoices and Purchases) IF serial numbers have been entered for the part. The message will instruct the user to delete the unwanted serial entry record manually (Previously, the system would remove the serial entry record even if it had a serial number entered).
  • When attempting to delete a serial number on the Purchase side, you will be prevented from doing so if the Serial Number is in use on an Invoice serial record.
  • For the "Add Labor" and "Add Shipping" functions on the Quote / Invoice screens, updating an existing labor or shipping charge would not immediately refresh the line-item unless you clicked in the line-item field.
  • In Customer screen, clicking Save was not refreshing the customer select dropdown lists.
  • In the Instant Billing module, you will now be warned when trying to update the Next Invoice From Date, as this is set by the batch billing process.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.10 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added integrated help file. Many popup screens will now have a help button. Additionally, pressing on the main screens, as well as most popup screens, will open context-sensitive help. The help file is now compatible with Windows Vista (previously, the help was a .HLP file, which was no longer supported by Windows Vista).
  • Added the State / Prov. Field to the company selection in the "Choose a Customer" area.
  • Added "Internal Quote Notes" field to the 4 Quotes Follow Up List Reports. However, for the 2 Quotes Follow-up Detail reports, the internal quote notes will ONLY show if you do not filter the report for 1 customer. So if you leave the customer criteria blank, it will show the internal notes, if you choose a customer, it will not show the internal-use notes (assuming that you are sending this to the customer).
  • Parts Screen, Export Menu. Added a checkbox "Export On-Hand Amounts" to the Export Parts for Shopping Cart Import. To add an on-hand column to the exported xls file, check the box in the export window.
  • Fixed "Components" screen. Previously, if you had multiple line-items on the main screen, and were adding components, the main screen would reset to the last line, which would cause the next component added to go to not show in the current component window.
  • Fixed "Add/Update job status button on the Service screen.
  • Fixed E-mail button on the RMA screen. It was not correctly attaching the RMA form.
  • Fixed problem: If you had an invoice selected, then opened the customer screen, then clicked back to invoice, and attempted to delete the invoice, a syntax error would result.
  • When using large parts database mode, if you enter a part number on a blank quote or invoice line, that has more than one supplier, a part chooser would open prompting you to click the correct part. Doing so would give a message that the data could not be saved. This has been fixed.
  • Fixed extra formatting characters that would appear on quote intro / footer text, such as , etc. However, you may need to manually go in after this update and fix the notes directly on each quote by removing the extra formatting characters manually in the notes screen. Same goes for the default intro / footer text in the employee / sales name table. After this update, check for any formatting characters there and delete out the extra text if found.
  • If dividing line is in use on the previewed invoice, it was displaying after any components or line-notes, unlike the quote dividing line. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 6.00 (May 5, 2009)

  • General Program Changes
  • Instant Quote Professional will now use the very latest technology, using Office Access 2007 as the front-end database program, and back-end database. Instant Quote Pro will now be fully compatible with Windows Vista.
  • All Main screens have been completely redesigned to be fully self-contained. In previous versions, you could only open one main screen at a time. Now you can have many Main screens open at once, and easily switch screens using the tabbed interface at the top. If you have too many screens open, and wish to close them all quickly, click the Tools tab at the top, and select the "Close all Open Tabs" button.
  • All Main screens have new "ribbon-style" menus at the top. This will make finding common tasks for each screen very easy. Instant Search has been replaced by a dedicated search screen for each area of interest. These new, full screen, search facilities are now accessible via search selections on the lower half of screen selection buttons on the main program menu, and on each main screen's menu.
  • All fonts have been updated to use more modern windows fonts. Datasheets are clearer, and use a light color, alternating row background, enabling the rows to easily stand out from one another.
  • The E-mailing window has new additions in the Output Format selection list: Access 2007 .PDF Add-In, and Access 2007 .XPS (XML Paper Specification). The .PDF output format retains all logos, formatting, etc., when e-mailing a document. The new Microsoft .PDF add-in is far superior to using your own .PDF writer. We recommend you switch to this. If you select the Access 2007 .PDF as your output format, the first time you send, the system will prompt you to download the add-in. Simply install the add-in, and re-start Instant Quote Pro, and you're set! Outlook Express and the new Windows Mail that replaces Express in Windows Vista will support the new Access 2007 .PDF! This will solve all issues with e-mail quotes using Outlook Express, as all logo's, formatting, etc., will be retained if you use the Access 2007 .PDF.
  • All Reports will have a new menu bar that will support the Access 2007 .PDF add-in mentioned above.
  • In previous versions, the back-end database did not have relationships / referential integrity enforced. Now all data has rules for enforcing referential integrity (for example, you cannot delete a Purchase Order that has a payment attached, etc.). Additional table-based rules will prohibit null/blank entries where a number should be, or entries of zero where a CustomerID should be, etc. These rules will keep your database at a high level of integrity at all times.
  • When you click in ALL date fields throughout the program, a small button will become visible for date picking. This button will be immediately to the right of the date field.
  • Most commands under the old File menu have now been placed under the top-left, round Office button. You can now easily compact your program file under this menu. Over time, as you run many reports, functions, etc., the program file will grow in size. You should use the compact and repair at least weekly.
  • For those who use multiple databases, a new option for managing your database list can be found in the top left Office button, Open Instant Quote Database, Add / Manage Database List. By adding your database locations in this list, they will then appear in the "Open Instant Quote Database" menu, thus eliminating the need to browse for the correct database each time you wish to open one.
  • The old File, Backup screen has been eliminated. Now when you click the top-left Office button, and select "Backup Instant Quote Pro Database", you will simply be prompted with the save dialog. The path will be remembered, and the file name will default to the day of the week. The option for Disabling automated backups has moved to the top-left Office button, Setup Options, Setup Options (Local PC Only).
  • Added the ability to change the password for a user in the Security Setup screen. (Security setup has moved to the top-left Office button, Setup Options, Security Setup.
  • The "What's New in Instant Quote Pro" screen has been moved to the main program ribbon area. Notice in the line that says "What do you want to Open?", there is a small diagonal arrow box in the lower right. Clicking this will access the screen.
  • The "About Instant Quote Pro" screen has been moved to the main program ribbon area. Notice in the line that says "Exit" with the "Exit Instant Quote Pro" button, there is a small diagonal rrow box in the lower right. Clicking this will access the screen.
  • The table of information that stores Customers has been split into 2 tables. All of the large notes fields, and other larger fields have moved to the new table. This should speed access to screens requiring customer information.
  • The table of information that stores Parts has been split into 2 tables. Most of the large notes fields, and other larger fields have moved to the new table. This should greatly improve the speed of access to screens requiring basic parts information.
  • Changes in the way the font / color dialogs are referenced will eliminate the "Active X" errors on startup that could occur with the older version of Instant Quote Pro.
  • Instant Billing Add-In
  • All screens and reports from the Instant Billing Add-In are now part of the main program file. A Product Key for Instant Billing will still need to be purchased to un-lock all features, however, now you can test the features without purchasing a key. You can setup billing records for recurring charges, and go through the batch billing process. However, in trial mode, you can preview the invoices that would be created, but not actually create the invoices.
  • Instant Billing now supports the new Access 2007 .PDF Add-In, thus allowing you to e-mail a batch of invoices in .PDF format. If you are currently using your own .PDF driver in the e-mailing window, you will need to change to the Microsoft .PDF Add-In, as using your own .PDF creator will not be supported for batch billing. The reason for this is the timing of the creation of .PDF's in external .PDF writers, and due to the fact that some external .pdf creators will open each .PDF as it is created, which, by nature, does not support a batch process.
  • In the main program Menu, a split menu button will be visible for the Instant Billing Add-In. Click the top half to launch the main Instant Billing (Customer Recurring Billing) screen. Click the lower half to access 2 New Search screens: Search all Bill Records, Search Bill Record Detail Charges. You can search on any column using the text filters in the arrow button of each column heading. When searching the detail charges, a sum line at the bottom will sum the number, and amount of the charges.
  • If you use the Easy-Mail option for e-mailing, a new "CC to Self" option is now on available on the "Run Batch Billing" screen.
  • If you connect to multiple databases, the last batch info and ability to re-print a batch, prior to starting a new batch, will now be supported when switching databases (Previously, last batch info was stored in the program file).
  • Step 2 in the "Run Batch Billing" screen for entering payments will now have data checks for expired credit cards, missing payment information, etc.
  • In the "Run Batch Billing" screen, you can now select / change your e-mail options.
  • Customer Screen
  • You can now view all history items for a customer directly from the Customers screen. With a Customer selected, simply use the "Search Customers" magnifying glass button in the top customer ribbon bar. Clicking the top portion of the search split button will Search your entire customer database. Clicking the lower-half will reveal additional search options for searching your customer's quote history, Invoice history, Service history, and all Payments received.
  • Customer notes now supports rich text, thus allowing you to draw attention to any notes regarding the customer. For formatting rich text, highlight the text with your mouse, then drag slightly upward, and a toolbar will appear above the highlighted text.
  • Parts Screen / External Parts
  • The Parts screen will now fill the entire width of your display, thus enabling you to see more columns of data. This is particularly useful with widescreen monitors.
  • All commands have been moved up to the new Parts screen ribbon menu: Parts Datasheet View, View / Hide Inactive Parts, Validate, Import/Export, Mass Update parts, etc.
  • Added New options to the Parts Datasheet View selection: "Labor Hours Column", "PDF Location Column" and "Weight Column". So, for example, when you are working with setting the default labor hours or fixed labor rate for your parts database, you can select "Labor Hours Column" in the Parts Datasheet View selection to view only those columns of interest. The current view setting is remembered when you close the parts screen. Therefore, to resume viewing all parts, you would select "View All Parts" in the Parts Datasheet View selection.
  • External Parts screen has moved. Notice that the button in the menu area for Parts is now a split button. Clicking the top half will open the Parts screen. Click the lower half of the Parts screen button for access to the External Parts browser screen.
  • The External Parts screen is now a Full screen, thus allowing you to see much more information at once. The E-Parts screen now has it's own menu for common tasks, such as updating all matching parts, adding the current part, etc.
  • Exporting Parts information is now performed directly from the Parts screen. Use the new Export parts dropdown menu in the parts ribbon for exporting parts, or click the dropdown on the export button to select what information you wish to export from the choices given.
  • Common tools that were not clearly visible in previous versions, are now directly in the parts screen ribbon menu: Part Labels, Part Information Screen, and an option to Clone a Part. To use any of these tools, simply click a part in the datasheet section (this will select the part), and then click any of the three buttons in the menu.
  • Searching has changed. There is now built in searching for each column of data. For example, notice the column heading "Item Description". On the far right of the column heading, there is a small down arrow, triangle shape. Clicking this will open up a selection of searching and filtering options. To search for a description containing "512MB DDR", for example, you would click the down arrow in the Item Description heading, then move your mouse pointer to "Text Filters", then over to "Contains". Simply type in the search phrase, and the list of parts will filter to only those containing the entered text. To remove the filter, click the down arrow again, and choose "Clear .. Filter".
  • The Part Category maintenance screen (Click Add/Edit Part Categories in the new Parts screen ribbon menu) now takes up the entire screen, thus allowing you to see much more information. Again, for those with widescreens, this can be very helpful.
  • Quotes Screen
  • New Feature: You can now add a calculated labor charge to a quote using the new "Labor / Shipping Charges" dropdown menu in the new Quotes screen ribbon menu. You can assign the number of hours each part takes in the Parts screen, or a flat labor charge per part. Then, when you use the function to add labor charges, the sum of labor charges for all parts contained on your quote will be displayed. By selecting a part to be used for hourly and flat rate labor, the labor part(s) can be automatically added to your quote. The "Add Labor" screen will add the labor parts, and set the quantity = total hours (for an hourly labor charge), and will set the total sales price for a fixed rate labor charge. Should you need to change or update the parts or quantities, simply return to the Labor Charge screen and click the button to update any existing labor charges.
  • New Feature: You can now add a total calculated shipping charge with just a few mouse clicks! To setup this feature, you will need to enter part weights in the Parts screen. Once part weights are set, you will need to define shipping rates for your various shipping types (providers). To quickly do this, click the new "Labor / Shipping Charges" dropdown menu, and click "Edit Shipping Rates". The Shipping types screen will open, where you will find a new option for editing the shipping rates for each provider. Once shipping rates are set (use the actual rates you are charged, as this will be your cost basis) , return to the "Add / Update Shipping Charge" screen, and the total weight of all parts contained on the quote will display. By selecting the provider, and the provider's delivery service to calculate, the system will then show the calculated shipping charge, and set the default cost price and description that will be used. A markup can be used to add a percentage to the cost. After clicking "Add/Update Shipping Charges", the shipping part will be added to your quote, and the cost will be set as your true cost. The sales price will be your cost + markup. Should your parts change, return to the shipping charge screen, and use the "Add/Update" button again to recalculate the shipping charges.
  • Whenever a Quote is edited, the system will automatically record a time/date stamp, as well as the machine name. Whenever you pull up a quote, you will then see the the info in the system messages area (bottom-most bar), as well as the number of line-items on the quote.
  • New ordering quote options: There is a new split menu button for Ordering quotes. Clicking the top half of the button in the menu will Order an Invoice. Clicking the lower half of the button will reveal the 3 ordering options: 1) Order Current Quote (Invoice) 2) Create Job Order from Quote and a new option 3) Create Purchase Order from Quote.
  • New easy access menu button for creating a new quote: In the Quote Ribbon Menu at the top left, clicking "Create New Quote" will begin a new quote as before. Clicking the lower half of the menu button will reveal options for creating a quote from a quote template, and creating a quote revision (a quote revision will copy the current quote to a new one, and assign a revision letter to the quote description).
  • New Preview Current Quote menu selection. The top half of this button will preview the current quote. Clicking the lower half of the menu will reveal additional reports that you can print, in addition to the Excel-based quote. Other options in this menu allow for the editing of the standard quote layout, and editing the excel based quote template. A New Report has been added to this list: Preview Purchase Agreement (No Pricing). This report is ideal for giving to techs who have to go out to the customer site, where you don't wish for them to have the pricing details.
  • Powerful "Search Quotes" menu item has been added to the Quote ribbon menu. New screens have been added to allow you to search any column for all Quotes in your system (including the new Last Updated and Updated By fields), and an option to search all Quote line-items. Finally, the search option for "Current Customer Quote History" will show all quotes for the currently selected customer. This has replaced the old "Quote History" window that was on the bottom of the quotes screen. However, you can still access this quotes history on the main quotes screen by clicking the new selection list, Customer History, underneath the Quote # selection list. When searching with any of the 3 new screens, simply double-clicking inside a search line will open the Quotes screen with the quote you selected.
  • Invoice Screen
  • New Feature's You can now add Labor and Shipping charges quickly and easily to Invoices. See the "Quotes" section above for a full description of both the labor charge screen, and shipping charge screen.
  • Whenever an Invoice is edited, the system will automatically record a time/date stamp, as well as the machine name. Whenever you pull up an Invoice, you will then see the info in the system messages area (bottom-most bar), as well as the number of line-items.
  • New split menu for creating an invoice. The top half of the menu button will simply create a new invoice. The bottom half of the menu button will reveal options for creating a new invoice from a Quote Template, and creating a purchase order from selected invoices.
  • Preview Current Invoice menu selection. The top half of this button will preview the selected Invoice. Clicking the lower half of the menu will reveal additional reports that you can print, such as the POS Invoice, Serial Number entry form, creating an Excel-based Invoice and a Job Sheet form. Other options in this menu allow for the editing of the standard Invoice layout, and editing the excel based Invoice template.
  • New Deposit Request form. You can now print a Deposit Request form that requests that a certain percentage of the invoice be paid in advance of the work or sale. To access this feature, click the lower half of the new menu option: "Make Payment". This will reveal the menu selection to "Create Invoice Deposit Request Form". A screen will open asking you for the percentage you are requesting, as well as the form letter text. This text will be saved and used for all deposit requests, as will the percentage.
  • New "Invoice Serial Numbers" menu button. Clicking the top half of the button will open a screen allowing you to enter serial numbers for the selected invoice. Clicking the lower half of the menu button will reveal another option for searching Serial Numbers. Clicking this option will open a new, serial number search screen, that fills your entire display. You can search on any column using the down arrow symbol in each column's heading. Double-clicking inside any item will pull up the invoice, open the serial number entry screen, and take you to the appropriate line.
  • New "Export Invoices" menu item in the menu bar. Clicking this button will show a menu of all export options that are available: Export Invoices for Accounts import, Export Invoices that require shipping, and exporting all invoices and payments to Excel.
  • Powerful "Search Invoices" menu item has been added to the Invoice ribbon menu. New screens have been added to allow you to search any column for all Invoices in your system (including the new Last Updated and Updated By fields), and an option to search all Invoice line-items. Finally, the search option for "Current Customer Invoice History" will show all invoices for the currently selected customer. This has replaced the old "Invoice History" window that was on the bottom of the invoices screen. However, you can still access the invoice history on the main screen by clicking the new selection list, Customer History, underneath the Invoice # selection list. When searching with any of the 3 new screens, double-clicking inside a search line will open the Invoice screen with the invoice you selected. You can search for text in any column using the down arrow picture inside each column heading.
  • The Invoice Selection dropdown list will now display the invoice status.
  • Service Screen
  • New Feature's You can now add Labor and Shipping charges quickly and easily to Job Orders. See the "Quotes" section above for a full description of both the labor charge screen, and shipping charge screen.
  • Whenever a Job is edited, the system will automatically record a time/date stamp, as well as the machine name. Whenever you pull up a Job Order, you will see the info in the system messages area (bottom-most bar).
  • Replaced the Version 5 method of clicking "Page Down" to see the work needed, with a menu button called "Work Needed / Hour Tracking". This section will now have it's own, full-screen.
  • Added "Job Check-In" menu option to the Job's menu that has 3 options: 1) Make Deposit Payment, 2) Create a job-check in label (which can be affixed to an item brought in for repair and 3) Print POS Job check in receipt (receipt that the customer can carry away with them). Job check-in information is now shown at the top-left of the Service Screen.
  • New, more powerful searching options have been added to the "Search All Jobs" menu button. Clicking the top portion of the button will search all Job Orders. Clicking the lower half of the search button will reveal additional search options: New search screen to Search Job Line-Items (parts used), New search screen for Work Needed items, and a Customer Service history, that will search all jobs for the selected customer.
  • If the job was created from a quote, the "View Original Quote #" will become enabled in the job menu. Clicking this will open the quotes screen to view the original quote. Likewise, if an Invoice was created from the selected job, the "View Ordered Invoice#" will become enabled in the menu area.
  • Supplier Screen
  • Added new Search Suppliers menu button in the Supplier menu ribbon at the top, including a new "Search Supplier's" screen that enables you to search on any field to find the Supplier you are looking for. Clicking the lower-half of the menu button will allow for the searching of the selected Supplier's purchase order history.
  • You can now import Suppliers. To import your suppliers, go to the Suppliers screen and click the "Import Suppliers" button in the top Menu. A form will open that looks similar to Excel. You will paste the data you wish to import into this "holding" import datasheet. Paste your data one column at a time, and only use the columns you require, leave un-used columns blank. Make sure the information you are pasting matches the column-heading you are pasting into. When finished, click the "Accept and Add" button. If records are found in the Supplier's table where the supplier name matches, the data will be updated. If no match is found for a Supplier Name, the record will be added.
  • Supplier notes now supports rich text, thus allowing you to draw attention to any notes regarding the Supplier. For formatting rich text, highlight the text with your mouse, then drag slightly upward, and a toolbar will appear above the highlighted text.
  • Supplier RMA Address and Additional contacts have moved to their own, full screen. To view these details, select a Supplier on the Supplier screen, then click the top left button in the menu area for "Supplier RMA Address / Additional Contacts".
  • Purchase Screen / RMA's
  • Create a New Purchase Order or Auto Purchase Orders using the new split menu button called "New Purchase Order". Clicking the top half of the button will create a new purchase order. Click the lower half for creating an Auto Purchase Order.
  • Whenever a Purchase Order is edited, the system will automatically record a time/date stamp, as well as the machine name. Whenever you pull up a P/O, you will then see the the info in the system messages area (bottom-most bar).
  • All reports and forms are now accessed using the new "Preview Purchase Order" menu button. The top half of the button will preview the selected Purchase Order. Click the lower half for additional reports, including the Excel based Purchase Order form, Internal Purchase Order, and Editing the excel based purchase order template.
  • Features that were hard to find are now easily seen in the main menu area, such as "Sending all Un-Ordered Items to the P/O Scratch Pad".
  • Entering and Searching Serial Numbers on P/O's is now much easier, with the addition of the "Serial Numbers / Locations" button. Clicking the top half of the button will display the serial number entry form for the current P/O, while clicking the lower half will reveal a Search Serial Numbers screen. This new search screen fills the entire screen, and allows searching in any column. Double-click inside a search item, and the system will pull up the P/O, Open the Serial Number entry screen, and scroll to the appropriate item.
  • Payments for Purchase Orders has been enhanced with a split Menu button at the top called "P/O Payments". Options for this menu button are: 1) Creating a P/O Payment for the selected Purchase (top half of button), 2) Paying ALL unpaid P/O's for the Supplier for the selected purchase and 3) Searching all purchase order payments.
  • Powerful "Search Purchases" menu item has been added to top menu. New screens have been added to allow you to search any column for all Purchases in your system (including the new Last Updated and Updated By fields), and an option to search all Purchase line-items. Finally, the new search option for "Supplier Purchase History" will show all Purchases for the currently selected P/O's Supplier. When searching with any of the 3 new screens, double-clicking inside a search line will open the P/O screen with the P/O you selected. You can search for text in any column using the down arrow picture inside each column heading.
  • RMA's has a new menu button on the Purchase Screen. The top half of the button will open a screen allowing you to "View / Add RMA's. This screen is much larger than in previous versions, thus allowing you to see more detail. The lower half of the RMA button will open a New, full screen Search facility, that allows you to search existing RMA's in any field.
  • In the top Menu area, you can now easily see if your Purchase Order Scratch Pad contains any items (temporary holding place for items you need to order, but don't yet wish to create a p/o).
  • Internal P/O Notes now support rich text.
  • Reports Screen
  • New Report: Reports screen, Purchases tab: Purchases by Part Cat Account Number. This report will categorize the total cost's of all parts purchased during the time frame entered. The parts will be sub-totaled by the "Account Num" column in the part category screen. (Account Numbers can be set to part categories and match your accounts in your accounting software). This is similar to the Invoice Sales by Part Category Account Num. Report.
  • New Report: Reports screen, Invoices tab: Invoices Not Completely Shipped. This report is ONLY available if you have the optional feature "Show quantity shipped / received" checked in the Setup screen, optional features list. This report will show all invoice lines, grouped by invoice, where the quantity shipped does not equal the total quantity.
  • Customizable Knowledge Base / To-Do List
  • The KB Screen has now been broken down into 2 separate screens: 1) Search KB's and 2) Enter New KB Articles. Both are now full screen, allowing you to view much more information than before.
  • This screen is now accessed through the Tools tab at the top of the menu area, and is now a split menu item. The top half of the button will open the Search KB screen, and the lower half will show the option for creating a new KB Article. This is the only split menu button in the program where the top half will open the search screen, and the bottom half will open the screen for new entries. The reasoning is that, more times that not, you are searching for a solution to a known problem.
  • For the "Enter New KB Article" screen, all buttons are now moved to the top menu area, and much more clearly labeled.
  • The To-Do List screen now takes up the entire screen, and is accessed through the Tools tab in the top menu area.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.60 (May 5, 2009)

  • On the Service screen, when you create an invoice from a job that was created from a quote, you will now see the "View Original Quote" option enabled on the Invoice screen. Likewise, from the original quote, you will be able to see what invoice was created.
  • To the File, Export screen: Added a selection to export inactive customers.
  • In the Service screen, you can now customize the "Job Task Form" title text. To do this, click the "Setup/Labels" button on the Service screen, and change the default text that says "Job Task Form". Additionally, restored the functioning in the Setup/Labels screen of the top right customizable text label, which by default is labeled "Work By".
  • If you use more than one database, you can now customize the blue title bar text. To do so, go to the Setup screen, Software Options tab. Change the Custom Title Bar text to easily identify the database name. Now when you minimize Instant Quote Pro, the custom text will appear in the button that shrinks to the taskbar.
  • Fixes to the parts importing process. If you had all numeric data in the description or UPC column, an error could result. Changes to the code to increase the speed of the import process.
  • Fixes to the Instant Reminder screen. When you click the magnifying glass button from the Customer screen, you will now see all reminders for that customer. Previously, a blank screen was showing. Additionally, if you click the new bell button for a new reminder, but do not fill in the subject of reminder text, the new record will NOT be saved. Finally, fixed the error message that could occur if you click Tools, Instant Reminders.
  • Fixed problem with some reminders not showing that were set to prompt the user when due. This was caused by a reminder record not having a scheduled date/time.
  • Fixed address footer on the packing list and the purchase order to correctly show your address-2 line, if present.
  • Added error messages for non-existent customer store folders when e-mailing a quote or when viewing a customer files / letters store folder tab.
  • Misc. Bug fixes
  • Fixed e-mailing screen when MS Mapi is in use. System appeared to be trying to send the e-mail twice, and an error 91 was occurring.
  • Fixed Customer store folder. If your customer store folder was selected for a customer, but did not yet contain any files, and error message would occur on the customer screen AND the e-mailing window informing you that the folder did not exist, when in fact it did exist, but was empty.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.50 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature: On the Quotes screen, when clicking the "order quote" button to create an invoice, the invoice number will now be saved with the quote, and likewise, the quote number will be saved with the new invoice. On both the quote and invoice screen, if there is an associated quote or invoice, you will now be able to easily see which quote or invoice was used. If you are on the invoice screen, and wish to see the original quote, click the new button labeled "View Original Quote". If the invoice was created without a quote, this button will be disabled. Likewise, if you are on the quotes screen, you can click the "Magnifying Glass" button next to the invoice number to view the invoice that was created from the quote.
  • New Feature: When on the service screen, you can now direct Instant Quote Pro to automatically mark any invoices created from jobs as being Delivered. (set invoice status to delivered automatically). To enable this, go to the Service screen, then click the "Setup / Labels" button, and check the last checkbox labeled: "When creating invoices from a job, automatically mark the invoice as Delivered."
  • Added "PDF" button to the print toolbar that is visible when in preview-mode for most reports or forms. Clicking this will close the preview, and send the report to your PDF printer, if you have one assigned.
  • New Part Wizard: If you have the weight fields turned on in the setup screen, optional features tab, they will now also appear on the new part wizard.
  • New Feature: You can now quickly clone a part (copy a part) from the Parts screen. To do this, go to the parts screen, and right-click on the part you wish to clone. Choose the new "Clone Part" option on the right-click menu. The New Part wizard will open, with all fields copied and filled out for you. Simply change the part number, click Finish, and you're set!
  • In the File, Export Invoices to File for Accounts Export screen, we have added a new button for viewing all previously exported invoices. This will allow you to re-check invoices that have already been exported so that you can export them again. To view previously exported invoices, click the new button "Show Invoices already marked as Exported", then choose which one’s to process as normal.
  • New Reports: In the Reports screen, Quotes tab, added the "Quotes Follow-Up List (By Quote Number)". This is identical to the existing quotes follow up list, but is not grouped by customer. It will sort all quotes descending as the first sort. The existing report is now called "Quotes Follow-Up list (by Customer), and will continue to first sort by customer, then descending by quote number. Also added "Quotes Follow-Up List - Detail (By Quote Number). This is identical to the existing quote follow up detail report, however the grouping by customer as been removed.
  • When creating auto-purchase orders from a quote (Purchase screen, auto purchase button), the quote number will now be copied to the internal notes section of the p/o. If you are using the scratch pad, the quote # will carry over from the notes section of the p/o scratch pad to the purchase order, unless they are from different quotes, then only one quote # will show in the internal notes section. Additionally, if you are NOT using the scratch pad, the P/O Number that is created will show on the quotes screen under the Internal Quote Notes section.
  • New Feature: In the Parts screen, Mass Update Parts button, you can now set a group of parts to have the Based on Margin box un-checked. Click the Mass Update Parts button, then check the parts you wish to update, then use the new "Mark checked items as Based On Margin = " then you can select the new On or Off setting. On will check the based on margin box, and off will un-check the box for the selected parts.
  • Added transaction description to the Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices (& w/Remittance) report and removed the # of Payments column to make room for the title column.
  • Addition to the Parts Sold by Customer report on the Reports screen. Added and extended column to the detail and the grand total quantity and total extended amounts to the report footer. Additionally, you can now leave the "Part Number" criteria selection blank to show all parts sold, or select one for a specific part.
  • Bug Fix: When using the "Make Payment" button on the payments screen, if you have selected to print or preview the receipt, the receipt was not showing the updated "Balance Due" information at the bottom. You had to go back into the payment after it was posted for the receipt to show the balance due correctly. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: On the purchases screen, if you have a supplier where "tax exempt" is set on the supplier screen, an error could result when attempting to create an excel p/o. The error was informing you that excel was required. This has been fixed.
  • Added Customer Cell number and Customer Reference Number to the report: Customer/Company address list located on the Reports screen.
  • Fixed bug on the Purchase Order .xls spreadsheet generation when alternate currency fields are involved. The bug was an error 1004: application defined error.
  • Cleaned up header area of the invoice packing list form.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.40 (May 5, 2009)

  • New, Very Powerful, time-saving feature!!! On the Customers screen, there is a new tab called "View Customer Files / Letters". Now, for each customer, you can associate a "store folder", which is a folder you have on your computer or file server for each and every customer. Set the location of the store folder in the customer screen, View Customer Files tab, and then you can see, at a glance, all files in that folder FROM the customer screen!!! Better yet, you can double-click a file in the list to automatically open that file using the program that is associated with that file. And we've saved the best for last here!! Now, when you are e-mailing a quote or invoice, as long as you have selected a store folder for the customer you are e-mailing, Instant Quote will AUTOMATICALLY copy the quote or invoice to your customer's store folder, including the quote or invoice number in the file name!!! This is great for backup and archiving purposes, and an added benefit is that you can output a number of quotes or invoices to this store folder, then simply create one e-mail and attach multiple quotes and invoices!!
  • Fixed the default behavior when deleting quote line-items on the main screen. Previously, after deleting a line-item on a quote, the system would put you back to the top of the quote line-items. We have modified this behavior to remember the line you were on when you deleted, and after a deletion occurs, the system will scroll back to the line above the deleted item.
  • Enhancement to the Instant Reminders feature. Now, when you are prompted with a reminder, you will be given a 3rd option: Cancel. This will disable all reminders to allow you to work without being prompted. Once you are caught up with your work, you can then re-enable all reminder prompts by clicking Tools, Instant Reminders, then un-checking the new box at the bottom of the Reminder's screen.
  • New Feature: On the Tools, Print a Bulk Customer Letter feature, we have added the ability to filter for a particular part that has been purchased. This will allow you to create one form letter for all customers who have purchased a certain part. Simply leave the new part filter blank to not use the part filter option. You can also access the bulk letters feature from the Customers screen, Create Bulk Customer Letters button.
  • New Feature: On the Tools, Bulk E-mail Wizard. Added the ability to import e-mails for a particular part number. This will allow you to create a batch of e-mails to customers who have purchased a certain part. Simply leave this filter blank to use the other e-mail importing methods.
  • New Report: Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices *Active Only*. This is identical to the new report from version 5.3 called "Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices w/Remittance", however only customer's where the checkbox in the customer screen labeled "This Customer IS Active" IS Checked.
  • Added "Remember" button to the new part wizard. When clicked, this will remember your preference for having based on margin or fixed prices when entering new parts using the part wizard.
  • Added Manuf. Part Number to the report: Parts Sold Ranking by Quantity on the Parts List tab of the Reports screen.
  • Added "Supplier Order #" to the report: Payments Summary Report for Purchase Orders, which is in the Reports screen, Purchases tab.
  • Bug Fix: For the report Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices w/Remittance on the reports screen, Customer tab, it was not allowing you to choose a single customer. This has been fixed, you can now choose a single company in the company filter.
  • Fix for RMA's screen. The choose part dropdown will no longer show duplicate parts.
  • Added "Valid From Date" to the customer screen, customer options tab for credit card payment types.
  • In the Letters for Current Customer window, the date and customer address fields will not be filled in until you type an internal letter description.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.30 (May 5, 2009)

  • The "Customer History - Balances Only" report will now require a date range. This allows you to limit the detail transactions that are shown on the report, and yet still display the total amount owed. Additional important change: the report will now show all customers with a balance, even if they didn't have transactions in the date range entered. Both of these changes will make the report much more useful and manageable.
  • New Report: Customer Statement - Unpaid Invoices detail w/Remittance. This report is identical to the Unpaid Invoices report on the Payments screen, but can be ran for all customers and has a "remit to" section, complete with balance due, accrual information and your company address. It is located in the Reports screen, Customer tab.
  • New Report: Payments Summary - Unapplied Payments, located in the Reports screen, Financial tab. This will show all unapplied payments (payments that are not associated with an invoice) that were recorded in the date range entered.
  • Reports Screen, Customer/Company filter selection will now sort ascending by company name first, then customer last name. If the company name is blank, the last name will be included in the sort.
  • Packing List: The text below the signature line is now customizable. Go to the Setup screen, report options tab. In the lower left customizable text fields section, choose the Packing List text to edit. The packing list / delivery note is accessed through the invoice screen, file, print preview other command.
  • Adjusted the export for shipping invoices via fedex, ups, etc. In the file, Export Invoices to ship screen, the output will now combine the first and last names into one field, and separate out the City, State, Zip combined line into 3 separate spreadsheet columns for the city, state and zip. Added a new column, phone, as the last column in the export.
  • Cleaned up P/O Report footer text and delivery method area on the Purchase Order form.
  • Fixed secondary currency price / extended price on the excel invoice templates.
  • On the line-items section, when adding a new part to a line-item manually using the dropdown on a blank line, active parts will now sort first, so typing in a part number, internal p/n or upc will bring you to the active part first.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.20 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature!: You can now categorize your sales by Account Number, which can correspond to your accounting package's account field. Account numbers are set by part category. To edit the account number, click Edit, Part Categories to open the part categories maintenance screen, then add the account number to each category. You can use copy/paste to quickly set the account for each category. TWO NEW REPORTS have been added to summarize your invoice sales by this new Account Number field. They are located in the Reports screen, Invoice tab, and named: Sales by Part Cat Account Num - Any Status AND Sales by Part Cat Account Num - Delivered Invoices. You can then view the total amounts by account number for all invoices regardless of invoice status, or for only delivered invoices.
  • New Feature!: You can now print a batch of invoices on the Reports Screen, Invoice tab for all invoices where the "Invoice Printed?" box is un-checked. After printing is complete, you will be asked if you wish to set the Printed box to checked. This Report is called: "Print Invoices where 'Invoice Printed? = No".
  • Renamed the existing "Reprint Invoices by date range" report to "Print Invoices by Date Range". This will print all invoices for a particular date range. Added new feature: After printing is complete, you will be asked if you wish to set the Printed box to checked.
  • The option to "Mark invoices delivered that have been paid in full", located in the Setup screen, software options tab, has changed to a dropdown selection box. The main difference is the new option (last option in the selection list) that will not only set the sale/payment date and mark the invoice as a delivered status, but will also set the invoice date to today's date as well.
  • Added an option to the Service Screen, Setup / Labels button to allow you to control whether the part number field is shown on the job order form. If you do not wish the part number to display, uncheck the option "Show Item Number on the Job Agreement Form".
  • Product Label Sheets (Tools, Print Product Labels) now has a checkbox option to omit the sales price. The part description will be substituted for the smaller label sheets. Additionally all product label sheets that show the part description will now only show a limited number of characters so that the description fits the field.
  • New Feature: In the Search Jobs screen on the Service screen, you can now search by the new serial number field (old password field).
  • Instant Reminders: The "Action / To-Do" notes section is now open for editing for existing reminders. You can now recall your reminder, and edit this field.
  • The new Tax-Exempt box on the Supplier screen will no default to Un-Checked rather than checked.
  • Restored the prior functioning on the job order form to have the customer work required, diagnostic results and repairs made show regardless of whether anything is typed into them. This gives a couple lines for hand writing in details on the form. Also on the Job Order Form, added the serial number, item checked in and check-in by.
  • Bug Fix: Eliminated problem with the part description shrinking after opening the "Add Parts" or Part Information screen.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed "Item not found in this collection" when e-mailing a service / job order.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using the 2-Tax System, and generated an excel quote/invoice, an error would result. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using the 2-Tax System, the rounding of the total tax has been fixed. Previously, if you had a 1/2 cent, the system was dropping the 1/2 cent. Now it will correctly round 1/2 cent's up.
  • Bug Fix: When using the excel button on the invoice screen to create an excel invoice, the system will now properly use the correct shipping company name, rather than using the billing company name.
  • Bug Fix: The RMA screen has been fixed to resume showing the original p/o details as you click on each line-item that has a p/o selected. The part number selection will now show as well.
  • When deleting a line-item on a quote, invoice, service order or purchase, eliminated the behavior where all boxes in the "Delete" column would be checked.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.10 (May 5, 2009)

  • Enhancement to the rounding option in the Setup Screen, Software Options Tab. The "Round sales price to the nearest whole amount has been replaced with a selection list of 3 options: You can now select from 3 rounding options: 1) Off / None, 2) Round Sales Price to the nearest whole dollar (This is equal to the old method of having the rounding check box checked, 3) Round Sales Price w/Tax to the nearest whole dollar (This will round the price with tax to the nearest dollar. Please note: If you override a sales price, the system WILL adjust the sale price you entered so that the w/tax price will be to the nearest dollar).
  • New Feature: You can now set the sales price decimal places in the Setup Screen, Software Options tab. If you sell parts that require more than 2 decimal places of precision in the part cost and sales prices field, you can now turn on extra precision to show more than 2 decimals. To use more precision, change the "Parts Sales Price Decimal Places" drop down selection in Setup, Software Options. You may choose from 2-5 decimal places. Please Note: You cannot change this setting if you have rounding turned on. If you set precision to more than 2 decimal places, this extra precision WILL show throughout the program, AND on the printed quote, invoice, purchase, etc. However, the extended price will (quantity times sales price) will always only show 2 decimal places.
  • New Feature: Added the ability to export invoices for shipping. This data can then be imported into shipping software, such as FedEx, etc. To view all invoices that have not yet been shipped (Ship Date is Blank on Invoice Screen) and export them, use the new export shipping screen accessed by clicking on 'File, Export Invoices to Ship Via FedEx, UPS, Etc.'. Once you choose invoices to export for shipping, the ship date will be set to today's date, and the records will be exported to an excel or text file.
  • Added Part barcode labels for A4 label size: L7159: 33mm X 64mm, 3 across labels to the label screens: 1) Tools, Print Product Labels, 2) Purchase Screen, Serial Nos / Labels button, and 3) Service screen / Customer screen Create Labels button.
  • Added Manufacturer Name and MSRP fields to the Part Wizard (New Part Entry Screen). Also removed requirement that part description cannot be over 100 characters.
  • For shipping tracking text, customizable in the Edit, Shipping Types screen, Added [InvoiceNumber] as a merge field to the shipping tracking text. You can now enter [InvoiceNumber] into your tracking text for each provider and the invoice number will then be merged.
  • Increased the minimum font size on all 2.5" POS Receipts to 9 points. Additionally, the Job Receipt POS form will now use the default font selected for the Invoice POS receipt.
  • For product labels, there is now a box where you can select to print the price including tax. This box will be set by default to 'checked' if you have the option enabled to show part prices with tax on parts datasheets.
  • Customer Parts List report will now correctly show the local currency symbol.
  • If you are using the Edit, Sales Initials screen, and have set Quote Intro / Ending notes for each sales person, these notes will now copy over to a quote IF you pick the sales person on the quotes screen. Previously, these notes would only copy when creating a new quote based on the default sales person set in the customer screen.
  • The Job Title now appears on the Job Order form.
  • If you enter invoice / job items using the UPC field, the cursor will move to a new line in the UPC field. This was the functioning prior to version 5.
  • If you have "Mark Invoices as Delivered when Payment is made in full" checked in the setup screen, software options tab, this will also set the invoice date to today's date.
  • If you were having trouble picking a printer in the File, default printers screen, we are now using a different method to display the list of printers, so this will now function correctly.
  • Added "Quote Status" to the Quotes Follow-Up List and Detail Report.
  • Added the manufacturer part number merge field: [Manuf_Num] to the .XLS Quote Template layout. By clicking Edit, Quote/Invoice/PO spreadsheet template setup, you can now have the Manuf. Part # display on each line of the excel based quote by placing [Manuf_Num] merge field on your detail/repeating line in your quote_temp.xls file. Also, Fixed the [Manuf_Num] merge field on the Invoice excel layout, as it was not working correctly.
  • Added the merge fields: [ShipTracking] and [ShipDate] to the Invoice layout accessed from the Edit, Quote/Invoice/PO spreadsheet template setup screen.
  • In the Parts Screen, Mass Update Parts button, if you filter by a category, then click the button to check all that have zero on-hand and on-order, it will now only check those for the selected category.
  • Quotes by Quote Status report will now ONLY show quotes that have never been invoiced.
  • Quotes follow up detail list will now sort descending by quote number.
  • Fixed "Tax Exempt" switch on the Supplier screen to correctly charge or not charge tax when creating new purchase orders.
  • Parts Screen: If you select a category then click the "remove filter" button, then choose a category again, the "hide in-active part" is no longer active without de-selecting and selecting it again. This has been fixed.
  • If you are using the new date format, dd-mmm-yyyy, you can now change the date manually in the payment wizard screens.

New in Instant Quote Professional 5.00 (May 5, 2009)

  • General:
  • Redesigned all screens to scale at 1024 X 768 mode. This is nearly a 50% increase in the size of the screens over past versions. You will now see more on the screen, and it allows us greater design flexibility on the layout of the screens. Increased most font sizes to 10 for easier reading at this new resolution, and added a selectable datasheet font size. You can change your preference in the new "Tools, Startup Options for current computer" screen (more details on this screen below)
  • Added our own proprietary spell-checker. Previously, if you were unable to use the spell check buttons throughout the program, you will be able to do so now. Dictionary data is now stored in the new database: dictionary.mdb, which will also allow for custom entries. The new spell checker closely mimics the functions of Microsoft’s version.
  • Improved Help File System. The help file has been re-written for version 5. The new "Help" button in the main header area will now open help based on which main screen you are on. Many of the popup windows now have a help button.
  • Added the ability to export full part details to a spreadsheet that will allow you to quickly massage the data for importing into a shopping cart, OS Commerce, or other uses. The new export is located in the File, Export screen, and is the last selection in the export list: Export parts for importing into shopping cart. Many fields are included in this export including part active / inactive, part specs, notes, image location, PDF Location, and many others. Run this export to see the full field list.
  • On the Invoice and Quotes screen, you can now override the invoice or quote total in the w/Tax box, and the system will now force the round amount by dropping off any leftover cents.
  • Added 2 new Global Date Styles in the Setup screen, Software Options tab. You can now set the global date styles on all screens and reports to 2 new settings: Example: Dec-31 2005 or 31-Dec 2005. If you are using D/M/YYYY format, the system will change to the dd-mmm-yyyy format automatically the first time you run version 5.
  • Added a new screen for exporting invoice detail. This detail can then be messaged, mapped and/or copied to an importing template from your accounts package. This new screen is selectable by clicking "File, Export Invoices for importing into Accounts Package". The system will track which invoices have already been exported via a new 'Exported?' switch on the invoice screen, and will only allow you to export invoices that have not been exported. You may choose to export Delivered invoices only, or all invoices by using the filtering buttons. For users with security turned on, only users with "Import/Export" rights or Admin will be allowed to export invoices and change the ‘Exported?’ Field on the invoice screen.
  • Added the ability to archive used parts so that you can delete the parts regardless of whether or not they are in use by quotes, invoices, purchases, etc. To use this feature, go to the Parts screen, then click the Mass Update button. There is a new function at the bottom for archiving parts so that they can be deleted. Click the 'Enable Archive" button and follow the on-screen instructions. This will walk you through what you need to do in order to delete parts that are in use.
  • Added a new screen for mass-deleting many quotes at once. This new screen is accessed through a new tab on the Setup screen called "Auditing / Tools".
  • Change for single tax-system users using the GST / VAT systems. If your tax description is set to GST/VAT, and you have "Round prices to the nearest dollar" checked, the system will now round the w/tax amounts to the nearest dollar. If you override the price on any line-item, the price will be adjusted so that it can round to the nearest dollar. Additionally, if you override a quote or invoice total in the total w/Tax box, the system will no longer have the problem of being off a cent or two, due to rounding.
  • The Part Description field throughout the program now supports 255 characters.
  • If you delete a line-item from a quote, invoice, job order or purchase, you will be prompted to confirm deletion.
  • You can now set the Startup screen that loads when starting Instant Quote Professional. To set your startup screen, click on Tools, Startup Options for current computer. For multi-user installations, this new startup options screen has the most common startup settings that can be unique for each computer that runs the program.
  • You can now set the default printer for use when printing the 2.5" forms and labels by clicking File, Print Setup.
  • You can now set the datasheet font size for all datasheets throughout the program that appear on the main screens and popup screens. To set your preference, click on the new startup options screen under tools, startup options for local computer. For network users, the startup options screen can be set differently for each user.
  • The hiding cost toggle, , will now also function on the part information popup screen.
  • You can now check an option in the Edit, Quote or Invoice Layout screen for showing a dividing line between quote and invoice line-items on the printed quote or invoice form.
  • Added a free 3 of 9 barcode font, supported by most scanners, to the installation. This will be automatically installed when you install either the full program or the patch file. Bar codes will now print on the "Tools, Print Product Labels" screen, where the bar code will be used either for the supplier p/n or the UPC field. From the purchase screen, you can also print labels that have the serial number and upc/pn bar codes from the "Serial Nos / Labels" button. One final enhancement, on either screen, you can now choose the number of labels to skip, so that you can use up half sheets of labels by picking the starting label location.
  • Added a label printing screen for printing one, or multiple copies of a label. Click Tools, Print Address Labels to access this screen. You can pick an existing address or type in your own. Options are available for setting the number of copies and choosing how many used labels to skip. If you do not use any of the preset label sizes, a clipboard button allows you to copy the formatted label to the windows clipboard. Additionally, this screen can be accessed via a button on the Customer and Supplier screen.
  • Added "exact phrase search" option to the Knowledge Base screen. Now you can seek out an exact phrase by selecting this search option in the dropdown (Do not place phrase in quotes, just type in the phrase and select the exact phrase search option.
  • Added the Cell/Mobil Number from the Customer screen to the quote and invoice layout. You can add the cell number by clicking Edit, Quote or Invoice Layout, then pick "Cell Number" in the "Add additional field" list under the Report Header section.
  • Moved the button that opens the Instant Search screen to the customer selection area next to the new Help button. Enhanced the Instant Search screen to know which screen you are on when you click Instant Search, so that it will default to searching data in the screen you are on.
  • The e-mailing popup window will now allow you to browse to attach multiple files. If you browse to one file, then click the browse button again, the 2nd file will be added to the attachment text and separated with a ‘;’ character.
  • Customer Screen:
  • Revamped the customer importing process. Using the import button, you can now either import a spreadsheet as normal, or you can choose to paste your customers directly into the importing screen. A review tab has been added which allows you to either review the customer.xls imported data, or paste in your own customers column by column. Modified the import code to correctly check for blank names, and not add duplicates in the case of a blank first, last or company name.
  • Added Auto-Fill ability for the Main/Billing and Shipping Address. When you type in the zip/postal code, while leaving the City and State blank, the system will search for the zip code in the customer and supplier tables, and auto-fill the City and State fields.
  • Added "Outstanding Balance" field to the main details tab so you can quickly see a customer's balance.
  • Added "Subject" to the Call Log under the contact management tools, and added subject to the 2 call log reports on the Reports screen.
  • Double-clicking in the Call Log history will now take you immediately to the Result Log.
  • Suppliers Screen:
  • Added Auto-Fill ability for the main supplier and RMA address. When you type in the zip/postal code, while leaving the City and State blank, the system will search for the zip code in the customer and supplier tables, and auto-fill the City and State fields
  • When viewing a particular supplier, then switching screens, when you switch back to the supplier screen, the last supplier viewed will be pulled up.
  • Added 'Tax Exempt" switch to the Supplier Options tab. If you have "Auto-Calculate Tax on P/O's" enabled in the setup screen, checking "Tax Exempt" for a supplier will make the tax zero for all purchases created for that supplier.
  • Parts Screen:
  • Revamped the parts importing process. Using the import button, you can now either import a spreadsheet as normal, or you can choose to paste your parts directly into the importing screen. A review tab has been added which allows you to either review the parts.xls imported data, or paste in your own parts column by column.
  • Added new field for the Manufacturer of a part. If you had the Manuf. Part Number turned on in the setup screen, Optional features tab, the Manufacturer will now also be turned on and visible in the parts screen, add parts popup screens and the part information screen. The new field will be located to the right of the Manuf. Part number field.
  • If you use the E-Parts browser for Tech Data or Ingram Micro, the new manufacturer field will be now begin to update from the external parts data. Additional bug fix for the E-Parts window: If you have "Show price w/tax" enabled, the price w/tax field will now update correctly when adding or updating parts from the E-Parts window.
  • Added a search by UPC, Manuf. Part number, and Manufacturer to the top search section.
  • Updated the "Add a Part" popup screen for enhanced part search abilities and the same text searching options as on the parts screen. This is useful for searching for parts while adding a part via this popup screen on the quotes, invoices, purchases and service screens.
  • can now be engaged from the Parts screen to hide the cost column.
  • Changes to Mass Update screen (See Above in general section). Additionally added a button to check all the items where the on-hand and on-order field is equal to zero. Also added an update option for setting all checked items to be based on margin.
  • When updating the sales price with tax field, the "Based on Margin" switch will no longer be turned off automatically by the program.
  • Quote Screen:
  • New Feature! You can now enter quotes away from your office, then import them back into your main database. For example, if you are on a sales call and you enter a quote on a laptop computer, you can then import them back into your main database. To use this feature, you would copy the existing instant quote database to your laptop, then enter quotes as normal at the customer’s site. To re-integrate the quotes back into your main database, click File, Import, Quotes, or click the new Import Quotes button on the Quotes screen. You are then asked to browse to your laptop / external copy of the database, and a list of available quotes are then displayed. Click the Import box for each quote that you want to import, then click Accept to process and import the selected quotes. Please Note: You must have a matching customer in your main database, and each part contained on the quote must already be in your main database.
  • You can now select a contact for the quote. To select an alternate contact for a quote, simply pick a contact in the Alternate Contact selection box. The names in this list are filled from the customer screen, Addresses tab, additional contacts section. If you click 'E-mail' for a quote that has an alternate contact, the contact's e-mail will default in the e-mailing window. If you order the quote, the alternate contact's address will be set as the billing address on the invoice. Clicking the "view" image by the alternate contact will open a new contact information window, which displays full contact information.
  • Expanded the quote description/title to 100 characters.
  • If you are using the components feature, you can now include the price of the components. To change your components display option, go to the Setup screen, Optional Features tab. Choose your style in the "Separation / Price Options" selection. There are now 4 additional options for separating components that include the extended price.
  • Redesigned the screen to now show 4 Total boxes at the bottom to match the previewed quote: Total Parts, Total Labor/Shipping, Total Tax and Total w/Tax.
  • Added a new button to Search Quotes. This will open the existing Search, Quotes screen, which has been enhanced to search by the recently added Quote Status field. Now you can quickly search your quotes by your own customizable quote status field, then double-click a quote in the search window to pull up the quote for editing.
  • The quote body notes is now visible and editable on the main form. For quote header, footer, and internal notes, use the "Click for additional Quote Notes.." text underneath the quote body notes.
  • The main extension number will now print on the customer phone/fax area on the quote, if it exists.
  • Invoice Screen:
  • New Feature! You can now print a POS version of the Invoice Form. This is great for shops that use Instant Quote Pro for POS, as you can now print on standard 2.5 inch receipt paper. You can add a smaller version of your main logo, set the header and footer text in the Setup screen, using the new POS Invoice Setup tab. To print POS Invoices, an option has been added to the Payment window from the Invoices screen. If you have the "Use 2.5 in. Receipt" checked on the Payment Wizard, the "Print Receipt" box will now print the POS Invoice when you are on the invoice screen. If you need to reprint the last invoice on receipt paper, just pull up the invoice, then click the new POS button near the standard preview button on the Invoice screen.
  • New Feature! You can now enter shipping tracking numbers and a ship date on the invoice screen. Additionally, you can create an e-mail to your customer with tracking number / website details that is customizable for each Shipping provider. You can edit the tracking text in the Edit, Shipping Types screen. For each shipper, enter text that tells the customer what website to go to track their shipment, and use the 2 merge fields shown on the Shipping Types maintenance screen to merge the tracking number and shipping date into your text. To e-mail this text, click the clipboard button on the Invoice screen near the tracking # field.
  • Expanded invoice description/title to 100 characters.
  • If you are using the components feature, you can now include the price of the components. To change your components display option, go to the Setup screen, Optional Features tab. Choose your style in the "Separation / Price Options" selection. There are now 4 additional options for separating components that include the extended price.
  • The main extension number will now print on the customer phone/fax area on the invoice, if it exists.
  • Service Screen:
  • When switching screens, the last Job you were editing in the service screen will be remembered when you switch back to the service screen.
  • You can now add parts directly onto the Job Screen, exactly as you can on the Quote, Invoice, and Purchase screens, without using the "add parts" popup screen.
  • Replaced the Job Sheet Style 1 and 2 with just a single Job Order Form. In prior versions, the main difference between the 2 styles was the printing of the work needed sections. You can now customize whether or not to print the work needed in the "Setup / Labels" button on the Service screen. Additionally, you can customize the report name that prints in the upper right of the combined form. If you want the parts to display, but not the amounts or total estimate, you can un-check the "Show Amounts on Job Order" box in the "Setup / Labels" screen. Also added customer contact phone numbers to the main job form and refreshed the layout of the form.
  • You can now collect a deposit for a job prior to an invoice being created. On Page 2 of the Service screen, there is a new "Deposit Balance" field and a "Deposit Payment" button. To accept a deposit, click the Deposit Payment button, and enter your payment. The Job # will appear in the reference # of the payment. The payment posted will show in the payments screen as an unapplied credit. Later, when you create an invoice from the job, the deposit balance, if it exists, will transfer to the payment for the new invoice number. Note: You can enter more than one deposit payment, and the multiple payments will be totaled in the "Deposit Balance" field, and any payments will carry over to the invoice.
  • Renamed the existing User Name / ISP and Password fields to Item Checked in, Serial Number and Check-In By. These fields will allow you to check in a job, enter a serial number for that job, and will note who checked in the item.
  • Added a new label printing button, located under the fields above, will allow you to quickly print a label that can be affixed to the item.
  • Added the deposit amount to the Job Task form. By printing the Job Task Form, the customer can clearly see the scope of the job, their deposit, and other key information. Refreshed the Job Task Form to add contact information, total hours from the work required section, your company logo and moved the new item checked in and serial number fields to the top of the form. You can search the serial number field in the existing Search Jobs window.
  • Added a POS 2.5" wide Deposit Payment / Job Summary receipt. This gives the customer something to walk away with after turning in their item for repair. You can set your terms, and include a signature line in this text, in the "Setup / Labels" screen under the Job / POS receipt footer text.
  • The new process flow for creating a job order with the customer present should be: 1) Click New Job (the system will place you on page 2 in a new duplicate Job Title field. 2) Enter Job Title, Item Checked In, Serial Number, Check-In By, Customer Budget, etc. 3) Click "Make Deposit Payment" if the customer is giving you a deposit, 4) Click Page Up and enter the Customer Work Required and the System / Job Specs (Scope of Job) text. 5) You can now print the Job Task Form, have the customer sign, and give them a copy. AND/OR 6) You can click Page Down to print a 2.5" Job Receipt then click "Create Label" to print a label to be affixed to their repair item.
  • Added Reminder button that, when clicked, will create a new reminder, and default the subject to the job number, and the date to the Job Needed date.
  • There is a new e-mailing button that allows you to e-mail a service order to your customer. You can pick which style to e-mail in the Setup/Labels button on the Service screen, either the Job Order Form or the Job Task Form.
  • You can now select a contact for a Job. To select an alternate contact, simply pick a contact in the Alternate Contact selection box. The names in this list are filled from the customer screen, Addresses tab, additional contacts section. If you click 'E-mail' for a job that has an alternate contact, the contact's e-mail will default in the e-mailing window. If you create an invoice from the job, the alternate contact's address will be set as the billing address on the invoice. Clicking the "view" image by the alternate contact will open a new contact information window showing full contact details.
  • Increased Job Title to 100 characters.
  • In the Search Jobs window, added a filter to search all jobs or only uncompleted jobs. When you open the search window, the default view will be to show uncompleted jobs only.
  • If you have the RefNo field turned on for sorting, and create an invoice from a job, the order ref no's will be set to the order you added job parts. Also, when creating a job from a quote, the order will be the exact order in which you entered the items to a quote.
  • Purchase Screen:
  • When switching screens, the last purchase order you were editing in the purchase screen will be remembered when you switch back to the purchase screen.
  • You can now add parts to a purchase order manually using the UPC field, if this field is turned on the Setup screen, optional features tab.
  • You can now print out the contents of the P/O Scratch Pad using a new print button on the P/O Scratch Pad Review screen.
  • The sales price w/tax will now be calculated correctly when receiving P/O's.
  • To the Search, Instant Search screen, added the ability to search in the internal and external notes fields for a purchase order.
  • Receiving line-items or entire purchases will now set the date received date in the Serial Nos popup screen.
  • When searching PO Detail in Instant Search, you can now search the Part Description.
  • The Internal PO will now show the internal part number in addition to the supplier part number.
  • Reports:
  • Part Sold History. This report shows which customers have purchased the part selected for the report. Report is available on the Reports screen, Parts list tab. This report is also available on the part information screen (double-click a part description to open this screen).
  • Added Quotes Follow Up List - Detail, to the Reports screen, Quote tab. This will group by customer, then by quote, and show all part detail lines from each quote that has not yet been ordered.
  • Customer Address Labels now allow you to enter the number of labels to skip after you click preview. Additionally, if you pick a customer to just print 1 label, you will be asked how many copies of the label you wish to print.
  • Added task description detail to the 2 Job Order's Not Completed reports.
  • Added Customer P/O Number to the Invoices Not Paid report that is available on the Payments screen.
  • Fixed the "Sales Report by Qty Sold", and the 2 Parts Sold Ranking Reports to not show the same parts on more than one line. Added a customer filter to the 2 Parts Sold Ranking Reports.
  • Added "Sales Report by Qty Sold - Any Invoice Status" to the reports screen, Invoices tab.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.80 (May 5, 2009)

  • Bug Fix: Very Important fix affecting those users who are tracking inventory on the purchase screen AND using Large Parts DB Mode. If you had Large Parts DB Mode enabled in the Setup screen, optional features tab, there was a serious flaw in the original design dating back to version 4.20 . On the Invoice screen, if you added a part manually on a blank invoice line, the first quantity was not being deducted from on-hand. In the purchase screen, if you added a part manually from a blank line, the first quantity was not being added to the on-order column. These issues have been corrected, so you can resume using Large Parts DB Mode.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using components, and had both the components window and the add parts to current quote or invoice window open, when you added a part manually to the components screen, focus would be set back to the main invoice or quote screen.
  • Bug Fix: If you have entered UPC codes manually for parts, then import the parts without the UPC column on the import sheet, the UPC's that you entered are lost. This has been fixed to where if you import without UPC's, but UPC's exist, they are kept. Same new solution for the Manuf. Num field.
  • Bug Fix: The Parts list customer report w/tax report was not running the same rounding procedure as the rest of the program.
  • Bug Fix: On the P/O Scratch Pad, when adding items manually to this list, the cost price was always zero. This has been fixed to copy the cost price from the parts screen.
  • For those using the .PDF e-mail attachment methods, behind the scenes, we have re-enabled the code that built in a 3 second delay after the .PDF is created to give the O/S time to save the file. This happens right before the message pops up and tells you that the .PDF has been created.
  • If security is turned on, and a user was set to hide costs, the part information screen was showing cost information.
  • Added UK phone input mask to the phone format selection in the Setup screen, software options tab.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.70 (May 5, 2009)

  • Changes to the Parts screen, Importing function. Added a checkbox at the bottom "When importing, set Sales Price = MSRP..". This option, if checked, will allow you set the sales price of the imported parts equal to the MSRP column. Also, then "Based on Margin" option for the part will be disabled so that the part will be a fixed price, and not based on any margins.
  • Changes to the Parts screen, Importing function. Added a new column K, Margin, to the parts.xls importing template. Regardless of whether you use individual part margins or a global margin, your importing sheet will need to have this new column K with the text set to: Margin. If you do use individual part margins, you can now import the margins with your parts, and the sales prices will be calculated based on the part margin and cost price.
  • Added new, detailed Help section for the Parts Screen, Importing function. With the parts import screen opened, click the new Help button on the screen.
  • Added "Default Discount" field to the excel based invoice template. By adding the merge field [DefaultDiscount] to your invoice .xls template, the default discount in the customer screen will be merged into this field.
  • Added the database path and name to the main title bar so you can easily see where your data is located. If you do NOT want the data location showing on the title bar for a particular machine, go to that machine, and change the option in the Setup screen, software options tab, "Disable showing Data Location in title bar for this machine".
  • In the Purchase Screen, when creating an Auto Purchase based on Invoices with an on-order status, when you accept, and send the items to the p/o scratch pad for review, all parts will now be combined into one line if the cost price is the same.
  • In the Part Information screen, Locations tab, added a button for viewing / adding part locations.
  • Added customer e-mail address to the quote/invoice layout and to the excel based quote/invoice templates. To add the e-mail address to the quote or invoice layout, click on Edit, Quote Layout, or Edit, Invoice Layout, then select "E-Mail Address, Customer" from the "Add Additional Field" list in the Report Header area. Click on the field once it's added to the header area, and then use your move left/right/up/down buttons to position the e-mail address field to be where you want it, then click Save Changes. To add the customer e-mail to your Quote or Invoice .XLS template, click on Edit, Spreadsheet Template Setup, then edit your quote and/or invoice template and add in the merge field [CustomerEmail], then save your quote or invoice template.
  • Added the Quote Description to the Quote Number selection dropdown in the Quotes screen.
  • Bug Fix: In the Service screen, when entering hours in the hour-tracking section, you can now enter end times into the next day and the system will correctly figure the hours. For example, you can have a start time of 8pm, and an end time of 1am, and the system will correctly figure 5 hours.
  • Bug Fix: If you are viewing a quote, then select a different customer in the header area, some of the details from the last quote were still visible on the screen. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.60 (May 5, 2009)

  • Important Update regarding sales tax calculations. Previously, we left the rounding up to the database engine, which would round differently then other programs. For example, if you have a $45 sales price and a 17.5% tax rate, the sales tax was calculating as $7.87, when in fact the true number was $7.875, which should have rounded up to $7.88, not $7.87. To correct the lack of rounding in the database engine, we have written our own rounding routine, which will correctly round up in the case of the odd cents being at .005 or greater, as in the example above. If you have enabled the showing part prices with tax in the setup screen, you can recalculate the price with tax for all parts in the parts screen by going to the Setup screen, optional features tab, then un-checking "Show Part Price w/Tax", then immediately re-checking "Show Part Price w/Tax".
  • Added "e-mail" column to the additional addresses area on the customer and the supplier screen. You can now record the e-mail address for additional contacts. Additionally, if you want to write an e-mail to one of the contacts, you can simply double-click in the e-mail field for any contact in the additional addresses area, and the e-mailing window will open.
  • Change to the automated backup feature for network users of the program. The "Disable Automated Backup" switch in the File, Backup screen is now a LOCAL PC Setting. This will default to not checked, meaning that each computer, upon exiting Instant Quote Pro, will backup the database.mdb file (all of your data) to their LOCAL c: drive. This adds a much greater level of safety should there be a corrupted database problem. By leaving the "disable automated backups on this pc" left un-checked, you will have backups of your main database on EVERY computer that runs the program, which will aid you greatly should the need for database recovery arise.
  • Disabled the very top right close button (X). When user's were clicking the top right (X) to exit out, the automated backup code would not fire. The proper way to exit Instant Quote Pro is to click the "Exit Instant Quote Pro" button in the toolbar.
  • Bug Fix: When adding a new part category while adding a new part from the items/parts wizard, the category list was not being refreshed unless you were on the parts screen. This has been fixed.
  • For the Excel based invoice, the part description cell will now include the line-notes and serial numbers, if they exist.
  • For the Excel based Quote, the part description cell will now include line-notes, if they exist.
  • For the Excel based Purchase Order, the part description cell will now include line notes, if they exist.
  • Eliminated the label "Prior Credit" on the customer history statement.
  • Fixed the Customer History Statement from the Reports screen. The accrual figures for each customer was showing all historical data totals, however the report can be filtered for any date range, so the total balance of the transactions was not matching the accrual totals in some cases. This has been resolved.
  • Fixed Customer History Report Balance Only and Bal./Delivered Only reports so that the accrual information will agree.
  • Customer History Report Balance Only, and Bal./Delivered Invoices only Report will no longer show the from/to date label in the header.
  • Fixed the Grand total accrual information for all customers when you ran any of the above 3 reports from the Reports screen. In some of the cases this was not agreeing with the total accruals for each customer.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.50 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added Mileage Start and Mileage End fields to the Service screen, Add/View Items tab, Work Needed section. In addition to tracking the billable hours, you can now track mileage driven.
  • New Report Added to the Reports screen, Service/Jobs tab called "Mileage Log By Worker", which will show a breakdown of miles driven for the date range entered.
  • Service Screen: When you set the End Time on a Work Needed line, the completed box will be checked, and date completed will be entered automatically. The completed box and date complete will also be set when you enter the end mileage.
  • Added Date Completed to the "Billable Hours by Worker" report in the Reports screen, Service/Jobs Tab.
  • The "Adjust Profit" button on the quote/invoice screens will now adjust all parts on the quote or invoice that has a cost price entered. Previously, the system was only adjusting the profit on parts where the "Based On Margin" box for that part was checked. This was leading to confusion on why the new profit % could not be attained on some quotes.
  • Fixed issues on the quotes screen. If you have rounding to the nearest dollar turned on, and used multiple quantities per line-item, the extended amount could potentially have been off. If you ordered the quote, however, the invoice would have shown the correct extended amount. This has been fixed.
  • Invoice Screen. Changed the "Gross Profit Margin" to a clickable button. Clicking this will allow you to adjust the profit % on the selected invoice, provided that the invoice does not have a "Delivered" status.
  • Purchase Order Part labels has changed for the Avery 5167 labels. In the purchase screen, Serial Nos / Labels button popup window, checking the "Show Sales Price on label" will now result in the sales price, not the serial number, displaying on the avery 5167 labels.
  • Adjusted the Packing List form (invoice screen, file, print preview other, packing list) to sort based on the master sorting selection for quotes/invoices. This master sort setting is located in the setup screen, report options tab. Previously, there was no sorting on the packing list form.
  • Bug Fix: When using the "Copy Invoice" button on the invoice screen, the warranty expires date was carrying over from the copied invoice. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: The shipping address on the invoice screen would only display on the invoice if the first 4 address lines were filled out. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: Reports Screen, Customer History Statement. If you had any customers with a credit payment, it would show "Credit" for all customers. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: You can now cursor down on the quotes screen in the part description and quantity fields. Previously pressing the down arrow would send you back to the part number field.
  • Bug Fix: Purchase screen, if you right click on a p/o line and select "Send unordered Items to Scratch pad" multiple errors resulted. This has been fixed.
  • For 2-Tax system users, added the second tax totals to the Tax Summary at the bottom of the invoice summary report.
  • Increased width of amount fields on the payment receipt form and customer history statement.
  • Payments Summary for Purchase Orders on the reports screen has been changed to add the Supplier Name and a Supplier filter for the report.
  • Enhancement to the large database mode from version 4.2. Previously, if the system detected you had a very large number of parts in your database, > 20,000, the system would go into large database mode. This would fix possible errors that could occur if your system memory was not enough to load all the parts into the part number selection dropdowns. The large database mode was improving screen load times, but required the user to type in the full part numbers manually. This has been CHANGED. Large DB mode is now user-selectable. Large Database mode is set to off by default, you can turn on large db mode by going to the Setup screen, Optional features tab under the parts section.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.40 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature: On the service screen, there is now a button that will copy the currently selected job to the same or another customer. Just pull up the job you want to copy, then click the new button to the right of the "copy job" text.
  • New Feature: On the service screen, added a profit field to the estimate/budget tab similar to the profit field on the quotes screen.
  • New Feature: The packing list will now show the serial numbers if you have the system set to show serial numbers on the invoice in the setup screen, Optional features tab.
  • New Feature: On the Tools, Bulk Email Wizard, added a button where you can export the list of semi-colon delimited e-mail addresses to the windows clipboard. This can be used to paste into the BCC or CC field of your own e-mail program. Simply use option 3 to create your list of e-mails, then press the new button in the lower left to Copy the list of e-mails to the windows clipboard.
  • New Report: Purchase Re-Order Report, located on the Reports screen, Purchases tab. This report will show all items that need ordering. The parts displayed are the same parts that would be found by the auto purchase function on the purchases screen. But rather than creating the purchase orders, you can now print a report to review all parts that need ordering.
  • On Parts screen, relocated UPC column to be after price w/ tax and MSRP.
  • Last Sold tab on the Part Information screen will now show the company name, as well as contact.
  • In the payment wizard, for security purposes, entering a credit card number and expiration is no longer required.
  • The setting for using a 2.5 inch receipt will now be remembered after you change the preference.
  • For the new .PDF attaching function in the e-mailing window, adjusted the code to delete the previously sent file first, and will now wait 3 seconds after the report is sent to the printer. This should give the O/S time to save the file to disk.
  • Bug Fix: In the parts screen, receive inventory button, selecting by P/N or IPN was generating an error. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: Instant Search window when searching payments was generating an error. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: Clicking "Finish" on viewing the detail on a payment was generating an error. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: If your go to Report > Invoice > Reprint Invoices by Date Range, the last invoice in this range is always printed twice. This has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: The "Make Payment" window in the payments screen was not requiring that the payment type field be filled in. This would cause the payment to not show on the payments screen. The payment type is now required in the make payment window.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.30 (May 5, 2009)

  • New .PDF Feature. You can now send your quotes, invoices, purchase orders, parts lists, etc., in a .pdf format when e-mailing. Note: You must have your own .PDF writer to use this new function. To e-mail a .PDF invoice or quote, pull up your quote or invoice, then click the e-mail button. You will notice a new "Output Format" selection for .PDF. Select .PDF, then click on the "PDF Setup" tab within the e-mail window. Last 2 steps on the PDF setup page, you need to tell Instant Quote what printer driver is your PDF printer, then select what file the pdf driver will use for the print out. Finally, go into your PDF Driver software, and set the following options: 1) Not prompting you with a file name when creating a PDF 2) Setting the output file name (this is the same file you set within Instant Quote) and finally 3) Overwrite this file each time a PDF is made. Behind the scenes, when you send the e-mail, Instant Quote will switch to your pdf printer driver, output the report, attach this report to an e-mail, then set your printer driver back to the default printer.
  • Added a 2 1/2 inch wide version of the sales receipt. This can be accessed on either the "Payments" popup screen from the Invoice screen, or from the Payments screen. When recording a payment, the option to "Use 2.5 in. receipt" is now visible next to the "Print receipt" check box.
  • In the "Add parts" popup screen located on the quote, invoice and purchase screens, added the ability to search by the supplier part number to the existing option of searching by part description.
  • Added a tool for searching out missing invoice numbers in your database. This can be a good trouble-shooting / audit tool. A text file will be created showing any missing sequence numbers found. To run this function, go to the Setup screen, optional features tab, and click the button for missing invoices.
  • If you have a very large serial numbers database and have the option "Show serial numbers on invoice" in setup, optional features enabled, the system would take a very long time to preview your invoice. This time has been cut down dramatically (Test database from 27 seconds to preview down to 7 seconds).
  • Purchase Order scratch pad will now show the full part description and will now show the current on-hand and on-order amounts from the parts screen.
  • Service Screen: Added a print detail button on the "add/view items" tab for printing the current job card detail hours. This can be used when the customer requests the breakdown of the hours to be attached to their bill.
  • Bug Fix: On the Excel based Invoice (excel template invoice), if you had mixed parts and shipping/labor items on the invoice, the total was including the total parts and labor/shipping, when it should have only been showing the total parts. The grand total invoice was correct however. Now if you mix parts and labor/shipping parts, the sub-totaling will now be correct.
  • Bug Fix: If you have the option checked to round sales prices to the nearest whole dollar, and you were adding new parts using the new part wizard, the sales price was not rounding.
  • Bug Fix: If you are using part category margins, and adding a new part directly at the bottom of the parts screen, the sales price will now recalculate after you choose a part category if the sales price is zero (not yet calculated because part category is not selected).
  • Bug Fix: If you add a new part category from the "Add Parts.." popup window, then category listing will now be refreshed.
  • Minor fix to the packing list form to use the ship company field (if alternate shipping address is in use) instead of the main company field.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.20 (May 5, 2009)

  • Important Inventory Control Change: The system will now Lock the on-hand and on-order fields to prevent users from updating the on-hand, on-order amounts manually. This will help ensure greater accuracy in inventory control. There is a method in the Setup screen for unlocking the on-hand and on-order fields for inventory correction under the Inventory / Purchase options tab.
  • Added an "Active" customer setting to the customers screen. To set a customer as inactive, just pull up the customer on the customer screen, and un-check the box at the top left. The customer will now not display on selected customer reports, such as customers reports, mailing labels, customers by type reports, etc. Also, customer will not display in customer selection filters. The customer will still display in the main header area, however inactive customers will now be sorted to the bottom of the customer select area.
  • Fixed call log refresh when selecting a different customer. Previously if you had a call log pulled up, then picked a different customer, the old log from the previous customer would still show.
  • Quotes screen only. If you are using the sub-components and discount feature, and you change the quantity of the parent component, where the sub-components have a discount entered, the discount was lost. The discount on the extended amount will now be retained when changing the quantity of the parent component.
  • Added the part Last Updated date from the parts screen to the Internal Quote Form located on the quotes screen. Added the new quote status field to the Internal Quote Form located on the quotes screen.
  • For 2-Tax system users such as Canada, the system was rounding incorrectly when computing taxes. For example, a tax amount of $33.915 would incorrectly round down to $33.91 rather than correctly rounding up to $33.92. This has been fixed.
  • Major Change For Australian / Other Users: If you have Tax Rounding checked in the Setup screen, Financial settings tab, the system will now Also round sales prices to the nearest .05 cents.
  • Fixed error message that would occur when you override the quote total at the bottom, and selected to evenly distribute the difference over all quote items.
  • On the service screen, added a "Total Hours" box on the "Work Needed" section of the second tab. This will total all hours in the work needed section.
  • On the service screen, added the field Customer PO Number. This will also appear on the 3 job forms, and in the job search window. If you enter the Customer PO Number on the quotes screen, and create a job from a quote, the po number will now carry over to the job, and to the invoice when an invoice is created.
  • On the service screen, if you are using security and do not have deletion rights for quotes, invoices, p/o's, etc., you now will not be able to delete jobs.
  • On the Purchase screen, added a right-click for viewing the total weight of the purchase items. Simply right click in any of the detail line-item fields, and select to view the Total Weight.
  • Adjusted Purchase Order layout to decrease space between lines. Report with 9-14 items should now fit on one page.
  • Adjusted Purchase Order so there will not be a blank line under your company address. This would occur in cases where a different shipping address was used, and you were not using your address line 2.
  • Fixed "Overflow" error in the Knowledge Base. This could occur if you had a very large KB, with searched words appearing more than 32,000 times, or documents longer than that number of characters. Also fixed "hangs" when searching for a phrase that begins with a quote mark: "
  • Fix for users with very large parts databases for performance and errors that could result. Previously, if you had a very large number of parts, say over 30,000, depending on system memory, the part selection lists in the quote and invoice screens would not have enough memory to contain all the parts, and errors would result after selecting a part directly on a blank line item. Now if you have more than 20,000 parts in your database, the system will automatically go into large database mode. The part selection boxes (Supplier p/n, internal p/n and upc) will only contain the parts that are on the quote, invoice or purchase. You must manually type in the part number. The system will then search for that part number and add to the quote. If the part is not found, you will be given the option to add. This new change also results in much faster screen loads for the quote, invoice and purchase screens.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.10 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature: You can now categorize your quotes by a new, customizable Quote Status field. On the Quotes screen, to the right of your logo and above the quote title is a new Quote Status selection. You may edit the quote status selections by clicking the yellow '+' button to the right of the text, or by clicking Edit, Quote Status. A default option can be set so that all new quotes created or copied will begin with a particular status. Additionally, to view all quotes by status, go to the Reports screen, Quote tab, and select the new report: Quotes by Quote Status. This may be filtered for a date range, sales person and customer. IMPORTANT: We've included a hidden method to initially update ALL existing quotes to any quote status that you select. Click on Edit, Quote Status. Once you have set your quote status selections, click on the quote status that you want to update all existing quotes to, then press and you're set!
  • Added Internal Quote notes to the quotes screen. These notes are saved with every quote, they DO NOT appear on the quote form, but Do appear on the Internal Quote form, and can be accessed by clicking the Notes button located next to the "Add Parts to current quote" button.
  • Added Title selection to the Quote and Invoice screens. A drop-down arrow is now located to the far right of the quote and invoice title, allowing you to select from all existing quote/invoice titles. This will save keystrokes where you frequently use the same quote / invoice titles.
  • Added Payments Summary Detail Report to the Reports screen, Financial tab. The current Payments Summary report will show the total payments, and the Payments Summary Detail will break out each payment to show which invoices were paid.
  • Added the Invoice Number or Numbers that were paid on the Sales Receipt located on the Payments screen.
  • Eliminated the Zero balance lines on the Invoices Not Paid report available on the Payments screen.
  • Fixes to date fields in To-Do list to support +/-/T shortcuts to change date.
  • Fixed the quote date field on the Quote screen to support =/-/T shortcuts to change the date.
  • Fixed Pending RMA's report to correctly show the suppliers rma number.
  • Fixed "Type Mismatch" errors that would occur if you are using the Transaction charges feature and the transax charge was not set for a customer.
  • Fixed error that could occur if you were using the one-tax GST system when creating an invoice from a job on the Service screen.
  • Fixed "Reprint Invoices" function on the Reports screen, Invoices tab.
  • Call Log history will now sort descending by call date.
  • Fixed hours computation on the customer call log reports and the customer call log history window.
  • Changed the Call Log and Result Log boxes to be unlimited text, previously there was a 255 character limit.
  • On the new part labels forms from version 4, if you are in the UK or Australia, the sales price will now be tax-inclusive.
  • For GST Return for Australia, added a figure on the report for the total purchased + GST paid during the period entered. Previously the report was only showing the total GST paid on purchases for the period.
  • On the To-Do List, fixed the To-Do List Report. The date added field was incorrectly displaying the date due.
  • When deleting parts from the parts screen, or using the mass update to delete parts, the system will now prevent you from deleting parts where the On-Hand or the On-Order column is not equal to zero.
  • Fixed sorting on parts screen so that you can filter for a part number or description, then further filter by supplier or active / inactive.
  • Removed vertical lines on the purchase order form, so that longer part descriptions could be shown on the purchase order form without seeing gaps in the vertical lines. Also removed the second/duplicate Vat / Reg Number that was displaying at the bottom.

New in Instant Quote Professional 4.00 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Tools
  • Added the ability to create a Bulk Letter to all or selected customers. This screen can be accessed by clicking Tools, Print a Bulk Customer Letter, or by clicking the new button on the customers or reports screen. You can create a one-time letter, then filter by sales person or by customer type, then preview and print your letters. The address and contact details will be merged with your letter. Customers with the box "Exclude this customer from mailing labels / bulk letters" checked will not be included in the bulk letters.
  • Bulk E-mail Wizard for quickly e-mailing your existing customers or external e-mail lists. This is a tool that allows you to send a bulk e-mailing to customers, prospects, or opt-in mailing lists, etc. Click on Tools, Bulk E-mail wizard to access. You can take a list of ';' delimited e-mail addresses, copy them to the windows clipboard, and then paste them in (or import them via a .txt file) into the bulk e-mail wizard for a one-shot e-mailing. Or you can also take a list of e-mail addresses from your customers screen and filter by the sales person or the Customer Type field. The advantage of this over pasting a large group of e-mail addresses into the BCC field in Outlook or Outlook Express, is that a separate message is created for each e-mail address, thus avoiding "hangs" while outlook tries to send a large BCC e-mailing.
  • You can now enter, and maintain, your own printable "To-Do" list directly in Instant Quote Professional. There is a new button on the top toolbar that will open your To-Do list. You can track when an item is completed, sort items by priority, and filter items by priority or completed status. This data is stored in a separate data file, todo.mdb, so network users each have their own to-do list on their computer.
  • Create your own Searchable Knowledge Base! Click on the new button labeled KB on the main toolbar next to the setup button. Create your own KB articles that are fully searchable and printable. Features include searching your KB, adding additional keywords for finding the article later, and copying the entire article, at the click of a button, to the windows clipboard for pasting into an e-mail. When you search your own KB, items are listed by relevance, articles with more keyword matches than others will sort first.
  • Added a "Tip of the Day" screen. This screen will automatically open when you start Instant Quote Pro. If you turn off the tip of the day, you can turn it back on by clicking Help, Tip of the Day.
  • General
  • Re-organized the File menu to be more intuitive. All items that were on the tools, customize menu have been moved to a new Edit menu, which is to the right of the existing File menu.
  • Moved some workspace tables to a new database file, called workspace.mdb, to improve performance and to reduce the message when starting Instant Quote Pro that the program file has wasted space, etc.
  • Pressing the [End] key while in many internal notes forms will now place a time and date stamp in the notes.
  • Fixes to the date field in the creation on the quote, invoice and purchase excel output for d/m/yyyy settings.
  • When starting Instant Quote Pro, the top toolbar will now correctly hide button items you have select in toolbar setup, even after you have just installed a new version.
  • Added Profit to the Part Information screen. (Right-click part, and select part information).
  • Add Parts Screen: Cursor will now default to the Search field upon opening the screen.
  • File, Export: Added export customers for importing into Outlook Express.
  • File, Export: Added export parts called Parts w/On-Hand. This will only export the following fields: Category, Part Number, Description, Sales Price, Net Weight, and On-Hand.
  • Customer Screen
  • Redesigned customer screen for greater functionality and usefulness. Screen has been divided into tabs: Main Customer Details tab - for the contact, phone, notes, Addresses tab - for billing, shipping and additional addresses, Customer Options tab for override margins, tax rate, sales tracking options, default shipping, terms and pay types, and finally Contact Management Tools tab for call log, pre customer sales status and trace dates / notes. New reports are available on the Report screen for the new call log layouts, Customer Status reports and trace dates (See Reports section below for new reports).
  • Added time and sales person tracking to the call log on the customer screen. These are tied into the existing customer call log report (now the customer call log detail) and a new customer call log summary report (See Reports section below).
  • Add a new customer automatically from text copied to the windows clipboard!! In the customer screen, there is a new clipboard button next to the Import button. This button allows you to add a new customer from text that has been copied to the windows clipboard. To define how the clipboard text is copied, click on tools, Paste Import / Customer Definitions. In this screen, you can add a new definition or edit existing definitions. You define a beginning and ending label that surrounds the text you want to capture, then tell Instant Quote Professional what field to save it to. This is great for feedback / add to mailing list forms on your website. You can take the e-mail with the new customer data, copy the entire text to the windows clipboard, then paste to a new customer. Also, if you use online contact management sites that have the ability to copy a customer to text, you can easily paste the customer in to Instant Quote Professional. Can be setup to work for e-mails, website text and other software packages.
  • Added paste buttons on the customer and supplier screens for quickly sending the customer/supplier address to the windows clipboard so that you can paste into a mailing labels program. The clipboard text is formatted and ready to go for a label. This eliminates copying field by field to a mailing label. Just pull up a customer or supplier, click the new clipboard button by the address, the text is then copied to the windows clipboard and ready to be pasted into another document.
  • Quotes / Invoices Screen
  • If you create a new job from a Quote on the Quotes screen, the Job Status will now be set to the default, if you have a default selected for adding new jobs. (See Job Status field on Service screen,)
  • From the Quotes Screen, when you click the "Notes (Header/Footer)" button, there is now an option to view / update the notes from the customer screen, so that you don't have to switch screens to enter customer notes. Added Spell check buttons to notes that print on customer forms. You may need to have an old copy of Word 97 if this does not function.
  • Added Past Due / Billing Notes to the customer. This is accessed by clicking the button to open Past Due / Billing notes, this button is on the customer screen. Additionally, If a customer is past due, the system will now open the past due / billing notes window when you order a quote OR begin a new invoice. You can turn off warning via the past due notes screen by un-checking the new warning option in the Setup screen, Software Options tab. For making decisions on whether to continue with invoice creation, the aging balance information will also be displayed on the past due notes screen.
  • You can now copy an invoice to a quote. This is perfect if you have invoices set the way you want them, and a customer wants a quote based on that invoice. To copy from an invoice to a quote, pull up the invoice, then click the "Copy Invoice" button, pick the customer / company to receive the quote, then click the "Copy to Quote" button, rather than the "Copy to Invoice" button.
  • From the Invoice Screen, when you click the "Notes" button, there is now an option to view / update the notes from the customer screen, so that you don't have to switch screens to enter customer notes. Added Spell check buttons to notes that print on customer forms. You may need to have an old copy of Word 97 if this does not function.
  • Added a button on the Quote and Invoice screen for quickly adding a reminder for the currently selected Customer, without the need of switching to the customer screen.
  • Payments Screen
  • Major Feature: You can now accept one payment from your customer to pay multiple invoices. To do this, go to the Payments screen, click the "Make Payment" button. A re-designed screen will open, where you enter the base details of the payment, then you select which invoices were paid. If the invoice is paid in full, the "Sale/Pymt Date" on the invoice screen will be set automatically. If you make a payment from the Invoice screen, the old payment wizard will still open, and only allow you to pay on the selected invoice. Paying multiple invoices using one payment must be done through the payments screen.
  • Accepting a down-payment can now be done by adding a new payment on the payments screen, then after an invoice has been created, return to payments screen, click the view / magnifying glass on the payment line, then assign the down payment to an invoice.
  • Purchase Screen
  • Purchase Screen Payments - Payments entered on the purchase screen to your supplier will now be done using the same screen as the customer multiple-invoice payment screen On the Purchase screen, to make a new payment, pull up the purchase order you wish to pay, then click the "Make Payment" button. To edit/view existing payments, click the "View Payments" button, additionally, a payment that has been made by mistake can be deleted here also. You can quickly pay all purchases to a supplier by pulling up one of the outstanding purchases, then clicking "Make Payment". Rather than typing in an amount, you can select each outstanding purchase order, and the amount will be totaled for you.
  • Added new button to the Purchase Screen. You can now pay all unpaid purchases for the selected supplier by selecting a purchase order for that supplier, then clicking the new "Pay All for Suppl" button.
  • Copy an existing purchase order. Added Copy button to the Purchase screen. This button is located next to the P/O Status field. If you frequently create p/o's with the same parts on them, you can pull up an existing p/o, then click the button to copy the old p/o to a new p/o number.
  • Print a sheet of part labels, or print labels for all parts on a purchase order! You can now print part labels on standard Avery 5163, 8163, 8463, 5160, 5260, 5167, 8167 labels. The sizes supported are 2" X 4" 2 across, 1" X 2 5/8" 3 across and 1/2" X 1 3/4" 4 across labels. 1) To print labels for parts contained on a purchase order, go to the Purchase screen, pull up a p/o, then click the "Labels / Serial Nos" button. If you have the option for blank serial entry records for the part types, a label will be printed for each matching serial entry record (an actual serial number is not needed for the label to print). 2) For printing a page of the same labels for a part number, go to the Reports screen, and click the new button "Product Labels".
  • Parts Screen
  • You can now import sub-categories from the Parts screen, Import button. IMPORTANT: If you have your own parts.xls file that you need to keep, then you must add a new column immediately after "Part Category". The new column has to be inserted as Column F, and be labeled: Sub Category. See the file c:program filesinstant quote 2000parts.xls, so that you can change your importing sheet to match the columns. One sub-category is currently supported on the import.
  • Fixed sorting / filtering on Parts screen. If you have the screen set to hide inactive items, and did a search on a part description or number, inactive parts were showing, this has been fixed.
  • Bug Fix: When you open the mass update screen on the parts screen, and close, the screen category column will now refresh properly.
  • Service Screen
  • On the Service screen, if you have "Urgent !" checked, the phrase: "*** Urgent ***" will now appear on the 3 job forms.
  • Service screen: The job / task description in the datasheet is now a dropdown selection box. Added Spell check buttons to notes that print on customer forms. You may need to have an old copy of Word 97 if this does not function.
  • Job Title on the Service screen has changed from a 20 character length limit to 40 characters.
  • Reports Screen
  • You can now print a customer history statement for only those customers owing you money, and only including invoices that have been marked "Delivered." This report is in the reports screen, customer tab, and called "Customer History Statement - Bal. / Del. Only".
  • Reports Screen - Separated out the Quote / Invoice tab for reports to a separate tab for Quote and Invoice.
  • New Report: Sales Ranking by Business Source. Great report for analyzing your sales and margin breakdowns by business source. This report will show total amounts sold / invoiced during a period of time, total cost on all invoices, total margin, and a margin percentage, all by business source, and ranked from highest to lowest invoiced amounts.
  • New Report: Sales Ranking by Customer Type. Great report for analyzing your sales and margin breakdowns by customer type. This report will show total amounts sold / invoiced during a period of time, total cost on all invoices, total margin, and a margin percentage, all by business source, and ranked from highest to lowest invoiced amounts.
  • New Report: Sales Ranking by Sales Person. Great report for analyzing your sales and margin breakdowns by Sales Person. This report will show total amounts sold / invoiced during a period of time, total cost on all invoices, total margin, and a margin percentage, all by Sales Person, and ranked from highest to lowest invoiced amounts.
  • New Report: In the reports screen, Purchases tab, there is a new report that will show all Pending / Outstanding RMA's, sorted by Supplier Name, then by date.
  • New Report: Customer Call Log Summary on Reports screen, customer tab.. This report will show the call log and total hours for all customers during a time frame, and grouped / sub-totaled by sales person.
  • New Report: Customer List by Customer Status on reports screen, Customers tab. This report will group call customers by the new Customer Status pre-customer tracking field.
  • New Report: Customer Trace Dates on reports screen, Customers tab.. This report will show all customers with trace 1 or trace 2 dates that fall within the date range entered for the report, sorted by trace dates.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.80 (May 5, 2009)

  • Fixed Unpaid purchase orders report to not show zero balances.
  • For Inventory Control settings, previously there was a bug in the Setup screen, Inventory tab. When you had "When receiving purchases, automatically update the sales price.." the system was updating the sales price regardless of your setting.
  • Fixed "Item/Parts List - All" report to correctly show all parts, even inactive. At some point, the report was no longer showing inactive parts when it should have been.
  • Fix to MSRP. With last update, MSRP was changed to only show if it was not equal to zero. This change caused the field to show with no currency formatting. Added code to fix this problem, so MSRP will now show with currency if MSRP is not equal to zero, and will be blank if it is equal to zero. The same changes have been applied to the Excel-based quote and

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.70 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added 'Cust Type' filter on the reports screen. This allows you to filter by the customer type field in the customer screen. To see customer type selection, you must have "Sales Tracking" turned on in the setup screen, optional features tab. The following reports can now be filtered by the customer type field: GST Tax Return - Australia, the 3 Invoice Summary Reports, Sales / Commission Reports, Sales Tax Return and the Tax Collected Report.
  • The "Remove" checkbox on the parts and purchase screen can now be hidden permanently by shrinking the column width. There are also "Remove" boxes on the quote and invoice screen that could already be shrunk, but this same field was not shrinking on the parts and purchase screen. Now, the "Remove" box on all 4 screens are tied together, so shrinking the box on the parts screen will also hide the column on the other 3 screens (quote, invoice and purchase). Many people prefer to hide this, as they are accustomed to right-clicking the detail line and selecting "Delete line-item" instead.
  • Change to MSRP (suggested retail) field. On the quote and invoice forms, if the MSRP is zero, then a blank will appear on the detail column for MSRP instead of showing MSRP = 0.
  • Service Screen: Added "Job Status" filter to the Search Jobs screen. Additionally the Search Jobs screen will default to be sorted descending by Job Number.
  • Improved speed in pulling up a quote via the "Quote #" Select dropdown list on the quotes screen. Also, the screen will no longer reload / flash when pulling up a quote via this method.
  • Fixed appearance of Customer Service History window in the Service screen to eliminate the horizontal scroll bar.
  • Unpaid purchase orders report on the reports screen will now show credit balances as well. Report will now sort by vendor name first, then p/o number.
  • When receiving individual line-items on a purchase order, if you have the "Add parts to Current Purchase" screen open, the system will scroll to the item you have just received, thus allowing you to quickly verify the cost, price and on-hand amounts.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.60 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added new field to parts screen: MSRP (Manuf. Suggested Retail Price). By default, Instant Quote Pro will set this field to be invisible / optional, so if you would like to turn on the MSRP field, go to the Setup screen, optional features tab, and check the box to "Show MSRP" under the parts section. If turned on, MSRP will show on the parts screen and part information popup screen. To have MSRP show on the quote and invoice, you will need to add the fields for MSRP. On the tools, customize quote and customize invoice screen, there is a selection at the bottom called "Quickly add a group of fields". If you select the new MSRP fields, then 4 fields will be added to your quote or invoice (you need to add MSRP fields on Both the customize quote and customize invoice screens). Click on each field, one at a time, and position them accordingly. The total MSRP will display at the bottom of the quote and/or invoice and will show the sum of the MSRP for all items on the quote or invoice. Additionally, 2 new merge fields have been added to the excel quote and excel invoice template. [MSRP] can be placed in the detail / repeating area of the excel template quote or invoice, and [sumMSRP] can be placed in the bottom area of the quote or invoice excel template. With this install, 2 new .xls templates will be installed to show an example of how to do this. They are in your program filesinstant quote 2000 emplates folder, and contain the word MSRP.
  • MSRP has now been added to the parts screen import. The importing template file, parts.xls, has been updated to add MSRP in the far right column.
  • If you are using Tech Data and/or Ingram Micro external parts browsing, the retail price will now be updated to the new MSRP field in Instant Quote each time you add TD or IM parts, or update matching parts in Instant Quote.
  • Added the ability to show your sales contact name on the quote and invoice. On the Tools, customize quote, and customize invoice screens, you can use the new selection in the lower right corner called "Quickly add a group of fields" and select Sales Name fields. This will add 2 fields to your quote or invoice. The label "Sales Contact:" and the sales persons name. The sales contact text can be changed by clicking in the sales contact label, and overriding the text.
  • Added [SalesName] merge text to the excel-based quote template. You can now edit your custom excel quote template and add the text [SalesName]. Instant Quote Pro will replace [SalesName] with the name of the sales initials tied to the quote.
  • If you are using "Part Category Percentage" as your markup or margin option, when you edit the category margin directly in the "Edit Part Categories" window, the system will now ask you if you want to update all sales prices for all parts contained within that category only.
  • From the Parts screen, when you click the 'Mass Update' button, there is now an extra button to filter for Inactive parts. This will allow you to quickly see all inactive parts, so that you can then delete them by clicking the 'Delete Selected Parts' button.
  • On the Part Information screen, Last Sold Info tab, added a Quantity column in the last sold list.
  • If a line on an invoice has a quantity of zero, the line item will now say "Not Shipped", previously it was saying "Optional" like on the quote form (for zero qty items).
  • When deleting a part, if the part is in use by a quote, then you will be informed as to which quote number.
  • Added weight fields to the File, Export, customer pricing list export. Also added new MSRP field to all of the exports that are parts related.
  • Added a Supplier export option in the File, Export screen.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.50 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added a checkbox to the Copy Quote popup screen that allows you to control whether the quote is recalculated or not based on current pricing and customer margin overrides. This is the same checkbox that is in the "Begin Quote or Invoice from Template" popup screen, so changing the option in either screen will change the option in the other.
  • Added new report: Items not received on Purchase Orders. This report will show all items that have not yet been received. The new report is located on the Reports Screen, Purchases tab.
  • When importing parts using the parts screen, import button, the system will now change categories if the part has already been imported previously, and you have changed the category in your parts import spreadsheet.
  • Added option to the Setup screen under the Software Options tab for hiding the "Tax Exempt" check box(s) on the Quote and Invoice screen.
  • Changed the asthetics of the Components feature. If you are using components (setup, optional features tab), you can now control whether to have a line feed before the 'Includes' text, line feeds after the 'Includes' text, and you can select one of 4 separator characters between components, such as adding a line-feed and the asterisk character to separate each part. The system will default to having 2 line-feeds after the 'includes' text, and will default to using a line feed and an asterisk between components items. If you preferred the old appearance, set the 1st and 2nd line feeds back to 1 and zero, then set the separator character back to "Comma".
  • Fixed sorting in the components window if you are using components. Both on the screen and on the quote or invoice, the components will sort according to your master sort setting for the quote and invoice in the Setup screen, Report Options tab.
  • Added the part Sales Price column to the Inventory Stock Report on the Reports screen.
  • Added Quote Number to the quote history window at the bottom of the quote screen.
  • You can now change the part description for component items (if using components) in the quote and invoice screen.
  • Fixed problem on Invoice screen. When you have the "Add Parts" screen open and add a part, the add parts screen will not scroll back to the top.
  • The Report "Completed Job Orders Not Billed" will not be sorted by Job Number.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.40 (May 5, 2009)

  • If you are not using a logo, your company name will now appear at the top on the quote, invoice and purchase screen, rather than the "Insert Logo Here" text.
  • On the Parts screen, "Sort By" field, added the ability to sort by the internal part number / order added. This will always appear in the sort list even if you are not choosing to display the internal part number.
  • Added the "Sort By" field to the Add parts popup screen. This field is the same "Sort By" field found on the parts screen. Updating the "Sort By" preference in either screen, will update it on either the parts or add parts popup screen.
  • If you are using components / sub-components on the quote or invoice, the auto-scrolling to part has now been enabled. Also, the part information screen has been enabled for the sub-components popup screen. To access the part information for a sub-component, just double-click on the part description, or part number, or you can right-click on the part description, then select Part Information from the short-cut menu.
  • On the Part Information popup screen, the last sold info tab now has an option to show lowest prices for all customers (default) or for the currently selected customer. Also, the last sold tab will now show items that were sold for a zero sales price.
  • If you have the system set to show the sales price w/tax, this will now show on the part information popup screen. Additionally, if the cost was being updated previously on this screen, the price w/tax on the parts screen was not being updated.
  • On the Payments screen, when you open the payment wizard and select an invoice for payment, the amount will default to the unpaid balance amount on the selected invoice.
  • On the Quotes screen, if you have enabled the simple pos ordering screen in the Setup screen, optional features tab, this ordering popup screen will now show the amount of change if they pay greater than the quote total, this is if you have enabled payments on the order popup screen.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.30 (May 5, 2009)

  • When adding parts manually onto a new line of a quote or invoice, rounding will now occur if the round option is selected in the setup screen. Previously, rounding was not occuring when adding a part directly on a blank quote or invoice line-item. Note: There is one exception to rounding. If you have a part where "Based on Margin" is unchecked, the system will always use whatever sales price is set, even if it is not rounded. Whenever Based on margin is set to off, the system is assuming that the user sets the price.
  • On the Customer screen, previously if you click on the Delivery tab, and click "Copy from main address", it was putting the company name in the shipping contact name, so that the company was printing twice on the invoice form when you had selected to copy a delivery address. This has been fixed, it will now copy the default billing contact name instead of the company name, and the label has been changed to "Delivery Contact".
  • Added new report to the Reports screen, financial tab. Previously, then Outstanding Balances report would use the numbers from all invoices regardless of invoice status. A second report has been added to only show the Outstanding Balances for customers only where the Invoice status = Delivered.
  • When adding parts using the Add Parts popup screen, the quote, invoice, purchase and service screen will now scroll down to a new blank line.
  • On the quote and invoice screen, the part description column size will now be remembered if you change the size.
  • Account History on payments screen will now sort in date descending order rather than in date ascending. This means that the most recent invoices and payments will now appear at the top of the payments screen.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.20 (May 5, 2009)

  • If you pull up an invoice, then click File, Print, then 'Invoice Printed?' box will be checked automatically.
  • Added "Profit" column to the Report: "Sales Report by Quantity Sold". This report is located in the Reports screen, Quote/Invoice tab.
  • Fixed Total Invoice column on Invoice Summary Report for those customers who use the 2-tax system (Canada).
  • Fixed Unpaid Invoice report to not show invoices with zero balance.
  • If rounding to the nearest whole dollar is enabled, when you add parts to quotes, invoices, etc. or recalculate items, rounding will only occur if the sale price is greater than 1.00.
  • Part Information popop screen will now show UPC, PDF location and Manufacturer's part number, if these options are enabled for the parts screen in setup, optional features.
  • Fixed preview button on the Payments screen.
  • Fixed Part Importing from the parts screen, import button. In some cases, the part numbers were not imported properly, and were looked on by the database as numbers, rather than characters.
  • Fixed Customer History Statement - Balance Only, to only show customers where the balance does not equal zero.
  • Fixed Aging Report and Customer History Statement to show a customer who only has a credit, but does not yet have invoicing history.
  • Added an export option for analyzing aging report / financial transactions data. Click on File, Export, then choose "Invoice / Payment Transactions" from the export list, select a date range, and spreadsheet name, then export.
  • You can now have the part "Last Updated" date from the parts screen show on the quote line-item so that you can easily see when the part was last updated. To enable this option, go to the Setup screen, Optional features tab, and check the option "On quote line-item, show the last updated date from the parts screen."
  • Added a button in the Serial Number entry screen from the Invoice or Purchase to set all shipped and received dates to today's date.
  • Sales Report by quantity sold now supports filtering by customer.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.10 (May 5, 2009)

  • Major change for those who prefer to have a sales price with tax. If you have the option "Show Part price w/tax" checked in Setup, Optional features, then there will be a new Price w/Tax field in the parts screen that is stored with each part. You can now enter the price w/tax, and have the system work backwards to calculate the sales price excluding tax. If you do this, the system will automatically un-check the "Based on margin" switch for that part. The system will calculate sales prices with more precision (more than 2 decimals) to allow the price with tax calculation to work properly.
  • Added New function for quickly starting a new invoice using a pre-determined default customer and invoice title. This is perfect for quick POS invoices. To setup which customer is used and the default invoice title (optional) to use, go to the Setup screen, Software Options tab and select a default customer and default invoice title. If no default customer is selected, then pressing will have no effect.
  • Fixed "Customer Letter" button on the customer screen.
  • Invoice-specific "Warranty Text" field has been removed from the job / service order forms. This is because those forms have their own unlimited customizable text field that prints at the bottom, having the Warranty Text was redundant.
  • Added New Report: Invoice Summary by Invoice # - Any Status. Accessed through the Reports screen, Quote/Invoice tab.
  • If you are using UPC fields for entering line-items on the invoice screen, pressing enter will go to the next line and put you back in the UPC field.
  • Added New Report: "Customer History Statement - Balances Only" to the Reports screen, customer tab. This will print off statements ONLY for customers that have an outstanding balance.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.01 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added button for viewing supplier details on the purchase order screen.
  • Added new Report: "Sales / Commissions Report Excluding Labor/Shipping". This is nearly identical to the existing sales/commission report, but all labor/shipping parts are excluded from the margin and the commissions.
  • Fixed Error #5, Invalid Procedure Call when using the Faxing button with WinFax
  • Error messages that mention, Instant Quote can't find the field: "lstPO", and "lstRMA"
  • Type Mismatch when recieving an entire purchase order
  • Instant Search, Purchase Order Serial numbers was not working when you double-clicked on item.
  • Instant Search, Payments searching did not work
  • Fixed on-hand / on-order updating for non-purchase type parts (this existed in prior versions as well) so that non-purchase types will be ignored.
  • Fixed error: Couldn't find the field SubParts referred to in expression
  • Fixed: With dynamic screen rescaling turned on, some information was hidden in the customer screen.

New in Instant Quote Professional 3.00 (May 5, 2009)

  • General
  • MS Outlook 2000 / Outlook XP support for e-mailing. This method does require a full version of MS Outlook (Either 2000 or XP). You can select this option under Tools, E-mail setup. If selected, all e-mails sent using Instant Quote Professional will be placed in the Outbox of MS Outlook. This e-mailing method supports attachments, setting priority and the requesting of a read receipt.
  • Added option for sales price calculation. Previously, the system was calculating the sales price using a simple markup formula Sales price = Part Cost * (1 + Markup). Now in the setup screen, under the financial settings tab, you can select Margin as an alternative calculation. This calculation, if selected, will be: Sales Price = Part Cost / (1 - Margin). The default will be the original markup calculation. To change this, go to the setup screen, financial settings tab, and change the "Markup/Margin?" dropdown to Margin. Then use the "Apply Global Margin" button to have IQ recalculate all parts that are based on margin to the new calculation.
  • Under File, Export, we have added an option for exporting the parts sheet that is formatted for importing in the parts screen. This will allow you to export your parts from one location or database, to another.
  • Fixed Instant Search where you click on Purchase Line-Items. Double-clicking a purchase order in the window caused Instant Quote to freeze.
  • Fixed error (Instant Quote can't find the field 'ChkRemove') when deleting a part from any screen other than the parts screen.
  • In the customer selection area at the top of the screen, a button has been added to refresh the customer lists. This is needed for network users to allow manual refreshing of the selection lists when new customers are added.
  • In the customer selection area at the top of the screen, you can now select a customer by reference number. This is the far-right selectin list.
  • On the Quote, Invoice, Purchase and Service screens, the right-click functions for viewing part notes, specs, and last / lowest / best price has been replaced by a Part Information screen. On most datasheets on these screens, you can right-click in the part description, part number, internal number or UPC fields to access the part information screen, or you can double-click on any of the above mentioned fields to bring up this screen. In addition, on the last sold price, invoice history has been added. Finally, you can see locations of the available parts for the part selected.
  • Removed function to exit Instant Quote.
  • Customers
  • Added credit card CVV number to the default payment type for the customer. This is the 3 or 4 digit number on the back of the credit card. If you have an issue number as well, you can store this here. Max. space allowed: 7 characters.
  • Added "Default when adding new customers" option to the Payment Types maintenance screen. When you add new customers, this will be set automatically if you choose a default payment type, such as cash, etc.
  • Payments
  • Redesigned Payments screen to add the ability to preview invoices or payments directly from the screen.
  • Fixed bug on payment wizard. When the invoice number was left blank, an error would occur.
  • Added CVV / Issue Number to payments wizard and Payments screen. This is the 3 or 4 digit number on the back of a credit card by the signature line.
  • In the payment wizard, if an invoice is selected for the payment, and you enter a payment amount that is greater than the invoice total, the amount of change due to the customer will be displayed, however, the payment will be posted for the correct invoice amount.
  • Invoice
  • Redesigned the Invoice screen layout to be more intuitive and user-friendly. The screen is now arranged in approximately the same order as the printed invoice. The part category tree listing and lower available parts datasheet have been moved to a new screen, which can be accessed from the Invoice screen by clicking the 'Add Parts to Current Invoice" button. This new screen can remain open, even when switching to a different screen. These changes have also resulted in a faster load time for the Invoice screen.
  • Fixed Invoice date format in invoice dropdown selection on invoice screen.
  • If you are printing invoice serial numbers on the invoice (Option in Setup, Optional Features tab), the serial numbers will not display if the number of serial numbers is greater than 20.
  • In serial numbers screen, added a right-click option. If you right-click on a serial number, you now have the option to go directly to the purchase order that the part appeared on.
  • Added the ability to export a Excel-based Invoice. On the Invoice screen, there is now an Excel button. You can pull up an invoice, then click the Excel button to generate an invoice spreadsheet. For those wanting more control over the invoice output, you can click on Tools, Speadsheet Template Setup, and then edit the default XLS template for the invoice. A list of available merge fields is in this setup screen. Additionally, if you want to e-mail this invoice spreadsheet to your customer, just make sure to change the Output format in the e-mailing window to XLS.
  • You can now store the shipping address with each invoice. On the invoice screen, if you click the Invoice Addresses tab, you will now be able to edit / select the billing AND shipping addresses, which will both be stored with the invoice. By default, whenever a new invoice is created (from Invoice screen, quotes or service), the shipping address will default to the delivery address on the customers screen automatically. For existing invoices, this field will be updated to the shipping address in the customer screen upon upgrading to version 3.
  • Quote
  • Redesigned the Quote screen layout to be more intuitive and user-friendly. The screen is now arranged in approximately the same order as the printed quote. The part category tree listing and lower available parts datasheet have been moved to a new screen, which can be accessed from the Quote screen by clicking the 'Add Parts to Current Quote" button. This new screen can remain open, even when switching to a different screen. These changes have also resulted in a faster load time for the Quote screen.
  • Added the ability to lock the detail section of an existing quote. To lock a quote, pull up an existing quote, then click on the 'keys' icon near the top of the quote screen. This is to prevent accidental changes to a quote you wish to safeguard.
  • Fixed problem with the Adjust Margin button. If the quantity was greater than one, and you adjusted the margin on a quote, the extended price would potentially be incorrect due to the system not rounding the sales price prior to multiplying the price by the quantity.
  • Added Customer P/O Number to the internal quote form, and added the supplier name for each part contained on the internal quote form.
  • Added customer information to the Quote Number selection dropdown list.
  • Added Quote Status (Either Quoted, Invoiced, or Job) to the Quote history window.
  • If you create a new job order from the quote on the quotes screen, the quote status will change to "Job", and will no longer show on the quotes follow-up list.
  • Excel Template Quote: Fixed the symbols that would appear on long notes fields where a blank line was inserted. Wherever the enter key was pressed, a symbol would appear on the Excel Quote.
  • Purchase
  • Redesigned the Purchase screen layout to be more intuitive and user-friendly. The screen is now arranged in approximately the same order as the printed purchase order. The part category tree listing and lower available parts datasheet have been moved to a new screen, which can be accessed from the Purchase screen by clicking the 'Add Parts to Current Purchase" button. This new screen can remain open, even when switching to a different screen. These changes have also resulted in a faster load time for the Purchase screen.
  • Added Part Locations to the Serial Number Entry screen. For each purchase order, you can now designate a default location for each part as it is received. To modify your part locations, click on Tools, Customize, Part Locations. In the part locations sreen, you can choose a default location for receiving a new part, and for selling a part. A part is removed from the location when you go to the invoice, open the serial numbers screen, and assign a serial number to a part. A Report has also been added to the Reports screen, Parts Lists tab called "Available Parts by Location". Additionally, in the new part information screen (see new version notes, under the General Section), you can see where the selected part is.
  • Added vendor contact to the P/O form.
  • When using the Auto-Purchase button, quotes and invoices ordered will now go to the scratch pad review screen first, if selected, instead of immediately creating new purchase orders.
  • Added the ability to export a fully-functional Excel-based purchase order. On the Purchase screen, there is now an Excel button. You can pull up a purchase order, then click the Excel button to generate a purchase order spreadsheet. For those wanting more control over the purchase order output, you can click on Tools, Speadsheet Template Setup, and then edit the default XLS template for the purchase order. A list of available merge fields is in this setup screen. Additionally, if you want to e-mail this p/o spreadsheet to your supplier, just make sure to change the Output format in the e-mailing window to XLS.
  • If you have tax automatically calculated on the purchase order, we have fixed the minor tax rounding that could occur causing the total to be off by .01.
  • Fixed Bug on purchase screen. If a discount was used for a line-item, and the tax was being auto-calculated on the purchase order, the discount would not be factored in to the tax, meaning that the item was being taxed at the full amount.
  • Service
  • Redesigned the Service screen layout to be more intuitive and user-friendly. The part category tree listing and lower available parts datasheet have been moved to a new screen, which can be accessed from the Service screen by clicking the 'Add Parts to Current Job" button. This new screen can remain open, even when switching to a different screen. These changes have also resulted in a faster load time for the Service screen.
  • Added Job Status Code to the jobs screen. The job status codes can be edited by double-clicking the job status selection on the service screen, or by clicking Tools, Customize, Job Status Codes. Additionally, job status has been added to the job search screen, and a new report has been added to the Reports screen, jobs tab for viewing job orders by job status. On the reports screen, most job reports can now be filtered by job status code.
  • Rearranged columns in job search screen so the customer is immediately visible.
  • Billable Hours Report on Reports screen, service tab.
  • Reports
  • Added customer filter option for the Outstanding Balances and the Aging Report.
  • New Report in reports screen, Parts Lists tab: Active parts where the on-hand amount is zero or less.
  • 3 New Reports in Reports screen, Customer tab for sales tracking: Customers by Sales Person, Customers by Business Source, and Customers by Customer Type. Each of these reports will show a grand total count of each type in the bottom section of the report.
  • Invoice Summary Report: Under the Sales Tax Calculation box in the bottom of the report, actual non-taxable and taxable sales will be used, instead of a calculation, this section applies to 1-tax systems only. The invoice summary report for any invoice status will also show the actual breakdown of non-taxable / taxable.
  • Added 2 new reports to the Reports screen, customers tab. 1) Mailing List Customers - This report shows all customers where the 'Exclude from mailing lables report" check box on the customer screen is NOT checked. 2) Non-Mailing List Customers - The same as mailing list customers, except the 'Exclude from mailing" box IS checked.
  • Added 'Item/Parts List w/UPC Code Field' to the Reports screen, Parts Lists tab.
  • Added 'Billable Hours by Worker' report on the Reports screen, Service tab. This report will show all completed job tasks based on a completed date range, and will sum the hours by employee. You may filter by job status, date range, company and worker, if desired.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.80 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added Unit Cost and Manufacturers Part Number to internal quotation form.
  • Added Customer P/O / Order Number to the Quotes screen. When creating an invoice from a quote, this number will carry over to the invoice screen, if entered.
  • Fixed "Payments Summary Report for Purchases". The Purchase Number column was incorrectly showing the internal P/O ID instead of the purchase order number. This has been fixed.
  • Added Quote Description and Customer P/O Number to Instant Search when searching for quotes.
  • Added Supplier Filter to the Parts Lists reports on the Reports screen.
  • Added New option to Setup screen, Software Options tab, Basic Options. You can now direct Instant Quote to automatically mark Invoices Delivered, when payment is made in full.
  • Added the ability to import the UPC code in the Parts screen, Import button function. UPC Code should be in column H under the heading UPC. See the file: c:program filesinstant quote 2000parts.xls for full column headings.
  • Added phone number formatting, if applicable, to the Customer Wizard.
  • Unpaid P/O report will no longer show zero balances.
  • Changed wording on Purchase Order for delivery method to make it more clear to the supplier which delivery method you are requesting for your purchase.
  • When beginning a new quote from a template, if the quote heading and ending notes are not defaulted for the sales person, then they will copy over from the quote template. Otherwise, the quote heading / ending notes will copy over from the sales person default heading / ending notes.
  • Fixed Issues regarding automatically adding transaction charges. If you were ordering a quote, or copying an invoice, the Transaction charge, if present, was not carrying over to the invoice.
  • When copying a Quote or Invoice, the current customer will be defaulted. Additionally, you can how select by Company as well.
  • Added Job Title to the Job Task Form located on the Service screen.
  • If "Round Sales Prices to the nearest Dollar" is checked and the sales price is less than $1.00, then the system will not recalculate the sales price using the "Apply Global Margin" button in the Setup screen. Additionally, if you create a new part, and the cost price is less than $1.00, then system will calculate a sales price that is Not rounded to the nearest dollar. You can then override the sales price to be whatever you wish, and the price will remain.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.70 (May 5, 2009)

  • Fixed Sales Report by Quantity Sold to sum the cost price, previously it was only showing the cost price of one item.
  • Added Part Validation to the Parts screen. This should be ran perodically to find any problems with your parts database, such as parts that are based on margin with zero cost, blank fields, etc. To run this function, go to the Parts screen, and click the Validate Parts button.
  • Added Phone number field to the Additional Addresses tab on the Customer and Supplier screen.
  • In the Customer screen, the state field is now a dropdown selection list. In addition, if you enter the city and state, the system will search for a match in the customer database and automatically fill in the zip code field for the billing address only. Added button to copy main address to the shipping address.
  • In the Supplier Screen, added button to copy the main address to the RMA address.
  • Usability Update. In most dropdown fields, a message will display if you add values that are not in the list. For Invoice, Quote, Service, and purchase, if you enter a new number in the selection list, you will be asked if you want to add a new record.
  • Usability Update. Redesigned Quote screen for a cleaner, more intuitive layout.
  • Fixed GST Tax Return - Australia, the Gross Receipts w/GST was not including the GST component.
  • Added Tutorial Wizard, which will automatically open if your database is not yet setup.
  • In the Tools, Customize, Invoice Layout, Quote Layout screens. If you selected a field, then clicked the Font button and changed the color, the color was not being set. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.62 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added code to fix the error occuring regarding exceeding the number of users logged in. Instant Quote was counting the number that were logged in from the new add-in, Instant Billing. With this release, the number of users logged in from Instant Billing will not count towards the total number licensed for Instant Quote Professional.
  • Fixed bug in the Parts screen when deleting parts.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.61 (May 5, 2009)

  • New Feature. Added the ability to reprint all invoice for a specified date range in the Reports screen, under the Invoice tab. Additionally, you can filter by customer or by sales person, if blank all invoices will print in the date range.
  • Fixed the Customer History Report for the new Aging Totals that appears in the report footer, if you run the report from the customer screen for all customers. The aging totals on the last page of the report were incorrectly summing up the totals for each customer for each invoice or payment line item. Therefore, if the customer had 2 invoices and 2 payments, their total accrual was being added 4 times in the report footer. This has been fixed. Renamed this report to Customer History Statement w/Accruals (Old name: Customer/Company History Statement).
  • Bug fix for receiving purchase orders. In release 2.6, if you have the quantity received column turned on, P/O would show complete if you received a partial quantity, but not the full quantity. This has been fixed.
  • Added extra option for Parts screen, Import button. Bottom check box, if checked, will direct IQ Pro to NOT update the part description. We have set this checkbox to be enabled by default. This means you can alter the suppliers part description to your own tastes, and IQ will leave it along on future imports.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.60 (May 5, 2009)

  • The Sales Tax Return report will now look to the "Tax-Exempt" switches for the part category and correctly show the taxable versus the non-taxable portion and gross receipts.
  • The Tax Collected report has been enhanced to show the Gross Receipts, Taxable Sales and Non-Taxable Sales in addition to the fields that were already there. (Separate columns will show for GST / PST)
  • New Feature: You can now track payments made on Purchase Orders. Simply pull up a p/o and click the new "Record Payments" button. If you have tracked the old fields previously (payment date, type, check #), then new records have been created automatically based on your existing data. The Unpaid Purchase Orders report has been re-designed in the Reports screen to look at this new data. The Taxes Paid on Purchases has been re-designed to calculate a pro-rated amount of tax due based on the payment dates for the purchase order. Additionally, a new Payments Summary for Purchases is now available on the Reports screen, where a date range can be entered.
  • Added Detail Extended amount field to the Job Agreement forms Style 1 & 2. Also added the Windows COA Number and description to both reports. You can customize the text "Windows COA Number" on the setup tab of the job screen, thus giving you one additional customizable field that will appear on the job form.
  • Added RMA Address fields to the Supplier screen. You can now enter a separate address for the supplier that will print on the RMA Form.
  • Tax / GST Registration number on the P/O form has been moved to the very bottom of the page. Some suppliers were confusing this number for your internal p/o number.
  • Tax will now be computed on shipping charges in the p/o screen if the sales tax description = VAT.
  • Added Job Number sorting to the Job Reports located on the Reports screen.
  • When creating a new invoice from a job, the Job Title will copy over to the Invoice.
  • Sales Report by Quantity Sold will now be driven off of the invoice date field instead of the Sale / Payment date.
  • Sort Order column in the part / item category maintenance screen can now accept fractional numbers. For example, you can set the sort order to 1 for the main category, then 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and so on for sub-categories.
  • Customer History Report. If you are running this for all customers on the Reports screen, a report footer will display showing the total accrual for all customers for the date range entered. This will appear on the last page. Added new checkbox on the Import button in the Parts screen. "Only update existing parts, do not add parts". This is for those who only use a handful of parts from their supplier and don't want to edit the spreadsheet each time to remove unwanted / new parts.
  • When receiving partial quantities on a purchase order using the "Qty Rec'd" column, the P/O Status will now update to partial. Previously, it would only do this if the entire line was received.
  • P/O Form: The part number will now grow to a second line if required. This is to allow long part numbers to appear correctly within the lines of the form.
  • Added new column G to the Import button on the parts screen. Column G is optional and is for the Manufacturer's Part Number. If you wish to use this, add "ManufNum" to column G in your parts.xls import template. Column F must be "On Hand" if your spreadsheet stops at column E. (See c:program filesinstant quote 2000parts.xls as your guide for setting up the column headings).
  • Fixed bug on Excel Quote. If you had a quote with zero quantity on a line-item, it would export zero in the sales price. This has been fixed.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.50 (May 5, 2009)

  • Main Screen Layout Change: Moved the customer selection area as well as the screen name that you have selected to the top of the main screen. This is more intuitive for new users.
  • Enhanced the E-Parts window, Map / Add Entire Categories screen to allow you to use the vendor's categories after you map to your own. For example, if Ingram Micro has the category "Memory- RAM", you can use the mapping screen to map this to your own category: Ingram Micro Parts, then have the program create the tree: Memory- RAM underneath Ingram Micro Parts.
  • Usability Update. For most screens where there is a selection list with a down arrow, you can now type in your entry regardless of whether the item is in the list. If it is not in the list, you will be prompted to add the item to the list. For example, if you type in a new P/N on a quote line-item that is not in the system, you will be prompted to add the new part. This has been done to make the system more intuitive for new users.
  • The SN Field (Supplier Part Number) has been renamed to P/N and/or Supplier P/N throughout the program. SN was confusing to new users, as this field was confused with Serial Number. In addition, the IPN field has been renamed to Internal P/N or Int. P/N throughout the program.
  • Added "Copy Inv." button to the invoice screen. This function will allow you to copy an existing invoice to the same customer or to a different customer.
  • Invoice Summary Report: Added Sales Tax Calculation section at the bottom of the report. This will take all sales taxes and work backwards to arrive at a Taxable and Non-Taxable sales total. This will combine any tax-exempt sales (where the customer is exempt) as well as any parts that are tax exempt.
  • Added Internal Purchase Order form / Receiving List to the Purchase screen. This report shows no pricing information, and has the quantity ordered, then blank spaces to allow you to write in the quantities. This report also shows the internal and external notes from the Purchase Order.
  • Added customizable text field to the Purchase Order form. This allows you to add text that will appear standard on every purchase order, such as a message to supplier's to have them let you know if they cannot deliver by the expected date, for example. To add this text, got to the Setup screen, Report Options tab, "Additional Options for Report Text" selection list. Select the "Purchase Order Form Text" from the list of available fields to customize.
  • Fixed bug on Invoice screen. When you open the components screen, and change the sales price of any sub-component part, an error resulted. This has been fixed.
  • Fixed bug when you click the Order button from the Quotes screen. If you were attempting to override the next invoice number to replace a deleted invoice, the system was still using the next available number instead of the number that you typed in to override.
  • The Discount field for line-items will now be applied to the extended amount, rather than the sales price for the item. For large quantities, this was resulting in larger rounding errors.
  • Added a Supplier Filter toggle to the Purchase Order Screen. When working on purchase orders, or creating a new purchase order, the screen will default to only show available parts for the Supplier for the purchase order selected. To toggle this filter, click the new "Filter = On" text located next to the P/O Supplier Filter.
  • Added additional options to the Purchase Order Screen, P/O History tab. The system will now remember your filtering preference for the p/o history, and you can now filter for Open and Partial P/O's.
  • Added Total Invoice and a grand total to the "Invoices with On-Order Status" Report.
  • Added Total Revenue and sub-totals to the "Sales Report by Quantity Sold" Report.
  • Added Date Ordered, Date Ordered label, Warranty Expires Date and Warranty Expires label from the Invoice Screen, and Custom 4th Phone number from the Customers screen to the Tools, Customize Invoice Layout Screen. These are defaulted to not be shown on the Invoice. If you wish to add them, select them from the "Add Additional Field" list, they are located in the Report Footer section of the Add Additional Field list.
  • Added Quick Action functions to the customize Quote and Invoice screens to allow you to quickly update to a new font, and other functions.
  • Added merge field [FullCategoryHeader] and [FullCategory] to the Excel Quote template setup. This enables you to show the full category / sub-categories in the excel spreadsheet quote.
  • Enhanced Instant Search function. For large searches of thousands of records, it may not be desirable to have Instant Search search after typing each character. A check box has been added to allow you to have Instant Search search only after you press the enter key after typing all of the search characters. By default, this check box is turned off when searching, check the box to enable this feature when searching.
  • Added Expected Delivery Date and Supplier Invoice Number to the Purchase Order Summary Report and to the Purchase Order Summary Report by Supplier.
  • Added Supplier Part Number to Job Sheet that is printed from the Invoice Screen.
  • The Company Selection on the Main Screen will now sort by company name, then by city/town. This will help when multiple company names are used with different locations.
  • If you are using Security, and have a user with no deletion rights for invoices, p/o's, they can now remove a line-item on the p/o that was entered by mistake, if they have rights to the Purchase screen.
  • Invoice Summary Report: Added Sales Tax Calculation section at the bottom of the report. This will take all sales taxes and work backwards to arrive at a Taxable and Non-Taxable sales total. This will combine any tax-exempt sales (where the customer is exempt) as well as any parts that are tax exempt.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.41 (May 5, 2009)

  • Fix for European Date Style using the new 'M' key on the Reports screen.
  • Added second Invoice Summary Report that will show all invoices regardless of the Invoice Status to the Reports screen.
  • P/O History list will now sort descending regardless of p/o status.
  • Modify Tree Category Separator character in part category setup
  • The spell check feature has been restored, with one important note. The spell-checking files are not distributable from Microsoft. To use this feature, you must install the Spelling Checker from the Office 97 CD-ROM (Use Custom Setup after inserting the CD-ROM) under the Office Tools Option.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.40 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added Quote Revision Feature
  • Added the ability to export a quote Excel Spreadsheet with formulas.
  • Added new EasyMail options for remembering CC Address, and CC to your e-mail.
  • Added Spell-Check button to the e-mail screen.
  • Added ability to Map part categories from Tech Data, Ingram Micro and Cisco to your Instant Quote Pro categories. Additionally, added ability to add entire part categories from the above vendors and log any new parts found.
  • Added date options to Reports screen. 'M' for Beg. of month, 'Y' for Beg. of year.
  • Added Customer Address, Phone, Fax, Invoice Number and Invoice Date to the "Items Sold by Customer" report on the Customer tab in the reports screen.
  • Added "Delete Empty Categories" button to the part types setup screen.
  • Fixed Purchase Order Form. The address-2 line for the Bill To address will no longer appear on the same line.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes for the E-Parts screen, Comparison Mode, and errors that occur when deleting line-items.
  • Added "Set as Default" button to the Purchase screen, Delivery Address tab.
  • Security Addition: If you are hiding prices for a user, the margin will no longer be visible.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.31 (May 5, 2009)

  • Restored the "View All Payments" button on the payments screen.
  • Minor fixes to the P/O Form, control tip text fields and the Net Profit formulas on the parts reports.
  • Inventory Stock Report will now show negative quantities.
  • Added "Invoices Not Paid" button to the Payments screen. This will preview a new report that matches up invoices to payments so you can easily find unpaid invoices. To view this report, first select the customer, then click the Invoices Not Paid button.
  • Moved Vendor City and State to one line on the RMA form.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.30 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added support for a secondary currency symbol on the quote and invoice forms.
  • Added the ability to select a part for a quote or invoice by UPC code. Additionally, the UPC code and the manufacturer's part number will now be imported if you use the Ingram Micro or Tech Data Browser.
  • The IPN (Internal Part Number) can now be edited. Previously, this was an auto-incrementing number that could not be edited.
  • Added aging information to the Customer History Statement.
  • Added job created date and the ability to edit the sales price on the Service screen.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes and enhancements.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.20 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added the ability to print serial numbers directly on the invoice.
  • Enhanced the Auto-Purchase order function to have an option to direct Instant Quote to add items from the Auto-Purchase function to the P/O Scratch Pad Review screen, rather than creating the Purchase Orders imediately.
  • For those who use the security screen, we have added a new option at the bottom of the rights listing for Locking out the ability of a user to change / edit the sales price and the adjust margin button. If checked for a user, they will be unable to edit the sales price for all parts.
  • Additional enhancements and bug fixes.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.10 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added Sales Ranking report to the Reports screen. This report allows you to see the top customers invoiced during a specified time frame.
  • Fixed Inventory Stock Report. The Total On-hand column was showing the incorrect field.
  • Updated the new PDF Document location feature as follows: 1) PDF Location (Or URL, etc.) field is now available in the parts datasheet on the Quote, Invoice and P/O Screens. 2) If you right-click the PDF field you will not have an options to "Follow Hyperlink". So if you are tracking URL's for each part, you can immediately visit the URL by right-clicking and selectin "Follow Hyperlink".

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.01 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added "Show On Quote" and "Show On Invoice" check box to the quote and invoice main screen. Now you can hide a line-item in the detail section of a quote or invoice.
  • Created a validation routine for parts that will not appear on the parts screen. When you click the parts screen, you will now be informed of the parts that are not displaying due to a missing part category.
  • Customer Reference Label is now editable on the customize invoice screen. Also fixed misc. issues with dynamic screen rescaling.

New in Instant Quote Professional 2.0 (May 5, 2009)

  • Added Ingram Micro and Cisco Systems data file browsing to the E-Parts Window.
  • Add Components section and auto Reference Numbers for quote and invoice line-items.
  • Eliminated flickering when previewing a Quote or Invoice.
  • Added EasyMail self-contained E-mail client. With EasyMail, you can attach pdf's, request read receipts, and much, much more.
  • Added Default Discount percentage feature to the Customer screen. Now you can have Instant Quote automatically add the discount percentage to all quote and invoice line-items.
  • Added Call Log tab to the Customers screen. Go here to document calls from each customer. Supporting Call Log report is available in the Reports screen.
  • The Job-Tracking popup screen has been moved to a full-screen named Service. Added new functionality and a new Service tab to the Reports screen, with new Service related reports.
  • You can now enter tree-level categories up to 4 levels deep. Additionally, if you use part category margins, you can now set separate margins for each sub-category. Sub-Category descriptions can now be duplicated.
  • Add the ability to associate a PDF or other file to each part in the Parts screen. Then, using EasyMail, you can automatically attach these files to your email.
  • Added Delivery Address fields from the Delivery tab on the Customer screen to the Invoice.
  • Added "View All Payments" screen to the Payment screen. This will allow you to view/edit existing payments.
  • Misc. Bug Fixes and enhancements.