Denver Research

I find the "add employee" function to work in a somewhat unpredictable way each time I use it.  Usually it's fixable, though.

This time, I had added a new employee, but their info did not show up on the right (in the Employee window) when clicking on their name.  Mine did.

So I closed the program and went back in.  Mine name and hers both showed up correctly on the left, but, again, my info showed up when clicking on either her name or mine.  Everyone else's showed up correctly.

I didn't want to risk deleting my name, so I tried making a new entry for her, and was told (by the system) it was a duplicate.  I tried to edit her information, and could not change anything. 

So I finally just clicked on her name to delete it - only to have MINE get deleted and hers stay in there!!!  Now, suddenly all her info is correct!

However, since I was the only one with administrative privileges, I can no longer log in to ANY part of the system to change ANYTHING.

How do I fix this, and how do I keep it from happening again?

Thanks.

I can understand how an automatic price change from a new cost in a PO could take someone by surprise, and even be undesirable.  But it seemed that the function of "Markup %" was to do exactly that - which is part of why I was reluctant to start using it.  In fact, I still don't use it for many products for that reason - the price changes with the Cost or %, but cannot be manually over-ridden.  So it seems strange to be able to change one of those factors somewhere and NOT have the price change.

Even though such a price change is not automatic when receiving a PO, though, they WILL change later if you happen to go into one of those Product files for something else.  I go into the Product files fairly frequently to tweek settings like vendors, order levels, etc., and having the price change while my focus is on something else seems potentially worse than having it happen when receiving a PO.

I use a PO for entering virtually everything to inventory now, since it provides such a clear record and makes it incredibly easy to generate stickers for items.  Something I find myself often wishing for while creating a PO is the ability to EDIT an existing product - for a number of reasons, but primarily to adjust price as I see the cost changing.  Since I can see the current cost when I'm choosing the product, it seems that it would be ideal to edit the product from within the PO (e.g., the price) - or even toggle back and forth between the PO and the Product file.  Such changes could be addressed right then rather than have to make a note of it to change later.  Admittedly, I have no idea how deep the programming would have to go to address it, but I think it would be extremely helpful (so, 1,001 requests for this year! )

As far as the price stickers matching the price - no, I can't reproduce it all the time.  I have made sure to close out the Product file, then go back in.  I'll try closing the Product Control window as well.

Thanks for the help, Ronald!

First, with all your examples, it seems that allowing ANY quantity to be entered in Quick-Add is not a good idea.  If what you say is true and there's no way to audit it, why would you want to allow ANY manipulation of quantity in there?

Besides that, though - and to wander from the software itself for a moment - I think it's easy to go too far down that path of agonizing over employee dishonesty.  I really don't think any business is ever going to be able to plug up every possible form of employee theft, and I don't think any piece of software is going to prevent it if a person is determined and has any sort of computer skills.  I've worked with inventory-related software with perpetual inventories for 20-25 years now, and have yet to see one where inventory does not have to be corrected from time to time for reasons not related to pilferage. 

I had my business going for 2-3 years before I brought in employees, and I had one hell of a time adjusting to having to trust someone else.  I eventually decided that I either had to trust them implicitly or get rid of them.  And I continue to watch for signs of anything under-handed going on, but I'd have been forced by ulcers or something years ago if I focused on every last bit of minutiae. 

I try to reward my employees generously - partially to enhance their "buy-in" to want the business to so well, but also to keep them from feeling the urge to "even up" by resorting to something like theft.  I feel that this approach has done well for me, as I'm celebrating my 10th year in business this year with both sales and profits continuing to improve substantially. 

But yeah, maybe "quantity" should not be allowed to be entered in Quick-Add.

So you can audit everything done in "Adjust Stock" even if no report is generated?  How do you do that?

It took a minute to figure out your procedure.  I would have never thought of stretching it into a two-step process.  So you really don't add the quantity at the time the Quick Add is done?  Are you not able to track what's been entered in Quick-Add?  (I have no idea, since I don't use it) 

Okay, let's say that's the only way you can audit the numbers - that you can audit what your person is doing - is if "Adjust Stock" is used (and I don't know that that's the case), and that you can NOT if the quantity is added during "Quick Add"   If that's the case, wouldn't it be more straightforward to just see whether Quick-Add can be made to be audit-able in the same way it sounds like "Adjust Stock" is? 

First, in v14 I can't find any "Add New Product" other than in Product Control.  Or do you mean "Quick Add"?  If that, I don't see any option to add a negative value.

I've insisted on adding any new Products at my business, but came to realize that I couldn't get by without giving someone else access to the quantities.  And at that point, what's to keep someone (as Ronald stated) from simply changing quantities to steal something?  Even if you have them use "Adjust Stock", I don't know of a way of tracking it if they don't choose to print a report.

I think there's an incredible degree of control over who has access to what.  Hopefully you have someone you can trust to not be stealing from you!

My question relates to the Discontinued Items, too.

Is there any way to tell - just by looking at Product Control - which items are Discontinued?  I use that function a lot, and also use the Product List a lot to work with items.

I find I need to add a similar "..." in front of the Description to let me know later on that it's Discontinued.  It seems like "Show/Hide More Fields" would be the place to activate something like that, but I don't see that kind of option.

Thanks!

I rely on the z-out for my end-of-day reporting, and it works fine most of the time.  But how can I see any credits that have been applied during the day, since they do not show up on the z-out? (We have the z-out set to report "details" and "payment details", but I've never seen any use of credit show up on one.)

I've been relying on the clerks to make a notation on a second receipt that a credit has been applied, but, of course, this is not always done.  And, of course, from a bookkeeper's perspective, can make things a little more challenging than necessary.

Ideally, it seems that credit applied would be right on the z-out.

I can find reports that will give me this information by customer, but I need something I can print out by date for all customers and all transactions on that date. 

I'm guessing that I'm looking right at the answer somewhere, but just can't seem to find it.

Thanks!

(I'm on v14.032 network version)