Software Vault: The Gold Collection

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Software Vault: The Gold Collection / Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO / cdr33 / popit_s.zip / POP_S.EXE / MANUAL.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-06-27 | 168KB | 3,653 lines

UNREGISTERED COPY THE POPIT SYSTEM - Desktop Business and Personal Information Management System - User Manual UNREGISTERED COPY (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. VITRON'S DISCLAIMER AND LIMITED WARRANTY PLEASE READ! This VITRON product, user guide and documentation are provided "AS IS". VITRON does NOT make any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of this VITRON product, user guide, and documentation is with you. VITRON does NOT warrant that the functions contained in this VITRON product will meet your requirements or that the operation of the software product will be uninterrupted or error free. VITRON will NOT be responsible for any direct, indirect, consequen- tial, or incidental damages (including damages from loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like) arising out of the use or the inability to use the VITRON prod- uct even if VITRON has been advised of the possibility of such dam- ages. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liab- ility or incidental damages, the above limitations may not apply to you. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. STARTING THE SYSTEM 1. A. Starting the System For The First Time 1. 1. The Control File 1. 2. The Modem File 3. B. Starting the System Every Other Time 4. II. THE MAIN MENU 4. III. SCREEN OPERATIONS: PAGE LISTS, DATA ENTRY/ VALIDATIONS, ICONS AND SCREEN MENUS 5. A. Pull-Down Menus 5. B. Page Lists 5. 1. Full- and Half-Page Page Lists 6. 2. Related-Page Page Lists 6. 3. Page List Icons and Menus 6. 4. Page List Searching 7. C. Record Detail Screens 7. 1. Data Entry Field Types and Data Validations 7. (a) Normal Data Entry Fields 7. (b) CHECK-TEXT Data Entry Fields 7. (c) DATAHELP Data Entry Fields 8. 2. Screen Modes 9. (a) Add Mode 9. (b) Modify Mode 9. (c) Input Mode 9. (d) Display Mode 9. 3. Screen Key Icons 9. 4. Screen Menus 12. (a) Operation Menus 12. (b) Screen Section Menus 12. 5. Searching 13. 6. Browsing 13. 7. Indexing 14. 8. Notes 14. 9. Phone_Dial 14. IV. MASTER FILES 14. A. Names & Addresses 14. 1. Name and Employer Page List 14. (a) Screen Icons 15. (b) Screen Menu 15. 2. Master File Record - Detail Record Screen 15. (a) Add, Modify and Input Modes 15. (b) Menu Mode 16. (c) Master File Record Data 17. (d) The Follow-Up Window 23. (1) Page List 23. (2) Detail Record 23. a. Add, Modify and Input Modes 23. b. Menu Mode 24. c. Record Data 24. B. Special Contacts 25. 1. Page List 25. 2. Detail Record 26. (a) Add, Modify and Input Modes 26. (b) Menu Mode 27. (c) Record Data 29. C. Invoices 29. 1. Transactions 29. (a) Page List 30. (b) The Detail Screen 35. 2. Service Codes 35. (a) Page List 35. (b) Detail Screen 36. 3. Invoice History 36. (a) Page List 36. (b) Detail Screen 36. 4. Invoice Aging 36. 5. Statements 37. (a) Page List 37. (b) The Detail Record 38. V. TODO LIST 39. 1. The Page List 39. 2. Data Fields 40. VI. APPOINTMENTS 41. 1. Appointments 41. (a) Page List 42. (b) The Data Entry Screen 42. 2. Today's/Week's/Month's Appointments 42. 3. Data Fields 43. VII. FOLLOW UPS 44. (1) Data Entry Screen and Data Fields 44. VIII. FINANCIALS 45. 1. Income/Expense 46. (1) The Page List 46. (2) The Data Entry Screen 47. 2. Expenses 48. (a) Data Entry Screen 48. 3. Budget 49. IX. UTILITIES 49. 1. Reindex 49. 2. Pack 51. 3. File Browser 51. (a) Initial Screen Menu 51. (b) Initial Screen Icons 52. (c) The First Screen Menu Choices 52. Browse Mode 52. Review 55. Setup 55. (d) Second Screen Menu Choices 56. (e) Third Screen Choice 56. 4. DataHelp Files 56. (a) Screen Menu 56. (b) Icons 57. 5. Note Book 57. 6. Control File 58. 7. Modem Setup 58. 8. Purge 58. X. COMMUNICATIONS 58. (a) The Page List 59. (b) The Detail Screen 60. XI. REPORTS AND LABELS 60. (1) Reports 61. (2) Labels 61. XII. GENERATING LETTERS AND INVOICES - THE 'G' ICON 64. (1) Master File Record 64. (2) Special Contacts Record 67. (3) Invoices 67. (4) Expenses 67. Invoice & Registration Form 68. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this document may be copied, duplicated, transmitted or re- transmitted, reproduced or copied and stored in an electronic medium with- out the expressed written permission of VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. I. STARTING THE SYSTEM To start the system, first make sure you change to the directory into which you installed the system. If you used the system's INSTALL pro- cedure without changes, this directory is named \VMCPOP and is lo- cated on your C: drive. The program, SVMCPOP.EXE is the non-registered version of the PopIt System. NOTE: Henceforth, all discussions herein will assume that you have used the installation procedure that was supplied on the system diskette and that you did not make any changes to this procedure. Make sure your current default drive is your C: drive. To change to drive C:, at your DOS prompt, type: C: and press Enter (don't forget the colon after the C). Then, change to the directory by typing: CD \VMCPOP and press Enter. To start the PopIt System, at your DOS prompt, type: SVMCPOP and press Enter The system displays the opening copyright screen and prompts you to press a key to proceed. Even if you don't press a key to continue, the system will display the opening screen for approximately five seconds and proceed on its own. A. Starting the System For the First Time When you start the system for the first time, there are two files that you need to update. The first file is the Control File; the second is the Modem File. These two files are updated from the Utilities menu. Select Utilities from the main menu. You make this selection in one of two ways: (a) Press the UP or DOWN ARROW key to highlight Utilities and press Enter; or (b) Simply type the number 6 and do NOT press Enter. The system displays the UTILITIES MENU. This menu provides eight (8) choices. We'll discuss all the choices in more detail later. Right now, we're concerned with selections 6 and 7 -- Control File and Modem File respectively. 1. The Control File Select item 6 -- Control File. This file contains data that are used when you prepare letters and/or invoices as well as two fields that identify the type of printer you're using. As you enter data into each field, you should first clear out the current contents. To do this, press CTRL-Y (hold the CTRL key down and tap the letter Y key, then release both keys). This procedure erases all data beginning under the cursor out to the right to the end of the current field. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 1. At the bottom left of the screen, the system displays the "mode" indi- cator, which in this instance is MODIFY -- for modify/edit mode. At the bottom right of the screen, the system displays the screen's key icons. These icons are representations of the operation keys that are available to you to perform specific functions. <> move the cursor left or right ^v move the cursor up or down F10 initiate the Edit/Abandon/Save screen menu Esc abort the process and return to the previous screen or operation NOTE: When you enter data in each of the fields, if you do not use the entire field, press Enter after your entry. Otherwise, if you type out to the end of a field, the cursor will advance to the next field auto- matically. Full Name: Enter your full name Initials: Enter your initials Company: If you have a company name, enter it here. Otherwise, enter your Full Name again. Address-1: Enter the first line of your address. Address-2: If you have a second line to your address, en- ter it here. City: Enter your city State: Enter your state Zip Code: Enter your zip code. This field does support Zip + 4. Telephone: Enter your telephone number. Include your Area Code. Fax: If you have a fax, enter its telephone number here; otherwise, clear out the field and leave it blank. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 2. Printer: Here is where you tell the system about the type of printer you're using. You have two choices: L Laser Printer D Dot Matrix Printer Currently, the system supports Epson compatible dot matrix printers and HP II and HP III compatible laser printers. Compatibility: If you select laser printer (by typing an L) you're asked to indicate whether your printer is HP II or HP III compatible. If you're not sure, type 2. The cursor will go to this field if and only if you indicated that you're using a laser printer. Otherwise, this field is not used. After you have completed your entries, you're prompted to Edit/Abandon/Save. Edit Edit one or more entries again Abandon Abort your entries and restore the original entries. Save Save your entries and continue (usually re- turns to the previous screen/operation). You select an item from a screen menu in one of two ways: (a) Press LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key to highlight your choice, then press Enter; or (b) Simply type the FIRST LETTER that corresponds to your choice and do NOT press Enter. You'll be returned to the UTILITIES MENU. 2. The Modem File When you're returned to the UTILITIES MENU, select item 7 -- Modem Setup. You're presented with the Initial Settings screen and are im- mediately placed in MODIFY mode. The screen icons at the bottom right are the same as for item 1 -- Control File -- above. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 3. The data in this screen are necessary only if you intend to use the auto-dial feature of the system. This feature is not a sophisticated communications process, but rather it allows the system to simply dial the telephone for you. Of course, it is necessary that you have a mo- dem hooked up to your computer to do this. Comm (Serial) Port: Enter the number of the COM port to which your modem is connected. The current system supports only COM 1 and COM 2. Your Area Code: Enter the Area Code of YOUR telephone. This is needed for this system to be able to distinguish between local and long distance calls. Do You Dial 1...: Indicate whether or not you need to dial a 1 before making a long distance call. NOTE: The current version of the system does NOT as yet support dial- ing 9 or 8 (or whatever number) to first get an "outside" line. It does NOT as yet support inter-office/internal phone systems or exten- sion dialing. If you have made any changes, you're prompted to Edit/Abandon/Save. This procedure is the same as discussed for the Control File above. Now that you're done, you're returned to the UTILITIES MENU. When you are in the UTILITIES MENU, press Esc to return to the main menu. B. Starting the System Every Other Time Every other time you start the system, unless you want to change either the Control File or Modem File, you can ignore steps 1 and 2 discussed above. II. THE MAIN MENU The main menu presents you with nine (9) choices. To make a selection: (a) Press UP/DOWN ARROW key to highlight your choice and press Enter; or (b) Simply type the NUMBER that corresponds to your choice and do NOT press Enter. The ">>" character that is displayed to the right of selections 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 means that these selections have their own submenus -- i.e., selecting any of these choices takes you to another menu. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 4. Selections 2, 4, 7 and 9 take you to the corresponding procedure di- rectly. To quit the system and return to the operating system, select item 9 -- Quit. You may also press Esc at the main menu. Whichever option you choose when quitting, the system asks you to confirm whether or not you actually want to quit. The system displays a Yes/No prompt box. To make your selection, (a) Press LEFT/RIGHT ARROW to highlight Yes or No and press En- ter; or (b) Simply type Y for Yes or N for No. III. SCREEN OPERATIONS: PAGE LISTS, DATA ENTRY/VALIDATIONS, ICONS AND SCREEN MENUS The system contains three major types of screens: -- Pull-Down Menus (sometimes called "cascading" menus (Refer to the Main Menu section above.) -- Page Lists -- a scrolling table of records. The table con- tains key (important, frequently referenced) fields. All pick lists are displayed as page lists. As long as there is at least one record in a file, when you access that file, the first thing to be displayed is its page list of records. It is then from the page list that you access the record details. -- Record Detail Screens -- typically referred to as "Data En- try" screens. A. Pull-Down Menus (Refer to Main Menu in the section above.) B. Page Lists Page Lists are nothing more but scollable tables of records. A page list is displayed if and only if and when there is at least one record contained in the file you selected. Otherwise, you're taken directly to ADD mode (if you want to add a record) to add the first record to the file. Once at least one record is in the file, the page list is dis- played. Page lists present a unique way of viewing critical data in a file. Page lists also allow you to select a particular record for de- tail examination and/or editing or deleting, etc. There are three types of page lists: (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 5. (a) Full-Page (b) Half-Page (c) Related-Page Most of the differences relate only to the way in which the list is displayed on the screen. 1. Full- and Half-Page Page Lists Some of the page lists are what we call "full-page" page lists in that they take up the entire screen. To display the details, first high- light the record you want, then press Enter. Other page lists are what we call "half-screen" page lists. In these cases, the page list table is displayed on one part of the screen and the associated details of the highlighted record are displayed either on the right or left side of the table or above or below the table. With half-screen lists, as you scroll through the list, the rest of the data that are contained in that record are also displayed. 2. Related-Page Page Lists Related page lists are a rather unique feature of this system. But, what the term really means is that while you are displaying data from one file, you are also logically tied into (connected to) another re- lated file, with the capability of viewing both sets of data on one screen (at the same time). Put more simply, its a way of viewing re- lated data in more than one file. For example, you'll see this tech- nique used in the Name and Address opertation and the Special Contacts operation. How this relation is created is not important. What is im- portant is that the system does allow for this logical and convenient connection (file relationships). 3. Page List Icons and Menus Page list menus and key icons perform in the same manner as screen menus and icons work in the detail screen. Therefore, for a duscussion on these two topics, please continue reading the following section on Record Detail Screens. 4. Page List Searching Searching for a specific record in a page list works a bit differently from the way in which searching works in a detail screen display. As such, we'll now discuss searching when a page list is displayed. To perform a record search when in a page list, press the F3 function key. The system displays a small search box on the screen. A double line under the field's name and prefixed by a small down-arrow indi- cates the current search selection field and that field is the field on which the file is currently sequenced. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 6. In some instances, the file may be accessed in more than one sequence. The additional sequence fields -- and, thereby, the additional search fields -- are those fields that are prefixed with a small square box at the left side of the single line under the field's name. To change the search field and, thereby, the file's sequence, press the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key. The double line moves and the square changes to a down-arrow. Enter the characters you want to search on in the search box. The more characters you enter, the more precise the search. If there is no match on the characters you enter, the system jumps to the closest matching record. Be careful with date searching. If you enter only the month and day and have multiple years on file, you'll be taken to the first record where the month and day match or are closest. It is strongly recommended that when you perform searches on dates that you enter a complete date in the format MM/DD/YYYY. If there is no such date on file, the system will jump to the closest matching date -- i.e., the date nearest to the date you entered but after it, not be- fore it. As with detail screen searching, character searching is NOT case sensi- tive. C. Record Detail Screens The system presents a wide range of screens, data entry and data validation procedures and screen menus which are consistent across all of the screens and files. 1. Data Entry Field Types and Data Validations There are three basic data entry field types in the system. (a) Normal Data Entry Fields: These fields allow you to enter virtually any type of data, without the benefit or aid of any data validation procedures. Examples of this type of field are names, addresses, amounts, etc. When the cursor lands in one of these fields, no prompts are displayed and no validation procedures are encountered. (b) CHECK-TEXT (codified) Data Entry Fields: These fields are usually fields that represent single-letter or single-number data elements that are abbreviations for or representations of codes. When the cursor lands in one of these fields, a legend of valid codes is displayed in bright white at the bottom of the screen. The field may remain blank. But, if you enter anything other than a blank in this field, it must be one of the codes that are displayed in the legend at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, if you enter an invalid letter or number, the system displays a red error box at the bottom of the screen indicating the only valid entries. An example of this type of field includes fields requiring a yes or no (Y or N) response. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 7. (c) DATAHELP (pick list) Data Entry Fields: These fields represent one of the unique features of this system. These fields are fields that are restricted in terms of what you can enter, but also provide you with a pick list (a selection table) from which you can select the item rather than typing it in. You do have the ability to add, modify or delete items from the pick lists. (More about this later.) These fields are self-evaluating in that whatever you enter will auto- matically be validated against its appropriate selection table. You may leave the field blank, but if you enter anything into it, it must be included in the selection table list exactly as it appears in the pick list. If it is not an item in the table, the system automatically displays the selection table (pick list) for you and prompts you to se- lect a valid entry from the table. Whenever the cursor lands in one of these fields, the system normally displays the F2 function key key-icon in the icon display at the bot- tom right of the screen. There are some fields -- though very few of them -- that provide for DataHelp validation without the system dis- playing the F2 key in the icon area. These fields will be pointed out to you in each of the sections that follow where we discuss data field entries. Such fields are what we refer to as "optional" datahelp fields in that you can enter anything you wish or use its pick list to make the entry for you. You select an item from the pick list by pressing the UP/DOWN ARROW keys to highlight the item you want and pressing Enter. The data el- ement will be automatically inserted into the appropriate field for you. If the pick list table is large, you can search for a particular item when the table is displayed by presing the F3 function key (the F3 function key is herein referred to as the "Search" key). (Refer to "Searching" in page lists above.) In some instances, DataHelp fields are very useful in that selecting a particular pick list item will also allow the system to automatically fill in related fields. For example, there are some instances in which you're asked (prompted) as to whether or not you want to validate a name entry against the Master File. If you select Yes and use the pick-list, the systen not only fills in the name for you, but also the addresses, company name, if any, telephone numbers, cities, states and zip codes, etc. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 8. 2. Screen Modes These are three basic types of screen modes. The mode of operation you are currently in will be displayed at the bottom left of the screen. Modes apply only when you are adding or changing data. (a) ADD Mode: This is the mode that is displayed when you are new records. When you are done with your entries, you'll be prompted as to whether you want to re-edit the data, abandon the process or save the data. (b) MODIFY Mode: This is the mode that is displayed when you are changing/editing/modifying data currently displayed. Most of the screens in the system are divided into specific numbered sections. When you elect to modify, you're prompted to first indicate the specific screen area that contains the data you wish to add to or change. When you are done making changes, and assumming that something was actually changed, you're prompted as to whether you want to re-edit, abandon or save. (c) INPUT Mode: This mode is similar to MODIFY mode, but the Edit/Abandon/Save menu may not be displayed if additional fields are required to be entered. (d) DISPLAY Mode: This mode is not an actual mode but rather represents the display of the detail record screen for the operation you have se- lected. It contains its own screen menus and key icons that include the ability to enter Add/Modify and Input modes. 3. Screen Key Icons The screen key icons are representations of the various keys you can press, depending on the actually screen displayed and operation in progress, to perform specific tasks. The icons are displayed at the bottom right of the screen. Not all screens display all of the icons, but let's define each of them at this time. (Note: An individual icon does the same thing, regardless of the screen on which it appears. An icon is appropriate if and only if and when it is actually displayed in the icon area of the screen. If a particular icon is not displayed, with one exception, it does not apply at that time. We'll talk about that one exception later since it involves the F2 function key when the cursor is in an optional datahelp field.) (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 9. ICON MEANING F2 Represents the F2 function key. This key is displayed when the cursor is in a non-optional DataHelp field. Pressing F2 displays the appropriate pick list from which you can choose the data you wish the system to enter for you. The F2 icon is displayed only when the cursor is in a non-optional datahelp field -- a field that is automatically validated when/if data other than blanks is/are entered into the field. Otherwise, it is not displayed. In addition to file fields, all dates are datahelp fields. When the cursor is in a date field and you press the F2 function key, the system displays a calendar from which you can select the date you wish to enter. You can scroll through the calendar, changing months, weeks, years, etc. M Press M, to enter MODIFY (edit) mode. This allows you to change data. Most screens will then display a menu that consists of the various screen sections from which you select the screen section that contains the data you want to edit. (See Screen Menus below.) A Press A to add a new record. Press A to enter ADD mode. D Press D to flag the current record for deletion. Records flagged for deletion are not actually deleted at that time, but will be if/when you pack the file (see Utilities Menu). Records flagged for deletion cannot be changed. If a record is already flagged for deletion (the word "DELETED" is displayed at the top of the screen in red) and you press D, you will Recall -- UNDelete -- the record. Whenever you press D to either flag for deletion or UNDelete, you'll be prompted to confirm the operation before the system actually performs the operation. C Press C to copy (make a duplicate) of the current record. You'll first be prompted to confirm your deci- sion. This feature is useful, for example, if you want to create another record for the same person but need a different address. It's certainly useful for invoices when you want to copy all customer identifica- tion data and simply want to enter different line items, etc. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 10. G Press G (for "Generate") to produce letters for the highlighted record. This procedure and process is de- fined in more datail later on. It represents a very pow- erful, flexible unique feature of the system. It is analagous to a mail merge, but for one record at a time. The system contains predefined letters from which you can choose. The current version of the system does not permit you to create your own custom letters per se. This feature is also used to print individual invoices and to maintain an audit trail of all invoices printed. This is a special icon since it executes its own pro- gram. For a detailed explanation on how this works, re- fer to the section on Generating Letters and Invoices below. <> When a screen menu is displayed (see Screen Menus be- low), press the LEFT or RIGHT ARROW key to highlight the menu item of choice. Otherwise, this icon means that you can move the cursor left or right in a field. ^v When a screen menu is displayed (see Screen Menus be- low), press UP or DOWN ARROW to scroll to the previous record or to the next record respectively. Otherwise, this icon means that you can scroll up or down from field to field. F1 Press the F1 function key to display a HELP BOX. The help box defines the currently displayed icons and what each icon key does. F3 Press F3 to request a search. Searching allows you to locate a specific record. Field searching is dependent on the specific sequence of the file. (See Searching below.) Esc Abort (quit) the current procedure and return to the previous screen/opertation. If you're not sure what each icon represents at the time you're doing something, if the F1 icon is displayed, press the F1 function key to display a help box that will guide you. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 11. 4. Screen Menus Virtually all of the screens contain one or more menus that are appro- priate to the operations available for the currently selected file, operating in the currently selected screen. For those of you who have worked with Lotus 1-2-3, you should recognize the menu process immedi- ately. The menus are presented horizontally at the bottom left of the screen. Each menu item represents a specific task. All menu items are IN ADDITION to the operations available via the key icons. That's why the first letter of each menu item is unique and no screen menu items begins with the letters M, A, D, C or G, since these letters are re- served for the icon keys. As you scroll through each item (highlight- ing each item), the system displays a brief description of that item below the menu line at the bottom of the screen. To access a screen menu item, (a) Press the LEFT/RIGHT ARROW key to highlight your choice, then press Enter; (b) Type the FIRST LETTER or NUMBER of your choice and do NOT press Enter. There are two major types of screen menus: Operations menus and Screen Section menus. (a) Operation Menus: These menus present choices that involve the per- formance of specific tasks, such as browsing, changing the file se- quence, editing notes directly, displaying a different complementary or supplementary screen, performing an auxiliary process, etc. (b) Screen Section Menus: These menus simply display numbers, each num- ber corresponding to a section of the screen as displayed on the screen. These menus are available only when you have chosen to edit (MODIFY) the current record -- i.e., only when you're in MODIFY mode. Rather than have you scroll through several unnecessary fields to get to the field you want to change, selecting a specific screen area takes you directly to the fields in that area only. If you want to change fields that are in more than one screen area, you will need to select each of the screen sections from the screen section menu, as ap- propriate. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 12. 5. Searching Searching is the capability to locate a specific record or the first record in a group. To initiate a search at the detail screen, press the F3 function key. The system displays a search menu at the bottom left of the screen, indicating which fields are available to search on. Select the field from the menu. Depending on the field you select, you change the sequence of the file to be in the selected field's or- der with one exception. The exception is if you decide to search on the contents on the Notes field. The system permits you to search on a word or phrase contained in the notes field, if you so choose. In some instances, the system asks if you want to search on a precise MATCH or if you want to search for a specific word/phrase CONTAINED IN the field of choice. When you select the field, the system displays a small search box on the screen. Based on the file's current sequence, when not searching on NOTES, you're prompted to search for a specific field's contents. The more characters you type in, the more precise the search. For ex- ample, if you want to search on last name and type in only the letters SP, the system will search for the first last name that begins with SP. If no records meet the criteria -- that is, if there are no records that begin with the characters you type in -- the system takes you to the closest matching record and tells you that it could not find a match of the characters you entered but instead is displaying the closest matching record. If this happens, you're also prompted to press a key to proceed. It does not matter whether you enter the characters in upper case or lower case or a combination. Saearching is NOT case-sensitive. If you decide to search on characters CONTAINED IN the field, the sys- tem locates the first record that meets the criteria. It then asks if the record it found and is displaying is the record you want. If not, you're asked if you want to continue searching though more of the records. The process continues until you either find the record you want or reach the end of the file. 6. Browsing Several screen menus contain a BROWSE option. A browse table is similar to a Page List Table in that it is a list of all records on the file. However, unlike the page list, a browse table lists only the field(s) involved in the file's current sequence. For example, if the file is in name sequence, the browse table lists only last and first names. You can scroll through the browse table. When you locate the record you want, highlight it and press Enter. The system immediately jumps to that record and displays the details of that record in the detail screen display. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 13. The browse table includes a feature that is not evident from its dis- play. If/when you begin to type in characters, an input box is dis- played at the bottom of the table. For example, let's say you want to make the table jump to last names beginning with the letter S. Type an S. The table jumps to the first last name that begins with S. The more characters you type, the more precise the jump. If you then press En- ter, the system jumps to that record and displays its detail data in the detail screen. In this manner, browsing is similar to searching. 7. Indexing Several screen menus contain an Index option. Simply put, this is fea- ture that allows you to change the file's sequence without first hav- ing to execute a search. 8. Notes Several screen menus provide the ability to edit the notes field di- rectly rather than selecting the screen section number in Modify mode. When you select Notes from the menu, the system instantly displays the notes field. If you add/change notes, you have to press the F10 func- tion key twice, once to save the data you enter and once to save the actual record. 9. Phone_Dial Some of the screen menus contain the ability to have the computer (ac- tually your modem, which is hooked up to your PC) to dial the tele- phone for you. When you select this option, the system displays a table of available telephone numbers for the specific record. Select the number you want to dial. When the process begins, you'll be prompted to press a key to proceed. Remember, all this feature does is dial the phone for you. If you in- tend to use the feature, you would have had to define the data el- ements in the Modem File (see Modem Setup in the Utilities Menu above). IV. MASTER FILES When you select Master Files from the main menu - -choice #1 -- the system displays the MASTER FILE MENU. This menu provides three (3) choices. Let's examine each of the choices in detail. A. Names & Addresses 1. Name and Employer Page List When you select Name & Address from the Master File Menu and there is at least one record on file, the system displays the Name & Address Page List (NAME & EMPLOYER LIST). This page list is a scrollable table that lists all records on file. The table displays the following fields: (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 14. Person's Name - the first 15 characters of last name plus the first initial Employer - the first 15 characters of the person's company name/employer name Business Phone Business Fax Home Phone (a) Screen Icons: The key icons displayed here include: A press A to Add a new record (refer to section on adding records above) D press D to flag the highlighted record for de- letion; press D to UNDelete record if already flagged for deletion; you'll be prompted to confirm your decision. <> scroll left/right in screen menu | scroll up/down through records in page list F1 press F1 function key for icon help F3 press F3 function key to search for record and/or change file's sequence Esc return to Mast File Menu (b) Screen Menu: The screen menu displayed here includes: Rec_Detail select this to display detail of high- lighted record Phone_Dial select this to display a prompt box to have computer dial one of the displayed telephone numbers for highlighted record (modem required) 2. Master File Record - Detail Record Screen (a) Add, Modify and Input Modes: The detail record screen is divided into six (6) sections, each section indicated by a number displayed in red. The screen icons at the bottom right indicate: <> move cursor left or right ^v move cursor up or down (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 15. F10 request to save the entries; press F10 at any time to initiate a request to save the data -- i.e., displays the Edit/Abandon/Save screen menu. Esc abort and return to previous screen or op- eration (b) Menu Mode: The detail screen contains the following key icons: M type M to modify the current record A type A to add a new record D type D to delete/undelete current record C type C to copy current record to produce a du- plicate G type G to select and generate letters <> scroll left/right in the screen menu ^v scroll back and forward in the file -- i.e., display previous record/next record respec- tively F1 press F1 function key for icon help F3 press F3 function key to search Esc return to Page List The detail screen contains the following screen menu items: F_Window access the follow-up window data List return to the Page List Notes add/edit notes field Phone_Dial dial the phone using selected number Browse browse through all names to select record (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 16. Index change the file's sequence (c) Master File Record Data Only one of two fields is required here. If you leave the Last Name field blank, you'll be required to enter a Com- pany name in screen section 3. You don't have to enter data into all of the fields. If you want to enter data in only a few fields and save the data so that you can return to the record at a later time to complete the entries, or if you just want to enter data in only a few fields, complete your entries and press the F10 function key. This will prompt you to save the data you did enter. Just bear in mind that either Last Name or Company is required in order to save the record! Screen Section 1: Last Name: enter the person's last name First Name: enter the person's first name MI: enter the person's middle initial, if any. Screen Section 2: If you don't enter a Last Name in screen section 1, screen section 2 will be bypassed since it will not apply. DOB: Enter the person's date of birth, if known. If you enter a date of birth, the system automatically calculates the person's age. Field may be left blank Age: Age will be calculated if you enter a date of birth, but you may still enter in an age change, if you wish. Field may be left blank Mar: Enter the person's marital status. This is a Check-Text field. You have four (4) valid choices: M = Married S = Single D = Divorced W = Widowed You may skip over the field and leave it blank. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 17. Ann: Enter the person's wedding anniversary date, if known. Field may be left blank.If you enter a date, the system will automatically calculate the years married. Yrs: Years (married) will be calculated for you if you enter an annivesary date. You may edit this field and change the years. The field may be left blank. Sex: Enter the person's sex. This is a Check-Text field. You have two valid choices: M = Male F = Female You may leave the field blank. Screen Section 3 Company: The person's company/employer. If you left the last name and first name blank, you are required to enter a company name. If, however, you entered a last name and/or first name and leave the company name blank, the cursor jumps own to the Customer? field since the remain- ing business/company data do not apply if there is no company/employer. If the last name is blank, the system inserts the first 20 characters of the company name in the last name field. Title: Enter the person's company/employer title. Addr-1: Enter the company's/employer's first-line address. Addr-2: Enter the company's/employer's second-line address, if any. City: Enter the company's/employer's city. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 18. State: Enter the company's/employer's state ab- breviation. This is a "forced" DATAHELP field -- the F2 key icon is displayed in the screen icon area. You may leave the field blank. But, if you enter any data, it will be validated against the State Table file. If what you enter is not found in the State pick list, the system will display the pick list from which you can select a valid state abbreviation. You may press F2 when the cursor lands in this field to select from the table instead of typing in a State. Zip Code: Enter the company's/employer's zip code. Bus Type: Enter the company's/employer's business type -- i.e., the type of business the company/employer is engaged in or the in- dustry in which the company/ employer resides. This is an "optional" DATAHELP field. The F2 key icon is NOT displayed in the icon area. However, when the cur- sor lands in this field, you may press the F2 function key to call up and display the current Business Type table (pick list). You can scroll through the table to select the business type. When you locate the appropriate type, press Enter. The type will be inserted into the Bus Type field for you. Customer? Indicate whether this person/company is a client/customer of yours. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. The default is N. You have two valid choices: Y = Yes (a customer) N = No (not a customer) The field should NOT be blank. If you re- spond Yes, the system will generate a unique customer number for you. Screen Section 4 Tele-1: Enter the company/employer telephone num- ber. This is the primary business phone number. The field may be left blank. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 19. Ext: Enter the Tele-1's extension, if any. Tele-2: Enter the company/employer secondary telephone number. The field may be left blank. Ext: Enter the Tele-2's extension, if any. Fax-1: Enter the company/employer fax number, if any. Fax-2: Enter the person's home fax number, if any. Car: Enter the person's/company's/employer's car/cellular phone number, if any. This field may be used to contain the person's personal beeper number if no car/cellular phone. BBS-1: Enter the company's electronic bulletin board number or electronic mail number, if any. It may be used to contain a beeper number, if any. BBS-2: Enter the person's electronic bulletin board number or beeper number, if any. Screen Section 5 - Home Data This section should be used to record the person's home data even if it is the same as the company/employer data. We've included a little shortcut here, which you may know nothing about from looking at the screen unless you're reading this. If the person's home address, city, state, zip code and phone number are the same as the company's/ employer's address, city, state, zip code and phone number, you can save some data entry effort by performing the follow- ing procedure: When the cursor lands in the Addr-1 field of the person's HOME DATA, press ALT-/ -- that is, hold the Alt key down and tap the / key (this slash key on most keyboards is just to the left of the right Shift key). (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 20. This little procedure copies the business data into the corresponding home data fields for you. This procedures works only when the cursor is in the Addr-1 field of HOME DATA. Otherwise, the system displays an error mes- sage. You may, of course, edit/change any of the Home data, as you see fit. Addr-1: Enter the person's first-line address. Addr-2: Enter the person's second-line address, if any. City: Enter the person's city. State: Enter the person's state abbreviation. This is a "forced" DATAHELP field -- the F2 key icon is displayed in the screen icon area. You may leave the field blank. But, if you enter any data, it will be validated against the State Table file. If what you enter is not found in the State pick list, the system will dis- play the pick list from which you can se- lect a valid state abbreviation. You may press F2 when the cursor lands in this field to select from the table instead of typing in a State. Zip Code: Enter the person's zip code. Tele: Enter the peron's home telephone number. Screen Section 6 Notes Of all the fields in all the files on all the screens, Notes fields are handled in a slightly different way from everything else. As a result, Notes fields may be considered a bit tricky. When the cursor lands on a Notes field, it highlights the ">" character to the right of the word "Notes" and prompts you to press Z (for ZOOM) to edit the Notes ("Memo"). (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 21. When you type Z, a free-form data entry screen is displayed in a box that takes up approximately half the screen. At the bottom of the box, the system informs you that you can press the F1 function key (for Help), the F10 function key to save your note, or the Esc key to abort. If you press Esc, you cancel your note entry only and you do NOT abort the en- tries in the other fields. By the same token, if you press F10, you tell the system to save the notes. Pressing F10 when adding/editing notes saves the notes only. It does not as yet save the re- maining contents of the record -- i.e., it does not save the data in the other fields. As such, if you press Esc a second time when you are returned to the data entry screen, you DO abort all entries. If you press F10 a second time (or Enter) when you've left the Notes field, you're prompted to save etc. all data for the record. Notes are nothing more but free-form text that you want to "attach" to the rest of the record. You can use Notes to enter comments, etc. regarding the individual/company. While Notes permit you to enter text, the field is not for writing the All-American novel. Try to keep your notes short and sweet. A rule of thumb is to restrict your notes to a maximum of 25-30 lines, though 100 lines or so do occur from time to time. When you've completed your data entry and saved the record, if it is the first Name & Address record, the system im- mediately displays the Name & Address Page List, with the current record highlighted. Otherwise, if you have added additional records, the system displays the data but now dis- plays the initial screen menu. You can continue adding records, modify the current record, scroll through the records, etc. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 22. (d) The Follow-Up Window (F_Window) The follow-up window represents data that is related to the Master File Name and Address record. This window provides the opportunity to indicate specific follow- ups that may be necessary regarding the person and/or com- pany listed in the Name and Address record. This window rep- resents a relationship between the Name and Address Master File and the Follow Up File. Since this is a relationship, as you scroll through each Name and Address record, the window will display all of the follow-ups you recorded for that in- dividual or company. You also have the opportunity to add/edit follow-ups from within the Name and Address pro- cessing procedure. (1) Page List: The icons and menu items discussed below are available if and only if there is at least one follow-up record for the individual/company. Available icons include: <> scroll left or right in the screen menu | scroll up or down through the page list F1 icon help Esc return to the previous operation Available menu items include: Detail Access the detail follow-up record Return return to the previous operation (same as pressing Esc) (2) Detail Record: a. Add, Modify and Input Modes: The icons are: <> move the cursor left or right ^v move the cursor up or down F10 intitiate a record save Esc abort process and return to previ- ous operation (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 23. b. Menu Mode: Since this is a related page list, Menu Mode is the same as Page List access. c. Record Data There are no specific screen sections. When you opt to add or modify, you have access to all fields displayed. Subject enter the subject of the follow-up Call Enter the initial call date that initiated the follow-up. This date is a DATAHELP field. When the cursor is in the field, you can press the F2 function key to display a scroll- ing calendar. Type This is the call type. It is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to display a scrolling pick list of call types. Date Enter the follow-up date. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a scrolling calendar. Type This is the follow-up type. It is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to display a scrolling pick list of follow-up types. Status Enter the status of the follow-up. It defaults to O -- Open. It is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to display a scrolling pick list of statuses. B. Special Contacts Special Contacts is really a special version of the Names and Address Master File. It is intended to provide a mechanism to store special names and addresses that, for whatever reason, you do not want to in- clude as part of the Name and Address Master File. These contacts may be individuals and/or companies that you want for special promotions or special projects such as to receive resumes, etc. You initiate the contact. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 24. 1. Page List The Special Contacts page list is displayed if there is at least one record in the file. The page list is a scrolling table that displays data in the following fields: Contact Name Company Name Date Contacted Date of FollowUp Date of Reply You can search on all of these fields by pressing the F3 function key. As you change the search field, you also change the file's sequence. (a) The icons are: A add a new record D delete/undelete the highlighted record C copy the highlighted record to the Name and Address Master File <> move the highlight in the screen menu to the left or right to change the menu choice | scroll up or down in the page list table F1 icon help F3 perform a record search Esc return to the Master File Menu (b) The screen menu includes: Rec_Detail access the contacts file record 1_View Display a month-at-a-glance access calen- dar. You can access specific records by the date you initiated the contact. 2_View Display a month-at-a-glance access calen- dar. You can access specific records by the follow-up date. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 25. 2. Detail Record The detail screen is divided into seven (7) sections and a contact his- tory window. (a) Add, Modify and Input Modes: Since the icons and menus for these modes are consistent, regardless of the file we're accessing, if you need additional information, see (a) Add, Modify and Input Modes under the Name and Address file above. (b) Menu Mode: The icons include: M modify/edit the current record; display a menu of screen sections from which you pick the number of the screen area that contains the data you wish to add/change A add a new record D delete/undelete current record C either copy this record to the Name and Address Master File or make a duplicate of the current record here; you have the opportunity of copying the record as a whole or copying select data while clearing out other data for editing G generate letters for the current record <> move the cursor left or right in the menu ^v scroll to previous or next record F1 icon help F3 search for a particular record and and change file's sequence to sequence of search field Esc return to the page list display The screen menu includes: List return to the page list display (same as pressing Esc) (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 26. Notes add/edit notes directly (refer to discussion on Notes in section III. above. Window go directly to the contact history window to scroll through the related page list 1_View (refer to 1_View in the Page List section above) 2_View (refer to 2_View in the Page List section above) Browse browse through the records, depending on file's sequence Index change the file's sequence without first hav- ing to execute a search (c) Record Data Screen Section 1 Last Name enter contact's last name First Name enter contact's first name MI enter contact's middle initial Screen Section 2 If the data is not for a company/employer, it should contain the contact's home/mailing address. Otherwise, if a company/ employer is involved, this data should reflect the company/employer. Company enter contact's company/employer Title enter contact's business title Address-1 enter contact's first-line address or business address Address-2 enter contact's second-line address, if any, or 2nd business address, if any City enter contact's city (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 27. State Enter contact's business state. This is a "forced" DATAHELP field. It may be left blank, but if you type anything in this field, it must be one of the state ab- breviations listed in the State pick list table. You may access the table directly by pressing F2 when the cursor first lands in this field. Zip Code enter the contact's zip code Screen Section 3 Telephone enter the contact's telephone number Ext enter the contact's telephone number ex- tension, if any Fax enter the contact's fax number, if any Screen Section 4 On This is the date on which you initiated the contact. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a scrolling calendar. Type This is the type of contact you initi- ated. The field is a DATAHELP field. You may leave it blank, but if you enter any- thing, it must conform to what is already in the pick list. You can call up the pick list directly by pressing F2 when the cursor is in the field. Subject enter the subject/purpose of the contact Screen Section 5 Follow Indicate whether or not there is to be a follow-up on your part. This follow-up data will be recorded in the follow-up file as well. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. Valid entries are: Y=Yes N=No O=Optional Screen Section 6 Replies Indicate whether or not the contact has replied to your initial contact. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. The valid choices are: Y=Yes N=No (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 28. When This is the date on which the contact re- plied. It is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a scrollable calendar Type This is the type of reply. It is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to select from a list of valid reply types. Screen Section 7 Notes The Notes field is a free-form data entry field that permits you to enter any text. Use it to enter comments regarding the current record. (For a more detailed ex- planation, see Notes for the Name & Ad- dress file above.) C. Invoices When you select Invoices from the Master File Menu, the system displays the INVOICE MENU. This menu provides five (5) choices. 1. Transactions Transactions is where you enter your individual invoice transactions. If there is at least one record on file, the system displays the Transaction Page List; otherwise, it requests you to enter the first record. All customers/clients MUST first have their identification data entered in the Name & Address Master File! These transactions are intended for more a service type of business (consulting in par- ticular) than for retail/wholesale, etc. While the system can deal with partial payments, the system prefers that invoices are paid in full when/if paid. (a) Page List: The page list displays the following fields: Trans Date (the transaction/invoice date) Customer # Cust Name Company Svc (service code) Balance Age (1) The icons include: A add a new record D delete/undelete highlighted record (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 29. | scroll up or down in the table list F1 icon help F3 Search for specific record. You can search on four fields: Trans Date, Customer #, Cust Name, and Company. Changes file's sequence. Esc return to the Invoice Menu (2) The screen menu includes: Rec_Detail access the detail data for the high- lighted record (b) The Detail Screen: The detail screen is divided into nine (9) sections. The current version of the system does not as yet use sec- tion 9 (Header/Footer) for anything, so you may want to leave these two fields blank for now. They will be used in the next version of the system to print invoice headers and invoice footers -- such as messages and the like. (1) The icons include: M modify the current record A add a new record D delete/undelete the current record C Copy the current record and make a duplicate of it. You'll be asked if you want to copy the record as is or copy only the customer identification data so that you can fill in the transaction data for the new record. G print one or more copies of the invoice <> move the cursor left or right ^v move the cursor from field to field F1 icon help F3 search for a specific record and change the file's sequence (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 30. Esc return to the page list (2) The screen menu includes: List return to the page list (same as pressing Esc) Notes add/edit notes field directly R_Age Recalculate the Age IN DAYS of this in- voice (age is not dynamically maintained) -- it must be recalculated from time to time. RECOMMENDATION: Always recalcu- late the age BEFORE you print the invoice for the first time or any other time thereafter. Browse Browse through the file to locate a specific record. Index change the file's sequence without having to search (3) Data Fields: Screen Section 1 Transaction # This is a display-only field. When you add a new record, the system calculates this number. Date Enter the invoice date. It defaults to the current system date. It's a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a scrollable calendar. Cust # This is a display-only field. It is calculated by the system. It may be calculated in one of two ways: 1. When you are entering the customer's Name & Address data in the Master File, there is a field that indicates whether or not the record represents a customer. If you enter Y for yes, the system calculates the customer # at that time. This number will be picked up when you enter the customer's last name from the Name/Address pick list display. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 31. 2. When you declare a person a cus- tomer here which has not been delcared in the Name and Address file, the customer number is calcu- lated here and copied to the Name & Address record. Screen Section 2 Last Name Enter the customer's last name. The customer MUST first have been en- tered in the Name & Address Master File. This is a "forced" DATAHELP field. It cannot be blank and MUST contain the name of the customer -- even if the last name and company name are the same. When the name is entered, the system immediately validates your entry against the Name and Address file. If the name is not found, the pick list table is displayed from which you select the customer. You can press F2 for a pick list display. When you select the last name from the pick list table, the system au- tomatically inserts the rest of the customer identification data in the appropriate fields. You may, of course, change any of this. First Name enter/change the customer's first name MI enter/change the customer's middle initial Screen Section 3 Employer enter/change the customer's company/employer Title enter/change the customer's business title Address1 enter/change customer's first-line address (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 32. Address2 enter/change customer's second-line address City enter/change customer's city State Enter/change customer's state. This is a DATAHELP field. You must enter a valid state or pick a valid state from the pick list table. Press F2 for the pick list table. Zip Code enter/change customer's zip code Screen Section 4 Phone enter/change the customer's phone number Ext enter/change customer's phone number extension, if any Fax enter/change customer's fax number, if any Screen Section 5 Service Code Enter the transaction's service code. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to display/access the ser- vice code pick list. Age (in days) This is a calculated field, based on the invoice date and the current system date. It can be recalculated at any time. Screen Section 6 By Hour/Day Indicate if the invoice amount is calculated by the hour or by the day. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. The valid choices are: H=Hour D=Day The field should not be left blank. If you indicate Days, the cursor jumps to the Days field. Hours enter the number of hours being billed (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 33. Rate/Hour enter the rate per hour Days enter the number of days being billed Rate/Hour enter the rate per day Amount The system automatically calculates the amount due. Expense enter the total amount of expenses attributable to this transaction Screen Section 7 Amount Paid Enter/change the amount paid, if any Date Paid Enter/change the date paid. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 to dis- play a scrollable calendar. Balance The system automatically calculates the Balance Due. This field is cal- culated by adding the Amount field plus the Expense field minus the Amount Paid. If you change Amount or Expense or Amount Paid, the Bal- ance is recalculated. Screen Section 8 Detail Here is where you enter the detail description of the transaction, de- tailing the services/activities per- formed and being invoiced. You can enter up to 24 lines of descrip- tion. This field is actually handled the same way as a Notes field in the other screen displays. The same processing procedures apply. This data will be included on the in- voice. Screen Section 9 Header Not used at this time Footer Not used at this time (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 34. 2. Service Codes When you select Service Codes from the Invoice Menu, this system dis- plays the Service Codes Page List. As we'll discuss later, Service Codes are data contained in a table -- the DATAHELP pick list for transaction service codes. If you want to add/change/ delete codes, you do that here. The page list displays the data contained in the DataHelp file for Service Codes. (a) Page List The page list displays the following fields: Code (service code) Service Description (1) The icons include: <- -> move the cursor left or right in the menu | scroll up or down in the page list F3 Search for a specific code or specific description. Changes the file's sequence. Esc return to the Invoice Menu (2) The menu includes: Modify Modify the highlighted record. You can change the code or description. However, we suggest that if you want to change the code, you'd probably be better off to delete the record and create (add) a new one. Add add a new service code Delete delete/undelete a service code Return Return to the Invoice Menu. Same as pressing Esc. (b) Detail Screen When you elect to modify or add a record, the system displays two fields - - the Code field and the full Service Description field. The code is a three- char- acter code. Codes should be unique. However, the system does not validate that codes are unique. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 35. 3. Invoice History The system maintains an audit trail of all invoices printed. When you select Invoice History from the Invoice Menu, the system displays a page list of this audit trail. However, if you have not printed any invoices, the system informs you that there is as yet no print history, since nothing has been printed yet. (a) Page List The page list displays the following fields: Last Name Printed On The date the invoices were printed. If the invoice was printed more than once, a record for each time it was printed is displayed. Letter Code The name of the particular invoice printed. Time The time of day the given invoice was printed. (1) The icons include: <- -> move the cursor left or right to select a menu item | scroll up or down in the page list table F3 search for a particular last name Esc return to the Invoice Menu (2) The screen menu includes: Return return to the Invoice Menu (same as pressing Esc) Delete delete/undelete the highlighted record (b) Detail Screen There is no detail screen. 4. Invoice Aging When you select Invoice Aging from the Invoice Menu, the system informs you that it is about to recalculate the age IN DAYS of all invoices where the balance due is greater than zero. If you indicate that you want to proceed, aging takes place. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 36. When the calculations are completed, the system informs you as to the number of invoices that were aged. It asks if you want to produce an Aging report. You can display the report on the screen or print it di- rectly. If you choose to have it displayed on the screen, you have the option of printing it by pressing the F4 function key. You can scroll through the report with the ARROW keys. As you view the data, you may notice that the Balance Due is greater than the original Amount. This is the case if there were expenses added to the original invoice. The Aging Report does not display the expense amount. 5. Statements When you select Statements from the Invoice Menu, the system displays a page list of all statements, assumming, of course, that at least one invoice has been generated. The purpose of this option is to allow you to view the total transactions for a given customer and to print out individual statements. Viewing statements is like viewing the transac- tion history of a given customer. (a) Page List The page list includes the following fields: Customer Name Employer/Company Name Tot Amt (total amount) Total Paid Tot Bal (total balance) (1) The key icons include: D delete/undelete the current record <> scroll left/right in the screen menu | scroll to previous/next record F1 icon help F3 search for a particular record Esc return to the menu This page list permits searching on two fields: cus- tomer name and employer name. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 37. (2) The screen menu includes: Rec_Detail display the detail of the highlighted record Print print the statement for the highlighted record (b) The Detail Record The data displayed here is derived as follows: The customer indentification data comes from the customer's Name & Ad- dress identification data; second, the amounts are derived from calculations of all invoice transactions. This screen is view only. The only 'editing' you can do is delete/undelete the current record. Total Transactions: This field is the total of all amounts plus expenses from every transaction (every invoice). Total Amount Paid: This field is the total of all amounts paid from all invoices. Total Balance: This field is the difference between total transactions and total amount paid. (1) The screen icons include: D Delete/undelete the current record. <> scroll left/right in the screen menu ^v scroll to previous/next record F1 icon help F3 search: you can search on last name and com- pany name Esc return to the page list (2) The screen menu includes: List return to the page list Window scroll through the Transaction History window Browse browse through the file (on select fields) to search for a particular record. Index changes the file's sequence without first hav- ing to perform a search. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 38. Print print a copy of this statement. (3) Transaction History Window When you select Window from the screen menu, you enter the Transaction History window. This table is a related page list. You can scroll up/down through the various individual transactions. Each record in the window is a summary of each individual transaction. Payment transactions are displayed showing a Trans Amt of zero. In this way, you can trace the history of each transaction for each invoice, including in- dividual payment transactions. As the icons and menu indicate, all you can do here is scroll up or down and return to the detail screen. V. TODO LIST When you select ToDo List from the main menu, the system displays a split screen. The top half of the screen is the todo page list. The bottom half of the screen is the data entry screen (detail screen). The first time you enter the ToDo List processing, the page list is empty. You're prompted to enter a new record. 1. The Page List The page list includes the following fields: Do-By Date The date the task is to be done by Complete Task Description Priority A priority of from 1 to 5, 1 being highest and 5 being lowest. Done Completed indicator (Y or N) You can search on any one of three fields: Do-By Date, Priority and Done. Because of the way this screen is arranged, you access and pro- cess records directly from the page list. This approach is different from the previous methods for previous items since the page lists and the detail displays for those items are on different screens while here they are both on the same screen. (a) The icons include: M modify the highlighted record (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 39. A add a new record D delete/undelete highlighted record C copy the highlighted record <> scroll left/right in the screen menu | Scroll up/down in the page list. As you scroll here, the contents of the detail display change to reflect the current record (the record highlighted). F1 icon help F3 search Esc return to main menu (b) The screen menu includes: Notes edit notes directly Finished access the Done data directly View view month-at-a-glance calendar to dis- play items. You'll notice that the detail screen does not include any numbered screen areas. (1) View Mode: When you select View from the screen menu, the system dis- plays a scrollable calendar. You can scroll through this cal- endar, looking for dates that include todo items. 2. Data Fields The fields in the file include the following: Date Date task is to be done by. A DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a popup, scrolling calendar. Time Time of day the task is to be completed by, if ap- propriate. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 40. AM/PM Indicate whether the time is in the AM or PM. If you do not enter a time, this field is bypassed. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. Only two values valid: AM or PM. Task define the task to be done Priority The priority. CHECK-TEXT field. Valid values are from 1 to 5, where 1 is highest and 5 is lowest. Done Whether or not the task has been completed. A CHECK-TEXT field. Valid values are Y for Yes or N for No. When Done The date the task was actually completed. When you complete this field, the system calculates the ac- tual number of days it took to complete the task. (Days to Complete field). Notes Notes or comments VI. APPOINTMENTS When you select Appointments, the system displays the APPOINTMENTS MENU. This menu displays 4 choices: Appointments this is the main appointments processing selection Today's Appointments displays all appointments due for the current system date Week's Appointments Displays all apointments due for the current week. Current week starts on the previous Sunday of current system week. Month's Appointments Displays all appointments due for the current month. Current month starts on the first of the current system month. 1. Appointments When you select Appointments from the Appointments Menu, the system displays the Appointments Page List on the left side of the screen and the Appointments data entry screen on the right side. This is similar to the To Do List function with the difference being that here the page list is not above the data entry area but to the left side of it. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 41. (a) The Page List The page list includes the following key icons: M modify/edit current highlighted record A add a new record D delete/undelete current record C copy the current record <> scroll the screen menu left/right | scroll the page list records up/down F1 icon help F3 Search for a specific record.. The only search field is Date. Esc return to the Appointments Menu. The page list includes the following menu items: Notes edit notes View Display a scrolling month-at-a-glance calendar to select a particular date. (b) The Data Entry Screen The data entry screen is divided into seven (7) sections. When you select M (for modify), you're prompted to indicate the specific screen area in which the data you want to modify is located. You'll have the opportunity to validate the name of the per- son with whom you have an appointment with the Name & Ad- dress master file. 2. Today's/Week's/Month's Appointments When you decide to access any one of these three choices, the system displays the same page list and data entry screen as it does for Ap- pointments. The difference here, however, is that you are in View Mode only -- you can only view the appointments for the selected category. You can view Notes and even search (F3) for a particular date/record. But, you cannot edit any records or add new ones, etc. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 42. It should be noted that when you select one of these options, the sys- tem, rather than use "filters," creates a temporary file that contains appointments for today, the week and the month. The temporary file is recreated each time you select one of these options. We've chosen this approach to permit, in the long run, faster and better access to select appointments. The decision involved speed versus efficiency. However, with the next version of the system we may decide to filter out the appointments that match your criteria. This may slow down ac- cess a bit, but will preclude the necessity of recreating files and, hopefully, allow the data to be more readily displayable. (Let us know what you think.) 3. Data Fields The data entry screen is divided into seven (7) sections. Screen Section 1 Date The date of the appointment, The system will insert the day of week and the long date. This is a DATAHELP field. Start The start-time of the appointment -- also in- cludes AM or PM. The AM/PM portion of the field is a CHECK-TEXT field. The valid entries are, AM or PM, of course. Screen Section 2 Last Name Last name of person with who you have appoint- ment. You'll be asked if you want to use the Master Name and Address file to validate your entry. If you do, the system automatically in- serts the first name, the company, the busi- ness and home telephone numbers. First Name First name of the person with whom you have an appointment. Screen Section 3 Of The company/employer of the person with whom you have an appointment. Bus. Phone The person's business telephone Ext The person's business phone extension, if any. Home Phone the person's home telephone number (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 43. Screen Section 4 Type The specific type of appointment. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 5 RE A brief description of what the appointment is all about. Screen Section 6 Status The status of the appointment. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 7 Notes Notes or comments about the appointment. VII. FOLLOW UPS Since the Follow Ups processing is virtually identical to the Appoint- ments function, see Appointments above. The difference, of course, is that when you select Follow Ups from the main menu, the system accesses the follow up function directly -- i.e., there is no Follow Up Menu. (1) Data Entry Screen and Data Fields The data entry screen is divided into six (6) sections. Screen Section 1 Last Name The last name of the person with whom you need to follow up. The system will ask if you want to validate the last name against the Master Name & Address file. If you do, the system will fill in the person's first name, Business and Home phone numbers and the employer/ com- pany. First Name The person's first name. Bus Phone The person's business telephone number Home Phone The person's home telephone number Screen Section 2 Employer The person's employer/company Screen Section 3 Call Date The date on which YOU made the initial con- tact. This is a DATAHELP field. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 44. Call Type The type of initial contact YOU made. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 4 Date The follow up date. This date applies to when YOU should make a follow up contact. This is a DATAHELP field. Type The specific type of follow up. This is a DATAHELP field. Status The status of the follow up. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 5 Subject The subject of the followup/initial contact. Screen Section 6 Notes Notes or comments regarding the follow up. VIII. FINANCIALS When you select Financials from the main menu, the system displays the FINANCIALS MENU. This menu presents you with three (3) choices: - Income/Expense to maintain an income and expense "bud- get" - Expenses to maintain business expenses and reimburse- ments - Budget To maintain a monthly household/business bud- get. Unlike the Income/Expense option above, this feature is intended to allow you to enter and view your fixed monthly income and your fixed monthly expenses in order to determine the relationship of your fixed income to your fixed outgo. Each of these functions maintains a cummulative total of amount(s) in- volved. Income/Expense maintains cummulative totals for Income, Ex- pense and the Difference. Expenses maintains a cummulative total of all expenses. Budget maintains a cummulative total of all income items, all expense items and the Difference. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 45. These totals cannot be edited directly but are calculated based upon the data you enter in the respective fields. In addition, each of the functions presents you with a Page List on the left side of the display screen with the data entry area on the right side. 1. Income/Expense When you select Income/Expense, the system displays the page list on the left and the data entry screen on the right. (1) The Page List The page list includes: Date The date of the transaction I/E Whether the transaction is an Income transaction or an Expense transaction Type While named "Type," this field is actu- ally the category type. Amount Amount of the transaction The page list includes the following key icons. M Modify the highlighted record. A Add a new record. When you add a new record, the respecttive totals are up- dated accordingly. D Delete/Undelete the highlighted record. When you flag the current record, the re- spective totals are recalculated accord- ingly. C Copy the highlighted record. | Scroll up/down in the table F1 Icon help F3 Search. There are two search fields available: Date and Type. Esc Return to the Financials Menu. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 46. The page list has only one menu item: Notes add/edit notes directly (2) The Data Entry Screen The data entry screen is divided into four (4) sections. Screen Section 1 Class Income/expense indicator. I = Income, E = Ex- pense. Once entered, it cannot be edited. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. Date The date of the transaction. This is a DATAHELP field. Type The Type category -- more like a Chart of Ac- counts Account name. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 2 Party The Payor (who gave you the income) or Payee (who you paid). What The purpose of the transaction. Screen Section 3 Amount The amount of the transaction. When entered, the respective totals are updated accord- ingly. How How the transaction was paid. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. The valid entries are: C = Cash K = checK R = chaRge M = Money Order O = Other If the payment was made by other than a check but is a charge, the cursor bypasses the check fields. If it's not a check or a charge, the rest of the fields are bypassed. Check # The check number (may be YOUR check number, if an expense or THEIR check number, if income). Check Date The date of the check. Card The type of credit card. This is a DATAHELP field. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 47. Screen Section 4 Notes Add/edit notes directly. 2. Expenses When you select Expenses from the Financial Menu, much of the process- ing is similar to that of Income/Expense. However, this function is used to track potentially reimburseable business expenses. Otherwise, since the processing is similar to Income/Expense, what we'll do here is simply highlight this function where there are differences from the previous section. The Page List icons are virtually the same as for Income/Expense with the addition of: G to generate an expense form for the highlighted record. (a) Data Entry Screen The data entry screen includes the following fields: Screen Section 1 Date Date of the transaction (date of the expense). This is a DATAHELP field. Type The Categpry Type of expense. This is a DATAHELP field. Purpose Purpose of the expense. Party For whom the expense was incurred, i.e., who is expected to reimburse you. Screen Section 2 Auto Mileage If this is a travel expense that involves auto travel, indicate whether or not this was an auto-travel-related expense. If you leave this field blank, the rest of the auto travel re- lated fields are bypassed. Rate/Mile The reimburseable rate per mile -- usually in cents. Mileage The mileage involved. If these fields contain data, the Amount field will be automatically calculated for you. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 48. Screen Section 3 Amount Enter the actual total amount of the expense. Screen Section 4 Reimbursed Indicated whether or not you have been reim- bursed for the expense (when you are actually reimbursed). Amount The amount you were reimbursed. Date The date you were reimbursed. Diff The system calculates this field for you. It is the difference between your expense and the amount reimbursed, if any. Screen Section 5 Notes Comments/notes pertaining to the transaction. 3. Budget This function is very similar to the Income/Expense fuction. As such, we need not discuss much about it other than indicate that there are fewer fields and there is one field that is not in the Income/Expense function. This field is: Taxable Whether or not the income item is taxable, NOT if the item has tax consequences. This is a CHECK-TEXT field. Notice, we suggest that it is more appropriate for income items than for expense items. IX. UTILITIES We've talked a little bit about the Utilities Menu before, when we dis- cussed setting up the Control File and Modem File. These two items will not be included in our discussion here. 1. Reindex When you select Reindex from the Utilities Menu, the system retrieves an external program, VMCINDEX, to conduct the indexing/reindexing. NOTE: The VMCINDEX program CANNOT BE ACCESSED from OUTSIDE of the PopIt System. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 49. Reindexing does NOT permanently delete records flagged for deletion -- i.e., it does NOT pack the file that is being reindexed. You should reindex the entire database at least once every other day, depending on the amount of data you enter and update on a daily basis. The system informs you that it is accessing the indexing module. When the module is loaded, the system displays an information box at the top of the screen. The reindexing module allows you to selectively reindex specific files or all files. In addition, as we'll see in a moment, you can selec- tively reindex specific index files for the specific file you select. While these features are all well and good and provide flexibility, we recommend that when you decide to reindex, you reindex everything -- i.e., select ALL files. To proceed, press ENTER, as prompted at the bottom of the information box. The system now displays an Index Status box at the top of the screen and presents you with a screen menu with the following choices: Index proceed to index the highlighted file (see table at right) All reindex all of the system's files Quit quit the reindexing module and return to the Main Menu To select a specific file for reindexing, use the UP or DOWN ARROW key to highlight the file of choice, then press ENTER. You can also search for a particular file by pressing F3 and entering in the file name in the search box. In addition, the screen menu prompts you to indicate which index file you want to regenerate. If you select 0 or Cancel, you'll be returned to the previous screen. If you select Quit, you'll be prompted as to whether or not you want to exit the reindexing program and return to the Utilities Menu. While you may selectively reindex, we strongly recommend that you choose the All option by either highlighting All and pressing ENTER or by simply typing an A. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 50. The status box at the top of the screen will keep you posted as to the progress of the reindexing process for each index file and a blinking arrow will indicate which index file is being recreated. When reindexing is finished, you'll be prompted to press a key to con- tinue. When you are finished reindexing your file(s), you can return to the Utilities Menu by pressing ESC or by Quitting the index procedure. 2. Pack Selecting Pack from the Utilities Menu does two things. First, it will ask you to confirm that you want to proceed. It will ask for confirma- tion twice, just to make sure you are certain. It does this because the PACKing process PERMANENTLY REMOVES all records that are flagged for deletion in the file(s) you select from the Packing and Reindexing Menu. Once a file is packed, deleted records are gone forever and can- not be undeleted. Second, it provides you with a file menu from which you choose the file or files you want to pack and reindex. You can select ALL FILES by typing A. Otherwise, type in the letter that corresponds to the file you want to pack and reindex. 3. File Browser The file browser feature is a very powerful and unique feature of the system. It will certainly be familiar to those of you who have worked in dBASE, Lotus, Paradox, and the like. However, please exercise care in that you can change data in fields and even add/delete records. File Browser is a seperate executable program that is available from WITHIN the system only. You will not be able to access/use this func- tion from outside of the system. (NOTE: We do have a version of the File Browser that is a stand-alone program. If you are interested, please give us a call.) When you select File Browser from the Utilities Menu, the system dis- plays a scrolling table of file names on the left side of the screen. A total of 34 files will be listed, arranged in alphabetical order by name. (a) Initial Screen Menu We call the current screen menu the "initial" menu because there are other screen menus that are available from within the browser. The initial items are: (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 51. Browse Presents both a horizontal and vertical scrolling table that displays all fields within the file and the con- tents of the fields. When in Browse mode, you have the option of editing fields and adding/deleting records. We would suggest that you exercise care here. Review Display the file's structure on the screen. Setup Review/edit/save the functions setup settings (b) Initial Screen Icons The initial icons are: > Press the ">" key to change the screen menu. The additional screen menus include a File Mgmt menu and a Print Mgmt Menu. Pressing > will scroll you through all of the available screen menus. This key responds whether you press the PERIOD or the > (Shift-Period) < > Scroll left/right through the screen menu. | Scroll up/down through the file table on the left. Esc Leave the Browser and return to the Utilities Menu. (c) The First Screen Menu Choices What follows is a rather detailed explanation of the menu choices. We strongly recommend that you at least read through this section once to become familiar with what you can do. Browse Mode When you select Browse from the screen menu, the system enters browse mode. The screen displays the scrolling browse table of records and fields. The bottom of the screen indicates the keys that are available to perform specific operations. The first letter of each function is displayed in red. To execute that function, simply type the first let- ter of the function you want to perform. The options are, depending on the specific setup settings at the time (see SetUp Setting, below), one or more of the following. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 52. I = Index This option displays a scolling table of in- dexes for the current file. Indexes are used to display the data in a particular sequence -- the sequence indicated by the contents of the index file. You must select an index, if you decide to use the search option (F3), be- fore you can search. C = Cancel_Index Cancel the current index -- sequence -- and return to native mode (non-sequenced mode). F1 = Navigation Help Press the F1 function key to display a Help box regarding the additional keys/operations that are available to you for moving around the dis- play. E = Edit Type E to begin editing the data in the cur- rently highlighted field. G = Global Changes This option presents you with a table of available global operations -- operations that can span the entire file. Those operations that are currently available are dis- played in red. NOTE: These functions should be used by only those who are certain as to what they are doing. The global operations include: Count Count the number of records that match the criteria you enter. Delete Delete the current record. Recall Recall/Undelete the cur- rent record. Replace Replace a field's contents with different data, de- pending on the criteria you enter. BE CAREFUL! (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 53. Sum Total up the contents of specified numeric field. The bottom half of the display box tells you what specific operations are available at the time. F = Fields Displays a scrolling table of the cur- rent file's field names. This allows you to restrict the actual fields that are displayed in the browse table. When you first enter browse mode, the system de- faults to displaying all fields in the file. The fields option allows you to se- lect only those fields you actually want displayed. S = Setup This allows you to define current display settings. If you change the settings, you can save them for future access -- i.e., you can change the defaults. The settings are: ...Century Dates You can display all dates as mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy. The default is N (for mm/dd/yy). ...Deleted records Whether or not you want to display records that are flagged for deletion while in browse mode. Default is Y. ...Append mode Whether you want to be able to add new records when in browse mode or not. De- fault is N. ...Field editing Whether you want to be able to edit fields when in browse mode or not. De- fault is N. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 54. Delete/Recall... Whether you want the ability to delete/undelete records when in browse mode or not. Default is N. Global operations... Whether or not to allow global operations while in browse mode. Default is N. Press <Spacebar> to toggle between Y and N. Press F10 to save the settings. Press Esc to abort/exit. A = Append Allows you to add a new record to the file, field by field. (Not recommended!) D = Delete/recall Allows you to delete/undelete highlighted record. F3 = Search This option is available only when an in- dex is active. Search allows you to search for a particular record, depending on the file's sequence. Esc Return to the file list table. Review Review displays a scrolling table of the contents of the file's struc- ture on the screen. The file structure includes such items as: Field # Position (offset) in the file Fieldname Field Type (Character, Numeric, Date, Logical, Memo) Field Length (size) # of Decimal Places (for numeric fields only) The screen menu includes: Return return back to the file table list Mode display in field number order or alpha- betically by field name SetUp Refer to S = Setup in Browse Mode above. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 55. (d) Second Screen Menu Choice When you press the > key one time, the system displays the FILE MGMT screen menu. Here you can make a copy of the currently highlighted file. You'll be prompted to enter the file name for the file (the Copy To file). (e) Third Screen Menu Choice When you press the > key again, the system displays the PRINT MGMT screen menu. Here you have three choices: Print Print the structure of the highlighted file All Print the structures of ALL files. Setup Print setup. The options are: Entries per page (lines/page). Default is 50 Sequence. Default is by field number. You can change it to Alpha (by field name). Press > again, you are returned to the first screen menu. 4. DataHelp Files When you select DataHelp Files from the Utilities Menu, the system dis- plays the DataHelp Reference Files Menu. There are nine (9) items in this menu, from States to Communication Types. Two of the selections -- Budget Categories and Income & Expense Categories -- have submenus. Both submenus are identical in that each provides two choices: Income Categories and Expense Categories. Since each selection in the Reference Files Menu performs the same function, we'll only discuss one of the choices -- States, since it's the first choice. DataHelp Reference Files are used to provide lookup tables (pick lists) in the data entry screens for the system's data files (remember press- ing F2?). It's here where you would maintain your lookup tables and pick lists. When you select States from the Reference Files menu, the system dis- plays a full-screen page list of all the states. (a) Screen Menu The screen menu includes items that here are presented as menu items whereas in the data files data entry screens are presented as icons. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 56. Modify to edit the highlighted record Add to add a new reference file record Delete to delete the highlighted record Return return to the reference files menu (b) Icons The screen icons are: < > scroll left/right in the screen menu | scroll up/down in the table F3 search for a specific record Esc return to the reference files menu 5. Note Book The Note Book feature of the system provides you with a very simple way of making notes. It is not intended to serve as a word processor, but rather provides a method for entering and storing brief notes that are of your own choosing. Since the data is storerd in memory before a text file is written, try to keep your notes brief -- within a few hundred lines at most. (That's brief??) When you select Note Book from the Utilities Menu, the system displays all files that have a .TXT extension as well as a "<New File>" option. If there are no .TXT files in the directory, the only option displayed is the "<New File>" option. If you select "<New File>" you're prompted to enter a file name. Do NOT include the file's extension, as the system will insert it for you. If you select one of the .TXT files, the system retrieves it and displays it. The system then displays the note book entry screen. This is a screen that permits the entry of free-form text. Type your text. When you're done, press the F10 function key to save your text, press Esc to abort (cancel) your entry, and press ALT-P to print a copy of the text on your printer. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 57. Whenever the menu of .TXT files is displayed, you can press CTRL-D to be prompted to Delete a particular file. Files that are deleted CANNOT be undeleted. 6. Control File We've already discussed this choice at the beginning of the manual. 7. Modem Setup We've already discussed this choice at the beginning of the manual. 8. Purge Selecting Purge from the Utilities Menu does two things. First, it will ask you to confirm that you want to proceed. It will ask for confirma- tion twice, just to make sure you are certain. It does this because the Purging process PERMANENTLY REMOVES all records in the file(s) you se- lect from the Purging Menu. Once a file is purged, records are gone forever and cannot be unpurged. Second, it provides you with a file menu from which you choose the file or files you want to purge. You may notice that the file menu is missing certain files from the list. The files that are not included -- and, as a result, cannot be purged -- are the critical system files and the Letters File, which is used for invoices. We don't want these files purged, otherwise the system will no longer function. Use this option with care. You may first want to go into File Browser and make a copy of the file you want to purge, just in case. Files that are purged cannot be unpurged. X. COMMUNICATIONS If you have created Name and Address records, Special Contact records and FollowUp records, this facility should be familiar to you. As a result, we'll limit our discussion since much of the features and fa- cilities available here have been discussed earlier. We do want to point out that this option was inserted into the system more as an after-thought to provide a way to record the times we are contacted by people/companies. Many times we receive letters and phone calls and simply want the ability to save a record of the letter or call should we ever need to reference it at a future date. Some of our users have told us that the facilities available here are somewhat duplicated by the followup facility. While relatively accurate, Communications does permit us to maintain a seperate record and also to record a followup, should it be necessary to do so. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 58. (a) The Page List When you first access Communications, the system presents you with the Written and Oral Communications page list. The page list includes the following fields: Date Rec'd The date the communications was received or occurred Communicator The person initiating the communication. Communicator's Employer The communicator's company/employer. If there is no name for the communicator, this field serves as the communicator. Type The type of communication -- telephone, let- ters, etc. FollowUp Whether or not a followup is required. May also be automatically posted in the FollowUp File. The sceen menu includes: Rec_Detail Access the detail of the highlighted record. View Display a month-at-a-glance scrolling calendar from which you can select records with a spe- cific date. The screen icons include: A Add a new record. D Delete/undelete highlighted record. <> Scroll left/right in the screen menu. | Scroll up/down in the table. F1 Icon help. F3 Search. You can search on three fields: Date Rec'd, Communicator and Communicator's Em- ployer. Esc Return to main menu. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 59. (b) The Detail Screen The detail data entry screen consists of eight (8) sections. The screen menu includes: List Return to the page list. Same as pressing Esc. Notes Add/edit notes directly. View Display a month-at-a-glance scrolling calendar from which you can select records for a spe- cific date. Browse Browse through records, to select a specific record. Browse fields are dependent on the file's sequence. Index Change the file's sequence without first hav- ing to perform a search. The screen icons include: M Modify the current record. A Add a new record. D Delete/undelete current record. C Copy/duplicate the current record. G Generate a letter for the current record. <> Scroll left/right in the screen menu. ^v Scroll to previous/next record. F1 Icon help. F3 Search. You can search on the following fields: Last Name, Company, Contents of Notes and Post Date. You can search on a precise match or on contents. Esc Return to the page list. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 60. The screen sections include: Sections 1 through 5 are rather obvious. As such, we won't discuss them further. Screen Section 6 Post Date This is the date you initially received the communication. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a scrolling calendar. Time This is the time you initially received the communication, if appropriate. If you enter a time, you will be prompted to indicate if it's AM or PM. This field is more appropriate if/ when you receive a telephone call or other time-critical communication. Type This is the type of the initial communication. This is a DATAHELP field. Press F2 for a pick list. Subject Enter the subject of the initial communica- tion. Screen Section 7 Follow Up Indicate whether or not a follow up is needed. If you specify Yes, after you enter the type of follow up, you'll be prompted as to whether or not you want to post the entry to the Fol- low Up File. By When The date for the follow up. This is a DATAHELP field. Type The type of follow up. This is a DATAHELP field. Screen Section 8 Notes Add/edit notes or comments regarding the com- munication. XI. REPORTS AND LABELS When you select Reports and Labels from the main menu, the system dis- plays the Reports and Labels Menu. The system has a wide range of re- ports and labels already defined for you. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 61. (1) Reports When you select Reports from the Reports and Labels menu, the system displays a table of available reports. Select a report by either high- lighting the report you want and press Enter, or simply type the LETTER than corresponds to the report you want. Once you select the report you want, the system prompts you to indicate if you want to print the reports for All Records or for just a Range of Records. If you select Range, the system prompts you to enter Starting and End- ing criteria. The ending criteria MUST BE GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO the starting criteria, should you use a Range. The first report, NAMES & ADDRESSES, produces a reports with ONE PAGE per record. (2) Labels When you select Labels from the Reports and Labels menu, the system displays a table of available mailing labels/rolodex-type "labels". Select a label by either highlighting the label you want and press En- ter, or simply type the LETTER than corresponds to the label you want. Once you select the label you want, the system prompts you to indicate if you want to print the labels for All Records or for just a Range of Records. If you select Range, the system prompts you to enter Starting and End- ing criteria. The ending criteria MUST BE GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO the starting criteria, should you use a Range. After you indicate whether you want all records or just a range, the system displays a label-definition menu that includes the following choices: Size of Labels Even though the system already has a default for label size, you have the option to change the size, should you want to do so (not recom- mended). Test Pattern Allows you to generate a test pattern to en- sure that you have properly aligned the la- bels. Generate.... This is the print routine to actually print out your labels. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 62. Printer Port Allows you to change the port to which your printer is connected. Label Size If you decide to change the label size and select Size of Labels from the menu, the system displays a size entry screen. There are three type of labels indicated: Standard Large Cheshire Each size has been pre-defined. However, you may change the size by se- lecting EDIT from the data entry screen. Editing allows you to change the following: Label Height (number of lines) Default is 5 lines Label Width Default is 35 characters Left Margin Default is 0 spaces # of Lines Between Labels Default is 1 line # of Spaces Between Labels Default is 0 spaces # of Labels Across Default is 1 label across The system's default is for one label across. Of course, if you have sheets with two, three or four labels across, you will have to change at least the following: # of Spaces Between Labels On most sheets with mul- tiple labels across, the number of spaces is one (1) or two (2). Try 1 first. If there is a left- margin problem with the other labels to the right, try 2 spaces. # of Labels Across Indicate the actual number of labels across the sheet. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 63. Suggestion: If you're using Cheshire labels with multiple labels across, usually the number of spaces between labels is 2. If you're us- ing Standard or Large labels, usually the number of spaces between la- bels is 1. The Large labels are used for the rolodex-type labels. XII. GENERATING LETTERS AND INVOICES - THE 'G' ICON The ability to generate individual letters and invoices is a very pow- erful and unique feature of this system. This feature maintains an au- dit trail of the letters and invoices it prints, allowing you to know which letters were sent to whom and when. In addition, with editing mode toggled on, you can create ad hoc let- ters on the spot for any record. This feature is so powerful and unique that we have reserved a section of this manual dedicated to a discussion of its capabilities. There are several menu selections that provide the ability to generate letters/invoices. The letter/invoice generation facility is aviailable when the following detail screens are displayed: Master File Record (Names & Addresses) Special Contacts Record Transaction Record (Invoice detail) Expense Record (within Financials) Let's look at each one. (1) Master File Record When you are in the master file detail screen and type G (from the screen icons), the system displays two windows on your screen. The window on the left is a table of four (4) letters and the window on the right provides a table of the dates and times each generated letter has been printed for the current record. The table on the left is called the LETTER WINDOW and the table on the right is called the AU- DIT WINDOW. The Audit window will be blank until one or more letters for the current record is/are printed. These tables are actually page lists and work in the same way as any other page list in the system. NOTE: Plain Paper forms (see below) use the name and address data you entered in the system's Control File to identify yourself. (See Con- trol File discussion at the beginning of this manual.) (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 64. The four letters are: GLETTER_B Business Name & Address printed on plain pa- per. GLETTER_H Home Name & Address printed on plain paper L_GLETTERB Business Name & Address printed on your let- terhead L_GLETTERH Home Name & Address printed on your letterhead The only information actually generated on the letter is the current system date, the specific name and address and the "Dear...." You type in the rest of the letter. This feature is useful, for example, when you're using a word processor to generate the letter tamplate and you want to do a mail merge by inserting names and addresses. The letter table's screen menu includes two options: Generate Generate the letter ViewFmt View the letter format on screen. Does not permit editing. When you select Generate, the screen menu changes to include: Single Generate only one copy of the letter Multiple Generate multiple copies of the letter. You'll be prompted to indicate the number of copies you want to produce. Toggle Toggle letter ad-hoc editing on or off. The de- fault is ON. The system will ask if you're using Continuous_Forms or Single_Sheets. If you are using a laser printer with a paper tray or a dot matrix printer, select Continuous_Forms. If you need to manually feed in your paper to the printer, select Single_Sheets. If you are using Single-Sheets, you'll be prompted to insert your paper into the printer. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 65. The letter text is generated and displayed on your screen. If the indi- vidual record has a first and last name, the "Dear..." will contain the person's first name. Otherwise, the "Dear...." will read, "Dear Sir or Madam:". You can begin to type in your text accordingly. Please note that the use of the TAB key has been disabled. When you are done, press F10 to save and print the letter. The actual letter contents will not be saved as part of the letter tem- plate. But, after the letter is printed, an entry is made in the Audit Window, indicating the date, letter code and time the letter was printed. The Letter Definitions window's screen menu now includes one more choice: Swap Jump to the letter history window (the audit window) When you select Swap, the highlight bar moves to the history window. The history window's screen menu includes: View View the actual, complete contents of the letter. Here, the letter includes the text you typed. Reprint Print the highlighted letter again, including the text you typed. NOTE: When the letter is saved in History, the complete letter is saved for you in a file so that it can be retrieved for reprinting. Swap return to the Letter Definitions window. In addition, the History window includes the following key icons: D Delete the highlighted letter. Once flagged for de- letion, history records cannot be undeleted. C Copy the highlighted letter. To return to the original data entry screen, press Esc when the high- light bar is in the Letter Definitions window. (c) Copyright 1993, VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. Page 66. (2) Special Contacts Record Letters for special contacts work in exactly the same way as for the Master File Record discussed above. The only difference is that with special contacts, there are only two letter templates from which to choose: GLETTER2 To produce a letter on plain paper. L_GLETTER2 To produce a letter on your letterhead. For more information regarding letter generation for special contacts, review the section on Master File Record above. (3) Invoices When you type G in a Transaction File Record (an invoice), the Letter Definitions window includes five (5) "letters." Each of the forms pro- duced can be edited ad-hoc, as you see fit. The changes you make are not saved in the template, but are saved for each specific form pro- duced. Since much of the processing is identical to that for Master File Record, you should read section #1 above. BILL Plain paper invoice. CONFIRM Plain paper service confirmation. Provides a predefined letter to the client to confirm what you discussed. H_BILL Invoice produced on letterhead. H_CONFIRM Confirmation produced on letterhead. WORK_DTL A plain paper, free form text entry screen for you to record project/work details. (4) Expenses When you select Expenses from the Financials Menu, you have the option of generating a business expense form when you type G. The letter definitions window displays two letters: EXPENSE Produce the expense form on plain paper. H_EXPENSE Produce the expense form on letterhead. Like all the other forms, the expense form may be edited as you see fit. VITRON'S POPIT SYSTEM INVOICE & REGISTRATION FORM Please Remit To: F. Levine VITRON Management Consulting, Inc. 11-33 Jackson Ave. Scarsdale, NY 10583 From (Please Print or Type): Name _______________________________________________________________ Company ____________________________________________________________ Title ______________________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ City ____________________________ State ___________ Zip ____________ Telephone _________________________________________ Ext ____________ Fax ________________________________________________________________ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Quan. Description/Product Unit Price Total Price ____ The PopIt System $49.95 ________________ NY residents add appropriate Sales Tax ________________ TOTAL ________________ I Prefer (check one): [ ] 5.25" diskette [ ] 3.50" diskette The Popit System has been delivered and accepted by the customer named above. Upon receipt of this paid invoice, VITRON will send the customer a printed manual, a current version of the system, update notifications and will provide free telephone support.