CMS Version 8.0.3 Release Notes

Introduction

CMS 8.0.3 includes the new USPS rates and services corresponding to their changes effective January 22nd, 2012.

The technology partner of the US Postal Service is Endicia and in CMS 8.0.3 we have added support for their latest Dazzle software version 12.1 to facilitate not only streamlined processing of domestic postal shipments but also greatly improved handling of international and APO shipments.

READ BEFORE USING 8.0

- Important information to prepare you for the transition to your new version of CMS.

Endicia settings moved to Workstation level – On any machine configured to use Endicia's Dazzle software, you will need to go into Setup>General>Workstation Specific>Shipping to tell CMS where to find Dazzle.exe. This setting was previously company-wide but now must be set uniquely for each machine. This allows you to have unique installation paths on each shipping machine. If you attempt to print a label without updating your configuration, CMS will prompt you to set these options before proceeding.

8.0.3 ENHANCEMENT DETAILS

1. 2012 USPS Rates - Rates and surcharges updated for January 2012 rate increase. Details on the USPS rate change can be found on the USPS site HERE. In short, all service levels experienced price changes, unlike last year where they split their rate changes over two dates.
   
   We recommend visiting Endicia's summary for a better breakdown of the USPS price changes that includes some useful interpretation that will help you better assess how the changes could affect your choices in shipping.
   
   Endicia is also running a webinar January 24th that we sat in on last week which proved valuable in understanding the new USPS changes and services. Click on the date link to register for their webinar. Slides to the webinar are also available HERE.

2. New USPS Services - USPS has added two new services that will be available on January 22nd:

   Express Mail Flat Rate Box - Similar to the popular flat rate boxes for Priority Mail, you get the box for free and can ship up to 70 pounds to any domestic location for $39.95

   Priority Mail Regional Rate Box C - Last year USPS introduced regional rate boxes which seemed best suited/priced to mid-weight shipments and came in two sizes, A and B. This year a third larger size C is now available allowing you to ship up to 25 pounds for the 17lb rate.

   Both of these service options are now available in CMS, including their corresponding rates.

3. Endicia APO and International - There are a lot of great reasons to use USPS and Endicia including free boxes, no fuel or residential surcharges, free Saturday delivery, and discounted "commercial base" rates so you pay less than the retail counter. The integration between CMS and Endicia's Dazzle software has made it fast and easy to process domestic shipments, just scan and your label will print! International and APO shipments, however, have been more challenging with customs forms, usually resulting in someone manually filling out those forms. Not anymore..
   
   We have improved the integration between CMS and Dazzle to make international and APO shipping just as fast and easy as domestic shipping, of course with a little help from Endicia. Some of that help comes in the form of a small 6x4 shipping label that has an integrated customs form. You have just one label to print that has your postage, ship-to and return addresses along with all the customs documentation necessary, and CMS will fill all of it out for you! Just scan (or type) your package barcode and you're done.
   
   This 6x4 form is small and allows up to five line items. For larger orders, a separate customs form will be required that handles up to 30 line items...but no fear there either as CMS will still provide the necessary data to Endicia allowing it to be completed and printed.
   
   Even if you choose not to use USPS for any of your domestic shipments, USPS can be a great option for your APO and international shipping needs. Priority Mail International Flat Rate is a popular international service and those flat rates are built into CMS. As an example, flats and small boxes are $12.95 to Mexico and Canada, $16.95 to other countries.
   
   To make these improvements possible, we've added the following settings and enhancements to CMS:

   1. Dazzle configuration - Added a new Options tab to Setup>Shipping>Carriers & Methods>Endicia. There you can specify if you want to use the 6x4 label options. If enabled, CMS will automatically use them for shipments of 5 items or fewer, otherwise will default to the standard customs forms and the layout you have setup to use with the package's shipping method.
      
   2. Workstation setting - In Setup>General>Workstation Specific>Shipping you'll need to tell CMS where your local install of Dazzle resides. This used to be a global setting for the network but now must be setup at the workstation level.
      
   3. Default customs value - According to Customs, every item has a value, even those you are not charging for. The best industry practice is to assign a small customs value to items that you sold for $0.00. This new setting, for a default customs amount to use for $0.00 items, can be found in Setup>Fulfillment>Fulfillment Options>Shipping. In customers we've worked with, $0.50 seems an acceptable value to use here.
      
   4. Harmonized Code - Sometime refereed to as the HS or HTS code, this classification code for customs is optional but, if you setup your products in CMS to include the HS code, CMS will include it in the data passed to Endicia for your customs forms.
      
   5. Manifest warnings - If you are attempting to process an APO or international shipment, CMS will warn you if any of the needed customs information is missing for the products being shipped (weight, price, description, and country of origin). After this warning you can either halt the shipment, add that data to CMS and reprocess, or ignore the error and add the missing data to the customs form in Dazzle (former preferred).
      
   6. Continue to Wait - In situations where you allow CMS to pass an incomplete shipment to Dazzle where you expect to add the missing customs information, instead of timing-out waiting for a response, CMS will now raise a "Continue to Wait?" option.
      
   7. 30 Customs Lines - CMS will now pass up to 30 line items for customs documents. In cases where you have more than 5 items or are not configured to use the 6x4 label, the larger customs forms will be used which accommodate up to 30 items.
      
   8. Customs Signer - CMS will now pass "Customs Signer" and "Customs Certify" to Dazzle, using the operator logged into CMS, so their name can be printed on the customs form and does not have to be physically signed or filled in.
      
      Call us with any questions or go to Endicia's site to sign up for their inexpensive Premium account with a free trial.
      

4. Customer - Last Modified - A new field has been added to the History tab of the Customer record to indicate when that customer was last edited. This compliments the other similar fields for when the customer was first added to your list and their first and last order. If you were to just update a customer's address, phone, email, resolve a todo, send an email, change a customer description code, etc.; any of those actions will update the last modified field.
   
   When you install your CMS update, a routine will be run to initially set this date corresponding to your last customer history event. Moving forward, that date will simply be updated by any customer edits.
   
   This field is currently for visual reference only. If you find you'd like to use this in other ways like printing, mail filtering or or other purposes, please let us know.
   
   

5. Bug Fixes and modifications