Dragoncat Inventory Management System

Read Me File

It is a freeware. The version is Formal Edition v1.2-418.

If you are a fresh user for this system, please read "Dragoncat Inventory Management System Handbook for Dummies"

Now, the system provides

- Server/Multi-computer environment (Registered Edition only)
- Inventory Alert Functions (System will send alert emails for those inventory are greater/less than the max/min level (Excel File attachment) automatically)
- Running Rate Report by products for sales forecast
- Auto-backup
- For a beginner, you can import Customer/Supplier, Product, Warehouse Partition Setting and Initial Inventory Balance Data into the system from Excel Files (Registered Edition Only). Please refer to "How to migrate to Dragoncat Inventory Management System" for details
- Stock Ageing Report by user-defined ageing days
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At beginning, DC Inventory was developed for distribution companies to manage their inventory, such as electronics, chemicals distributors, to help them to manage inventories with warehouse physical locations, the goods allocated by which customers/salespersons.

It is multi-company and multi-language system with full functions of Inventory Management, including goods receiving, delivery, quantity adjustment, cost adjustment, free samples/problem goods management, stock-take, and backup/restore functions.

At present, it has interfaces in English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. And it provides two sets of security system, you can based on the security levels of users to set the security level for each option (Default, shared by multi-company if applicable); or authorize to use menu options by user names (specified by each company, if multi-company was set).

If you have installed Java JRE and MySQL, you can just download and run setup.bat to set up, then run dc.bat to run the system. Please refer to the Installation Guide for details.

The web site for the system:

English: http://dcinventory.ucoz.com

Chinese: http://dcinventory.svfree.net

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The Installation Guide:

You can download the English Version or Chinese Version.

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The System Administrator Manual:

You can download the English Version or Chinese Version.

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The User Manual:

You can download the English Version or Chinese Version.

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The Business Alert Manual:

You can download the English Version or Chinese Version.

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Server/Multi-Computer environment Manual:

Only for Registered Edition, the manual will be emailed with the license key to the user.

Q1: What are the differences between Free Edition and Registered Edition?
Answer: The Free Edition is for single computer & multi-users; The Registered Edition is for Server/Multi-computers & multi-users. To get the registry code(license key), you just need pay at least one annual fee, and email us your real information. After being registered, you can

- Bug reporting, we will fix it as soon as possible and send the solution to you;
- Get email support for any system questions, you will get a response within a week;
- For the beginner, you can import Product, Customer/Supplier and Warehouse Chamber information into the system from Excel Files;
- Free upgrade with the same version.

Q2: What are the requirements for DC Inventory Management?
Answer: Just need a computer with MS Windows XP or above, Java JRE 6 and MySQL Server.

Q3: Where can I found the manuals for DC Inventory?
Answer: You can get them on the Download Center.

Q4: How to change my password?
Answer: Settings->System Options -> Tab "User".

Q5: How to change another user's password?
Answer: Login as an authorized user, Settings->System Options -> Tab "User" (need to input the authorized user's password).

Q6: How to define a system administrator?
Answer: a user with security level 0 and Date Update Right and shown in the screen of menu option Help -> Registry, you can change it by Settings->User List.
Q7: What can the system administrator do?
Answer: Besides the normal operations, and:

- The system administrator can input the license key to turn to the Registered Edition;
- Its email address is used to receive the business alert messages(Run Business Intelligence Module as a MS Windows Service).

Q8: How to change my language of menu bar interface ?
Answer:

- Login as an authorized user, go to Settings->User List -> find the user name, change "Primary Locale"; or
- Settings->System Options -> Tab "User"->Current Locale (only apply to this computer).

Q9: How to set interface language for Login Screen?
Answer: Login as an authorized user, then
Settings->System Options -> Tab "System Settings" -> System Default Locale

Q10: How to change the type of menu access security?
Answer: Login as an authorized user, then
Settings->System Options -> Tab "System Settings" -> Security Access Type.

Q11: How can I receive Free Samples from suppliers?
Answer: you can use Quantity Adjustment option to receive it (Just check the Free Sample Check Box after clicking ).

Q12: How to deliver Free Samples to customers?
Answer: By Delivery Order Entry (By Product) option.

Q13: What are the definitions for Free Qty, Allocate Qty and Problem Qty?
Answer:

- Free Qty: The available quantity for all deliveries;
- Allocate Qty: The available quantity for specified customer or salesperson;
- Problem Qty: The quantity in problem or damaged.

Q14: How to return problem quantity of a product (a damaged product) to suppliers?
Answer: First, create a customer code for the supplier, in Option Delivery Order Entry (By Product) , check "Deliver Problem Goods" to generate a delivery order.

Q15: How to calculate the inventory value of a product?
Answer: The inventory value of a product = (Total Quantity ¨C Free Sample Qty)*Average Unit Cost

Q16: What's the difference between Average Unit Cost and Unit Cost of a product?
Answer:

- Average Unit Cost is for all quantity of the product, one product has only one Average Unit Cost at a time;
- Unit Cost is only existing in warehouse location. A product may have more than one Unit Cost at a time (at different warehouse locations);

Q17: In Transfer Order Inquiry/Print, I can only find the original location of the goods. How can I find the destination of the moving?
Answer: At the top-right corner of the screen, click "Type" to change the value from "T"(Move Out) to "S"(Move In).

Q18: In multi-company settings, what information can be shared to all companies?
Answer: Product Master File, User List, Warehouse File and Valid Value Settings.

Q19: After the system installed, what should a beginner do at the first place?
Answer: Read the manual of "Dragoncat Inventory Management System v1.2 Handbook for Dummies".

Q20: In a normal case, how to install the Business Intelligence Alert Service?
Answer: The BI Alert service is used to auto-alert for inventory quantity level and auto-backup service, you can set it up by 4 steps:

1. Login as the system adminstrator, go to Settings->User List, make sure the email address for the system administrator has been assigned;
2. Login as the system adminstrator, go to Settings->Business Intelligence, activate a lease one item of alert setting, and specify the frequency (Alert Type, if it is By-Date, make sure the Run Date is a future date);
3. In file config\wrapper.conf, Modify the line "wrapper.app.parameter.1" to "7", for example, changes the default value that is 2 classes of product E01, C01(2, E01, C01) to 3 classes of product A01, A02, A03(3, A01, A02, A03), or all classes (0); The parameter after product class is the type of MS Excel version(¡°1¡±: MS Excel 2007, ¡°0¡±: MS Excel 2003), then it is the file path for database backup;
4. Double click InstallApp-NT.bat to start the service.

You can check the Services of the MS Windows (click Start->Control Panel ->Management Tools->Services) or the log messages in the file Config/wrapper.log for the status of Dragoncat BI Service.

Attention: If you have started BI Alert Service, and if you changed the alert setting in Settings >Business Intelligence, you should re-start the Dragoncat BI Service in Service of MS Windows (Since the BI Alert Service check the alert setting every 60 minutes by default).

Q21: I have put my customer/supplier, products, warehouse definition and initial inventory balance in to Excel files, how can I import them to DC Inv System?
Answer:

1. Refer to the 4 MS Excel files in your installer subdirectory config, put the date into the proper format in the Excel files;
2. In Settings->Warehouse File, create the warehouse code;
3. In Settings ->Import Master Data, import the data from MS Excel files by the order of Customer/Supplier File, Product Master File, Warehouse Partition File and Initial Balance File.

In each MS Excel files in config, there are two worksheets, one is "Data" in which has demo data; the second is "Structure" in which has explanation of all fields.

Q22: How to upgrade to the newest version of DC Inv. System?
Answer: Unpack the installer to D:\DCInstaller, preparation work:

1. First, backup your DC Inv programs by just copying all files under your directory to run your system, and backup your database by login as the system administrator, go to Settings->Database Connection/Backup/Restore->tab DB Backup;
2. If you have started BI Alert service in MS Windows Services, go to Control Panel->Management Tools ->Services, Stop Dragoncat BI Alert;
3. If you are using a Registered Edition, and using network drive to run DC Inv System, please be sure your have right to write to this drive;

After the preparation work above, you can double click the file Upgrade_en.bat in the upacked installer (for example, D:\DCInstaller), finish the job by the prompt.

Q23: Could I add a picture for a product?
Answer: Because of the size of a picture is bigger and the efficiency of the database, the system will not put the picture into the database. But when you input a product, there is a field of Web Site. You can put the picture/PDF ect file in a URL or local harddisk drive (you can also use a network drive for security reason). When you check a product information, you can right-click the field Web Site to open the file by default browser.

You can setup a web site for free, for example, Windows' IIS( IIS 5.1 on Windows XP Pro), XAMPP, and other network storage products (such as DiskStation, etc).

Frequently Asked Questions

Please visit FAQ in web site.

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