I think I need a mentor or something. I've muddled through the rest of learning the program and I thought I was making progress, but now, am having a meltdown. Hopefully someone here will be able to help me pull it together. I think Thom has been too kind in helping me and would like to hand me off to someone else. hehe!

Here's the basics:
I am trying to record payments that came in from PayPal, via their notification form. And for some reason, I cannot get to that point the way it is laid out in the help files.
I am now lost in the back end here, the most crucial part... getting paid and communication with my bidders.

I have been backwards and forwards through the "After your auctions close: Record Payments in the Ledger". It says here:

"In this tutorial we will record the payment for an Invoice, then notify the buyer that payment was received and the date their item(s) will be shipped. This will all be done from the Invoice window.

Step 1 - Locate the Invoice for which payment is to be record. Click the Find button on the tool bar.

The Find Invoice dialog box is displayed. Use it to locate the Invoice you will be recording the payment for. In this example the Invoice is located by buyer."

There is no info on HOW one "notifies the buyer payment was received and when it'll be shipped... done from the Invoice Window>" It is completely missing.

Secondly, I cannot locate the invoice for which payment is to be made. The find button is greyed out. I am attempting to do this from the Email Reader window since it's the PayPal notifications I'm getting. Thirdly, last time I was in the Find Invoice area, there was no "Buyer" at the bottom of the list. as it shows in the tutorial instructions.

Could someone help here, or volunteer to mentor me if you have lots of experience with AW2k? Please let me know. I desperately need to learn this thing fast as I can.

Thanks!
Khrys

Hi,
On your paypal email find either the buyer email or the auction number. Highlight and right click, you should get a drop down menu with the choices of "find buyer email address" and "find auction id".

It will bring up the auction lot. There is a button there for the invoice and that will switch you to the invoice.

After you mark it paid there are email options on the top. You want the middle one "reply using template" That dropdown will give a list and one of them should be "payment received with ship date" or "payment received without ship date".

Hope that helps.....

A little more info for ya. Once you've high lited either the email address or auction number (I prefer the eBay auction number) and have right clicked on it, choosing either name or number a window will open in the lower half of the email window. You will see some menu icons near the top of this new window. One, is a pointing up finger. Clicking on this will associate this payment to the auction lot (that is what opens up first) your choice if you want to do this or not. To the left of the up finger you will see a green square. Click on this, this will open the invoice/receive (I/R) payment window. Here you should click on the up finger to associate the invoice to this email. Doing this helps in the future. The next time you open up this email the invoice/recieve payment window opens up with it. OK, you are now at the point where you can put in your ship date, how it was paid, copy the buyers address into the address info area and receive payment. I go to the original AW2K invoice window to send my buyers an email stating receipt of payment and shipping time. You can get there real easy from the I/R window you are in. To the left in the I/R window is a small box with the invoice number in it. To the left of that is the title of that small window. Click on that, it will take you to the actual AW2K invoice screen where I send my emails from. It is just a cleaner look, no other real functionality. Sending a notice of payment receipt as a reply to the one you recieved from Paypal is OK to, it just a matter of choice. What is going to be nice is, the new AW2K well be able to do this step automaticly. Some days my clicker finger starts to get sore and my carple tunnel really flairs up.
Hope this helps
rodgw

Hi Rodge,

Thanks for the details. It sure helped up to a point! When I got to:

"You can get there real easy from the I/R window you are in. To the left in the I/R window is a small box with the invoice number in it. To the left of that is the title of that small window. Click on that, it will take you to the actual AW2K invoice screen where I send my emails from. "

When I tried to click on the title (I would never have seen that!), I got a program message that said something like:

"The selected invoice cannot be displayed because the record is hidden or has been deleted." I'm pretty sure I haven't done any random deleting of anything! So I don't know what really happened. Maybe I don't have something set up that I'm supposed to.

So, instead I just went to the one anonymous suggested, the email option on top marked "Payment received with ship date". That got me there ok! Yes, it will be great when we're able to get there automatically.

I was hoping this program would be less work intensive than some other programs. I also have Carpal Tunnel syndrome and it hurts a lot some days.

Thanks so much for your help! You went through a lot of trouble to do that and I appreciate it. Have a great day!

Khrys

Hi Anonymous!... come out, we won't bite! ;-)

Thanks so much. Your sussinct instructions did help me, too. Especially the part about being able to access an email reply using the template. I needed that!

Also, the right clicking on the buyer email was a big help.

Do you by any chance know if tghere is a place where I can see ALL the auctions that SOLD and their current status? I think seeing it all on one page would be very helpful. Sort of as a map as to what's left to do. Perhaps there's a report like that?

Thanks again!!
Khrys

The hidden - deleted message come from the fact that you have some views turned off in the invoice scerrn. Go the AW2K Invoice window. At the top are some menu choice icons. You'll see 2 magnifying glass' to the right of them is, what looks like, a sheet of paper covered by two hands. Click on that. A window will open. With 2 choices, show all or only specific invoices. Click on the "show all invoices". I use both at different times and you will to once you get use to things. The auction lot window has these options also.
Don't give up on AW2K, it is a big dog, but once you get use to it, it will go a lot smoother. It is a work flow system. Put in the auction, list the auction, update the auction, make invoices, contact buyer, collect money, ship. Under tasks it shows you this flow. There is a lot of things in AW2K I don't use, yet, and I've been using for over a year. It does get easier and keep asking questions.
There is another forum too, you can go to, with a lot of help there also.
http://pub83.ezboard.com/bauctionwizarddiscussionboard

Keep asking questions, and keep plugging away at AW2K it is the only way to learn. The help sceens only help so much you eventually just have to do it. It sounds like you are, and that's a good thing.
rodgw

Rodge,

You were RIGHT on the mark! I had changed it when I was trying to notify people that they had won. I didn't realize that it should be changed back. LOL! I thought everything was automatic, I guess! Thanks!

By the way, I have shipped out an item to one of my bidders. He is still currently "waiting to ship". How do I tell AW2K that I shipped it out today? In all these tutorials, I don't think I spotted what to do with it after I've shipped. Thanks!

Khrys

Rog,
I think I answered myself instead of you. So, without sending this, you might not see what question I have for you. I want to thank you again for your help! :-)

Khrys

Hi Khrys
Did you find how to change from waiting to ship to feadback not left?

If not, go to your invoice and at the top left of the screen there is a box for status. It's right along side of the invoice#. There is a drop down menu there to change the status.

I think there is a way that the program will change it automatically but whatever that step is I must not use it because I've always had to change this manually.

First process all your payments without changing any statuses manually, let AW2000 change the automatically.

Then, if you would like a printed sheet of what needs to be shipped go to "Tools"-> "Reports..."-> "Shipping Manifest (w/Inventory Data)".

Then go to "Tasks"-> "Print Shipping Labels & Invoices..". This will print all the invoices, shipping labels and change the status of each Invoice and the corrasponding Auction Lots.

Hope this helps.

Bob