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Stocktaking with hand
held scanners
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“Free” Alternative to
Microsoft Office (Excel/Word)
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Copy to last month
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Contract rates for jobs
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Cashdraw
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Quote – valid to date
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Recurring jobs
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New job costing report for
general ledger users
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BACKUPS
This
newsletter assumes that you are running the latest version of Rees2000.
You can update your version of Rees2000 via main menu option 14.8.
Easier stocktaking.
We have been getting a lot of feed back over the last 12 months on how
difficult and time consuming it can be to do a stocktake and then enter
the results into the computer. To make it easier to enter the stock count
into the computer we have added two new options to Rees2000. First, the
stock take report ( 2.11.7) has been altered to add the ability to
“Create Spreadsheet TXT file? Y/N”. If you choose to create the
spreadsheet file, it can be opened in a spreadsheet program, such as
Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice (see below) to allow you to quickly type in
the results of the stock count. The spreadsheet file has the stock list in
the same order as it appears on the printed stock count list. Once you
have entered the stock counts into the spreadsheet, it can be save in the
same TXT format and then you use the second new option
“Import stock take from file” (2.2.6). This option will load
the spreadsheet file and enter the stock counts into the Rees2000 system
with an optional audit report being printed. You will need a version dated
14-Apr-2003 of Rees2000 or later to use these 2 new options.
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Stocktaking
with hand held bar scanners
Hand held devices, which can be used to collect stock take data, are
becoming more common and affordable. As mentioned in “Easier
stocktaking” above, we have added a new option “Import stock take from
file” (2.2.6). This option can also be used to import stocktaking data
from a hand held device. All that is required is that the file produced
from the hand held device is stored in a format that can be imported into
Rees2000. The file only requires 2 fields. Field 1 is the product bar code
(or stock code) and field 2 is the stock count. These 2 fields are
separated by a TAB character and each record must be separate by a CR/LF
character pair. If you wish to use bar code scaning hand held devices you
should ensure that the supplier of the device can give you instructions on
how to produce the appropriately formatted file. Alternatively you may use
a spreadsheet program to rearrange the file, that the hand held device
produces, to suit the Rees2000 format.
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“Free” Alternative to Microsoft Office
Many of you use spreadsheet and/or word processor programs. Some would
like to have occasional use but can not justify the cost for the amount of
use that the programs would
provide. There is a alternative to Microsoft Office which is available on
the Internet at www.openoffice.org. This program is mostly compatible with
Microsoft Office file formats and can be downloaded and used free of
charge. The bad news is that the download file is very big, about 60
megabytes last time I looked, so if you do not have a high speed Internet
connection it will take many hours to download. Please note that Rees
Software & Systems Ltd do not endorse or provide support for this
program. If you are interested in using OpenOffice please visit their web
site for more details.
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Copy to Last month
Copy
to Last month is a procedure that we have created to copy your entire
Rees2000 data folder to another folder, normally called LMONTH and change
the colour to green.
This
is done just prior to your month end for Debtors.
You have entered all your invoices and credits for the month,
posted the invoices, entered and reconciled all receipts and are at the
stage where you are ready to print your statements and other month end
reports. Before you
print these reports, take a back up of your Rees2000 data and copy to last
month (there should be an icon on your screen, or on your windows start
menu for this procedure).
After
the last month copy has finished, log back into your Rees2000 program and
take a look at your event log (menu option 14.5) print the events for
today to the screen and it should show you that the copy to last month
completed OK. Then perform
your period end for Debtors (menu option 1.15).
Don’t worry that statements aren’t printed or other month end
reports, this is the joy of copying to another location.
After your period end is complete you can let everyone else back
into the system.
Now
log into your Last Month data and print your statements.
Reports are also printed from here, but at your leisure.
Some of the advantages of the copy to last month feature include:
a)
Shortens the down-time period at month end
b)
Allows you to print statements at a convenient
time, without locking others out of the system
c)
Gives you a window of time (a month) in which you
can print your month end reports (or reprint them) – as the copy is only
done once a month
d)
Great for lookup purposes
e)
A secondary back up (even though only to hard
disk)
f)
Ability Re-print client statements that ‘got’
lost in the post
If you don’t have the copy to last month feature,
contact our office for assistance to set up, it’s well worth it.
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Contract Rates for Jobs
You
can now attach contract rates to jobs, enabling you to charge time to a
job at a determined set of rates different to your existing individual
labour’s charge out rates. This
feature would normally be used for contract jobs.
Say
you contract a job with a client for 100 hours.
You calculated your quote on a rate of say $45 per hour for the
first 90 hours with 10 hours overtime at $56 per hour.
You can set that job up to charge all labour to that job
automatically to $45 ph rate 1 and $56 rate 2, allowing up to 6 different
charge out rates for this job even though the individuals working on the
job have various labour rates for ordinary non-quoted jobs.
The
contract rates are set up under Rees2000 menu option 6.16 Special Job
Labour Rates. You can set up
26 different contract rates, from A to Z, with each rate allowing six
different charge outs.
For
example
Special
Rate A ‘Major Contracts over $2 m’
Rate
1 $ 45 - for ordinary time
Rate
2 $ 56
- for time & half
Rate
3 $ 65
- for double time
Rate
4 $ 75 - for Statutory Days
Rate
5 $ 80
- for Call Out – hours 1 –3
Rate
6 $ 90
- for Call Out – hours 4 – onwards
Special
Rate B – ‘ Major
Contracts
$1 m and over’
Rate
1 $ 46
Rate
2 $ 58
Rate
3 $ 68
Rate
4 $ 80
Rate
5 $ 85
Rate 6 $
95
To
ensure the job uses the special labour rate either: a) When you set up the
client either under menu option 1.1 Set up clients set the labour rate you
wish to set them on (this should only be done if all jobs for this client
are to use this special labour rate), or b) when jobs are added set the
job to the special labour rate you wish to use.
Please
note these special labour rates only work under job costing, should you
invoice time to the client under invoicing (Rees2000 menu option 4.1)
these rates will not be used by default.
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Cashdraw
Two
new settings have been entered into Rees2000 to enhance the use of a
cashdraw to allow individual company customisation.
Currently
if you have a cashdraw installed on your PC then if you press F12 the
cashdraw will open. This is
to allow for manually opening the cashdraw, however now this F12 feature
is optional and can be set under Rees2000 menu option 14.14 (password =
SETUP) on Page 4, ‘Allow F12 to open Cashdraw?’
Another
new option is the ability for the cashdraw to open automatically when
doing Client Payments Received (Menu option 1.2).
If you have a cashdraw installed and you set this option (also
under 14.14 on Page 4), as Yes to open, then the cashdraw will ping open
on every client payment received from a PC that has the cashdraw
installed.
These
features are available from our version release dated 9 April 2003.
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Quote
– Valid To date
Under
the quote section (Rees2000 menu option 4.4) there is now a field in enter
a ‘valid to’ date when entering a quotation.
This valid to date can be printed on your quotations provided you
have a standard quotation layout (i.e. do not have a special customised
layout written for your company). To
print the valid to date on the invoice go to Rees2000 menu option 4.14
Page 2 and answer Yes to ‘Print “Valid To:’ date on Quotes?’
The Valid to date would print in the middle of the line at the base
of the quote prior to the quote totals and GST content.
If
you have a customised quote you can contact our office for an alternation
to your existing quote layout should you wish to take advantage of this
feature.
In
line with this new field we have altered our program code with regards to
how the quote number is automatically entered into a client invoice header
to provide the client with the quoted prices of the goods purchased. We are specifically talking about two setup options
within Rees2000 (menu option 14.14 password = SETUP), page 2 ‘ Enter
Quote # on invoice header’ and ‘Default to latest quote #’. If you have answered Yes to both these questions the program
will automatically insert the latest quote number in the invoice header
provided that:
a)
The quote has been accepted. Each quote can have an acceptance date entered in the header
of the quote indicating that it has been accepted.
b)
The Valid To date on the quote is greater than or
equal to the default invoice date.
By
attaching the quote number to a client’s invoice you will ensure that
the client is charged the quoted prices if they purchase items that are on
this quote, unless there is a special price for the item at the time of
purchase that is lower than the quoted price.
These
features are available from Rees2000 Release date 14 April.
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Recurring
Jobs
We
have had the ability to create recurring entries in the invoicing,
creditors and cashbook modules for several years.
Now we have added the job-costing module to this list.
Standard jobs can be set to re-generate based on your selection
criteria.
How
does this work?
To
activate this ability see Rees2000 menu option 14.14 (password = SETUP) on
Page 3 answer Yes to the question ‘Allow Recurring Jobs and Job
Frequency?’
If
you have your job flagged to Recall on the Set up Job header (Menu option
6.1) and entered the first recall date, you then have two extra fields to
complete, ‘DWMY’ and ‘Every’.
In the ‘DWMY’ indicate the recall required i.e. daily, weekly,
monthly or yearly, then under ‘Every’ the frequency i.e. 1, 2, 3 etc.
If, for example, you enter W and 2, this will set the job to recur
on a weekly basis every 2 weeks (i.e. Fortnightly).
To
create the new jobs, run the routine found under menu option 6.11.28
‘Create / List Recurring Jobs’. This
report will create and/or list the jobs that should be created based on
the recall date range you selected. When
you use this option to create the new jobs the original job is unflagged
as a Recall and the new job is created with the recall setup as per your
original job, but with a new first recall date based on your frequency
specifications.
NB
Only one job will be created per recurring job, i.e. if your job is set to
recall from 01/05/03 on a daily basis and you run the option to create
recurring jobs for the date range of 01/05/03 to 07/05/03 only one job
will be created (i.e. for 01/05/03).
This
feature is available from the Release date of 19 March 2003.
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New
Job Costing report for General Ledger users
A
new work in progress report (menu option 6.11.27) has been introduced to
more accurately reflect the true cost of stock that is currently in Work
in Progress. The report
is based on stock cost and excludes all items that have their cost
excluded from interfacing to the General Ledger.
??
Confused, don’t be. The
original work in progress report (menu option 6.11.21) is accurate as far
as Work in Progress goes, but does not provide you with a cost value of
stock that is allocated to a job, i.e. the Work in Progress report at cost
(6.11.21) includes items entered to jobs via stock codes that aren’t
actually stock items. Items
such as freight, tolls, booking fees, and other such sundry charges are
added to jobs, but when the job is invoiced do not impact on your stock on
hand.
This
new report Stock on Work in Progress eliminates all these items from the
work in progress to provide you with an accurate value of true ‘stock’
at cost on jobs but not invoiced. Use
this report together with Stock summary reports (menu options 2.11.15 and
2.11.27) to determine your total Stock on hand at any given time.
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Rees2000
Hot-Tip:
It’s
not whether you are right or wrong, it’s where you can lay the blame.
BACKUPS!
Yes,
we are harping on the same old tune yet again.
Back ups are vital, they are your insurance against computer
failures, meltdown, system crashes, virus’, etc, etc, etc the list keeps
going on.
Over
the years we feel that we have surely done this subject to death. Over and over again we reiterate the importance of having a
good back up system. A back
up system that not only backs up your data but also compares the back up
to the original information. A
back up that is done regularly (this means every day you use the system). A back up on a good reliable media such as zip, CD, ORB or
tape. Floppy disks are NOT
appropriate or reliable. One
client recently had a crash, they were using floppy disks to back up their
data, but only one set, overwriting the data each day.
Their hard disk died and one of the seven floppy disks could not be
read. They had nothing. An
expert worked for several days to recover the data, but this was
unsuccessful and the company had to newly install the software and
re-commence their systems from scratch.
It
is often only when a back up is needed that you discover that they
haven’t been working. Check
your back up, have your technician restore your back up to an alternative
directory on a regular basis to ensure they are working.
Regularly re-format and replace your media.
Don’t
rely on your ‘Copy to Last Month’ as your backup, what happens if your
server’s hard disk dies? Don’t
rely on Rees2000 menu option 14.21 as your back up.
There is no guarantees that this feature will copy all relevant
data and it is there as a secondary back up mainly for Rees Software &
Systems Ltd purposes only to obtain data quickly that we know is in a
format that we can read, it should not be a your primary back up
option.
Just
recently we have another client who’s experience should raise the hairs
on your neck. Their tape back
up was not working; it had been out of action for months.
They got a local technician in to fix or replace the tape unit.
From our understanding of events the technician removed the tape
back up software from the PC. While
this standard routine was running it also deleted other folders and files
including the complete Rees2000 data files.
The company was of course without a back up, that was what the
technician was there to sort out. They
had to have a fresh install of Rees2000 and re-key from printouts opening
balances, customer databases, supplier database, cashbook, General Ledger,
and stock master files.
The
cost even of time alone was horrendous, there was also a financial cost
for services to try and retrieve this lost data.
This happen at their financial year-end.
Just imagine this happening to your company.
These
cases are not in isolation; we have had reports of several companies that
back up numerous ways that have not been working correctly.
We have been able to assist them to a limited extent by taking
their last month copy but they were lucky.
Several of the incidents were where the tape or CD was on a
scheduler to automatically back up over night.
Here
at Rees we regularly restore our backups to a secure offsite server as an
extra precaution. We are, of
course, paranoid about our backups but that’s only because we are smart
enough to learn by other people’s mistakes.
We
suggest you take the time, call your hardware technician and check up your
back up systems now.
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