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WARNING: This Work is Copyrighted to Mr. P Kruger at Technikon Free State.

(Presented here with his full consent)

MASTER ELECTRONICS

Master Electronics buys and sells electronic parts. They also do repair work. Currently, they employ a manual system.

1 The Functions Of The Current System

Master Electronics supports three basic transactions:

	the sale of goods to the public
	the use of parts in installations
	buying goods from external suppliers

1.1 The Sale Of Goods To The Public

	the customer goes to reception and asks for the goods he/she wants
	an invoice is completed with the details obtained from the customer and product detail obtained from a master stock list
	the goods are retrieved from the store and given to the customer with the completed invoice
	the customer then pays the invoice amount and receives the original invoice
	the duplicate invoice is used to update the master stock list

1.2 The Use Of Parts In Installations

	the customer goes to reception and ask for the installation of certain parts
	the availability of the stock is checked against the master stock list and if available, the top part of the jobcard is completed with the customer information
	the half-completed jobcard is sent to the workshop where a technician will do the installation and complete the second part of the jobcard (work done and parts supplied, as well as hours worked and charge per hour)
	the jobcard is sent back to reception who will complete the bottom part of the jobcard (the total) and draw up an invoice
	the customer will collect his/her car and pay the invoice amount
	the jobcard is used to update the master stock list

1.3 Buying Goods From External Suppliers

	if stock was bought and received that is not already on the master stock list, a new stock card is made up for it
	if stock was bought and received that is already on the master stock list, the current stock card is updated

1.4 Physical Layout Of Master Electronics

2 The Documents Used In The Current System

2.1 The Stock Card

Field	Description
Item Name	the name of the stock item that will uniquely identify it
Cost Price	the cost of the stock item
Sell Price	the price at which the stock item will be sold
Total	the total quantity on hand
Description	more detailed description of the stock part in accordance with the Item Name
Doc#	if stock was bought then this number would be the document number received with the goods from the external supplier
	if stock was sold to a customer then this number would be the invoice number
	if stock was used in an installation then this number would be the jobcard number
Date	date the goods were receive/sold
IN Quantity	the number received
IN Serial#	the serial number of the item (if applicable) that was received
OUT Quantity	the number sold
OUT Serial#	the serial number of the item (if applicable) that was sold

2.2 The Invoice

Field	Description
Invoice number	a unique number given to each invoice made out
Date	date the invoice is made out
Customer Details	name and address of the customer
Details	description of the part(s) bought or the work done
Amount	amount of the part(s) or work done

2.3 The Jobcard

Field	Description
Customer Details	customer's name and address
Telephone Number	customer's telephone number
Date	date the jobcard is made out
Jobcard Number	unique number for each jobcard
Licence No	optional radio/TV license
Order No	optional Order Number from company
Make of Car	make of the customer's car
Reg. No	registration number of the customer's car
Colour	colour of the customer's car
Complaints	a description of what must be installed/repaired

3 User Requirements For the Computerized System

3.1 Queries

	display the stock card on screen for a given item (query on ItemName)
	display the details for a specific serial number on screen (query on ItemName and then on Serial#)
	display when an item was last sold (query on ItemName)

3.2 Reports/Print-outs/Screen Display

	print the stock card for an item (query on ItemName)
	print a stock list with the option for a list of stock with serial numbers or a list of stock without serial numbers, or both
	the list should include the total number of stock as well as the total cost price and sales price
	print an aged analysis report for all items in stock with serial numbers
	for a given serial number, print the item name, description, and the document number and date when it was bought/sold

3.3 The Sale Of Goods To The Public

	type in the customer name, address and telephone number
	type in the item name of each of the items that the customer bought
	the system will insert the date of purchase and the amount of each part that was bought, and calculate the total
	the system will assign a unique number to each invoice
	the system will then print out an invoice for the customer and update the stock
	if an item has a serial number, the serial number must also be printed

3.4 The Use Of Parts In Installations

	type in the top part of the job card
	the system will print out a complete jobcard with the top part completed
	if an item has a serial number, the serial number must also be printed
	after receiving the jobcard from the workshop, type in the information
	the system will use this information to update the stock
	the system will print an invoice for the customer

3.5 Buying Goods From External Suppliers

	type in the item name and cost price
	type in the document number of the document that came with the goods
	type in the date and the number of item that was received as well as the serial number of each of the items (if applicable)
	the system will then update the stock

3.6 Miscellaneous

	items with serial numbers must have a minimum stock level
	provision is made to change the item name, cost price, mark-up, description and minimum stock level (if applicable) for each item by management
	if the minimum stock level of an item is reached, the system must issue a warning by displaying an error message as well as a hard copy message
	the VAT percentage will be a global variable that can be changed by management

3.7 Item Name Break Down

The Item Name of a stock item is composed of the following sub-fields:

Item Name

Field

Type

Size

Description

Product Class

Alphanumeric

The class of the product. Predefined classes include:

	CARCD - car radio/CD player
	CARRAD - car radio/cassette player
	CARSPK - car speakers
	CDPLAY - standalone CD player
	COLTV - color TV
	HIFI
	MONTV - mono TV
	RADIO - standalone radio
	SPEAKR - standalone speakers

Manufacturer

Alphanumeric

The name of the product manufacturer. Predefined names include:

	AIM
	LG
	PANAS - Panasonic
	PHILI - Philips
	SAMSU - Samsung
	SONY
	YAMAH - Yamaha

Model

Alphanumeric

The first 5 digits of the model number

Extra

Alphanumeric

Extra digits to help identify the product

The values for Product Class and Manufacturer will be decided on and assigned by management. The values shown in the table above are some of the default values decided on and used in the current Master Electronics system. This information must be stored in a separate file.

When a stock item is bought from a supplier, the system must first determine if it can be classified according to the current Product Class and Manufacturer values. If not, then a new Product Class/Manufacturer must be created. No duplicates are obviously allowed.

This information must be used when a customer wants to purchase a product, or when a product will be used in an installation/repair.

4 Design Goals

4.1 General

	data entry should be made as easy as possible for increased data entry speed
	since most computerized programs require the user to press enter/return after entering most data, the same approach is taken here, at the cost of more work in getting information on the screen and accepting data from the user
	a standardized screen and menu layout must be used to make the user familiar with the system as soon as possible
	the user only has to TYPE in the number of the menu option he/she wants to execute
	invoice and jobcard number must be generated automatically by the system
	dynamic linking and code reuse must be used
	defensive programming techniques *MUST* be used

4.2 Sales To The Public

	on each field that verification is needed, the user must be given the opportunity to terminate the currently entered item; these fields include:
	item name
	quantity
	the user must be given the opportunity to accept the currently entered item, before entering another item, since no update to the files will take place until the user has seen the complete invoice on screen, at which time it would be more difficult to add, change or delete an item to/from the invoice
	updates to the files should only take place AFTER the user has accepted the complete invoice

4.3 Installations

With the current manual system, reception completes the top part of the jobcard with the customer information supplied. The work that must be done is written down in the complaints section on the jobcard. This jobcard is then given to the technician who must check which item to install, if it is available, and if applicable, which serial number to use. This can lead to data inconsistency.

	after reception has completed the top part of the jobcard, the system must prompt the user to enter the data for the item(s) the user wants installed
	the system will check for stock availability, and if the minimum stock level (if applicable) is exceeded
	if the item has serial numbers, the system will check which parts are available and then reserve that part for the jobcard, and update the database accordingly
	a jobcard must the be printed out that contains the customer information, as well as the item name(s) to use along with the serial numbers, if applicable; space must be provided for the technician to fill in the hours he/she work along with the charge
	such a jobcard will be seen as open
	if an open jobcard is received from the technician, reception must type in the jobcard number and the information supplied by the technician (hours worked and charge)
	the system will verify that the jobcard number does exist, and is open
	if everything checks out, an invoice will be printed for the customer
	the same data entering technique used for sales should be used to get the item information from the customer

4.4 Receiving Goods From Suppliers

to speed up data entry, the user will not be prompted to accept each item as it is entered

4.5 Field Definitions

Field	Type	Size
Address
Street	Alphanumeric	20
City	Alphanumeric	15
State	Alphanumeric	25
ZipCode	Alphanumeric	10
Customer
Name	Alphabetic	20
Surname	Alphabetic	20
Address
Telephone Nr	Alphanumeric	15
Date	Numeric	8
Jobcard/Invoice Number	Numeric	8
Stock
Item Name	Alphanumeric	21
Item Description	Alphanumeric	50
Item Cost Price	Numeric	9(7).99
Item Mark Up	Numeric	9(1).99
Total Qty on hand	Numeric	7
Document Nr	Alphanumeric	15
Quantity	Numeric	6
Serial Number	Alphanumeric	15
Amount Total	Numeric	9(8).99
VAT	Numeric	9(1).99
JobCard
License Nr	Alphanumeric	20
Make of Car	Alphanumeric	20
Reg. Nr	Alphanumeric	15
Colour	Alphanumeric	15
Complaints	Alphanumeric	50
Order Nr	Alphanumeric	15

5 Example

The following item will be used as an example to illustrate the current process:

The item is a Panasonic Color TV with a remote control, model P-2000. The cost price of the item is R2500-00. On the 1st of January 2000, Master Electronics purchased 5 of these items. These items do have serial numbers. Management decided to sell these items at cost plus 10%. VAT is 14%. The serial numbers of the five items are: PAN#111-1, PAN#111-8, PAN#111-10, PAN#122-1, PAN#122-3.

5.1 Buying The Goods From The External Supplier

All five the items arrived as one order and the supplier sent only one sales/invoice document. The document number is: GI20000101A10

This item is not already on stock, thus a new stock card must be created for it. The Product Class and Manufacturer information are already available. Thus the Item Name can be created as follows:

Field	Value
Product Class	COLTV
Manufacturer	PANAS
Model	P-200
Extra	00001

If a field is not filled completely by a value, zeros (0) should be used. Thus, the final Item Name will be: COLTV0PANASP-20000001

The Item Description will be: Panasonic Color TV with remote (model P-2000)

The Sell Price will be: Cost Price + 10% = 2750-00

Since the five items were received on the same day with the same document number and the serial numbers are known, the IN part of the Stock Card can be completed.

At this stage, the Stock Card for this item will look as follows:

5.2 Sales To The Public

On the 21^st of January, 2000, a customer buys one of these items. The Serial Nr of this item is: PAN#122-3.

The Invoice will look like this:

The Stock Card is updated:

5.3 The Use of Parts In Installations

Assume that a customer arrived on the 25th of January 2000, and asked that one of these items be installed in his car. A Job Card will be created:

The technician installs the TV and completes the rest of the Job Card:

The Stock Card will be updated:

An Invoice will be generated:

6 Notice

All products mentioned in this project are trademarks of their respective owners/manufacturers. Specific examples are fictional and do not represent any actual products. The use of these product names do not carry the endorsement of the author or Technikon Free State.