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.XT:6 .XB:2 .F: .F:...Page $$$ T H E F R O N T O F F I C E A CONTROL SYSTEM FOR: Prospecting Sales Management Sales Order Processing Job Costing and Profit Analysis Copyright 1983-1984-1985-1986 IAM, Inc. Inter Active Micro, Inc. Bradford, New Hampshire 03221 COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 1986 by Inter Active Micro, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Inter Active Micro, Inc., Bradford, New Hampshire 03221. You may copy The Front Office diskettes. We encourage you to do so. Inter Active Micro, Inc., grants you the right to give away, sell, or otherwise distribute copies of The Front Office diskettes, with these restrictions: 1. You must distribute all files on the program diskette together. 2. You must not modify any files except the registration number in the IAMCLEAR.MEM file. 3. You must not distribute printed copies of files, expecially this manual. 4. You must not distribute any files from The Front Office source diskette. 5. You must use Inter Active Micro, Inc., copyright notices on media with The Front Office files. 6. You must use Inter Active Micro, Inc., trademark notices on "The Front Office". 7. You may add your own files, put files on several diskettes, distribute files via modem, or compress files, when their contents remain unchanged. 8. You need not notify Inter Active Micro, Inc., when you distribute copies. The names WordStar and MailMerge are trademarks of MicroPro International Corporation. The names PC-DOS and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. The name MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The name Foxbase is a trademark of Fox Software. The name PC-Write is a trademark of Quicksoft. The name Quicksoft is a trademark of Quicksoft. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY Inter Active Micro, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Inter Active Micro, Inc. reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content hereof without obligation of Inter Active Micro, Inc. to notify any person of such revision or changes. The THE FRONT OFFICE software and manual are sold as is and without warranty as to performance. While Inter Active Micro, Inc. firmly believes that this is a high-quality product, the user must assume all risk of using THE FRONT OFFICE. - P R E F A C E - This manual is divided into two sections. Section II covers various subjects of interest. Section I is a tutorial. THE FRONT OFFICE places many instructions on each screen, but this manual has been arranged because good documentation is important. Whenever we receive something laid out in the form of a tutorial, we appreciate it; so we feel that you will appreciate the tutorial style of these procedures as well. We are confident that THE FRONT OFFICE is so easy to use that you may not need the procedures. But, for the less experienced users there are some tricky parts when integrating the database with WordStar. The procedures entitled WRITING SINGLE LETTERS & ENVELOPES (TFO-4) and WRITING MANY LETTERS (TFO-5) should guide you through this integration. Procedures are numbered with two numbers separated by a hyphen. The first number is the procedure number and the second number is the page number for that procedure; these numbers are located at the top right side of each page. The manual is numbered at the bottom of each page. Incidentally, after installing THE FRONT OFFICE you may wish to step through the various menus and type for Help where it appears. Various HELP screens will be displayed explaining some of the aspects of each routine. This manual uses certain conventions: whenever you see <RETURN>, this means to strike the <RETURN> or <ENTER> key. All of the words that you are asked to type have quotes (' ') around them. We trust that the details presented will be read while using the THE FRONT OFFICE computer system. It is hoped that you will create the best habits in the beginning, so that you can use the system to its greatest potential. Various screens show you how to move the cursor without using the arrow keys on the left of PC keyboards. Some have found that once one get used to such extra strokes using the left hand, typing can be spead up because one need not move their hands off the keyboard to strike the arrow or cursor control keys on the left. But, of course, habit and personal choice will be the deciding factor on how you choose to work. - C O N T E N T S - ITEM MANUAL PAGE # PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Section I--Tutorial INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 THE FRONT OFFICE PROCEDURES 1 - INSTALLING THE FRONT OFFICE . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2 - ENTERING PROSPECT & SALESMAN CODES. . . . . . . . . 14 3 - ADDING & EDITING THE PROSPECT FILE. . . . . . . . . 20 4 - WRITING SINGLE LETTERS & ENVELOPES, PC-Write. . . . 29 5 - WRITING MANY LETTERS, PC-Write. . . . . . . . . . . 34 6 - WRITING MANY ENVELOPES, PC-Write. . . . . . . . . . 41 7 - PRINTING LABELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 8 - CHANGING DATES & CODES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 9 - REPLACING CODE GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 10 - PASSWORDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 11 - ADDING & EDITING THE PERFORMANCE FILE . . . . . . 63 12 - PRINTING SALESMAN REPORTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 13 - PRINTING PERFORMANCE DATA. . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 14 - CHANGING FILE LOCATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 15 - SALES ORDER PROCESSING & EARNINGS. . . . . . . . . 78 16 - CUSTOMER REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 17 - CALL REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 18 - JOB COSTING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 19 - TAXES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 20 - REPORTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Section II--Alphabetical Listing INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 SUBJECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 APPENDIXES (A, B, C, D). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 - I N T R O D U C T I O N - Page 1 of 4 First, THE FRONT OFFICE is "Shareware", but more on this later. Generally, THE FRONT OFFICE is a management system that will help improve your business decisions and profits as you proceed along on jobs. While at the same time, THE FRONT OFFICE is intended to increase income through improved marketing and sales prospecting techniques. It handles Sales Orders and payments so balances due and sales taxes are maintained and reported. THE FRONT OFFICE is menu-driven to define prospects and salesmen, to do mailings, and to follow up on leads. The system manipulates prospective customer information, leads and quote activity, coded sales records, call reports, sales orders, and job cost. WordStar/ MailMerge or PC-Write are integrated with THE FRONT OFFICE to produce letters and envelopes. THE FRONT OFFICE produces letters, envelopes, labels, and reports selectively by prospect code, salesman code, zip code, follow-up date, customer code and product code for complete flexibility and control. The SALES FILE area of the system maintains performance figures on each of 99 possible salesmen. Sales volume projections are compared to current production and last year's figures, and performance reports reflect the percentage of increase or decrease. Customer sales data will update sales performance automatically. SALES TAX accounting is included to simplify state sales tax reporting each month. In addition, any file of names and addresses can be manipulated and used by THE FRONT OFFICE, i.e., private clubs, church groups, employee records, etc. Once a name and address is entered into the THE FRONT OFFICE system, this is what TFO does: o Since THE FRONT OFFICE is a database system and there are no update runs or sort runs required, it operates quickly especially in Foxbase. o For salesman in the field, THE FRONT OFFICE prepares Sales Orders for salesman records and for transmission via modem to the Home Office. o THE FRONT OFFICE is an electronic file card box. It keeps results by sales men after they contact the prospect. - I N T R O D U C T I O N - Page 2 of 4 o Each prospect is given a code. This acts as a file box divider. The codes are very flexible in their assignment and use. o Prospects can be sub-divided further using Status codes so that a prospect can be broken down by type, lead, inquiry or interest. o Changes can be made very quickly and simply to each prospect in the file through default arrangements and code grouping. o Letters can be sent to one prospect or to many prospects. Letters to many prospects can be chosen by prospect code or salesman code and then selected by name, zip code, follow-up date, customer type code or product code. o Envelopes are made using the same selections that are used for letters. o THE FRONT OFFICE makes labels using the same selections that are used for letters. Labels can be up to two across. o Listings are produced using the same selections that are used for letters, so that follow-up calls can be made to those receiving letters. The results of follow-up calls can be recorded in the call report file from the listings given to each salesman. o The Follow-up Listing is later produced by follow-up date and is used to easily keep track of call-backs to future possible sales. o The Automatic Follow-up Date feature always assures one of good follow-up control with many prospects to call. o Reports list prospects by range in name, zip code, or follow-up date order. The reports are produced by prospect code, by salesman code, or alphabetically by prospect or customer. o Sales Files maintain salesman data and performance data on each salesman. Separate menus step you easily through these files. Sales performance data is kept by months and by salesman name. o Sales Performance Files are updated automatically when entering customer sales information. - I N T R O D U C T I O N - Page 3 of 4 o Customer List maintain purchase data by customers showing sales Y T D by customer. Letters to customers are integrated with Wordstar or PC-Write. o Call Reports are produced from sales contact information so that management and sales personal can easily and quickly recall how sales contacts are progressing. o Sales Tax Reports indicate figures necessary for completing sales tax forms. o H E L P screens are scattered throughout THE FRONT OFFICE to guide the operator around. o Job Costing reports give estimated and actual profits. Cost control figures appear on the screen whenever a job number is entered. Reports can be either in name or job number sequence. The Sales Order entry system in THE FRONT OFFICE is intended to be custom designed by I A M, Inc. Files are arranged so that I A M, Inc. can configure THE FRONT OFFICE'S files to agree with your order entry specifications in order to transmit sales orders via modem to your home office. Whether you use direct order transmission or not, the Sales Order is designed with as much data to best serve both THE FRONT OFFICE job costing system as well as your present order invoicing system. Should you wish system design for modem transmission call Howard Brooks at (603)---·-- --. THE FRONT OFFICE is a viable sales tracking system that is easy to use and update. All sales figures are readily modified as they are not amounts that are in the realm of accounting and audit trail compliance, but rather intended for sales earnings and performance analysis. The Sales Order, once typed, cannot be changed. Sales earnings result from the Order and as a consequence are easily updated or modified along with the salesmans' goals. Lastly, the Job Cost system accepts estimates for labor, material, and freight along with actual costs as they are known. Sales orders pass along actual sales, commissions, sales taxes and earnings to the sales performance, job costing and customer sales records. Payments further update the files and reports indicate anticipated profit, customer balances (without ageing), and final profit figures by job for any selected period. Payments create the bottom line for profitability. - I N T R O D U C T I O N - Page 4 of 4 This has been a labor of love...a hobby for the author..., so we know that you will be very pleased using it to help your business grow, just as it is helping IAM, Inc. to remember prospects, to market effectively, to maintain profits, and to reduce paperwork. Screens in THE FRONT OFFICE are fast. When colons (:) surround a field only one character will be requested for entry from the keyboard, and a single keystroke with NO <RETURN> will perform the selection. All other highlighted fields will require the <RETURN> key or <ENTER> key to be used to 'enter' the data into the computer. The need to NOT use the <RETURN> key for various menu selections permits the operator to 'type ahead' and quickly move through the various menus, once he or she becomes familiar with the keystrokes. DO NOT KEEP HITTING THE <RETURN> KEY OR YOU WILL CREATE CONTINUEOUS RUNNING. Contineous running means that the program continues looping until all of the <RETURN>'s have finished activating the loop. We welcome your comments and suggestions. We shall make every effort to incorporate any and all enhancements to improve the flexibility, power and adaptability of The Front Office. "Shareware" is like public television, if you find the programming valuable, you can contribute. Your support through registration means you are supporting the "Sharware" concept: o You can try software before you buy it. o You pay a reasonable price for software. o You avoid the hassle of copy protection. You provide us with the support WE need to stay in business and to support YOU with updates and enhancements. You become part of the ever-growing family of registered "THE FRONT OFFICE" users. Thank you.