click2try Tutorial

PostBooks

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

Copyright 2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

You may freely distribute or publish this content provided you publish the content in its
entirety and include all existing copyright notices, attributions, links, and acknowledgements
to click2try, Presage Technologies, LLC. and to organizations mentioned explicitly or
implicitly herein.

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Contents
Introduction ............................................................................. 5
Configuring System and Module Preferences............................ 6
Adding a New User and Permissions ........................................ 7
Configuring Master Information ............................................... 8
Creating a New Product Entry .................................................. 9
Adding Items to Inventory ..................................................... 10
Define a Vendor...................................................................... 11
Creating a Purchase Order...................................................... 12
Creating a Manufacturing Work Order .................................... 13
Creating a New Sales Opportunity .......................................... 14
Generating Accounting Reports .............................................. 15
Resources............................................................................... 16

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Introduction
PostBooks is an enterprise resource planning and management system that
is both lightweight and powerful. Boasting an easy-to-use interface with an
implied sequential definition process, PostBooks provides capabilities to link
your Sales, Accounting, Inventory, Purchasing, and Manufacturing
management. In PostBooks, youll find the most useful ERP capabilities, such
as:

Product definition, costing, and BOMs

Inventory transactions, shipping and receiving
Purchase orders and requests
Manufacturing work orders, materials management
Integrated CRM
Sales orders, reports, and analysis
Financial management, budgeting, and tax management
System management, including XML import
Links to PostBooks Web community

In this tutorial, we'll cover a few basics, including:

Configuring system and module preferences

Adding items to inventory
Creating a purchase order
Creating a manufacturing work order
Creating a new sales opportunity
Generating accounting reports

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Configuring System and Module Preferences

PostBooks offers you powerful capabilities to set global preferences for each
of your functional modules. For example, lets take a look at the module
preferences for Inventory.
To set module preferences:
1. Select System > Configure Modules > Inventory.
2. Click the Shipping and Receiving tab.
3. On the first line of the dialog box, change the Next # field to 10000.
This option sets the next shipping number to be used when generating
shipping documentation.
4. Click Save.
Just changing that one number allows you to control the numbering
sequence on all shipping forms that leave your warehouse. When you
generate a pick list and shipping form, the number will be automatically
added, and the number will be incremented automatically for each new
shipment.
All of the functional modules in PostBooks contain some global data that you
can configure in this same way.

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Adding a New User and Permissions

Although you can continue to use the administrative user for the purposes of
this tutorial, youll likely want to add at least one user, just to see how easy
it is to accomplish.
To add a new user and set permissions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Select System > Maintain Users.

Click New.
Enter the user information.
At the bottom of the dialog box, select the Privileges tab.
Select a module.
Select the privileges you'd like your user to have, then click Add -> to
add the privileges to that user.

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Configuring Master Information

You can configure some default master information that will be propagated
throughout the system. For the purposes of this tutorial, well change the
currency type.
To configure currency:
1. Select System > Master Information > Currencies. This selection
opens the List Currencies dialog box. By default, the base currency is
set already. You can edit it, or add a new currency.
2. Click New.
3. Enter the currency name, for example, Euro.
4. Enter a symbol to represent the currency.
5. Enter an abbreviation.
6. Click Save. The new currency should appear in your list.
7. Click Close.

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PostBooks
To configure credit cards for acceptance:
1. Select System > Master Information > Credit Cards. You may
receive a warning dialog box. Just dismiss it and continue.
2. Select the Accept Credit Cards option.
3. Select a Verification Service. If youre not using one of the bundled
verification services, select External.
4. Select the options youd like to enable.
5. Click the Fraud Detection tab.
6. Select the Require Card Verification Value/Code (CVV) and any
other options youd like. The CVV code helps protect you against online
fraud, in cases where someone has secured the credit card number and
cardholder name, but doesnt have the physical card on hand, and so
cannot verify the CVV number.
7. Click Save. You may need to set an encryption key to save these
details. Unfortunately, we do not cover encryption keys in this brief
tutorial. See the PostBooks documentation for more information.
There are several other pieces of Master Information that you can define.
Select them from the System menu and explore on your own.

Creating a New Product Entry

You will want to create product entries for all products that your company
manufactures or sells. Some products may be assemblies, for example, when
your company is a wholesaler or distributor to other manufacturers. Or, your
products may be complete packages. In any case, you will follow the same
basic steps to create new product entries.
To create a new product entry:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Select Products > Item > New.

Enter an Item Number and Description.
Select the Item Type.
Select the Inventory Unit of Measure (UOM).
Add other information, such as List Price, Class Code, Warranty
period, Weight, and so on. In the tabbed window at the bottom of the
dialog, you can add a lot of valuable information, including files and
graphics related to the product.
6. When finished, click Save.
If you'd like to create item site inventory settings, click Yes. Choosing Yes
will display another dialog, which allows you to configure details about this
item in stock, such as reorder levels.

2009 Presage Technologies, LLC.

PostBooks

Adding Items to Inventory

Although you have created new product entries, that doesnt mean you have
any of these products in your inventory. You must add the product items to
inventory, to be able to keep track of sales, deliveries, and purchases of
additional products for stock.
To add items to inventory:
1. Select Inventory > Item Site > New.
2. Enter an Item Number or click the ... browse button to select one.
You must create a product before you can add it to inventory.
3. Choose a Ranking number.
4. Select the Planner Code. Unless you're warehousing component parts
or raw materials, select FG1-Finished Product.
5. Select the Cost Category.
6. Click the Planning tab.
7. Click the Enforce Order Parameters option.
8. Enter the Reorder Level. This is the minimum number of items you'll
allow your stock to be reduced to before you reorder.
9. Enter the additional reorder parameters.
10.Click Save.

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PostBooks

Define a Vendor
You must define at least one vendor before you can generate a purchase
order. Vendors are those companies from whom you purchase the goods and
services you need to run your business. In some cases, these may be
suppliers of your raw materials or even finished products. In other cases,
they may be consultants, office supply companies, lawyers, accountants, or
other outside vendors you use.
To define a vendor:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Select Purchase > Vendor > New.

Enter a Vendor number.
Select the Vendor Type.
Enter a Vendor name and contact information.
Select the Default Terms.

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PostBooks
6. Select the Qualified option toward the bottom of the page. This
signifies that a vendor has met your company criteria for selling you
goods or services.
7. Click Save.

Creating a Purchase Order

Now that you've created a vendor, you can create a purchase order, which
will allow you to authorize a purchase from that vendor.
To create a purchase order:
1. Select Purchase > Purchase Order > New.
2. Select the Terms. If you defined default terms for the vendor, this
item will automatically be pre-filled on the purchase order dialog.
3. Click the Line Items tab.
4. Click New.
If you choose an item from Inventory, that item must be listed in your
inventory module. You can also select a non-inventory item. These are
items such as services and one-time purchases for the internal use of
the business, rather than for resale to your customers.
5. Enter in any other necessary information, such as unit and extended
prices.
6. Click Save. PostBooks adds the line item to the purchase order and
automatically totals up the amount due.
7. Click Save. You'll be presented with a Print Purchase Order dialog
box.
8. Click Print to print the purchase order right away. Otherwise, click
Cancel.
9. Click Close to exit the purchase order dialog box.

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PostBooks

Creating a Manufacturing Work Order

Sometimes you need to submit a manufacturing work order. This is
especially true in a JIT or Just-in-Time manufacturing environment, where
your company opts not to carry a lot of inventory. The work order can be tied
to a particular project. Production staff can attach notes and comments about
that specific order, production issues, or materials.
To create a work order:
1. Select Manufacture > Work Order > New.
2. Select an item from the Item Number field. Click the ... browse
button to select items.
3. Enter the quantity ordered. If you have previously set limits on product
quantities, PostBooks will enforce those limits here. If you don't order
enough units to meet the minimum order, PostBooks alerts you.
4. Select the Due Date, Priority, and the Project number, if there is an
associated project.
5. Click Create.
6. Select Manufacture > Reports > Work Order Schedule > By Item.
7. Enter the Item Number.
8. Click Query. PostBooks displays your current order.

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PostBooks

Creating a New Sales Opportunity

You can create sales opportunities in the CRM module. The Sales module is
for actual sales that you make, but the CRM module makes it easy to
manage your prospects and customer accounts. The Opportunity feature lets
you engage in a level of forecasting.
To create an opportunity:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Select CRM > Opportunity > New.

Enter a name.
Enter an amount for the opportunity.
Enter a probability, target close date, and then select the stage, lead
source, and opportunity type. If these aren't yet available, you'll need
to define them in the CRM Master Information module.
5. Enter any notes or To-Do items, and then click Save.

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PostBooks

Generating Accounting Reports

There are many accounting reports you can generate in PostBooks. For
example, you can easily see where you are in terms of your accounts
payable, which purchase orders have been posted and closed. Once you have
entered data into the system for these items, and you've generated a few
transactions, you be able to see the accounting data captured by PostBooks.
To list unposted purchase orders:
Select Accounting > Accounts Payable > Purchase Order > List
Unposted. PostBooks displays a list of the unposted P/Os.
From this list, you can create a new purchase order, edit or view an existing
order, delete an order, print, or post a purchase order.
If you received your purchased goods or services and now need to post the
P/O, click Post P/O. PostBooks prompts you to make sure you want to post
the P/O.
The accounting system is very powerful and offers you the capability to
perform all of your G/L, A/R, and A/P tasks, as well as bank reconciliation,
check posting, check runs, and budgeting by account.

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PostBooks

Resources
To learn more about PostBooks, visit the following sites:
PostBooks Home www.xtuple.com/postbooks Main PostBooks and xTuple
page.
PostBooks on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postbooks Good
description of PostBooks, with links.
PostBooks DemoGuide http://wiki.xtuple.org/DemoGuide Online guide
on using the PostBooks demo.
PostBooks on Ubuntu
http://www.howtoforge.com/postbooks_on_ubuntu704 HowToForge page
on how to install PostBooks on Ubuntu. Good information on system
configuration.

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