SME6.2 New Features

SME6.2 is a significant upgrade incorporating numerous customer requested features and capabilities.

Highlights of major new features:

• Views: SME users can now create multiple search grid views for each module. Views can be shared among users or made as private. This views feature will tremendously improve productivity by allowing faster access and more refined search of information. We have also added a View menu item so you can directly get to various views without first going to the module.
• Progress Invoicing/Partial Billing: This feature was requested by many customers! Now it’s available. But we didn’t just do the basics; we now have great flexibility for all progress billing scenarios. Here are the different options for progress invoicing from service or install orders:
• Dollar amount
• Percentage amount
• Combined (similar to today)
• Fixed – Fixed Total: This will allow a fixed rate proposal where labor and items added to the order will be used for job costing purposes but not the total provided to the customer.
• Full – itemized: Convert the entire order with itemized details so the invoice can be directly modified in SME to add additional items and labor.
• Partial: Convert specific items from the order. This is great for partial shipments or for charging for specific items on an order.
• Proposal to Multiple Orders: For better project management, you can now create multiple orders or invoices from one proposal. This will be great for large projects that need to be broken into multiple phases, each phase could have it’s own service or install order. The proposal can be converted in any of the conversion types shown above for progress invoicing.
• Order Items: We have added an additional tab on Proposals, Service Orders, Install Orders and Invoices called Order Items that will allow you to layout these order in any format you want. You can add Text line items, groups, and rearrange the items in the list with simple drag and drop ordering. This will allow you to layout your order form exactly how you want to present to the customer. In addition, each item on the order can be flagged to not print on the order form. This way you can hide details such as the individual labor tasks while still retaining this information for operations and job costing.
• Project Management: Project management has been enhanced for easier use and greater visibility. Now you can directly assign a proposal, service order, install order or invoice to a project with a drop down menu. If you assign the proposal to a project, when that proposal is converted to orders or invoices, they will also be assigned to the project.
• User Groups: This feature is going to provide tremendous ease of use for users. Now you can create a user group that hides almost any tab or feature from the system. This will allow administrators to create user groups for users that only want to see specific information in SME. By hiding unneeded tabs and features, users will get to the information they need much faster. In addition, this will provide better security by keeping people out of information they don’t need to see. For example, you can hide all customer financial information such as balances and aging. Also, this will be easier to administrator by creating a user group and then assigning multiple users to that group.
• Inventory Management: Inventory has been significantly improved! Here are some of the new features:

• Part details now in a separate list or table. What this means to you is that if you have multiple quantity of an item and each of the items are serialized or in different warehouses, they will not break out into individual line items on the order unless you want them to. This major inventory change will provide significant flexibility in your process.
• Individual items can be designated as delivered. For a large order, you can designate which items have been delivered and which ones are still pending delivery or on hold status.
• Kit Items: Inventory items can now show kit items for reference purposes. If you have complicated items, this will help show details of what sub- items compose this item.
• Checklists: Inventory items now have a checklist notes for helping techs to follow a checklist for installing or servicing the item.
• Flexibility to change received items from PO.

• SLA: Service Level Agreements: SME now has SLA designation throughout. This will allow you to designate the entire order into an SLA category such as comprehensive, labor only, parts only, etc. In addition, each individual item can be designated into an SLA category. These categories are fully customizable by your company. This will allow everyone to know the SLA status for the order or for the items.
• Custom Customer Tab: Now you can create your own custom tab for customer information. You business is unique, so you will need to track specific information. This tab allows selection of various types of information, labels, and layouts.
• Custom fields for customer equipment: SME now has 3 custom fields for the customer equipment tracking. This will allow you to track additional information related to your business.
• User Interface Improvements:
• We have added a separator bar to allow better viewing of information.
• Move the bar up and down to see more or less of the upper or lower information
• Click on the bar to provide full screen for the lower information. Click again to go back to the previous setting.
• Maintenance Contracts tab in customers: Quickly see customer maintenance contracts
• New Search! To improve usability we have added a feature similar to Google search. Just type in any entry and SME will search customers, contacts, sales leads and more.
• Purchase Order tracking list: Now you can add tracking items to PO so you can track shipping numbers, invoice numbers from vendors, shipping receipts or more.
• PO Item Details: Details of PO transactions are now tracked.
• New Items: Now it's much easier to enter new records. Just select the menu item called New Items and select the new type of record you want to enter.

SQLink new features:

• Partial Billing for PO’s. I can’t tell you how many requests we had for this feature! It first requires the major inventory changes for SME6.2. Now you can do partial bills as you receive parts on PO’s This will allow vendors to send partial orders, receive in SME and then create a bill just for the delivered parts.
• Bill only to QB: Now you can just send a bill from a PO to QB without sending the PO. This will simplify management with QB and allow SME to handle all the PO processing.