Tip of the Month for November 2010

Rebate History Export to Excel Template

Answers has the ability to automatically apply and track rebates due you from vendors in the Order Processing module.  These are typically setup on Contracts, Price Exceptions, and/or Price Schedules.  As sales of rebated items are made to customers, the information about the sale necessary to track the rebate is updated into the Rebate History File.  Currently there are 3 standard rebate reports included in Answers that will print out rebate history in various formats.  Additionally an ODBC dictionary is provided for the Rebate History File to enable users to create their own rebate reports in Excel or other ODBC compatible programs.

However starting with Answers 4.1 released in September, you now have the option of creating your own rebate report in Excel without even having to use ODBC or XDBC.  This can be done via a new "export" program which allows exporting all rebate history information as well as other related fields from inventory and invoice history that might possibly relate to rebates.  This includes information from other files that would have be "linked" in if you tried to use the same fields in ODBC.  This new export program allows you to define an Excel worksheet in the proper manner using Excel's "cell naming" feature.

You would be allowed to setup and store multiple Excel work sheets for different vendors or different types of rebates.  You are allowed to pick which Excel work sheet to use from within the export program.  The Excel work sheets do need to be setup in the proper manner in order to work with this export program.  If you are interested in more details of this feature, please refer to the on-line help in Answers.  This program is located under Order Processing-->Reporting-->Rebate Reports-->Export Rebates to Excel in both the on-line help table of contents and from the Answers menu.  The on-line help provides some very detailed information on how to setup an Excel sheet for this purpose.

Additionally you can down-load the latest update for Answers version 4.1 from our web site at http://www.drcanswers.com/PCUpdatesComplete.htm which will include a few sample rebate Excel sheets so that you can get get an idea as to how this program works.  These are located in the answers-->print-->excel-->Rebate_Reports folder on your server.  This is the default directory used by this program when searching for these type Excel files, however you may store yours in any place you choose as a "browse/search" button is available in the export program.

This feature was a late addition to Answers 4.1 and was discussed at our Training Seminar held along with our Annual Answers Users Conference, but we wanted to make sure those of you that could not attend were aware of this new program if you are using rebates.