★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ INSTOCK|8000PLUS) ★ |
| Instock | Applications Bureautique |
Instock comes on a separate disc although, like everything else it can be called up from the main menu. At first glance it seems to have all the sophistication of the Intact accounts package but perhaps not the same amount of flexibility. It works on the same principle with the user have to create a part description first. This is a very thorough document covering fields for a product group, cost price ex VAT, selling price ex VAT, uplift group, bin location, supplier, supplier part no., VAT percentage, lead time in weeks, safety stock level, minimum stock and maximum stock. Last of all there is space for an alternative part number which allows you to make sure that your customer is offered a similar suitable part if what he ordered is not available. At first sight the particular set-up might not ideally suit a user's particular needs. Companies who, for example, don't use bin numbers, could reuse that field for something quite different to adapt it to their needs. The manual suggests taking some time in setting up to see how the system works with regard to a particular business and more importantly how to take best advantage of the more sophisticated aspects of the program. Wise advice. One useful feature is an average cost worked out from the starting point of the cost price listed at this time and updated automatically from the total cost price which you would input every time you log goods into stock, a relatively simple exercise. Your horoscope Potentially the most exciting part of the program would seem to be the Suppliers Orders section. This could be regarded as a horoscope for stock buying, although with a greatly improved chance of success. It looks at the average demand for a particular part and then suggests what order should be placed with the supplier. It does not just produce a simple average as the program takes more consideration of more recent demand so you are not liable to be caught out by the sudden success of a particular product. It also takes into account the lead time and the safety stock set in the stock record so it would be wise to make sure that these are as accurately as possible. If they are not you cannot blame the program. Admittedly it can take a few minutes to work this out, but everything being equal it is likely to be considerably quicker and more accurate than trying to do this manually. It also gives some sort of scientific basis to what in many companies is an art rather than a craft. Naturally the user cannot take this suggested list of orders purely at face value. Other factors which cannot be allowed for have to be taken into consideration. For example a company selling Christmas trees would have to look at the computer's predictions for the month of December very carefully. Of course it will just ignore new products that do not have a history but this would hopefully all be covered by old fashioned common sense. The system does allow you to keep a close check on prices,printing a price list on request and applying a discount if requested. This makes it easy to produce a different price list for trade and retail customers. In the same way you can update the prices, setting the percentage you want the prices to rise by for the product or group you have chosen. You also have a comprehensive ability to extract stock reports from the machine giving five different types of reports. It could take a while to decide what report actually suited your needs but at least the choice is there. The other side of the package allows you to keep control of the output side of you stock. You are back again to the old task of 'creating' customers and there is the ability again to divide them up into type of business or geographic area. You then move on to the order processing section which makes use of all the information processed through the stock control and customer update module. This allows you to process customer orders, checking as you go if the goods are in stock. It will print invoices including a friendly (or unfriendly) message from the company, which can be updated as regularly as you want. It also prints credit notes and a summary of all the invoices and credit notes raised in a particular period.
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