Newspaper Delivery System - Informal Specification

This document is an informal specification of a newspaper delivery system which keeps track of our customers (hereafter referred to as households), of newspapers and magazines we carry (referred to as publications), and any subscriptions the households may have. As well, it should keep track of route information for our delivery staff (referred to as carriers), billing information for our finance and sales department, and be able to produce summary information for the top executives.

We list the types of information that must be stored, followed by the functional requirements for that area of the system.

Households:

• Name (surname, first name)
• Address (street, house number, apartment number and postal code)
• Phone number
• Status - Whether the household is suspended or not.
• Details of what newspapers or magazines the household is currently subscribed to.
• Present credit on the household account. A negative balance will imply a prepayment on the account, while a positive balance implies an amount owed.
• A notes section to help the delivery people be aware of any special instructions indicated by the household. For example, leaving the newspaper in front of the door instead of leaving it in the mail box.
• A route name to identify which route the household is related to. This should be automatically related to the household based on their postal code and the predefined routes already entered into the system.

• Add - The system must be able to include a customer to our data base.
• Delete - The system must be able to remove a customer from our data base.
• Modify - The system must be able to change any of the above information on demand.
• Suspend - The system must be able to hold a customer account for a specific time period or indefinitely. This option is used when household goes on vacation or other reasons.
• Query by user-defined fields
  For example: it must be possible to enter a household and determine the carrier responsible for deliveries to that household, as well as the subscriptions to be delivered on the current day.

Publications:

• Name, Publisher, Supplier Name, Supplier Phone Number
• Price Scheme - Price per issue/Weekly/Monthy deals (eg. 2 year subscription for 50% off, etc.)
• Type - magazine or newspaper
• Frequency of Delivery
• General Description - A brief summary of the publication, originally entered by the user.
• Total Number of people that are subscribed to the publication, calculated automatically.

• Add (New Publication)
• Delete (No longer carry a publication) - All accounts must be updated to the change, and all households subscribed must be notified. Any advance credit the household had can be used towards another publication.
• Modify (Change price, etc...) - All new subscriptions must reflect the new price change, while the old subscriptions maintain the old scheme.
• Query by user-defined fields

Carriers

Information:

• Name (Surname, first name)
• Address (Street, House Number, Apartment number and Postal Code)
• Phone number
• Routes they deliver to.

• It must be possible to create and delete carriers, and modify their identifying information (for example if they change phone numbers).
• When a carrier is created, they should be assigned at least one route.
• A carrier can be deleted only when they have no routes assigned.

Routes

Information:

• Name
• A list of postal codes that are in the route
• How many households are in the route
• Which carrier is assigned to this route

• If the route is entered, all households on the route must be displayed on the video screen.
• It must also be possible to enter a route and view the total number of deliveries for each product on the current day.
• When a delivery is made to a carrier, a printout of the days deliveries will be attached. The system should provide this printout when a single route is selected, or for the entire set of routes. The printout must include:
• On the top page:
• The carrier name, address and phone number, as well as the number of each publication the carrier will need to deliver. At the start of the day's deliveries, the carrier must determine that the bundle received contains sufficient products for the route.
• Also to listed on this page is the depot phone number, to be contacted by the carrier if errors have occured.
• On successive pages:
• On one line, the household street address and the subscriber name.
• If the household is NEW to the route, or suspended, this should be appropriately marked just under the address, in bold. As well, if the household has recently canceled its subscriptions, a note should appear stating this fact, so that the carrier will know NOT to deliver any publications.
• On following lines, indented, each product to be delivered on the current day, and the number of copies if greater than one.
• The deliveries to one household will be followed by a blank line, and cannot cross a page fold in the printout.

2107  Slowpoke Street           Fred Manure
            Calgary Herald	Special Instructions:
            Maclean's		- put papers in front of door (not mailbox)
          2 Penthouse
            Reader's Digest

2119  Slowpoke Street           Alison Smith
NEW!!       Calgary Sun		Special Instructions:
            Cosmopolitan	- mean dog

Billing

• All household information and our company letterhead should be produced at the top of the bill.
• All of the households subscriptions should be on the same bill, with a bottom-line total of the amount owed.
• Any late charges and expiry date for each subscription should be listed as well.
• All of the transactions since the last time a bill was printed for this household should be listed (eg. payments received, new subscriptions, etc.)

• Ability to generate bills for all households (or just one) with outstanding balances upon request.
• When payments are received from and subscriptions sold to households, we need to be able to update their record of outstanding balance.

Summary Reports

• A summary sheet should be produced on request with total monies owed and total number of subscribers by publication.
• Ability to generate daily summary information showing how many copies of each publication were sold that day. The number of copies sold and the total monetary value should be included. We would like this in two formats:
• For each publication, a separate sheet listing sales by route, with a total at the bottom.
• A grand-summary sheet with all publications totals, and one bottom-line total for the day.

Last Modified Jan. 16, 1996 by

Darrell Nash