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RETAIL PLUS Version 5.8 Retail Sales And Inventory Management - Year 2000 Ready ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRUE NORTH COMPUTER SERVICES PO BOX 5101, HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO CANADA P1H 2K5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TELEPHONE - (705)789-0928 INTERNET - 71223.641@compuserve.com WORLD WIDE WEB - http://www.brainlink.com/~north/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FEATURES OF RETAIL PLUS If you have been looking at sales and inventory software you have probably had some of the following reactions: - Why is it so complicated and unfriendly? - Why does it take so long to create a simple invoice? - Why is it so expensive? The goal of retail management software should be to help you concentrate on your sales and your customers. Retail Plus serves that goal. It is designed for those who spend too much time making up purchase orders, counting stock, tracking sales, or preparing invoices. It is more than an inventory system with a point-of-sale screen. It is an organizer, an analyzer and a time saver. Retail Plus has the following features: > Easy to use with pull down menus and pop-up windows. > Built in help system - press the F1 key at any time for assistance. > Complete sales and inventory data for each item in each location. > Full-featured POS system with slip printer and cash drawer support. > Data imports and exports. > Multiuser, and also supports multiple points of sale without a network. > Weekly and monthly sales figures for each product. > History of daily sales and POS totals. > Sales tracked by product, department and client. > Accounts receivable/invoicing system with account statements. > Support for ICVerify on screen credit card authorizations. > Auto-generated PO's with five methods of calculating order quantities. > On-screen review and editing of purchase orders. > Customer's back orders. > Client database keeps a purchase history & mailing list of your customers. > Fast client lookups using name, company or phone number. > Set up 2 sales taxes and optional add-on charges. > Set up automatic discounts, tax rates or tax exemptions for any customer. > Set up a bonus points system to identify and reward your best customers. > Create, print and save price quotes that you can later process as sales. > Flexible sales and inventory reports with on-screen viewing. > Print price tags, bin labels, shipping labels and Code 39 barcode labels. > Print on U.S. or European (A4) label formats. > Print detailed invoices on fan fold paper stock or on your own letterhead. > Create catalogue output with product description, stock numbers, and prices. > Printer output transfers to your word processor for custom formatting. > Sales data exports to database or spreadsheet programs for further analysis. > Works with all barcode and credit card readers. > Compare stock across multiple locations and transfer from one to another. > Optional password system with three levels of access. > Year 2000 ready. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS > Any MS-DOS / Windows microcomputer or microcomputer network. > A hard disk drive with at least 4MB of free space. > 640 KB of conventional memory. > A printer capable of compressed print (15 cpi), or a wide carriage printer (132 columns). For printing barcode labels you will need an HP LaserJet or work-alike printer. > Optional Accessories - a POS printer for sales slips, an automatic cash drawer, a barcode scanner and a credit card reader. QUICKSTART INSTALLATION OF RETAIL PLUS If you have been running a previous version of Retail Plus clear the Itemized Sales Log and the POS Exit Totals before upgrading to this version. Retail Plus version 5.8 is supplied as an archive file called "PLUS58.EXE". It contains all the files you need. Follow these steps to get a functioning system onto your hard drive: 1 - At the DOS prompt create a new directory on your hard drive or server and go to that directory: MD RETAIL CD\RETAIL 2 - Unpack the contents of PLUS58.EXE into the new directory: PLUS58 3 - Now check for a file called "CONFIG.SYS" in the root directory of the C: drive of your workstation. If it is there it should contain the following statements with the at least minimum values shown (they can be greater but not smaller): FILES = 99 BUFFERS = 10 INSTALL = C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE /F:4096 /L:100 You can check the contents of CONFIG.SYS just by typing: TYPE CONFIG.SYS If the above statements are absent you can use any text editor to insert them. The FILES statement determines how many files you can have open at once, the BUFFERS statement determines how much memory is allocated to file buffers and SHARE installs file and record locking capabilities on your computer. You may already be using SHARE, and Windows 3.11 or Windows 95 load it automatically. If you run Retail Plus 5.8 under Windows you can load it twice and have two different screens open at once, such as the POS screen and the New Item screen. This will not work reliably with any program that is not running in multiuser mode or on any computer with less than 8 MB of random access memory. Whether or not Retail Plus runs in multi-user mode depends on the serial number you enter. INSTALLING RETAIL PLUS ON A NETWORK You can ignore this page if you are not installing Retail Plus on a network. Retail Plus 5.8 can be installed on a LAN server such as Novell Netware or on a peer-to-peer network such as Lantastic, PowerLAN, Netware Lite, or Windows For Workgroups. Getting the file and directory priviledges set up is important. Since the program routinely creates, updates and deletes index files, each user must be able to do the following: read, write, create, erase, modify, and file scan (list directory). This does not mean you must give them direct access to the Retail Plus directory where they may do some damage. The goal is to give all users the required rights, but allow them to exercise those rights only through Retail Plus so that their activities are effectively restricted. If you are using Windows 95 as the network system check to see that the drive mappings are configured correctly, otherwise every computer may try to set up it's own inventory data rather than working with the same one. NETWORK PRINTING If your users are printing directly to a port on their own workstations you should allow Retail Plus to check that the printer is ready before each print job. To do this, go to the Utility menu and choose the Get Info command. Enter a Y in the first field to enable printer checking. Leave it disabled if the printing is routed through a network print queue, in which case the network will look after any printer problems. NETWORK SCREEN UPDATES IN THE BROWSE WINDOW A good thing about networks and multiuser systems is that any additions or changes you make are available to all other users on the system. This ability does present new complications, one of which you need to be aware of. Under the Inventory menu you will find the Browse command, which allows you to see your data in "table" view, i.e. you see a window with multiple records on a grid. Suppose that two users both open the Browse window at the same time. They are looking at the same data and the display order is controlled by the same index. If the first of these users adds or edits something then the information on the second user's screen is out of date. It will not be updated until the second users scrolls the table. This situation is aggravated if the first user changes the field on which the table is sorted (the item name or stock code) and the indexes are changed as a result. The second user's screen is now out of date in two ways i.e. display order and the data itself. Many multiuser programs lack Browse windows for this reason, but we believe they are too useful to leave out. You need only be aware of the problem and be patient if you see unexpected effects in the Browse window when there is more than one user making changes. To make the problem go away you can restrict yourself to working in "record" view, where you see only one record at a time. STARTING RETAIL PLUS To start Retail Plus go to the directory where it is found and enter R58 at the DOS prompt: CD\RETAIL R58 Explanation: The installation process creates a file called R58.BAT that contains the following two lines: SET CLIPPER=F:30 RETAIL58 Retail Plus should always be started up with this batch file, otherwise your system may not allow it to open enough files. If at some point in the program you press F1 for help, and instead of a help screen you get a DOS Error 4 (too many files open), then you know that you cannot open enough files. If this happens try typing SET at the DOS prompt. You should then see CLIPPER=F:30 on the screen along with the other DOS environment setups. If the file R58.BAT is missing you can create it with any text editor such as the DOS Edit command. The program is initially configured to start without requiring a password. If it does prompt you for a password just type "TEST" and press ENTER. You can remove this password later and set up new ones if you need security. If this password does not give you access then someone has already set up the system for security. TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1 - Getting Started Starting Retail Plus.............. 1 Exploring The Menus................ 2 Section 2 - The Inventory Menu Finding An Item/Using Pick Lists.. 2 Updating On-Order Data........... 11 Using The Edit Window............. 3 Receiving Stock - Method 1....... 11 Adding A New Item................. 4 Transfering Stock/Copying Items.. 12 Using The Browse Window........... 6 Receiving Stock - Method 2....... 13 Creating A Purchase Order......... 7 Adjusting On-Hand Quantities..... 13 Working With An Order............. 9 Re-Stocking Customer Returns..... 14 Reviewing An Order................ 9 Importing New Inventory Records.. 15 Printing An Order................ 10 Section 3 - The Sales Menu Entering Sales Manually.......... 15 Printing Price Tags And Labels... 31 Importing Sales From Multiple POS 16 Printing A Price List............ 31 Using The Point-Of-Sale Function. 17 Creating A Sales Catalogue....... 31 Point-Of-Sale Setup.............. 26 Doing The Year End............... 32 Marking Items.................... 30 Reviewing Archived Sales Data.... 32 Section 4 - The Reports Menu Sales Report..................... 33 Over/Understock Reports.......... 34 Inventory Report................. 33 Receivables Report............... 34 Top 10% Report................... 33 Stock Orders & Back Orders....... 34 Sales Analysis................... 33 Supplier List.................... 35 Stock Value Report............... 34 Stock Received................... 35 Section 6 - The Utility Menu Sorting Inventory Data........... 35 Setting Up Printer Control....... 38 Re-Building Index Files.......... 35 Switching Color And Monochrome... 39 Exporting Data.................. 36 Creating An Inventory Backup..... 39 Printing To A Text file.......... 37 Rolling Back Your Data........... 39 Viewing A Text File.............. 37 Checking For Code Duplications... 39 Creating & Changing Locations.... 37 Section 6 - The Access Menu Using The Login Command.......... 40 Changing A Password.............. 41 Adding A User Password........... 40 Turning Protection On Or Off..... 41 Deleting A Password...............40 Software Registration............ 41 Section 7 - General Program Notes About The Client Database........ 42 About Multiple Points Of Sale.... 47 Setting Up Client Discounts/Taxes 42 About Networks................... 48 About Invoicing And Exit Totals.. 44 Credit Card Authorizations....... 49 About Using Stock Codes.......... 45 READ THIS PAGE................... 51 Cancelled Orders & Back Orders... 45 Order Form....................... 52 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 1 - SECTION 1 - GETTING STARTED --------------------------- When Retail Plus is started you will see the Main Menu. Each of the Main Menu choices has a pull-down menu that provides access to a group of related commands. The Inventory menu is already pulled down. To help you explore the system it has been pre-loaded with sample data. The sample data simulates a store called Outbound Equipment, which sells products for hiking, camping and mountaineering. Sales and inventory records can be maintained for multiple locations. Each location is identified by a three character code which is visible at the bottom right of the screen. You can delete the sample location (SL1) after you have set up one of your own. At the bottom of the screen is a descriptive line about the highlighted menu item. This line changes according to which command is highlighted. You can move around the menus using the following keys: > Press the RIGHT and LEFT ARROW keys to move from one menu to another. > Press the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select a command on a pull-down menu. > Press ENTER to execute the highlighted command. > Press ESCAPE to clear a pull-down menu, and ENTER to make it appear again. You can also select commands from the menus by pressing the first letter of the command you want. This method executes the command without waiting for you to press ENTER. For example, if the Inventory menu is pulled down but you wish to print a sales report you would press: ESCAPE (to clear the Inventory menu) R (to pull down the Reports menu) S (to execute a sales report) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 2 - EXPLORING THE MENUS This manual has a section for each of the six Main Menu choices. It will describe each one in turn, going from left to right across the screen. As you explore, you can press F1 at any time for help. This is particularly useful if the program asks for input and you are not sure what to enter. In most cases you can press ESCAPE to quit a command and return to the menus. SECTION 2 - THE INVENTORY MENU ------------------------------- INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 1 -> FIND ITEM Use this command to locate any item in the inventory. When you select it, a menu pops up with the following choices: > Code - Use this to find an item by stock code. If you are not sure of the code press F3 to select the item from a sorted list (called a pick list). See the bottom of this page for more information on how you can use pick lists. > Name - Use this to find an item by product name. If you are not sure of the name press F3 to select the item from a sorted list (called a pick list). See the bottom of this page for more information on how to use pick lists. > Key Word In Text - This command locates an items that contains a word or number or any string of characters in the TEXT field that starts with the specified characters. > Supplier's Code - Use this to locate an item by the supplier's stock code. > First Item or Last Item - Go to the top or bottom of your inventory. > Quit - Use this to return to the Main Menu. Pressing ESCAPE will do the same. A NOTE ABOUT PICK LISTS Pick lists are simply windows that appear on the screen which show a few columns of data from each record in the inventory or client database, depending on the context. The list is sorted alphabetically and is meant to help you locate an item or a person quickly if you don't remember an exact name or stock number. There are two ways to move around the list. 1 - Use the UP/DOWN ARROW keys and PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN to locate the item you want. 2 - Press the first character in the name or the stock number you are looking for. The list moves to the first item that starts with that character. Now press the second one, then the third, etc. In this way the list will home in on the target. Press DEL (delete key) to clear the search characters and start over. If the list is not homing in on the target then press the Caps Lock key and try again (the list is case sensitive). When the correct item is highlighted press ENTER (this key is labeled RETURN on some keyboards). To leave a pick list without selecting an item press ESCAPE. For more help with pick lists press F1 when a list is on the screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 3 - THE EDIT WINDOW Once an item has been located it is displayed in the Edit Window. A set of function key commands is now shown across the bottom of the screen: > F1 - Help - use this to get help with what you see on the screen. > F2 - View - change the display from record view to table view. Your inventory is now displayed in rows and columns. > F3 - Find - find another item. > F4 - Edit - edit the fields above the TEXT line. Use the ENTER key or the UP/DOWN ARROW keys to move from one field to another. As each field is highlighted you can press F1 (Help) for an explanation of what the field should contain. > F5 - Dele - delete an item or undelete it again. Deleted items are not removed from the records until the next time the records are indexed. An item should not be deleted when you stop stocking it. If you do, the revenue it generated will not be included in your year-to-date sales reports. Wait until you run a year-end closing to delete discontinued items. > F6 - Comp - compare the stock levels for this item in all store locations. > F7 - Mark - mark or unmark the item. You can mark items to identify the ones you want included in various print jobs or in creating purchase orders. See the Set Marks command under the Sales menu for fast and easy ways to mark large numbers of items. > F8 - Hist - view or edit the sales history of the item. You can display either the weekly or monthly sales figures. > F9 - Text - enter or edit notes about the product. You could use this to hold a product description, which can be used to create a catalogue of your product line (see the Catalogue command under the Sales menu). This field will store hundreds of lines of text so don't worry about running out of space. Press F1 while you are in the text field for help with the editing keys. If you press ESCAPE while in the text field the following message appears at the top of the screen: "Abort Edit (Y/N)". Press Y to abandon your changes or N to return to the text field. > F10 - Exit - Return to the Main Menu. > DOWN ARROW - skip to the next item. > UP ARROW - skip to the previous item. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 4 - INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 2 -> NEW ITEM This command brings up the screen where you can enter new items into the inventory file. If the printer is on it will ask you if you want to print an audit trail of your entries. Press Y if you need a hard copy list for any reason. Now type the product information in the appropriate fields. Use the ENTER key or the UP/DOWN ARROW keys to move from one field to another. As each field is highlighted you can press F1 (Help) for an explanation of what each field should contain. If are going to use a barcode scanner you can read the barcode on a package instead of entering a stock code on the keyboard. If the barcode is longer than 12 characters Retail Plus saves only the last 12. At the bottom of the screen you will see function keys set up for a Department lookup (F3) and a Supplier lookup (F4). These will bring up pick lists from which you can select the right one. This is meant as a convenience so that you can get consistent department names and supplier names and help eliminate the possibility that inconsistent names will be treated as new ones. There are two more features in the New Item screen that make the job of entering new stock easier: 1 - Auto Stock Numbering When a user enters a new item the stock number field may be left blank, but only if the department name has been filled in using a given format. That format is X-X where X is any combination of letters or numbers with a total length not exceeding thirteen characters. Examples of valid department names would be 10-WIDGETS or ABC-COOL TOYS. Retail Plus will create a new stock code using the characters up to the dash, plus the next available number in that department. The above examples would generate stock codes that look like 10-100 or ABC-100. A stock code is generated only when a new item is saved. No stock code is generated in the following circumstances: - If the user puts something in the code field manually. - If the department name does not conform to the above format or is blank. 2 - Cost or Price Calculation When a user enters a new item a calculation takes place if either the wholesale cost or the unit price field is left empty. If the price field is empty, Retail Plus calculates the price using the wholesale cost and a percentage margin supplied by the user. This means a cost of $50 and a percentage of 40% will result in a price of $70. If the wholesale cost field is empty, Retail Plus calculates a cost using the unit price and a percentage margin supplied by the user. This means a unit price of $70 and a margin 40% will result in a cost of $50. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 5 - In either case the percentage is entered by pressing F5 in the New Item screen. This number is saved and remains in effect until it is changed again. Entering a percentage of zero will effectively turn off the calculation process. The appropriate number (cost or price) is generated whenever a new item is saved. No numbers are generated in the following circumstances: - If the user fills in both the wholesale cost and unit price fields. - If both fields are left blank. - If the percentage is zero. Press F10 when you are finished. You will then see a new set of options at the bottom of the screen. F1Help F4Edit F8Hist F9Text F10Exit > F1 - Help - get help with what you see on the screen. > F4 - Edit - edit or add to the data you have already entered. > F8 - Hist - enter any historical sales figures for this product. Entering a sales history here is optional. You will not need any sales history if you use the RE-ORDER POINTS or BLANK ORDER method of ordering stock. You will need 3 week's worth to use the weekly ordering options. As you use Retail Plus it will automatically keep an on-going weekly and monthly sales history for each item. > F9 - Text - enter notes about the product that are useful to you, or a product description for use later with the Catalogue command (see under the Sales menu). This field will store hundreds of lines of text so don't worry about running out of space. Press F1 while you are in the text field for help with the editing keys. If you press ESCAPE while in the text field the following message appears at the top of the screen: "Abort Edit (Y/N)". Press Y to abandon the entry or N to return to the text field. > F10 - Exit - this pops up a box where you can tell Retail Plus to save or discard the new record. In order for a record to be saved it must contain at least an item name, a stock code and the unit price. You will now be asked if you want to enter a new item, copy the last item or quit. Choose the first option if you want to start with clear fields and the second option if you want to copy the information from your last entry. This is provided as a convenience in case the next entry contains much of the same information as the last. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 6 - INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 3 -> BROWSE The Browse command shows your inventory in table view. You can use this window to scan and edit your records. You can choose to view all records or only the Marked items (see the Set Marks command under the Sales menu). > Use the following keys to move around the screen and scroll the columns: RIGHT ARROW, LEFT ARROW, UP ARROW, DOWN ARROW, CTRL-RIGHT ARROW, CTRL-LEFT ARROW, PAGEUP, PAGEDOWN, CTRL-PAGEUP, CTRL-PAGEDOWN, HOME, END, CTRL-HOME, CTRL-END > To edit your data, move the highlight to any field and start typing. > Press ENTER to accept the changes in a field or press ESCAPE to restore the previous contents. If you press DOWN ARROW or UP ARROW instead of ENTER the highlight will automatically move to the next row down or up. > F1 - Help - use this to get help with what is on the screen. > F2 - View - to change the display to single record view. > F4 - Print - to print the information about the current item. > F5 - Dele - to delete the current item. It will not be removed from the inventory until the next time it is indexed. Press F5 again to undelete the item. > F6 - Lock - to lock the columns in place when you scroll the screen to the right. Move the cursor to column 2, 3, or 4 then Press F6 to freeze the display at the selected column. Press F6 again to unlock the frozen columns. > F7 - Mark - to mark or unmark the item. You can mark items to identify the ones you want included in various print jobs, copying items from one location to another, or in creating purchase orders. See the Set Marks command under the Sales menu for fast and easy ways to mark large numbers of items. > F8 - Hist - to view or edit the sales history of the item. > F9 - Text - to edit the text field. This is used to store either notes about the product that are useful to you or you can enter a catalogue style product description for use later with the Catalogue command (under the Sales menu). Press F1 while you are in the text field for information about the editing keys it uses. > F10 - Exit - to return to the Main Menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 7 - INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 4 -> ORDERS This command leads to the purchase order functions. In the first window you can choose to create a new order, work with an existing order or delete old orders to free up disk space. Auto Create An Order Use this command to generate a new order. A menu appears where you elect to generate an order using Marked items only, a selected supplier, or for back orders only. If you choose "Back Orders Only" then the system looks for items that have been back ordered for your customers. It then creates a purchase order for only those items. If you choose "Selected Supplier" you will see a pick list of suppliers to choose from. Press the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to move the highlight to the supplier you want then press ENTER. In the next step choose the method of calculation you want to use for this order: > 1 Week Of Stock - this orders one week's worth of stock based on a formula that looks at average sales over the past 3 weeks, the amount of stock on hand, and the base stock. > 2 Weeks Of Stock - this is the same as the above but orders 2 week's worth. > Monthly Sales - calculates orders based on sales for the same month last year, the anticipated percent increase in sales over last year, the amount of stock on hand, the base stock, and the amount of stock already on order. It relies on the availability of monthly sales figures for last year. Retail Plus automatically saves monthly sales figures for the current year but you will have to enter these for last year if you need to use this method right away. The Monthly Sales formula orders a large amount of stock and should be used for suppliers who only ship to you once a month. > Just-In-Time - order based on the classic Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) formula. This orders the least amount of stock. To use it you should be familiar with the principles of Just-In-Time inventory management. Use it for suppliers who can ship to you quickly and frequently with relatively low shipping costs. > Re-Order Points - There are two ways to use this. Both ways look at the RE- ORDER POINT and RE-ORDER QUANTITY fields in your inventory records. 1 - If you have a number greater than zero in the RE-ORDER QTY field: when the ON HAND quantity falls below the RE-ORDER POINT, this orders the RE-ORDER QTY. Use this to order a fixed amount of stock each time. 2 - If you leave the RE-ORDER QTY field at zero: when the ON HAND quantity falls below the RE-ORDER POINT, this orders enough stock to bring it back up to the BASE STOCK quantity. Use this to order a variable amount of stock depending on how much you have on hand and what you need as your base stock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 8 - > Blank Order - This option creates an order file where all the order quantities are zero. You can simply review the blank order. When you see an item you want shipped, change the order quantity to a number greater than zero. When you print the final order Retail Plus will omit all the items you have skipped. Once you have selected an ordering method you can accept the default order file name or change it to conform with your own PO numbering or naming system. Please note that you can change the order file name but not the file extension (the three characters after the dot). These will always be the three-character location code that Retail Plus uses to tell which orders belong to each location. How The Default Order File Names Work: > If the order is for one supplier only then the default order filename is the name of the supplier and the date the order was created. The first four characters of the filename are the first four letters in the supplier's name. > If an order is created using the "Monthly Sales" method of calculating order quantities then the order filename is the name of the supplier plus the month for which the order was created. This is useful if you are making up your Christmas orders in August, as many retailers must. You can use the "Monthly Sales" option and specify that you are ordering for December. See example 2 below. > If an order is for marked items then the order file name begins with "MRK". The last four characters are the month and day the order was created (MMDD). > If the order is for customer back orders only the file name begins with "BKOR" plus the month and day the order was created. See the General Program Notes at the end of the manual for more information about how customer back orders can be handled. The file extension (the 3 characters after the period) is the location code of the store for which the order was created. The following examples illustrate this. In all cases the active location is : Example 1 - if the supplier chosen is OUTBOUND DISTRIBUTORS, and if the date is March 28th, then the order file will be called "OUTB0328". Example 2 - if the supplier chosen is OUTBOUND DISTRIBUTORS, and you use the monthly sales method of calculating the order, and you select December as the month you are ordering for, then the order file will be called "OUTB-DEC". Example 3 - if the order is for marked items and if the date is April 3rd then the order file will be called "MRK-0403". Example 4 - if the order is for customer back orders only, and if the date is November 3rd then the order filename will be "BKOR1103". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 9 - Work With An Existing Order Once you have created an order there are a number of options for working with it. To begin, choose the order you want to work with from a pick list. To select an order file from the list use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the one you want then press ENTER. Once an order file has been chosen you have the following options: > Review The Order - Select this to review the order, which is presented in table view. Retail Plus supplies you with the information you need to make a judgment about the quantities being ordered and gives you an opportunity to adjust those quantities. You can change only the first two column of numbers, which are the order quantity and the package quantity. If any of the other fields need to be changed it should be done in the inventory file, not in the order file. More information is available than is initially displayed on the screen. Press the RIGHT ARROW key until the remaining columns come into view. Use CTRL-END and CTRL-HOME to jump between the first column and the last. The columns displayed when reviewing a purchase order are as follows: > QTY - The number of items or packages being ordered. If the PACK quantity is 1, this is the number of items. If the PACK quantity is more than 1, this is the number of PACKAGES, not the number of items being ordered. Note that the ordering formula rounds this off to the nearest full package but you can change this to a split package if you wish. For example, if the pack quantity is 10 and you order 1.5 then your PO will show one and a half packages (15 items). > PACK - The number of items that the supplier ships in one package. This is the same PACK field as the one in your inventory records. > ITEM - The name of the item. > SIZE - The size as shown in the inventory records. > CODE - The stock number. > ONHAND - The quantity you have in stock. > ONORDER - The quantity you already have on order. > BASE - The quantity shown in the inventory records as base stock (the minimum to keep in stock). > ROP - The re-order point as shown in your inventory records. > ROQ - The re-order quantity as shown in your inventory records. > UNITCOST - What you pay the supplier for one of this item. > ORDERCOST - The result of multiplying QTY times PACK times UNITCOST. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 10 - > SUPPL CODE - The supplier's stock code if you have entered one. When reviewing an order you will see the following options at the bottom of the screen: > F1 - Help - use this to get information about what is on the screen. > F6 - Lock - to lock the columns in place when you scroll the screen. Move the cursor to columns 1, 2, 3, or 4 then Press F6. Press F6 again to unlock them. > F10 - Exit - to return to the previous menu. The items with an order quantity of zero are displayed so that you can add them to the order just by changing the QTY field to any number greater than zero. Similarly, you can remove an item from the order simply by changing the QTY field to zero. Items with an order quantity of zero will be excluded when you print the final order. > Display An Order Summary Once you have created and reviewed an order you can see a short summary of how it breaks down by department in percentage terms. The columns displayed are as follows: > Dept. - Each merchandising department on the order. > Products - How many products are being ordered in each department. > Order Cost - The cost of the order in each department. > Percent Of Total - The percentage of the total order cost in each department (rounded to two decimals). This display allows you to see if the order is reasonably balanced in terms of the amount you spend on the products in each department. It should be fairly consistent with your percentage of sales in each department. > Printing The Purchase Order There are two main options here - you can print a trial order or a final order. A trial order shows the items for which the order quantity is zero plus the percent of the order cost in each department. This allows you to review a hard copy of an order in progress and see which items are not being ordered. Orders can be printed by department or by the current sorting order (item name or item code). You will also have an opportunity to type any text you wish to appear at the top of the order such as shipping instructions, an address or a PO number. This text will be saved and can be used again as-is or with changes. You can also choose to print the supplier's stock codes on the order instead of your own stock codes. This option will appear only if the current sorting order is by ""Alpha Code" or by "Numeric Code". Use the Sort command under the Utility menu to select one of these before you print an order. Please Note: If there are items in an order from different suppliers then the items for each supplier will start on a new page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 11 - > Update To Records Use this command when you are ready to record an order in your inventory file. Some people call this "posting the order". For each item it adds the purchase order quantity to the "On Order" field and updates the "Order Date" quantity. CAUTION: If you cancel an order you should subtract the order quantity from the "On Order" field. Otherwise the next order calcula- tion might be too low. You may be wondering why a final order is not automatically updated to the inventory file when it is printed. Consider this situation: say that you need to prepare December orders in August to make sure you have enough stock for Christmas. You create the order, print it, and send it off to the supplier. The supplier can now make sure he has enough stock in December to fill your Christmas order. If you post this order to your inventory in August, the orders you generate for September, October and November will be too small because the data shows a large amount of stock already on order. Orders created for September to November will be correct only if you to post the December order when December actually arrives. > Enter As Shipment When a shipment comes in you can choose the order file which is associated with that shipment and update your inventory data to reflect the new stock. This means that the "On Order" field will be decreased and the "On Hand" field will be increased by the amount of stock received. Under the RECEIVED column you will see the number of each item that was ordered. Using the packing slips as your guide, verify the quantities in the RECEIVED column and change them only if the number received is not the same as the number ordered. Note that the number in the first column is the total number of items, not the number of packages. You can change only the numbers in the first column. Use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys and PAGEUP / PAGEDOWN to scroll the screen. Press F10 to exit. You will be asked if you want to record the shipment in the master inventory. Select YES if you have finished verifying the quantities received, or NO if you want to come back and finish it later. If you select YES you will be see a window containing the options available for recording a shipment. The options are: > Print A Record Of This Shipment - press Y if you want a printout of the items you are putting into inventory, otherwise just press ENTER. > Mark These Items For Label Printing - press Y if you want to mark these items for label printing, otherwise just press ENTER. > Unmark All Previously Marked Items - press Y if you want the items in the shipment to be the only Marked items in the inventory. Press N if you want to leave other items Marked. > Add Shipping Costs To These Items - press Y if you want to distribute your shipping costs to the inventory for each item, otherwise just press ENTER. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 12 - > Total Costs To Add To These Items - you only need to type a number here if you answered Y to the previous option. Usually you would enter the shipping charges that you paid, but you can also enter any other overhead charges you like. The amount you enter is distributed to the total inventory for each item received. This can be seen as a "last in - first out" method of distributing costs and the result is reflected in your records as the ADJUSTED COST. INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 5 -> COPY Use this command to copy items from one location to another. You will asked if you wish to copy the inventory numbers and the sales history as well as the product information. Press Y if you want all data transferred or press N if you want the product information only. After the transfer is complete the destination location will become the active location. INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 6 -> TRANSFER Use this command if you have more than one store location and wish to transfer some stock from one store to another. It is also useful if you want to set up one location in Retail Plus as the warehouse from which all other stores are stocked. When you select this command you will be asked if you want to print an audit trail of your entries. This creates a hard copy on the printer which can be a permanent record of the stock transfers made. You have the option to transfer items one at a time (single transfers) or to transfer all Marked items (batch transfers). > Single Transfers - A window appears in which you can identify the item to transfer, the quantity to transfer, the source location and the destination location. Items must be identified by their codes. If you are not sure of the code you can press F3 and choose it from a pick list. If the item is found, Retail Plus checks to see that the name of the item is the same in both locations. If the name is not the same you will be able to tell Retail Plus to proceed or abandon the transfer. If the item is not found in the destination location you will be asked if you want to create it. > Batch Transfers - This assumes that you have used the Marks command or the Browse window to select the items to be included. You will then be presented with a window where you can scan the items to be included and adjust the transfer quantity of each one. If you specify a transfer quantity that is greater than the amount you have on hand then the item is simply ignored and no transfer takes place. The default quantity is the number you transferred the last time you used this function. If the item is not found in the destination location you will be asked if you want to create it. Whether you use the single or batch method, the items you transfer will automatically be Marked in the destination location. This allows you to perform other operations on the transferred items like printing labels or adjusting prices. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 13 - INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 7 -> SHIPMENT This command gives you an alternate way of entering a shipment into your inventory records. A much faster way of doing this is with the "Enter As Shipment" command under the "Orders" menu, but it needs an order file to associate with each shipment. If you receive stock which was not included in a purchase order or was back-ordered use this command to record it. In your inventory records the "On Order" field will be decreased and the "On Hand" field will be increased by the amount of stock received. When you select this you will be asked if you want to print an audit trail of your entries. This creates a hard copy on the printer which can be a permanent record of the stock received. You will also be asked if you want the items in the shipment Marked for label printing and whether you want all other items in the inventory unmarked first. A window then appears in which you can enter the code of each item in turn. If you are not sure of the code you can press F3 and choose it from a pick list. Next you will see a window in which to enter the quantity received. Please note that this should be the total number received, not the number of packages. Also displayed is the wholesale cost of the item and the adjusted cost. These can be updated here if desired. The wholesale cost is the price charged by the supplier and the adjusted cost is the wholesale cost plus any overhead(i.e. shipping) costs you want to add. How the adjusted cost is calculated is up to you. Often a store owner just divides the shipping cost by the total number of items in the shipment and adds the result to the wholesale cost of each item received. Not everyone uses the adjusted cost field - it can be ignored if you wish and it will simply show the same value as the wholesale cost. When you have supplied this information press ENTER to go on to the next item. When you are finished press ESCAPE. INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 8 -> ADJUST These commands allow to change some of your inventory data without having to find each record you want to change. The three options are: > Onhand Quantities - Use this when you need a way to add or subtract a quantity from the ON HAND figure for any item without having to find the item then cursor to the right field. There are two options: > Manual - This allows to enter the changes quickly at the keyboard. Once again you will be asked if you want to print an audit trail of your entries. Select "Yes" to get a hard copy list of the stock adjustments. A window appears where you can enter the code of the item you want to adjust. If you are not sure of the code press F3 to choose it from a pick list. Next you will see a window where you can enter the correct inventory ON HAND quantity. The screen then cycles back to the beginning where you can enter the next item. When you have finished press ESCAPE to return to the Main Menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 14 - > Data File - This option automates the chore of identifying the variances between the inventory records and the actual shelf quantity. To do this you need a portable stock counting device that records the stock number and the shelf quantity as you walk around the store. When you have finished collecting the data it is transfered to your computer in the form of a delimited data file containing two fields - the stock number and the shelf quantity. Retail Plus can read this file and pop up a browse window showing you the variances. You can edit the shelf quantities but not any of the other information. You can also print a report of the variances. When you are done with this window you will be given an opportunity to use the data to directly update the onhand quantities in the inventory records. If you do, make sure you have a fresh backup of your inventory first because this feature can modify a lot of records all at once. > Price Changes - Use this to adjust the price on a range of items by a given percentage. Use the Set Marks command or the Browse window to Mark the items to be included. To increase the price enter the percentage increase you want. To decrease the price enter a negative value i.e. -10 for a ten percent decrease. > Cost Changes - Use this to adjust the wholesale cost on a range of items. For example, if Jones Distribution tells you they are discounting their entire line by 10 percent you would use the Set Marks command to Mark all items from Jones Distribution then use the Cost Changes command to adjust the wholesale cost figure for each one. Please note that the Adjusted Cost figure is not revised until new stock actually arrives. > Job Purchase Costing - This applies a cost calculation to all marked items. It allows the user to distribute the cost of a job lot purchase to each item in the lot based on its share of the total retail value. This assumes that the user is entering new items into inventory and has assigned a selling price to each one. The user is prompted for the total cost of the new inventory and has an option to print an audit trail of the cost calculations. The following is an example of how this can be applied. Lets say that you attend a liquidation auction or estate sale and enter a bid on a set of items being sold as a job lot. You haul the items back to the store where they will be priced and sold individually. You know the total cost of the items and how much you are going to charge for them, but you don't know what cost to assign to each one. To do this automatically, just mark all the items in the job lot as you enter them into inventory. Then run the Job Purchase Costing command and enter the total cost. Retail Plus will now assign a cost to each item based on it's proportional share of the retail value. Please note that the calculation may occasionally be .01 off due to rounding. Before you begin, remember to unmark all items so that nothing is accidentally included in the calculation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 15 - INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 9 -> RETURNS The Returns command provides an alternate method of re-stocking an item that has been returned by the customer (see the POS system for the other method). A window appears where you can enter the code of the item returned. If you are not sure of the code press F3 to choose it from an pick list. Next you will see a window where you can enter the quantity returned. The item name will appear under the window. Type the quantity returned and press ENTER or press ESCAPE to go back to the Main Menu. In order to maintain accurate sales figures, Retail Plus also needs to know the price at which the returned item was sold to the customer. If more than one price for the item is listed in your inventory records you will be prompted to select one. Use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the price you want then press ENTER. The inventory and sales figures will be adjusted accordingly and you will see a confirmation of the transaction. INVENTORY MENU COMMAND 10 -> IMPORT This Import command lets you bring inventory items in from another database system. Since most databases can export to a comma-delimited data file, Retail Plus can import this format. The import file must have a filename ending in ".DTA" and field structure should be as follows: FIELD # CONTENT TYPE MAX WIDTH PICT ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 ITEM NAME CHARACTER 30 2 STOCK CODE CHARACTER 12 3 DEPARTMENT CHARACTER 13 4 SIZE CHARACTER 6 5 PACK QTY NUMERIC 4 9999 6 UNIT COST NUMERIC 7 9999.99 7 RETAIL PRICE NUMERIC 7 9999.99 8 BASE STOCK NUMERIC 5 99999 9 ON HAND QTY NUMERIC 8 99999.99 Before you read an import file you should have a backup of the inventory you are adding to. Also make sure that the file you are reading is not going to produce any duplicate stock codes in your inventory. HEALTH WARNING - stock code duplications may cause severe headaches. After importing new items use the Duplicate command under the Utility menu to check for them. SECTION 3 - THE SALES MENU --------------------------- There are three different ways to enter sales into this system: 1 - Manually from the keyboard - this would involve taking your cash register tapes to the computer and punching in each sale. Once you have done this a few times it goes quite quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 16 - 2 - Importing sales data files from other Retail Plus points of sale. 3 - From the Point-Of-Sale function - if you set up your keyboard and screen at the sales counter you can enter sales, print slips or invoices, and update your data all at the same time. Each of these methods is described on the following pages. SALES MENU COMMAND 1 -> MANUAL This command brings up the window used to enter sales information from the keyboard. You will be asked if you wish to print an audit trail of your entries. Select YES to get hard copy of the sales as they are entered. Before you begin you are asked to supply the date of sales for your entries. > Press ENTER to accept the date shown (today's date). > Change it if you want the sales posted under a different date. > The date format is the international format (YYMMDD). The system will not allow you to enter an invalid date. This date option is intended to allow you to briefly roll back the date so you can enter sales made last week or last month without having them added to this week's sales figures. Note that Retail Plus does not store daily sales with this method, only weekly and monthly sales. Therefore you are not required to enter sales figures for every day that your store is open. If you wish, you can enter a week's worth of sales all at once. If you want reasonably accurate sales tracking you should enter sales data at least once a week. The next window prompts you for the code of an item for which you want to enter sales data. If you are not sure of the code press F3 to choose it from a pick list. The next window displays information about the item and prompts you for the quantity sold. This window also shows the current sticker price and gives you an opportunity to change it. Once you have supplied the data it is recorded and the previous window appears again. It now contains some information about your last entry so you won't loose your place. Then you are ready to do the next item. Press ESCAPE to return to the Main Menu when you are finished. SALES MENU COMMAND 2 -> IMPORT This command allows you to read sales made at other locations. If you have multiple points of sale but wish to keep a master inventory then you would use this feature. The sales data is exported to a text file at the other sites and sent to you on a diskette, via modem file transfer, as an e-mail attachment, or in a shared directory on a network server. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 17 - The default data filenames show the date and location where the file was created. They all have the file type".DAT". For example, a sales file created at location SL1 on May 1st would be called "SL10501.DAT". Use the help screens to guide you in locating the data files. If any sales data files are present in the specified location you can select one from a pick list on the screen. WARNING: Since it is hard to undo batch changes made to inventory files you should always have a fresh backup before proceeding. See the Backup command under the Utility menu. While the sales data is being scanned the printer produces what is called an Exception Report. It mostly contains information about the sales data including non-existent stock codes, depleted stock, voided sales, and discounts applied to a subtotal. You must act on a non-existent stock code but the other information may or may not be useful to you. The system will warn you if you try to read the same sales file more than once. After a data file has been read you will be given an opportunity to print a summary of the sales information it contains. See also the following related commands on the POS menu: > Write Stock Updates - to send inventory additions & changes to remote sites. > Read Stock Updates - to read additions and changes from the master inventory. > Export Sales Data - to create a data files to send to the master inventory. > See the section About Multiple Points Of Sale in the General Program Notes. SALES MENU COMMAND 3 -> P.O.S. This is the point-of-sale function for Retail Plus, which also incorporates the receivables and invoicing function. Use it to enter sales transactions and print invoices or sales slips if desired. The first item that appears is a menu with the following options: > Point Of Sale - start using the P.O.S. feature. > Itemized Sales - see a running log of all your sales. > Customer Accounts - use receivables functions, print invoices & statements. > View Exit Totals - view or print your POS receipts. > Back Order Log - view a list of items you have back ordered for customers. > Personnel Totals - view or print the staff sales totals. > Export Sales Data - write sales data to an export new sales and invoices. > Write Stock Updates - send stock updates to remotes sites. > Read Stock Updates - read in stock updates sent from the master inventory. > Setup Menu - configure the system to your needs. > Quit - return to the Main Menu. Before using the P.O.S. function for the first time you should select the Setup Menu command. If you have more than one location you must use Setup Menu for each one. Point Of Sale The P.O.S. function consists of a single central screen on which all sales transactions can be conducted. Before the screen appears you will be shown the system date. Press ENTER to accept the date shown, or change it if some other date of sales is wanted. The date format is (YY.MM.DD). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 18 - If you have elected to use the client database the top of the P.O.S. screen will include a section for client information. If you are not using the client database this section will be omitted. The POS screen is controlled using letter commands and function keys. The letter commands are: > A - Press A to enter an account number for this sale. Use this to hold the account number of a customer who has an account with you or to record the credit card number if the sale is being charged. You can enter a credit card number by using a card reader. The number will be checked for validity and the method of payment (MOP) will be set automatically. If you have a card reader connected to the computer you do not need to press any key or set a method of payment. Simply run the card through the reader and Retail Plus will automatically display the number and set the method of payment. > C - Press C to open the cash drawer if it is not set up to open automatically. > S - Press S to enter a name in the "Sold By" field on the screen. This name will remain in effect until it is changed and will appear on all invoices and sales slips. If your sales staff is earning commissions this offers a method of tracking each person's sales. Note that you can set up the system to force an operator ID between each sale. See "Force Staff ID" on the POS setup screen called "Other Configurations". > UP / DOWN ARROW - Use this to select the Method Of Payment (MOP) for the current sale. The choices are : Cash, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JBC, Debit Card, Check, On Account and Quote Only. PLEASE NOTE: INVOICES ARE ONLY STORED IN CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS IF THE METHOD OF PAYMENT IS SET TO "ON ACCOUNT". You can use a short cut keys to change the method of payment as follows: Press 1 for Visa, 2 for Mastercard, 3 for Amex, 4 for Discover, 5 for JBC, 6 for Debit Card, 7 for Price Quote, 8 for Check, 9 for On Account, and 0 for Cash. > V - Press V to verify a credit card and get the approcal code for the purchase. This works only if you have ICVerify installed. See General Program Notes for instructions on setting up for on-screen credit card authorizations. > N - Press N to add some free-form text to the current invoice or sales slip. Your entry will appear after the current line item and will be saved with on an invoice and in the customer's purchase history. Examples of how to use this would be to record a serial number below an item or to elaborate on the product description. > X - Press X to print a cash register style X-report if enabled (see the POS setup menu). It includes items sold, quantity sold, gross, and cost of goods sold by department. On a network each workstation can store the data for the X-report on a local drive and print a unique report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 19 - The function keys at the bottom of the screen are: > F1 - Help - view the Help windows for this screen. > F2 - Client - Use the client database. A menu appears with the following options: > Add A New Client - Enter a new name in the client database. > Name Finder - Find a client by name. > Company Finder - Find a client by company name. > Phone No. Finder - Find a client by phone number. > Find By Cust No - Find a client by customer number. If a client name is already on the screen the following options also appear: > View Sales History - Review a client's sales history. > Show Invoices - Browse all the invoices on file for this client. Once the browse screen is displayed press F1 for a description of the functions available to you. You will have the opportunity to view the items on any invoice, make payments on invoices and reprint them if you wish. You can also press F2 to retrieve the items on an invoice to the POS screen, where they can be processed as a new sale (if you do this be careful that the invoice does not contain any stock codes or prices that are out of date). See Section 7 (General Program Notes) for more information about how the invoicing system works. > Quotes On File - Use this to review and retrieve any price quotes you have on file for this client. Quotes can be retrieved back onto the POS screen and processed as sales when the client decides to buy. Quotes are produced simply by making sales with the MOP (Method Of Payment) set to Price Quote. > Print Record - You can choose to print all the client's data or just the address for a shipping label. LPT1 is used for labels so you can print invoices on the POS printer and shipping labels on the default printer. Use on label size three and a half by fifteen sixteenths (one up), such as Avery Label #5615. If you choose to print all the client's data you can further choose to print their itemized purchase history, their invoicing history, or both. > Delete Record - Delete the current client record. > F4 - Add - Add an item to this sale. A window appears where you can enter the stock code of the item. There are function keys on this screen as well: F1 - Help F2 - Turn Fast Scan Mode on or off. Fast Scan is a setup option in the POS Setup screen called "Other Configurations". The setting you chose there will be the one that appears on this window. Pressing the F2 key changes that setting FOR THE NEXT ITEM ONLY. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Page 20 - Explanation: When Fast Scan Mode is OFF the POS screen pops up a detail window every time an item is added to a sale. The detail window lets you change the price, add a discount (depending on access level), change the tax status, specify a quantity sold, or view the product description. This adds flexibility and options at the time of sale. It also adds keystrokes and gives the user more chances to make errors (this is significant if you have part-time occassional employees who use the system). When Fast Scan mode is ON, the POS screen does not pop up the item detail window. It simply lists each item at the default price with a quantity sold of one. In order to see the detail window for an item you must press F2 just before ringing it up. This makes scanning sales with a barcode reader easy because you do not have to hit any keys between items. It still allows you to pop up the item detail window when you need it, i.e. to change a price, add a discount, set the tax status or change the quantity sold. F3 - If you do not know the stock code of an item you can press F3 to select it from a pick list. Move up and down the list with the UP / DOWN ARROW keys, PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN, or by typing the first few letters of the item name. When the item you want is highlighted then press ENTER. F4 - If the item you want to sell has not been entered into inventory you can do so now. A window appears where you can enter the minimal information about the item i.e. the name, stock code, and selling price. You can also fill out the other fields if you wish but they are optional. To enter lots of items you may find it much better to use the New Item command under the Inventory menu. The data entry window available here is meant to be a convenient way to add a new item quickly in the middle of a sale. Please note that items added in this manner can be found by stock code as soon as they are entered but it is possible that they may not be located by name right away. If the item detail window appears it lists the particulars for the item. Type the quantity sold. If you are going to discount the item press the UP ARROW once and type the percentage discount. If you want to charge a different price from the one shown, and you have an access level of 3, press the UP ARROW key again to the Retail Price field then type the price you want to charge. The fields labeled Taxable T1 and T2 show which sales taxes, if any, apply to the item. You can change these if you need to make a special tax-exempt sale. A user with access level less than 3 cannot change the price. If you set the amount in "Quantity Sold" to a higher number than is shown for "On-Hand" then you will be given a opportunity to create a customer back order. A window appears showing the amount of stock that you are short and offering the following options: > Back Order Qty X - where x is the difference between what the customer wants and what you have on hand. Example: if you have 10 and the customer wants 12, then 10 are put on the sale and 2 are back ordered. > Back Order Qty Y - where y is the entire amount the customer wants. Example: if you have 10 and the customer wants 12, then 0 are put on the sale and 12 are back ordered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 21 - > Back Order None - proceed with the sell quantity as shown and ignore the low stock condition. Example: If you have 10 and the customer wants 12, then 12 are put on the sale, 0 are back ordered, and your on hand quantity runs into negative numbers. > Specify Quantities - lets you enter the quantities to put on the sale and to back order. This option will not allow you to put more on the sale than you have in stock. > Skip Item - cancels the item and returns to the POS screen. The first two options will be the same if your on hand quantity has already hit zero. NOTE: The back order window does not appear for items that are in department "LABOR" or "RENTAL". Repeat the "Add Item" step for each item the customer is buying. As you proceed, an itemized list appears on the screen. Right after the price of an item there may appear some codes which provide information about it. These codes are: > T1 - Tax 1 only applies to this item > T2 - Tax 2 only applies to this item > TB - Both taxes apply to this item > TR - Returned item - tax refundable > NR - Returned item - tax not refundable > CR - Customer credit > D - Discount applied on this item > D1 - Discount applied on this item, tax 1 charged on discounted price > D2 - Discount applied on this item, tax 2 charged on discounted price > DB - Discount applied on this item, both taxes charged on discounted price > N - Identifies an item added to the sale using the Non-Stock Item option > BO - The item will be back ordered due to short stock Both taxable and non-taxable items can be included in any sale. The tax is charged according to whether the item is shown as taxable in the inventory records. Note that the user can over-ride that setting at the time of the sale if taxes and charges are set up as optional in the POS Setup screen. Individual clients can also be assigned a tax status (as well as a discount status) that is automatically applied when their names are pulled up in the P.O.S. screen. For more information see SETTING UP A CLIENT'S DISCOUNT AND TAX STATUS in the General Program Notes at the end of the manual. As you proceed a running total of the amount payable is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. It includes all taxes, charges, and discounts that apply so it is the actual amount owing. This makes it more convenient for customers who are counting dimes at the sales counter. > F5 - Dele - delete an item from the sale. A cursor appears on the screen which you can move with the UP / DOWN ARROW keys. Just point to the item you want to delete and press F4. Press F10 when you have finished deleting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 22 - > F6 - Menu - This produces a menu with the following options: > Enter A Non-Stock Item - Use this to add a Non-Stock Item to the sale. It is included so that you can add items that are not in the inventory records. A window appears where you can enter a stock code (this is optional), an item name, the quantity sold, and the price. Items that are added to the sale as Non-Stock Items will appear on the invoice (or sales slip) but will not be added to the inventory. To add new items you should use the New Item option under the Inventory menu. > Enter A Credit / Coupon - Use this to enter any type of customer credit such as coupons, gift certificates, or cash credit for a trade-in. > Enter A Customer Return - Use this to credit the customer with a returned item. You will see the current selling price, which you can change if it is not the price the customer paid. You will also see the Taxable T1 and T2 fields. Set the corresponding field to Y if sales Tax 1 or Tax 2 was paid and you want to refund the tax. Set them to N if you do not need to refund the tax. While taxes are refundable, the two add-on charges are treated as non-refundable and you do not have an option to refund them here. > Apply A Discount To Subtotal - Use this to discount everything on the sale, (as opposed to discounting selected items). You will be given a window in which to type the percentage discount. > View Summary Of POS Receipts - See how much you have made since last clearing the Exit Totals. > Toggle Client Database On/Off - Clear the client database off the screen or bring it back as needed. > Toggle Auto Page Eject On/Off - If On, Retail Plus sends a page eject to the printer after every sales slip or invoice. > Change Printer Outputs - Direct the printer output as needed to conform with printer setups. > Verify Printer Outputs - Use this to check on printer and port settings. > Select Taxes And Charges - This will display a window where you can select the taxes and charges to apply to your sales. The options shown are those that you entered in the POS Setup screen. These choices will remain in effect for each sale until they are changed again, unless the client database is in use and you have set up a tax configuration for the current client (see Section 7 - Setting Up A Client's Discount And Tax Status). This allows you to control which taxes and charges are applied to any given sale or for any given customer. If you need help using this window press F1 while it is on the screen. Please note that entering a "1" on this screen enables taxes to be applied where items are identified as taxable in the inventory. It does not force tax to be calculated on items that have not been set up as taxable. Think of it as a switch that you can use to turn tax calculation on and off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 23 - > F7 - Total - Use this to total up the current sale. A window appears with the subtotal and totals and you can enter the amount tendered by the customer. Any change owing will be calculated and displayed. You can temporarily change the number of invoice or sales slip copies by pressing CTRL-LEFT ARROW. Each time you press it the number will increase by one. After it reaches 9 it will start again at 1. If you are printing sales slips and you want the client's name to appear on it press the letter P while in this window. If you wish to cancel and return to the POS screen just press ESCAPE. If you press any other key Retail Plus will print the sale. If the customer changes his or her mind you can still add or delete items and total the sale again if Auto Save has not been turned on. With Auto Save turned off, nothing is recorded in the inventory database until you press F9 to save it (see below). > F9 - Save - Use this to tell the system that the sale is complete. The sale (or price quote) is now posted to the database and the POS screen is cleared for the next transaction. If the client database is active the sale is recorded in the client's purchase history as well. If the MOP (Method Of Payment) is set to On Account or Price Quote then an invoice or quote is put on file. If Auto Save is turned on these steps are automatically executed. > ESC - Cancel - Press ESCAPE to cancel a sale in progress. > F10 - Exit - use this to exit from the Point-Of-Sale function. When you quit the POS screen you are asked if you wish to clear the exit totals. These are the same numbers you see when you "View Summary Of POS Receipts" as described above. If you do not clear them they will be saved for you and Retail Plus will pick up where you left off the next time sales are made. If you do choose to clear these numbers they are saved to a table which you can view with the "View Exit Totals" command under the P.O.S. menu. If you have configured the POS setup screen to print exit totals, and the printer is on, then you will get a hard copy of these totals. Please note that you should always clear the exit totals if you are going to make sales from a different location. Otherwise you may get sales from two different locations lumped together in one set of exit totals. Itemized Sales Log This displays the line items on all your transactions and will will continue to collect them until you clear the log. We recommend that you print it and clear it at least weekly so that it does not get too big. When it reaches 400,000 bytes in size you will start getting messages that it is growing too big. When it reaches 600,000 bytes it is automatically cleared and the system starts a new log. Please note that in network installations, the bigger this log gets the longer it takes to save your transactions and the slower your POS screens will run. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 24 - Customer Accounts This command leads to another menu from which you can find, review and clear out invoices as well as quotes (a quote is like an invoice waiting to be processed as a sale). The choices on this menu are: > Payment On Invoice - Retail Plus requires all payments to be applied to an existing invoice, so you will be asked to enter the invoice number to which the payment applies. The payment date defaults to the current date but you can adjust this to any date you wish. You can also find invoices and make payments on the using the POS screen. Just press F2 to find the client record, press F2 again and then select "Show Invoices". > Browse Receivables - Use this to see a listing of all the invoices on file. If you want to see the most recent ones first then choose to sort them by invoice number. If you want to see the older invoices first then sort by invoice date. The options available to you include printing an invoice, viewing the items on an invoice and deleting an invoice. You will be asked to confirm any invoice deletion before it is carried out. Once confirmed, an invoice is removed even if it has a non-zero balance. > Batch Print Invoices - This will print all invoices that have a balance owing and an invoice date that falls between two given dates. Please note that an invoice will only be printed if it is associated (via customer number) with a customer in the client database. You can print individual invoices by locating the client in the POS screen or with the Browse Receivables command. > Delete Old Invoices - This command deletes invoices that are older than a given date and have a balance of zero. The default date is 90 days before the current date but you can change it to any date you wish. > Batch Print Statements - Use this to print statements for all clients with invoices. You can specify the end date to which the statements include customer invoices. For example, if you want the statement to include only invoices to the end of May the enter May 31. > Browse Quotes - This command allows you to view and re-print price quotes that are on file. > Delete Old Quotes - This command deletes quotes on file that are older than a given date. The default date is 90 days before the current date but you can change it to any date you wish. > Print Client List - Use this to get a hard copy of everyone's name, address, phone number and customer number. View Exit Totals This contains a history of your POS receipts. These are displayed as a table. The date and time shown for each set of totals is date and time the numbers were saved and cleared from the POS system. This table can be edited simply by moving the highlight to a cell you want changed and typing the new data. At the bottom of the screen you will see an option for printing totals, which can be printed for one date or a range of dates. If you print totals for a range of dates then the columns will be added up for you and the sums will appear on the page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 25 - If there have been discounts on any subtotals of your sales these are included in the column labeled DISC/RETURNS/CREDITS. What is NOT included are the discounts applied to individual items within a sale. These are handeled like below-list price points rather than customer discounts. Back Order Log This command displays and prints the back orders that have been created for your customers. Each back ordered item is listed separately with the customer information. Print and clear this log regularly. See the General Program Notes at the end of the manual for more on how customer back orders can be handled. Personnel Totals This contains a history of each staff person's sales totals and can be used for calculating commissions. Each time a sale is made the selling price of all items (minus the discounts) is added to that person's total. If there is no name in the "Sold By" field then the sale is credited to "No Name". At the bottom of the screen you will see an option to print the totals. If you do this then you will also be given an opportunity to clear the totals. The common practice is to print out these totals once a week and re-set them to zero. Export Sales Data If you have multiple points of sale, satelite stores or mobile units you can use this command to write sales data to an export file which can then be sent back to the main office. This allows you to centralize your data without having to connect everything to a network server. Once the export files have been created, the sales log, invoices, and client histories are cleared and presumed moved to another computer. The export files must be sent as a group via modem or diskette to the PC that contains your master inventory, then you can use the 'Import' command to update the master inventory. The default name assigned to the export files show the location and date on which they were created. For more information see the section About Multiple Points Of Sale in the General Program Notes. Write Stock Updates In order to run multiple points of sale without a network you will need to keep the inventory data on each computer up to date. Mostly you will want to add new items and make sure all prices are current. This command would be used when you have made additions and changes on the master inventory and wish to synchronize the other computers running Retail Plus. All you need to do is Mark the items you want included in the update and then run this command. The updates are written to a pair of files which must always remain together. The files have the same name but different file types - ".DBF" and ".DBT". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 26 - You can accept the default filename or supply one of your own. The default filenames start with a "U" and includes the location and date on which they were created. For example, if a stock update was created at location SL1 on May 1st, the name of the two files would be "USL10501.DBF" and "USL10501.DBT". If you want to write the files to a floppy disk just change the directory path to point to a floppy drive i.e.: A:\UXXXXXX.DBF Once created, the files can be distributed to all your points of sale via diskette, modem, as an e-mail attachment, or in a common network directory. The recipients of the file can synchronize their inventory by running the Read Stock Updates command (see below). Read Stock Updates This is the other half of the stock updates feature. It allows you to synchronze your data with the master inventory. Simply read in the files sent from the master inventory and the update is done. Use the help screens to guide you in locating the data files. If any update files are present in the specified location you can select one from a pick list on the screen. WARNING: Since it is hard to undo batch changes made to inventory files you should always have a fresh backup before proceeding. See the backup command under the Utility menu. For more information see the section About Multiple Points Of Sale in the General Program Notes. Setup Menu A menu appears from which you can choose which setup screen you want. The options are: > Select Printer Output - This allows you to choose invoices, sales slips, a continuous audit trail of sales or no printer output at all. > Change Control Codes - This brings up a screen with seven fields where you can enter setups for the printers and the optional cash drawer. In those fields where a device control string is required you must enter the decimal equivalents of the ASCII codes to be sent separated by commas. For more information on how this works read the Help screens for these fields or see page 31 for an example. > In the first field type the port on which the Point-Of-Sale printer is connected. The choices are LPT1, LPT2, LPT3. > In the second field type the control string (if any) to send to the printer when printing sales slips. > In the third field type the control string (if any) to send to the printer when printing invoices ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 27 - > In the fourth field type the control string (if any) that activates the tape cutter on the sales slip printer. In practice you can put any codes here that you want sent to the POS printer after every sale. > In the fifth field type the port on which the automatic cash drawer is connected, if you have one. The choices are LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, or COM2. Usually cash drawers are connected to either COM1 or it plug into the back of the POS printer, in which case the cash drawer and the POS printer would both be on the same port. The Star Micronics SP-200 and the Epson TM-400 have a cash drawer jack that looks like a fat telephone plug. > In the sixth field type the control string (if any) that triggers the cash drawer. For example, the code for a cash drawer connected to the back of the Star Micronics SP-200 slip printer is 27,07,49. > In the seventh field type the number of times the cash drawer trigger needs to be repeated in order to open the drawer. This can be any number as specified in the instructions for your cash drawer. > Bonus Points Program - This is a feature that you can turn on and off. It is meant to provide the means to set up a rewards system for your best customers by giving them bonus points with every purchase. This qualifies them for a discount when they have accumulated enough points (max 99,999.99). When you turn on the bonus points program you will be asked for the following: > Point Factor - the number of bonus points the customers will receive for every dollar they spend (before taxes and charges). If you enter 1 they will get one point per dollar. If you enter 0.10 they must spend ten dollars to get one point. Points are still awarded on sales that contain discounted items but not on sales where there is already a discount on the subtotal. > Discount Threshold - the number of points a customer needs to qualify for a discount on their next purchase. The points a customer has accumulated will be displayed on the screen at the end of the line containing the Customer number. When that number reaches the discount threshold you will be notified the next time they make a purchase, and they can decide whether to use the discount now or let the points keep adding up. If a bonus points discount is taken on a given sale, the customer's point total is decreased by the same number as the discount threshold. For example, if the threshold is 500 and the customer has 600 points, they will have 100 points left after they take their discount. If a customer returns an item the point total is reduced again. > Discount Rate - the percentage discount customers will receive when they have enough points to qualify for a bonus points discount. In order for a customer to qualify two conditions must be satisfied: 1 - the customer must have earned enough bonus points. 2 - there cannot already be a discount applied to the subtotal of the sale. > Print Point Totals - Answer Y if you want a customer's accumulated points to appear on their sales slips, answer N if you don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 28 - There is another useful way you can use this feature. By setting the point factor to 1 the system will display the total amount each customers has spent whenever you pull up their name on the POS screen. The number shown represents the cumulative subtotal on their purchases (before taxes and charges). If you want to see this running total but do not actually want to use bonus point discounts then simply set the Discount Threshold to zero and the points printing option to N (no). > Other Configurations - this brings up a screen where you can set up a number of preferences for the POS system. Please note that each location you have set up in Retail Plus can have a different POS configuration. The information you enter will be applied to the current location only. As you move through this screen you can press F1 at any time for an explanation of what each field is for. In the first section there are fields where you can enter the name and amounts for two types of sales taxes and two types of add-on charges. These will all be added as a percentage on the invoice sub-total, except for Charge 1 which is applied as a flat fee. Use these fields as follows: > Tax 1 Name - enter the name of any sales tax that applies in your area. > Tax 1 Percent - enter the percentage amount of Tax 1. > Tax 2 Name - enter the name of a second sales tax that applies in your area (if any). > Compound - Enter Y if Tax 1 is included when calculating Tax 2. > Tax 2 Percent - enter the percentage amount of Tax 2. > Charge 1 Name - enter the name of a flat fee such as a handling charge. > Charge 1 Amount - enter the amount of Charge 1. > Charge 2 Name - enter the name of a percentage add-on fee such as a service charge or commission. > Charge 2 Percent - enter the percentage amount of Charge 2. Please note that when an invoice is totaled up the charges are added after the taxes are calculated. It is assumed that any fee you add to a sale will not be taxable along with the merchandise. If you have a range of service fees that you add to customer invoices, set them up as items in a service fees department and add them to invoices as needed. In this way you can set up a service fee as either taxable or non-taxable. The remaining items on the setup screen are: > Invoice Header (Up to 5 lines) - enter anything that you want to appear at the top of your invoices or sales slips. If you do not have pre-printed paper stock then you may use this to print the store name and address. If you are going to print sales slips you will have to limit the length of each line to 38 characters maximum. > Invoice Footer (1 line) - enter anything you want to appear at the bottom of your invoices or sales slips. If you are going to print sales slips you will have to limit the length of this line to 38 characters maximum. > Top Margin (0-6) - enter the number of lines you want the printer to skip when printing invoices or sales slips. This allows room for your company logo if you use pre-printed paper stock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 29 - > Center Header - press Y if you want the contents of the invoice header (and footer) centered on the invoice or sales slip. Press N if you want them left-justified. > Invoice Copies (1-9) - enter the number of copies of the invoice or sales slip that you want printed. Generally it is easier to use duplicating NCR paper in your printer, unless you are using a laser printer. If you print more than 1 invoice they will be numbered as they come off the printer. You can temporarily change the number of invoice copies when you total the sale. In the totals window press CTRL-LEFT ARROW to increment the number by one. When it reaches 9 it will start again at 1. > Auto Save Sales - press Y to have the sales & inventory data automatically updated after every sale. Press N if you want the print and save operations to be on separate keys (F7 and F9). For more information, read the Help screen for this field. > ICVerify Card Mode On - Press Y if you want to run IC Verify in background mode. Press N if you are running ICVerify in pop-up mode or if you do not have it installed. ICVerify is a software add-on that allows you to do credit card authorizations directly on the screen. See the manual for more information on how it works. > Default MOP - Type the default method of payment. Press F1 when the cursor is in this field to see the options. This will be the method of payment on the POS screen before you begin each sale. > Print Exit Totals - Press Y if you want the system to print a breakdown of receipts each time you exit the point-of-sale function. > Eject Page After Printing - press Y if you want the printer to eject after printing each invoice or sales slip. Press N to suppress the page eject. > Use Client Database - Press Y if you want the client database to appear on the POS screen when you start it up. Press N to leave it out. If you choose to leave it out you can still call it up at any time from within the POS screen. > Force Staff ID - Press Y if you want the sales staff to enter a name or operator code in the "Sold By" field before every sale. Press N if you only want a staff ID when opening the POS screen. > Fast Scan Mode On - Press Y to enable uninterupted barcode scanning or N to enable the item detail window. When entering items in the POS screen a detail window appears that allows you to change the quantity, price or to apply a discount. If you turn the fast scanning mode on this window is omitted and you will have to make fewer keystrokes per customer. With the fast scanning mode turned on the item detail window can still be called up by pressing F2 just BEFORE you scan the item. You would use this if you know that the next item is discounted or you need to change the retail price. > Auto Drawer Trigger - Press Y if you want Retail Plus to open the cash drawer when each sale is saved. Press N if you have a manual cash drawer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 30 - > Print Signature Lines For Charge Card Sales - Press Y if you want the standard message and signature line on the sales slip for charge card payments. Press N to omit it. To use this feature you should put NCR paper in your POS printer and you should make the necessary arrangements with the card issuer to accept this form of credit slip. > Enable X-Reports - Press Y if you need to get cash-register style X-reports including quantities, gross, and cost of goods sold by department. Enabling X-reports means that your system will create and maintain an extra data file just for this purpose and, as a result, it will take a bit longer to save each sales. The larger this file becomes the longer it takes, so it is a important to print the report and clear the file regularly. > X-Report Data Drive - If you have a network or a computer with more than one hard drive you can identify the drive on which you want the X-report data file stored. The default is drive C:. On a network this will allow each workstation to save the X-report data on a local drive and print a unique report independent of the network. > Next Invoice # - type the number at which you want Retail Plus to start numbering the invoices. These numbers will also appear on sales slips as transaction numbers. > Next Customer # - type the next number at which you want Retail Plus to start numbering customers. When you have finished with this screen press F10. See Section 7, "General Program Notes" at the end of this manual for more information about what the client database can do for you. SALES MENU COMMAND 4 -> SET MARKS Use the Set Marks command to flag items in the inventory for inclusion in reports or various operations such as printing labels and reports, making purchase orders or copying items from one location to another. A menu appears with the following options: > Mark All Items - set the Mark field to Y for all items in inventory. > Unmark All Items - set the Mark field to N for all items in inventory. > Select Criteria - Use this to mark or unmark items that satisfy a given criteria. First you are asked to choose whether you want your selections Marked or Unmarked. You can then choose one of six methods to target the items you want. You can use a two-pass strategy to make more complex choices. For example, lets say you want to make a purchase order for a given supplier but wish to exclude the items in a given Department. You would Mark all items from that supplier on the first pass then Unmark all items in the target Department on the second pass. PLEASE NOTE: Marking records can be a cummulative activity. If you Mark all the items in one department and then Mark all the items from one supplier you have Marked all the items that contain either one of these targets. Remember to use the "Unmark All Items" command before targeting a new set of items. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 31 - SALES MENU COMMAND 5 -> LABELS Use this command to print price tags, bin labels and barcodes. Price tags show the item name, code number and price. Bin labels show the product name, size, code, price, department and supplier. If printed on a LaserJet the bin labels also show the base stock, re-order point and re-order quantity. Barcode labels (which can also be used as price tags) show a Code 39 barcode, the stock number, the item name, and the price. Barcodes can only be printed on an HP LaserJet or work-alike printer. Labels are printed in the current sorting order (see the Sort command under the Utility Menu). When you begin, you will see a reminder that labels will be printed for Marked items only. You will then have an opportunity to print labels for each item in the last shipment or to select the number of copies of each label (maximum 999). If you are using a dot matrix printer you can print test labels to adjust the position of the label stock in the printer. If you are using a LaserJet you can chose manual or auto sheet feeding. There will, of course, be an option to cancel any print job in progress. If you cancel a print job in Retail Plus expect the printing to continue for a few more lines until the printer's memory buffer is empty. The label sizes used for dot matrix printers are: For price tags: 2-1/2 by 15/16 (three-up, Avery Label 04144 or M40153A). For bin labels: 4 by 1-7/16 (one- up). These are standard size labels and are available from any office supplies store. The label sizes used for LaserJet printers are: For price tags: Avery Label 5267 (AL-90M in Canada). These are 1/2 by 1-3/4 (four-up, 80 per page). For bin labels: Avery Label 5163 (AL-130 in Canada). These are 4 inches by 2 inches (two-up, 10 per page). For small barcode labels: Avery Label 5160 (AL-100 in Canada). These are 2-5/8 by 1 (three-up, 30 per page). For large barcode labels: Avery Label 5162 (AL-125 in Canada). These are 4 by 1-1/3 (two-up, 14 per page). All these labels may be available from other manufacturers as well. For those who require European (A4) label formats Retail Plus uses Avery #L7651 for price tags, Avery #L7160 for barcode labels and Avery #L7165 for bin labels. SALES MENU COMMAND 6 -> FAST LIST This command will print a basic price list of your product line for fast reference. The information included is the stock code, product name, size (if applicable), the number on hand, and the retail price. It will also show which items, if any, are taxable (1, 2 or B for tax 1, tax 2 or both). Keep it by your cash register for fast price and stock lookups. SALES MENU COMMAND 7 -> CATALOGUE Use this command to print a catalogue of your product line. When you begin, you will see a reminder that only marked items will be included. Be sure you have marked only the items for which you want catalogue output. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 32 - You can send catalogue output directly to the printer or to a text file for custom formatting with your favorite word processor. To send printer output to a text file see the Text File command under the Utilities menu. Very sophisticated catalogues can be prepared by loading this output into desktop publishing software where professional looking layouts can be added. Catalogue items will be printed in the current sorting order unless you specify that they should be listed by department, in which case the department will be the primary sort key and the current sorting order (by name or by code) will be the secondary sort key. SALES MENU COMMAND 8 -> YEAR END This command runs the fiscal year-end closing routine. It saves data to an archive file and gives you the opportunity to print a cumulative sales report for the year. The inventory file is then set up for the new fiscal year. Sales data archived by this process can be displayed with the Review command (see below). SALES MENU COMMAND 9 -> REVIEW When the Year-End command is used, a dBASE III compatible data file is created that archives sales data for the year being closed. The file is named according to the store location and the year (i.e. SL1_1993.DBF). Use the REVIEW command to look at the contents of any archive. The first thing you will see is a pick list of available archive files. Use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the archive you want then press ENTER. The information will be displayed in tabular form and the following options appear at the bottom of the screen: > F1 - Help - to get information about how to use this screen. > F4 - Print - send the highlighted record to the printer. > F6 - Lock - lock the scrolling display at column 1,2,3 or 4. The display will freeze at the column where the cursor is located. Press F6 again to unlock. > F10 - Exit - return to the Main Menu. SECTION 4 - THE REPORTS MENU ---------------------------- The Reports menu contains the options you have for printing routine reports. These are described below in order of appearance. In most cases you will be reminded that only marked items will be included in the reports. If you have not marked some or all items in your inventory you can press ESCAPE to go back and do it. For more information on Marks, see the Set Marks command under the Sales menu. Note that you will have an option to send any of these reports to the screen, the printer or to a disk file for loading into your word processor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 33 - THE REPORTS MENU COMMAND 1 -> SALES You have an option to print weekly or monthly sales figures. If you choose monthly figures you will get a year-to-date report. If you choose weekly figures you can choose the starting week and ending week for the report. The output can be listed by Department and you will get a summary of sales in each one. This is a wide report so you will be asked to switch your printer to compressed mode unless you have entered your printer control codes in the Get Info window under the Utility menu. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 2 -> INVENTORY This report prints inventory numbers for each Marked item. At the end of each line a space is provided where you can write in the physical count. This allows you to take inventory simply by printing this report and filling in the blanks. Before printing you will be asked if you want the report to contain the inventory for the current location only or for all locations. If you select "All Locations" you will then be asked if you want the figures combined for each product or to show the quantity in each location. Please note that items in any location must be marked to be included in the report. For example, if you want the report to include everything in the same department in all locations you must bring up each location separately and use the Set Marks command to mark the items in that department. Inventory reports can be sorted stock code, item name, department or supplier. THE REPORTS MENU COMMAND 3 -> TOP 10% It is sometimes said in retail that 10% of your stock produces 80% of your cash flow. This is usually an over simplification but this report shows you which products are your top performers. The options available are: > To report all sales this year or only for a given month. > To list the items by gross sales or by volume. > To rank all items or only the top 10%. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 4 -> ANALYSIS This report provides the information needed to analyze sales performance with respect to inventory cost. For each item it shows the year-to-date gross sales, margin, average percent margin (as a fraction of cost), unit sales, value of the on-hand inventory (at cost), stock turnover rate, the percent of total sales produced by each item, and the percent of the total inventory cost invested in each item. You are given a choice of listing the items by gross sales or by department. If you choose to list by department the report will also show the percent of total sales produced by each department and the percent of total inventory cost invested in that department. This is a wide report so you will be asked to switch your printer to compressed mode unless you have entered your printer control codes in the Get Info window under the Utility menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 34 - REPORTS MENU COMMAND 5 -> VALUES This is a straightforward listing of the cost and retail value of your inventory. It is included mostly for the benefit of the auditors. You are given a choice of listing the items by department. If you choose to list by department the report will show subtotals for each department and the percent of total inventory cost invested in that department. This is a wide report so you will be asked to switch your printer to compressed mode unless you have entered your printer control codes in the Get Info window under the Utility menu. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 6 -> LEVELS Run this report to find out which items may be over stocked or under stocked. This is a wide report so you will be asked to switch your printer to compressed mode unless you have entered your printer control codes in the Get Info window under the Utility menu. In the overstock report, items with normal on-hand quantities may be listed as overstocked if they have not had sales in the last three weeks or have large amounts of stock on order. In the under stock report items are considered low in stock if the onhand quantity is less than or equal to the base stock or the re-order point. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 7-> BILLINGS This report lists the invoices you have on file. There is an option to report only the invoices that have a non-zero balance. If you wish to print customer account statements you can do so in the POS menu. Just locate any invoice that belongs to the desired customer and press F4. You will be asked if you wish to print just the invoice or a statement of account. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 8-> ON ORDER Run this report to find out which items have open orders. If you want to look at just one supplier then use the Set Marks command to mark the items from the supplier you want. Please note that the field labeled On Order in your inventory represents the quantity currently on order. REPORTS MENU COMMAND 9-> CUSTOMER BACK ORDERS Run this report to find out which items have been back ordered for your customers. In the normal course of making sales within the POS system you will run into situations where the client wants more than you have on hand. In those situations there is an option to create a back order. This report tells you how many of each item was back ordered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 35 - Note that the report contains only back orders for which no purchase order has been created. Once a purchase order has been made this back order quantity is added to the On Order quantity. See the General Program Notes at the end of the manual for more information on how back orders work. THE REPORTS MENU COMMAND 10 -> SUPPLIERS If you need a list of who supplies you with which products, this report will produce it. You will be asked if you want the list sorted by supplier name or by item name. This can also serve as a reference list for supplier's stock codes. THE REPORTS MENU COMMAND 11 -> RECEIVED This report prints the last date received and last quantity received for all marked items. SECTION 5 - THE UTILITY MENU ---------------------------- UTILITY MENU COMMAND 1 -> SORT Use this to tell Retail Plus the order in which you want your inventory displayed or printed. A window comes up which gives you a choice of three sorting options: > Product Name - Products appear alphabetically by name. > Alpha Code - Products appear by alpha-numeric stock codes. Choose this if you use stock codes that contain any characters that are not numbers. > Numeric Code - Products appear by numeric stock codes. Choose this if you use stock codes that always contain numbers only. UTILITY MENU COMMAND 2 -> INDEXES Use this to re-build a damaged index file. Retail Plus creates a number of index files for each inventory file. They allow you to select the current sorting order and to find records quickly. In any database system it can happen that index files become damaged because they are constantly being read and modified. If this happens the damaged file must be re-built. The symptoms of a damaged index file is that you cannot find an item you know is in the database or the program gives you an error message. If this happens select the Indexes command and the problem will clear up. Please note that this command not only re-builds the indexes but also makes a fresh copy of the inventory data files so it may take a few minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 36 - UTILITY MENU COMMAND 3 -> EXPORT Use this to create data files to export your data. There are two options: > Sales Data - Use this to export sales information to a spreadsheet or a database management system. In many cases the export function is not needed since many spreadsheets and database systems can directly read dBASE files, which is the format used by Retail Plus. You will be asked to supply the name for the new data file. The default name is EXPORT.DAT. You can accept this by pressing ENTER or you can change it by typing a new name. You will then be asked if you wish to export weekly or monthly sales figures. Select one of these then press ENTER. Next you can tell Retail Plus whether you want the field names on the first line of the export file. Select YES if you are going to export to a spreadsheet that needs to contain the correct column headings. > Register Data - For those who use electronic cash registers this export file provides a way to send inventory changes to the register. The file contains delimited fields in the following order: stock code, item name, price, department, tax 1 flag (T ot F), tax 2 flag (T or F). To use this you need a program supplied by the register manufacturer that can upload the information to the register. If you answer NO you will be given a choice of two data formats. The first is, once again, a standard comma-delimited data file. The second is called System Data Format (SDF) which uses fixed-length fields instead of delimiters. Check the manual for the program into which you want to import the data to see which formats it can handle. you choose to export monthly sales data, the export file has the following structure: FIELD NAME TYPE WIDTH DECIMAL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 ITEM C 30 0 2 CODE C 10 0 3 SIZE C 6 0 4 SOLD N 7 0 5 GROSS N 9 2 6 - 17 Jan94 - Dec94 N 6 0 (monthly sales current year ) 18 - 29 Jan93 - Dec93 N 6 0 (monthly sales previous year) If you choose to export weekly sales data, the export file has the following structure: FIELD NAME TYPE WIDTH DECIMAL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 ITEM C 30 0 2 CODE C 10 0 3 SIZE C 6 0 4 SOLD N 7 0 5 GROSS N 9 2 6 - 58 WK1 - WK53 N 6 0 (weekly sales current year) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 37 - UTILITY MENU COMMAND 4 -> TEXT FILE Use this to re-direct all the printer output to a disk file. You will be asked to supply the name of the file. The default is REPORTS.TXT. You can accept this by pressing ENTER or you can change it by typing a new name. Please note that only the filename can be changed. The file extension (.TXT) is automatically supplied. As long as output is being re-directed, the name of the text file appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. All printer output will be sent to this file until you select the Printer command (which does not appear on the Utility menu unless you are currently re-directing output to a text file). It is possible to keep writing to this file until it becomes quite large, so watch your disk space. UTILITY MENU COMMAND 5 -> VIEW FILE Use this command to look at the contents of a text file in the Retail Plus directory of your hard drive. You can use it to read the output that results from using the Text File command above. Only files that have an extension of .TXT or .DOC can be read. The following keys can be used while looking at a file: > ARROWS - Use the arrow keys to scroll up, down, right or left. > PAGEUP / PAGEDOWN - Use these to skip up and down the file. > HOME / END - Use these to go to the top or bottom of the file. > F - press F to find a word or character string in the file. The line where it is found will become the top line on the screen. > N - Press N to find the next occurrence of the search string. > P - Press P to print the file. > ESCAPE - use this to exit the file. UTILITY MENU COMMAND 6 -> LOCATION This command allows you to select the store location you want to work with, create a new location, or delete an existing location. A menu appears with the following options: > Change Location - This displays the store locations that have been set up in Retail Plus. Use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the one you want then press the ENTER key. You will then be prompted to choose the manner in which you want the inventory sorted. > New Location - Use this to create a new store location. First you will be asked to assign a three-character code to represent the new location. If there are locations already set up you will see a list of location codes that have been used. You will then be asked if you want to copy the product line from an existing location (if there is one). Answer YES if the new location is going to carry substantially the same products as an existing one. A window appears from which you can select the location whose product line you want to copy. When you are done the new location will be the active location and you can access it's records immediately. The information copied includes product name, code, department, size, unit cost, adjusted cost, unit price, and the text field. If there are minor differences in the product line carried in the new location you can use the Browse window or the Find command to make the necessary changes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 38 - > Delete Location - Use this command to remove a location from Retail Plus. When you select this you will be asked to confirm your choice. If the location you deleted is the active location (the one shown in bottom right corner of the screen) you will be asked to change to another location first. If you delete all the locations set up in Retail Plus the New Location command automatically comes to the screen and you will be asked to set up a new one immediately. This reflects the fact that Retail Plus requires inventory files to work with at all times. The system will not run if there is no active location available. UTILITIES MENU COMMAND 7 -> GET INFO Use this when you need some information about the state of Retail Plus and the state of your computer. This is also where you can enter some printer setups. First you can tell Retail Plus whether you want the system to verify that a printer is ready before every print job. Enter Y to perform the printer checking or N to disable it. Normally you only need to disable it if the printer is connected to a network server, not to your own workstation. In that case the network will handle the printer. Since many of the reports produced by Retail Plus are more than 80 characters wide you should enter the command your printer requires to switch to condensed print (at least 15 characters per inch) and the command it requires to switch back to normal print. These printer commands can be found in your printer manual and usually consist of 2 or three characters that begin with the ESCAPE character (printer commands are often called escape sequences). These sequences are expressed in terms of the decimal ASCII numbers of each character in the sequence. For example, if your printer requires ESCAPE - M for normal print then you would enter 27,77 because the decimal equivalent for ESCAPE is 27 and the decimal equivalent of M is 77. These numbers can be found on the ASCII chart in your printer manual. More Examples: > An HP Deskjet command for condensed print is: 27,40,115,49,53,72 > An HP Deskjet command for normal print is: 27,40,115,49,48,72 > An HP Laserjet command for condensed print is: 27,38,108,50,54,65,27,38,107,50,83 > An HP Laserjet command for normal print is: 27,38,108,50,54,65,27,38,107,48,83 > An Epson command for condensed print is: 27,15 > An Epson command for normal print is: 27,64,27,69 (27,64 resets the printer and 27,69 makes nicer print) These examples may or may not work for your model of printer. Please check the manual for the corresponding commands. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 39 - UTILITIES MENU COMMAND 8 -> COLOR Use this command to change between color and monochrome display. UTILITIES MENU COMMAND 9 -> BACKUP File security means making backup copies of your data files. First you will be asked to enter the drive\directory where you want to put them. The default is on the current drive, in a directory called BACKUP. If the specified directory does not exist it will be created. You will then see a display of the space needed and the space available for the backup. If you do not want to proceed just press ESCAPE to go back to the menu. If you have more than one location then you will need to run the backup command for each one. For example, lets say you have two locations called SL1 and SL2 and that the active location is SL1. To back up everything you need, run the Backup command using the "All Of The Above" option. Then change locations to SL2 and run the Backup command again using the "Current Location" option. Please note that the Backup command does not use any file compression schemes, so floppy diskettes may not have enough capacity to hold a large inventory. The easiest way to maintain file security is to make your backups in the default directory. Then you can use these copies to roll back your data to the last saved version if you run into a problem. You will also have everything in one place so you can easily use a hard disk backup program to put it on diskettes or a tape drive. Please do not neglect to back up the contents of your hard disk. Do it frequently and you will never have cause for regret when it breaks down. If you have employees who run Retail Plus, be sure that backups are part of the daily routine for a designated person. UTILITIES MENU COMMAND 10 -> ROLLBACK If you keep regular backups you will always be able to roll back the inventory data to a previous session. This ability comes in handy if you or one of your employees does something that is hard to undo, like recording a large shipment twice or deleting 20 items then realizing they were the wrong twenty. Everyone who works with computers (bar none) has moments like that, and an easy way out saves much heartache. Just follow the prompts to indicate the drive\directory where the backup files can be found. The one shown in the screen is the default backup directory. Press F1 if you need help entering this information. UTILITIES MENU COMMAND 11 -> DUPLICATE This command checks your inventory for items that have identical stock codes, and also for items with no stock code at all. Both conditions can cause problems and should be avoided. Run this feature after importing new items of inventory from another database. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 40 - If you enter stock using the New Item command, the stock code is check for duplication on the spot. This does not prevent you from changing a stock code in the Browse window later, so use the Duplicate command periodically to ensure consistency. SECTION 6 - THE ACCESS MENU --------------------------- Use of password protection in Retail Plus is optional. It is turned on and off using the Protect/Unprotect commands under the Access menu. The password system provides three levels of access that give varying levels of protection against data deletion and modification. If you do not use the password system any user can access and modify your inventory data. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 1 -> LOGIN Use this to change the login name and access level without having to exit and log back in. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 2 -> ADD USER Use this command to add another user to the password system. A window appears where you can enter the following: > User Name - type the first name only then press ENTER. User names should be unique. Avoid using two identical names for different users or two different passwords for one user. > Access Level - type the access level you want to give this user then press ENTER. Level 1 grants looking privileges only. Use this for someone who is training in your store and who wants to see what the computer system is all about. They may practice using the POS function but are not able to save any sales data. Level 2 grants data entry and editing privileges. Use this for someone who needs to enter and update your data but who may not delete anything. Level 3 grants all privileges. This level is required to delete records and to disable the password requirement. It is also required to assign access privileges to other users. > Password - type the users password then press ENTER. Passwords should be at least three characters long. All users may change their own password at any time. Press ESCAPE at any time to return to the Main Menu. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 3 -> DELETE USER Use this command to remove a user's name and password from the system. A window appears listing the current users. Use the UP / DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the user name you want removed then press ENTER. Press ESCAPE to exit without any changes. This command is available only to users with an access level of three. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 41 - ACCESS MENU COMMAND 4 -> CHANGE Any user may change his or her password at any time. The users are prompted for their old password then the new one. Passwords should be at least three characters long. The most secure passwords are a mixture of numbers and letters. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 5 -> SHOW LEVEL Use this to see what access level you currently have. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 6 -> PROTECT / UNPROTECT If the password requirement is turned off this menu item will display as "Protect" and any user can to turn the password requirement on again. This is because all users are assigned an access level of three when no passwords are being used. If the passwords are in use this menu item will display as "Unprotect" and users must have an access level of three to turn it off again. The program is initially configured to start without requiring a password. If the password requirement was accidentally turned on and you are locked out of the system try "TEST" as the password. If this password does not give you access then someone has already set up the system for security. Before turning the passwords off again you should do two things: 1 - Go to the "Add User" command and create a new user with a level three password. 2 - Go to the "Delete User" command and remove "TEST", which is meant as a demo password. ACCESS MENU COMMAND 7 -> REGISTER Use this to enter a registration number and eliminate the reminder screens that periodically appear. The unregistered program will run in multi-user mode on a network but will continue to produce reminder screens. The registered program will run in either single user or multi-user mode depending on which serial number is entered. The benefits of registration are: - Get unlimited phone support. - Get a free copy of D-Mail, a mailing list manager that works with the client database in Retail Plus. It allows you to do advanced queries that help your marketing efforts. Say you want to identify everyone who bought a widget from you in July and print a mailing label for them. With D-Mail you can do it! - Get low cost upgrades. - Deal with a company that has a proven 10 year track record in POS software, and we promise never to answer your calls with a computerized voice response system :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 42 - SECTION 7 - GENERAL PROGRAM NOTES --------------------------------- ABOUT THE CLIENT DATABASE This consists of two files called CLIENT.DBF and CLIENT.DBT. They are compatible with dBASE, FoxBASE, and DMAIL, the professional mailing list system supplied with Retail Plus. By using the client database each time you make a sale in the POS screen, the sales information is saved under the client's name. Using this purchase history you can always find out who bought what, when ,how many, and what they paid for it. There are several standard ways to use this information for marketing, and you can probably think of a few of your own. Example 1 - Lets say you are having a special promotion on the latest widgets. You have some flyers printed to get the word out, but now you have to get those flyers into the right hands. Using DMAIL you can easily find everyone who ever bought a widget from you and generate mailing labels for them. Example 2 - Mr. Jones brings back his widget for a warranty repair. He says he lost his sales slip and can't prove that it is still under warranty. Using the client database you can look up his name and find out the exact date he bought the item and whether or not he bought it at discount. The client database does have a limitation - it can only hold about 400 sales per client. Retail Plus will warn you when you are getting close to the limit for any given client. At that time you should use DMAIL to clear out some of the old data from their records. If you do not do this, Retail Plus will clear the client's purchase history when the limit is reach and will start over with a clean slate. SETTING UP A CLIENT'S DISCOUNT AND TAX STATUS In the client section of the POS screen you will see a field called CUST NO which is a 28-character text field. The system uses the first five characters to store the customer number (which is automatically assigned) and the last eight characters to store the number of bonus points a customer has accumulated if the points feature is turned on. The rest of the field can be used to set up a customer's tax and discount status. What follows is a description of why you might want to do this and how to do it. The problem: When you get Retail Plus ready for use you can set up the default taxes and charges which are applied to all sales. You do this in the POS screen by pressing F6 then 0 to bring up the window where the default settings are entered. You can over-ride these settings at the time of sale but this usually means a few extra keystrokes. Any discounts on a subtotal must also be manually selected for each sale. This can be inconvenient if you have regular customers who usually get a certain tax rate, tax exemption, or discount rate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 43 - The solution: If you set up a customer's discount and tax status in the CUST NO field you will always have the right taxes, charges and discounts automatically charged to the right people. All you do is insert the appropriate command, after the customer number, in the CUST NO. field. The commands are: /T0 - use no taxes or charges for this client /T1 - use tax 1 when selling to this client /T2 - use tax 2 when selling to this client /C1 - use charge 1 when selling to this client /C2 - use charge 2 when selling to this client /DXX.XX - apply an XX.XX percent discount when selling to this client For example, if you have a customer that is subject only to tax 1 and charge 1, and usually gets an eight and a half percent discount then you would enter: /T1/C1/D08.50 If you are just setting up a client's name and address the customer number has not yet been assigned by the system. Just type the tax and discount status at the beginning of the field and the system will insert the customer number in the right place when you save the record. After the system has inserted the customer number at the beginning, and any possible bonus points at the end, the field will look something like this: Cust No:10002 /T1/C1/D08.50 2125.00 Any discounts or taxes you set up in this fashion can be over-ridden at the time of sale if the need arises. To change the taxes simply press F6, then 0 to get the window for taxes and charges. To change the discount rate press F6 then 4 to get the discount window, then set the discount rate to zero or whatever number you wish. Remember that you can also turn either of the taxes on or off for any individual item as you add it to the sale. Reminder: You can set up all possible taxes and charges by going to the POS Setup Menu, selecting "Other Configurations", then entering any taxes and charges that might apply to your business. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 44 - ABOUT INVOICING PLEASE NOTE: INVOICES ARE ONLY STORED IN CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS IF THE METHOD OF PAYMENT IS SET TO "ON ACCOUNT". Customer's account statements can be printed any time when browsing invoices. just move the highlight to any one of the customer's invoices and press F4. You will be asked if you wish to print just the invoice or a statement of account. Invoices are listed on the screen by invoice number and show the invoice date, the total, the balance, the last time a payment was made on the invoice, the amount that was paid, and any penalty applied for overdue charges. Penalties are optional and you will be asked what monthly interest rate you want to charge (1 to 1.5 percent per month is common). Once you enter an interest rate it remains the default rate until you change it again. The system will calculate the number of months the invoice is overdue but you can change this before printing if necessary. You are only asked if you want to add the penalty if the invoice date is more than 30 days behind the current date. If a partial payment is made on an invoice that already has a penalty on it the payment is applied to the penalty first, and the rest is applied to the balance owing. For this reason the follow-up invoice with the new balance does not show a penalty calculated from the original invoice date, but rather from the last payment date. When re-printing an invoice, the same taxes and charges are applied that were in effect at the time of the original sale, and this cannot be modified later. Changing a customer's tax status does not affect previously unpaid invoices. ABOUT THE POS EXIT TOTALS When a sale is made where the method of payment is "On Account" there are several things to keep in mind: - the POS exit totals only show the amount paid, not the entire sale. - The sales person is still credited with the entire subtotal. - The exit totals show the value of returned goods purchased on account. The following fields are adjusted downward to reflect the return: total "On Account" receipts, the departmental net sales, and the overall total receipts. Now consider the scenario where an item is returned that was purchased "On Account" and the invoice still shows a balance owing. If you process the return in the same manner as you would a cash sale then the exit totals will be adjusted downward by the total sale, not by the amount paid on the invoice. The better way to do it is as follows: - Set the method of payment to "On Account". - Press F2 and find the customer's name in the client database. - Press F2 and select "Show Receivables". Delete the invoice or set the balance owing to zero. - Using the F6 menu enter a customer return but set the "Selling Price" to zero. - If there was a partial payment on the invoice then, using the F6 menu, issue a credit to the customer and under "Description" you can type in "Credit on invoice #12345". - Print and save. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 45 - A NOTE ABOUT USING STOCK CODES When choosing a stock code numbering system you should consider the following: > If you want to use alphanumeric codes (letters and numbers) you may use any combination of keyboard characters you wish. Examples such as "A100-123" are valid. When this coding system is used and the data is sorted by ALPHA CODE it will appear according to it's alphabetic order. This means that "A99" will come AFTER "A100" for the same reason that ABC comes after AABC. This is due to the fact that, in an alphabetic sort, the number of characters is not as significant as their ordinal value from left to right, while in a numeric sort the number of characters is more significant than their ordinal value. > If you want to use numeric sorting you should not put any characters in the code except for the numbers 0 to 9. Otherwise they may not sort properly. If there are characters other than numbers in your stock codes and you select "Numeric Code" from the Sort menu, Retail Plus will still attempt to do a numeric sort. If it encounters a character in a stock code that is not a number it will ignore that character and everything that follows it. The result may be that the item will be left in the physical order of the inventory (i.e. in the order that it was entered). A REMINDER REGARDING CANCELED ORDERS There is a field called "On Order" in your inventory records. Every time you post a purchase order it is added to this field. Every time you receive a shipment it is subtracted from this field. If you place an order and then receive a partial shipment, the number in this field represents the amount of stock that was back ordered by your suppliers. If you then cancel the back order, the "On Order" field shows a number that is incorrect. This could affect the next order calculation, resulting in an order quantity that is too low. If you cancel a back order you must subtract the back-ordered quantities from the "On Order" field. ABOUT CUSTOMER BACK ORDERS When making sales within the POS system you will run into situations where the client wants more of something than you have in stock. If this happens you will be able to create a back order, and the POS screen will show you what the options are. Note that the option to create a back order is not presented if the client database is turned off. This is due to the fact that any back order must be associated with a client who wants the item. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 46 - A back order is not created until a sale containing a back ordered item is actually saved. When the back order is created four things happen: 1 - The back order appears on the customer's invoice or sales slip as a line item, but is not charged to the total. The line item is tagged with the characters "BO" to identify it as back ordered. 2 - The back order is listed in the customer's purchase history and is visible whenever the history is called to the screen. 3 - The Back Order Log (found on the POS menu) shows the client and item information in readable and printable form. 4 - The "CUST ORDER" field for the item is incremented by the amount of the back order. The following is one method you can use to track and fill your customer's back orders: > At the end of each business day check the Back Order Log to see if there are any items in it. If there are, print and clear the log. Put the pages containing the printed log into a loose leaf binder. > Go to the Inventory menu, select "Orders", then auto create an order using the "Back Orders Only" option. This creates purchase orders just for the back ordered items. Review the purchase orders and post them to the inventory with the "Update To Records" option. The last step does two things: - it updates the "On Order" field in the inventory records so the system knows that more stock has been ordered. - it returns the "Cust Order" field to zero so that the back orders are not duplicated. > When a shipment arrives, check the loose leaf binder to see if any of the stock received is on a back order. If it is, create an invoice for the customer, send out the item, and cross it off the Back Order Log in the binder. Retail Plus does not automatically fill back orders when shipments are received. Every business seems to handle them differently and this is our attempt to give you some basic functions that can be adapted to your way of doing things. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 47 - ABOUT MULTIPLE POINTS OF SALE Retail Plus offers a method to run multiple POS sites without having a network. The reasons for doing this are: > It's cheaper than networking, and safer because your POS machines will never all go down together. > You can have POS sites all over town, the state or the country. > You can have a POS in your mobile units, which can then feed their sales, invoicing and client data into the office computer at the end of the day. Getting Started The system assumes that you are going to identify one computer on which to consolidate the data from all the points of sale. This is called the master inventory, and the others are called the remotes. Once you have initially set up the master inventory you are ready to copy it to the remotes. To do this follow these steps: 1. Go to the Sales menu and select Set Marks, then select Mark All Items. Now go to the POS menu and select Write Stock Updates. You have the option to send the client files as well as the inventory files. 2. On the remote computer create a new location and give it a unique location code, which must start with a different letter on every remote. This is important because it prevents two computers from assigning the same customer number. 3. On the remote computer go to the the POS menu and select Setup Menu, then select Other Configurations. Go down to the bottom of the screen and enter a starting invoice number in the field labeled "Next Invoice". Start with a number that will make the range of invoice numbers assigned on this computer unique. For example, if you have a master inventory and two remotes, start the master at number 1000001, start the one remote at 2000001, and start the other remote at 3000001. You can now make up to a million transactions on each machine without duplicating a number. 4. Move the update files to the remote computer via diskette, modem transfer, e-mail enclosure, or whatever method available. To read the data, go to the POS menu and select Read Stock Updates. You are now ready to make sales, create invoices and enter clients on the remote computer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 48 - Feeding The Master Inventory At the end of the day, or whenever you are ready, you will want to transfer the sales, invoices and client records back to the master inventory. Follow these steps: 1. On the remote computer, back up all the data so you can repeat these steps if something goes wrong i.e. the transfer diskette gets damaged. 2. Go to the POS menu and select Export Sales Data. Select a blank diskette or empty directory as the location to write the files. When the export is complete the sales log, invoice file, and client histories are all erased and presumed to have been moved to the master. 3. Move the files back to the master computer. After making a fresh backup of the data on the master, Go to the Sales menu and select Import then select Sales & Invoices. Once the sales, invoicing and client data have been exported the remote system still contains POS exit totals. You may wish to clear these totals and keep a printed copy for the book keeper. The POS exit totals on the remote are NOT transfered to the master. Recovering From A Transfer Failure Reading and writing all these files involves deleting data from one computer and transfering it to another. If a transfer fails it is possible to lose some data if you have not made a backup. You are strongly encouraged not to skip making the backups. This is most important if you are using diskettes for the transfers because it is common for diskettes to suddenly become unreadable. To make a fast backup select the Utility menu, then select Backup, then select All The Above. Choose the default directory as the location for the backup files. If you have to repeat the export all you need to do is run the Rollback command and start again. ABOUT RUNNING ON A NETWORK Retail Plus 5.8 is a multiuser system that can be installed on a server such as Novell Netware or on a peer-to-peer network such as Lantastic or Netware Lite. Getting the file and directory privileges set up is important. Since the program routinely creates, updates and deletes index files, each user must be able to do the following: read, write, create, erase, modify, and file scan (list directory). This does not mean you must give them direct access to the Retail Plus directory where they may do some damage. The goal is to give all users the required rights, but allow them to exercise those rights only through Retail Plus so that their activities are effectively restricted. If your users are printing directly to a port on their own workstations you should allow Retail Plus to check that the printer is ready before each print job. To do this, go to the Utility menu and choose the Get Info command. Enter Y in the first field to enable printer checking. Leave it disabled if the printer is on a network print queue, in which case the network will look after any printer problems. See "Installing Retail Plus On A Network" at the beginning of this manual. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 49 - ICVERIFY CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATIONS ICVerify is a software add-on that allows you to do on-screen credit card authorizations. It is made by ICVerify Inc. of Oakland California. Once installed, all you have to do is key in a sale, slide the customer's card through a card swipe, then press the letter V on the keyboard. The credit card is verified and the approval number is put on the screen and the sales slip. To do other transactions like check guarantees or Debit Card transactions, press ALT-V to pop up a window where you enter the appropriate information manually. To create a modern, automated point-of-sale all you need is a PC, Retail Plus, ICVerify, a keyboard wedge with a card swipe and a barcode reader, a slip printer, and and automatic cash drawer. Please note that to run ICVerify with Retail Plus you will need at least 2 megabytes of RAM set up as expanded memory (just run the DOS SETUP command and it will adjust CONFIG.SYS for you). Setting Up ICVerify To Work With Retail Plus 1 - Install ICVerify onto your hard disk, in a directory called ICVERIFY, following the instructions provided in the ICVerify manual. 2 - Launch ICSETUP and enter your merchant information as required. 3 - On the MAIN MENU select MERCHANT SETUP and fill out the following field as shown: - Data Disk\Directory: ICDATA 4 - On the MAIN MENU select POPUP and fill out the following fields as shown: - Memory Resident?(Y/N/B/L): Y - Popup as Window?(Y/N/B/L/S): B - Use EMS Memory?(Y/N): Y - Standard Hotkey (A-Z): V - Use Disk Swapping?(Y/N): N 5 - Exit and save these settings. There are other options and configurations that you can do but the above are the minimum needed to work with Retail Plus. 6 - When loading ICVerify you must use the /O command line option. Set up a batch file to load Retail Plus and ICVerify together as follows: SET CLIPPER=F:30 \ICVERIFY\ICVERIFY /O RETAIL58 \ICVERIFY\ICVERIFY /U The last line will unload ICVerify when you exit from Retail Plus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 50 - SYSTEM MEMORY CONSIDERATIONS Retail Plus is a large application. The executable program (RETAIL58.EXE) occupies 780 KB of disk space. Because it was created with the Clipper compiler it takes advantage of Clipper's code paging features so it occupies much less space when it is loaded into memory (380 KB). To allow sufficient working space in memory, your computer should have at least 500 KB of free memory before you start the program. If you are running memory-resident programs along with Retail Plus they should not require more than 50 KB. Where there is a need to load memory-resident programs, use the DOS "load high" feature to move DOS and other programs into high memory. OUR MISSION IS TO DO IT YOUR WAY Retail Plus was designed by store owners, not by computer programmers. Your comments and suggestions will guide the future development of the software and we welcome feedback about what you would like to see in it. If you have a need that is very specific to your business we can and will customize the software for you. We have been getting an increasing number of requests for a Windows version of Retail Plus, and one will be available in Summer of 1997. Those of you who are considering a Windows POS system should be sure to consider the following: - Windows software is slow compared to DOS software. If you have a busy sales counter this may be a drawback. - Windows and Windows software is designed to be used with a mouse and many retailers do not want to be caught mousing around at the sales counter. We can provide keyboard alternatives but it doesn't entirely solve the problem. - Windows is not as stable as DOS. This is a consequence of the complexity of any graphical user interface (GUI). Apple Macintosh has always been the the king of GUI computers and Mac users have known since day one that a GUI means occassional bombs. They have mostly put up with it and now Windows users are expected to do the same. The Windows equivalent of the famous Macintosh Bomb is called the General Protection Fault (GPF) which usually means having to re-boot the system, and that usually means keeping somebody waiting. Early versions of Windows 95 were widely reported to be unstable but we understand this has improved considerably. Because of this Windows programs have a small share of the POS market, possibly less than 15%. Windows POS software may be most suitable for telephone order desks and those who can process their sales and invoices without having lots of customers on site. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 51 - READ THIS PAGE Retail Plus can be a valuable tool in helping you manage your business. It does not supply you with sound business practices and does not substitute for your own mastery of what goes on in the store. Test it mercilessly to satisfy yourself that it is the right tool. If you have any doubts please set it aside and try something else. We will make every effort to help you use Retail Plus successfully and will promptly correct any deficiencies that may come to light. Please read the following software license. If it is not acceptable to you please do not order this product. Software License And Limit Of Liability 1. True North Computer Services (the "Licensor") grants a non-exclusive License to the registered user (the "Licensee") to use Retail Plus, (the "Software") which comprises computer programs, supporting documentation, and any copies thereof. The Licensee acknowledges that the Licensor is the sole owner of the Software and that neither title to nor ownership of the Software is transferred to the Licensee. 2. The Licensee agrees that each computer or server on which the Software is installed will require the purchase of one copy of the Software except for instances where the Licensee wishes to work at home. The Licensee shall not permit the Software or any part to be disclosed in any form to any third party and shall not permit unauthorized copying and distribution. 3. This License may not be assigned to a third party. 4. The Licensor's sole warranty to the Licensee is that the Licensor has the right to grant a License of the Software in the manner set out here. The Licensor gives the Licensee no other warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. In no event arising from the performance or non-performance of the Software shall the Licensor be obligated or liable to the Licensee in any manner for consequential, special or incidental damages, including, but not limited to, loss of profits or suits by third parties. Furthermore, in no event shall the Licensor be liable to the Licensee for amounts in excess of the amounts already paid by the Licensee to the Licensor. 5. The Licensee further acknowledges that the Software is not a tool which enables the user to carry out all the steps needed to conduct profitable trade. The Licensee acknowledges that the Software is merely a system which can store and retrieve information, the accuracy, security, and integrity of which cannot be guaranteed by the Licensor. 6. The Licensor may terminate this License if the Licensee fails to comply with these License terms. 7. Any License Of Software is subject to the terms of this Software License Agreement and those terms supersede any other agreement between the Licensors and the Licensee. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Page 52 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- RETAIL PLUS 5.8 SOFTWARE ORDER FORM ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRUE NORTH COMPUTER SERVICES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- TELEPHONE - (705)789-0928 INTERNET - 71223.641@compuserve.com WORLD WIDE WEB - http://www.brainlink.com/~north/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you order Retail Plus you will receive a new version of the software, unlimited telephone support, and a typeset manual. You will also receive D-Mail, our professional mailing list manager which works with the client database in Retail Plus to manage your customer contacts. Sold To:_____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ PHONE __________________________ QTY ITEM PRICE TOTAL ___ Retail Plus and D-Mail / Single User Licence 125.00 ________ ___ Retail Plus and D-Mail / Multi-user Network Licence 215.00 ________ Check One: [ ] Shipping & handling - First Class Mail 7.00 ________ [ ] Shipping & handling - Federal Express 35.00 ________ TOTAL ________ SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER PAYABLE TO: TRUE NORTH COMPUTER SERVICES 34 FITZGERALD DRIVE, BOX 5101 HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO CANADA P1H 2K5 VISA ORDERS CAN BE PLACED BY PHONE OR FAX AT (705)789-0928" Visa Card Number: ___________________________________________________________ Expiry Date: ________________________________________________________________ Signature: __________________________________________________________________ Exact Name On Visa Card: ____________________________________________________