ProfitMaster Now Shipping
We have begun shipping the final release of ProfitMaster. If you have not received your package please fill out the order form enclosed in this News Letter and return it to us.
If you have already purchased ProfitMaster (CarpetMaster 5.5) you have several options. You order only the updated diskettes or ProfitMaster CD-ROM (the ProfitMaster CD-ROM includes ProfitMaster and our other programs. You can use the other programs on a trial basis) for Free, you can download the update from our web site or you can receive the updated diskettes in our new packaging along with the new help manual for $19.00.
The Order Form also includes specials to upgrade to ProfitMaster, and specials on the Mail Merge Wizard and Maximizing ProfitMaster Instructional CD.
Please review the order form, make your selection and send it back to us. We cannot send you the package or updated diskettes until we receive this form.
(A $5 Shipping & Handling charge will be added to each order. U.S.)
Back to TopIn your business "add-on" items play an important role in making profits and providing sales incentives for your Technicians. Basically, an "add-on" item is an additional item or service the Technician sells while performing the cleaning service that wasn't on the original work order.
As "add-on's" play an important role in making money, carpet cleaners are very interested in tracking just how much their technicians are selling. Conversely, as most carpet cleaning businesses offer their technicians a higher percentage of any "add-on" they sell, technicians are very interested in getting a paycheck with that extra compensation.
How do we input this into ProfitMaster?
There are 3 criteria that must be met for an "add-on" sale to be properly recorded in ProfitMaster:
- The Technician must have an "add-on" percentage in their personnel record.
- The Service Item being added must be marked as commissioned in the Items Catalog.
- The Service Item must be added when you are converting the Work Order to an Invoice.
The Technician must have an "add-on" percentage in their personnel record.
The way the "add-on" extra works is simple. Let's say your Technician is paid 20% of the job and 35% of any "add-on's" he sells. In his personnel record he would have 20 in the Comm. % field. This would be his base commission. Now we want to set up his record to give him 35% of any "add-on" that he sells. In essence what we want to do is give him his base commission which is 20% plus an additional 15% on any "add-on's" that he sells. This would equal 35%. So in the Add-on Extra% field we would put 15. This tells the program to add 15% to the Technicians 20% for any "add-on".
The one thing you don't want to do, in this example, is put 35 in the
Add-on Extra% field. Unless, of course you are very generous, because if you do this you will be giving him an extra 35% in addition to his 20% or 55% of the "add-on".The Service Item being added must be marked as commissioned in the Items Catalog.
In order for ProfitMaster to give a Technician a commission for a service item, that service item needs to be marked as commissioned in the Items Catalog. To check this you would go to your
File Menu and choose, Open, Services-Sale Items. In the Items catalog find the Service in question and on the bottom of the left column is Commissioned. If there is not a "Y" in that field go ahead and input one by using the Edit the current Record command from the Edit Menu.The Service Item must be added when you are converting the Work Order to an Invoice.
This is the trickiest part of the process and for people not too familiar with the program I'll briefly explain how ProfitMaster recognizes an "add-on" service and the difference between a Work Order and an Invoice.
ProfitMaster does not recognize "add-on" services per se. What it does is compares the total price of the Work Order to the Total Price of the Invoice and categorizes any difference in the prices as an "add-on". In English this means that if you have a Work Order for $50 that becomes an Invoice for $100 ProfitMaster deduces that there was a $50 "add-on" service for that job. It does not know what type of service you added, for example "Teflon", only that there was a difference between the beginning total (Work Order) and the final total (Invoice).
The difference between a Work Order and an Invoice is a little confusing as they both share the Customer Orders form in the program. A Work Order is the job to be performed. It contains information such as the Customers name, address, services to be performed and the date the work is to take place. A good way to distinguish a Work Order from an Invoice in ProfitMaster is a Work Order will only have a Job Number in the upper left hand corner of the first page. It will not have an Invoice number.
An Invoice is the Work Order once the job has been completed. Not only does it contain a Work Order Number but it also has an Invoice number. An Invoice can only be created on or after the day of the job. ProfitMaster will look at the job date and the current date and ask if you want to mark the job as Invoiced.
Now that we have a little background, lets examine how to input an "add-on" sale item. An "add-on" sale must be added at the same time a Work Order is being converted to an Invoice. In order for this to work properly, the prices of the services on the Work Order must be correct before you convert it to an Invoice. If you adjust the service prices at the time you convert the Work Order to an Invoice, ProfitMaster will deem this as an "add-on".
The steps required for an "add-on" sale are:
- A Work Order is filled out listing requested services and their corresponding prices.
- A Technician is assigned and sent to perform the work.
- The Technician returns with the Work Order showing they sold an additional item.
- The Work Order is retrieved in ProfitMaster and
Typically, this is the procedure used to input an "add-on" sale. However, there are some additional considerations. Since ProfitMaster determines an "add-on" sale by comparing the Work Order total to the Invoice total it is imperative that the Work Order total is correct before converting it to an Invoice or you might not get the desired results.
For example, a customer calls and requests you clean a sofa for $65 and a chair for $35. You fill out a Work Order for both services and the total is $100. The Technician returns and says the customer changed their mind and only had the sofa cleaned but he sold Fabric Protector for $30. There are two ways to handle this:
If you pull up the Work Order, remove the service for the chair, add the Fabric Protector, mark the job as Invoiced and apply the payment ProfitMaster will see that there was a Work Order for $100 which is now an Invoice for $95 and charge that Technician with a -$5 "add-on". In most cases this will be incorrect.
The correct way to input this would be to first edit the Work Order to remove the Chair service. Then save the work order but do not mark it as Invoiced. Once the Work Order has been saved, edit it again and add the "add-on" (Fabric Protector). Now go ahead and mark the job as Invoiced. ProfitMaster will now see that there was a Work Order for $65 and an Invoice for $95 and credit the Technician with a $30 "add-on" sale.
As you can see, inputting "add-on" sales items is easy once you understand the criteria necessary and how ProfitMaster handles this type of transaction. You will probably run into other situations that may require an extra step or two in order to have the "add-on" component in ProfitMaster work correctly, but if you follow the steps outlined above it should be no problem!
How to Input a Whole Job as an Add-On Sale
Depending on your business practices you may want to reward a Technician by paying him his "add-on" commission for an entire job. This is a nice gesture and is easy to perform in ProfitMaster.
There are several ways to do this but we recommend you create a new Service Item in your Items Catalog and set the price to be -100%. You can name this item whatever you like, but for instructional purposes we will call it
Tech Add On.Follow the procedures outlined in How to Input an Add-On Item except input the
Tech Add On service item as the last service item in your service description box. This will show the prices of each service the Technician needs to perform but make the Work Order Total $0. Save the Work Order and send the Technician to perform the job.When the job has been completed, edit the Work Order and remove the
Tech Add On service item. This will restore the correct price of the job. Make any changes or "add-on's" and mark the job as Invoiced.This will compensate the Technician performing the work at his "add-on" percentage for the whole job.
The Proper Way to Turn Off your Computer
Fact or Fiction: It is O.K. to turn your PC off at anytime by pressing the On/Off or Power Button.
Fiction! Computers, Programs and Operating Systems are new and sometimes foreign to our users. Consequently, they have not been taught some of the Do's and Don'ts of computing. A good place to start learning these sometimes-frustrating lessons is with the proper way to turn off your computer.
A computer saves information by writing it to a hard drive. Depending on how your operating system is configured the saving of information may take place immediately, or it may be stored in the temporary memory and stored on the hard drive when the computer has time to write it to disk. If your computer has information stored in the temporary memory and the power switch is turned off, that information will be lost.
Therefore, the proper way to turn off your computer is to close any open programs before you turn off the machine.
If you are using ProfitMaster for DOS, you must exit ProfitMaster by using the
Exit command from the File menu.If you are using ProfitMaster for Windows you must exit the program as described above and then exit Windows also.
To exit Windows 3.1 choose
Exit from the File menu in the Program Manager. Once Windows exits you will be at a DOS prompt and it will be safe to turn off your PC.To exit Win95, click the
Start Button and choose Shut Down. A screen will then appear telling you when it is safe to turn off your PC.Not following these procedures can result in data corruption or loss.
A great feature in ProfitMaster is the ability to store your services or sale items in a catalog so they can be used any number of times without having to re-input the information. This feature saves time, eliminates repetitive or ambiguous entries and ensures accuracy and consistency in your data input. As a business owner it allows you the opportunity to control the services being entered which results in more accurate reporting.
Why is consistency in your data input important? Let's say you have a prospering carpet cleaning business with 3 secretaries, we'll call them Jane, Claire & Ivonne, inputting work orders into ProfitMaster. Without a standardized set of service items in the Items Catalog, you are leaving the service item setup to Jane, Claire & Ivonne's discretion instead of your own.
For example, you may offer your customers "Teflon" for carpet protection. Jane may input this as "Teflon", while Claire inputs "Protector" and Ivonne decides to call it "Add On". What you are left with is 3 different Service Item entries to describe the same service!
What we recommend is that you take some time and write down the different types or categories of work you perform. Your categories might be "Carpet Cleaning", "Upholstery", "Carpet Repair", "Drapery", etc.
Then, write down all of the specific Sales and Service items for each category. Your paper might look something like this:
| Carpet Cleaning | Upholstery | Repair |
| 3 Room Special | 7 ft Sofa | 1-2"Cosmetic Insert |
| 5 Room Special | Recliner | Seam Repair |
| Steam Clean | Davenport | Spot Dye |
Once you have your categories and service items organized input them into the Items Catalog in ProfitMaster. To open the Items Catalog, from the File menu choose Open, then Service, Sale Items.
When the Items Catalog appears, from the Edit menu choose Add New Record. You will then be presented with a blank form to input your new Service Item. The Item Name would be the specific name such as "3 Room Special" and the Category would be "Carpet Cleaning".
Print the list as a reference for your data entry people. In order to ensure that the Service Items you setup remain unchanged and no new ones are added without your knowledge, you can take away your data entry peoples File Access Rights for Sales & Service Items in their Security Record.
With this done, Jane, Claire & Ivonne will all be entering the same information based on the structure you set up.
On Saturday, 10/11/97, Ron will travel to England to attend the U.K. Carpet Cleaning Exposition. He will then continue on to Israel to visit his family and attend the wedding of his youngest brother Dan, to his wife to be. He'll return to the United States on Sunday 10/19/97.
Our apologies to the following distributors for incorrectly printing the wrong information in our last issue. Here is the correct Information:
Jena Dyco
Olga Krivitsky.
Tel: 039 95320825
Factory #6 104 110 Keys Rd.
Moorabbin VCT, 3189
AUSTRALIA
Active chemicals
Robert Saunders.
Tel: 011-44-176-320-8222
Fax: 011-44-176-320-8906
Butts Farm Follmere
Hertforshire, SG8-7SL
ENGLAND
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
The PTS Gang
Starting in the back, from left to right: 1st row Lili, Miki, Rami, Eran, 2nd row Osh, Sivan, kneeling Ron & Jon.