Installing the sample data

If you are installing KVS for the first time...

If you are installing KVS for the first time, just follow the installation instructions. After KVS has created the first new database, it will offer to enter the sample data for you. When you are ready to enter your own data later, you will simply need to create a new, empty database.

If you have already installed and used KVS...

If you have already installed and used KVS, but would like to go back and see the sample data, just follow this procedure:

1. Log onto your computer as a user with database administrator rights. Normally, this means logging on as "administrator" on the computer where your database server is running.
2. Start KVS and log in as "management"
3. Open the database options window (File:Database)
4. Create a new database
5. Ensure that the database is selected in the menu
6. Close and restart KVS
7. KVS will ask for permission to update the database structure to the current version - click "yes"
8. KVS will ask if it should enter the sample data into the empty database - click "yes"

Note: each KVS user has his or her own setting that tells KVS which database to use. If you log in as a different user or on a different machine after creating a new database, you will have to select your new database from the database options window. To help prevent errors, you should delete the sample database when you are finished using it.

Contents of the sample data

Course types and prices

To begin, let's look at the relationship between course types and prices. Determining the course types that your school needs, and the price structure that you will use, is one of the first and most important decisions.

Under "Data:Courses:Course types" you will see two course types: "private" for private lessons given to a single person and "small group" for groups of 3 to 6 students. Both of these course types are for "variable" courses, as opposed to "semester" courses. The salient difference between variable and semester courses is that variable courses can start any time and continue as long as desired, whereas semester courses take place during the dates that you enter under "Parameter:Semester".

Under "Accounting:Prices:Names" you will find four price names, two for individual students and two for groups. Price names for individuals and groups must be distinct, and - to prevent errors - it should be obvious from the name whether the price applies to a person or an entire group. The sample data defines a "standard" and a "discount" price both for individuals and for groups.

Note that there is, as yet, no mention of actual prices. Prices are assigned to course-type/price-name pairs. It is easiest to view this as a table:

Individual prices and group prices are entered separately. You will find the four individual prices under "Accounting:Prices:Individual rates", and the four group prices under "Accounting:Prices:Group rates".

It is not necessary to define a price for every course-type/price-name pair. If a price is not defined, then the price name will not show up as an option when selling courses of that course-type.

The important point here is that the same price names can be used for more than one course type. A simple price structure with a small number of price names will make later data entry much easier.

Addresses and companies

Under the menu "Data: People: Addresses" you will see that 10 addresses have been entered. Addresses are the basis for students, teachers, companies, and members of groups.

Among these addresses you will see one company address, "Big Bank HQ". This is an address like any other. It only has a special meaning as an address of a company after we have defined a company (Data:People:Companies) and associated this address with the company.

The idea is that a single company may have many different addresses. The addresses are entered normally, and then selected when you define the company, as shown at right.

In addition, you can define default prices for each company, both for groups and for individuals.

Groups are intended to represent flat-rate bookings for a group of students. For example, if a company asks the school to offer a German course for up to 6 employees, the school has a standard price of 80.00 for such courses. If the company sends fewer than 6 students, the fee remains the same - it is a flat-rate for a particular course type.

If the company gives the school enough business, the school may decide to offer the company a discount. This is where company-specific prices become relevant. By selecting the button for group-prices, you can set which price the company receives by default, when booking group courses. This price can, of course, be changed on a case-by-case basis.

The button for individual prices works similarly, except that it applies to individual students signing up for courses, rather than to groups.

Note: if no price is selected, then KVS selects the highest price by default.

Students and groups

People who take courses as individuals - that is, there is a booking with their name on it - are defined as students.

People who only take courses as part of a group, but who do not take any courses as an individual need not and should not be defined as students. Bookings refer to the group, and individual people may join or leave the group as the course progresses.

In the sample data, there are seven people participating in courses: four as individuals and three as members of a group. The following table shows a summary:

 You can see the definition of the students under "Data:People:Students", and the definition of the group "Big Bank German" under "Data:People:Groups".

One point that will be important below, when we look at bookings: note that Hans Mustermann also works for "Big Bank". Big Bank has negotiated a discount price for individuals taking small-group courses (as shown above). When we look at bookings below, we will see that Mr Mustermann has received the company price for his small-group booking.

Teachers

The sample data defines two teachers, one who teaches English courses, and one who teaches German courses.

You may want to have a look at the definitions of the individual teachers, particularly their availability and qualifications.

Courses

Three courses have been defined. One of these is a small group course, one is private instruction, and one is a small group course for the group "Big Bank German". This latter course takes place at the company, and so does not occupy a room in the school - you can see this in the portion of the "Daily Plan" shown at right.

Bookings

Under "Data:Bookings:Individual you can see the various bookings by individuals, where they have purchased course-lessons.

Of particular interest here is the "Discount" price for Hans Mustermann. When entering a booking for a small-group course for Mr. Mustermann, this is the price KVS selects by default. The reason for this is that Mr. Mustermann works for the company "Big Bank", which has negotiated a special price for its employees.

For all other students, KVS selects the most expensive price by default, which is the price "Standard".

Going farther

If you want to see the dynamic aspects of KVS - entering attendance lists, doing course clean-up, and so forth - you will need to do the following:

1. Be sure that some events are scheduled to take place tomorrow. If necessary, schedule course meetings or additional events.
2. Take the database out of "setup mode" (File:Options:General). To do this, you must be logged in as "management", and the action cannot be reversed. See the handbook page on "initial data entry" for further information on setup mode. Now take a break until tomorrow. 
3. When you start KVS tomorrow, KVS will archive the events, and they will appear under the "Event cleanup" on the list of pending administrative tasks shown at system start-up.
4. After you have closed a few events, have a look at the various reports. For example, the student journals will show that students have been debited for attending courses, and the teacher journals will show that the corresponding teachers have been credited.