The
Catalog and Office Software Suite

... is an integrated group of programs designed to

• produce printed and online catalogs for collectibles dealers and auction houses
• manage all administrative aspects of an office, including
  • mailing lists
  • accounting
  • live auctions and mail sales.

Who it is designed for:

Dealers and auction houses specializing in collectibles of any sort, including:

• antiques
• autographs
• celebrity memorabilia
• coins
• fine arts
• gem stones
• historic documents
• jewelry
• paintings
• sports memorabilia
• stamps
• watches and timepieces
• and more.

Background and general features:

Michael K. Johnson Associates began as an independent consulting group in 1990. At that time we focused mainly on consulting and catalog management for our clients (mainly specialized auction houses and large collectibles dealers), providing advice and services for all aspects of catalog production. Our software suite grew out of our in-house need for a powerful catalog production and management system.

The software suite is entirely Windows based and has been for years (it will run on any flavor of Windows, from Windows 95 through Windows 2000 to the just released Windows Vista). It makes full use of Windows features to display data in a sophisticated, graphically-oriented format. When you need to make a selection, for example, you will see some kind of list presented to you in English (or French or German or Italian, depending on how you had configured the display - our programs are multilingual). There are no arcane or obscure codes to enter or remember.

Versions of our software suite intended for businesses with less than 25 computers normally ship with "desktop" databases (mostly Paradox, but occasionally dBASE). These have the advantage of being simple to use and maintain, and are royalty-free.

Features of the catalog production programs:

• A sophisticated system for lot entry. The system understands specific collectibles, changing format as the collectibles change. It is intended for people who understand collectibles, but who are not necessarily computer geniuses.
• An extensive built-in reference system for specific collectibles. This includes:
  • for autographs: a built-in database of biographies.
  • for coins: a database of all U.S. coins, including patterns (accessible by Judd numbers).
  • for currency: a database of all U.S. notes (accessible by Friedberg numbers).
  • for postal history: databases of French ballon monté flights, U.S. fancy cancels, U.S. waterway covers and more.
  • for stamps: a rare stamp database which now includes approximately 65,000 entries. Just enter a country and a catalog number, and the basic description - and all necessary sorting codes - will usually jump into place.
• The ability to sort a catalog electronically, with highly configurable sorting options that can be varied from catalog to catalog. Coin catalogs, stamp catalogs, autographs, celebrity and sports memorabilia, literature, fine arts - it doesn't matter what it is, so long as the lots have been correctly described, they can be entered in completely random order and still fully sorted in seconds. We have not needed to manually sort lots in over a decade.
• Support for all the other elements of a polished catalog. This includes:
  • headers
  • indexes
  • prices realized
  • sessions
  • tables of contents
• Close support for catalog photography. Scanning ability is completely integrated - you can scan from the built-in catalog photo editor, which shows you which lots need photos, at what percentage, whether they've already been taken etc, and which saves the scanned images with the correct file names to the correct directory. You can see the photos alongside the corresponding descriptions - as you move from description to description, the photos change accordingly.
• Output to the major printed catalog platforms (Corel Ventura, Adobe FrameMaker and PageMaker, Quark Express and RichText), also HTML for the internet. Markup codes are inserted automatically as needed, and can be converted from one format to another easily. You enter catalog descriptions only once - the system takes care of reformatting the text if it needs to move from one output environment (printed auction catalog for example) to another (such as the internet).
• Full support for the internet. Catalog output can be done in HTML format, and streamed to your web site. An integral FTP client allows you to send an entire directory of your catalog photos to your web site in one quick operation.
• Full integration of the finished catalog with the accounting system.
• Dozens and dozens of different reports
• Numerous utilities to automate bulk operations, including:
  • Changing estimates or reserves or other values by percentages - for all (or selected) lots in a catalog or batch.
  • Repeat descriptions, in whole or part.
  • Enter certain description elements only where they change - and the system will fill in all the intermediate records.
  • Extensive search and replace.
  • Batch constants can be applied to an entire batch of lots, or to a whole catalog.
  • Spell check.
  • Bulk e-mail.
  • Convert a directory of images from one format (e.g., ".tif") to another (e.g., ".jpg").
• All elements of the catalog production system can be accessed, viewed, edited and managed from one central point, the Catalog Explorer, which features a graphical interface intentionally similar to the Windows Explorer. Many of the commonest operations can be done by a simple drag-and-drop with the mouse.

Features of the office programs:

• A full double-entry accounting system, with extensive support for collectibles-industry specific accounting features (such as unique inventory, batch processing of auctions/mail sales, catalog specific income and costing, and more). The system was designed for companies that might not have full-time bookkeeping personnel on staff, so most entry screens are intentionally simple and easy to use even by people without any formal accounting training; however all the features that your accountant will want are also included. You will find extensive reporting abilities including dozens of reports and on-screen views plus very sophisticated searching capabilities.
  Included are modules for:
  • Banking and Cash Management
  • Expenses
  • Fixed Assets
  • General Ledger
  • Inventory
  • Payables
  • Receivables
  • Sales
  The accounting system will support:
  • Multiple companies, each with its own separate set of books
  • Multiple departments per company
  • Multiple bank accounts
  • Multiple currencies. Each company, department, bank and auction can have its own currency
• Customer/mailing list management, allowing you to track all your customer data, addresses, preferences and buying/selling history, and pull names for any mailing (catalog or otherwise) with quite complex search options possible.
• Live auctions and mail sales, an extremely sophisticated system with support for:
  • Bid entry
  • Onscreen pre- and post-sale summaries by bidder, consignor and lot (easily searchable).
  • Selling, whether live - on the auction floor - or as a mail sale, with features to track limit and "or" bidders. The auction "hammer price" program is fast and versatile, shows bids per lot (in amount order), allows floor bidding and mail bidding and can accomodate itself to any standard auction increments
  • Over 3 dozen reports, including bid books (all lots or for specific consignors), unsold lot reports, sale summaries (by buyer, consignor or by lot), prices realized etc.
  • Invoicing (printed or electronic via e-mail).
• Extras including documents/letter management via the system's own documents database, integration with Microsoft Office, package tracking and more.