AM-Win Support Solutions

The release of AM-Win version nine offered many enhancements. In our newsletter this month we look at three more of these enhancements;  stronger credit control through more powerful credit control options, credit hold and customer notes,  a high level of security with invoice line deletion tracking and the addition of a new statement manager that offers more flexibility when sending statements.

Credit hold / Terms and customer notes window

This now appears based on a control option to show the status of the customers account, the customer terms and any recorded customer notes.

An invoice on credit hold cannot be finalised.

To activate this feature, go to Others>Control system> Business Options, and under the Job/Invoice Tab, under Invoice Print Options tick the box which says “Show Credit Warning Message in jobs & Customer orders”. Then when you open up a new job or finalise a job, the notes screen will appear.

Credit Options

In the customer master file screen under the Accounts and membership tab, there are a few more options you can use.

You can set a term limit of 30, 60, 90 days. You can also place that particular customer on a credit limit of a certain amount of dollars by inserting a value into the credit limit screen. You can also use the tick box beside the credit limit screen which places the customer on credit HOLD. This means that any invoices done after the tick box is activated WILL NOT BE FINALISED until you disable the tick box.

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Security in Invoice Line Tracking (Insert, Change, Delete) ALT + N

AMWIN has an inbuilt security feature within the invoice module which tracks data being inserted, changed or deleted from an invoice. This feature records the user, time, date and item code of anything which is added to, changed or deleted from an invoice.

When a user adds, changes or deletes an item from an invoice the system will record the details and the details will be available by pressing the ALT + N buttons whilst the job is open.

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Statement Manager

There is a new quick and easy way to manage your statement printing! 

To access the statement manager, go to Reports>Statements>Statement Manager.  The Statement Manager screen will appear.    

From this screen you can then select the report type, and to choose the statement run month. 

Select any of the tick box options, then click on the Load button to get a list of the statements due to be sent out. 

From this list you can then select which statements you wish to send out by double clicking on each item to tick or un-tick. 

If the customer has the email documents ticked in the customer master file then the option to email will be seen in the Method column.  If you tick the email option the system will distinguish which statements are to be printed and which ones emailed.  

Click on the Print Button to process the statements and Exit button to exit.  

Statements are now available from within the main AM-Win menu.  Open Reports>Statements, then choose your normal statement run options.  

You can now select a different statement format than that of the invoice format.  To access this feature open the Others Menu>Control System>Print Options and then change the statement format to one of the 8 formats.    

Statements Company Details Option

Print a statement with or without your Company details by selecting the “print head details” option from a balance forward statement. Tick or un-tick the option as required.  

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Business Tips

What style of leader are you?

Naomi Simson

Naomi Simson, CEO and Founder of RedBalloon, left a serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon in 2001. Now Australia and New Zealand’s most awarded gift retailer, the company has been listed in the BRW fast lists for the past seven years.

It has been said that after meeting the great British Prime Minister William Gladstone, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world. However, after meeting his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the smartest.

It’s a great historical comment regarding leadership styles. I heard Liz Wiseman speak recently (co-author of Multipliers) on the topic. She asked participants to think of a boss who had made them feel great and as a result how we ‘performed’ for that boss. Then to think about a boss who made us feel smaller.

Liz outlined that leaders who make people feel smarter (multiply) as opposed to leaders who make people feel smaller (diminish) will get more than double the capability from those people. She said it is like releasing the power of genius in everyone. Growing without one additional team member.

There is an online test that you can do to find out if you are an ‘accidental’ diminisher – it is worth the ten minutes to complete.

I clearly remember my manager at Ansett Airlines never making time for me. I almost had to beg for her to see and review what ever I had been working on. If she did finally bestow some of her precious time on me I usually left feeling like an idiot because of the way she would say, ‘Why didn’t you….’

Contrast this to the manager I had at Apple a few years later who always prioritised our weekly one on one meetings. I felt she was truly interested. I felt I could ask questions, and that we ‘were in this together.’ The result? I worked ten times harder, I felt challenged, and was proud when I finished a project. I was definitely contributing my ‘genius.’

It is great to be authentic. It is what we want most from our leaders. But I am sure there is a way to be authentic without diminishing people’s efforts, to inspire them, challenge them and make them feel great about what they do every day.

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Return to a location in the computer on restart

Windows offers a method to automatically return to a location in the computer on restart, reopening folders from earlier work sessions. A couple of keystrokes and mouse clicks is all it takes to set it up.

Open Windows Explorer. A quick way to do that is to hold the Windows key and tap the E key (Win+E). Or, just click on Documents, Computer, etc. from the Start menu.

From the Tools menu at the top of the Explorer window, select Folder Options. In Vista or Windows 7, if the Tools menu isn’t visible, tapping the Alt key will bring it up temporarily.

Under the View tab, scroll down to Restore previous folder windows at logon and add a check mark.

Now, any folders that are open when the computer is shut down will reopen on startup.

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MS Word: Insert Text Boxes That Come With Their Own Pizzazz

If you find yourself using text boxes in Word and you want to make the content in a box stand out from all the rest of the text, and you want to move it around easily try the following tip.

When you insert a text box from the Insert tab, Shapes button, you get just that… a plain text box.

But what if you don’t have the time, or if you feel that you aren’t necessarily the most creative person when it comes to layout, instead of using the Shapes button to insert a text box, try the Text Box button located further to the right on the Insert tab.

This button opens up a palette of pre-designed text boxes that may be just what you’re looking to use.

The bonus to this is that, since the designs contain shapes instead of pictures, you can still use the Text Box Tools Format tab that opens to customise it further… change colors, shape, 3-D settings, shadowing, etc.

The difference between starting with one of these choices as opposed to a plain text box is clear – a basic style is there and you don’t have to be super creative to come up with it on your own. You can use it as is, or alter it with the available settings.

This option allows for customisation, it gives you a starting point, and still allows you to produce whatever look you need.

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Setting line spacing in Word 2007

The width of the space between each line is controlled by Line spacing, and is easily adjusted document by document.

Resetting the default, so that all new documents open with the preferred spacing, is slightly more involved, but not difficult. We’ll take a look at both methods here.

If you've just opened a document, under the Home tab of the ribbon at the top of the page, in the Paragraph section, you can find a button that controls line and paragraph spacing (hover your cursor over the buttons and a balloon will pop up telling you what each one does).

Click on the Line spacing button, check 1.0, and click Remove space after paragraph.

This will remove all the added spaces. If you've already started your document, you'll have to select all the text (Ctrl+A) or just select the text you'd like to adjust.

You can also change the default settings, so that all future documents open with these settings. Still under the Home tab, click the arrow in the lower right corner of the Styles section. This will open the Styles dialog box.

Click the Manage Styles button at the bottom (way at the bottom).

In the Manage Styles dialog box, under the Set Defaults tab, font style and size can be changed, along with paragraphs, and line spacing. I chose to change the font to Arial at 11 points. The spacing was adjusted to single spacing in the drop down list, with spacing set at 1.

To save this for future documents, click the radio button beside New documents based on this template and click OK.

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See Excel tips for Using an editable spreadsheet within an MS Word Document.

Microsoft Excel Tips

Using an editable spreadsheet within an MS Word Document

Sometimes it's necessary to present data in a Word document that really should be set up in Excel.

Word’s tables are great, but when it comes to calculations and numeric data displays, Excel wins hands down.

OK - So why not write the document within Excel so that the spreadsheet element is already there…

We could,  but the word processing portion of the document will be much more polished and easier to assemble in Word.

So how do we place an Excel spreadsheet into a Word document.

Take a look on the Insert tab of the Ribbon, Table button.

Select “Excel Spreadsheet“

Choose it and you’ll see this inserted into your document at the current location of the cursor.

Instantly, you have everything right here inside of Word that you need to get the data presentation you want.

The Ribbon flipped over to the Excel Ribbon, you have scroll bars to move through the spreadsheet and even tabs for multiple sheets.

Changing the size of the displayed portion of your worksheet is as easy as dragging the handles located around it when the spreadsheet is active.

When you’re done and ready to return to Word, simply click outside of the spreadsheet.

Whatever you had displayed when you clicked out of the spreadsheet is what you’ll see so be sure to re-size and have the Excel object showing exactly the information you need to display.

Editing the spreadsheet?

Double-click on the spreadsheet and it will open again giving you full access to edit as though you were using Excel instead of Word.

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Note:

Please note that we do not provide support for our Word and Excel tips as they are provided by a third party. If you need further information why not try using Google - Cut and paste the heading of our tip into Google's search box. You'll be amazed at the information available.

Whoops

OK - It's not a whoops video but it checks all of the boxes - it's quirky, funny and is filled with pathos. Thanks to the Team [again] from Bridge Mowers for their contribution. View it a couple of times because you'll miss bits the first time around.

Jokes

The first kiss

At the end of their first date, a young man takes his favorite girl home where he decides to try for that first kiss.

With an air of confidence, he leans with his hand against the wall and, smiling, he says to her, "Darling, how about a goodnight kiss?"

Horrified, she replies, "Are you mad? My parents will see us!"

"Oh, come on! Who's going to see us at this hour?"

"No, please. Can you imagine if we got caught?"

"Oh, come on. There's nobody around. They're all sleeping!"

"No way. It's just too risky!"

"Oh, please, please. I like you so much!"

"No, no and no. I like you too, but I just can't!"

"Oh, yes you can. Please!"

"No, no. I just can't."

"Pleeeeease!"

Suddenly the porch light goes on and the girl's sister shows up in her pajamas, hair disheveled.

In a sleepy voice, the sister says, "Dad says to go ahead and give him a kiss. Or, I can do it if you like. Or, if need be, he'll come down and do it himself. But for crying out loud, tell him to take his hand off the intercom button!"

Do you see that hat

Two young children are perched on top of a house during a flood. As they sit watching articles float by in the water, they noticed a large old hat go past.

Suddenly, the hat turns and comes back upstream. Then it turns around again and heads downstream. After it had gone some distance, again it turned and came back.

The children watched as it did this a number of times.

"Do you see that hat? First it goes downstream, then turns around and comes back, then it goes back down- stream and then it comes back again."

"Oh, it's only my Dad. This morning my Mom told him, "Come hell or high water you're gunna mow the lawn today."

When were his priors?

The police recently busted a man selling "secret formula" tablets he claimed gave eternal youth. The arresting officer and the desk sergeant went through their records.

"Look! This is the fifth time this guy has been arrested for this same criminal medical fraud."

"When were his priors?"

1694, 1756, 1898 and 1983."

Until next month

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