A simpler design with improved navigation

One search field for order, job or invoice number

More date options when searching Today, yesterday, last seven days, this month, last month and custom date range

Search is no longer limited to 60 daysYou can now search through the last 300 invoices

Ability to exclude any cash sales transactions on a customer’s account

Ability to get a CMP copy of the invoice

Ability to sort and filter to the results

View the payment status of each invoice

Responsive design for mobile devices

OutletThe Official Reece Customer Update We welcome your feedback so please send any comments by e-mail to outlet@reece.com.au or by fax to (03) 9274 0131.

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Small businesses win big in 2015 Budget

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El Niño is coming and the heat is on

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Your own personal cloud of cool

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ISSUE#160July 2015

THE CRACKTweeting from the toilet

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Visit www.reece.com.au/myaccount/login to explore the new and improved Invoice Search

New and improved Invoice SearchMy Account is packed with handy features designed to make managing your business easier. And certainly, one of the most popular functions is the Invoice Search. In an effort to offer you even greater flexibility, we’ve been working on an update to this feature, designed to help save you more time every day. Some of the exciting improvements you can look forward to include:

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Source: www.climatecontrolnews.com.au

Weathermatic SmartLink AirCard with FlowAn intelligent, affordable, web-based landscape solution. Simply plug it in to your Weathermatic SmartLine Controller and you can access your entire irrigation system from anywhere in the world.

Weathermatic SmartLine Controller and SLW5 Wireless Weather StationThe Weathermatic SmartLine Controller and SLW5 Wireless Weather Station work together to enable weather-based watering, taking into account seasonal, soil, plant and weather conditions to reduce over-watering.

The world’s leading weather-based Controller brings affordable ET based water management to any site, saving precious water resources and maintaining landscapes in peak condition. The weather station works in conjunction with all SmartLine Controllers, adding auto adjust functionality through recording and processing of weather data.

Help get your customers El Niño-ready

+ ADD THIS FOR EXTRA CONTROL

Reduce water use by 30 - 50%

El Niño is comingBe prepared: the heat is on The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has announced an El Niño for winter and the beginning of spring this year. Residents in the eastern states of Australia may find themselves most affected, and taking early action on water saving measures and bushfire prevention is important considering the predicted forecast this year.

The impact of El Niño varies across the world. In areas of Australia, El Niño may bring below-average rainfall, warmer-than-usual temperatures and high bushfire risk. El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (otherwise known as ENSO), starting with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific, including off the Pacific coast of South America.

Apart from reducing rainfall and increasing temperatures, in Australia, El Niño may have wide-ranging effects on the environment, contributing to lifting global temperatures as well as drought. So, being prepared for an El Niño period during the second half of this year should be high on the agenda for both irrigation specialists and their customers.

Dr David Jones of the BOM climate information services branch said that forecast models from around the world suggest El Niño will probably have a significant impact. “What those models show is that the current El Niño event is likely to see us get increased intensity around spring into early summer,” Dr Jones said.

For those in high-risk areas, this means water saving solutions for the home – both indoors and out – will count for much during the approaching El Niño period. And, with a little pre-planning early on, eastern Australian residents will find themselves well covered as the weather heats up and the land dries out.

El Niño effects The breakdown

RainfallEastern Australian rainfall is typically below average, particularly in winter and spring – the key agricultural seasons.

Drought, frost, snow Relatively clear skies mean already dry areas – such as western VIC and inland parts of NSW and QLD – may not get much near-term relief, while others may be declared drought-hit. With diminished cloud cover, frosts can also be bad.

Heatwave and bushfires With dry soils, evaporation is reduced, leading to potentially hot summers. Warm, dry springs make for worse bushfire seasons than usual.

Higher global temperatures El Niño conditions mean the Pacific absorbs less heat from the atmosphere and can even give some back. Global temperatures typically get a 0.1 – 0.2 degree kick in such years, meaning 2015 and 2016 are shaping up to exceed the warmest year on record, set only last year.

Source: www.smh.com.au

A range of benefits and advantages for small businesses (SMEs) were unveiled when the 2015 Budget was announced in mid-May. We’ve put together a brief snapshot of what may be in store for your SME under the new Budget.

As we highlighted in the May issue of Outlet, all small businesses will get an immediate tax deduction for any individual assets they buy costing less than $20,000. This $20,000 limit applies to each individual item and SMEs can apply this rule to as many single items as they wish. Small businesses can enjoy this benefit for another two years, with the $20,000 limit continuing until the end of June 2017.

TAX CUTS

Tax time might not be the squeeze you were expecting, with the tax rate being reduced for more than 90% of incorporated businesses with an

annual turnover less than $2 million. The company tax rate for these businesses will be reduced by 1.5 percentage points to 28.5%.

And to assist with the growth of SMEs, the Government will also provide a 5% tax discount to unincorporated businesses with an annual turnover less than $2 million from 1 July. This delivers a tax cut of $1.8 billion over the next four years.

CUTTING RED TAPE

SME employees can connect to the digital economy at minimal expense with the Government expanding the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for work related portable electronic devices. The FBT removal covers phones, tablets and laptops and has been touted as a big win for SMEs.

SMEs will also benefit from Capital Gains Tax rollover relief when changing their legal structures but keeping the same owners.

This is a very general guide of Budget benefits for SMEs. For further information specific to your business, please seek financial advice or visit www.ato.gov.au

Small businesses win big

Budget 2015

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Source: www.lawnandlandscape.com

Your own personal cloud of cool Snow season has well and truly kicked off and the ski bunnies are out to play. Meanwhile, the rest of us are chilling – literally – in our frosty houses and wishing to escape to warmer climates.

Capture water while capturing attention

In Dubai earlier this year – an international city renowned for its hot climate – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled a new air conditioning innovation known as Cloud Cast, during a UAE Government Summit.

The Cloud Cast acts as a personal cloud of cool, following you wherever you go. It’s a radical re-think on traditional air conditioning systems and does away with the idea of cooling/heating an entire room.

Operating through a series of motion sensors, Cloud Cast can determine where you are at any moment and in which direction you are moving. The sensors can detect your presence by interpreting echoes from high-frequency sound waves. This

data is fed to a central control system that triggers the hydro-valves and LEDs, covering you in a fine mist to cool you down.

The refreshing jets of mist are expelled from a series of aluminium rods, or cylinders, mounted onto the ceiling. These ‘nebulisers’ are carefully controlled by the ultrasonic sensors which are cleverly embedded within the suspended, ceiling-mounted structure.

Rather than pumping mist through an entire space, Cloud Cast is specifically designed to save energy and water by targeting only the people it detects. As a result, the amount of water it uses is minimal.

MIT has a history of creating and developing personal heating and cooling devices. After

developing Local Warming 2014, an idea similar to Cloud Cast but for warming people rather than cooling them, MIT also developed a wrist-based wearable version (around the same size as the Apple Watch).

While all three devices are still in development, they offer us an exciting vision for how we might heat and cool ourselves in the future.

Source: www.dezeen.com

In this third instalment of our Clean Water Inventions series, we take a look at an amazingly innovative advertising billboard that takes moisture from the air and converts it into filtered drinking water.

To kick off its enrolment application period in 2013, Peru’s University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) began looking for a big idea to grab the attention of potential students. The university teamed up with an ad agency and developed a concept for a billboard that could convert Lima’s

H2O-saturated air into potable water. Then they applied their engineering know-how and actually built it.

Lima happens to be the largest city in Peru and the fifth largest in all of the Americas, with close to nine million residents. Because it sits along the southern Pacific Ocean, the humidity in the city averages a high 83% (and it’s closer to 100% in the mornings). But, Lima is also part of a coastal desert; it lies at the northern edge of the Atacama, the driest desert in the world, meaning the city sees perhaps half an inch of rainfall each year.

Knowing how difficult it was for local residents to access potable water, the University recognised

that they could build something that provided impactful marketing value as well as great social value.

The billboard works using an inverse osmosis filtration system, capturing the water and channelling it through small ducts to a central holding tank at the billboard’s base, where you’ll find — what else? — a tap. The billboard produces around 36,000 litres of water every year, which services the needs of hundreds of families.

Now that the idea has proven itself, we’ll soon see many more of these billboards popping up everywhere clean drinking water is vitally needed.

Source: www.theinspirationroom.com

Clean Water Inventions Series

Always look for the mark of quality

With more plumbing products being imported into Australia than ever before, it can be easy to forget that not everything that arrives on our shores actually meets Australian WaterMark standards. And this means that product quality is an issue that every plumber needs to be concerned with.

A Queens Park building company and its nominated supervisor have been ordered by the Building Services Board to pay a fine of $1,000 each to the Building Commissioner for negligence under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011.

Between March 2014 and February 2015, the offending building company supplied and arranged the installation of 113 non-certified plumbing products imported from China for a 13-unit development in Hamilton Hill. The non-certified plumbing products included various sink mixer taps, shower heads, bath tubs and pop up drains.

The Board found the company had failed to have processes in place to ensure compliance.

The company has since replaced and rectified all of the non-WaterMarked plumbing products used in the development at its own cost.

It’s worth remembering that the National Construction Code and Plumbing Code of Australia states that: ‘Every part of a plumbing or drainage installation must be constructed in an appropriate manner…using materials and products that are…marked in accordance with the WaterMark Certification Scheme.’

That’s why at Reece, we only sell and recommend WaterMark certified products. As you may have already picked up, we’re pretty passionate about maintaining both your reputation and the reputation of the plumbing industry. Which is why we conduct our own ‘Fit for Purpose’ tests. By having proper quality controls in place, we can protect your reputation while offering industry leading Product Guarantees across our range.

Source: www.commerce.wa.gov.au

The Crack

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Tweeting from the toilet

Gasfitting Industry Advisory Note

Poly Electrofusion Get accredited now

The NSW Government Department of Fair Trading has issued a new Advisory Note in relation to the location/installation of gas continuous flow hot water systems in all areas of NSW.

The Advisory Note provides detailed information on the correct placement and installation of gas continuous flow hot water units near building openings and also on building balconies that have less than two open sides, in accordance with AS5601:2004.

Any gas continuous flow hot water not conforming to guidelines as stated by the standard will be considered non-compliant.

For more information about the requirements for installing a gas continuous flow unit on or near building openings and on building balconies, please visit www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au

Poly Electrofusion is becoming increasingly popular these days. And more companies are insisting on having accredited poly welders on their sites. So now, you simply can’t afford not to be nationally accredited.

To make sure you’ve got the official skills you need to complete this type of work, Reece have teamed up with two nationally accredited training providers and can offer two Poly Welding training courses to plumbers and civil contractors:

• Electrofusion weld polyethylene pipes

• Butt weld & electrofusion weld polyethylene pipes

These courses are an easy way to get up to speed with Poly Welding and the successful use of poly E/F fittings on the job. And once you’re all trained up, Reece Civil has got you covered for all your Poly Electrofusion needs. Our dedicated fleet of crane trucks can deliver 12m lengths

of pipe to site, along with any fittings, wipes, consumables, and even welding equipment.

The courses cover everything you need to know about practicing safe Poly Electrofusion, ranging from pipe preparation and alignment equipment right through to things like re-rounding clamps, environment protection enclosures, power supply and control units in accordance with ISO 12176-2.

So take your business to the next level and enrol in one of these courses today.

To find out more about the programs (and the special offer for Reece customers), or to enrol, visit www.reece.com.au/civil/electrofusion-training-hire

Supplier Products % Increase Date Effective

2Tuff Safety equipment 3% 1 July 2015

3M Purification Water filters Various % 1 July 2015

Abey Clips & ventilation products Various % 1 July 2015

Aco-Polycrete Australia Drainage products Various % 1 July 2015

Allproof Industries Wastes 3-10% 1 July 2015

Ardent Breeches & copper fittings 4% 1 July 2015

BCP Precast Drainage products (NSW only) Various % 1 July 2015

BigDog Tools 3% 1 July 2015

BlueScope Lysaght Roofing products Various % 1 July 2015

Bridgland All products 3% 1 July 2015

Cement Australia Cement Various % 1 July 2015

Clearpond Pond equipment Various % 1 July 2015

Conex >B<Press fittings 2% 1 July 2015

Davey Water Products Pool products & pumps Various % 1 July 2015

Dura All products 3-10% 1 July 2015

ENKi Irrigation products 5% 1 July 2015

Febco Valves 3% 1 July 2015

Lasco All products, excluding Pushfit 3% 1 July 2015

Metroll Wagga Roofing products (Wagga region only) 2.5-10% 1 July 2015

Morse Holesaws 3% 1 July 2015

Pentair Water Irrigation products 3-6% 1 July 2015

Phoenix Industries Tapware Up to 7% 1 July 2015

Pride Industries Plumbing products (WA only) Various % 1 July 2015

Reln Plastics Drainage products 3-5% 1 July 2015

Stramit Industries Roofing products 2-9% 1 July 2015

Sudmo Australia Stainless steel fittings Various % 1 July 2015

The System Control Group Spares - hot water & heating Various % 1 July 2015

Vada V150 & V-PC only 3% 1 July 2015

Walraven Starquick Various % 1 July 2015

Weathermatic Irrigation products 3% 1 July 2015

Wholesale Products (TAS) Plumbing products (TAS only) Various % 1 July 2015

Main Price Changes

Source: www.news.com.au

Changes to the networkBranch Closure

Plumbing City (Carlton)221 Pelham Street, Carlton, VIC 3053

All phones, faxes and emails will be redirected to the Reece Plumbing North Melbourne store.

Relocation

Plumbing Jimboomba48 Cerina Circuit, Jimboomba, QLD 4280Ph (07) 5547 8200Fax (07) 5547 8211Email jimboomba.plumbing.qld@reece.com.au

Taking our phone into the toilet is something we’ve all done at some time or another. But what about Facebooking, Tweeting and chatting while we’re chilling on the loo – totally cool, or is that over-sharing?

A recent survey by Sensis has revealed that many of us are logging on to our top social networks while we’re sitting on the throne. Sensis results show 6% of its respondents use social networks while on the toilet, 7% in the bathroom, and a whopping 44% log on while they’re in bed.

Thankfully, 76% of people are doing it by smartphone – clearly the most popular way to access social networks, meaning laptops are no longer getting a workout in every room in the house.

Of all the social networks, Facebook is a clear favourite, with Aussie Facebook users spending more than seven hours on the site every week! Even more telling is the fact that social media users are using their smartphones to share information in unexpected locations – like the lavatory.

One thing’s for sure, if you’re posting from the can, turn your location settings off.

Australian social network users at a glance

65% online Aussies use social networks

45% log on daily

17% log on 5+ times a day

6% log on from the loo

76% log on with a smartphone

34% log on at work

For the full list of price changes or if you have any queries, please see your Reece Branch Manager or visit www.reece.com.au/outlet for further updates.