Setting Company
Information
In
this section we will go through all necessary steps to setup the system. The
first screen, which we will be using, is the SYSTEM SETTINGS screen which can be found under the Administration
menu.
In
the first tab we can set the company contact details i.e. the telephone, email,
address, etc. Some of this information appears on the client receipt and/or
invoices.
Tax / Vat Settings
In
most European countries, the tax is called VAT (Value Added Tax) and it is a
percentage which is normally included within the price itself. In the U.S. and other countries, the tax is applied as a percentage
of the item price. jStock POS is so
flexible, that you can rename the tax depending on country of origin. You can
decide if the tax will be applied at the end, or else if it already included in
the item price.
When
selecting the option “Sales Tax” the
system will apply the % tax on the item selling price. Meaning that you should
enter item prices not including tax. The default option is “Vat” and when selecting this option, you should enter item prices
with the % tax included in the item selling price.
Another
important setting is the “VAT Ex. No.” In most European countries you have to apply
for an exemption number in order to be able to use a computer system instead of
a cash register. This specific number will then appear on every receipt you issue
to your clients.
Note:
The button “UPDATE STOCK %” is used
in case you need to update the % tax on every item in stock. Otherwise you can always change the tax for each
individual item from the STOCK ITEMS screen, which can be found under the STOCK
CONTROL menu.
If
you have multiple outlets and/or multiple stores you can enter this information
in the above section. You can then keep track of your stock items by their
location. A location can be either a place, a shelf number, etc. It is up to
you to decide how to organize your stock items.
The
system can also be installed in remote locations and you can have stock level
updates through the internet. Another common approach used when remote locations
are involved, is the use of remote desktop connections. The system is installed
and remote sites connect remotely using windows remote desktop connections.
However you have the option to have the system installed locally at the site
and have stock level updates done remotely through the internet.
From the system settings screen you can also set your default operating
currency.
If the currency you need is not in the default list
of currencies, you can press the [Add
New Currency] button to add the currency to the list. To set the default currency, first select the
currency from the list and then press the
[<< Set Default] button.
The system supports dual currencies, where you have
the ability to print receipts showing two different currencies. To set your 2nd
operating currency, first select the currency from the list then press the [<< Set 2nd] button.
Note : In
this section there is also the option to change all stock item prices and
previous sales from one currency to another.
By giving the multiplying factor you can change all sales and item
prices from one currency to another.
Other Settings
Under the OTHER SETTINGS tab, we can enter the terms And conditions which will appear at the bottom of every
receipt issued by the system. In this box you enter the ‘thankyou’ message
which is printed at the bottom of every receipt. We can also enter the unit of measures by which we track our
stock items e.g. boxes, bottles, litres, etc.
There is also a section where to enter the different credit card types which are accepted,
and also the types of payments.
The counter
no. has to be set at every workstation, and it will show on the
receipt. Another sometimes useful
feature is the ability to consider on order items as available (ref: Include On Order Items In The Available
Item Quantity). In some outlets (e.g.
furniture stores) the available stock is counting as well those items which are
still on order. By default this option is disable, meaning that only when the
item arrives in the store it is treated as available. I.E. When you have a
purchase order and then you change it into a purchase received, at this point
the available stock levels are updated. In the first scenario (when this option
is set) the second you create a purchase order the available quantity is
updated.
Another option is the option where you can decide
to group together similar items when printing the receipt (Ref: When adding items onto the cart group
together similar items) With this option set, even on the screen you see
the items grouped together. Only the quantity changes. By default this option
is disabled, meaning that if you scan an item two times you will see two lines
on the screen and also on the receipt.
Report Designer
In
this version of jStock you can modify most of the reports which are generated
by the system. This functionality can be found in the [REPORT DESIGNER] tab in
the OTHER SETTINGS screen.
Each
button refers to a report. When you press the button corresponding to a
particular report, the report is opened in design mode. For example if you
press on the [SALE RECEIPT (Full)] button which is the default receipt report
the following window opens.
This
is the name of the report file which you can find under the jStock folder.
Each report is made up of two files (.frx and .frt) You can do a copy of these file before
doing any amendments to the reports, just in case!
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With the report designer you can move
objects and you can also alter their properties. For example if you right click
on an object.
You can open the PROPERTIES window
where you have different settings. You can change font type, size and color.
You can change alignment options, add pictures, etc.
You are free to experiment with the
report designer. In case of difficulties please do not hesitate to contact us.
The report designer might not be that straight forward especially for a new
user.
Creating stock categories
Prior
entering your stock you should spend some time and think on how to categorize
your stock. This is a decision to be made prior entering the stock. jStock POS
allows you to have a category and also a sub-category for every single stock
item. A good categorization of stock is important especially when dealing with
thousands of stock items. The screen to use for this purpose is the CATEGORIES
which can be found under the STOCK CONTROL menu.
In
the above screenshot we can see some categories which are commonly found in a mobile
phone shop. To add a category just press
the [ADD] button, enter the description and then press the [SAVE] button.
Creating stock
sub-categories
It
is very common to further split categories into sub-categories especially when
dealing with a lot of different items. The screen to use is called
SUB-CATEGORIES and can also be found under the STOCK CONTROL menu.
As
you can see from the above screenshot, we further split the category BATTERY into sub-categories reflecting the different brands.
It
is very important that you spend some time thinking on how to categories your
stock. This is something, which should be done at the very beginning and can
save you a lot of time in the future!!!
Entering stock
items
The
screen used to enter the actual stock items, is called STOCK ITEMS / PRODUCTS also
found under the STOCK CONTROL menu.
To
add a new stock item press the [ADD] button
The
bottom section is cleared, and you can start entering the information about
your new stock item, including the item name, item code, item description, item
category, item sub-category, etc etc.
The
system automatically generates a unique barcode as soon as you press the [ADD]
button. However, you can replace it at any time.
Something
to note, is that there can be different types of barcode. For example in a
supermarket environment it is common that the barcode number contains also the
price of the item. This is quite common for example for dairy products like
cheese, where the price of the item depends on it’s weight.
For
example if you buy 500g of cheese, when the item is scanned at the cheese counter,
the price of the item is automatically calculated from the barcode. This is
because the item price is encoded in the barcode. Some suppliers might also put
the weight of the item in barcode. Both methods are supported in jStock POS and
can be altered according to individual client needs.
3 different barcode
types
The
first type of barcode, is when each item type has a unique barcode. All items have the same price and are
identified by the same barcode number.
Then
there are those items which can be sold at different prices depending on their
weight. For such items you can either encode the price in the barcode or else
you can encode the weight of the item. In the STOCK ITEMS screen you enter the
weight of the item and the cost price. With this information, when an item is
scanned the price is worked out automatically.
You
can select ../price option whenever
the barcode contains the price or you can select the ../weight option whenever the barcode contains the weight, otherwise
for normal items just leave the first option which is the default option.
jStock
POS supports multiple barcodes for the same item, meaning that the same item
can be identified by more then one barcode. By pressing the 
button the following screens comes up.
In
this screen you can enter multiple barcodes all of which refer to the same
item. There is also the possibility to
assign dimensions to barcodes. This will be explained later, when we speak on
how to manage size & color in fashion retail stores.
The
above screenshot shows jStock POS in a supermarket. As you can see from this example,
the item selected is 7UP Diet 30CL. We
know that we have 22 bottles left in stock. We know also that the re-order
level is set to 20 bottles, meaning that the system should warn me when the
stock level reaches 20. We have set also
the re-order quantity to 50.
By
setting the re-order level and the re-order quantity, you can automate the
procurement process. If for every item in stock you have set both of these
values together with the default supplier for each item, then the system is
capable to automatically generate purchase orders with the correct order
quantities to the respective supplier.
In
the second tab [PRICING] we can enter the cost price for the item, the selling
price, the sale price (if applicable) and also a different selling price for
the different types of customers.
jStock
POS gives you the option to either use a % profit on top of the cost price or
else to enter the selling price directly. Apart from different selling prices
depending on the customer type, jStock POS also gives you the possibility to
have special prices for each individual client.
For example if you have a recurring customer then you open his/her
customer record and assign special selling prices just for that customer.
In
the [OTHER DETAILS] tab we can add an image for the item, we can enter the
weight of the item or the cubic area or the location where the item is located,
etc.
Please note that if you have in mind
some information which is not already in jStock POS and which you would like to
have, then we can always customize the system for your individual needs.
Setting item points
/ gift schemes
One
interesting feature available in jStock POS, is the items points/gift schemes. Under the [OTHER] section we can assign
points to each individual item.
Item Points (+) is used to increase the customer’s assigned points
by the specified amount. For example if you put 100 for item X, whenever a
customer buys item X an extra 100 points will be added to his/her account.
Once
the customer has accumulated a certain amount of points he/she can decide to
get his/her gift(s). In that case you
can say that if an item is given as a gift then we have to deduct X amount of
points from the client’s account. In
this case we use the Gift Points (-)
For
example let’s assume we have the following list of items
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Item
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Item
Points (+)
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Gift
Points (-)
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A
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100
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0
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B
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100
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0
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C
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0
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500
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D
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0
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300
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In
this example if you purchase A or B you get 100 points added to your account.
You get no additional points if you purchase C or D. Once you have enough points you can get item
C or D as a gift.
Item Serialization /
Warranties / Multiple Locations
The
following section is used to serialize items and to keep track of each
individual item by location.
Item
serialization is when we record each single item we have in our stores. For
example in a computer store, it is common to record every single item in store.
For example if we have 100 CPUs each one, apart from a barcode will also have a
unique serial number. Similarly we can have 10 keyboards all with the same
barcode but with 10 different serial numbers. This is commonly referred to as
item serialization.
jStock
POS can help you manage warranties for each individual item you sell. You can
specify the warranty period for each item and if a client comes back with a
damaged item you can check if the warranty is still valid by simply scanning
the serial number.
Apart
from the serialization of items, jStock POS gives you the possibility to track
each item by location. At any time you can see which items are left and where
each item is located. In the following example we can see that there are 2
available CPUs in stock.
But
I also know the serial number and the location of each of the two CPUs.
In
the following example we have 4 Vodafone LG L600 in Stock, each with 24 months
warranty, and which where supplied by supplier VODAFONE. All 4 items are in the same location.
Sales, Discounts and special offers
When dealing with special
offers and/or sales jStock can help you out. If you need to give a general
discount to all items just press the [SALE]
button.
The following window comes up
where you can enter the percentage discount to be given.
If you enter 70% it means that
all items are at 70% of their original selling price. This applies to all items
in stock.
In case you need to apply a
discount to some items only, we can do it as well! This is done by applying a
sale price for each single item.
If the Sale Price checkbox is
selected, it means that the price is discounted. In the above example the
system will charge 15 Euros instead of 20 Euros since the checkbox is selected.
Managing different types of clients
In jStock POS each client can
be assigned a different type. Based on the type you can then have a different
selling price. By default when you install jStock POS there is one client already
entered in the system. This is the RETAIL CLIENT and is the default selected client
when creating sales transactions. If you open the [CUSTOMERS] screen you can
see one customer with the last name CLIENT and the first name RETAIL.
The Client Type is set to
RETAIL meaning that by default the Retail price applies. You can selected between 6 different types of
clients.
And for each type of client you can have a different
selling prices and/or different % profits.
With jStock POS you can also
assign special prices to individual clients. In the CUSTOMERS screen there is a section called SPECIAL PRICES where you
can add items and select a selling price for that particular client.
Maintaining supplier information
The screen for maintaining
supplier information is the following screen called SUPPLIERS
In this screen apart
from the general information about the suppliers, you can have a look at the
supplier activity and you can also see which are the products which are being
supplied and at what cost.
In the STOCK ITEMS screen there is a section
whereby you can select the supplier for a specific item.
With this information
in place and with re-order levels set for every item, jStock is able to remind
the user that certain stock has to be ordered and can also automatically
generate purchase orders to the respective suppliers.
Barcodes printing
To print barcodes press the
[BARCODES] button
and the following screen comes up.
From here you can print all
your barcodes. You can decide how many copies of each item to print and which
items to print. The following is a preview of a barcode created from jStock
POS.
The print out can be
customized based on individual client needs. This can be done from the report
designer. There is also the option to print barcode labels including item
pictures.
Creating a Sale transaction
So we are now ready to create
our first sale transaction. If we go back again to the main menu, there is an
option “SALES/PURCHASES” Under this menu there is an option “NEW
TRANSACTIONS”
The TRANSACTIONS screen is used for both sales and purchases. Every
transaction which you create, you do it
from this screen. Unlike other retail software where you have a screen for each
type of transaction, in jStock POS everything is integrated in the same screen.
This screen was designed so to
minimize the amount of time it takes to finalize a retail transaction. All you
do, is press NEW button (or press F3
key), scan your products using a barcode scanner and press SAVE button (or press F4 key) to save the transaction. The receipt is printed and the system is ready
for the next customer.
This screen was tried and tested in various retail
environments including super markets which need to be quite fast when dealing
with customers. In fact there are special search features like when a barcode
is not automatically scanned. There are special beep sounds to notify the sales
person that something is wrong, etc etc.
Let’s proceed and create one sale transaction.
Step 1 : Press NEW button or else press F3 key
The default transaction type is a Cash Sales but it can be changed from the Transaction Types screen depanding on what is the most common
type of transaction.
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Once you create a new transaction the focus is on the
barcode so that you can start scanning your items immediately!
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The default client is Retail Client but you can select your client either by
searching  or if it
is a new client by just typing the name directly in here!
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To enter a client while doing a sales transaction,
just enter the surname followed by the first name of the client.
Press the ENTER key and if the client is not
already inserted in the database the following window comes up.
Pressing YES button will open another window where
you can enter more information about this new client.
If the client is already in the system no new
window opens and you can continue with the transaction.
Pressing the 
button will open a window where you can search
for an existing client.
You can search by client number, by name or surname
, by telephone ,etc. You can even add a new client at this stage.
Step 2 : Once the client is selected (or you can
leave the default Retail Client and select no client) you can starting scanning
the items.
There are various options to select the items. You
can just scan the barcode, you can enter the serial number, you can search by
name, you can also search by product code.
The barcode field accepts also special codes, like
for example *2 which means that the
next item scanned will have a quantity of 2. You can also enter *-1 so to remove one item from the transaction.
You can also press ? to open a
window whereby you can search for an item by its name.
Add the selected item to the transaction. When scanning
an item barcode there is no need to press this button.
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Opens the STOCK ITEMS screen ready for adding a new
stock item
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Opens the STOCK ITEMS screen
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Remove an item from the transaction
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The 
button opens the following screen.
You can an any additional cost in this screen.
There is also the option to have a default list of services and you just select
them from the list of default services.
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View Picture of the item.
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You can select this option to give line discounts per
item.
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Incase the barcode is not recognized, you can search for
the item and press the  to add
it to the transaction.
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When opening the STOCK ITEMS screen while doing a
transaction there is an additional column which can be used to add the item to
the transaction.
You can also give a discount or enter a delivery
fee for the whole transaction. There is the option to put some comments and/or
select the payment method and credit card information at this stage.
Step 3 : Press SAVE button or press F4 to finalize
transaction.
Step 4 : The CASH
TENDER screen is then opened.
The CASH TENDER
screen is where you select the payment method e.g. cash or credit card. This screen can also be used to process
credit cards. jStock POS can be integrated with credit card clearance companies
and process directly credit card payments. There is no need for additional
credit card hardware provided by the banks. All this can be accomplished within
jStock POS.
In the CREDIT CARD PROCESSING screen you can enable
credit card processing and you can choose between four different credit card
processing gateways.
When credit card processing is enabled, the TENDER screen
has an additional optional button [SWIPE CARD], which can be used to process
the credit card directly within jStock POS.
Press the SWIPE CARD button and the following
screens comes out.
Then swipe the card and press CONTINUE button. The
credit card will be processed. This takes few seconds to complete depending on
your internet connection. If it fails you will get an error message saying that
there is an error in the card.
After pressing the CONTINUE >> button another screen comes up
Option to choose between a standard A4 invoice, or a
fiscal receipt printout.
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From this screen you can
change the client information that appears on the invoice. You can print
warranties and also print item descriptions under every item. You can also
show the shipping address, etc.
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From here you can select if you want to see a print
preview of the receipt, or if you want a standard A4 invoice or a fiscal receipt. You can choose to have a summary i.e. gross,
tax and net price only. There is also an option to print warranties. This
option is used when the items sold have a serial number and you want to issue
warranties for those items.
Finally when you press the PRINT button and you get
the receipt either in the form of a fiscal receipt.
Or else in a standard A4 size.
This completes the sale transaction.
If you need to see what transactions were done
today you can more to the second tab “Past Transactions”
You can see the details of each transaction, by
first selecting the transaction from the grid and then selecting the first tab
“Transaction Details”. There are various search options including
search by transaction type, status, created by, transaction date, transaction
number, client and/or supplier.
The TRANSACTIONS screen can be used to add
different types of transactions. In the fiscal version of jStock, editing an
already created transaction is not allowed for certain transaction types such
as cash sales and sales invoices. Instead you have to issue a credit note to
cancel the transaction. Some transaction types can instead by edited, like for
example a purchase order transaction.
User Custom Transaction
Types
The user can also create new transaction types from
the TRANSACTION TYPES screen.
User created transactions can be edited at any
time. From the above screen you can see how flexible jStock POS is. You can
decide how each transaction type will behave when it comes to stock levels. You
can decide whether to deduct quantities or whether to add quantities. When it comes to the accounting module you
can decide whether a transaction type will post entries in the nominal ledger
accounts. The button [POSTING RULES] can be further used to decide which
accounts are affected for each particular transaction type.
Other functions available in the [TRANSACTIONS]
screen.
With this function you can decide to lock a
particular transaction. Only users with the access right to unlock a transaction
can edit a transaction which was locked.
This button is used to print the z-reading at
the end of the day. jStock POS keeps track of previously generated z-readings
and you can re-print them at any time.
When pressing this button the following window
comes up.
Pressing YES will generate a new z-reading and
printed out.
Pressing NO
will open a window showing previously generated z-reads.
There is the option to re-print any z-reading, by
first selecting the z-read and pressing the re-print button.
When printing a z-reading you have the option to
show full details of transactions.
Or else you can just print a summary by category
and also followed by a tax analysis at the bottom of the z-reading.
you can press this button to print the
x-reading. X-reading can be issued at any time during the day and it shows the
sales for that particular day up to when it was printed.
with this
button you can change the status of a transaction.
The list of transaction statuses can be changed and
new statuses can be added. You can then filter by transaction status as
follows.
jStock POS is equipped with a built-in
accounting module. There is the option to have transactions automatically
posted into the accounting database, or else you can decide to post each
transaction manually by pressing this button.
When the accounting function is turned OFF, this
button is not visible. When a transaction is posted the corresponding accounts
are updated. For example a cash sale the debtor account is debited and the
sales account is credited.
this button is used to create a Purchase Order
transaction out of the selected transaction. For example imagine you create a
Quotation for client and the items selected are not in stock and therefore you
need to order them. By pressing this button jStock will automatically create
purchase order(s) to the respective suppliers. This is possible because in
jStock we can select which is the default supplier for each stock item.
this button is used when for example the
client comes back with a damaged item. You first find the sale transaction,
press this button and a new transaction of type “Return” is created. Then you
have to select which items were actually return by editing the newly created
transaction and filling in the quantities of the returned items.
this button can be used to print the barcodes
for the selected transaction. For example you can create a Purchase Order transaction to a particular supplier. When the stock
arrives you edit the transaction and change it into a Purchase Received transaction. By pressing this button you can then
print out the necessary barcode labels to attached to the received stock.
this button is used to add additional
information to a transaction. The following screen is opened where you can
write notes and even attach files for the selected transaction. You can attach
any type of file being an image file, an audio file, a PDF, etc.
this button is used to enter individual
payments for a transaction. When creating Cash Sale transactions this feature
is not generally used because the system assumes that the full payment is
settle the minute you save the transaction. But you can create a Sales Order
transaction and subsequently enter one or more payments against the sales
order.
The PAYMENTS screen looks as follows,
When adding new payments the corresponding accounts
are changed. For example when adding a payment against a sale invoice, the
customer account is credited and the bank account is debited. All this is done
in the background without any input from the user. In other words you do not
have to be accounted to maintain the corresponding accounts. All this is done
automatically by jStock.
Deliveries
this button is used to schedule deliveries of
items within a transaction. The following screen is opened where you can enter
the delivery address for each single item of a transaction.
Once you enter the address details, select the items
that will be delivered on the specified data. Then press the CREATE button and the information will
be stored in the delivery schedule.
The Delivery schedule for a particular date looks
as follows.
Once an
item is delivered we can thick this checkbox and mark the item as
delivered. It will not show again in the delivery schedule.
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Outstanding
Payment for the client
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The delivery schedule shows all the items that have
to be delivered on a particular date.
The [POST TO LEDGER] button is used to deduct the
transactions that was delivered from the COS (Cost Of Sales) ledger account.
Purchase
Orders / Purchase Received
The same TRANSACTION
screen is used also to create purchase transactions. Now we are going to do an
example where we buy some items from a supplier. The first thing to do is to
enter your supplier information from the SUPPLIERS
screen.
To create a Purchase Order , press the NEW button
and then select Purchase Order as a
transaction type.
Once you select Purchase order as the transaction type,
the screen shows the list of suppliers from which you can choose.
Once you select the supplier you can add items for
this purchase order.
After selecting the items to be ordered, to finalize
the Purchase Order press the SAVE button.
When the items arrive at your store, first search
for the transaction number, press EDIT button to edit the transaction and
change the transaction type from PURCHASE ORDER to PURCHASE RECEIVED.
The following message pops out!
This is because a Purchase Received transaction
contains an additional column called the Actual
Qty. In this column we enter the quantities of the received items.
The above prompt will create a new location called Tr. XXX where XXX is the transaction
number. This option was added to jStock because it was requested by some
clients. By default there is no need to create a new location when stock
arrives, so just select NO by default.
Enter
the qty. of items received or press [ACTUAL = QTY ORDERED ]button if all
the item arrived.
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If all items have been received we can also press
the button Actual = Qty Ordered As soon as we press the SAVE button, the stock
levels will be automatically updated.
When saving a Purchase Received transaction other
windows pop up. For example the
following window asks for the expiry date of the items received. There is also
a place where to enter the warranty period and receipt date. If this information is not required just
press the CONTINUE button.
A second prompt asks if you want to enter serial
numbers for the received items. This depends on the type of business. For
example in a computer store which receive fifty computers would have to enter
the serial number of each one.
Just press NO if you do not want to enter serial
numbers. In which case we press YES the following screen comes up, where we can
enter the 50 different serial numbers.
With jStock we improve and speed up the procurement
process up stock control because it gives the possibility to enter serial
numbers immediately as the stock arrives.
Recall the 
button which can also be used to print out the
labels for the items in the purchase transaction. It makes sense to label the
products immediately as soon as they arrive in store.
The procurement process can be summarize in the
following steps :
1. Create Purchase Order
a. Select Supplier
b. Select Items to Order
2. Send Purchase Order to supplier
3. Once stock arrives change the Purchase
Order to a Purchase Received transaction
4. Select the items which arrived (Actual
Field)
5. Press save to update stock quantities.
Shipments
With jStock POS you can group together a number of
Purchase Orders into what we call a shipment.
Select the purchase orders which will be part of the
shipment
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The 
button can then be used to work out the
landing cost of each item included in the shipment.
To add a new shipment press the ADD button
From the STOCK ITEMS screen the landing cost price
is
When making use of the Shipments function the
system can automatically work out how much each item really costs.
Landing Cost = Supplier
Cost + Shipment Costs + Other Expenses
Built-in
Accounting Functionality
jStock comes equipped with a built-in accounting
module. You can have your accounts as part of jStock POS, or else you can
export your sales & purchases and then import them into your accounting
packages. You can manage your accounts directly
from jStock POS. For those of you who still want to use a 3rd party
accounting package such as Sage or Quickbooks, they will find an export
option to excel or to a format which can later be imported.
All accounting is tied with a financial year so we
start by first creating our financial year. This is done automatically by the
system. When you first open the system a new financial year will be created
automatically. By default a financial year starts on 1st January and
end on the 31st December.
From the above screen you can close your financial
year, you can create a new financial year or you can switch to a previous
financial year may be to have a look at the ledger accounts balances during
that financial year.
The BANKS
screen is used to enter information about bank accounts. You can create any
opening balances for each bank account as soon as you create your first bank
account. The same applies when creating new supplier (creditor) accounts and/or
clients (debtor) accounts.
Press the 
button so to create an opening balance for the
selected bank account.
Once this is done you can start selling your
products and purchasing products from your suppliers. The system will take care
of the rest. You don’t have to worry about accounting anymore! If you open the NOMINAL ACCOUNTS screen you can see all
the debits and credits for all your accounts.
You can see that while you are selling an item you
have to SALES RETAIL CLIENT ledger account being updated, at the same time you
have the SALES TAX CONTROL account being updated, etc. Similarly when you do
purchases the PURCHASES account and supplier’s account are updated
automatically.
By default when you create a new supplier a new
account is created in the accounting module.
If we do a purchase for this supplier you can see
the details under the Activity tab.
And also from the SUPPLIERS screen you can see for
each individual supplier what entries affected the accounts.
Payments
to suppliers
From the above screenshot we see that we owe the
supplier 50 for a purchase we did.
To pay an outstanding transaction you have to
options.
Option 1) You can do it directly from the TRANSACTION screen , by pressing the 
button on the right hand side of the screen.
Before entering the payment you can select which
other account will be involved. By default the Petty Cash account is used as
the contra-entry. But you can select for example the current bank account if
you are going to pay by cheque.
Option 2) The second approach is more complicated
and involves using the BANKS screen.
First we open the BANKS screen, select the Petty Cash account, go under the Payments
Out section and select the supplier to which you want to issue a payment.
From the above screenshot we can see that there is
still one outstanding transaction of 50 which is still not matched with a
payment.
So we need to enter a payment and select the
transaction(s) that should be matched with the payment. When we use option 1 all these steps are done
in the background and are hidden from the user.
Enter 50 and press the ADD RECEIPT button
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Then select the transaction and press the MATCH
button
Select the transactions to match the payment and finally
press the MATCH button.
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As you can see the second approach takes more time.
But this is very similar to what accountants are used to when they use accounting
packages. At the end both methods will produce the same results i.e. the
transaction was settled and paid as you can see from the following screenshots.
CREATING NEW ACCOUNTS
You can create as many accounts as required.
By default when you create a new supplier from the SUPPLIERS screen, an account is also created in the accounting
database. Even when you create a new customer from the CUSTOMERS screen you can specify the account no. to be created in
the accounting database.
By default when you create a new customer account
4000 is used, because all sales go under this account, but you can enter an
account number for each individual customer.
When creating a new account you have to specify a
unique account number , the name of the account and any parent account if
applicable.
An account can be either a debit account, a
creditor account, an asset account, a control account or else a grouping
account. Grouping accounts are used only to organize the ledger accounts in the
form of a tree like structure with accounts and sub-accounts.
Once an account is created it will show under the
respective account group.
to edit an existing account press EDIT button.
The following screen comes up with two new options not available at the time of
creation of the account.
The first option “Show on Trial Balance” is used to
select the accounts that should appear on the trial balance report.
The second option “P&L Account/Balance Sheet” is
used to choose how the accounts behave at the beginning of a new financial
year. Accounts which are set as Balance Sheet accounts have their balances
cleared at the beginning of a new financial year. On the other hand accounts
set as P&L accounts maintain their balances year after year.
At the beginning of every year the balances of the
accounts set as balance sheet items are cleared and the total is posted against
the Profit & Loss account.
this button is used to open the LEDGER POSTINGS screen which shows the
details of every single posting done.
This screen is very powerful because we can see how
each transaction effected the accounts. You can see each individual posting,
you can filter by dates, by account numbers, by transaction types etc, etc.
This button is used to print the statement for
the selected account. By Default only open transactions are listed in the
statement. Open transactions are those transactions which have still an open
balance. Once matched with a payment such transactions will be removed from the
statement.
The option ”Show Only Open Balances” is used to
list only the transactions which are outstanding. For example a sales
transaction will show until it is matched with a payment. Un-thick this option
to show all postings not just the open balances.
this is also used to print the account
statement but for all the accounts. Those accounts which have no outstanding transactions
will not be included in the printout.
this button opens a screen which can
re-calculate all account open balances. By recalculating the account balances
you are double checking and making sure that all account balances are correct!
The account balances can in rare occasions go
out of sync with the actual postings. This could happen either because of a
computer crash in the middle of a transaction posting. In case this happens the
system is equipped with a self-check procedure which will re-construct and fix
any errors that might have occurred. Again this rarely happens, but if it had
to happen the auto-check function can fix it!
Manual Postings
When the accounting option is turned ON, jStock POS
takes care of all postings automatically in the background.
There is also the option to post transactions
manually by pressing the 
button in the TRANSACTIONS screen.
In case you need to post entries for which there is
no transaction created you have to do this from the NOMINAL ACCOUNTS screen.
First select the account for which you want to
enter a manual posting.
Enter the details of the posting including
transaction type (invoice, credit note, purchase … etc ), date, document
number, reference, amount, etc. Finally
press the POST ENTRY button.
The system will then display a window where you
have to select the contra-entry account number.
In accounting you always have to select the
contra-entry account so to keep the accounts balanced.
Managing size & color in retail fashion
jStock
POS can be used to manage size and color, something which is very common when
dealing with fashion retails. It is not enough to know how many shirts you have
in your store, it’s important to know how many sizes of that t-shirt you have
and/or how many red ones you have!!! These are some of the most common problems
encountered when dealing with fashion retailing.
Lets
assume that we have 100 trousers of different size and color. We start by
create the stock item.
Press
SAVE button, then from the IN STOCK section add 100 as the quantity.
When
you press SAVE button
Press
the Qty. Dimensions button or double
click on the 100 to open the following screen.
We
have to start by creating our dimensions i.e. size and color.
This
is something you do only once. Then we have to select the dimensions for the
selected item.
As
you can see from the above screenshot, we have to select the horizontal
dimension and the vertical dimension, and press ENTER VALUES button to enter the actual quantities.
Lets
assume that out of those 100 trousers, we have one blue color, 50 of size 30
and another 50 of size 32.
Remember
to press the SAVE button.
Now
lets make use of the multiple barcode functionality of jStock. This will enable
us to label the trousers with different barcode numbers referring to the same
item.
In
this example the barcode for the denim trouser is 0412789141
If
we have a sale with this barcode the system will just subtract 1 from the
available quantity which is 100. But we
want also to know which size and color was sold.
To
do this we have to make use of multiple barcode feature. Press the (s) button and the following screen
opens.
We
will add the barcode 0412789141301 which at the end of the day still refers to
the same item. We have added 301 meaning
size 30 and color 1 for blue.
We
still have to set the dimension values. We do this by double clicking on the
dimension column.
When
creating a sale and scanning barcode 0412789141301, the stock quantity will be
subtracted by one. The system will also keep track that a jeans blue of size 30
was sold.
The
idea is to have different barcode numbers referring to the same item. We
associate each barcode number to different dimensions. Like this when an item
is sold, the system keeps track of the size and color of the item.
Gift vouchers
It
is common in retail outlets to give out gift vouchers. jStock POS can help you
out to manage gift vouchers. You can know how many gift vouchers were issued,
how many were used,etc. The screen is called [VOUCHERS] and can be found under
the [STOCK CONTROL] menu.
Press
[ADD] button to create a new voucher.
You
can give an expiration date for the voucher, and you can also give the name of
client who is supposed to use the voucher. In the above example we will create
5 vouchers each of amount 100.
When
creating multiple vouchers at one go, use the following section.
To
print out the vouchers, first select them by thicking the small box on the
right hand side of the grid (or press the [SELECT ALL] button), then press the
PRINT button.
On
each voucher there is a barcode which you can then scan while doing a sale
transaction. The amount of the voucher will automatically be deducted from the
bill total, and the voucher will be marked as used up and cannot be used another
time.
Re-order levels reminders
For
each item in stock we can enter the re-order level and the order qty. The
system will warn us when the qty is the same as the re-order level and can
automatically create a purchase orders.
The
screen to use is called RE-ORDER LEVELS
This
screen is opened the first time we login the system just as a reminder that
there are some items which have reached their re-order levels. Only items which
have reached their re-order levels are listed in this screen.
By
pressing the 
button the following screen comes up!
The
system knows the default suppliers for this item, because we have set it up in
the STOCK ITEMS screen SUPPLIER section.
We
can also press the 
button to automatically create the Purchase
Order for that supplier.
You
can be sure that with jStock POS you will never forget to order items and you
will never end up with items out of stock.
Product Information Screen For Customers
In super markets it is common to find screens
whereby the customer can scan an item to get to know the price and other
promotional information. In jStock POS this is also possible. The screen is called PRODUCT INFORMATION
When the customer scans the item barcode the screen
changes as follows
After
a couple of seconds the information is cleared and the screen is ready for
another barcode scan.
Item bundles
In
jStock POS you can create bundles made up of a number of items which are then
sold as one bundle. Each bundle can have its own price irrespective of how much
each item in the bundle costs. Stock levels are automatically updated when the
whole bundle is sold.
In
the above example we have created a bundle made up of 2 items. The bundle is
also assigned a unique barcode which you can print. When the item is scanned
jStock will deduct the correct quantities for each item in the bundle.
To
create a new bundle follow the following steps
Press
ADD button and enter the name of the bundle and finally press SAVE.
Press
EDIT button and select the items which will be part of the bundle. After
selecting the items enter the selling price for the different types of clients.
When doing a sale transaction there is also the possibility to select the
bundle from a list.
Bundles
are also assigned a unique barcode. If you print barcode labels, you can also
scan the barcode and it will be recognized by jStock as a bundle.
Network Setup & multiple workstations
jStock can be easily installed
in a network environment. If you have a network in place all you do is the
following.
-
Install jStock on all computers
-
Decide which will be the computer which will hold
the main database
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Lets say you have 5 computers and we have decide
that computer 1 will be the computer which will act as the server computer
where the main database is stored.
On Computer 1 (the server) you
have to do the following simple steps
1)
From Windows Explorer you have have to locate the
folder where jStock was installed. By default jStock is installed in
“c:\program files\jstock” folder.
2)
Then we have to enable file sharing and share this
folder on the network
On the other 4 computers you
have to do the following steps (so to point jStock to the database contained on
the server computer)
1)
Create a mapped network drive to the server folder
2)
Open the NETWORK
SETUP screen and type in the selected network drive letter.
Enter the drive letter of the mapped network drive. For
example M where M is the mapped
network drive.
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This will complete your
network setup.
What we did in the above
steps, is we have changed the location of the data where each workstation is
pointing. Instead of pointing to the c:\program files\jstock folder the data is
located on M drive where M is a mapped network drive.
Printer settings
In a retail outlet you will
need three different types of printers. You will need a Receipt printer, you
will need a barcode printer and also a standard A4 printer where you can print
your back-end reports. The system can automatically switch between these
different types of printers as necessary.
There is a screen called
PRINTER SETUP in which we have to setup our printers.
For example : Use printer
number 2 for printing out fiscal receipts. The printer could be a local printer
or a network printer.
When pressing the small box
the following utility comes up.
This is the list of printers
which are available for use. Just double click on the printer and jStock will
automatically select the correct printer before printing a receipt or before
printing a barcode label.
For
each printer you can also set the page layout by pressing the 
button. This will open a utility which will
let you choose the page layout settings for the particular printer.
Cash Drawer setup
Under administration menu there is also a screen to
set up cash drawer functionality.
Usually the cash drawer is connected to the back of
the receipt printer. The computer sends a special code to the printer which in
turn opens the cash drawer. jStock has a
list of pre-defined printer codes from which to choose. For other printer
models please contact directly the printer provider.
At any time while using jStock POS you can press
CTRL+D key to send this command to the printer and therefore open the cash
drawer.
Magento Ecommerce
Integration With jStock
Magento
is the world’s fastest growing ecommerce platform. This open-source shopping
engine is ideal for those who want to have an online shop with all the
necessary functions including online payments, stock control, client
relationship management , etc.
Now
you can have jStock POS integrated with Magento. The idea is to have one
application i.e. jStock from where to manage your stock. You utilize Magento
only as a front end shop. All stock is
managed in jStock POS and by pressing a button you upload all
information into Magento. Similarly you download new client transactions from
Magento shop into jStock POS.
In
this section we will take a look at the steps which are required to setup the
integration between Magento and jStock POS.
We
will assume that you have your Magento shop up and running. The first thing you
have to do, is to install the MySQL ODBC drivers. You can download these
drivers from the following link
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/3.51.html
Basically
this is required to have a connection between jStock and Mangeto shop.
In
jStock POS open the WEB STORE ADMINISTRATOR from ADMINISTRATION menu.
To
setup the connection to Magento press the 
button to open the following screen.
We
need to have the following information before we can press the CREATE CONNETION
button.
1)
IP Address of
the website
2)
DB Name which
refers to the MySQL Database name
3)
Username and
Password to access the database.
This
information can be obtained from your webmaster or the company which is hosting
your Magento shop.
Apart
from that we need also a username and password to be able to upload stock
pictures using FTP onto the server where Magento is hosted.
Once
all this information is obtained and saved we can proceed to upload our stock
onto Magento.
When
pressing this button the system will ask you if you want to copy the
Categories and if you want to copy the
Items. You can also copy a single item if you do not want to waste time. The synchronization can take some time
depending on how many articles you have.
To
upload the pictures you have to press the 2nd button.
Once
ready we need to login into Magento back-end and refresh the cache so that the
items become visible on your website
e.g.
www.yourwebsite.com/index.php/admin
Once
you are in the CACHE MANAGEMENT section select REFRESH and press the SAVE CACHE
SETTINGS button.
Also
press the following REBUILD buttons one by one to be sure that the website is
refreshed completely and that all items uploaded from jStock are now visible.
Two Dimensional
Barcodes
Now
included also in jStock POS are the 2-dimensional barcodes which can be used
to encode more information about your articles.
2-dimension
barcodes are different from standard barcodes and can store much more
information. You can encode a complete description about your articles which
can then be read back using a barcode scanner.
In
jStock you can decide what information to encode for each item by pressing the
2D button in the STOCK ITEMS screen.
In
the above screenshot we have wrote some description about this article which we
can then print on a standard barcode label.
2D
barcodes are a relatively new technology and are not yet very popular for now.
Their main advantage is that you can encode information in a relatively small
space.
Additional plug-ins
available with jStock POS
Some
additional plug-ins available in jStock POS include
1)
The PDA module
which can be installed on a normal PDA and which is able to sync. with jStock POS.
2)
jShop which is
an online shopping cart which can integrate with paypal online payments and which can also synchronize with jStock POS.
button. This button is useful in environments
where you have only a touch screen with no keyboards attached.
to get the following.
