Prompts Used Throughout Reporting Procedures - Stock Control

Throughout the stock application there is a common set of questions whenever a report is printed – supplemented by others for the specific report. These questions are displayed when you select the report. If the responses to these questions are acceptable you can select the PRINT button to print the report, else you can use the mouse or the <TAB> key to position the cursor for the response you with to change.

Date of Report

It is usual to print today’s date on the report. You can overtype this with another valid date.

Report "As At” Date

Whilst the date above represents the date on which the report is printed, it is helpful to know up to what date the stock file has been processed. Often these are the same but it could be that stock transaction entry is some way behind if the Datafile system is not the primary instigator of stock movements. The report ‘as at’ date therefore is the date up to which transactions have been entered.

Note

Location Code (blank for all)

Only applicable if using the multi-location facility, this option allows you to limit this report to a single location. If you leave it blank, then all locations are assumed. You can use the <F4-Select> key to check your location codes.

From Stock Code

To Stock Code

You may be interested in just a group of stock codes, in which case these prompts allow you to choose either a range of codes, or just some specific codes to print. The 'From' and 'To' stock codes give the start and end of the range — and you can use the <F4–Select> key to help you choose the codes you want. If you leave the 'From' stock code blank, then the computer assumes you want to start at the beginning of the file. If you leave the 'To' code blank, then the computer assumes you want to end at the end of the file. This prompt is only applicable on stock record reports or the stock statement, not stock transaction reports.

Or List of Stock Codes

If not entering a range of stock codes to report you could enter a list of up to 200 stock codes to report. Selecting this item gives you a pop-up to enter these codes; <F4-Select> is available if required. Once you have entered your required codes pressing <Enter> on a blank input completes the entry. This prompt is not applicable for stock transaction reports.

Transactions in Date From / To

On stock transaction reports instead of a stock code range you are asked to enter a transaction date range – by default transactions are printed for all transactions entered since the last period end up to the end of the current period (or next period if include forward transactions) but you can restrict this if required. Note however to include transactions prior to the start of this period you have to use selection criteria and reset the transaction record to start from as 1.

Include Non Stock Items

Only applicable for stock reports this prompt asks whether you want to include any stock items for which you are not tracking physical stock – i.e. memo stock items such as Carriage or Labour. A default for this can be set within the stock system profiles.

Include Forward Transactions

Stock quantities such as physical, reserved and on-order can include the effect of transactions within the next period. These ‘forward’ effects can be included in the report by selecting this option. A default for this can be set within the stock system profiles.

Specify Any Selection Criteria

Selecting this option allows you to restrict the stock records (or transactions were appropriate) to those that match an entered criteria.

Once you have changed the print parameters to your required settings you can then select the PRINT button to print your report.

The OPTIONS Button

When you select to print an application report, such as the Stock Valuation Report, an OPTIONS button is available alongside the PRINT/CANCEL buttons. Selecting the OPTIONS button allows access to the print configuration.

The layout of this screen differs slightly based on whether you have set the page size (as above) or not.Before discussing the parameters you should note the buttons available at the footer of this parameter screen.

Depending on whether the user is configured as an ‘Install’ user then the next option will be SAVE. This saves your set parameters so they are offered as default next time this report is run (Note: this is system wide not per user). Setting the user as an ‘Install’ user is achieved through the user configuration available under the MASTER sign-on.

The report parameters available are:

Paper Size – select the paper size the report is to be printed to (i.e. A4).You can elect to leave this blank in which case the report is printed as per the last/default page size of the printer, however, if you do this you can only choose fixed pitch fonts – selecting a page size is mandatory to use proportional fonts. If you set a page size then the options screen re-displays with the appropriate parameters. If you leave blank then the options screen remains as above.

Default Printer Font – a font dialog is display allowing you to select as required, the default font to be used for this report. If you’ve sent the page size then all fonts are available, if you haven’t set this then only fixed pitch fonts can be assigned. You can also set bold/italic attributes and font size – note that if you haven’t set a page size then the font size option is not applicable (font is sized as per previous rules).

Default to Landscape – set to default the printed report to landscape, leave blank for usual portrait orientation. You may want to set reports such as the Sales Ledger Aged Debtors Report or the Cashbook Receipts Analysis Listing to landscape as these reports require a large amount of detail to be printed and otherwise the font size could be too small.

Show Time in Report Headings – set to include the printed time in the report headings in addition to the printed date.

Include Selection Criteria – set to print any selection criteria that were applied to the report.

Email as Text – if send this report via email this option allows you to send as a text file attachment as opposed to, if left blank, PDF.

Omit Full Page Headings – When printing a multi-page report the system repeats the headings for each page. Setting this option reduces the heading details for the second and subsequent pages allowing more record detail to be printed per page.

Default Output to Spooler – Usually, when printing a report, the default printer is the last print device used. Select this option to set the default printer as the spooler for this report. This acts only as a default and doesn’t prevent you electing to print the report instead.

Allow Change of Printer Alias – when these options are configured then it is assumed you are printing as ‘direct windows print’ and this is the alias set by default. Setting this option allows you to change the default alias at run-time to one of the list of Datafile configured printers. If you change the alias to a ‘DOS’ style alias then the page size (length/width) and font are again picked up from the Print Style Profile, although other settings such as ‘include time’ etc. remain from the OPTIONS display.

Print Negatives in Red – on selected reports, assuming you have a colour printer, it may be useful to print negative values in red. This option allows this.

The next set of parameters allows you to specify formatting and margin settings. This section is different if you set the page size earlier.If you have set the page size then you set the margins in millimetres. If you haven’t set the page size then you set margin in ‘columns’ for both portrait and landscape - the appropriate settings being used based on the orientation of the output selected at run-time.

Paper Size Set

Characters Per Line – the system displays the width of the report items on the right. If you leave this value at 0 (recommended) then the report width used in determining the start column positions of data items (as discussed above with regards to font size) is the larger of either the report print items or 80 columns.You can manually set a report width – from 64 to 255 columns. You may want to increase the number of columns on (say) a landscape report with few print items to bring the fields closer together to aid in reading.

Lines Per Page – if left at 0 (recommended) then the number of lines per page is determined by the font and page size. Alternatively you can set a number of lines per page, perhaps to give a greater gap between rows of data items.

Left Margin (mm) – set the size of the left hand margin (relative to page orientation in millimetres.

Right Margin (mm) – set the size of the right hand margin.

Top Margin (mm) – set the size of the top margin.

Bottom Margin (mm) – set the size of the bottom margin.

Paper Size Not Set

Minimum Characters Per Line – the system displays the width of the report items to the right. If you leave this value as 0 then the report width is the larger of either the report print items or 80 characters. You can manually set a report width – from 64 to 255 characters wide – but if you set a width less than the items actually printed then this is overridden by the report width at run-time.

Maximum Lines Per Page – if left at 0 then when printing a report the system will determine the number of lines per page based on the report width and the printable area of the page up to a maximum of 72 lines per page in portrait mode or 50 lines per page in landscape mode. Alternatively you can set the number of lines per page, from 16 to 255, and this is then taken into account when deciding font size to ensure that number of lines is printed. If left at 0 then when sending to the spooler the lines per page is assumed to be 72 in portrait mode and 50 in landscape. If you require an identical print from the printer and the spooler then a maximum number of lines should be set.

Left Margin – set the number of characters to be used as a margin from 1 to 64.If you require a margin then when entering the value you need to take into account the report print width – a margin of 4 characters on an 80-character report will be bigger than a margin of 4 characters on a 132-character report. If left at 0 no left margin is applied.

Right Margin – if you require a margin to be applied on the right of the report set the number of characters accordingly (again 1-64), if leave as 0 then no right margin is applied.

Top Margin – set the number of lines to leave as a margin at the top of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no top margin is applied.

Bottom Margin – set the number of lines to leave as a margin at the bottom of the page (1-32 lines). If left at 0 then no bottom margin is applied.

Finally, you can set default options that are used when you send the report to print or e-mail.

Print Device – if using a stand-alone Datafile system then you can set a default printer to output to. This option only applies when sending to a print device; if last printer was spooler or fax then this remains the default. If using a networked Datafile system then you can still set this where you are printing to a networked printer – provided all terminals have a consistent device path. If the print device isn’t valid then the normal printer is offered instead.

E-mail Address – if the report is sent to email then here you can enter an email address that is to be used by default for this report – though it can be amended at run-time.

Once you’ve set the desired parameters select the ACCEPT option to apply the settings for this print or, if available, the SAVE option to apply for this and future prints.