3 decimal pricing.

[daleadmin]

For no aparent reason I am working on 3 digit pricing. So you will be able to charge 4.219 for a gallon of gas. This is a huge pain in the butt actually. I have to track down every place in the program that displays or prints a price and add pointless, useless code. I am not sure that I am going to complete this. It may be such a useless endeavor that I may abandon it.

So here is your chance to convince me to complete this feature.

[IAN]

dale thanks for even thinking of it!

a suggestion.. if a gas station selling the stuff they dont usually need to change the last number just the quantity of theat, so in the main stock table you could probly accociate the particular as 3 and in posconfig have it set there the final didgit like say 9 or a 7 then in the main table you have the price as 2Dec and it'll find the relevant in the pos config to add on the last number to the price..

thats a little idea so far, i know its not programming code but its a crazy idea to try with

[daleadmin]

Ian,

I have no idea what your post says.

Keyboard problems again?

Dale

[peewee3ie]

Hi Dale,

I think what Ian is trying to say is if petrol (gas) stations are selling petrol and the alike. That they do not need to change the last digit so if you could make it an option in posconfig that they can set it and in the stock table that you can tell which items needs the 3 desmal places.

I hope you under stand me if not I will try exlpaining it better

[daleadmin]

The way this will work (so far) is that when you are entering a price into the stock table you may press [F1] to get an extra decimal place. Only those prices that you press [F1] for will have the extra place.

For example if the stock table has a price of 42.39 entered if you press [F1] (in the stock table) it will become 4.239. Press [F1] again and it will revert back to 42.39.

This, in part, is what makes it so hard. Every place in the program will have to know to give the price an extra decimal place or not without the user doing anything. Of course the total price (unit price times quantity) will be rounded to 2 decimal places. 4.239 x 15 = 63.59. (Which is silly because 4.24 X 15 = 63.60. Oh look Mommy, I saved 1¢ on a $64.00 purchase, I am a smart boy.)

Dale

[peewee3ie]

Hi Dale

That if you do the rounding up like that you could have some very unhappy costormers.

4.239 X 15 = 63.585 should be rounded up to 63.59 and not 63.60.

This will be used mainly by petrol (gas) stations. I know others will use it as well. the way above is the way I think it should work because if you do it the way you described will be make a small profit on all sales that are round up

The way I see it should be done

item 1 = 22.99 X 1 = 22.99 = 22.99
item 2 = 4.239 X 15 = 63.585 = 63.59
TOTAL = 86.575 = 86.58

.005 cent profit for that sale
but if you had 100 of the same sales that day would be .50 cent
If it happens every day of the year with a 100 of the same sales a day that will be a profit of 182.50

The way you think it should be done

item 1 = 22.99 X 1 = 22.99 = 22.99
item 2 = 4.239 X 15 = 63.585 = 63.60
TOTAL = 86.575 = 86.59

1.5 cent profit for that sale
but if you had 100 of the same sales that day would be 1.50
If it happens every day of the year with a 100 of the same sales a day that will be a profit of 547.50

It should be .005 cent profit not 1 cent more which will and the end of the year if you made that 1 cent more on 100 sales a day for the year would be 365.00 for the year be rounding up that one extra 1 cent

[daleadmin]

Peewee,

The feature when it is finished will round the way you pointed out. My point is how completely pointless having a .009 price really is. On 15 gallons the price will be 63.59 at 4.239 or 63.60 at 4.24. The difference is 1¢ or .015%. Why not have honest pricing and just charge 4.24? You point out that on a hundred sales that the difference will be 100 times more at 1.00. But that would be on sales of 6,359.00. If I had daily sales of 6,359.00 I assure you that I would not miss 1.00 and if I did why not just raise the price to 4.24 a gallon. Plus I must point out that rounding to 63.60 would mean that you would be getting MORE profit, not less.

BTW, 100 sales for a year would be a difference of 182.50 over the course of a year as you pointed out but you failed to mention that it would be on sales of 2,321.035 which would make 182.50 trivial.

Plus you seem to think that the rounding difference is the profit. It may be the difference in profit but not the entire profit on a sale.

But the purpose of .009 pricing is to screw the customer. Way back when gas sold for .23 a gallon if the guy across the street sold his gas for .24 I would sell my gas for 23.9 (with the 9 really, really small.) That way the customer would think that Bob's gas was .24 but my gas was .23 (a 4% savings) and he would buy my gas. This is even though the savings was really between .24 and .239 = 1%.

However now that gas sells for over 4.00 a gallon what is the point of having the only product in the U.S. (and I bet Ireland also) that has 3 decimal pricing? Who do they think they are fooling?

Has there ever been a 3 decimal price where the 3rd decimal was not a 9 ?

3 decimal pricing is a flat-out con job that no longer has any point.

Dale

Trivia question, Is it even possible to program a gas pump to use 2 digit pricing or a 3rd digit other than a 9? Is this con job so ingrained that it is not even possible not to do it?

Dale

[IAN]

yes you can have it at a 2 dec place.. just use the 0.009 as a 0,

on the other foot i dont know of a gas terminal that dosnt tell you your final price in 3 dec place its allways 2... so really you should put in the final price and let pos work out how much you have sold..
dont forget many people dont look how much there putting in the tank by volume but usually by price displayed by the pump...

on a side note i did see some stations in a price war and that they did change the 9 to a 7 :O lol

the only reason i can see why someone to have the 3rd dec is to show exactly (within reason) how much fuel they have used/sold/have left in the inventory, say it would be easy to put the final price in and not worry about anything else, but if pos did work out how much was sold its still faster to put in the final price and let pos work out the measurements

[peewee3ie]

Hi Dale,

I agree with you on the con job that petrol (gas) stations are doing. That is why I try and play the at there own game by get 50.00 euro of petrol but going over it by 2 to 8 cent so it would be 50.08 and then I would pay with the biggest notes I got, and it would be on its own. If I want something I would go again and pay with the big note they give me back because they could not be bothered changing a big note for that 8 cent of petrol that I got. The idea of giving them that note is make them think I have no small notes or change

[IAN]

i known stations that dont let ye off for even a penny!

ive seen them change a 50 note for it

[daleadmin]

I seem to have hit a nerve with this feature.

Well I have a test version for everyone to try out here http://www.dhpos.com/pos700b1.zip it is a full download.

All you have to do to make an item have 3 decimal pricing is to go to the stock table and when you are where you can enter a price press [F1] to flip the entry box between 00.00 and 0.000. That should do it, everything else wil take care of itself.

So try it out, ring up some sales and print some receipts and report back here.

Dale

[Robert_Nel]

A matter of interest only ,
The bowser's here in this country are programed to 2 decimal places . When you ask the attendant for R150.00 petrol and it goes above the R150.00 he has to carry the extra cost . The petrol price is government regulated . I was in the petrol business for a year in 2001. The bowser's are controlled electronically via the cash register with a attendant in a bullet proof booth and outside attendants operating the bowsers. As the cash in the register reaches an amount over R500.00 over the float , the money is dropped into a drop safe which is collected by armored outside contracted personal taken to the bank and counted by the bank . The courtyard , bowsers and take out shops are surveyed by cameras and " panic " buttons are linked to armed response . There are small petrol stations out in the country that are not as secure . Petrol costs more than a beer per litre .
Great program
Robert Nel
South Africa