Newsletter 2002-08       Go Back November 13, 2002 Highlights: New enhancements New User – Cape Electric

Welcome new user Cape Electric of South Dennis, MA. This is on Cape Cod and no relation to the electrical distributor of the same name located in Cape Girardeau, IL. With fewer than 10 employees, Cape joins our growing list of small distributors on Power Plus. They also signed up for price updates from Material Express . New Enhancements Recently Completed: A sales exception report designed to help you pinpoint customers whose buying has recently fallen off. This is the converse of a program done for the last release which highlighted cases where previously dormant accounts started buying again. This report allows you to compare any two time periods and look for customers whose sales have decreased over X%. There is an equalization factor that allows you to compare time periods of unequal length when calculating the percentage of decrease. For example, you may want to compare the past month versus the previous six, or the past two weeks versus the previous quarter (13 weeks). The program also has a parameter to help you filter out small accounts. The program is SA/077, and is run with WFL/SA/CUST/DECREASE . Another new sales exception report isSA/260, run with WFL/SA/CUST/LOWBUY/VENDORS . What this program allows you to do is focus on large customers who do not buy much of some of your top vendors. You can specify up to 30 top vendors. Within your parameters, you can define your rules: the timeframe, the minimum amount of total sales to be considered to be a big customer, and the minimum amount of targeted sales within a vendor to avoid being considered a low buyer of the line. For example, you could say show me any instances of customers who have bought at least $5,000 in the past 6 months, but have bought less than $100 in any of my top 20 vendors. A new sales report, SA/073, run with WFL/SA/PROD/DATERANGE , which allows you to see the percentage of change from one time period to the next for broad product categories (the standard program is based upon the first two characters of the category class). This comparison can be performed by either branch or sales rep. When you correct cost using the IA82 purchase history correction screen, you now have the option of having the corrected cost update the replacement cost or vendor quote on the inventory file. This is designed to save the separate step of doing file maintenance. Note that such changes will not be on the file maintenance audit report. At end of PO55 auto buy screen, give the option of going into manual po maintenance to add line items. The cancellation of quotes is now restricted to the person who originally entered the quote (order taker). When you cancel a customer return order or line item, it will now go back to the original order and erase the info indicating that it's been returned. When you create special order items via either order entry or file maintenance (FM07 and FM10), the return control code now defaults to "R". This will cause the pick tickets and invoices to print a restocking charge warning. The order statistics screen that appears at the end of an order has been completely revamped to show more information. For example, it will now show the total amounts of goods, tax, miscellaneous amount and amount due. That way, if the customer doesn't have enough money, you could change the order before it prints. Success Story:  Springfield Electric reports that a customer has begun entering 100+ line items via the Web Customer Service Center.  The orders are typically in excess of $20,000.  Imagine the time savings for inside sales! We will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 28th-29th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Have a Happy One!