TradeWorks is comprehensive software developed exclusively for retail trade exchanges. It is written and programmed by Danny Weibling, CPA, CFO of Continental Trade Exchange in Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Ohio and Kentucky. Used since 1985, now by dozens of exchanges in four countries, it is the only reliable, time-tested comprehensive financial, customer service and marketing package for retail trade exchanges. And it is continuously updated and improved.
TradeWorks and TradeWorks OnLine provide an integrated approach to trade exchange management at a reasonable cost. No more separate data bases for accounting, directories, classifieds, letters and mass mailings, email, fax or broadcast fax. TradeWorks pulls together the information and programs to make sales and volume-building easier, more efficient and more profitable.
The key to success is information. Your sales department needs information and reports to track contacts and follow-up dates with prospective new client members. To service their members brokers need client business and personal information at their fingertips, on screen and in reports, and the ability to efficiently log data, track requests and monitor possible trades. And management needs a wealth of information on screen or via report to monitor the sales, marketing and customer service efforts of the staff. TradeWorks provides an integrated system to accomplish these objectives.
The Menus are the gateways to functions, procedures and reports in TradeWorks. From the Master Files Menu, for example, set up information and parameters for the exchange master, set up codes, fee plans and credit card files and make changes to client master files.
TradeWorks allows you to batch post from trade slips or save time and automatically post from authorizations - it’s up to you.
The Trade and Cash Transactions Menus lead you step-by-step through the procedures, updates and reports associated with posting daily transactions. Batch posting of trade slips is convenient and easy for even a beginner. Automatically print out deposit slips for your bank. Make corrections and changes before the month is closed, and only the corrected amounts will appear on your clients’ statements. No embarrassing revisions on the statements.
The Month-End Menu leads you step-by-step through the procedures, back-ups, updates and reports that close out your monthly transactions, including posting automatic credit card payments, cash and trade fees of various types (service fees, late fees, membership fees, renewal fees, accounting charges, etc.), and running statements. TradeWorks even handles the Canadian GST.
Do you want to bill a minimum cash transaction fee? Do you want to just write off piddly amounts like 17 cents? Would it be convenient to automatically reduce credit lines that have been temporarily increased (for large purchases like construction jobs)? Or to publish a list of Barter cards that are restricted, lost or stolen? You establish the parameters for your exchange.
Similarly, the Year-End Menu and 1099 Processing Menu lead you through all the steps to close out your year, run reports and run the procedures for 1099B forms, in accordance with IRS Rules and Regulations. You can file your 1099s using diskettes or via modem. Using overlays on your laser printer, the 1099 forms you send your clients will be professional quality. And you can send them a Purchase Summary, detailing all their trade purchases for the calendar year. They can check off the tax deductible items and hand the list to their accountants - a very convenient feature that adds value to your services.
If your outside sales force is currently using index cards and Post-It notes to keep track of prospective clients, they might appreciate the TradeWorks Telemarketing Menu. Log your prospect’s name, address, business name, telephone and fax numbers, type of business and source. The computer keeps track of phone logs and follow up dates. On a daily basis your sales force can list all the prospects contacted that day. Monday morning, print out all the prospects they have scheduled to follow up during the week. They can even print a list of all the prospects coded as ‘hot’ (leave this one alone, it’s mine, touch it and you die). It’s easy to generate letters for prospects and to include them on your broadcast fax. The Telemarketing Menu not only makes your sales reps lives easier, it helps keep the peace, because now they which rep working leads.
TradeWorks generates several standard month and year-end reports as part of those Menus. But you can also build your own reports. From the Menu choose from more than 2 dozen different reports, then customize them. Tell the computer how you want the report to sort information by choosing from 16 options. Then indicate which clients to include in the report by selecting up to 16 codes. Believe it or not - it’s very easy to use. In theory you could generate thousands of reports. In practice just a few favorites will do. And you will be able to generate prior months’ reports spanning 2 years.
One important report allows you to print out clients who haven’t traded since a certain date. Let your brokers follow up on that and see how your volume takes off! You can also list your accounts by membership date. Send them an anniversary letter. Better yet, highlight them in your newsletter. Or use the statistics to emphasize how many members are still with you after 5 years, or who have just joined in the last year or two (we’re stable ... we’re growing).
The Summary Report is a gem, providing a snapshot of several measurements for each broker, including:
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The Display Screens Menu is a management favorite. Without printing, immediately view your exchange authorizations, client count, trade volume, transaction fees generated and cash fees collected, by day, with a running, monthly total. You can view by office and by broker. By viewing the Exchange History Summary you can see the whole year at a glance - your trade volume, fees billed and cash collected by month with a running total. As the years go by (or if you choose to have your histories converted) you can scroll from year to year, comparing monthly volumes. When researching for your business plan or your financial consultant, you won’t have to struggle with bulky printouts that are gathering dust in storage.
The Temporary Barter Card feature allows you to increase volume because your clients can easily share trade with employees, friends and family. Your member purchases a Temporary Barter Card which you program for a specific amount and expiration date. As each authorization is entered, the value of the ‘debit card’ is reduced, until it reaches zero. Like a gas card or prepaid phone card.
Temporary Barter Cards are great for closing a member’s account - just program the card for the remaining balance, assign an expiration date, and the account is closed!
Use the Temporary Cards for a special one-day shopping spree, such as for a Trade fair or auction. It can be set up so that only the actual amount spent is charged to your client’s account, and the card value acts as a maximum.
The TradeWorks Client Screen provides a wealth of information you need to assess a client’s current status, and is the gateway to over 2 dozen different functions. There’s so much to learn about a client just by reviewing the Client Screen. How much trade is available? Fees due? For how long? What kind of volume is customary for this client? How much is pending in sales and purchases? What kind of business is this and where is it? When was the last time this client was contacted? The Client Screen provides much of the information you and your brokers need to apply common sense to everyday issues and decisions. On screen information includes:
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There’s even a Red Flag to identify those clients who need special attention for some reason, and a bar that flags your clients who rank in the top 10%.
The Client Screen is a display screen only -all its information comes from other sources such as the Client Master File and transaction histories. But by using the 12 Function Keys on your keyboard, from the Client Screen TradeWorks allows you and your brokers to display information, generate letters and faxes, perform searches and authorizations, log information in a variety of ways, process scrip orders, process inventory sales, manage travel requests and confirmations, collect product and service information for publication, launch an email, and communicate with each other.
TradeWorks is easy to use. Each Function Key leads to a screen that provides its own instructions and help features. On the Client Screen and with each Function Key, instructions are displayed at the bottom of the screen, highlighted in lavender. No need to constantly refer to an unwieldy instruction manual. You don’t even have to remember what the Function Keys do. Just press your help key and the 24 functions are listed on screen!
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TradeWorks is driven by account number, but no one can remember hundreds of them! It’s quick and easy to find a client using the Search. Type in up to seven letters or numbers and find your client by:
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So if your sales department brings in a new Chinese restaurant, use the Search to find, on screen, all the members who have been asking for Chinese food.
And when a client calls in looking for a dentist, simply type ‘DENT’ and press F3 - all your dentist members will appear on screen, with addresses, phone numbers, contact names, Directory descriptions and trade balances. You can refer the dentist who needs the trade most, the one closest to your client, or the one who des root canals. Now you can even ‘cherry pick’ clients to fax to your members.
The Contact Log is used to document conversations, letters, faxes and visits with clients. A variety of reports can be generated from entries in the Contact Logs using Menu 2. At the end of the day, print a list of all calls made by broker, client and time. Or print a list of clients not contacted since a specific date (a great tool to identify the clients who are slipping through the cracks). Or print a summary of contacts. Better yet, don’t print at all - contacts can be monitored on-screen from the Display Screens or the Contacts Log Menus, in detail or summary format.
Each client has its own Contact Log. Contacts are logged using codes and up to 5 lines of description to maintain a complete record of communications. You can define your own codes, like incoming and outgoing calls, messages left, letters sent, client visits, administrative or travel. And you can enter follow-up dates for your To-Do List.
The Log creates a permanent record of all contacts with each client. See at a glance who said what to whom, yesterday or six months ago. See if you’ve left 23 messages with a client in the last six weeks. TradeWorks automatically logs faxes, letters and email launched from the system.
Because TradeWorks provides so many built-in variables, any one in your office or the computer itself can authorize trades. You set tolerance levels for trade deficits, amount of fees owing and number of days past due. Only TradeWorks has the sophisticated programming that allows the computer to closely simulate your human judgment. Do you want a ratio of 5-1 on fees over 30 days, 10-1 over 60 days, and a freeze on any account over 90 days? TradeWorks does this by adjusting available trade for a multiple of fees owing. You set the parameters.
The authorization input screen is easy to use - just enter the buyer’s and seller’s account numbers and the amount. The screen displays the business names, account balances and fees owing. According to your parameters, it will authorize or not, and will flash any reason for rejection. The computer is uncompromising. It has no friends or enemies, and turns a deaf ear to promises and excuses. But you can choose to override the computer’s rejection. On the other hand, you can code specific accounts “No Authorizations” under any circumstances. But even if you don’t authorize, you can save the information to follow up. You can set broker authority individually to allow overrides or not, and if you do, TradeWorks allows space to indicate the reason for override.
When an authorization is issued, both the buyer’s and seller’s accounts immediately reflect the pending transaction. For the buyer, authorizations reduce available trade. Pending sales display on the seller’s Client Screen as an information item. From the Client Screen you can display the detail of an individual client’s outstanding purchases or sales. Your brokers can routinely remind each client to send those trade slips or call authorizations in timely.
From the Authorizations Menu you can display all outstanding authorizations, change them, or print reports of current, expired or rejected authorizations so you can follow up and make sure you’re not losing deals because of fees due or insufficient funds. If you override, TradeWorks allows you to enter the reason for doing so, such as “check in office, not yet posted.” So you can monitor your staff’s discretion.
Do you want to post daily, directly from authorizations? TradeWorks does it, eliminating batch posting and delays.
TradeWorks makes it easy to answer clients’ questions about their accounts, or for brokers to identify spending patterns to more effectively service their clients. With a simple keystroke or two you can view on screen each client’s complete history: trade purchases and sales, fees charged and paid - in detail. Scroll the screens or jump directly to a particular month. Look at sales only, or isolate purchases. You can roll forwards and backwards from year to year. You can also look at fees charged only, or payments made.
Or change the format entirely and look at the whole year in summary: monthly sales, purchases, fees charged and paid, with month-end trade and fee balances. With this format you can really see your client’s trading patterns - does he always carry a negative balance? Is he usually late with fees? Or would you love to clone this member?
If your client needs information, you can print out a history instantaneously, or fax it directly from your computer to the client. It’s very simple.
Don’t let trades fall through the cracks! TradeWorks provides a Request List and Possible Trades Log for each client so you can quickly and easily document referrals and deals in progress. When you refer a client to another member and you want to follow up, simply enter information on screen - it stays there until you delete it. Use the Request List to keep track of the products and services your clients are asking for but you don’t currently have, including scrip and tickets that you get only occasionally.
Print lists of Requests so your sales staff can target particular industries. And print reports by follow-up date of Possible Trades so your brokers can work with each member to make sure the trades are happening. Your follow up dates become part of your automatic To Do List.
From the Search you can view Requests and Possible Trades. Your sales staff just signed up the city’s best Mexican restaurant? Search to immediately find clients who’ve been requesting Mexican food! What better way to efficiently service your members?
As with any good exchange management software, TradeWorks provides a single data base for critical client information, including:
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And more. TradeWorks integrates this information with other programs, procedures and reports to virtually eliminate the necessity of different data bases to accomplish various functions. For example, the client name, business name and mailing address are used for generating letters, labels, statements and envelopes. The business name and location address appear on the various screens and are downloaded with directory information. Of course the fax number is accessed for the fax back feature of TradeWorks OnLine, for broadcast faxing and for faxing documents, travel orders and histories directly from the client’s screen. Access to the Client Master File can be limited and secured differently for each broker.
TradeWorks makes use of a variety of codes to assist management in analytical measurements and report building, and which are also used to focus communications via mass letters or broadcast fax.
TradeWorks also provides a free form screen for each client to log miscellaneous information that isn’t specifically entered anywhere else.
TradeWorks is well designed for exchanges using a barter card system. Card Holder information is displayed, entered and changed on screen. The information integrates with trades, authorizations, statements and the card warning notice. Since each card has its own number, your clients can identify who is spending trade dollars - especially handy for partnerships. You can cancel a card that’s been lost or stolen, or because your client wants an employee’s card voided. Simply enter the codes on screen. That card will appear on the card warning notice. You don’t have to close the account, just the card.
With TradeWorks you don’t have to maintain a separate data base for your directory. Each client’s Directory screen allows for up to 99 different Listings, each with its own Heading (Financial Planning, Tax Preparation, CPA, etc.), and up to five lines of description. Each Directory Listing has its own address, phone and fax numbers, email and web site addresses and contact name so you can easily accommodate clients with multiple locations.
It’s easy to duplicate descriptions to minimize typing time. And there are several codes that allow you to customize each Listing - to include or exclude contact names or addresses for example.
TradeWorks very elegantly combines client information from the Master File with the Heading and description from the Directory screen, sorts it all alphabetically by Heading then by business name, and downloads it all as ASCII text. You can either use desktop publishing or word processing to spell check and add fonts and graphics, or save it on diskette for your graphics artist or printer to publish as a directory of products and services. Or upload your Directory to your web page. Because the output is ASCII, it’s been extremely easy for TradeWorks users and their consultants to interface with the Internet.
The Directory Menu allows you to print Directory Update sheets to mail to clients for corrections and additions. And you can quickly run a list of members who have no directory listing at all. With TradeWorks OnLine clients can access Directory information via touch tone and fax. Need a current list of your restaurants? Just print it out from the Directory menu.
The computer will also clean up your directory codes: it will alphabetize them, re-sequence and change codes appropriately in the members’ listings, and you can just sit back and watch!
With TradeWorks you don’t have to keep a separate data base of Classified listings. Whenever a client has something special or unusual to sell, just enter it in the Hotline screen. The information is instantly available to your brokers, on screen, and it is easily downloaded as ASCII text to load into your newsletter or upload to your web site.
Never buy WYWOs again! All those While-You-Were-Out messages that clutter your desk and get lost in the shuffle are history. TradeWorks comes with a very simple intra-office Message feature that simplifies communication between you and your staff. Send your Message to one person, to one department, or to the whole office. Scroll your Messages on screen. Keep them as long as necessary - they remain until you delete them. Of course Messaging is not a new concept. The nifty thing is that you don’t have to get out of TradeWorks to send and receive Messages. From any Client Screen just press a button and you’re there!
Here’s an easy way to create trading opportunities: keep track of each client’s birthday and anniversary, as well as spouse’s and children’s’ birthdays. If there’s more than one partner on the account, make sure you keep track of all the information. Run a report each month, then start calling to help them spend their trade dollars on gifts, parties and celebrations. Save them the agony and expense of shopping the day OF!
Sound like too much work? It’s not with TradeWorks. Each client has a Personal Profile (actually 99 of them per account) to keep track not only of birthdays and anniversaries, but pets, hobbies, food and vacation preferences, mobile phone number and home address.
And a new freeform screen that lets you define several personal or business variables that are important to you in your brokering and marketing efforts. You don’t have to keep a separate data base for all this information.
You can even generate a broadcast fax to all the clients who like Italian food, for example, and get some new business to the restaurant before they even come out on your new member list!
TradeWorks allows you and your brokers to quickly and easily keep track of items you want to discuss at your next meeting - great products available, for example, or trading problems with a particular client. The input screen allows you to identify the issue and enter several lines of description, You can print out each opportunity sheet individually, or you can print a summary list of all opportunities (with selected client information and the opportunity description) to use as part of your meeting agenda.
Even though it’s not fashionable to use snail mail any more, there are still times when only a real letter will do, such as:
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And dozens more.
TradeWorks includes a default library of more than 50 standard letters, and allows you to build your own - up to 999 of them! So whenever you need to send, for example, the Scrip Enclosed letter (with its instructions and caveats), you can do it from the Client Screen with just a few key strokes. The program automatically pulls the letter together with the client’s business name, mailing address and contact name, with the date and your preferred closing and title included. You can have account number, trade balance and fees due print or not - it’s up to you and depends on the type of letter you’re sending.
You don’t have to switch over to your word processing program and type in all that information - TradeWorks does it for you. And whenever you generate a letter, the client’s Contact Log is updated with the letter’s and sender’s name and the date.
You can also generate the same letter for multiple clients in the exact same fashion as for the broadcast fax. You can select clients in any one of 13 ways to target a particular group. Set up your letter and your preferences one time, then print it for one, a hundred or all of your clients. It’s more efficient than other mail merge programs because you don’t have to leave the TradeWorks environment.
You can print labels in a variety of different styles. You can even print labels for your members who don’t have fax machines.
You can also send ‘Information Enclosed’ letters to prospective members you’ve logged in the Telemarketing Menu.
TradeWorks provides a convenient way to keep track of the products and services available from your reciprocal exchanges. From the Client Screen, enter the names, cities, states and brief descriptions of hotels, restaurants and products. Then when your local client wants to go to New York, you can search for New York listings on screen. A worthwhile feature in addition to any other bulletin board services to which you may belong.
Showroom Inventory Sales Invoicing is an accurate and efficient way to handle inventory sales, eliminating the need for trade slips, vouchers or invoices. Simply enter a few key pieces of information - seller number, number of items, per unit price and description. TradeWorks computes the total trade and sales tax, posts the purchase and sale to the accounts, automatically bills sales tax to the buyer’s account, and prints two invoices - one for you and one for the buyer. And it makes it easy to reconcile your sales tax returns.
Scrip Management streamlines the sale of scrip and tickets. From the Scrip Menu, load information such as number of pieces on hand, denominations, expiration dates and descriptive notes. From the Client Screen this information is readily accessed to fill your member’s order. The transaction is immediately posted, and both the buyer’s account and the scrip inventory reflect the purchase - never oversell scrip again. Automatically post additional charges (like a certified mailing fee) and sales tax to your member’s account. The computer prints receipts for your files and for your client. From the Scrip Menu you can review histories by scrip name or invoice number.
Travel Management incorporates the best ideas from exchanges around the country. Just key in the information obtained from your client: locations, dates in and out, number of adults and children, number of rooms and beds, preferences, etc. The computer will automatically enter the client’s name, phone and fax number, and credit card information.
When the information is in, you can fax the request directly from your desk to your reciprocal contacts, to the requesting client for signature, or to your own client for booking. You can log confirmation information as well as communications, so that anyone in your office can determine the status of a travel request, even when your travel broker is on vacation or out to lunch.
When you fax the Travel Request to your client for review and affirmation, the bottom of the fax contains your caveats and travel policies along with a signature line. When you fax the exact same information to a reciprocal, the bottom of the fax contains authorization numbers, confirmation numbers and property information lines. These are the kinds of nuances you can expect from a programmer who also owns and operates his own exchange.
When you invest in TradeWorks OnLine, you not only have 24 hour touch tone authorizations, but all the faxing features as well. At its simplest, with a scant handful of keystrokes you can fax transaction histories directly to your client, without leaving your desk. Or you can dash off a quick message, and with two keystrokes fax directly to your client, again without leaving your desk.
Fax member Directory information from your desk, either in total, or using the Cherry Picking option. If your client is interested in dentists, fax the whole list, or choose to fax Directory listings for clients who are the most qualified, who are closest to the client, or who need the new business most.
At its most sophisticated, you can build a library of documents that are embedded in your computer system, which can be faxed to clients individually as needed, or en masse via the broadcast fax feature (uh huh - without leaving your desk). With just a little instruction your clients can access your documents using the touch tone fax-on-demand feature of TradeWorks OnLine. And you can fax directory listings to your clients (or print them for your own use).
The FAX Menu allows you to selectively broadcast fax to groups of clients, using the codes in your clients’ Master Files, so you can select for a broadcast fax thirteen different ways!
For your weekly broadcast fax, you would simply use selection by Status Code, and have the computer fax to all clients who are Active. Or if Broker 10 wants to send a particular fax to all her clients, use the selection and only those clients with Broker Code 10 in their Master File will receive the fax. Or you can select by Client Number to send your fax to a certain group of clients who have no other codes in common. Just enter their account numbers on the input screen and your fax will go just to them.
You can send a special broadcast fax to prospective members listed in the Telemarketing Menu. You can create special Phone Books of nonmembers, and fax to the folks listed in those. And you can fax to your members selected by their preferences in the Personal Profiles feature - remember the fax to all the clients who like Italian food? Or who golf?
You can send fax documents with or without cover sheets, and you can set them to send in the middle of the night. A broadcast fax doesn’t usually bomb out if a fax machine doesn’t answer - it tries again and then moves on.
TradeWorks operates on personal computers, either stand alone or on a network. It is written in RPGII, a mature, time tested and reliable mid-range business language used by a half million companies on 25,000 different business applications. It runs flawlessly on several networks, including Novel, LANTASTIC, Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows for Work Groups. TradeWorks runs in DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98, 2000, XT and ME.
Your existing equipment will likely work just fine. Bare bones minimum requirements are one Pentium and one 486 PC, networked. The 486 must have Windows 95 or even 3.1, and is dedicated to handling all the fax, fax back and broadcast fax functions - it cannot do anything else because it’s always looking and waiting for a fax order. The Pentium can handle both the TradeWorks OnLine functions and act as a work station. As a practical matter, you’ll want a work station for each person in your office who services clients in any way. There is no theoretical maximum number of work stations. Some offices have more than 40. Speed of operation is determined by the power of the network server and the individual computers.
32 or more hours of installation and training are provided and included in the investment price (travel costs are extra). There’s a Technical Manual to reference. The Annual Maintenance Agreement includes up to two hours per month of support time and at least one new, updated version of TradeWorks each year. Technical Support is almost 24 hours daily with just a few exceptions, such as when we’re airborne.
Modifications and enhancements to TradeWorks are frequently inspired by the requests of the dozens of individuals who use the programs daily. Those enhancements become part of the system, at no extra charge to those who’ve made suggestions. Minor program modifications to accommodate particular needs can be made at little or no additional cost, but you’re only charged if you can’t wait for the next scheduled release.
Some of the newest features include:
There are actually dozens of small, medium and large enhancements to TradeWorks at any given time. Above are just a few.
No other software is as complete nor as well integrated as TradeWorks products. No one provides the level of personal service, training and technical support. No other software is upgraded as regularly, and with so few problems. Ask our users. Whether you’re brand new or have been in the barter business for 30 years, you and your clients deserve the very best software that money can buy - TradeWorks!
Last revised: March 9, 2004
Copyright 2004 by Danny Weibling and Lisa Peters.
All
rights reserved. Send comments to lisa@dwwsoftware.com
