AMWin - Computer software for service industry business.

National Support took calls from over 50 new users who "went live" on the first of July and on behalf of our National Support Team I apologise for any delays in handling your support calls before, during and after the end of year.

Vicky, formerly from National Support, transferred to Onsite Training and has been out and about training these new users both prior to and after EOY and while Christine has joined us it recently it will be a while before she has the skills to handle high level support.

Our goal is to achieve a 100% satisfaction rating from all of our clients and to ensure that this goal is achieved we apologise in advance to all users while we are currently seeking two more people who know AM-Win backwards to work in our National Support Centre in Queensland .

In the mean time on behalf of the AM-Win Team around Australia I wish you all a prosperous New Financial year.

John Jeffrey
AM-Win National Marketing Director

Marketing Director John Jeffrey has announced that Future Auto Service Centres, one of the fastest growing automotive networks in Australia, have selected AM-Win to manage their workshops Australia wide.

John says that the experience and expertise gained by the AM-Win Team while working with other major vehicle repair franchises and the fact that AM-Win has experienced Distributors and Consultants throughout Australia and New Zealand make AM-Win a perfect fit for the needs of the Future Auto Service Centres Franchise Group.

Have you ever needed to buy in a part for a job in progress that you would never stock in a million years and that you never expect to need or see again.

Enter the buy in button.

The Buy In button can be found in the job invoicing screen and is designed to enable you to enter a non stocked item [buy-in] from the supplier invoice [which is automatically processed on finalisation of the invoice] while at the same time allocating the purchased item onto the Job.

This is designed for a a Buy In of 1 item only, with the stock item being specifically bought in for the job. The entire entry is handled through the ledgers, and the sale and purchase of item are allocated to 6030 and 7030 in the ledgers.

When you click on the Buy In button the following screen appears:-

Only basic information is required to be entered, such as the Supplier Code, invoice number, cost and description. The mark-up % will prompt to 150% mark-up, but this can be overridden if required. If the mark-up % is changed, then the selling prices will be automatically recalculated on the bottom half of the screen, which is the price which will be charge to the customer. This information will be used for the system to process the supplier invoice and update all required areas of the program.

On the bottom half of the screen, fill in the description of the item as you wish it to appear on the invoice and a discount rate if applicable

Reversing a posting in the Bank Rec Screen

If you have posted a balance in your bank rec screen by mistake it can be reversed - Here's how.

When you work for yourself, and have no one to report to, it’s easy to avoid setting goals for yourself.

Take the time every three months - even if its only five minutes - and write down your goals.

You will be amazed how setting goals will focus your thinking and help you prioritise your daily activities, and you will be amazed where those two things will take you. It’s a discipline. You can thank yourself later.

Note: Important Read - Even if you do your backups every night.

Reports and anecdotes from our Distributors after the end of financial year [and during the year] make it obvious to us that many of our clients do not understand what happens when a computer backup occurs.

And those same anecdotes make it obvious that some users don't even do backups.

In this newsletter we are going to cover what happens when you backup your data so that you will have an understanding of why it is so important for you to carefully follow the rules when it comes to backing up your data.

What's a backup:

A backup is where you take a copy your business data [invoices, bookkeeping, reports, debtors and creditors ledger, etc etc] to a place away from your computer and office, so that should something happen to your computer, [hard drive failure, data corruption] or your office, [fire, theft], your business data is safe and can be subsequently copied back to another computer thus allowing your business to continue operating as usual.

What happens during a backup

When you backup your data to whatever backup media you currently use [disk, CD, Zip Drive, Memory Stick etc ] the files containing your data are copied onto the backup media. Then because your backup media is portable you can now take the backup media with its copy off site where it's safe.

OK - What happens now.

In theory should a disaster occur it should now be a simple matter of copying [restoring] the data back onto a computer and continue operating.

Why in theory

AhHa - we're glad you asked.

Murphy always kicks you when you're down. While CD's and memory sticks provide a very stable environment they can still go wrong, particularly in a dusty office environment. [If you think your office is spotless pull your monitor or computer out from it's resting place and look behind it]. Chances are that Murphy will be looking over your shoulder following a break-in or computer crash, and this will be the time when your backup didn't work because of faulty backup media and you haven't got a copy of your data.

Now to the backup rules.

You can prevent Murphy's intervention by following the most basic rule of backing up. This is:

Backup every night and use a different set of media each time you backup. In simple terms if you use a CD as your backup media you MUST use a different CD for each day of the week.

Why - Let's look at the situation mentioned above. We backed up our data on Monday and Tuesday night and we used a different CD on each night. Our computer failed on Wednesday morning.

We tried to copy our data back off of Tuesday night's backup CD and it failed. We can now turn to Monday night's backup CD and once that's copied we only have one day's data to re-enter.

There is another important reason for using a different set of media every time.

When a computer copies a file it always overwrites a file of the same name

Example - lets say that your debtors ledger file is called debtors.file. If we copy debtors.file from your computer to a backup CD and a file called debtors.file already exists on your backup CD then that debtors.file will be overwritten with the file from your computer. Multiply the number of files being overwritten by about 70 and you'll realise that any data that was "safely" stored on your backup CD has now been obliterated and replaced by those from your computer.

So what - I've still got a backup.

Exactly - a backup. You have one backup or copy of your data because you have been overwriting your previous backups each and every time you have been backing up.

If you follow the rule of "Backup every night and use a different set of media each time you backup" you'll be OK because, should Murphy strike you'll have another or several backups [or copies of your data] to use should one or more be faulty.

But that means I have to buy a year's supply of CD's to backup to.

Not necessarily - one for each day of your trading week should do it. So if you're open Monday to Friday you'll need 5 CD's - one for each day of the week marked accordingly. Now on Monday night you'll use the CD marked Monday and if you overwrite the data on the CD it will be data from last Monday night - ie week old data. By rotating your backup media you'll always have at least 5 copies of your data should Murphy strike you down.

Footnote.

It's always a good idea to replace one of your backup CD's every couple of months in case they do get damaged in some way. For example in January you might replace Monday night's CD, In March you replace Tuesday night's CD etc etc.

It's also a good idea to check that your backup has been working as well. Open windows explorer [start+E key] and navigate to your CD drive [often labelled E] and check to see that your data files are on the CD and that the date shown next to the file is as it should be. If in doubt always check with your consultant or with National support. It's always best to be safer than sorry later.

Following several instances over the end of financial year, where clients on networks had faulty backups with corrupted data our technicians have asked that we publish the following reminder to network supervisors - or those that are responsible for backing up data. on the network.

It is imperative that all users are out of and not using AM-Win when you backup your data. Should a user on the network be using AM-Win files they will not be backed up, resulting in only a partial and therefore useless backup.

Anecdotal evidence from our techs around Australia confirms that while you ask your users not to have AM-Win open while a backup is in progress, there is always someone who doesn't understand [or care about] the importance of the situation, and who dives back in for whatever reason.

Please ensure that every user on the network [even those who rarely access it] understand why they have been requested to close and stay out of AM-Win while you backup your data, and, are fully aware of the consequences of breaking the rules.

		Christine New As most of our National Support Centre clients would be aware now, we have a new face ["voice"] at the National Support centre. Christine New started with us several weeks ago as receptionist and is well underway to familiarising herself with you all. Chris is very chirpy and friendly and is also rapidly gaining knowledge of the Am-Win program and within a few months will be able to do low level support. We would like to thank you for your patience while Chris is learning the ropes. We'd also like to thank Nicky for her wonderful help in the office during her break from University prior to Christine's arrival

Queensland Distributor ICS welcomes Carl Harrison
		Carl Harrison (Technician / Network Administrator) Carl replaces Phil the previous technician at ICS and comes to us with a wealth of experience having been in the computer industry, handling support, hardware installations and networking for over 15 years. Those who have spoken to Carl on the phone will realise that Carl has a disability and can only speak in a voice just above a whisper. ICS rose to the occasion when asked if they could assist Carl in returning to work from a disability scheme. ICS ask that clients recognise this disability and understand that Carl is not whispering when speaking and is unable to speak in a normal voice.

Received from Mike Rusling in Dubbo and titled "Bird Flue Prevention" - Thanks Mike - but are you sure that you didn't "doctor" this photo.

We start this week with an oldie but a goodie from Brian Taylor in Queensland - Thanks Brian

The phone rang. The lady of the house answered. "Yes?"

"Mrs. Ward, please."

"Speaking."

"Mrs. Ward, this is Doctor Jones at Gribbles Pathology. When your doctor sent your husband's samples to the lab, the samples from another Mr. Ward were sent as well and we are now uncertain which one is your husband's. Frankly, it is either bad or terrible."

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Ward asked.

"Well, one Mr.Ward has tested positive for Alzheimer's and the other for AIDS. We can't tell which your husband's is."

"That's terrible! Can we do the test over?" questioned Mrs Ward.

"Normally, yes. But Medicare won't pay for these expensive tests more than once."

"Well, what am I supposed to do now?"

"The people at Medicare recommend that you drop your husband off in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don't sleep with him".

A newly wed couple wanted to join a church. The pastor told them, "We have special requirements for new parishioners. You must abstain from sex for one whole month to prove to us how important your religion is to you"

The couple agreed and after two-and-a-half weeks returned to the Church. When the Pastor ushers them into his office, the wife is crying and the husband obviously very depressed.

You're back so soon...Is there a problem? the pastor inquired.

We are terribly ashamed to admit that we did not manage to abstain from sex for the required month...." the young man replied sadly.

The pastor asked him what happened.

Well, the first week was difficult...However; we managed to abstain through sheer willpower. The second week was terrible, but with the use of meditation, we managed to abstain."

"However, the third week was unbearable. We tried cold showers, meditation, reading ...anything to keep our minds off carnal thoughts.

One afternoon we had just come from tennis and my wife was wearing her little white tennis dress, she reached for a can of tinned peaches and dropped it. When she bent over to pick it up, I was overcome with lust and had my way with her right then and there." admitted the man, shamefacedly.

You understand this means you will not be welcome in our church, stated the pastor.

"We know." said the young man, hanging his head. "We're not welcome at the local Coles supermarket either."

I've got everything I need

A married couple are driving along a highway doing a steady 60 kph. The wife is behind the wheel.

Her husband suddenly looks across at her and says I know we've been married for a long time, but I want a divorce"

The wife says nothing, Keeps looking at the road ahead but slowly increases her speed to 70 kph

The husband speaks again. "I don't want you to try and talk me out of it," He says, "because I've been having an affair with your best friend, And she's a far better lover than you are."

Again the wife stays quiet, But grips the steering wheel more tightly and slowly increases the speed to 80 kph

"And," he says, "I'll have the bank accounts, all the credit cards and the boat!"

The car slowly starts veering towards a massive concrete bridge. This makes him nervous, so he asks her, "Isn't there anything you want?"

The wife at last replies in a quiet and controlled voice. "No, I've got everything I need," she says.

"Oh, really," he inquires, "so what have you got?"

Just before they slam into the wall at 120 kph, The wife turns to him and smiles. "The airbag."