VSS CLIENT CONNECTION

AUGUST, 2002

 

MARK INFORMATION TIP:

USING THE CATALOG FILE

The Mark Information Systems software allows you to use a file called the CATALOG-FILE as a kind of “shadow file” of the PRODUCT-MASTER file. This file contains information about products that you do NOT carry and do NOT have in  your PRODCUCT-MASTER file. The objective is to have the information readily available without cluttering up the PRODUCT-MASTER file.

 

Most often the information is put into this file when you receive a disk from your vendor with all of their items. The “conversion” program updates the ifnormation on the items in your PRODUCT-MASTER file, and for those products that are not in your PRODUCT_MASTER file it will put the ifnormation (product number, description, cost, suggested prices, etc.) into the CATALOG FILE.  When you “search for” a product using an of the product searching options, these CATALOG records will be displayed along with the products in the PRODUCT MASTER file. However, they’ll be identified with an asterisk.

 

EXAMPLE:

Search for item:      TEST

ABC                        TESTING ITEM

XYZ  *                    ANOTHER TESTING ITEM

 

 

 

 

The purpose of this file is to create a kind of shadow file to the PRODUCT-MASTER without creating an unnecessarily large PRODUCT-MASTER file.

Ar/2/9 print customer labels – sort by alpha y/n…if yes..use the “sort alpha” (other features).

 

 

 

Enhancements to Automatic Cash Handling (ACH)/With Payments:

 

 

The ACH program has been enhanced so that the user may enter the bank’s CONFIRMATION# during the “check posting process”.   This confirmation number will be posted to the CHECK record and can be displayed on inquiry screens.

 

Although no actual check is produced in the ACH program a remittance advice is produced and depending on the vendor’s preference is printed, faxed or emailed showing the confirmation  number and the invoice numbers and amounts being paid.

 

  1. The ACH program now prompts for the banks and confirmation numbers. This is then added to the information in the CHECKS file and VOUCHERS file and can be displayed in inquiry screens.

 

  1. Although no actual check is produced in ACH transactions, a remittance advice is produced showing the invoices, invoice dates, invoice amounts and the bank confirmation number. Depending on the vendor’s preference this advice is then printed, faxed or emailed to the vendor.

 

The general processing of ACH payment is:

 

  1. A vendor is identified as an ACH vendor (meaning checks are not written to this vendor). This question has been added to the Vendor Master.

 

  1. Payments to these vendors are generated in the usual way just as they are for vendors for whom checks are produced.

 

  1. The proposed check register shows these payments separately and sub-totals them separately. Instead of assigning check numbers to these payments an ACH number is assigned.

 

  1. During check printing these payments DO NOT print, however, they do get posted to the VOUCHER file, marking the vouchers paid and they do appear on the check register.

 

  1. Each ACH payment is given a separate sequential ACH number that is used instead of a check number. In checking payment of a particular invoice, for example, instead of seeing a check number you would see a number such as ACH1001. This would show you that the payment was handled by an automatic debit. These entries may be voided, displayed or tracked just as any check would be.

 

  1. These entries to appear on check registers (although they are sub-totaled separately) as well as proposed check listings and bank reconciliation.

 

  1. In general these transactions are handled exactly as A/P checks are handled, however, no checks are printed and reports show them grouped separately with their own sub-total.

 

 

AUTOMATIC PURGING OF DATA FILES

 

VSS, Inc. has developed a series of programs that allow for the automatic purging of data files.  This program has the same functionality as the various purging programs that are in the MIS software package with the following advantages:

 

·         After an initial one-time setup the purging takes place automatically as a part of the phantom process during periods when the computer is inactive. (Setup screens shown below)

·         Several data files are included in this program for which there are no current purge programs within the MIS software.

·         Time-stamp files are purged by type.  When invoices are purged, the related time-stamp items are purged,  When POs are purged, the related time-stamps are purged.  Since the time-stamp file is one of the largest on the system it’s important to keep this file “pruned”.

·         Prod-history files may be purged by type which allows you to maintain (for example) 24 months of sales history and only 12 months of purchase/transfer history.

·         A purge log is automatically maintained so that you can see the date and time of the last purge of the file..and the most recent cut-off date (example below)

·         This menu includes an option for “cleaning” the inventory file.  This deletes inventory items that have never been used by the system in any way (the software automatically creates these records “on the fly” when needed)

 

 

SETUP SCREENS FOR AUTO PURGING:

First, you will indicate which files you want purged, and how many months of data you would want to keep for each file:

 

LN#        GROUP                  FILES

1              IC4                                          removes unused inventory files

2              AR1                                        paid invoices, time-stamp, prod-history-inv, invoice-reg

3              AR2                                        ar-openitem

4              AR3                                        cust-sales, applied-csh, ar-gl, collection messages

5              AR4                                        cust-rec-hist, cust-rec-hist-indx

etc.........

 

F=forward, line#, T=Time:      4

 

 

The next subscreen shows each of the files within the group.  Here you will indicate how many months of each file should be kept on your computer:

 

Group AR3

LN#                        FILE-NAME                                          MONTHS TO KEEP

1                              customer-sales                                     24

2                              applied-cash                                         24

3                              ar-gl                                                        24

4                              collection messages                            24

 

 

The final screen sets up the actual days and times that you would like this process to take place.  In this example, the process which run each Sunday at 1:00am

 

Day                         yes/no                    time to start

Monday n

Tuesday                n

Wednesday          n

etc.

Sunday                  y                              01:00:00

 

 

Given this sample setup the phantom process would purge the first “group” of files on Sunday, the second “group” on the following Sunday, etc.

 

 

PURGE LOG:

A purge log is automatically maintained:

 

PURGE LOG

LN           FILE                        LAST-RUN-DATE               LAST-TIME          CUT-DATE

1              adv prices

2              ap-exp-gl

3              applied-cash                         02/18/01 01:00:00  01/31/99

4              ar-gl                                        02/18/01 01:30:00  01/31/99

5              ar-openitem                           02/18/01 01:30:00  01/31/99

etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VSS, INC.

1017 CATAMARAN, #3, FOSTER CITY, CA 94404

(800) 942-2496

BETTY VENDIG: bvendig@aol.com

GARY ADAMIETZ:  gpadam@aol.com

NANCY ROSENBLAD:   nrbug@aol.com