General changes and fixes in 4.9 (as of October 2020)

The AMPAREX release notes contain summaries of recent changes and software enhancements made available in the latest release.


1. AMPAREX Start Icon

1.1. The start option via Java WebStart no longer supported

Reason for change

The Java Web Start technology is no longer supported on Java version 9 and higher. AMPAREX has also removed this technology from its application. If you are still using the Java Web Start, you will receive a warning message when you start AMPAREX, informing you to switch to the current 'AMPAREX Launcher' instead. From AMPAREX 4.9 onwards, it will no longer be possible to start the program using Java Web Start.

Solution

Install the 'AMPAREX Launcher' on those affected workstations. You can download it from AMPAREX homepage.

2. Patient

2.1. (Multiple) email recipients

Reason for change

Previously, documents could be sent from the preview window to a saved email address. An email address was pre-selected and the selection could not be changed.

Solution

In the ‘Send’ dialogue of the print preview of a document, the customer's e-mail address is now always preselected as the recipient. If no e-mail address is saved on the customer file, other possible recipients can be selected manually. However, these will not be preselected. In addition, a search dialogue can be used to search for further recipient addresses. If an address with an email is selected, it will be saved as a further recipient address in the ‘Send’ dialogue. Searching for other customers in this dialogue is NOT permitted due to the GDPR.

Requirement(s)

  • SMTP (email) interface in AMPAREX,
  • Email addresses saved for customers, employees, doctors and companies.

2.2. Notification if email address is missing in the process

Reason for change

The email address is not a mandatory entry on the customer file. However, it would be desirable to always record mail addresses to facilitate contact with patients.

Solution

A new notification dialogue can be used to inform employees about a missing email address on a customer file. A new option is to remind employees to enter the missing email address when creating a new treatment/process. Another option allows setting the advertising permissions using the same dialogue. If the permission for 'advertising by email' is withdrawn at this point, the dialogue will be displayed again in the future.

Requirement(s)

This dialog is displayed when:

  • The option 'Notify when no email address has been added to a patient's file' is enabled in the chain settings,
  • There is no email address entered on the patient's file,
  • The patient is not marked as a company,
  • Detailed information on data protection is being used (store chain settings → customer → data protection),
  • 'Advertising by e-mail' is allowed for the customer.

2.3. Ordering option for reserved hearing aids


 

Reason for change

In the 'Reservation Wizard' the quantity of articles was always preset to '0'.

Solution

This process has been made more user-friendly. Simply by marking the articles you wished to order, the order quantity would be set to '1'.

Requirement(s)

At least one item is selected in the patient's process for the reservation wizard.

3. Branch office administration

3.1. Delivery date for invoicing of service contracts

Reason for change

The delivery date was previously specified by users each time service contracts were invoiced. But because of the temporary VAT cut in some countries, it has become apparent that the delivery date relevant for service contracts invoicing may be different, depending on the service.

Solution

The rule for the delivery date can be preset so that the appropriate scenario can be selected.

Requirement(s)

The relevant delivery date can be selected via the chain setting → Invoice handling → Service contracts. Available for selection are:

  • Select while invoicing,
  • First day of the billing cycle,
  • Last day of the billing cycle.

3.2. Payment type 'Collection'


 

Reason for change

After sending reminders, an invoice is still unpaid for. Your company uses a debt collection agency to collect the outstanding payment.

Solution

An additional payment method - 'Collection' - has been introduced for such cases. The payment type 'Collection' behaves in the same way as the payment type 'Financing'.

Requirement(s)

  • Activated chain setting → 'Activate payment type: Collection',
  • There must be a corresponding account & rule for this type of transaction added in the ‘Bookkeeping’ module on Amparex.

4. Master data

4.1. Discounts

4.1.1. VAT on discounts

Reason for change

Up until now, discounts have always applied to all articles in an invoice regardless of the VAT rates set for the individual articles. This method was too inflexible and had to be changed.

Solution

A discount, subject to other discount conditions, can be made valid only for articles with a certain VAT rate assigned to them.

Requirement(s)

  • At least one discount defined,
  • A VAT rate assigned to an article.

4.1.2. Restrict discounts to several article types

 
 

Reason for change

Up until now a discount could only be limited to one article type. If you wanted to limit the discount to a further article type, you had to create several discounts.

Solution

Multiple discounts no longer need to be created. Several article types can be selected within one discount.

Requirement(s)

  • None.

4.1.3. Adjustable volume discounts

Reason for change

Until now, it was possible to set up a discount in order for it to apply above a certain article quantity being sold. In this case, however, only the quantity that was above the predifined value was discounted.

Solution

For discounts where a value ‘Min. purchase quantity’ has been set, there is a possibility to choose between two options now: apply the discount to all articles or only to those above the predifined minimum purchase quantity.

Requirement(s)

  • None.

4.2. Inventory templates

Reason for change

Inventories (stock taking) have to be created manually in the ‘Inventory management’ module using the 'Inventory Wizard'. However AMPAREX won’t remember the selected wizard options from the previous inventory, so that any standard settings must be entered again and again. In addition the annual inventory usually must be created on December 31st. This may not always be possible, as 31.12. could happen to be a Sunday.

Solution

For the reasons mentioned above, we've added a possiblity to create your own inventory templates to work with the current inventory wizard. Such templates can be selected manually when creating an inventory in the ‘Inventory management’ module or they can be executed automatically at any given time. In addition, users can define whether inventories are to be completed automatically and immediately after their creation or even whether they are to be devaled additionally based on the devaluation rules. Furthermore, it can be specified whether a group of employees should receive an AMPAREX message if the inventory was successfully or unsuccessfully created.

Requirement(s)

  • Activation under ‘Master data→Inventory templates’ for the relevant authorisation groups,
  • If the inventory is to be devalued automatically, at least one inventory devaluation rule is necessary.

4.3. Change log for document templates

Reason for change

Changes to the document template properties (Approved, Standard template, etc.) were not fully logged.

Solution

Now all property changes to the master data document template page are logged. The changes can be see via the 'Additional functions' menu. Changes in the document template itself are still logged in the document template archive.

Requirement(s)

  • Change(s) made to the main page of the selected document template

5. Services

5.1. Automated bookkeeping export

Reason for change

Until now, it was only possible to export accounting data from AMPAREX manually. Larger companies in particular, which frequently transfer data to the accounting department, wanted automation.

Solution

Accounting data can now be automatically exported and regularly transferred to an FTP server.

Requirement(s)

  • 'Automatic accounting export' interface must be made available.

6. Statistics

6.1. Survey evaluation

Reason for change

Up until now, the possibilities of evaluating survey results have been very limited. One could only create a selection and check if a customer had participated in a survey or not.

Solution

More options to choose from are available in the ‘Survey’ selection so each survey question can be evaluated.

Requirement(s)

  • At least one survey template is available,
  • Several already saved surveys exist in the system.

6.2. Send statistics automatically by Email

Reason for change

Until now, statistics could only be created and retrieved manually.

Solution

Frequently needed statistics can be created automatically now and the result sent to an employee by an email. Statistic templates can be configured in the ‘Master data’ module. Under 'My AMPAREX' module each authorised user can determine the interval at which such statistics are to be automatically executed and sent to his email address as an .odt/.pdf formatted file.

Requirement(s)

  • Activation in 'My AMPAREX→Administration→Automated Statistic' for the relevant authorisation groups,
  • At least one statistics template madeavailable,
  • Configured SMTP interface available on AMPAREX.

6.3. Sequence of search criteria in a selection

Reason for change

The sequence of search criteria in a selection could affect the results. If the search criteria order was not chosen correctly, one would have to start from scratch again.

Solution

The order of the selection criteria can be changed afterwards. By using the 'up' and 'down' arrows the selected criteria can be moved to the desired position.

Requirement(s)

  • At least two search criteria chosen.

7. Organiser

7.1. Appointment booking outside of availability

Reason for change

If appointments were created outside user's availability, there was no warning message until now. This could potentially lead to the appointments not being kept.

Solution

The creator of an appointment will be explicitly informed that the appointment is to be created outside the resource@s availability. The appointment can either be saved anyway or edited further.

Requirement(s)

  • Availabilities have to be created in the 'Organiser',
  • The 'Warn if appointment is created when unavailable' setting must be chosen for the affected resource ('Organiser'→Administration→Resources').

8. Inventory management

8.1. Accepting repaired hearing aids

Reason for change

Previously, when accepting a repair, only the serial number could have been changed.

Solution

The article itself can also be changed now. This can be useful when the repaired article was neither repairable nor available and therefore another one was delivered.

Requirement(s)

  • At least one repair process or repair shipment created in the system.

8.2. Return a defective article

  

Reason for change

Up until now defective articles could only be removed from stock manually through the 'Item inventory' section of AMPAREX. Only the deletion reason has been recorded.

Solution

All complains about defective articles can be recorded if necessary. This process can be started by clicking the 'Complain' button for all serial managed articles:

  1. The first step is to create an actual complaint. At least one reason for complaint must be specified.
  2. The second step is to choose between two options:
    1. disposed (the article is deleted from the stock),
    2. the article remains in stock.
  3. The last wizard step enables you to optionally reorder the article. AMPAREX will create an order with a supplier.

Requirement(s)

  • Serial number managed article with owner ‘Stock’.

This function is not available for quantity managed articles.