Fred Office Plus Release 5.2
Fred Office Plus has bi-yearly releases around March and September to ensure that our customer requests and feedback can be implemented regularly. Fred Office Plus is a feature-rich back office product, that also connects to Fred Dispense Plus and Fred POS Plus.
If you have a great idea on how to make Fred Office Plus an even better back office solution for your pharmacy, let us know. See Post your Fred Office Plus idea on UserVoice for more information.
New features below that arose from UserVoice suggestions are marked with a UserVoice icon.
What's new in Fred Office Plus 5.2?
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There is a new Area to manage your back-office integrations.
Select Integrations on the side navigation to find new integrations to support your business or review your existing connections.
The integrations shown will be Vendors that are using our new platform. Some existing integrations may take some time to appear in the list as the vendors work to transition to our newer, reliable integration method.
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There is a new location and brand-new look to better manage Statement setup, generation, printing, and account management.
Along with a new look, there are new features, including the ability to configure Scheduled Account charges and the ability to auto send Email statements after they have generated.
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Ad Hoc Generation - Click the Ad Hoc Generation button to run and create a batch of statements immediately.
Statement Options - Click the Statement Options button to select options, such as overdue wording, credit card payment options etc.
Account Type - Choose the account type in Statement Generation Schedule.
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We've also added the ability to send emailed statements automatically after generating. This optional setup is now available under Statement Schedules.
To enable Auto Email Settings, click Edit… and then select the Enable auto sending emails on statement run completion checkbox. Set other options as required—for example, to email statements over a certain dollar amount or to a selected Account Group.
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Configure one or many Account fees on a recurring schedule and nominate one or more Account Groups to apply to. Configure the Account schedule to run on the last day of your applicable Statement schedule to ensure the fee is included in each Statement period.
Choose an appropriate naming convention to show on the statement.
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Promotion setup has been simplified with fewer steps.
You can now Commit without needing to Protect first.
If the promotion format was exported from Fred Office, the Import will already know how to map and will launch a fast load process.
The new End Promotion button makes it easier to end a promotion.
Automatic setting of Not Discountable will occur on Commit.
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To further improve on data integrity, we've added new AppCAT Synchronization setting under AppCAT Options.
This setting allows Fred Office to synchronize with AppCAT by removing any incorrect data that doesn’t match the linked AppCAT item. If AppCAT is incorrectly missing a valid barcode or reorder code, this should be reported to AppCAT to resolved. Email products@appcat.com.au.
If you create manual barcodes or make unique barcodes for AppCAT items, then these will get removed. Consider alternative methods or simply leave synchronisation off.
For best practice we suggest having all automation running and addressing data corrections at the source (AppCAT).
The AppCAT percentage matching calculation has been adjusted to only include items that COULD be matched to AppCAT. Rather than all items in the system.
The calculation will round up if less than 1%.
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There is a new option called On drug creation within the Script Options > POS > Auto match/Create Drug Item setup.
This option allows users to always have new drugs created or matched as soon as they are available in the dispensing software.
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The Inventory area has a new Quick Merge button and right-click menu option to make it easier to Merge multiple items. When merging, you can optionally keep Alias, SOH or Supplier Details from the items that will be removed when merge occurs. The merge will happen as soon as you click Merge.
The original Merge function is still available. It has more options and the merge occurs overnight. Only use Quick Merge for items that seem to be accidentally created and are duplicates.
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You can now import a spreadsheet of items into a draft. Use Import Wizard if you need to map columns or use Quick Import which uses the Quick Export column mapping as shown below.
Import Wizard
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You can now set a Minimum Order value for a Supplier.
This is configured one the supplier card on the General tab. (To access, select Contact > Suppliers).
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When sending an order, if the value is below the minimum order value, you will see a red cross as shown below and the order will not send.
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This setting displays a warning if the minimum order value has not been met.
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You must be using Fred Office version 5.2.24121.2 or later to use this feature.
To support easier management of Account payments, Fred Office can now integrate with Ezidebit for Direct Debit payments. This integration allows for a seamless payment experience, ensuring efficient and secure transactions.
Key Points
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Fred Office Plus does not store customer banking information; this is securely handled by the third-party vendor, Ezidebit.
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Currently, Ezidebit is the only vendor set up for this new option. The API will be made available to other third-party vendors in the future.
Setup instructions
To set up a customer for direct debit in Ezidebit and Fred Office Plus, see Direct Debit Integration.
Further Information
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For more details on the Direct Debit Payment Solution, visit here and to get started with Ezidebit, please complete this expression of interest.
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For general inquiries, contact Ezidebit at 1300 763 256 (business hours: 7:30am - 5pm AEST) or alternatively, email support@ezidebit.com.au.
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We have redesigned Label Queue to better support and manage the various types of label queues.
With this change, Label Queue can now support multiple Mobility queues.
The mobility device will select the latest created mobility queue to update.
The queue will also retain the label scanned order for easier management of distributing the printed labels.
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The Scan any function in Invoices allows you to receive items on open invoices using a desktop scanner without needing to navigate to the individual invoices. The method will receive from oldest invoice first. Once all items are scanned, you can review and commit as usual.
This method is identical to the Scan Any feature on mobility and provides an alternative efficient receive option when devices are in use elsewhere.
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In Inventory search, the Price Editing toggle allows you to easily update Retail prices from the main inventory grid.
By default the toggle is off.
Click the Price Editing toggle to edit the Retail price as needed
The Price Editing toggle is available in the following reports:
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Item Purchase Analysis
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Item Pricing Details
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Stock Valuation
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Improved Item Card - Cost and retail now display at the top for better visibility.
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Quick Action button - Now a button to make it easier to find this functionality.
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Column chooser - Now a button to make it easier to find this functionality.
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Item creation - Improved workflow on new item if duplicate data detected.
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Item Manager - Ability to bulk delete item manager worksheets.
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Price review setting - Can exclude by department in the department form.
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Invoices - Receive all button now permanently shown in Invoice.
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Groups - Ability to print Assistant > Groups.
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Account Activity - Item Code column added.
What's Fixed in Fred Office 5.2?
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Dispense Debtors - Fixed an issue where Dispense Debtors was unable to add a second account.
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Orders - Fixed an issue when selecting multiple lines where content looked blank in certain scenarios.
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Invoices - Fixed an issue with Invoice Description that was causing issues when character length was exceeded.
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Item Manager - Fixed an issue where Ordering notes were not saving.
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Promotion - Fixed an issue where using special characters when creating a draft caused Fred Office Plus to crash.
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Batch summary - Fixed an issue where icons were not showing as balanced.