Enquiry Log John D Wilkins

Transcription

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2 28 October 2012 by John D Wilkins This is an easy-to-use programme to allow several personnel to keep track of projects from the enquiry level to completion. This will prevent enquiries being forgotten or delayed due to the absence of the member of staff who initiated to enquiry.

3 All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the written permission of the publisher. Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document. Printed: October 2012

4 4 Table of Contents Foreword 0 Part I Introduction 6 1 Installation... 6 Setting up for Multiple... users 6 2 Setting-up Enquiries Pending... 9 Part II Data Entry 1 Overview Entering Customer... Details 12 Edit Customer... Details 13 3 Creating an... Enquiry Template 14 4 Numerical Features Part III Raising an enquiry 17 1 New Customer Existing Customer Part IV Enquiries Pending Index 19 21

5 Part I

6 6 1 Introduction is a quick and easy way of keeping track of sales enquiries received and needing attention. You can enter all your regular customers into the customer database for easy access when they phone you with an enquiry. The details of new customers can be entered when they first phone you. The enquiry is then entered into the green box in any form you like. It can just be freehand text, or you can structure it with headings to remind the operator what questions need to be asked. This structure of headings can be pre-defined by entering the headings on the blank page and saving as a template. You can, in fact create as many templates as you like, but the last template loaded will be the one that pops up when you select the customer who is making the enquiry. If this system is used, the pending enquiries can be viewed by anyone who needs to access them. In this way, the absence of the person who received the enquiry needn't mean that nothing is done about it. 1.1 Installation can be installed on any Windows computer including 64 bit versions. Insert the disk and the installation programme will auto-run. If this does not happen, using Explorer or MyComputer, Open the disk drive and double-click autorun.exe. The installation programme will then run. Click 'Install ' to start the installation. This will create a folder, c:\enquiry into which it will install the executable files along with a printable handbook file, enquiry.pdf which may be viewed on screen using a pdf viewer such as can be obtained free from Once displayed on screen it can also be printed out. It will also install a data folder, c:\enqdata, containing some demonstration data. An icon will also be placed on the desktop. Double-clicking this will run the programme Setting up for Multiple users For maximum usefulness, the data folder should be copied to a central server in the c: drive. The folder should be c:\enqdata on this computer. The c:\enquiry folder should be copied to every other computer on the network and the data path should be changed to point to the data on the server. If the path to the server c: drive has been mapped as the z: drive (for example) the path should be set to z: \enqdata\ in the paths.ini file in the c:\enquiry folder on each computer. This can also be achieved more simply by clicking the 'Set Data Path' button on the opening screen.

7 Introduction 7 1. Set the drive letter to the drive containing the data. 2. Double-click the folder in that drive that contains the data. 3. The full path will appear at the top of the window. 4. Click 'Apply Path' button to set the path. The path will then be set and the programme will close so that you can restart it using the new path. This must be done on every computer on the network so that each one is using the same data. 1.2 Setting-up After installation of, you will find an icon on your desktop. Double-click this to open the programme.

8 8 If you have any customers in the database, they will appear in the blue box, as above. When first run these will be a few demo-customers for you to play with to find out how it all works. Double-click a customer to open a new enquiry. This will bring up the default template for the enquiry with the enquiry number, date and time at the top of the page, followed by the name of the customer. Below it are all the headings that you have created for your template. Each heading, in this template, has been followed by a tab character to set the start of each entry in a column. The blue box on the left contains a list of previous enquiries that have been entered for this customer.

9 Introduction 9 There will be an * after any enquiries that are finished. To update an existing enquiry, double-click one in the list. This will display the full enquiry as it stands at the present time. The tick boxes on the right show the stages that have been reached in the enquiry. You can edit the enquiry as required and then click 'Save Enquiry' to save the amendments. When entering large amounts of text under any one heading, it is a good idea to use the return key at the end of each line rather than rely on the automatic line wrap. In this way you can ensure a better layout when the enquiry is printed out. 1.3 Enquiries Pending If you wish to see an overview of all outstanding enquiries, click the 'Enquiries Pending button.

10 10 This will display a list of all unfinished enquiries for all customers. Double-click any enquiry to display it in full. This is purely for observation and not for editing, but the enquiry can be printed out if required.

11 Part II

12 12 2 Data Entry Before the programme can be used to best effect it is necessary to enter your fixed data. This will include Customer details and some templates for standard enquiries. These can be in any form to suit your own requirements. 2.1 Overview When you receive a phone call enquiry you firstly need to record the customer's information such as name, address etc. If they are existing customers it saves time if you already have their details recorded. In this case you just have to double-click the customer's name in the list to be ready to start taking details of the enquiry. 2.2 Entering Customer Details Click the 'New Customer' button to display the empty customer record.

13 Data Entry 13 Each Customer needs a unique code which easily identifies them. Enter a code of up to 6 characters, letters and/or numbers into the CODE box. Press the tab key to move on to the next field. If the code has already been used, an error message will appear to let you know. Then enter all the other customer information in the boxes. Press the tab key to move on to the next field. When completed, click 'Apply'. This will save the data and return to the Enquiries screen Edit Customer Details If you already have details of your customer, but some details need to be changed, double-click the customer in the list and then click the 'Edit Details' button. This will take you back into the customer record where you can change any of the details as required. The only field that can't be edited is the customer code as this is unique to the customer and is used to identify that customer with all his enquiries.

14 Creating an Enquiry Template As mentioned earlier, when you select a customer to raise an enquiry for him, a preset enquiry template will appear in the green box. You could, of course, just have an empty box in which you can enter any freehand text. However, it is better if you have a predetermined set of headings to prompt you to ask all the relevant questions and enter them in the correct order. It also save you the time by not having to enter the headings as you go along. If you have been editing an enquiry and you have any text in the green box, first click the 'Cancel' button to clear it. Then enter your headings in the green box and adjust their positions to suit yourself. It is a good idea to add a tab at the end of each heading so that you can easily set the curser in a position after the heading so that all new text starts at the same tab position. When happy with your template layout, click the 'Save Template' button to save it. To edit and existing template, click 'Load Template' and then double-click the template number in the template list that appears at the right of the window. The template will then appear in the green box where you can edit it if required. To save the modified template, click the 'Save Template' button. N.B. the default template will be the last template loaded, so after editing a template, load the required default template and then click 'Cancel'. That will then be the template that appears whenn you double-click a customer to raise an enquiry. 2.4 Numerical Features It is possible, and very useful to enter numerical values into the enquiry and have it automatically calculate totals etc. Above is an example of how this can be used. Entry Lines An entry line can be of various forms depending upon the requirement.

15 Data Entry 15 Item Price. This is when an item is entered with a fixed price and would be of the form:item description<tab><tab> The number of tabs is unimportant and should be added as required to position the signs in a column. In this case you would enter the cost figure manually. Item price per quantity. This is when you have more than one item at a fixed price. QTY<tab>DESCRIPTION<tab>@ Price<tab><tab> Where QTY is the number of items in numbers and PRICE is the price in pounds. ie Do not use the sign here. The Price can be in the template for all enquiries but the quantity would be added at the time the enquiry is being raised. The total cost would appear automatically after the sign calculated internally by multiplying the quantity by the unit price. Percentage Markup. At the end of the enquiry, just before the final total, the Markup or Margin percentage can be added. Margin<tab>% Percentage<tab><tab> This will automatically calculate the amount extra to add to the total, being the markup percentage of the net total. Example - Margin % 18 The amount calculated will appear after the sign. Totals. Intermediate, net and final totals will be inserted in lines beginning with #<tab> #<tab>final Total<tab><tab> The final total will be inserted after the sign. Some Sample Code Labour # Net Total Margin % # Final Total The figures in red are entered at time of raising the enquiry. Figures in blue are entered into the template and figures in black are entered automatically and will change automatically if you alter any of the red or blue figures. NB. The characters and are active characters and should only be used as described above.

16 Part III

17 Raising an enquiry 3 17 Raising an enquiry When a customer phones with an enquiry, open the by double-clicking the icon on the desktop. 3.1 New Customer If it is a new customer, you will first need to make a record of his details. Click the 'New Customer' button and enter all his details in the appropriate boxes. Click 'Apply' to save the details. This will take you back to the opening screen where the new customer will be listed among the existing ones. Double-click the new customer in this list and the default enquiry template will appear in the green box. The customer name and the job number along with the date and time will appear at the top of the enquiry. Now go through the headings in order and enter the relevant information in each section. Some of the headings will be for later use when someone has had time to work out a price and delivery time, etc. The Status box, on the right will show 'Enquiry Received' ticked. If you have actually given a quotation to the customer, tick the 'Quoted' box. When you have taken down all the details, click 'Save Enquiry' to comlete and save your entry. 3.2 Existing Customer If the enquiry is from an existing customer, just double-click the customer in the list. This will bring up the default template as well as a list of all previous enquiries for this customer. If the customer is ringing to enquire about the progress of an order, you will be able to double-click the enquiry in the list and see what stage it is at. Obviously this requires peopleto update the enquiry when work has progressed on it otherwise the information displayed will be wrong. For a new enquiry, continue as for a new customer.

18 Part IV

19 Enquiries Pending 4 19 Enquiries Pending You can do a quick check on all enquiries that are still in progress. Enquiries that have had the 'Payment Received' tickbox ticked will not appear in the list. From the opening screen, click the 'Enquiries Pending' button to display the list of enquiries. Any enquiries older that 7 days will appear in BLUE, while enquiries older than 14 days will appear in RED. Enquiries less than 7 days old will appear in BLACK. Double-click the enquiry that you wish to inspect to display it.

20 20 NB. The enquiry can only be inspected and/or printed out using this screen. To edit the enquiry, make a note of the customer and enquiry number, then click the 'Return' button, double-click the customer in the list and then double-click the enquiry.

21 Index Index -CCustomer 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 -DData Entry 12 -EExisting Customer 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 -IInstallation 6 -MMultiple Users 6 -NNew Customer 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 -TTemplate 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 21

22 22 Endnotes 2... (after index)

23 Back Cover