Redforts Software wishes you a happy 2012!

We start our first bulletin of this year by wishing you and your dear ones the best for 2012. We have big plans for Oscar in 2012 with new and improved functionality that will make your life easier every time. Today we deliver the first chunk of that plan by activating new functions in Oscar. Some of you may recognise them, as there are quite some functions that were requested by our clients.

Multiple users

You can now create multiple users for your Oscar account and decide what every user can see and do. The user account that you are using at present is the main user account. Only the main user can manage users and define their permissions.

This opens the door the a number of possibilities: You can create a user that can do anything but is not able to see the financial reports; or create a user that can only see reservations but not create them. You are completely in control.

Before you can add new users you must set a security question for the main user. The security question is part of the password recovery procedure. We recommend all users to set a security question for improved protection.

This new functionality is available through the setup menu and is called Users. Read more about it on the help page.

Invoices for non-staying clients

Until now you could only create invoices for clients that stayed at your accommodation. From today, you can also create invoices for clients without an accommodation, but just enjoy your bar or restaurant, for example.

To use this new functionality simply go to the Invoice list and add the invoice. More information on this feature can be found in the help page.

It is now also possible to delete a reservation and create an invoice for the advance payment. As such, we vastly improved the way that reservations are deleted: the option to delete one is now always available on the timetable and on the reservation page and it presents a confirmation page with a nice overview of all related items.

Date indicator on timetable

On crowded timetables it was not always easy to tell the date of the mouse position. From now on the date for the mouse position is now clearly highlighted.

Other improvements

There are so many improvements, we just list the remaining ones. You can read all about them in the online help.

• New report: Overnight stays per sales channel.
• A column with reservation numbers is added to export invoices.
• On the Clients page you can now directly add a new client to your database.
• We added tooltips with a short explanation to some buttons at the top.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

All our news

You can find all our previous bulletins on the Redforts website in our news section and read back all news bulletins we published before. You will be surprised how much information there is.

We hope you will enjoy this new functionality and we invite you to continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for your trust.

Accommodation groups and more

A couple of new functions were added to Oscar today. Most noticeable is the introduction of accommodation groups. A very useful feature when you have a lot of accommodations with the same characteristics. Read all about this and other new functions in this bulletin.

Accommodation groups

Group your accommodations and define prices, applicable taxes, use of seasons and rates at the level of accommodation group. Using this functionality will save you time and will reduce the chances of error when introducing prices. Possible examples of accommodation groups are: Single room, Double room, Suite, etc.

To use this feature simply go to the configuration page and create your accommodation groups. After you have done so, set your accommodation group prices and assign your accommodations to the groups.

Accommodation information on the timetable

On the timetable you can now quickly see the most important characteristics of your accommodations. Simply place your mouse pointer on the accommodation name and a small window (tool tip) shows: the name, description, accommodation group, total capacity and adult capacity of the accommodation.

Public holiday presentation

The presentation of the list of public holidays has slightly changed. By default the list will only show future public holidays. If you would like to see all of them, just click on the new button «Show all holidays». Visit the Set up public holidays page and look for yourself.

Blocking periods and occupation statistics

You can easily block the timetable in periods of closure or maintenance without affecting the occupation statistics. Just draw a reservation block on the timetable and select the status «Not available» for the reservation. Herewith the period of the reservation is marked as non existing, thus assuring correct statistical reporting. Although this is not a new function of Oscar we thought we mention it as we have received various questions on the subject.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will enjoy this new functionality and we invite you to continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for your trust.

Improvements to the timetable & more

Today we activated a new version of Oscar with a number of timetable related features. First and foremost you will notice that the timetable loads quicker and scrolling is smoother. Secondly you will see a new and improved navigation bar and of course we incorporated a number of new functions, specifically requested by some of you.

Last but not least, for our Spanish based customers we incorporated an automated upload function for the "Policía Nacional" and "Mossos d'Esquadra".

Read all about it ...

Faster timetable

You can now move through your timetable much quicker and smoother than before. Just use your mouse wheel or the new navigation bar and notice the speed and smoothness of the movement. While you navigate through the timetable you will see that Oscar loads new information every now and then, showing a "loading..." message. Do not worry about that, just continue.

New navigation bar

A new vertical navigation bar has been introduced with buttons to move 1 day, 1 week or 4 weeks either forwards or backwards. If you want to go quickly to a specific date, use the calendar button and pick a date. Would you like to return to today, just click on the today's date in the top left hand corner of the timetable.

Current date

The current date is now shown at the top left corner of the timetable. Not only does it remind you of the date of today, it can also be used to quickly navigate back to the current date. Just click on it and the timetable shows the current date on the third line of the timetable.

Year indication

As a reminder and to avoid mistakes, we have introduced two small changes to the timetable presentation. One is that we now show in the top bar of the screen the year of the timetable shown. In addition the dates will be printed in red when you have have moved more than half a year forwards or backwards from today's date. Just jump with the calendar button half a year forward and see for yourself.

Automatic upload of "Partes de viajero"

If your business is in Spain, you can now automatically upload your "Partes de viajero" to the websites of the "Mossos d'Esquadra" or the "Policía Nacional". The upload to the "Guardia Civil" was already available. We would specifically like to thank our customers and owners of Mas Renart and Palacio San Bartolomé for helping us achieving this goal.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will enjoy this new functionality and we invite you to continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for your trust.

New functionality in Oscar

Over the last couple of months we have received quite some requests for new functionality in Oscar. We have started to work through the list of requests and are happy to tell you that today we have activated a number of them. Find below a brief explanation of these new features.

Confirmation receipt

If your client would like to receive a confirmation receipt and price quotation of a reservation, you can now create one. Simply go to the reservation page and hit the button «Confirmation receipt». The confirmation receipt details the reserved accommodation and all the charges you have created for the reservation. The receipt is created in PDF so you can send it to your customer by email or simply print it out.

Export invoices

All your quarterly invoice information can now be exported to file and loaded into a spreadsheet program. The file will show all your invoice data, taxes, totals etcetera. That is to say, all the information to manage your bookkeeping. You can find this functionality in the Reports page under Invoices. Just select the quarter you would like to see and click on the «Export invoices» button. Your bookkeeper will love it.

Front office adjustments

A slight change has been made to the front office of Oscar. This change will make it easier for people to fill in the form correctly. Most noticeable is the fact that the persons field is moved down and is by default set to 2.

Partes de viajeros

For our clients in Spain we have added a functionality which allows them to print out the guest registration cards in the official format called «Partes de viajero». In the Guests page a print button is added for this purpose. If your business does not reside in Spain you will not see this specific functionality.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will enjoy this new functionality and we invite you to continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for your trust.

Oscar: The client database

Today we activated an important new functionality of Oscar that reveals itself behind a new button called «Clients». This button gives you access to all client data and a lot of other functionality: you can look up clients, view contact details, view and browse the client history, create marketing mailing lists, export all your client data to a file and much more.

Find below some more detail on the most important new features:

Your client database

Over time you probably entered quite some client data in the reservation, guest and invoice section. Oscar has kept all that data for you, which you can now easily access and use. It can be that some of your clients have more than one client card in the database as they stayed more than once. In the «Clients» section you can now easily join these (duplicate) client cards.

Look up clients in the database

In the new «Clients» section you can quickly look up all your registered client data. Simply enter a search term, phone, email, name, surname or whatever combination and click on the «Search» button. A search result list is shown. Click on one of the entries and all client data is shown including its history of stays, reservations and invoices. The search mechanism is really very powerful. Try it out, you will be surprised.

Enter client data automatically

From now on you can register clients, that have stayed with you before, with a simple database search. When you register the client in the reservation or guests section or when you create an invoice, just enter a little information and look up the rest by using the «Search» button and let Oscar fill in the rest of the data.

View the client card

To view or edit client data, simply look up the client and press the «Card» button. All client data is shown, including its history of stays, reservations and invoices.

Send email to multiple clients

To send email to one or multiple clients, look them up in the «Clients» section, use the check box to select the ones you want and press the «Email BCC» button or create mailing lists for marketing purposes by clicking on «Email addresses».

Export all your client data

If you want to process your client data off-line on your computer. Go to the «Clients» section and click on the «Export all clients» button. A file for your computer is created.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help on this new feature. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will enjoy this new functionality and we invite you to continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for your trust.

Oscar: Report section updates

Today we have activated an update of Oscar. This revision introduces two new statistical reports and a number of small improvements to existing ones. In addition we implemented a slight change to the lay-out of the report page.

New statistical reports

To help our customers in Cyprus to comply with the local legislation, two new reports have been created: «Guest overnight stays» and «Statistics guests per country». These reports show the statistical information on overnight stays and geographic distribution of the guests, based on their nationality or country of residence.

As these reports reveal valuable information about your business, we have decided to make the reports available to all our customers. To enable the creation of reliable statistical information it is necessary to register dates of birth, nationality or country of residence.

Improved occupancy report

A new button has been introduced in the occupancy report. This button allows you to choose to see occupancy as an absolute number or a percentage of the total capacity. Simply click on the button to show the result on the screen.

Totals in financial reports

All financial reports now show totals for the period. With this it is even more simple to control your financial administration.

Need help?

Oscar has an extensive on-line help. If you cannot find an answer to your question do not hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will continue to send us your ideas and comments. Thanks for the trust you placed in us.