Managing Your Candle Business with the Candle Business Tracker!

Candle Business Tracker

Roy Juers
Apopka, FL
"Certified Candle Freak!"

Thanks for your enthusiasm, patience, suggestions, donations, & testimonials!

It means so much!

Support

Choose a Topic:
◊ Get 1-on-1 Support ◊ Getting Started ◊ How-To ◊ Other Files ◊
◊ Q-and-A ◊ Tip & Tricks ◊ Updates ◊ What Goes Where? ◊

Get 1-on-1 Support-

The Candle Business Tracker (also called the CBT) is a complex document, even though it is very simple to use. There are a few basic things you should know and do, to get off on the right foot when you begin to use it. Here are some things that will help you get started;

First, I'm here to help answer any questions you have about using the CBT, but it's hard for me to diagnose things that may be happening on your computer itself. So it helps if you provide me some information so I can better assist you... things like:

Which version of the CBT you are currently using?
What kind of computer you use (PC or Mac) and what Operating System?
Do you have Microsoft Excel® or an Excel-friendly program like Open Office installed on your computer?
What tab of the CBT you were in when you began experiencing trouble?
Exactly what you were trying to do when you began experiencing trouble?
Have you gone through the Training Audio Series yet?

This information helps me a lot, so when writing for support for the first time, please try to include that info.

Please Do Not Call the Company for CBT Support-

While this website is linked to, through your company back office, and even though the company has approved this document, their Customer Service and IT Support teams cannot provide support for the CBT, and this is by design.

One thing I wanted to ensure, is that the company doesn't get burdened with questions about the CBT, because they don't know the document, and their time is too valuable helping us maintain our distributorships. That's why the CBT document itself is not in the back office.

Since this website was built exclusively for CBT distribution, training and support, it's here where you should initiate any contacts to get help... and I'll be happy to provide it... this baby's my pride & joy, so I'd love to see lots of people using it!

Please Go Through the Training Lessons-

Even if you're experienced with Excel®, it helps to go through the training lessons I built on the Training Audio Series page. You can probably skip the Excel Basics lesson if you know Excel pretty well, but it helps to just familiarize yourself with all the functionality of the Tracker, before you contact us for support. Many answers can be found there.

Entering Your Inventory into the CBT for the First Time-

When you first start using the Tracker, here's what you'll want to do first:

Use a sheet of paper to tally all products you currently have, but keep any Candle of the Month products separate.
Enter your inventory (except the COTM products) into the January (JAN) tab of the spreadsheet, in the Beginning Inventory column. like a checkbook, entering them into columns shown on the Schedule C, for much easier tax return preparation
Add your COTM products in the tab of the month they were released, on the day you typically receive them.
Enter your mileage from business trips, and it automatically transfers to your expense spreadsheet, in the reserved Mileage row for that month.

--------------------------------------------------------------

REMEMBER: The 2012 Tracker is an Excel 2007-based document.
It has grown beyond the abilities of Excel 2003. Attempting to open the 2012 CBT with Excel 2003 will crash the file, rendering it useless.

Your computer must have Excel© 2007 or later in order to use it,
or a program capable of "reading & writing" Excel files (like OpenOffice©)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Getting Started:
Entering Your Inventory into the CBT for the First Time

When you first start using the Tracker, here's what you'll want to do first:

Use a sheet of paper to tally all products you currently have, but keep any Candle of the Month products separate.
Enter your inventory (except the COTM products) into the January (JAN) tab of the spreadsheet, in the Beginning Inventory column. like a checkbook, entering them into columns shown on the Schedule C, for much easier tax return preparation
Add your COTM products in the tab of the month they were released, on the day you typically receive them.
Enter your mileage from business trips, and it automatically transfers to your expense spreadsheet, in the reserved Mileage row for that month.
Create the "business use" percentage for the number of square feet of your home office (if you are claiming or intend to claim one). In the 8829 tab, enter the total square footage of your home, and the square footage of your home office area(s), and the CBT computes your Business-Use percentage.

--------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------

How-To... Do Things in Excel

So many of you have asked whether you can fix an older version of your spreadsheet, rather than re-enter all your data into an updated version, and posed various other questions related to working with Excel.

I will address each of your concerns as best I can. Remember, if I release an updated version of the spreadsheet, the changes in it may be just aesthetic in nature, or there could be a real issue with calculations, which could mean inaccurate totals. So be sure to check the Updates page to see what the reason is behind the latest update.

Jump to the sections that cover the following topics:
Formatting to Print
Unlocking Cells
Sorting by Name or Date

-------------------------------------------------

How to Format the Tracker to Print

First, there are 4 things that dictate your printing:
Orientation- Either portrait (vertical page) or landscape (horizontal page)
Scaling- What size percentage of the original your print is
Paper Size- Usually Letter or Legal
Margins- The amount of border that shows around the edges of each page

To set up each tab for printing, go into each tab one-by-one, then use the File menu's Page Setup screen, to select the following settings for Orientation, Scaling, and Paper Size. That's a great start.

These are each tab's settings used in the Page Setup screen, to print 1-page wide. These are all set up, so you should have to do anything... but in case your Print Preview doesn't look like it'll fit one-page-wide, here are the settings:
* INSTR:
   Orientation: Portrait, Scaling: 100%, Paper Size: Letter
* SUMMARY:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 65%, Paper Size: Letter
* INCOME & EXPENSES:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 57%, Paper Size: Legal
* Form8829:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 90%, Paper Size: Letter
* JAN-DEC:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 65%, Paper Size: Legal
* MILEAGE:
   Orientation: Portrait, Scaling: 100%, Paper Size: Letter
* SCENTS:
   Orientation: Portrait, Scaling: 100%, Paper Size: Letter
* CUSTOMER-BASE:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 70%, Paper Size: Legal
* DISC:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 70%, Paper Size: Legal
* ADJ:
   Orientation: Landscape, Scaling: 87%, Paper Size: Legal

* Select File, Print Screen. A Print dialog box appears.
* Click Preview. If you don't see the whole page from left-to-right after doing the above, look for the horizontal and vertical lines that represent the margins (they go up & down and side-to-side at the edges). If they're not visible, clicking the Margins button at the top of the Preview window should make them appear.
* Use your mouse to drag the margin lines toward the far edges of the page, until the page fits from left-to-right.

Your print won't be one page from top-to-bottom obviously (since it's such a big sheet), but it should now be be able to print one page from left-to-right...

-------------------------------------------------

How to: Fix Cells That Are Locked, But Shouldn't Be

There should never be a need to unlock cells, because enough time has gone by since the Tracker's first release, that most issues related to locked cells have been resolved.

I've decided to remove the instructions for unlocking the Tracker, because there are many steps, and margin for error is high. If cells are locked accidentally, they could be hard to find, and if cells are unlocked accidentally, critical formulas for calculating things could be lost.

So if you ever feel the Tracker needs to be unlocked for any reason, feel free to call me, or shoot me an email at RoyJuers@mac.com, and I'll be happy to help!

---------------------------------------------------

How to: Sort Rows to Appear
In Alphabetical or Numerical Order

You can sort rows in Excel so they appear in the order you want them. However, there are only so many places you can really do this. One location is in the INCOME & EXPENSES tab, where sorting is helpful to get the expenses you entered into chronological order. This is ideal because you then don't have to worry about when or in what order to enter the information. You can simply go through one receipt at a time, and then sort the whole thing later.

The other location is the RETIRED tab, where each user will add their own discontinued scents to the list we already have, and sorting will allow them to appear in alphabetical order.

With respect to the RETIRED tab, allowing sorting required that I leave the Ending Inventory columns un-protected. Excel wouldn't allow sorting with the cells protected, so it was the only way I could get it to work. And since this tab will probably be the one people would most likely want to sort on, I decided to un-protect those columns. So here is what you have to do:

When you're in the RETIRED tab, go to the upper left corner of the Excel window, where the Cell Name Box window is shown
(a white box to the left of the Formula (fx) Bar). This box tells you where your active cell is (or "cursor" for lack of a better term).
Click your mouse inside that Cell Name Box and type the following: B7:BF66
This means you're selecting cells from Column B-Row 7, through Column
BF-Row 66. When you hit enter, you'll see all of those cells highlighted.
Go into the "Data" drop-down menu, and select the "Sort" subcommand.
When the Sort window pops-up, for the Sort By: field choose Column B, and for Order: choose Ascending.
Click OK. You should see that the scents you added are now integrated into the existing list, and they all are now in alphabetical order. That's it!

Caution: Since the columns I mentioned are not protected, it is possible to erase or corrupt the formulas. It is critical that you not modify the Ending Inventory columns, which are all highlighted in gray.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Other Files

--------------------------------------------------------------

Q-and-A

--------------------------------------------------------------

Tip & Tricks

--------------------------------------------------------------

Updates

--------------------------------------------------------------

What Goes Where?

--------------------------------------------------------------

MORE INFORMATION WILL BE ENTERED HERE IN THE COMING DAYS & WEEKS

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for all your patience, help and questions...
Keep It Coming!

Roy

You are here:
Support

-- Quick Links --

Main

Get Started

Any Suggestions?

Testimonials

Tips & Tricks

What Goes Where??

~ Main Page~ Contact Us~ Donate ~ FAQ ~ Get Started ~ How-To ~ Other Files ~ Purchase ~
Q & A ~ Site Map ~ Support ~ Testimonials ~ Tips & Tricks ~
Tracker Training ~ Updates ~ What Goes Where?

Roy Juers, Candle Business Tracker Author; 1307 Villa Ln, Apopka, FL 32712
PH: (703) 232-0832

© All Rights Reserved, MMVII-MMXV

Candle Business Tracker, Tax Deduction Guide,
Store & Show Checklist, Income Analysis Spreadsheet