SalesChain Finance Module

The new SalesChain Finance Module (or “the Breakdown” as we call it) provides yet another layer of functionality that streamlines and further automates every order processed by dealers today.

Allocates and computes “non-sales” expenses, charge backs and proportional charges to the proper G/L account.
Computes lease funding including income when rates are marked up by the dealer.
Computes interim rent.
Generates the Finance Company Funding Invoice.
Computes the proportional “Per Machine” price.

Today, sales order packages are created by sales reps and handed to order coordinators, who then message and adjust numbers so that deals may be properly booked into the eAutomate system. This new utility applies necessary adjustments and eliminates the manual spreadsheets, errors and hours of manual rework.

Credit Desk Enhancements

Several updates improve searching, filtering, and readability across the Credit Desk.

Added the buyout request identification ID to the search.
Added a “Rep Pending Requests” quick filter to display items that are pending leasing department action, where a sales rep has asked the leasing department to submit a credit application for review.
Changed the New Request filter mouse-over text to read “Credit Requests without Messages” to clarify its meaning.
Improved the speed of the Credit Desk search.
Added the Credit Application Number to the report.
Expanded the buy rate field on Credit Decision Entry to display additional decimal places.

ECI e-automate Integration

We continued to extend our ERP integrations and resolved an issue affecting the eAutomate sales order push.

Fixed an issue where IT Products and Block of Time line items were not passing the ItemID correctly on the eAutomate sales order push.

Epicore Vision Integration

We’ve established a limited integration to data sourced from the Epicore Vision ERP system, including Customers, Contracts, Assets, Leases, Lease Assets, and Meters.

Service and Contract Enhancements

New merge capability and payment term criteria give dealers more control over service contract documents.

Added the ability to merge serial numbers onto document templates for service takeover proposals. This eliminates manual entry and improves the accuracy of contract documents.
Added block of time criteria to the document management payment terms. Allows the user to set which Payment Terms are shown on the Block Of Time tab.

Equipment and Lease Management

New life cycle and category detail helps reps target equipment in the field and manage lease records more accurately.

Added the ability to identify the end of life (parts) date for machines within the eAutomate Equipment profile. The EOL date is added to the book of account display grid and is marked green when the date falls within a year and red when it is more than 12 months past. This gives dealers a way to target machines in the field for upgrade as useful life and parts availability diminish.
Added an optional setting to display the equipment description as part of the machine summary on the Lease Desk. Contact SalesChain Support to enable this option for your dealership.
Added the product category display and search function to the competitor Equipment Desk.
Fixed an issue where buyout values were not passed to the order when converting a proposal into an order.

Product Management

Updates to product packages and IT bundle presentation.

Added the ability to configure product packages with line item exclusive quantity values. This allows dealers to configure predefined packages more precisely and streamline pricing on orders, especially for recursive product bundles.
Added drag and drop sorting to the IT Product Pricing Tool. Users can now reorder bundled items to present IT Product bundles in the way that best represents their solution.

Forecasting and Reporting

Reporting updates improve fiscal period accuracy, add category-level detail, and clean up report downloads.

Added logic to set the proposal expected close date when an order status changes to closed, so forecast reports show the closed order within the correct fiscal period. This eliminates the need for sales to set the date manually and makes sales analytics more accurate.
The Lead Forecast IT report now shows breakout detail values for child revenue categories, giving users greater detail for areas such as IT Products, Audio Visual, and Security.
Modified the Sales Rep Activity Detail Report download to include the user-defined name of a user action type instead of the generic “UAT##” value. Formatted HTML content is now converted to delimited values for points-based users.
Fixed the Commissioned Orders Report download to include all order records rather than only the rows displayed.
Fixed a sizing and display issue with the “View eAutomate Inventory” popup window on the Forecast 30-60-90 report.

Sales Commissions

New configuration options and a consolidated report give dealers a clearer picture of what has been paid.

Added the ability to configure sales rep commissions computed as a percentage of rep cost to include the adjustment value of the MFG Credit applied to the order. This more accurately represents the value of the transaction when promotional credits are used.
Added a Sales Commissions Paid report showing all commissions paid to a sales rep for a selected period. The report consolidates all forms of commissions, including reconciliations, bonuses, and roll-up commissions, and is available under Analytics > Commission Paid.

Lead Disposition

We added proposed gross profit and category searching to the Lead Disposition report.

Added field showing proposed gross profit.
Added the product category display and search function to the report.

Advanced Searching

A new search option helps reps and managers target accounts with existing equipment.

Added the ability to search company records by “Customers with Machines Under Contract.”

Mobile Application Enhancements

We expanded the customer view in the mobile application.

Added non-asset contract details to the customer display, including IT Service and Block of Time service contracts, for a more complete view of the customer.

New and Updated Procedures

These changes affect the way existing functions behave. No action is required, but users will notice the difference.

eAutomate Base Contract Billing: Base dollars now display as a monthly figure. The system previously showed base as a quarterly value when overages were billed quarterly. Showing base dollars and lease payments on the same monthly basis makes total cost of ownership easier to compare. We also added logic to keep contract billing in a consistent order, with base billed before meters.
Lead Disposition: The Sales > Forecasting > Leads menu now directs users to the newly updated Lead Disposition form.
Used Equipment Desk: Warehouses now display by eAutomate warehouse name rather than numerical identifier, giving users a more meaningful description of location.
Price Protection (NASPO): The display name “NASPO-MP$” is now “PP-MP$” on the Proposal and Order Pricing page.

Fixes and Tweaks

Fixed an issue where the Activity Count By Type charts (#271, #272, #273, and #274) would not display when the number of emails value was not populated.
Fixed a Company Merge failure caused by an out-of-sequence save that triggered a database foreign key constraint error.
Fixed the Delivery Calendar so that user preferences apply correctly when the form is opened. Selecting a single truck view no longer causes a screen reload, and the title formatting now matches across all views.
Fixed an issue where special characters were transferring to MSO 365 Appointments as encoded values.
Fixed an issue where certain Order Desk filter criteria were not saving, requiring users to reselect their search criteria when returning to the report.
Fixed an issue where Revenue Category Metrics totals were incorrect when certain products were duplicated within the same order. Also corrected the code name length for revenue categories and parent revenue categories.
Fixed an issue that prevented revenue type names from being changed without an error.
Expanded the state code dropdown to allow the inclusion of multiple countries. Country codes for countries other than the USA are appended to the state or province code within the list. Contact SalesChain Support to configure this for your dealership.