Bob’s Bookstore

Employee and Customer Tracking Analysis

Version 02.10.15

Author: Vance, Chris

Volume

1

Bob’s Bookstore

Employee and Customer Tracking Analysis

User Manual

1

Vance Publications

User Manual

 Chris Vance

Student @ MurrayStateUniversity

CIS 304: User Manual Assignment

1

Table of Content

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Forward1

Setup1

Return To Switchboard3

How To Setup Store Information 3

How To Enter Company Information5

How To Enter Employee Information6

How To Enter Product Information8

How To Enter Payment Methods9

How To Enter Shipping Information10

How To Enter Customer Information11

How To Enter Customer Orders13

How To Enter Customer Shipping16

Finishing An Order17

Setting A Payment Scheme17

Preview A Customer Invoice20

How To Generate Reports22

Report: Customer Listing23

Report: Receivables Aging23

Report: Sales By Customer24

Report: Sales By Employee24

Report: Sales By Product 24

Changing The Switchboard Layout25

Exit The Switchboard25

Exit The Program25

Appendix A – Report Preview Samples

Appendix B – Sample Invoice

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Bob’s Bookstore

Customer & Employee Tracking Analysis

Forward

Thank you for purchasing this order tracking system. This is an all in one program that will allow businesses to track customer orders; including payment methods, shipping methods, and order history. Also, businesses will be able to track what processes their employees are performing.

For assistance, we have included easily recognizable screen shots, as well as basic descriptions to be less confusing. Each section of this program is broken-down into its own section to keep topics from mixing together and merging with others. Finally, descriptions have been made short and to the point, utilizing examples of current practices.

Setup

To begin using this program, you will need to double-click the program file. Doing so will open the program in Microsoft Access®.

Once open, you will be given a screen, or a switchboard, with many different options that will allow the user to perform the needed tasks.

You will notice that beside each option there is a square that may be pressed. This is what you will click on when you want to access a specific section of the program. In the following figures, the clickable squares have been marked white with a black “X” in the center. Throughout this manual, you will find the designated square as they appear below.

return
If at anytime you click on the wrong option or find that the option you picked was not the correct one, then press the “Return to Main Switchboard” button. This will take you back to the beginning of the program.

Store Setup

From the main switchboard, click on the “Enter/View Other Information” button. This will take you to the next screen where you will be able to enter information such as:

  • Employees
  • Company Information
  • Products
  • Payment Methods
  • Shipping Methods

Company Information

First, the program needs to be customized with your business information. You will need to have the following ready for input into the program:

  • Company Name
  • Address
  • City
  • State/Province
  • Postal Code
  • Country
  • Sales Tax Rate
/
  • Default Terms
  • Invoice Description
  • Phone Number
  • Fax Number

Start by clicking on the “Enter/View Other Information” option of the main switchboard.

On the next screen, select “Enter/View My Company Information”.

You will now be given a window with multiple fields. This is the area in which you specify the needed information about your business. You can, at any time, return here to change the information. Fill in the appropriate information. When you are finished, press the in the upper-right-corner of the “My Company Information” window.

Employees

Now that you have your company information entered into the database, you need to set up your employee records. To do this, you will need to click on the “Enter/View Employees” button of the “Other Information” switchboard (note: when you exited from entering your company information in the previous step, you were returned to the “Other Information” switchboard).

In this area, you will be able to enter information for each of your employees. To do so, click inside the first field labeled “First Name” and enter your employee’s first name. To continue entering information, you can simply hit either the ‘Enter’ or ‘Tab’ key on your keyboard, or you may use the mouse and left-click inside of the next field in which you wish to enter information.

If you enter an employee’s information, then decide you want to change some of the information; you can use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to move through your records. You can either move to the first or last entry, or forward or backward one-at-a-time.

Once all of your employee’s information has been entered, move your mouse pointer to the top-left of the screen and click the menu option labeled “FILE”, causing a menu to drop down. From that menu, click close. This will return you to the “Other Information” switchboard.

Products

Now that your employees are entered into the system, they need to know what they have to sell and how much each product will cost. Since we haven’t exited back to the beginning switchboard, all that is needed to do is to select the “Enter/View Products” button.

From here you are able to enter the Title and Price of a book. Begin left-clicking in the field labeled “Product Name”. When you are ready to enter the price of a book, you may either press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Tab’ key, or left-click in the ‘Price’ field.

Once again, should you need to move back or forward to change a product’s name or price, you can use the navigation buttons located at the bottom of the screen.

When you are finished, left-click on the “File” menu and choose the close command. This will exit you out of the product entry phase and back to the “Other Information” switchboard.

Payment Methods
To enter different payment methods that your business will be accepting, click the ‘Enter/View Other Information” button on the main switchboard.

To access the payment section, press the “Enter/View Payment Methods” button.

The following screen will appear where you can enter the method title as well as if the type of payment is a credit card.

To enter different types of payment methods, click in the Payment Method field and enter the payment type you wish to have. If you enter a method that is a credit card, be sure to click on the Credit Card marker. Once you have entered the desired information, press the ‘Enter’ key on your Keyboard to move to the next entry screen.

Some examples could be:

  • Visa (Credit Card)
  • MasterCard (Credit Card)
  • American Express (Credit Card)
  • Cash
  • Check

Keep in mind the navigation buttons at the bottom will scroll forwards or backwards to make changes. When finished, choose Close from the “File” menu.

SHIPPing information

Now you need to decide how your business will send its goods to the customer. With this program, you can enter as many different kinds of shipping methods as you wish.

Click in the ‘Shipping Method’ field and enter the type of shipping you will be handling. Some of the more common methods are:

  • FedEX
  • UPS
  • United States Postal Service
  • Next Day
  • Overnight

Changes that need to be made to already entered methods may be changed at any time by navigating forwards and backwards to the desired entry by using the buttons at the bottom of the screen. When finished entering your desired types of shipping, choose Close from the “File” menu.

Customer Information

Now that you have your database setup, you are ready to begin accepting orders. The first item of business is to enter a customer’s information into the database. To do this, return to the main switchboard and press the “Enter/View Orders by Customer” button. This will open up the Customer Interface.

You will be given a screen that looks much like the following screen.

Start off by entering the customer’s personal information: Name, Address, Phone Number, etc. You may continue to enter customer information as many times as you want. As stated in earlier steps, the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen will help you move forwards and backwards to change any type of information necessary.

If a certain field is not known, it may be left blank. Leaving a field blank will not harm the program, however fields should be completed if possible.

ORDERS

When you have finished entering a customer’s information, it is time to take their order.

First, you need to locate the customer’s information if it not currently on the screen. Do so by using the bottom navigation buttons.

Once you have located a customer that would like to make an order, and their information is showing on the screen, press the “Orders…” button at the bottom of the form.

After you press the “Orders…” button, a new window will appear (see below). This is where you select what books to send to the customer.

To start with the order entry process, you will need to select what employee is entering the order. Do so by left-clicking on the down arrow located in the “Employee” field at the top of the form. A drop down menu will appear containing a list of the employees you entered earlier. Select the one who is entering the customers order.

Now that an employee has been selected, it is time to fill in what items the customer wants. To do this, click in the white field under the “Product” column. When you do, another drop down menu will appear. This menu contains a listing of all items that your business has for sale. The items are listed in alphabetical order, from A to Z.

When an item is selected from the drop down menu, it is added to the order. However, the item waits for the employee to enter the quantity of the item. This allows the customer to order more than one book at a time should they feel the need. To change the quantity of an item, left-double-click in the quantity field (note: if there is a number there, it will be highlighted after the double-click) then enter the specified quantity.

The next column allows for a discount on a given item. Should there be a discount, enter it into the “Discount” field. IMPORTANT: You must put the percent sign “%” after the entered discount. If you enter a discount amount without using the percent sign, an error will be given telling you to enter a number less than 100%.

You will notice that when a quantity is entered, the rest of the information on the form is changed in accordance. Also, you have the ability to change the Sales Tax Rate and enter the PO Number should these be needed.

Shipping

To finish the customer’s order, you need to enter the shipping information. Next to the “Shipping Method” field is a drop down menu. Clicking on this will allow you to select a type of shipping for the order.

Finally, we have included a feature that will allow your business to enter different shipping information for an order. For instance, suppose a customer wants a book but needs it delivered to a different address. All you have to do is click on the “Shipping Options” button on the bottom left corner of the form and a new window will open. Enter their desired “Ship To” address, and when finished, press the in the upper right corner.

Finishing an Order

You are now ready to finish an order. After all pertinent information has been entered for the customer, items, and shipping, you have two options: 1) Enter another order, or 2) Exit and return to the Customer Information screen.

If you wish to enter another order, simply use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the form to move to the next order form. However, if no more orders are necessary, then choose Close from the File menu. Choosing to close this form and return will bring you back to the following screen.

NOTE: Now when you return to the Customer Information screen you will notice that they have an order listed. This shows the order and ship date, the total sale amount, how many payments have been received, and the total amount due.

Payments

This function will be used when the customer makes a payment for their order. To enter an order payment, the customer’s information must be displayed on the screen. Use the navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen to locate a customer’s information if need be.

With their information displayed on the screen, click on the appropriate order that a payment is being submitted on. For instance, if a customer has more than one order, click in the field labeled “Order ID” in which a payment will be made for. Next, click on the payment button on the bottom of the form.

The following is an example of a completed payment submission. Should you wish to enter more payment options for the customer, use the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to move to the next payment method submission. After you have finished entering payment information, press the in the upper right corner to return to the Customer Information screen.

When you close the payment screen, you will be returned to the Customer Information screen. Here you will be able to take notice of the changes made to the customer’s file:

  • Amount Due will be less Total Payments

Preview Invoice

To complete the sales process, there is one final step: the Invoice. To view the invoice for a customer and their order, press the “Preview Invoice…” button on the Customer Information screen.

The next screen that opens will be a general overview of the Invoice. This screen will give you a chance to enter any last comments, such as the payment terms and invoice description. The amount that is due is listed, as well as the date the invoice was submitted along with the order ID for the customer.

When ready to print the Invoice, press the “OK” button at the bottom of the form. If you wish to make changes, press the “Cancel” button to return to the customer’s order history.

Upon pressing the “OK” button, the Invoice will be displayed on the screen. The Invoice will also list your company’s business information at the top left corner of the page. The customer’s order information will appear next, showing their order preferences. The next section will show the “Bill To” and the “Ship To” information. Finally, a line-by-line description of each ordered item is listed. This includes what has and what needs to be paid for. The Invoice will end with the Subtotal, Additional Charges, Tax Information, Total Payments, and Total Amount Due.

To print the Invoice, choose Print from the File menu. The Print dialog box will appear. Here you can specify the amount of copies to print among other preferences; note, however, that these are dependent upon the type of printer your business will be using.

Once you have printed the Invoice, click the “Close” button on the toolbar, or choose Close from the File menu.

A Sample Invoice sheet has been supplied and is located in Appendix B.

Reports

We have included a way to print reports for your business as a way to track sales and profits. These reports are as follows:

  • Customer Listing Report
  • Receivables Aging Report
  • Sales by Customer Report
  • Sales by Employee Report
  • Sales by Product Report

To get to the Report section, you must click on the “Preview Reports…” button located on the main switchboard. This will in turn take you to the “Report Preview” section.

Once you have accessed the Report section, you will be able to choose what report you would like to see.

Customer Listings Report

This report will give you a printout of your customers. These will be arranged by company name in alphabetical order, followed by the contact at each company. Also included are the city, state, phone number, and fax number of each of the listed customers. (See Appendix A for Sample Report)

Receivables Aging Report

This report will give a listing, in reference to the company name, of any orders that are being held. In other words, if an order is placed on October 14, 2002, but not shipped until October 15, 2002, that information will be found here. The Receivables Aging report will tell what dollar amounts are outstanding in thirty day intervals up to 91+ days. It will also give a total balance of aged goods. (See Appendix A for Sample Report)

Sales by Customer Report

The employee must enter a beginning and ending period in which they wish to generate a report. Once generated, the report will show how many total unites a company has ordered for that given time period. The report will also show the total dollar amount that the company has been invoiced for. (See Appendix A for Sample Report)