Cyclone Debbie is just a few hours from hitting Northern Queensland, so we rang up all our clients in the general area to make sure that they have a backup, even those a fair way outside the region because in our experience, the power, the Internet and phones often get cut there. Now to do that what we had to do is make a list of those in the area. So what we did was imported our client list into Google Earth and noted all our clients that are in the general area that Cyclone Debbie may go. This is one of the many uses you can use Google Earth.

It can be integrated into our software, and a popular use is delivery runs.

Here are some other uses that I use.

1) If I am going somewhere new, I like to check on Google Earth both the general direction, the approximate location and then where the actual spot, I am going to. So I know the area as well as location. I feel I am much more in control then when I am just using a GPS.

2) Getting a map of where your clients are, export from our software into excel and then import the CSV file into Google Earth and its done. In general its very good for maps.

3) If someone gives me an address, I can check out their shop instantly. For example, whether they are in a shopping centre, a shop, etc. In the city Internet not a problem but in the bush, it might be. Another point is a possible supplier contacted me. I wanted to know are they as big as they claim as it turned out. They were in a little house in the middle of nowhere.

You may have other uses too.

Until a few years ago, Google released its Google Earth Pro version for free, and you'll find it here Just get the Pro version, I do not know why the free version is listed at all.

Then try it out, put in a few street addresses, and once you are acquainted with it; I am sure you will get some use out of it. Just remember that it uses quite a bit of data from the Internet, so you'll need a decent Internet connection in order to use it. I would not go using their flying around on Google Earth on a mobile without WIFI.

One problem we all have is that customers, accountants, bankers, etc call all the time, demand information about their accounts on a range of dates such as current account information, last financial year, the financial year before last, last month, three months earlier, two weeks ago, it can be anything. Not only that but they often change their mind, they say this date, and once you give it to them, they can say oh no, I meant the date a week earlier.

So what our clients need from their POS Software is the ability to find out at any time what a client or the total clients owed on this nominated date.

So go to main menu.

Register reports

Now normally, I would recommend using Trial Balance(excel) but for this example, I just wish it to be simple, so I selected Trial Balance.

Now select the date that the client or whoever requested, just to show you the power of our system, I picked a random date five years ago.

I also selected by order by Surname as I think it makes it easier to find, and I ignored the "More Criteria" because I do want to keep it simple, but I urge you to experiment later with these options.

Now out pops among other details a page like this one below Although for security reasons, I blanked out the names, you can see all the relevant information is here.

A Grand total will be printed at the end for say a banker or accountant.

This is another example of just how flexible our system is in practice.

This week's webinar is going to pickup where we left off last week. Tomorrow we are going to take a look at building the best register to suit your business. We'll take a look through the many different options availible in our point of sale system to make sure you are getting the most out of the POS software.

Most people know that you can on the bottom of the receipt put in a discount voucher, or you can give points on a VIP loyalty marketing system but there is much more you can do with it.

Consider using the receipt to send promotional messages too. For example, why not promote a marketing season in the shop. Easter is coming; public interest in Easter is high. Looking at google trends its currently just over half of that Christmas.

If you have something to offer people for Easter why not do so. You have a buyer here, why not try?

Another idea is using your receipt message to promote your Facebook page or website? Here is a person who buys in your shop, why not push the shop online too. Why wait for them to find you on Facebook? All you have to do is put the web address in the receipt message.

Finally, I do believe that it is a good idea to include your shop's contact information on the receipt, they have a receipt why not make it a business card too.

If you are taking over an existing shop with our point-of-sale software, please discuss with us, your system and your requirements because the way it is set up now was for the old owner. This may not be the best way for you. We had one client who discovered that his system was set up with data bridge, which linked his shop to a warehouse. The problem was that he did buy or use the warehouse from the old owner. So he was paying for an Internet connection that he never used.

There are other good reasons to contact us too such as we provide free training to new owners.

Plus the point-of-sale licence officially remains the property of the previous owner which can cause problems too. For example we had a new owner, call us up and say I need help to get into my system, what is the password? Our support staff said, "Who are you? What shop are you in? Is Mulunger there because we need his authorisation to give you the passwords?" Well that was not easy to do, as Mulunger was long gone.
We have here a change in business ownership form which will only take is a few minutes to fill out this form and email it to us. Which I do suggest that you fill out on purchase.

We are excited to announce that we are almost ready to launch our new website. It certainly has a fresh and new design. It looks crisp, with a new look with bright, bold colours, has a simpler design to make it easier to use and to make it more engaging. It is fully optimised for mobile and tablet, so making it a great experience on a desktop screen and for mobiles.

This blog will be there as will be a technical blog, which a few readers will find useful. What it is however, designed for is as a storage depository for us and our supplier with research papers of interest to us.

We also intend to have an updated image gallery to show the latest additions to our portfolio, goods and services.

Our aim at POS Solutions is to constantly improve the quality of our services and their presence on the web and hopefully this site will help with all of that.

As always, we'd love to know what you think of our new site! So once it's up please give us your feedback.

If you need assistance in finding anything, please contact me.

Regards

Bernard

It actually is hard to describe what you feel when you work a point of sale touchscreen that needs to be re-calibrated as each of them has different errors.

Generally, you would look for some of these symptoms.

1) Does your touchscreen feel like it is responding too slowly?

2) Do you feel like your touches are not correctly being detected?

3) That the touch experience is no longer smooth as it was before.

4) That you need to frequently press a button a few times to work.

If you feel something like this is happening you might try re-calibrating your screen. Each screen is different so you will need to look at the manufacturers specifications.

If after doing this, it does not fix the problem it probably needs a repairman? At least the repairman will not charge you for the time taken to do the re-calibrating.

Want or know someone that wants to become a Help Desk Support Specialist?

Well here is a good place for them to start. We have a new position that has opened up in our Melbourne Office for a new helpdesk support person. We are for this position, particularly interested in someone who has good written English as well as point of sale experience.

Update: Details of the position are available here.

A client gave us a brand-new computer like this one, fresh out of the box. What we discovered when setting it up as a server was it had a virus. When we rang up, the company that supplied the equipment, they were puzzled too and claimed it was impossible as it was 'Factory-sealed'. So how and who put on the virus is a mystery?

Here is my suggestion to you scan your new computers for virus.

News Corp has just issued their 2017 Annual Distribution Fee Review. The message is clear, what distribution agents received was an average increase equaling the inflation rate of about 1.5%, and that is it. What stunned me was that there was no increase in the monthly fee of $2.30. Just to put a stamp on a letter now has gone up from 70 cents to $1, add an stationery, printing, and handling cost and its clear $2.30 just does not cut it

The big question now is, can the circulation industry can in its present position with declining circulation, increase prices? The flip side, can it afford not to increase prices as with declining circulation, we are seeing a drop in return on investment as distribution has substantial fixed costs.

Having said that, any who deliver need to update their fee to the current rates, you can leave the postage/administration fee AS IS.

Facebook live stutter made watching the video yesterday a bit hard so please enjoy here our directors cut of Dissection - Family - Class and Category maintenance tips to get your books and workflow running smoothly with our point of sale.

PS feel free to press LIKE in facebook too. Paul will appreciate it.

These new paypal units are easily to set up and run in your shop with our point-of-sale system using our paypal link. They are used by people interested in accepting Paypal payments in person.

The big advantages we see with the paypal link is that:

1) It allows you to accept a wider range of payment methods.

2) The funds are transferred often in seconds.

3) These units are mobile. You can jump in the car drive to your client's site and do the transaction there. Which is great for people that do work or deliveries to a place outside the shop?

4) It is also good where there is an element of trust required, with paypal clients have a guarantee, so they are often much more willing to pay. This is particularly important dealing with overseas people.

One warning I will give you based on one of our client's experience is if you do accept paypal, is when the item is to be picked up by the client or their friends who take the goods, if a dispute occurs, Paypal requires PROOF OF DELIVERY, make sure that you have it.

The units themselves are about $50, and the PayPal Merchant fee is 2.7% flat and most importantly there are no other fees which I would say is acceptable for International and Premium Cards.

If you are interested in knowing more, please let me know.

We received the following notification that Touch Networks Service Desk from 6:30pm to 9:30pm tonight with be unavailable. For critical issues in this period, please call them on 0406 873 159.

The ability to control your stock, in our point of sale software is considered particularly strong. So this week's webinar is taking you through some tips and tricks for controlling your stock dissections, departments, family and classes.

If you have any questions about your stock control while watching you can ask them via the comments here or on the video.

The webinar is now available.

One point where our point of sale software is its power. Here is another example of its power showing adhoc reporting. Say I am looking for a pen which on the invoice is listed as $5.51 wholesale and I want to know which one it is.

So I go to the reports.

Now select Details Listing (excel), simply to give me all the details.

Here I am going to ask for BIC as its a BIC invoice.

Out pops an excel listing.

I go to the column labeled Wholesale price

Press Fliter and select all items that have a wholesale price of $5.51

Here there is only one item , and it is listed here.

So the item I wanted has a BIC code of 41330. It took me less than a minute to find it.

With adhoc reporting, the information you get is limited only by your imagination.

For anyone having a website, you need know that we will soon have a mandatory data breach notification scheme in place and most website owners will need to notify the Privacy Commissioner and the affected people "as soon as practicable" (a few days) after knowing a data breach has occurred. If they think, it may have happened they have 30 days to ascertain whether or not it has actually occurred.



Those that fail to notify can face penalties, including fines of $360,000 for individuals and $1.8 million for organisations.



A serious breach would include people's personal details, credit reporting information, credit eligibility information, and tax file number information. Lucky I think few of my clients would be holding information like that online.



Furthermore, now the courts will be able to look after the breach as to how "likely" this Data Breach was too.



Personally we welcome the news, even recently we have seen companies after a Data Breach simply waffle over the damage, pretend that nothing is gone, do nothing to notify people that are affected and continue like before. It is frustrating even when you tell them of a vulnerability, and they do nothing. I have seen a site with its users and passwords all publicly listed on the web and the site has done nothing even after being told.



I know this Data Breach notification scheme is yet to begin, and it does not apply to all businesses, but it is a good wake-up call that the courts, government and Australian in general are taking data breaches more seriously. So I do believe it is an ideal time to review your company's data security to ensure that no customer data is unwittingly compromised.



Look what information you do have.



Look how you're protecting your customer data.



Whether or not your security practices are adequate.



You can read more details here. [Link removed by website]



 

Here is a quick low cost method to advertise your business.

I am sure that everyday you send out a lot of emails. If you think about it, many of those people already are aware of something that you offer but there might be much more that you can offer them. Why not use this communication with them to try to promote more of your business or a service. Provide them a link to your website and/or your Facebook page. See in my signature, the green arrow.

If you are currently featuring a new campaign why not use your email signature to promote that? For example, ANZAC day is coming up; so perhas put in your email signature "Come see our ANZAC....". If you are displaying at an local event "See you at ABC school fair..."

Here are some tips

- Use text email signiture as many people today block images automatically so they will not see your email signiture
- Keep it short, who is going to read a long signature? Your message will be lost.
- Keep it simple - Trust me, it looks more professional.
- Don't use any fancy word processing, e.g. Bullets as they often do not work on some people computers, and it can be a problem as they can look different with email clients like Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.
- Don't use images, most people block images now.

Use your email signature to advertise your business

Recently as a public service, I passed on a warning of a Data Breach and a possible Data Breach in our market space, well today. I got word of details on the inner workings of a massive, illegal spam operation. It was mind-blowing as it involves almost 400 million email addresses. With the numbers that high, the chances are good that you, or at least someone you know, is affected. 

If you have done what we suggested and signed up for its free alert service on this site here you would have been warned.

I think it's important to register yourself as we have seen recently a number of big attacks by hackers, some of which are the world's best-known websites like Linkedin, Adobe and Yahoo which you would think are safe and you cannot be too careful.

It is easy to use; you just type in your email address for your email addresses and you will get an instant result. At the same time, I would suggest that you check your family members accounts too. You never know.

Most retailers need more people coming into the shop. There are several methods you can use to get more people in. The two most popular methods are to buy them using advertisements, and the other is to sell products that people are interested in, so some of these people will come into the shop which has eServices.

Services are currently a huge market in Australia, telco, phonecards and giftcards alone are sold in the billions of dollars. In 2015 here I did a study and estimated that it was paying its own way and brought into a typical shop over 100 people a month. One point I have been told recently is that telco customers tend to be tourist who buy plenty of gifts which may help many retailers.

The only such service we recommend is by Touch is fully integrated into our point of sale software.

For more details click here .

This week's webinar is taking you though some tips and tricks for keeping your computer running your pos system smoothly.

If you have any questions about windows while watching you can ask them via the comments here or on the video.

The webinar is available here.