Today many people are delivering goods to customers through mail or courier. What does cost is incorrectly labelled parcels? So it is a good idea to validate the customer's address before sending it.

Now you can use, as one of our competitors is currently marketing an address validations tool to their customers. What these do is check the addresses in bulk. For most of our clients who are not sending parcels in bulk, we recommend a free tool, google maps.

Call up Google Maps.

Put in the search bar the address you require (see arrow above), and google will give you a list of valid addresses for free. It is quick and easy to use. What I particularly like is that you can get a photograph of the place where the delivery is to go. This allows you to check for any potential problems in advance.

If you feel you need better, I recommend using only an Australia Post-approved address validation supplier.

A quick validation for new addresses will save you time and money.

What could I have sold or finding dropped product lines in your shop

Suddenly you no longer got stock of some products, and you never knew it and often, because the losses are small for any item, you do not even notice it. Much of this loss may be due to poor stock ordering by yourself or your suppliers so it may be actionable. So it is helpful to figure out what effect these product losses had on your business. Fortunately, you have a report that can help determine the loss in our point-of-sale system, which is well worth using. In Cash register reports > Stock, There is a report "Stock Sold During Period (a) Not Sold in Period (b) report." So we can now run a report for, I generally recommend, six months. So put dates last year for the six months and then six months this year. 

So t looks like this:

Period A - 20/04/2021 - 19/10/2021 
Period B - 20/04/2022 - 19/10/2022 

That gives us items the shop sold in period A compared to the last six months. Now I always think it's easier to work by departments, so I picked magazines.

Now when I press "View Report", I get this.

Look at the first line, almost $20,000 worth of stock in six months with a profit of over $6,000 lost. Although some are noticeable, you would never pick most as they are small. Still, much here should be in the shop selling as they add up if you put them together! 

Once you have the list, it's time to see whether what you have lost is worth looking into and, if so, what you can do.

I would recommend running this report monthly.

Here is another illustration of our POS Program's functional and helpful benefits.

Speed up your transaction time!

Say when processing customer transactions, you notice something is wrong. Here is a super quick fix, use direct editing. This will allow you to change the price, description, and quantity directly and set discounts simply by touching the details you want to change. See the image below.

For example, to change the description of an item in the cash register, click or touch the description of an item, and then a description override window will appear. Edit the description and click OK to return to the register. The description is changed.

For more details on what direct editing can do, please click here.

Scanning failures in your point-of-sale software hamper your business. Here is a list of some of the problems

- At best, your POS system is running slow, slowing your customers' checkout times as scanning is faster than manual entry.
- It often means that you cannot usually provide detailed customer receipts
- Often, your system cannot give you accurate stock history
- Often, the stock quantities in your system are wrong.
- Manual entry makes more mistakes

It is better to scan more.

The first point to look at is your scan rate to give you a feel of the problem, and it is easy to get; go to sales.

Once there, select Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period.

Now run the report. I usually do it for the previous 12 months.

You will see a column with %Scan; the higher, the better. Looking through this list, you can see where I marked a problem department with a green arrow.

Now there can be many causes of this problem. The first point is to test whether it is happening on a scanner. Sometimes you improve your barcode scanning rates from this scanner by:

-Experiment with your scanner what height it reads best with the barcodes that you use. It will vary depending on what barcodes you use and your barcode reader. Please take a few items, try and scan them and see what works best.
-Maybe the scanner is in bright light, so try moving the scanner to a different location.
-Try putting the barcode straight. Sometimes not having the barcode straight can cause problems for a scanner to read the barcode. It is also less of an eyesore.
-Avoid putting barcodes on shiny objects as the light will reflect into the scanner and cause problems.
-Cleaning your barcode scanner and printer can help immensely. A rag and some cleaning material can often do wonders.
-Remember, dirty or wet barcodes or barcodes with staples are not suitable for scanning.

Suppose all scanners see if the problem is the suppliers' or your barcodes. If it is your barcodes, check your printer; it may be dirt causing poor ink distribution.

Remember that sometimes you have to replace these units if the goods you sell are not suitable for what you sell or if they have deteriorated.

​A bonus tip

You can increase your scan rate if you make a convention in your shop where you will stick the barcode. The front, top, back, etc., stick with it if possible; this will save people from having to hunt for the barcode.

Many of you would have already received letters similar to this, cannot say I am very happy about it, what about you? It's good to know that my Optus stuff is safe but...

From the victims' point of view.

Here is the information that was stolen which includes:
-Customers' names
-Dates of birth
-Phone numbers
-Email addresses
-Addresses
-ID document numbers such as driver's licence or passport numbers

This information is enough for someone to get through most security checks over the phone, e.g. ATO, banks, etc. I doubt I can change my driver's licence number; the passport number is possible, but I cannot change my date of birth or address. I would be reluctant to change my email address. The other problem is that the old numbers are still valid in most places. Many ID checks will accept the old info.

What is troubling is that the hack started in 2017. Did anything weird happen to you with your accounts?

Probably the quickest way to check is with a free credit report

To guard against this, you can ask for a FREE credit report from any of the 3 Credit Report Agencies:

• Experian

• Illion

• Equifax

Since they each collect slightly different information, you may want to check all of them.

From Optus's point of view

Although still under investigation, this Optus breach is likely human error, as almost all my experiences are successful hacks. If so, it would have been avoidable with proper procedures. If so, there is no one for Optus to blame, so it will probably have to bear much of the cost besides the bad publicity.

Now multiple by 9.8 million people (high-case scenario) to get a feel of the potential costs. This cost is on the low side. It is estimated that a hack in business costs much more than this, more like $200 a person.

From your business point of view

Considering the size of this hack, there is no doubt that new laws will be coming to Australia. 

Currently, for a small or medium-sized business (SMB), the average cost of a breach in the US is $108,000. In Australia, it will be more. Just a lawyer and barrister for a few days will cost more. Do the figures yourself; an SMB business with 1,000 customers on its books at $200/account, and you have $200,000.

Some simple security checks could help to reduce the problem.

-Passwords stuck on the walls are not a good idea.
-Change passwords frequently.
-Implement security on your systems.
-As much as possible, never leave computers unattended.

For people who want better, we set up our users with an encrypted disk drive using VeraCrypt.

Anything under VeraCrypt without the correct password is unreadable. Doing this has a significant advantage because no one can read your information if your computer is lost or stolen.

It is so secure that I doubt anyone in Australia could break it.

Also, you may want to consider cyber insurance, but that is a story for another day. 

Our system can accept PayPal, so there is something that is a common fraud that you should be warned about if you accept PayPal about their buyer protection program. It was told to me by one of our suppliers who got badly burnt. 

A person rings up and places an order for a laptop. They then paid by PayPal. Shortly afterwards they came and picked up the item. A short time afterwards, they opened a dispute with PayPal that they never got the laptop. The seller had no proof of purchase, so PayPal refunded the buyer their money, and the seller is short a laptop.

If you sell an item with PayPal, you need proof of delivery. 

Actually, proof of delivery is a good idea for any payment method.

A special edition of both New Idea and Woman’s Day will be published on Thursday, 15/9/2022, and no issue will be published on Monday, 19/9/2022.

There are no changes involved in its handling. We have put together a help sheet to guide you through the steps to handle this change.

Click here on how to handle it.

Everyone is trying to save cash flow. In the past, we all worked with the post and cheques. Today we send electronic invoices. Most customer payments with online banking payments are scheduled in advance.

Have a chew. Is the traditional 30 days system above even relevant today?

One of my clients did a rush job for someone. It was a sizable job, and they sent them an invoice once done. Accidentally it had a 30-day payment term on the payment terms on the invoice. The customer immediately preyed on the delay. Instead of getting paid in a few days, it dragged out to two months.

These are the facts; in general, putting a person on:

Look here at this report.

One month means payment in about two months.

While one week generally means payment in about two weeks.
Two weeks means a payment in about three weeks.

Conclusion: Short payment terms mean you paid faster!

Here are some tips.

1) Do your billing as quick as possible. If you must do it in cycles, make them as short as possible. In my experience, the longer a debt is outstanding, the harder it is to collect.
2) Set your billing cycles as short as possible.
3) Ensure your customers have the appropriate billing cycle; this is easy in our POS system.
4) Switch your customers to online payment if possible. People want today to pay electronically, so give them your BSB and bank account details. 
5) Do not be afraid to follow up if bills are not paid on time. Use your outstanding debt reports in your POS Software. They can be individualised to your needs.

Cashflow is the number one killer of businesses.

So we all need to work smarter.

Payments by a debit or credit card incur a cost. Many businesses absorb these costs, but a significant percentage do pass the costs on as a payment surcharge.

Off the top of my head, I would say, based on what I have seen and heard, about 80% of our clients are in the beauty industry, e.g. hairdressers, a slightly smaller percentage in hospitality and general retail, 30% charge a surcharge. As a general rule, the smaller they are, the more likely they will charge it.

Does it cost them, customers? I think it does, but some will disagree with me. Many will accept that it costs them customers but claim that it produces more revenue than it loses. Here I agree they often have a good argument here.

Say you have a small coffee shop doing about $300,000 turnover in EFTPOS with a 40% margin and an average sale of $20. You introduce a surcharge of 50 cents, which makes about $7,500 profit, but as a result, you lose 1% of sales. This costs you a $1,200 loss in profit. The net gain in profit is about $6,200.

This is why our free EFTPOS system is very popular with these people.

Now accepting that you want to charge a surcharge, the rules are very confusing. Different banks had given me different views on the details here, as did the ACCC when I enquired.

So I suggest in point form the following if you want to charge a surcharge:

1) Get something in writing from your bank, see their website for details, study it, now cut and paste it and save it, and then follow it.

2) You need a sign showing your customers that you may set a surcharge to charge if EFTPOS/Credit cards are used.

3) Those who charge it have told me that when they calculate the costs, it is more than the bank's figures. I would query this with the bank, but if it is legit, yes, you can charge your figure. It's something you need to keep in mind that the bank's figure often seems too low. What is fascinating is that the banks' figures do not agree with each other. You may be able to use this to your advantage.

4) Now you have two choices

a) You can charge this through your POS System. Here you have the advantage of giving you more flexibility, but it has a problem that the POS Software does not know the card used. Many premium cards, which are the big problem here, are unknown, so they can only charge an average fee.

B) My favourite is using the bank system to charge it. Most banks' systems allow you to change the surcharge as you like. Plus, it somewhat leaves you out of the charge in the public perception.

5) Keep careful note of what happens after introducing the surcharge. If it is causing problems, you may consider rethinking the idea. What works well is only charging for payments under a certain amount. It has proven to be an excellent encouragement to get people to spend more. In our example above, people in the coffee shop often buy another coffee to get above this limit.

As always, let me know how it goes.

Almost all email systems can send an Out-of-Office message so that people emailing you know that you are away. These are often called autoresponder email messages.

This is good practice to set up to send an out-of-office message. It is a simple courtesy to tell people that you cannot respond immediately. It is also efficient and makes you look professional.

Think of it from the other person's perspective: they have sent you an email and expect a real-time response. Plus, in today's world, you may find your lack of response means something. Just imagine you get an email "We want to sort it out before we go to a lawyer...."

So I suggest you set one up if you intend to be out of the shop for some time.

When I am on holiday, even if I know I should have internet access, something often goes wrong. Plus, I do not have access to documents and people to discuss it. Plus, usually, I am not in the mood. So I set up such a message.

The note I use is

From experience, give yourself a [return date] a few days after you return. This is because when you arrive, besides your regular duties, there will be much to do to catch up.

For [reason] keep it simple holidays where ??? - let them be jealous, medical checks not an illness, etc.

[phone] not [email] as too many spammers are harvesting email addresses.

If you want to copy or change it, go for it. I change it on every extended break.

But I suggest you don’t forget to write an auto-response for those who email you while you’re on leave. 

Try using your End of Day Options and experiment.

Yes, your POS System is a Cash Register that can do X-Offs, Y-Offs and your Z-Offs at the end of the day, but it can do much more. Why not use it as well as a computer, not a Cash Register?

These are what we call a freebie. It takes no time and effort and gives you a pile of information.

Now when you go into your End of Day, stop and look at the other options, I have highlighted in Green below.

Study them all. In particular, look at the ones I ticked as I think you will find these most useful. 

Another helpful function is to set your POS System to automatically email or SMS your shop's End of Day details to many different email addresses and mobile numbers. This is an excellent feature if you are away from the shop and a convenient paperless way to archive your end-of-day reports!

Your POS Software is not just a simple Cash Register.

We had a client last week where we got to see first-hand the mess of years of neglect with the computer system. Hidden under the counter, we found many power cords not connected. Around the computers was a dust mountain, in which we found a half-eaten doughnut. This impacts the airflow around the computers. It is a health hazard as dust is not hygienic and is highly flammable. A spark from a computer can set it off. Besides that, a fire near a computer can be costly.

The battery backup unit was not plugged into the computer, so it was useless.

We recommend you switch off the computers at least once a year, clean around the computer, check the cables and remove all unnecessary items. 

This simple step could help you avoid a technology disaster. 

Plus I am sure that all will prefer to work in a clean and less cluttered area.
 

Catching and Stopping Duplicate Invoice Payments

One of the most common blunders in business today is paying a supplier twice because you entered their invoice twice.

This is what happened to one of my customers. He got an invoice and paid it, then got a receipt a few days later, so he paid that. He then got a credit notice, so he paid that. Then on the statement, it showed, and only then was the error noticed. He is good at accounting, but this slipped through and caused this idiotic error.

Most suppliers will inform you of the error, as this one did but not always. So it would be best if you were careful.

There are many causes why this happens.
-Bad keying of invoices into their systems, if 99% correct in your keying, that is a few errors a year.
-Misreadings of invoices as in the above example.
-Changes in the invoices.
-Many invoices come more than once, commonly by email and then with the goods.
etc

Here are some tips to help you prevent these sorts of errors.

1) Enter the supplier reference number, do not use your number. Our POS system often warns you if a reference number is entered twice in data entry.

Also, in your POS Software, see the green arrow above; you can quickly see a duplicate. If you have any doubts, look at the amounts. Generally but not always, duplicate invoices have identical amounts. See the red arrow above.

2) Make a budget for a supplier. Something is unusual if a figure is a way off for that supplier and should be investigated.

3) Make one person responsible for entering the invoices in a systematic method. This will give a manual check.

4) This will involve more work, but I am a purist in my accounting and like it a lot. Have one system where people work daily and another to which only my accountant and you have access. Everything is checked before going into the accounting system.

Duplicate or erroneous payments can add to substantial monetary losses. At the very least, cash flow problems. Probably also a lot of time trying to get it sorted out too.

Today with the staff situation, many people have been hired with vision problems. If anyone in the shop has an eye problem, send them straight to the nearest eye doctor. No need for a referral and do not worry, Medicare rebates are available. Eye problems you do not want to take lightly. 

Recently I got glaucoma and lost 50% of my right eye. If it had not been for lockdown with COVID, it would never have happened, but it happened. I am not the only one. The eye hospital was full of people. We are getting older, our vision is starting to deteriorate, and many of us need to make changes to our screens to make them easier to see.

As everyone with low vision has a different problem so there is no one solution for everyone as everyone is different.

What I regularly do for clients is set the windows wallpaper to something dark. This makes the icons on the monitor easier to see. I try to remove as many icons as possible to make it less busy; the simpler, the better for a business computer.

If people must have a picture, I tell them to put it in the middle of the screen and have the icons on the side.

We also have a range of bigger screens for people with poor eyesight, which helps immensely.

If this is a problem for someone in your shop, I found this youtube that you should go over. It has many good ideas.

As a rule with some effort, we have been able to get over this problem.

Although it is not required for our system, many will store a backup tonight that has their financial data for this year. They never know when this might be required.

I do not do this what I do is run my financial reports and store them by emailing my personal accounts these reports.

These reports will be

1) Debitors.

2) Creditors

3) Stock

4) Payroll reports.

Then I archive them in my personal email account where they will sit there for years just in case. You never know when you need them.

This weekend or next is when most stocktakes will be done, so here are some last-minute tips to help you have a smooth and successful stocktake.

1) Set up a problem area where items that have issues, e.g. damaged goods, can be determined later. The idea is to move on as much as possible.
2) When you come across items where the label is missing, or you cannot scan the barcode, move it to the problem area where it can identify and labelled correctly later. These items will need to be counted at the end of the stocktake as a separate count batch.
3) Carry out the count of a department in one hit if you can.
4) Teams work faster than individuals. One team of two people is better than two individuals, I find three is the ideal counting team.
5) Make a formal decision on how you will count. You will have fewer problems if you count from bottom to top, left to right.
6) Have place markers to mark what has been counted. It is easy to miss a section or accidentally count the same area twice.
7) While counting, check the pricing too?
8) You can clean too while items are being removed and counted.
9) Check that the items match the barcode, product description and quantity. Do not assume that the label is correct.
10) Do backup frequently. If something goes wrong, you may not lose all your work.
11) Have a backup at the end. We have had people enter everything in everything, then someone, not knowing what to do, pressed the wrong button and wiped the figures. This stocktake had to be redone.
12) If possible, count everything but be aware that sometimes you will need to estimate. Once, I counted a pile of underwear. I got 50, my co-worker said 55, so we wrote down 52.

Happy stocktaking

Retail Security: How To Prevent Shoplifting

For stocklifting, we usually expect about 1.33% on turnover. A rule of thumb is that a higher cost of living, will drive this up but how much we do not know yet. Also the increased idle time many in our community have, the reduced staff in shops and the wearing of masks have created a boom in shoplifting.

The reason it is now in the minds of retailers is that after a stocktake; they know they can determine their shoplifting figures.

Once done, our POS System will give them three figures: quantity, cost and totals. All tell a story.

Tips for what can be done?

Here are some thoughts for a webinar that I attended on this subject recently:

1) Quantity will give you a hint of how many such incidents occurred.

Cost is how much it costs you.

Totals will tell you how valuable this is to the thief.

So reviewing these figures will highlight departments and goods that are most at risk.

It will also give you an idea of what is being taken.

2) What I do suggest you do is map your shoplifting figures see here. It does not take long and will graphically show the current danger points in the shop.

3) Consider mirrors and cameras. An old mirror placed in a blind spot was shown to reduce theft dramatically there. That cost the retailer nothing. Shoplifters are looking for these details.

4) Greet people that come to the shop. As well as being good customer service, it shows that you are watching.

It is hard to identify people in advance. In a survey, 75% of shoplifters said they had no intention of committing it before entering the shop. Very few fit any profile.

Yet here this is an interesting idea from the webinar. Have grandmother greet everyone that comes into the shop. Besides showing that you care, it has been known to do wonders. Grandmother has been proven to be very effective in identifying dubious people, such as people who often come without buying. She is also excellent for shaming people thinking of stealing. She is also a great witness if things go legal.

5) Have enough staff. Much of the current problem with shoplifting is that many retailers have reduced staff. No one is monitoring the stock yet there is a lot of money there. Having a staff member go to a suspicious customer and ask, “How can I help you?” can do wonders. 

6) Show a security monitor in the front of the shop where customers can see it before entering. This shows that you are monitoring.

7) Good signage. This issue I will discuss in a future post after I go to the next webinar.

8) Review the shoplifting figures this will give you an idea of the size of the problem and allow you to make a shoplifting budget. in the future.

9) Do not display highly desirable and/or expensive items close to the shop's exit.  

It is too big a temptation for someone to grab and run and it is very hard to stop such actions particularly if you pile high-value items together.

Shoplifting prevention and detection security prevention retail loss shoplifting are all important in order to keep your business safe and protected from losses.

The computer industry wants to drop passwords, so they are adopting two-factor authentication. This is a popular security feature introduced to add another layer of security to your accounts. It means you need to have your mobile to access such things as emails.

Since I have a smart house, I had to use my mobile to access my TV when activated. So I turned it off, as have many people I know.

I think it sucks, but its supporters say it would suck more if my identity were stolen. Well, you make your mind up as it is your call currently.

The immediate problem is that many of you use our software to access your email directly. It saves a lot of time. It also allows their POS Software to do many functions automatically.

To keep it working, you need to activate the App password.

This will change depending on what you are using, but in Gmail, it works like this.

First, pick a long and complex password, and cut and paste it in at the marked yellow area above.

Save that.

Now go into options in your Point of Sale Software.

Now enter that long and challenging password where the yellow marker is shown below.

Save that, and the problem is solved.

Electricity prices are going up, here is a sample of what is being sent out now.

This works out to between a 5% and 40% increase. Is solar going to help? I doubt it, most shops are rented so it is not an option and besides there is now a growing solar that the growth rates in the daytime are less of a problem than the hours when the solar dies. Solar problem is that batteries to store power are not cheap. 

For now, for most shops, their computers' energy use for the POS System is a significant portion of their electricity use but calculating electricity computer uses is a difficult undertaking since it relies on the sort of equipment you have and what you are running. A lot of programs use a lot of power. As a punt say $100+ a year per computer run for 12 hours a day. 

Having said that, I can tell you some points to consider: 

- In computer systems, specific components eat more electricity than others. Some like the video you have no control over. Typically, your standard desktop computer will use between 100 to 400 watts however if you have overclocked your computer, it will use more electricity.

- A desktop computer uses more power than a laptop because laptops are optimized for battery life.  So you will save electricity by using your laptop.

- The energy use of some of the peripherals like keyboards and mice is low usually below 0.5W, on the other hand, an average laser printer tends to consume anywhere between 300 to 550 watts of power, which is often more than the computer. 

- Typically desktop monitors consume between 20 to 100 watts of power

- You can look at the equipment label that shows its power consumption but this is generally a theoretical maximum and not a typical figure. So it is only a rough guide. 

The equipment we have been actively selling recently is with energy star ratings so they use about half the electrical energy of the older type of computers. There is a saving there for our clients.

How To Cut Back Your Computer Energy Consumption

- Turn off computers when not in use. However, it is unwise to do this too often. If you intend not to use the computer in the next hour, yep turn it off. 

- Selecting the hibernate option is not recommended as it turns off something in processing; turning it off works better in a shop. 

- Set your monitor automatically to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity.

- Laser printers not in use should be turned off.

- If you want to know exactly, you can get a power meter in the hardware shop for about $25. You plug it into the power plug and it records the power consumption of the object. Most people that have one, measure everything in the shop and at home. It will almost certainly pay its cost.  

Track staff for all sales transactions.

What is all too common is that a transaction has occurred which appears strange. A something does not appear correct, you want to investigate, but you do not know who did it. Typically it could be the price, the discount, etc. 

With our POS software, you can make it mandatory to put a staff ID on each transaction. This staff ID can be set to remove or reduce options for employees to give discounts to customers. So you can stop many of the queries before they happen.

Plus, once the staff ID is used, you have a data tracking system. You can then track every sales transaction entered into your system to see exactly who did what and when.

Firstly what you need to do is enter a unique staff ID for all staff.

Go into staff maintenance