The big picture
Three themes run through 6.0. First, order entry was rebuilt as a clear, step-by-step flow that also works on a phone. Second, whole tools moved onto the web — most notably Customer Inquiry and the Interface Tool, which previously required the old X-Windows "green screen." Third, the app got more personal and easier to navigate, starting with a brand-new home page.
You should be able to look up a customer, check a balance, place an ad, and see what needs your attention — all in the browser, without ever opening the old green screen.
Your new home screen
After you sign in, you now land on a personal Command Center instead of a plain welcome page: a greeting, your pinned shortcuts, a live "needs your attention" list, and a searchable grid of every tool you're allowed to open. It has its own full walkthrough — this is the short version.
A launchpad, not a welcome page
One organized screen to start every session: greeting, quick shortcuts, what needs doing, where you left off, and all your tools.
Pin your favorite tools
Click the pin on any tool to promote it to a favorites bar at the top. No pins yet? You get sensible shortcuts for your role automatically.
"Needs your attention"
Live counts of work waiting on you — approvals, pending items, saved ad searches — each opening straight to the right place.
Quick Order Entry
The display-ad order screen was rebuilt from the ground up into a modern, step-by-step wizard — clearer to follow, harder to make mistakes on, and now usable on a phone or tablet. Many capabilities from the desktop system came along with it.
A guided, step-by-step order screen
Order, Ad Info, Placement and Uploads are now clearly separated steps with clickable breadcrumbs and Back/Next buttons. After you submit, an "Order Submitted" panel stays on the page with the order number and next actions — no more pop-up that vanishes on a stray click.
Works on phones and tablets
No more content running off the side of a small screen: the step bar scrolls and centers itself, Back/Next stick to the bottom, and calendars and dropdowns stay within the screen.
Edit an ad that has already started
You can now edit an ad even after some dates have run. Dates already run or billed show as locked (a "locked" badge appears); future dates stay editable, and a locked date can never be dropped by accident.
A heads-up before re-billing
If an edit would change the price of dates that were already billed, the final Save shows exactly how the amount changes and warns that an adjustment will post to the customer.
Place ads past deadline
Dates whose deadline has passed now show in amber. Most users can't pick them; users with the override permission can, after a "place anyway?" confirmation. The auto date-fill only chooses on-time dates.
Upsells & Attributes step
A new step shows the add-ons configured for each product, chosen in a searchable "available / selected" picker. Charge items are badged and the price updates as you toggle them. The step only appears when a product actually has upsells.
One "Adjust Price" dialog
The old multi-dialog override flow is now a single modal for both the whole-order override and per-product overrides (including $0). A reason is required and remembered, and an "OVERRIDE" marker shows in the breakdown.
A better publication-dates calendar
One modal with an inline calendar: click dates directly, fill a From/To range, quick-fill a number of buys, and an "every other week" option that only appears for weekly schedules. Color-coded legends keep past-deadline and already-billed dates clear and un-loseable.
Smarter fields that reject bad values
Dropdowns like Ad Category filter as you type and clear anything that isn't a real option when you leave the field (and no more browser autofill pop-up). Products you pick show as removable chips.
An actionable "required fields" list
Try to submit with something missing and you get a list grouped by step — each entry a button that jumps you straight to that field, scrolls it into view, and highlights it.
Confirm before losing work
Removing a product or leaving a page mid-order now asks first (naming the product it's about to remove), so a stray click can't wipe out an in-progress order.
Move between entry and inquiry
Look up a customer in Customer Inquiry and "Place Display Ad" opens Quick Order Entry with them loaded. From a customer's ad history you can Edit or Pick Up a display ad directly in Quick Order Entry.
Faster loading & tidier notes
The screen shows a shimmering placeholder immediately instead of a blank flash. Ad notes moved to a cleaner card with per-note actions, and creating a new customer now correctly loads the template list.
Classified Order Entry
Classified (liner) order entry gained the same modern conveniences as Quick Order Entry, plus a few of its own. It now starts from Customer Inquiry, so every classified ad is tied to the right customer from the outset.
Start from Customer Inquiry
Classified OE no longer has its own customer search. You pick the customer in Customer Inquiry and launch Classified OE for them; their name, account, contact and billing type carry straight in.
Edit ads that have already started
Edit a classified ad after some dates have run. Already-run dates show locked and can't be removed; the ad re-prices as you change it, and re-billing a posted date asks for confirmation.
Adjust price — whole ad or per product
The same Adjust Price override as Quick Order Entry: override the total or an individual product's price, including $0 (free). A reason is required and shown again when you reopen the ad.
Place past deadline (with permission)
The old per-product "Override" button became a permission-driven model matching Quick Order Entry: past-deadline dates are amber and disabled unless you have the override permission, with a legend explaining the colors.
Past dates no longer dropped when editing
Past-but-never-posted dates now show (soft blue, labeled "Past date — not yet posted") and are kept when you close the picker and save. Previously they were silently lost.
Optionally skip the payment step
A "Prohibit Payment" permission makes Classified OE skip the credit-card step entirely — replaced by a "Your Information" contact step. The ad is still priced and shows a receipt, and submits unpaid.
Better ad-copy editing
Pasting formatted text no longer dumps raw HTML, pressing Tab indents inside the field instead of jumping away, and a per-package "Strip Formatting" option forces plain text end-to-end. Uploaded Word/PDF files flow into the ad body.
Address autocomplete
The contact form suggests addresses as you type and fills the fields when you pick one.
Ad Category is its own column & a stricter picker
Ad lists now show Ad Category as a separate column (Description keeps the real description). The Ad Category field itself became a type-to-filter picker that rejects anything that isn't a real category.
Uploaded logos archived; dead action hidden
A logo uploaded with a classified ad is now archived through AdMAX, and "View in Track" is hidden for classified liner ads where it doesn't apply.
Predefined Buys (packages)
"Predefined buys" are pre-built packages an operator can drop into an order. In 6.0 they get a modern setup editor and a much better picker inside order entry, and CAS becomes the system of record — changes flow through to AdMAX.
A guided package editor
The old maintenance page is replaced by a step-by-step editor (Type, Basics, Products, Scheduling, Web Display, Styles, Classifications, Sizes, Review) with one Save button. Fields adapt to the package's type.
Correct package types
The type picker now offers the four real types — Classified Liner, Classified Display, Preprint, Retail — with the stray/mislabeled options gone, and only shows fields that apply to the chosen type.
A browseable package picker in order entry
The single dropdown became a searchable card grid that scales to 100+ packages, filtered to only the packages that match the ad type you're entering. When you customize, each product is an opt-in row whose details load only when you check it.
Change ad type mid-order
The Ad Type no longer locks once you've added products. Change it and CAS asks to confirm, then clears the product items while keeping your order going.
Packages look like packages
A scheduled or reopened package now shows in the cart under its own name and lists its member publications, instead of misleadingly showing only the first publication.
Package sizes steer the order
When a package has specific sizes configured, order entry offers only those sizes. A new "Allow custom ad size" toggle (on by default) controls whether the custom-size option stays available.
Scheduling date fixes
Package run dates no longer shift a day earlier for users in Central/Pacific time, and "every other week" now only appears for weekly schedules where it makes sense.
Run one ad across versions, clearly marked
"Create a new version for each publication date" now sends each date as its own distinct version, and a small "V" chip flags a versioned entry in the cart. Genuinely multi-version ads are steered to AdMAX for safe editing.
Customer Inquiry
This is one of the headline changes: the customer-account inquiry tool that used to run only in the old X-Windows green-screen client is now a full page in the web app. You look a customer up once and their whole account is on one modern screen.
green screen→Customer Inquiry on the web
The whole tool, now in the browser
Account summary, balances, ads, payments, contacts, notes and more — all on one page. Reps no longer switch to the legacy client to see an account.
Look up a customer
Search by Name, Phone, Customer ID or Address — plus alternate ID, Invoice Number, Ad Number and a created-date range — with results in a sortable, configurable grid.
Several customers open at once
Opening a customer keeps a tab for them, so you can work several side by side and switch instantly — instead of exiting and re-entering for each one.
Account health at a glance
A summary card shows the customer, their sales rep, Total Due, an aging status (worst past-due bucket, color-coded), a credit-used gauge, and a prepay-required flag.
Balances & invoices
The full balance breakdown — posted/pending, unapplied credits, prepayments and the invoice list — matching the legacy inquiry, with drill-down into the underlying ad or invoice.
Ad history you can act on
Every ad the customer placed, searchable, with row actions to open in Track, or Edit/Pick Up in the right order-entry screen — something the green-screen inquiry could not do.
Full payment history
Recent payments with a "Full History" toggle, plus how each payment was distributed across invoices, and unapplied payments.
Notes you can add and edit
Customer and credit notes aren't just viewable — you can add, edit and delete them right where you research the account.
Contacts, day-by-day & deep research
Contacts with click-to-call/email, a day-by-day transaction ledger for any date range, plus Disputes, Make Goods, Writeoffs, Credit Links, Credit Card Log, Agencies, Aliases and Contracts — all migrated from the green screen.
Create a customer & see them on a map
Create a new customer straight from search (with a duplicate check) and, when there's a usable address, a location tile shows an embedded map — something the green screen never had.
Make the view yours
Collapse or hide sections you don't use, filter the section list, and read a short plain-language description on each section. The tool remembers your layout.
Payments & billing
The customer-facing e-bill portal and the payment steps got a round of clarity fixes and conveniences.
Clearer e-bill statements
The e-bill ad list now shows Ad Category as its own column and keeps the real description, so ads no longer show repeated or blank text.
E-bill display & link fixes
The customer name reads cleanly, a single billing contact loads correctly, invoice links appear only when there are invoices, and clicking an ad opens the right ad.
Pay a specific invoice from a link
Opening e-bill from an invoice link auto-selects that invoice and starts the payment flow, then tidies the link so a refresh behaves normally.
Address autocomplete when paying by card
The credit-card billing address offers autocomplete (with a search-by-company toggle); picking a suggestion fills address, city, ZIP, state and country.
Account & sign-in
Account self-service got safer and clearer, especially for sites using single sign-on.
Set up security questions for the first time
Account Info now lets you create security questions, not just edit existing ones — the button reads "Set Up Security Questions" when none exist. This also unblocks password reset for those users.
Single sign-on users see the right options
Users who sign in via SSO or Active Directory no longer see Change Password or Security Questions (with a short note explaining why), and forgot-password tells them to contact IT instead of sending a dead reset email.
Sign-in fixes
The Forgot Password link works on newly set-up sites, the built-in admin account can change its password again, and the most privileged "root" account can no longer create a login token.
Lists, grids & exports
Improvements here show up across the whole app, wherever you see a table of records.
CSV & PDF export works again
Newer-style grids that returned "Failed to generate report" now export cleanly to both CSV and PDF.
Sorting sorts the right column
Column sorting was corrected across several tables (including Customer Inquiry and the Interface Tool), so clicking a header sorts by that column.
Smarter columns
Grids can start with less-used columns hidden, the column panel has a mini search box, column filtering is back, and toolbar buttons show tooltips.
Clearer row actions & bigger results
Rows with a menu now show an icon and support right-click, and maintenance searches return many more results (up to 2,000) before truncating.
Interface Tool
For the operators who configure how ad files flow into SCS: the Interface Tool — where each ingestion "interface" and its field mappings are defined — has moved off the green screen into the web. (This one is for administrators; the green-screen tool still works too.)
int_manager→Interface Tool on the web
Configure interfaces in the browser
A five-tab editor (Main, Alerts, Custom Fields, Destinations, Mappings) mirrors the old tabbed screen and writes exactly the same runtime configuration — no terminal access needed.
At-a-glance interface health
Each interface shows a colored status dot and a pending-file count: green (healthy), yellow (backed up), steady red (down), pulsing red (stuck). See whether an interface is running without logging into the server.
Field mappings as real grids
The value-mapping tables are now the same sortable, searchable, paged grids used elsewhere in CAS, with a right-click "Copy" to duplicate a mapping row.
Pick field names from a list
Field-name inputs across the mapping editors are now drop-downs of known SCS fields (you can still type your own), with an XML-path hint when you pick a known field and a guard that blocks conflicting mapping rules.
Destinations & alerts, self-service
Route an interface's output to downstream apps with a checklist, manage the shared applications registry, and maintain the email alert list — all from the web.
Limited to authorized admins
The tool (renamed from "Interfacing" to "Interface Tool") is only visible to root/admin accounts that hold the Interface Tool permission, since it affects live ad ingestion.
How to test it all
Everything in this tour has a matching, tick-off check in the companion checklist — grouped into small modules, with a progress bar so you can see how far you've gotten. It remembers what you've checked, and you can print it.
Start small
Pick one module (say, "Customer Inquiry") and work its checks top to bottom. Each is a single concrete action with an expected result — no technical knowledge required.