Bill Anton searched for a year to replace the first system he used to automate his business. That system did a good job of selling items but still required hours of manual work, filling forms, and calculating to get the management reports he needed. When the monthly closing or "Z out" was done, all the data was lost.
He went to trade shows, like the Outdoor Retailer Show, held in Reno each Summer. He finally found a solution which he's very happy with at a systems dealer. The systems dealer, SDA member Harris Point of Sale, in Texas, conducted a thorough search to find software that was a complete solution.
First when a selection was made, the systems dealer had to get the 15,000 customer names and thousands of inventory items moved from the old program to the new one. The software company analyzed the data and wrote filters to move the data. This saved Bill Weeks of typing names, addresses, and inventory.
Next the systems dealer selected computers for the two sales stations, the management station, and the file server and a network to share information. The sales stations are super quality color monitors resting on each end of the front L-shaped counter. The credit card reader, printer, and phone are located midway between the two within reach of the clerks at either station. The keyboards are recessed flush with the counter above the built-in cash drawers. Centered in the show room of colorful tents, kayaks, climbing gear, and clothing, it makes a beautiful, as well as functional, system.
An automatic data backup system protects the files and makes certain the remaining stations can continue operating following the failure of one station.
Bar code scanners (CCD type) make entering items for sale easy and accurate. Bill said the most difficult part was training clerks to enter customer names and addresses because they lacked typing skills.
The big benefits are customer tracking and mailings based on their buying history. This generates big savings in postage. He can send the new Patagonia catalog to only those people who have bought their products in the past. He wanted to print labels on the three across format, but his software was designed to use the one across. The Microsoft Access program was used to produce mailing labels for the desired style and content.
He was very careful to lay out the inventory file so the item identifiers used a three number prefix to identify the vendor. This makes it easier to lookup items at the point of sale and to analyze stock movement.
Mountain Sports also rents tents and camping gear. The rental activity of each item is easily tracked.
Customers pay for over half the sales with credit cards. Transactions are approved and recorded with equipment contracted from a processing service. This keeps both sales stations free to handle sales while waiting for a transaction to be approved.
Customers are issued store credit if they return an item before the check has cleared the bank. Store credit is defined as a tender type. After 10 days, the credit slip can be redeemed for cash.
The automation system has an online help manual which is kept open at the place they are working. For example, pressing the Help key while adding names will open the manual to the section explaining how to add names.
The system has a utility to change the code assigned to a vendor. This was useful during setup because as more codes were assigned, the utility changed all codes for that vendor in the vendor, inventory and purchasing files.
All items received are entered in the management station upstairs so the quantities and prices are immediately up to the second at the sales stations downstairs.