25/07/2008. Version 4.14 has introduced many improvements to the Exportmaster TOPS product sourcing system. These include the ability to create and process temporary products that can be discarded or made permanent later on. There are also new facilities for handling situations in which different suppliers offer different products against a single item in an enquiry.

Quotation history

25/07/2008. Exportmaster TOPS allows sales and purchasing history to be displayed on-screen when products, customers, suppliers and orders are being viewed. In Version 4.14 the display of sales quotation history has been added to this facility.

Revised customs procedures (SAD Harmonisation)

31/10/2007. Major changes have been made to Exportmaster in release 4.11 to cover the latest requirements of HM Revenue & Customs in connection with SAD Harmonisation. These relate to CPC codes and series, declaration parts, commodity pack records, methods of printing declarations and the new electronic file format for NES declarations. A user guide for the new SAD Harmonisation features – EM SAD Harmonisation Features.pdf – can be found on the latest Exportmaster distribution CD in the Manuals folder.

Accumulators and sub-totals

31/10/2007. A new set of accumulators permits the calculation of multiple sub-totals and totals at various user-defined levels (e.g. ex-works, packing, freight, insurance) for quotations, sales orders, shipments and purchase orders. The resulting figures can be printed on documents and reports. For full details, see the document EM System Configuration Guide.pdf in the Manuals folder on the Exportmaster distribution CD.

Pro-active deadlines and reminders

15/10/2007. A new facility brings overdue or nearly-due deadlined items to users’ attention pro-actively on Exportmaster’s main menu screen. It also shows reminders of pending activities. All activities that have been flagged up by the system can be accessed directly from the reminder screen. Activities can relate to quotations, sales orders, shipments, purchase orders or items entered by users in personal To Do lists.

Vista compatibility

30/09/2007. Microsoft Windows Vista™ has been added to the list of operating systems recommended by Exportmaster for its Version 4 software. The others currently approved are Windows XP™ and Windows 2000™ Professional.

Improved screen legibility

30/09/2007. Exportmaster has adopted Tahoma as its default font. TrueType fonts such as Tahoma can be used with Microsoft’s ClearType technology to provide on-screen fonts with smooth edges that more closely resemble printed text. This technology greatly improves readability on the TFT flat screen monitors found on notebook computers and modern desktop systems.

Version 4 released

28/02/2007. Exportmaster Version 4 has been released free of charge to all supported users. Notable improvements relate to multiple contact handling, quick-switching between activities and, for TOPS users, major simplification of the sourcing and quoting sections, allowing direct access to all major functions from within individual sales enquiries themselves.

SITPRO

24/07/2006. Exportmaster Systems Limited have become members of SITPRO’s new Network of Validated Providers of export documentation software. This continues a long-standing association which began when Exportmaster became an authorised SITPRO licensee in the late 1980’s.

Financial results

30/06/2006. Results for the year 2004-2005 showed profits doubled with an increase in turnover of 6.5%. New software implementations were up 20% on the previous year’s figure.

Version 3.70

30/06/2005. Exportmaster Version 3.70 has been issued to all supported users. It contains many enhancements, the following being the most significant. Documents can now be emailed or saved as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Exportmaster’s own XDI format remains available for those circumstances in which its use is more suitable. Changes have been made to improve facilities available for email and EDI submissions (especially multiple submissions) to HM Customs & Excise for European VAT and Intrastat reporting. The Software Installation programs have also been revised to deal with the more rigorous security settings and restrictions today encountered on most corporate Windows networks. Finally, Exportmaster now offers the facility to operate, where appropriate, in Client-Server mode, although our recommendation for most users will be to continue to run in File-Sharing mode which is likely to yield faster performance in most networked environments.

Final results 2003-2004

30/06/2005. Exportmaster System Limited’s published accounts for the twelve months ended September 30th 2004 show a profitable year’s operations despite a depressed market-place for British export service providers. New implementations exceeded the previous year’s figure by 11 per cent.

Qtec case study

25/02/2005. A case study by Qtec reports on the successful collaboration between teams from Qtec, Exportmaster Systems, Manhattan Associates, Tibbett & Britten and Mothercare on the implementation of an integrated solution for the retailer's worldwide franchise operation. This item can be viewed at http://www.qtec.co.uk/qtec/casestudy2.html

ODBC driver now available

09/12/2004. IT departments wishing to write programs making use of data held within Exportmaster can now purchase a DBISAM ODBC driver. This provides access across the range of Exportmaster datafiles and opens up many possibilities for integrating its data with data from other company sources.

Issue of Exportmaster version 3.65

30/11/2004. All supported users of Exportmaster for Windows have now received free of charge release 3.65 of the software which, as well as introducing many improvements, completes the transfer to DBISAM from the Borland Database Engine (BDE).

Exportmaster teams up with Empirica for one-stop BHS solution

02/09/2004. Chess Logistics Technology Ltd have been chosen to supply an export distribution solution for leading high-street retailer Bhs Limited incorporating Exportmaster Professional with their own Empirica warehouse management software. The combined system will handle shipments of approximately five million units a year from their Atherstone Distribution Centre. For full details read the Press Release.

Document Archiving

31/08/2004. A new Document Archiving module makes a major contribution to the achievement of paperless operations. After printing, faxing or emailing, documents can be stored electronically in archive locations for simple retrieval as and when required. The process can be automatically triggered for particular kinds of document or individually requested by the user.

FedEx interface

31/08/2004. Exportmaster has implemented an electronic interface to the FedEx consignment system that eliminates the need to re-key data when sending goods by this method.

Stock Control

21/11/2003. Exportmaster TOPS now incorporates a full range of stock control functions. The latest release offers a system of multi-currency multi-location inventory management that is particularly well-adapted to the needs of the international trader. Commodity traders will find its facilities for monitoring fulfilment of short and long contracts especially useful. The stock control module is offered as part of the standard TOPS package at no extra cost.

Report Designer

24/7/2003. This powerful new optional module for Exportmaster Professional and TOPS systems allows you to design and print your own reports from your Exportmaster system. It features a visual data-query builder and a visual report designer. The query wizard lets you build queries visually that will extract the required data from Exportmaster while the report designer is used to lay out your report templates. The templates can be configured not just to print but also to output data in a number of electronic formats including Excel, PDF, HTML and RTF (for use in Word® and other word-processors). A comprehensive report designer tutorial is provided on the Exportmaster distribution CD-ROM.

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