XpertMart Quick Start Guide: Invoicing & End of Day Reports

XpertMart^™ Quick Start Guide

Lesson 12:
Invoicing & End of Day Reports

User Manual Chapters to Read
Topic: Invoices
Topic: Return Credits for Customers
Topic: End of Day Reports
Topic: How to Practice with XpertMart™

Other Resources
Point of Sale Video
Cheat Sheet: How to Make a Sale
Cheat Sheet: How to Make a Return

Lesson
Before you actually start ringing up customers you probably want to practice making sales and performing other point of sale transactions first. To do this, you will want to make a copy of your database and rename it MainPractice.gdb. Then go to Configure>File Configure>Database and change the configuration so that XpertMart™ uses this duplicate database. This way you can make dummy sales that will not affect your real inventory. Just remember to switch the configuration back to Main.gdb when you are done! Since you changed the configuration, you will have to close XpertMart™ and go back in for the change to take effect.

Now let's practice.

Go to Transactions>Sales. Start by making a very simple sale. Skip the Client section and jump straight to the Items Area. Enter one item by typing in an item number (e.g. 42) and then jump to the payments area under Tender Type. Select Cash. Press <F12> and pretend to give the cusotmer change. If the total amount is $19.00 then enter $20 in the Tendered Amount field. That's it. You just made a sale.

Just as it did with Receiving, pressing <F12> means a copy of the transaction gets stored in Documents, a paper copy of the sale prints out (if you've configured it right) and the right quantities are subtracted from inventory. See for yourself. Go to Documents>Invoices and do a Query to pull up the sale you just made. Next, go to the Styles Catalog and find the Style you just used in the invoice. Click on the matrix. Finally, go to the Items Catalog and check the Audit Log for the item you just sold. You should see an entry in the Audit Log for the Invoice you just made and the stock subtracted acordingly.

Now that you understand the basics, you can practice more complicated sales. Go back to Transactions>Sales and ring up a new sale, only this time we're going to add a customer. In the Clients area click on the zoom button to open the Clients Catalog, exactly the same way you would open the Vendors Catalog from the Styles Catalog, for example. You are looking at the Clients Catalog. Since you have yet to add a new customer or client, the records bar shows three ?s. Don't forget to click the New Record button. Then enter a name and address. For now, don't worry about all of other fields in the Clients Catalog. Click Save when you are done and close. You are back in the Invoicing screen only now you've entered a customer. Complete the sale as before.

Let's practice doing a sale with a repeat customer. Open the Invoicing screen again. This time, in the Clients Area instead of zooming out we are going to use the Index/Name field to find the customer you just created. This is a drop-down menu that works exactly like all the others you've used so far. The lookup goes last name first. So if you created a customer called John Smith you will want to type "S" and then press <Enter>. Since there is only one customer in the database right now that starts with "S" it will pull up Smith, John automatically. As your database grows in size there will be multiple customers whose last name starts with "S" and they will appear in the drop-down menu. Note that you can also lookup a customer in the Invoicing screen through their phone number. Now that you've found the customer you created proceed to complete the sale as before.

Repeat as necessary. Moving on, this time practice making sales that have more than one item. Change the quantity being sold and practice delete an item from the invocing screen. Next, make a few sales where you practice giving discounts: start by givng item discounts and then practice giving global discounts. ow make some sales using different payment types such as checks and credit cards. Finally, practice taking different tender types. For example, ring up a sale and when you get to the Payments Area enter cash. Then move the cursor to the Net column and change the quantity being paid to $5.00. Now click under Tender Type and add a new row, this time for credit card. Complete the transaction.

Keep practicing until it's second nature. Practice different scenarios where something goes wrong: the customer changes his mind and you need to close the screen (by pressing <F12>), the customer thinks they are going to pay cash then realize they don't have any and need to pay by credit card, you started ringing up a sale and forgot to enter a discount for an item on sale, and so on.

Once you are very comfortable with Invoicing, let's move on to Returns. Start by making a sale and creating a new customer, some very obvious name that's easy to remember such as George Washington. Sell this customer 2 of the same item and press <F12>. Now go to Transactions>Returns. In the Client area enter George Washington as the customer. Now in the items area enter the same item you just sold to George and use a quantity of one. Note that you do not need to use a -1 since you are in the Returns screen. A +1 in Returns is the same as a -1 in Invoicing. Now go to Tender Type and select store credit.

Go to the Main Menu and go to Catalogs>Clients>Clients. Do a Query for George Washington to pull up his record. Look for the field called Return Credit. You should see a balance there equal to the item he bought and returned (plus any tax). Now click on the Audit button in the toolbar. You will see George's complete transaction history here: the sale he made and the return, so far.

Now go back to Transactions>Sales and sell George a new item. Pick an item that is less expensive than the first one you sold. This time select Store Credit as the Tender Type. Notice that George's remaining balance will print on the sales ticket. Once again go to the Client Catalog and lookup George's record. You should see his new return balance which reflects the purchase he just made with his store credit. Finally, go back to the Invoicing screen and have George buy a new item. Select Store Credit as the tender type. This time the store credit will not be enough to purchase the item and you will have to enter a second tender type to make up the difference. Repeat this exercise as many times as necessary until you feel comfortable with the complete cycle: sale, return, redeem store credit.

Once you are done practicing sales and returns, practice running your End of Day Reports. Go to Reports>Documents>Invoices and run the Sales Journal with Detail. Then run the Merchandise Journal with Detail. Finally, run the Payments Journal with Detail. Study these reports and make sure you understand them. When you are done, don't forget to switch the configuration back to Main.gdb.

Congratulations! You are ready to open for business.

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