We’ve got some good and bad news for you.

We’ll start with the bad.

• There is no single software application that encompasses all aspects of business management for the Mary Kay sales force.
• Almost all Directors agree, “money mis-management” is the #1 reason Consultants quit their MK business. This is why an inventory/customer management program are a great supplement to Ascend, not the other way around.

The good news:

• Ascend is the FIRST software program a consultant should buy. You can eyeball your shelves to see what you need; and you can keep profile cards. However, you CANNOT fake-it-unitil-you-make-it with business finances! Those who try often end up profitless and eventually close their business.
• There are several customer/inventory management software applications, each with their own special twist on how to get this done.
• Using two programs will not complicate your life. The IRS cares more about what you did with the money your business earned than it does who you sold it to, and how much. Ascend tracks all your legal tax deductions, creates all the proper documentation, and balances your books for you with one click of a button. In inventory programs, you have to manually type in every receipt for tax documentation, but you’re still missing a big piece! Your business books. Ascend does all of this for you; no double entry is necessary.

Let’s suppose you had two classes this week,

• You sold $300 at each; collected $600 total, and took it to the bank.
• At you gave each hostess $50 of free product.
• That means $700 of product moved off of your shelf this week—even though you only collected $600 from your sales.

Ascend knows in order to replace what you discounted or gave away, you will need additional income into your Inventory and tax Envelopes.

After you deposit this week’s sales, you tell Ascend how much (in retail dollars) you discounted or gave away this week.

• Gave away $100

Then how much you actually collected/deposited.

• $600 collected/deposited

With these two questions answered, Ascend calculates the wholesale cost of what you discounted/gave away:

• $50 extra is needed in the Inventory Envelope
• It transfers the $50 from Profit into Inventory
• Makes all the proper documentation on your tax reports and in your checkbook register .

At the time, Ascend also figures the Retail Sales Tax of what you discounted/gave away and transfers it to the Tax Envelope. Plus makes all the proper documentation for tax time. That way you can always replace what you’ve discounted or gave away.

There’s a big difference between product purchases and what you actually sell. While you may qualify for that quarterly prize because of your purchases—that doesn’t necessarily mean you sold it all!

The same is true between having a total sales goal and a paycheck goal.

On the Settings and Options screen, you can personalize your quarterly sales goal. Ascend will update this goal by what you deposit at the bank or by ProPay transfers.

The Paycheck goal is, “How much I want to take home to my family this quarter.” Ascend tracks this amount and updates your goal summary every time you use the Write My Paycheck button. When you click, “View My Goals” button, Ascend will show you what the goal was and where you stand in achieving your goal.

Note: You may change the quarterly star to annual Queens Court if you wish from the Settings and Options screen > Promotions drop down.

A spending plan is based on salesactivity. Consultants and Directors need a spending plan for their retail business. Their cost of goods “budget” is directly proportional to how much they’re selling. Ascend Financials is a program that easily employs a spending plan for the Retail side of your business.

An operatingbudget is a plan for a business’ money based on fixed expenditures and estimated business revenue. Sales Directors musthave an operating budget if they want to run a million dollar organization! Whether a Director has a unit of 30 or 300, she has fixed expenses. (e.g. meeting room rental)

Ascend Leadership gives the Sales Director an easy interface to maintain her operating budget (What does it cost to run my Unit and pay myself?) Plus it provides the Director the same interface Consultants use for their retail business.

We get asked every single day, “Why do I get a credit card offer every month from MK Connections, but can’t buy the very thing that will keep me in business and out of debt?”

Or we hear, “Why do I have to send my Consultants to the Vendors to find you at Seminar—why can’t we find you in the Expo?”

Everyone knows that Corporate listens to the sales force. If you share our passion for a financially successful, empowered sales then tell Consultant Education what you think of Ascend! Their number is: (979)

InTouch and MK connections are registered trade marks of Mary Kay, Inc. Entheos Software Design is not affiliated with Mary Kay, Inc.

If you bought the CD version of your software you can find the serial number on the back of the box that it came in.

If you do not have the box, or if you bought the download version of your software, you can find your serial number by:

1. Clicking the “Help” menu option from the main menu bar along the top of the window.
2. Clicking to select the option “About Ascend Financials” or “About Ascend Leadership” or “About Ascend Home” (depending on which program you are using).
3. In the window that pops up, you will see an information box that says “This product is licensed to:” which shows your registered user name and then your serial number.

Because your financial data file is essential and irreplaceable if lost, you should regularly back up your file.

Your Ascend software automatically prompts you to back up your file to the default backup folder on your hard drive whenever you exit the program. You should also copy your backup file to another location in case your hard drive should fail. This other location can be a writable CD, external hard drive, or a high capacity USB memory key. Floppy disks do not have enough capacity to store your data.

To manually copy your data:

1. Make sure your Ascend Software is closed.
2. Open the Windows Explorer
   From the desktop right-click on the 'Start' button
   Select 'Explore'
3. On the left side of the computer screen navigate to and click on the C: drive
   Depending on your computer, you may have to open (double click on ) the 'My Computer' icon
4. Still on the left side of the screen, double-click on the folder 'Program Files', then double-click on the folder 'Entheos Software Design', and double-click on the folder with the name of your program ('Ascend Financials' , ‘Ascend Leadership’ , or ‘Ascend Home’).
5. Double-click on the folder ‘Backup’
6. Copy the file with the name that starts with a six digit number (a date identifier) followed by ‘backup.esd’
7. Paste the file to the backup media you have prepared.

Note: The file will not fit on a floppy disk and each computer uses a different method of copying to a CD. If you can not copy the file for some reason you might try sending it to yourself in an eMail as an attachment. Then you can retrieve the attached file and save it to your backup media.

This backup process protects you against the potential hazard of losing all your transactions and other data. This hazard applies to all your computer data, not just Ascend Financials, and we recommend you regularly back up all the necessary and irreplaceable data on your hard drive. It is a 'best practice' to store your external backup in a separate location from your computer in case of fire or other local danger.

At the original PC

1. Close your Ascend Software.
2. Open the Windows Explorer
   From the desktop right-click on the 'Start' button
   Select 'Explore'
3. On the left side of the computer screen navigate to and click on the C: drive
   Depending on your computer, you may have to open (double click on ) the 'My Computer' icon
4. Still on the left side of the screen, double-click on the folder 'Program Files', then double-click on the folder 'Entheos Software Design', and double-click on the folder with the name of your product ('Ascend Financials' , ‘Ascend Leadership’ , or ‘Ascend Home’).
5. Copy your data file (for Ascend Financials, it’s AF.esd, for Ascend Leadership, it’s AL.esd, for Ascend Home it’s AH.esd) to either a CD or other media that you can use on your new computer
   
   Note. The file will not fit on a floppy disk and each computer uses a different method of copying to a CD. If you can not copy the file for some reason you might try sending it to yourself in an eMail as an attachment. Then you can retrieve the file from your email on the new computer.

At the New PC

1. Close your Ascend Software.
   Note: If you have not yet reinstalled your software do so now before continuing these instructions
2. Open the Windows Explorer
   From the desktop right-click on the 'Start' button
   Select 'Explore'
3. On the left side of the computer screen navigate to the drive that has the files you copied in step 5) above.
4. Now copy your data file by right clicking on the filename (for Ascend Financials, it’s AF.esd, for Ascend Leadership, it’s AL.esd, for Ascend Home it’s AH.esd) and choosing 'Copy'.
5. On the left side of the computer screen navigate to and click on the C: drive
   Depending on your computer, you may have to open (double click on ) the 'My Computer' icon
6. Still on the left side of the screen, double-click on the folder 'Program Files', then double-click on the folder 'Entheos Software Design', and double-click on the folder the name of your product ('Ascend Financials' , ‘Ascend Leadership’ , or ‘Ascend Home’).
7. On the right side of the screen, right-click anywhere in the blank space and choose 'Paste' from the little menu. If asked to overwrite the file say 'Yes'

It is essential that you have properly balanced and reconciled your checking account before you begin using Ascend. We suggest you stop using your account for a few days and allow all the transactions in the account to clear the bank. Then, when you are certain of the beginning balance, you can make your initial deposit. We suggest you use the option of ‘Other Deposit – Multiple Envelopes’. This will allow you to divide the deposit among several envelopes.

One of the strengths of Ascend is that it shows you the amount you have available to spend for each envelope. Sometimes you find that you might have overspent. You need to transfer money from another envelope into the negative balance envelope. If this happens regularly you will need to change your deposit habits and keep the envelope full to prevent overspending.