Substruct Knowledge Base

Short barcodes on some merchandise may not scan correctly by default. These barcodes use the UPCE (usually UPCE0) symbology, and most aliases are stored in your Cougar Mountain installation in the standard 12 digit UPCA format. For reference, Ace sends down UPC information in UPCA format. To enable your scanner to convert UPCE to UPCA, do the following:

The Tools menu contains links to the Signs and Labels programs, both of which can also be found on the Switchboard. It also has a links to the Customer Rewards utility, the Barcode Generator, and the Register Item Sheet tool.

The .cpf font files need to be loaded on to the printer using Zebra’s Label Vista software. Contact technical support for assistance with this.

The Zebra QL320 must be configured with a serial cable (to order one, give us a call).

Then the Label Vista must be downloaded from Zebra’s website (www.zebra.com) and installed on the computer you are using to setup the printer.

We recommend that you use some for of wireless encryption. WPA is more secure than WEP, and it also makes setting up laptops and other mobile devices easier (just give the user the pass phrase).

Setup your router’s wireless network

For a Linksys wireless router such as the WRT54G (or most wireless routers for that matter) you will need to set the following:

• SSID: The name of your wireless network (i.e. AceHardware, SmallTownHardware, etc.)
• Set the security to WPA Personal.
• Set the WPA Algorithms to TKIP.
• Set the WPA shared key to an 8 character password of your choice (i.e. ace54321, 1337pass).

 Configure your QL320 printer with Label Vista

• Plug in your printer.
• Make sure Label Vista is set to use the correct Com port.
• Go to Printer > Network Settings.
• Fill in your network settings. Make sure you set the IP address to be the same as it is in Substruct Utilities preferences (usually 192.168.X.100)

• Next, configure the WPA security.
• Set the Mode to WPA
• Set Authentication to PSK
• Set PSK to Ascii and then enter you pass phrase.
• Click OK or Apply to send the changes to the printer.

Every time you download an invoice from Ace Hardware’s computer system, you also automatically download product information updates called Hotsheets. These are files that Ace queues nightly for every store, but downloading them weekly is just as efficient. Once you have finished running your Invoice and Hotsheets Wizard, your Hotsheets will show up under the Hotsheets Tab of Receiving.

The Information Contained in a Hotsheet File

Each Hotsheets file listed on the Hotsheets Tab contains many lines of information. This includes, but is not limited to: retail changes, cost changes, merchandise class changes, description updates, new product information, discontinued product information, and UPC code additions. Every time you change a price on Acenet, it comes down and gets adjusted with Hotsheets.

Using the Hotsheets Tab

The Hotsheets section of Receiving has two main functions: update data (prices, descriptions, etc.) from the Hotsheets and print new bin labels for items with price updates. One problem that occurs when updated data, specifically retail prices, is that the bin tags and peg hook tags on your sales floor will not be correct.

Since Ace almost always raises prices when they send down price changes, there is a suitable work around to this problem. Hotsheets has the ability to print out labels for items that are having there prices changed before updating their respective prices in Cougar Mountain. Then, after you have put up the new labels, you can update the data into Cougar Mountain. The theory behind this method is that a customer would much rather pick up an item with a price tag saying “$1.99″ but then get to the register and scan at “$1.79″. If you put up your labels after you have updated you hotsheets, a customer is more encounter items that are more expensive at the register.

Printing Hotsheets

To print labels for Hotsheets from a given date, highlight the date on the Hotsheets tab and click Print. A print postion window will appear. Select the location of you first blank label and click the Printer Button to print or the Preview Button to preview.

Updating Hotsheets

Once you have put up your new labels through out the store, hightlight the date on the Hotsheets tab and click update. All new Hotsheets data will be updated into Cougar Mountain, including retail prices.

Deleting Hotsheets

To delete old Hotsheets from the list, highlight the date of the Hotsheets and click Delete.

The Special Order feature of Substruct Utilities is very useful for keeping track of items that have been special ordered for customers. It allows you to track products as they enter the store, and it helps you make sure those products get into the hands of your customers instead of ending up out on your sales floor.

Using the Special Order Client

The Special Order client is designed to help you track products that you have already ordered for customers. It will not order the products for you. The best practice for order a special order item is the following:

• Find the item you wish to special order on Acenet.
• From the “Ship Method” tab, select Stock Reserve.
• Enter the quantiy you wish to special order in the Qty box and click Order to complete the order.
• Open up Substruct Utilities.
• Open the Special Order Client.
• Enter in the stock number (not the UPC or alias), the quantity ordered, and the customers name.
• Enter any other information you want to record about the special order.

This method work best for a couple of reasons. If you were to order the using the Ordering module of Substruct Utilities, you might find that the item is not in the system (and if you have to manually add the item to Cougar Mountain you might encounter problems with input error). Also without ordering the item on Acenet, you will have no idea wether the item is in stock at the warehouse.Ordering the item on Acenet lets you double check to make sure products are in stock, as well as double check things like cost and margin.

Special Orders Window

The Special Order window has many fields for all sorts of different data about the customer, the product being special ordered, and the order itself. It also has a set of check boxes for monitoring the status of the order. The Special Order Window is also capable of emailing customers, informing them that there product has arrived.

Product Info

This section contains the information about the item being ordered. The Stock number (Ace number), and the Quantity are required. The Date Ordered is automatically filled in with the computer’s system date but can be changed. The Promised Price can be left blank but is useful for rain check type orders and situations were the customer was promised a price that is different than the price in the computer system.

Customer Info

This section is where all of the information about the customer is stored. Name is the only required field. The rest of the fields are optional data about the customer, but the following fields will print out on the Special Order labels (printed from the Receiving module of Substruct Utilities): Stock Number, Qty, Promised Price, Phone Number, Alt. Number, and Name. See below for more information on Special Order Labels. If the Email field is filled in with a valid email address, the Email feature of Special Orders becomes available.

Using the Email feature of Special Orders

Once you have a valid email address in the Email field of the Special Order window, a small Email button with a picture of an envelope will appear in the bottom right hand corner of the window. Clicking this button will automatically generate an email to send to the customer. This email will contain product information and the customer’s name, along with a custom message that can be changed in the Preferences. For more information on configuring this message, click the link below.

The email message will open in your default email program (usually Outlook Express) and can be customized before being sent to the customer.

Note: The Special Order client will never automatically send out emails to your customers. It will only automatically generate an email that you can then send to them.

Status

This section contains a set of check boxes that can be used to keep track of the status of the special order.

Ordered denotes that the item has been ordered on Acenet or in the Ordering module of Substruct. This box is used for reference. If you want to gather information from the customer about the special order but you haven’t yet ordered the item, uncheck this box. Keep in mind that the Special Order program will never automatically order the products for you: it only tracks their status.Paid or “Prepaid” is used for when the customer pays for the item before it is ordered.

Received should be checked after the item has been checked in from the order. This box is not automatically updated by the software, and must be manually updated after the special order has been received.

Completed should be checked once the item has been picked up by the customer. All items marked as complete should be considered archived records. The Completed field is also used by the Receiving module to determine what items are special orders. See the section below on How to use the Special Order Client in conjunction with Receiving for more information.

Emailed, which is only available if there is a valid email address in the Email field, should be checked after the customer has been emailed about their special order. This prevents duplicate emailing.

Notes

This section of Special Orders is used for taking down any additional information about the special order or the customer.

How to use the Special Order Client in conjunction with Receiving

The Special Orders Program’s most useful feature is it’s ability to work in conjunction with Receiving. In order for an item to show up as a special order in the Receiving window, a few requirements must be met before you run the Invoice Wizard:

• There must be a record in the Special Order Database that has the exact same Ace/Stock number as an item on the invoice that is being prepared.
• The Completed checkbox on that record must not be checked. If it is checked, the record is assumed to be old, and is not marked as a special order in the Receiving module.
• The record must be in the Special Order Database before the Invoice Wizard is run. If the Special Order record is added after the Invoice is prepared, it will not show up as such.

Each of these items will have a label printed when you press “Print Special Order Labels” in the Receiving Module. These labels are very useful for organizing your products that are special orders. You can keep them all in a back room or on a certain shelf, and the label (which you should place directly on to the product) will tell you vital information about the special order such as customer name, customer telephone number, etc. See below for more information on Special Order Labels.

Tip: To easily access the special order record for a particular item, press the button to the right of the record.

Special Order Labels

For every item on an invoice that is marked as Special Order, you can print a Special Order label. Just use the Print Special Order Labels… button in the Manage Invoice of Receiving.

These labels are great for storing and organizing you special orders until your customers come and pick them up. The labels show product info, customer contact info, and a line for you to indicate the date that the customer was contacted to let them know their special order had arrived. This is useful for stores that put items out onto the sales floor if the customer doesn’t come to pickup the item after a certain amount of time.

Substruct Mobile has a receiving client very similar to the built in client in Substruct Utilities. You can use a wireless handheld device to check in your order; you can even use it while another employee is checking in items on a receiving computer.

The Substruct Mobile Receiving Client works in conjunction with the normal receiving client: they both access the same invoice data and they both add records to the same table. This means that before you can begin checking in a invoice with your wireless device, you must first send an invoice to the receiving client. After you have sent the invoice you wish to receive to the receiving client, the Substruct Mobile receiving client will then access that same invoice. Follow the steps bellow to check in items.

Checking in an ItemTo check in an item, follow these steps: 

• Open the Substruct Mobile web application by using your mobile device’s web browser to navigate to the address listed in your preferences. For more information on this address, click here.
• Click on the Receiving button.
• Click on the small blue “plus” sign (+) button to create a new record.
• Input either the Ace number or the UPC code of the item and click Add. If you scan the barcode of the item, the Add button will be clicked automatically.
• The product information should appear. If it doesn’t you will be informed that no matching records were found.
• The cursor should now be in the “Received” field. Type in the amount you are receiving.
• Click the Save button to go to a new record.
• Repeat with the next item.

Useful Features

The Receiving Client has several features that making the receiving process easier and more productive:

• When you try to enter an item that has already been received, the client will tell you so, and then take you to the older record. The Received field will be highlight so you can just type the new number over it.
• New Item Field
  If the item is new to the system, the “New Item” field will have a red “Yes”. This indicates the item has a label on the label sheet, but doesn’t have a home on the sales floor yet. All items on the label sheet that are new have an asterisk symbol (*) on the right side of the label. 

  If the item has a price difference on the invoice than in Cougar Mountain, the “New Item” field will have a yellow “Label”. This indicated that the item has a label on the label sheet, but the item is not new and therefore should have a home somewhere on the sales floor.

• Printer Button
  As along as a receiving printer is setup correctly on your receiving computer or server, you can hit the printer button and a label with the item’s Ace and price (optional) will be printed at the receiving client computer (or your server, depending on your settings). This is very useful for stocking products that do not have an Ace number directly on their packaging.
• Special Order Field
  If the item is a special order, a red “Yes” will appear in the “Special Order” field. The “Yes” is a visual indicator to the user that the item is a special order. It should have a label on the special order label sheet.
• Camera Button
  Pressing this button will display a .jpg image of the item. Before you can use this feature, you must first have images linked to you stock items in Cougar Mountain and you must build an image file for Substruct Mobile.
• Look at Received Items Button (Magnifying Glass)
  Pressing this button will take to a screen overlooking all of the records receiving so far.
• Navigation Buttons
  Use these buttons to navigate between records. They are: First, Previous, Next, Last, and New. New will add a new record and abort any changes to the record you are currently editing.

Once you are finished checking in your invoice, you can complete your invoice like normal with the Receiving module of Substruct Utilities.

After you have sent an invoice to the receiving client, you are ready to start checking in the order. For more information on sending an invoice to the client, see the Invoice Manager topic. For information on setting up the Receiving Client, see the Link Receiving Client Topic.

Checking in an Item

To check in an item, follow these steps:

• Make sure the cursor is blinking in the UPC field.
• Scan the barcode of the item.
• The product information should appear. If it doesn’t, make sure then item is on the invoice you are checking in by clicking on the Invoice Info button.
• The cursor should now be in the “Received” field. Type in the amount you are receiving.
• Hit the Enter key to go to a new record.
• Repeat with the next item.

Useful Features

The Receiving Client has several features that making the receiving process easier and more productive:

• When you try to enter an item that has already been received, the client will tell you so, and then take you to the older record. The Received field will be highlight so you can just type the new number over it.
• If the item is new to the system, the “New Item or Label” field will have a red “Yes”. This indicates the item has a label on the label sheet, but doesn’t have a home on the sales floor yet. All items on the label sheet that are new have an asterisk symbol (*) on the right side of the label.
• If the item has a price difference on the invoice than in Cougar Mountain, the “New Item or Label” field will have a yellow “Label”. This indicated that the item has a label on the label sheet, but the item is not new and therefore should have a home somewhere on the sales floor.
• As along as you receiving printer is setup correctly, you can hit the printer button in the lower right of the window (or hit F12) and a label with the item’s Ace and price (optional) will be printed. This is very useful for stocking products that do not have an Ace number directly on their packaging.
• If the item is a special order, a red “Yes” will appear in the “Special Order” field, and a small button will appear next to the Printer button in the bottom right corner of the window. The “Yes” is a visual indicator to the user that the item is a special order. It should have a label on the special order label sheet. You can quickly view the special order record that corresponds with the item by clicking the special order button that appeared in the bottom right of the screen.

The Invoice manager is used for viewing and managing invoices. From this window, you can:

• View all of the invoice fields, like Ace number, description, price, and cost, as well as the quantity received or damaged,
• Monitor shortages and overages.
• Monitor items marked as damaged.
• View items that are new to the system, and print labels for them.
• View items that have a price on the invoice that is different that the price in your system, and print new labels for them.
• Monitor items that are special orders, and look up contact information for their respective customers.
• View Ace bulletin items by bulletin number. This includes promotions and orders by pallet.
• Send the invoice to the Receiving Client, and once it is all checked in, download it back to the server.
• Print a variety of different views.

For information on each of these topics, see the topics bellow, as well as the other subjects on Receiving.

Different Sorting Options for the Invoice Manager Window

The Invoice Manager allows you to view data from an invoice in 7 different ways.

Invoice

This view displays the invoice in its entirety. This is useful for looking over the invoice before receiving it.

Short/Over

This view will display all items on the invoice were the Received field (Recv) does not equal the Shipped field (Ship). Use this view after the invoice has been downloaded from the Client. It is recommend that you make sure the ship quantity is correct for each item in this view. You can print the list out using the “Print Current View” button, and then take the printout to the sales floor to check the numbers. To make an item disappear from this view, enter the correct Recv quantity. Once you refresh the view (by clicking on another view and then “Short/Over”) the items will be gone.

Damaged

This view will display all items were the “Damaged” field isn’t blank. This is useful for keeping track of items that came in but were damaged during the shipping process. The “Damaged” quantity is purely for tracking purposes: it is not updated into Cougar Mountain.

New Item

This view will display all items that are new to the Cougar Mountain database. This is determined by looking in the Inventory (IN) history file. These items will be marked as “New” in the Receiving Client. These items also have labels that will print out when you click “Print New Item/Label Labels…” New item labels have a large asterisk (*) on the right side of the label, while new price labels do not.

New Label

This view will display all items that have a different price on the invoice that the current “Price 1″ in the Cougar Mountain inventory database. They will also have a label printed when you click “Print New Item/Label Labels…”

Special Orders

This view will display each item on the current invoice that has a matching record in the Special Orders database. In order to have a matching record, three criteria must be met:

• There must be a record in the Special Order Database that has the exact same Ace number as an item on the invoice.
• The “Received” checkbox on that record must not be checked. If it is checked, the record is assumed to be old.
• The record must be in the Special Order Database before the Invoice Wizard is run. If the Special Order record is added after the Invoice is prepared, it will not show up as such.

Each of these items will have a label printed when you press “Print Special Order Labels”.

Note: To easily access the special order record for a particular item, press the button to the right of the record.

Bulletin

This view will display all items on the invoice that have a bulletin number. These items are often promotional, clip strip items, and pallets.

Sending an Invoice to the Receiving Client

Click this button to send the invoice that you are viewing to the Receiving Client, which is specified in the preferences. If you send an invoice, any data on the Client before you press send will be erased, so make sure the data is old! For more info on setting up your Receiving Client, click here.

Print New Item/Label Labels…

Use this button to print out New Item and Price Change labels. A dialog box will open, allowing you to choose where on the sheet of labels you would like to start printing.

Print Special Order Labels…

Use this button to print out labels for each special order on the current invoice. These labels are great for storing and organizing you special orders until your customers come and pick them up. The labels show product info, customer contact info, and a line for you to indicate the date the customer was called. This is useful for stores that put items out onto the sales floor if the customer doesn’t come to pickup the item after a certain amount of time.

Open Special Order Client

Use this button to easily access the Special Orders Database.

Download Invoice from Recv. Client

Use this button to down the data from the Receiving Client once the invoice has been checked in.

Note: If you send the invoice to the client, then change some info on the server, then download the client data back to the server, the data on the server will be overwritten. To prevent this, do not change any data on the server until the data has been downloaded from the client.

Update Completed Invoice into CMS

Press this button after the invoice is totally checked in and all labels are put up. This will update your on hand counts and retail prices. Make sure the Recv field reflects the actual number that came in off of the truck. If the data updated into Cougar Mountain is incorrect, your on hand counts will be off. This is a major problem that should be prevented whenever possible.