1-Step Appraisals Personal Property Appraisal Software

Transcription

1 User Guide for 1-Step Appraisals Personal Property Appraisal Software Home & Business Software for Windows Page

2 Table of Contents Getting Started... Page 3 Image Preferences... Page 4 Adding Business/Company Information... Page 5 Resizing the Page... Page 6 Data Grids & Forms... Page 7 The Address Book - Managing Contacts... Page 8 Creating Appraisals... Page 9 Printing Appraisals... Page 10 Customer Invoices... Page 11 Additional Information Contact Information & User Notes... Page 13 Page 2

3 1-Step Appraisals - Quick Start Every Crow River Software application includes a Sample Database with just enough demo data to show you how the application works. This database is automatically installed in your My Documents\Crow River Software\ folder and is connected the first time you open the program. Use this database to learn how the program works; you can add data, edit existing records, etc.,. When you re ready to start entering your own data, you will need to create a new database in a folder where you can find it for backups, etc., You should never enter your data in the sample database, as it may be overwritten by future updates. All database utilities are available from the drop-down menu on the Main Toolbar; click on the 1-Step Appraisals button to access it. Please follow these steps whenever you create a new database Choose New Database from the drop-down menu. The Create A New Database dialog will appear. 2. Click the Create New button and choose a folder on your computer (or on a shared network drive) for the new database. 3. Give it a meaningful name so you can easily recognize it and click Save. 2 The database will be created and all default information and reports will be added. 4. When the database is complete, a prompt will tell you so. If your version of 1-Step Appraisals does not have Security (user login) options, please ignore the message about setting up Security before closing it 5. The new database path will be displayed on the bottom of the Toolbar. MyAppraisals 3 4 The new database, C:\Users\Rachel\Documents\MyAppraisals.mdb, has been successfully created and populated with default System & Security information. You are now connected to this new database. Please setup all System and Security information before logging out. 5 Page 3

4 Preferences are settings unique to each user (if you re sharing a database with someone else) and are stored in your Documents\Crow River Software\ folder in two configuration files. You can use these settings to change the formatting on pages throughout the system and there are other options as well, but before adding images to 1-Step Appraisals, there s ONE preference you should set, and that s the Maximum Image Size option. By default, the resize option is set to the lowest resolution, which is 320 x 200. You can change this to allow a higher resolution image, but be aware that as the resolution increases, so does the size of your database. When one of these options is selected, 1-Step Appraisals looks at the size of a photo and before saving it, resizes it keeping the same resolution, but shrinking the size itself proportionately to take up less space in the database. You can change this setting any time, but it s only applied when an image is saved, so it won t go back and resize images already stored in the database. 1-Step Appraisals - Preferences Page 4

5 1-Step Appraisals - Company Info Click on the Toolbar s Home button to display the main menu and choose Tools, Logos/Company Info to open the dialog where you can enter your business information. This information is displayed on the top of each Appraisal and Customer Invoice. You could enter this information manually on every Report Design, but if any of the data changes you would need to edit every Report Design record to change it. Entering it here means you only have one place to edit if you ever have changes. You can add up to four images to use on Reports (NOTE: the default reports only use the first image on the header; see the Report Designer Guide for adding additional images to reports). Click on the Browse button to choose each image. The second tab, Custom Text stores your business information, such as company name, address, phones, website address and addresses. The default reports use the first four lines in the heading on the Appraisal and Invoice designs. The bottom lblinfocomments text is displayed on the Appraisal reports at the bottom next to the total value: The lblinfotext10 text is used on the Appraisals UNDER the signature line as a place to put a certification or title: Page 5

6 1-Step Appraisals - Resizing Pages NOTE: Please see the Crow River Software User Guide, available for download from our website, for general information on resizing forms and how to set Preferences for page colors and other formatting options. As documented in that guide, the first time you open any page, you ll need to resize the page to fit your screen size. A Click the Appraisals button on the Toolbar to open the main page. Your screen may look like the screen print above (A). Move and resize the window to best fit your monitor s screen resolution capabilities. You can drag any side of the window to change the height and width, or simply double-click on the Window caption bar (B) (top-most bar, next to the Appraisals caption) to maximize it to fill in your entire desktop. Then hold your mouse over the splitter bar in the middle of the page (C) and drag it up or down to display all of the fields on the top of the form while giving you as much room as possible at the bottom of the form. B C Please note that you only have to resize each form once after that, each time you open 1-Step Appraisals, the forms will remember where they were the last time you used them. This applies to all forms and grids in the system. Page 6

7 1-Step Appraisals - Data Grids & Forms Data Grids and Forms When you click on the Address Book button on the Toolbar, the data is displayed in a Data Grid, which looks like a spreadsheet. Each record is on one line and you simply double-click a record to open it in an editable form. This format provides a simple way to sort (click on a column header) and filter (search) the data by right-clicking on a value and choosing Filter By This Value from the popup menu. It also lets you see all of the data at at once and you can drag the columns into the display order that best suits your needs (right-click and choose Save Column Order/ Widths to save your changes after moving or resizing columns). The toolbar above the Data Grid has features that are used to add, edit or work with the data displayed in the Data Grid. Please see the Crow River Software Users Guide for details about these functions. When you click on the Appraisals button, the data is displayed in a master-detail (or one-to-many) format, where the general information for each Appraisal (customer, insurer, etc.) is on the top, and the details, the individual items being appraised, are in a Data Grid on the bottom. On the top of the form is a drop-down list called the Navigator (A), that stores the unique title for each appraisal. Think of it as the table of contents for all Appraisals in the database. When the Appraisal is not being edited (either by clicking the New or Edit button), you can choose to view another Appraisal by selecting it from the list. The toolbar above the Navigator has functions that apply to the Appraisal record (the master data). The toolbar above the Data Grid (details) applies to the Items in the grid. A Edit Modes When you open the Address Book the Data Grid merely displays each record in a row. To edit a selected record, click the Edit button on the toolbar, or double-click on the row to open the editing form. To Add a new record, click on the Add button on the toolbar and a blank Address Book form is opened. Whether adding or editing, click the OK button on the form to save your changes, close the form and return to the Data Grid. If a new record was added the Data Grid will be refreshed and the new record will be selected. When the Appraisal page opens, if there is no data yet entered, a blank Appraisal form is display with an empty Data Grid at the bottom of the page. If there are records in the database, the last selected record will be displayed in the form and the items in the Data Grid. By default, the form is NOT in edit mode you have to click the Edit button on the form s toolbar to change the field values. Note that this also disables the Navigator so you cannot accidentally move to another Appraisal before you save your current changes. Click Save (or Cancel) to return to non-edit mode which enables the Navigator again. Adding or editing items on the Appraisal works the same way as the Address Book does simply click Add on the toolbar to add a new item, or select and double-click an item (or click Edit ) to change an item record. Whenever you save an Item record, the Number of Items and Total Value fields on the Appraisal are updated to reflect the totals of the Item Qty and Item Value fields on all of the item records. Page 7

8 1-Step Appraisals - The Address Book Overview The Address Book is the system s Contacts Manager; it stores customer and insurer information, which is used to populate each appraisal. NOTE: As with all forms you will need to resize the Edit Address Book dialog the first time you use it. This is what it should look like, with two columns of labels and fields. To add a new record, click the New button on the Address Book data grid; the Add/Edit Address Book window pops up and a new ID No. is automatically generated. You can keep this value, or replace it with a Customer Number you already have. To use this record as a Customer, check the Customer option in the Contacts Types. To have this address appear in the Insurer drop-down list on the Appraisals form, check the Insurer option. Choose existing items from the drop-down lists, such as Salutation or click the plus button (+) on the right side of any list to add a new value. The yellow fields are auto-type fields; once you have a value entered for any record in the Address Book, starting to type the same value, such as the name of a City, will auto-fill the field when it finds a match to your keystrokes. When entering a City, if the State, Zip Code, County and Country fields are empty, they will also auto-fill, matching on the City field to the last edited record in the Address Book. Page 8

9 1-Step Appraisals - Creating an Appraisal Overview Click the Appraisal button on the Toolbar to open the Appraisal page. This page is arranged to look like a finished, printed appraisal, with the customer and job information at the top and the individual items getting appraised listed at the bottom. This form is a one-to-many format, which means for each (one) appraisal there can be many pieces of jewelry documented on it. Click New on the top toolbar to create a new appraisal. Choose the Customer name from the drop-down list, or click the button on the right side of the drop-down list and click on Create New to add a customer to the Address Book. When a customer is selected, the Customer Address field will automatically fill in. Choose the Insured By (if any) and enter a short description in the Appraisal Description field. The Reference No. is created automatically as a unique identifier for each appraisal. The Count and Value fields will be summed when items are added (see below) to the appraisal. Enter your name in the Appraised By field and the date of the appraisal (double-click to open a calendar). Add any notes in the Comments field (this is not printed on the appraisal.) Click Save on the toolbar to save the information. Adding Items Click New on the Appraisal Items toolbar to add an item to the appraisal. Use the Item No field to determine the sort order when printing items. Enter the Quantity of items (usually 1). NOTE: The green Add Value buttons (+) on the right side of each drop-down list lets you add new values to the list. Choose the Unit; usually Each. Add or choose the item type. This can be defined however you like to identify groups of jewelry. Add or choose the Condition of the piece. Enter a short Item Name and a more detailed Item Description, then enter the appraised value in the Item Value field. You can add your own internal notes (not printed on the appraisal) about the piece in the Comments field. NOTE: Double-click in any text field (Item Description or Comments) to open a larger edit window. You can add as much text as you want in these fields. The Image boxes on the right each store a digital image of the item. Click on the Tools button above each one to choose how to import the image either from a file on your computer, or directly from your camera or scanner (must be connected to your computer) or even by pasting an image from the Windows clipboard., Click OK to save your changes, or Cancel to discard changes and close the dialog. Repeat these steps to add as many items to the appraisal as you wish; the Count and Value fields at the top of the second column will be updated each time you save a new time to reflect the total count of items and total appraised value. For example, if a customer brings in ten pieces of jewelry and wants an appraisal on the total value of all pieces, your appraisal will have ten entries in the datagrid, one for each piece. Page 9

10 1-Step Appraisals - Printing Overview To print your Appraisal, click on the Print button above the Appraisal form and choose Current Record. The Current Record options print only the Appraisal currently displayed. Choose the name of the Report Design and the results will be displayed in the Print Preview window. Click the Print button on the left side of the top toolbar to print the report. Reports The Report option on the Print Menu displays other reports that use all of the data in the database to display the results. For example, you can click on Outstanding Invoices to show all Appraisal records where the balance (between the Invoice Amount and Payment Received Amount see next page) is greater than zero. The Toolbar The floating toolbar on the left side of the Preview window has special features you can use to or store the report. A. Mailbox - The Mailbox is a popup dialog that stores files until you re ready to them to someone. When you click on the button on the dialog, Outlook is opened with all files attached. B. with Outlook - Click this to attach the current report in a new message. C. Save As An Image File - This button is available if you ve checked the Enable Image Exports in Print Preview in Preferences and prompts you to choose an image format and a location on your computer to save it. D. Save As PDF - This option saves the current report as a PDF file and prompts you for the location. E. Attach in Database - If you want to add this report (in PDF format) as an attachment in the current database, click this option. You ll be prompted to change the file name if you want to rename it. F. Export Report Data - This option lets you export the data that was read to generate the report to an Access database, Excel spreadsheet or formatted text files (.csv,.txt) for use with other application. A B C D E F Page 10

11 1-Step Appraisals - Customer Invoices Invoicing Your Customers You can easily print (or ) an Invoice for your appraisal service from the Print Menu by choosing the Customer Invoice print option. This uses the data from the Invoice fields on the Appraisal, which you can edit as needed: When the customer pays the invoice, enter the Payment Date and Amount to close the balance. The report called Outstanding Invoices can be run to show which balances have not been paid. This report shows every Appraisal where the difference between the Invoice Amount and Payment Received Amount is greater than zero. Page 11

12 1-Step Appraisals - It s That Easy! You re on your way! Now that you ve got some experience in how 1-Step Appraisals manages your data, let s talk about attachment additional information that may help you manage your appraisal services. Adding Attachments If you have a scanner, one of the things you may want to do is scan any receipts or other documents you have for any of your items and then attach them into the same database. You can easily add that type of documentation from the Attach button on the form toolbar. You can actually directly scan a document in as a file attachment by using the Scan File as Attachment option. Attachment this type of information ensures that you HAVE all of the information in your database if some type of disaster happens. You ll have all your stuff in one place, hopefully backed up (several places!). Please see the Crow River Software User Guide for more information about File Attachments and the Report Designer Guide for editing and adding reports to your Print Menus. Page 12

13 Notes: 1-Step Appraisals Guide - Version 4.01 All user guides are available for download on our support site at This publication is the property of Crow River Tech, LLC, CSAH 34, Litchfield, MN USA and may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission. Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, SQL Server and Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel & Access are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Any other product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Crow River Software / Crow River Tech, LLC. Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 13