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CHAPTER 2

Getting Started

Starting VIMACS

Setting Printers

Input Your Company Information

Overview Inputting your Data

Input Your Customer Information

Input Your Vendor Information

Input Your Inventory

Adding Pictures to Inventory

This chapter will help you setup VIMACS and input your information for the first time. The steps you will follow are:

Select your printers for VIMACS
Input your Company information.
Input your existing Customers
Input your existing Vendors
Input your Inventory

Starting Vimacs

To Start VIMACS, form your Windows menu Press the Start button, Programs, then select Gem of The Nets VIMACS, and finally select VIMACS

Setting Printers

The very first time you run VIMACS you will get the following message:

This is normal, just press the OK button and the following window will appear

VIMACS needs you to select which printers to use for the different functions, such as bar-code printing, cash Register Receipts, Reports, etc. The printers you have installed on your computer will appear in the large window at the bottom. Select the printer you want to use and press the corresponding button. Repeat this for the Tag Printer, Default Printer, Invoice Printer, Label/Job Tag Printer. You can select one printer for multiple functions, but you must select a printer for each function.

Printer Type Definitions:

Tag Printer: Bar-codes are printed on this printer.
Default Printer Financial and Inventory and Customer Reports are sent to this printer.
Invoice Printer The Sales Receipts and Invoices are sent to this printer.
Label/Job Tag The mailing labels, and Job Envelopes are sent to this printer.

Additional Options:

Click here if you are using a receipt printer: Check this box if you are using a narrow receipt printer that prints on a narrow roll. VIMACS will format the receipts to fit on this size paper.

Click here if you have a cash drawer attached: Check box if using VIMACS with cash register, VIMACS will send the designated code to open the cash register drawer. You can change the code which is sent by entering the ASCII code in the window to the right. See the documentation which came with your cash register/drawer to find out the code needed to open the drawer.

Once you have selected your printer press the Done button, you should now be at the VIMACS main screen as shown below:

Use the Menu Bar to switch between the main modules in VIMACS

Input Your Company Information

The first step, is to enter your company Information, to begin by pressing the Setup Button from the Main Menu Bar

The following Screen will Appear

Fill in all the fields with the appropriate information. about your company.

The following fields are explained below

Tax Rate
Enter your local sales tax rate here, it will be added to taxable items on the invoices

Price Markup Factor
VIMACS uses this value to automatically calculate your selling price based on your cost when adding new items to inventory. If you don't want VIMACS to calculate your selling price, you can disable this function in the Inventory setup and enter any selling price you want.

Inventory Discount
This discount will be applied to the selling price to all items when printing an invoice or receipt. This is useful for retailers who have sales and wish to apply across the board discounts. Its also useful for stores that show the suggested retail price, and then sell at an advertised discount.

Default Inventory Location
When a new item is added to Inventory, this information will be placed in the Location Field for that Item. You can change the location for each item at anytime on the Inventory Screen.

Default Inventory Supplier
When a new item is added to Inventory, this information will be placed in the Supplier Field for that Item. You can change the Supplier for each item at anytime on the Inventory Screen.

Invoice Options

Optional Text to Add to Bottom of Invoice
Enter a short message to be printed on the bottom of all your Invoices

In Inventory change the location to customers name when creating Invoices
When this box is checked, the location field in the inventory will change to the customers name. This is useful if you are selling one of a kind type items and what a quick way to keep track of what happen to the merchandise. You can always print out sales reports to see where merchandise went.

Add inventory Style to invoice descriptions
When this option is checked, the information entered in the Inventory Detail Style field will be printed on Invoices

Current Numbers

The current sequence number of the various documents are shown here. These numbers will change as you create invoices, sales order, PO's etc. You don't have to change the numbers, they will increment automatically. If you wish to change the starting number you can change it here.

For example if you have a sales force on the road with notebook computers, you could assign different Invoice Starting numbers to each Salesman, such as Joe starts at 1000, Bob starts at 2000 and Jeff starts at 3000.

Note: You can always change number when you create an Invoice or Item, these numbers are just created and entered automatically to make the job of entering data easier for you.

Press the UPDATE button after making any changes to the Setup screen to save!

Overview Inputting your Data

Please read the following section, don't worry if it isn't clear, just keep what you learned in mind as you proceed to the next steps. You can always refer back to this section later.

You should input your data in the following order listed below. This is necessary since vendor information is required when inputting your inventory, so its nice to have your vendors input first.

Add

VIMACS uses the same method for adding data to all screen. The process always begins by Pressing the ADD F11 button (You can also press the F11 key on your keyboard)

Once you press the Add Button, most of the fields will blank out, a few fields like Item, location, supplier will be filled in automatically for you, but you can change them if you like.

Update

Once you filled out the necessary information then press the Update button to save the data you entered.

Note: If you don't press the Update button, VIMACS will usually save the information when you move to a different record, but there is no guarantee its been saved unless you press the Update button

Delete

The one way to delete information for an Item or customer or Vendor is to use the Delete button. Back spacing over the information will not erase the record.

Input Your Customer Information

Your are now ready to begin entering your Customer Information.

REMEMBER THERE IS ALWAYS THREE STEPS:

Press the ADD Button
Fill in the appropriate fields
Press the UPDATE Button

Press the button on the Main Menu, you will now be at the Customers Window as shown below:

You may have some sample information entered in your customer database. Don't worry about it.

You are now ready to input your first customer. Just follow the easy steps listed below:

Begin by pressing the button. This will create a new blank customer record.
Fill in as much as the information as possible. A Phone number is required, since this is what VIMACS uses to keep track of your customers. The more information you fill, the more detailed your reports and accounting will be.
Press the button to save this customers information.
If this customer does NOT have an existing balance with, you are finished and you can repeat steps 1,2,3 for each additional customer. If this customer has a Balance proceed to the next step.
Press the Tab, you will then see the following screen:
To enter a starting balance, enter a number 1 in the No. field. enter the starting balance in the Amount field. In the Description enter Starting Balance or some other note so know that you entered this transaction in the customer register. Press the Enter key on your keyboard to complete the entry.
If you have more customers to enter, go back to Step 1.

Input Your Vendor Information

Your are now ready to begin entering your Vendor Information.

REMEMBER THERE IS ALWAYS THREE STEPS:

Press the ADD Button
Fill in the appropriate fields
Press the UPDATE Button

Press the button on the Main Menu, you will now be at the Vendors window as shown below:

You may have some sample information entered in your customer database. Don't worry about it.

You are now ready to input your first Vendor. Just follow the easy steps listed below:

Begin by pressing the button. This will create a new blank Vendor record.
Fill in as much as the information as possible. VIMACS will suggest an Account No, you can change this if you want, but it must be a number, letters are not allowed in the Vendor Account Number field. The more information you fill, the more detailed your reports and accounting will be.
Press the button to save this Vendors information.
If this Vendor does NOT have an existing balance with, you are finished and you can repeat steps 1,2,3 for each additional Vendor. If this Vendor has a Balance proceed to the next step.
Press the Tab, you will then see the following screen:
To enter a starting balance, select the appropriate Ledger code from the list box in the Ledger Code. field. Enter the starting balance in the credit or debit field. In the Description enter Starting Balance or some other note so know that you entered this transaction in the Vendor register. Press the Enter key on your keyboard to complete the entry.
If you have more Vendors to enter, go back to Step 1.

Input Your Inventory

Your are now ready to begin entering your Inventory

REMEMBER THERE IS ALWAYS THREE STEPS:

Press the ADD Button
Fill in the appropriate fields
Press the UPDATE Button

Press the button on the Main Menu, you will now be at the Inventory Window as shown below:

You may have some sample information entered in your customer database. Don't worry about it.

You are now ready to input your first item of inventory Just follow the easy steps listed below:

Begin by pressing the button. This will create a new blank Inventory record.

Fill in as much as the information as possible. VIMACS will suggest an Item No, you can change this if you want, letters are allowed in the Item Number field. The more information you fill, the more detailed your reports and accounting will be.

TIP: You can use the

button to quickly fill in information that is repeated or used often. Pressing this button will bring up the window as shown to the right.

Press the Auto Update List
VIMACS will scan your existing data and generate a list of the appropriate choices for you.

Add New
Press this to add a new data to the Data List. Adding a new Item or Name here does NOT change your data in other places, it only adds it to this list.

Delete
This will delete an item from the list. This will not delete any information from your databases.

OK
This will transfer the selected choice from the list to your data field and close the Data List window.

Press the button to save this Item's information.
If this item does not have any detailed information, you are finished and you can repeat steps 1,2,3 for each additional Item. If this Item has a picture or more detailed information proceed to the next step.
Press the Tab, you will then see the following screen:
You can enter as much detailed information in the Item Notes. This information will be saved with this one Item. There is no limit to amount of information you can store in the Item Notes

Adding Pictures Inventory

VIMACS makes it very easy to keep an Image associated with each Item in your Inventory. VIMACS supports nearly every way possible as well as most image formats. Any of following methods are supported by VIMACS.

Windows Clipboard a.k.a. cut & paste
Microsoft Video for Windows
TWAIN method (all scanners and most digital camera's and video capture devices support this method)
Direct JPEG or BMP method.
Native support for SNAPPY! by Play Inc.

It is not required to save the picture before or edit, VIMACS does all the work for you.

It is not required that an Image is created when the Inventory record is created. Images can be added to Inventory a later time is so desired.

Windows Clipboard a.k.a. cut & paste

Press the button on the VIMACS main navigation bar, then press the tab to bring up the main Inventory display.

Now switch to the graphics program which you are using, or the video capture software you are using. Select the image you wish to capture and then select Edit and then Copy from the menu of the graphics program you are using. Now switch back to VIMACS and press the Paste button below the white graphics window in the VIMACS main Inventory. The image should now appear in the window.

If you want to replace the Image, simply Paste a new image the window, VIMACS will replace the image automatically.

You can also use the Alt+Print Screen buttons on your keyboard to capture pictures from your monitor and then simply use the Paste button in VIMACS to add the image to your inventory.

Microsoft Video for Windows

You must have the drivers that came with your video capture card installed for this method to work. The video capture card and camera must be installed and working properly on your computer before you begin this procedure.

Press the button on the Main menu. In the photo directory field, enter "vidcap32.exe" without the quotation marks and then press the button.
Press the button on the VIMACS main navigation bar, then press the tab to bring up the main Inventory display.
Press the button to launch the Video Capture Tool.
Select Options and then Preview to see a live picture.

If the picture is black, then select Options, then Video Source, and select the proper video source and format for your camera. If you don't see a live image, then the drivers for your video capture card may not be installed. See the documentation for your video card for installation of the capture card drivers.
Select Edit Copy or the button to take a snapshot.

Now switch back to VIMACS and press the Paste button below the white graphics window in the VIMACS main Inventory. The image should now appear in the window.

If you want to replace the Image, simply Paste a new image the window, VIMACS will replace the image automatically.

The image is now added to your inventory record!

Using TWAIN for Image Capture

VIMACS has built in support for TWAIN. TWAIN is an universal interface that allows hardware such as scanners, cameras, and video devices to send images to other programs such as VIMACS. The TWAIN interface is created by the manufacturer of the hardware device. The quality and functionality of the TWAIN drivers very greatly among different manufacturers.

It is a good idea to check the web site of the manufacturer of your camera/scanner for the latest versions of the software since this will include the TWAIN drivers as well.

To use TWAIN in VIMACS simply follow the steps below.

From the Detailed view in Inventory, check the box.
Press the button.
Select the TWAIN device for VIMACS to use for image capture.

and press the Select button.
Press the button to start your TWAIN software.
The capture software which came with your camera/scanner should now start.
Capture your image as you normally would using the software that came with your camera/scanner.
Then press the Acquire or Finish or Done button, there should be a button with this type or similar that will send the captured image to VIMACS.

Direct JPEG or BMP method

VIMACS will automatically search ImageDir folder in the application folder where VIMACS has been installed for any images that match the Item number of the Inventory. This process is completely automatic and requires no setup from the user.

To add Images with your inventory, simply save or copy a JPG or BMP file with the same name as your Item number in the "your_drive_letter:\"VIMACS\ImageDir folder. For example: Item number 00004 would require an Image saved as 00004.jpg or 00004.bmp in the ImageDir folder.

TIP: VIMACS doesn't need to running for this method to work. It is also possible for multiple personal to add images and entering VIMACS Inventory information independently, without knowledge of what the other is doing. As long the Item number and image file have the same name the Image will be displayed in inventory.

The folder that VIMACS searches for the Images can be specified in the vimacs.ini file located in the Windows folder of your computer.

Support for SNAPPY!

VIMACS has complete support for Snappy built right in. Snappy takes the highest quality pictures possible from live video sources such as home video cameras, security/industrial cameras, VCR's.

To use Snappy with VIMACS:

Install the Snappy software from the Snappy Installation CD
Install the latest Snappy Patch for the version of Snappy you have, which can be downloaded from the Snappy web site.
If you skipped Step 2., go back and do Step 2 now.
If your computer has two printer ports, or if your computer prints to a network printer or your computer will not be used for printing then go to Item C.
NOTE: If the SNAPPY does not work properly, for example the pre-view does not work but the capture works we have found a number of cases where the printer port on the computer was configured to the wrong interrupt and base address. Please see your Windows95/98 documentation on how to configure your printer port.

Test the entire system.