| 1. Export Prophet reports to PDF - New Sub-Module |
Our new PDF (portable document format) add-in allows you to save any Prophet style report to the popular PDF format and view it using Adobe Acrobat. You nay then choose to email reports to departments and branches or send stock lists to your clients.
This popular format has become the de-facto standard for sharing electronic documents of all shapes and sizes. More than 200 million PDF documents on the web today serve as evidence of the number of organizations that rely on Adobe PDF to capture information.
It’s also really great for your business, why spend money printing a report that you only view once and then throw away.
Share your data; now that’s smarter business. |
| 2. Report scheduling * New Module |
Updates to our scheduling system see the arrival of a new reports scheduling module. Prophet style reports can now be scheduled to run on a regular basis. This allows you to collate data overnight and get a head start on your day.
Printing across a network allows the scheduler to deliver your reports to your nearest network printer and even export the data to a variety of formats such as Excel, RTF (Word) or PDF. Users of the Attaché Alex system can also send the report by email or fax automatically.
Imagine sending your customer a weekly report of stock held on their behalf without lifting a finger. Do you forget to print reports that you later need for comparison? Well forget that; just remember to set up a scheduled report.
Regular reports, without the effort; now that’s smarter business. |
| 3. OLEDB Module * New Module |
Access your data in new and exciting ways. OLEDB is the modern replacement for ODBC. It allows you to access data stored in Prophet by a whole host of other applications. Using the Excel 2003 add-in (supplied), it is possible to visually join pieces of data. For example, it is possible to link the invoice header information (customer code, invoice number etc.) to the main customer information to show the phone number, MTD sales or if you have Attaché FlexiData, you could show your own custom data alongside invoice data.
The Prophet SQL builder allows drop and drop joining of Prophet information and you can share the resulting SQL statements the DT Export system and the upgraded Prophet Report Designer 2.
Use OLEDB to quickly view your Prophet data and see how your business is performing. Once you have the data you want, transfer your ad-hoc queries to the Prophet report designer and make a standard Prophet report, schedule the report to print daily or send it via Alex to your customers, suppliers and business partners.
Lifting the lid on your data; now that’s smarter business. |
| 4. Report Designer 2 |
The Prophet report designer (RD2) and its underlying engine have had a major overhaul. This means that anyone with a basic understanding of databases will find it easy to write their own reports.
If you have ever written any reports using MS Access or Crystal Reports, you will be able to write your own reports utilising the full power of our RD2. This means that you can easily create report selection forms to control the data shown. The new Prophet SQL support, means that you can re-use SQL statements (data selection criteria) developed here, in our new OLEDB module and view that same data in MS Excel or use it to export data using the Prophet Data Transfer module.
More powerful features aimed at ‘power users’ make it easy to add simple objects to your report. These objects allow you for example, to view the notes attached to each customer or expand kit sets. Reusing report script code from our external script library, allows you to utilise common code developed by Attaché for use in the Prophet system reports.
Or you can develop your own script to add new functions whilst taking advantage of syntax checking and code complete, so that you hardly ever need to refer to the help when coding.
We also made adding Alex support to reports easy, allowing you to send your Prophet reports using Alex direct by fax or email to anyone in the world. Unless you are customising the Prophet batch documents such as invoices, you don’t need to do anything.
Wizards make complicated things really simple, a report range wizard, takes you through each step required to add a range to your selection form like from customer range or invoice date.
Whether you write your own reports or you use one of our Accredited Report Writers you will be able to see your data however you want to.
It’s your data; see what you want; now that’s smarter business. |
| 5. Alex any Prophet style report |
It is now possible to send any report by Alex, with the new scheduled reporting module, this can also be scheduled. Weekly financial information or daily sales figures can automatically be emailed to head office for example. This means, that for the price of a stamp, you can distribute information, regularly and automatically without any effort.
Send your reports without lifting a finger; now that’s smarter business. |
| 6. Alex Inclusions |
Using the Alex document formatter you can covert documents from any Windows application (like MS Word) and attach them to reports when you send them using Attaché Alex.
This allows you to send your terms and conditions with invoices or this month’s special offers with your Debtor Statements. The new Alex Control Centre makes it easy to define groups of inclusions which can be easily selected to be sent with any report. For system documents such as invoices, statements and purchase orders, you can define the default inclusion and that will be sent every time that document type is sent. Just set it and forget it.
Keep your customers informed with no effort; now that’s smarter business. |
| 7. Report Manager Improvements |
The report manger has had a general tidy up but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. With the new scheduling module enabled you will be able to easily schedule a report by simply clicking print and then schedule.
You can also make your own ‘Favourites’ folders. Now you can click a report, click add to favourites and create your own groups of favourite reports, one for weekly reports, another for monthly reports, there is no real limit other than your own choice. Reduce the clutter and only look at the reports you use.
View and group your reports to suit you; now that’s smarter business. |
| 8. Scheduled Backups |
Users of the Prophet Archiver module and the Prophet Scheduler can now schedule regular daily backups of their Prophet data. Prophet backups can use the [DATE] keyword so that the backup filename has the backup date included into it for easy recognition. Prophet Archiver backups can easily be restored without waiting for the network guy, and that means you regain control of your data. Your accounting data is one of your most valuable assets, it pays to protect it.
Take regular backups without the hassle; now that’s smarter business. |
| 9. New unified print dialogue |
Printing in Prophet has been simplified. Now you can make all of your choices in one screen.
One screen does it all
- Report type (Prophet or text)
- Destination (Print, Preview, Alex or Export)
- Printer
- Alex recipient and sender details
- Alex inclusions
With the new scheduling option, you can now also choose to schedule a report. Just by clicking the schedule button instead of the print button and choosing when to print the report and whether to repeat. This pulls together several new Prophet features, scheduled reports, Alex any report and Alex inclusions. Alex inclusions, allow you to send supporting documentation such as terms and conditions with your Alex documents.
So now there are less prompts to respond to when you print a report. It all means less fuss when printing and that means you get more done in less time.
Get your reports with less fuss; now that’s smarter business. |
| 10. Scheduled File Recovery |
Using the Prophet Scheduler it is now possible to schedule your File Recovery to run out of work hours. The file recovery utility is a sophisticated tool that checks the integrity of your Prophet data, running tests, for example, ensuring that the balances match the total of transactions.
Finding potential problems with your data early, can save you time, effort and prevent small problems from growing into big pains.
Proactively maintaining your data; now that’s smarter business. |
| 11. Improved Excel exporting features |
Prophet reports can now be configured to suppress items during export. This allows us to suppress report headers and footers so that your Excel spreadsheet is not littered with unwanted headings.
Ask your Accredited Attache report writer about having your reports designed or changed, so that you don’t spend time deleting unwanted rows in your spreadsheets, because you have better things to do.
Better exporting equals clearer information; now that’s smarter business. |
| 12. Cancel Sales Back Orders |
Do you have old sales orders that will never be fulfilled? Don’t feel bad, most companies do. But those stock allocations are also preventing you from removing old redundant stock codes, and clearing out those orders is a tedious and time consuming business.
The new cancel feature, takes the pain away. Simply choose an order, click cancel and any unsupplied quantities and lines are removed.
Got a whole bunch of old orders? No problem, there is also a batch function, allowing you to remove a whole range of back orders. Additionally, it is possible to set the routine to prompt on each order as it processes so you can confirm each order that will be cancelled as the routine scans your range.
All of this means that you get a clearer picture of your unfulfilled orders allowing you to focus on real business opportunities instead of clutter.
Taking back control of your sales orders; now that’s smarter business. |
| 13. Data Transfer user exports have been upgraded |
Previously, when defining your own exports, it was only possible to export one set of Prophet data at a time. It is now possible to join pieces of data together. For example, it is possible to link the invoice header information (customer code, invoice number etc.) to the main customer information, to show the MTD Sales, YTD Sales, phone number or if you have Attaché FlexiData you could show your own custom data, alongside invoice data. Using Data transfer, it is then possible to schedule the export of this data on a regular basis.
It is also now possible do all of this visually, using our new Prophet SQL builder. This builder allows drop and drop joining of Prophet information and you can share the resulting SQL statements with the new OLEDB module to view the same data in MS Excel 2003 and the upgraded Prophet Report Designer 2, if you want to create a custom report that matches this data. When all of the different methods of accessing data use the same structure, you know that they will all agree with each other, and that gives you something we call data convergence.
Get at your data; get it your way; now that’s smarter business. |
| 14. Prophet Scheduling Manager |
The PBS manager handles the scheduling of tasks. Now that Prophet can schedule more things, the DT Manager has been transformed into the PBS Manager. It is now possible to place a task on hold or remove a task from the schedule list, with a simple mouse click. It is also now possible to re-use an old schedule task as a template for a new schedule.
The centralised scheduling component design, means that your users can off-load work like running a long report and have the results sent back to them. That saves time and makes your users more productive
Sharing the work load; now that’s smarter business. |
| 15. Add your own systems to the Prophet menus |
Through a simple configuration file, it is now possible to add your programs to the Prophet menus. This means that external applications like the ‘PowerLink’ Job Costing system, could be accessed from within the Prophet menus, allowing a more seamless experience for the end user.
Smarter integration with other applications; now that’s smarter business. |
