Labor of love

Labor Day in the US is fast approaching. For most of the country, that probably means that your business is starting to slow down – and many vendors and retailers use this last, big holiday to close out excess summer inventory. It also means we’re inching closer to the release of the September 2018 version of Ascend!

Limited support: The support line will be closed from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm CST on Wednesday, August 29th for an all-staff meeting. If you need an answer right away, our self-help resources can help you troubleshoot the issues we see most commonly or show you how to use the most common features in Ascend. If you still need help, just leave us a message, and we’ll get back to you ASAP when we’re available!

Mark your calendars: The September 2018 version of Ascend was released to our Early Release retailer group on August 21, and that means we’re less than a month away from releasing the latest version of Ascend to all retailers worldwide!

This version of Ascend brings the following great new features:

• The Service Center combines the Work Orders Due and Work Orders Ready for Pick-Up screens and lets you quickly view and manage your pending repairs and builds.
• The Reservations Center lets you monitor your reservations which will require attention soon (on a single date, over a three-day block, or over an entire week).
• If you’ve been struggling with Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) losing connection to your inventory scanner every time there’s a Windows® update, we’ve added the ability to configure it to act as a USB Mass Storage Device (external drive). (In the meantime, check out our My inventory scanner isn’t connecting to Windows Mobile Device Center knowledge base article to learn how to resolve the issue. You will still need WMDC in order to install any new scanners.)
• To keep your QuickBooks® inventory totals in line with historical entries, Inventory Adjustment Unit Costs can only be entered when the product has a stock quantity of 0.
• Reservations cannot be opened on multiple workstations. Multi-store locations can edit Reservations created at any other location up until a Rental transaction is created for it. At that point, all locations can still view the Reservation – but only the location that created the transaction can make changes.
• View the total number of times a specific Rental Item has been reserved. Multi-store retailers can also see how many units another location has in stock for a Rental Product.
• Multi-store Transfers use the sounds configured in Options > General > Play Sound When Receiving Products > Audio Files. On the Check-In Transfers screen, choose to immediately Scan and Receive items or Scan and Select (for additional actions prior to checking them into your inventory).
• Deliver scheduled reports to an SFTP
• Customize the way your transaction receipts display.
• And lots more!

And as an added bonus, we’ve added Spain to our international family with this release. ¡Hola, España!

The September 2018 version of Ascend will be released to all retailers in North America on September 11, and to the rest of the world on September 12. Want to get in on new releases earlier? Join one of our beta programs!

Sale away: Do you have a bunch of post-season leftovers that just need to get cleared out of the store? Ascend Promotions are a great way to set a lot of items to be discounted, without changing the original price (and thus showing your customers what a deal they’re receiving) or requiring your employees to do it manually for every item.

You can set up Promotions to discount specific products or an entire category, and you can set the discount to only apply during a specific timeframe (e.g. Labor Day weekend) or effectively forever. Learn more in our How do I create a sales promotion? knowledge base article.

Saris Labor Day sale: Today (August 24) through Labor Day (September 3), select Saris car racks are on sale for both you and your customers. We’ve made it easy to run this Promotion in Ascend – just download Saris Sale using the Promotion Wizard (click the Wizard button on the upper toolbar in Database Explorer > Promotions).

Sherpa rewards: We recently announced a winner for our Watch Now, Play Later Xbox One S giveaway. Thanks to everyone who joined in – we had a great response, and we hope you all learned something new about the great features that Ascend offers. But we’re not done with the prizes just yet – this month, three lucky Sherpas will each win a $50 Amazon gift card!

So, what do you need to do? Just complete each of the 89 Ascend University modules with a score of at least 80%. That’s it – no additional forms to complete. Get the full rules, or jump right in! Don’t already have an Ascend University or Trek University account? Learn how to set one up.

---

Tags: Amazon, ascend support, Ascend U, Ascend update, AU, Beta, Contest, Gift Card, giveaway, holiday, Labor Day, limited support, new release, On Sale, Outage, prizes, Promotion Wizard, promotions wizard, Release, Sale, Sale Wizard, Saris, September 2018, Sherpa, sherpa rewards, software update, Spain, Support, wizard