Power Tools for Win-EZ

Over the last two versions we’ve added a number of new features and reporting options, along with correcting items from bug reports and adjustments to general usability:

The first item is a speed improvement on general reporting. We’ve removed all of our own intermediate reporting files, and now read all reporting files directly through the Win-EZ libraries. This means no more converting files the first time that we read them, so reports can be created faster.

We’ve also knocked a number of items off of the old wish list!

First is Pay Periods:

• Power Reports now has settings for Pay Period (not to be confused with Pay Week). This allows you to create a defined reporting range that will automatically set the first and last date for reports. These periods can be weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, and monthly. Once configured the Current Pay Period and Last Pay Period date ranges will provide a quick way to run reports for these date ranges.
• Report Groups can take advantage of the Pay Period, and can be set to be run for the current or prior Pay Period based on the Today or Yesterday logic that is already available in Report Groups.
• Report Groups can now be run on an Every Other Week cycle. This will allow you to send bi-weekly Punch Based Reports based on a bi-weekly Pay Period.

Next we added a number of additional date ranges to allow you to quickly generate historical reporting. The following ranges are available in both Standard Reports, and for Report Groups.

• Week Ending
• Month Ending
• Year Ending
• Same Date Prior Month
• Same Date Prior Year
• Same Day Prior Week
• Same Day Prior Quarter
• Same Day Of Week Prior Month
• Same Day Of Week Prior Quarter
• Same Day Of Week Prior Year

All of the above ranges include both Today and Yesterday options.

We also added a setting so that Report Groups can now create “By Batch” Credit Card Reports. This setting will send the last Credit Card Batch in the report list (Current Batch, or Last Closed, depending upon the timing of the report)

Another major feature added to the latest release is Key Items. Key Items allows you to create new groupings of PLUs, assigning each PLU in the group an arbitrary quantity multiplier. This allows you to create reports that center around inventory groups, or categories of items that use shared ingredients.

Since each Key Item group is very unique to a particular business, we don’t have any stock reports, but we have included two stock layouts to allow creating summary or detail Key Item reports. You can also attach a single Key Item Group to any PLU based reports to add additional grouping and sorting data to those reports.

A sample of the Itemized version of the report:

And the Summary version:

All of the Pay Period and Date Range features are available in the 2.70.100 release of Win-EZ Manager, and the Key Item features have been released to HDS for inclusion in the 2.70.110 release of Manager due out later this week.

Next up we’ll finalize the Advanced Real Time Stats Dashboard for full release, and get to work finishing the web based Real Time Stats Dashboard so that you can get your info everywhere!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s really been two years since this was last updated.

A lot has happened in that time, including bringing Power Reports out of Beta, introducing over a hundred new reports (including comparison reporting), and adding a new export engine that allows us to export every bit of report data in pretty much any format.

We also introduced a full replacement for the Win-EZ Real Time Stats Dashboard, and will have a premium version of the dashboard available soon.

But the most notable change has been the selection of Power Reports as the default report engine for Win-EZ going forward. This means that as of January 1st 2013, the full version of Power Reports is included in all new Win-EZ licenses, and a Lite Version is included on all existing sites (upon upgrading to Win-EZ Manager version 2.69.x).

We’re excited about the future that this deep integration with Win-EZ brings.

It’s been quiet here for a couple of months, but we’ve been busily toiling away:

Power Reports is approaching official release, and we’re now working on our second product (a QuickBooks Interface).

First the big news; HDS decided to give Power Reports it’s own button for Win-EZ Manager 2.61!

We’re excited about the added visibility for our product, but the important thing is that implementation will now be easier, since users no longer have to decided between the two report engines, or remember complicated key strokes to switch back and forth between them.

For this release we’ve also completed the last “missing piece” of Power Reports; Punches and Payroll. The new Payroll Engine has been implemented and tested, and the matching reports are being completed over the next few days. One of the great new features is that all reports will be able to calculate overtime, even Timeslip and Punch Reports.

Over the next few weeks we’ll also be adding reports based on the new “Drawer Balance” feature in Win-EZ Deposits, and building the first of several styles of Comparison Reports.

In other news: We reached an agreement with HDS to take over development of their Accounting Interface. We’ve released the first Alpha version of the QuickBooks GL Interface a couple of weeks ago, and will be adding Payroll integration in the near future. Look for a full release in the next few months.

Look for more great new features in the coming months!

Added a product page for Power Reports this afternoon.

There is a lot of great information on the current and planned feature set.

A short video that highlights some of the detail that’s available in the Grid Filter.

Be sure to watch in full screen!

Tonight I’m posting a sample of the level of integration that has been built into Power Reports.  (click the images to see the full size version)

The first sample is of a check displayed in the “Grid Filter”. This grid allows you to view and filter the available checks in the report prior to running a report.

In this sample the Voids and Comps (normally only available in the Comp Report) that were applied to the check have been added back to the underlying data. Below you can see the void displayed in the report.

The second sample is in the same Grid Filter, and shows Credit Card details that have been added back to the check. Notice the Credit Card Sequence in the Media line.

The report to the left also shows this same information.

This info is not normally available in a single report within the stock Win-EZ Manager reports.

A quick update on Report Styles:(Click on any of the images to see the full size version)

Report Styles control the look and feel of all reports in Power Reports, and available styles can be changed from within settings.

We of course have the Win-EZ Classic style that’s been in place for many years.

We also have our new Power Reports Default style:

This style adds some color to the report by adding a boxed header and footer.

It also adds odd and even row coloring to help differentiate rows of data. This is also useful when there is multi-line data involved.

Another shot of the new Style, with subtotaled groups.

This uses a Daypart Grouping to subtotal the PLUs.

Day parts are set up system wide, and are a standard setting on most reports.