This is how to measure how you went over the Christmas period. Let get some facts.

In your point of sale software

Go to reports and click on sales.

Now select the last seven days. For the first run, ignore all the extra options you can examine here. Once you see what it does, you can expand for more detail. So use a previous date for 2020. Most people are telling me anyway that they think this is better for them than 2021.

Now a report with the simplified options here.

Now there are lots of details for you to examine. If you want to look at one department, click on the left.

Let me know how you went.

In 1987, you got on a super special for $2250 a DOS computer, with a 20 meg hard drive, a cheap printer and a black and white monitor. From memory, $20,000 was a decent salary, so it was worth about two months after-tax.  

We expect to be very busy today, so we have extra staff today. We know we have to provide the last minute services that our customers need to deal with before Christmas. This is imperative as this shopping season needs to be good for many of our clients.

The outlook for this Christmas season looks very good. People have money, jobs, etc., so it has the potential to break previous records. We hope it does.

Have a good one!

Christmas is a difficult time for all our clients. There are many risks of something going wrong for them. This is when you need us the most. So we do not close over the period, as a Christmas shutdown has the potential to do more damage than good.

As this festive period isn't limited to the week surrounding Christmas, so we stay open always. We work 24 hours, seven days a week. Our company never sleeps.

Besides, we are as busy now as usual. Currently, support calls are coming in at a regular rate. Only the urgency is now considerably more. Overall there is a lot more work for us. The administrative and engineering staff are working as usual.

I hope our clients are happy knowing they are getting their money's worth with their support contract as they can be confident that we are here if they need us.

Computers do go down during Christmas so test all your computers for the coming holidays. It is much easier to get your computers fixed now than over Christmas. Every computer will fail. It is a matter of time, and the time they like by Murphy's law is the worst possible time: Christmas!

Give all your computers a test run now.

Also, make sure your backups are working. Worst case, your computer is replaceable, but your information is not without a backup. With a good backup, we often need to replace the computer, and you can be back up and running in a day.

As a result of the pandemic, the public has gotten used to planning to get goods in time for festivities. Plus, with these supply problems we are going through now, the public feels that retailers will not have adequate stock for Christmas. So the public has started its holiday shopping. Christmas products are now being brought early than usual, e.g. "gingerbread house" and "letter to Santa" kits. 

The public is buying ahead.

As a result, major retailers are already starting their holiday programs.

I would suggest that you start too you have now about a month.

If the delivery service you use Australia Post.

Managing Christmas is a difficulty, even at its best. This season will be more challenging.

But what is often forgotten is that Christmas preparation is more than going through rosters, inventory, and orders.

Please schedule a time to test your POS System.

1) Do all your POS devices work? Where the problem often occurs if you plan to use some of your older point-of-sale computers to accommodate the rush period. Test them now?

2) Check that the system you plan to use works. Lots have occurred in the last year.

3) Do your staff know how to use the Christmas features you plan to use?

The closer you are to Christmas, the harder it is to prepare.