Almost everyone now accepts that if new data protection laws come, they will be based on GDPR. It is used by much of the world today. Not just in Europe, e.g. South Korea, the state of California in the USA, Israel and Argentina have it too.

As there is a significant push to get GDPR laws into Australia, this is both federal and state; it almost certainly will come. It only needs one state, and the cost is there for Australia. It will affect more than *big business* as many stated. Data protection is more than *big business*. Everybody is affected. Click here for a list of any convictions, fines and penalties for violations of GDPR. You will see private individuals, small businesses, and doctors fined for breaches there.

One point that does worry me is that some newspaper companies continue to send data unencrypted to many of my client's private information. I am not too fond of that and have told the newspaper companies about my concerns. It should be addressed ASAP. If someone should pay for it, I do not want it to be my client. The other issue is that many of my clients have private information on clients that is years old. In the same example above, what commercial reason is there for a newsagent to have delivery information on a customer in their computer system after they have given back to the publisher their deliveries? 

Just to clean 1,000 accounts out of the system, assuming it takes 20 to 30 seconds, each is 5 to 8 hours of work. It's a full day probably; I bet it's much more.

My immediate concern is how much costs will SMBs will have to pay, as compliance with GDPR is not cheap. I know in the UK, when introduced, businesses complained of the high expense. When I did a net search in the UK. There I found that some small businesses are paying about $A87/month to cover themselves after having a GDPR audit check initially, then an hourly rate to fix the problems. I am not sure how much a GDPR audit costs there. We charge $500 for a GDPR audit to our clients requiring this, but I am confident there are much more costs in the UK. They would have to include training for staff, customer signing and more.

Much of the cost of monitoring GDPR in Australia is currently passed onto the customer, but I am not sure how this cost of compliance can be passed to Australian customers if GDPR comes here.

We are keeping a close watch on the situation.

Please let me know if you know the situation in a country for any of this under GDPR or similar laws. I like to hear from you.

You need to do an EFTPOS reconciliation regularly.

​There are many reasons why you have the goods paid for in your POS system, but the money is not in your bank account. Sometimes if you do not reconcile your EFTPOS machines, you will never know the money is missing as you never handled the money.

You need to check your EFTPOS provider figure and check your figure in your total reports for the same period.

Initially, I look at the last 12 months to see if there is a problem. Now, if they are different, you will be looking to reconcile line by line, and you cannot check a year of history; it's too much. So try to find a short period where there is a difference. It can be a hunt; generally, I go down to six months, quarters, months, weeks and finally, a day that has a difference. Any significant difference is enough. It is best to pick a day as close as today as possible.

Now you need a detailed report from your EFTPOS supplier for that day.

In your POS system, here is the report required (You will find it here marked in red below)

Once there, you can get a report like this that you can reconcile.

Now try to find out what is going on by checking each transaction.

Now, what about a potential solution?

Once you have the problem, you must know what has gone wrong.

We have had a client who discovered about $8,000 in his small supermarket in about five months was taken from EFTPOS by employee fraud. It was only found by this method.

This is a particularly nasty problem if you do not have an integrated EFTPOS solution.

USB stick in many ways still a good backup method if used properly

Currently, the most significant security problem our clients face is ransomware. It is common. What it does is blocks your system and demand you pay money to use your system. Interesting some pay and are still blocked. This is why we recommend no one pays. 

Now it is easy enough for a person who has a backup to overcome this problem, all they do is go back to backup, but there is always a but, often the ransomware blocks the backup too. This is because if your computer has access to the backup, so does the ransomware.

There are a few ways to overcome this problem; USB sticks are probably the best and probably cheapest. They are easy to use. Stick them in a computer, do a backup on to them and take them out. The last point is very important.

- Once the backup is finished, take the USB stick out of the computer! Only while doing a backup should a USB stick be in the computer.

- Regularly check your backups are working. I have seen USB sticks that appear to work, but when we tested them were saving nothing.

Hope this helps

Big updates coming on your software over the Optus data breach

Australia has had the most significant data breach ever, affecting over nine million people in its history. What is clear is that the government intends to act on it, and the public wants them to. So our cybersecurity rules will go up, including enforcement and fines in the wake of a breach. We are talking here of a monumental shift in privacy legislation. We will probably get General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) next year. So as the information comes forward, we also intend to change our POS software.

Let me clarify the problem now your customers' data legally doesn't belong to you. If you abuse it, you could be in trouble. 

If your customer list goes missing, you could be in trouble. So do not believe this is only for big business; it will affect anyone who stores people's data. 

The immediate problem is that many of our clients do not even have a clear picture of what data they actually have. There is so much there, and so many people have worked on it, so who knows what is there?

Although we cannot say yet what will be implemented. Based on overseas privacy issues, the questions that our clients need to investigate to protect themselves now:

-Why do we need the data that we have?
-What are we doing to make it secure?
-Where is it stored?
-How long will we hold the data? This is tough as different organisations have different demands. Some, like courts, want you to keep the information forever

An immediate action you need to take now is that every user of your POS System must use a password to get into your system. If you have not yet implemented passwords, do so now! If these passwords are a year old, change them.

Halloween is possibly the fastest-growing marketing season in Australia today. If you look at this graph, I put a comparison of interest over the years of father's day to Halloween. This gives you an idea of how important the holiday has become with double the interest.

As such, sales have been growing over the years. Today has become a major retail event, and it is time to start preparing to get your part. As this holiday is one where the stock is often difficult to move after Halloween, you must ensure your ordering is spot on. If you are looking for ideas, I would suggest looking at costumes, witch hats, Halloween makeup, and masks.  Of course, if possible, try buying stock items that can sell after Halloween.

If you want a quick and instant way of finding out what did sell in your shop in previous years on Halloween.

Go to Register reports.

Now pick "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

In the form, put in the following dates 01/10/21 to 31/10/21. A report will come out with what sold over that month. As last year is unusual, I recommend rerunning the report. So put in now the dates 01/10/19 to 31/10/19. Now compare these two reports.

Move, the clock is clicking.

Anyone who does anything on the net knows the problems with profanity. There is an added problem besides your personal beliefs that the Australian Courts do not like it. It considers the owner of the Facebook page responsible for its content. Anyone in business who said to you on the web that their page is *NOT* moderated and open is lying or has a business death wish. Commenting on your page that you accept "no legal responsibility about using, or reliance upon, any content material" does not help much.

Facebook has now introduced a profanity filter. This software automatically hides text from your readers containing swear phrases. You can manually publish this text if you wish after reviewing it. It is long overdue.

Profanity filters don't clear up the problem in their totality, so it does not end the need for moderation. There is no way a filter can know that your use of a word for gender, age, grouping, area etc., is being used as a description or an insult. Words like "lawsuit", "slander", or "defective" are examples of the kind of points you will manually need to address.

How good is it? I am not sure. Many people will disguise swear words by intentionally misspelling them. This doesn't make them any less offensive.

It is a good start!

If you run a Facebook page for your organisation, I recommend implementing it ASAP. You will find it in the image above, marked with a green arrow.

It been a week since the Optus security breach was revealed and the internet in Australia is going wild over the biggest breach Australia has had, what do you think, comment here.

Scanning failures in your point-of-sale software hamper your business. Here is a list of some of the problems

- At best, your POS system is running slow, slowing your customers' checkout times as scanning is faster than manual entry.
- It often means that you cannot usually provide detailed customer receipts
- Often, your system cannot give you accurate stock history
- Often, the stock quantities in your system are wrong.
- Manual entry makes more mistakes

It is better to scan more.

The first point to look at is your scan rate to give you a feel of the problem, and it is easy to get; go to sales.

Once there, select Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period.

Now run the report. I usually do it for the previous 12 months.

You will see a column with %Scan; the higher, the better. Looking through this list, you can see where I marked a problem department with a green arrow.

Now there can be many causes of this problem. The first point is to test whether it is happening on a scanner. Sometimes you improve your barcode scanning rates from this scanner by:

-Experiment with your scanner what height it reads best with the barcodes that you use. It will vary depending on what barcodes you use and your barcode reader. Please take a few items, try and scan them and see what works best.
-Maybe the scanner is in bright light, so try moving the scanner to a different location.
-Try putting the barcode straight. Sometimes not having the barcode straight can cause problems for a scanner to read the barcode. It is also less of an eyesore.
-Avoid putting barcodes on shiny objects as the light will reflect into the scanner and cause problems.
-Cleaning your barcode scanner and printer can help immensely. A rag and some cleaning material can often do wonders.
-Remember, dirty or wet barcodes or barcodes with staples are not suitable for scanning.

Suppose all scanners see if the problem is the suppliers' or your barcodes. If it is your barcodes, check your printer; it may be dirt causing poor ink distribution.

Remember that sometimes you have to replace these units if the goods you sell are not suitable for what you sell or if they have deteriorated.

​A bonus tip

You can increase your scan rate if you make a convention in your shop where you will stick the barcode. The front, top, back, etc., stick with it if possible; this will save people from having to hunt for the barcode.

One fact sheet sent to my clients on shop layouts is wrong; too much Americanism. Although US research on retailing is excellent, retailing there is generally behind in Australia. Besides, it is a different culture. Any idea that comes from the US has to be modified for Australia.

Firstly unlike in the US,  customers here tend to look at your shop in a clockwise manner when they enter your shop. This is as we drive on the left side of the road, so our habit is to go left. So it is on the left where your most profitable items should be, and on the right is where your counter should be.

Of course, it gets more complex. We divide retail shop layouts into six basic types. A good discussion can be found here. 

In my experience, the best design for my clients is the loop. 

If your layout concerns you, I suggest

1) Getting a feel of the theory here.

2) Study your top-selling and companion stock reports before moving.  You need an idea of what you have.

3) Then check out a few stores. Once you know the ideas, it is easy to see what the designers are trying to do. With the majors who have heaps of money and time, you will find that they have worked it out. Nothing is by accident. Try to figure out the purpose.

4) If you do anything serious, always insist on seeing a planogram. A good shopfitter should be able to produce a professional one quickly. With a pencil and paper you can do a reasonable job too. Then study it, check the traffic flows, the top buying points, etc.

A good shop layout can improve sales in a shop.

 ​

I got several enquiries on how to assess this week's trading. When we discussed it, it became clear that there has been a problem over the past year; dramatic changes have occurred in retail sales. 

So the first item I would recommend studying is your gross profit figures. The most popular tool for evaluating the operational performance of the business is gross profit. Net income (the bottom line) is a better measure, but that is hard to determine in SMB. Many costs, like the owner's costs, are value judgements with different people valuing them. Still, you will not get your net profit figure without the gross profit figure, so once we have that, we can proceed to other measurements. 

Plus, a business has expenses, and the gross profit pays for them, so we all use them. 

I recommend going by departments.

Now to get this will take you a few seconds 

Register report> Sales Register> Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period

For the period you are concerned about, select a suitable period. 

I would recommend first doing last year, then doing the previous three months and then doing last week in separate runs.

That report will give you a lot of detail by department, including the Quantity sold and %Profit. These are often excellent signs of what is happening. Many consider quantity sold to be almost as important as profit.

Once you find something you want to investigate, click on the left-hand side to see the green arrow. Now select the shop.

We call this drill down. You will find the details of what is in every department than their sub-categories. 

What you are looking for in your own business is to run the numbers. Figure out your sweet spots. Look at the specific ways that you can increase your profit. Start by looking at the items on the top with solid growth potential, high quantity and high profit. Then those that are on the bottom with low quantity and low profit. 

This is something that every major I deal with does religiously.

Many of you would have already received letters similar to this, cannot say I am very happy about it, what about you? It's good to know that my Optus stuff is safe but...

From the victims' point of view.

Here is the information that was stolen which includes:
-Customers' names
-Dates of birth
-Phone numbers
-Email addresses
-Addresses
-ID document numbers such as driver's licence or passport numbers

This information is enough for someone to get through most security checks over the phone, e.g. ATO, banks, etc. I doubt I can change my driver's licence number; the passport number is possible, but I cannot change my date of birth or address. I would be reluctant to change my email address. The other problem is that the old numbers are still valid in most places. Many ID checks will accept the old info.

What is troubling is that the hack started in 2017. Did anything weird happen to you with your accounts?

Probably the quickest way to check is with a free credit report

To guard against this, you can ask for a FREE credit report from any of the 3 Credit Report Agencies:

• Experian

• Illion

• Equifax

Since they each collect slightly different information, you may want to check all of them.

From Optus's point of view

Although still under investigation, this Optus breach is likely human error, as almost all my experiences are successful hacks. If so, it would have been avoidable with proper procedures. If so, there is no one for Optus to blame, so it will probably have to bear much of the cost besides the bad publicity.

Now multiple by 9.8 million people (high-case scenario) to get a feel of the potential costs. This cost is on the low side. It is estimated that a hack in business costs much more than this, more like $200 a person.

From your business point of view

Considering the size of this hack, there is no doubt that new laws will be coming to Australia. 

Currently, for a small or medium-sized business (SMB), the average cost of a breach in the US is $108,000. In Australia, it will be more. Just a lawyer and barrister for a few days will cost more. Do the figures yourself; an SMB business with 1,000 customers on its books at $200/account, and you have $200,000.

Some simple security checks could help to reduce the problem.

-Passwords stuck on the walls are not a good idea.
-Change passwords frequently.
-Implement security on your systems.
-As much as possible, never leave computers unattended.

For people who want better, we set up our users with an encrypted disk drive using VeraCrypt.

Anything under VeraCrypt without the correct password is unreadable. Doing this has a significant advantage because no one can read your information if your computer is lost or stolen.

It is so secure that I doubt anyone in Australia could break it.

Also, you may want to consider cyber insurance, but that is a story for another day. 

It's a public holiday in Victoria, so support is being directed through our interstate offices.

Both teams are outstanding. I think most people now underestimate the Swans. The Swans dominated most of the game but what kept Collingwood in was their accurate kicking that almost gave them the game. Still, I doubt the Swans can control the game this week against Geelong, so Geelong looks like the team to beat.

Please, if you can avoid using support at the actual game time itself, our guys on support would appreciate it. But if you have to call, they are available.

May the best team win, enjoy!

Our office will be open on skeleton staff. As today is the Queen's National Day of Mourning, support will be done on our after-hours numbers today.

Tomorrow is a Victorian Public holiday, the "Friday before the Grand Final". Help will be as usual. The phones will be diverted to our interstate support bays.

If you need it, it is available.

Many thanks and have a lovely long weekend from all at POS Solutions.

It's always a problem as the Grand Finals are coming up, most people's teams are out, and although the football sales should be good, it is only for a short time. If it does not move, you may be stuck with the stock, which is often unsellable. Who in 2023 will want a stock with a 2022 label?

What is a good idea is to ring your supplier and see what can be done. If the problem worries you, it is much more for them.

Stick a sign-up, make a Grand Final Sale and try to move it.

Interestingly, I have noticed that most of the items offered in their Grand Final Sales have nothing to do with football. As long as you have a few products for football, there is no reason why many other products can be added to your Grand Final Sale.

As always, I recommend marking the sale on your computer to see how it does.

The recent Fine Food Show brought up the subject of coffee, which is a massive industry in Australia, about 9 billion dollars yearly. There is no dominant player with plenty of room for small to medium players to break in. Have a read of this report by IBISWorld here. 75% of all Australians drink at least one daily. Most of us consume much more. Why more of my clients do not get involved in it is a puzzle to me. It costs cents to make and sells for dollars. It also often has high add-on sales.

Now before I begin, I claim some expertise in coffee, being a certified barista.

​Now let's go through a few factors. Firstly like everything you have to work at it, a coffee seller is a restaurant and retailer. Its no pot of gold just waiting to be picked up.

Can you put coffee in some places like shopping?

In some places, you will not be allowed.

I do not recommend going in with a franchise.

Why share your profits? Do it yourself.

Do you have the space?

The excellent point of coffee is it can live in the dead areas of the shop. They do need access to electricity. Plus, these machines are often messy, so I recommend you be careful with the nearby goods.

The machine

I recommend walking outside your shop and researching the competition around you. Only once you have an idea of the pricing can you decide on the machine. 

The minimum manual machine you could get away with commercially would be $1,500 for a second-hand machine and a decent grinder (if you are going to do it commercially, I recommend a separate grinder). That could get you about $4.5 a cup in a good area. If you look new, you are probably about $10,000, which can often get you more per cup.

An automatic machine costs about $2,000/year, but these only give you cheap coffees. Still, it said much that people make money on $1 a cup.

I recommend you get a machine from a place that fixes them. These machines frequently break down. Check their support. These machines often break down. If you cannot get it fixed, you will soon have a piece of unusable junk.

Beans

Do not buy the caterers' special beans. You can get good beans at reasonable prices for a little more. Australians are extremely serious about their coffee. They have a high standard for their coffee.

Training

I do recommend that you do a course. It does not take long, a couple of mornings. It takes a while to get the skill.

The software

This is important because a good coffee shop POS technology will make your accounting and management easier and more efficient.

Everyone in coffee is cost-conscious. You have to be. You need to know your cost margin exactly. These change with every delivery from your suppliers, so prices must be suitable for each recipe. This is not easy as each recipe has many options, e.g. cow milk or dairy-free alternatives. Then there is decaffeinated or not. Plus, stock control is vital; not having one ingredient can bring your coffee business to a stop. The shop has to be shut while the owner is running to a supermarket is a common story.

So most of you readers are lucky as your software is now being used in cafes where it is highly regarded.

It has clear navigation and a user-friendly screen

Tracking of customer data and honour loyalty schemes

Good cash management functions like dual cash drawer tills

Look into it, please.

You must register your new business domain name now if you have not yet done it. With the new rules coming into effect, a shortened domain name is expected to take over. As in most of the world, Australia is switching over to allow people to register the shorter .au domain for their website. This will replace the existing websites from .com.au or .net.au to .au. 

Anyone could have grabbed our new domain name if I had not registered it. You have till tomorrow.

Do not believe that people will not try and steal your website domain name if you let them. I can tell you from personal experience that some maggot will do it. I had a client who had in his small town an office supply company named after that town. Well, a rival grabbed his name when he was slow to re-register. 

The cost is trivial or free, depending on your domain name provider company. What you do not want is someone else coming in and directing customers to their different websites. 

Put a redirect on the name, and then like everyone else, can choose what to do after a year.

Check here for more details.

If you want to see something unbelievable, look at what is called *The Queue* to see the Queen's casket. 

People camped for two nights even before it started moving. Now it is moving, and it is 4 miles long.

If you want to see the Queue where no one can sit down as they have to keep moving, look here

And they do not even get to view her. After 11 hours of the Queue, what they see is a flag over a closed coffin which they are shuffled past in about a minute and a half in total silence without stopping because nothing can be allowed to slow down the Queue.
 

Nice lady and I have great respect for her, but ......

Here’s a link to send a virtual condolence message to the Royal Family, I did.

Three-in-ones are computers designed for a retail shop.

-They have a small footprint
-They can take dirty environments
-Very fast for retail transactions
-They look good, something essential for the front counter where people see them.

This is the newest model of the three-in-ones that just came.

These are a bit dearer than the others I talked about here, but I think better.

Once you see them, I am sure you will be impressed.

Note: For the budget conscious, we have only a few of the older models left. Once we sell out of these, we cannot get any more of these models.

Our system can accept PayPal, so there is something that is a common fraud that you should be warned about if you accept PayPal about their buyer protection program. It was told to me by one of our suppliers who got badly burnt. 

A person rings up and places an order for a laptop. They then paid by PayPal. Shortly afterwards they came and picked up the item. A short time afterwards, they opened a dispute with PayPal that they never got the laptop. The seller had no proof of purchase, so PayPal refunded the buyer their money, and the seller is short a laptop.

If you sell an item with PayPal, you need proof of delivery. 

Actually, proof of delivery is a good idea for any payment method.

A special edition of both New Idea and Woman’s Day will be published on Thursday, 15/9/2022, and no issue will be published on Monday, 19/9/2022.

There are no changes involved in its handling. We have put together a help sheet to guide you through the steps to handle this change.

Click here on how to handle it.