Store Preferences and Data Setup

OrderTrac Setup Guide

Overview

OrderTrac setup consists mainly of 2 portions: Setting up preferences and importing data. This must be done on each OrderTrac server (only the case if you have multiple store locations. Each store location should have 1 OrderTrac server, with the rest of the computers set up as clients). Setup should be completed in the following order:

1. Update store preferences.
2. Import customers
3. Import vendors
4. Import Inventory

It is important to follow the above order, because importing data can sometimes rely on data set up in the steps before. For example, Importing Inventory relies on imported vendors, as well as item categories set up in preferences.

 

1. – Update Store Preferences

The next step will be to set up the preferences. The following preferences all need to be set:

• Store name and contact info
• Receipt fine print
• Sales tax rates
• Invoice ID/Item ID starting values
• Default estimated item arrival in days
• Layaway settings
• Email credentials to send reports
• Employees/Users
• Backup location
• Item Categories
• Item Sub Statuses

Click on File > Preferences and go through each tab and set all preferences. Reference the details below if you aren’t sure what the settings are for.

 

Backup

Setting a backup location to a location other than on the computer itself is VERY important. If the server computer were to ever crash, ALL SALES DATA IS LOST FOREVER! OrderTrac backs up all data by default every few hours and every time the program is closed. It is highly recommended to choose a one of the following locations to backup:

• Network Drive – If a network drive is selected, the data is backed up to a location other than on the computer itself, so If the computer crashes, the data will still be recoverable since it exists on a network drive. However, if a fire/flood/natural disaster were to destroy both the server computer and the network drive, all data would be lost.
• Cloud Drive – This is the preferred location. With this option, data is stored off site. Great cloud drive options include Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc. You will need to download the desktop client once you create an account. Once you install the desktop client, a ‘Google Drive’ (etc) folder will be created on your computer. Choose this folder as your backup location. The cloud drive client constantly syncs the contents of this folder to the cloud location, creating a very reliable backup location.

 

Employees

Enter all employees here. You will have the option to enter a role (Administrator, User, etc) for each employee. If an employee is set as an Administrator, they will have access to reports, vendor data, etc. If an employee is set as a standard User, their permissions are limited. Employees must log using the Log In menu on the top menu bar to gain special access if they are an Administrator, or view personalized data on the dashboard.

 

Store Info

Enter all store data here. Enter the path of the store logo you want to be displayed on printed Invoices. If you have multiple store locations, add a location here. Enter anything you would like as a description, such as ‘Main St’, ‘Store #828’, etc. Click the ‘This is the location of this computer’ checkbox for the proper location on each computer

 

Customers

Import existing customers here. Click the ‘Excel Template’ button to view a template which displays the required formatting to import customers. Once you have an excel file created and saved, click the ‘Import Customers’ button and choose this file to import the customers.

 

Vendors

Import existing vendors here. Click the ‘Excel Template’ button to view a template which displays the required formatting to import vendors. Once you have an excel file created and saved, click the ‘Import Vendors’ button and choose this file to import the vendors.

 

Sales

Estimated order arrival days – This is the default number of days an order should arrive after the order is placed by the customer. This is used to prepopulate the Est Arrival date on invoices.

Layaway payments due days – This is the number of days every layaway payment is due. This is used to flag payments due on the dashboard.

Tax rate – This is the tax rate used to calculate taxes on invoices.

Invoice starting value – This is the number invoices will start on. If left blank, invoices will start at 1. If you enter 1000 for example, the first invoice number will be 1000, the second will be 1001, etc.

Item starting value – This is the number items will start on. If left blank, items will start at 1. If you enter 1000 for example, the first item number will be 1000, the second will be 1001, etc.

Quote valid for days – This is the number of days a quote is valid for. This is shown at the bottom of printed quotes. (Ex: QUOTE – VALID FOR 15 DAYS). If left blank, only QUOTE printed.

Fine Print – This is the text displayed at the bottom of Invoices by the customers signiture line.

 

Reports

Email Reports – Enter the email, password, and the SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com, etc) of the email to be used to email reports and invoices through OrderTrac.

Daily Reports – Daily status reports are sent at the time and on the days specified in this section. You must specify an email you want the reports sent to. You can enter multiple emails here to have the reports sent to multiple emails by seperating each email with a comma. This report is only sent when OrderTrac on the server is running!

Web Reports – Reports can be requested from ordertracinventory.com. This is useful if you are traveling and would like a specific report sent to you. Create an account at the website, and enter your username in preferences.

 

Financing

Enter financing options here. These are the options that will appear on invoices under the payments section.

 

Items

Item Categories

Enter item categories here. This list is displayed on invoices. When you add an item to an invoice, you can choose an item category. This is used in reports that break down sales by category.

Import Inventory

This is where you import store inventory. Click the template button to view the template layout required to import inventory. Once you have all data set up in the format of the template, save the file to your computer. Click ‘Import Inventory’, select the file you saved, and click ok. A log will be displayed showing the status of each item imported. NOTE: Vendors and Item Categories must already be set up in order to import inventory.

Item Sub Status

Enter your desired sub status’ here. You can enter as many or as few sub statuses per parent status as you would like. A sub status is used to keep track of a ‘sub status’ within a status. For example, an item that is ‘On Order’ could have several sub statuses, such as ‘Order Sent’ and ‘Order Confirmed’. This sub status is used on the items tab, and can be changed at the top by the blue filter panel.

 

Fax

OrderTrac allows sending faxes directly through the program, rather than printing out a document to send through a fax machine. In order to do this, you must set up an account with Interfax (www.interfax.net). Once an account is set up, enter credentials here.

 

Invoice

Edit item description wizard fields here. The item description wizard is found on invoices right above the description box. This wizard is used to help assemble descriptions. This decreases the amount of data that a user might forget to include in the description, and also reduces time spent typing out a description.

 

2. – Import Customers

As covered in the ‘Customers’ section above, import existing customers at this time at File > Preferences > Customers.

 

3. – Import Vendors

As covered in the ‘Vendors’ section above, import existing vendors at this time at File > Preferences > Vendors.

 

4. – Import Inventory

As covered in the ‘Items’ section above, import store inventory at this time at File > Preferences > Items.

 

Setup is now complete! Now that preferences have been set up and data has been imported, you are ready to begin using OrderTrac.