The Antique Mall Accounting System - by Programs Plus - Frequently Asked Questions

This page contains answers to the most common questions asked by our prospective customers.

Does your system require inventory items?
Absolutely NOT!  Unlike many traditional Point-of-Sale systems, we do not require inventory.  Inventory is available for you 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, Etc.

Do we need on-site training?
No.  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 the other AMAS functions, which you can learn as you need them.  AMAS also comes with a 150 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 one year of toll-free telephone technical support.   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-Sun 9AM-8PM CST.  For more information, please read our support policy.

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 10 customers in the Houston area, and only make house calls to three of those malls and then only as requested.  Files can easily be mailed or transferred over the Internet.  We can also use a remote communications program, like Logmein.com or GoToMyPc.com, that allows us to control your monitor and keyboard over the Internet.  Even if you were close enough to make a house call, we would charge for any house calls.

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 800 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, Consignment stores or Craft Malls that sell merchandise on consignment.  Off-the-shelf packages such as QuickbooksTM DO NOT HANDLE consignment fees, rent deductions, or credit card fees.  This is why programs like AMAS exist in the first place.  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?
1) 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.
2) Since January 2002, our customer's dealers have been able to view their sales via the Internet.  All your dealer has to have is access to the Internet and almost any browser (MSN, Internet Explorer, 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.

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.  Most reports will separate dealer transactions as needed.

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 periodic 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 150 user-definable setting that will allow you to "customize" the program.  More than 75% of these settings have been added over a 26 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:
  1) Commission Rate Tables that applies to all dealers or consignors
  2) Commission Rate Tables specific to individual dealers
  3) Special Commission Rates that apply specific inventory items
  4) Individual Commission Rates defined for each dealer
  5) 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 reference commission tables.

Can I charge dealers sliding commissions based on the selling price?
Commission tables allow you 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: Pentium 2/3/4, Celeron, AMD Compatible chips running at 600 Mhz or higher.  Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB Free Disk Space (Install requires about 30-40 Meg to get started).
Recommended: Any current Windows Intel/AMD platform, 20 Gig Available Disk space, 19"+ LCD Monitor.
Printer
: Windows Compatible printers only. 

Laser printing is recommended for reports.  Invoice receipt style printers are recommended for invoices.

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, Bookeeper, 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 unless you want to!

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. 

Programs Plus+ (800) 616-2627  (281) 558-7840