) is a wholesale discount supplier of a wide variety of electronic instruments and parts to regional retailers. PEI commenced operations a year ago, and its records processing has been on a manual basis except for stand-alone automated inventory and accounts receivable systems. The driving force of PEI’s business is its deep discount, short-term delivery reputation which allows retailers to order materials several times during the month to minimize in-store inventories. PEI’s management has decided to continue automating its operations, but, because of cash flow considerations, this needs to be accomplished on a step-by-step basis.