BUSINESSVISION V.7

The newly released BusinessVision Version 7 IS NOT AN UPGRADE to the previous product, but a fundamental technology design shift that results in a huge business functionality leap.

The key to the changes in Version 7 is the concept of the one-stop shop, where all the data you are looking for is on the screen in front of you. This, among the hundreds of changes in V7, is the key payback for companies using BusinessVision.

V7 used Net Express as its programming language and this moves BusinessVision into the world of object orientation and the beginnings of .NET. As a result, BusinessVision now has a technology platform that will serve it well for many years to come.

The most important new feature in V7 is the total redesign of the data base routine. While V7 is still using flat files, it now provides substantial Structured Query Language like search and query functionality, enabling users to get information more easily and much faster.

V7 supports three fiscal years: last, current and next. You can post into any period of any of these years. This allows for post-dating of sales orders and post financial values into a future fiscal year, eliminating the need to perform a year-end in advance in order to post certain entries.

*COMMENT: As good as the above feature might look, this could cause some headaches when completing the year end financial statements.

Equity (current and retained earnings) is now seperated, allowing financial statements to be produced for this year or last year, without the need to post year ending entries.

The chart of accounts now has up to four segments and a maximum 24 character account code. Plus you can define a division with an additional six characters. The customer and supplier number goes to 20 from six characters.

Part numbers are now 34 characters and the part description doubles to 80 characters. An additional inventory "extended description" has also been included that supports up to 5,000 characters of text. You can now have 200 sales departments. Sales orders support 999 lines on an order instead of 99 in previous versions.

A new user interface provides immediate, online access to the data you need most. A complete snapshot of customers is available, including open sales orders; sales order history; comparitive sales per-period for current and prior years; and past and outstanding accounts receivable transactions - within a single module.

Navigation is improved and almost all of the modules are now fully resizable and retain their customized size and positions on a user-by-user basis. You can rearrange and resize columns, set foreground and background colors and more. Master file detail windows now use a tabbed interface. Each tab contains fewer fields making larger records such as customer and inventory information look less complex.

Pop-up browses have been replaced with browse tabs on records. This provides immediate access to information that was hard to get to or even not available at all, in previous versions.

The benefits here are huge. You can review the complete picture of a customer all from one intuitive interface. Each record stores and displays its creation date, creator's ID, and last modification date. A large number of additional information fields have been added.

These range from additional address lines through a new multiple contact information. Many master file fields, including the information fields, are now search fields. You can enter a value in one of these fields and then use the navigation buttons to browse the master file in that field's sequence instead of the traditional code and name sequence.

Sale order and purchase order processing is accelerated by allowing users to enter data directly into an order grid, replacing the original single-line data entry grid. Extensive notes can be added to the general ledger chart of accounts, divisions, warehouses, territories, salespeople, product codes, terms, sales tax codes and ship via records.

Promotional pricing is a highly useful new feature. You can specify a date range within which the promotional price is valid. You can configure the price to override other existing prices, or to work within the existing price structure.

Once a promotional price is out of its date range, the item automatically reverts to its normal pricing structure.

In previous versions of BusinessVision, if you wanted to design reports, you have to purchase Crystal Reports. BusinessVision has now licensed the current version of Crystal Reports. This now lets you edit existing reports and develop new reports. You can now create up to 99 custom reports per module; instead of five.

There are an additional 50 new reports in V7. Some examples are cash flow statements; financial statement by fiscal period; financial statement summary; projected cash balances report; and a report that projects future cash requirements.

Each module now has a module report that provide summary and detail information about the currently displayed record. This is the ideal way to get a one page summary of all relevant information about an item, customer, or vendor.

While the reporting in V7 is substantially improved and you no longer have to purchase Crystal Reports to modify existing reports or create new ones, there is still room for improvement in the reporting area.

Crystal is a world leader in reporting but is not easy to use.


OVERALL REVIEW OF V7:
  1. Some of the modules in the initial release will retain their old look and feel (A/P, A/R, BOM, budgets, and POS). These will get updated in an interim release later this year.
  2. Not in the new release would be more wizards for performing more complex tasks like establishing a new company, setting up multiple currency etc.
  3. V7 has a huge amount of expansion but also has areas that are not expanded as far as they could be.

BusinessVision V7 sets a new standard for small-to-medium business accounting software market.

The CustomPack Module that lets a business customize BusinessVision 32 has tighter integration with the main program. Custom WorkBooks now comprise a separate tab with a Window, as opposed to pop-up dialog boxes.

Good progress has been made to improving capabilities in BusinessVision 32. You can now store an unlimited number of custom reports with the option to set user access for each report. There are additional contact records available in the supplier and customer modules. You can post to an additional fiscal year so that financial reports can now be run for three years.

With the redesigned database, plus all of the other enhancements, BusinessVision 32 new Version 7 will maintain its top position.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS:

BusinessVision Special Edition provides an affordable industry specific solution to almost any sized company. BusinessVision offers specially tailored special edition solutions for the following industries:
  1. Automotive Repair Shops
  2. Book Stores
  3. Building Maint. & Cleaning Services
  4. Consumer Electronic Retailers
  5. Florist & Gift Shops
  6. HVAC Service Companies
  7. Landscape Contractor
  8. Leisure & Pool Services
  9. Retail Wireless
  10. Wine Stores


OTHER ACCESSORIES:

Third Party Products:
  1. Customer Relationship Management
  2. Advanced Custom Reporting
  3. Palm Computing
  4. Time Tracking & Billing
  5. Credit Card Authorization
  6. Office Integration


If any of above are suitable for your industry, please call Millennium POS Technologies Inc. at (519) 725-2985 or email us at genep@mbspos.com. Millennium POS Technologies Inc. is a PLATINUM LEVEL AUTHORIZED TRAINING AND SUPPORT ORGANIZATION.




Millennium Business Solutions Inc.
421 King Street North (Lower Level)
Waterloo, Ontario N2J 4E4
(519) 725-2985   FAX (519) 747-0881
E-Mail:genep@mbspos.com