Billing for phone houses: tracking the cellphone number and IMEI

With Gestix Enterprise, you can enter the mobile phone number, IMEI, and other information, and perform any search on these details, to instantly access the customer record, invoice details, and all related information.

First we set Gestix up to input the IMEI along with the equipment Serial No, when entering a sale. On the menu Admin, Settings option Format of Numbers ensure IMEI/SIM CARD ID is selected.

Then you can tell Gestix to check user input according to one of the following options:

Behavior regarding duplicate serial numbers and serial numbers not in stock

Lower in the Gestix | Admin | Settings page, you can tell Gestix to behave in one of several ways regarding duplicate serial numbers and serial number that are not in stock.

Choose

No duplicates to make Gestix reject duplicated serial numbers, and to ensure the serial number is in stock when selling.

Duplicates to make Gestix allow duplicated serial numbers, yet ensuring the serial number is in stock when selling.

Relaxed/No duplicates to enable selling serial numbers that have not been previously entered into the system but still disallowing duplicated serial numbers.

Relaxed to enable selling serial numbers that have not been previously entered into the system, allowing duplicated serial numbers.

In our example we are using the Relaxed/No duplicates behavior so we can just enter the S/N and IMEI at the point of sale.

Tap Save at the bottom of the Settings page when done. Then, tap Back on the Admin menu to return to the main application menu. Open the Articles menu and open the iPhone XP product (or any other suitable product).

Select Serial Number option on the Product Traceability drop down menu.

Let’s try a sale.

Create a new invoice, choose the sample article and enter S/NO and IMEI

The sales ticket identifies the product to the customer, yet it can be personalized

Add a comment below for any questions or suggestions.

October 10, 2014August 8, 2019

You enjoy working with the Gestix software and have some spare time? Join us abroad!

Do you utilize or have utilized Gestix?

Do you find it different and special?

Do you have experience and skills that could help others improve their usage of technology in their businesses or non-profits?

Do you have some spare time to work with us through our cloud infrastructure, from your home or business place?

We’re looking for people like you to join our international support team and help new Gestix users in exploring the software.

You’ll find that your knowledge is valuable to others, be it about business processes and procedures for those who are exploring the software, be it about computing skills to help those installing and setting up particular configurations.

So easy and comfortable on the cloud as it is on premises: Gestix ERP CRM applications.

Send your resume to jobs@gestix.com, and tell us some words about your experience and skills. We’ll get back to you immediately on a follow up.

Thank you.

Gestix Software

October 10, 2014August 8, 2019

Sales Filter: define which logistical documents count as sales

Normally, Gestix considers all sales documents as sales. To select which documents are considered as sales and which document are not, on the Customers menu tap the Sales Filter button.

Tap the Sales Filter button to open the selection window

You are then able to specify which documents to consider by selecting/deselecting their series on this screen.

(Leave all blank to let Gestix automatically select the pertaining documents)

Either place a check mark in every document to be considered or leave all unchecked for enabling Gestix to select automatically all the sales documents.

(The same principle applies to suppliers/vendors accounts in Gestix, but concerning purchase documents instead of sales documents.)

August 1, 2014August 8, 2019

News about the new release, Gestix 5.1.03

The new release of Gestix software, version 5.1.03, has several new features and improvements to dozens of others. These enhancements further enrich the new Gestix 2014 editions, being immediately available depending on the product. Older editions also benefit from correcting problems and some improvements in this version.

GTM-2622
Enable searching documents from dashboard by series, number, reference, etc

GTM-2624
Faster Consistency Check function

GTM-2620
Improved signed documents checker function

GTM-2614
Faster operation through optimized user session management

GTM-2547
Enable the user to choose which print layout to use on purchase orders

GTM-2542
Hierarchical selection of budget lines and billing purchases

GTM-2568
in batch printing menu is now possible to print the original, the duplicated or the triplicated of the document each one independently.

GTM-2621
Product traceability: RMA serial numbers were available for new sales

GTM-2597
When there is a receipt without a previous document when testing the saft file shows a warning similar to:

2. Payments [RCB 5] Related Document not available in text line with amount
4. Payments [RCB 5] Total amount must be positive

GTM-2596

New Gestix logos

GTM-2580
Editable Cost Estimates even after being printed

GTM-2573
Project costing report corrected regarding delivery memos and bills of works

GTM-2571
Monthly contract billing on specific day of the month

Planned for release on 2014-08-05.

July 30, 2014August 8, 2019

Product traceability by Batch Number or by Serial Number

Serial Numbers are used for individual product. Batch numbers are used for lots of a product sharing some properties like production and “best before” date.

b Enterprise enables you to choose which products to handle Batch/Lot numbers and which products to handle serial numbers like smartphones, computers, and automobile parts.

Avoid losses due to produce validity and warranties issues, while meeting common standards and best practices in produce traceability.

Gestix offers two methods for tracking products:

Serial Number Tracking

Each unit in stock is assigned a unique id along with other information related to that particular unit or piece (see here an example of application in aircraft parts trading).

Batch Number Tracking

A unique id file is assigned to a particular quantity of product, along with other information relating to that batch of product, including product date and expiration date.

To enable one of the methods, edit the Product Traceability field in the article record, and choose Batch Number.

Enter purchases, manufacture orders, and stock receipts with batch numbers being assigned by the operator or generated by the application.

On sales, identify the batch of each tracked product by selecting it from the drop list.

The final bill shows the relevant information for each item including batch id and dates.

July 3, 2014August 8, 2019

Installing Gestix on a brand new Ubuntu LTS 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

This article covers the installation of Gestix on a new server, Ubuntu LTS 14.04 in this case, without any software installed on it but the core operating system.

First we install the prerequisites, MySQL, Apache2, and Htmldoc. Gestix does not require PHP to be installed, yet PHP, as well as other languages, can be used to interact with the Gestix Corporate edition, to implement custom reports, collaboration portals, etc. In this example PHP is not required at all.

Let’s do it.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

sudo apt-get install apache2

Add some modules to Apache, but not too many. Enable mod_cgi to permit the execution of the gestix binaries instead of downloading them. The Apache module mod_env is also enabled here, in order to support setting environment variables from the Apache options or configuration files.

Apache recommends using a2enmod to enable Apache modules by name, so we do:

sudo a2enmod cgi
sudo a2enmod env

Then, htmldoc, a open source solution for rendering the PDFs in Gestix.

sudo apt-get install htmldoc

In order for htmldoc to work properly with Gestix, some environment variables need to be set. We’ll do it using the Apache’s options:

SetEnv TMPDIR /tmp
SetEnv PATH_INFO /usr/share/htmldoc
SetEnv HTMLDOC_NOCGI 1

Install some stuff needed by Gestix

sudo apt-get install libssl0.9.8

sudo get-get install libmysqlclient.so.16.0.0

Finally, we install the Gestix tar ball (file type tar.gz). Using the tar ball instead of the Debian package allows to install Gestix on the default web, by extracting in the selected spot. In this case, we’ll create a subnet http://localhost/gestix so we create this gestix folder in the web folder, and get the contents of the package copied there. It will create the gnet folder with all gestix’s stuff in there.

cd /var/www/html

sudo mkdir ./gestix

cd ./gestix

sudo tar xf ~/my_downloads/gestix_erp_web_amd64.tar.gz

sudo sh ./gnet/install.sh mysql_user mysql_pw database_name

It should be ready now. Open Gestix from the browser (replace 10.0.0.11 by your server’s IP):

http://10.0.0.11/gestix/gnet/cgi-bin/gestix.cgi

Is it working fine? Good. Otherwise, please post/comment about it here. We’ll help of course.

Protect your Gestix with daily database backups

In production servers it’s advisable to install AutoMySQLBackup:

apt-get install automysqlbackup

To backup all databases invoke automysqlbackup from the command line or add it through crontab -e:

# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
#
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be run
# and what command to run for the task
#
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').#
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
#
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
#
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
#
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
#
# m h dom mon dow command

55 3 * * * automysqlbackup /home/company/mysql_backup/

More about Gestix at Gestix.com.

May 9, 2014August 8, 2019

Resetting the stock of all warehouses

When maintaining a large base of articles during several years, it may be convenient to tell the system to ignore past moves relative to a user-specified date.

This procedure will modify the stock readings in article records and inventory reports without removing or modifying any records in the database.

Open the Admin | Parameters menu and edit the usr_stock_date parameter.

inventory-stock-date-zero

Specify the Inventory Beginning Date, in the form YYYY-MM-DD. This will be the date from which the transactions are to be taken into account for inventory purposes.

In this example, we have a database with about four years of stock transactions and want to make the system consider only transaction from 2014-04-01 onward.

Save the parameter and open the Consistency Check menu.

Press the “Check all items” button.

Press the Progress button to check the progress.

When finished, get the inventory report. It will show the expected results.

There are two ways to enter the counting into the system on the new Inventory Beginning Date. One is by entering warehouse receipts or purchases. Another one is to import an excel-csv file with inventory count for each article, using the Data Import menu of the Gestix Enterprise. In this case the default warehouse will be used to enter the stock counts.

Please contact our technical support for more information: http://www.gestix.com

April 24, 2014August 8, 2019

From the lead to order to purchase to payment: Gestix ERP with CRM

Management

Define the budget for the company

Operations

Minimize stock/storage of goods.

Sales Routine:

Capture the lead (manage it, follow it up, and so on up to the quote/cost estimate phase)

Send the quote or cost estimate

Follow up the customer (call him, take note of any comments, gather team to discuss negotiation, and so on.)

Get the order

Purchasing Routine:

Estimate the replenishment needs

Place the purchase order to the supplier/vendor (PO)

On reception of the goods:

Receive the goods from the vendor (validate against the PO)

Deliver to customers

On collection from customers

On payment to suppliers, commissioners, payroll

Conclusion. The preliminary study of the activities of the company is focused in identifying critical factors and providing training guidelines for an efficient coverage of the various activities of the business.

April 17, 2014August 8, 2019

Gestix 10th Aniversary 2004 – 2014

April 16, 2014August 8, 2019

How to load item data from CSV file into your ERP software

This example shows how to import data as Attributes assigned to each Article record. Attributes are user-defined fields that extend the ones included in the article record, and can be used in data-analysis and reporting.

Problem:

Transfer 600 thousand items into Gestix, with part-no, description, and condition, among other data that will be discarded.

The original file looks like this:

The PN field is to be stored as the Supplier’s Item Code. The value of the DESCRIPTION column goes to the field with the same name in the Gestix’s Article record, and the value of the MFG field goes to the Family field in Gestix.

The field COND, representing the condition of the part (Factory New, Repaired, etc), is to be stored as an Attribute of the item. The possible values in this case will be:

FN – Factory New

RP – Repaired

AR – As Removed

In order to assign attributes to articles using the Data Import menu of Gestix, the data has to be rearranged so each attributes comes in its own column in the worksheet. The column name will become the attribute name, and the column value for each item will be 1 if the attribute is to be assigned to the item, 0 or blank otherwise. We use the worksheet formulas to aid in this task, and the resulting, modified file looks like this:

Then, after saving this file as CSV again, open it from the Gestix, Articles, Data Import menu. Add a new layout for this CSV file (tap the plus sign +).

Then, save it and open it by clicking the row or the small arrow in it.

Finally, set the destination table and fields for each import field (each import field corresponds to a column in the input worksheet). Press the update button between steps, whenever necessary.

Then press the Test button to preview the results.

Preview the results pressing the Test button

If the data displayed look correct, go back and press the Import button. Then check the results. Here we listed the new family EMBRAER, and checked it was alright.

Listing the Embraer family of items just transferred from the CSV file

The Attributes menu display the new attributes just created during the data import process.

And it’s done.