AIMS' Direct | |
Date | Article |
2/11/2014 |  | AIMS Direct - Winter 2014 |
| Available to ALL COMPAS & Commander Clients - AIMS now offers a secure laser check printing solution using blank check stock! |
10/18/2013 |  | AIMS Direct - Summer 2013 |
| Would you like an On-Demand Snapshot Overview of Your Company’s Performance?
Wouldn’t it be nice to spend just a few minutes each day getting a solid overview of your company’s financials, so that you can then focus on making it grow? |
12/6/2012 |  | AIMS Direct - Fall 2012 |
| Feature article: Learn more about all the process automation modules for COMPAS 8. This newsletter features mainly information on COMPAS 8, and also introduces Fortitude Technology, our partner in Cloud Backup technology. |
2/27/2012 |  | AIMS Direct Winter 2012 |
| Introducing Document Distribution - email documents with ease, directly from Commander to your customer! |
8/2/2011 |  | AIMS Direct, August 2011 |
| Feature article: Learn more about all the Process Automation Modules available for COMPAS Commander! |
12/1/2010 |  | Fall/Winter 2010 |
| Feature article: Introducing AutoTax, AIMS' new stand-alone EDI tax filing solution! |
6/1/2010 |  | Spring/Summer 2010 |
| Feature article: Keep Your Business Running Efficiently & Profitably with These Tools |
12/31/2009 |  | Winter 2009 |
| Feature article: IT-Based Logistics Solution Results from Partnership with AIMS, Evans Oil and Dupre Logistics |
12/1/2009 |  | Fall/Winter 2009 |
| Feature article: Marketing Assistant provides each marketer with the ability to send via email or fax, price quotes to their customers and prospects |
3/1/2009 |  | Spring 2009 |
| Feature article: Let Electronic Tax Filing Directly From COMPAS Commander Make Your Tax Filing Easier! |
12/1/2008 |  | Winter 2008 |
| Feature article: Is VoIP right for you? |
3/1/2008 |  | Spring 2008 |
| Feature article: Practical and Effective Fuel Logistic Improvements |
9/1/2007 |  | Fall 2007 |
| Feature articles: Handling taxes on sales and improving your PCs performance |
6/1/2007 |  | Summer 2007 |
| Feature article: Sewell Oil Company - Customer Success Story! |
AIMS' Wire | |
Date | Article |
12/31/2013 |  | AIMSWire - December 2013 |
| AIMS' holiday hours |
11/30/2013 |  | AIMSWire - November 2013 |
| If you are using an older version of COMPAS, here are some things to consider about Commander... |
11/30/2013 |  | AIMSWire - November 2013 |
| Here are some things to keep in mind about COMPAS Commander... |
10/31/2013 |  | AIMSWire - October 2013 |
| Help us support you better - here's contact information for AIMS, as well as some suggestions for corresponding with our support team when you have questions about your software. |
9/30/2013 |  | AIMS is on YouTube! |
| Video
presentations of the various modules and programs in COMPAS Commander have been
a mainstay of our sales and promotional efforts for several years. We
have recently set up an "AIMS Channel" on YouTube to increase our
presence on the Internet and to make it easier for our videos to be seen.
|
8/30/2013 |  | Print Secure Checks on Blank Laser Stock! |
|
Enhance payment
security while possibly saving some money!
AIMS has
partnered with AP Technology to offer you a check-printing solution that
produces secure checks off of a laser printer using blank check stock.
"SecureCheck 8" by
AP
Technology delivers next-generation
functionality for check and form issuance that enhances both the
security and productivity of your organization’s disbursement process.
This might be of particular interest to you if you operate multiple
companies on your COMPAS software and/or have multiple bank accounts on
which you issue checks. |
7/31/2013 |  | AIMSWire, July 2013
Constantly Promote Your Business!
|
| COMPAS Commander and COMPAS 8.0 offer a powerful tool to get your selling message, special offers and competitive prices out there in the marketplace.
|
6/30/2013 |  | June 2013 - Time to replace or upgrade your server? Consider using AIMS' hosting service instead of an in-house server. |
|
Whether your AIMS software runs on a UNIX or Windows Server, when it is time to consider replacing your server, consider switching to AIMS' hosting service. For a flat monthly fee, your IT infrastructure needs will be taken care of--and this includes automatic backups. |
5/31/2013 |  | May 2013 - "AutoSIR"--in-house SIR--still possibly the best fuel-loss detection product on the market
|
| Suppose there was a way for you to detect discrepancies in your motor fuel procurement and sales cycle from the time the product was dropped into your tanks until the time it was metered out at the pump? What if this system required no hardware or software on the transports or at the retail locations? What if it could be implemented on your current office computer system, as-is? And, what if it cost a few dollars a month, per tank?
|
4/30/2013 |  | April 2013 - Get the most out of your software with a "Best Practices Tune-up"
|
| AIMS designed your software to handle your business transactions in the most efficient manner possible. AIMS' long association with petroleum marketers across the country has also given us insight into many best practices that can benefit your company, too! |
3/31/2013 |  | March 2013 |
| What did we bill a customer for a transport load, and has he paid for it? And what did our supplier charge us for that load and have we paid the supplier? The latest release of Commander has a new report that shows you just that. It's called the "Customer and Vendor Payments for Manifests" report, and you can find it among the Accounts Receivable reports.
|
2/28/2013 |  | February 2013 |
| Fuel Inventory Management -- It can be a new profit center. If you could put cash back in the bank equivalent to 10% of your typical on-hand fuel inventories, that would make for a good day. For operators of c-stores and suppliers of consignment dealers, AutoSend has proven over and over again to be at least that valuable. Since 1990, AutoSend has been used by hundreds of marketers to keep track of every gallon of product in the UST's and AST's that they own or manage. They use it to schedule purchasing and delivery that achieve reduced and balanced inventories at retail and bulk plant locations.
|
1/31/2013 |  | January 2013 |
| AIMS now offers hosting services for both UNIX- and Windows-based systems.
"Cloud" hosting centers around the concept of sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices handle applications. Hosting moves some of your infrastructure, particularly servers, storage and some applications, to a remote data center operated by a professional provider. |
12/31/2012 |  | December 2012 |
| Merry Christmas from AIMS! |
12/6/2012 |  | November 2012 |
|
By the end of December, AIMS will have in place a 10 megabit fiber-optic Internet connection. This will significantly improve our support and training capabilities.
This issue also includes information about our holiday office hours and about our growth this year. |
11/6/2012 |  | October 2012 |
| COMPAS Commander can provide you with an electronic distribution of customer invoices (both wholesale dealer and bulk plant POS), consigned dealer invoices, price quotes, customer EFT notices, dealer credit card settlements, and monthly A/R statements. |
9/30/2012 |  | September 2012 |
|
Changing tax tables (adding a new jurisdiction or a new type of product, for example) can be done by the user either in COMPAS 8.0 or COMPAS Commander; however, some users will ask AIMS to make such changes. |
8/31/2012 |  | August 2012 |
|
Some things you might not know or might have forgotten...
COMPAS Commander provides excellent access to your data for the purposes of number-crunching or ad hoc reporting. Any standard Commander report can be exported directly to Excel, with headers intact. For people familiar with Excel, it is not difficult to adjust column widths, delete unneeded columns or rows, etc. To export a report, click on the export button which is found on the top left of the screen that your report displays on. Follow the prompts to select the format of the export that you want, the destination of your export and the name you want to give it. (To better familiarize yourself with the contents of Commander's standard reports, consult the Help file in Commander; choose the "Reports" folder and explore the contents and filtering options of the standard reports.) |
7/31/2012 |  | July 2012 |
| Would you like to know more about some of the valuable products and services provided by AIMS' Partners, such as Disaster Recovery, Off-site Data Backup, Payroll Software and Services, and UST/AST & Wet Stock Managment? |
6/30/2012 |  | June 2012 |
|
Both COMPAS 8.0 and COMPAS Commander provide electronic document distribution by fax or email. It is possible to off-load the sending of faxes from your server by using an Internet faxing service by Metrofax. Basically, your fax jobs are sent to Metrofax from your server as emails. Metrofax uses your customer's fax number, which is part of the email message, to actually send the fax on your behalf from Metrofax' servers. The advantage to you is that your faxes of invoices, EFT notices, etc. all go out faster. If you have any fax recipients outside your primary area code, using Metrofax also eliminates long-distance toll charges.
You can see Metrofax pricing here.
AIMS will help you get set up with Metrofax. |
5/31/2012 |  | May 2012 |
|
Think "AutoTax" when you need a way to meet e-filing requirements, because no matter what the requirements are, AutoTax can meet them. AutoTax can be the universal bridge between your company and any state revenue agency that you deal with. |
4/30/2012 |  | April 2012 |
| You reconcile your checking accounts. Do you reconcile your fuel inventories? |
3/30/2012 |  | March 2012 |
|
If you are in the lubricants business and your suppliers offer rebate programs, COMPAS Commander's new Rebates module will be of interest to you! |
2/29/2012 |  | February 2012 |
| Last week, we presented our second informational webinar, "Commander Key Reports." We had full attendance for each of the three presentations. We have recorded this webinar; if you'd like a copy, please contact us. |
1/31/2012 |  | January 2012 |
|
If you are using AUTOSEND but have not upgraded it to AUTOSIR, now you have a chance to try in-house SIR processing for free for 30 days! Unlike out-sourced SIR, which gives you one analysis of each UST per month, AUTOSIR lets you do statistical leak detection at any interval you wish--even daily. And AUTOSIR is the only way you can sit in your office and find miscalibrated pump meters. The benefits of having on-demand SIR are numerous. |
12/31/2011 |  | December 2011 |
|
Attention AIMS Payroll Software Users
For COMPAS 7.0 and COMPAS 8.0 Payroll software users, there will be no programming changes if you are filing paper W2's or paper 1099-MISC for the payroll year ending in 2011. However, if you are filing W2s electronically (EFW2), there will be a change. We will be sending out a Payroll upgrade that can be installed any time before the end of the year. The End of Year procedures will be sent to you as soon as the IRS publishes Circular E with 2011 tax rates. This is usually done around December 15th. |
11/30/2011 |  | November 2011 |
|
Attention AIMS Payroll Software Users
For COMPAS 7.0 and COMPAS 8.0 Payroll software users, there will be no programming changes if you are filing paper W2's or paper 1099-MISC for the payroll year ending in 2011. However, if you are filing W2s electronically (EFW2), there will be a change. We will be sending out a Payroll upgrade that can be installed any time before the end of the year. The End of Year procedures will be sent to you as soon as the IRS publishes Circular E with 2011 tax rates. This is usually done around December 15th. |
10/31/2011 |  | October 2011 |
| Sales Order Entry Webinar Offered On November 16th
The first of a series of 15- to 20-minute webinars showcasing various features and functionality within COMPAS Commander is scheduled for Wednesday, November 16. Our first webinar will feature COMPAS Commander's Sales Order Entry feature. Although sales order entry (customer invoicing) is part of the core Commander system and it is far from a minor part of the system, it has many features that you might not be aware of. Spend 20 minutes of your time on November 16th and expand your knowledge of the flexibility and user-friendly details that this set of programs provides. |
9/30/2011 |  | September 2011 |
| Your COMPAS System Can Interface to C-Store Systems!
Do you operate c-stores? Do you want to install store-level software and interface it to your POS devices? There are a lot of software companies out there that make great software for c-store operations. |
8/29/2011 |  | August 2011 |
| Over 150 separate Help topics have been added to COMPAS Commander's online help! If you have not done so yet, when you are in COMPAS Commander, press F1 or click on the "Help" menu option. |
7/29/2011 |  | July 2011 |
| Beware of your server's age!
Server computers are among your most valuable and critical business assets. Like any other piece of equipment, they age and eventually need to be replaced. Servers are so important that you really cannot afford to react when signs of trouble begin--you should be pro-active and replace servers when they attain a certain age-range. Four to six years of service should be expected of server computers. How old is your AIMS server? |
6/30/2011 |  | June 2011 |
| Best practices for data backup involve a multi-layered approach. Adequate data backup is the foundation for a proper business recovery plan. Because the cost of per/gigabyte storage has dramatically decreased in the past few years, there is no justifiable reason for not having redundant backup solutions. As an example: you can purchase a one terabyte external hard drive for less than $100.00 and a cloud backup solution costs less that $3.00/gigabyte per month. |
5/31/2011 |  | May 2011 |
| When you bring in new office personnel, obviously it is of utmost importance that they learn your business, your policies and the tools you have to run your business. If you are running either COMPAS 8.0 or COMPAS Commander, these packages themselves can be helpful with training new system users, since both have built-in Help systems. |
4/30/2011 |  | April 2011 |
| AIMS has partnered with Backup Manager, an Alberta, Canada-based company, to provide you with a "backup for your backup." For a very small amount of money per month, Backup Manager will continuously and automatically back-up anything you want backed up--not just your AIMS data. |
3/31/2011 |  | March 2011 |
| Customer service web portals are becoming one of the competitive advantages that petroleum marketers can exploit. COMPAS 8.0 users can give their customers password-protected access to information and documents, around the clock, every day. The COMPAS 8.0 web portal can be part of your company's website, or it can be hosted elsewhere. |
2/28/2011 |  | February 2011 |
| AIMS isn't just a jobber accounting software provider! We have many years of experience dealing with fuel inventory logistics and tank gauging. No matter what mix of old or new equipment, no matter what makes and models of ATG's, and no matter what makes and models of POS devices that you have in place now, AIMS can get them all reporting to you every day--automatically, with no human intervention. |
1/31/2011 |  | January 2011 |
| With the launch of our new website, http://www.aims1.com/, in December, we are able to host self-running video presentations of various features of COMPAS Commander. This makes it convenient for our customers and potential customers to see Commander in action. If your company is considering converting to Commander, click on this link to view a 13-minute high-level presentation. Depending on your Internet connection, it might take up to a minute for the video to download. |
12/31/2010 |  | December 2010 |
| AIMS is very pleased and excited to announce the launch of our new website! It's at the same address, http://www.aims1.com/, but the content is brand-new and so is the look! As content-rich as the old website, we arranged the new one into these sections: |
11/1/2010 |  | November 2010 |
|
Backup Musts - What's the scariest thing that ever happened to you? If you ever had a system crash and you didn't have good backups, that would probably be among the scariest things ever. Let's review a list of "Backup Musts": |
10/1/2010 |  | October 2010 |
| Basics of Backup Tape Care and Replacement |
9/6/2010 |  | September 2010 |
|
Business Continuity and Recovery Strategies - There is more to disaster recovery than having a good set of backup tapes. Depending on the severity of the disaster, you might not even have any backup tapes! |
8/1/2010 |  | August 2010 |
| AIMS Adds a New Product to Its Line-Up: Stand-Alone EDI Tax Filing - More and more states either require or allow petroleum marketers to file motor fuel tax reports electronically. |
5/1/2010 |  | May 2010 |
|
Ready to sell renewable fuels? Your COMPAS software is! - If you are not selling fuels containing renewable components (biodiesel or ethanol), you probably will be soon. Your COMPAS software, whether version 8.0 or Commander, is built to handle the proper accounting for renewable fuels transactions. |
4/1/2010 |  | April 2010 |
|
AIMS' Web Portal for your AIMS documents is ready! - A "web portal" is a website that allows a business' customers to securely access and download/print documents such as invoices and statements, any time. |
3/1/2010 |  | March 2010 |
| Some key new features in the latest COMPAS Commander release |
2/1/2010 |  | February 2010 |
|
AIMS is your portal to valuable collateral products and services - One of the enduring rules of successful business is "Stick to what you know." AIMS has done that by choosing to concentrate on developing software specifically for petroleum products wholesaling. Remember that AIMS can generally direct you to a reliable provider of a computer-related product or service that we ourselves do not provide. |
1/1/2010 |  | January 2010 |
| Customer Web Portal - Instead of digging out lost invoices or credit card settlement reports and re-sending them to a customer, just direct your customer to your Customer Web Portal and let them find and download the documents they need. |
AIMS FYI | |
Date | Article |
9/18/2013 | | COMPAS Commander's G/L Audit Report |
| Let Commander's G/L
Audit Report
Help
You Find Answers Quickly!
The
G/L Audit Report is a great tool for researching transactions. This report can
be found by going to: Core System | G/L Reports | G/L Audit Report.
From group number to update type, you can search for information using a
variety of different fields. In the below example, we are searching for all the
tax entries related to customer #550 for a given fiscal period.
|
12/3/2012 |  | AIMS FYI - Splash Blending |
|
Handling splash blending is easy with COMPAS Commander. Whether blending product at the rack (or from different racks), or combining product sourced at the rack with product you have in your bulk plant, Commander processes these transactions exactly as they should be done since Commander is real jobber software. |