Tip #065
Searching for an Account Name

While entering an order, flowerSoft allows you to enter the account name as either First name Last name or Last name First name.

For example, if I’m calling your shop to place an order and you decide to bypass the account number field and look for me by the account name field; flowerSoft allows you to enter either George Simon or Simon, George.

However, because you are entering a name, flowerSoft will display a list of the closest matches and ask you to pick a name from the list and after you do, it will ask you to confirm the address.

The list of names flowerSoft first displays is sorted using a default setting found in the Operating Defaults.  This settings asks you if, while entering the “Billing” information you want to enter First name Last name or Last Name, First name.  It defaults to First name Last name because it assumes that when you ask me for my name, I’m going to respond “George Simon” and not “Simon George”.  Yet, flowerSoft allows you to change that mode to Last name, First name if you want.

So, depending on that setting, flowerSoft will either display the list sorted by First name Last name or Last name, First name.

However, no matter how you’ve set that default, flowerSoft will still allow you to display the list sorted differently.

See the screen shots below.

If the list is sorted by Last name because of your default setting, you can still hit the letter F if you wanted forted by First name.

Likewise, if the list is sorted by First name, flowerSoft allows you to hit L to sort it by Last name.

Tip #063
Advertisement Sources

If you spend any money advertising your shop, you should keep track of how many orders that advertisement generates.  This will tell you if advertising in that particular media is profitable or not.

So the question now should be “How do I get flowerSoft to keep track of sales directly generated by some form of advertising?”

Here is how.

The first thing you have to do is change a setting in the “Operating Defaults” menu, which tells flowerSoft whether or not to ask for the advertisement source.  By default, this setting is “N”o, don’t ask.  So we need to change the setting.  To do this, go to the Manager’s menu > System Information Menu > Defaults > Operating Defaults.

Press “U” to update and navigate to page #4.  Go down to the “Skip Over the Ad Source Field?” and change the “Y” there to a “N”.  See screen shot below.

Changing this setting will make flowerSoft prompt you for the advertisement source that should be credited for the ordere you are entering.

Select the ad source from the list, which you can do by either highlighting it and hitting Enter or by pressing the letter in front of the desired Ad Source.

If, for example, you advertise in more that 1 newspaper, you should also change the setting in the “System Defaults” menu that reads “Get Details of “Ad Source”?” from “N” to “Y”.
This will make flowerSoft prompt you for the name of the newspaper where the ad appeared.  Of course, you always have the option of leaving it empty.

So there you have it.  You now have flowerSoft keeping track of how effective your advertisements are in generating new orders.

Tip #062
City Minimums

Ok, so you are sending an order to Topeka, Kansas for a dozen roses but you have no idea how much a dozen roses go for over there.

flowerSoft to the rescue!

Press the F10 key and flowerSoft will tell you how much florists in Topeka are charging for a dozen roses.

flowerSoft will first ask you to confirm the recipient’s city and state and then…

Display a list of the different categories alongside the minimum amounts for that city.

And, if you want to see more detail, press V and flowerSoft will…

Display of list of the florist in the selected category and the minimum amount they charge.

To select one of the florists on the list, simple press the number in front of their name, for example 2 for Heaven Scent Flowers & Gifts.

flowerSoft will the automatically select that florist as the filling florist for the order.

So there you have it, no more guessing as to how much you should tell your customer it will cost to send flowers to any city will in the US or Canada.