Chapter1

1.1 Introduction

BizPie is a comprehensive computer software package designed to assist the management of
a video tape rental and sales business. The system has been designed from the business persons'
point of view. All features, reports, and ease of use has been thoroughly thought out and designed
in response to user requests. BizPie is designed to improve several key areas:

Inventory Management
Customer Management
Financial Management
Point-Of-Sale

BizPie has the following major functions to accomplish the above objectives

Rental Inventory Maintenance
Sale Merchandise Inventory Maintenance
Customer Maintenance
Point-of-Sale
Barcode Label Printing (UPC and Code 3 of 9)
Store Setup Options
Password Maintenance
Bulk Tape Return
Comprehensive Reporting Capabilities
Full Featured Reservations System

Inventory is composed of two groups of items. One is Rental Inventory and the other is
Merchandise Inventory. The important difference between them is that you may rent or sell
items in the rental inventory, but you can only sell items in the merchandise inventory
(you wouldn't rent a magazine, or a case of blank tapes).

BizPie has no limit to the amount of items that can be placed into either inventory.

1.1.1 Rental Inventory Maintenance

The Rental Inventory Maintenance section allows information about all the rentable items to be
stored, viewed, and modified.

These are any rentable items such as video tapes, VCR's, laser discs, etc. You may classify
any rental inventory item individually, item by item, to be rentable/non?rentable, saleable/non?saleable, etc.

Any of these assignments may be changed at a any time.

The rental inventory has a comprehensive physical inventory processing capability.

Physical inventory is a process where you check the actual inventory on the shelf with the computer inventory.

With an optional portable barcode reader you may scan a rental tape on the shelf and the data will be stored in the portable barcode reader.

After completely scanning all of the inventory on the shelves, BizPie analyzes and compares the physical inventory with the computer inventory.

When this process is complete, you can print an exception report to help you track your rental item inventory and you can also ask BizPie to match
the computer inventory with the actual inventory by deleting items not in stock.

1.1.2 Rental Inventory Maintenance Features

The "Enter/Modify Rental Items" portion of the BizPie allows new items to be added, information about existing items to be
viewed or changed, or items may be deleted, all on the same screen.

There is no need to have separate menu selections for adding new items, another for changing existing items, another for deleting items and a fourth
for displaying existing items. All these functions can be accomplished by using just one screen.

BizPie has a unique feature called "modeling", which allows rental items to be placed into inventory extremely fast. Whenever a new item is placed
into inventory, most information on the screen is retained from a previously displayed item.

This previously displayed item can be one just entered, or an existing item displayed with similar characteristics as the new item being entered.

Thus changing only the few different pieces of information about the new tape, (ie. title, stars' names, etc.) you can save this new item without
having to re?enter anything else.

1.1.3 Rental Inventory Reporting

The report section of the system allows a wide variety of reports to be printed. Items can be printed by many choices, selected by numerous items,
and bracketed by date ranges.

Almost any item of a tape can be selected to be printed in a meaningful report, using the above mentioned features. Rental item reports can be
printed for counter lists, lists by vendor, by rating, by item number, etc.

1.1.4 Merchandise Inventory Maintenance

The Merchandise Inventory Maintenance section allows information about all sale merchandise items to be stored, viewed, and modified.

These may be any items which are for sale only, such as "sellthrough" video tapes, blank video tapes, video tape recorders, laser discs,
VCR head cleaners, magazines, Compact Disks, popcorn, VCR repair service, candy, etc.

1.1.5 Merchandise Inventory Maintenance Features

The "Enter/Modify Merchandise Items" portion of BizPie allows new items to be added, information about existing items to be changed or items may be deleted.

As mentioned in "Rental Inventory Maintenance" there is no need to have separate menu selections for adding, changing, deleting and displaying
existing items. All these functions can be accomplished via one screen.

1.1.6 Merchandise Inventory Reporting

The report section of the system allows a wide variety of reports to be printed. Items can be printed by many choices, selected by numerous items,
and bracketed by date ranges. Rather than preprogram a certain number of reports into the system, you have the ability to create your own based on your requirements.

1.1.7 Lookup Tables

Lookup Tables are designed to provide a shorthand method of entering common and repetitious information with accuracy and reliability. Lookup Tables are also used
to provide an extremely flexible pricing scheme in the 'Tape Rental Prices" section of these lookup tables.

With "Lookup Tables" you can have almost an unlimited choice of sales categories, pricing schedules, tape classification, membership types, movie ratings, media types, etc.

The "Lookup Tables" have the capacity to define almost 1300 different items for each of the categories listed below.

The Lookup Table types are:

Sales Category

Customer Plan Categories

Tape Rental Price Categories

Credit Cards Types

Customer Status Categories

Movie Ratings

Media Formats

Movie Audio Types

Movie Categories

Movie Color Types

Package Pricing

Depreciation

1.1.8 Point Of Sale (POS)

The POS section is the heart of the system. It allows rental inventory items to be rented, returned, sold, sale merchandise inventory items

to be sold, refunded etc., all automatically.

You may choose one of three methods of renting items when BizPie is first installed in the "Store Setup" section in the "Management Menu".

The first method is considered to calculate the rental fees when the tapes are take, and pay for them when they are taken (money can still be
placed on account) for a certain number of days after which the rental item is considered late.

The second method of payment is to calculate the rental fees when the tapes are taken and to pay for them when they are returned

The third method of renting is where the rental fees are calcualted and paid for upon return, therefore every day is considered to be a rental day.

If the first method is chosen, BizPie will automatically calculate and add a late charge to the invoice for returned tapes held longer than the customer had paid for.

Each and every individual tape has the ability to have its maximum rental period set. This feature is useful when new releases are acquired, and the manager plans to rent
them for a shorter period of time than existing tapes.

The most advanced feature of the BizPie POS system is that it allows any combination of transactions to be handled on the same invoice at the same time.

Customers can rent, return and buy rental tapes, purchase sale merchandise, refund merchandise to customers, etc. all on the same invoice.
Customers do not have to return all of the previously rented tapes, even if they rented them at different times.
They may rent more tapes while they still have any amount of outstanding rentals limited only by the store managers' discretion.

The POS system automatically logs customer information for members as well as for non?members, saves transaction information about every sale, updates information about rental item
activity for management reporting, tracks the "deposit bank" for rental security deposits, etc.

BizPie has a unique method of tracking anonymous customers. This method allows these type of customers to rent tapes without having to have their names placed into the computer.

With this process, rental tapes, security deposits, etc., can be tracked for any "John Doe" type customer, and still have the rental history of the tapes rented.

If a Barcode Reader is used, the tape, merchandise item number and the customer ID number do not have to be typed into the computer. These numbers can be scanned by the barcode reader using
the pre?printed barcode label affixed to the item or the customer membership card. BizPie will search for the item and display it on the screen as if it had been manually entered from the keyboard.
You may still type in the item number manually if you choose.

The POS system calculates the correct rental charges to be paid when tapes are returned or rented, calculates sales tax, deposit amounts to be collected, and change to be given to the customer.

If the customer returns two out of four tapes rented, the system will keep track of deposits that are to remain for the balance of the tapes not returned by the customer. If new tapes are to be rented,
the deposits required are added to the previous amount.

The POS system is designed to remove almost all of the decision making requirements at the counter.

During system setup, the store manager provides pricing for all rental and sale merchandise. These prices cannot be altered at the POS screen. This assures correct pricing of all rental and sale merchandise.

The only items required to be entered by the clerks on the POS screen are the clerk ID, customer ID (if any), and the dollar amount tendered. Everything else is displayed and calculated automatically by the system.

Every piece of information about the inventory has been previously entered and verified in the Inventory Maintenance portion of The BizPie system. All transaction information is collected and stored in the
computer. A customer receipt is optionally printed. If the cash drawer option is used, it will be opened by the computer.

BizPie allows the clerk to start a new transaction even while the current invoice is being printed on the printer. Upon return of a rental item by the customer, the stored rental transaction is retrieved,
and is used to verify the return transaction. Members and tapes are cross referenced to insure a tracking mechanism for every tape and customer in the store.

A typical transaction from start to finish usually takes a few seconds due to the highly automated process.

1.1.9 Point of Sale Features

Rent/Return/Sell Rental Items

Sell Merchandise Items

Automatic Late Charges

Track Rental Deposits

Verify Club Membership

Coupon Handling

Allow for "John/Jane Doe" Customers

Print Receipt/Rental Contract

Instant access to other parts of BizPie

1.2 Customer Maintenance

This section allows information about your customers to be stored, viewed, changed and deleted.

Rather than limit information to "Club Members" only, BizPie maintains information about all customers.
Members and non?members as well as customers who do not want their names placed in the computer are tracked.

Instead of treating customers as "Club Members", or non "Club Members", BizPie handles all your customers
equally. They don't have to join the store "membership" to be recognized by the system when they rent
tapes as long as the customer is on file.

If the customer is not on file, BizPie determines the customer to be a "John/Jane Doe" and assigns a unique
temporary ID to them for the current transaction. This is now their temporary customer ID. When the rentals
are returned and the transaction is complete, this ID is no longer meaningful.

1.2.1 Customer Maintenance Features

The Customer Maintenance section allows information about all customers to be stored, viewed, modified and deleted.

The "Enter/Modify Customers" portion of BizPie allows new customers to be added and information about existing
customers to be changed or deleted.

Highlights of some of the customer information saved:

credit card number and expiration date

driver's license number and expiration date

quantity of free tapes accumulated

on account balance

membership expiration date

history of rented titles and dates

date of last rental

financial information of revenue generated

title and date of tapes returned late and not aid for

comments (displayed at POS)

customer's birthday

1.3 Barcodes

Barcodes have been designed to eliminate data entry errors and to speed transaction time in a retail environment.

To use barcodes, an item called a "barcode reader" is necessary. This is a device which has a pen like
want you use to scan the barcode label. It reads the barcode label and converts the bars read
into numbers that are sent to the computer.

There are several barcode reader devices available. BizPie uses a device which is connected in
series with the IBMPC/AT or compatible keyboard. This makes installation simple and does not require opening the computer.

There are several barcode standards. BizPie uses the retail industry standard Universal Product Code barcode and/or
Code 3 of 9 barcodes. The UPC code has also been adopted by the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) as their standard.

Since a majority of retail merchandise items have these UPC barcode labels pre?printed on the items by the manufacturer,
BizPie can scan this number and use it as the merchandise inventory item number. Therefore, there is no need to print
labels or assign numbers for these merchandise items.

The original manufacturers box contains a preprinted barcode label on some rental tapes. BizPie can't use this number
as the item number in the rental inventory because the barcode on the box has a single number which was assigned by the
manufacturer for all copies of a title. This number can be used only in the merchandise inventory section for "sell?through" tapes.

Each rental item in the rental inventory must have a unique number or a combination of numbers and letters assigned to it.

If there are ten copies of a single title, each copy must have an individual number for BizPie to track its activity. BizPie
has the capability to print either UPC labels or Code 3 of 9 labels on a standard printer for both the rental items and
the merchandise items in inventory.

In addition to the rental and merchandise barcode labels, BizPie can print barcode labels for clerks and customers using
smaller labels which fit on the customers' credit card or on a store issued membership card.

Any Epson or IBM graphics compatible standard dot matrix printer will be able to print these barcode labels on standard
paper labels. There is no need to buy pre? printed barcode labels, even though BizPie will work perfectly with them.

1.4 Before You Get Started

Before you start reading and learning about BizPie and how to use it, we understand that using a computer may be new to you.

Even if it is new to you, it is not "black magic". If you take your time and learn things in an orderly manner, you
should have a minimum of problems.

The first thing that you should do is read this manual from cover to cover. Do not try to learn it all but just try and
get an overall picture of what is in the manual. Make a few notes about what you see.

Pay particular attention to the introduction, the section on getting started, the section on backing up and the section
on what to do if things go wrong. These sections are here to help you. Taking short cuts can cause trouble and cause you
to loose time in the long run.

Spend some time up front analyzing your business.

If you do this, adding the computer to your business will not be difficult. You will not become an expert overnight but as you
use the system it will get easier and easier.

Look at all the features of the program. You can elect to use them or not use them because they fit or do not fit into your operation.
Do not avoid using a feature because you think it is hard to learn. If you do not understand the manual or do not understand a feature,
ask your dealer for help. If they can't help you, call us with your questions.

Our phone number is 1-650-631-7075, 24 Hrs., 7 days.

1.5 Order of Data Entry

To start using the system, you must prepare certain data files in the correct sequence. The following will assist you in entering the
data in the correct files and in the correct order.

Some items of information must be entered before others. There are several related data files that must have information from other data files
before they can be used.

This process can be compared to building a six story building. The foundation must be built before you can start on the first floor. The plumbing
must be installed before the walls can be built. All six floors must be completed before the roof can be built. You must have the roof completed
before anyone can move in.

In this system, the "move in day" can be considered to be the POS transaction section when you rent the first tape. Everything you do before using the
POS transaction section is the building of the foundation and the completion of the building.

The chapters in this manual are arranged in the order you should learn and enter information into the system.
We will list the critical information that must be entered in order for you to start using the system as quickly as possible in each chapter.
Do not concern yourself with not completely understanding everything you need right now. By reading the individual chapters, you will easily understand
everything that has to be done.

1.6 Steps to Data Entry

The first step to using the system is to learn all the keys on the keyboard you will need to use.
Do not be intimidated by all the different functions that are on the keys. Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the
foundation to your understanding the BizPie system.

1.6.1 Chapter 1, Introduction

Chapter 1, Introduction, is this chapter. You should completely read through it.Here we guide you through
the understanding of how to use this system. You can refer back to this chapter as you go along, in order to know
what to do next.

1.6.2 Chapter 2, Computer Basics

Chapter 2, Computer Basics, explains all the special keys that are used throughout the system. These keys are used the same anywhere you are in the system. There are no data entry functions in this chapter.

1.6.3 Chapter 3, Starting the System

Chapter 3, Starting the System, explains the major components that make up a computer. This chapter also explains
the minimum hardware and software requirements needed to use the system. It also has a worksheet to calculate the size
of the hard disk you will require. There are no data entry functions in this chapter.

1.6.4 Chapter 4, Function Keys

Chapter 4, Function Keys, explains the use of the function keys F1-F12 and the "Numeric Keypad". These keys are
special and specific depending on the screen you are working on. Understanding function keys F1-F12 are critical to
the use of the system. There are no data entry functions in this chapter.

1.6.5 Chapter 5, Enter/Modify Store Information

YOU MUST SETUP THIS CHAPTER FIRST!

Chapter 5, Enter/Modify Store Information, is where you enter data that is critical to the operation of your business
using this system. The information you enter in this chapter will determine how the rest of the system will work.

1.6.6 Chapter 6, Lookup Tables

YOU MUST SETUP THIS CHAPTER SECOND!

Chapter 6, Lookup Tables, is where you predefine certain key facts about the way the rest of the system will use your data.
The information you create here will be used in all parts of the system. This chapter contains the pricing structure of all
your rental items, your customer classifications, merchandise pricing, etc. Therefore you must use this chapter after Chapter 5!
The following three chapter are used to enter information about you rental items, customers and merchandise. Chapter 7,
Enter/Modify Rental Items, Chapter 8, Enter/Modify Customer, Chapter 9, Enter/Modify Merchandise are used in the POS transaction
section.

1.6.7 Chapter 10, Enter/Modify Passwords

Chapter 10, Enter/Modify Passwords is used to setup the security system for
your business. You can enter access passwords for the different sections of the system if you want to implement passwords.

1.6.8 Chapter 11, Printing Barcodes

Chapter 11, Printing Barcodes, will instruct you how to print barcode labels for the rental item inventory, merchandise inventory
and your customers and clerks.

1.6.9 Chapter 12, Point-of-Sale

Chapter 12, Point-of-Sale, is where all the information you have entered in the previous chapters will be used. This chapter will
explain how to check out rental items, sell merchandise, return rental items, etc. There is no actual data entry required in this
chapter, since all the information has been previously created in other section of the system.
.

1.6.10 Chapter 13, Bulk Tape Return

Chapter 13, Bulk Tape Return, shows you how to process tapes that were returned in a drop box, or tapes that were dropped off by
customers but not checked in at the time of their return.

1.6.11 Chapter 14, Enter/Modify Reports

Chapter 14, Enter/Modify Reports, allow you to extract information about your system and print it on reports for any conceivable
item. You canselect almost any item to print on a report, with the report generation section, in addition to predefined reports.
This way you are not limited to only reports that are programmed into the system.

1.6.12 Chapter 15, Backup/Restore and Error Recovery

Chapter 15, Backup/Restore and Error Recovery, will explain how to backup your data, how to restore it and what to do in case there
is a problem with you system. There is sufficient information in this chapter to allow you to try and recover in case of problems.
If you cannot recover after an error using this chapter, the problem is severe enough to require professional knowledge and assistance.

1.6.13 Chapter 16, Reservations

Chapter 16, Reservations, explains how to reserve tapes for your customers by tape TITLE, reserve tapes by customer name, print reser-
vation reports by date, etc. The reservation system is designed to allow the maximum flexibility and still be able to have control of
the tapes being reserved. There are no data entry tasks to perform in this section that will prevent you from starting to use BizPie.

1.6.14 Chapter 17, Management

Chapter 17, Management, provides all the information needed to run BizPie smoothly. All the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly activities are explained in this section.

1.6.15 Summary

After reading through this manual once, you should have a clear understanding as to how all the sections relate to each other. Don't worry
if you do not completely understand everything. The best way to learn is by using the system. Then you will see that everything makes sense,
and things will start falling in place. If you have any trouble understanding anything, please don't hesitate to call your dealer, or us. Remember, the only question that's dumb is the one not asked!