This is a simple, yet detailed, tutorial to get you acquainted with the process of finding a record within your [i] Merchant system. All Find screens use the same Find methods. However, if you want, you can use a different Find method for finding Products. For help on the optional Product Find and how to select it for your store, please click here.
Note:
You can search for products using keywords. But you will need to run the Keyword Index Rebuild in order to do this. For information on this, please click here.
The Find program can be accessed for many programs throughout [i] Merchant. While some of the specifics of each Find program will differ (for example, how you define your search will be different when trying to find a customer or trying to find a product or PO), the fundamental principles of how to run a Find are universal throughout [i] Merchant.
Once you have accessed a Find program (for Product, Customers, Customer Orders, etc), you can run a search to find specific records, or you can create new records.
To create a new record:
Most Find screens within [i] Merchant have a New toolbar icon located at the top of the screen. Simply click on this icon, and you will begin the process of creating a new record. For specific instructions on how to create a new record within the specific modules (i.e., Product, Customer Orders, etc), simply refer to the Help pages for the modules in question.
To find an existing record (or existing records):
The first thing to determine, in a basic search, is how specific you want the search parameters to be. Each Find program can include up to four search fields. But, if you don't need that many search fields, you can reduce the number of displayed search fields to two. Often, you will probably only need two (and sometimes just one) search fields displayed--but that's up to you. It's easy to toggle back and forth between two search fields being displayed, or four search fields being displayed. If there are only two showing, but you want four, click on the "More" button to the right of the search fields. If there are four search fields showing, but you just want two, click on the "Less" button.
Essentially, think of the search fields as a way to prune your search. You can run a general, open-ended search (for example, running a search for every customer in your database), or you can run a specific, focused search (running a search for a specific customer). Either way, you may need to use only one search field.
If you want to clear the text in all of the Search fields at one time, click on the Clear button, to the right of the Search fields. This will clear away all text in the Search fields in one fell swoop . . . except it will not clear dates or comination box selections (such as the Charge & Send selection, where you need to select a choice from a pulldown menu). This kind of data will need to be deleted manually, if desired.
Example:
Let's say you want to find a specific Purchase Order. You don't know the specific PO Number (though if you did, you could run your search using the PO Number as the search driver), but you do know the Order Date for the PO. (Let's say the Order Date was 7/19/07.)
In the first search field (in this case, "Find Purchase Order By"), click on the down arrow of the upper field--this is the field where you select which criteria you wish to use as a search driver. Select "Order Date."
In the box directly beneath it (this is the field where you enter the data that specifies the search--in this case what the Order Date was), either key in the Order Date or click on the arrow at the right and select it from the mini-calendar that appears. You would choose 7/19/07, based on our example.
With the Order Date established, click on the "Find" button to the right of the search fields--or the "Find" button in the toolbar at the top of the Find screen. A list of all POs with an Order Date of 7/19/07 will appear in the grid at the bottom of the Find screen. It may be several, or just one. The key element is all of them will have an Order Date of 7/19/07. If there is more than one listed, highlight the one you want and either double-click on it, press Enter on your keyboard, or choose "Properties" from the toolbar at the top of the screen. You will be taken to the Properties page for the selected record.
For some searches, you may need to use multiple search fields. . . .
Example:
Let's say you want to find a specific Customer Order. You don't know the specific Customer Order Number (though if you did, you could run your search using the Customer Order Number as the search driver), and you don't even know the Date the Customer Order was taken. But you do know it was within the last six months, and you also know the salesperson in your store who took the Order. (Let's say the Order was taken between 1/19/07 and 7/19/07, and the salesperson was Betty Doe.) If you want to just search the Order by the dates given above, you would use two search fields. If you also want to incorporate the salesperson to narrow the search further, you'll need to use three search fields. (Remember, the way to toggle between two search fields displayed or four search fields displayed is by using the "More/Less" buttons to the right of the search fields.)
In the first search field (in this case, "Find Customer Order By"), click on the down arrow of the upper field--this is the field where you select which criteria you wish to use as a search driver. Select "Date From."
In the box directly beneath it (this is the field where you enter the data that specifies the search--in this case what Date was the Order taken), either key in the "Date From" or click on the arrow at the right and select it from the mini-calendar that appears. You would choose 1/19/07, based on our example.
In the second search field, repeat the process as described above for "Date From"--but instead of choosing "Date From" as your search criteria, choose "Date To"--representing an ending point. And in the data field below it, choose 7/19/07. By doing this, you are telling [i] Merchant to run a search for all Customer Orders taken between 1/19/07 and 7/19/07.
If you want to run the search based only on this criteria, click on the "Find" button to the right of the search fields--or the "Find" button in the toolbar at the top of the Find screen. A list of all Customer Orders taken between 1/19/07 and 7/19/07 will appear in the grid at the bottom of the Find screen. Highlight the one you want and either double-click on it, press Enter on your keyboard, or choose "Properties" from the toolbar at the top of the screen. You will be taken to the Properties page for the selected record.
However, if you wanted to add another layer of specificity to this search, do not click on "Find" after selecting a Date From/To range of 1/19/07 to 7/19/07. Rather, in the third search field, choose "Sales Person" as your criteria, and then either key in Betty Doe in the data field beneath it, or click on the binoculars at the right of the field and select her in that fashion. Now, if you run the search, by clicking on the "Find" button, only Customer Orders taken between 1/19/07 and 7/19/07 AND taken by Betty Doe will appear in the grid .. Any Customer Orders taken during that date range by another salesperson will not display.
Note: One more way you could have run this particular search would have been to select "Sales Person" in the first search field, and select Betty Doe, and then run the search just based on that single criterion, ignoring dates altogether. If you did that, all Customer Orders ever taken by Betty Doe (and theoretically this could go back years) would display.
Note:
After running any search, a list of records (or a single record, if you ran a very specific search) will of course display in the grid at the bottom of the screen. But what if you want to print this list to a hard copy? No problem. If it is a short list and fits entirely on one screen, you can simply select Print Screen from the File menu at the extreme top left of the screen.
But what if the list in the grid is large, and not all of the records display on the screen at one time? To print such a list, and to have all of the records on the list appear on the printed document, use the Quick Reports option.
When you run a search, you have the option of having the system include records that have been deleted at a previous point. If you want to see previously deleted items that match the search criteria included in the list of records that appear in the grid after running a search . . .
In the menu located at the very top of every standard Find screen, select View-Show Deleted Items. Once selected, a checkmark will appear to the left of "Show Deleted Items." If this is checked, applicable items that have been deleted will display when you run a search. If you don't want deleted items to appear, click on this menu option again, and the checkmark will disappear. If there is no checkmark to the left of "Show Deleted Items," then previously deleted items will not diaplay when you run a search.
Previously deleted items that display will have a strikethrough going through them. This is an immediate visual clue that the item in question is a deleted record. If you want to reactivate the item, simply double-click on it and, once at the Properties page for the selected item, you can reactivate it there.
Basically, that's everything you need to know about running basic searches. Use the search fields to define your criteria (as broad or as specific as you need them to be)--simple as that. However, there are other, more advanced, layers to finding records in [i] Merchant. . . .
Some searches within [i] Merchant allow you to perform an Advanced Search. Click here for more information.
You can also combine the Advanced Search with the basic search defined above. To do this:
Check the box next to the Apply Query field here at the basic Find screen. A new field will appear to the right, which will list all of the queries you have created and saved using the Advanced Search program.
Scroll through the queries by using the arrow at the right of the field, and select the query you want to use.
Now, be sure you define basic search criteria here at the basic Find screen, as well (as defined above). This Apply Query function can only be used when combining an Advanced Search query with additional basic search criteria. It combines the Advanced Search and the basic search. You cannot use the Apply Query functionality unless you define at least one basic search criterion here at the basic Find screen.
Also, you can set the Find screen up within any module so that any changes you make to it (moving columns in the grid, selecting the Advanced Search option, establishing four search fields instead of two, etc.) remain as a default the next time you access the screen. So, for example, if you did an Advanced Search and then closed out of the Find program for the Customer Orders module, the next time you entered, the Advanced Search option will automatically be activated. Or you can set the Find program up to disregard the changes you make when you are in the program. No matter what you do with columns in the grid, Advanced Searches, and so on, the screen will revert to the way it was upon opening it the next time you access it. To determine how you want the screen to behave, and how you want the display grid to function, do the following . . .
When in the Find program:
Select View-Find State Manager from the menu at the top of the screen. The View State Manager box appears. This is where you set up your default options for the Find program. Do this on a module-by-module basis. (You may want different defaults, for example, between the Customer Order Find program, the Product Find program, the Customer Find program, etc.)
The upper portion of the View State Manager box determines whether or not you want to have the Find screen change its default settings upon closing out of it or whether you want the defaults to always remain the same. There are two portions of the View State Manager box that deal with this--Columns and Find Panel. Columns deals with the grid, as established by the Use Paging option at the bottom of the View State Manager box. The Find Panel deals with the search fields at the top of the Find screen (four search fields or two?) and also with the Advanced Search option. Underneath both the Columns and Find Panel section, there are two choices--Always on Close and Current Layout.
Always on Close means that however the Find screen looks upon closing out of it is how it will look upon accessing it later. Essentially, any changes you made to the look of the screen will automatically be saved by the system. (So, if you clicked on the More button to display four search fields instead of just two, then closed out, this will be saved. The next time you access the Find program, the four search fields will display.)
Current Layout means that however the Find screen looks upon accessing it this time will be the same the next time. In other words, any changes you make to the layout of the screen will not be saved by the system.
Which of these choices makes the most sense? If you have a set default you like to use, then Current Layout makes sense. If you often change the look and feel of the screen, perhaps Always on Close makes the most sense. This will depend entirely on your judgment, and may differ on a module-by-module basis.
The Use Paging checkbox at the bottom of the View State Manager box deals with the grid on the Find screen. If you check the box, Paging will be activated. If you leave the box unchecked, Paging will not be activated, and the standard grid display, with scroll bar, will remain in place.
What is Paging? Read on.
First, to distinguish what Paging is, let us quickly recap what it is not.
In the standard (non-Paging) grid, there are rows of records. If there are more records than can fit on the screen at one time, there is a scroll bar at the right of the grid. There are no segments or pages in the grid list--just one long (or short if a highly specific search) list that may go on for a long while. The scroll bar is the navigation tool here.
Important:
If Paging is turned off and more than 200 records exist for a search, only the first 200 will display. The status bar at the bottom of the screen will let you know how many records are displaying and how many records exist for the entire search.
If you want the next 200 records to display, click on the icon at the lower right of the screen. Or . . . select "Format Next Items" under the View menu.
If you want all items in the search to display, select View--Format All Remaining Items.
If you are using Grouping or Quick Reporting, and the entire list is not displayed, [i] Merchant will issue a warning, letting you know this.
But having a huge list like that may be unwieldy. Paging allows you to break the list up into pages--a page being defined as a select number of items displaying in the grid. So, if there are, say, 12 items displaying, that is a page. If you go to the next page, 12 more items will display, and so on. There is no scroll bar, because to select an item on any particular page, all you have to do is double click on it or highlight it and press Enter or click on the Properties button at the top of the screen. To select an item on another page, go to that page--without needing to scroll.
To move from page to page, and to get a sense of the list as a whole, pay attention to the data at the very bottom of the grid. The Page field will let you know what page you are on, and how many pages in the grid exist. So, it may say, for example, Page 1 of 40. This is also a quick way to navigate among pages. If, for example, you want to go directly to page 30, key in a 30 in the Page field, press Enter, and then click anywhere within the grid to activate the navigation. You will be taken directly to page 30. A neat and efficient navigational technique.
To the right of the Page field, you will see the Record fields. This field tells you which records are being displayed and how many total records are in the grid. So, if you are on page 1, and there are 12 records displayed on page 1, the Record data at the bottom of the grid will read as follows: Record(s) 1 through 12 of 480. The "of 480" refers to the total number of records in the grid. So, just for an example, let us assume that over the 40 pages, 480 records exist. These informational fields are useful especially if you have a large list that goes on over many pages within the grid.
Navigating from page to page within the grid is easy:
To proceed to the last page, click on the arrow-meeting-line icon immediately to the left of "Page" at the lower left of the screen.
To proceed to the first page, click on the arrow-meeting-line icon at the extreme far left of the screen.
To move forward one page, click on the arrow icon that faces toward the right, located at the lower left of the screen.
To move back one page, click on the arrow icon that faces toward the left, located at the lower left of the screen.
To proceed to any specific page, key in the desired page number in the Page field at the bottom of the screen, press Enter, and then click on the grid to activate the navigation. You will be directly taken to the page.
On any given page of the grid, highlight the record you want.
Determine if you want to use the traditional scrollbar method or the Paging method. Again, it's your call.
At the top of the Find screen, there is a Find On List button. If you click on it, a small Search window appears. In the Find What field, key in a part of the record's name or the entire name, and the system will automatically highlight the closest match. In essence, this is a shortcut method for finding a product amidst a long list.
Note, that if you use Paging, the Find On List option only looks for matches on the page you have displayed. The Find On List option makes more sense when Paging is not used and you have a huge list to scroll through. In that instance, key in the description you are searching for, and let the system find it for you.
In the Find On List Search window, the Find Next button will select the record directly after the one selected. If you continue clicking on this button, the cursor will continue moving down, one record at a time.
In the Find On List Search window, the Find Previous button will select the record that directly preceded the one selected. If you continue clicking on this button, the cursor will continue moving up the list, one record at a time.
Also, you will see a Grouping icon at the top of certain Find screens. For information on Grouping, please click here.
If you are in the Find screen for Products, there will be a Venstock toolbar icon. If you highlight a product in the grid and then click on the Venstock button, the Find Venstock window will appear, and the Title and Author search-field information will automatically be filled in based on the information gleaned from the just-selected product's Product Properties page. This serves as a convenience tool to launch a Venstock search for the product in question.
On the Product Find screen, you have an option to add new products with an onhand amount.
From the menu at the top of the screen, select File-New With On Hand. (Or press Control-H on your keyboard.) The New Product window appears, with the standard "Product Number" and "Industry" fields, but also with two additional fields--On Hand Default and Cost % of Retail.
The On Hand Default is just what it says--key in the onhand default for products added to your system using this method. This default, of course, can be changed as desired.
The Cost % of Retail will be used to determine the Cost value for the product in question when the record has been added to the system.
Also on the Product Find screen, you have the option to adjust the onhand amount for a product. (You can also change the onhand amount in Product Properties. The option is also included here as a convenience tool.)
Highlight the product in the grid for which you want to alter the onhand amount. Then from the menu at the top of the screen, select Edit-Adjust Inventory (or simply press the F10 key on your keyboard).
The Adjust Inventory window opens. Here, if you have security access, you can alter the onhand amount, along with the other fields listed in the window. The Cost and Discount fields listed here will calculate automatically once you make a change in any of the fields in this window and then click on the "Calculate" button.
Note:
Be careful here. When you change onhand amount and click on "Calculate", the system will automatically update the Cost, Unit Cost, and Discount fields as needed. But you may not want these fields updated--just the onhand quantity. If this is the case, be sure to proceed to Product Properties and manually change the fields back to the way you want them after clicking "Calculate".
Notice the "Reason" field at the bottom of the window. Based on how you set the default in Tools-Options, you will either be forced to enter a reason when you adjust an onhand amount or it will be an optional field--you can key in a reason or not, as you choose. This is a free-form field, and you can key in anything you want.
If you have a list of products displaying as a result of a search, you can use your mouse's right clicker to bring up a menu. For a discussion on this feature, please click here. Also, in other Find programs, such as Customer Find, the right-clicker will bring up menus, as well, from which you can go directly to other screens. This capability serves as a navigational convenience tool.
You can create a .csv file that captures the results of the information in the grid for a particular search. If you would rather capture and store the Find search results electronically, rather than with a hard copy, then this is the method to use . . .
Simply select File-Create .csv File from the menu at the top of the screen. Then, name the file and choose a directory on your PC to place the file.