At the end of the calendar year, many WordStock customers must perform routine system maintenance operations to make sure their data files are in sync with the calendar. It's also a good time to review the year's sales by generating reports with year-end information. While not everyone will need to perform every operation described below, we suggest that you check through the list to make sure you don't forget anything!

Most WordStock users will want to generate reports that include information about how certain Products, Sections, or Vendors fared during the past year. Before running any of these reports, though, it's a good idea to clean up records for any items, such as cards, magazines, posters, or other items that you sell under generic SKUs that have accumulated negative on-hand quantities at the point-of-sale.

Problem records include records with negative on-hand or on-order quantities, or other unusual data. Your system's Inventory File sort includes should contain a standard routine called "BAD_RECORDS" which is designed to help you to find records with problem quantities.

• If your system does not have the "BAD_RECORDS" sort include, please contact WordStock Support to arrange to have the sort include sent to you.

• If you don't understand the "BAD_RECORDS" report, please contact WordStock Support.
  

Once your Inventory File's records are accurate, you should recalculate the Product, Section, and Vendor files to update these files with any manual changes you have made to the Inventory records.

Print and clear the Daily Cash Sheets for each register, as well as the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Cash Summaries and Product Sales Summaries. These reports are found under the Point-of-Sale menu.

• If you authorize credit card transactions with WordStock's Electronic Credit Card Authorization and Funds Transfer program, make your daily credit card settlement as part of this year-end reporting process.

• Optional: print full Product and Section file reports -- found in the WS Reports — all records section of the Records menu. It may also be a good time to print some year-end bestseller reports, such as your top-selling titles for the current year ["CYR"], arranged by CYR Sales or Product, or Section, however you'd like to see the list.

The Cost of Inventory report, available in the WS Reports — all records section of the Records menu, may also be useful for your year-end accounting. Choose "current" for the month.

If December 31 happens to fall on the day that you usually roll your weekly sales, roll the sales as usual, using the Data Maintenance sub-menu under the Maintenance menu. From the same menu, roll the monthly sales for December and then the yearly sales.

If your fiscal year ends on a date other than December 31, consult with your accountant to determine whether or not you should roll the year on that date, instead of at the end of the calendar year.If you do plan to roll the yearly sales, it is important to print the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Product Sales Summaries before rolling your sales.

If time permits, you should consider running your backup before your roll the year because the previous year's data essentially cannot be reconstructed afterward.

You may wish to save your last backup tape or ZIP cartridges from the end of the year in case you need additional information about the year-end state of your inventory for tax or accounting purposes. Please note that WordStock will charge you to reconstruct this data.

Many WordStock customers count their inventory at the end of the calendar year. If you do, please contact WordStock Support in advance to discuss how you will reconcile your inventory results, e.g., will you count the store yourself, or rent Telxon scanners from us, or hire an inventory service, such as RGIS?

• If you'll be using WordStock's Count program, please contact WordStock Support to make sure that you have the latest version. You may also want help designing inventory reports to assist you with the count and reconciliation or reconfiguring your hardware to accommodate the counting process.
  
  
• If you'll be renting hand-held Telxon scanners from us, please contact WordStock Sales, 800-753-9673, for pricing and availability.
  
  
• If you'll be hiring RGIS or Western Inventory Services to reconcile your inventory with WordStock, we'll need to make special arrangements for you: please contact us as early as possible!