Yucca Accounts Manager - stock management, invoicing, accounting and reporting

Yucca Accounts Manager is an all in one software solution especially targeted for small retail businesses. Combining stock management, invoicing, accounting and reporting, Yucca certainly proves to be an easy to use, yet powerful software program.

During development, Yucca was tested in a real businesses environment where we at Syntax Rebels have worked closely with our customers to deliver a full solution for their needs. This has proved to be a convenient approach both because we could test the software thoroughly before release and also because we have built a platform that is geared to offer options for customization of the software for everyone's requirements. Furthermore, Yucca is sold in a try-before-you-buy fashion and it can be used for 30 days without owing us anything. All it takes is to access the free download from our website.

Inside Yucca is a barcode printer so that labels can be printed directly from the stock management part of the program. Stock management includes a supplier database and invoice entry database and history. Invoicing of customers with Yucca is done through a front end complete with barcode reader. Apart from adding items to the sale, the POS front end will allow users to include discounts and taxes. A big green display will show the total price to be payed by the client and a red one will show the amount of change to give back.

We suggest that you read the chapters in this manual one after each other, as each successive chapter builds up on information acquired from the previous one.

From the beginning, Yucca was planned to be distributed in separate modules. In this way our clients can select which parts of the Yucca suite they will need and use only the required modules. More importantly, they will pay only for the features that they will be going to use. Only the main Yucca module is mandatory, where all the standard features can be accessed.

Apart from the currently available base module, there are two further modules under development. Yucca Finance will provide more detailed reports focused on your balance status, while also giving you a way to plan and view how the business expenses are being spent. Yucca Contacts will let you supply and access detailed information about your business contacts as well as making it easier to send them information via the Internet. 

Yucca has the following number of special features over similar software programs of its kind:

Yucca is an all-in-one attractively priced solution for small retail businesses

Tracking of purchased item invoices and payment receipts

Quick searching of stock movement

Modular structure – you only pay for the Yucca modules that you plan to use

Works with all currencies and adapts to your computer's regional settings

Fast and easy barcode printing and reading using a universal standard

Foolproof Point of Sale (POS) with large display

Cool invoice printing with item pictures gives a professional look to your invoices

Extensive reporting and printouts

Dated backups

Yucca Accounts Manager can be used by various people to complete different kinds of jobs. See the following list for examples:

Single-Outlet Owners — Managing the entire business with one person is just the right job for Yucca.

Family Businesses — Each family member can be assigned different tasks (purchasing, barcode printing, sales, reporting) which can be integrated together by means of the shop or home business network.

Technical Services — It is very easy for technical servicing businesses to adapt Yucca to their needs and keep track of any physical items that they may use during repairs or other services.

Online Entrepreneurs — Startup Internet businesses will go a long way if they maintain a proper purchasing and sales database with Yucca right from the start. Filling up the tax forms later will be one less worry with Yucca-generated reports in hand.

The various Yucca functions are split between different windows which can be accessed from the toolbar. Situated at the top of the Yucca main window, the toolbar will let you access the various modules of the Yucca suite with a simple click on one of the toolbar buttons. Below is a brief description of where each one of these buttons will take you, in the order as shown on screen from left to right:

Point of Sale - used to calculate, store and review your sales as well as being the place where sales invoices can be printed.

Suppliers - used to store and view supplier information with additional details about items bought from the respective suppliers.

Stock Purchase - used to store and view invoices for items purchased from your suppliers as well as allowing for space to enter payments and receipts information.

Item Database - is the place where detailed information about stock items and their movement can be found, together with a function to print barcode labels related to these items.

Fig 2.1 – The Yucca Toolbar 

Finance (not yet available) - permits you to look at more detailed information related to income, expenses, taxation and other financial reports.

Reports - used to view and print end of day, monthly and yearly reports.

Maintenance - used to backup your precious data on a disc of your choice as well as allowing to restore from a previous date.

Calculator - the standard Windows calculator is now located in a more accessible place, i.e. in the same software program you use for your accounting.

Synchronize All - not really needed under normal conditions. It is a safety feature to be used if you have a suspicion that items entered in the Purchase window are not showing up correctly in the POS window due to incorrect updating of the item database. Please note that the database is synchronized automatically every time that the Yucca program is started.

Cascade Windows - is just a button used to clear up clutter on your working space and put the various Yucca windows neatly on top of each other.

Yucca Setup - used to configure the Yucca program for your requirements. A must before entering purchase and sales data in the program for the first time.

Yucca Online - the Yucca website provides the latest versions of the software and help files, as well as additional information related to improving Yucca with other products.

This is where things start to get really serious. The inventory will be the lifeline of your business and keeping it up to date with accurate records will make your job much easier when it comes to compare reports. Stock items come in from your suppliers into your store and then go back out to your customers.

With Yucca you can stay ahead of the competition by having the advantage of quickly searching the amount of items in your inventory, how much you bought them, their selling price, their description and movement history.

All of the inventory items that you purchase for resale, must be entered into the database in the form of invoices. This is done in the Purchasing window which is fashioned similar to a sales invoice that your supplier will give you.

Fig 5.1 – The Purchasing Window

The Purchasing window can be accessed from the main toolbar by clicking on the Stock Purchase button.

Purchase invoices are cataloged inside the Yucca database based on the supplier and invoice number, so when filling out the invoice it is better to start by filling in the invoice number and selecting a supplier from the list provided. You can then proceed to select the invoice date by clicking on the tiny box on the right with the three dots and double clicking on the desired date in the calendar.

If the supplier list is still empty, you can learn how to provide supplier information in the previous chapter.

The actual items can be declared inside the grid just below the invoice number, supplier and date boxes. Item information is entered by typing it in, using the arrow keys to navigate around the cells that you need to fill in. Item information is used as follows:

Item number: An item number must be obligatorily assigned to each item. It is usually given to you by your supplier but you can also create your own. You will distinguish items in your inventory by this number, which will be used for barcode printing and also when you fill in your sales invoices. Item numbers should be as brief as possible, usually not longer than 5 or 6 characters, and although it is called a number you can also type in characters. You can group similar items under the same number but we suggest that if similar items have a different colour for example, you add an additional letter to the number to signify the colour. In that way, you will know exactly how many items in what color you have left available in your inventory.

Description: The description is simply the name of the item, which is also printed together with the price when you print the barcode labels. While some people re-enter the item number again here, although tempting, it is suggested that you enter a longer name. Entering information that is easy for you to remember will make it easier later when it comes to reporting.

Quantity: Here you enter the quantity of each item that you have purchased.

Selling Price: The price that you will be charging to the end customer. Don't forget to set the option Selling Price is Inclusive of Tax in the options window before entering any prices (explained in chapter 3).

Buying Price: Is the sum that you are paying to purchase the item, entered without the tax.

Returned: If you have an agreement with your supplier that you can return back the items that you do not sell, you can enter the amount of items returned back here. This has the effect of subtracting them from the inventory total.

Sub-Total: Is automatically filled in according to the buying price and quantity purchased.

Free: You can also enter the amount of items that you sometimes get free if you purchase a certain amount of a particular item. Supplying that information here will adjust the profit calculations in the reports accordingly.

Discount: If the discount is applied to your purchase on a per item basis, you can supply the discount given here. Discounts can be entered as a number or as a percentage by adding the % symbol after the value.

You can add more rows to the grid by clicking on the Add Item button, where an empty row will be added. To remove unwanted items, click on the item name to select the item and then click on the Remove Item button.

If entering items already purchased in the past, you can just fill in the item number or description. Then by pressing the Enter key on the keyboard, the rest of the information is filled in for you. Don't forget to check the details in case the selling price has changed from previous invoices.

Once that all the item details are entered, the item sub-total will be displayed under the grid box. A general discount can be applied to the invoice inside the box marked Discount Rate. Here the discount can also be entered as a percentage. In this case, the real discount value will be displayed in the box marked Discount Value. The item total with the general discount applied is then displayed in the box marked Total w/o Tax.

In the end, tax will then need to be calculated. The default tax rate is automatically filled in (the default tax rate is set in the options, see chapter 3), and you can change it if the rate for this invoice is different. The tax amount is then displayed in the box marked Total Tax. At this point, the Total w/o Tax and Total Tax are added up and displayed in the box marked Total. If you have entered the information correctly, the total should be the same as the invoice total on paper. If it is not so, you can go back to check and modify any incorrect value.

Once that the invoice is complete, you can save the information inside the Yucca database by clicking on the button at the bottom of the window named Save & New. This will store the information you just entered and come up with a fresh invoice ready for further stock entry.

You can modify the column widths in the grid by dragging the column edges sideways. If you need to go back to the default column widths, you can click on Reset Column Widths.

Apart from storing purchased invoice information, Yucca allows you to store details about when and how invoice payments were made. This is also done in the purchasing window, with the bottom part of the window dedicated just for this reason. The payments grid can store the following payment information:

Payment method - cash, check, credit card, etc. Entering the check number in addition to the payment method can be a good idea for easily finding this information later on.

Amount - is the amount of money transferred to the supplier for this payment. Each invoice can be split in different payments with a part of the total sum entered in the Amount field. If you need to add more payments, all you have to do is to click on the Add Item button to the right of the payments grid and a new row is added for new payment information to be entered.

Date - the date during which the payment was made. You can double click on the cell and then select the date from the calendar popup.

Receipt Num – to store the receipt number once that confirmation of payment is received from your supplier.

Comments – any additional comments that may be of interest for you to keep.

When payments are added to the database, Yucca calculates the remaining money that you still need to pay your supplier for this invoice. This value is displayed in the box named To Pay.

Payment information can be added both when entering the invoice for the first time and also later by selecting the invoice from the View Invoices window.

The inventory database is the place to go to search for purchased item information and their movements, as well as where barcodes are printed and item pictures are assigned. You cannot change information inside the Item Database Window as this window only shows the results of information entered from other modules. 

The Item Database window can be accessed from the main toolbar by clicking on the Item Database button.

Fig 5.2 – The Item Database Window

The inventory shows item information as entered during purchasing, with the difference that item quantities are updated to reflect the current stock position. Items with the same code number are added together, with multiple invoice numbers displayed in such case. You can scroll the inventory grid to browse for particular items and view their details.

When the list of items starts growing up, it becomes easier to let Yucca search for the items that you want to view instead of scrolling through the list yourself. You can filter the required items by first selecting which parameter to look for, and then typing in the text to look for. For example if you want to search for items in a particular invoice, click on the Invoice option, then type in the invoice number that you want to look for in the Filter box. Finally, click on the Search button to display only the items that you need in the inventory grid. You can also print the items currently visible in the grid by clicking on the Print Items button.

Fig 5.3 – The Filtering section in the Item Database window

You can click on the Show All button to view the entire inventory database once again.

To access detailed information about item movements, click on the item description inside the inventory grid. This brings up the Item Information window which shows the summary of the selected item as well as listing all invoices where this item was purchased, sold or even collected back from a client (credit note). This window also shows item pictures, which are described in chapter 7. 

Yucca gives you the possibility to print your barcode labels so that all you have to do during order checkout is to scan these barcodes and the items will be added to the sale. In addition to the barcode, each label will contain the company name, item price and any additional comments you might wish to add. Yucca uses the Code 128 standard to print the barcode on your labels.

Yucca can currently print on labels in two possible sizes, both available from printing leaders Avery. We have decided to name these label formats in Yucca as Big and Small. The labels named Big are Avery product code 8250, each with size 1" x 2-5/8" with a total of 30 labels on each sheet. Small labels are available as Avery product code 6041, each with size 4/5" x 1-4/5" for a total amount of 48 labels on each sheet. You can find details on where to buy these labels by visiting Yucca Online (see chapter 10).

Fig 5.4 – The Barcode printing section in the Item Database window 

To print barcode labels, first select the item whose barcode you wish to print by clicking on the item number in the inventory grid. A preview of the barcode should appear in the top right of the Item Database window. You should then select if you want to print on small or big labels as described above.

The number of labels that are to be printed with the same item code is then selected (Quantity). Since labels are usually printed a batch at a time, you will be left with sheets containing unused labels. For this reason, Yucca prompts you from which label you want to start from (Start From Label) in this printout.

Finally, if you wish to add any additional text to your labels, you can do so in the Comments box provided. For example, you can print a label for a pair of items with a comment “per pair” on your label or “per packet” for items packed in a plastic bag.

Once that all the options have been set, click on the Print Labels button to send the printout to your printer.

The better the quality of your printer, the easier it will be for your barcode reader to scan the code from the printed label. Using the bigger sized labels, if possible, will also help.

After that we have set our options, contacted our suppliers, purchased some products and printed the barcodes, we are all set to sell the stuff. This is done through Yucca's Point of Sale (POS) module. This module is used to calculate the sale total and change when your client is ready to pay at the checkout desk, and also to print invoices. 

The Point of Sale window can be accessed from the main toolbar by clicking on the Point of Sale button.

Fig 6.1 – The Point of Sale Window

When the customer is at the counter, ready to purchase products from your inventory, the Point of Sale module is started, with a blank invoice awaiting your input. You can start adding items by scanning the barcode on your products. If you do not have a barcode reader, the items can be added by first pressing the appropriate Barcode Triggering String (which we set in Chapter 3) and then typing in the item number.

Once that various products are added, the sales grid starts filling up with the products that you are selling, together with their prices. If you want to enter the same product more than once, you can either scan the barcode again as much as required, or you can just type in the number in the field named Quantity.

The date and time of the sale are automatically entered for you by Yucca. However you can change these values if you are issuing an invoice before or after that the sale has been made.

At this point, you can also modify the selling price if you wish, but you can also apply a discount for each item. As in the rest of the Yucca software, discounts can be applied either by setting in the actual discount amount or a percentage of the selling price by adding the % symbol after the discount number. The sub-total for each item will then be automatically calculated by Yucca and displayed in the rightmost cell.

The buying price of each item is also shown so that you can compare it with the selling price and avoid to sell your items less than you bought them. If you wish to remove some items from the invoice, you can select them from the sales grid and then click the Remove Entry button to the right of the grid.

You can also apply a general discount to the entire sale, by entering the discount (value or percentage) in the box named Discount. The final step of the process is to correctly calculate the tax amount. The tax rate is automatically entered as configured in the Yucca Setup window(Chapter 3), but you can change the value as required for each particular invoice (generally depending upon the delivery destination of your products).

The invoice total is shown in big green lettering. This shows the actual amount that the customer has to pay you. When you enter the amount of money that this customer pays you in the Amount Paid box, the amount of change that you need to give him back is shown in big red lettering. 

Next to the Discount box is a button with three dots on it. This is used to calculate the discount value needed before tax so that you will get the needed invoice total.  

You can also mark each sale that it has been paid by a credit card. This will be of interest to you when using Yucca Finance (available as a separate module later from Syntax Rebels), which will calculate for you the amount of cash delivered to your bank account and the charges applied for such case. Click on Paid by Credit Card and select the card name from the list that pops up (see chapter 3 to learn on how to configure credit card names).

The sale is stored in the Yucca database by pressing the Cash button. From now on, you can go back to view the previously stored invoices and also to generate reports on sales. If you need to start the invoice anew, you can click on the Clear button and a fresh invoice is started, canceling the current invoice.  

Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you have to sell items which you have not actually bought. The reason could be for example that a client has returned a faulty item that it beyond repair and you have decided to sell the parts that are working as individual items. Obviously you will not find these parts to deduct from your inventory when you come to sell them, so you have to sell them as non-stock items. This feature can also be used if you render some sort of service and you wish to provide an invoice for it. 

Fig 6.2 – Entering non-stock items 

Entering non-stock items during checkout is very simple. You just have to press the Barcode Triggering String and type in an inexistent item code. Yucca will prompt you if you want to create a new non-stock item, where you reply in the affirmative.

You then have to supply an item description, selling price and the buying price. Entering the buying price is not required, but if you have a buying price, Yucca will later calculate the profits in the report by subtracting the buying price from the selling.

To print an invoice to give to your customers, all you have to do is to click on the Print Invoice button and then wait for the printer to print it out. The printed invoice will show your company name and address (as given during setup, see chapter 3), with the same invoice details as shown on screen printed further down.

Printing can be done either before cashing the invoice or by returning to the invoice at a later stage as described next.

When you want to view the details of past invoices, the first step is to click the View Past Invoices button situated in the top right corner of the window. A new window will be opened, showing a list of your invoices, sorted by invoice number. You can reverse the sorting by clicking on the arrows just next to the words “Sort Order”.

You can view an invoice's details by clicking on the invoice number in the list. It is also possible to change some values in the invoice and store them in the database by clicking the Cash button again. Viewing past invoices is also convenient when printing invoices to send at your customers' request. 

Fig 6.3 – Select an item from the list to view past invoices 

You cannot avoid situations when your customers will return your items for whatever reason and you have no other option but to give them their money back. In such cases, you have to issue a credit note, which apart from storing the item movement history, will also tell Yucca to put the item back in the inventory.

Credit notes can be started by pressing the New Credit Note button, where a new credit note number will be assigned. You can then proceed to add items to the credit note, as if you were doing an invoice, this time however showing the items that you are collecting back from your customers instead. 

Fig 6.4 – The Credit Note Menu

If you want to cancel an entire invoice with a credit note, first click on the invoice from the past invoices list, then press the New Credit Note button. The credit note will be created with the items already filled in.

Once that the credit note is complete, click on the Save Credit Note button to store it in the Yucca database. Pressing the Cancel button will cancel the credit note operation and return the Point of Sale window in invoice mode.

Yucca Accounts Manager comes with the added possibility for you to assign a picture to each item. This will help you to quickly individualize each item visually whilst browsing the inventory and using the Point of Sale. We at Syntax Rebels are also proud of the item picture printout feature which will give your invoices a cooler look and draw a professional picture of your business in your customers' minds.

Yucca can read pictures saved in as many colors or sizes as you wish. Once read, the pictures will be scaled accordingly as needed. The important issue to remember when collecting item pictures is the picture format. Yucca can currently read pictures that have been save in the JPEG (jpg), Bitmap (bmp), GIF and icon (ico) formats.

Fig 7.1 – Selecting item pictures in the Item Information window 

To assign pictures to your items, you must first visit the Item Database (see chapter 5). Then click on the item description to access the Item Information window for the selected item. In the top right corner of the window, you will see an empty bordered box. Click on this box and a requester will come up, allowing you to select the filename of your picture file. Select your picture and click on the Open button. If Yucca reads the picture successfully, your item picture is now displayed in the bordered box.

You can change the picture to another one by clicking on the box again, or click the Remove Picture button to delete the item picture reference from the Yucca database. 

Fig 7.2 – Item pictures are also displayed in the POS window during checkout

To print item pictures in your invoices, you have to set the option Print Item Pictures In Invoices from Yucca Setup (see chapter 3). If the invoiced items have a picture assigned to them as just described above, the picture will be printed next to each item in the invoice printout.

According to a poll that we have conducted, the majority of people prefer to buy again from a seller that gave them invoices with item pictures over a seller with only item descriptions, thinking the first seller to be more professional than the one without pictures.

At the end of the day you need reports that will tell you how the work that you are doing is shaping your bottom line. You need to know your profits in order to be able to better decide if your price markup is suitable. Yucca is able to show you reports based on sales and purchases, showing results in daily, monthly and yearly output.

The Reports window can be accessed from the main toolbar by clicking on the Reports button.

Upon opening the Reports window, you will get a summary of sales made during the current year. The report is split under different months, showing the monthly total in each row. To get the daily summary for a particular month, click on the month name and the daily totals will be displayed under the selected month. You can hide the daily summary by clicking on any day of the month.

The report shows the following information in each column:

Items Sold - shows the total amount of items sold on a particular day or month.

Tot w/o Tax - shows the total money that is actually heading to your pockets, i.e. the sales amount before tax.

Tax - shows the sales tax that was applied during checkout.

Tot + Tax – shows the sale amount as collected from the customer.

Profits – shows the profit made from the item sales, based on purchasing and selling prices.

Discounts - shows the discounts that you have applied on your items during the displayed period

Apart from the report generated at module startup, you can generate other reports for previous years by selecting the year from the list at the top of the window. Furthermore, you can generate reports on credit notes, showing items collected back together with their value. A combined report which subtracts the credit notes from the sales to give the real situation of your profits can be generated by selecting All.

Fig 8.1 – Viewing reports in the Report Window 

You can have a hard copy of a report sent to your printer by clicking on the Print button situated in the top right corner of the Reports window. This function will print the report as currently shown inside the report grid, so that means that you need to prepare the desired report before printing it. 

You can also generate itemized reports to list every single sale, purchase and credit note within a selectable time period. The itemized reports can be accessed by clicking on the Details button.

In the Detailed Reports window, select the start date and end date from the calendars marked From and To. Then select if you wish to display Purchases, Sales or Credit Notes by clicking on the relevant name. When all options have been set as required, click on the Generate Report button to start the report generation. 

Fig 8.2 – Getting itemized information from Detailed Reports

Since being able to quickly search for past information is one of the major reasons to use Yucca in the first place, it is important to have that information stored in a safe place in the event that something happens to the main computer where Yucca is working.

Hard disk crashes are happening all the time, and people usually learn the lesson of backing their precious data the hard way after losing it all due to computer faults. Yucca has an in-built backup module that can transfer this data to an alternative container to be stored in a safe place just in case you need to reload the data again in the future.

The Maintenance window can be accessed from the main toolbar by clicking on the Maintenance button.

Backups of the Yucca database are stored under dated folders in a folder named Yucca Backup, on a drive of your choice. To start a backup of the current database, you have to first choose the drive to save onto and then click on the Backup button to start the backup process.

Yucca will then start backing the database, prompting you with the results when the process is complete. Now it is very important to keep this data in a place where you are sure that you can find it if disaster happens. 

Fig 9.1 – Performing a backup 

If something happens to the Yucca database, you will find that having a recent backup is much better than starting entering data all over again! To restore your data, in the Maintenance window you have to select the drive from where you wish to restore and click on Restore. Another window pops up, listing the dates of all the backups found on the drive that you selected. Click on the date that you wish to restore from to start the restore process.

The restore process first erases the current database and then replaces it with the backup. After the restore is complete, Yucca will prompt you with the result. You will then end up with a Yucca database as it was in the day that the backup was taken. 

Fig 9.2 – Restoring from a previous backup

This appendix answers some frequently asked questions about the Yucca program. Please check here before requesting assistance. These questions can help you by offering hints for using the program more efficiently. 

Question: Why do some of my prices erratically show a small price difference?

Answer: Since when tax is calculated it is rounded to the nearest cent, there could be a small price difference in the total price with tax when multiple items are input. It is suggested to set the option Selling Price Is Inclusive of Tax to false, because this avoids the discrepancy that could occur when tax is first deducted from the item price to be then added again.

Question: The columns in my grids are not as wide as I would like them to be. What can I do?

Answer: Grid columns can be sized by moving the mouse and clicking the left button on one of their edges, and dragging it to the desired width. If the width is so small that you cannot click on the edge, just close the window and open it again to solve the problem.

Question: I have been using Yucca for some days. What will I gain with registering the software?

Answer: The Trial version of Yucca is actually a fully working version that will however expire within 30 days. Apart from keeping to use the software forever, registering will have the added benefit to let you print price labels and invoices with your own business name on them. Your license key will also get you lifetime upgrades of Yucca free of charge.

Question: Yucca is requesting too much information from me. Can I leave out some parts which I don't use or do not know about?

Answer: Yes, you can leave some fields empty. Yucca will prompt you when you fail to input essential information that it can't do without. However, we suggest to provide as much information as possible so that you can obtain informative results when generating reports and looking back at past data.

Question: I have just installed Yucca and normal words are being shown instead of barcodes. Why?

Answer: This sometimes happens because the Operating System has not yet acknowledged the installation of the barcode font. Try restarting Windows and the problem should be solved the next time that Yucca is started.

The Following minimal requirements are needed to use Yucca Accounts Manager:

Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP

256 Mb RAM

1024 x 768 display or better

Furthermore if using barcodes, a barcode scanner capable of reading Code 128 in keyboard mode is required.

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Please see also:

Barcode Fonts      Barcode Printers      Barcode Scanners

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