We've all done it.  You hear about the latest product, whether it be a phone, computer, or a new treadmill.  But, you want to research it and put your hands on it before making the purchase.  What is the first thing you do?  You try and locate a local business that carries the item, and the vehicle you use to conduct this search is invariably the internet.  The local store that has a web presence will be the business that makes the sale because they have chosen to extend their physical presence and meet the customer where most consumers begin the purchasing process.

In 2019, e-retail sales accounted for 14.1 percent of all retail sales worldwide, with $3.5Trillion of that business conducted in the U.S. alone, and experts predict that number to reach over $4Trillion in 2020. With these predictions made before the current pandemic, that number could be much more significant. With over 2Billion online customers worldwide conducting around 51% of their purchases online using a mobile device, it is no wonder the mad rush of businesses from all industries to establish an online presence.

I believe a business website will be as common as an email address very soon.  If you currently run or operate a business with no web presence, do yourself a favor and check into setting up a website.  Meet your customers where they are at the beginning of the purchasing process. Online.

We've attached a couple of articles highlighting the importance of staking your claim online.

If you are looking for a solution to extend your brick and mortar to the online marketplace, Coreware can help.  Let us know if you are interested, and we will get you set up with a solution that works for you.

This article is from last year, and not surprisingly, it is even more relevant.

How Small Businesses Used Websites !n 2019

The following article lays out some excellent points about having a website.

Why Every Business Needs A Website

Enough about taxes, let's talk about what's new and exciting with Corestore.

BOSS-TAB 4473 KIOSK SETUP
In our previous announcement, we were asked about the setup we had of the 4473 tablets using the Boss-Tab enclosure. This was in fact an IPad Air (latest Generation 3 but minimum specs) and with it we purchased a Bluetooth keyboard from Amazon along with styluses that had a lanyard. 

Bluetooth Keyboard
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015LSEUS8

Styluses
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTOJO10

We also installed a kiosk app from the IOS app store to prevent customers from just browsing around or using the iPad for other purposes:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kiosk-pro-plus/id445701154

Work Order Enhancements

If you haven't noticed already we have been making many changes to the Work Order module.  Work orders can be used by any store that offers repairs, custom options, assembly, or specialized work on items.  In the firearm business, many stores have gunsmith services and this is where the work order module comes into play.  If you don't see the module listed on the left side menu then make sure you have access to that module by going to Employees and checking off the work order module security options.

Thanks to some great feedback from all of YOU, we have had awesome feedback, and here are the highlights of what has been changed.

exciting! We cleaned up the work order screen and made it not only look better but work better.

1. You can now modify and add your status codes

2. You can now assign a technician to a work order and also change that technician.

3. You can change the price of the part and/or labor

4. You can have up to 10 custom fields on a work order.  To manage your custom fields on the previous screen where the work orders are listed just click the ... menu.

Work Order Dashboard Enhancements

improvement You can now show work orders for a specific technician (just hit the technician drop down) and then click Search.

improvement We now show you the item that is being repaired, which is helpful if one customer has multiple items in the shop.

improvement Manage your own status, add any status code or modify the existing ones, you can also choose your own colors.

Deliveries and Shipments Screen 

improvement You can import individual orders from the web and you can also import multiple orders at once by separating them with commas.

improvement Clicking the Sale Id will unsuspend the sale and take you right into the sales screen directly if you prefer completing the order from the sales screen.

Bound Book Enhancements

exciting! Updated NICS check plug-in with improvements and some fixes.  You can now download the new plug-in directly from the Manage 4473 screen.  To install the new plug-in remove the current one, if you need assistance please contact our support department.

Coreshop ECommerce Users

improvement We added a field called: "Do not drop ship" to the items screen which allows you to have an item and mark it that it can't be drop-shipped but it will still show on the web site that it's available for pickup only.

improvement The company name is now imported into the shipping address of an internet order.

Bug Fixes

Bugs are our friends, If there weren't bugs we wouldn't need as many programmers 😁:

fix Suspending a purchase order a second time was converting it to a receiving transaction, this will no longer happen.

fix Importing bound book records will no longer add duplicate entries if the id (first column of the template) field is an id that already exists in the system.

fix Fixed some issues when a work order was being completed it was showing an error on the serial number

fix When Store Config has "Disable Sale Quick Complete" checked, it was not allowing you to complete a Return. 

fix Removed Enhanced Search option in Store Config, it was causing more harm than good.

fix  For Ammoready users we now properly transmit the manufacturer as the brand of the item.

fix 3310 alerts were not being generated at times.

fix Logged in employee name not automatically being added to form  -  

fix Transfer date for firearms was not appearing on PDF output if no associated 4473

fix Suffix not pushing through to NICS)  

fix Birth foreign country not pushing through to NICS  

fix NICS plugin sometimes crashes tab or fails to feed data back to Section B  

fix NICS plugin using the same customer data multiple times  

fix NICS plugin auto-fill not working 

fix NICS autoclosing browser tab, forcing re-login

giveaway We hate ending our news on bugs, so what's more fun than looking at bug fixes?????   You got it a giveaway!!!!  How about this?  In the comments of the news type your name, store name, and email address along with a quote about your experience with Corestore.   You can be funny, creative, witty, or dead honest. We will enter you into a drawing to win $100 Amazon Gift card and a secondary prize of $50 for the second name drawn, and $25 for the third name drawn!!!!!!   How's that for a little help towards your taxes? 😁.  Coreware employees are NOT eligible for this one.  We may use your quote in our marketing, especially if it's nice!

Want to put that iPad or other tablet you have lying around to work?  Check out this solution from Boss-Tab.  They have many different choices to choose from, and with Coreware's awesome flexibility and ability to be run on ANY mobile device, this is a match made in heaven.  Use "coreware" at checkout for 10% OFF.  Below you can see one being used to run our E-Commerce.  What a great solution!  Don't forget to use the discount code "coreware" to take advantage of that 10% OFF.  Follow this L I N K for more details.

This article makes the following assumptions:

• You have multiple events or classes that you want to offer on an ongoing basis.
• You will charge a fee for the events you offer.

For one-off or free events, there are more straightforward ways to set up event registration.  This process is for clients who intend to offer a catalog of ongoing events for which customers will pay a class fee.

The first step is to set up the event and product taxonomy for your classes:

1. In Products > Taxonomy > Departments, create a department for your training classes.
2. In Products > Taxonomy > Category Groups, create at least one category group for training classes (if you have multiple types of classes, you should set up one category group per type classes; e.g., basic safety classes, licensing classes, preparedness classes, etc.).  Add that category group to the training department.

Click HERE for Steps 3-8

Need more help?  Visit the following link and put in a ticket.  We'll get you taken care of.  https://help.coreware.com.

There has been some confusion about how the location filter works.  Clients having a single store location were expecting that filter to only show results from their local store, and hide distributor results, but that is not how it was designed; the filter always shows distributor results because they are available to be shipped to that store for pickup.  Because of the confusion, we made a change to hide the location filter for dealers who have only a single store location.

For clients who have only a single store location, or who have multiple stores, but want to customers to see local inventory first in the search results, you can do one or both of the following:

1. Turn on Location Availability Texts, which will show text like "Available in-store today" prominently on the search results and the product details page.  You can turn this on in Client Preferences.  Click Add, select "Show Location Availability" from the dropdown list, and change the client setting dropdown to True.  Once that is done, you may want to customize the text and appearance of those messages. This is done in Orders > Coreshop setup on the Fragments tab.  Filter the list of fragments by the word "available" and set each of those fragments to "customize."  They will then appear in Website > Fragments as HTML that you can edit.

2. Add a Search Multiplier for your local store location(s).  You can do this in Products > Settings > Locations.  Near the bottom of the page on the Details tab, you will see an item called Search Multiplier.  It defaults to 1.00, which means that the inventory location will not affect the results of a customer's search.  If you want to force your quick ship products always to be displayed first when a customer searches, you can change this number to 100.00.  Note that there are several places where a search multiplier can be added, which may affect your search results in unexpected ways.  To see how the system calculates search relevance, you can use the report in Products > Product Relevance.

Need more help?  Submit a ticket to Coreware support at https://help.coreware.com.

This is an exciting update with a ton of improvements, new features, and fixes. Please make sure to click the Read More so you don't miss anything and for a chance to win a $50 Amazon card.

new feature exciting! Work Order Screen

If you are using our work order module this will be exciting news.   If you offer repairs or have a gunsmith on staff then the work order module is for you.  Lets first make sure you see the Work orders menu option on the left side menu. 

 If you don't see it then go to Employees and find the Work orders checkbox and make sure it's checked.

Now that you see the Work order menu, if you have any work orders you can see it in the work order dashboard, and then you can click edit to update the work order. 

It took us a while but hopefully, it was worth the wait!

You can do the following on the screen:

1. Change status of the work order
2. Edit the sale transaction
3. Print the work order
4. Print a service tag
5. Close the screen
6. Email the customer directly
7. Add and review notes
8. Add parts/labor (you will need to set up labor as a nonstock item)
9. Add Images to the work order

new feature Manage 4473 Search By Serial Number 

You can now search by serial number on the Manage 4473 screen.

improvement Serial Number Checking Improvement

The system will now check suspended transactions to ensure that a serial number is not on hold, preventing a serial number that's on hold from being sold. For example, if you have a serial number selected on layaway and someone tries to sell the serial number on another transaction the system will stop the user from doing that.

improvement Serial Number Search

On the suspended sale screen you can now search for a transaction by entering the serial number.

improvement Customer Transaction List Improvement

Did you know that when you click the customer's name on the sale screen it will show you all their transactions?  We improved the view to include the transaction type so you can see if it's an open special order or a work order and if it's a suspended transaction you can click the Sale Id and quickly open the sale without having to go search for it in the suspended transaction screen.

improvement Touch Screen Interface will now show the rental start and end date fields.  So if you love our Touch Screen interface and you are doing lane rentals or any other type of rental you can keep using the touch screen interface!

improvement  Items Screen Can Now Show Quantity On Order Column

You can now select Quantity on Order (what's on purchase orders) to be added to the screen.

improvement Emailing Purchase Orders

Yes, you can actually email a purchase order 😀 . And now we include the UPC code of the item on the purchase order.

improvement Receiving Screen Improvement
On the receiving screen if you select a supplier then only purchase orders for that supplier will be displayed in the PO Lookup.  We also added an easy lookup button that pulls up all the open PO's.

improvement Payment Detail and Summary Report Enhancements

You can now select a specific payment type to report on and also the detail report now shows totals for each payment type.  We now also separate payments even if they are the same payment type.  For example, if someone used two credit cards on a single transaction we were combining those into one line item on the report, we no longer do that for easier reconciliation.

improvement Payment Date

Do you have old layaway payments that you need to enter and would like to keep a history of those payments?  Well, you can now check the Change Payment date checkbox and choose a different date when a payment was made.

new feature Added a New Closeout Report

We added a new closeout report called the Condensed Closeout.  Just a little sweeter than your regular closeout report 🤣.

new feature New Cash In/Cash Out Report

improvement Search by Manufacturer

Searching by the manufacturer on the items screen will now return results even if you enter part of the manufacturer name.

When entering a Shipping or Delivery address the receipt will now print the Company Name and Phone number entered into the delivery information screen.

fix Partial Credit Card Approval

Credit Card Payments that were approved for part of the balance should now properly work.  If someone could please test this for us because our test credit card account won't work.  Go ahead and try a visa gift card on a sale that is more than the Visa Gift Card balance.  It should properly alert the user and accept the payment as a partial payment. 

fix Deleting/Voiding a transaction should now properly update inventory committed to the sale and reduce the quantity committed.

fix Delivery Report Error

The detailed delivery report was giving an error, this issue has now been fixed.

fix Custom Sale Report Missing Payment Type

The Custom Sale Report was missing the Manual Card payment type.

fix 4473 various minor bug fixes.

announcement Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card exciting! 

If you made it to the bottom it means you deserve to have the chance to win something 😀 .  Below the What's New you can click a reaction and type a comment. Please enter a  comment and make sure to include your full name, what company you are with AND your email address which is VERY IMPORTANT. We have no idea who you are if you type a comment without identifying yourself.  

We will RANDOMLY select an email address and send the winner a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

There is always a lot going on in the Outdoor Sports Industry.  Click the image to read up on the latest news.