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End of Year Reports

Reports can be run by selecting System Reports from the Reports menu in Direct Track.  Below are some of the reports that can be helpful for your year end information.

Under the Miscellaneous section of System Reports:
Income/Expense - this will show income and expense amounts for the date range you select including sales tickets (income) and orders (expense).
Expenses - this will show the expense detail for the amounts shown on the Income Expense report that have been entered in the Utilities, Expenses screen.

Under the Inventory section of System Reports:
Inventory As Of Date - this will show the items you had in inventory on a selected date.
Personal Use Items - this will show personal use items entered in the Utilities, Personal Use Items screen.
Demo Use Items - this will show demo use items entered in the Utilities, Demo Use Items screen. 

Under the Sales section of System Reports:
Sales Ticket Totals - this will show the sales ticket detail totals for the amounts shown on the Income/Expense report.

Under the Order section of System Reports:
Order Totals - this will show the order detail totals for the amounts shown on the Income/Expense report.

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Updating Your Address and Phone Number Shown on a Sales Ticket Receipt

When you first start using Direct Track, a consultant record is automatically created with your name, consultant ID and unit number. To get your correct title, address and phone number to show at the bottom of a sales ticket receipt, go to the Consultant tab and enter the correct information on your consultant record.

Use the drop down list at the bottom of the Consultant tab to find your own name. Select your name and then update any of the information shown on the screen. If you enter multiple phone numbers, click on the Pref box next to the preferred phone number that you wish to display on your sales ticket receipts. Select your Title from the drop down list (to add new titles to the list, use Table Maintenance)

If you ever need to change your name, consultant ID, or unit number (if you become a Director), just send us an e-mail message with the new information and we'll send you a link to update your program.

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Technical Support Tips

Here are some tips on what to do if you have problems or questions when using Direct Track:
1. If you get an error when you are in Direct Track, first try closing Direct Track and then getting back in to see if you still get the same error. If you do, let us know exactly what you are doing when you get the error and the exact error message you are receiving.
2. If you get an error when you open Direct Track, try reinstalling your program using the latest CD sent to you. This is sometimes necessary if you install or upgrade other software on your computer such as Windows or Microsoft Office.  Be sure to throw away all older CD's because, if you try to install an older CD, it will not work.
3. If you have a question about how to do something, be as specific as you can about what you want to know. For example, let us know what tab you are on (Customer, Sales Ticket, Inventory, etc.) or the exact report you are trying to run (Sales Ticket Totals, All Inventory, etc.).

For technical support, send an email message with a detailed description of your question or problem. In Direct Track, you can select the Technical Support option under the Help menu and click on the Direct Track email address to send a message. You can also visit our web site and select Contact Us. 

If you send a message in the evening or on the weekend, we'll get back to you the next business day. Messages sent during the day on weekdays are usually answered the same day. Be sure to include your first and last name in any e-mail that you send to us.

Hopefully, you won't have any problems while you are using Direct Track! But if you do, the above tips will help get your problem resolved quickly.

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Customer Returns

When a customer returns an item to you, you can use the part number R001 Return Discount to give her credit for the returned item.  Just enter a sales ticket for the customer as you normally would and then add the part number R001 to the sales ticket.  Enter the dollar amount for the returned item as a negative amount.  For example, if the customer returned a $10 item, enter -10 for the price of that item.  If you are selling other items or a replacement of the same item to that customer, enter those using their regular part numbers.

If you later receive a replacement from the company for the returned item, you can enter that as an adjustment on the Inventory tab.

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Sending Summary Sheets Electronically

If both you and your director use Direct Track, you can send your summary sheets electronically so your director does not have to re-key the information into her Direct Track. Instructions are the below:

1. Create your weekly summary sheet as normal on the Summary tab.
2. When you are ready to send the sheet to your director, select Export under the File menu.
3. Select the Week End Date for the sheet you wish to send.
4. Click on the File Dialog button with the three dots to the right of the File to Export to box. This will allow you to select the location and give a name to the sheet you are sending.
5. Select a location in which to save your sheet from the Save In drop down list at the top of this screen. An easy option is to select My Documents from this list.
6. Once you have selected a location, you need to give your sheet a name. Type this name in the File Name box. It is a good idea to include your name and the week ending date for your sheet so your director will know what it is. For example, if you are sending a sheet for the week ending 7/14/07, you might name your sheet Jane Smith 071407.
7. Once you have entered a name for your file, click on the Save button.
8. This will take you back to the Export screen. You should then click on the Export button to create your exported summary sheet. You will see a message when this is complete.
9. The final step is to create an e-mail message to your director and attach the export file to your e-mail message and send it to her. Because of the differences in e-mail programs, we cannot give specific instructions for doing this.

If you are a director and you receive an electronic summary sheet from your consultant, you can import it into your Direct Track program by doing the following:

1. Save the summary sheet file attached to your e-mail message in a location on your computer. An easy option is to save it in the My Documents folder on your computer. Again, because of the differences in e-mail programs, we cannot give specific instructions for doing this.
2. Once the file is saved, select Import under the File menu in Direct Track and then select the Summary Sheet option.
3. Click on the File Dialog button with the three dots to the right of the Summary Sheet to Import box. This will allow you to select the file that you saved in the previous step.
4. If you saved the file in the My Documents folder, select that from the Look In drop down list at the top of the screen.
5. Once you have selected the correct location, you should then be able find the file name in the larger box below the Look In selection. Depending on how many different files are in this location, you may have to scroll to the right to find the file. Once you find the file you are looking for, you can double-click on it to select it.
6. This will take you back to the Import screen. You should then click on the Import button to import the summary sheet. The consultant's name and week ending date for the sheet will be displayed. Click Yes if this is correct and the sheet will be imported. You will see a message when the import is complete.
7. You should then be able to find this sheet on the Summary tab.

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Creating an Order based on your Inventory Levels

You can use Direct Track to automatically create an order for you based on the difference between what you currently have and what you would like to have in inventory. You first need to set the desired levels for each of your inventory items. To do this, go to the Inventory tab and enter the desired level that would you like to have for each item. After you are done, you can review this on paper by clicking on the Print button at the bottom right of the Inventory tab to print out your inventory report.

When you are ready to create an order, go to the Order tab and then click on the Add button at the bottom left. Select the Consultant Order Sheet you want from the Catalog drop down list. To automatically create the order based on what you need, click on the box labeled "Create new order based on sales and inventory levels". Then click OK to add the order.

The Order Detail on the Order tab should now show the products and quantities that are needed to bring your inventory up to your desired levels. For example, if you set the desired level for a product at 10 and you currently have 2 in inventory, you should see this item with a quantity of 8 on the order. You can add, delete or change the items and quantities if the order is too much or too little. When you are finished adjusting the order, you can click on the Print button at the bottom right to print out your order. You can then order the items as you normally would from the company.

Once you receive the order, you can come back to the Order tab and click on the Received All box to transfer the items into your inventory.

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Finding Products in the Quick Product Finder

The Quick Product Finder is used on the Sales Ticket, Inventory, and Order tabs to add products to those screens. To bring up the Quick Product Finder, click on the empty row for a Sales Ticket or Order item or click on the Add button on the Inventory screen.

The products are listed in the same order as the current Consultant Order Sheet. If you aren't sure where to find a product, you can use the Find by Product Description option at the bottom of the Quick Product Finder. You can enter any part of a product description in that field and then click on the Find button. The first product matching that description will be found. If it is not the product you want, you can click on the Find button again to find the next match.

You will have better results if you enter a word or partial word from the product name instead of the entire product name. For example, to find cleansers or cleansing products, you might try searching using the word "clean". This would take you through every product with clean in the product name which would include cleansers and cleansing. If the product you are looking for is Midnight Blue eye color, you might try searching using the word "blue".

Once you find the product you are looking for, you just have to click on the Product Description box to add that item to your Sales Ticket, Inventory or Order.

When you have the Quick Product Finder screen showing, you can hit the F1 key on your keyboard to bring up the help topic for that screen if you want more information.

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Archiving Data

Once you have finished entering your data for the previous year in Direct Track, you can archive that data so that it will no longer show on the screens in your system. To do this, select System under the Setup menu in Direct Track. You will see a date labeled Archive Items Prior To. You can change this to the first of the current year (for example, 1/1/11) to archive the data before this year. If you have information entered before this date, it will not be displayed on your screens but can still be selected on reports. The archive date applies to summary sheets, sales tickets, customer contacts, consultant contacts, orders, expenses, check register items, personal use and demo use items.

This does not get actually get rid of the data - it only hides it on your screens. At any time, you can change the archive date back to an earlier date if you want to again see older information on your screens.

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Table Maintenance

Most of the drop down lists in the system can be customized to include any values you would like to use. For example, on the Customer Information tab, you can add values to the Status and Category drop down lists. These drop down lists can be maintained by selecting Table Maintenance under the Setup menu. You would then select the list that you want to edit and the current values for that list will be displayed. To edit the customer category drop down list, select Customer Categories as the Table Name. You can then add to, change or delete items in that list. If an item in a list is marked as Required, you cannot change or delete that item since it is needed by Direct Track.

To get the Director Name to show up on your Weekly Summary Sheet report, you would need to select Consultant Directors as the Table Name. Add your director name to this list. Close the Table Maintenance screen. Go to the Consultant tab and select your name from the consultant name drop down at the bottom of the screen. Then select your director's name from Director drop down list. The next time you print a Weekly Summary Sheet, your director's name will show at the top of the report.

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Sales Tickets, entering Gifts

You can enter products given away on sales tickets in several different ways.  If you add an item to a sales ticket and want it to be free, you can just change the price to $0.  You can also enter a Discount percent or dollar amount for the entire sales ticket (under the Retail total on the sales ticket).

If you want to track the reasons for giving away products, you can use the Dummy Part Numbers.  For example, to enter an item as a gift, add the item to the sales ticket as normal.  Then add the gift item using part G003 and enter the amount of the gift as a negative number.  To give away 3-In-1 Cleanser, add part 0461 ($18) to your sales ticket.  Then enter part number G002 and enter the amount of -18.  you can do the same thing with other Dummy Part Numbers such as B001 Birthday Discount and C001 Customer Discount.  (You can see a list of all the Dummy Part Numbers under the Dummy Part Numbers topic in the manual.)

You can see how much you have given away on the Sales by Product report.  You can find this report by selecting System Reports under the Reports menu and then selecting the Sales section.   Select Sales by Product and enter the date range and part number you wish to report on.  For example, enter G003 to see all the gift amounts given away during a date range.

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Summary Sheets

Direct Track can automatically add your sales ticket totals to your summary sheet each week.  To do this, first enter all of your sales tickets for the week on the Sales Ticket tab.   After you are done, go to the Summary tab and add a summary sheet for the week ending date you have just entered sales for.  Once you add the sheet, the sales information will be summarized on your summary sheet.

** If you add additional sales ticket information later for that week, you will need to delete and then re-add the summary sheet to get the updated information to display. **

When you are on the Summary tab, you can use the F1 key on your keyboard to bring up the Summary Sheet help topics that explain this in more detail.

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Summary Sheet Year-To-Date Totals

If you want the year-to-date totals on your summary sheet to be based on the current seminar year, you will need to change these dates in your system whenever a new seminar year starts. You would do this when you finish entering your June summary sheets and are ready to start on July.

To change the date range for your year-to-date summary totals, do the following:

Select System under the Setup menu at the top of Direct Track.

Change the Summary Year Begin Date on this screen to 07/01/11.

Change the Summary Year End Date to 06/30/12.

Click on the Close button to close the screen when you are done.

If you need to go back and print a summary sheet from the prior year, you can change these dates back to the previous seminar year. If you prefer, you can also set the date range to a calendar year. For example, 01/01/11 thru 12/31/11.

Also, remember that you can see summary sheet totals for any time frame using the Summary Sales By Date Range or Summary Detail By Date Range reports. You can access these reports by selecting System Reports under the Reports menu and then selecting the Summary reports.

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Backing up your Direct Track data

Backing up your data is one of the most important things you can do in Direct Track. If your computer crashes or you get a virus, you could end up re-entering all of the data you entered since your last backup. Instead of taking that chance, get into the habit of backing up your data on a regular basis.

To backup your data in Direct Track, select Backup Data from the File menu at the top left. The Backup Data screen will be displayed. 

Use the File Dialog button (with the three dots) to select your backup location. Click on the Backup button to backup your data. You will receive a message when your backup is complete. Click on the Close button to close the backup screen and return to Direct Track.

It is a good idea to have more than one backup. Then, if you have a problem with one, you will still have another one.

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Order Form Expired

If you have trouble finding products on the Sales Ticket tab, make sure you have imported the latest order form. You can do this by selecting File, Import, Order Form in Direct Track. If you haven't imported the new one and you try to do a sales ticket, you may find some products are not available.

Also, when you want to place an order with the new order form, be sure to click on the Add button when you are on the Order tab. Otherwise, you will still see the order form that you last used.