Here are three tips for computer eye strain

Many of us today have to spend long periods in front of a computer. But the reality is that as we get older (over 40), our eyes become less flexible so it gets harder to read the screen. So here are three more tips to help people with eye strain.

Since most of the time, we are looking at the mouse, this is what we will talk about today.

1) This tip is not for everyone suffering from eye strain but for all. 

What happens is that sometimes you cannot find where the pointer is, so what you do is grab the mouse and move it around a lot to find it. It can take a few seconds to find it. There is an easier way to do this. If you go to the mouse section of the control panel, you will see this.

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Now go into the section "Make it easier to see the mouse pointer" marked with the green arrow.

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Tick the option "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key" marked in green below. Now apply it and exit.

Press the CTRL key on your keyboard a few times, and you'll see your point marked with a growing circle.

I find it very useful.

2)  Go to Mouse > Change Mouse Settings > Pointers (see it marked with the green arrow).

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How play around with the items in the Scheme marked in red above.

Everyone prefers something different, so I cannot tell you which one is the best, but pick a large one.

3) Increase the size of the mouse pointer size

One of the reasons the mouse gets lost is that young people make it with good vision. A good idea is to increase the size of the mouse pointer size. You will find it in the "Ease of access center" in the control panel.

Make it extra large and black.

COVID has protected us from the flu for the past two years, but the flu has not disappeared. Most people have not taken a flu shot for two years, so they are susceptible to getting the flu. Then there are currently two years of seasonal infections, with the current year's most recent variations coming with the opening of Australia's borders. So expect an extreme flu season.

Unlike COVID, the flu does not care about your age, wellbeing, or way of life.

The most effective way to safeguard yourself is to get your flu vaccine soon.

Unfortunately, there is a shortage of flu vaccines now, so I suggest you book now, if possible, your staff. Lucky for us, these flu vaccines, unlike COVID, have a proven safety record.

Also, COVID is a flu, and our flu season is coming up, so be prepared for another wave of COVID. But that is another issue, some of the guys at work doctors have told them to take a fourth shot.

Most people spend far too much time in front of screens, so today, about 8% of work comp cases involve eyes. Many of them relate to computer eye strain. According to the list, I can see reporting tired, sore eyes, headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision, double vision, sensitivity to glare, twitching eyes, and neck and shoulder pain. This all adds up.

There are special monitors for eye strain, but most people prefer standard monitors. In practice, good quality big, curved screens are almost as good.

So here are some suggestions. Check your staff's usage of the computers. For example, if your team is working on the front counter, generally, they are not looking at the screen all the time, so there should be minor problems. It could be a problem if they are doing stock receiving, rostering, accounting, etc. These people, you need to review.

This is a youtube video from an eye doctor that is worth seeing here. One exercise that works for me well in the video is cupping although I use the coffee machine to warm my hands first rather than rub them. It will help you too I am sure.

Also, Australian Standards state, which is worth quoting in full as you should be following it. 

i. Give It A Rest—Remember the 20-20-20 rule. At least every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet (6 metres) away.

ii. Size Up—Smaller screens on handheld devices and laptops usually favour small fonts that challenge our vision. Instead of bringing the screen closer to the eyes, increase the font size so the device can be used at a distance that is more comfortable for the eyes.

iii. Sharpen Up—Better resolution offers greater clarity and usually more comfort. Adjust the brightness of the screen to a comfortable intensity, neither too bright nor too dim.

iv. Reduce Glare—Handheld devices present challenges in various lighting conditions. Users should try to reduce glare where possible and try to make sure lighting is not directly behind or in front of their heads.

v. Look Down—It's easier on the eyes to focus on reading material that is below eye level, therefore, a computer monitor or handheld device can be positioned slightly below eye level (AOA 2010).

There is a trend in our market space for our clients to look into premium chocolates.

When handling premium chocolates, you need to consider their shelf-life. Preference should be given, if possible, to these longer shelf-life items. Although many long shelf-life chocolate products are suitable for gifting all year round, many are not.

But if you are serious about this market, you need some shorter shelf-life fresh chocolates. A fundamental problem here is white chocolate. It only has a low shelf-life. The darker, the better.
The biggest problem is that, over time, white stuff appears on the chocolate, which makes them unmarketable.

It's a problem as, unfortunately, these chocolates do not enjoy being refrigerated! Putting them in the drink fridge, which sort of works for mass-produced chocolates, is not a good idea for premium chocolates. If you must, use a wine chiller. 

Ensure your chocolate counter is out of the sun. That it is in a cool, dry area as the moisture ruins the packaging.

Fortunately, checking your premium chocolates, which should be done regularly, is straightforward.

Go to register reports> Stock> Old Stock on hand.

Now pick the department and get a list of when this stock arrived and the quantity you have on hand.  I am sure you will find some are very old; these must go.

Unfortunately, computer work gets harder after 40 as our eyes become less flexible. This problem gets worse as time goes on.

Here are some tips if you have older people using computers in your shop.

I find it best not to give them a laptop screen to work on because it is too close, so use a sizeable separate monitor.

The bigger the monitor, the better. A 4K screen is best as it will offer them four times the pixels found on a traditional monitor.

You will find that factors like clarity and crispness are less important than size. People mistakenly try to increase the resolution of a screen, thinking that this will make the text look crisper and easier to read. It does make it look crisper, but it also makes the text smaller. In my experience, people with poor eyesight need bigger text. The fuzziness is less critical.

The next point is that our software can take advantage of larger screens, unlike many other point of sale software packages. Use this and set it to the largest.

Another helpful point is to cut the glare. If light from a nearby window or lamp casts a glare, try moving the monitor. Two light sources cause fatigue because of the different amounts of light hitting the eye.

I hope this helps.

With good data, incredible good things can happen.

* You can order the right quantities.

* Top sale items can be determined and pushed.

* Department sales figures and trends can be identified.

*You are in control and it shows

But what happens when your data goes bad?

* You do not know what is happening

* You order incorrectly

* Are not positioning your stock correctly

* It reflects poorly on your business.

Your business needs good (accurate) data.

PS Also, keep in mind that data can go bad very quickly, and once it's wrong, it can be a big job to fix.

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Many people are now starting to get new rates.

The good news is that the increases were less than most were expecting. There was also no surprise that nothing went down. The big problem is the Visa/Mastercard international and premium cards. I wish the ACCC would do something about these. It is unfair that the merchants have to pay for the customers premium cards. Merchants should be allowed to charge by payment category as there can be a wide range of fees on any card. 

What I did was constructed a table of costs based on our rates. 

On the top is the transaction amount and the costs are listed on the table

 As you can see, you can get a lot of savings by pushing different payment categories. Also, as important as dealing with low margin items that many of my clients do, you need to check that your margins cover the commissions. 

Of course, many other fees can come into the equation not listed here, e.g. rentals, reporting fees, chargeback fees, etc. But these are the subject of another post.

If you want to discuss with us your EFTPOS/Credit fees situation and if we can help you, well we are always willing to talk.

This is a tip on scheduling your trip using our Google Maps integration. 

The biggest problem with doing a route schedule is that some stops require an exact time. You need to go here and here, and it does not matter what happens at 3:30 PM; you have to pick up your daughter from school. Now you have a stop with an exact time. Unless you know the place well, it can be hard to estimate how long you need to get there, particularly if you leave a strange place.

Using this method can help you get a better estimate of when you need to leave. So you press here the Google map integration, which puts the spot where you are going.

Now see the green arrow pointing to the "leave now" button.

Press this; you now get three options. I find the most useful "Arrive by," so tap that.

Now put in the time and date you need to arrive at the place.

Now where the green arrow below is pointing is how long it will take and the time you need to leave to get there.

You can see that Google Maps is selecting the conservative figure for its estimates.

However, remember that Google Maps can't predict what's to come. It uses a massive amount of information it has to make a reasonable deduction and I find works well.

Another tip here.

A client of ours has a significant problem with their car. The insurance covered them.

However, fixing the car will take months because of the shortage of car parts. They need the vehicle for work. So they have to hire a car. The problem is that the insurance does not cover a hired car for months, so they need to pay.

I suggest you check your car insurance.

A problem that is all too common in Google Maps is that the location shown there is wrong. It would be best if you did this to keep your Google Maps integration.

For this exercise, I have called up a supplier of mine, then pressed the green arrow. 

Then your Google Maps integration kicks in and presents you with the following map.

This map is a different place. It is wrong. No one said that Google Maps is infallible, only that it is good.

The problem is that here that the address in this system. See the green arrow above where it is listed as 

Google does NOT validate your address, it does not fix it. It assumes what you give is correct. Here is what it expects. 

The space between 37 and the minus sign is confusing Google. If you change it to 37-49 Browns Road, it will be fine. So if you intend to use the Google Maps integration, I suggest that you change the address in your system where the green arrow is pointing.

We will discuss bulk change of addresses in a later post.

One of our competitors has come out of the dark with a recent new attack. Now they claim that we have copied them in Google map integration, and what they did was *innovation* but not us. The last time these guys made such an attack on us was to claim that we were too cheap. 

Unlike the early claim of being too cheap, we have no idea what they are talking about Google Maps. I am not sure when we first implemented Google Map integration into our software, but it was before 2009. We were early on to it, as we knew from our discussions with Google on how the system worked. Then it was all new, and no one knew how to make it work. The earliest mention about us having this integration was in our newsletters dated Tuesday 26th May 2009, showing DOS users how to use it. Yes, it was available in our older DOS versions too. As it was a new development that was long stopped in DOS by then, we did it earlier, but I cannot find when.

And before anyone jumps up and down on me, let me say that I looked at some other competitors. They have Google Maps too. Generally, they use a paid service like Pointy. Since we wrote our own API, there is no charge for our users for Google Maps.  

Before 2009, it was innovative. It is not innovative in 2022, and pretending that it is, I think, is an absurdity.

So summing up, I am sure that now their users are glad that finally, they have some of the benefits, which our users have had for over 13 years. 

Now let us move on and discuss how do we use it?

The easiest way in your software is to look for a box marked "Show Google Map". It is in many places, e.g. see the green arrow in the supplier screen below.

Once you press that box out will pop out in Google Map the location in a map.

You then have the full facilities of Google Map, although you can do much more than in this simple example.

The following are some of the significant uses our clients are using their Google Maps integration for:

1) If you are going to go to a place you have never been to before. Who knows how far and what the traffic is like going there. Using Google Maps, they can get an estimated time of arrival and an estimated time of return. This makes it much easier to get organised.

2) The primary use that people use is to send the address to their phone, so they can use it for directions while in the car. This saves time.

3) Failed deliveries due to wrong addresses are costly for retailers. It can be a significant cause of customer dissatisfaction. So using this Google Maps integration, you can check that you have the correct address before going out. You need some intelligence here as sometimes Google does not have a valid address. We have had discussions about this. Currently, there is nothing anyone can do about that, but we are actively looking into it.

4) See my post a few days ago on handling many locations and making a route.

I urge you to experiment with these functions and yes there are more, but we will discuss them later when I cool down.

PS Here is an interesting oddity for you, Google Maps was invented in Australia and is an Australian Product. It is True Blue, we do get around us Aussies.

This Google Map trick can save you a lot of time at work. I use it a lot, and I was surprised that they did not know this trick when I was talking to a client. So here it is.

We rarely make trips from point A to point B in business. What we tend to do is when we leave work to have a few places to go too.

See the instructions here.

Now say I want to go from work to

) Shop in Dandenong

) A shopping centre in Keysborough South

) A shopping centre in Keysborough

and then come back to work

This trip will take me 42 minutes based on current road conditions.

Now since I can see the route, I change the stops slightly

Now my trip is 40 minutes

Since I think I can do better, I changed it again. Now it is done in 38 minutes.

So I have saved about 10% of my trip time.

When you have like ten destinations, the saving can be considerable.

Give it a go!

We need to read fast barcodes. Yet we have a prevalent problem with lousy barcodes. We did a study on one site recently and found that about 3.5% of all barcodes were defective. Of that with some manipulation and angling of the reader, only half could be read. The rest were totally useless. It was maddening that most of the unreadable ones were the result of suppliers making poorly made barcodes. This results in many no-reads. I told a retailer to consider that maybe they should argue that an item is defective as the barcode was that bad and return it.

Anyway, retailers often have to create their barcodes to solve this problem. If so, here are some tips to help you.

1) Use a suitable roll or sheets for labels. I have seen where the glue is so runny that they were useless.

2) Choose a light colour for the barcode roll. I like white. This increases the contrast between the barcode and the label, making it easier to read.

3) Do not put labels on the product next to anything that may reflect light.

4) Clean the printer and code reader and the barcode label. Dirt and grease make it harder to read.

5) Put the barcode labels on the product as flat as possible you do not want the barcode to fold or, worse, crumble or break.

6) Keep your barcode away from other barcodes in the product. This may cause the scanner to misread.

7) Do not let the sun hit the barcode for a long time.

8) Try to keep the barcode label dry.

9) Put the barcode in a position on your item that has blank space around it.

10) Ensure that nothing obscures the bar code

If you have followed the above steps and still have problems, send a picture of the barcode to our support team to be assessed for possible problems.

Because of competitiveness, sometimes retailers have to do a particular price change. For example, one of our clients in a bike shop was confronted by a customer showing them that another bike shop had a lower price than them on the mobile. Okay, what can anyone do? A cheaper sale is better than a zero.

Fortunately, our POS System has a quick way of changing such details. When ringing up the sale if you are running up in the sale cash register and need to adjust a price or a discount, no worries.

Click or touch on a touch screen the item. If the price, for this reason, I would suggest instead of changing price, you adjust the discount. It will enable your reports to have more meaningful values. Then an override window will appear. Now you can edit that item.

Now click OK, and change it.

Another useful function in your point of sale software!

It would be best to consider this coming season into your billing cycle. If what happened last year happened in the next sales season, you can expect to take longer than usual to get paid. It's all too easy for people to say now that it's problems with COVID.

It can pay now to view your financial information to see which of your customers are delaying their payments.

Tip: If you want to pay earlier, run your invoices in advance.

Many of our clients use Australia Post as a delivery agent. If your clients need your goods to arrive by Christmas, you should send them now because of all the disruption.   Australia Post will not commit to delivery estimates now, even with express post.  

The official cut-off dates for sending for Christmas are:

Inside Australia: 

Sending internationally:  Your too late, almost everywhere there are delays, and some like surprisingly like Ireland and Pitcairn are suspended.  

I would suggest that you set our software delivery options to reflect this.

This is happening because we have so many integrations with suppliers. Our clients are now are often simply importing in the suppliers' files, great. 

But what is happening is that suppliers, when faced with 

-A product name that is too large for their systems
 -Products so like too many of their other products 
- Laziness

summarise the description. 

Look at the above real example. What does TAS mean? Looking at the book, our client could not find anything that made sense. We think it might be the supplier code "Trade At Settlement" since it is used by several items in their catalogue and the only thing common is made in Canadian. So it is was used to mark a product whose price is to be decided when payment is due because of currency fluctuations. For example, if you buy in Canadian dollars, you will not know the cost till the date of settlement. 

Now, what happens when your staff are looking for the item in your system and see the TAS? How does it help them?

If they cannot find it, they cannot sell it?

If you encounter this problem in your system, you need to change the description to something more meaningful.

A quick way of checking the most commonly handled products in your shop is to go to Register reports.

Now pick "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

Now in the form put in the two months and ask in order of quantity and see what you get. If you cannot recognize some of the descriptions how can your staff?

Now it is up to you to do something!

Recently one of my customers got fresh stock. They updated their prices to the new prices. Then they placed under the old shelf price the new stock. A customer appeared with the item and demanded that the shelf price be honoured. What my client did was observe the shelf price. It was a good customer, repeat business etc. Then they removed the shelf price. He did end the problem as the customer came back and wanted more at the old price.

This generated a discussion as happens when a retailer displays the same item at different prices.

This situation is common in retail. If you visit bargain sites, you will find many examples of pricing errors in stores. Often with comments that buyers need to grab the items before the retailer realises the mistake.

Now I am not a lawyer, but this is my understanding.

Most Australian consumer codes state that you must sell your product at a lower price or withdraw it from sale until the price can be corrected. Things will get murky if the product is advertised or you did not make a mistake.

If it is a mistake, you are not obligated to honour the lower price. This is because the sale is considered an offer. So before the deal is done, you must agree with the customer offer to buy. Thus you have the right to explain that you have made a pricing error and reject the customers' offer to buy the item.

What I have noticed is that some majors include in their terms lines like

We reserve the right to cancel an order that we have accepted at any time for any reason.

The best solution is to find the incorrect prices before the customer mentions them. In this, we can help. We have a quick and easy way to check stock prices for what you have on hand.
 
Go to reports. There is an option Quantity On Hand and Price check; click on that.

For this exercise, we exclude those items that we do not have in stock. If you are out of stock, there is no problem here. If you do not have accurate stock control, use the line below, stock activity from a selected date.

Now it generates a report that lists the details of your article, including margins.

See the margins are listed so you can now check your prices.

I'm sure you will find something. I know one of my clients who reviewed it told me that he found some bugs.

We all have Trading Terms on which our businesses supply our products and services.

The problem is that many clients have their trading cycles. Often they place on us, these trading terms as a condition to trade. So we are confronted with a choice to accept this or decline their business. A typical example is a tradesman who does his books monthly, a large organisation that seems to pay whenever they want, or a government department that pays on its cycle. Nothing you can do. I have been in a government department, demanding overdue funds. I had two people look at me with much sympathy in their eyes but making it clear that they are unable to do anything.

Often we reluctantly accept it. We want the business, and there is no point in making a fuss about it.

The immediate dilemma is that your computer system is set up to put everyone in your business cycle.

Well, do not worry, as you have the right POS software.

> What you do is go to the customer maintenance screen and call them up.

> Now click on the "Other details" tab.

Now at the top here, you will see the above image. There you can put the appropriate trading terms for that account.

Now your POS Software will treat this account with their trading term.

Now trade!

What happens is that someone follows a delivery vehicle, e.g. Australia Post, so they see when delivery is done. If the item is not collected immediately, they wait a few minutes. Then do a quick scan of the area to see if anyone is watching, grab the package and run.

What makes it easier is that with COVID, delivery drivers often no longer get signatures. They like to throw away the package. Then leave as soon as possible without contact with the people at the delivery point. As such, this is a simple endeavour. For whatever reason, a large percentage of these people are women, which is surprising.

This is called parcel theft.

Some common sense is required if you deliver. Let's face it, you are the one who has to prove that the item was delivered.

At the very least, try to avoid leaving items at the door. Put them in a secure spot, not in open view. Then take a photo of the item delivered.

You can then attach the photo to the invoice later in your POS software for your records.