Tax Management
What are we solving?
Implement a user-centred Tax Management feature that simplifies tax calculations, enhances compliance accuracy, and streamlines tax-related workflows for brewery owners and staff, ultimately optimizing their brewing operations.
How did we solve it?
Developed a user-friendly interface that empowers users to create Categories and Zones, and establish rates tailored to their tax requirements.
Categories can accommodate a variable number of products and zones, enabling users to incorporate diverse customers as required.
Ultimately, users have the flexibility to configure an unlimited number of rates by selecting the appropriate category and zone.
Outcomes & Lessons
The new Tax Management feature significantly improves the user experience of brewery owners and staff by simplifying tax calculations, automating processes, and enhancing compliance accuracy.
Users now have a comprehensive tool that empowers them to efficiently manage tax-related tasks within the Brewery Management Software, reducing the risk of errors and financial penalties.
Keg Returns
What are we solving?
A significant pain point for Brewery drivers and Inventory managers is the absence of a dedicated Keg Returns feature, leading to challenges in tracking, managing, and processing kegs from their customers.
How are we solving it?
The outlined plan was to offer drivers a quick on-the-go feature, allowing them to record the return of a certain amount of kegs during delivery or pick-up at customer premises.
A drop-down menu within the order record will display the option to 'Return Kegs,' which will open a drawer to enter the number of kegs the driver is picking up. This amount will be applied immediately as a credit to the specific order.
The credited amount cannot exceed the order total; if this occurs, the user must create a credit memo.
This is the first feature being developed in Ollie, with a 'Mobile first' approach in mind.
Outcomes & Lessons
This quick win allows users to easily return the kegs at their client’s facilities and applying credits on the spot. Customer feedback has been very positive so far.
Merging Ingredients
What are we solving?
The lack of a streamlined Recipe Ingredient Merging feature leads to duplicate entries and potential discrepancies in recipes. Recognized that brewery staff struggle with manually cross-referencing and reconciling similar ingredients, resulting in time-consuming tasks and the risk of recipe brewing errors and bad data on reports.
How are we solving it
Designed an interface that displays potential ingredient matches when adding or editing a recipe, allowing users to easily select and merge duplicate entries.
Implemented a suggestion mechanism that intelligently identifies similar ingredients based on name, type, and other parameters.
Developed a preview option to show users how the merged ingredient will impact existing recipes before finalizing the merge.
Outcomes & Lessons
This feature simplified a major error-inducing action in the system by allowing our users to correct their errors and duplicated items. The implemented feature has helped users tremendously, and support tickets have been significantly reduced.
Record packaging
What are we solving?
Users require an intuitive and cohesive interface to efficiently record package runs, while also enabling them to predict negative inventory and take necessary actions. They should be able to incorporate a bill of materials and provide notes to the packaging team. Presently, these functionalities are available, but they are scattered throughout the tank actions.
How are we solving it?
Numerous interviews were conducted with Implementation Managers and Brewing Experts.
The primary interface consolidates all functions in one place, reducing clicks for users and providing control over the packaging process, along with the ability to make later edits.
A mobile-first interface was implemented, facilitating users to record this process from their mobile devices.
Outcomes & Lessons
The feature is currently in beta release with 5 customers, and we are actively collecting feedback and prioritizing integrations to improve the user experience for an Alpha release.