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Point of Sale Refunds are here! You can now refund individual items @ Point of Sale! While you could Void sales, refunding individual items was not possible until now.
Some awesome features/tips about refunds:
• You can enable/disable the Refunds button via Settings > Point of Sale
• You can restrict certain employees from performing Refunds via Settings > Users/Security
• You can issue Refunds in Cash, Store Credit or Gift Cards. If either of the latter two are selected, you'll automatically be prompted to select the Account or create the new Gift Card #, respectively.
• If you issue a Refund in Store Credit, the customer's History tab will show a Store Credit named POS Refund.
• When scanning items in to a Refund, we automatically check to see if the item has already been paid-out to the consignor -- items already paid to the consignor, cannot be refunded (don't worry, we're working on adding functionality so you can automatically make this a store-owned item and still issue a Refund!)
• For stores who use multi-quantity items, if the scanned item has been sold multiple times, we automatically detect that it's a multi-quantity item, prompt you, and provide a way for you to select the specific sale you want to refund.
• There's a dedicated Refunded Sales report via All Reports > Sales
• If a sale is already in progress and you attempt to start a separate Refund, you'll be prompted to complete or cancel the current sale.
• The consignor's Account History will automatically be adjusted with a 'Refunded Item' debit.
• *** REFUND *** appears at the top of the sales receipt
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Add GoDaddy to Email Settings
Even though we do *** NOT *** recommend utilizing GoDaddy for sending emails, I've added them to the list of auto-fill SMTP settings under Settings > Store > Email Settings.
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Gift Card Balance on Receipts
When a Gift Card is used as a payment @ POS, the Gift Card Balance will now print at the bottom of the receipt. If the Gift Card has been totally consumed (i.e. if its balance is $0.00), the balance will not show on the receipt.
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Consignor Fee Per Consignment
Added a new Per-Consignment Fee option! Encore in PA had requested the ability to charge a consignor a fee every time they process inventory for the consignor -- i.e. per Batch. Even if the consignor had already consigned earlier in the day, they'd like to have the option to still charge them a fee.
I've added a new option under Settings > Store > Preferences called Per-Consignment Fee. If enabled, when processing inventory, you'll be prompted on the first item of every Batch, if you'd like to charge the consignor a Consignment Fee. This prompt will only appear on the *first* item of *every* Batch, if enabled.
If 'Yes' is clicked to the prompt, a fee named 'Consignment Fee' will deduct from the account's History tab.
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Print Receipt for Drop n Go
In addition to emailing a Drop n Go receipt, you can now print a Drop n Go receipt as well!
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There is now a Tax-Free option for Point of Sale! This is a flexible option, which lets you either A) remove tax from an entire sale on a per-sale basis, or B) enable Tax-Free for all sales (until the option is un-checked).
By default, the Tax-Free option is disabled. To enable this, head to Settings > Point of Sale. There's a new "Show Tax-Free" option.
Once this is enabled, you'll see two, new, red icons @ Point of Sale. First, you'll see a red icon just to the right of the "Items In This Sale" list. Clicking this button will remove sales tax from any items that have already been scanned-in to the sale.
This will also reveal a checkbox on the "Scan Barcodes..." screen. When checked, Tax-Free will become enabled for all sales (on this workstation) and will remain enabled until un-checked. This way, you can check this box at the beginning of a Tax-Free sale (e.g. Back to School) and it will remain on until un-checked, saving you from having to manually remove tax for each and every sale.
When enabling this, you will be prompted first to confirm you truly do want to enable the Tax-Free option for all sales (on this workstation).
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Add Inventory > Prompt If No Departments or Categories Exist
On the Add Inventory screen, if there are no Departments (or no Active Departments), you'll be prompted that inventory cannot be entered until there's at least one Department and one Category.
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There is a new Repeat Item feature @ Point of Sale! You can quickly repeat items in a sale, so if you have multi-quantity items, you don't have to scan/manually enter each one of them. This also works for POS Misc Items.
To use the Repeat Item feature, scan an item into POS, then right-click the item and choose Repeat Item.
Some tips/additional features:
• The currently-available Quantity of the item will display and you cannot 'over sell' the item.
• It checks to see how many are already in the current sale and will not let you repeat more than are on hand.
• POS Misc. Items have a maximum repeat of 100, to prevent mistakes.
• There is a hard limit of 200, preventing you from selling hundreds of items that have a high Quantity level.
• When trying to repeat more than 100 of an item, you'll be prompted to confirm you really want to do this.
• There is an Access Level to prevent employees from using this feature. :)
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Top Performing Categories List (DataGridView) Font Color Is Too Light
The font in the Top Categories list was a light silver, not following the software's overall font color of dark slate gray. :) This made it a bit difficult to read/see.
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Show Tax Exempton Info. on Sales Receipt
If a shopper with Tax Exemption info. is selected @ Point of Sale, their Tax ID will print on the sales receipt now!
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Tax ID When Adding An Account @ POS
A shopper's Tax ID can now be added when adding a new account @ POS! Click the 'Tax ID' button to specify tax exemption info. for the shopper.
Once you click 'Save' to add the new shopper, they'll automatically be set to tax exempt for the new sale.
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Open Cash Drawer from Within Software
There's a new No Sale/Open Drawer button at Point of Sale! You'll see a new, blue button down toward the lower right-hand corner.
When clicked, you'll be prompted if you're sure you want to pop the drawer open. NOTE: A compatible cash drawer must be connected to your receipt printer.
This functions as a true 'No Sale' -- i.e. it logs the sale, generates a new Sale ID, and prints a small receipt showing *** NO SALE ***, the date/time, the Sale ID, and the Employee. This logs all drawer-opens as a No Sale in the SALE table, so there's a log of every time a No Sale is triggered.
You can also prevent employees from using the No Sale/Open Drawer feature by using Access Levels under Settings > Users/Security. By default, the No Sale/Open Drawer feature is set to the highest Access Level (100), so employees with lower Access Levels will not be able to open the cash drawer until allowed. :)
There's also an option under Settings > Point of Sale to completely disable the No Sale/Open Drawer button if you'd like!
Tip: You can also press the F12 key on your keyboard.
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Mailing Labels By Birthday
Added Mailing Labels (By Birthday)!
Traci @ Frugality requested this most-recently. :)
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Ability to Deactivate/Disable Certain POS Misc. Items
POS Misc. Items can now be deactivated! To deactivate a Coupon, head to Settings > Point of Sale > Misc. Items, click the 'Edit' button (or double-click) the Misc. Item you want to deactivate, and un-check the 'Active' checkbox.
Deactivated Misc. Items will no longer appear in the POS Misc. Items screen during sales!
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Ability to Deactivate/Disable Certain POS Coupons
POS Coupons can now be deactivated! To deactivate a Coupon, head to Settings > Point of Sale > Coupons, click the 'Edit' button (or double-click) the Coupon you want to deactivate, and un-check the 'Active' checkbox.
Deactivated Coupons will no longer appear in the POS Coupon screen during sales!
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Trim Leading 0s from Scanned Barcodes
Documenting a general programming change where leading 0s (e.g. 00001234) are automatically trimmed (removed) when scanned @ Point of Sale.
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Make <SecureDevice> A Variable/Setting So It Can Be Dynamically Changed/Set/Updated
This ties-in wth Bug ID 842, but I still want to document the underlying programming changes. <SecureDevice> is now a variable read from external settings file vs. being hard-coded.
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Prevent Tax from Being Utilized Until 'Tax Specific' Selected
Since a Tax requires at least one Tax Specific (i.e. the percentage, details, etc.) I've made two adjustments that will prevent a Tax from being usable until it has at least one Tax Specific.
• When you add a new Tax, you'll both be prompted that a Tax Specific is required, plus you'll be taken directly to the Add Tax Specific screen to fill-out the percentage and other details.
• Any Tax that does not have at least one Tax Specific, will not appear in the list of available Taxes on the following screens -- Add Category, Set Category Tax.
This was discovered by Kathie @ The Ruffled Closet. :)
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Cost Greater Than Price Alert, Even If Cost Is NOT Greater Than
Fixed the warning that would appear when saving a Buy Outright item, even if the Cost was NOT greater than the item Price.
This was reported by Melynda @ Hand-Picked. :)
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'Total Items' on Account Overview > Summary, Should Reflect Multi-Quantity Count
Added a 'Total Count' balloon to the 'Unsold Items' number at the top-right of the Account Overview screen. Just hover your mouse over the 'Unsold Items' number to see the total count (technically, sum) of Available items.
For stores utilizing multiple Quantities on items, this provides a way to see the actual count of items, based on Quantity.
This reflects Available items only.
Also added the same to the Inventory tab on the main program screen.
Sherry @ Sadie's requested this. :)
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Email Validation Check Allows \ In Email Address
Both a forward slash (/) and a back slash (\) could still be entered as an email address and the email validity function would allow it -- even though neither are valid characters for an email.
/ likely being typed by accident since it's right next to the . key on the keyboard. :)
Neither characters can be entered now. :)
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When Adding Store Fees to Splits, '0.50' vs. '.50' Has to Be Typed
Fixed the 'Format Currency' to trigger when the Fee field has lost focus, not on text-changed.
This was reported by Elizabeth @ Mommy's Lil Rascals. :)
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Add 'Layaway' As A Searchable Status on Search Inventory Screen
You can now search for items with a 'Layaway' Status on the Search Inventory screen!
This was requested by Sherry @ Sadie's. :)
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5-Minute Sale Reminder Needs to 'Reset' When Cancelling A Sale
The software has a handy feature to prompt if you've started a sale, but walked away and forgot about it -- it pops-up an alert after 5 minutes to remind you a sale is unfinished.
If you cancelled a sale before the 5 minutes, it would not reset the timer, so you'd get a prompt that a sale had started, even though it was no longer started. :)
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Departments can now be deleted! Only if they haven't been used or don't have any Categories associated with them. For Departments that have been used or are associated with other data, you *CAN* deactivate/hide them now too! :)
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You can now delete Categories! While data integrity has never been an issue (the database follows a normalized design), *issues from deleting things" is something I've had thousands of store owners come to me over the years with. So I intentionally kept the UI for both Categories and Departments free of any delete buttons.
To delete a Category, head to Settings > Inventory, select the Department and you can double-click any Category to edit it. Click the 'Delete' button and the software will double-confirm you're sure you want to delete the Category.
The software automatically checks to see if any items are associated with the Category and if so, will prevent the Category from being deleted.
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Departments can now be renamed! To rename a Department, head to Settings > Inventory and select the Department you'd like to edit. You'll see a new icon to the right of the Department drop-down -- click this to Edit the Department.
You can both rename the Department, as well as deactivate it.
Some tips/helpful details:
• The software automatically prevents duplicate Department names, so if you try to change the name to one that already exists, the software will prompt and let you know.
• You'll be asked to confirm if you're *sure* you want to rename the Department.
• Since the database is normalized, all items' Departments automatically reflect this change. We also update any item Descriptions/Details to reflect the new change as well. :)
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You can now rename Categories! To rename a Category, head to Settings > Inventory and select the Department that contains the Category you want to edit.
Double-click on the Category and you can edit the name. You can also deactivate the Category too!
If you try to rename the Category to a name that already exists in the *same Department*, the software will automatically prevent this from happening and will alert you.
You'll also be prompted to confirm you really do want to change the Category name. :)
Since the database is normalized, all items' Categories automatically reflect this change. We also update any item Descriptions/Details to reflect the new change as well. :)
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Auto-Detect/Recommend Image Path
Under Settings > Store > Preferences > Image Folder, the software automatically recommends what this folder should be, if it's been changed or if you're networking multiple computers together.
This way, you don't have to figure out if it should be C:\something or \\something.
It also tests to see if the folder that's been set is accessible, so you know the setting is truly working. :)
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Add Item To A Sale, Add Payment, Add Item, Then Payment, THEN Remove Items -- Payment Issues
Built a new Function for adding *things* to/removing *things* from a sale -- e.g. items, payments, coupons, etc.
If a store had added items, then added payments, then removed items, the Change Due would not reflect this.
I've also added a hard-stop, so if you try to remove items *after* payments have been made, you'll be prompted that the item cannot be removed and to either remove payments or cancel the sale.
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Email Consignor Agreement/Contract Within the Consignor's Account
The Consignor Agreement/Contract can now be emailed! On the Account Overview screen, click Email Consignor and select the Consignor Contract message from the list.
The consignor will receive an email with the current copy of your Consignor Agreement attached.
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Support for Additional 'Secure Devices'/PIN Pads for BluePay
I had previously hard-coded the Ingenico iSC250 device name for the BluePay PIN Pad. Even though there's only one Ingenico iSC250, the actual device name under the surface can change -- e.g. when E2E (end-to-end encryption) is enabled.
So the list of possible devices is now stored in a settings file, which can be updated/edited at any time, future-proofing this so a newly-name/configured device won't 'break' credit card processing.
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Account History > Receipt # Should Be 'Sale ID'
Changed query label/column header on History tab within Account Overview to disply 'Sale ID' vs. 'Receipt #', for consistency throughout the software.
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Account History -- Colorize Cell if Dollar Amount is Less Than $0.00
On an account's History tab, if the dollar amount is less than $0.00 (i.e. a Debit), this will be colored in red.
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View Item Sale History for An Item, Within Account Overview
Added a new 'VIew Sale History' on the Items tab within an account!
You can right-click an item and click 'View Sale History...' to see, well, the sales history of an item. :) While in most consignment situations, there's only ever one sale, a few situations can result in a single item being sold multiple times -- e.g. if the item was refunded or if the store utilizes multi-quantity.
If the item has no sales history to show, you'll be prompted that there are no sales to show.
This list is sorted by most-recent sale record first/at the top.
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In addition to the ongoing program log for every event in the software, we now also create and log every email sent. Whether it's the Welcome Email, Consignor Agreement Email, Payout Email, or a Sales Receipt Email, each one is logged along with the email address it was sent-to.
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Refill Item Quantity If Sold/Quantity = 0
Added a new 'Refill Item' feature, which allows stores to add quantity to items that have been sold down to 0.
To enable/allow this, head to Settings > Store > Preferences and tick the box next to 'Allow Item Quantity Refill'.
Once enabled, you will see the 'Adjust Quantity' button is available on items that have been marked 'Sold' and have a Quantity of 0.
Also, I've added a handy feature to this -- if you refill an item, I add a note to the Notes tab showing this has happened, how many were added, etc. This way, you have an easy to see record of an item that had a Quantity of 0, becoming Available again. :)
This feature was added based on feedback from Sherry @ Sadie's. ;)
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Log Item Quantity Adjustment As a Note on the Account
When adjusting the Quantity of an item, a Note will automatically be created on the account, documenting the Quantity added and the user that adjusted the Quantity.
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Log Multi-Quantity Items When Added
When adding inventory, if the Quantity is more than 1, a Note will automatically be added to the account, documenting the Quantity, Barcode ID, Item Details, and the User who added the multi-quantity item.
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Show Account Type & Access Level for User on Users/Security Screen
The list of employees/user accounts on the Users & Security screen now shows both the 'Account Type' (e.g. Owner, Employee, etc.) as well as the 'Access Level'. The 'Email' column is no longer displayed (the employee's email address can be viewed by double-clicking, but it wasn't very *useful* info. to display in the list vs. Type & Level).
The list is also sorted by the Login name now.
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Stop Cursor in 'Note' field (TabStop) on Add Inventory
Added the ability to *stop* the cursor in the Note field while adding inventory.
For stores who don't utilize the Note field or who don't need to add this on the majority of their items, this can be disabled under Settings > Store > Preferences.
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Show More Than 'This Year' for Store Stats
The 'Store Stats' screen now lets you select previous years! Where this previously only showed the current year's stats, you can now select previous years (up to 10 years back).
The stats default to the current year and there is both a drop-down to select a specific year, as well as previous/next buttons to easily navigate through the years.
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Add 'Inventory w/ Cost' to Account Printouts
Added a new Inventory w/ Cost Printout to the Account Overview screen! This displays the Cost of each item, as well as the Total Cost at the bottom of the report.
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Add 'Total Count' to Account Printouts > Inventory, to Reflect Multi-Quantity Items
Added 'Total Count' to the bottom of the Account Overview > Printouts > Inventory, so stores who utilize multi-quantity items, can see an accurate count of items.
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If Tax Exempt Customer Is Added After Sale Is Started, Remove Tax from Existing Items
When adding a Tax Exempt customer to a sale, this will now automatically make any existing items, already in the sale, tax-free.
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Show A Visual Indicator That the Selected Shopper Is Tax Exempt
If the customer is Tax Exempt, there is now a bright yellow *smiley face* icon next to the Selected Shopper.
This provides a strong visual indicator that the customer is Tax Exempt.
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Color Unpaid History Transactions for Quick Visual of What's Not Paidout Yet
To quickly see which Account History entries have yet to be paid-out, the Payout ID column is now colored in blue.
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You can now email the consignor their Account History!
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You can now email the consignor a Donation Receipt!
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Move Email Settings to Database
Email settings have been moved from being stored in the application settings file (which is unique to each computer), to being stored in the database (which makes them centralized).
Any portion of the software that can send email -- e.g. Welcome Email, Email Consignor, Email Sales Receipt, Email Payout Summary, etc. -- now all utilize this setup.
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Email Sales Receipt Shows 'From' As Just Email, not 'From Store Name <emailaddress>'
Adjusted the 'From' text on an emailed sales receipt, to reflect the store's name instead of only the store email address.
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Show Shopper/Customer Info. on View Sale Screen
On the View Sale screen (where you can view an individual sale, reprint receipts, email receipts, void sales, etc.) if a Customer/Shopper was selected during the sale, you'll see an icon appear at the top-right, showing a customer. You can click on this to see the shopper's information. :)
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Security Access for Email Sales Receipts
Added an Access Level so you can prevent certain employees from emailing sales receipts.
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Security Access for Point of Sale Discounts
Added an Access Level so you can prevent certain employees from using the POS Discount feature.
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Security Access for Quick Reports
Added an Access Level so you can prevent certain employees from running any of the four 'Quick Reports' (Sales, Items, Accounts, Payouts) on the Reports tab.
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Build 'Sale In Progress' Function
This was a general programming change, but I still wanted to document it. I've built a new Function for determining if a sale is in progress, since many factors can mean a sale is in progress -- e.g. a Customer/Shopper is selected, items are in the sale, payments, etc.
By building a Function, I can easily add to this in the future, without having to make changes anywhere else in the software, and always be able to return a 'True' if a sale is in progress.
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General Code, UI & Query Improvements for Departments, Categories & Details
Documenting general uiser interface + query improvements to the Departments, Categories & Details screen.
Some UI changes/improvements:
• You'll see two new arrows that let you navigate through Departments vs. having to select from a dropdown
• Moved the Tax and Split to be on top on one another vs. side-by-side, to prevent longer-named Taxes from stepping on the Split name
• Added an Edit Department button
• Added tool tips/hover balloons alerting to the double-click ability on Categories
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Summary Tab > Items Entered Today -- Use 'Real Date' vs. 'Date-In'
On the Reports Tab, the 'Summary' box that shows today's totals, now utilizes the 'Item Real Date' instead of the 'Date-in' when showing how many items were added today.
Since many stores pre-receive inventory -- e.g. set the date to a date in the future -- when looking at how many items were added *today*, you wouldn't see those items.
By using the 'Real Date', you're always getting a real view of the work done *today*, even if you're future-dating inventory. :)
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Spelling Mistake When Closing An Account During Edit
Prompt showed 'Are you sure you want to cancel and disGard your changes'. :)
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Query Improvements for 'Top Categories' on Inventory/Quick View
Documenting general improvements to the 'Top Categories' quick-view on the Inventory tab.
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Access Level for Voiding Inventory
Added an Access Level for Void Inventory, so you can block employees from voiding items.
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Gift Card Totals on Primary Sales Report
Added Gift Card totals (Gift Cards Sold, Gift Cards Sold Dollars) to the bottom of the Primary Sales Report.
This was requested by Doris @ Attic Fanatic. :)
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Changing Status of an Available Item to 'Available' Updates Status, Changes Qty to 0
Status Items screen now checks to see if the item is already Available, prompts to this, and bails-out of the Status change routine.
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Gift Card Amount Not Depleting, When Final/Draining Payment Used
While testing the Gift Card Balance on receipts addition, I noticed a bug with Gift Card Payments. All payments up until the *final*/depleting payment, would log with the card # (e.g. 1234), but the final payment would log as card # 'Gift Card #1234', thus, the Gift Card amounts would not reflect the correct balance.
In essence, the card would not be properly 'drained' to $0.00 and could be used after it had been depleted, if ever tried again in the future.
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Show 'Last Used' on Gift Card Lookup
While working on the Gift Card Balance on receipts, I thought it would be handy to be able to see the 'Last Used' date/time when looking-up a Gift Card.
If the card has only been issued and has never been used, you'll see 'Never Redeemed'.
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Reports tab > Summary > Gift Card Purchases, Not Showing Today's Gift Card Payments
On the 'quick summary' section of the Reports tab, the 'Gift Card Purchases' would always show 0 for today, even if Gift Card payments had been used @ POS.
This now correctly reflects the number of Gift Card payments processed *today*.
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Total Payments Should Not Include/Deduct Change On Sales Report + Primary Sales Report
Change is broken-out to its own total on the Primary Sales report + no longer 'deducts' from Total Payments on either the Total Sales or Primary Sales reports.
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Thousandths Place for Tax Percentage
The % field for Tax was initially (and intentionally) limited to 4 characters, but this prevents tax percentages for New York -- e.g. 8.875 -- from being entered. Adjusted this field to allow up to 6 characters. While the percentage could still be manually set in the database, the user interface needs to allow it.
This was reported by Alberta @ Repeat Boutique. :)
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Drop n Go 'Email Error' Alert
Drop n Go email receipts would show an 'Email Error' warrning when trying to send. This has been fixed. :)
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Add a 'Cost' Column to the Items Tab on the Account Overview Screen
There's now an option to display a 'Cost' column within an account, on the Items tab. This is off by default, but for stores who do Buy Outright, this can be enabled via Settings > Store Preferences -- there's a new 'Show Cost Instead of Less Fee' option.
The 'Less Fee' option isn't used very much, if at all, for stores who do BOR, so I utilized this as the column to swap-out, to keep things nice and uniform on the Items tab. :)
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'Status' Selector on Account Overview > Printouts > Inventory Reports
For both the 'Inventory' and the 'Inventory w/ Cost' Printouts within an account, you can now select the 'Status' you want to view.
There are already dedicated 'Donated' and 'Returned' Prinouts, for quick access to these two commonly-used Statuses, but there wasn't a way to view by each of the Statuses an item can be set as -- e.g. Lost, Damaged, Voided, etc.
You'll see a 'Status' selection on the View/Print pop-up now, so you can select the Status you want to view.
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