In this paper we present software solution for managing a small business with fixed number of products, prices and quantities. The presented software application is developed on a dot NET platform using programming language C\# and it is designed for the most used operating system - Windows. The software application provides different functions for different types of uses

Eminov, Deniz

Kordov, Krasimir

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Mathematical and Software Engineering, vol. 4, no. 1, 12-17, 2018.Varεpsilon Ltd. http://varepsilon.com/index.php/mse/Applied Software for Managing a SmallBusinessKrasimir Kordov and Deniz EminovDepartment of Computer Informatics Faculty of Mathematics andInformatics Konstantin Preslavski University of Shumen, 9712 Shumen,BulgariaAbstractIn this paper we present software solution for managing a small business withfixed number of products, prices and quantities. The presented software applicationis developed on a dot NET platform using programming language C# and it isdesigned for the most used operating system - Windows. The software applicationprovides different functions for different types of uses.Keywords: Applied software; Software application; Software1 IntroductionThe development of application software requires deep knowledge in the software industryto determine the current modern trends in software implementation. Designing processof a software product precedes the actual realization and needs to correspond with theneeds and activities of the company for which it is intended. It is mandatory to bedefined variety of important indicators such as software platform, programming language,operating system for working with the software, database management system, networkconnection, etc. The choice of these factors depends entirely on the company activity, inorder to effectively manage company business itself.2 Types of softwareEvery company that faces a choice of software for their business needs to choose to usecompany template software or to use custom-made software. Choosing between one ofthese two general types is mainly related to the costs that are provided by the company.The template software is usually the cheaper solution, but the custom-made softwareresponds more accurately to company needs [3, 5].122.1 Company template software (Universal software)This type of software is used by companies with the same or similar business. There isa variety of this type of software for different activities such as hotel management, salesmanagement, storage inventory management etc. This software is known as universalsoftware and has template structure, so it can be used by as many as possible companies.This can bring the developers large profit guaranteeing large number of sold copies, evenif the price is not high.Advantages:• Low cost - determined by the circulation• Suitable for wide use• User friendly interface• User manual is provided with the software• In most cases there is option for software updatesDisadvantages:• It does not fully meet the requirements of each company• There may be unnecessary functions and missing functions that are important tothe business• The user is fully responsible for its proper use.2.2 Custom-made softwareCustom made software is specific software developed for certain persons or companies.This software is designed for concrete company needs directly focused on managing allthe company activities. This goal cannot be achieved by universal software. The mostcommon factor for this type of software is the high cost.Advantages:• Fully developed for the company needs• Includes all the functionality needed for managing the company business• Specific user friendly interface• User manual is provided with the software• In most cases the software developer provides a warranty period for maintenance• The company is able to make certain requirements such as specific user interface,operating system etc.Disadvantages:• High cost• There is no upgrade option• If software needs upgrades, additional costs are required133 Applied software for managing a small businessConsidering the advantages and disadvantages of the types of software, we designed ap-plied software for a small business management, which aims to overcome one of the disad-vantages of the custom made software - the high price. The presented software is designedfor sample company with fixed number of products and the purpose of the software ismanaging the sales and the company’s turnover. We used MS Visual Studio 2015 [11],dot NET 4.6.1 [6, 10] and programming language C# [1, 4] for making the software whichmakes the software usable on the most popular operating system Windows, allowing ad-ditional reduction of the expenses for the company.3.1 Product assortmentThe products offered for sale are a fixed number, their names and prices have been deter-mined and provided by the company and the implementation of the software is consistentwith the set product assortment. Figure 1 shows the view of the software applicationdepicting the sample product assortment and product prices, divided into two main cat-egories - Hot Beverages and Confectionery.Figure 1: Sample product range3.2 Access rights according to the role of usersStandard approach for the most software applications is providing various opportunitiesfor users according to their role in the organization or company. This can significantlyfacilitate the work of users, considering that for each type of user only the functionsnecessary for their specific activity are provided. Another important point of this approachis the protection of information by limiting the functions of changing and deleting datafrom unauthorized persons. The presented application software uses this concept withtwo types of users - a standard users and administrators. The roles provided are sufficientfor the exemplary company because the sales are made by employees (users with status -standard user) and the supervision is done by a manager (user with status - administrator).143.3 IdentificationThe process of identifying a person is called identification. The presented software requiresentering a user name and password to log in to the system. Figure 2 illustrates a formfor logging into the system.Figure 2: IdentificationAn invalid username or password make the access to the system impossible. The needonly for employees to work with the software comes from the importance of financialtransactions that reflect sales and are directly related to the business of the company.The applied software has an option to recover a forgotten password, and for this purposeit is necessary to answer a secret question previously entered by the user himself.After successful identification, the software automatically recognizes the type of userand provides the user with the software capabilities provided for that type of user.Some security definition and constructions of basic cryptographic primitives can befound in the work of [2], [7], [8], and [9],3.4 Standard userThe first type of users who work with the applied software are employees, managing thesales. Their options for working with the system are:• Products selection - marking the products selected by the customer and their quan-tities.• Calculation of the final amount - determines the amount due to the customer forthe selected products.• Reseting of values - used for correction of selected products, quantities or ordercancellation.• Cash receipt printing - used to printing cash receipts for the customer with markedproducts and quantities.153.5 AdministratorsThe second type of users who work with the applied software are the administrators whoare responsible for the company’s management. Their options for working with the systemare:• Administrators have all the capabilities available to standard users.• Add users - used to add new users to work with the software.• Delete user - used to remove users no longer needed to work with the software.• View reports - an overview of the monthly turnover of products sold, quantities andsales of specific users.• Access to Control Panel - the administrator can change some simple settings of theapplied software.4 ConclusionEvery company uses the benefits of computer technology in its business, as in most casesit is mandatory for successful business. For start-ups companies, the estimated softwarecosts are often small, and in some cases, no such software costs are anticipated at all. Inthese cases, universal software is possible solutions, but they do not cover all the specificrequirements of each particular company. The most suitable option is the individualapproach to the creation of applied software, which is fully consistent with the company’sactivities.This article provides applied software for managing a small business of a sample com-pany. The modelling of the software was done after an analysis of the types of softwarefor business management and specific company needs and activities (such as product as-sortment, types of users, customer service, etc.). The implementation of the software ismade on dot NET, and the application can be used on all Windows-based computers thatoccupy the largest market share in the world. The application does not require additionalsoftware and license costs, which is an important factor in determining the cost of smallbusiness.AcknowledgementThis work is partially supported by the Scientific research fund of Konstantin PreslavskiUniversity of Shumen under the grant No. RD-08-122/06.02.2018.References[1] T. Archer, A. Whitechapel, Inside C#, Second Edition, ISBN 0-7356-1648-5.[2] K. Kordov, K., B. Stoyanov (2017) Least Significant Bit Steganography using Hitzl-Zele Chaotic Map. International Journal of Electronics and Telecommunications,63(4), 417-422. https://doi.org/10.1515/eletel-2017-0061.16[3] P. Laplante, What Every Engineer Should Know about Software Engineering. BocaRaton, CRC, 2007.[4] Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Visual C# .NET Deluxe Learning Edition, ISBN0-7356-1633-7.[5] J. Morris, Software industry accounting, John Wiley & Sons, 2001.[6] J. Richter, Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming, ISBN 0-7356-1422-9.[7] S. Stanev, B. Stoyanov (2016) Challenges of Steganography to Information Securityand Training of Specialists. Annual of Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen,Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, XVII C, 89-111. http://info.fmi.shu-bg.net/skin/pfiles/godishnik-2016-fmi-89-111.pdf.[8] B. Stoyanov (2014) Pseudo-random Bit Generation Algorithm Based on ChebyshevPolynomial and Tinkerbell Map. Applied Mathematical Sciences, 8(125), 6205-6210.http://dx.doi.org/10.12988/ams.2014.48676.[9] B. Stoyanov, K. Szczypiorski, and K. Kordov (2017) Yet Another PseudorandomNumber Generator. International Journal of Electronics and Telecommunications,63(2), 195-199. https://doi.org/10.1515/eletel-2017-0026.[10] URL: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt472912(v=vs.110).aspx- MSDN Library - .NET Framework Class Library (30.05.2018).[11] URL: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb165114(v=vs.140).aspx- MSDN Library - Visual Studio Extensibility Architecture (30.05.2018).Copyright c© 2018 Krasimir Kordov and Deniz Eminov. This is an open access article distributedunder the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.17

Applied Software for Managing a Small Business

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Applied Software for Managing a Small Business

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