General
Information
Q. How will Gallery Express save me time and money?
A. We save you time by providing complete management services
that will track your inventory, daily sales, employee commissions and payments to
artists/consignors. We'll save you money by providing a superior web publishing module
that integrates with your current inventory. No need to pay staff to update your website -
it can all be done by the click of a button as often as you like.
Q. Can Gallery Express help me increase
sales?
A. Yes. In addition to the web publishing module that allows you
to easily maintain your inventory, shows and exhibitions on-line, we also provide features
to generate emails and mailing lists to clients based on their preferences and sales
history.
Q. What support is available once I
purchase Gallery Express?
A. You are never alone. Use our extensive on-line help that is
always up-to-date with the latest features, free email support or our limited free phone
support. We also provide packages to put your gallery on-line quickly and professionally
at any level of service you need.
Q. Can I try before I buy?
A. Download our free full feature demo and try us for a month. We
are confident you'll like it! All functionality is available in the demo version, and if
you buy you can still use all the data you have input. Or just download our sample
database for practice.
Q. I already use software to manage my
gallery. Will I have to enter all my data again?
A. Our staff are experienced in data conversion. Contact us for a
quote on importing your current data.
Q. Can I use Gallery Express on my
network?
A. Gallery Express supports networking on local area networks
(LAN) using Windows 98/NT/2000. You can also use remote access software such as
pcAnywhere to access your files. If you are a larger organization that operates over a
wide area network (WAN), contact us to discuss the options we have available.
Q. What security features are available?
A. We provide different levels of security based on the
individual employee. For instance, an employee with administrative status can access all
accounting reports and update sensitive data but an employee with sales status can only
perform day to day duties such as receiving inventory and processing sales orders.
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Q. Other competitors offer web publishing. How is yours
different?
A. Our web publishing module creates real html web pages
where other products create web pages dynamically from
information stored in a database. What this means to you is:
- You are able to maintain your website wherever you want
at competitive market prices rather that being committed
to signing long term contracts at costs that are often
from $50.00 to $150.00 per month higher.
- Your web pages will load faster on your client's
computer.
- Your pages can be indexed by search engines so that
anyone searching for a particular artist or work of art
will find your site!
Also, some publishing
systems require galleries to enter their inventory through
a web interface. Gallery Express integrated inventory management
eliminates duplicate data entry for the gallery point of
sale program and again for the web site.
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| Inventory Management
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Q. How do I enter editions?
A. You only need to enter your descriptive information once. You
can then receive multiple editions simply by entering the edition number. You can also
edit the price, supplier and framing status fields for each individual edition so you can
manage artist proofs, framed editions and re-consigned works.
Q. How are my images being saved?
A. All images are saved in jpeg format. You control the size, but
we recommend 400 pixels for optimum detail while keeping the file size small. Images for
current inventory are saved within your database to keep your system totally portable!
Q. Are my records easy to find?
A. Our special 'Find' form locates your inventory based on artist
name, title or inventory number. Search either all inventory records, or only the
inventory currently available in stock.
Q. How is my inventory categorized?
A. We have provided some suggested categories with your software,
but like most Gallery Express settings you can add or modify these to suit your needs.
Q. I also sell items that are not unique
such as posters and books. Can your software manage these items too?
A. Yes, we provide a separate module for handling these items.
The regular inventory module works just like any other point of sale software, maintaining
inventory levels and costs based on the FIFO accounting method.
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Q. What features do you provide that
will help with my bookkeeping?
A. While Gallery Express will not fully replace your current
accounting software, we provide many detail and summary reports that will make your
bookkeeping easier and assist you with the management of your gallery. A few of these are:
- daily sales summary so you can balance your register.
- employee commissions owing reports and commission statements for your
employee's records.
- supplier consignment records that are created only when an art work
is fully paid for, and consignment statements for your supplier's records.
- cost of goods sold report summarizes your profit margins - and
includes any framing/conservation charges applied against an item.
- customer statements and aged receivables report.
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Q. You say this is a one-click solution.
How does this work?
A. It really is that easy. Whenever you receive an art work that
you wish to include on your website, just check the 'Post to Web' box. Then whenever you
want your site updated, just click our 'Publish' button. Gallery Express will
automatically create a real html web page for any new items that you have received. At the
same time, your site is reviewed. Any sold inventory is either removed, or marked as sold
depending on your selected configuration. Artist biography pages are updated, or created
for any new artist you are now posting inventory for. And any shows or exhibitions that
you have currently selected as being published to your web site are updated.
Q. How are my new pages uploaded to my
web site?
A. We offer two alternatives. For web sites where you use FTP, we
include a built in FTP program that will update your site. Or if you use MS FrontPage 2000
to manage your site, our program will use your current software. Either way, we still
manage it all. Just click the 'Upload' button and new or edited pages are uploaded and any
existing pages that are no longer needed are removed.
Q. Do I need to change my Internet
Service Provider (ISP)?
A. No. Our web publishing will work with existing sites including
Windows NT servers and UNIX servers. We do offer complete web services such as web hosting
as part of our commitment to you, and our software has been fully tested with the services
we provide.
Q. I already have a web site. Do I need
to re-design my site to accommodate your web publishing?
A. No, our web publishing can work with your existing site.
Either have your current web designer work with our templates, or have the Gallery Express
staff complete the conversion quickly.
Q. Can I use e-commerce on my
site.
A. Yes, we can either provide a full e-commerce solution, or you
can simply use our templates to integrate with your chosen e-commerce provider. As with
all Gallery Express services, you can choose how involved you want us to be!
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Q. Does Gallery Express print mailing
labels?
A. Yes, and you can filter your customer list by preferred artist
and sales history.
Q. I use an outside source to send my
bulk advertising. What does Gallery Express do for me?
A. You can export your customer list in a wide variety of formats
that you can submit to your printer.
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