Sales per time.

[Dale Harris]

A while back someone suggested that the POS program be able to create a report that would show the sales per hour for each register or the store as a whole if the registers are networked. At the time I saw no way to do this without putting a lot of code into the POS.EXE file so I shoved this idea into the “think about it” pile. Recently this feature has bubbled up to the top of the pile. (I have no control over the TAI pile, it does what it wants.)

Anyway, it now seems that I will have to put only two lines of code into the POS.EXE program to enable this feature. Unfortunately for me this will require a whole lot of coding in the FILEINFO.EXE file. Good thing there is a lot of spare room in there.

Here are some details...

The data will be stored in a permanent file that will grow without limit at 20bytes per transaction. So 1 megabyte = 50,000 transactions, 1 gig = 50,000,000 transactions. This feature cannot be turned off but you can delete the data file whenever you want and start over.

You will be able to generate a “sales per time” report for any day in the past that is recorded in the file.

When you create the report you may specify a time interval for the report of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes per listing.

Since this will be part of the “Reports” feature the sales per time report can be displayed & scrolled, printed, saved as a text file, or saved as a .CSV data file that can be loaded into any database or spreadsheet software. You will also be able use “Auto reports” to automatically create a “sales per time” report at the end of the day.

Data is saved both locally and globally so a “sales per time” report on a local register will be for that register only, a report created on the global register will be for the entire store.

A sample report....
<hr>
<pre> HEADER GOES HERE
SALES PER 30 MINUTES
06-15-06
SALES
SALES SALES TRAN TRAN PER
PER PER TRAN
9:30 125.85 125.85 14 14 8.99
10:00 563.25 437.40 53 39 11.21
10:30 1252.47 689.22 119 66 10.44
11:00 1685.32 432.85 154 35 12.36
11:30 2355.78 670.46 197 43 15.59
12:00 2856.39 500.61 231 34 14.72
12:30 3385.21 528.82 262 31 17.06
13:00 3865.21 480.00 289 27 17.77
13:30 4585.62 720.41 335 46 15.66
14:00 4752.91 167.29 346 11 15.21
14:30 5124.52 371.61 377 31 11.99
15:00 5584.21 459.69 416 39 11.79
15:30 6025.41 441.20 452 36 12.26
16:00 6254.22 228.81 469 17 13.46
16:30 6485.28 231.06 485 16 14.44
17:00 6587.82 102.54 492 7 14.64
AVERAGE 13.39
TIME PERIODS NOT ON REPORT DID NOT HAVE SALES</pre>
<hr>

So the questions are... Do YOU want this feature? Can YOU find the [Post Reply] button here to tell me you want it? Making this feature happen will depend on the replies I receive about it.

[RollerBall]

I can't really see any reason why - especially if it can't be turned off. It's not as though you can rush round changing all your marked prices to boost sales in 'slack' periods. And monitoring the number of people passing through at various times of the day would tell you if you need to do any time related promotions (eg 'Happy Hour'). It's the sort of thing you should have a 'feel' for without needing a report I reckon.

The key thing to me is that you can't turn it off. I wouldn't need a permanent report of sales by time period and I wouldn't want a file growing like topsy out of control on each PCs hard drive. I'd then have to make a pre-start up batch file to delete it every time.

[Andrew]

Rollerball, considering the time and effort Dale puts into this, I think writing a batch file to remove the time sales file would be a very small sacrifice on the part of a DHPOS user.

However in the interests of customer support and aligning myself with Dale's policy of no longer saving users from themselves - I provide the following guideline for the batch file:

Code: Select all

del timesales.ext

[ToPS]

Dale,

I feel that although this is not a crucial feature, it could provide some usefull information on cashier productivity, peak hours etc.

Personally I would still like to see customer accounts before anything else but I will wait patiently for that.


Highest Regards & appreciation.

ToPS

[peewee3ie]

Dale

I would quite like it to be added to the software. But if the space geting low maybe we should save the space.

[RollerBall]

..in the interests of customer support and aligning myself with Dale's policy of no longer saving users from themselves - I provide the following guideline for the batch file:

Code: Select all

del timesales.ext

Thanks Andrew. I'd been struggling with that one and was worried about losing sleep again tonight..

[Andrew]

Dale

I would quite like it to be added to the software. But if the space geting low maybe we should save the space.

Tony,

The good news is Dale mentioned above this feature looks as though it will take only two lines of code to be added to POS.EXE (where we have space issues) and the rest will fit into a support file FILEINFO.EXE which apparently has plenty of free space.

[Granita]

Now I'm feeling like a trouble maker after the Beta problems with the new Groups feature ... but that is EXACTLY what I am looking for.

Two Thumbs Way UP!


p.s. I remember reading in a posting somewhere in deep in the forum you can be bribed ... look for a package coming from Pennsylvania!

[Dale Harris]

I absolutely can be bought, not that there is a long line of folks trying to do it.

It also depends on what you want me to do.

But other than that bribing me is easy. Trust me folks, give it a try and you will not be disappointed. Well maybe.

[Granita]

I just want the feature exactly as you have described it.

And I wasn't kidding about a package coming, either!

[Barry]

will this report be avaliable only a daily basis?
could it generate sales over a week or month etc....

From what i understand it is just looking up a file with the date and sales amount?

Also, with sales not occuring during a particular time period - the reports that are generated will be of different lengths depending on peak hours.

Suggestion: Include all time periods if possible. How hard is it to include a 'zeroed' row if sales were not performed during that time period?

Code: Select all

9:30      455.44   455.34   10  10  45.53
10:00     455.44     0.00   10  0    0.00

[Dale Harris]

I have been offically bribed by Granita to create this feature. So it will show up in the not too distant future.

[Dale Harris]

Barry,

Been a long time, glad you are back.

The sales per time report will be for one day but you can specify any day that is in the file. So you can get a week's worth of reports but you will have to do them one day at a time.

The program will scan from midnight to the first time period with sales data, it will also scan from the next midnight backwards to the last time period with sales data. It will ignore time periods at the beginning and end of the day wiith no sales data but if a sales period in the middle of the day has no data it will print them anyway. So basically if your store is open from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm you will get a sales per time report for that time period. However if your first sale is at 11:21 am (slow day?) then your report will start then.

[ChrisKraus]

I have been offically bribed by Granita to create this feature. So it will show up in the not too distant future.

Am I the only one that is wondering what Dale got?

[Dale Harris]

ChrisKraus,

Each day's donations are announced in the chatroom usually between 21:00 and 22:00 everyday. If you had been in the chatroom yesterday you would know.