Point of Sale Software

Here are some Articles from the Blog Subject - barcode -

Ten tips to produce your own barcodes

POS SOFTWARE

 

 

We need to read fast barcodes. Yet we have a prevalent problem with lousy barcodes. We did a study on one site recently and found that about 3.5% of all barcodes were defective. Of that with some manipulation and angling of the reader, only half could be read. The rest were totally useless. It was maddening that most of the unreadable ones were the result of suppliers making poorly made barcodes. This results in many no-reads. I told a retailer to consider that maybe they should argue that an item is defective as the barcode was that bad and return it.

Anyway, retailers often have to create their barcodes to solve this problem. If so, here are some tips to help you.

1) Use a suitable roll or sheets for labels. I have seen where the glue is so runny that they were useless.

2) Choose a light colour for the barcode roll. I like white. This increases the contrast between the barcode and the label, making it easier to read.

3) Do not put labels on the product next to anything that may reflect light.

4) Clean the printer and code reader and the barcode label. Dirt and grease make it harder to read.

5) Put the barcode labels on the product as flat as possible you do not want the barcode to fold or, worse, crumble or break.

6) Keep your barcode away from other barcodes in the product. This may cause the scanner to misread.

7) Do not let the sun hit the barcode for a long time.

8) Try to keep the barcode label dry.

9) Put the barcode in a position on your item that has blank space around it.

10) Ensure that nothing obscures the bar code

If you have followed the above steps and still have problems, send a picture of the barcode to our support team to be assessed for possible problems.

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Tabcorp latest changes

POS SOFTWARE

the lotto

For many of our clients now that handle Tabcorp Lotto, one of the big problems now is that with their new app and Digital Wallet Sales, sales are coming through into their system with a price of zero and this means that it is harder to track their sales of lotto products accurately. In particular, what worried us was that it was difficult for us, as a result, to calculate the Gross Profit.

So we spoke to Tabcorp here

Tabcorp now has acted on our concerns and adopted our proposals. From next week they will be updating their system to separate their Digital Wallet sales from our clients' sales with pricing details. 

Great stuff!

There is no extra work for our clients as a patch (Version 1.1.92.9) will automatically update their systems, so they will be able to continue to scan lotto products as always.

Update:  One of our competitors has clearly for reasons that to us make no sense attacked Tabcorp and us.

What they do not like is pricing details included in the Tabcorp barcode. Well, just because the Tabcorp barcode has a price does not mean that they have to put the price into their software. All they have to do is code their software so if its a Tabcorp product, it is imported with a value of $0. If one of our users is so crazy and wants this too, well they can set up their system with our software to do that too *NOW*. What is the problem?

Let me further point out that this company track record on Lotto is not particularly good, a few years ago. I remember seeing in their spreadsheets of the future and speeches them saying that counter sales of Lotto will go down. It did not. It went up and its never been higher. Today with its super draws and promotions it has given lotto agents a major traffic drawcard. 

Also, business is the art of the possible, not what we would like, I believe that many of the changes they proposed are never going to be done in real-time.  They publically supported the politicians and the appropriate industry bodies to try and force Lottoland out of Australia.  Then we and many others pointed out that this was dreaming and Lottoland were not just going to leave. What they helped do is frustrate any hope of our clients getting new revenue streams from Lottoland, for example, see here, here and here

It goes on, one point I am very proud of our company is that what we propose and do is stuff our clients can use, their recent proposals on local politicians support, local currencies for small business, buskers grants, etc., in a real-time, dream on! 

Plus would these make much difference to SMB could also be disputed too, for example, buskers like to set up their Busking Stations in front of public places, markets and supermarkets as there is a mass of women and kids with money there!  Buskers know what they are doing, women and kids tend to give more than males. My daughter is eight years old if she likes a busker, she comes to Mum or me to give her some money to give to them. So does my Mum, she gives them money with a comment, "I like them doing this much more what they are doing than them begging in the street." I suggest very little money will flow to SMB as a result.

Comments

My understanding is this other company wanted the barcodes with a zero price on them. I would imagine this is because their software won't be able to handle prices and not have them affect the Newsagents' End of Day and cash reconciliation. One of the problems of using an archaic database backend that doesn't allow for updates like our software does.

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Barcode scanner range

POS SOFTWARE

Scanners are explicitly made for use in mind. Some are long range. Some are short range, middle range, etc. It certainly is not the case that dearer scanner is the best one for you to use in all circumstances.

I have seen scanners that can read a bar code as close as few centimetres away and some that need at least 300 cm to scan the same barcode. 

So when you are ordering a scanner, you need to specify to the seller (like us) exactly how far away a typical barcode will be read. 

What I suggest you do is make a fist with your hand, grasping a long ruler at the 10 cm line and imagine that this 10 cm point is the barcode len. Now with the other hand put some typical items and measure out what to you is a convenient distance to read the barcode. This is what this new scanner will need to scan a barcode. It is not an advantage to have too much range as what you tend to get then is misreading from other barcodes that are nearby. 

If you require some long range scanners, then it is not as simple as a ruler. This video will show you how to measure the distance.

Then tell us the range you require.

Otherwise, there can be problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What are price embedded barcodes?

POS SOFTWARE

Price embedded barcodes are barcodes that have a price built into them.

They are commonly used in supermarkets and grocery stores for items purchased by weight, such as cold meats.

Our point of sale software can read these barcodes already!

An itemized explanation of a price embedded barcodes of what it is.

 

 

Sample Price embedded barcode

The first circle 02, shows that it is a price-embedded barcode.

The second circle 87401 is the product identification code

The price you will see is in the third circle and here is 1837 cents of $18.37

The last circle has a seven which is a check digit that is used by the computer to check that it made a good scan.