When specifying file import parameters throughout CounterPoint, you can enter values as standard characters instead of in hexadecimal.

For example, when specifying a delimiting character, you can just type a comma instead of having to enter the 2C hex code.

There are many functions in CounterPoint that allow you to save your viewing or reporting parameters. These capabilities allow you to create a view or report that you find useful and easily access it whenever you like. You can now delete saved parameters that you no longer want.

Many reports allow you to save parameters and clear those parameters by pressing F1. You can now use F3 to delete saved report parameters for these reports.

For reports that allow you to define and save report formats and then press F2 to select those formats (such as the Sales Analysis reports), you can now use F3 to delete the saved formats.

For Monthly history views, for which you can define and save viewing layouts, you can now use F3 to delete the saved layouts.

Setting up accounts for a new profit center has been greatly simplified in Setup / Accounting / Accounts and Setup / System / Accounts.

You can now press F2 to copy all accounts from an existing profit center (e.g., 100) to the profit center you are defining (e.g., 200), to create the same accounts in the new profit center.

See Point of Sale.

In previous versions, you could configure CounterPoint to require each user to enter a password to log in to the system. This version includes several enhancements that allow you to implement additional password security and establish CISP-compliant password security policies that meet the requirements outlined in the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) guidelines.

You can now specify a minimum password length and require users to create complex passwords (passwords that contains both letters and numbers). You can also specify the number of days before passwords expire, as well as the number of failed login attempts before a user is locked out of the system. In addition, you can specify the number of unique passwords a user must create before being allowed to re-use a previous password.

For additional information see CISP compliance under Credit Cards.

You can now specify in Setup / Point of Sale / Control to limit store credits to the ticket's customer.

This feature ensures that only the current customer's store credits appear in lookups, and that a store credit can only be used by the customer to whom the credit was actually issued.

In previous versions of Regular Ticket Entry, when you tendered a ticket, customer store credits were automatically displayed to encourage your customers to redeem their store credits.

You can now specify in Setup / Point of Sale / Control to not automatically display a customer's active store credits.

For A/R charges, a new Bal due after terms form field is provided to show the balance that will be due if the customer pays the invoice by the terms discount date. This allows you to print, for example, Balance due: $100.00. Pay $98.00 if paid by November 15, 2005.

Previous versions supported a variety of coupon types, including Amount ($5-off), Percent (10%-off), and User-entered.

You can now define a Fixed price coupon with an adjustable value that changes based on the selling price. For example, you may issue an "any sweater - only $10" coupon for sweaters that you sell in the $15 to $20 range. If the coupon is used with a $15 sweater, the coupon rings up at $5-off; if it is used with a $17 sweater, it rings up at $7-off.

Previous versions allowed the sale and redemption of gift certificates. However, once a gift certificate was sold, you could not "recharge" it (add value to the gift certificate).

You can now define a Gift certificate recharge item and use that item to recharge open gift certificates.

In previous versions, you could use item prompts to request, or even require, specialized Reference information when that item was entered on a ticket.

You can now limit item prompts to specific transaction types, allowing you to define a prompt that applies only to sales and returns, or a prompt that is only valid for returns. For example, you could define an Overnight? prompt that applies only to backordered line items that requires a Yes or No response.

If an item does not have a prompt that matches the transaction type, the normal Reference prompts associated with sales, returns, orders, and layaways apply.

To improve cardholder information security, credit card numbers are masked (only the last 4 digits are shown) when they are displayed in Ticket Entry. During actual entry or editing, the full card number is shown.

Credit card masking in Regular Ticket Entry was delivered in a V7.5.9 Service Pack.

In Setup / System / Users, you can now specify whether a user is authorized to enter a pay-on-account transaction in Ticket Entry. Security overrides by authorized users are allowed.

In previous versions, you could enter a pay-on-account transaction and either apply the payment to a particular invoice or leave it Open.

When entering a pay-on-account, you can now specify to Auto-apply the payment. During End of Day, auto-applied payments are applied to the oldest unpaid invoices, in a manner similar to the existing auto-apply function in Cash receipts.

The Point of Sale / Fill backorders function now allows you to select a range of ship dates to limit which backorders are filled.

To speed up the entry of multiple records for the same vendor in Inventory / Vendors / Vendor items, when you enter records in Vendor item mode, the vendor is automatically set to the last vendor you entered, by default.

When a customer uses loyalty points to pay part or all of a ticket, most merchants reduce loyalty points earned. For example, you may issue 10 points when a customer purchases a widget for $10, but you may issue zero points when that same widget is purchased using loyalty points. Previous versions allowed you to choose from a variety of Reduce for redemptions methods.

In Setup / Customers / Loyalty codes, you can now choose a Reduce for redemptions method of Calculate earned points reduction, which uses a simple multiplier to reduce earned loyalty points. For example, your policy could be "our point redemption value is one penny, and for every 10 points redeemed, your earned points are reduced by 1 point."

This Reduce for redemptions method works well if you have uniform earning rules for all of your products that qualify for points (for example, all eligible products grant 10 points per dollar spent). This method does not work well if some of your products grant 10 points per dollar but other products grant 5 points per dollar.

You can now print customers' email addresses on statements.

To speed up the entry of multiple records for the same customer in Customers / Utilities / Open item maintenance and Customers / Change open items / Change open items, the Customer # is automatically set to the last customer number you entered, by default.

In previous versions, when you copied a P.O. from a Point of Sale order, you could define "P/S" (Point of Sale) fields on the form to print the customer's name, address information, and other fields from the customer's order, such as line item description, price, cost, and so forth.

Those same "P/S" fields now print related Order Entry order information for orders copied from Order Entry.

In previous versions, Discontinued items were excluded from the Purchasing Advice report.

You can now choose to include Discontinued items on this report.

All of the Sales History / Reports / Management history reports now allow you to select a range of stores, instead of only allowing the entry of a single store.

When you select multiple stores, the total for all those stores is reported; individual stores are not reported.

The Ticket History report now shows each ticket's entry time, as well its entry date.

In the Sales Analysis by Item by Customer and the Sales Analysis by Customer by Item reports, you now have the option to report each sale amount as the original sale amount or as the net amount after discount.

This feature was delivered in a V7.5.9 Service Pack.

See System.

It is possible, due to computer interruptions such as power outages, hardware problems, or database failures, to have data files in Point of Sale, Order Entry, or Sales History with line items, but no associated headers.

You can now use the Remove lines without headers utilities (under File Utilities / Special for the associated application) to remove any line items for which there are no matching headers.

In February 2005, Visa began certifying payment applications to be compliant with their Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) and Payment Application Best Practices (PABP) standards.

CounterPoint is currently being validated for compliance by a Visa-approved third-party. When the validation process is complete, CounterPoint will be listed on Visa's Web site(www.visa.com/cisp) as a CISP-Validated Payment Application, which will allow merchants to use CounterPoint as the basis for a fully CISP-compliant system.

Additional security enhancements-including encrypted data storage, masked card number display, restricted data access, and logging of data access-ensure secure handling of cardholder information, in accordance with CISP/PABP standards. These security enhancements also include the user login and password enhancements described in Password enhancements under System. Documentation is also provided to guide merchants in setting up fully CISP-compliant systems, including CISP requirements that are outside of CounterPoint.

NOTE: Synchronics is already listed on Visa's Web site as a CISP-compliant Service Provider for CPGateway.

Support is provided for EBT food stamps through First Data North for Synchronics Merchant Program merchants and for other merchants processing with First Data North, via CPGateway.

No CPGateway fees are charged for EBT transactions. Dial-up service is not currently planned for EBT.

This feature was delivered in a V7.5.9 Service Pack.

If your system contains historical information from previous years that you no longer want to retain, you can now use Accounting / General Ledger / Purge / G/L history to remove all detail and summary information for those years.

To speed up the entry of multiple records for the same vendor in Accounting / Accounts Payable / Utilities / Open item maintenance, the Vendor # is automatically set to the last vendor number you entered, by default.

When you print invoices, status information now displays to show the current order number being read and the current invoice number being processed, along with totals.

This feature was delivered in a V7.5.9 Service Pack.

The Order Entry / Fill backorders function now allows you to select a range of ship dates to limit which backorders are filled.

In previous versions, you could restrict a user to a particular store and/or to a particular location in Inventory, Purchasing, and Point of Sale. Order Entry did not implement those store/location restrictions.

However, many Order Entry systems use the workgroup features in the WAN / Workgroup Option and include users who are associated with different stores/locations.

Two Order Entry / Invoices functions - Print and Post - now implement store/location restrictions for restricted users. This feature prevents users from different stores/locations interfering with each other and ensures that only orders that match the restricted user's store/location are processed. Restrictions are enforced for the order itself; no restrictions are enforced at the line item level.

See Purchasing.