If a customer calls about a shipment, can you look up tracking number information for them without leaving your desk? Do you have the ability to enter order-specific warehouse instructions? Would you like the ability to quickly view the details of any order, invoice, or quote from any point in time, and email or fax a copy directly to your customer with the touch of a key? Can you give accurate responses to customer inquiries regarding inventory availability and pricing, and can you do it without keeping the customer on hold or returning their phone call?

A good accounting system should provide instant access to information while your customer is on the phone. With the cost of disk space being so low, there is no reason anymore to use software that doesn't retain historical data indefinitely. This way, if a customer calls and says he would like to order the same thing he ordered two years ago, you should have no problem locating that transaction and processing it immediately. With Encore viewing customer information and history is a breeze. In a matter of seconds its easy to check their sales history, credit history, current pricing, and order status. And checking inventory availability is just as easy.

Do you have methods of gathering sales figures for customers, products, territories, and salespeople? Can you easily determine the products that each customer has purchased over the last two years? Can you rank your customers to determine the top 20% of your accounts by sales or gross profit, or your bottom 20% of products?

Accounting systems should do more than post debits and credits and print invoices and checks. Every transaction entered can provide valuable data for management to plan accordingly. Encore's sales analysis reports will not only allow you to identify your top products and customers, but it will allow you to analyze a customer's buying trends and will point out when they have stopped purchasing particular product lines. Our Projects module will allow management to measure the profitability of trade shows and other income events. Encore also works seamlessly with Microsoft office to allow your marketing department to produce targeted email blasts and mass mailers based on product sales history. Its powerful Quotations Control Center makes it easy for salesmen to stay on top open quotes and instantly convert them to sales orders when they've closed the deal. Sales managers can easily examine the day's bookings to determine who has been producing and who has not.

Do you know your inventory balance on an up-to-the-minutes basis? Can you determine which items are overstocked? Would you like a means of cutting your total inventory investment and still retain customer service levels?

Ask any warehouse manager and they'll tell you that managing inventory is an art. Well, Encore takes the mystery out of inventory management. With its extensive reporting and demand forecasting features, your purchasing manager has all the tools he needs to balance carrying costs with ordering costs and insure that each product is stocked at its optimum level. Encore's Inventory Aging will tell you exactly how long every item has been on the shelf so that you can identify and unload slow movers and free up those dollars for better use. If you're a manufacturer our MRP features will allow you to apply forecasted demand for finished goods down to the lowest level subassembly and raw material.

These days its extremely important to get the most out of everyone in the office. A good accounting and management information system should allow you to grow your business without the need to add more people to the payroll. The key to doing this is to provide tools to increase everyone's efficiency and to do so in a cost effective way.

How many hours are spent each day walking back and forth to filing cabinets and fax machines? Does your current system have the ability to automatically print, fax or email daily invoices to customers based on their delivery preference? If a customer wants to order the same thing they ordered last time, can you easily copy the previous order? Can you automatically pay every A/P invoice that is due with a single click of your mouse? Is your current system integrated with UPS Worldship or Fedex Ship Manager? Can you print all of your important monthend reports with a single keystroke? Do your Shipping, Purchasing, Sales, Credit, and Service managers each have a single screen that they can access to organize their daily work and quickly process open transactions? These are just a few of the features that allow Encore to make your operation run smoothly and efficiently.

Encore has many tools which are designed to optimize and report your cash flow position on a daily basis. The Credit Control Center allows your collection manager to stay on top of delinquent invoices. Its powerful filtering and tickler features organize followup calls to reduce your customers' average days late. These tools also allow you to identify your worst credit offenders and easily prevent shipments to these accounts. Encore provides the ability to print and email monthly customer statements and calculate finance charges on a customer-by-customer basis. Easy-to-read product reports point out which of your inventory dollars have tied up cash for too long. Accounts Payable programs and reports alert you when you can save valuable dollars by taking advantage of vendor cash discounts.

The key to managing one's business is having the information available to make informed decisions. Every transaction contains valuable information that can be extremely useful to a business manager if it is stored and presented in an effective way. Encore does just that. It answers the questions that every business manager asks; questions like what is my current profit or loss as of this moment, by department and for my company as a whole? What is my current order backlog? Which products or product classes are moving and which are not? Which salesmen are producing? What marketing campaign paid off and which one flopped? How long have my inventory dollars been on the shelf and which items are collecting dust? Encore can organize years worth of data so that you can spot trends and catch potential problems. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your business.