Really large currency amounts.

[Dale Harris]

In the last month or so I have received several emails from countries that have a currency with a really tiny value. This means that the prices for common items must be really huge. For example a loaf of bread would cost 100,000 in the local currency.

If you set rounding to "1" then DHPOS will allow prices for items from 0 to 999,999 but that is not enough for the countries described above.

So I have done some thinking and it seems that it would be fairly simple to allow larger amounts on the printed receipts at least. However the number of significant digits would not be changed, only additional zeros would be added at the end.

For example if you set rounding to 1000 then the range for prices would then be 1000 to 999,999,000. It would not be possible to have a price of 23,258 because all currency amounts would be rounded to the nearest 1000.

Here is a typical receipt with a rounding of ".01"

<pre>
60000 COLOR KEY ONE SIDED
T1 5 AT 2.49 11.42
-------------------------------------
SUB TOTAL 11.42
SALES TAX 1.03
TOTAL 12.45
</PRE>
.



Here is the same receipt with a rounding of "1000"

<pre>
60000 COLOR KEY ONE SIDED
T1 5 AT 249000 1142000
-------------------------------------
SUB TOTAL 1142000
SALES TAX 103000
TOTAL 1245000
</PRE>

As you can see the tax, which should have been 10278 has been rounded to 103000.

The program would allow rounding values of .01, .05, .10, 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000. After 4 additional zeros it just gets ridiculous.

While it would not be that difficult to add the additional zeros to the receipt it would be more difficult to add zeros to the sales screen. Where would the zeros go? And some folks want more than 3 additional zeros.

Plus while zeros are being added the lenght of the print fields are increased only slightly which means that if the numbers are too large they will not print correctly. For example, while you may be able to sell 100 of an item that costs 1234.56 if you round to ".01" you would not be able to sell 100 of an item that sells for 123456000 if you round to "1000."

However the additional digits would only be in the receipts and possibly the sales screen (maybe!) All other parts of the program would still round to either ".01" or "1." So while a price on the receipt may be displayed as 2354000 you would have to enter the price in the stock table as 2345. Currency amounts on the closing receipts, reports, and all other parts of the program would not display the additional zeros.

Time frame. I could possibly have the receipts print the extra zeros in a day or so once I started. The sales screen would require a week or two.

But when, or if, I do this depends on the replies that are printed to this post. Tell me if only changing the receipts will be enough, then it will probably happen. If you need the sales screen also then the project becomes iffy. If you need the whole program to display the extra zeros then it will not happen. Do you need the extra digits but the program still has to round to 1? I am only going to do this once so tell me what you need to make sure that it gets in. And of cource if there are only a few replies then I guess that not enough people want this to make it happen.

[ZeeMan]

Perhaps you could create some kind of "add on" sales screen that interfaces with the program externally?
I don't know how your program works since it is proprietary but I have done something with an alternate front end interface in liberty basic (proprietary code). I signed a non-disclosure so, even though the files are on my computer, I can't even show part of them them to anyone else.

[RollerBall]

Dale, the only problem I would foresee with this kind of thing is if it would mess things up for people who are using the system already. I am very happy with the sales screen, the receipt layout etc etc and if they were 'messed up' by this kind of change it would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater as far as I'm concerned. Have to be 'selfish' about this kind of thing

[Andrew]

If I understand correctly, Dale is discussing this as an option determined by the rounding setting. So anyone who didn't need the extra digits would set their rounding as normal and never know any difference.

[Dale Harris]

Even if I could write an external add on program that would take far longer to write than modifing the existant sales screen.

Andrew is correct. If you do not use the proposed extended rounding factors then there will not be any change to the current sales screen or receipts.

However so far no one who wants this feature has posted here so it looks like this may not happen.

[Dale Harris]

This feature is being added to the program.