Core menu - Products

When you come to enter a list of your companyÕs products (see the Products Tutorial and Reference chapters elsewhere in this manual), you will be categorising them according to a list of group headings specified here. The codes are three characters long. For example, Apple equipment could be ÔGroupedÕ as COM - Computers, MON - Monitors, PRI - Printers, and perhaps CON - Consumables. Do give some thought to these codes before you start typing in Products. In addition to the group Code and Name, specify:

Comments

Any Comments entered here will be printed in the Price List to describe the Products the group contains.

Sales account

The Account Code entered here will be used as a default when entering new Products in this group, and tells the system which nominal ledger Account is to be used for sales of Products in this group. It can be overridden for individual Products. If left blank, the default Account set up for the Sales Invoice Transaction Type will be used instead. Use the @ sign if unsure, to bring up a list of Accounts as created using the Accounts menu item on the Accounts menu (full details of this menu item are to be found in the nominal ledger Setup chapter).

Purchase account

In the same way as for Sales above, this is used to specify the default purchasing nominal ledger Account.

Stock account

When posting Purchase Invoices an option is available to have the amount posted to the relevant Stock Account instead of Cost of Sales, and then to have it subsequently posted out of the Stock Account in to the Cost of Sales Account on shipping (ie when a Delivery-Type Stock Movement is made). This will keep the Profit & Loss free of costs incurred until such time as the goods are sold. If you wish to make use of this option, enter the Account Code of the appropriate Account here. This will be used as a default when entering Products of this group.

Default analysis

If you are using analyses in the nominal ledger for departmental or multi-company accounting, you may want to specify which analysis the Products entered in this group belong to. Use the @ sign if unsure, to bring up a list of analyses as created using the analyses menu item on the Accounts menu (full details of this menu item are to be found in the nominal ledger Setup chapter). Note that group 0 is set aside for a special task, which is to contain the text that appears at the front of the Price List report. A sample is supplied with Enterprise 6. The group Name of that group is used as the title of the Price List, while the text that appears on the front page is entered to the Comments box. You are free to modify this text to your requirements, but remember that group 0 cannot be part of your group structure.

Brands are the second classification method for the Products file, referring to the name of their manufacturer. Again, three character codes are used. For example, APP - Apple, MIC - Microsoft etc. These codes may be easier to build up during the entry of products.

Price groups are part of the Price Matrix companion volume, which enables a complex discount structure to be set up which can be used when entering Orders. Please refer to the Price Matrix chapter of this manual for more details.

The Core Data section of Preferences contains various settings which impact upon the behaviour of the Companies, contacts and Products screens. These are discussed below. The screen also contains settings relevant to the Diary Manager: these are described in the Diary manual. To get to this screen, first select ‘Preferences’ from the Core menu in the Data Manager. Then, select ‘Core Data’ from the Section menu.

Terminology used

If you have several Terminology records set up (see earlier in this chapter for more details) you can specify which is to be used by typing the appropriate Terminology Code here.

Address format

This field tells Enterprise 6 which is the correct Address Format used in your main country of operation. You should already have entered possible Address Formats on the Core menu. The Address Format entered here will be used in cases where Companies have been entered without a Country.

Characters for company code

When constructing the company Code, Enterprise 6 takes the initial letters of the company Name (or Surname of the first contact if the ‘Company’ is entered as a private individual). How many initial letters are taken is set here. The default is four, and there is a possible range between one and six.

Default co status

When a new company is entered to the system, it will be automatically allocated any Status Code entered here. For example, you might most often be entering new Companies first as prospects (as opposed to Clients), which could be coded as P1 - Prospect Type 1. Ensure that the Status chosen actually exists in the Status file (accessible using the Core Menu in the Data Manager).

Default cont status

This performs the same function as Default Co Status described above, but applies to contacts.

Default cont role

The Role is used to differentiate individual contacts within Companies, so the default Role for newly entered Companies and their first contact might be P, standing for Principal contact. This default is applied whenever a new contact is created. Ensure that the Role chosen actually exists in the Roles file (accessible using the Core Menu in the Data Manager).

Default person

If you are using Enterprise 6 as a Remote User, your initials should be entered here.

Dial synchronously (slower)

The [Dial] button in the buttons palette may be used to remotely dial the company’s number. If you have a compatible telephone, it will dial the number from the tones emitted by your computer’s speaker. Slowing down the speed with which these tones are generated will reduce the possibility of a wrong number.

Ignore prefix of

If you will use Enterprise 6 to dial your Companies in the manner described above and you have entered telephone numbers in the Companies file with dialling codes, even those in your own STD area, you are likely to generate a BT error. For example, if you work in the 0171 area, your ‘phone numbers are likely to be prefixed by this in the Companies data, but you cannot dial 0171 successfully. Enter here your STD code to prevent Enterprise 6 from dialling it.

Default sales person in company

Switch this on if newly entered Companies are to be given a default Sales Person as well as Taken by Person.

Default to call back if sales person

If, when entering a new company, someone’s initials are entered to the Salesperson field, and this check box has been switched on, Enterprise 6 will bring up a new Diary Item once the company has been entered. This can be switched off at an individual company level by means of the Call Back check box on the company screen.

Restrict company access if user pass.

If this is checked, those who log on at the User level will not have access to the full Companies selection criteria (ie the [More Choices] button on the Quick Search dialogue box will be disabled, preventing searching by, for example, accounting criteria). Limitations as to the number of pages of the company screen will also be imposed (page three, for example, contains information as to the Credit Status of the company).

Default salutation same as forename

If this box is checked, the name entered as the Forename will be copied across to the Salutation field. Obviously, you would only use this if your company only ever deals with people it knows well. Note that the function has a limited intelligence - it will only copy words to the salutation field, not individual letters as in initials are unlikely to be part of a salutation.

Don’t show job titles on addresses

Controls the format of Job Titles when printing letters or other documents.

Minus deletes only contact’s comp code This check box controls how contacts are deleted from the contacts included list on the company screen. It is only useful to have it switched on if you have contacts who are attached to more than one company (for example, freelance workers). If switched on, clicking the [-] button in the Buttons Palette, rather than wholly deleting the contact record, will only delete the reference to the company on screen in the contact’s list of Companies. This gives considerably greater data security. Without this option (or, indeed, if it is switched off), it would be very easy to delete the contact record completely without thinking whether this might have implications for other Companies to whom the contact might still be relevant.

Enter contacts dedup uses company details

If turned on, this setting will cause any details entered into the ‘Enter contacts’ preliminary screen concerning the company (ie Name, Town and/or Postcode) to be used during the deduplication search, in addition to the contact’s name. If so, when you enter eg ‘Joe Bloggs who works at BP, London’ where eg ‘Joeline Bloggs who works at BP, Liverpool’ already exists in the database, you will no longer be presented with ‘Joeline’ as a possible duplicate. You would only be warned if ‘Joeline’ worked in London. This is very useful for avoiding the irritation of frequently being warned of possible duplicates that are never likely to be anything to do with the one being entered, but gives less secure deduplication if ‘Joe’ works in both London and Liverpool.

Prevent use of unchecked contacts

If switched on, this setting means that whenever a contact is specified in another file (Diary, Orders, Invoices etc), the system will look at the Duplicate State of that contact record, and not allow the entry if it has not been checked (ie if the Duplicate State is not “C”). If the Duplicate State field is blank or contains any code beginning with either “D” (Duplicate) or “U” (Unchecked), then it will not be allowed. Note that this does not prevent the viewing and editing of the contact records themselves.

Capitalisation options

These radio buttons control the capitalisation rules applied when entering contact names, company Names and addresses and Product Names. Enterprise 6 automatically capitalises these fields according to the preferences set here. If, in an individual case, you are unhappy about the way Enterprise 6 capitalises what you have just typed, you can precede your text with an exclamation mark. Enterprise 6 will remove the exclamation mark but will otherwise leave the text as you have typed it.

Fully capitalise town

You may choose here whether Enterprise 6 will fully capitalise the name entered into the town field. Fully capitalised is the Post Office’s preferred format.

Use group and brand in product code

When constructing the Product Code, Enterprise 6 can concatenate the group, Brand and Model Codes, or simply use the Model Code. Determine your preference here. If you use the Model Code only, you should be aware that each Model Code must be unique, whereas with the concatenation method this need not be the case.

WP salutation, used if no name available

When using one of the Mailing functions in the WP volume, you can specify here what salutation to use on the documents created if there is no name available.