Shop Trac
Tips & Traps
Yes ... Shop Trac is a system that has almost unlimited capabilities. We have
found that many users are finding features that have always been available, but they have
never made use of. This section is devoted to some of these features. It will provide Tips
on how to get results using lesser known areas of Shop Trac, as well as
information on Traps that are to be avoided. If you have a Tip or Trap
that you wish to share, please submit it using the
Feedback
form.
We will be adding to this page on a regular basis. Remember to check it when you
return!
 | Trap: Do not use any of the SUPERVISOR options unless you know what
you are doing. Many of these options are to be used only in
exceptional cases We recommends that you only use SUPERVISOR rights
when required for such things as Year End, starting a New Year, changing
Setup Defaults etc. |
| Trap: When assigning credit card names using the
Setup | Defaults option it is possible to assign the same
name to more than a single field. If this happens, the
terms field in the Edit | Receivable | Customer option
will NOT work properly. Until this is corrected, please
make sure that all the credit card names as defined in
the Setup | Defaults option are different. |
| Tip: Would you like to
reconcile your bank deposits using Shop Trac™? Actually, this is quite easy.
Create a new 'Asset' GL account, and call it 'Deposit Clearing'. Indicate
that this account is to be reconciled. Using 'Setup | Defaults', change the
'Receivable Bank' to the number of the 'Deposit Clearing' account. All payments made
on account using the Transaction | Receivable | Payments will now be posted to the
'Deposit Clearing' account, rather than your bank account. When a deposit is made,
create a transaction using Transaction | General | Ledger that debits your bank, and
credits 'Deposit Clearing' for the amount of the deposit. Use the Transaction |
General | Reconcile option to reconcile the 'Deposit Clearing' account. |
| Tip: If you post a summary to
Shop Trac™ for your payroll entries, and you also use Shop Trac™ to reconcile
your bank account, remember to post each payroll cheque bank credit on a separate line in
the transaction, rather than as a total of all payroll cheques. This way, each
cheque will appear separately when reconciling the bank account. |
| Tip: Shop Trac™
allows different types of Terms/Payment methods for each customer account. This
determines what will be printed in a 'Terms' field on the invoice, as well as how an
invoice will be posted. This has in some cases had undesirable effects where a COD
or Cash Sale account is posted to the 'Cash GL Account'. It is possible to treat
these as 'Charge' sales, yet still printing the 'COD' or 'Cash' terms on the invoice.
Simply change the 'Cash GL Account' in the Setup | Defaults to the same number as
the 'Accounts Receivable GL Account'. This will treat these sales as a receivable,
and payments are then processed as for all receivables. |
| Trap: Some users have
discovered the undocumented Supervisor options that available on some SED's when logged on
as SUPERVISOR. Some of these options were made available to make a correction
when ALL ELSE FAILS and under normal circumstances they should NEVER be used. Use of these
options can result in a "GL Integrity Failure". |
| Trap: Do NOT under any
circumstances change the value of an "Integration GL Account" in a transaction.
The "Integration GL Accounts" include all Inventory accounts, Accounts
Receivable, Accounts Payable and Current Earnings. Under most circumstances it is
NOT a good idea to post directly to these accounts either. An exception to this are
documents input as UNPOSTED using the Transaction | Ledger options. |
| Trap: All transactions are
'Date Sensitive'. This means that a transaction will always apply to the period in which
the transaction date falls. This has both advantages, as well as disadvantages. The
advantage is that a forgotten or delayed transaction can still be input providing the
required period is still open. The disadvantage is that if such a transaction is input,
any reports that have already been issued for that period may no longer be correct. |
| Tip: Do NOT logon as
'SUPERVISOR' unless you need this type of access for an intended operation. By its very
nature, SUPERVISOR access allows things that if used improperly or inadvertently can cause
problems. Only logon as SUPERVISOR when you need to do tasks that require SUPERVISOR
access. |
| Tip: If you need to add an
entry to the 'Flat Rate' database that is similar to an existing entry, edit the existing
entry and then select 'Save'. This will have NO effect on the original existing entry, but
will add the new entry with a minimum of data input. |
| Trap: During year end
procedures make sure that you have exclusive access to the Shop Trac™ data files.
This means that in multi-user situations that NO other computers are running Shop
Trac™. |
<%=Session("UserName")%> 
