Make Your Repair Service a Profit Center with Jewelry Software

One of the biggest problems many jewelry stores have with repair services is not overcharging, but undercharging. By making good use of your jewelry software, you can create a menu of repair services based on actual time and materials that will take the guesswork out of estimates and charges.

Use the record-keeping ability of your jewelry software.

Use your jewelry software to track all costs on all repair jobs. This includes labor, materials, as well as, a percentage of your overhead.

Don’t hesitate to subdivide your repairs into categories. Any good jewelry software program will easily allow you to design a database for many different types of product repairs, such as:

  • Watch repair
  • Clocks
  • Rings
  • Necklaces
  • Broaches
  • and other product types

Within a short time, depending on volume, you’ll soon have enough reliable information stored in your jewelry software to take much of the guesswork out of most repair estimates.

For convenience, you may want to organize this information into an easy to use pricing menu and print out copies. This is a job most jewelry software programs can handle with ease.

Your jewelry software can add an image of efficiency.

Use your jewelry software to organize the take-in process. By creating and printing out an estimating menu for repair work, you will have already taken the first step.

Jewelry software can, also, be used to generate a receipt for the repair item and at the same time create a work order. By having much of this done automatically by your jewelry software, you will look efficient and capable in the eyes of the customer.

This is important. Repair customers like dealing with well organized and efficient merchants. It’s an image that will reflect favorably on your entire store.

Tie the work order in with your jewelry software repair-tracking program.

By using the flexibility of a good jewelry software program, you can set up the tracking of a repair job at the same time you key in the work order. Then you, or whoever handles the repair, will be ready to enter time and materials when the job is started.

Stop undercharging for your repair services and turn them into a profit center. This is only one example of how the flexibility of a good jewelry software program can add dollars to your bottom line.

Cheree Dohmann is an internet marketing consultant that works with individual companies to build branding, search engine visibility and create online advertising opportunity for small businesses. Cheree has worked with IBIS for the past 2 years to promote their jewelry software. To learn more about IBIS, please visit http://www.ibis-net.com.

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Extract, Transform, Load - ETL Data Conversion

Introduction
ETL stands for Extract, Transform and Load, the processes that enables the move of data from multiple sources, reformat and cleanse it, do whatever data conversions are necessary, and load it into another file, database, a data mart or a data warehouse for analysis, or onto another system, for instance a CMS environment like Drupal or Mambo/Joomla.

We all know that there are valuable data lying around throughout our systems that would be very useful if it could be reused in another program, or we’d like to upgrade our system to a different software package.

The problem often is that the data lies in formats that cannot be readily used by other applications.

Solutions
To solve the problem, you can use extract, transform and load (ETL) software, which includes reading data from its source, cleaning it up and formatting it uniformly, and then writing it to a target format to be exploited.

The data used in ETL processes can come from any source: a flat file, a mainframe application, an ERP application, a CRM tool, an Excel spreadsheet, an extraction program, anything really.

Extracting the data
Extraction can be done via a variety of methods. Often, the environment or program in which the data is currently held will have an export function that can be used to get the data into a format that can be easily transformed and processed. There are also specialized tools available to take data from a database environment.

After extraction, the data is transformed, or modified, depending on the specific business logic involved so that it can be sent to the target data store.

There are a variety of ways to perform the transformation, and the work involved varies. The data may require reformatting only, but most ETL operations also involve cleansing the data to remove duplicates and enforce consistency.

Transformation
In addition, the ETL process could involve transforming from a fixed-record format to a variable one, or vice versa, standardizing name and address fields, verifying telephone numbers or expanding records with additional fields containing demographic information or data from other systems.

The transformation occurs when the data from each source is mapped, cleansed and reconciled so it all can be tied together.

After reconciliation, the data is transported and loaded into the data warehouse for analysis.

Online data transformation

There are many tools available that help in the ETL process. Most of them mandate an investment in software that needs to be installed on your computer. There are also online functions available here can be very useful if you cannot, or don’t want to install any software on your computer. You will still need to extract the information from your existing environment into a file, but the transformation process can in many instances be done online.

John Rukkers is a seasoned data conversion expert. Free online data conversion routines can be found at his web site data conversion online.

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Jewelry Store Software Will Help Small Jewelers Compete with the ‘Big Guys’

Jewelry store software isn’t just something used exclusively in chain stores. In fact, anyone dealing in fine jewelry and gems should have a jewelry store software program to help them run their business. However, many small and private establishments forgo looking into computer software with dire consequences. While they might have a computer and a database of some sort, they fail to look into jewelry store software for fear the cost would be too great or the programming too complicated.

Today, using software to organize your business is much easier, than in years past. With more businesses competing in the jewelry market, it’s important to stay a step ahead of the competition. This is where jewelry store software comes to the rescue. Software programs that use to cost tens of thousands of dollars to install, now cost less than five thousand, in many cases.

Increasing Sales with Jewelry Store Software

Unlike the older MS-DOS databases, jewelry store software with its integration of POS, inventory and accounting functions offers owners a turnkey solution to these three major areas. As an example, the software can simultaneously compute a sales transaction, update your inventory and the general ledger; all at the same time! In addition, it tracks customer contact information, returns, and repairs.

Another function of the software one should consider is the time saved when determining the current mix of products in stock. Much of the owners’ valuable time is wasted when done by hand. However, with jewelry store software reporting features, analyzing the inventory is a snap. Now, the jeweler can use the time saved and focus on moving aging inventory, making room for the more popular items.

Don’t Let Opportunities Pass You By

When companies do their inventory the old-fashion way, they lack the solid answers to three important questions they should know about their retail business in order to compete:

  • Current value of inventory
  • Inventory turnover
  • Product profit margins

This information is invaluable when an opportunity presents itself and a quick decision is a must!

Bottom Line

The knowledge that jewelry store software will provide, and the time it will save you, will more than make up for the investment. Jewelry store software will level out the playing field, allowing smaller companies to compete effectively and efficiently with larger corporations.

Cheree Dohmann is an internet marketing consultant that works with individual companies to build branding, search engine visibility and create online advertising opportunity for small businesses. Cheree has worked with IBIS for the past 2 years to promote their jewelry store software. To learn more about IBIS, please visit http://www.ibis-net.com.

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