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Computer Column: FastTrack for Dealers
Computer Column #254 by John P. Reid, e-mail: jreid@dca.net The latest edition of Collectorpro for Antiques was reviewed last month. This month, a new edition of Antique Dealers FastTrack Inventory and Business Management Professional Software from the Antique and Art Information Network, Inc. (AAIN) will be reviewed. This is part of a product line that has been available for years. More than a dozen programs are currently offered. For dealers and collectors, there are the Ultimate, Professional, and Small Business versions. The Professional version is reviewed here. There are additional products for mall managers, repair and restoration services, promoters, art dealers, and household insurance cataloging. Other software for dealers and collectors was listed in the September 2008 issue of the Maine Antique Digest. That list is pretty much up-to-date and may be viewed on the paper's Web site (click here). Scroll down to "Computer Article" and click "View Stories" for an index to archived articles. I try to keep an eye on dealer and collector software reviewed in the past to see if there have been major upgrades. The upgrades reported last month and this month, however, were brought to my attention by the software companies themselves. Upgrade information and announcements of new products are always welcome. -AAIN ProfessionalThe heart of the Antique Dealers FastTrack Inventory and Business Management Professional Software is the summary screen shown in the illustration on which inventory details are entered. There are fields for stock number, short and long description, and selling price. The fields for category, manufacturer, location, material, color, and so on are drop-down lists that can be customized by the user. This speeds data entry and improves search accuracy. Field names can be customized. Tabs at the top of the summary screen select additional screens for entering details, photos, acquisition information, repair details, sale information, and returns. Insertion of up to four photos per item from camera files, a scanner, or the Internet works smoothly. There are provisions to search the inventory by almost any of the information fields. The inventory can be converted to a printable catalog with pictures. Price tags can be formatted and printed. A subscription service sold by AAIN lets dealers upload inventory listings and pictures to a Web site where they can be seen by other users of any AAIN software. Navigating to the many functions of the software is made easier by a hierarchy of "switchboard" screens starting with a main menu switchboard. One of the main menu buttons brings up an invoice for making a sale. Items for sale must be selected from the inventory listing. All the relevant facts can be entered, including customer name, price, payment type, and amount proffered. Layaways are accommodated, and customized layaway contracts are printed. As many sales tax venues as needed can be set up, and up to three overlapping sales tax jurisdictions (e.g., city, county, state) are allowed. Dealer discounts and tax exemptions can be specified. Returns can be handled from the same main menu button. Customer, acquisition source, and business associate databases are maintained and can be searched and printed in several ways. Custom layaway policy statements, gift certificates, and other documents can be printed. Inventory items at auction or consigned are tracked. There is an auction watch database for things being bid on by the user. A multilevel password-protected administrative menu gives access to bookkeeping functions, employee records and reports, elaborate information and checklists for shows, and the password database. The large bookkeeping facility provides everything from ledgers and checkbooks to the annual profit-and-loss statement and tax return documents. It prints checks and helps with reconciling checkbooks. Bookkeeping information can be exported to Microsoft Excel or Word. The software boasts over 650 reports from the simplest customer mailing list to annual financial summaries. -EvaluationThe software makes use of the proven Microsoft Access relational database. It is secure from data loss and errors. Navigation is smooth and superior to previous AAIN products. The functions are well chosen and logical. This product would serve an antiques dealer well. No software product is perfect. The following issues are minor annoyances. Having installed hundreds of programs on personal computers over the years, I feel the installation instructions for this product are confusing. In actuality, three different pieces of software must be installed by different processes. This would be a problem except that the installation instructions repeatedly offer free technical support by phone or e-mail. And AAIN is good at technical support. In future products, a one-click installation process would be nice, but this is made difficult by the many versions of Windows that the software accommodates. A weekly backup is recommended as protection from a computer hardware failure. The instructions for backing up data involve rooting around in a subdirectory of a directory on the user's hard drive. A more automated process would be safer and surer. Fortunately, AAIN offers technical support on backups too. Occasionally, when a procedural error is made by the user, an error dialog will appear that has no meaning to the user. These dialogs were probably intended for the programmers. They can generally be treated as "Please try again." -OrderingAntique Dealers FastTrack Inventory and Business Management Professional Software can be run with Windows 98, 2000, 2003, ME, XP, Vista, Windows 7, or NT. The program will operate on a multi-computer peer-to-peer network at no additional cost. It is sold on line by the Antique and Art Information Network, Inc. at (www.aain.com). This company is quite possibly the largest supplier of antiques industry software. It is the only one that boasts 24/7 technical support. The Professional version reviewed here costs $274.95. The Ultimate version is $298.95, and the Small Business version is $194.95. Despite the narrow range of prices, the features differ in important ways. For example, the Ultimate version has some features for antiques malls, and the Small Business version does less bookkeeping and allows only 2500 items in inventory. See the AAIN Web site for details and sample screens. Evaluation copies of the software may be requested on the Web site. You should take advantage of this offer. Originally published in the February 2010 issue of Maine Antique Digest. (c) 2009 Maine Antique Digest | ||||||
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