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Important questions for huge client


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Hi,

 

Our biggest client of us wants a new webshop and he has lots of demands. In the last years we build several CC shops but never came into this kind of questions. I'm not sure if CC is capable of doing this. That's why my questions. Hope for serious answers.

 

 

- Automatic sending of invoices: client does order and receives within 1 minute the final invoice per email. No intervention of our client(admin) is needed any more.

- Automatic processing of coupon codes: client gives couponcode and the total amount changes automatically

- Overview turnover and sales: with 1 press of the button there should be an overview from which the accountant and the client can read and print the monthly sales

- Advanced Stock control: the stock of the options of a product (eg. per size, color and model) must be automatically updated after a sale.

- Customers should follow the shipping progress of a sold product.

 

- When those demands ar not possible in the current CC, is there any CC developer who can do this?

 

Regards,

 

 

 

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Hello krs1,

 

Seeing you here for a while, I would have thought you would already have the answers. But if not,

 

- Automatic sending of invoices: client does order and receives within 1 minute the final invoice per email. No intervention of  store admin is needed any more.

 

Other than actually boxing the order and handing it to the shipper agent, you may also need to manually enter the shipment tracking number into the order summary screen. CubeCart will send emails to the customer when the order moves to Processing (automatic when payment is made successfully) and Completed (admin must do this when the shipper picks up the package, but the email is automatic). The email is not so much an invoice as it is a statement (if I have my bookkeeping terms correct).

- Automatic processing of coupon codes: client gives coupon code and the total amount changes automatically.

 

The customer (not necessarily your client) enters a coupon code and, if valid, the Grand Total will reflect the value of the coupon (or Gift Certificate).


- Overview turnover and sales: with 1 press of the button there should be an overview from which the accountant and the client can read and print the monthly sales.

 

When logging in to the administration screens, the Dashboard shows sales in money for the past two months. Hovering the mouse cursor on the line shows the data at that point. One more mouse click, Sales Reports, gives several screens of tables representing sales. CTRL-P to print the browser screen.

 

You can export your sales history to a few formats to then load into a third-party app specifically designed to present sophisticated analysis. CubeCart builds basic sales charts.


- Advanced Stock control: the stock of the options of a product (eg. per size, color and model) must be automatically updated after a sale.

 

In CC520, this feature is part of the core code. But still needs to polish a few rough edges.


- Customers should be able to follow the shipping progress of a sold product.

 

By email (Processing and Completed phases), and by the Tracking code you manually enter when the order is moved to Completed.

 

- When those demands are not possible in the current CC, is there any CC developer who can do this?

 

Best place to ask is at www.cubecartforums.org. If the current features are not as complete as you need, we would appreciate a more comprehensive outline of your (your client's) needs.

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Hi mate,

 

Thnx for your time and answer. (yes old skool user since '06  :innocent:). But most of the CC stores that I did was basic stuff. This is, in my opinion more, complex and I didn't had the answers straight away.

 

I'm gonna study them and come back soon with answers.

 

In the mean time, thnx again for your time and contribution and every input is welcome.

 

Regards,

 

Boudi

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Back again with my responses in red:

 

 

- Automatic sending of invoices: client does order and receives within 1 minute the final invoice per email. No intervention of  store admin is needed any more.

 

Other than actually boxing the order and handing it to the shipper agent, you may also need to manually enter the shipment tracking number into the order summary screen. CubeCart will send emails to the customer when the order moves to Processing (automatic when payment is made successfully) and Completed (admin must do this when the shipper picks up the package, but the email is automatic). The email is not so much an invoice as it is a statement (if I have my bookkeeping terms correct).

 

What my client wants is automatic sending of the final invoice from CC as soon as an online payment has been done. I understand that fully automatic is not possible and advisable since the goods must be shipped first before sending any invoice.


- Automatic processing of coupon codes: client gives coupon code and the total amount changes automatically.

 

The customer (not necessarily your client) enters a coupon code and, if valid, the Grand Total will reflect the value of the coupon (or Gift Certificate).

 

Correct, this question was not necessary. I should have known the answer.


- Overview turnover and sales: with 1 press of the button there should be an overview from which the accountant and the client can read and print the monthly sales.

 

When logging in to the administration screens, the Dashboard shows sales in money for the past two months. Hovering the mouse cursor on the line shows the data at that point. One more mouse click, Sales Reports, gives several screens of tables representing sales. CTRL-P to print the browser screen.

 

I logged in in the latest version 5.2.0. Checked the dashboard. Saw the flashy graphic, Saw 1 testpayment. Hovered the mouse over it, saw the amount and that's it. No sales reports, nothing.

 

You can export your sales history to a few formats to then load into a third-party app specifically designed to present sophisticated analysis. CubeCart builds basic sales charts.

 

Could not export anything. What 3rd party app?


- Advanced Stock control: the stock of the options of a product (eg. per size, color and model) must be automatically updated after a sale.

 

In CC520, this feature is part of the core code. But still needs to polish a few rough edges.

 

Which rough edges? Buggy?


- Customers should be able to follow the shipping progress of a sold product.

 

By email (Processing and Completed phases), and by the Tracking code you manually enter when the order is moved to Completed.

 

Correct, this question was not necessary. I should have known the answer.

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What my client wants is automatic sending of the final invoice from CC as soon as an online payment has been done. I understand that fully automatic is not possible and advisable since the goods must be shipped first before sending any invoice.

 

Perhaps expressed another way, the admin wants the order to automatically go to Processing on successful payment (of course -- and CubeCart does this), but also to then automatically go to Completed (with appropriate emails sent), regardless of whether the order is out the door. Do I understand this correctly?

 

I logged in in the latest version 5.2.0. Checked the dashboard. Saw the flashy graphic, Saw 1 testpayment. Hovered the mouse over it, saw the amount and that's it. No sales reports, nothing.

 

Perhaps the admin (your client) should provide an outline of what is expected in a sales report. I said, "One more mouse click, Sales Reports, gives several screens of tables representing sales. CTRL-P to print the browser screen." In the admin navigation pane, near the bottom, is a link to Sales Reports." Well, while that's true, I should have pointed your attention to (Sales) Statistics. Those screens show more than what the Dashboard chart can do. (Although the Dashboard chart is extremely programmable. Much more info, lines, points, bars, etc can be added.)

 

Could not export anything. What 3rd party app?

 

Back on the Sales Reports admin screen, if there is a table of sales, there will be at least an Export button. By default, this will make available for download a CSV with basic data about those orders listed. CubeCart will recognize other plugins whose function is to extract data from the Cubecart database to make reports and will create buttons (as I understand how the coding works) for those plugins to generate those report files. Currently, there are no plugins for this ability, other than the built-in CSV formatter. Thus, no other buttons except "Export".

 

By third-party apps, I am referring to programs that CEOs and Analysts use to acquire Business Intelligence (BI). From that, educated conclusions can be made from trend-analysis and all the other various deliverables that those with MBAs are schooled to know of and how to crunch those numbers. CubeCart gives basic histories. CEOs also require analyses of how the company is expected to perform in the future -- which CubeCart does not (yet) do -- and perhaps is outside the scope of what Devellion wants it to do.

 

I don't know the names of those third-party apps as I am not an MBA.

 

Which rough edges? Buggy?

 

We expect the next build of CubeCart 5.2 in the next few days with a few bugs related to Stock Levels for Product's Options resolved (as well as numerous others resolved as well). A major bug: Under a common condition with how stock levels are set by the admin, CubeCart will erroneously indicate on the View Product page that the item is currently out of stock when it actually isn't.

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Hi Brian,

 

Thnx for, again, taking the time to help me out. Now you pointed me in a more right direction with lots of things (and answers for our client).

 

You pointed me in the right way with the sales reports and links, it is more clear to me right now. I see the export button too.

 

I discovered the stock control in the option list. This is a total blast, especially when options are combined in the Option Matrix. Just banging! Hope to get the bugs out quick because this is what lots of shops need!

 

Last point; the control of auto-sending emails after a sell. When paying with the Print Order Form the client does not receive anything, because the order status is open in the admin. I couldn't find how to change that standard status into e.g. "Processing" /or/ keep it on Status open but then with receiving an email so that the client at least gets an email that he/she did buy something.

 

I did not test with online payment (eg Paypal) but I assume the status is automatically set to processing and the client gets their first email. Personally I don't think it's a good idea to set all the online payments at 'order complete' as soon they pay but those are my final 2 questions:

 

-  payment with Print Order Form results in an Order Status: Open (and the client does not receive anything). Can this be changed? The client must receive something automatically after they bought something. Or you think this is a bad idea. I know this thing is already much discussed in older topics but as far as I can see the same problem still persists?

 

- Is there an option that after an online payment (eg Paypal) the Order Status could be set on 'Order Complete'?

 

To make it even better, may be for CC this could be a nice feature to select the Order Status type on every Payment Gateway. I don't think that should be a hard thing to code and gives lots of freedom for every single shop owner how they want to settle the processing and email configuration.

 

Regards,

 

Boudi

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"The control of auto-sending emails after a sell: When paying with the Print Order Form the client does not receive anything, because the order status is set to Pending. I couldn't find how to change that [outcome] into e.g. "Processing" /or/ keep it on [Pending] but then with receiving an email so that the client (customer?) at least gets an email that he/she did buy something. I know this thing is already much discussed in older topics but as far as I can see the same problem still persists?"

 

This is a common request for the Print Order Form gateway and I have developed a set of instructions on what code to modify to have CubeCart send a "Thank you for your order. This is a reminder to make payment" email. This is in response to some Store Owners who feel some of their customers need or would appreciate an email from the store that they would read when they got home from their day job -- regardless if they could or could not have printed the Order Form at the time of making the order.

 

Send me a Private Message with your email and I will attach the instructions to a reply. I have not submitted this to Devellion as a suggestion because it involves a drastic enhancement to another feature of Cubecart for the easy management of it, which I believe they do not yet have the time to develop (but which I am working on as time permits).

 

- Is there an option that after an online payment (eg Paypal) the Order Status could be set on 'Order Complete'?

 

As I see it, not as the codebase is currently written.

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HI,

 

I have a small update regarding the tracking code:

 

You say:

 

- Customers should be able to follow the shipping progress of a sold product.

 

By email (Processing and Completed phases), and by the Tracking code you manually enter when the order is moved to Completed.

 

I tested this (with an existing order) and I could enter a tracking code, but this code is not visible to customers. Not in their dashboard and not in emails.

 

Bug?

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According to how I read the code, the Order Summary must include mention of both the shipping gateway used and the shipper's tracking code.

 

Then, if the shipping gateway has a means of creating an actual URL, that URL will be displayed. Otherwise, just whatever you entered will display.

 

We now look at the skin template used to show to the customer the Order of interest, content.receipt.php. If the delivery info was setup as described above, there will be a Delivery section showing on the Order page for the customer to notice.

 

Are you using a custom skin?

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This I filled out in the admin in an order:

 

Verzending Datum: 31 Jan 2013, 00:00
Verzendmethode: UPS
Koerier Tracking Code: nhgvty6656434
Gateway: Print_Order_Form
 
I would like to see that the client can see the tracking code, courier and date of shipment. But not in the email and not in the dashboard of the client this data is visible.
(or I miss something)
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I found something interesting...

 

When you are viewing the Order Receipt as you would if you were the customer, are you logged in as that customer?

 

Because what I found is that CubeCart will give to the template the delivery info but only if the customer for that order is logged in. If viewing the order as a non-logged-in customer (such as using the link in the email that says, "You can view the status of your order [link:here]."), CubeCart will then not give the template delivery info. Perhaps to thwart others from knowing when to expect the package or other nefarious intentions.

 

If you are logged-in as the customer, then I still have some more code tracing to do.

 

But we have yet to look at the emails.

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I tested both ways. Logged in and not logged in. Then I clicked the link in the email. When logged in you go directly to your dashboard and see the order, but not the tracking data etc.

When you are not logged in you have to fill out your order nr and email address. After doing that you see the same result as I mentioned before.

 

So in both cases the client cannot see when the order is gonne be shipped, which courier and which tracking nr.

 

I need to say: I use the Blueprint (latest) skin from Shopdev.

 

If you like I can provide you with emails or login.

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Here are my conclusions based on some assumptions. The assumptions are:

1. The customer sees as your only payment gateway the Print (Postal) Order Form (POF)

2. On checking out, the customer did not choose a shipping option (if any were presented), or chose Free Shipping.

2. You manually moved the order to Completed.

3. You manually entered (different?) shipping info into the order.

 

If CubeCart did not record the fact that this order is using the Free_Shipping module, then that's a bug. If CubeCart wants to record the "Name" that the admin gives to the Free_Shipping module, then if that name is not present, CubeCart should use the folder name of the module, and if it doesn't, then that's an unfortunate bug. (I'll check the code.)

 

So, go into the Free Shipping module settings panel and give it a Name: whatever "Free Shipping" is in your language. Then try placing another order.

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Hi Brian,

 

Thank you again for all your time and effort to sort things out. Needless to say that your input helps me, and our customer, a lot.

 

1st: it works now! Your answer is the solution. You have to fillout and choose the shipping costs before the courier data is visible on the order overview in the dashboard of a client.

 

That said I think this situation did raise a question whether or not a client should create an order without having to select the shipment option? Isn't that a mandatory field then?

 

Make it mandatory so it prevents that, in my case, tracking codes are not visible to clients?

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