Welcome to The Dream Catcher Co-op from Kapiti in New Zealand. This wonderfully named co-op has been testing lettuceshare over the last few weeks, and did their first group purchase over the weekend.
lettuceshare has always had support for multiple timezones, but having a group outside Australia has led to some improvements and it's now working really well. So if you run a buying group anywhere in the world, lettuceshare can help!
Last week I talked about creating your own Special Buying Groups on lettuceshare. They are useful if you want to create special orders with different dates and stock lists to your usual buying routine. Another feature of these groups is that you can invite other buying groups to join in.
I'm hoping invitations is an area where lettuceshare can grow in the future. It could change the system from being one used by multiple distinct groups, into a network of co-operating buying groups, that discuss and help each other with their orders.
The invitation system was written at the same time as the new groups feature, so they are designed to work together. To use it, the first thing you want to do is join the invite-notifications group. At the moment this is done on request, so email info@lettuceshare.org with you username. Once you've joined this group you will be able to add other accounts yourself.
Joining the invite-notifications group gives you access to a new page at admin/invite. I'm going to use the same example as last week in the following screenshots, you will remember I created a special coffee order just for my group at Turnstyle. Now I want to extend this order to invite other groups, here's what the invite page looks like:
Since I created the order for Turnstyle, the invitation for this group was automatically accepted. Now I want to invite other groups to join, so I've selected Sovereign Foods and clicked invite.
Only buying groups where a member has joined the invite-notifications group are shown here. When I clicked invite, my Sovereign Foods account gets a notification:
Now that I've logged in to my Sovereign Foods account on lettuceshare, I can see that I've got a new notification. Clicking on the notification takes me to the invite page, where I can decide if I want to accept or decline the invitation on behalf of Sovereign Foods:
It shows me the description of the new buying group, and the account that created it in case I want to contact them for more details. If someone else from my group had already accepted or declined the invitation, it would show that too. I'm going to decline the invitation for Sovereign Foods, and log out.
Now I'll log back in to lettuceshare with my Turnstyle account. As the creator of the order, the invite page will show me the current status of my invitations:
That's all there is too it. The creator of the special order can always remove invitations, whether they've accepted or declined. When you accept an invitation on behalf of your group, all your members will see the new option on their home page. You're effectively adding the number of people in your group to those who have already joined, increasing the buying power for the order.
I usually write a blog post welcoming new buying groups to lettuceshare.org, this month I'd like to welcome Sovereign Foods, a distributor. The same software that collates orders for each group turns out to be quite useful if you're a distributor too, it gives you collations of collations! ....woah I need to go lie down for a little while :-)
I'd like to introduce another new feature I've been working on. It started with an update you would've already noticed if you use lettuceshare, at the top page of the purchase page there's a message that describes your group:
In this example for my group, Turnstyle, it just shows the date I'm purchasing on. For groups that pre-order, it will tell you how much time you have left to order. You might be wondering though, why does it includes your group's name? After all, what other group could you buy from? This is where Special Buying Groups come in, let me give you an example.
One of the things you should know about me is that I really like my coffee. Walking down to my local roastery to buy a bag of beans has become part of my weekly routine. Our group has also run some trials to buy bulk quantities at a discount. What makes this difficult though, is that we don't pre-order at Turnstyle. This makes the group more accessible for members who just want to drop in on a Wednesday night, but we want to make sure all the coffee has been purchased each week, since it's more expensive than most produce. How can we make sure this happens when we don't pre-order?
A Special Buying Group group allows us to do this. As a group administrator, I can create a new ordering group for Turnstyle members to pre-order coffee, without affecting our normal weekly purchase. I can give my coffee order it's own opening and closing times, when the order opens Turnstyle members will see a new option on their home page:
 When they select the coffee option, the description is updated for the new group, and whether or not I've placed an order. Clicking the order here link takes me to the purchase page, which is updated for this order:
Purchases made in a Special Buying Group are added to the members normal invoice, they still just pay for their normal account. This new feature allows multiple buying groups to be run simultaneously, each with their own opening and closing dates. It's even possible to delay providing a closing date and just creating an "open order". This can be used in conjunction with stock tracking to allow items to be ordered until they're "out of stock". You can keep an eye on how close your quotas are to being met, and when they're full you can close the order.
This is available now! If you're a group administrator, the group settings dialog has been updated to allow you to create new groups:
Once you click create, you will be editing the group settings for the new group:
You can click through each of the sections like you would for you default group. The name of the group you are updating is displayed in the title bar of the dialog for reference. Some sections aren't shown because they aren't required. For instance you don't need to reconfigure your invoices as your default group settings are always used.
Once you've created a new group, you will need to create special supplier accounts and products on the stock page. Both the stock page and the new report page will let you know what group you are currently viewing.
I've provided just one example of how Special Buying Groups can be used, I would love to hear how you use it. What happens if your Special Buying Group has some really big quotas to fill? Next week I'll talk about how you can invite other groups to join your special order.
I just noticed that Google have updated their page ranking system for mobile friendliness, so I ran lettuceshare.org through their testing system to make sure it was ok. Nice to see that it's happy with it!
Along with the changes there's been quite a few software updates over the last few months. I plan on talking more about these over the coming weeks, for now I'd like to introduce a new page: Reports!
If you're a group administrator, or a member of a finance or stock team, you can now view reports for your group by visiting the page admin/report.
This page provides a summary of all the information available about your group, including orders, purchases, payments and sales. If you want to look at a range of dates, it will display the results for you in a nicely formatted graph.
There's also a grid to display how well quotas are being met for the next order:
And there's also a grid to display information about your members. You can use it to check when members last purchased, when their membership is due, and other options depending on how your group is configured.
If you used the old one you will notice there's no longer a separate import form at the top of the page. Those options are no longer required because the whole process is automated. Besides making importing faster, there are also more options for viewing what's available from suppliers and to customers. Multiple updates can also be made at once by selecting multiple rows.
I'm hoping people get comfortable with the new version while things are quiet over the holidays. Let me know if you have any feedback or questions, my contact details are at the bottom of the page.
thanks :-)
Dream Catcher
Welcome to The Dream Catcher Co-op from Kapiti in New Zealand. This wonderfully named co-op has been testing lettuceshare over the last few weeks, and did their first group purchase over the weekend.
lettuceshare has always had support for multiple timezones, but having a group outside Australia has led to some improvements and it's now working really well. So if you run a buying group anywhere in the world, lettuceshare can help!
lettuceshare as a network of buying groups
I'm hoping invitations is an area where lettuceshare can grow in the future. It could change the system from being one used by multiple distinct groups, into a network of co-operating buying groups, that discuss and help each other with their orders.
The invitation system was written at the same time as the new groups feature, so they are designed to work together. To use it, the first thing you want to do is join the invite-notifications group. At the moment this is done on request, so email info@lettuceshare.org with you username. Once you've joined this group you will be able to add other accounts yourself.
Joining the invite-notifications group gives you access to a new page at admin/invite. I'm going to use the same example as last week in the following screenshots, you will remember I created a special coffee order just for my group at Turnstyle. Now I want to extend this order to invite other groups, here's what the invite page looks like:
Since I created the order for Turnstyle, the invitation for this group was automatically accepted. Now I want to invite other groups to join, so I've selected Sovereign Foods and clicked invite.
Only buying groups where a member has joined the invite-notifications group are shown here. When I clicked invite, my Sovereign Foods account gets a notification:
Now that I've logged in to my Sovereign Foods account on lettuceshare, I can see that I've got a new notification. Clicking on the notification takes me to the invite page, where I can decide if I want to accept or decline the invitation on behalf of Sovereign Foods:
It shows me the description of the new buying group, and the account that created it in case I want to contact them for more details. If someone else from my group had already accepted or declined the invitation, it would show that too. I'm going to decline the invitation for Sovereign Foods, and log out.
Now I'll log back in to lettuceshare with my Turnstyle account. As the creator of the order, the invite page will show me the current status of my invitations:
That's all there is too it. The creator of the special order can always remove invitations, whether they've accepted or declined. When you accept an invitation on behalf of your group, all your members will see the new option on their home page. You're effectively adding the number of people in your group to those who have already joined, increasing the buying power for the order.
Welcome Sovereign Foods
Introducing Special Buying Groups
In this example for my group, Turnstyle, it just shows the date I'm purchasing on. For groups that pre-order, it will tell you how much time you have left to order. You might be wondering though, why does it includes your group's name? After all, what other group could you buy from? This is where Special Buying Groups come in, let me give you an example.
One of the things you should know about me is that I really like my coffee. Walking down to my local roastery to buy a bag of beans has become part of my weekly routine. Our group has also run some trials to buy bulk quantities at a discount. What makes this difficult though, is that we don't pre-order at Turnstyle. This makes the group more accessible for members who just want to drop in on a Wednesday night, but we want to make sure all the coffee has been purchased each week, since it's more expensive than most produce. How can we make sure this happens when we don't pre-order?
A Special Buying Group group allows us to do this. As a group administrator, I can create a new ordering group for Turnstyle members to pre-order coffee, without affecting our normal weekly purchase. I can give my coffee order it's own opening and closing times, when the order opens Turnstyle members will see a new option on their home page:
 When they select the coffee option, the description is updated for the new group, and whether or not I've placed an order. Clicking the order here link takes me to the purchase page, which is updated for this order:
Purchases made in a Special Buying Group are added to the members normal invoice, they still just pay for their normal account. This new feature allows multiple buying groups to be run simultaneously, each with their own opening and closing dates. It's even possible to delay providing a closing date and just creating an "open order". This can be used in conjunction with stock tracking to allow items to be ordered until they're "out of stock". You can keep an eye on how close your quotas are to being met, and when they're full you can close the order.
This is available now! If you're a group administrator, the group settings dialog has been updated to allow you to create new groups:
Once you click create, you will be editing the group settings for the new group:
You can click through each of the sections like you would for you default group. The name of the group you are updating is displayed in the title bar of the dialog for reference. Some sections aren't shown because they aren't required. For instance you don't need to reconfigure your invoices as your default group settings are always used.
Once you've created a new group, you will need to create special supplier accounts and products on the stock page. Both the stock page and the new report page will let you know what group you are currently viewing.
I've provided just one example of how Special Buying Groups can be used, I would love to hear how you use it. What happens if your Special Buying Group has some really big quotas to fill? Next week I'll talk about how you can invite other groups to join your special order.
Mobile Friendly
New Look, New Features
Along with the changes there's been quite a few software updates over the last few months. I plan on talking more about these over the coming weeks, for now I'd like to introduce a new page: Reports!
If you're a group administrator, or a member of a finance or stock team, you can now view reports for your group by visiting the page admin/report.
This page provides a summary of all the information available about your group, including orders, purchases, payments and sales. If you want to look at a range of dates, it will display the results for you in a nicely formatted graph.
There's also a grid to display how well quotas are being met for the next order:
And there's also a grid to display information about your members. You can use it to check when members last purchased, when their membership is due, and other options depending on how your group is configured.
Stock Import 2.0
If you used the old one you will notice there's no longer a separate import form at the top of the page. Those options are no longer required because the whole process is automated. Besides making importing faster, there are also more options for viewing what's available from suppliers and to customers. Multiple updates can also be made at once by selecting multiple rows.
I'm hoping people get comfortable with the new version while things are quiet over the holidays. Let me know if you have any feedback or questions, my contact details are at the bottom of the page.