Point of Sale Software

Here are some Articles from the Blog Subject - tips -

Know your payment methods breakdown in seconds

POS SOFTWARE

The current retail landscape looks different from the start of the year. COVID has changed the way people shop, for good. 

Let us look at the payment types people are using in your shop. It will only take a second.

Go to the "end of day" and click "Taking report"

Now put in the report and select the appropriate dates for your shop. 

On the right-hand side click "Show payment breakup"

In a second you will get the breakdown.  I am sure it will make interesting reading.

Two figures considered for EFPOS are most important are the number of transactions and the average amount per payment.

See how you go and as always let me know the score.

 

 

 

 

 

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Are you prepared? Next month is the biggest retail event ever.

POS SOFTWARE

This Christmas is expected (hoped) will be the biggest retail event in Australia ever,

So here are some tips for this holiday season from a retail expert talks that I attended and from what is being said around the traps. Some of these are very relevant to my clients.

1) Show your trading hours

Many shops have changed their trading hours. If you are not open, the public may not be aware of when you are open. 

Make sure that they know when you are open. 

2) You need signs that you are COVIDsafe

Covid safety is a big focus for many people now. If you look at the majors, you will see that they all have such signs. Not surprising as the public is worried about it and needs reassurance. Check a few majors out and then put up a few similar signs in your shop's window too.

3) Promote gift cards

With so many people, families are separated due to travel restrictions.

Gift cards are the only way for many to share the love.

4) Click and collect

I have clients now doing a large percentage of their trade with a click and collect option. Because this does not have delivery costs, a small business can compete with online here.

After COVID, it will be a significant point in retail. 

5) Count on a lot more local trade 

I doubt many will go to the CBD now. Many will avoid large shopping centres too.

This is your chance to pick up on local traffic. 

6) Marketing

I'm afraid I have to disagree with my competitor about this. Forget loyalty marketing, today the emphases in retail and business, in general, should be the truth. 

We are in this together. We are all part of this journey. We are in this together. 

Remember, it has not been a good year for Aussies with bushfires, job insecurity, and the pandemic.   Interestingly, US election exit polls have shown that job insecurity is more important now to the public than the pandemic. Everyone knows someone that has employment troubles, few that have had a major concern with COVID.

Replace your loyalty marketing with togetherness.

7) Gift wrapping

If you do not know how to gift wrap items - learn.  I am hopeless in this stuff. Yet it took me in grandfather's shop a short time to learn, and do not worry as you will get plenty of practice soon.

Hope this is of help

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Get a Free: St John Ambulance First Aid Course with Certificate

POS SOFTWARE

 

In Australia today, every organisation must have a work safe officer.

I have had a client after an employee collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. He suddenly found himself this officer and having to show that he knew and had done things.  

If so, a free first aid course like this one here might help. It is informative and is certainly better than nothing.

It took me less than an hour, and that was part-time, as I was doing much in the meantime. 

Pick someone in the shop. Then have them do the course, so you do have someone that knows some first-aid then make them your medical officer. As a bonus, they can always add it to their resume as a qualification.

 

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How to do real-time stock monitoring immediately!

POS SOFTWARE

This is a question that I get a bit. How do you do, I get real-time stock warning monitoring?

The problem: 

With so many different lines in a shop, that it is almost impossible to know which items are starting to run out or have run out. 

No doubt, you will know when a customer asks you, but it's often too late by then. 

Answer:

It is simple, you can check in seconds your stock levels, and here is how! 

Go to reports > stock > Sold Out or Selling Out Stock Lines

 

 

Note if some of the stock comes out with stock on hand figure in negative. It shows you that items that are not probably entered into your system, so it's a check here as well.

So I would recommend running this report regularly. It will alert you to both out of stock situations and errors in invoicing.

 

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Need to review proof of delivery

POS SOFTWARE

Review your proof of delivery. 

A client has now got themselves into an argument with a customer over whether they got the goods. 

My client claims that they dropped the item off while the customer states that he got nothing. Unfortunately, there is no proof of delivery.

It is a tricky one, alright.

What do you do in this situation?

This problem is all too real. 

At the very least, if you leave items on the doorstep,  take a photo of the item on that doorstep. If someone signs for the goods, ask for proof of identity with photo ID. 

The fact is that YOU are the one that has to prove that the goods were DELIVERED or PICKED UP.

 

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More signs to support local businesses

POS SOFTWARE

Last week I showed signs by the local business organisations designed to help the local morale and support local businesses. It got a response and seemed to fill a need, so I decided to put up some more that I took.

I liked this one. It was relevant and straight to the point. Its the crux of our community in this pandemic. 

A disease does not care if a person is smart, educated, stupid, rich, poor, working, unemployed, political views, white, straight,  tall, short, Chinese, Indian, your religion, sex, etc. etc. etc. 

To the disease, what all that matters is your a person.  Try denying someone humanity now? We are all in this together.

 

Many businesses are making a big mistake because although they are open, the public does not know it. If you are open, make sure the public knows this. What they also had on the window was signs showing the services they offered now like curbside pickup, special hours, and phone calls to place an order.

 


 

If your closed, the public needs to be notified that you are coming back. I also noticed in Chapel street that most of the shops had a website and a social media page.

 


i was

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Signs to support the local shops

POS SOFTWARE

In these trying times, many local business organisations are putting together signs. These are to help boost the morale of the locals and to support local businesses. 

Now local traffic matters more than ever. 

These SMB businesses need a fair share of this traffic.

With this in mind, these photoshoots I took are from my local area. It might give you some ideas to suggest for your local business groups. Some of the messages on some of them, resonated with me, see what you think.

 

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The Woolworths receipt hack and the problem loyalty fraud

POS SOFTWARE

 

This highlights the problems with loyalty rewards that do *NOT* have computer auditing to the account.

Yesterday the Woolworths receipt hack received comprehensive coverage.

What it is that a person collects receipts from the bin or trolley in this case. Using these receipts, they then claim the benefits of the shop's loyalty program. 

Here, the person did not even think she was stealing, nor did many in public. 

The result is that the retailer pays the person who may not even shop at the store the benefits. This payout can be very high. For example, merchants are advised on discount vouchers to set the payout at 50% of the profit. Here you would be giving half the profits to someone who does not even shop with them.

It goes much deeper than that. 

Loyalty rewards programs do not get much in the way of scrutiny. Security is often very lax as the rewards are not cash. That makes it open for abuse. This lack of oversight attracts thieves.

What you need to do is examine your loyalty programs for any such potential loopholes. 

Then Make Your Reward Loyalty Program Secure

 

 

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Your current surcharge charges to people for EFTPOS?

POS SOFTWARE

Charges are now all over the place. I have noticed looking at some statements from a major bank. It probably not because of a change in bank rates.

People are now using EFTPOS much more for smaller transactions. This is causing more transactions with lower average amounts. I suspect this has resulted in a different item on the EFTPOS rate card coming up. So the fees are now different.

So it is worth reviewing the fees you are getting now.

If they need to be changed, this is the best method for surcharging.

Cash register with credit EFTPOS displayed

If you look at the yellow arrow with the pay types circled on the point-of-sale screen. You set up your pay types with your surcharges to charge the new EFTPOS/Credit card surcharges for each pay type at the appropriate rate.

Note under Consumer Law provisions, you must be transparent about these fees. So it would be best if you displayed the fees prominently.

I recommend making a payment type with no fees under certain conditions and products eg, some EFTPOS transactions over $25 with no fees.

 

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How do we sign and witness documents in a pandemic?

POS SOFTWARE

How can we sign and witness documents during a pandemic? This is getting to be a real problem in this pandemic.

 

Business must go on, and documents must be signed. How do we do this, as many of us often now are not near a printer or fax?

 

This is what I do. I converted the electronic document to be signed into a pdf. Then I use a free website, pdfescape <no longer free checked on 2023 April>

I import the pdf to that site.

 

 

Then I put in the details required by the document electronically and then sign using my mouse instead of a pen.

Then I add under my signature with the following note. 

This document was electronically signed in accordance with the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) (Electronic Signing and Witnessing) Regulations 2020.

Note this is allowed in Victoria; looking at several states, I found that they all I found to have something very similar, but you need to check for your state the exact wording if you are not like me, a Mexican.

So far, only one supplier has made a fuss over this to me, most now from what I can see, are aware of the problems and accept this solution. 

I hope this is of help.

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Why do Click and Collect if you have not done it yet

POS SOFTWARE

I have spoken about click and collect a few times here over the past years. 

If you have not already done so, this is why you should look at Click and Collect!

Near me is a small strip shopping centre. I walked down the shopping centre what I discovered that every single shop in my centre had a sign in their window advertising their click and collect service. Looking at the cars coming and going, I could see it was in use. Some of the shops, its the only business they can have. 

Now, this is not a notable centre. Although new it is ordinary with a range of shops having small to large retailers. Clients are not computer savage or sophisticated. 

Let me start by saying that our POS system makes it very easy for you to set up and do click and collect, more about that later. 

Here are some reasons why you should consider doing this if you have not already done so.

-Many people now do not want to come to your shop because of COVID-19. To service these people as a retailer, you now have to look at alternatives or lose these people.

- Here is a costing from the USA costing out the alternatives by options. If you go through the list, you can see significant operational costs savings compared to delivery by click and collect. 

 

-For many small retailers, delivery in Australia is not worth it. You need as a rule orders of about $100, to make it worthwhile delivering. 

-Click and collect is much faster. Your customers can have their goods often in minutes. 

-In the click and collect model, the customers come to the shop to collect their purchases. Many, studies state that between 49% to 61%, make new unplanned purchases. These are often impulsive or forgotten items. You are not going to get much of this business from a delivery model.

-People are comfortable buying on click and collect, as they know you. They know if anything goes wrong with their purchase, they can go to your shop immediately. 

My advice is to try click and collect and see what happens. You can make adjustments as you go on, if it does not work, you can stop it.

If so, you want to do it. 

You need to make a clear strategy for your program! Go out of your shop, see what others are doing, check out the opposition and make a plan. 

- Do you want to introduce a fee? Can you?

-What packaging are you going to use?

-Where is going to be your collection point?

- How will the customer warn you that they are here?

 etc. 

Now once you are on your trial. 

Advertise it boldly in your window! There is a question often raised did "A tree did not fall if no-one heard it!", if you do not advertise "Click and Collect" you do not have it.

This is how I recommend doing it in our software. I would suggest using business invoicing with an A4 receipt in the cash register. It is easy to do. 

Look for the item, to click and collected. 
Click on the "Receipts" button. 
Find the receipt you would like to print.
Then select the "A4 Print" button as here.
 

Out will come an A4 receipt:

As always, please let me know your thoughts and how it goes. 

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Try having in your shop several special areas

POS SOFTWARE

Most of your sales floor is never seen by your customers. So it’s up to you to bring your merchandise to their attention. So in modern retailing, I have noticed is that shops now have many special areas. Not one but many! In the supermarkets as well as the regular area, you will find the same product at the ends of a shelf, the entrance and cash register area. So rather than have one big section dedicated to a product or line they have several. There is often is no correlation to these items in this area but people look at it. 

Try this

Reduce some of the area of a department and move some of these items into a special area. Make it noticeable put a nice sign advertising this area

This will maximise the reach of these products so giving you more opportunities to market your products.

And of course, tell me how it goes.

 

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Well consider how to do things differently

POS SOFTWARE

Now you are collecting information for your business for the end of the financial year. In the business world, the clock has been reset so many will talk to you, for example, your suppliers, accountant, bank and insurance broker etc.

It is time to consider what happened this year, see what has gone well and what has not gone well. More importantly, it is time to start planning for the new year.

 

What works for me is you do a SWOT analysis of your business? I am sure to you that it will be useful and rewarding to sitting down, hopefully with someone, reviewing your business in a formal method.

 

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Cleaning a touchscreen

POS SOFTWARE

 

Current conditions have created a significant challenge in keeping touch screens clean. 

Firstly I suggest that you shutting down and unplugging the screen before cleaning but due to the urgency and frequency few do this now.

Check with your screen supplier, but I suggest that soap and a little water should be okay, although better still would be a suitable glass cleaner liquid. Do not use kitchen cleaners, bleach, ammonia solutions and vinegar as these can damage the sensitive coating on touchscreens. Alcohol is a maybe some screen manufacturers are saying that it is okay and say are saying this is a no-way.

One point I have noticed is that supermarkets do not care in the long-term, but most of us want our screens to last as long as possible so do not assume that because a supermarket uses it that it is okay.

Now disinfect by spraying the screen with a fine but thorough cleaner mist. Do not soak the screen or allow moisture to get into any of the openings on the table. Leave the cleaner mist on the surface for one minute.

Now wipe it off with a microfiber cloth or soft rag. Do not use abrasive cloths or paper towels as these can scratch the glass.

If required to remove dust and smudges from your screens, use water for the heavy lifting.

Now allow it to dry.

Now if your screen does not work, I am not trying to tell anyone how to suck eggs, but please check your power lead as it may be slightly out of its socket either at the back of the monitor or the PowerPoint. Also, check that the monitor cable is secure and in correct. We get all very annoyed now when our support line is flat out, and a person calls and the problem was that the power cable came out of the plug. 

 

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COVIDSafe app

POS SOFTWARE

 

The Australian government has just released its COVIDSafe app whose aim is to assist with the process of identifying those who may have been exposed to COVID-19 so we can take measures to help stop the spread of the disease.

It aims to speed up the process of identifying people who have been in close contact with someone diagnosed, quickly stopping the further spread.

Details and download links are available here.

I admit that there are ongoing concerns about the privacy of those using this app, considering how badly the government has treated our privacy online, I doubt this issue is that important and with the dangers of COVID-19, I think we have to get our priorities right.  So I recommend that you get it and request that every one of your staff get it as it may help. 

People with Android smartphones should have no problems, but users of iPhones on low power mode may have issues. If you use an iPhone on low power mode, you may need to turn this mode off while in public if you wish to use this app.  Google and Apple are working on a better app, but it's not ready for release yet, so this app is the best we have now.

 

 

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Communicate with your customers

POS SOFTWARE

Managing your customer expectations is now critical with Coronavirus. People are concerned and confused and need reassurance your shop is acting on the current events and that you are taking their health seriously. 

Now your customers know that much is happening and are looking for information. They are also looking into contingency plans. When this is over, you want to be in those contingency plans. 

You can start by making sure you communicate with them your opening hours.

Put your current opening hours on a sign on the front, update your google business profile etc.

Also, let them know if your deliveries are affected, whether you do backorders something very easy to do with your POS software and if you provide delivery and/or Click and collect services.

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Tip: If Your shop is temporarily closing?

POS SOFTWARE

 

Quite a few of clients are in the city and in malls and unfortunately have made a painful decision to make a temporary close.

If so here are some tips for your Point of Sale system and a bonus one for the shop.

Unlike many other POS systems, it is quite safe to turn off our equipment with our system

1. Make sure that you have a backup of your system which you are going to take home.

2. Note down all your passwords, in a few months. You may be surprised what people can forget.

3. Put labels on everything before you disassemble it so you can reassemble it later. Some pictures here are a good idea.

4. Any electronic items that you intend to store in the shop, cover with something to keep the dust off except for the cash draws. Leave them open and in plain view so some undesirable people can see that it is empty.

5. Turn off everything electrical you can.

6. With social media, you have a perfect tool to keep your clients informed, you need to tell them what you are doing.

Customers will likely have many questions and take to social media to get answers — keep up with your accounts to not only react to customer inquiries and concern but also proactively provide updates on your business' current situation.

Bonus tip

Finally, take photos of everything in the shop after you empty it from inside and outside. That includes the front windows, doors, toilets, etc. everything. If possible email some of these to someone else so you have these pictures dated and time-stamped. You may need this if something goes wrong.

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COVID retail tip

POS SOFTWARE

This is a community service and marketing tip that you may want to consider that is now being tried overseas and in Australia.

To help people in the high-risk category for the Coronavirus e.g. elderly, some shops are announcing special hours for these people scheduled just after the shop is cleaned and disinfected. In the USA, it is being done in many stores now.

In Australia, Woolworths will be open for such people starting Tuesday, from 7 am to 8 am for such people, before the general opening at 8 am.

It would be easy to implement as most of us have a regular cleaning service time, so introduce the special opening straight after that; of course, if you have a Woolworths nearby, you probably want to piggyback on their times.  

If you try it out, let me know.

PS

I found this movie that seems now almost too real about what an outbreak of such a disease, Coronavirus, looks like, which I do recommend. It follows the path of the spread of disease and the attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease and its effect on the public. I enjoyed it a lot, and now it is worth a look.

 

 

 

 

 

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Coffee

POS SOFTWARE

I was asked today by one of my clients about coffee as we used to have a strong association with a large coffee machine distributor. Plus this is also a subject that I do claim much expertise. I am a certified barista. I worked as one during my university days and am an avid coffee addict. 
 

Coffee is a huge market in Australia and its not a hard market to enter. Years ago, when I was a kid, if people wanted to talk about business, they went to the pub. Now they go to a coffee shop.

Here are some basic economics on what if you are thinking of going into the coffee. Now firstly let me say, I do believe that if you are going to do something, you need to do it properly. 

The first point is to check whether you can have coffee, some shopping centres may not allow you to have it. I know people that have looked into coffee machines and had an argument with the landlord as it was mucking up another tenant they had nearby so the landlord said *NO*.

Now you need to determine what is your selling price. Coffee prices vary today from a $1 to about $4.50 a cup. You will need to investigate what you can get. If you can give people a place to sit and drink in your shop, do you have free wifi available to them and can you provide them with something to do e.g. read magazines as long as they buy coffee you can charge a little more or whether you can only do takeaway? Ask yourself what you would pay for a good cup of coffee in your proposed settings. It has to be good as Australians are serious about their coffee and have a high standard for their coffee.

Now, what sort of coffee machine are you thinking of getting?

Now the machine, the minimum, I think you could get away with commercially would be a $1,000 for a second-hand machine and a decent grinder (if you are going to do it commercially I do recommend a separate grinder). That one would probably get you about $3.5 a cup. If you are looking at new you are looking at about $7,000 to $12,000 and if you want something and those will get you about $3.50 to $4.50.

An automatic machine is about $2,000/year but you are not going to get as good a price for coffee from these machines probably about $1 to $2.50.  The big plus here is you can often negotiate a trial period to test it out.  

I do recommend that you get a machine from a place which fixes them as these machines frequently break down. You will need to check how quickly their support is and who pays for it. One of my clients told me that if they were not close to the service bay for the machine, he would have pulled out of coffee. The machines break down often.

The unit profits are excellent. 

A kg of coffee will vary in price, on the bottom end is the caterer's special which I would avoid. I brought some a while ago and threw it in the bin as it was that bad. In the supermarket, you can get decent coffee for about $20/kg. You may do better but let start with that for a first-level approximation. Now it depends on how much coffee you use for a cup, I use double most use single, but I would say for a 1kg bag of coffee beans, you will get around 60-140 cups of coffee, so that is 20 cents a cup. 

Milk is now about $1.20 per litre, as you need about 150 mm, so that is about 20 cents a cup.

Then there are cups and cleaning costs, about a third of barista time is taken up cleaning, you always have a rag nearby, just for the machine I would say every 200 coffees you are looking at about $2.50 in cleaning agents.so you are looking at a few cents a cup just in cleaning.

Then there is cleaning cups, tables and the rent on the area. There is some work involved.

Now in your costings, you need to add a bit because of lost coffee, people demanding fresh cups for some reason, e.g. not enough milk, the taste is not right, etc.

So a typical scenario here would be a fixed cost for the hardware, labour, rent and a variable cost of about 60 cents a cup.

Now you need to do your figures. People who charge a $1 are doing okay in coffee as the margin it there so if you can get $3.40/cup that is almost $2.80 profit. Plus there are heaps of addon sales if you want it eg cakes and biscuits. 

 

Finally, I do suggest that if you are going into it that you do a course. There are plenty around, the one I did years ago was 6 hours, is overkill as most barista today do much less, but it did give me a good rundown on coffee, so I suggest that you do it.

 

As far as your software is concerned, do not worry as our point of sale system is widely used in coffee shops so you have the perfect software to handle a cafe now.

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Consider whether you are underinsuranced

POS SOFTWARE

 

I was speaking to an insurance assessor over one of our clients who is working in the region.

Its quite weird the damage they suffered, the shop is generally fine but they have some cows as an investment, the cows are fine but the farm is an almost totally burnt out. How did the cows survive unharmed when everything was burnt is a mystery?

Anyway, what it does appear is that many people in the area devastated by the fires were underinsured. My client is too. So they are likely to get enough money to pay to rebuild all the damage. Part of the reason is that building costs have gone up a lot recently.

This is a tip. You may, when the insurance is due, look into this.

 

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