TopForm Software, Inc. 330 Research Court Suite 200 Norcross, GA 30092
July 2004     

This month in TopForm Times...

...:: TopForm DocuCenter ::...

...:: Backorder Fill Report ::...

...:: PDF Printing ::...

...:: Reorder Notice Printing ::...

...:: IBM RS6000 AIX migration ::...

...:: InfoSeal ::...

...:: TopForm Personals ::...
June TopGun Winner Here is the subject for the next TopForm TopGun Challenge.
Congratulations to Ann Hackl of Five Thousand Forms, Inc. - our June TopGun winner. She correctly answered the question, 

“Where in TopForm do you go to turn on the ability to keep vendor disbursement statistics in addition to purchases and adjustments?"

Answer: First go to ZZ2MDX and add Disbursements as the third statistic type. Then go to your Accounts Payable Parameters and add Disbursements as a statistic type you want to track and the number of prior years to track them.		 Which TopForm module interfaces with Microsoft Word for letter writing?

Send your answers to Jean Dudek. 

Remember that all correct answers are being entered into the grand prize drawing at our Spring 2005 Users Conference.


TopForm announces the availability of TopForm DocuCenter. DocuCenter is an Internet based application that provides your customers with content management and on-line ordering for their internally generated print on demand documents. It is ideal for the management and production of:
  • Training Manuals and Course Materials
  • Documentation
  • Employee Handbooks
  • Company Policy Manuals
  • Other

The TopForm DocuCenter not only provides your customers with product catalogs and on-line ordering, but it is also a tool where they can create new or modify existing documents on line. They can view all items or just those within a specific catalog. When they click on the item, the see the “Build Sheet” that lists all the sections of the documents to be created.

As the Distributor Manager, you review the new or modified documents when notified of a change and update your price and cost data. Your manufacturing partners are also provided with on-line access and are notified when a print order is being placed with them. Right from their order, they download the new or updated document file.

Using a modified version of the Customer Invoicing Gateway, the order and vendor invoice data is automatically uploaded to your TopForm system and your customer is automatically invoiced!

On line Account Administration provides you and your designees to create and modify buyers, ship-to locations and manufacturers and the rules for their use of the system.

For more information on this optional module please contact Jean Dudek at 800-448-1484.


An enhancement has been made to the Backorder Fill Report (P/O, P5) to provide an option to flag suspended orders, eliminate lot selection and the printing of packing lists for these orders.

To use this new feature, the user would need to answer the following question with a "Y":

Mark Suspended Items and Eliminate them from Lot Selection?

When the Backorder Fill Report prints and this new flag is set, an "*S*", will print beside each order that has had the Packing List Suspended. In addition, these orders will not have lots selected, nor will they be added to the packing list print queue.

This capability allows any TopForm report (or continuous style form) to be captured in a PDF format. This can be used to
  • View reports in PDF format directly on the operator's PC (if using Windx)
  • Archive the report on your server for historical reporting
  • Publish the report for Internet access
  • Email the report.
  • Easier Remote printing

All the features of the Adobe Reader become a part of your TopForm Reporting. For instance, the operator can go directly to the end of the report to view report totals or use the search features to find specific data. The page can be saved, printed, or emailed easily. (Of course, for this to function, the Adobe Reader, downloadable from www.adobe.com, must be installed on the PC.)

In the output options the appropriate printer is selected and the report prints like normal. If the PDF is to be shown, the Adobe Reader will pop up at the end of the report and show the results. If the file is not shown, then the file will be generated and the operator will be returned to the menu.

The printer is setup in ZZX-C4.
For Example:

The Device type is 2 for printer, the printer type should be NOHEX, Device Printer Type - Should be set to NOHEX

DeviceName/Command (name/cmd in CHUI) should be /tmp

Device Driver should be set to tf_topdf.

Samba Printer box should be checked. In CHUI, Samba/HTML Printer should be Y (Note on older releases this will only say Samba, not Samba/HTML).

The Queue Path will be the file name where the PDF report is generated. If the report is to be shown on the operator's PC then the [WDX] prefix is used to cause the file to be generated on their PC. In that case the path name specified should be the path to someplace on their PC. Note: The file is not removed when the report is done. If the report is not going to be viewed immediately then the path can be any logical folder where the file should be stored for future access.

The file name should end in .pdf or .PDF so that other applications can correctly identify the pdf file type. This is required for the SHOW option to work as it relies on Windows to determine the correct application to process the file based on the extension of the file.

The Output Command is used to pass options to the PDF driver. These are options to be applied to ALL data printed through the print driver.

The Job Card on the Output Options screen is used to pass options to the PDF driver for SPECIFIC printings. This allows for options that vary from one report to another or on different selections of the same report.

For more information or documentation please call support at 770-239-7777.


The Reorder Notice Calculation has been enhanced to allow the user more flexibility.

The user may select to have their Reorder Notices trigged based upon:

  • A reorder date
  • A minimum quantity on hand
  • A minimum number of days supply
The user can also default a suggested reorder quantity based upon
  • A quantity entered on the Custom Item file
  • A quantity which is calculated by looking at the minimum number of days field used also for the trigger
  • A quantity which is calculated by using a minimum number of months stored in a system wide parameter, or in the Customer File, or in the Custom Item file.
There is a new parameter located in the Order Processing Parameters Setup, screen V (OPS,S1)

Calculate RON Suggested Reorder Qty based on Avg Monthly Usage?

The responses that are possible are
  • “Y” for Yes
  • “N” for No or
  • “M” to base it upon a system wide number of months.

If you answer the question yes, it will use the average days supply used for your trigger and suggest a reorder quantity for this number of days usage.

If you answer “M”, it will allow you to enter a system wide number of months usage to suggest as the reorder quantity. (Note that in the GUI, this number of months is currently on Tab 8).

If for certain customers you would prefer to have a different number of months to use, you now have a new field in your customer master file (A/R, S1, option 1):

Months for RON Calc:

You may also further differentiate the Suggested Reorder Quantity down to the Custom Item Level. For this purpose a new field has been added to the Custom Item File (F/M, S1, #2)

Sugg Reorder # of Months:

The hierarchy for determining which number of months to use is as follows:

  • If there is a number of months under the Custom Item Master, that will be 
    used for the specific product.
  • If there is no number of months under the Custom Item Master, the number of 
    months under the Customer will be used.
  • If there is no number of months under the Customer, the default from 
    the Order Processing Parameters will be used.

TopForm has recently concluded our migration testing of the AIX operating system from version 4.3.3 to version 5.2. The upgrade was performed on an IBM model 7040-170.

The following items should be taken into consideration before the upgrade is performed:

  • Create a current mksysb tape
  • Follow release notes and verify server firmware version
  • Follow release notes and verify cdrom drive firmware version
  • Allow several hours for the migration to run (maintenance mode)

TopForm strongly suggests strict compliance in firmware verification. This can be done by contacting IBM hardware support if you have a maintenance contract or by contacting TopForm support for assistance.

Our test server was in need of an upgrade and the firmware flash was performed in compliance with IBM procedures, but due to a faulty chipset the firmware flash failed which rendered the motherboard inoperative and had to be replaced. This was an unfortunate and expensive event.

If you do not have a maintenance contract for the RS6000 from IBM, and this part fails, the cost to replace can be in the thousands of dollars. TopForm suggests that you contact IBM and make arrangements to have a customer service engineer available to assist in the migration procedure.


We have designed a new invoice and check through the electronic forms package to accommodate InfoSeal. For more information please call Jean Dudek at 800-448-1484.
It’s a girl!

TopForm is proud to announce the birth of Alexandra Grace Boyett. Alexandra Grace weighed in at 8lbs 9oz. She was born on June 29th to Steve and Kim Boyett.
Denise Montroy our Web.ec Product Manager recently celebrated 9 years with TopForm Derrick Francis our Senior Programmer recently celebrated 2 years with TopForm