Knowledgebase

This section is a step by step tutorial on how to fill out a work order and take it through to a sale.

Create the Work Order

1. Starting from the Main Menu, click on the New Work Order.

A dialog box will appear asking you to identify the orientation of the artwork.

2. Click on the Horizontal button.

Between the words Width and Height, is a small rectangle showing the orientation just selected appears. This is called the “Orientation icon”.

Entering Measurements

1. Your cursor is now blinking in the Width field. Type 22 1/4 and press Tab on your keyboard.

The cursor has moved to the Height field.

2. In the Height field, type 16 1/2.

Next you will enter the mat margins to be used in this framed piece. You could tab through the fields and type them in individually or you can use the rapid entry feature and enter all four at once.

3. Click to the right of the word “Margins” on a grey box (also called a pop-up menu), and select 3 1/4.

This will populate the left (L), right (R), top (T) and bottom (B) mat margin fields automatically with 3 1/4 inches.

Entering Materials

1. Click on the small grey button located to the right of the Frame1 field.

A search dialog box will appear on the screen.

2. In the Moulding # field, type 239 then click the OK button.

The screen will change to show all possible matches of moulding numbers starting with the number 239.

3. Click on 239042.LJ.

The moulding number, description and calculated price will now appear on the Work Order screen.

Notice that all moulding numbers have a suffix to identify the moulding company. (In this case, it is .LJ for Larson Juhl). Matboard numbers have a prefix to identify the company. B for Bainbridge, C for Crescent, etc.

4. Click in the field to the right of Mats and type in C1561 then press the Tab key on your keyboard.
The description of the matboard and the price are automatically entered.

5. With the cursor in the next matboard field. Type in B8425 and press the Tab key.

The description and price will fill in. A message in red letters appears in the white Message/ALERT box in the center of the screen asking you to identify the reveal amount of the second mat.

6. Click on the pop-up menu to the right of the description. Select 1/4 as the amount of the reveal.

Note: FrameReady may be programmed to automatically enter a default reveal. See "Related Articles" below for, "Default Mat Reveals & Extra Mat Openings Side Bar Button in Price Codes File" for more information.

The next series of fields are drop-down lists from which you may select an item. Each list can be customized to contain only the items that you offer. The wording can be changed to reflect the terminology used by your store. These changes are made in the Price Codes file. See "Related Articles" below, "Customizing Lists in the Price Codes File" for more information.

7. Click in the field to the right of the word Mat Design.

A drop-down list will appear showing all possible design selections.

Note: FrameReady may be programmed to interface with a computerized mat cutter. If a CMC is used, this step would be bypassed.

8. Scroll through the list and click on V-groove-Single.

The cursor automatically tabs to the next field - Mount/Stretch. However, at this point you may want to select where the v-groove is to be situated on the mat. To the right of the Mat Design field is a pop-up menu where you can specify a measurement. The measurement may refer to either the outside edge of the mat or the inside edge, depending on the terminology of your shop.

9. In the Mount/Stretch field drop-down list, click on the mounting option your customer desires (E.g. Full Conservation).
The item will appear in the field and the price will appear in a column to the right of the field.

Tip: If you wish to make several mounting entries, then click Mount/Stretch. The screen will change to the detail view where you can enter up to four items for Mount/Stretch. Click Done to return to the main work order screen.

Note: Clicking on any underlined word on the Work Order screen will take you to a detail screen where you have multiple entry choices for that particular component.

10. The next field is Mat Design. Click in the field. When the menu appears scroll down and click on Wire Hanger.

Tip: To move through the list more quickly, press on the letter key on your keyboard. This will short cut to all items beginning with that letter (E.g. press W to get to Wire Hanger).

11. If you wish to skip a field or component simply click beside the field which you next want to select.

12. In the Glazing/Fabric drop-down list, select Clear.

13. The next field is Fitting. Click on Wood.

The moulding in this tutorial is wood. Select a Wood fitting charge for wood frames and a Metal charge for metal frames.

14. The next field is Other. You may type directly into the field or choose an item from the arrow menu.

This field is used to price on the fly items not priced by size but determined by other criteria. For example, Shipping fees determined by a courier, Calligraphy determined by how many letters, etc. If you select an item from this field, the price must be manually entered in the field to the right of “Constrain to 1” .

Now that we have entered all of the measurements and materials, you will notice that the total price has been calculated up in the top right corner of the screen. The price is based on the yellow quantity box.

Entering Artwork

1. Click on the Artwork field. A pop-up menu will appear for you to select the type of artwork which is being framed.

Tip: You may customize this menu by using the word Edit appearing at the bottom. For our example let’s select giclee.

Note: The artwork category field is used for reporting purposes.

2. In the field to the right of the word giclee type in the title of the artwork. If the artwork doesn’t have a title, type in a description (E.g. Summer Sunset). Whatever is typed into this field will appear on the customer’s invoice as a description of the framed item.

3. Tab to the next field and select an artist from the pop-up list.

4. In the next field type 128/500. Press the Tab key.

5. In the Condition field the drop-down list will offer choices. For our example, let’s select Rolled.

Tip: If you click back in the field, without selecting anything from the pop-up list, you can type whatever description you wish.

Note: You can edit the Condition list by selecting Edit from the bottom of the list while in any work order.

6. In the next field, the Location field, identify the location of where the art will be stored before it is framed.

Tip: If you don’t use Bins, you can change it to drawers, or shelves or whatever you use. For now, let’s select Bin 4.

Entering a Customer

There are two ways of entering a customer name.

Option 1 - New Customer:

1. Click on the New Customer side bar button.

If a customer is already entered on the Work Order, then a dialog box will appear asking you if you are sure that you want to change the existing customer. Click Yes.

2. A dialog box asks you to enter the Last and First Names of the new customer.

If an existing customer with that same name is not found, then a new screen will appear for data entry.

3. Type in Address field and enter the street address. Press the Tab key.

4. The cursor will then tab to the Zip / Postal Code field where you can enter in the appropriate information. Press the Tab key.

5. The cursor will move to the phone number field. Although you can only see three fields on the screen, the scroll bar on the right will allow you to view additional entries. Press the Tab key.

6. There is also an email field which may be used to send individual or bulk emails. Press the Tab key.

7. You can enter a variety of Keywords (Customer Preferences) to track how the customer heard about you, your advertising campaigns, interests and mailings.

Note: This is a great area to group your customers into selected mailing groups or keywords (e.g. needleworker, new home owner, etc.).

8. Click the Done button.

All the relevant information will show on the Work Order screen and this information will be stored in the Contacts file automatically.

Option 2 - Repeat Customer:

1. Click Find by Name to get a search field of previously entered customers.

2. Type in the name or choose Show All. This list is sorted by last name, then first name, and then address (in case you have two “Sue Brown”s, for example). Scroll through the list until you come to the customer you wish to select. Click on the name.

Shop Management

Two tabs appear at the top of this block; Order and Shop. This is the last block of information that you need to deal with to keep you informed on what is happening in your business.

1. In the Order tab, enter the name of the person who took in the order in the Order Taken By field.

Tip: You may customize this menu using the word Edit at the bottom and enter all your employees names.

Note: This area shows today's date, the due date (based on the set up data information), and the status. The Estimate button can be used to take the order out of the incomplete list and therefore off your vendor order.

2. In the Shop tab, all work orders are automatically marked as incomplete when they are created. A work order is not marked as complete until it is framed and ready for the customer to pick-up.

Tracking Orders

1. Click the List of Incomplete Orders side bar button in the Work Order file.

A list all work orders which need to be completed, sorted in the order they were created appears. You may sort them by a different criteria by using the any of the underlined column titles.

2. Print this list using the Print List button.

You can see a line with your customer's name on it. Clicking on that bar will take you directly to that work order. You should now be back in the Form View of the order we started.

Posting a Work Order to An Invoice

Now that you have filled in the information on the work order screen you may wish to take a payment from your customer.

1. Once you have completed filling in the information on each work order for the customer now you are ready to post this work order/s to an invoice. On the Work Order screen, click Post to Invoice side bar button.

A dialog box will ask you to Print a Customer Summary or Post To Invoice.

2. Click Post Only.

3. A line item entry screen appears. You will see your work order/s appear on the lines. Click Enter a Payment.

4. The Receipts dialog box appears. Choose the Tender from the pull-down list.

5. If the payment is less than the balance, enter the amount by clicking in the Amount field and change it.

6. Click the Done Print Receipt button.

Printing the Work Order for Production

1. From the Work Order screen, click Print Documents side bar button.

This screen presents all the paperwork which may be printed for this particular order.

2. In the Print for Shop section, click This Work Order or All [Customer's name] Orders.

3. A preview of the document will appear. Click Continue.

4. A printer dialog box asks to Cancel or Print. Click Print.

5. Now you may choose to have the customer authorize the work by signing the printed work order (which stays in the shop).

Tracking Customers

All the information we have just entered has been automatically recorded in the customer's record in the Contacts file.

1. Click on the blue telephone icon at the top of the screen on the Navigational Palette. It will take you directly to the Contacts file and the record for the client with which we were just working.

2. Click on Invoices tab at the bottom and you will see the invoice we just created. You can go directly to it by clicking on the small button at the end of the row.

3. Click on Work Orders tab and you will see the work order we just created. You can go directly to it by clicking on the small button at the end of the row.

4. Click on Artists tab. If there was an artist's name it has been automatically entered onto their record to track their favorites.

5. Click on Keywords tab. Any marketing information, preferences or mailing designations you entered have been automatically entered onto this record.

6. For marketing and customer service purposees, capture more information using the Contacts file tabs.