Software Vault: The Gold Collection

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Text File | 1991-01-29 | 65KB | 1,307 lines

VEHICLE RECORD SYSTEM DEMO/TUTORIAL VRS Plus September 1990 Version 2.0 K-Jon Software 1906 Powers Avenue Lewiston, ID 83501 USA (208) 746-0777 (c)Copyright 1986-1990 by K-Jon Software All Rights Reserved ..... 1 OVERVIEW ________ The Demo section will take you on a guided tour of the VRS Plus. You will learn how to access the different system modules and how to move around within these modules. You will also get some tips and hints on how to best use this system. The Tutorial section will show you how to add a vehicle and how to enter vehicle data. For the purposes of this Demo/Tutorial, we will assume that your hard disk is drive C and the VRS Plus has been placed into the \VRS90 directory. All keys that you should press will be enclosed in {}. For example, if the Demo tells you to press {ENTER}, then you should press the Enter key at that point. Sometimes you will need to press two keys simultaneously, for example, {SHIFT} {F1}. You should press the Shift key and while holding it down, press the F1 key. This Demo/Tutorial also assumes that you have correctly installed the VRS Plus and the main menu comes up with the EXAMPLE VEHICLE showing as the Selected Vehicle. You should have around 500K of available RAM before running the VRS Plus. You can check this by entering {CHKDSK} from your hard drive prompt (C>) and looking at the bytes free. You may not be able to run some of your resident programs (ones that stay in memory while the PC is on) if the bytes free is much less than that. If you should get a 'proc XXX out of memory error' then enter {N} and try to free up some memory before running the VRS Plus again. DEMO ____ Upon loading the VRS Plus, you should see the main menu screen that shows the Operating, Ownership, Other and System modules. We will look at the System modules first. System Help ___________ Press {SHIFT} {F5} to display the Help text. The system help screens will give you an overview of the VRS Plus including general information applicable to other modules. Read through this help text to get an idea of how it is arranged and the type of information that is available. NOTE: We do not expect you to remember everything in the help screens, instead we want you to be aware that they are there and how to use them. The VRS Plus should be fairly easy to use and understand after completing this Demo/Tutorial and (hopefully) you should not need to refer to the help very often. ..... 2 NOTE: You can print the help screens to your printer if you prefer to have a hard copy. From DOS, switch to the \VRS90 directory by enter- ing: CD\VRS90 then enter: COPY *.HLP PRN Press {ESC} to leave the Help screen when you are done. Reindex Vehicle Files _____________________ Press {SHIFT} {F4} and read the text concerning reindexing vehicle data files. While you may never need to do this, sometimes data files and index files (the way the data is sorted) can become "jumbled". If your vehicle log(s) look like they are missing some entries, then you should try reindexing them. If this does not work, then you should restore (copy) the data files from the previous session. REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR FILES AFTER EVERY SESSION! At the bottom of the screen you will see menu selections bordered by boxes. You will see these menu selections in all of the different system modules although the menu choice may be different. You can choose one of the menu options by using the cursor keys to highlight your choice and pressing Enter or by pressing the first letter of the choice. Press {Q} to return to the main menu. Messages/Memos/Notes ____________________ Press {SHIFT} {F2} to go into the Messages/Memos/Notes. As mentioned in the Help screens, this area can be used to supplement information that is entered into the various logs and can be used for a variety of things. Some people use the Memo area in the Travel Log to keep more detailed information on their business trips. A sheriff's department uses the ID/Registration Memo to keep a checklist of items that need to be kept in each patrol car. The file name is displayed in case you want to copy the file into your word processing program (from DOS). How much information can you put into these Memo files? Well, that's hard to say because it depends on how much memory you have left after loading the VRS Plus. You should be able to input at least several screens. Press {F1} to see the editing keys that you can use. You can do a Print Screen if you want a hard copy of the Memo Help screen. Press {ESC} to return to the Memo editing area. Press {ESC} to return to the main menu. We will cover the Memo more in the Tutorial. ..... 3 Add/Change Vehicle __________________ Press {SHIFT} {F1} to go into the Add/Change Vehicle module. Press {H} and read the Help screens. Some of the information may seem confusing so we will cover it either here or in the Tutorial. Leave the Help {ESC} and look at the DIRECTORY and VEHICLE headings. These fields will contain eight character (or less) names that are used by DOS to keep track of your vehicle data files. Move the cursor until View is highlighted and press {ENTER}. You should now see a graphic representation of the VRS Plus files as they are stored on your hard disk. When you add a new vehicle, you must enter the directory in which the vehicle files will be placed and also a vehicle filename of your choice. Right now the only valid DIRECTORY entries would be DEMO and VRS1. You can create new directories if you want to group certain vehicles together, for example, VRS1 could contain all vehicles tracked by odometer and VRS2 could contain all vehicles tracked by hours. Press the {SPACEBAR} to leave the View. O/H - an O indicates that the vehicle is to be tracked by odometer, a H indicates that it is to be tracked by hours. START-DATE - this should be the date you purchased the vehicle or the date you want to begin tracking it. It will be used as the default from date in the Cost Per Mile report. DESCRIPTION - this will show on reports and in the Selected Vehicle field on the main menu. Press {Q} to return to the main menu. Set Defaults ____________ Press {SHIFT} {F3} to go into the Set Defaults module. This module lets you tailor or customize the VRS Plus to your needs. Press {H} and read through the Help text and then press {ESC} when you are done. You should be at the first screen, SYSTEM SETTINGS. Press {C} to change the information. The COLOR and DRIVE values should already be correct if you installed the VRS Plus correctly. Use the cursor keys (up & down) to move to the COMPANY NAME field then enter your company name, your name or just blank it out using the spacebar. You can also change the date and numeric formats if the defaults are not right for your country. Press {PGDN} to save the changes you made. NOTE: The Page Down key will normally be used throughout the VRS Plus to save changes that you make and also in adding new entries. You can use Esc if you are changing a field and decide not to make the change. The previous value will stay in that field, however any other fields you may have changed will stay changed. ..... 4 Press {F} to go forward to the next system defaults screen. We will not make any more changes at this time. These headings are used as column headings by the various logs and you can change many of them to suit yourself, for example, the VENDOR heading in the FUEL LOG is initially set to --fuel vendor--. If you want to keep track of where you bought your fuel then you can change that to VENDOR or FUEL VENDOR or a description that you like better. If you do not want to track the vendor then you can use that field (in each fuel record) to keep track of other information, for example, FUEL TYPE. You will probably not want to change many of the headings until you become more familiar with the different logs and can determine what information you want to keep. The headings that you can change will show up in lowercase when you go into each log module. You will see more examples later. Press {F} to scroll through the other default screens. While you should not make any changes now, you should be aware of ones that you can change later. The final screen can be used to change the colors of various parts of the system. The left column is the default (so you can always get back to it) and the right column is the current setting. Note that the current setting for the border boxes is brown. We will not get into changing colors, that is something you can save for a rainy day. When you are done looking at the defaults, press {Q} to return to the main menu. Fuel Log ________ Press {F1} to load the fuel log. As the fuel log is being loaded, it checks the maintenance reminders to see if any maintenance is overdue. If past due maintenance is found, a message will briefly display at the top of the screen and you will hear a beep. The last fuel log entry is used to determine overdue maintenance items. You would then load the maintenance reminder module and run the reminder schedule to see what maintenance needs to be done. If you do not want to be reminded when you begin the fuel log, then you can set this option off in the Set Defaults module. Press {H}, read through the help screens and then press {ESC} when you are done. Press {T} to display accumulative totals. Press the {SPACEBAR} to clear the totals, then press {B} to browse. The browse option is similar to the change option but you can not change any information. This is useful if you just want to scroll through the entries and want to be sure that nothing can be accidentally changed. Press {CTRL} {PGUP} to go to the first fuel log entry; (CTRL-PGDN) takes you back to the last record). Press {->} (right cursor) until you are at the PD (paid) field. You will see the paid codes (from the set defaults module) at the bottom of the screen. This simply shows how you paid for the fuel. Move right until you are at the fl field. You would enter a Y if you filled ..... 5 the tank or a N if you did not. MPG and MILES can only be calculated if you filled the tank. Keep going right until the screen shifts and you are at the ---comments---- field. You can enter comments for each fill up if you wish. You can use the --fuel vendor-- field to keep track of where you pur- chased the fuel or you can change the heading to keep track of other information. Press {CTRL} {HOME} to go back to the DATE field. Practice moving around the fuel log by using these keys: END, HOME, CTRL-HOME, CTRL-END, PGDN, PGUP, CTRL-PGDN, CTRL-PGUP and the cursor keys. Press {ESC} when you are done, then press {S} for Select. The Add/Change Vehicle screen will come up. You can use this option anytime you see Select in any of the logs to switch to another vehicle but still remain in the current log. Since there are no other vehicles yet, press {Q} to return to the fuel log. Now let's look at the reports. Press {R} to load the report screen. The FROM and TO dates default to the first and last entries in the fuel log. You can run reports for any period of time by changing these dates. You can also run reports showing just fuel entries that were purchased by one or more of the payment methods by blanking out the paid codes you do not want on the report. Comments will appear on second line of a fuel entry. If you are not using the comments field, you can change the Print comments to N to avoid a blank line from printing. You can print the report to the screen, a printer or to a file (the default is screen which can be changed in the Set Defaults module). Printing to a file may be useful if you want to later include the report in another software package (see Help). Let's run a report using the defaults. Press {PGDN} twice and the report will print on the screen. Take a look at the total page and then return to the main fuel log screen. Press {R} to run another report. Type in {01 01 88} for the FROM date and press {ENTER} and {12 31 88} for the TO date and press {ENTER}. Use the down cursor to highlight paid code B and then press the {SPACEBAR} to blank out codes B to G. Change Print comments and Double space to {N} and then press {PGDN} to display the report. NOTE: Since all paid codes were not selected, miles and average totals can not be calculated. NOTE: The CENTURY ON option in the Set Defaults module lets you choose between a 2 or 4 digit year display. It can be set to N until the year 2000. Practice running some more reports if you wish until you "get a feel" for how the reports work. You can also change some of the paid codes from A to another code and see how the report totals change. Press {Q} from the main fuel log screen when you are done to return to the main menu. ..... 6 Maintenance/Accessories/Miscellaneous Log _________________________________________ Press {F2} to load the maint/access/misc log then press {H} and read through the help screens. Press {ESC} when done. Press {T} to display the accumulative TOTAL amount spent on these items. Press {B} for browse, and then use the cursor movement keys to look at the different column headings. The screen will shift when you go past LN. Remember that you can change the column headings (in lowercase) if you do not like our choice of descriptions. If you do not want to break out taxes for each item, you can change the TAXES default to N in the Set Defaults module. This will give you more room for a longer description. The PD field is the same as in the fuel log. The MT field applies only to this log and will let you keep totals by the maintenance categories you set up in the Set Defaults module. The LN field can be used to keep track of items that were paid for with money from a loan. It is used, along with the loan/lease module, to tell the Cost Per Mile (or Hour or Kilometer) Report where (in which category) to add the amount. Say you take out a $500 loan to fix the transmission and you are paying back $50 per month. If you enter a Y in the LN field or leave it blank, then the maintenance category in the cost per mile (cpm from now on) will reflect the total $500 for that date. If you enter a L, then the $500 will not be added into the maintenance category but instead, each $50 payment will be added into the loan/lease category. So, it can give you a more accurate picture of the amount of money actually being spent over a period of time. Say you had a larger loan of $2,000 for some item in 1991 and it was going to take 2 years to repay. If you do not enter a L, then the $2,000 will show up in the cpm in 1991 but not in 1992. Since you are still making payments in 1992, you will not get a truly accurate picture of out of pocket expenses. This may be confusing at first but it will be covered again in other modules. Note that you do not need to use the LN field or the loan/lease module. The --part number-- field is another one of those fields that you can change to keep track of other information. For example, you could change it to VENDOR if you want to know where the part was bought or where the maintenance was done. We prefer to use a MT code to keep track of vendors. By adding an entry with the vendors name (XXXXX in the EXAMPLE vehicle), leaving the amount blank and using O as a vendor description code, we can run a report for just MT code O to get a list of vendors. Other people prefer not to do this and just keep track of line items instead. The choice is yours. ..... 7 Press {ESC} to leave the browse. The rest of the options are similar to the fuel log. Note that you can print a form in some of the logs to keep in your vehicle. Go ahead and run a few reports. The report screen is similar to the fuel log reports screen, however you have a few more options: MT and LN codes. NOTE: While you are running reports (in all the logs) you should be thinking of what information you want to know about your vehicles. Try to decide what paid and maintenance codes you want to use. You can keep it simple and only use a few or you can get much more detailed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BY NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE A GENERAL IDEA OF HOW TO LOAD THE MODULES, HOW TO MOVE AROUND WITHIN THEM AND WHAT SOME OF THE OPTIONS DO. FROM NOW ON WE WILL NOT NECESSARILY TELL YOU WHAT KEY TO PRESS BUT WILL FOCUS MORE ON THE DIFFERENCES IN THE DIFFERENT MODULES. AFTER LOADING EACH MODULE (LOG) YOU SHOULD READ THROUGH THE HELP FIRST AND REFER TO IT AS NEEDED. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tires _____ The tires module is different from the others we have looked at in the sense that only one record is shown on the screen at one time. You will add a new tire record for each tire and the record (or tire) number is displayed just above the Add menu option. You can use the Top, End, Back and Forward menu options to look at the different tires. When you add a new tire (after you have added the first one) most of the information from the tire you were looking at, is automatically copied into the new tire record. This will save you some typing as all you need to do is change the information that is different. The Window option will track tire rotations and will keep a running total of accumulative miles on that tire. It uses the last fuel log entry in determining total miles (unless you enter OFF in the location field) so the fuel log must be current in order to get an accurate figure. The Payment option lets you track expenses related to the tire (flats, balancing, etc.). If you receive a trade-in allowance for the tire, you can record a credit or negative amount if you wish (see Help). NOTE: You can enter negative amounts in other logs also, however the - sign will use one of the number positions. ..... 8 The Reports option has the date and paid code options plus an option to print all records. If you have 4 tires and want to print all of them then enter a Y there. If you print all records and do not change the dates then all of the payments for all tires will be included in the final totals. If you print all records and change the dates then only those payments within those dates will be included. Identification/Registration __________________________ This is the first module of the Ownership category and is used to record expenses for registration, purchase price, license fees, depreciation, etc. Ownership costs are expenses that are incurred even if you keep your vehicle in the garage and do not drive it. The Operating costs (fuel, maintenance and tires) are expenses that are related to the number of miles you drive. The ID/Reg log is similar to the tires log in the sense that you only see one record at a time. Note that you can add more than one record but you will probably not need or want to. There is room for general and specific information for the vehicle plus you can change the id number: and motor number: headings if you want. Use the Payment option to record registration, license and other expenses. The Include option will either include the purchase price and the tax in the cpm report or will exclude them. Simply press {I} until you see the choice that you want. How do you use it? Well, if you took out a loan to buy the vehicle and are logging the payments in the loan/lease module, then you should exclude the price so that only your loan payments are being included in the cpm report. After the loan has been paid off, you can change the Include to include these prices so that the amounts will shift from the cpm loan/lease category to the cpm id/reg category. Interest paid will still be in the loan/lease category. Depreciation is the difference between what you pay for your vehicle and what you sell it for. You can use the payment area to record depreciation costs by entering the date, a negative amount (type in a (-) before the amount and perhaps a description such as: Depreciation. You may also want to set up a paid code for depreciation so that you can get totals on just depreciation when you run the reports. Note that the way you have the Include option set will have a bearing on the cpm figures. Negative amounts will be subtracted from any totals for the time period you specify in the reports. If you sell the vehicle and enter the date sold and amount received, then that amount will also be subtracted from the purchase price in the cpm if the Include option is set to include the price. ..... 9 Insurance _________ Use this log to record insurance premium payments and descriptions of your coverages and limits. The premium amounts are not used in any of the report totals but the payments are. We prefer to add a new insurance record each time the premium amount changes so that we have a complete history of the coverages and premiums but you can add just one record if you want. You would then change the coverages and premiums if needed and log all the payments in the Payment area. Adding a new record is fairly easy since the information is copied from the record you are looking at to the new one. Just change the information that is different (policy period, premiums, etc.). There is not much more to say about the insurance log other than you have room for 17 lines of coverage, limit and premium information. You could use the Memo area to record more information if needed such as: agent's name, telephone number, address, accident reports, etc. Loan/Lease __________ The loan/lease log may be somewhat confusing at first, not because it is difficult to use, but because it works with many of the other modules in determining where to allocate expenses in the cost per mile report (which we will cover next). You have the option, by using the Include toggles and the LN (loan) codes, to put these costs into different cpm categories. This can be important, especially if you are running cpm reports each month or quarter. Once loans are paid off you will probably change some of the Include toggles and loan codes to shift these amounts. There are really only two types of loans that the VRS Plus is concerned with. One is the vehicle purchase loan and the other type is all other loans (for repairs, accessories, tires, etc.). Examples of these loans are included in the Help screens and we suggest that you review them. Cost Per Mile / Cost Per Hour / Cost Per Kilometer __________________________________________________ Press {F9} from the main menu to run the cpm report. Read through the Help screens and then run some reports. The report screen may seem a little confusing at first, but once you get past the colors and border lines, you should be able to pick out the figures quite easily. Note that you can change the category headings (** FUEL **, etc.) color if you wish. There is a color for just these headings. ..... 10 You will get separate totals for each of the Operating and Ownership modules, subtotals and then a grand or final total. By using the Include toggles and Loan codes in the various logs, you can control where some of these costs appear. For example, if your vehicle purchase loan has been paid off, you can have the purchase price and tax (and other payments) show in the ID/Reg category while just the finance charge appears in the Loan/Lease category. If you are still making payments, you can shift the costs to the Loan/Lease category showing just the payments you have made during that period of time. If you are using the VRS Plus to compare similar vehicles in a fleet and are using the loan/lease log, then you will probably want to make sure the Include toggles are set the same for each vehicle. Comparing these figures, especially the Operating costs, should quickly point out any "lemons" in the bunch. Travel Log / Travel Expense Log _______________________________ The Travel Log can be used to keep track of personal and business trips. There are no costs associated with the main travel log however, you can log costs in the expense log. You can use both logs together or individually, that is you do not have to use the travel log in order to use the expense log and you do not have to use the expense log if you are using the travel log. Expense costs are associated with travel and are not related to the cost of owning or operating the vehicle and are therefore, not included in the cost per mile figures. You can define your own travel (T) codes, location (LC) and expense (EX) codes in the Set Defaults module. If you are using your own vehicle for some business trips, then you may only want to record business mileage and expenses so that you can later be reimbursed. While many businesses use the standard flat rate for deducting business expenses, you may find (by looking at the cpm reports) that your actual costs are higher than the flat rate allowance. By logging these trips (and keeping receipts) you may be able to deduct more. NOTE: We make no claims that, by using the VRS Plus, you will be able to claim more of a tax deduction for your vehicles. You will however, have all of your records in a standard, easy to read format that can be used (along with all receipts) to help justify your expenses. ..... 11 The travel log will calculate miles for you and you can change some of the headings to suit yourself. If you need to keep track of how many miles you travel in different areas (states, provinces, etc.) you can use the location codes. If you travel in different areas during the same trip, you will need to make separate entries for each location. Look at the examples to see how you can do this. NOTE: It may be easier to look at these entries by printing the report to the screen and double spacing between dates. You can use the Memo area to record more detailed information about the trip. You can also print forms to keep in the vehicle. Maintenance Reminder ____________________ The maintenance reminder module lets you customize maintenance schedules for each vehicle. There are three sections or parts to this module and it may seem somewhat complex at first. We will try to add a little more information here in a different format from the Help screens to give you a better idea of what it is all about. The Tutorial should clear up any remaining questions. When you load the reminder module, you will see a reminder screen that shows all of the maintenance operations that you want to be reminded of for the vehicle that you are currently using. You will need to decide if you want the reminder system to have a service interval of months or days. Months should be fine for most people and businesses, however some places with their own service departments prefer to use days. This can be changed in the Set Defaults module. Let's look at the reminder fields. First, go into the browse {B} and go to the first record, Unscheduled Maintenance. MONTHS and miles (or hours) tells the VRS Plus how frequently the operations should be done. For example, we want to be reminded to change the oil every 6 months or 3000 miles (180 days if you use DAYS). The ---maintenance operation--- is the description that will print on the report. Now go right until you see the LAST DATE and ----completed services---- headings. When you first set up the schedule, you must put in the date and odometer that the operation was last done. The reminder report will use that information to determine the next service dates. The ----completed services---- fields should contain the operation description that will be used by the completed services report. It can be the same as the operation but will probably be the past tense, Changed Oil instead of Change Oil. Note that they have not been changed in the EXAMPLE vehicle. Leave the browse and run a reminder report or two. If you leave the dates blank, then you will get a report showing the next time all of the maintenance operations should be done. ..... 12 Press {W} W (SER) to go into the completed services area. This is simply a history of all maintenance done to the vehicle. Note that there is no Add option here. Completed services are added from the reminder screen. (We'll do this in the Tutorial.) Run a report or two if you want and then press {W} (W REM) to return to the reminder screen. The third part of the reminder system is the Global Defaults and this is simply a list of maintenance operations that you can include in each vehicle's schedule when you first set it up. Press {G} and then browse through the columns. They are the same as the reminder except they are in a different order and do not include the last service information. Leave the browse and press {E} for extract. By pressing the Insert key you can copy all of these operations to the vehicle that you are using. The only purpose for the Global option is to cut down on the amount of typing you need to do to create the schedules. By changing, deleting or adding Global operations, you can create a core group of items that need to be done for each vehicle. Without this option, if you have 30 vehicles, you would have to type in Change Oil 30 times and Changed Oil 30 times. Multiply that by 10 or 20 maintenance operations and you have a lot of typing to do. You will still have to go into each item and enter the last service information for each vehicle (sorry, there's no way we can do that for you). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS ENDS THE DEMO PART OF THE DEMO/TUTORIAL. WE SUGGEST THAT YOU GO THROUGH THE TUTORIAL BECAUSE IT WILL COVER MANY THINGS NOT COVERED IN THE DEMO AND SHOULD CLEAR UP ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY STILL HAVE. A COMMON QUESTION: IS HOW MANY VEHICLES WILL THE VRS PLUS HANDLE? THE VRS PLUS HAS NO PHYSICAL LIMIT OTHER THAN THE AMOUNT OF ROOM YOU HAVE ON YOUR DISK. WHEN YOU ADD A VEHICLE, 33 EMPTY FILES ARE CREATED AND THEY USE ABOUT 132,000 (132K) BYTES (CHARACTERS) OF ROOM. THAT MEANS THAT 10 NEWLY CREATED VEHICLES WILL USE UNDER 1.5MB OF YOUR DISK, 100 VEHICLES WILL USE ABOUT 14MB. HOW MUCH THESE FILES WILL GROW DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH INFORMATION YOU PUT INTO THEM. YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT USE ALL FILES IN EACH VEHICLE. WE HAVE BEEN TRACKING A PERSONAL VEHICLE FOR NINE YEARS AND IT NOW USES ABOUT 260K, SO IT HAS ONLY DOUBLED IN SIZE. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ..... 13 TUTORIAL ________ The tutorial section covers the following topics: - Adding and Deleting Vehicles and Directories - Memo Practice - No More Memo Room - Out of Memory - Practice Session for Adding a New Vehicle (includes how to set up a Maintenance Reminder Schedule) Adding and Deleting Vehicles and Directories ____________________________________________ This section will show you how to add and delete vehicles. While you can delete vehicles from the VRS Plus, the directories and vehicle files are not physically removed from your hard disk. There are two reasons for this, one is that the VRS Plus does not let you run DOS commands from within it, mainly because it would make the program larger and use more memory and because you should not often need to do so. The other reason is that we do not want to make deleting a vehicle too easy. People tend to get upset when they accidentally erase files they have been using for a long time. We are going to add a directory and 2 new vehicles and then delete them. If you are only tracking a few vehicles you may just want to put them into the \VRS1 directory but at some point you will probably want to remove the EXAMPLE vehicle, so it is a good idea for you to go through this example. First, change to the \VRS90 directory from DOS, create (make) a new directory and then load the VRS Plus. C>CD\VRS90 C>MD\VRS90\HOURS C>VRS Go to the Add/Change module and do a View; you should see the \HOURS directory. Now add a vehicle by selecting the Add option and type in {HOURS} for the directory (Don't type the {}). It has to match the name exactly or you will see an error message when you press PgDn. Because it does not fill the field completely, you will need to press {ENTER} to go to the next field. Type in {ONE} for the filename and then press {ENTER}. Type {H} for O/H. We will create these to track by hours instead of odometer. Enter {01 01 91} for a start-date and {Test Vehicle 1} for the description. Press {PGDN} to add the vehicle. If you have the unrestricted registered version of the VRS Plus (not limited to 2 vehicles), then add a second vehicle using {TWO} for the filename and {Test Vehicle 2} for the description. Keep the other fields the same. Look at the View and you should see the new vehicles. Now, select vehicle ONE by pressing {S}, moving the cursor to ONE and pressing {ENTER}. The name on the upper left part of the screen should change to ONE. ..... 14 Before we continue, you may want to go into some of the other modules and look at the headings. All references to mileage will now show as hours. You can also run a cost per hour report even though the figures will all be zeros. Go back into the Add/Change module and let's delete these vehicles. You will not normally delete vehicles unless you sell them or no longer want to track them. Select the Delete option by pressing {D} and highlighting the vehicle name, in this case ONE. Note that the highlight can be in any field on that vehicle, not just directory or filename. Press the {DELETE} key. What happened? It should not have deleted vehicle ONE because ONE is the Selected Vehicle and you can not delete the Selected Vehicle. Select the EXAMPLE vehicle and try deleting ONE again. Then delete vehicle TWO. Both vehicles should no longer show on the screen however, if you do a View, they still show up. This is because the View shows you what is physically on the hard disk and we have only deleted them from the VRS Plus and not from your hard disk. What if you accidentally delete a vehicle and want to get it back? You can do so in a couple of minutes but there are a few steps involved. Basically, you would leave the VRS Plus, copy the vehicle files to a temporary directory on your hard disk, delete the files (DOS DELETE command), then add the vehicle again from the VRS Plus. Finally, you would copy the backed-up files in the temporary directory back into the VRS Plus directory. We won't go into the details but anyone familiar with DOS should be able to do it easily, if not, give us a call. Now let's remove those vehicles from your hard disk. Leave the VRS Plus and enter: C>CD\VRS90 C>DEL \VRS90\HOURS\ONE.* (erase all ONE vehicle files) C>DEL \VRS90\HOURS\TWO.* (erase all TWO vehicle files) C>RD\VRS90\HOURS (remove directory) NOTE: You will only remove the directory if you erase all vehicles in that directory. Memo Practice _____________ This section will give you a chance to practice using the Memo area. The VRS Plus contains a simple text editor that lets you keep additional comments, notes, etc. related to your vehicles. Although you can not copy or move lines or paragraphs from one place to another, you can do many of the basic word processing functions. This Demo/Tutorial was initially created in these memo areas and then later transferred into one of the two word processing programs that we use daily. ..... 15 Go into the Memo area in the fuel log for the EXAMPLE vehicle and type in the following at the cursor: test memo. Press {ESC} to leave and then {M} to come back into it. Test memo is gone because you quit without saving what you just typed in. You must press {CTRL} {W} to save the text that you have entered. Remember this before you start typing in one or two screen fulls of text. The Line and Column numbers will show you where you are and are useful if you want to print just certain lines. If you want to print some or all of the memo file and have made some changes or added some lines, you must first save the file and then come back into it before the print routine will recognize the new text. You may want to print a hard copy of the Help until you are familiar with the editing and movement keys. Press {F1} and then do a Print Screen to do this. Press the {INSERT} key until you see <insert> at the top of the screen. If insert is on and you press Enter, then a blank line will be inserted in front of where the cursor is. Press {INSERT} until you no longer see <insert>. Now you can enter a few lines (we will save them this time). Starting at line 1 & column 1, type in the following, pressing the Enter key at the end of each line: "When I traded in my vehicle for a new vehicle, I had all the records, and showed them to the dealer. One of his salesmen bought the vehicle. I highly recommend the VRS to anyone who has a PC." -Richard P. Allen, White Plains, NY- Now press {CTRL} {W} to save this and then come back into this Memo. NOTE: You can use the main menu Memo (SF2) as a bulletin board area to leave messages for other people. For example, if there are two or more of you that enter vehicle data, you could leave messages to each other (provided that you get into the habit of checking for these messages when you start the VRS). You could put in a date, time, who it is from, who it is for and the message. You could put the most recent message at the beginning of the file (so that you see it immediately) and erase messages already read. Now let's use a few of the editing and movement keys to play around with this text. We will give you a few examples to get you started. Press {END} to go to the end of the line, press {HOME} to go to the beginning. Using the down cursor, go to the - (line 4, column 1). Now press {INSERT} and then {ENTER}. You should have entered a blank line above the -. Press the {TAB} key and the line should have moved to the right. Using the right cursor, move to the P and press {ENTER}. The line should have split in two. You can re-join the line by moving behind Richard and pressing {DELETE}. ..... 16 Now go to the r in records (line 2, column 1) and with Insert on, type in any character until you see the line disappearing off the screen. Although you can no longer see some of the characters, they are still there. Since you want to keep all the text within the memo window, you can move right and press Enter to split the line. The best way to become familiar with the movement and editing keys is to practice them a few times. Using the Help screen as a guide, press the keys to see what happens. No More Memo Room - Out of Memory _________________________________ If you should happen to fill up the memo area in a particular module, we suggest that you save a copy of the memo file and start again (continue) with a new empty file. Write down the name of the file in the memo area that you were in (File Name:). For example, the file name for the fuel log memo for the EXAMPLE vehicle is: EXAMPLE.M01 (zero, not O). Substitute your name for EXAMPLE.M01 in the following commands. You also need to know which directory your vehicle is in. We will use \DEMO but you should substitute your directory name for \DEMO. You can check the Add/Change module to find the directory name. Leave the VRS and go to the \VRS90 directory. Enter the following after the hard drive prompt (C> in this example). Do not type in C>. C>CD\VRS90 C>DIR VRS.M00 (to make sure you are in the right place) Now you should save your full memo file by copying it to another file that does not already exist - a new file. We suggest changing the 3 character extension, M01 to something else like N01, O01, etc. You can print this new file using the DOS PRINT command if you later want a historical hard copy. C>COPY \VRS90\DEMO\EXAMPLE.M01 \VRS90\DEMO\EXAMPLE.N01 Now you can clear or empty the memo file to continue where you left off. C>COPY \VRS90\VRS.M00 \VRS90\DEMO\EXAMPLE.M01 Your old fuel memo file will still be on your disk but you can no longer access it through the VRS Plus. Practice Session for Adding a New Vehicle _________________________________________ In this section, you will add a vehicle and make some entries in the different logs. Since it should not take long to do this, we suggest that you take the time to do this. A few minutes here could save you much more time later on. ..... 17 There should only be one vehicle (EXAMPLE) in the VRS Plus before you start. We will use the default values that are already in place (paid, maintenance codes, headings, etc.). *** Begin by adding a vehicle using the following values: DEMO 64MALIBU O 01/25/1987 1964 Chevy Malibu SS *** Now Select the 64MALIBU vehicle. Then go to the ID/Registration module and add a record with the following information: YEAR: 1964 MAKE: Chevrolet MODEL: Malibu Super Sport DATE PURCHASED: 01/25/87 PURCHASE PRICE: 1,915.00 TAX: 76.00 PURCHASED FROM: K-Jon Classic Cars Lewiston, ID 83501 ID NUMBER: 00000A111111 MOTOR NUMBER: Idaho Title #: Zzzzzzzz $15.00 Transfer Fee (included in loan & price) *** Set the Include option to NOT include the purchase price and tax, then add the following using the Payment option: DATE $-cost PD ---comments---- ========== ========= == ====================== 02/18/87 16.35 A Registration 02/18/87 3.40 A License plates 02/18/87 25.00 A Centennial 02/18/87 1.00 A Mailing fee 02/18/87 5.00 A 30-day temp. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Go to the Loan/Lease module and add a record with the following information: DATE RECEIVED: 01/25/87 LENDER: K-Jon Bank & Trust LOAN AMOUNT: 1,991.00 FINANCE CHARGE: 314.64 TERMS: 2 years @ 13.5% - $90.00 due the 26th of each month *** Set the Include option to include payments and then Add the following using the Payment option: DATE $-cost PD ---comments---- ========== ========= == ====================== 01/26/87 90.00 A 02/22/87 90.00 A 03/24/87 90.00 A 04/24/87 90.00 A 05/26/87 90.00 A 06/26/87 90.00 A -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ..... 18 *** Go to the Fuel module and add the following records: DATE odometer $-cost PD gallns fl ========== ======== ======== == ======= == 01/25/87 48000.0 (move right to the --fuel vendor-- field and press PgDn) 01/26/87 48064.8 5.00 A 6.0 N 02/09/87 48314.4 14.00 A 16.9 Y 02/19/87 48538.2 16.00 A 15.1 Y 04/09/87 48787.7 18.00 A 17.0 Y 04/21/87 49011.6 12.00 A 14.1 Y 04/26/87 49130.2 7.00 A 8.2 Y 06/02/87 49407.1 17.00 A 16.1 Y 06/12/87 49934.6 15.00 A 14.2 Y 06/24/87 49884.0 15.35 A 17.3 Y *** One record was purposely added with the wrong odometer. Do the Totals option and you should see an error message. Use the Change option to change the odometer from 49934.6 to 49634.6. It is a good idea to check the totals before running fuel reports. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Go to the Maint/Access/Misc module and add the following records: *** NOTE: Remember that while we are adding a vendor record in front of each purchase (MT code O), you do not necessarily have to. You could just put the vendor name in the vendor field for each item. You can also set a default so that the TAX field is not used or displayed. *** NOTE: If you are not using the fields after MT, you can press PgDn when you are at the LN field. DATE odometer --description-- $-cost TAX PD MT ========== ======== ========================= ======== ====== == == 01/28/87 48100.0 K-JON-LUBE A O 01/28/87 drain & refill differ. 9.95 0.50 A A 01/28/87 oil & lube 18.95 0.95 A A 03/12/87 48600.0 K-JON AUTO PARTS A O 03/12/87 2 wiper blades 4.99 0.25 A C 05/30/87 49255.0 K-JON AUTO PARTS A O 05/30/87 Battery - 5 yr warrant 40.99 2.05 A C -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Go to the Tires module and add the following records: RECORD 1 --description-- --dealer-- =================================== ======================= 21560R14 Turbo HP Radial K-Jon Tires DATE PURCHASED $-cost TAX PAID ============== ========= ====== ==== 06/01/87 64.37 3.22 C ..... 19 *** Add the following using the Window option and then the Change option: DATE odometer LOC DATE odometer LOC ========== ========= === ========== ========= === 06/01/87 49400.0 DF *** By pressing Add (from either window), record 1 will be copied to record 2 (including the first rotation information). You need only to change the information that is different, in this case, the LOC field. RECORD 2 --description-- --dealer-- =================================== ======================= 21560R14 Turbo HP Radial K-Jon Tires DATE PURCHASED $-cost TAX PAID ============== ========= ====== ==== 06/01/87 64.37 3.22 C DATE odometer LOC DATE odometer LOC ========== ========= === ========== ========= === 06/01/87 49400.0 PF -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Go to the Insurance module and add the following: P O L I C Y P E R I O D FROM: 01/25/87 TO: 07/25/87 INSURER: K-Jon Insurance Company POLICY NO: X 00000 AGENCY: K-Jon Insurance Agency ----coverages------- ----limits---------- premium ========================== ============================== ======= Bodily Injury Liability $100,000 pers - $300,000 occur 36.80 Property Damage Liability $ 50,000 occur 20.80 Medical Payments $ 5,000 8.80 Uninsured Motorists: Bodily Injury $ 25,000 pers - $ 50,000 accid 6.80 Comprehensive Cash value less $250 deduct 9.60 Collision Cash value less $500 deduct 35.20 (not to exceed $3,000) *** Add the following using the Payment option: DATE $-cost PD LN ---comments---- ========== ========= == == ====================== 02/05/87 59.00 A 04/10/87 59.00 A -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ..... 20 Now you can run the Cost Per Mile report using the default dates and any other dates you choose. You can also switch the Include options in the ID/Reg and Loan/Lease modules and see what it does to the CPM category amounts. The last part of this section will show you how to create a maintenance reminder schedule and how to add services that have been done. Go into the Maintenance Reminder module and pick the Global option. We will use the example operations (services) that have already been entered. NOTE: You will probably want to modify these (by adding, changing or deleting) before you create your vehicle schedules. Extract these operations from the Global area into the Selected vehicle's (64MALIBU) reminder schedule by pressing {E} and then the {INSERT} key. Do this only once for each vehicle or you will get duplicate reminder entries. Leave the Global area by using the Quit option and you should see that these operations have been copied (or extracted) into the reminder schedule area for this vehicle. The next step is to customize these reminders for this vehicle by changing any necessary fields. The * Unscheduled Maintenance * record can be used to add services that come up unexpectedly for operations you do not need or want to be reminded to do. We will leave the MONTHS and miles the same as well as all the descriptions but we do need to enter in the Last Service odometers and dates. If you know when the last time each service has been done, then you can put in those dates and mileage, otherwise, you should determine when you want the next service to be done and subtract the service interval values from them. For example, say you want to change the wiper blades in March (2 months after you started tracking) and want to be reminded of this. Because the interval period is 2 years, you could enter 03/01/85 as the last date, 26000 as the last odometer, and then you will be reminded in March of 1987. NOTE: Once you have initially entered the Last Service dates and odometers, the VRS Plus will automatically update them each time you add a completed service. Maybe another way of thinking about this is that the VRS Plus will add the service time interval to the last serviced date and the service miles (or hours) to last serviced mileage to determine when that service should be done again. ..... 21 Change the last service information for each reminder using these values: (LAST DATE odometer) ----completed services------ ========== ========= ============================ 10/15/86 45100 Changed Oil & Filter 01/25/87 48000 Rotated Tires 01/25/87 48000 Changed Air Filter 06/01/86 38000 Checked Cooling System 03/01/85 26000 Replaced Wiper Blades Now add a new reminder (that was not included in the Global defaults.) Use {3} and {3000} for the interval, {Lube} for the descriptions and {10/15/86} and {45100} for the last service values. Run the reminder report leaving the dates blank and you will see when each service needs to be done next. Note that the first two items say they are past due. This is because the fuel log has been updated through June but no completed services have been added during that time Let's add a few services to bring the maintenance reminder up to date. NOTE: You can use the printed reminder schedule as an input document for completed services by writing in the completed information next to each item. Using the New SER option (press {N}) enter the following DONE dates and odometers for each service as shown (remember to press {ENTER} for the cursor and {INSERT} when you are done): (DONE DATE odometer) ----completed services------ ========== ========= ============================ 01/28/87 48100 * Unscheduled Maintenance * 01/28/87 48100 Changed Oil & Filter 01/28/87 48100 Lube Rotated Tires Changed Air Filter Checked Cooling System 03/12/87 48600 Replaced Wiper Blades A message will appear saying the services have been added and all dates and odometers will be cleared. Now, add one more completed service (New SER) using the * Unscheduled * line with {05/30/87} as the date and {49255} as the odometer. Window into the Completed Services area (W SER) and change the first completed service description from * Unscheduled * to {Drained, Filled Differential} and the other * Unscheduled * description to {Replaced Battery (60 month)}. If you compare the completed services report to the maint/access/misc report, the items should match. The completed services report provides you with a maintenance history while the other one provides you with costs. ..... 22 Run a reminder report for July of 1987. Five items should show on the report, the first two being oil and lube. Since those operations were supposed to be done every 3 months, and were not, they will show on the report until they are. If the last fuel log odometer was greater than 51100, these items would show as being overdue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS ENDS THE TUTORIAL PART OF THE DEMO/TUTORIAL. WE HOPE THAT YOU NOW HAVE A GOOD WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE VRS PLUS AND ALSO HAVE AN IDEA OF THE INFORMATION YOU WANT TO TRACK FOR YOUR OWN VEHICLES. BEFORE ADDING YOUR OWN VEHICLES, YOU SHOULD CHANGE THE DEFAULT PAID, MAINTENANCE, ETC. CODES AND HEADINGS TO SUIT YOURSELF. CHANGE ALL THE HEADINGS TO UPPERCASE, CENTERING THEM AS NECESSARY UNDER THE SUGGESTED HEADINGS. CHANGE THE GLOBAL MAINTENANCE REMINDERS ALSO, IF YOU WILL BE USING THE MAINTENANCE REMINDER. YOU CAN CHANGE THESE GLOBAL REMINDERS IN ANY VEHICLE INCLUDING THE \DEMO\EXAMPLE VEHICLE. ----------------------------------------------------------------------