Frequently Asked Questions

A weekly e-mail can be automatically generated for each customer to send a list of what they have received this week. A full list of all items received by the store can be sent. Also weekly events and upcoming reminders can be included such as tournaments and sales. This would be an excellent way to begin a weekly newsletter.

Many other procedures are implemented to speed up, simplify, and reduce errors.

Q. How do I deal with items received which Diamond didn't invoice?
A. The week of 4/26/06 we received Conan #27 (FEB060055) but it wasn't on the invoice. There are a few ways to deal with this situation. I will present a couple.

Open the 'Ordered Comics' form. With your cursor in the 'Item Code' field, do Ctrl-F (Find). In the 'Find What' field, type in FEB060055. Press enter (or click the 'Find Next' button). This form will now display all customers who ordered Conan #27. Pull the issue for each customer from the list shown. Now choose one of the two following options.

• This process will fill the item for each customer. On a scrap of paper, record all Acct#s. Open the Customer form and navigate to each recorded acct# (Ctrl-F on Acct # field). From the 'Items Ordered' tab find the Conan #27 entry (Ctrl-F on Item Code field, type in FEB060055). Ctrl-L will manually fill the item for the customer.
• Let CBPF fill the item for each customer next week. Next week when you are invoiced for the Conan issue, the customers who you pulled them for this week will be on the weekly report. Do not pull Conan #27 for these customers. Then the items will be filled by CBPF automatically and removed from the 'Items Ordered' tab when you complete your weekly process.

Q. How do I deal with shortages/overages? How do they affect the Weekly Report?
A.

1. Shortages don't need to be corrected for the numbers in CBPF (QTY recv and Cycle Sheet) to be correct. When Diamond corrects your invoice the following week, the numbers in CBPF will automatically be corrected.

If the shortage is enough that you didn't receive items for all your pull file customers, go ahead and process as normal, noting the Acct# of those which didn't receive the item shorted. After you "5. Remove Items Ordered" go in to the "Pull Archives" form. Find the items shorted for the Acct#'s you noted. Then do Ctrl-U (Item Code field) to UnFill the item (this will place the item back into the original customers Items Ordered tab).

Probably the quickest way to locate items in the Pull Archives form is to place your cursor in the "Item Code" field and click A-Z sort button on your toolbar. Then do Ctrl-F (Find) and enter the item code which was shorted. All customers who received that item are together.

2. An overage won't cause any problem on the report. If you receive a warning msg by CBPF that shortages have been found (more customers have ordered an item than what you received from Diamond), and that item is what you have overages for. You can locate those customers who want the extra items you received on the shortages report. Then navigate to each customer on the customer form. Locate the item which you filled from the shortages report and do a Ctrl-L (item code field on Items Ordered tab) to manually fill the item and remove it from the Items Ordered tab.

Q. Who wrote this program, and when? How much does it cost?
A. James Deckert wrote the program. He owns a comic store in Salina, Kansas (pop. 40,000) which began in 1995. James has a Masters of Science in Computer Science degree from ACCIS. Because of the small size of the town, James has had the time to write the program. He began developing the program shortly after opening the store. It has been a long process. Beginning in January 2005, he completely re-wrote the system to be more user-friendly with the goal of distributing it to other retailers. This rewriting process has taken a full year to complete. In the summer of 2005 Prairie Dog Comics (Wichita) began Beta testing CBPF and has helped in the design process of some of its features. Most retailers don't have the time or technical knowledge to develop their own system, but they know there is a better way than their current system. The question now becomes, "Why are your allowing other comic book stores to use your software?" Being in a small town, comic book retailing doesn't pay all the bills. Therefore I am moving from operating a store full-time to supporting CBPF full-time. Having spent untold hours developing this system and not allowing others to benefit from it is like painting the Mona Lisa and locking it in my basement where only I can enjoy it. I know there are many retailers who would like a computer system and I am selfishly using one which might fit their needs.

I have therefore set up CBPF as a subscription service with a low entry cost no different than internet service. Though I will sell the software outright, I prefer that you subscribe. The benefits of subscribing are that all future updates are free. You receive some free telephone support each month. And you have a low entry cost to assess the value of the CBPF system to your business with cancellation available at any time.

CBPF Cost -
Subscription service - $30/month per store
$25/month per store (2-5) stores
$20/month per store (6+) stores
Software purchase - $300

I will also place banner ads on the CBPF program and website for publishers to keep the subscription price low (or even reduce or eliminate the cost).