Please note. In petBASE 9S's
settings, the word
'services' can be replaced
by a word of your choice, eg 'grooming'. The changed
word will then appear throughout the
program. 19/12/20: V9.12 (1) List All Suppliers: Click Details button - an error occurred. (2) Change Booking:
If invoice exists, on saving message 'INVOICE HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY
EDITED! Do you want petBASE to overwrite it?' appeared, even if invoice
hadn't been edited. (3) List Bookings / Customers / Invoices / Suppliers / Transactions: If last remaining record deleted (eg after setting filter), appropriate buttons disabled to prevent problems if clicked. 12/11/20: V9.11 (1) Multi-User program:- (a) Refresh button now visible on main lists
(eg List All Bookings). Click this to update the list with any changes
made by another user since the form was opened. (b) Previously, when you clicked the Delete (or Cancel) button on main lists
to delete the selected item, the list was first regenerated to ensure
that it hadn't been deleted by another user since the form was opened,
and you then had to re-select the item and click the Delete button
again. Now, if the selected item has been deleted by another user,
petBASE immediately identifies this, displays a message and updates the
list. (2) List Tomorrow's Bookings: error occurred (V9.10 only). (3) Delete Old Bookings: error occurred. (4) Maintenance changes.21/10/20: V9.10 (1) Tablet Mode introduced. When ticked in General Settings, this optimises petBASE for use on a Windows 10 tablet. (2) Add/Change Customer Details: 'Mr & Mrs' added to Title options. (3) Maintenance changes. 07/07/20: V9.04 (1) Minimise
(-) function added to all large forms (eg main menus), thus providing
an alternative to left-clicking the associated taskbar icon. (2) Debit/Credit an Account: If you selected Payment Method = 'Cash', an error occurred. (3) Multi-User program, Password Protection: If form already opened by another user message appeared & you clicked Return, the General main menu was frozen. (4) Maintenance changes. 10/04/20: V9.03 (1)
Added List Tomorrow's Bookings to Bookings main
menu. This includes a Reminder function, which
enables you to e-mail an appointment reminder to selected
customers. (2)
Maintenance changes. 20/03/20: V9.02 (1) Help pages. Added Find text
function, which enables you to enter some text and see all occurrences
of it highlighted in blue, which is particulary useful if there's a lot
of text on the page. If the help page was opened from the Filter/Search
Help function, the previously-entered search text will be automatically
highlighted. (2) Maintenance changes.05/02/20: V9.01 (1) In lists, applicable cells are now directly ticked or unticked by left-clicking the column cells.
In version 9.00, the cells were ticked or unticked by first selecting
the required row, then left-clicking the column heading. (2) Maintenance changes. 01/10/19: V9.00 (1) Program now referred to
as petBASE
9S (was
petBASE 8S) and installs to C:\petBASE9S. (2) New Zoom
function enables you to alter the display size to suit your screen
resolution. The default display, with Zoom Factor = 100%, is
designed to fit a screen with 1366 x 768 pixels resolution, but you can
increase or decrease the Zoom Factor to correspondingly increase or decrease the display size (maintaining the aspect ratio) without loss of definition. The previous display size was based on 800 x 600 pixels screen resolution. (3) Multi-User option. Improved system introduced to check whether the same data is potentially being changed by another user, as follows:- (a)
Change booking, customer, invoice, supplier, transaction: form can't be
opened if already opened by another user. Previous system didn't always
work correctly and, in some cases, caused an error. (b)
Change account details, password protection, login system, manual
backup, add a year to calendar, peak periods, closed periods, opening
times and available staff: form can't be opened if already opened by
another user. (c)
You can't delete a booking, customer, invoice, supplier or transaction
if the corresponding details are being changed by another user. (d)
All other types of changeable forms, which are used for both viewing
and changing data, eg settings, etc: if form
already opened by another user, option given of abandoning, or opening
form in read-only mode. (3) Delete a Customer:
Deletion is prevented if any bookings, invoices or transactions exist
for the customer. Previously only prevented if current bookings or
unpaid invoices exist. (4) Delete a Supplier: Deletion is prevented if any transactions exist for the supplier. (5) Printed booking form: If the balance has been paid, the payment date is shown (as with on-screen form). (6) Add/Change Customer:
Any blank spaces removed before the customer's surname and pets' names
and ensures that the first character is upper-case and remaining ones
lower-case (if name consists of more than one word, first character of
each word is upper-case). This ensures that customers are listed in
alphabetical order. (7) Add/Change Supplier:
Any blank spaces are removed before supplier's name and ensures that
the first character is upper-case and remaining ones lower-case (if
name consists of more than one word, first character of each word is
upper-case). This ensures that suppliers are listed in alphabetical
order. (8) Customer Reference Number:
This is automatically assigned when a customer is added but previously
remained hidden; this is now shown in Customer Details, Customer Lists
and Invoice Details. (9) Customer surname field length increased fom 14 to 20 characters. (10) General Booking Settings: Added option to exclude Booking Notes from printed booking form. (11) Maintenance changes. (12) Program now runs under dBASE PLUS 12.3.1.
24/02/18:
V8.16
(1) At
startup:-
(a) Improved
checking for corrupt data files.
(b)
If the last session was terminated by an error, message 'petBASE IS
EITHER ALREADY OPEN OR CLOSED SUDDENLY LAST TIME (EG DUE TO AN ERROR)',
no-longer appears. A message will still appear if petBASE is already
open or was not previously closed properly.
(2) Maintenance
changes.
02/11/17:
V8.15
Maintenance
changes.
28/07/17:
V8.14
Maintenance
changes.
10/05/17:
V8.13
(1) General Settings:
If you change the Service
Type,
before saving, petBASE now checks for bookings wth category =
previous service type. If any are found, after displaying a
warning, it updates the category of all affected bookings, invoices and
transactions to the new service type.
(2) Re-build Data
Files: Now checks Bookings, Invoices & Transactions for
category referring to non-current Service Type and
updates any that are found.
(3) Maintenance
changes.
13/04/17:
V8.12
(1) View Booking /
Invoice Details:-
(a) If using
Windows 10, click new PDF
button to instantly create a PDF file in your Miscellaneous Documents
folder.
(b) If using
Windows 10 and Microsoft Office Outlook is installed and ticked in
General Settings, click new E-mail
button to instantly create a PDF file and attach it to an e-mail
addressed to the customer.
(2)
View Customer / Supplier Details / E-mail: If Microsoft Office Outlook
installed and ticked in General Settings, you can now add an attachment
from your Miscellaneous Documents folder.
(3) General
Settings: Microsoft
Office Outlook setting now saved on the local
computer. This covers possibility that, if you have the Multi-User
program, Outlook may not be installed on all networked computers.
(4) Maintenance
changes.
29/11/16:
V8.11
(1) List All
Customers & Customers v Bookings Table / Batch E-mail. If
Microsoft Office Outlook is not
ticked in General Settings:-
(a) On clicking
OK, petBASE first calculates the total number of characters in the
selected e-mail addresses,
subject
and text.
If this exceeds the theoretical maximum of 2047, a warning message
appears: click Yes to try anyway or No to cancel.
(b) If a single
e-mail can't be created, the option of creating multiple separate
e-mails is no-longer given.
(2) Maintenance
changes.
08/09/16:
V8.10
(1) Added Program Options to
General / Settings. This form differs according to whether you're using
the Evaluator or full program:-
(a) Evaluator. You
can disable one or more program options to see the effect on the rest
of the program.
(b) Full program.
A list of your purchased options is shown.
(2) Added Re-build Frequency
to General / Settings. This enables you to change the frequency that
Re-build Data Files is normally run from daily (the default) to weekly.
If you specify weekly, you can optionally select a preferred day for
the re-build, eg Sunday.
(3) Mail Merge (List
Customers / Customers v Bookings): Added pet names to source
file.
(4) About petBASE:
Added Latest
Version
button. This opens the appropriate Download page from the petBASE web
site, which now includes the version and build number in the title bar.
(5) Error
handling: Error
log file automatically created/updated.
(6)
Maintenance changes.
7/05/16:
V8.01
(1) Customers module
was Customers/Pets.
(2) Print Booking
Form or Invoice: Correction. Default images of dog and/or cat were not
shown at top of print-out.
(3) Summary
of Appointments on specified date: error occurred when
printing (from V8.00).
(4) Print general
invoice: 'Departure date' text not shown (just date).
(5) Print booking
form (scheduled): Correction. Appointment time didn't show minutes; eg
10.30 printed as 10.
(6)
Manual Backup: When you clicked the spanner button to select
destination, if you cancelled the resulting 'Choose directory' window
without selecting a location, an error occured.
(7) Maintenance
changes.
17/02/16:
V8.00
(1) Program now
referred to as petBASE
8S (was petBASE 7G) and installs to C:\petBASE8S.
(2) General
Settings:-
(a) Service Type: You
can now enter any word up to 12 characters (previously only 'Grooming',
'Training' or 'Services' could be selected).
(b) Pet Types.
A previously-specified pet type can't now be removed if it's included
in existing customer or booking details. Eg if you already have cats in
customer or booking details, you can't change Pet Types to 'Dogs only'.
(3) All times are now
in 24-hour
format. Eg 10.15, 15.30, etc.
(4) Added Booking Notes Prompts.
Enables you to specify any standard text that you want to appear in the
Booking Notes box when you add a new booking.
(5) Add/Change a
Booking:-
(a) Appointment
and departure times now 24-hour format (see item 3), so AM/PM no-longer
required.
(d) Now prevents
appointment time being later than departure time.
(e) When changing
appointment date, if outside calendar range, resets to previous
date.
(6) Add a Booking: If
Schedule Services Work ticked in General Booking Settings, Unsched button
visible at top of form. If this is clicked before proceeding further,
booking is not
scheduled.
(7)
In all cases where a small form is superimposed on a main menu,
appropriate text now appears in the main menu footer. Previously, this
was only done in some cases.
(8) Manual Backup:
Floppy disk no-longer shown as specific option for backup location (but
could still be selected as drive A).
(9) Restore Data From Backup:
New function, replacing separate Restore From Manual / Auto Backup
functions. Main points:-
(a) Enables you to
compare dates and times of last manual
& auto
backups before deciding which to restore.
(b) Manual backup
location no-longer has floppy disk option (but could still be selected
as drive A).
(c)
Button added to directly read date and time of manual backup file
Pbdata.zip in specified
location.
(d)
You can now restore from your last auto backup, even if the
Miscellaneous Settings data file has been corrupted since the backup
was made.
(10) Specify
Service(s):-
(a) Warning
message displayed if duplicate service selected.
(b) Warning
message displayed if no standard fee and/or no standard time listed for
selected service (where applicable).
(c) On clicking
Delete button (to delete current services), all checkboxes unticked.
(d) On clicking
Cancel button, confirmation message displayed.
(11) Set Screen
Display:-
(a) If Default selected,
apart from re-setting to standard sized, display is centred on screen
(previously moved to top-left corner of screen).
(b) Added Centre button. This
centres the display, while maintaining the current
size.
(12) Help page
print-outs now show coloured text.
(13) Maintenance
changes.
21/11/15: V7.32
(1) Program
start-up:-
(a) At first start-up of the
day, data files checked and (if no problems found), Auto Backup run (as
before) followed by Re-build
Data Files.
(b) At subsequent
start-ups, data
files checked (no checks done before).
(c) At all start-ups, if
problem found with a data file, Re-build Data Files
runs automatically.
(2) Database Engine
settings revised for improved performance.
(3) Invoice Settings:
Added Optional
Information field (eg bank details) to appear on all
printed invoices.
(4) Print Booking Form:
Correction. If collection/delivery charge £100 or more, didn't
print.
(5) Maintenance
changes.
11/10/14: V7.31
(1)
Invoices / Settings: Added Payment
Methods.
This enables the user to define payment methods in addition to the
default ones, eg 'Bank transfer' and 'PayPal'. This function is
identical to that previously (and still) available in Accounting /
Settings, but enables the additional payment methods to be used for
invoices, as well as accounting transactions. Also, if Invoices module
purchased, when adding or changing a booking and defining a deposit,
these additional payment methods are available.
(2)
Start-up: If petBASE already open, or didn't close properly last time,
a message appears giving option of cancelling or continuing.
(3) Maintenance
changes.
22/01/14: V7.30
(1) Added
optional Login
System for petBASE, with which you can define any number
of users,
each with their own password
and access level.
The system will also keep a log
of who has added or changed key data. Note that this is a
more sophisticated alternative
to the existing Password
Protection system.
(2) Added Transactions Analysis
to Accounting module. Gives basic transactions statistics over any date
range.
(3) General Settings:
Program Scope re-named Pet
Types. Defaults to 'Dogs & cats' (previously 'Cats
& dogs').
(4) Add/Change
Customer: Correction. When selecting photo file, max file length
increased from 20 to 30 chars.
(5)
Printer Setup: If a printer other than the default Windows printer is
selected, this is saved for subsequent petBASE sessions. (Previously,
it was retained only for the current session.)
(6) Program startup:
If program has been upgraded to a later version since last startup,
Re-build Data Files runs automatically.
(7) Restore from
Manual Backup:-
(a) Program version from which
backup was made is no-longer required.
(b) If restoring from earlier
program version, Re-build Data Files runs automatically after
restoration.
(8) Restore Data From
Auto Backup:-
(a) If restoring from earlier
program version, Re-build Data Files runs automatically after
restoration.
(b) Removed options to restore
only certain data.
(9) Invoice Payments
analysis:-
(a) Caters for deposits with
different payment method than balance.
(b) Payment methods no-longer
include VAT breakdowns.
(10) Invoices Monthly
Analysis:-
(a) Totals for different pet
types no-longer included.
(b) Caters for deposits with
different payment method than balance.
(11) Display of
'speed tips' for table column headings improved.
(12)
Change History: Single page display replaced by list of program
versions, with details of selected version shown to right of list.
Because of the large amount of text, the previous function was slow to
open.
(13) Mail Merge
function: Now creates data source file in CSV
format (plain text file with comma-separated values), for compatibility
with Word 2013, etc. Previously, this was a dBASE file.
(14) Added Transactions to
Accounting / Analyse. Gives basic transactions statistics over any date
range.
(15)
Add/Change Invoice: If Suppliers/Accounting modules purchased, but
current user's password prevents access to them, if cash payment made,
corresponding transaction now automatically created in Accounting
module.
(16) Maintenance
changes.
20/02/13: V7.25
(1) Grooming Classes
re-named Pet
Classes and moved from Bookings / Settings to
Customers/Pets / Settings.
(2)
If you select Pet Class as your Grooming Fees Basis, these Classes were
previously only accessed by linking them to Breeds in the Breeds
Library. A Class
column
has now been added to the pet details table in Customer/Pet Details, so
you can now directly select a Class for each pet. This has been
done for greater flexibility and to enable you to see at a glance the
Class assigned to each pet.
(3) Added Credit Card Charge
facility. This is specified in Invoice Settings and can be a percentage
or flat amount. Then, when adding or changing an invoice, if the
balance and/or deposit are paid by credit card, the surcharge is
automatically calculated and added to the totals.
(4)
Calendar now shows dates as Day + Month or Month + Day, according to
the date format setting in Windows Control Panel. Note that all other
dates already conform to the Windows setting.
(5) Help system: 'Setup guide'
replaces 'Using petBASE for the first time'. Contents re-written so
steps can be followed in logical order. This is included in Introducing
petBASE.
(6) Previously, if the user
'changed the size of all items' to Medium - 125% in the Windows
Control Panel, this resulted in some of petBASE's text being truncated,
etc. This has now been corrected.
(7) Maintenance changes.
10/12/12: V7.23
(1)
Password Protection: If you've purchased the Suppliers &
Accounting
modules, you can now define 2 passwords. Password 1 will give you
access to all
program modules (as before). Password 2 is optional, and prevents
access to the Suppliers & Accounting modules.
(2)
Grooming Classes:-
(a) Access prevented if Grooming Fees
Basis not set to 'Class' in General Booking Settings.
(b)
On closing form, if changes made message appears asking whether you
wish to update the Breeds Library and giving option of opening it.
(3)
Maintenance changes.
27/11/12: V7.22
(1) Print Customers v
Bookings Table: Correct order shown.
(2) Summary of
Grooming Appointments (on specified date):-
(a) If change
made, form no-longer closes.
(b) Footer text
updated to reflect changes.
(3) Add/Change
Credit/Debit Details: Minor corrections to form appearance. Eg if
Category=Transfers, Invoice button now invisible.
(4) Filter/Search
Criteria: Defined criteria are now only retained until you exit
petBASE, at which point they are deleted.
(5) List Documents:
Correction. If all files deleted, error occurred.
(6) List All
Bookings: Error occurred when Filter button clicked.
(7)
Maintenance changes. These include the removal of a number of
local files (used to hold temporary data), which are now
created
from scratch when required. This will
improve program reliability in the event of computer problems or power
failure, etc.
27/10/12:
V7.21
(1) List
Bookings: Invoice
button added, enabling an invoice to be created for the selected
booking.
(2) Add a Booking
Invoice: Instead of having to enter the required booking number, a list
of all
uninvoiced bookings now appears; select the required
booking and click the Invoice button to create the new invoice.
(3) Filter/Search
Bookings: Added Invoice
criterion, which enables you to include bookings with or without an invoice.
(4) Maintenance
changes.
25/04/12: V7.20
petBASE 7G
introduced, covering grooming bookings only (alternative program
petBASE 7 covers boarding and grooming bookings). Prior to this, the
program was referred to simply as petBASE, which covered boarding and
grooming bookings. These are the main changes compared with petBASE
version 7.10.
(1) All references to
boarding bookings have been removed, as have any fields or functions
that apply only to boarding bookings.
(2) General Booking
Settings:-
(a) Form title
was 'Booking Settings'.
(b)
Added Grooming
Fees Basis, which can be set to Breed or Class.
Grooming Class is a new category - see later. The selected option is
then used as the basis for defining your standard grooming fees.
(c)
Added Schedule
Grooming Work check box. If ticked, all bookings
must be scheduled by assigning each
pet to an
available groomer within a free time slot on the specified booking date.
(3) Bookings /
Settings: Added Grooming
Classes.
If you select Class as your Grooming Fees Basis (see above), you must
use this form to define your Grooming Classes (eg 'Small long-haired
dogs'), which will then be used as the basis for defining your standard
grooming
fees (in Services and Fees).
(4) Bookings /
Settings: Added Opening
Times & Available Staff.
This enables you to specify your
normal opening times and number of grooming staff (up to 5) available
on each day of the week. From this, for each day, petBASE calculates
the available grooming time, ie the total number of staff hours
available to do grooming work on that day.
(5) Breeds Library:
If Class selected for Grooming Fees Basis, Class &
corresponding Description
columns are shown. For any Breed, you should select a Class.
(6) Services
and Fees: The layout of this form now depends on the
option selected for Grooming Fees Basis (see above), and shows Breed or Class in the LH
column of the main table.
(7)
Add/Change Booking: Changes include:-
(a) Services button
added to select grooming services (previously clicked Grooming fee
column heading).
(b) Service Details
column added to pets table, showing selected services for each
pet.
(c) If Schedule
Grooming Work ticked, Schedule
button shown. Click this to show the current grooming schedule on the
specified date, to which you can then assign the previously-specified
grooming services for the selected pet to an available groomer in a
free time slot.
(d) If Schedule
Grooming Work ticked, Groomer
column added to pets table, showing the selected groomer for each pet.
(8)
View Booking: Changes include:-
(a) Service Details
column added to pets table.
(b) If Schedule
Grooming Work ticked, Groomer
column added to pets table.
(9) Add / Change
Customer:
If Breed heading clicked, full Breeds
Library now appears (instead of
non-editable breeds list), so new breed can be added, if required.
(10) Summary
of Appointments On Selected Date:-
(a) If Schedule
Grooming Work ticked, Groomer
column included.
(b) List can now
be ordered on Departure
Time or Groomer
(if applicable), in addition to Arrival Time.
(c)
When adding a booking from this form, if Schedule Grooming Work not
ticked, suggested appointment time pre-entered based on last departure
time for current bookings.
(11) Grooming
Calendar:-
(a) Colour
scheme
changed to improve clarity.
(b) Added new
function Opening
Times & Available Staff. This is similar to item
4, but enables you to change these settings on a specific date.
(c) Added new
function View Schedule.
If Schedule Grooming Work has been ticked, you can view the schedule on
any date.
(d) Added new
function Staff
Assignments.
If Schedule Grooming Work has been ticked, you can see details of all
assignments for a selected groomer on any
date.
(e) Number of
bookings indicated by 'B' (previously 'A' for appointments).
(12) Bookings /
Bookings menu heading:-
(a)
Added Summary of
Today's Appointments.
(b)
Added Today's
Schedule.
(13) Program installs
to C:petBASE7G.
(14) Maintenance
changes.
Updated 19 December 2020
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