Now that you are familiar with the basic aspects of the system, it's time to look at some of the more powerful features in The Masterpiece Manager. Please keep in mind that this is still just a sample of the many features of the system. More comprehensive help for each item in the system can be found via the help Table of Contents on the left or by typing in key word or words in the Index or search tab.
In the Overview, we discuss the different types of Items the system tracks.
Next, we will discuss the difference between a Title and an Item.
We will walk you through Adding a Limited Edition piece.
We will use the new piece to Make a Sale.
You'll print the Inventory Summary Report.
There are four types of Items allowed in this system; Unique, Limited Edition, Open Edition, and Non-Stock.
As with an Original Oil on Canvas.
By definition, this is a one-of-a-kind piece.
Thus there is one Title, Artist, Location, Price, etc.
When sold, there is one customer.
As with a Limited Edition Lithograph.
There is ONE and ONLY ONE Title record. The Title record is where we store the information that is common to all of the pieces in the edition. This includes the Scan Code An Identifying number or series linked to a title record., Artist, and other attributes that are common to every piece. There can be MANY item records. Item records keep track of the actual pieces in inventory.
Now, suppose that the body of the edition has 500 pieces, but that there is also an "Artist Proof" edition of another 25 pieces. The AP edition requires a DIFFERENT TITLE RECORD. This is because there is something "different" about the AP. It may have, for example, a higher asking price. And the size of the edition is lower than the main edition.
To handle this breakdown, we have developed a system of Titles, Items, and Lots, which are discussed in much more detail in the sections below.
Open Editions have the same Title, Item, and Lot structures as Limited Editions but are not tracked by edition number. The open edition type is useful for Calendars, Posters, and any other items where you want to track quantities instead of each individual item. (I.E. We have 25 of these earring sets.)
E.G. Shipping or Restoration.
In this type of Title record, there is no physical inventory and thus no cost of holding the inventory. However, the Title, Item, Lot scenario still applies.
You might have a Title called "FEDEX Overnight Shipping" that is charged as an entry on an Invoice. Another Title might be "Out of State Shipping" or "Overnight Shipping."
Non Stock item titles are also used for Gift Certificates and Credit Adjustments.
Each of these titles can be used as a line item in a transaction. When a Non-Stock item sells, the system will automatically create an "Item" and "Lot" to associate with the transaction. After all, the fact that a "piece" is "sold" is a specific attribute of the piece, requiring that it be part of a specific "Lot."
Another good use for Non-Stock items would be for keeping track of the amount of people in a class that you offer. For example, you may only have 30 seats available for a clay sculpting class.
A Title
is the main record of an Item
and is the definition of the piece. It is possible to have a Title
defined in the system without actually having any pieces in inventory
otherwise known as an Item. If
you enter only a Title it has
no Items or PO's
(Purchase Order). An Item always
has a PO attached to it as an
Item is an actual piece in Inventory.
Examples:
There is a piece you do not want to keep on hand but you can order and
get it at any time, you would enter that as a Title with no actual Items
on hand.
You want to add a piece to your website but you do not actually have any
on hand. You would add it as a Title not an Item.
Item
= actual inventory on hand.
Title
only with no Item = a piece not actually in inventory but you can
acquire one or many.
In the Basic Lessons, you entered a Unique Piece. In that example, you
entered a Title, Subject, Scan Code, Artist, and other information about
the piece. You also entered aspects about the actual physical piece such
as the cost, stock location, vendor, and other attributes.
For a Unique piece, the concept of a Title record has little meaning so
lets discuss a Limited Edition or Open Edition piece.
For each piece in the edition, there are some attributes that are the same
for every piece in the edition (i.e the Title or Artist). There are other
attributes that MAY be different for each piece (i.e. Framing Costs, Stock
Location or asking Price). So that we don't have to repeat information
when we don't have to, we designed the system to separate the databases
into two main tables. One table, the Item table, holds the information
specific to the piece (like the price). The other table, the Title table,
holds the information that is the same for every piece (like the Medium).
We have tried to include information from both tables in the Item screen
for convenience.
Open the Item screen by selecting File,
Item from the menu.
In the example above we are looking at an OPEN EDITION. Some information, such as the Item Type is the same for every piece. In this example, the Art Category is Photography and the Item Type (medium) is "Cibachrome." So every piece related to this Title is a Photograph. If we were to change the Item Type from Photograph to Serigraph, it will change for EVERY ITEM.
The Asking Price, however is not necessarily the same for every item.
NOTE: There are many times when an artist releases a Title in different Mediums. For example, the original may be an Oil on Canvas. Suppose the Title was "Summer Time." The artist may then decide to also do a Limited Edition Serigraph of the piece, also titled "Summer Time." In this system, there would be TWO Title records with two distinct ScanCodes to represent the two types of pieces (the original and the serigraph). You will need to make the Titles slightly different for the two pieces. We recommend that, in a case such as this, you make the titles something like "Summer Time - Original" and "Summer Time - Seri".
IF you want to use EXACTLY the same title for both the original and the limited edition, enter three asterisks after the Title of the second title you add. I.E. "Summer Time***" This is a signal to Masterpiece that this is Brand New Title. Masterpiece will remove the three asterisks before saving the new Title.
In most cases, you can change information about the Title Record directly from the Item screen. A good example of this is the Web Status.
NOTE: That on the Item Screen on the Web tab there is a Title Web Status as well as an Item Web Status. It is possible to have Masterpiece update or add the Title information to your web site, with or without adding the item information. Both of these fields are available to be changed directly from the Item screen on the Web tab.
However, there are some things you can not change directly from the Items screen. For example, you can not modify the name of the TITLE of the piece from the item screen once it is saved. We have included a specific screen, called the Titles screen, to change the information that can not be changed directly from the Items Screen. You can open the appropriate Title screen directly from the Item screen by clicking on the "Go To Titles" button at the bottom of the Item screen.
A Title can have many Items associated with it.
Instead of making an entry for each and every item, we can group all of the items that are exactly the same into a Lot A group of items, each having the exactly the same attributes (costs, location, etc.).
Here are some examples that will help explain this concept.
Suppose you order 50 copies of the Summer Time piece above. When you first order these pieces, they are all the same, so instead of having 50 individual pieces, we make one LOT of 50 items.
Suppose then, that you take 10 of these pieces and frame them exactly the same way. You would then have two lots, one of 40 (from the original lot) and one of 10 (with frames).
Now suppose that you take 5 of the framed pieces and ship them to 5 different locations to be displayed. You would now have SEVEN lots or Items for this Title.
One lot of 40 items (from the original order)
One lot of 5 items (still all framed the same way and in the same location)
5 individual lots of items that, while framed the same way, are in 5 separate locations.
Now suppose you sell one of the remaining framed pieces (from the lot of 5 items). You then have EIGHT lots of items - because the piece you just sold is now different from the other 4 that were in that lot. It is SOLD!
Each time you change something about a specific item it will be moved into a lot of its own.
We are going to begin by adding a Limited Edition piece directly from the Item screen. If the Item screen is not already open, use the F7 key, or click on File --> Item to open the screen. Depending on how you open the screen, you may need to click the New button on the tool bar to begin adding a new piece. The system clears all of the fields and waits for you to start entering data, beginning with the Title of the piece.
In the Basic Lessons, you added a piece called "En Pointe" now, that Title, and the Artist Rumay, are in the system.
The piece we entered in the Basic Lessons was the Unique (Oil on Canvas) piece. Now, perhaps the artist has chosen to create a Limited Edition Serigraph based on this piece.
The Title of the piece is still "En Pointe." However, when we are making a sale, or printing inventory lists, we want to be able to EASILY distinguish the original piece from one of the Serigraphs.
We are going to give this piece a NEW Title of "En Pointe - S"
In the Title field, begin entering the new title.
As you enter the title,
E n {space} P
the system tries to help you find the title of the piece you are looking for.
NOTE: The Automatic Lookup feature can be turned off from the Edit Menu. To turn this feature off, go to edit and un-click "AutoLookup"
IF THE TITLE DISPLAYED IS THE SAME AS WHAT YOU WANT, AND THE PIECE IS A LIMITED OR OPEN EDITION, you could just press ENTER while the Title is displayed and the system will fill in all of the existing Title information for you instantly. This will add an additional Item or Items under that Title that already exists.
You should type the new Title using upper and lower case, as you want the title to be saved to be displayed on your website and Reports.
In this case, we want to FORCE the system to use a slightly different title.
Just keep typing in the rest of the title you want.
o i n t e {space} dash {space} S
Note that AS SOON as you type a character that is not in the Title the system is suggesting, the display will revert to what you are typing.
NOTE: Another way to force the system to create a new Title is to add three asterisks to the title. I.E. if you wanted to add a generic Title, such as "Untitled", for several different Unique pieces, this would let you do it. Add the first piece as "Untitled" Add the second piece as "Untitled***" The three asterisks will be removed, and a new Title record will be created, with the same Title as the first piece. You will have 2 Titles with the same name but they will be separate Titles and have different Title numbers.
Since the information you are entering is
different than the Title that is already in the system, it will assume
that you are adding a brand new Title.
The Title number is a unique number that identify's a Title and can be
found in the grey box to the right of the Title.
Press TAB to move to the Artist field. (If the Find Title screen opens simply click on Cancel)
The Artist's name was Rumay.
Enter the first few characters of the artist's name R u m a and press tab to accept the Artist displayed that you would like to select. This will populate the Artist name and ID code and depending on how your settings are in the Tools - Change Company Settings screen, the system should have generated a ScanCode An unique identifying number or series linked to a Title record. for you.
The system will try to find an existing artist
as soon as you start typing or you can double click the Artist field
to select an existing Artist.
Note: To add an Artist that is not in the system yet, hold down the CTRL key and hit enter once and this will open a New Contact screen.
Press TAB to move to the Subject field and enter Young Ballet Dancer. Press TAB to accept the Subject name.
The system will then be on the Item Type field.
Begin typing the type (serigraph) s e
r into the Item Type field. As soon as "Serigraph" is
displayed, press TAB to accept the Item Type and move to the next field
which is Scan Code.
If the system did not generate a Scan
Code, or entered N/A and a number, you can enter a code yourself,
or delete the information that is there and let the system try again to
generate a code when you move or TAB off the Scan Code field.
Tab through the ScanCode field to the next field called Art Code.
The Art Code is, technically, a spare field but many galleries and publishers use this field for the Artists' own codes.
The Circa field is there for you to enter the year the piece was (or will be) created.
It is really easy to attach a Picture to the Item (if you have a picture that is) by simply double-clicking on the Picture file field and then selecting the JPG, GIF, or BMP file you want to use. You can also manually type in the full path and name of the picture file. Ideally all Pictures should be stored in one central location with no breaks/spaces in the directory path or picture name. Please review the General Information for more detailed information on storing pictures.
The system actually accepts up to four pictures for each Item - so for a sculpture you might have a front, side, back, and close up view.
We have included a picture called "en_point.jpg" in the sample data folder for you to use for this piece.
After selecting or feeding in the picture and either saving or clicking on Pic 2 or 3 or 4 and then clicking back to the Pic 1, this does a refresh and you should see it displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Select the "Limited" option by clicking the button with your mouse. As soon as you select the "Limited" button, the system displays the Ed Size field.
NOTE: If you are entering a different type of piece (i.e. Unique) and click "Limited" by mistake, you will need to complete the Limited Edition steps below with "pretend" information. After this. you can use the mouse to click on the Art Code field to move the focus up above the Title Type selector. As you TAB back into the Title Type, you can change the field from "Limited" to one of the other choices.
Enter "500" for the size of this edition and press TAB or Enter.
The system immediately opens the Limited Editions screen, where you specify the edition numbers you have on hand.
Enter the range 1 to 15, indicating you have the first 15 pieces of the edition, and then click on the Save Range button.
Then enter the range 35 to 35, indicating that you also have piece number 35, and then click on the Save Range button.
Click the Done button to close the Limited Editions screen to return to the Item screen.
Note: The system has indicated that you now have 16 items on hand for this Lot and for this Title.
Click into the field for Reorder Qty if you want Masterpiece to remind you to order more of this edition when you reach a specified quantity or leave it at 0.
Depending on your state, the ITEM may not be taxable, even though most of your items are. IF this were the case, you could un-check the Taxable box. You can also decide whether the Item is to pay on staff commissions by checking or un-checking the box for Pay Comm.
Press TAB until the PO # field is highlighted. Do not change the PO number as it is generated by the system.
When you enter items from the Item screen, Masterpiece automatically generates a Purchase Order record in the system for you. Purchase Orders are used within the system to associate the items with the venders and order locations.
You could enter pieces directly from the Purchase Order screen. This is discussed in the Purchase Order help topic.
TAB to the PO Location field, the company name entered into the Company Settings will be showing in the PO Location field. If you have multiple locations activated you could specify that this order was made from one of the other locations.
The next field for Vendor defaults to the same name as the Artist. If this piece came from a different vendor, you can double click on the Vendor field to select a different name from the list.
NOTE: Because this is a Lookup Field, you could also add a brand new vendor name to your vendor list by pressing Ctrl-Enter while the Vendor field is highlighted.
The Stock Location defaults to "Stock". If you have entered other locations into the Stock Location List (see the Basic Lessons help topic) you can double click on the Stock Location field to select a different location.
Press TAB until the Art Cost Each field is highlighted. Enter an Art Cost of 150 and hit the TAB key to move to the Art Price field and enter 300 and hit the TAB key. Depending on what you have entered into the Usual Margin field in the Company Settings on the Items tab the Art Price may automatically populate when hitting the tab key and moving from the Art Cost Each field.
Click the Save button to save this limited edition item.
In the Basic Lessons, you made a simple sale.
In the simple sale you did, you entered one item and it was fully paid for in cash. Obviously, this is not always the case.
One or more pieces may be discounted. The client might pay with more than one credit card, or set up a layaway or installment sale.
We're now going to look at selling multiple pieces with different payment options.
Begin a new sale by opening the Transactions screen and clicking the new button on the toolbar, or pressing the F6 key on your keyboard.
When the screen opens, it will enter the next available sale number, which you can modify if you have enabled this option in Company Settings.
The information (Date, Tax Type, and Sale Location) can be changed to reflect the aspects of this particular sale.
Press the F4 key on the keyboard to add a new detail line or click the button Add Line F4.
Note: If you press F3 button or click the button Quick F3 at this point, the system will begin entering a brand new piece to sell. This is a new title that you have never entered before. This option is used to process a sale quickly for a client and "get them out the door." You will have to return to the piece after the sale and fill in additional information, like Artist, Vendor, Costs, etc.
Depending on your Company Settings, the system will go directly to either the ScanCode or Title box on the grid .
If you begin typing the name of the first piece you want to sell, the system will try to help you find the piece you are looking for.
This is a good time to side-track for a moment and discuss the Find screens.
Double-click
on the Title field (or the ScanCode field if that is the one that
is highlighted) and the find screen will open.
When the find screen opens, it will put the items in alphabetical order
for you. You can scroll down to the item you want to sell and double click
on the row, or use the select button and press Enter while on the row.
Easy enough!
You can limit the listing so that if just displays certain lines by using
the multiple fields at the top of the form. So, if you only want to see
titles that have the word "dancer", you would enter "dancer"
in the title box at the top.
Try the next few steps to see what this screen can do for you!
Double-Click on the word Title at the top of the Title column. The order will be changed to descending instead of ascending alphabetical order. Click it again to change back.
While your cursor is in the title column, type the first few characters of a piece. The system will snap right to that piece. (You have to type fast, because if you type slowly, like in A and then wait and then B, the system will think you changed your mind and go to the first "B" piece instead of the first "AB" piece.
Double click on the Artist heading at the top of the Artist column. Now the information is in order by artist. This works for any column.
If the word "Picture" is shown in the picture column, double click there to show the piece.
Limit the list to just pieces that have a particular word in the title by entering the word in the Title text box at the top of the page.
Double click on the row you want to select at any time to return to the transaction page.
Select a limited edition piece you are interested in and double-click it to return to the transaction screen. If you see En Pointe - S in the sample data, this is a good choice.
At this point, all the system has done is enter the proper title or scan code of the piece you found.
Press TAB on the keyboard to move out of the field. Since this is a limited edition piece, you need to tell the system WHICH piece you are actually going to sell to the client. Double click on one of the rows to select the particular piece.
If you press the Quick Sale Item button at this point, the system will add a piece for this title. This is different from the "Quick" described above, which was adding a new title that you had never used before. In this case, the system does have most of the information to work with (Artist, Vendor, Etc) just not the edition number in this case. You should still return to the item after the sale to fill in any missing details for the newly added piece.
To discount the piece, you can EITHER enter a discount percentage, or tab over and change the "price now" amount. Either way, the system will fill in the other field for you when you hit the TAB key. The TAB key is important as it tells Masterpiece to populate or calculate.
If the Vendor is sharing the discount, enter that percentage as well. Example, you have a $1000 piece. It is on 50% consignment so the vendor would usually get $500. You discount it by 10% so the client pays $900. You want the vendor to share equally in the discount, so you enter 10% in the VendDisc field. Thus, the vendor receives $450 instead of $500. If you have set up a Maximum discount for the vendor, the system will not allow you to exceed that percentage.
To add additional pieces, press the F4 key and continue adding pieces as above. You can also add Shipping as it is a default non-stock Title already setup in Masterpiece.
When you're ready, click on the
Client tab or press Alt-C on your keyboard. If the client exists,
use the Look Up Client box to
find them by entering the client's LAST NAME or double clicking on the
field. If not, click on the button New
Client so Masterpiece knows you are entering a new Customer. You
will be in the Title field once you click on the New
Client button, enter the title and tab to the next field
and keep tabbing and entering contact information. This information
will automatically be added to your contact list when you click off of
this page and go to the Payment tab.
If the system finds a client with the same name, but you don't really
want to use it, you can use the New Client button for clear all the fields
and start over.
Click the Payments tab, or press Alt-Y on the keyboard to move to the payments page.
To make transactions go faster, especially small ones, the system automatically enters a line with the full amount due and a payment type of "cash." So if you were doing a small cash sale, you would only have to view this tab and then continue on.
We want to break this amount up into several payments. Suppose the client wants to write you a check for $50 and put the rest on layaway.
TAB over to the PayType field and start typing che which should populate Cheque, or you can double-click the PayType field and select Cheque.
TAB to the amount paid column and enter 50 and then TAB to populate the $50.00.
IF YOU TRY TO SAVE THE TRANSACTION NOW the system would not let you. You MUST have exactly the same amount due as the total of the transaction.
Click the Add Payment button to add a new payment line. The system adds another line for the balance, with a pay type of "CASH"
TAB to the PayType field and enter L for layaway, then tab off of this field, which opens the Payment Calculator.
Since this is a Layaway (or installment) the system will help you figure out when all future payments are due.
Use the calculator to "play" with the payment options. If you don't like a calculation, click the RESET button to start over.
When you are ready to return to the transaction screen, click the Done button.
If you want to enter any special notes for this sale, click the Notes tab and enter them now.
If the sale is split between multiple staff members, click the Staff tab and allocate the percentages using the grid. The total of all the percentages MUST add up to 100%.
When you're finished, click the Save button on the toolbar to save the sale.
At this point, you can Preview or Print the client's invoice and/or shipping page.
[Note: This has been an overview of a transaction (sale) Please see the TRANSACTION help topic for more help with sales and also see the top on To Properly Process a Credit Card.]
If you would like to process Credit Cards via Masterpiece please contact Barbara Rivald at X-Charge at: (800) 217-3927. After you have installed the X-Charge software please review the Setup X-Charge topic and call Technical Support if you have any questions. We will be happy to help you set it up and run a test Transaction and go over ways to insure your sales staff is trained to accept credit cards and verify the authorization code before giving the sales receipt and merchandise to a customer.
One of the most important aspects of the system is its ability to print various reports. The Summary of Inventory Report is just one example of the power of the system.
Click on Print, Item, Summary of Inventory to open the report screen.
From this one page, you can actually print many different reports.
Items Sold
Items out on Approval
Sold Items - similar to the sales reports but from a different perspective
Items that were received (IN) or returned (Out) during the period.
You can also set the output order to several different options - Artist, Vendor, ScanCode, Location, Title ...
Any report can be "previewed" before it is printed.
You can also choose whether to have the system print a cover page before the report body is printed.
Remember, all of the reports in Masterpiece are customizable. You can insert a picture of all the items, include your logo, email address or change the small print. If you need assistance
Use the Tools, Change Company Settings, General Page to set your preference whether to always print a cover page or not.
By default, all of the drop-down boxes are blank. This indicates that you want ALL the information. If you click a down-arrow beside a box and select an entry, or enter text into one of the text boxes, the report will be limited to just those pieces that match the entry.
For example, you could print a list of just the items that were in the "display" location, or just the items that had the words "oil on canvas" in the medium.
See the Modify Report Layout help topic for instructions on how to customize the look of a particular report.
Try previewing several different inventory reports to get a feel for the information that is available.
There are many features in Masterpiece that have not been specifically discussed within these lessons. To do so would expand the lessons to many hours and would not benefit every user.
At this time, we recommend that you use the help menu on the left to review the various topics that are available, and the Index to look up information on keywords.
Each topic includes detailed help for the subject mentioned. Some of the more important topics include:
Menus - File Menu - Staff
Menus - Print Menu - All of them
Menus - Tools Menu - Change Company Settings - for more information than was included in this tutorial.
Menus - Tools Menu - Modify Report Layout for detailed help with customizing your reports.
Remember, if you are in Masterpiece and have a question, use the F1 key to start context sensitive help.
You should also visit our web site at www.MasterpieceManager.com for help, updates, and support.
Just a reminder: The sampledata directory is intended for you to practice with. Before entering your REAL data, you should change the Data directory using the Change Directories option on the Tools menu. If you do this, nothing done within the SAMPLEDATA will affect your permanent data. After you are in your REAL data NEVER modify or delete any NONE record anywhere in the program as it is a required part of the program.