Start Menu

Start the application by selecting it on the Pocket PC Start menu.

Login

You log in by entering a rep ID and password.
This is validated in the local database.
The logo will show your company logo.

The main menu provides access to order entry and order reports,
as well as host sync, device staging and other utility programs.
Clicking "Order Entry/Inquiry" takes you to the Order Entry menu.

The Order Entry Menu provides access to the various screens listed below.

The Customers screen lets you enter a customer number to find it, or
enter part of the name and find it that way. You can also scroll next/prev
by name. The data shown illustrates the type of data fields that could be
downloaded and stored in the local database on the PDA.

The top lines show the customer number, shipto number, status, and the
number of orders for this customer stored on the PDA. Other fields shown
include name/address, phone/fax numbers, contact name, and misc. comments.

Clicking "Orders" takes you to a "Review Orders" screen for this customer.

The Review Orders screen can be accessed from the Order Entry Menu, the
Customers screen, or the Products screen. The dropdown combobox has all order
numbers for this customer that are stored on the handheld DB. Clicking "New"
starts a new order. The current (new) order is shown by default, with other
orders in reverse date sequence (newest on top).

The selected order's details are shown. You can change the requested date
(from a popup calendar) and select dropdowns for the order type, PO#, terms,
shipvia and standard order instructions.

Buttons at bottom allow adding or viewing line items, printing the order
to a mobile printer, or deleting the order (if not yet sent to office).

        

The Products button on the menu shows this screen with three different tabs. Shown is the information for the customer currently selected, and allows finding a product by scanning a
barcode, or by entering either the barcode number or the product number. You
can also do next/prev by the product number. The "Search" button opens
a new screen where you can search by various product criteria.
If you have GIF or JPG images of your products in a small thumbnail
image, those can be stored on the PDA and displayed as well. To order an
item, you click "Order". The program can also be set up to automatically
order one of an item when it is scanned without clicking "Order".

The search screen allows selection of a search group, which is a
configurable set of choices. Examples might be product type, line,
brand, model, color, size, weight, shape, etc. For each choice of
a search group, the next two dropdown boxes will display the specific
choices for that search group. When these are selected, a list of
matching products is displayed in the rows at the bottom.

The search looks at the category, subcategory and product description
fields in the product database for the selected search keys. You can
also type in a search term in the textbox below the dropdown boxes.

Clicking on a product brings it back into the "Order Product" screen.
You can switch between these two screens to look at images of selected
products, compare prices and other product info, etc.

Clicking the "Order" button opens this screen which allows you to select
an order quantity, select from a set of standard instructions or comments, or
enter a special comment. Clicking "Accept" adds the item to the order.

This screen is also used to edit order lines after they have been entered,
which is how you can increase the order quantity if the program is set up
to automatically "order one" when a barcode is scanned (without going into
this screen initially).

The Order Lines screen is accessed from the "View Line Items" button on the
Review Orders screen above. For each line item, it has a column for Qty,
Product#, Extension, Description and Line Number (you can scroll left/right to
see them all).

You can edit a line by selecting a row and clicking "Edit Line", which shows
the "Order Item" screen above with the selected item, so that changes can be
made and saved back to this screen. Or, you can select a line and delete that
item. You can also sort the line items by any of the columns.

The Basics screen provides a way to quickly enter "starter kit" orders or
any other grouping of items that are commonly ordered together. It can
also be used to show related items for cross-selling and upselling.

The Open Orders screen lists all new open orders that have not yet been sent
to the home office. This provides a quick way to get back to an order when
customers call you with additional items they forgot to order.

The Print Orders screen creates a formatted Order Acknowledgement document
that can be previewed on the PDA, saved as a text file, or printed on a mobile
printer via a serial or IR (infrared) port.

SQL statements are saved and run as standard reports. Versatile selection criteria suits your needs.

From the Host Sync screen, you can download new/changed customers, products,
and other data such as terms codes, shipvia codes etc., and upload (send) all new
orders to the home office. If you have added any new customers in the customer
screen, these are also uploaded.

Options

This screen lets you set the "Date Requested" formula and the "Order On Scan"
one-touch ordering option.

ForceField Administration

This password-protected screen allows you to download new versions of the
programs and configuration files without bringing the PDA into the office.

Setup

Setup allows an administrator to set system wide parameters.

Deeper Setup

A deeper level of setup allows a master administrator to set pricing options and other sensitive parameters. 

Order Reports

Order reports include a Daily Orders Report that summarizes orders by date.

Data Load

This screen is used to load a full set of customers, products or other
database tables from a text file. It is normally used only when staging
a PDA, but can be used in the field if you ever need to reload the tables.

DB Admin (ODBC) Utility

This password-protected utility provides full access to the local database
if needed in special circumstances. Not normally used in daily operations.