Cobalt Retail Management System
Expand your business with Cobalt Point of Sale
Thanks to over 40 years of experience in point of sale and financial programs, Merlin Software is a national leader in retail management systems.
Every year, we help hundreds of retailers throughout regional and rural Australia to manage and streamline their operations. We specialise in servicing clients who experience unique challenges, such as interconnectivity issues, large distances between branches, seasonal demand fluctuations, and more.
Cobalt RMS is the one stop software solution for one stop shops.
Simply put, it is everything you will need to run your retail business with ease.
Incredibly Adaptable and Easy to Use
Merlin’s Ultimate Software Solution
Cobalt RMS is one of the most robust retail management systems available in today’s business world. Our software is reliable and well-supported, so clients get the most out of it at any stage of their growth.
Available as a private-cloud and/or on-premises solution to suit any business.
The Power of Unrestricted Features
Cobalt RMS is more than just software. It’s a complete solution that covers every aspect of your retail operation.
Whether you need to manage your sales, inventory, accounting, payroll, workshop, or online store, Cobalt RMS has a dedicated application for each department. And the best part is, all these applications are natively integrated, meaning they work seamlessly together without any compatibility issues or data loss.
It’s everything you’ll need, all in a single system.
Point of Sale
Increase your sales with Cobalt’s advanced selling tools. Full of facilities and features to handle products, pricing, consignment stock, dangerous goods, customers, debtors, creditors, stocktaking & inventory, barcodes & labels, and more.
Cobalt Sales is the flagship product of Cobalt RMS.
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It is a powerful and well-trusted software solution to manage your sales, special orders, till, stock, purchase orders, customers, products, and more. It is upgraded quarterly and client feedback is a valuable means of enhancement. We work with our clients to ensure a solution that helps them to maximise every sales opportunity.
Please click ‘Read More’ to see the full details of this module.
- Sales & Special Orders
- Code based point of sale system
- Handle customers and debtors
- Manage Cash, Account, Layby, Cash on Delivery sales
- Integrated cash drawer & integrated EFTPOS
- Split tender payments
- Create quotes and picking/packing slips
- Track backorders
- Record serial numbers, batch IDs and expiry dates
- Apply deferred terms
- Substitute products
- Dangerous goods compliant
- Generate special orders
- Allocate stock ordered specifically for a customer
- Stock & Inventory Management
- Bill of Materials Assembly facility
- Component Builder feature
- Barcode label generator
- Stocktake system
- Track consignment stock separately from merchandise stock
- Schedule stock management reports
- Schedule sales batches
- Purchase Orders & Consignment Requests
- Integrated with Cobalt Accounting
- Order from multiple suppliers simultaneously
- Send orders by print, email or SFTP
- See order confirmation
- Goods inward receipting
- Update prices on stock receipt
- Handle foreign stock imports
- System calculated reordering
- Import orders from portals
- Customer & Debtor Management
- Price levels per customer
- Loyalty & club membership system
- Facilities for managing co-operatives
- Set credit limits and manage debtors
- Charge accounting fees
- Blacklist bad debtors
- Consolidate customers and debtors to a master account
- Process unlimited statement runs simultaneously
- Supports BPAY facilities
- Product & Price Management
- Edit existing product codes
- Track stocked and non-stocked items
- Quantity calculator & quantity pricing
- Warranty tracking
- Put stock on reserve
- Up to 3 decimal pricing
- Unlimited suppliers and barcodes per product
- Bulk update facilities
- Integrated catalogue feature
- Primary product file (active items) and secondary product file (supplier’s database)
General Accounting
Cobalt makes record-keeping easy with native integrations. Forget double handling: Cobalt Sales posts your accruals to the ledger in Cobalt Accounting automatically. Access your financial reports and BAS figures anytime, whether you’re in store or not.
Cobalt Accounting simplifies creditor and account management.
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Its integrations with Cobalt Sales and Cobalt Payroll are seamless, letting you focus on your business while keeping your financial data organised.
- Transactions
- Invoice and credit entries
- Adjustment entries
- Recipient Created Tax Invoice entries
- Rebate entries
- Journal entries
- Standing and scheduled journals
- Accrual maintenance
- Auto-pay or manual payment batch
- .ABA file generator
- Talman transaction importer
- Creditor & Accounts Maintenance
- Default settings per creditor
- Creditor categories and subcategories
- Chargeback accounts and code
- Accounts & subaccounts
- Account grouping by custom headers
- Hierarchical divisions
- Unlimited bank accounts
- Integrates with Cobalt Sales and Cobalt Payroll
- Management and sales budgets, importable from Excel
- GST exemption optional
- Email and print remittance options
- Payment and order processing terms per creditor
- Separate contacts and details for accounts and orders
- Additional order copies and editable notes per creditor
- Alternative creditor codes and order numbers
- Electronic Invoice IDs
- Link to creditor’s website
- PIC records
- BPAY compatible
- FTP exports
- Transaction scheduling
- Full creditor history
- General Ledger & Accounts Payable Reports
- Transaction and trial balance analyses
- Profit & Loss, plus monthly P&L
- Balance Sheet
- Bank reconciliation
- Statement of cash flow & cash book report
- BAS summary
- Accounts due, detailed or summary
- Paid invoices report, detialed or summary
- Transaction audit and accrual analysis
- Scheduled invoice audit
- Outstanding accruals and invoice variance
- Data Exportability
- All creditor, transactional, and financial data can be exported
Payroll
Set up pay run templates, lodge electronically with the ATO and comply with SuperStream regulations. Monitored by Merlin Support to ensure successful submissions. Fully integrated with Cobalt Accounting. Perfect for small to medium businesses.
Cobalt Payroll is designed to reduce your paperwork and keep your business compliant with Australian legislative requirements.
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It is both easy to use and fully integrated with Cobalt Accounting.
- Processes
- Single Touch Payroll Phase 2 compliant
- Various SuperStream options
- Create and use pay run templates for employees
- Automatically load pay slip details
- Manual pay runs are optional
- Multiple pay slips at once
- Reverse pay slips instantly
- Employee termination payments
- .ABA files for electronic lodgement
- STP2 message logs
- SuperStream management facility
- Customise mail server settings
- Signature image upload for documentation
- Optional prompt to record dates of leave taken
- Employee Maintenance
- Unlimited number of employees
- Retain terminated employee details, including date of and reason for dismissal
- Unlimited transaction and accrual types
- Multiple bank and superannuation accounts per employee
- Record emergency contact details
- Batch employees by department or location
- Comply with Australian tax schedules, Medicare conditions, STSL and HECS
- Record ABNs for contractors
- Record rebates and offsets for dependents and carers
- Work Cover override options
- Choose from various employment types per employee: full time, casual, labour hire, and more
- Choose payment method (cash or bank transfer) and frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly)
- Option to include employee in automatic pay runs
- Salary rounding
- Print or email remittance
- Edit notes and track leave for each employee
- View audit logs for system changes to employee file
- Various payment types: such as wages, foreign income, bonus, commission, allowance, salary sacrifice, director’s fee, and more
Workshop
Manage day book, job cards, warranty claims, and schedule SMS reminders for customers. Ideal for service & repair centres, or anyone with a schedule to keep! Fully integrated with Cobalt Sales.
Cobalt Workshop streamlines your vehicle and machinery service and repair operations.
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This module integrates seamlessly with Cobalt Sales, allowing you to manage your customers, products, and invoices from one platform. Whether you run a small garage or a large dealership, Cobalt Workshop helps you deliver quality service and increase your profitability.
- Day Book
- Unique employee codes for booking and service agents
- Record dropoff and pickup times for each item
- Use colour codes to indicate the status of each job
- Optional SMS reminders for customers
- Access job cards from appointments in the day book
- View appointments by day, week, or month
- Search for appointments by customer name, phone, or service type
- Job Card
- Capture all the relevant details of each item, such as:
- Build date
- Fuel type
- Fuel level
- Transmission type
- Body type
- Engine type
- Colour
- Accessories
- Create service check lists for different job types
- Calculate labour cost, parts, and inputs for each job
- Duplicate job cards for recurring or similar jobs
- Electronic signature on job completion
- Make technical notes, which appear on screen
- Print instructions for customers on documents
- Option to split job cards
- Option to suspend job cards for pending jobs
- Warranty
- Track the relevant details for each warranty claim:
- Serial number
- Install date
- Failure date
- Usage
- Return Authorisation (RA) number
- Group warranty claims by supplier, product, or date
- Record the reason for each warranty claim
- Generate warranty forms and reports
- Integration
- Synchronise customer and product data with Cobalt Sales
- Convert completed jobs to invoices in Cobalt Sales
- Report on job cards from within Cobalt Sales
- Maintenance
- Unlimited job cards for any service or repair work
- Add unlimited check items for each job type
- Colour codes indicate the status of each check item
- Stored comments for consistent communications
- Use colour codes to identify different staff members
- Customisable naming conventions to suit your business
- Set minimum and maximum appointment intervals (10 to 60 minutes)
- Adjust job costings on-the-go
- Send SMS reminders to customers before their appointments
- Use a unique identifier for special appointments, such as VIP customers or urgent jobs
- Email/SMS
- Use your own mail server and domain name for sending emails
- Compatible with various SMS message service providers
- Customise the content of your emails and SMS messages
- Job Card Options
- View job summaries, inc. service and costing details
- Show or hide the following information on job cards:
- Labour product
- Catalogue product group mapping
- Comments
- Display comments in red font for emphasis
- Print separate copies for the customer and the workshop, with different information shown or hidden
- Decimal measurement units
- Set the default job card type for new jobs
- User definable names
- Reports
- Generate analysis reports, such as:
- Follow-up analysis: track the follow-up actions and communications of each job
- Marketing analysis: segment your customers by vehicle description, part number, or job card type
- Referral sources: see how your customers find your business
- Generate listing reports, such as:
- Appointment: show the appointments in your day book over a time period
- Job card: show the completed, suspended, or cancelled job cards over a time period
- Stored comment: show all the system stored comments
- Warranty form: show the full warranty claim audit history
- Generate marketing reports, such as:
- By customers
- By job cards
- Opt-out: show the customers who opted out of email or SMS communications
- All reports are fully exportable
Commission Sales
Handle complex deals that involve various fees, charges, and commissions. Fully integrated with Cobalt Sales and Cobalt Accounting. Ideal for livestock, grain, wool, water trading or real estate sales.
Cobalt Commission Sales makes handling complicated transactions easy.
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This module integrates with Cobalt Sales and Cobalt Accounting, allowing you to manage your customers, products, invoices, and accounts from one system. Whether you sell livestock, grain, wool, water, or real estate, Cobalt Commission Sales helps you handle complex deals with ease and accuracy.
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Processing
- Use the sale wizard to process deals that involve multiple sellers and buyers, without forgetting key steps
- Add saleable items and fees or charges to each deal with granular control
- Name each deal for easy recognition, recall, and tracking
- Enter references and purchase order details on each buyer’s and seller’s invoices
- Apply fees and commissions to specific items or the whole deal
- Record staff codes for the sales people involved in each step of the deal
- Use the auto credit function to automatically reverse any transaction, however complex, in its entirety
- Follow the 6-step sales wizard to ensure that all information from both sides of the deal is recorded:
- Step 1: List the items contracted for sale
- Step 2: Assign buyers to items
- Step 3: Complete the buyer details
- Step 4: Complete the seller details
- Step 5: Review the summary of the deal, including the amounts, fees, and accounting transactions
- Step 6: Complete the deal and send remittance by print, email, or both, to all buyers and sellers involved instantly
- Maintenance
- Create and manage unlimited items for your commission sales
- Choose from two item types: Saleable Item or Fee/Charge
- Set an adjustable fee for receiving commission, calculated by percentage of total or quantity times rate, or set as an exact dollar value
- Mark items as tax exempt if needed
- Include agent supplied items as part of the sale
- Fields for max charge per unit, min unit price, min quantity, and item tag details
- Options
- Customise your system settings, such as:
- Use your own email server and unique email address for sending invoices and documents
- Use price per kg and average kg per item if applicable
- Send unlimited emails to your customers and suppliers
- Customise the email body text for your documents
- Define your own names for your items, fees, and charges
- Integrate with Cobalt Sales and Cobalt Accounting for seamless data and transaction management
- Set up password controls for your system users
- Customise your invoice settings, such as:
- Define your own payment term intervals for your customers and suppliers
- Customise the remittance messages for your invoices and documents
- Hide the item code on your invoices if needed
- Display the seller’s PIC on the buyer’s invoices if needed
- Enable lot number, pen number, tag number, ID, per line references, and line comments on the buyer’s invoices if required
- Reports
- Generate reports for your commission sales, such as:
- Transaction listing
- Buyer sales analysis
- Seller sales analysis
- Sales by salesperson
- Total commission report
- Email history report
- Fee/Charge report
Reporting
All Cobalt modules contain ready-made reports to help your business. Learn more, sell more, buy better, maintain accounts and ultimately improve your business performance and earnings.
Cobalt Reporting empowers you to monitor and improve your business performance.
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Its a feature of all Cobalt modules, allowing you to generate and customise reports for your sales, accounting, payroll, workshop, and commission sales data. Whether you need to track your sales trends, cash flow, payroll expenses, workshop efficiency, or commission earnings, Cobalt Reporting helps you gain valuable insights and make informed decisions.
- Reporting Philosophy
- Use various range details and sort options to filter and present your data
- Access predefined reports designed to help you get the most information from the system
- Print, email, or export your reports to PDF or Microsoft Excel
- Convert your reports to chart view for a visual representation of your data
- Use the thumbnail view and the advanced search functionality to find what you’re looking for in your reports
- Search your reports by word, phrase, or dollar value
- Use the optional case-sensitive and whole word only search functionalities to refine your search results
- Choose from various viewing options, such as single page, continuous scroll, or multipage view
- System Reports
- Favourite reports
- Scheduled templates
- Reporting template maintenance
- User logs
- Email history
- Cobalt Sales – over 50 reports
- Sales Transactions
- Till Analysis
- Sales Orders
- Stock Management
- Order Management
- Customer Maintenance
- Product Maintenance
- Catalogue Maintenance
- System Reports
- Cobalt Accounting
- Accounts Payable
- General Ledger
- Business Activity Statement
- Cash Book Report
- Cobalt Payroll
- Payroll Preparation
- Transaction Analysis
- Listings
- Employee Analysis
- Cobalt Workshop
- General Analysis
- Listings
- Marketing
- Cobalt Commission Sales
- Transactions
- Buyer Analysis
- Seller Analysis
- Total Commission
- Fee/Charge
See Custom Data Feeds for more information about bespoke reporting options.
eCommerce
Use Cobalt Sales as the basis of all your trading channels, ensuring data accuracy and consistency both online and in store. Various options available, contact us for details.
The online integration between Cobalt Sales and Shopify makes selling online easy and efficient.
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This feature allows you to connect your Cobalt Sales system with your Shopify online store, enabling you to manage your eCommerce site from the Cobalt RMS platform. Whether your business sells clothing, furniture, electronics, or anything else, Cobalt’s Shopify integration helps brick-and-mortar retailers to streamline their online sales process and expand their business’s reach.
- Online Sales
- Offer click and collect or local delivery options to your customers
- Supports various courier plugins via Shopify for shipping your orders
- Synchronises your data and products between Cobalt Sales and Shopify every 10 minutes, or manually whenever you need
- Process your downloaded orders from Shopify in a separate facility, giving you the choice to accept or reject them as they arrive
- Reserves your stock in both systems until the order is confirmed or cancelled
- Refunds and cancels the order in Shopify if you reject it
- Records the Shopify transaction number for easy reference
- Posts the orders to your existing customer accounts in Cobalt Sales, based on phone number, email address, post code, or surname
- Sends order confirmations from Shopify and tax invoices from Cobalt Sales, ensuring they match your domain name and email address
- Restricts access to the Shopify integration with user permissions
- Online Products
- Specify which products appear in your Shopify store on a per-product basis
- Enter product titles and descriptions in Cobalt Sales before uploading them to Shopify, saving you time and effort
- Include custom formatting for your product descriptions to match your brand and style
- Compatible with Cobalt Sales’ batch and expiry feature for products
- Upload primary product images in Cobalt Sales for automatic uploading to Shopify (GIF, JPG file types supported)
- Show variant products as a single item in your online store
- Bulk import images for multiple products already in Cobalt Sales
- Settings
- Optional feature of Cobalt Sales that can be enabled or disabled site-by-site
- Assign unique location IDs for each site
- Automatically update product details across all sales channels linked to Shopify
- Set a specific price level for your online store
- Choose which data to synchronise between Cobalt Sales and Shopify, such as:
- Products
- Pricing
- Sales Pricing
- Stock
- Orders
- Reports
- Generate reports for your online sales, such as:
- Transaction listing
- Online sales analysis
- Product sales analysis
- Email history report
Support
Unlimited support for all Cobalt products. Available by phone, email, or portal. All users get equal priority and real-time assistance for prompt advice or issue resolution.
Merlin Support guarantees that your Cobalt Retail Management System runs smoothly and securely.
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This service provides you with technical assistance, software updates, data backup, and security monitoring for your Cobalt system. Whether you need help with installation, configuration, troubleshooting, or maintenance, Merlin Support is here to help you 24/7.
- About Merlin Support
- Dedicated service for Cobalt RMS
- Available via phone, email, or online portal
- Australian based contact centre
- Unlimited system support
- Available 9:00am – 5:30pm AEST
- Emergency after hours support always
- Experienced and qualified technicians
- Remote access and on-site support options
- Regular software updates and patches
- Data backup and recovery services
- Security monitoring and protection
- Benefits
- Optimise your Cobalt system performance
- Minimise downtime and disruptions
- Prevent data loss and security breaches
- Save time and money on IT costs
- Access new features and enhancements
- Receive expert advice and guidance
- Enjoy peace of mind and confidence
- Support Philosophy
- Merlin Support is central to our mission and vision
- Our support system is designed to help your business grow and expand
- It is available to any member of the business
- Merlin Support is included in every Cobalt Retail agreement
- We focus on your needs and concerns
- We guide you to use all Cobalt features effectively
- We spend as much time as required for staff to understand their task
Cobalt Touch
Access Cobalt Sales instantly from mobile devices anywhere in the world. Secured via private cloud protocols. Process sales, quotes, orders, stock receipts, stocktakes from a smartphone or tablet.
Cobalt Touch makes managing your sales and inventory effortless, even on the go.
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This module integrates with Cobalt Sales, allowing you to manage your customers, products, invoices, and accounts from one system. Whether you’re in-store or on the road, Cobalt Touch gives you real-time access to your sales data on any device.
- About Cobalt Touch
- Web-based version of Cobalt Sales
- Runs on private protocols for enhanced cybersecurity
- Compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows devices
- Suitable for use on Portable Data Terminals (PDTs)
- Provides real-time, instantaneous access to Cobalt Sales
- Works in-store and on the road
- Access customer and product maintenance
- Sales
- Process invoices, credits, quotes, suspends, picking slips
- Scan barcodes to populate items
- View inventory figures at a glance
- Add comments and warranty details
- Send invoices to multiple email addresses simultaneously
- Save invoices as PDF
- Stock
- Remote stock enquiry facility to check inventory at store/branch when off-site
- Perform stock takes individually or as a team
- See stock on hand separately from stock on consignment
- View variances as you count, to catch errors before finalising
- See item location at a glance
- View stock on order per product
- Track who counted a product last and when
- Orders
- Process purchase orders
- Add items to existing orders or create a new order
- Scan items for purchase orders regardless of supplier
- Send orders by email all at once
- Process stock receipts as items arrive
- Receive notifications of pricing updates
- Print shelf labels on the go
3rd Party Integrations
Maximise efficiencies in your business by integrating with third party service providers and connecting their external platforms with Cobalt Sales.
Integrations allow for connections between Cobalt Retail and third-party platforms, enabling businesses to extend their reach with the Cobalt Retail Management System by combining best-of-breed and in-house components.
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- Nutrien Ag Solutions: Nutrien Ag Solutions is an integral part of the Australian agricultural industry, as the largest distributor of both farming supplies and fertiliser in Australia.
- Independent Hardware Group: The Independent Hardware Group is the largest independent hardware group in Australia, and a leader when it comes to servicing the Trade market.
- Shopify: Shopify is the leading all-in-one commerce platform for start-ups to high-growth businesses. Powering millions of businesses worldwide, Shopify gives independent brands the tools to sell online, in person, and everywhere in between.
- Ezylink: Ezylink provides a little bit of genius software that allows you to export accounting data directly from your point of sale system into any of the major accounting packages, such as Xero.
- Next Payments Pago: Pago EFTPOS is an Australian based payments platform supporting businesses to process digital payments. Their service includes a leading local support team, field technicians when requested, a real-time dashboard to view your terminal’s transactions and status, data analytics and fraud protection.
- Tyro: Tyro is powering the future of business with innovative payments and banking solutions. Australia’s largest EFTPOS provider of all ADIs outside the big four.
- Linkly: Linkly is dedicated to providing payment solutions, in-store and online, that create seamless payment moments.
- Westpac Presto Smart: With Westpac Presto Smart, save money and time, improve customer service and get instant access to your takings. View transactions in real-time with Presto dashboard.
- POSFlow by WebDev: POSFlow synchronises point of sale data directly to online stores, and has been designed to work 24/7. Currently supporting WooCommerce and OpenCart.
- Talman Import: Talman has been providing IT solutions to the Australian and New Zealand wool industries since 1976. Today Talman is the largest supplier of in-house wool IT systems in the world.
Multisite
Cobalt’s Head Office linking module enables centralised management of multiple sites. Appropriate for company groups, franchise systems, or combinations thereof.
Cobalt Multisite, powered by the Merlin Head Office Link, is a comprehensive online data management system designed to unify any number of store branches under a central console.
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This module integrates with Cobalt Sales, Workshop, and Commission Sales, providing company branches with all accounting and payroll tasks processed at Head Office. Franchise stores gain access to all core Cobalt modules, benefiting from a centralized product file managed by head office, while head office benefits from reporting on the franchise aspect of the business. Selected data is synchronised every 10 minutes.
- Head Office Link Optional Features
- Site types:
- Head Office
- Second Level Head Office
- Company Site
- Licensee Site
- Combinations of the above
- Standalone Site
- Multisite facilities:
- Stock transfers between company sites
- Remote stock enquiry between sites
- Consolidated or singular financial reports
- Multisite ordering
- Chargeback control
- Centralised creditor & debtor management
- Centralised pricing & product management
- Send to sites:
- Product File
- Customer File
- Customer Balances
- Pricing
- Catalogue Information
- Salesperson Codes
- Creditor File
- AP Accounts
- Purchase Orders
- Receive from sites:
- Sales Summary
- Sales Detail
- Stock Control Transactions
- End of Month Stock Figures
- Stock on Hand Figures
- Landed Costings
- Min/Max Stock Values
- AP Accruals
- AP Invoices
- System Controls
- Site statuses
- Option to allow price changes per site
- Customer mail merge export
- Export invoices to CSV
- Centralised Reports
- Stock Reorder
- Sales Analysis
- Branch Summary
- Non Stocked Product Analysis
- Stock Level
- Warehouse Order
- Warehouse Stock Reorder
- Sales Comparison
- Dead Stock Report
- Best and Worst Ranking Report
Custom Data Feeds
Automatically send fully customised data exports from Cobalt Sales, for feeding data to bespoke software and website development agencies.
Cobalt Data Feeds, powered by the Merlin Transfer Utility, allows for customised data exports to be sent from the Cobalt Retail Management System to secure network locations or email addresses. Cobalt Data Feeds are fully supported by Merlin Support and include ongoing maintenance for the recurring data transfer.
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With Cobalt Data Feeds, businesses can obtain whatever information they need from any Cobalt module and use that data in further projects.
- Potential use cases include:
- Advanced reports with user defined parameters
- Data required for the development of customised dashboards
- Customer balances for posting to client portals
- Specific data required for customer relationship management (CRM) systems