Need help with down payments?

When a customer makes a down payment on a piece of equipment, that money needs to be tracked and eventually applied to the final invoice once the equipment is delivered. But what's the best way to handle these down payments? A few things to keep in mind would be:

• To have a Liability Account: because until the product is delivered there is a liability
• To setup a Control Account: this will be used for the inventory item
• To have an inventory item called Down Payment: this will be what the down payment is applied to
• To apply the down payment to the final invoice: this is done by entering a line item for the down payment as a negative line on the invoice

Obviously, this is a brief summary, but rest assured that we have a full write up on handling this specific scenario. If you would like to see how we can help, then don't hesitate to reach out to us. 

Easy Mobile Selling with the Windows Tablet

DataWeld’s new tablet based software products give drivers and outside sales people the same order processing capabilities in the field that they would have if they were sitting at a terminal in the office.

1. Orders can be processed with full taxing and special pricing capabilities.
2. Customer specific purchase history is available with a couple of keystrokes.
3. Inventory balances can be checked.
4. Cylinder balances can be confirmed.

All the questions drivers and sales people would typically need to call the office for can now be answered in seconds with no office interruptions. Also, orders taken in the field are automatically updated when the driver or sales person returns. Data entry bottlenecks are eliminated and mistakes are reduced.

Does the customer want a full size receipt? The blue tooth capabilities of the tablet make it possible to print to an onboard printer. Do you need to scan barcodes on your cylinders or products? The built in barcode scanner makes it easy. And the optional cylinder serial number tracking with barcode scanning is built right into the order entry program.

Do you want a lot of data on the tablet for your drivers or minimal data? The choice is yours. It's easy to move from bare bones ordering to full blown customer service inquiries by simply deciding what data you do and don’t want on the tablet.
 

The best part is how the data moves back and forth. All that is needed is WI-FI and the data moves seamlessly between the tablet and the server with a click on the mouse. No cables or cradles to worry about. Drivers and salespeople don’t even need to come into the office. They can send their daily orders to the server while still sitting in the cab of their truck. Convenient, quick, and easy.

Our Top Ten List

There are a more than a few top 10 lists floating around these days. Finding one of those lists of 10 things to work on, steps to take, or simply funny anecdotes requires nothing more than a Google search. A customer of ours asked for some enhancements to the reporting functions within our software and what became of those enhancements was our very own Top 10 list of nine items. I know, why couldn’t it be ten and ten? What follows is that very list which we thought would be helpful to both our customers and non-customers. Even if you’re not using our software, knowing the following numbers about your company could be very beneficial to daily operations and management.

 Here are the nine top ten reports that were developed:

1. Dead Stock: This report shows the Top 10 items in inventory that are considered Dead Stock. Companies qualify items as dead stock with different metrics, but they we qualify an item(s) as Dead Stock is when less than ten dollars of a particular item was sold in the last year. If the item isn’t selling, maybe it should be removed from inventory to free up room for items that are selling faster. Better inventory management starts here.
2. Gross Profit: This report was designed to paint a more positive picture by showing the Top 10 inventory items that generated the most Gross Profit last month. These items are not only profitable, but are selling regularly.
3. Monthly Inventory Activity: This report displays inventory based on how much activity is generated on each item. Therefore it shows the Top 10 items that generated the most activity during the month.
4. Sales Analysis: Knowing who the best customers are is very important. Each sales person can quickly see to which customers they need to be devoting the most attention. This report also gives management the ability to see if the sales team is staying in touch with their customers.  
5. Gross Profit Analysis: Sales are important, but how profitable are your customers? With this report anyone who has access can quickly see the Top 10 most profitable customers by sales person or location.
6. Cylinder Balances: Part of our software is used to track cylinders in various different scenarios. Regardless of the asset, knowing which customer has which asset and how many they have is very important. The report we designed helps our customers to easily see the Top 10 customers who have the most cylinders (assets) on hand by sales person or location.
7. Cylinder Activity: Another way of looking at cylinder (asset) customers is to see how many cylinders (assets) they are being shipped each month. This Top 10 report shows the Top 10 Cylinder (asset) customers based on how many cylinders (assets) were shipped to them or picked up. Customers with a sudden increase in activity would show up on this list.
8. Invoices Over 60 Days Old: It’s important to sell and to make a profit, but money has to be collected. When time is limited and only a few collection calls can be made, make them to the customers who owe the most money. That is exactly what is on this report. It shows the Top 10 customers with the highest balances that are sixty days and older, the last time they paid, and how much they paid.
9. Total Amount Owed: This report gives a slightly different picture of how much customers owe. With this report, you can see the Top 10 Customers that owe the most money regardless of how old an invoice is.

This Top 10 list will give a quick, efficient look at some key areas of your business. Regardless of the number, we chose 10, but you could choose 100, having an idea of what these numbers are will give your team clear defined areas to work on. Now go create some reports!