We used JEWELSOFT for about six months. What a rip!!! We could not get
support, the application did not give us the we needed and
WAS NOT USER FRIENDLY! We spent $750.00 and many hours finding out
that the application would not work for us. After reviewing five
applications we decided to purchase The Jeweler. This has been the
easiest application to learn and maximize our return on investment.
Isn’t this what we all want? We have been using The Jeweler since last
October in two retail stores. One is in a historical downtown store and
the other is in a high traffic mall store. The downtown store does a
high volume in repairs and custom orders, with the mall location
focusing on sales. Both systems are running on a Windows 95 Network. I
have suggested some enhancements to improve the application and the
developers are always appreciative of my suggestions. Having worked in
software development, I understand how much customer input is
appreciated. When the majority of customers ask for specific
improvements, the modifications will follow. I am not reimbursed for my
opinion, but with over thirty years experience in the industry, I
understand the needs of the retail jeweler regarding Point-Of-Sale
software.
Some of the advantages when using The Jeweler are as follows:
Sales Receipts
The Jeweler program prints attractive receipts for sales, layaways,
repairs and appraisals. The receipt forms are inexpensive, and are
printed on an inexpensive laser printer, yet they have a smart and
professional appearance. They can be customized with your own messages,
terms, shipping instructions, etc.
Item envelopes.
A special envelope can be used for repairs, appraisal items, layaways
and special orders. This includes the envelope, the store receipt, and
the customer receipt on a single three part form. It is a very
convenient way of managing these small items.
Appraisals.
Appraisals can be done rapidly. You can include and modify preset text
very quickly. Cover pages, customers names and addresses, and disclaimer
paragraphs can be included automatically. Item images can be printed on
the appraisals.
Repairs.
Repairs can be entered and priced rapidly using your own preset lists of
repair tasks. Repair envelopes can be bar-coded for easy tracking.
Activity reports will show you due and overdue repairs, and repair
expenses and profitability.
Daily reports.
All store activity is reported at the end of each day. Cash, check and
charge card payments are totaled for balancing. Sales tax and sales
commission reports can be printed. Sales are summarized for daily,
weekly, monthly and year to year comparisons, and for detailed
performance and profitability analysis.
Item categories.
The inventory is divided into 100 categories; you can define these
categories yourself. Each category will contain just a few percent of
your total items, making it very easy to find items, and to analyze
inventory. Sub-categories are not necessary; the Jeweler inventory
reporting selects and totals items in a far more flexible and
comprehensive manner than is possible with sub-categories.
Item tracking.
Every inventory item can be recorded and tracked separately. This
provides excellent control of individual items, and is the basis for the
sophisticated inventory analysis.
Item tags.
Item tags are printed on a special low cost tag printer, that produces
high quality tags, yet costs $1,0 less than other tag printers. The
Jeweler is the only program that is able to use this special tag
printer. As a result, the Jeweler is less expensive in total cost than
any other jewelry store software. Images. You can record images of
inventory items. These images can be displayed with the inventory
for the item; arranged in a point of sale slide show; or
used to display for a customer his or her of past purchases.
Customer addresses.
Customer names and addresses are collected automatically as sales are
entered. Customer records can be quickly retrieved, and show all
activities for the customer; sales, layaways, repairs, appraisals,
payments, refunds, etc. In addition, customer records for family members
are cross-referenced.
Notes.
Notes can easily be appended to customer records. These are like yellow
“post-it”, and can be tagged on to customer records, items, sales
receipts, invoices, checks … just about any kind of record in the
computer.
Customer
The customer records show a wealth of There is a summary of
past purchases, year by year. There is a list of occasions (such as
anniversaries) for use in targeted mailings. The customer records can
also be sorted and tagged to identify your best customers for mailings
and special handling.
Targeted mailings.
Customers can be selected for mailings based on total purchases, size of
purchase, latest activity, type of items purchased, special interests,
etc. You can print letters, envelopes, mailing labels, write a file of
names and addresses for an outside print shop, etc.
Inventory analysis.
The heart of the Jeweler program is a sophisticated inventory analysis
module. This can be used to reduce your inventory investment, increase
your inventory turns, and increase your gross profit margins.
Inventory is analyzed from 3 different viewpoints:
By category, and price point within category.
By vendor and vendor’s style.
By time in store.
On each view item costs, retail prices, discounts given, profit
percentage, and time to sell are shown. The analysis reports clearly
show where your profits are coming from, and your return on investment
for different segments of your inventory.
By analyzing your inventory from different viewpoints the Jeweler
program lets you improve your inventory performance without reducing the
breadth, variety and quality of items that you carry.
A typical store can reduce its inventory by 10 to percent, and
increase its gross profit margins by 1 to 2 percent. This alone can pay
for a computer system many times over.
Advertising analysis.
The Jeweler can also improve the effectiveness of your advertising. For
example, customer names and addresses are recorded automatically. They
can be used for targeted mailings, to bring your existing customers back
into the store one more time, to make that one additional sale.
Every mailing and promotional activity can be measured. The Jeweler
program can tell you what each advertising or promotional activity cost,
how many customers it brought in, how many sales were made and your
gross profit.
Multiple PC’s.
The Jeweler can be used on a single PC, on multiple networked PC’s in a
store, and in a chain of stores.
A single PC is sufficient for small stores. A single PC, with the
Jeweler program and a tag printer, can provide all of the advantages of
computerization at a very low cost.
Medium and larger jewelry stores typically have a back office PC for
entering and tagging items, paying invoices, etc., and one or more point
of sale PC’s. These PC’s are networked together; a wire connects the
computers to each other.
Automatic posting.
The Jeweler includes an integrated accounting module. All store
activities can be automatically posted to your accounts, saving endless
hours of bookkeeping. This includes all sales, layaway payments, repairs
and appraisal payments, credits and refunds, vendor payments … every
store activity.
Check writing.
The accounting module will print checks. These can be for selected
vendor invoices; for payments to vendors where you have not entered an
invoice; and for recording checks that have been handwritten. Payments
made by charge card and by cash can also be recorded. Petty cash and
cash differences can be entered.
Payables reports.
The Jeweler keeps up to date balances for checking, cash and charge
accounts. For vendors, there is a full set of open and aged payables
reports and payables analysis.
General ledger.
The Jeweler comes with a predefined set of general ledger accounts that
you can modify to suit your needs. All customer payments and refunds,
and vendor payments and refunds, are automatically posted to the correct
general ledger accounts. There is a full set of financial reports.
We anxiously await the windows version of The Jeweler. Is this an
endorsement for The Jeweler, probably, but you must research the
available products on the market. This application may not fill the void
for all retail jewelry stores, but it has been the solution for our
software needs.
This is my opinion!
Regards,
Roger W. Kitchens
Business Site: www.jewelrycreations.com
Personal Site: www.jewelrycreations.com/roger