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Text File | 1992-04-19 | 28KB | 648 lines

SALETRAC.DOC Vers 2.3C ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- What it is ! ---------- SALETRAC is a program useful for keeping track of sales-person , sales lead, and customer information. It is specially intended for use by sales people. Version 2.3B also supports some interesting added features, such as a phone dialer, purchase history log, mini word processor, invoice printer, product database, etc. Version 2.3C adds an 'Activity Log' function to the program. The activity log keeps a separate file for each customer which details the activities (Phone calls, Data edits, Letters written). Version 2.3C also sports a "To Do" list for each customer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hardware requirements: --------------------- The program works on Monochrome,Hercules,CGA,EGA,VGA Color, and VGA monochrome monitors. It works best with 640K RAM and a hard drive. (We're not kidding about the 640K requirement. Please take note.) If you have a fixed disk: For uncompressed version only: ------------------------------ ■ If you are currently using version 2.1, make sure to save your old data files (all .DBF, .DBT, and .IND files) to a safe place before extracting or copying the new files to your operating disk. ■ Note that version 2.1 Purch.Dbf and Item.Dbf files are not compatible with this version. You should use the print options of version 2.1 to print a hard copy of the purchase and item files so that you can key them into version 2.2. Registered copies of version 2.2 come with a conversion program for this task. The files have been expanded to allow for the additional features (invoice generator, etc.) ■ Simply create a new directory on your fixed disk by typing MD \Tracker2 and pressing the enter key. ■ Then copy the contents of distribution floppy #1 to it by typing: Copy A:*.* C:\TRACKER2\*.* and press the ENTER key. Compressed version: ------------------- ■ If you are currently using version 2.1, make sure to save your old data files (all .DBF, .DBT, and .IND files) to a safe place before extracting or copying the new files to your operating disk. ■ Note that version 2.1 Purch.Dbf and Item.Dbf files are not compatible with this version. You should use the print options of version 2.1 to print a hard copy of the purchase and item files so that you can key them into version 2.2. Registered copies of version 2.2 come with a conversion program for this task. ■ For the compressed version, if you can read this, hopefully you have successfully unpacked the files into the C:\TRACKER2 directory. Data safety: ------------ ■ You should back up your SaleTrac data files regularly. ■ The five data files of most interest are: SALETRAK.DBF SALETRAK.DBT SALETRAK.IND PURCH.DBF ITEM.DBF ■ If you use AUTOTRAK then you should also back up the files MAINFILE.REC and ESTIMATE.REC. ■ Regularly save these files into a C:\TRACKER2\BACKUP directory. T H E S H A R E W A R E C O N C E P T ------------------------------------------- This is a shareware product. Copyright laws apply to this product as well as more traditional commercial products. This product is provided at no charge for an evaluation period of thirty (30) days. The license is withdrawn after 30 days if the user does not register and pay for the number of copies being used. A "site" license agreement is available and details are available by contacting the author. (Address, Phone#, and CIS# at bottom of this document.) Registration brings a number of benefits, including: ■ Detailed manual. ■ Latest copy of program. ■ Technical support via phone ■ Possibility of custom, special modifications to "tailor" to your needs. ■ Notification of upgrades and low cost "trade-ups". ■ Knowledge that as an honest user of the software you are helping to make the share ware concept work for everyone. ■ In some cases, special utilities that are an adjunct to the registered software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operation: --------- Be sure to set your config.sys file to specify at least 25 files. i.e. ... you should have a line in your config.sys such as the following: Files = 25 Failure to properly set up your config.sys file with FILES=25 may result in a "Too many files open" error when you try to access the purchase module! If using a hard disk, change to the correct directory and type 'RUN' to start. The main thing to remember is that the program is driven forward by the cursor and ENTER keys, and backwards by the ESCAPE key. Most of the navigating of the program can be accomplished with these keys. SaleTrac is very user friendly. The best way to find out what it can do is to sit down and use it. Some items of note: About the new features in this version: i) ------ The Phone Dialer ------ The phone dialer system assumes that you type in the area codes for all phone numbers (even if they are in your area). When you select the phone dialer option, the customer who is currently positioned in the main view window is the record from which the phone number will be taken. In order for the system to work properly, you must have set up the phone dialer to let it know what your local area code is and all of the local extensions. Only then will it be able to piece together the right sequence of numbers. (I.E. , whether or not to precede the main number with a "1" and the area code, etc. etc. To set up the phone dialer, first select the "OPTIONS" selection from the top "moving bar menu". Then select "Set up phone dialer" from the pull down menu that results. You will be given a choice of the following items: BAUD RATE COM PORT TONE/PULSE LOCAL EXTENS. First, select LOCAL EXTENS. A box will appear that has some default settings. Unless you live where I do, the default local area code will be wrong. Change it by typing in the correct local area code for your area. Then type in ALL of your local area extensions. You can get seven of them on the first "page" of the set up box. Seven more pages are available, and will appear as you type the codes in. When finished, if you are not on the "last" page, then press the ESC key as many times as needed to return to the top "highlight" bar menu. Your default settings will be saved to disk, and will be available to you in future sessions. Another selection from the "Set up phone dialer" menu is the BAUD selection. This defaults to 1200 if you do not edit it, and so if you have a 1200 or 2400 BAUD modem, you do NOT need to change the setting. Another selection from the "Set up phone dialer" menu is the COM PORT selection. Again, this defaults to COM 1. So if you intend to connect your modem to the first serial port, you do NOT have to change this selection. Dial wait time was extended beginning with vers. 2.3C due to the default dial speed of some older modems. NOTE: The phone dialer DOES NOT CHECK FOR HANDSHAKING, or even whether or not you have a modem. If you dial, and the modem is not connected, SURPRISE! Nothing will happen. ii ----- Tracking customer purchases ----- ■ This module requires that your config.sys file be set up ■ for at least 20 files. In other words, your config.sys ■ file should have a line in it such as the following: ■ FILES=20 ■ Failure to set up the config.sys file may result in an ■ "Too many files open" error when you run the purchase ■ module. If you do not understand the config.sys file, ■ call the number at the bottom of this document. One of the other new features is the PURCHASES feature. This is a handy way of keeping track of who has purchased what from your company. To use the purchase tracking capabilities, select "OPTIONS" from the top moving bar menu. Then select "PURCHASES" from the pull down menu that results. To add a new purchase, select "ENTER PURCHASES". You will be presented with a list of possible purchases, (provided that you entered your wares via the "ADD ITEMS" selection.) Select an item and press "ENTER". Then type in the price. Then type in the quantity. Then, on the AMOUNT box, press "ENTER" to allow the computer to multiply the (Quantity x Price), or type in an actual figure yourself. If you press enter for "AUTO CALC", the number will remain at 0 until you get to the last entry field, and then it will be filled in for you. ------ Dos Gate Way ------- iii The DOS Gateway is only active if you have the memory to run it. Saletrac Vers. 2.1 is a bit of a memory hog. (I admit it.) (You heard it here first!) Therefore, depending on the version of DOS that you have, the DOS GATEWAY may produce a memory error, give you a message to that effect, and return you to the main menu. ------ pseudo invoices ------ The "purchases" submenu has a "print-an-invoice" option. This option allows two different types of invoices to be printed. In the first case, "all invoice numbers", every transaction that is associated with the currently selected customer will be printed. In the second case, "specific invoice numbers", only transactions that have a selected invoice number AND are associated with the currently selected customer will be printed. ------ concerning the pseudo invoice ------ external report files (.rpt) The "invoice" is really printed by virtue of the report-generator file "invoice.rpt". The .rpt format files are report-gen files. The default invoice.rpt file uses Epson control codes. If you think that your printer cannot use Epson* codes, then you can use the generic "vanilla.rpt" file, which uses no special control codes at all. If you wish to use a printer that only supports IBM* codes, then use the included file named "ibm.rpt". One note about using the vanilla flavor report. Since there are no control codes for the vanilla flavored report, you will have to manually set the printer pitch (chars per inch) to 15, 17 or 20 to ensure that the printed output (the report) does not have "wrapped" lines. In other words, most of the reports require you to be in some type of "compressed-print" mode. To use the vanilla flavor report, rename your invoice.rpt to invoice.bak and rename vanilla.rpt to invoice.rpt. * - Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. - IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Other reports may be available to registered users from the author. If you have a specific request, contact the author with your request. ------ Incrementing the invoice numbers ------ Naturally, the invoice number is entered when you enter a customer transaction. A built in feature allows you to accept an automatically incrementing computer generated number if you wish. If you type in a "0" for the invoice number, the program will increment by one the last stored invoice number for your use. ------ Picking the psuedo invoice number ------ from a list of existing numbers If you want to use a previously entered invoice number but cannot remember it, just enter double zero ("00") when prompted for an invoice number. The computer will allow you to pick from a list of previously entered invoice numbers. The customer and the invoice number of every previously entered transaction will be available for your perusal. Move the highlight bar to the invoice number that is appropriate and press the enter key. The same invoice number (as on the list) will be attached to the current transaction if you do not subsequently cancel the transaction or transaction invoice number. If you simply type in your own invoice number, the program will accomodate you. Note that the "purchases" submenu is divided into two parts. One section is primarily for functions that work on all clients. The other section is primarily for functions that work on the current client. (The current client is the one showing on the main data entry screen, which is in the background unless you have a large number of option windows pulled down over the "top" of it.) ------ Adding items to the product catalog ------ The "Add items" selection on the "purchases" submenu is for the entry of your wares. It is essentially a catalog of your product. There is only one item database that serves for all clients. Essentially, you will pick items from the "item" database and attach them to transactions which will form a "purchases" database. Each transaction contains the name of a customer, the purchased item, the price, the taxable amount, and optionally, an invoice number. Also included in the purchase record are "quantity", and "saledate" fields. ----- Editing Purchases ----- The Edit/View Purchases option allows you to see that other records exist, but only allows the current customer records to be unmasked. ------ Browse or Edit any purchase ------ The "Browse all clients" option allows you to look at and edit any purchase record in the entire purchase database. ------- Deleting Purchases -------- Purchases can be deleted by choosing the Ctrl-U command while in the 'Browse all clients' option of the purchase module. The file can then be repacked (if desired) by pressing the F4 key. To print all transactons, regardless of customer or invoice number, select the "print all purchases" option. To print or list only purchase transactions for the currently selected customer, pick the "print purchases" or "list purchases" options. Alternatively, selecting "Browse this client" will allow you to look at the currently selected customer transactions, as well as edit them! iv An interesting option in Vers. 2.3 is the LETTERS/NOTES/MEMO option selectable from the options menu. If you select "REGULAR LETTERS", you are presented with a simple text editor/mini word processor. If you select Auto-Heading, you are also presented with a mini-editor, but a business heading with the appropriate customer is "prefixed" to your file. Do not call this option twice on the same file!! You will have two headings! Same theory goes with the "MEMORANDUM" selection. It puts a business memorandum on the top of the file. However, successive calls to the same file will produce multiple headings. The text editor allows you to perform a search through the document for any user defined string up to 25 characters long. Pressing the F9 key activates the search option. After entering the string to search for, you are asked to enter the <OPTIONS> Options are as follows: G -- (Global) Search from the top of document U -- (Ignore case) If used, search will not care about the case. (i.e., if upper or lower case) W -- Whole words only B -- Search backwards More than one option can be used at one time. In other words, you could have the option GU which would be "search entire document and ignore the case of the search criteria" One note: The activity log and "to-do" list functions also use the full screen editor, and so the search function can be used within the activity log and "to-do" list options. (F9) Pressing F6 allows printing of the contents of the activity log or "to-do" list log. The print format can be set up with shift-F6. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- v The F-Keys have functions which are not available from the pull down menus. In particular, the "Appointment at a glance" function is accessed with the "F2" key. The "F3" key produces an input box for a "Global" search for a user defined string. The "F5" key allows setting of a "Filter" and the F6 key disables the filter. The F7 function allows you to search for appointments of a given range of dates, up to and including a week. This is basically an extended variation of the F2 function. Note: Fkey functions F2 thru F7 are available only when there are NO pull down menus active. Appointment at a glance: ------------------------ Pressing the F2 key causes a calendar to appear. Select a date from the calendar and press the enter key. The program will do a search for the selected day's appointments, as defined by the next-contact-date information in the customer database. Global Search: -------------- To search for "ANY" user defined string, keyword, name, etc., use the F3 "global search" command. The entire database is searched for F3. The database is searched from the current record forward if the F4 function is used. Filter: ------- If you want to exclude records of other salespersons, you can use the F5 function. F6 CANCELS the filter function. The filter can also be set to exclude all but a certain range of 'Next Contact' dates. A third filter option is the CATEGORY CODE option. This option allows you to exclude all but a group of records based on the contents of the CATEGORY CODE field in the customer record. When you want to see all the records (i.e. , take the exclusion off), Press the F6 key while there are no pull down menus active. Note: F Keys F2 thru F7 are available only when there are NO "pull down" menus active. New for version 2.3C: Activity Log!!! ■ The activity log in version 2.3C automatically logs an entry to a special file for each customer. When you place an outgoing phone call, make an edit to the database, or write a letter using the built in letter editor, the program automatically logs an entry onto the special file. You can recall the contents of the activity log by pressing the F9 key while no other pull down menus are active. Another way to access the phone log is to select the ACTIVITY LOG function from the (E)dit menu. In order for the activity log to work properly, you must assign each CUSTOMER NAME to be unique for at least the first 8 characters. If you have more than one entry with the same first 8 characters, then the activity log will dump all activity entries for that non unique combination into one file. The activity log editor (F9) is a full screen editor. You can add, change, or delete entries. (Delete entries with Ctrl-Y and then F2 to save.) Both the activity log and "to-do" list functions employ full screen editors that allow you to add, change, or delete entries. When you make a change, addition, or deletion, and wish to save the changes, you can use the Ctrl-End key combination, the F2 key, or the Alt-X key combination. ■ Also new for version 2.3C is the general notes page. This is accessible from the (O)ption menu of the top horizontal highlight menu bar. This is also a full screen editor and is good for constants, special sales pitches, etc. New for version 2.3C: To Do list! ■ Like the activity log, you must assign each customer to be a unique name for this to work properly. Otherwise, data will be lumped into one file for non-unique entries. Each customer can have his own "To do" list which is popped up with the F10 key. This feature is a little more accessible than the dBase memo files for random customer information. However, the price is that it is a text file, and not directly transferrable to other dBase systems. Memo fields, on the other hand, are completely dBase compatible. A list of all "pop up" functions is available by pressing the F1 key. Both the activity log and "to-do" list functions employ full screen editors that allow you to add, change, or delete entries. When you make a change, addition, or deletion, and wish to save the changes, you can use the Ctrl-End key combination, the F2 key, or the Alt-X key combination. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Towards the future: We're always working to update/improve the program, and some things we are currently working on (and may possibly be included in future updates) are: ■ Allow SaleTrac to use expanded/extended memory ■ Inventory module and quicker POS module. ■ Apply Network record-level locking mechanisms ■ More PIM functions and a scheduler ■ Additional filter functions Some notes concerning changes to old features: ---------------------------------------------- 1) If you edit a memo field, use the Ctrl-End keys to save the memo and exit memo-edit. 2) If you are searching for a 'next contact date', or a 'last contact' date, you are presented with a calendar. you simply move the highlight to the date you want to find, and press the enter key. The program will perform an 'exact search', that is it will find the exact date if it can. Otherwise, it will return a 'Not Found' message. 3) If you search for a customer, the program will prompt you for the customer name on the bottom line. It will look something like this: CUSTOMER: __ You type in the customer, and the program will perform a nearest match. (That is, it will find the next greatest key if it cannot find an exact match.) **** !!! **** 4) If your index files (.IND) ever become corrupted by power outage, etc., you can delete them and the program will regenerate them. Type DEL *.Ind from the DOS command line. Your data files (.DBF) & (.DBT) are not so easily recovered. The moral here is to BACK UP OFTEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5) If you have suggestions for improvements on the program, drop us a line. We will be happy to consider changes that you submit for inclusion in future updates. If we use your suggestion, then we will send you a copy of the new release. (Valid for the first person to make the suggestion). 6) Distribution diskette #1 contains the SALETRAC.EXE program and some sample database records. 7) Distribution diskette #2 contains the documentation, the video drivers and the fonts. (Registered vers.) (Except compressed version) 8) When you perform a search, the index is changed to the field that you search on. 9) In any of the "select boxes", where a highlight bar is use to select an option or record from a list, pressing the first letter of the desired choice causes the highlight bar to "jump" to the first occurance of the option or record with that first letter. From that point, the cursor keys (arrow keys) can be used to "home in" on the desired selection. This technique can save a lot of time. 10) The only punctuation allowed in the customer name is apostrophe, period, ampersand, and parenthesis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our liability is limited to the replacement of this product. No other warranties are expressed or implied, and no guarantees are made as to fitness for use. In no event shall R. Scheckelhoff be liable for lost profits, data, or other incidental or consequential damages that arise from the use or inability to use this software. The user assumes responsibility for all necessary servicing, repair, or correction should the software prove defective. The software is provided on an "as is" basis. In the event that the product is distributed by a vendor, that vendor is authorized to charge up to and including $9.00 to cover distribution costs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for using Sale-Trac ! We hope that you find it useful and constructive software. Registrants are sent a flyer detailing other programs which we have available, including some of special interest to sales persons. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Software ------------------ SaleTrac is shareware (user supported software). We encourage registration of your SaleTrac software. You may feel free to make copies of this software and pass them on to friends. However, if you make use of this software you are expected to pay the registration fee. With the $39 registration fee, you get the most recent and up to date version immediately sent to you, and major updates thereafter. You also receive a printed manual. Registration fee should be sent to: R Scheckelhoff 716 W. Main Cross. Findlay, Ohio 45840 Ph (419) 425- 3100 or Ph (419) 423- 9607 If you send a $45 registration fee, you will receive also a copy of the companion program 'AUTOTRAK', which is useful for keeping track of car expenses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments & suggestions can be sent to Compuserve # 70353,2125 or to the mailing address listed above.