New POS version 6.39P released on 4-5-07

[daleadmin]

I have been resisting this feature for a long time. Because the program does not keep track of the changes in the cost of merchandise it is not possible to get a really accurate figure for profit. None the less people still keep bugging me about it. So just to shut them up and in keeping with my policy of no longer protecting users from themselves, here it is.

Maybe they will use these figures to pay their taxes and when they get audited they will go directly into the slammer. Do not pass "go", do not collect $200. Either way I will not have to answer endless email about this anymore.

A new report in the "Reports" feature...

Profit report.
For each line in your stock table a profit report will multiply the pieces sold times your current cost for each item. It will then subtract that from the “Value sold” for that line to calculate the profit for that line. It will not take into account that the cost for an item may have changed over time, it will only use the current cost for each line. The Value Sold figure takes into account price changes, discounts, and reductions.

Returns will count as negative sales, which means that for individual lines you may have negative values or values of zero if sales and returns cancel out. Only lines that have a non-zero value for Value Sold and / or Pieces sold will be on the report.

The “Value sold” and “Pieces sold” amounts are the values currently in the stock table. These values are reset to zero when you close out the cash register and choose to “Reset the merchandise data.” This means that a profit report can only be generated as far back as the last time you reset the merchandise data. If you reset it daily then you can only generate daily profit reports, if you reset weekly then you can only generate weekly profit reports, etc.

Each column (except “Unit cost”) will be totaled and a total profit figure will be provided.

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            |             | VALUE | PIECES |  UNIT |TOTAL |
STOCK NUMBER|DESCRIPTION  |  SOLD |  SOLD  |  COST | COST | PROFIT
      657135|COLOR KEY ONE| 454.48|  152   |    .19| 28.88| 425.60
  2416541644|PERSONALI KEY| 117.49|   31   |    .31|  9.61| 107.88
TOTAL PROFIT|             | 571.97|  183   |       | 38.49| 533.48

                             Sample Profit Report

Download the new version here...

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[brucef2112]

Code: Select all

>DALE:...So just to shut them up and in keeping with my policy of no longer protecting users from themselves, here it is. 

Ouch!......

[daleadmin]

brucef2112,

Well for about 2+ years now I have been telling folks that this is not accounting software and from the information that the program saves that it cannot generate a true figure for profit. But they keep telling me that they want it anyway even though the profit total will probably not be acurate and cannot be trusted.

So here it is. If it lands their butts in the clink it is not my fault. I warned them.

Dale

[Nick]

I think its a good feature for if someone only wants a rough idea of profit for quick personal reference, or less picky things like fundraisers for a "right away" kind of figure to be confirmed latter.

[brucef2112]

Hi Dale,
I was testing 6.39p1 and came across several items that need to be checked on. I've tested it on a copy of my live data and also on a clean install version I use for testing. It can be reproduced every time on either one.

Here's the test version config.
Program is set up to use the inventory table with 2K records.
Zero to 1K lines to "Warn if Stock is Zero".
No edits allowed for the item description from the register.
Prevent price changes from register.

I have 3 items setup in the stock table with stock numbers, tax rates, reg. price, and inventory. At row 1002 I created a "general merchandise" item with a stock number of 99, no price, no inventory.

FIRST ONE:
Program terminates with a "Division by zero in line 12 of module pos6. Hit any key to return to system.

1) From the Sales screen, enter 99 as the stock# > Hit [Enter]
2) At the "Price" prompt, leave it at nothing (zero) > Hit [Enter]
3) At the "Quantity" prompt, Hit [F12] > enter any number you wish for the "Total Price" > Before you hit the [Enter] key you probably already know what's about to happen but go ahead and Hit [Enter].
Program terminates with above msg and returns back to the DOS prompt.

SECOND:
At the Sales screen, entering any of the stock numbers within the "warn if stock is zero" range in the table will cause the program to always warn about the stock being zero even though all items have plenty of inventory.
You are force to select "1. Sell Anyway" to continue. Example; Stock number 333 has 20 items in inventory. Enter number 333 as the stock number > Hit [Enter] > enter any quantity less than 20 > Hit [Enter].
Program warns there isn't enough in inventory. It is quite easy to see that this message box is a liar because if you look to the left of the msg box you can see that the "Inventory Quantity" shows 20! From here there is no point in yelling at the msg box. Even while pointing at the number and telling the msg box to look to its right will not help. You have to choose 1.Sell Anyway to continue the sale. After the sale the program seems to handle the inventory reduction correctly (if 2 items entered, after the transaction is finished the stock table will show 18 in stock).

SECOND POINT FIVE:
I also uncovered the fact that this sneaky msg box has been a liar for quite some time now about something else. The msg box offers choices of "1. Sell Anyway" and "3. Don't Sell". However in a deliberate attempt to deceive us, the msg box offers another choice hidden within the southern double-line boarder. A hard look will show that it tries to trick us into believing we can also "Press Any Key". Clearly it has a deliberate intent to deceive. You have to pick 1 or 3 or else get "Beeped" at.
Even the mighty [Esc] key won't save you from this little lying msg box!

Thanks,
Bruce

[daleadmin]

Bruce,

So let me do the math here. If you have a price of zero and need to know how many of them you need to sell to equal a total price that you can enter, let's say 2.00. The program would then have to divide 2.00 by 0.00. This is a totally BAD idea on many levels. First of all (to do the math in reverse) no matter how many of a free item you sell, even an infinite amount, you will never, ever reach a total value of 0.01 let alone 2.00. And second, while the mathematical concept of passing Mount Everest through the eye of a needle would not give a mathematician any concern at all (topologically speaking) if you suggested dividing any real or imaginary number by zero you could cause him to have heart palpitations or possibly a stroke. Not a good idea. Needless to say, if you ask computer code to divide by zero its only possible response has to be, "You must be kidding" and it will simply shut down.

While it has long been my policy to no longer save users from themselves I do realize that it is possible to accidentally have the program try to divide by a zero price. So in version 6.39q I have modified the program to do nothing if this happens.

Your item #2 is an actual bug which interestingly is a problem in current version but not in the gift card version I am working on. This is one of the problems with trying to maintain 2 versions of the same program, you get it to work in one version and then forget the same fix in the other version It is also fixed in version 6.39q

For item #2.5, the "Press any key" text is part of the "error message" routine. If it is removed from this message then it would be removed from all of the error messages including the ones that do not require a response. So I am going to leave it in. In my opinion if the program requires a user to pick an option and instead he chooses to press keys that are not one of the options, then after an hour or so of poking useless keys he will finally read the screen and press one of the proper keys. A fine learning experience.

Dale

Download from the usual place....


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