A REVIEW OF BOSS PACKAGE #121 – CLIENT PACKAGE
Here are two programs useful to a small business. “INVOICE” can be used for either keeping a file or generating a printer invoice or receipt for a group of customer sales. “QUOTE” may be used to figure out how much to charge a customer for product and services rendered.
“INVOICE” – This program is both a customer invoice and file program. It uses a unique method of compacting data and can be used to produce either a printed invoice or receipt. Additional data can be added until the computer’s memory is exhausted. No dimensionalizing is needed to the program lines to reach maximum capacity.
Instructions are given in the documentation to set the TAX amount and company letterhead information in actual program line.
Prompt #1 from the menu allows data to be entered with automatic invoice numbering with the first invoice in the file set to a number you specify and then asks for the name of the first customer and is followed by 6 more related prompts. On the eighth prompt, the first ITEM NAME will be asked. You will be allowed as many as 30 item entries. If you need more, another invoice will have to be prepared. An item such as “APPLES” may be entered here. The next prompt asks for “HOW MANY ITEMS?”. If You sold ten and a half pounds of apples, you would enter “10.5”. The next prompt asks for ITEM COST. If the apples are selling for 69 cents a pound, you would enter “.69”.
After entering all the items and the ITEM NAME prompt occurs, just press the ENTER key and you will be asked if you want a printed invoice. If you respond NO, the menu will return. If you respond yes, you will be instructed to set up the printer and enter a number which will indent the invoice print-out. This number must be between 0 and 32. If you have a 32 column printer, such as the TS-2040, enter “0” for this prompt. If you are using an 80 column printer and you want the print-out to be centered, the proper TAB number is derived in the following manner:
80 – 32 = 48 and 48/2 = 24 : 24 spaces + 32 characters + 24 spaces.
This means that the printer will print-out 24 blank spaces before each line with a maximum of 32 characters following and leaving a minimum of 24 blank spaces after that. The print-out should be centered on the paper if the paper is lined up in the printer correctly.
You will notice that all transactions are rounded off to 2 decimal places with trailing zeroes added and right margins justified. Even the item amounts use this format. This may seem confusing as an order for one apple when sold at 25 cents each is shown as “1.00”. Print-out becomes disordered when amounts exceed 9999.99.
Prompts 2 and 4 work pretty much the same way in locating data blocks to be edited or printed out. You will be asked to enter the customer name. For example, if your customer’s name is “GZORNENPLAT INDUSTRIES”, you can enter “GZ” for this prompt as you may feel that those first 2 characters would only be pertinent to that customer (unless GZEEBERNECK SUPPLIES bought something that week). A routine will then seach the data string and when “GZ” is encountered, the entire data block for that invoice will be displayed on the screen in its compressed form. You will notice a lot of question marks in between the data items. These are the visual representation of character codes that are not normally used but are used in this program as data separators. Even though they look the same as each other, they represent 38 different codes and are the secret to what makes this program compact data so efficiently.
You will be asked if this is the correct data block. If you have more than one invoice in the file for that customer and the one displayed is not correct, answer “N” and the program will search for the next one.
To edit, each entry will be displayed, one at a time. If an entry is not to be changed, just press the ENTER key, otherwise, enter the correct data.
Prompt 3 allows the user to save the data on tape with a file name. The saving and loading time will be directly proportional to the amount of data held in the program.
An interesting thing you may try is to BREAK the program and enter “PRINT A$”. This will show all the data that can be displayed on the screen in its compacted form.
“QUOTE” – This program is to be used to estimate how much it would cost to do some work for someone such as putting storm & screen windows on a home or work on a car.
Information is given in the documentation for setting the TAX amount so that only materials and not labor will be taxed.
The program starts by prompting you for the JOB NAME. This can be the customer’s name and then the prompt NUMBER OF INSTALLATIONS appears. If more than one identical job are to be done, the program will later total all the appropriate areas on the print-out. The next prompt, “ARE MATERIAL COSTS TO BE ITEMIZED (Y/N)?” is handled in the following manner:
In most quotes, the materials are itemized. However, if the same type of materials are used over and over again where only the labor is different, the materials need not be itemized and the answer to this prompt would be no.
We are shown the prompt ITEM? If we had a landscaping company, our first material item might be called SOD.
The prompt COST appears. Here, the cost amount of each portion of SOD would be entered.
The prompt <QUANTITY> asks you how many sets or packages of SOD are needed. The user needs to enter how many sets of SOD at that price are to be used. If other SOD at a different price is to be used, it has to be entered as another ITEM.
If the COST was entered as 245 and the QUANTITY as 1, then the following format is displayed:
ITEM COST QUANT EXTEND SOD 245 1 245
The next ITEM to be entered might be FERT for fertilizer (8 char. max) which costs 1.98 per bag. The QUANTITY could be 27 bags for each lawn. Now the displayed format shows:
ITEM COST QUANT EXTEND FERT 1.98 27 53.46
You will notice that the EXTEND column shows the extended amount for that material item which multiplies the COST times the QUANTITY.
If we have no more materials to enter at this point, for the ITEM prompt we just press ENTER.
The total material cost is now displayed. A prompt for print-out will also appear.
We now will move on and start entering the labor costs.
Before we continue, it would be a good idea to explain that the labor is divided into two areas, SHOP LABOR and OUTSIDE LABOR. I purposely used an example where we could see both. If one or the other is not used, do not itemize that area and ENTER <0> for the total labor amount in that area when asked.
The prompt ITEM in this mode can be the employee’s name or employee number. ENTER <S. JONES>. Let us say that Sam Jones makes 5.00 per hour. ENTER <5> for the COST prompt. Let us say that it takes Sam 7 hours and 15 minutes to cut and prepare the SOD from the sodfarm. This figure must be converted to its decimal equivalent. The QUANTITY prompt is asking for how many hours Sam will work. ENTER <7.25>.
Again, the format is displayed. Notice that the <5> in the COST column immediately follows the name <S. JONES>.
George Peters is going to load the sod and fertilizer on the trucks. He gets paid 4.50 an hour and it will take him 2 hours and 20 minutes to do it.
George is the last employee to perform shop labor, so for the next item prompt we would just press ENTER.
The totals for SHOP LABOR are now displayed and again a print-out prompt would be displayed.
ON SITE LABOR TO BE ITEMIZED?
Sam Smith, an employee, has a specialty of laying the SOD. He gets 5.00 per hour and it will take him 5 1/2 hours to do the job.
Tom Thumb, another employee, is an expert at fertilizing the lawns and is paid a wage of 4.25 an hour for his services and it will take him about 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete his work.
Since there are no more employees in this area, the totaled data will be displayed.
OVERHEAD – (% OF DIR LABOR)
This prompt asks you how much more, percentagewise you want to charge your customer for labor. In other words, do you want to mark your labor up 50%, 100%, 200% or what?
Now the prompt PROFIT (% OF JOB COST) appears. This prompt asks you – of the total costs incurred so far including the mark-up for labor costs, what would be the percentage you want added to that sub-total for your profit margin?
If the proper data is entered, the job quote will appear on the screen. A print-out prompt also appears.
The Client Package #121 sell for 19.95 from us (subscribers can now deduct 25% on this and all other BOSS software).
Sample invoice from first program:
YOUR COMPANY
123 45TH ST.
ANYTOWN, NY, 11111
(555) 555-5555
DATE OF SALE - 11/11/83
XYZ LTD.
123 45TH ST.
ANYTOWN
IL
66666
987-6543
INVOICE NUMBER 1235
AMOUNT ITEM COST EA. COST
10.50 APPLES 0.69 7.24
5.25 ORANGES 0.89 4.67
7.75 PEACHES 0.89 6.89
---------------------------------
SUB-TOTAL = 18.80
TAX = 1.12
TOTAL = 19.92