Lineal Software Solutions Archives - SQLWorks

SQLWorks Live on Microsoft Windows 11

SQLWorks Version 10 is officially live on both Microsoft Windows 11, with early tests suggesting a significant performance improvement.

Microsoft Windows 11 is the first major Windows release for six years, and introduces a raft of visual, technical and security updates to the world’s most widespread desktop operating system.

Our SQLWorks Software Development Team – which uses both Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows for development – works hard to ensure our software maintains the best possible lifespan and interoperability, without the need for companies to spend on paid version upgrades. This includes advance testing on preview build/upcoming operating systems via virtual machine, to ensure our customers won’t experience compatibility issues.

You can learn more about upgrading to Windows 11 here, including the require minimum specifications. Uptake across industry PCs is expected to be somewhat slower than for Windows 10, as many pre-2018 processors prior to the Spectre and Meltdown incidents won’t support the update – meaning that the adoption of Windows 11 will be driven predominantly by new devices.

SQLWorks is still fully operable on any 64-bit version of Windows 10, which itself remains fully supported by Microsoft until October 2025.

Video: Manufacturing Brilliance

 

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SQLWorks a Made Smarter UK Technology

Made Smarter Update:

Lineal’s SQLWorks Software is officially registered as a specialist UK digital technologies provider for manufacturing.

Made Smarter is a UK-Government backed initiative launched in 2017, following a nationwide review of the manufacturing sector – and includes a number of private and public sector organisations helping to modernise industry and drive adoption of productivity-boosting technology in the sector.

Recognised fields include a wide range of next-generation technologies for manufacturing such as robotics & process control, data and systems integration, mobile and wearable devices, sensor innovations, machine learning, additive manufacturing and augmented reality technology.

sqlworks on made smarter site

“We’re delighted to see SQLWorks listed among some of this country’s most advanced and cutting-edge technology solutions for manufacturing” said Lineal’s Managing Director Mike Matthews. “The Made Smarter review highlights adoption of modern technology as a keystone for industry in this country, and we want SQLWorks to underpin real advancement and strength in the industry.”

Businesses can read the original findings of the Made Smarter Review here, and learn more about Made Smarter UK here.

 

For Business Software expertise and support, please contact our team today.

Getting Started with Dispatch Planner

Dispatch Planner


Managing outbound goods often requires an overarching view of business operations ‘as-a-whole’ – looking across all sales accounts, orders and products. We’ve given users the power to do this via SQLWorks Dispatch Planner.

Dispatch Planner gives order managers and warehouse teams a comprehensive dashboard to maximise visibility and control over orders. Dispatch Planner is accessible within the Stock Ledger, and (by default) loads a comprehensive list of all outstanding customer sales Orders with key information about each order.

dispatch planner

Double clicking on an order allows a drill-down to the exact order, meaning shopfloor teams don’t need to access individual customer sales accounts to understand workloads and even check line-level detail.

Simple ‘traffic-light’ statuses indicate whether the required stock quantity is available for each order to be shipped in full. By selecting an order, dispatch managers can also view the same information for each order line of the order – with the same status indication based on free stock availability. Orders will only be considered ready to ship in full once every line on that order is available to ship.

When ready to ship, dispatches can be sent to dispatch and invoiced (and emailed automatically to the customer) in one smooth workflow, removing the outstanding order from the Dispatch Planner list.

dispatch planner

High volume companies may lengthen or shorten the time horizon of the viewed orders, or filter by warehouse. Where goods are not ‘Ready to Ship’, SQLWorks will make the user aware of why an order is delayed – for example, showing Purchasing Delays.

For companies that use Delivery/Dispatch Notes prior to invoice, the Dispatch Planner will also allow the generation of new delivery notes from here, list any valid delivery note numbers for each order for cross-referencing, and require the user to select an existing delivery note before invoicing a previous dispatch.

Dispatch Planner shows the real power of SQLWorks: as the ability to cross-reference stock control and ordering globally across the business allows you to manage operations quickly, efficiently, and with confidence.

 

You can find more detail about how to use Dispatch Planner here

Introduction to Stock Audit and Stock Taking

Stock Audit allows businesses to perform a comprehensive stock take, record variances, verify the results, report on valuation, and automatically adjust stock levels for accuracy.

Stock takes can be initiated, or continued, by clicking on ’Stock Audit’ under ‘Products’ in the Main SQLWorks Navigation Bar (1). To begin a new stock take simply click ‘Create New’ or load an unfinished stocktake via ‘Load Existing’. Each stock take is warehouse specific, and can be given a reference ID.

Users must choose whether the final results will ’Save Quantity’ (adjust the actual quantity to a fixed number established from the stock check) or ’Save Variance’ (adjust the actual quantity according to a variance from the theoretical quantity, incorporating quantity changes which may have taken place during the stock take.)

stock audit type

Clicking ‘Print Sheets’ generates a series of stock take forms, listing the stock items and locations under review, which can be printed and assigned to stock counters for counting. Printed stock take sheets include a notes field for stock counters to record additional information, but do not list the theoretical quantity, so as not to prejudice the accuracy of the stock take.

stock audit sheets

Once stock counters have returned their stock take sheets, stock controllers can enter counted values in the ‘Count’ column next to each item by entering the name of the counter in the ‘Counted By’ dropdown (2) at the top of the window. The ‘Variance’ Column automatically calculates the variance, and a note of the counter’s name is recorded in the ‘Count By’ column (3)

If required, stock controllers can print “check sheets” in order to have questionable variances verified by a second counter, and enter a revised quantity in the same field by using the ‘Checked By’ dropdown at the top of the window (2). The ‘Variance’ Column automatically calculates the variance, and a note of the checker’s name is recorded in the ‘Check By’ column (3). When printing check sheets you may enter a single product code or a csv of codes, each product including its current values for all bin locations are printed on their own page.

To review the records, clicking the ‘Print Variance’ button at the top of the window produces a report on the results of the stock take, grouping the variances on each item across all monitored locations, and calculating a monetary value for the overall positive or negative variance.

By clicking ‘Finish’, the results of either the ’Save Quantity’ or ’Save Variance’ stock take are applied to the SQLWorks Stock Ledger to bring the stock levels back into alignment with the stock take.*

 

For additional information on stock control, contact our team today.

 

 

*If the ‘Free Qty’ tickbox is ticked at the top of the theory column, the theoretical values for the stock audit are shown excluding any allocated quantity. SQLWorks will not accept a variance which adjusts the quantity of an item below the quantity of that item which is already Allocated to Sales Orders, and will instead adjust the Actual quantity as close to the recorded variance as allowed numerically.

stock free

Team SQLWorks at EurOmnis 2017

This year Lineal’s SQLWorks Team traveled to Arnhem, The Netherlands, for the 4-day European Omnis Developers Conference – EurOmnis 2017.

Conference workshops offer the opportunity for developers from more than a dozen countries to exhibit their latest work, seek advice from other programmers and share best practice. A primarily educational event, EurOmnis brings together the brightest and best to further develop software projects and draw on a wider pool of knowledge.

EurOmnis workshop

Members of the Omnis Executive Team also attended to discuss the very latest developments of the platform, explain new features (such as remote debugging technology working live from the developer console) and gather valuable feedback from the wider Omnis developer community.

Managing Director of Lineal Software Solutions, Mike Matthews explained: “Over the many years during which we’ve helped organise EurOmnis, both the software itself and the Omnis Developers Group (ODEV) have gone from strength the strength.”

omnis developers

“This year’s conference studied some exciting breakthroughs in web development, mobile/tablet-friendly user interfaces, internet-of-things (IOT) examples, future API technology, and much, much more.”

“SQLWorks is designed to be a highly flexible business management software, and we greatly value contributions from the extraordinarily diverse range of industry sectors, creative skills and technical knowledge represented each year at EurOmnis.”

In addition to coding, EurOmnis 2017 attendees had the chance to visit and dine at the Kasteel Doorwerth, a medieval chateaux dating from before the 13th Century, and literary home of the Beaulieu restaurant, where Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema wrote Soldier of Orange.

See you next year!

 

Lineal are Omnis and business software development specialists – learn more here.

Euromnis venue

Fact Sheet: Phone Logs

Phone logs

If your business fields a lot of phone calls, accurate record keeping is an important part of your interactions with customers. SQLWorks includes a Phone Logs tool to keep track of calls, to manage workloads, and to produce valuable insights from this data.

The Phone Log itself can be found in the Navbar under CRM (1), and opens a table showing all recent phone logs to your business, who called, and other information. SQLWorks does not record audio from phone calls (unless uploaded), but creates a convenient admin trail for tracing calls and the work that was associated to them.

Pressing ‘F6’ at any time in SQLWorks opens the window to create a new phone log (2), and this can be launched quickly during/after a call. Choosing a company from your company’s list opens its lists of contacts, and the user can either select a known contact (automatically entering all their details) or right click on the contact list to add a new caller’s details.

Below this are fields for giving the detail from the call to a SQLWorks user within your company (e.g.: for assigning a new task) and you can choose a user/group to email with the call detail.

On the right hand side of the new call log window are tabs to simultaneously create new tasks, project links or sales leads using the data from the new phone log (3.) Each tab automatically copies across the data from the phone log, and provides the extra fields needed to also create these new entries, for example: task priority or lead conversion chance.

When new phone logs are saved, they are logged to the phone log table itself, and under each specific company’s Phone Logs tab in the company’s list. If used, the task, project and lead tables also receive the new entries.

SQLWorks phone log is an immensely versatile tool, which forms the backbone of a structured help desk or office environment – helping to keep track of call volumes, agent workloads and customer interaction. The phone log itself can be exported with timestamped entries for further analysis of busy periods or repeat customers, and by clicking ‘Reports’ users can produce reports on number of calls received from a list of companies.

The new phone log screen (remember: press F6!) can be customised extensively by the SQLWorks team to record information commonly taken over the phone from enquiries to your business, and to help you populate the task list, advance projects or manage sales leads elsewhere in SQLWorks more carefully.

For CRM support and advice, contact the SQLWorks team today.

Did you Know? Quoting Tips

quoting tips

Quoting a customer can be a delicate process, and sometimes you need to be able to issue a quote with detailed options. We’ve collated a few handy tips to help your sales team build the perfect SQLWorks quote.

If you’re putting together a more complex quote, it can sometimes be useful to give a customer options. You can create these by right-clicking on the line numbers on the left of each quote line, and selecting ‘Choose Option Group’ to place groups of lines under ‘Option 1’ ‘Option 2’ subheadings (1.)

These options are normally alternatives to each other, so you typically won’t want SQLWorks to total them together. You can remove the overall total by switching to the to ‘Extras and Project’ Tab in the top right of the quote header, and unchecking the ‘Print Totals’ checkbox (2.) This will remove the ‘grand total’ from the bottom of the normal quote template (please note that if you exclude VAT you’ll need to include an amendment to this effect, as depending on your settings, the total VAT may no longer be visible.)

If you need to include sub-total lines instead for each option group, the easiest way is to add a sub-total line at the end of each group. By right clicking on the grey background of any given line, you can choose ‘Toggle Line Type’ to change a line to display the sub-total of the group immediately above it, to be hidden or to become a comment line without any costs (3.)

The area around the line number will change to a different colour to reflect the line type (1), and the quote template will change to incorporate the new line type. This is useful to help keep your quote clear and tidy – to add a running sub-total, line gaps or comments.

With these extras it’s easy to build more complex quotes from SQLWorks, and give customers an informative choice.

A Quick Disclaimer: if you have a custom quotations window for your company/organisation, one or more of these quoting tips features may be disabled. If you need them – speak to the SQLWorks team!

Fact Sheet: Sales Leads

sales leads

Need to manage a sales leads pipeline for your business? SQLWorks CRM includes a comprehensive sales leads module which can help you manage your customer outreach.

Leads can be accessed within the CRM section of the main navbar (1.) and will load a table of leads with multiple coloured panels representing your sales stages (2.)

You can double click on a lead to open it, reorder your leads by clicking the column headers or click the ‘Q1’ ‘Q2’ ‘Q3 ‘Q4’ buttons along the top toolbar to filter by financial quarter.

Once a lead has been opened, you can record common sales qualification data including priority level, log a lead source, assign categorisation and note the contact details of your contact in the top half of the edit Lead window (3.) You can also give each lead speculative value, profit and conversion chance, and set a follow up date for further action which can display in the SQLWorks diary. In the lower panel (4) are your normal SQLWorks CRM tools – you can link phone logs, emails, tasks and drag in documents to be saved against your lead, and save a record of actions performed to progress the lead with a time/date.

By clicking the [+] button above the lead stages you can unlock each new lead stage – moving your lead down the sales pipeline.

As leads move through your pipeline, your brightly coloured lead stages in the main screen (2) display how many leads are active at that stage, what the total value of these are in turnover, and the total likely profit (calculated by multiplying each lead’s percentage by it’s turnover value and adding the sum of that stages leads these together.) You can load the leads active at any single stage by clicking on that stage, and the stages themselves can be set to match your own sales pipeline. ‘Receipted’ and ‘Lost’ sales leads will always default their quantity to 100% of value converted or lost, and will move a lead to ‘Closed.’ By clicking the ‘Load Open’ button in the top toolbar you can filter your list to exclude these closed leads, and just work on those that are active.

If you need a quick way to record new enquiries over the phone, you can create a new lead when making a new phone log by clicking the ‘leads’ tab in the new phone log screen. To save time, the details of your new lead will be automatically populated from those you recorded in the phone log.

Your leads are kept isolated from your main companies list to prevent bigger sales departments with large numbers of cold contacts swamping your SQLWorks Sales Ledger with non-customers.

At any time however, (for example when a Lead becomes a customer) you can click the ‘Conversion Tab’ in the lower half of the edit lead window to automatically save the company details gathered by your Sales agent as a new company in your main SQLWorks companies list.

In this way SQLWorks makes it simple to log new leads, record progress in detail between multiple sales staff, and estimate future conversion rates.

For CRM guidance and help: contact us today.

Team SQLWorks at EurOmnis 2016

EurOmnis

Our SQLWorks team recently exhibited at the 2016 EuroOmnis developers conference in Tuscany, Italy – joining Omnis developers conference from more than a dozen countries around the globe.

EurOmnis is an annual educational event designed to bring Omnis programmers together to share knowledge and to showcase the very latest in software development.

“Lineal have been part of, and latterly helped organise, this international conference of Omnis developers since 1999” explained Managing Director Mike Matthews. “As a member of the Omnis developers group (ODEV), our SQLWorks Business Management Software undergoes an ongoing process of learning and development – and we’re always looking at what features future versions of SQLWorks will need to stay at the forefront.”

“The best businesses are always looking to the latest technology for an extra edge, so both our team and SQLWorks software need to be just as agile.”

EurOmnis

Attendees enjoyed classes, discussions and more surrounding the latest advances in Omnis software development, including javascript web tools, responsive graphs and visualisation aids, and Omnis development for portable devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Representatives from Omnis were also present, to host seminars informing and updating attendees on the platform’s latest news, as well as explore likely developments in the near future and gather feedback.

EurOmnis

The conference also gives developers a chance to showcase what they have been working on to other developers, drawing on software projects undertaken across countless industries and sectors.

To learn more about SQLWorks: contact us today.