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Welcome to the Main Street Software blog!

April 20, 2009   in   MSS news

At Main Street Software, Inc. our number-one priority is customer service. We care about your Mary Kay business because we are Mary Kay Beauty Consultants. In that spirit, we offer you this blog as a place to get the latest tips, news, and updates from Main Street Software, Inc.  Stop by often, or, better yet, subscribe to get all blog posts via email or RSS feed. And if you like what you see, use the buttons at the bottom of each post to spread the word. Thank you for making Boulevard the number-one choice for Mary Kay business management! Find out more about Boulevard and Main Street Software, Inc. by visiting our website.

Please contact Main Street Software directly for customer service or technical support questions or issues.

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Getting Organized for Year End!

November 23, 2010   in   MSS news,Special offers

The end of the year always comes more quickly than we expect, so now is the time to get organized! Whether you are a long time customer or new to Boulevard, we can help with your choice of Inventory Setup, a Database Makeover, or even our Virtual Assistant services!

The Inventory Setup Service includes entering Section 1 on hand amounts, entering Section 1 Ideal amounts, and clean up of the Closeout Items product category. Valued at $75, you can purchase this service for just $30, and be up and running in minutes! Call us today to inquire or purchase.

A Database Makeover is the perfect way to clean up and organize your data. Our Database Makeovers are available starting at just $25. The best part? Each makeover level builds upon the previous and increases the amount of help we can provide to getting your systems in place and you back on track. Call our office today to discuss how a Makeover can help! Perhaps the problem is bigger than a makeover warrants… perhaps you’re behind on the data entry itself. We have a solution for that, too!

All of us have lives outside of our Mary Kay® businesses, right? Being a Mary Kay Consultant is a grand adventure, but there are times when other things happen and they take priority, so your business may take a back seat for a while. Life happening doesn’t keep customers from needing to reorder their skin care and cosmetics and doesn’t stop you from needing to order inventory to replenish what you are selling. It also doesn’t stop those ever present and inevitable business expenses from accruing. Sometimes it can keep you from being able to sit down at your computer to enter it though.

Is all of this sounding a little familiar? Do you find yourself in this position now? Maybe a paperwork pile three or four months (or more!) deep is threatening to spill onto the floor as you read this message. Does the thought of prepping for taxes – let alone filing on time – give you cold sweats and chills? We have the answer for you: Historical Virtual Assistant – and the professional, reliable competence of our Customer Service Representatives – to the rescue!

We have offered a Virtual Assistant Service for several years now and those using it swear by its positive effects on their business. Offloading your data entry to someone else frees up your time and energy to concentrate on actually building your business. Plus you can continue to take care of your family, enjoy your friends, and not get behind. Our historical Virtual Assistant service is perfect for helping you to fill in, catch up, and just get back to where you need to be.

We can help you to determine what needs to be entered by assessing your unique situation. Based on the number of months of entry and the amount of paperwork from each month to be entered, we will provide you a customized quote for this service. Not only will your data entry be completed by trained Boulevard professionals, it will be done neatly and to your specifications.

While you’re in the clean up and organization mode, do you have a plan for all those foundations you have in stock but are being discontinued by Mary Kay? You guessed it! We have a solution for that, too! Check out our awesome Product of the Month postcards. We suggest using these lovely cards to showcase specific products that you’re overstocked in or are being discontinued. You can purchase these cards in a set then prep and mail them yourself or, sign up for our Postcard Service and let us do the work for you! For just $0.70 a name including postage, you won’t find a better deal. Better yet, we provide a report you can use to follow-up and even remind you to follow-up after the cards are sent.

We believe in working this business full-circle – just like you have been taught in Mary Kay. We don’t like to leave anything to chance and are always looking for ways to simplify, streamline, and improve the odds of our customers’ success. Our Customer Service Representatives are waiting to assist you. Contact us, and let’s get started today!

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Did you know you could track commissions received in your Boulevard software?

August 3, 2010   in   Did you know...

In Boulevard you can enter and track business-related expenses and other income, assign categories, and view monthly expense and income totals. An abundance of report options are available to you too, so you can provide your accountant or tax preparer with the information they need.

Boulevard comes preloaded with some commonly used expense and income categories. You can change these categories and add new ones at any time so that you can customize to meet your specific needs. For example: maybe your accountant wants your commission checks broken down to show personal recruit and unit commissions separately.

If you or your accountant decide to delete a category that has expense or income transactions assigned to it, those entries become unassigned. Having each transaction properly assigned to the applicable expense or income category helps to ensure complete and accurate records for tax purposes at the end of your tax year.

You can also export expense and income information from Boulevard to financial software packages that accept QIF files such as Quicken®.  Any software that can accept this file type will work with your tax or financially pertinent Boulevard information. See Exporting to financial software in the Help menu for complete instructions.

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Keeping You & Your Customers Protected – Part 4

July 30, 2010   in   MSS news

Keeping You & Your Customers Protected

Last time we sent you an update, we were expecting ProPay® to launch their new service to the Mary Kay® community in the month of July. Here is the latest….

ProPay did release their Virtual Terminal ProtectPay system the first week of Seminar. This service allows you to enter and save credit card information through ProPay. Since ProPay meets the standards required by the credit card companies, you are assured your customer credit card information is safe and protected.

As reported in the Banking Business Review,

The sensitive cardholder data never resides [on the user’s computer]. The merchant receives a unique identifier that can be used for reporting purposes or repeat transactions, claims ProPay.

Of course the next most important piece of information you want to know is when will this work with Boulevard. In talking with a Vice President at ProPay, they were unable to provide to us an estimated date when Virtual Terminal ProtectPay will be ready for integration with other software programs. Rest assured – we will remain in contact and plan on working with them at such a time as their systems are ready.

 As a reminder, the safest storage method for credit card data until you sign up for Virtual Terminal ProtectPay is on paper in a locking drawer or cabinet. The chances of your home being broken into as opposed to your computer compromised are much lower. When the credit card was stored in the credit card field in Boulevard, the card number was encrypted within the data file. Even encrypted we were told the data was no longer considered safe enough.

If you enter the full card number into any area of the program, it will not be encrypted. If you’re syncing with a handheld device, you may now be carrying complete credit card numbers with you. In order to minimize your liability, we strongly suggest heeding the recommendations of the credit card industry and ProPay.

If you have not yet loaded your copy of Boulevard 2011, here are a few tips for retrieving the credit card information you have stored. 

    1. Only write down and save credit card numbers with current expiration dates.
    2. Begin with your first customer in Boulevard. Click on the Add’l Info tab. Write down the card number and name for each customer with current information.
    3. Store all credit card numbers (even handwritten pink tickets) in a locking drawer or cabinet. You could also take the time to register for Virtual Terminal ProtectPay and record the information there.
    4. Take a backup of your Boulevard information then load 2011.

As promised, we are keeping you updated every step of the way and will continue to do so. As a company and as consultants, we are grateful to the credit card industry and ProPay for doing what it takes to protect us. Please know that Main Street Software staff is available to answer questions and assist you in whatever way we can. As we correspond with ProPay and obtain any updated information, we will continue to keep you informed.

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Did you know you can use Boulevard Software’s List Builder feature to create custom lists?

July 6, 2010   in   Did you know...

Anyone whose name appears in your Boulevard software (in either the Customer, Unit, or Address lists) can be added to a Name List in the List Builder. Creating Name Lists simplifies mailing labels, call notes and group email. LuAnn also uses this list to enter the same call note for all recipients of this postcard.

Click here to watch a movie tutorial about the List Builder feature.  You can also view it within your Boulevard software’s comprehensive Help program. Choose Working with the List Builder (Name List) from the list of Movie Tutorials in Boulevard Help.

 

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Did you know… how convenient using Boulevard on-the-go could be to your business?

June 8, 2010   in   Did you know...

With the Avenue™ application for Windows® Mobile and Blackberry™ devices, you have the ability and freedom to take the most important Boulevard information with you. Why not have your business information at your fingers tips whenever and wherever you need it, even when away from your computer?

Access profile information for Customers and Address list contacts along with the ability to view up to two years of their purchase history. Need to know the production or contact information for a consultant in your team or unit? With Avenue you’ve got that too.

Dial any phone number directly from Avenue using your device dialer. And if your device has email capability,  email directly from Avenue application. These convenient features make it easy to stay in touch with customers and stay on top of the details even when you’re busy.

The Trip Log is an excellent tool that allows you to record business mileage while you’re out and about without having to write anything down. We didn’t stop there. Would you like to have your inventory at your fingers tips? How about the ability to create an invoice for those spontaneous on-the-go sales we all love to get? With Main Street Software’s handheld application, that’s possible, too!

Once home, just synchronize your device and everything is updated between Avenue and the Boulevard software on your computer. No internet or browser connection is required to run or synchronize Avenue with your computer. Safe, secure, and convenient – Main Street Software makes business mobility easy!

Order your copy of Avenue today!

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Did you know… Boulevard can provide the information needed to track your year-end Seminar sales goals?

May 25, 2010   in   Did you know...

We’re taught that setting a goal is the first step toward achievement. Follow-through is key, though. In your business, this means tracking.

Weekly Accomplishment Sheet & Personal Sales Tracking

Unit or Area recognition is often based on retail product sold during the seminar year. From Preferences inside Boulevard software, click on the Weekly Accomplishment tab and ensure Base YTD totals on Seminar Year is checked. The New Year-to-Date Sales Total on the Weekly Accomplishment Sheet will now reflect your seminar year sales.

   To view your sales, from under the Utility menu select Weekly Accomplishment (or by selecting the dollar sign symbol from the main toolbar).  Then File and Print Preview.

When retrieving weekly accomplishment information, if a message appears that tells you the seminar year is undefined, return to Preferences and select the Seminar tab this time.

 

In order to retrieve information for seminar year-to-date, the seminar year selected must be entered. For our customers on the premium Product Update Service, the summer CD will update this information for the upcoming year.

Queen’s Court of Sales Tracking

Unlike the Weekly Accomplishment Sheet, the Queen’s Court dialog shows the retail credit you have earned from Mary Kay® based on product orders placed throughout the seminar year. This is an excellent tool for tracking Queen’s Court of Personal Sales.  It shows a list of all product order totals in the current or previous seminar year as well as the total retail value of all orders and the Queen’s Court qualifying amount. To view personal production entered into your Boulevard software, click on the Product menu, then Order. In the Maintain Orders dialog select the Queen’s Court button.

Additional information can be found in the Help by hitting the F1 key at any time in either of these areas of Boulevard. 

We’d love to hear if you met your seminar goals and about your walk across stage in July! You can do it – and we’re here to help.

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Keeping You & Your Customers Protected – Part 1

April 27, 2010   in   MSS news

Security is an increasing concern with regard to identity and financial information. As a small business owner, you should be aware of some changes that will affect how you run your business. Effective July 1, 2010, changes will be in place that will affect how you process credit card transactions for your customers and the information you are allowed to store.

For detailed information, please visit the Cardholder Information Security Program section on Visa’s website.

For your convenience, please refer to the following chart to ensure you comply with VISA’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements if you choose to continue to store credit card data for your customers.

As a software vendor, Main Street Software, Inc. was required to make modifications to comply with these new regulations, too. At this time, we are approaching the new security regulations in two steps. The first step was to ensure the latest version of the software, Boulevard 2011, met the standards and expectations for maintaining cardholder security.

With the installation of Boulevard 2011, existing users must agree to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA) which specify that cardholder data previously stored in the provided credit card field(s) in Boulevard will be wiped out as this feature is no longer offered.

  • New users installing Boulevard 2011 will not have the credit card fields previously included in the software.
  • Users will no longer be able to submit credit card transactions from Boulevard to ProPay™ (US & Canada feature only).
  • Credit card numbers can no longer be entered as a payment method in Avenue and any credit card information entered into payment method in the Palm® application will be lost during synchronization.

These steps were taken for our users’ protection as well as ours. Boulevard users who choose not to upgrade to Boulevard 2011, who choose to store credit card data on their systems, or who choose to store that credit card data in other areas of Boulevard are solely responsible for any breach in security they may face. Main Street Software, Inc. is not liable for any fraud or security breach on its users’ systems.

Here is a sample of what some of our employees are telling their customers:

Dear Susie,

I want to let you know about some changes I have to make with regard to your account security. As you know, thousands of people every day deal with identity theft and credit card fraud. There are some new regulations that affect me as your consultant.

From this point forward, I am no longer able to keep your credit/debit card on file. I’m sure you can understand I want to comply with these laws and ensure your information is secure. I’ll note your account as preferring to pay by card and that way I can get the information each time you place an order.

Thanks for understanding!

Subsequent to the changes made to the Boulevard software for the 2011 version, Main Street Software, Inc. will continue to work with ProPay to find an appropriate future solution, if possible, to integrate payment submission. We want you to know that we are committed to a high-quality product that simplifies processes within your business. However, we are also committed to maintaining the integrity of Boulevard and complying with laws and regulations surrounding small business owners including security and fraud prevention.

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