Hi! Welcome to Getting Started with Blackthorne
Pro!

Have you been reading all the problems about BTPro on the discussion
boards? Scared? Remember - people are more prone to complain rather than
give kudos. I have had few problems with BT - and many of those were in
alpha or beta testing, where we brought up certain issues which were fixed
prior to an official upgrade. Yes, right now there are still a few bugs
that pop up now and then - but I find BTPro to be a superb program overall
and suspect that once you get past the learning curve, you'll agree. Right
now, there are about 100,000 eBay listings running which were created
with BTPro (so a description search on "eBay Blackthorne" to
see) - surely the sellers of those listings are getting some work done
with it!

/cheerleading

I will be explaining first, how BTPro is organized so you can learn
your way around it. Next, I'll explain the processes you do to create
an item record, submit a listing to eBay & handle the sales data.
I'll explain a bit about reports you can run or produce. This overview
should help you make sense of this very-involved application. Please ask
questions if I can clarify my presentation.

HOW BTPRO IS ORGANIZED

This graphic provides an example of how I see BTPro is organized. Items,
listings & sales hold the main data. Suppliers, consignors & buyers
hold data about your items and sales. The filters & grids, program
options, business rules, account info and templates support the data in
many ways.

So, what do these terms all mean in this context?

• Item records include the information you need to provide to post a
  listing on eBay


• Listing records are items submitted to eBay, those scheduled to submit
  and listings which can be rescheduled


• Sales records includes data about the listings after the sale has
  been made on eBay


• Suppliers are your vendors, companies you purchase your inventory
  from


• Consignors are your clients whose items you list and sell on eBay


• Buyers are those who bid and buy your items on eBay

The above are all standard terms used in BTPro. The others are not necessarily
the "official" terms, but are terms I'm using to illustrate
the organization of BTPro:

• Filters & grids - organizing your data in items, listings &
  sales


• Program options - the layout & cosmetic features of BTPro


• Business rules - "rules" to apply to how your items are
  processed


• Account info - settings which identify your business


• Templates - the presentation of your listings, reports & emails

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!

Let's take these one at a time...

ITEMS

In your item records, you will enter information into most (rarely all)
of the fields. This info will include the details you need for your eBay
listing (your eBay seller ID, photo host, title, description, prices,
duraction, listing type, shipping, and so on.) You may also enter information
about inventory levels, refer to your supplier (vendor) and consignor
(client) if appropriate. You may make notes about where you store the
item or other information that helps you.

I suggest you first set up an Item Template by clicking on the Item Template
folder in the sidebar of the Items Views. Duplicate the default template
and put your own temporary title in, such as "GOing1nceAMC Item Template".
Now, enter all your defaults into the various fields. For example, if
you generally sell items that ship via a certain carrier for a certain
flat rate, select your shipping preset so it will be used in your item
records. (You may edit any of this data in the actual item record as needed
in the future.) I have an Item Template for my client, RB. This has the
default Ad Template (more about these in a bit) I use for her items and
it includes her as my consignor with the consignment plan I generally
use for her items. Of course, I have her usual item categories, shipping
and other fields so that I can then create an item without having to do
the same thing over & over.

Which brings us to creating an item record. You may create an item in
the All Items folder, but that can be cumbersome. Right-click just below
the All Items folder to create a new folder. Name this folder (right-click>rename)
something that aids in your organization - I name them by the date I'll
be listing all records within that folder. You might want to put all those
pink fuzzy slipper records into a pink fuzzy slipper folder - do what
makes sense to you.

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!

REVISE or RELIST

Should you want to modify your running listing on eBay, you may choose
to revise the item thru the Monitor Listings window. Select the function
you wish to perform then complete the record windows appropriately and
submit your revisions.

Those which qualify to be relisted (eligible for the relist fees credit)
can be relisted from the Monitor Listings window. Those eligible will
be found in the Relistable filter in the sidebar. Select any items to
relist, click on the Relist link near the top of the window, make your
changes & submit 'em.

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!

For
info about my Blackthorne Pro Quick
Start Guide, workshops & consultation, please see my ABOUT
ME page!