Gift Vouchers are a terrific way of gift giving and are for some common transactions. The transactions are simple but you'll need to set up some areas of your AM-Win program to handle and process your vouchers correctly.

Here are the steps that you need to take to setup AM-Win to handle gift vouchers and to process them correctly

Firstly create a new customer in the Customer Master files with a code of “GIFT01” and call it “Gift Vouchers”. You'll need to open the Account Details tab and tick the “Do Not Print Statements” option so that the system will overlook any balances outstanding in this account when the statements are run each month.

Next create a new till ledger in the General Ledger Master files. This should be in between the bank account range of 1011 to 1029. So choose your next available bank ledger number. We will choose for this example, 1018 and name it “Gift Vouchers” with No GST as the GST Type

Now, you'll need to adjust the General Ledger Masks to allow this new ledger to appear in the revenue areas of the system. To do this go to the Tools Menu option, and select General Ledger Masks. Then click once on the revenue option (number 4) and add in the new ledger by typing in the next blank space the number of the ledger, eg 1018. Click on the save button and then close button to exit.

Next open the Others Menu, and select Maintenance>Method menu options and from here we need to set up a new payment method called “VCHR”. To insert a new payment method, click on the Insert button, type in VCHR as the method, choose your new Gift voucher ledger to be linked to this Method Code, eg 1018 and select the method type of Bank. Click on the OK button to save.

Now you are ready to process a Gift Voucher. Here's how…

Process a POS invoice using the customer of GIFT01 and apply it to Revenue Ledger code 1018 for the amount of the gift voucher. In this instance we will do a gift voucher for $100.

To access your POS invoicing screen from within AM﷓WIN go to the menu for Customers>Parts Invoicing. Your Parts Invoicing screen will appear. Click on the New Button to create a new POS invoice and select your customer of GIFT01. Then click on the Revenue Button to select your ledger code of 1018. Enter in your gift voucher amount. In this case it will be $100. Click on theOK button to save the details to your POS invoice.

Click on the Final Button to finalise your POS invoice and accept payment for the gift voucher by the usual method. Eg by Cash, EFT, Cheque etc

Once you have entered in your payment details for this POS invoice, click on the OK button to process

You can then print out a receipt for the customer if you wish

When you check your General Ledger Master Files, you will see that this transaction puts a negative value into the 1018 Gift Voucher Ledger account

When the Gift Voucher is redeemed at a later date, open the Job Invoicing screen and raise an invoice either to the Customer Code or to Cash Sale (CASH01), whichever is applicable. Enter the relevant parts etc onto the invoice as normal.

When finalising your invoice, use the payment method of VCHR for the value of the Gift Voucher. If the invoice comes to more than the value of the Gift Voucher, then use the relevant payment method for the remaining amount of the invoice. Eg Cash, Cheque, EFT.

This transaction will then put a positive value into the 1018 Gift Voucher Ledger/Till and the payment for the difference between the Gift Voucher and the total amount of the invoice will go to the relevant Ledger/Till or Bank account

How to add Batch Labour Allocations in AM-Win

This function is available in AM-WIN Level 3 only.

Labour Allocation is used to allocate labour to different jobs, without having to go into each different job, add the labour, save, then open the next job to add labour.

This is particularly useful when you have a few large jobs “on the go”, which will take perhaps several weeks to be completed. At the end of each day you can update the labour on each of these jobs all on the one screen. The system will also put the nominated date on each labour line on the job for future reference

When completed, the relevant labour hours will be transferred to the last line on the job cards concerned, however, if you wish to move the labour lines together on the job card later, you can do so by using the CTL and Up Arrow or CTL and Down Arrow function to move the lines around.

When the job cards are finalised, you may choose the Option to have the labour hours combined when printing the invoice. The labour will then show as one figure as the last entry on the invoice.

To enter batch labour allocations, open the Customers menu in AM-WIN and select Labour Allocation. The Allocations window will appear.

To Insert an entry, left click on the Insert button. The system’s current date will then appear in the Date field. If you wish to change the date,  click on the Date Button to the left of the date field and the calendar will appear. You can then select a different date.

Left click on the Drop down Arrow Button next to the Job Type field to select either Workshop or Manufacturing labour.  It will automatically default to Workshop when a date is selected.

Left click on the Job No Button to select the job card on which you want to add the labour. The Select Job window appears, which lists all of your available job cards.

Highlight the Job you want and left click on the Select Button. You can also press the Enter key on your keyboard or simply double click on the job card you need. This will then return you to the Allocations window where the job number you selected will then be displayed on this screen.

Left click on the Ledger Button field. A Select Labour Ledger window will appear.

Highlight the Ledger account you wish to use and then click on the Select Button. You can also double click on the ledger you wish to use or use the Enter key on your keyboard. You will then again return to the Allocations window.

The Allocations window will now have the following fields filled in

Note: The quantity and actual fields will default to 1.00, however these can be changed. The other fields may now be filled in as required.

Rate: the amount to be charged for each hour of work, and will be automatically filled in according to the rate set in the ledger. It may be manually overidden. If there is no rate set in the ledger, the Rate field will be blank and the Rate will need to be entered manually at this point.

Qty:the number of hours to be charged. This will default to 1.00, however it may be changed manually.

Amount: this is the total amount the customer will be charged. This will be calculated automatically and cannot be changed.

Started: this is the time the work began - THIS IS IN 24 HOUR TIME. This field is optional.

Finished: this is the time the work finished - THIS IS IN 24 HOUR TIME. This field is optional.

Note: in 24 hour time, once you reach 12:00 Midday the time does not reset to be 1pm, 2pm, 3pm etc. It continues so that it becomes 13:00, 14:00, 15:00. Hence, if someone works 9am – 5pm, you would enter 9 into the Started field and 17 into the finished field. AM-WIN will then automatically convert this back into normal time so that the window will read 9am – 5pm.

Time Taken: this will automatically be calculated and is the time spent on the job

Actual: this is the actual time spent WORKING and may be changed if the time taken is different to the time charged.

Note: If the Actual field is not completed and the charged hours are more than 1.00, then incorrect figures will be reflected on the reports for Staff Performance

For example if a worker is at the job site from 9am till 1pm, his time taken will be 4 hours. If he had a break for an hour, his actual time will be 3 hours. If you are paying him only for the time he is actually working, then the Quantity should also be 3 hours

Once you have completed the fields, then Left click the OK Button and the information will be added to the blank screen at the top of the window.

Click on the Insert button to add another entry and follow the same procedure until you have entered in all of your labour allocations.

When you have completed all of your Labour Allocations, left click on the Post Button. This will remove the entries from the Allocations list and move them to the Job Invoicing screen for each relevant Job Number. If you go to Job Invoicing and look up the relevant Job Number, you will see the labour line on the job with the relevant date shown on each labour line.

After you click on the Post Button, the following screen will appear, asking if you wish to print a Labour Allocation Report

If you click on Yes you get the following report.

To change the information before Posting, highlight the Allocation entry and left click on the Change Button. Change the details you want and then click the OK Button.

To Delete an entry before Posting, highlight the Allocation entry and left click on the Delete button. This line will then be deleted.

To exit from this screen, click on the Close Button

Business Tips

This month's tip has been provided to us by the Team at Flying Solo - While their web site is aimed squarely at work from home business operators it is a great source of information, inspiration and positive thoughts. Well worth a visit after a hard day.

11 ½ resolutions to break in 2009

Okay, so they’re easy to make and virtually impossible to keep, but with every New Year comes resolutions. At Flying Solo we put our heads together and came up with these 11 ½ practical resolutions for micro business owners.

Here comes 2009! Go and put the kettle on and get set to make some big promises.

1. Get ruthless about distractions. Set aside uninterruptible blocks of time each day for your most important tasks. Be sure to switch off phones AND email.

2. Take back your inbox. The inbox is not a workspace – when a message arrives, delete it, file it or defer it. Deal with it once. Check email at set times during the day and turn off automatic alerts.

3. Outsource more. Identify the repetitive low-value tasks in your business and outsource them. Focus your time where you can add real value to your business and customers.

4. Surround yourself with positivity. Stop reading negative press about the economy. Don’t listen to moaners. Focus on what you can control. Measure and report on what’s actually happening in your business, particularly financials.

5. Give more stuff away. Share your expertise freely and get up to speed with the real business value of generosity. Embrace the philosophy of abundance.

6. Stop talking, start listening. Don’t tell people about your business, ask open ended questions about their business and industry. Interested is interesting.

7. Stop marketing, start attracting. Get in touch with your opinions and rattle some cages. Demonstrate thought leadership in your industry rather than telling people about your expertise.

8. Express yourself clearly. The problem is often not the content, but the delivery. You may well have a great product or service, but you need to invest the time in speaking, presenting and writing about it eloquently.

9. Plant a seed every day. Do something, no matter how small, each and every day to feed your network and grow relationships. Send a thank you card. Make a social call.

10. Working less works. Get out and walk, run, swim or stretch. Great ideas rarely come when you're tied to your desk or tools. Do something each week that is 100% for you. Your business, and those around you, will thank you for it.

11. Communicate more. Most client problems arise from a lack of communication. Embrace the power of progress reports, update emails, follow-ups, quick phone calls and general customer hand-holding.

11½. Stop boiling the kettle and then not making tea.

What New Year’s resolutions have you made for your business? Please share your resolutions or comments with the rest of us.

Here’s to a fun, positive and successful year ahead!

Windows and Office Tips

Windows

Recover files from your recycle bin

When you delete files from your computer using Windows those files are not immediately deleted from your hard drive but are transferred to your recycle bin.

So if you are having a ruthless cleanout of your computer files and getting rid of the stuff that you no longer need and you delete a file by mistake it can be easily recovered - as long as you don't take too long to recover it or don't empty the recycle bin before attempting the recovery.

To recover the file open your desktop and double click on your Recycle Bin icon. Once you do that, you'll be able to see all of the files you've recently deleted. From here, there are a few things you can do. The easiest is to highlight the file you want to save, right click on it and choose Restore. That will restore the file and send it back to its original location. You can do that for as many files as you wish to recover.

Another option is to highlight the file you want to save, right click on it and choose Cut. You can then navigate to the location you'd like to put it in, right click again and choose Paste. That will put the file back in another spot on your computer for you. The third option is to drag the file you want to restore and drop it where you'd like to save it. All of those methods give you the same result, but the first one is probably the easiest.

Note:

Bear in mind that when you send a file to the recycle bin, then send a file with the same name to the bin as well,  the second file will over-write the first file. This will make the first file impossible to recover by using normal methods. If the file is very important to you or if there's no other way you can get another copy there are methods of recovering it but unless you are highly computer literate we suggest that you seek professional advice before trying to do the job yourself.

MS Word

Line numbering in Word

If you would like to add line numbers to your word document here's how to get Word to do it for you.

For older versions of Word, line numbers are part of the Page Setup settings File menu, Page Setup choice).

You're then looking for the Layout tab.

In the bottom section, tell Word where to apply the line numbers (whole document, this point forward or if you selected some text before you began, selected section) and click on the Line Numbers button

Note:

If you start with selected text and choose to number just that portion, Word will automatically put a page break both before and after the selected text. If you choose to number the lines from this point forward, Word will then insert a page break before the numbers begin.

When the Line Numbers window opens, you need to check the "Add line numbering" option.

That choice will activate the rest of the window. Here you can make decisions regarding how to number (every line, every two lines, every five lines, etc.), what number to start with and how far to place the numbers from the text. Don't forget to make a choice at the bottom regarding continuous numbering throughout the document or restarting (at a page or section break).

When you've made all your choices, click OK

Click OK again to exit the Page Setup window.

Now, for those of you using Word 2007, things aren't quite as hard to find.

You simply need the Page Layout tab on the ribbon, Page Numbers button.

When you click on that button, you'll find a list of choices that are pretty self-explanatory. If you want to get to the choices shown above for other versions of Word, choose "Line Numbering Options. That will take you to the trusty Page Setup dialogue window and things will work the same as they do in other versions of Word.

Word 2007 users also need the same side note as everyone else: If you start with selected text and choose to number just that portion, Word will automatically put a page break both before and after the selected text. If you choose to number the lines from this point forward, Word will then insert a page break before the numbers begin.

Whichever version you're using and whatever route you take to get there, once your choices are made and you've returned to the document, you'll find that the lines are neatly numbered and easy to reference!

Accurate moving of objects in Office applications

Do you use a lot of objects in your MS Office Suite files? Maybe you use Clip Art in your Word documents, AutoShapes in your Excel files or images in PowerPoint, If you do then you're working with some type of object.

When you go to relocate an object, are you frequently frustrated by your inability to control the drag movements?

Let's say you wanted to slide an object horizontally and you somehow always seem to move it up or down a bit as you drag it left or right.

Here's a way to control that drag and drop relocation of your objects?

The next time you want to move an object either horizontally or vertically with no accidental wandering in another direction, give the Shift key a try.

A simple Shift + drag of the object will move it either horizontally or vertically and that's it.  No unintentional "drag drifts" for your objects anymore!

MS Excel

Drag Data Between Excel Worksheets

Excel's Paste Special command is a handy function that is used often. If you want to create some shortcuts for the command, here's some ways you can approach the task. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

One of the most often-used commands in Excel is the Paste Special option from the Edit menu, where you can figure out exactly how you want information pasted into a worksheet. On the Paste Special dialog box, the Values selection is undoubtedly the one used the most. Since pasting only values in this manner is used so often, you might think that Microsoft would provide a shortcut key to, well, just paste values.

Unfortunately, they don't provide one. There are ways around this, however. One way is to just create a toolbar button that pastes values for you. All you need to do is follow these steps in versions of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

Choose Customize from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Customize dialog box. Make sure the Commands tab is selected.



In the list of Categories, select the Edit category. In the list of Commands, select Paste Values. Use the mouse to drag the Paste Values command from the Commands list to its new location on the toolbar. When you release the mouse button, the new icon appears on the toolbar.

Click on Close to dismiss the Customize dialog box.

If you are using Excel 2007, you can add the command to the Quick Access toolbar by following these steps

Now, whenever you want to paste just the values, you can click on the new toolbar button.

Enter the same information into multiple cells in MS Excel

Have you ever had the same information to enter in multiple cells in MS Excel?

Here's a method to get the data into all of those cells simultaneously?

To enter the same data into multiple cells (even non-adjacent cells), simply select the cells while holding down the Ctrl key.

With all of the cells still selected, it's time to type in your data. Be sure you do not hit the Enter key, move out of the cells with the arrow keys or use the mouse to click anywhere else.

When the data is typed, all you have to do to place it into the selected cells simultaneously is hit Ctrl + Enter.

That's all it takes to avoid a whole lot of copy/paste time. Ctrl plus your Enter key and you've mastered the art of putting data into many cells instead of just one!

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

Jokes

Thanks to Melinda Sturgiss for our first yarn this month.

The spicy lunch kicked in

A blonde was travelling on a bus, when the spicy lunch she had kicked in and she needed to pass wind.

Luckily the music was very loud, so every time flatulence occurred, she surreptitiously lifted her left cheek and timed it with the music. Thank heavens, she thought, no one will know!!

As her stop approaches she looks around as she makes her way to the exit and couldn't understand why the other passengers are throwing dagger looks at her.

Reality hits when she suddenly realises!! She's listening to her ipod !

No problem - I'll take it.

By the time the sailor pulled into a little town every hotel room was taken. "You've got to have a room somewhere," he pleaded. "Or just a bed, I don't care where."

Well, I do have a double room with one occupant - an Air Force guy," admitted the manager, "and he might be glad to split the cost. But to tell you the truth, he snores so loudly that people in adjoining rooms have complained in the past. I'm not sure it'd be worth it to you."

No problem," the tired Navy man assured him. "I'll take it."

The next morning, the sailor came down to breakfast bright-eyed and bushy tailed. "How'd you sleep?" asked the manager. "Never better." The manager was impressed. No problem with the other guy snoring? Nope. I shut him up in no time, said the Navy guy. "

How'd you manage that?" asked the manager.

He was already in bed, snoring away, when I came in the room," the sailor explained. "I went over, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and said, Goodnight beautiful, ...and he sat up all night watching me.

How did the human race appear

A little girl asked her mother: 'How did the human race appear?'

The mother answered, 'God made Adam and Eve; they had children and so was all mankind made.'

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question.

The father answered, 'Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.'

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, 'Mum, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?'

The mother answered, 'Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family, and your father told you about his.'

Jet fuel with ice coffee - an oldie but a goody.

Dave and Jim were a couple of drinking buddies who worked as Aircraft mechanics in Melbourne .

One day the airport was fogged in and they were stuck in the hangar with nothing to do.

Dave said, 'Man, I wish we had something to drink!'

Jim says, 'Me too. Y'know, I've heard you can drink jet fuel with ice coffee and get a buzz.

You wanna try it?'

So they pour themselves a couple of glasses of high octane ice coffee and get completely smashed.

The next morning Dave wakes up and is surprised at how good he feels.

In fact he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects.

Then the phone rings. It's Jim. Jim says, 'Hey, how do you feel this morning?'

Dave says, 'I feel great, how about you?'

Jim says, 'I feel great, too. You don't have a hangover?'

Dave says, 'No that jet fuel is great stuff -- no hangover, nothing. We ought to do this more often.'

'Yeah, well there's just one thing.'

'What's that?'

'Have you passed wind yet?'

'No.'

'Well, DON'T, ' cause I'm in Singapore.  

It was you, wasn't it son?

Once there was a little boy that lived in the country.

They had to use an outhouse because there was no plumbing and the little boy hated it because it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter and smelled really really bad.

The outhouse was sitting on the bank of a creek and the boy determined that one day he would push that outhouse into the creek.
 
One day after a spring rain, the creek was badly swollen and rushing by so fast that the boy knew that it wouldn't be long before the outhouse vanished forever,  so he decided today was the day to push the outhouse into the creek.

So he got a large stick and started levering and pushing.

Finally, the outhouse toppled into the creek and raced away down the swollen creek alternating between bobbing on the surface and being sucked under by the rushing waters.

That night his dad told him they were going to the woodshed after supper.  Knowing that the woodshed meant a spanking, the little boy asked why.

The dad replied, "Someone pushed the outhouse into the creek today. It was you, wasn't it son?"
 
The boy answered yes. Then he thought a moment and said, "Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't get into trouble because he told the truth."

The dad replied, "Well, son, George Washington's father wasn't in the cherry tree."

Until next month