variable product costs / discounts from vendors

[ckirscht]

I am sure its there but I can't seem to find it. I am hoping to get this to work but I need to find a way to adjust the actual cost of an item as its being placed into inventory. I deal with animal feed and the item costs fluctuate with the markets. Also is there a way to adjust a item price if you recieve it from a vendor with a percentage discount.

So far it has been a pleasure of a program to work with but I need some help with this please.

Thank you in advance!!!

[Dale Harris]

ckirscht,

There is no way to change the price from the RECEIVE program.

Sorry,

[RollerBall]

hello hello........sounds familiar. Who said there was no demand for this feature then...

[Andrew]

Hehe, 2 people doesn't = demand around here unfortunately.

If this feature is implemented, I feel it should require the stock table password (if one is set) to alter pricing via RECEIVE.

[RollerBall]

Tell you what it needs ....... I'll whisper in case Dale hears me.....

- An option in posconfg - 'update stock cost on receive' or something similar
- An additional column in the 'Receive' table for you to insert the cost of the item being received
- A small enhancement in POS File Maintenance so when the 'Receive' file is read, if the option is flagged 'No' or the 'Receive' cost figure is zero, the existing cost in the stock table is maintained but if the option is flagged 'Yes' and the 'Receive' cost figure is not zero, the stock table cost figure is updated, preferably by an 'average cost' calculation.

The amount of computing is not great, you have to insert a password to read the 'Receive' file and it has no impact on pricing. But what it would do is tell you what the stock you are holding actually cost you and not what it would have cost when the price in the stock table was correct 12 months ago or when you last got round to updating it.

Tell you why I think this is necessary.

Let's say you have a unit cost figure in the table of $100 which you put in in December 2005. You happen to sell completely out of the item and you order some more today. It comes in at $50 because (a) you've found a new supplier and (b) it's now being made in China and all the people who were making it in your area are now on the dole.

Unless you happen to check your stock table (remember - you're a very busy bloated plutocrat, so why should you...) the stock will go in at $100.

So unless you check every item you receive and if the figures are different, do a manual calculation to update your stock table, your stock value as given by your POS report will be hopelessly out.

Forgive me if I'm wrong......but I thought that's why we have computer systems - to avoid manual calculations, increase accuracy and avoid errors

[ToPS]

Definately not only 2 people who supports or needs this kind of option.

RollerbBall,
I once again pledge my full support for this cause.
It will save quite some time and effort in our situation.

I'm sure there are more of us.
Please let Dale know how you feel.

Still Happily DHPossing....

ToPS

[Dale Harris]

Sure some people support this cause but is anyone throwing kuggerands at me to get it? Or have they found a place on the receiving screen where this mystery column for entering new prices will go? Maybe glue an additional monitor to the right of the current monitor?

Nope, not yet.

Anyway, right now I am deep into the POS code trying to reformat the "close screen" and the .POS file to accomodate the new gift card and "user defined" payment methods. Next I get to try to do the same thing with the "reports" feature so that read both the new and old formats. Gee, what fun.

[Dale Harris]

Sure some people support this cause but is anyone throwing kuggerands at me to get it? Or have they found a place on the receiving screen where this mystery column for entering new prices will go? Maybe glue an additional monitor to the right of the current monitor?

Nope, not yet.

Anyway, right now I am deep into the POS code trying to reformat the "close screen" and the .POS file to accomodate the new gift card and "user defined" payment methods. Next I get to try to do the same thing with the "reports" feature so that it will read both the new and old formats. Gee, what fun.

[RollerBall]

Hmmmm....gotta say Dale, you choose some weird features to go for.

A gift card isn't a sale. It's someone who has given you some money to hold for them. You put the money in a tin box next to the till and when somone else comes in with the gift card you give them the item and take the money out of the tin box to pay for it. How does that affect POS?

And what the heck's a 'user defined payment system' - I know, you want to let folks in some countries pay in camels or sheep.

We could be a long time waiting for this really useful stuff I guess...

[Dale Harris]

Rollerball,

The score so far....

Changing prices from the receiving program... maybe 6 or so.

Gift cards... uncountable multitudes.

It seems that many businesses are basing their future on selling gift cards, I know my host store does. A lot of shops want hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of gift cards out there with their store name on them.

So if you are putting the money you receive for a "gift" dealy in a tin box and one of your customers comes back to use it, how do you tell how much of the $10,000+, $100,000+ or $1,000,000+ that is in the tin box belongs to him? Or do you have a warehouse with 65,378 tin boxes in it, one for each customer.

Many people, including an un-named brother-in-law of mine, only gives gift cards as presents. So if you do not selling gift cards he will not be shopping with you. Plus think of this. If a customer is trying to decide if he wants to purchase a 75.00 item from you or your competitor, and he has a 25.00 gift card from you, where do you think he is going to go?

Plus, and here is a weird concept, the "float" on all those gift cards is actually an intrest free loan from your customers to you. If you take your tin box to the bank and dump it into your account you can earn interest on the money.

And one of retail's deep, dark secrets is that some gift cards are never redeemed. They get lost, dropped in inconvient places or eaten by goats. Now your customer's intrest free loan has turned into a tax free gift.

So the bottom line is that gift cards are one of the most requested and eagarly anticipated features for POS ever. Your deal, not so much.

The hardest part of adding gift cards is not the gift cards themselves but the fact that an additional payment method must be added, neccessating altering of large portions of the program.

I have had requests to add an additional payment method from many users. The problem is that each user wants something different. Since it is not much more difficult to add two payment methods instead of just one I am also adding a "user defined" payment method. You name it, the program keeps track of it.

So as far as being useful, gift cards are way, Way, WAY ahead of the "price change while receiving" thing.

[RollerBall]

So you're serious about this one then

[Dale Harris]

I have been working on it for about 6 months now, so I guess so.

[ToPS]

Rollerball,

from a business point of view gift cards makes a lot of sense.

When you buy a gift card you pay for it without any merchandise leaving the store.
Then you give it to someone and forget about it.... and sometimes so does the person who received it.
VERY NICE !!!! 100% profit for the store.
It can become even more profitable if the cards have expiery dates on that are not to long in the future.

Come on Dale I want to make some REAL money!

ToPS

[daleadmin]

ToPS,

In many places, including Illinois, gift cards may not legally EVER expire. Nor can the value decrease except by using the card to purchase stuff.

This means that you have to keep track of the value of your outstanding gift cards FOREVER! If you issue a gift card and the customer's great, great, great, great, great, great, grandson brings in the gift card 150 years later it must still be honored and you must still be able to find the value in the card even though you have replaced your POS system 15 times and the POS system that issued the card will not run on any computer manufactured in the last 75 years.

What fun!

[RollerBall]

Rollerball,

from a business point of view gift cards makes a lot of sense.

Of course they do and I go along with everything that's been said about them.

But my points are that

1 - they are not a sale
2 - they are money held in trust
3 - money held in trust goes into your balance sheet not your cash register (technically it is what is referred to as a short term liability)

So I can't see the relevance for DHPOS - but look, I'm ready to be convinced.

But what I do know is that I am aware of quite a few genuine users of DHPOS who would like the system to help them with their stock control in the way I've suggested and all I can do is try to speak up for them here on the forum. The last one has 2 systems networked in a very busy little store. She's very intelligent and sees what DHPOS is and could be doing for her. She's desperate to spend less of her time manually controlling her stock and more of it managing her business and I can see her point.

But there you go.