New Features Listing – Forge Ahead

New Features Listing – Forge Ahead version 4.1

Backroads Data proudly presents the newest release of Forge Ahead -- The Business Management System for Farriers. Forge Ahead version 4.1 contains many enhancements to the program you are currently using.

Even if you think the enhancements in this upgrade are not important to your operation, we strongly recommend taking a few moments to install this upgrade so that you are using the most current version of Forge Ahead software. This upgrade includes the following new features and improvements:

Scheduling Features

One exciting feature in version 4.1 is a new scheduling interface that displays appointments as horizontal bars positioned on a grid showing days and times. This tool provides 'Drag-n-drop’ functionality that makes moving and creating appointments quick and easy. The information displayed on the appointment bars can be customized to include what is most beneficial to you (such as customer name, city, phone, number of horses scheduled, or account balance). The schedule can be viewed in a weekly format or a monthly format. See Forge Ahead New Procedures for more information.
When adding horses to an appointment, the Horse Name drop-down list now includes each horse's Due Date next to the name.
When adding horses to an appointment, you can now select the number of previous visits to include in the "Last Services" box. The default is still 1, meaning it will show the services for the most recent visit. You can change the number to get info from the last 2, 3, or more visits. This can be changed for any single horse listed in an appointment, or the default can be changed to affect all horses in all appointments. See Forge Ahead New Procedures for more information.
The Daily Appointments report now includes the Time of the Next Appointment as well as the Date.

Accounting Related Features

You can now store credit card information on your customers. This information is accessible in both the Address area for contacts and in the "Post Money Received" form.
You can now send Invoices, Account History reports, and virtually any other report to your customers through email. See Forge Ahead New Procedures for more information.
Printed invoices will display line items in the order they were added to the invoice, in all invoice formats.
The Quick Checklist form for adding items to an invoice now includes a calendar button to select the Service Date.
The Sales By Product Report now includes Cost and Profit information. The Cost figures can be entered into the Products and Services list, accessible from the Money Matters Switchboard.
The Sales By Client Report now includes Credit Memos to offset sales amounts.
The Sales by Client Report includes an option to print each client's information on a separate page.
On Invoices and Account History/Statement Reports, if the client has a credit the words "Balance (Credit)" will appear instead of "Total Due".

Other New Features

You can now mark Contacts and Horses as Inactive on various forms throughout the program, without having to open the "Set Active Status" form. An "Inactive" checkbox appears on the People, Stables, Suppliers, and Horses forms, as well as on the Horse lists within People, Stables, and Appointments. (You will still need to use the "Set Active Status" form to change a record from Inactive to Active.)
The Email and Website fields that appear for your contacts have new buttons next to them, which will take you to the contact's website or create a pre-addressed email message to the contact.
If your contacts are sorted by First Name, the Contact Listing report will use the First Name sortation preference.
In System Utilities, the process that compacts your database files has been moved so that it now happens when you close System Utilities instead of when you open it.

Let us know how you like the new features in this upgrade!
You can contact Backroads Data via e-mail or by calling 785-594-6807.