The It’s A Party Direct Sales Recordkeeping, IAP, application has been designed to a specific direct sales model that being, items are purchased from the parent company at a predetermined cost and consultants resell to customers through various markets mostly at parent company suggested prices. This model leads to an application design which may not be applicable to all direct sales companies nor to crafters.
The functions available in IAP provide for managing all the data relevant to the above described model plus provide management tools to its users. Below describes the processing of IAP:
Setting Up The App
A client buys a subscription from the Store. The first subscription “purchased” is a non-renewable 60-day free trial. After the 60 days have expired, an inexpensive one-year subscription is purchased if the client wants to continue to use the application. The client is notified 30 days in advance of the expiration of a subscription. Upon completion of the purchasing process, the application will set up a company database for the client. A new menu item is shown on the home page menu. That being “Access Its A Party App”. This menu item ONLY appears for logged in users with a subscription. If a clients subscription expires it will still be possible to access the application but no updating will be allowed. This will permit the client to extract some of the data they entered. Support will need to be involved, at no charge, to extract some of the data.
Access IAP The First Time
IAP is accessed by clicking on the “Access Its A Party App” menu item after logging in. The new client is shown the “My Business” page and asked to complete the information about the business. IAP then suggests that the client complete the “About Me” page to set preferences for when they use the application. It is possible to give other members of the business access to the application but this can only be done by Support at this time.
The “Application Home” page is shown when the company data is complete and submitted. At first showing this may seem like a useless page. However, as data is entered this is where reminders of various types will be shown.
At this point, the client should enter existing customers and items. The “Quick Start” page has suggestions on how to proceed with these. Support can help enter past purchases and sales into the database.
Using IAP
IAP is now ready for the client to use.
Sales Method 1 – On Hand Stock:
We may need something to sell. The client receives an order from the parent company. Using the “Purchases” page, the information from the invoice can be entered. All the items on the invoice are entered before the page is “Submitted”. We have found that it may be advisable to break invoices with a large number of items into multiple purchases. We normally suffix the vendor’s order number with a letter. If items are being purchased for the first time and not in the catalog, they can be added while entering the purchase.
Now we want to make some money selling these items. Our friends may open their house and invite friends and relatives for a home party or we can find vendor events in local advertisement weeklies or on local vendor sites such as Pa Vendors, NJ Vendors, etc. When we find those parties or events, we enter the information in the “Party/Event” page. While it is not necessary to do it prior to the first sale, entering the information can create a calendar entry and a reminder that will show on the “Application Home” page. A future function will allow the client to create a newsletter of upcoming events to be emailed to the customers.
Sales can be entered when the sale takes place and a receipt emailed to the customer or printed if a printer is available, or they can be entered later from receipts written during the party/event. Sales are entered using the “Sales” page. Names of existing customers are shown as the name is being entered. New customers can be added on the “Sales” page. The party/event can be selected or a party/event can be added from this page. Items sold can be selected or new items can also be added. Item prices can be changed but are only for that sale. After all items have been entered and the shipping and tax amounts have been entered/verified, the sale can be submitted.
Well how well did we do? By selecting the party/event on the “Party/Events” page we can see all the sales listed at the bottom of the page. This will show the total amount collected on each sale, what the items cost and what the profit was for those items. From this information we may choose to sign up for the event next year or let it pass.
There is one more step for a house party. That is the hostess award. Many party plan companies have a recommended/required process for rewarding hostesses. Our company has a monthly hostess award of products and a recommended percentage table based on the amount of product sold at a party. IAP has a “Party Close” page which will calculate the award amount using the purchase amount of all sales times a percentage input on that page. This then can be used to compensate the hostess with free product. We have had really good parties where the hostess could not use the entire award that night. IAP has a “Gift Certificate” function that can be used to issue and track amounts still available to the hostess. At this writing this function is still in development.
Sales Method 2 – Sales From A Website:
Our company provides consultants with a website where our customers can purchase product. These sales are sent directly to the customer usually and we get a notice of the sale. The profit from these sales are added to our commission at the end of each month.
The “Sales” page provide an indicator to tell it the type of sale. It knows not to reduce on-hand inventory and to calculate profitability based on current book value.
The profit from on-line sales is input on the “Activity Journal” page when entering the monthly commission at the end of a month.
A Note About Sales Tax
Our company charges us sales tax based on the state where we live and the selling price, not our cost, of the product we purchase. We charge our customers sales tax on their purchases to recoup the tax we pay.
We hope this document helps you understand the It’s A Party application. Question and comments can be provided below or sent to Support@LitehausConsulting.com. Litehaus Consulting is the developer and owner of ItsAPartyDSR.com.