Software Review
by Susanna K. Hutcheson

           The Invoice Store Delivers For Your Business
     

     Software Store Products has come out with another winner
with The Invoice Store 3.1 for DOS.     A business-management
tool, The Invoice Store is  an easy-to-use invoicing program that
goes head-to-head with more expensive and hard-to-learn
accounting and database applications.
     
     The Invoice Store is a contact-management and point-of-sale
tool that includes Invoicing, Receivables, Reporting and Database
Maintenance.

     One thing I personally hate about accounting software is
setting up a chart of accounts. I also detest journal entry. I
think most business people have very little time for things of
this nature.

     So I was pleased to see The Invoice Store doesn't demand
that you set up a chart of accounts and it doesn't use a general
ledger. About all you have to do is to enter information. 

     I also appreciated the fact that the software easily
produces the information needed to prepare the Sales Tax report.
It gives the total amount of sales tax collected, total taxable
sales and total non-taxable sales for the sales tax period. In
addition, you can assign a different sales tax rate to each
customer in your database. You can even override the sales tax
rate at invoice time.

     Invoicing is a snap. When you  add the sale amount to a
customer (or cash-sales) account you can print the invoice on the
spot. And you can design your own invoices and reports or use the
program's  generic forms. Invoices can be printed after creation
or added to a batch for later printing. They can also be printed
to a file for use in other programs.

     You will also  have complete audit trails for easy tracking
of all your important transactions. This is a feature that even
some of the most expensive programs don't have.
This is really handy because it allows you to track a transaction
from the time of entry. When you take your records to your
accountant, he or she can quickly see how and when that entry was
created. This means you'll have more control over your records.
And if you ever have the unpleasant experience of facing an IRS
officer in an audit you'll know how valuable an audit trail can
be!

     The reporting module is great. Reports can be run for
various time periods -- from daily to yearly. The Invoice Store
tells you when to reorder and how much product inventory is
needed. This gives you real control over your business. You never
have to guess.

       Inventory reports can be sorted by product code or
description. Summary reports can be generated by invoice or
payment date. Totals are extended on any report. In addition, 
your statements will show all of your  customer activity for any
period.

     The Invoice Store contains databases of  customers or
clients,  inventory, sales personnel and vendors. It's very easy
to set up to your own personal specifications. . And it has an
integrated database management tool that will keep your databases
running fast and accurately.

     Negative amounts can be entered for credit . . .  something
impossible to do with some  programs. Unit and cost prices are
accepted, up to four decimal places. And you're alerted when
items are oversold. In addition, the program recalls invoices and
records payments. It even voids payments when necessary.

     The Invoice Store lets  you generate predefined and
customized reports. You can also create mailing labels and
reports from your database information. The built-in word
processor lets you easily create letters and merge with your
database. This program truly has just about everything a small
business can ask for.

     Although the 185 page manual is handy, the context sensitive
online help is about all you'll probably need as you navigate the
program. In addition, technical help is free when you need it.

     One of the finest and most enjoyable parts of the program is
the database query capability. It is far superior to many similar
programs. You can ask it to tell you just about anything about a
client or your inventory or anything else you have in your
database and bring that information up quickly.

     If you need to know how much a client spent last year you
use the Boolean operators to build your query. You can ask it
virtually anything and extract that information. That is most
useful when you want to know exactly how well a specific product
is selling in a certain part of the country, for example. There
are many ways this feature can be used. And it can prove quite
profitable to you.

     The Invoice Store 3.1 is a business tool that you will find
easy-to-use and invaluable in your day-to-day operations. It can
not only save you money by keeping excellent financial records
but it can make you money by giving you all the information you
need to understand your business . . . every facet of it. And in
business, understanding your business and your customers
translates into profit!

     Highly recommended.

(Software Store Products Inc., P.O. Box 562, Oakdale, NY 11769.
1-800-232-8561. The price is $95.)