Frequently Asked Questions

Does AMAS require inventory items?

Unlike many traditional Point-of-Sale systems, we do not require inventory to be input/setup. Inventory management is available for you and/or your dealer’s stock. You can require that sales for certain dealers must come from stock items only! In most cases we only recommend entering your own private stock, plus creating inventory descriptions for items that you sell frequently, such as collectibles, Books, Magazines, Gift Certificates and non-taxable items.

Do we need on-site training?

No – Not normally – but AMAS is very easy to learn. Invoicing takes about 15-30 minutes to learn, and you eventually spend 80-90% of your time invoicing anyway. Most malls have one or two people that use all of the other AMAS functions, which you can learn as you need them. AMAS also comes with a 60 Page manual. Most of our customers get started by calling us and we will lead you through the initial installation and setup over the phone in about 20-30 minutes.

Do you provide Toll Free Support?

Yes. You get 6 months or one year of toll-free telephone technical support depending on the system you purchase. You can renew technical support and software updates annually for $300 US (single user) or $400 US (multi-user). Standard support is available Mon-Fri 9AM – 6PM CST. We also offer extended support hours for urgent matters Mon-Fri 9AM-8PM CST. For more information, please read our support policy. We do provide call-backs on the weekend for those with current support plans.

You’re in Texas! What happens when I have a problem 1500 miles away in San Diego, CA?

We handle 99.99% of our support calls over the telephone. We have 15 customers in the Houston area, and only make house calls to three of those malls and only as requested. Even if you were close enough to make a house call, we would charge for any house calls. When tougher support issues pop-up we often use remote communication tools such as LogMeIn.com or JoinMe.com, which allow us to control your monitor and keyboard over the Internet.

How many malls use your program and how long have you been in business?

We have been selling the Antique Mall Accounting System since 1985. We have sold over 1000 systems in 45+ US States and 3 Canadian Provinces.

Why can’t I just use QuickbooksTM, Peach-TreeTM or some of these other accounting systems that offer point-of-sale invoicing?

Depends on your business! Most of our customers are Antique Malls, Boutiques, Home Decor Malls, Consignment stores or Craft Malls that sell merchandise on consignment. Off-the-shelf packages such as QuickbooksTM, DO NOT HANDLE commission/consignment fees, rent deductions, or credit card fees. This is why programs like AMAS exist in the first place. Many of these other programs also require that you only sell items from your inventory database – that would never work for our customers. Read the section on “What is AMAS” to discover more about AMAS’s Unique features.

My Dealers are always asking me “What did I sell today?”, how can AMAS help with this?

You can easily print a Quick Dealer Report for any dealer by simply entering or selecting their dealer number to print a report. You may also tag any number of dealers from a list. Since January 2002, our customer’s dealers have been able to view their sales on www.What-Sold.com. All your dealer has to have is access to the Internet and almost any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, AOL, etc). The mall just simply presses a button once each night to send sales information to our servers, and we will publish your dealer’s daily sales to our web site. You assign and control dealer passwords. Dealers can now check their sales from anywhere in the World: home, local coffee shop, the antique mall, or while shopping for great deals in Rome. This service requires an additional monthly fee to the Mall, based on the number of dealers using the service.

Can I enter more than one dealer’s items on the same Invoice?

Yes! You can enter up to 999 items on a single ticket from any number of dealers. We don’t advise putting  more than 20 or 30 items on a single ticket for practical reasons.

Can I enter more than one dealer’s items on the same Layaway Ticket?

Yes! Unlike most other mall accounting programs on the market, AMAS handles complicated layaway transactions and makes it easy on you.

Can I transfer (AMAS) information to my QuickBooksTM program?

You can transfer settlement/dealer check information to your QuickBooksTM or QuickBooksProTM system. Some setup is required to insure that you transfer to the proper accounts.

We have never owned a computer before! How hard will it be to learn your program?

You may have a lot in common with many of our other customers when it comes to lack of computer experience. We often get calls like “Hey, I know a lot about computers but it’s my mom, she don’t even know how to turn a computer on, much less print some invoices!”. I think his mom will do just fine.

Do you have anyone in my area that uses your program that I may call (as a reference)?

We have malls in over 45 states and will most likely find someone near you that you can call or visit.

We do things differently than most malls, so will your software be able to handle my way too?

AMAS has over 250 user-definable settings that will allow you to “customize” the program. More than 75% of these settings have been added over a 30 year period as the result of our customers requesting ways to make AMAS more functional to their needs.

Can I charge dealers different commission rates?

You may set varying commission rates 5 ways:

  • Commission Rate Tables that applies to all dealers or consignors
  • Commission Rate Tables specific to individual dealers
  • Special Commission Rates that apply specific inventory items
  • Individual Commission Rates defined for each dealer
  • Different Commission Rates may be defined for Retail, Layaway, Consignment, eBay or other user-defined sales sources

Commission rates may be a percentage, flat commission amount, flat price, zero, or may reference default or custom dealer commission tables.

Can I charge dealers sliding commissions based on the selling price?

By using Commission tables, you can create sliding commission rates based on the selling price (similar what many auctions do). You can apply a flat commission based on the price bracket, or charge commissions for portions in each incremental bracket.

What are your computer requirements?

Windows Version:
Minimum: Windows based computers running a 1Ghz or faster, with Intel or AMD chips. Windows 7/8.1/10, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Free Disk Space (Install only requires about 30-40 Meg to get started).
Recommended: Any current Windows Intel/AMD platform with Windows 7 Pro or Windows 10 Pro, 4GB RAM, 100 Gig Available Disk space, 19″+ LCD Monitor.

Windows 8.1 is only recommended if you have staff that is familiar with Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 user-interface is somewhat radically different and can be frustrating for new users at first – so be prepared for a learning curve with Windows 8.1. As of May 2016, you most definitely CAN still find Windows 7 computers – please call if you need help finding one. Check out “At Work” desktop and all-in-one computers from Dell.com

Windows Compatible printers only. Please don’t even consider an older dot-matrix – although it would probably work. Laser printing is recommended for reports. Invoice receipt style printers are recommended for invoices. We recommend, sell and support the Star TSP100.

We can hand-write tickets quicker than entering the items into the computer! Why should I use AMAS?

Writing tickets is just the first step. When you process tickets manually, you do not benefit from all the reports that AMAS produces. Most customers that process manually before converting to AMAS claim to spend 8-32 hours to process their monthly reports. AMAS can process and print an average mall with 3000 tickets and 80 dealers in about an hour, depending on the computer speed and mostly the printer speed. Errors are much easier to spot, correct and re-print.

How can I keep dealers out of your program? Can I prevent some employees from accessing certain program I that I would use?

AMAS provides 5 security levels: Cashier, Cashier Supervisor, Bookkeeper, Asst. Manager and Manager. You can program each menu OR each menu option to require one of the five access levels. You don’t have use security levels unless you want to! You will need to enter a password to access AMAS.

I pay dealers on different schedule than most malls?

AMAS allows you to pay dealers on whatever schedule you want. We have malls that pay weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly. Some malls may pay individual dealers on an as-needed basis, such as early move-outs or emergencies.

Does your program handle Canadian HST (Sales Tax)?

Yes! We have customers in three Canadian Province’s. We have several modifications to handle some of the special sales tax requirements such the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), plus some provinces require special taxing on dealer commission sales.

We get a lot of dealer/customers that request discounts – Can your system process these discounts?

AMAS allows you discount tickets several different ways:

  • Turn Discounts on – On the invoicing screen you can check the Discounts Option and this will add a Discount % column, Retail & Selling prices and the Extended price amount.
  • You can define maximum allowed discounts for each dealer, plus you can also define special discount notes for each dealer, that will display on the invoice screen.
  • Discount Schedules- You can easily setup discount schedules for any dealer(s) for a specific period. These discounts can be applied automatically or prompt the cashier with a message to verify or accept the discount. This feature is great when you have sales or a dealer is having a clearance sale.
We can write tickets by hand just fine, and quite frankly I can’t see adding 3 or 4 computers just to handle our peak selling times. How is your AMAS software going make things faster or better for my Antique Mall?

The benefits of computer Point of Sale Invoices are extensive:
Computer invoices are much easier to read than hand written tickets

  • Less likely to make math errors using the computer
  • Ticket pad invoices cost about 2 – 5 times as much as Star Receipt printer invoices.
  • Print daily sales reports and Cash drawer reconciliations in just seconds
  • Print sales progress reports for your dealers on demand in just seconds
  • Most clerks can create a computer invoice much faster than a handbill, but not always.

The Invoicing advantage is just the beginning of huge time savings AMAS will bring your business. You’ll be amazed at how fast AMAS can process & print reports and checks for hundreds of dealers. What takes AMAS about 20-40 minutes normally requires 8 to 24 man-hours to perform manually for most malls. If you handwrite your tickets, you also miss out on over a hundred different reports that AMAS can produce with just a few clicks.

I already have a receipt printer and cash drawer – Can I use this hardware with AMAS?

In many cases you can continue to use your existing P.O.S. hardware, however realize that we may not be able to configure the equipment to work with AMAS. Please consider the following:

  • We primarily sell Star Receipt Printers, MS Cash Drawers, and HHP (Hand Held Products) bar code scanners.
  • We provide support for Point of Sale hardware that we sell.
  • We will do our best to provide setup information for 3rd party hardware, but assistance will incur additional support fees and is not covered by our annual support plan.
  • Ongoing support for hardware NOT purchased from Programs Plus will incur additional support fees.
  • Warranty repairs should be arranged with original supply source or manufacture.
We work with a lot designers and high-end clientele – will your system process Approval Invoices?

Yes. We added Approval Invoices in 2011. Approval Invoice funds are not added to the daily sales totals, and will not be funded to the dealer until the Approval is accepted. Approval transactions can be easily printed, modified, tracked, deleted or transferred to a normal sales invoice. Approvals have user-defined default approval period, but you can easily adjust the expiration date % time for any Approval. Approval Invoices are not available with all AMAS configurations.

I deduct rent from dealer checks, what happens if a dealer’s sales don’t cover all of their rent?

When the dealer settlement report is processed, AMAS will attempt to deduct the dealer’s Rent Balance (not necessarily their rent rate) from the sales proceeds after commissions and credit cards fees are deducted first. If a dealer cannot cover their rent balance, AMAS will deduct rent from what whatever funds are available, the dealer will not receive a settlement check, plus any shortfall remain as the updated Dealer Rent Balance. The remaining rent balance can be paid with a Rent Payment Transaction or carried forward to next settlement (not a good management practice though).

I don’t want the small receipt printers because most of my customers require longer item descriptions for insurance purposes!

AMAS has several Receipt Printer Invoice formats. One of the more popular P.O.S. style Receipt Printer Invoice formats prints up to 48 characters of the Item Description. Also if a customer is concerned about a thermal ticket fading over time, offer to make a photocopy for them or perhaps suggest that they scan or copy the invoice.

Does AMAS work with bar code scanners? Can I print bar code labels?

Yes and yes. We recommend that you purchase bar code scanners from us in order to better support their use. We sell a Handheld Products handheld bar code scanner that connects via USB cable. Some scanners with keyboard wedge or RS-232 (Serial port) interfaces MAY be compatible, but the USB interface (with keyboard-wedge emulation) is recommended.
Bar code labels must be printed using AMAS, as bar code labels printed using non-AMAS software are not likely to scan properly. Manufacture UPC bar code labels MAY possibly be utilized, but only one dealer will be allowed to sell each individual UPC code – for example: Two dealers cannot sell the same bottle of furniture polish if you scan UPC bar codes. If you choose to bar code, you must read our document titled: “Import Inventory – General Inventory Information”. Bar code labels should not be printed using an inkjet printer!

Not all of my dealers have Item Numbers marked on their stuff. Am I required to enter Item numbers on the Sales Invoice?

No. By default item numbers are not required. If you sell an item from a defined Inventory Item (in the AMAS database), Inventory Items DO REQUIRE an Item Number. By default, invoice line items only require a valid Dealer Tag Number, Quantity and a Selling Price. Two dealers can have the same Item Number, because the item number is really a combination of Dealer Tag # + Item Number.

Do you offer different Invoice style options?

AMAS has basically 4 invoice styles or options:

  • Plain Paper Laser Invoice – Works for virtually any laser or Inkjet printer
  • Plain Paper Laser Invoice w/ user modified Logo in upper left corner
  • Receipt Printer invoice designed for 80 mm wide receipt paper.
  • Receipt Printer invoice designed for wide format (112mm) printer

Some receipt printers can accommodate user defined logos, coupons, etc.

Can I import my own inventory or from my dealers?

Yes, AMAS has interface to import inventory using ExcelTM spreadsheets. The spreadsheets must be formatted according to our Inventory Import Specifications Guideline.

Can I import customer list from another program?

Yes, AMAS has interface to import customers using Excel spreadsheets. The spreadsheets must be formatted according to our Customer Import Specifications Guideline.

Can AMAS print mailing labels?

Yes. You can print Customer and/or Dealer addresses on 2 different sizes Avery mailing labels. There is also an option to export either customer or dealer information to Excel spreadsheets with 3 format choices.