Power Lab: Management System for Photo Processing Labs

What is Power Lab?
Power Lab is a Microsoft Windows 98/NT based software that runs on IBM compatible Pentium computers. Power Lab has an easy to use graphical interface that allows the use of the keyboard or mouse to navigate any screen. Power Lab was written from the ground up as a full 32 bit Windows application and uses the latest technology in database management, allowing the scalability and flexibility of today's best database engines. Using native database drivers for database engines such as Oracle, allow maximum speed and efficiency.
Power Lab helps you manage

• Point of Sale/Order Entry
• Services & Merchandise
• Customers & Companies
• Employees
• Reports
  
  Click here for screen shots and
  

System Functionality
Power Lab is a Microsoft® Windows95™ based software that runs on most IBM compatible Pentium® computers (32 MB or more of RAM). Power Lab has an easy-to-use graphical interface that allows the use of the keyboard or the mouse to navigate any screen. Power Lab was written from the ground up as a full 32 bit Windows 95/NT application. Power Lab uses the ODBC layer in its database management, allowing the scalability and flexibility of any ODBC database engine.

To begin using Power Lab a store inputs their services, merchandise, customers, pricing structures and other information. Services and sales merchandise inventory are managed in separate databases, accommodating the special needs of each. In a service record information is needed about its availability, rush charges, cropping charges and price breaks, etc. Merchandise items need to track the quantity on hand in various tiers of inventory levels. An unlimited number of departments, report groups, manufacturers, customer price groups and other categories can be defined and assigned to each service and merchandise record.

With this information in place, the invoice screen gives the clerk fast and easy access to services and merchandise items for sale. On the invoice screen is a single point-of-entry field where customers, merchandise, services and coupons can be quickly accessed by scanning a barcode, entering an ID# or searching by a description. If customers are not already in the system they can be quickly added from the invoice screen. Customer information is optional in that each merchandise or service record has a setting to require or not require the customer's information.

Once a roll of film is dropped off, Power Lab assigns an ID number and prints a bar-coded label (to view sample bar-coded labels, click here) with the customer and service information. To check the status of services for a customer in a lab with out Power Lab the clerk frantically runs around asking questions or digging through bins.

In Power Lab the clerk need only enter a customer's name on the invoice and all outstanding items (not picked up) will be displayed with their status and due date. Serial numbers can be defined and tracked on merchandise such as cameras.

As each invoice record is saved other activity numbers are posted to customer, merchandise and service records. This valuable information provides informative reports on business performance. Duration counters accumulate this information into summarized numbers for each record for as many definable periods as the store manager desires. Using the report groups, categories, departments and other identifiers, this information can be grouped to show performance comparisons between your various business segments.

Receivable invoices for house accounts are managed by the Executive Billing module for Power Lab. Executive Billing allows for accounts receivable management on site or off site and will handle the payment and statement processing for multiple stores.

System Requirements
Power Lab is designed to run on a Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system. Any hardware that will efficiently run Windows 95 or NT operating systems. 32 MB RAM or more is recommended.