Thursday 10 December 2015

Windows Update KB3102429 causes issues with Dolphin emailing PDF's

Microsoft released an update on 25 November 2015. 

This update appears to break Crystal Report's ability to create PDF files specifically in version 8, 9 or 10 of Crystal Reports.

The update was a font support update, and currently appears to affect reports containing Arial font (this is unconfirmed at this stage) 

The issue may affect Dolphin 4 users, where the version is 4.448.34.67 or older (How do I check my Dolphin Version?). 

If you see an error that says "Unable to export to PDF" when trying to send a document by email from Dolphin anytime after the 25th November 2015 , and the following is true

- You are on Windows 7 or Windows 8 and have recently run updates
- You haven't had a Dolphin Upgrade in at least 4 years. 

Please contact your IT department to uninstall the update, as an immediate solution so you can continue working. 

If you do not have an IT department or provider, please contact us to assist with uninstalling the update. 

The update provides support for Azerbaijani Manat and Georgian Lari currency symbols, if you find that you require this update, please contact us to arrange an upgrade to your Dolphin Installation and the applicable Crystal Reports service packs following which you can run the update and will be able to continue working. 

Monday 26 October 2015

Office hours for the festive season 2015/2016


Melbourne Office
21, 22 and 23 December 2015  - 9 am – 1 pm AEDT
24 December – 9 am to 12 pm AEDT
Closed 25th December to 3 January 2016
4 – 8 January 2016 – 9 am – 1 pm
Normal office hours from Monday 11 January 2016 ( 8:00 am – 5 pm AEDT)

Johannesburg Office
Closing Friday 18 December at 12 pm
Re-opening Monday 11 January at 8 am

Invoicing and licenses for January
Note that the December invoices will be due by 15 December in South Africa and 22 December in Australia, this includes any direct debit payment arrangements.

Should your business remain open through the festive season, please note that admin and tech support staff will only be available after 4 January in Melbourne and 11 January in Johannesburg, please plan and make arrangements with us early in December to ensure the continuance of your license and no interruption of service to your business.

Emergency support will be available throughout the festive season on skype and email.

Skype : dolphinworxs.headoffice


Friday 18 September 2015

Enabling and Disabling the Auto Calc option in Estimating

One of the optional Setups in the estimating module is an Auto Calc option. 

When this setting is enabled, the quote or job will recalculate as you tab from field to field and make changes. 

If the setting is disabled, any changes made to the quote are not automatically calculated and you will need to manually trigger a recalc or refresh. 

The setting is useful only on older versions of Dolphin, and where the PC or server is a little older and slower than optimal, because when the hardware is not optimal, a recalc of a quote can take a couple of seconds. 

Our recommendation is that it should always be enabled, unless your hardware and network settings are a little on the slow side, and you prefer to get through the quote first in one go, and then calc everything to see the result. . 

The setting works per user - so individual users can choose to enable or disable it as per their preferences without affecting any other user in the company. 

This is how to enable or disable it . 

In the Estimating module, on the Calculate  Button, select the drop down to the right of the calculator image to expand the drop down menu 



Make sure that the Auto Calc option has a tick next to it ( as indicated in the image above) if you want the setting enabled. 

To disable it , click on it and remove the tick 

Thursday 23 April 2015

The final cut on Guillo setups

The setups for guillotines in dolphin are fairly standard , however , we've recently had a question about pre-trims, and how you can add a pre-trim to a job and also guillotine at the end .

The short answer is the pre-trim is already included in the Guillotine Setup -  here's some pictures and a bit more detail to help with understanding how to setup your guillotine or trims so you can get the costing you want.


Thursday 12 February 2015

Dolphin is a Multi-threaded application

We have recently been assisting clients who are upgrading their server machines and other computer hardware. 

In all cases , an external IT vendor has contradicted our advice and recommendations, and some clients have ended up with a slower system as result. 

Here is a plain English explanation of what you need to tell your IT provider so that they understand why they cannot recommend a lower spec machine than the one we recommend. 

Dolphin is a multi-threaded application. 

We have been told that some of the IT vendors will tell you that they have checked,  and it's a single threaded application. 

They are wrong, for 2 main reasons. 

1) They are not the developers of the program, and they really have no idea how the engine works. 

2) Dolphin is designed to produce vastly complex quotes and calculations as quickly as possible - so we fire in multiple queries across a multiple threads whenever we need to, to accomplish the fastest result possible. 

If you are looking to replace your hardware - please speak to us about the minimum requirements for Dolphin, as well as the optimal hardware setups required for both your server and your client machines. 

Please don't buy anything until your IT vendor has been put in touch with us to get a more realistic explanation of what hardware you will need. 

You wouldn't put second rate spare parts in your car, so why take the chance with fundamental equipment required to run your business ? 

Monday 9 February 2015

wild card searches in Dolphin 4

Did you know you can do a wildcard search on the grids in dolphin ? 

What it really means is you can search for things that contain the letters or part of the word you remember about a clients name ,  or address , or contact name.  

Here's how it works

Tuesday 27 January 2015

14 January Microsoft Windows Security updates affect the dolphin license server for a small number of clients

Recent windows updates for Windows 8, 8.1,  Sever 2012, and Server 2012 R2 may impact some clients.


A series of updates released by Microsoft on the 14th January appear to impact a small number of clients. 

The updates interfere with the normal operation of the license server for dolphin. 

If you see the above message when you login to Dolphin 4 shortly after installing any new security updates from Microsoft please call us and we'll have you up and running ASAP. 


Monday 5 January 2015

The Login Screen : so much info, on such a small screen

A login screen is just a login screen , right ? Ahh, but is it ?

Here's the skinny on exactly what the Dolphin Login screen has to offer , besides just a place to login.



As per the numbers on the image - here's a brief description of each item. 


1 – Shows the current version number
2 –The location (server name) where the dolphin database is installed
3 – The database name (the default is dolphin_mis)
4 – Link to the latest list of available versions of the software (and release notes)
5- Main DolphinWorxs website
6 – Login button which agrees to the End User License Agreement (EULA)
7 – Non-acceptance (cancellation of the login)
8 – Click this button to access and read or print the full EULA
9 – Link to the main global twitter account for DolphinWorxs
10 – User name drop down
11 – Password field