Check “Mercury Background Tasks” Is Running

This utility is installed either on your server console, or on your main pc which holds the service/stock databases (i.e. not on the client pc’s), and when running the ‘Mercury’ icon (grey/black circle within a black square) is displayed down near the time in the system tray area.

It is very important that you periodically check to see whether the utility is running correctly as it is responsible for – among other things – the backup of your service and stock SQL databases.  Double-click the icon to display the information panel, and check that the screen does not list dozens of ‘Unable to start task…’ messages, which can occasionally happen.  If it does display these messages, or the icon cannot be found down near the system tray, follow the instruction below to restart the utility.

• To terminate the utility if it is stuck:  Right-click the icon and select ‘Exit’.
• To start or restart Mercury Background Tasks utility:  Click START -> ALL PROGRAMS -> STARTUP and select Mercury Background Tasks.  Once the utility panel is displayed, you can minimize or close the utility screen (which will still run in background).

Mercury Background Tasks is vital to the safe running of Mercury Systems, so please periodically check (perhaps at least once per week) that the utility is running as intended.

If you have any questions about this, please call.

Xmas & New Year Support Hours

For normal enquiries / conversations / training, I will not be available on:-

• Monday 24^th December (Xmas Eve)
• Tuesday 25^th December (Xmas Day)
• Wednesday 26^th December (Boxing Day) 
• Tuesday 1^st January (New Year’s Day)

That said, if you have an urgent issue that needs my assistance, I should be available after 2:30pm on the days listed above, and after 1:30pm on all other days (i.e. as usual).

*** IMPORTANT - For those of you that use Skype ***

Please remember that if you have an urgent problem that occurs outside of normal hours or on weekends, for a quicker response please email me in the first instance instead of using Skype – this is because outside of normal working hours, I check my email all the time, however I rarely check Skype for messages.

Enjoy the mince pies and mulled wine!

Producing Credit Notes

A customer of mine who runs a high-street shop was recently subjected to a surprise 7 hour tax examination by HM Revenue &Customs.  During the audit HMRC stated that if you raise a credit note, you must record the customer’s name and address on the note.  This is presumably so HMRC can check with the customer that you did in fact refund money to them. 

Fortunately this customer had been doing everything right with regards to operating the stock system, maintaining records and raising credit notes etc., however I know some of you will not be aware of this requirement.

You can still sell an item to an unknown customer (i.e. you can still select ‘Counter Sales Customer’), but when refunding money you must create a customer record first (if it doesn’t already exist) and then select that record when raising the credit note.

Any questions please call…

New Feature Now Available: Show/Hide Toggle For Service and Stock screens

If you suffer from the problem of having too many Mercury Service Manager and Mercury Stock Manager forms open so that the Mercury Systems desktop and tab-bar gets ‘cluttered’ with too much information, you can now use new options to temporarily hide certain groups of screens to tidy-up the desktop.  This is useful if, for example, you are working on the stock system and a service call must be booked – you can now temporarily hide the stock screens whilst logging the service call, then reveal the stock screens again to continue where you left off. 

These new options are displayed within the Mercury Systems ‘General’ tab, however they are also available as short-cut keys, described as follows:-

Use CTRL-Q to Hide Service Forms, Show Stock Forms

Use CTRL-A to Hide Stock Forms, Show Service Forms

Use CTRL-Z to Show All Hidden Forms

You can also use CTRL-S to Close All Open Forms…

This feature is available in build version 146 and higher (the build number is displayed on the login screen). 

If this new feature is of interest, please contact me to arrange an update of your system.