Updating Your Reporting System

If Anthology is your POS system and you are currently reporting your weekly sales, please make the following changes to update Anthology to send your reports to ABA’s server.

• In Anthology go to Tools > Special Import Export > BookScan
• For the “BookScan FTP Address” change to: bestsellerreporting.bookweb.org
• In the “UserID” field, please enter the information as provided by ABA
• In the “Password” field, please enter the information as provided by ABA
• Save and Exit

If you use Anthology and have not reported sales using Anthology before, follow these instructions.

The Anthology BookScan Reporter allows users of Visual Anthology to report sales to ABA and BookScan via FTP over the internet. If your store uses the leased APC server system, please contact [email protected] with your BookScan credentials so they can configure BookScan to run on the server for you.

Setting up the BookScan Reporter (non-leased server setups):

1. The BookScan reporter should be configured from the workstation your store runs the Ztape from each evening.
2. To start, while in Anthology go to Tools > Special Import > Export BookScan
3. A screen will appear that requires some initial information to be filled in.
   • The Data Source Directory is the path to the Anthology Data folder on your server. 
   • The Store Number is as provided by ABA 
   • The UserID is as provided by ABA
   • Password is as provided by ABA
4. Fill in the fields on the BookScan Reporter screen as follows — be sure to use the Save option to save the input.
5. Data source directory: This is the location of your Anthology Data files. No matter what machine you are at, this path must always end with the Data folder. This path should be similar to the path your workstation launches Anthology from. Check your icon properties to verify the path and ensure you add the ending Data subfolder to the path. You can navigate to the directory you want to choose by clicking on the ellipsis control to the right of the Data source directory field.
6. From Last Sunday: By default, last Monday's date will be selected. Click on the ellipsis control to select last Sunday’s date.
7. Thru Last Saturday: By default, a date six days after the one selected in the From Last Monday field will display here. Click on the ellipsis control to select last Saturday’s date.
8. BookScan Store Number: Use the user id (store number) as above in this field
9. BookScan FTP Address: Type in: bestsellerreporting.bookweb.org
10. User ID: The UserID is the “Username” as above.
11. Password: The password is the “Password” as above.
12. When the fields are populated be sure to click Save.
13. You can also add the BookScan routine to the Anthology Scheduler (recommended), setting the day/time to run every Sunday or Monday evening after close. For directions on adding to Scheduler, please contact [email protected].  

Running the reporter 

Please run the report once a week. To manually run the program, do the following steps.  If you have added the task to the nightly Anthology scheduler, the tool should run on its own after the Ztape on the designated evening.

1. Open the BookScan Reporter (Tools Special Import Export Bookscan) and enter the date ranges to report on.
2. You must be connected to the internet at this point, click RUN Now. The first time you run this reporting utility, you will likely be prompted by your security or anti-virus software to block/allow the new program from accessing the internet — do not block the software.
3. When the reporting completes, you will be shown a log of the session. You can periodically clear this log from the Edit menu if you like. Scroll to the bottom of the log to see the information about the session just completed. Firewall software/hardware will often block these transmissions, it is important to review the log to verify the transmission went through.
4. When you are done, click on the Files | Exit menu to close the program. 

Security Settings 

Like any program that needs access to the internet, various security/anti-virus programs may block the application when launched the first time. We recommend setting any needed exclusions/exceptions in all of your security programs to explicitly exclude the Val.exe from being prevented from accessing the internet.

Your next steps, if you wish to report your sales to ABA and/or Circana, differ depending on your chosen reporting method. If you currently report via BookWeb.org and do not wish to make any changes, you do not need to do anything at all. Thanks for reading this far!

If Booklog is your POS system and you are currently reporting your weekly sales, please do the following to update Booklog to send your reports to ABA’s server.

Before updating your log-in credentials you'll need to:

• Contact Booklog Technical Support to receive your new bookscan.exe, related external files, and Access Key. The email address is [email protected]. Have your FTP Username and Password available. These details can be or have been provided by ABA's bestsellers team, [email protected].
• Stores must be on Booklog version 18.0.054 or above to use the new BookScan address. Contact Booklog Technical Support to upgrade.

After Booklog Technical Support has confirmed you are up to date, please update Booklog as follows.

1. Go to Maintenance | Add Ins.
2. The Add Ins Pick List will open
3. Select the code for BookScan (BKSCN).
4. Double click to open the Add in Properties (BKSCN) window.
5. Enter the Access Key provided to you by Booklog Technical Support.
6. Delete any existing values in the FTP Address 1, FTP Username 1, FTP Password 1, FTP Address 2, FTP Username 2 or FTP Password 2 fields,
7. Enter bestsellerreporting.bookweb.org in the FTP Address 1 field.
8. (please ensure that the field does not include "http://" or "https://")
9. In FTP Username 1, enter your Username as provided by ABA
10. In FTP Password 1, enter your Password as provided by ABA
11. Save your changes.
12. Log out of Booklog and log back in.

If you use Booklog and have not reported sales using Booklog before, follow these instructions.

Contact Booklog Technical Support to receive a bookscan.exe, related external files, and Access Key. The email address is [email protected].

• Stores must be on Booklog version 18.0.054 or above to use the new BookScan address. Contact Booklog Technical Support to upgrade. Have your FTP Username and Password available. These details can be or have been provided by ABA's bestsellers team, [email protected].

Booklog Technical Support will tell you how to install the files and how to use them to transmit your files to the ABA. 

If you report sales via BookWeb.org and wish to continue reporting that way, you do not need to make any changes.  

If iMRCHNT is your POS system and you are currently reporting your weekly sales or wish to start reporting that way, please do the following to update iMRCHNT to send your reports to ABA’s server.

1. Go To: Interfaces > Nielsen Book Scan.
   You will need to set up your BookScan parameters for each store in your chain from which you want to report sales data to BookScan.
2. Select a store to establish the BookScan parameters — the Nielsen BookScan window will appear.
3. The Week Ending field always defaults to the previous week (seven days ago).
   Generally, you will run the BookScan report every week, on Sunday or Monday.
   If you need to change the date in this field, either key in the new date or click on the arrow at the right of the field and select the desired date.
4. The information for all of the remaining fields has been or can be provided by ABA.
5. You should only need to fill these fields in once for each reporting store.
6. Each reporting store will have unique reporting credentials. Contact [email protected] if you have any questions or need credentials for another branch.

To send your sales data to BookScan (if your reporting is not already automated):

• Click on the Send Report button at the lower left of the BookScan window. 
• A message box appears telling you either that the report has been sent, or that a problem occurred and that it was not sent.

Send the BookScan report for each applicable store in your multi-store chain.

The report should include sales occurring during the week beginning 12:01 am Sunday through midnight Saturday and be submitted no later than 1:00 pm ET each Monday.