Dazzle new version 1.12.07 and graphics

NEW VERSION
A new version of Dazzle is available free to all clients, on the website. Download it from http://www.dazzlepawn.com/dazzledownloads/dazzleserverupdate1207.exe.
You will need a username and password. If you do not already have one, contact us.
This update should be downloaded (saved) to your server and then run on the server only. All workstations will be automatically changed over to the new version.

You can read about changes in the new version here.

GRAPHICS PROBLEMS?
If you are experiencing any problems seeing your graphics files (photos, ID's, fingerprints, etc.) as a result of this or any other recent upgrade, you need to download and run this small utility program on your server. You will need your password for this one, too.

CHECK/CHEQUE CASHING
Do you cash checks (cheques in UK)? After upgrading ensure that your "Maker" settings are the way you want them. Go to OFFICE-->CONFIGURATION-->CHEQUE DEFINITIONS and look at your 3rd party cheques. Click on the 4th tab at the top. Make sure the "Maker" tracking is turned ON if you like to record cheque-maker information.

What's new in the latest version? (July 2010)

What's new in Dazzle Pawn v1.12.05

Standardization of all graphics files to "11 dot 3 format." A utility is available to check and modify your files if necessary. After installing 1.12.05, Please download and run this utility to bring your graphics files up to date. Run this program on your server when everyone is logged out.

New demonstration data for new installations, with self-updating data.

New startup video for new users, demonstrating how to write a pawn ticket.

Elimination of the Data Entry Setup for cheque cashing. All setup is now performed in Check Definitions.

Cheque MAKER tracking now optional (not required) on 3rd party cheques. Please go to your cheque DEFINITIONS and look at the "Security" tab, to see if you want to urn maker-tracking on or off. In the UK this will almost certainly be ON. But one or two US customers have expressed a desire to turn it OFF. You can now do this.

Dazzle Pawn v1.12.04

New webcam control technology has been introduced. As a result, DAZZLE™ can now recognize a wide range of webcams, using many different types of drivers (not just the old TWAIN drivers.) This includes the webcams built into many laptops. If you are using separate external cameras, it will work with Logitech, Phillips, Trust, IBM, HP, Microsoft, and many others.
Screens enhanced are: The customer screen, the pawn-item screen, the items-for-sale screen, and the jewellery appraisal screen

New options for check (cheque) cashing.

Dazzle(tm) version 1.12.03 includes a couple of interesting new options for the cheque-cashing side of your business. This is in response to requests from Dazzle users.

First: when taking a payment on a cheque (any kind of payment on any kind of cheque) the customer can now use a bank debit card to make the payment.

Second: if a cheque is returned by the bank (example - NSF), the customer can now settle the matter with a "buy-back" transaction. This also applies to 3rd party cheques. He will be charged the outstanding amount, plus any fees or charges you have added on. This transaction can also be paid with a debit card if desired.

Dazzle v1.12.03 changes and additions

Changes and additions in Dazzle Pawn v1.12.03 (June 1, 2010)

Dazzle Pawn v1.12.03 adds a few fixes and additions to 1.12.02. The changes are listed below.

• Added additional options to 'Firearm Type'.
• Modified system messages to use Windows messagebox class.
• Added ability to re-purchase 3rd Party Check (useful if NSF).
• Added ability to make payments on cheques using debit-cards.
• Corrected Jewelry appraisal (photos not saving or printing).
• Improved appraisal screen layout.
• Fixed confusion between photos from different stations.
• Fixed date-range on advanced stocktaking (now recognises UK dates).
• Added 'Show amounts Paid' option to Leads Online.
• repaired error message on layaway adjust.
• corrected pawn interest and charges on nightly biz report.
• repaired missing item description on pawn pmt receipts.

--end--

Dazzle v1.12.02 changes and additions

Changes and additions in Dazzle Pawn v1.12.02 (April 4th 2010)
(compared to v1.12.01)

This information dates back to April 4th. Due to an oversight, it was not published here until June.

Dazzle Pawn v1.12.02 incorporates adds a few improvements to 1.12.01. The changes are listed below, with the most important ones first.

•Cheque Cashing interest calculations changed, in both USA and UK.
This change applies to Delayed Presentation Cheques (DPC) only. The APR (annual percentage rate) is now calculated using the amount of the payout, not the amount of the cheque itself. In addition, all charges and fees are now counted as interest for the purposes of APR calculation. This is in accordance with the requirements of the OFT in the UK, and the FTC in the US. As a result, your calculated APR figure on cheque contracts will go up! But it is in accordance with the law. As previously, the European and American APR calculations use different formulae.

•Sales Tax reports and Sales Profit reports revised. You may get tax credits.
When v1.12.01 was introduced, some inaccuracies had crept into these reports because of frequent upgrades and improvements. They have now been revised and standardized, and all known inaccuracies have been removed. If you are in the US and you filed a sales tax return based on numbers generated by v1.11.07 or 1.12.01, you may have paid too much sales tax. You are urged to reprint those reports using v1.12.02 and see if the tax amount is less. If so, the difference is caused by previously unreported return-sales. The new revised reports break out returns separately, and report them properly, so in your next tax return you can claim credit for these earlier unreported returns.

•Cheque Cashing screen now "remembers" all DPC customer bank accounts.
In addition to the 2 accounts kept in the customer record, all other accounts used (as time goes by) for writing DPC cheques will now be remembered, so you only have to enter the details the first time. After that, just pick from a list.

•Cheque-cashing screen: Cheque Cashing payouts now re-calculated correctly if you manually change interest, commission, or fees, during the entry of a new cheque.
•"Delete" button added to cheque-makers screen.
•Pawn ticket setup charge 1 now correctly applies to fireams only (USA).
•Duplicate wording removed from pawn ticket descriptions
•Repairs now post properly to the cash drawer when paid by check.
•US money laundering report allows you to change the threshhold amount (normally $10,000)
•Pawn interest and charges now itemized correctly on nightly business report.
•Missing Item description re-instated on pawn payment receipts.
•"Show amounts paid" option added to Leads Online report.
•"Adjust" button fixed on layaway payments screen.
•other insignificant changes and improvements.

--end--

Dazzle v1.12.01 New Features - Cheque MAKERS

GOOD NEWS! Watch this video.

For Cheque Cashing Chains and stores, Dazzle v1.12.01 now includes full handling, processing, and tracking of cheque MAKERS.

The number of improvements and new functionality is too much to include in one document, so instead we have made a video for you to watch.

Click the links below to watch, right in your browser, and find out all the cool new stuff you can do with Dazzle ^tm

VIDEO Part 1 (8 minutes)
VIDEO Part II (20 minutes)
VIDEO Part III (11 minutes)

All about Sending Notices and Forfeiting Pawns.

Includes the new "Advice of Sale" Letter in v 01.12.01

Version 1.12.01 has made some minor changes to the forfeiture notices in the US and some major upgrades to the forfeiture procedures in the UK.

If you are a US customer, after you install v1.12.01, please check your forfeit notices for proper layout and fit. The default font has been changed to 10 point Courier New. This is a monospaced font which makes layout easier for you, but it may affect the appearance of the letter templates you now use, since they were composed in Arial font, which is a proportional space font. Please schedule a few minutes for checking and "tweaking" your letter design, before you print the next batch.

In the UK we have added modules to comply with section 121 of the Consumer Credit Act, concerning the sale of unredeemed pawns and the disposition of the proceeds. This includes a new screen to process the sale of pawn merchandise, and a new "Advice of Sale" module to inform customers about the outcome of the sale.

You can learn all about these new features in this tutorial.

How to modify your pawn & cheque contracts (UK)

DESIGN / MODIFY YOUR OWN PAWN TICKETS AND CHEQUE CONTRACTS

The great thing about Dazzle is that you can design your own printed documents (pawn tickets, cheque contracts, etc) using Microsoft Word and "meta-fields", all using just ordinary plain white paper for your printer.

Click the link below for simple instructions how to do this.

How to create and change contracts

New General Business Report in version 01.11.07

Dazzle has a cool new business report called the GENERAL BUSINESS REPORT. It summarises all your business on one page and can be run for today, or any day, or any length period in history. (See picture below) First, download and install the 01.11.07 update on the server (only). Then download and install WORKSTATIONUPDATE on every workstation, to modify the menus.

Then go to OFFICE-->REPORTS-->REGISTER AND COMMON BUSINESS REPORTS and run the NIGHTLY/GENERAL-BUSINESS REPORT. In NIGHTLY mode it is the same report you are used to, but when you change to GENERAL it will be different. Note that producing a report in the NIGHTLY format will write data to your history file, providing you do promptly every day. This report is automatically run during the register closeout process. But producing a report for BEFORE yesterday, or – producing a report for a PERIOD, such as one week, year, or month, even if that period ends today, will produce the GENERAL format. The GENERAL format consolidates a lot more financial categories and will be very useful and helpful to you. To help your bookkeeper you might try printing it to screen, then right-click it and export to NOTEPAD. This produces a text file that any fool can read and understand, and copy and paste numbers.
If you use MISC CASH to do bank deposits or withdrawals, you may have to change the payment codes for it to work properly, though it does try to search for any misc.payments bthat contain the words BANK or DEPOSIT or WITHDRAWAL.

If you use the Bank-deposit screen to do deposits (& withdrawals) then that means you are using the transaction journal so it gets its banking figures from there.

You understand I’m sure that BALANCES are dynamic things. In other words, how much you have out on the street in pawns changes from day to day, so does inventory. That’s why previously it has been impossible to create a data-table based report that counts balances (cheques, pawns, inventory, etc) for any day other than TODAY. But after a few weeks of head scratching we came up with ways to reconstruct most of these balances for any day in history, making the new report possible. You can print the new report either to a 3” paper tape or to a full page.

Go to OFFICE—CONFIG—PRINTERS and click REBUILD LIST to see the new reports and set up their printers.

The transaction journal reports are not changed and don’t need to be. Their balances are all frozen. For any day in history it is possible to take a starting balance - add and subtract all the subsequent transactions, and come up with a (hypothetical) current balance. That’s basically what the transaction journal does.

Click here to see sample

Too much data to export to Excel ...

Q: Is there a way to export our gun log to excel? ATF will accept an electronic copy instead of a printed copy. We are required to print one every year..

A: The gunlog has an “Export to Excel” button at the bottom left.

Q: When I try to export we get this error ....
Error No: 2306
Error Description: There are too many rows to output, Based on limitation specified by the output format or by Dazzle Pawn
Line No: 1450
Procedure: CMDEXPORT_CLICK
VBA Document FORM_FRMEDITGUNLOG

A: If your gunlog is very big you might have to do it in 2 sections. Maybe more.
Set a filter for everything through (say) year 2000, and export.
Then repeat for 2001-2009.

Q: Thanx, looks like that will work...

The security code is not in security profiles

Q: A few people have asked us lately: When installing a new version or a new feature, it comes up with a screen that asks for authorization. What do I do if the security code I need to authorize is not in the list in the "security profiles" screen?

A: Whenever the number you want does not pre-exist in the list, please go to the bottom of the security profiles list and just type in a new row – For example the new transaction tape requires code 23. If that isn't there, go to the bottom and type in 23, then “Transaction Tape (for description)”, then check the "allow" box, then put “Reports” in the last column.

You'll need to logout and login again to complete the process.

Disappearing Fonts

It's a pesky problem and it hasn't gone away. On Windows XP and Windows 2003 computers, everything works fine till you reboot them, then some of the fonts are missing.

Symptoms of missing fonts are:

• Bar-codes print as numbers, not barcodes.
• Bold numbers on labels are not bold.
• Words don't "fit" properly on some screens, or they are cut-off.
• Reports have ####### in some columns.

We have discovered that this is caused by an obscure registry "permissions" problem. It is very easy to fix because we created a special utility program to fix it for you. Just click here. to download this program. (download password needed). Save it to your computer, then double-click it to run it. That should fix the problem. You can copy it to any other station and run it there too, if needed. You'll need to be logged into Windows as an administrator to run it successfully.

(Dazzle Support)