Inventory Reconciliation Reminder
How was everyone's holidays? Bu$y we hope! And now that the retail smoke has cleared, many of you are doing your year-end and various other routines, including counting inventory. As mentioned in last week's email - Inventory Reconciliation with BookManager is a breeze. If you need copies of the help documents, please ask!

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BookManager Analytics on the WebStore
This is a good time to have a look at our new Analytics feature that we quietly rolled out in November:

Like many tools from us, Analyitics is an ongoing work in progress, but this project will definitely be a game changer for many stores looking to dive deeper into their inventory. Here is a link to the documentation we have started. It tells you what the heck Analytics is along with some very rough instructions for accessing and using it. (You need to log in to your WebStore to modify the Permissions to enable it.) Only 45 of you have enabled the function, which is A-OK by us, since as previously mentioned, Analytics is still in BETA testing mode. But we do want your feedback - what works and what doesn't, what kinds of analysis and detail you'd like to see, and any visual elements that are clumsy or need improving. Like many new features we introduce, it may seem hard to see its true value at first, but over time we expect Analytics to be as important and frequently used as your PubStock feed. And the more feedback we get, the faster it will improve, and so on. So give it a try... or else!

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Oh Nos, US Currency Woes!
Heads up! This is a reminder to check and update your BookManager Exchange and Markup rates for US suppliers. At the moment it will cost you 19% if you buy US in bulk from a currency exchange company, and probably 22% if you pay with Visa or buy from your local bank.

1) Go into #3 Suppliers, search for a US vendor, Edit and arrow over to the right side of the screen to modify the Exch to reflect your true costs to buy the currency.

Some stores will add a few more points to their Exch to account for additional freight/brokerage costs (at Mosaic, we do not.)

2) Choose a Markup rate that you are comfortable with. We reluctantly set ours to 1.25. As a result, a book that is $20 US will be priced at $25. Keep in mind this "Markup" feature in BookManager is used to assist staff in choosing a workable price, and as such is only a guideline. However, your WebStore has no human to make the decision, so it will use the Markup rate you provided to quote the customer (assuming you have this US vendor set as a Favourite or Yes in your #2 Inventory, PubStock preferences).

3) Don't forget to go into #2 Inventory, press comma to access PubStock, then [F]ormat and [Esc]. These steps are required to update your WebStore with the new rates. Unfortunately, we have yet to make this happen automatically whenever an Exchange or Markup rate is changed in the supplier file.

Once that completes, your WebStore should be updated. You can double check this by logging in, and selecting "PubStock Setup" from the Setup menu. If you get stuck, give us a call, we can help!

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New year, new you, new version!
Update your BookManager y'all! It takes just a minute to actually install (and make sure you run a quick backup first before you kick everyone out of BookManager).

• From the main menu, press D for Data Transfer
• Press ENTER on BookManager Backup
• Simply type in the letter A and press the PageDown key
• Press any key when you see the "Backup steps completed OK" message at the bottom
• Press ESCAPE to get back to the Data Transfer Utilities menu
• Arrow down to Update BookManager (download and install new version), press ENTER
• Press ENTER on Download the latest version from bookmanager.com
• When it's done a third option will appear; press ENTER on "Install the version downloaded: mm/dd/yy"
• You now just need to follow the red prompts on the screen (it will simply be a lot of hitting ENTER, typing Y for Yes, or pressing "any" key.) You will know it's done when you see the "Done" message in the bottom left of the screen. Press a key to start BookManager.

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Book Depot special (BKD)
We are big on encouraging stores to include remainders in their mix. Book Depot is offering $25 off $250 orders and $50 off $500 orders. We thought you might like to take advantage of the offer that expires about January 15th. Mosaic bought over $40,000 net last year to give you an idea of how important they are to us. Your WebStore has great tools for finding titles and making orders. Please contact jennifer@bookdepot as you will need a promo code to get the discount.