SIMS Modules

SIMS iGallery Module

Creating an iGallery Album

Adding Details (Title, Alt, Description)

Removing An Image From An Album

If you would like to remove an image, select the image and then click the Remove Selected option.

Adding An iGallery Album to an Article

There are two ways you can post an iGallery Album on your article:

Deleting an iGallery

To delete an album, in the iGallery module, click the check box next to the Album Name. Click the Delete Selected button at bottom.

SIMS Calendar Module

The Calendar module is provided to SIMS licensees who have purchased this optional feature. The Calendar module allows you to add upcoming events to an online calendar on your website.

To view the Calendar module, select the Modules Tab from the Admin Menu, and then select Calendar. The Calendar information will load within the right-hand column of your SIMS Interface.

Included with the purchase of the Calendar Module is a customized calendar theme, designed to suit your companies brand.

Calendar Views

Events can be viewed in two different ways in a Calendar, depending on your needs. Both views use the same administration system and allow the user to select a start and end date, category, and add an event description. Both options also use a pop-up (modal) window to display event details to the user.

Viewing Events

In the Viewing table (default Calendar modules page), you are able to select the items, type, month and year of events you would like to view. Simply select the information you want, and click GO. If there are events coming up within your date range, you will have the option to delete or edit the events. By default, you will be able to view upcoming events for the current month.

Adding Events

1. From the SIMS Admin Panel, select Modules and then choose Calendar
   
   
2. At the top of the Calendar Panel, select Create Event.
   
   
3. In the first field, enter a name for your event.
   
   
4. If you choose, you can create types of events. Otherwise, keep the default setting.
   
   
5. Enter a start date and end date in the format MM/DD/YYYY. A calendar will open to assist in adding the date.
   
   
6. You can also enter the start and end time in the format HH:MM AM/PM.
   
   
7. In the final field, you can enter either a description or details of the event. You may also enter a URL where users can browse for further information, or link to a file by choosing the article or file browser icon to the left... If you just type in the address for a website with no added description, the users will be directed to that URL rather than seeing a description.
   
   
8. Click Save. Your new event will be added.

Deleting or Editing an Event

Calendar Type Manager

You can give events Calendar Types (or "Categories") to help in organizing events. For example, you may want to list events by Sales, Holidays, Special Events, Fundraisers, etc.

Adding a New Calendar Type

1. In the main Calendar Modules page, select Create Category on the top left.
   
   
2. Enter the Name for your new category.
   
   
3. Enter the Order number for the category. This will determine what order your category is listed in.
   
   
4. Toggle the Status of your Category Type. By default it is activated, but you may choose to temporarily hide the category from public viewing until a later date.
   
   
5. You may also choose to restrict access for a certain calendar type. For example, if you are using Visitor Accounts, only users who are logged in may see the events for this type.
   
   
6. When you are finished, be sure to Save.
   
   

Editing Calendar Types

You can edit a Calendar Type by selecting its name from the list of Calendar Types. A new screen will open where you can see how many event articles are associated to it as well as review any associated articles.

Removing a Calendar Type

In order to remove a Calendar Type / Category, all articles need to be disassociated from it. You can review if there are any associated articles with a Calendar Type by selecting it from the Calendar Type menu and selecting View Events. Once the Calendar Type is removed from these articles, you can safely remove it. If you have too many associated articles and need assistance removing a Calendar Type, please contact our support team.

SIMS Polls Module

The Polls module is provided to SIMS licensees who have purchased this optional feature. The Polls module allows you to add online opinion polls to your Web site.

Polls are a way to add interest to your Web site and to collect valuable opinions and information on your visitors.

To view the Polls module, expand the Modules Tab in the Admin Menu by selecting it, and then select Polls. The Polls information will load within the right-hand column of your SIMS Interface.

Adding a Poll

• In the Poll menu, select the Add Poll button located on the top of the screen. The Add Poll Screen will open.
  
  
• Enter your poll question into the Question field.
  
  
• In the Option fields, enter all possible answers (one answer per option field). You will need at least two options for a Poll.
  
  
• Select the Save button.
  
  
• Once your poll is saved, you will be returned to the main Polls page, which will display your newly added poll at the top of the list.
  
  

Editing a Poll

To Edit your poll simply click on the Question within the main Polls Module page.

Deleting a Poll

To Delete your poll, click the empty checkbox to the left of the question, then click the Delete button to the top of the screen.

Viewing Results

To view poll results, click View Results to the right of your question.

You will immediately be able to view your poll on your website, and view the results of the polls in terms of percentages.

Comersus, SIMS eCommerce Module

Online Shopping Made Easy

Sencia's e-commerce shopping cart is an add-on to our SIMS Content Management System, allowing businesses to sell products and services online easily and efficiently.

An e-commerce shopping cart offers you the ability to keep track of your inventory, while selling your products to a global market.

Add, edit or delete inventory, change prices, create sale items, add shipping costs, add taxes, and process payments online all with our easy-to-use e-commerce system. This shopping cart can work well for small or large businesses with limited or a large quantity of products.

Accessing the Comersus Module

To access the Comersus module, log into your SIMS administration panel.  yourdomain.com/administration

In the SIMS Admin Menu, expand the Modules menu by clicking on the [+], then select Store.

Welcome Screen

The welcome screen to the Comersus module will give you a quick overview of your shop.

Product Categories

Categories can be created to group products together. For example, you might want to group clothing items together, separate from accessories or home décor. You can create an unlimited amout of categories but you can only assign a product to a maximum of three different categories.

Product Categories act similar to Articles in the SIMS. Where Root Categories are main menu items and Categories listed under are Submenus.

Creating a new Category

1. Select Storefront> Products from the main Store menu. There will be three options available; Add, Modify and Product Assignments. Select Add under Categories.
   
   
2. You will be taken to the Add Category page. From here you can type in the name of your newly desired Product Category. If you wish to create a Subcategory, select an option to become a Parent Category; by default this is set as Root, which means it has no parent.
   
   
3. Select if you wish the new category to be active (if you uncheck this, a category will be created, but will not be accessible directly from your store). This can always be changed later on. Hitting the Save button will complete the creation process.
   
   
4. You will then be asked if you would like to upload an image for the Category you just created. This step is optional.
   
   

Modifying a Category

Select Storefront, Products from the main Store menu. There will be three options available; Add, Modify and Product Assignments. Select Modify under the Categories option. You will be taken to the Categories Tree.

The Categories Tree

The Categories Tree lists all current categories, as well as subcategories and sub-subcategories, etc. They are separated by four dashes next to each level. So:

Main Category
- - - -SubCategory
- - - - - - - -SubSubCategory

From here, you can select what to do with each Category.

Products

Adding a New Product

Select Storefront> Products from the main Store menu. Under the Products heading, select Add. You will be taken to the Add Product Page.

After all fields are filled out, select add to complete the process.

Once the product is successfully added, you will be taken to a page stating "Item added"

Things you can do now:

• Modify the stock for this product.
  
  
• Add additional product images.
  
  
• Send an email distribution to registered customers regarding this new product.
  
  
• Add another product.
  
  

Print Product Labels

Product labels can be generated for printing by going to…  Sales > Products > Print > one (or) all

This feature will generate a barcode using the product; Item Number, Stock Keeping Unit, Original Price and Wholesale price for BtoB customers.

Bundling Products

Sometimes you may want to list similar products in one page together. Bundling a product means creating one product listing into multiple products. For example, you may want to sell a set of book as one item, but list each individual book as separate below it.

To Bundle a Product, go to Storefront > Products > Bundle Products and Select/ Unselect Main

You will be brought to a search to select your main item. Type in the name of the main product you wish to bundle. You will get a message “The product was defined as Main product for the Bundle. To assign products click here...” Select the link.

From here you can select items from a dropdown list to assign to the bundle.

Product Options / Variations / Add-ons

Options/Variations can be added to a product for an additional cost. For example, you may be selling a shirt for $8 with an option to add a graphic for an additional $1.

Assigning Groups to Products

To add an option to a group, go to Storefront > Products > Product Options/Variations Management > Assign Options to Groups

Once the options have been assigned from your designed groups, you would still have to assign them to a product.

1. First, locate the product you wish to assign the group to, and hit select. Next, select the group you created previously and select Assign.
   
   
2. Comersus will automatically save your changes and refresh the page.
   
   
3. You can assign as many groups as you wish to the product. If no options are assigned to a group and you assign it to a product, it will not list in the product page.

Related Products

Related products can be added as product suggestions when viewing certain items. For example, you may want to draw attention to the “long sleeved shirt” while you are viewing the “pale gray t-shirt.”

1. To add a Related Product, go to Storefront > Products > Related Products > Assign/Unassign Related Products
   
   
2. You will be asked to locate the product you wish you assign related products to. Once you locate your product, you will be shown a list of categories you can choose the related product from. Find the category, then hit List Products.
   
   
3. You will be shown a list of all products in that category. When you find the suggested product, select it.
   
   
4. The product will now be listed as a related product, and you will be taken to a page title Related Products for (product name). If you wish, you can now assign more related products to this item.

Free Product Offers

Free product offers, are assigning products as free offers when purchasing another product. For example, if you purchase a “Book Collection” you will receive a free “T-Shirt.”

1. To assign a Free Product Offer, go to Storefront > Products > Free Product Offer > Assign/Unassign Free Product
   
   
2. Locate the item you wish you assign a free product offer to using the search.
   
   
3. You will be shown a list of product categories. Find the Category for the free item you wish to offer, then select List Products. Find the free item, and select it.
   
   
4. The free product offer is now assigned.

Stock

The Stock feature allows you to keep track of your products. Each time a product is purchased, its stock decreases by one. The Stock feature can also help calculate your total cost of inventory (which is listed on the welcome screen of Comersus).

To access the Stock Menu, go to Storefront > Products> Stock Menu

Listing Out of Stock Items

In the Stock Menu, select List-Out-Of-Stock Products. This feature will list any products with stock less than 0, letting you know which items need to either be restocked or removed.

Stock Chart

In the Stock Menu, select Stock Chart. This feature generates a graphical chart, listing your stock by product.

Product Reviews

The product reviews feature allows customers to rate and comment on products in your store, giving you feedback and/or ensuring the product quality to potential new customers.

Moderating a Review

When a new review comes in, you are given an option to either activate it or delete it.

By default, when a new review comes in, it will state so on the Welcome Page until action has been made. You will be given an option here to moderate it. Alternatively, this menu can be accessed by Storefront > Reviews > View Pending

In the “Activate Reviews” page, you are able to look over the review, who sent it and what they rated the product. From there you can choose to either Activate or Delete the review.

Deleting an Activated Review

One a review has been actvated, it will no longer be listed in the Pending Reviews page. To delete an already active review, go to Storefront> Reviews> Search by Keyword, type in the Subject of the submitted review. You will be shown the contents of the review. Select Delete. The review will then be removed.

Product Discounts

To access the Discounts Menu, go to Storefront> Discounts

Adding a Discount to All Products

To add a discount to all products, go to the Discounts Menu, under the section Add Discount, select All Products, you will be taken to the Add Discount page. Enter all the required fields.

Adding a Discount to Specific Products

1. To add a discount to ONE product, go to the Discounts Menu, under the section Add Discount, select One Product, you will be taken to the Add Discount page.
   
   
2. Search for the product you wish to apply the discount to then select it.
   
   
3. The form fields are the same as applying to All Products, only under Valid for Product, the name of the specified product will be listed.
   
   

Modifying a Discount

1. To modify a discount, enter the Discounts Menu, select Modify Discount.
   
   
2. You will be given a list of all created discounts. From there you can either modify or delete a discount. To inactivate a discount, select Modify and uncheck active.
   
   

Discounts per Quantity

Discounts per Quantity can be applied to a product to automatically give a discount when a specified number of a certain product is purchased. For example, you may want to give a discount when a customer orders more than 10 of a certain product.

Auctions

The Auctions feature can be used to sell products for undetermined amounts (ie, for a charity sale) or for less (stock you need to get rid of, etc.) They are held over a period of time, and can include minimum/maximum increments.

Setting up an Auction

To set up an auction, go to Storefront> Auctions, then select Create Auctions. Then locate and select the product you wish to create an auction for. Once selected, you will be taken to the Create Aution page.

*You can only hold one auction per product at a time.

*It is important to fill out all fields, do not leave them as default.

Completed Auctions

Once an auction is completed or a customer places a winning bid, both parties will receive an email notification. The winning bidder will receive an email, where they can then add the product to their cart. They will also receive an automatically generated discount code, which they can use to buy the product at the price they won the auction for.

Automatically Generated Discount Codes

When an auction is complete, a discount code is automatically generated. The code is 6 characters long and randomly generated. The code is set as a fixed price discount calculated by the regular price of the item minus the price won from the auction.

So if a product is regularly 10$, and the customer wins with a bid of 3$, the discount code will be for a fixed price of 7$. Once the code is activated, the discount code will expire.

Listing Auctions

To list all auctions and their statuses in a list view, go to Storefront> Auctions> List Auctions. This feature will generate a list of any auctions, active or inactive. From the action column you can also view if an auction has any current bids, or who the winning bidder was by selecting Offers. As well as this, you can also delete inactive or completed auctions, or modify them.

Orders

Comersus helps keep track of all your orders and allows you to check them by status; pending, delivered, cancelled and paid.

Listing Orders

To view a list of all your orders, enter the main Sales menu from Comersus. Select Orders> List All.

The List All Orders feature generates a paginated list of all orders from your store from newest to oldest. It allows you to check; the order number, the date the order was placed, the name of the customer who placed it, the total amount and the status. It also allows you to generate an invoice or a shipping label for each order.

Manually Entering an Order

Should you need to manually enter any orders into Comersus, you can do so by going to the Sales menu.

Manually Entering an Order for a Non-Existent Customer

1. 1. Under Orders, select Enter Orders.
      
      
   2. Enter your information into the required fields. By entering an order manually, a new customer record/account will be creating during the process. You can select at the start if you wish the new customer to be active (can log into your online store) or inactive (no online access).
      
      
   3. In the bottom section of the form you will be able to enter product sales information. Such as which products are being purchased, at what quantity and the price.
      
      
   4. Enter the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) of the product in the first field. To find a products SKU you can locate the product by clicking on the yellow arrow at the top. A pop up window will open, allowing you to locate the product. Press select and the SKU and product price will be automatically added to the form. By default, quantity will be set to 1.
      
      
   5. Once you are done adding all of the products and quantities press the Calc Total button at the bottom to calculate the total price after shipping, discount and taxes.
      
      
   6. When you are done filling out the form, press the Add button at the bottom. The record will be added to Comersus.
      
      

Manually Entering an Order for an Already Existing Customer

1. 1. If a customer account is already created, you can manually enter in an order by going to the Sales tab, then under Customers, select List All. Under the Orders column, select Enter.

Customer Accounts

In order to purchase products from your store, customers will need to create a customer account. A customer account keeps track of all the customer's details such as; Name, Address and Contact Info. Their accounts can also be used to keep track of their purchase history and enable you to assign customer-specific pricing on certain products.

Adding Customers

1. In order to follow through with a purchase, customers will be asked to create an account on your store site. Sometimes, however you may want to add customer details manually. This can be done through the Add Customer page under Sales> Customers> Add.
   
   
2. Fill out the required fields then press Save to complete the process.
   
   
3. During this step, you can also choose the Customer Type. Retail customers will receive regular prices. If a customer is set as Wholesale, then they will receive BtoB (buyer to buyer) pricing.
   
   

Changing Customer Details

If customer details need to be corrected, you can do so by going to Sales> Customers> List All. The List All feature will generate a list of all registered customers.

• To Change Name, Address, or Contact Details: Click on the customer's Name. You will be taken to the Modify Customer details page.
  
  
• To Update a Customer's Order: Under Orders, select View, then locate the order you wish to modify and click on the order number. This will take you to the View Order details page.
  
  
• To Assign Customer-Specific Pricing: Under Prices, select Assign. Locate the item you wish to assign a specific price for, then fill in the price and press the Assign Button. The same process is used in updating a customer-specific price.
  
  

Generating Sales & Product Reports

You can generate sales/product reports by selecting an option under Sales> Reports.

You can generate the following types of reports; Sales/Product, Orders/Month, Totals/Month, Revenue/Product, Product Important and Dead Products.

Supplier Reports

You can supplier reports by selecting an option under Sales> Suppliers> Sales Report. Supplier results can be used to determine supplier importance, how much revenue was generated from them and how their stock is.

Adding Payment Types

To add Payment Types, go to Settings> Payment> Add Payment Type

• Description: Add a description for the payment type
  
  
• Quantify/ Weight/ Price Limits: Select if you would like this payment type to have limits.
  
  
• Adding Payment Option Charges: If your payment type requires additional service charges (fixed amount or percentage of total order), you can add it here.
  
  
• External URL Form: If this payment type has an external form, you can add the URL here. Otherwise leave this field blank.
  
  
• Payment Email Text: This text will be shown to customers if they select this payment type during checkout.
  
  
• Customer Type: Select which customer types can apply to use this payment type.

Adding Shipping Options

To add Shipping Details, go to Settings> Shipping> Add Shipping Type

• Description: Enter what you would like this Shipping Option to be called. Ie) Express Shipping
  
  
• Quantify/ Weight/ Price Limits for Shipping Type: Select if you would like this shipping type to have limits.
  
  
• Adding Shipping/Handling Prices: Fill out these fields if you would like to add shipping/handling costs.
  
  
• Shipping Time: Fill out how long a customer can expect to receive their items when using this shipping type. Ie) 5-10 business days.
  
  
• Customer Type: Select which customer types can apply to use this type of shipping.

Taxes

The taxes feature allows you to automatically calculate the taxes for a product during the checkout process. Taxes can be added for specific products, by customer location and/or by customer type.

SIMS Visitor Accounts Module

Visitor Accounts

Creating a Visitor Account

Deleting a Visitor Account

Email Opt-In

Accessing the Module

Adding A New Mailing List

Viewing Your Lists

Address Lookup and Managing Users

1. Click the Address Lookup tab at the top right-hand side of the SIMS user interface.
   
   
2. Type a full email address in the Email Address field.
   
   

The Authors & Keywords Module

The Authors Module and the Keywords Module are tools available to all SIMS licensees, but can only be accessed by Super Users.

These modules allow Super Users view, edit, or delete Authors and Keywords, without needing to edit on a per-article basis (although users will need to edit an article directly to create new Authors and Keywords).

The Authors Module

If no authors are displaying, you may not be utilizing the Author Field. The Author field is available in the Article Editor by selecting the Publishing tab and filling out the input field titled "Author."

The Keywords Module

When expanding the Keywords Module, a list of Keywords will appear in the right panel. Selecting a keyword will display all articles associated with that specific keyword.

If no keywords are displaying, you may not be utilizing the keywords feature in your Articles. The Keywords field is available in the Article Editor by selecting the Meta tab and filling out keywords in the input field titled "Keywords." Each individual keyword should be separated by a comma. For example, if you are using the keywords "SIMS" and "Module," it will be listed as: SIMS, Module