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What is 7Office? It is an information manager. And oh boy does it manage information! This software will help you track companies, people that are in those
companies, products, invoices, meetings, orders, past due payments, credit records, birthdays, nicknames and even more. The very first time that
you open 7Office, you will get a user setup option. You can come back to this at any time but a small overview of it is in order because of the fantastic customization features given here. In this area you
can import your company logo and letterhead so that 7Office automatically puts it on any correspondence that you generate. You can create and store standard form letters. You can establish the taxes for your
region so that 7Office automatically calculates it for you on each Purchase order or invoice. Furthermore, you can add cities and area codes to be shown in drop down lists throughout the program, and you can add or
change categories for classifying people and companies in your records. You can even scan your signature into the program so that it is included with every letter that you send.When you first open 7Office after
running the user setup program, you see the log in screen. Here is where you log in if you are using a networked version. After logging in you are immediately shown a summary of what is on your agenda for the day. This
main screen has a small monthly calendar in the bottom left hand corner for reference. At the top it has a list of follow up calls and meetings scheduled for the day. Next to the calendar on the bottom you see a list of
Open Status or To Do Items. Along the very top of this screen you see a row of tabs that are labeled and have different colors, this is where you get to the meat of this program. Click the Company tab and you will see
something similar to a Rolodex card at the top, with the now familiar tabs alongside and behind the Rolodex card. The lower portion of this screen has a list of all companies in your database. To see the Rolodex card
for a company you need only to click it in that list. The other tabs that you see are people, contacts, inventory, buying, orders and invoices. On this same screen you also see buttons labeled add, edit, delete, print
and find. For the search (find) capabilities you have buttons labeled customers and suppliers. The last buttons allow you to show the list only, or show the list in alphabetical order. One of the first things I did
was click the Add button so that I could add a company to my database. This opened another window that had more tabs: Prime, billing and shipping, credit and terms, and payments. The Prime tab lets you enter all sorts
of useful information. You have the standard company name, address and phone number areas but in addition to these you have the option to mark this company as supplier or customer. You can add the company E-mail
address, 800/888 phone number, fax number, main number and even the hours of operation. You can denote a category for the company such as Desktop Publisher, Law Firm, Bindery and so on. These categories can be
customized to your liking in the setup area also. The bottom portion of this screen has a listing of people for the company, you can add their position, phone numbers, notes and so on here too. The Billing and Shipping tab lets you keep track of billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, who to contact, what freight accounts to use, and any notes to go with it.
The Credit and Terms tab lets you see both the company notes and Billing or payment notes, and whether this company is a supplier or vendor. You
can note whether it is a corporation, partnership or proprietorship. This area also lets you keep a list of trade references, bank information, and credit and security information.Last we have the Payment tab which
lists all invoices associated with the company. It will show you the invoice dates, amounts, balance owed, collection or late notices sent out, and when payment was received. The next logical step for me was to check
out the People tab. In here you can keep track of standard things like first and last name, but you can also take note of birthdays and nicknames. Address areas let you track home as well as business addresses and phone
numbers, you also have areas to note private and business E-mail addresses. The area also lets you choose categories for each person. There is a section to make freeform notes and you can also link this person with a
company in your database. When you link a person to a company then they will show in the people list at the bottom of the company tab automatically. They will also show on the Rolodex card and on all of the drop
down lists in other areas of the program. This is fantastic because you only have to enter information once and all related areas are updated automatically. |
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