Enquiry screens exist for all modules in the system. Enquiry screens can either be a Global Enquiry such as for Customers, Vendors, Products etc, or a transaction enquiry such as for a Sales Invoice, Sales Order, and Purchase Order. A Global Enquiry allows users to see all available information related to the entity they are enquiring on (a customer, supplier, product etc.) A Global Enquiry is broken up into separate sections, with each section containing multiple tabs to allow the required data to be located easily.

Example of the Global Enquiry looking up a Customer

A transaction enquiry allows users to view all data related to a transaction (eg. the Sales Invoice Enquiry will show you all details relating to a single sales invoice).

Example of the Global Enquiry looking up an Invoice

Which enquiry to use can often be difficult for a user to ascertain, however BBS makes this easy. You simply go to the enquiry that relates to the information you have at hand. For example, if you want to look at a customer’s sales orders, and you know the customer, but not the sales order number, you would go to the Global Customer Enquiry and navigate to the screen for Outstanding Sales Orders. If you know the sales order number that you wish to enquire on, you can go straight to the Sales Order Enquiry.

Most enquiry screens also include lookups to allow you to search for the record you are looking for.

There are five Masterfile Maintenance screens which are used to maintain data for Customers, Suppliers, Employees, Equipment and Products. This includes details about the entity such as name and address information for customers, suppliers and employees, product details for products and equipment, and all other data for the associated entity. Masterfile Maintenance screens open on the general information tab and have tabs listed down the left hand side of the screen which contain more information.

Example of a Masterfile Maintenance Screen

For details about each Masterfile Maintenance screen refer to Customer Masterfile Maintenance, Vendor Masterfile Maintenance, Product Masterfile Maintenance, Employee Masterfile Maintenance or Equipment Masterfile Maintenance.

Data entry screens are provided for the entry of transactions such as sales invoices and bank deposits. Some data entry screens will also allow you to edit (maintain) existing entries in part or in full. These data entry and maintenance screens are separate to their associated enquiries (eg. Sales Invoice Enquiry is a separate screen to Sales Invoice/Credit Entry & Maintenance). This is so multiple users can enquire on the same entity or transaction at the same time, but only a single user can maintain it. However, multiple entities or transactions can be maintained by multiple users at the same time (eg. two users can be editing two different customers simultaneously, they just cannot be editing the same customer at the same time.)

Masterfile Maintenance Screen

Enquiry Screen

The above example of a Masterfile Maintenance screen is a data entry screen because it has white fields that data can be entered into, the enquiry screen example is where information can be viewed but not changed and the boxes or background colour is grey. You can usually navigate from an Enquiry screen to a Masterfile Maintenance screen using the Jump To Button.

When you run a report in BBS, you will be presented with the Report Parameters screen. This screen has the same layout for every report, but each report has a different set of parameters that will allow you to select the options you require to produce a report showing the information you require.

Example of a Reports Screen

Lookups can be accessed in modern screens on fields that have a magnifying glass button to the right of the input area. You can either click the button on the field to access the lookups, or if your cursor is in the field, you can press F2 on your keyboard to call up the lookup.

Field lookups behave in different ways, entering the invoice number in the lookup below will show the related invoice, in customer and supplier lookups entering their code will bring up the relevant customer or supplier or entering the first three digits of the code will bring up a list to search from using the digits that have been entered. Product and inventory lookups work in the same way but both product codes, names and descriptions can be searched, for more details refer to Product Enquiry Lookups.

Example field with a lookup

List Lookups

A list displays all the valid options for the linked field and you can double click the item from the list that you wish to choose. You can enter a Start From value to start listing items from a specific point in the data file based on the data in the first column. You can also enter a Search for term to search for a keyword in any of the columns.

Example list type lookup

Search Lookups

A search type lookup allows you to search for a record that you are looking for by using multiple search fields.

Example Search type lookup

You can use the keyword search feature to search all of the records relating to the type of lookup if none of the Search By options suit you. You can enter up to five keywords and BBS will return any of the records where all of the keywords are found in the same record.

Example Keyword Lookup 

Date Lookups

A date lookup will display a pop-up calendar and users can select the date that is required.

Pop up Calendar

Numeric Input Calculator

Numeric input fields allow access to a pop-up calculator so that users can calculate a figure if required.

Pop-up Calculator for Numeric Input Fields

Special Lookups

Some fields in the system link to a special screen that is specifically related to that field (eg. pricing entry fields link to a pricing pop-up displaying information relating to the customer & product that the price is being entered for).

A user can opt to have their Enter key act like a Tab key in Modern Screens by toggling the Enter as tab in fields option found by selecting User Preferences in the System Menu. Many users are used to the Enter key moving them through the fields on a screen in other software packages, and it allows for one handed number entry via the numpad on the keyboard. This option is on by default for all users. Refer to System Menu on the Main Menu for more details.

Modern screens in BBS contain various control types, each of which are explained below.

The font size for legacy screens can be altered for each user on each computer. This can be changed by selecting Change Text Screen Font option found by selecting Utilities in the System button. Refer to System Menu on the Main Menu for more details.

A standard printable report generally outputs to a printer, or to a PDF file that can either be saved or viewed on the screen. When running a printable report you will be given the ability to select your preferred output method, and font size in the form of characters per inch.

Report Destination Dialogue Box

Xcellerated reports are Microsoft© Excel based reports that output to Excel and automatically open once the report has finished running. The report will automatically insert the company name, report name and parameter details (eg. starting and ending date of reported data) in the header of the spreadsheet, and the date, time, user that ran the report and page numbers in the footer of the spreadsheet. It will bold headings and totals for each section, fit the spreadsheet to one page wide, and will automatically repeat the column headings on each page. An example of the parameter options for an Xcellerated report is shown in Report Parameters Screens above.

Example header of Xcellerated report

Where a report contains sections (eg. headings and totals for each customer on the report), a second worksheet will be created within the report called a ‘flat file’. This flat file contains all of the same data as the formatted report, but will automatically insert columns to the left for each heading (eg. it will add a column containing the customer if the report is broken into sections by customer), and will remove all totals and blank lines allowing a user to sort and filter the report any way you wish.

Sheet tabs in Excel showing the Formatted report and a Flatfile

Many screens in BBS have an Excel button located on the screen adjacent to a list-box. Clicking the Excel button will export the list-box contents into an Excel spreadsheet where it can be formatted and viewed using the standard functions of Excel.

Numerous screens in BBS have a chart button located on the screen adjacent to a list-box. Clicking the Chart button will display the list-box contents in a chart where users can change the perspective/grouping and deselect the data sets they don't want to view.

Example of Column Chart

Please note:

1.Charts will only be based on the data that is in the list box – this may mean users may need to use the More button for the associated list to ensure the list is fully populated prior to charting the data or the chart data may be incomplete.

2.Pie charts should only be used to compare two data sets to see the percentage of one compared to the other (ie product group sales for a month), that are of the same type (selecting to compare a quantity data set and a dollar value data set will result in meaningless values).