Software review: The Invoice Store Jr. (c) 1993, Software Store Products, Inc. From: Software Store Products, Inc. P.O. Box 562 Oakdale, NY 11769-0562 Tech support via SSP, Inc. BBS - (516) 589-4984 Emergency voice support also available Registration fee: $25.00 I should start by pointing out that The Invoice Store Jr. is specifically designed to meet the invoicing and A/R tracking needs of the small business. It is an edited version of its larger brother The Invoice Store, and while it lacks some of the features of the larger program, it certainly covers significant ground for the smaller company. "Limited" to five hundred customers and five hundred products, (and I quote "limited" because 500 is a pretty "unlimited" size for the smaller business) it still offers most small businesses lots of room to grow. The difficult part of reviewing business software, as opposed to games/entertainment or utility software, is the difficulty in actually "testing" it in a manner that simulates "real-world" experience. A business in operation, over time, may create situations for software that are very hard to generate with short term limited usage, but this package in particular, was fairly easy to test in what would be considered "reasonable" circumstances. Written to fill the needs of the "home / small" business, I was able to utilize nearly every feature, using ficticious "customers", "products", and procedures. The system generates and tracks invoices, provides point of purchase invoice capabilities, details receivable due dates and payments, and while it does not include a complete "inventory management" system, it does offer some product management, in a compact and clean presentation. Tidy a package as it may be, a complete review of every feature would be several pages in length, and could get very involved. In short, the program offers the user the ability to do virtually everything necessary to manage invoicing, accounts receivable, customer payment history, and product/customer association, with considerable additional information available. The program comes on a single disk, with good printed documentation, and loads easily in minutes. It requires a PC running DOS 3.3 or later, and 512K of available memory. Hard Disk space may vary widely, depending on the size of the customer, product, and invoice files that are ultimately generated. It functions on a monographic monitor, but makes good use of color VGA, and, as one would expect, is said to perform better on systems with a 286 or higher processor. On my 386/40, it ran quickly, and without a single glitch. The program is divided into four main "modules" called "systems" by the authors. These four systems are headed "Maintenance", "Invoicing", "Reporting", and "Receivables", and are pretty much self-explanatory. The "Maintenance" system provides for entry of your customer and product information, rebuilding of the data bases, clearing "batched" invoices, and the initial system configuration. Configuration includes your company information, state tax rate, your "last invoice" number (which allows picking up where you are on your current numbering system), "last customer" (again allowing adaptation to your currently used system of numbering), and the invoice form/format, adapted for a variety of printing possibilities. Customer information may include all of the "normal" data, as well as, an eight character unique customer identification "code", separate "ship to" and "bill to" addresses, a discount customary for that specific customer, state tax, if applicable, and whether to tax shipping. The customer data base may be reviewed by either a "search for" or "view all" customer listing. All customer data is readily available for editing as desired, and includes an attached "notes" file for additional comments and information specific to each customer. The product data base includes a user assigned ten character product "code", a forty character "description" field that will print on the invoice, selling price for each item, weight, if applicable, whether the product is taxable, and whether the item is "available" for sale. The system also allows marking items as "non-products", i.e. services, but does allow pricing for those items, even in fractional values, as for "time-billing". The product data base also provides a four-line, fifty five characters each line, further description that is used in the data base only. All of the expected add/edit/delete functions are easily accessed for each data base, and individual item, or scroll viewing of all entered data is easily used. Invoicing from the system is very well formatted, and allows editing "on-the-fly" of any of the fields that may need to be modified for any specific invoice. All of the customer and product information is automatically entered from the data bases as customer and product are selected from screen view of the entire available data. Quantity and price are easily edited from the default values, and terms may be set as desired for non-cash sales. Totals are automatically calculated, including tax and shipping, and sales methods include cash, check, credit card, coupons, and "other". Invoices may be printed immediately, or "batched" for later printing if needed. Invoices also may be edited after "saving" by recalling and entering an "Edit Details" mode. Received payments are entered through the Receivables System by entering the appropriate invoice number, or by selecting the applicable invoice from a screen view of all open items. The invoice may be selected for "editing", or application of payment may be made. The system allows for partial payments, and the invoice may be marked paid-in-full, or a balance due may be maintained. For invoices carrying forward a balance due, the "last" partial payment amount is noted, as is the "last" payment date, and last payment check number is also captured if applicable. Payments in excess of the invoice amount result in a "change due customer" calculation and notation. The Reports System is very well detailed, and offers a wide variety of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly detailed reports, that may be screen viewed, printed, or written to the hard disk. Reports may also be sorted by a specified beginning and ending date. Past due accounts may be reported separately from the total data base of invoices. A Detail Report on customer information provides all invoice, terms, and payment information, and may be run for all, or any single customer, for any specified period. A complete customer payment history report is also available. The Summary Report notes all monies received for a specified period, and provides sales, shipping, and tax collections from all invoices. Reporting is also available sorting all product sales with the "sold to" customer, or sorted by customer noting the products bought. Again, these reports are available by day, week, month, and year, or through specified dates. The receivables Aging Report lists all open invoices, or only those invoices currently past due, and provides a quick method for "keeping tabs" on potential "problem" receivables. Various "Listing Reports" are also available, that provide review of each of the key data bases; customer, product, and product pricing. Overall the program provides a comprehensive selection of the reporting necessary for management of the company's sales and receivables, and does so in a very easy to use format. Operating a small business is, of necessity, done with a minimum staff, and, all too often, with minimal accounting support. The owner / manager may be very involved in the products and/or services the company offers, but frequently lacks the tools to do a superior job of managing the monies that flow through the operation. The Invoice Store Jr. clearly provides an excellent tool for managing the sales and receivables side of that cash flow, and I can heartily recommend it as one of the excellent and affordable programs available to the small business. Reviewed by: Randy Britt Contributing Editor David Hightower College Student (West Germany) Michael Gray Publisher -==-==-==-<>-==-==-==-