New version 6.18 of POS released.

[Dale Harris]

POS version 6.18 is posted for download at the usual place...

<center> http://keyhut.com/pos3.htm </center>

This is what is new...

SCALES
This program will support scales that produce a barcode label that contains the stock number and the price in the barcode. The POS program will then read the barcode and separate the barcode number back into the stock number and price. This program will not support scales that weigh the item at the checkout counter and then transmit the information directly into the POS system.
Many scales will produce a barcode label to attach to a package that contains the stock number for the item and the price for the package (price per unit weight times the weight, i.e. 1.30 per pound at 4.5 pounds = 5.85. The price for the package printed on the label will be 5.85.) If the stock number for the item was 75698 then the barcode printed on the label may have this number encoded 275698405853. As you can see the digits 2 - 6 are the stock number and digits 7 - 11 is the price.
Scale barcodes must contain 3 things, a 'flag' to tell the POS program that this is a scale barcode (which is the same on every scale barcode,) the actual stock number for the item, and the total price for the package.
Use the "Scale" feature in the POSCONFG.EXE program and enter a sample barcode number printed by your scale. If the stock number is less than 14 digits long then enter leading zeros to make it 14 digits long. If you compare several barcodes printed by your scale you will see that they all begin with the same digits or at least will have the same 1 - 3 digits printed in the same place on each label. For example you may have scale numbers like 234242111422, 216985412578, 269856475124, each one of these numbers begins with the digit "2." And, importantly, no other 12 digit stock numbers in your stock table will begin with "2." Now from left to right, under the stock number, place "F" under the part of the stock number that holds the scale flag (including any leading zeros) or just those digits that are the same on every "scale" barcode but different on all non-scale barcodes.
To mark the location of the stock number, place the letter "S" under the stock number digits. To mark the price, place the letter "P" under the digits representing the price. Be careful, one or more of the digits in barcode will be used for a parity check or other purpose and not be part of the flag, stock number, or price. Do not place any letters under them.
For example if flag is '2', the stock number is 56987, and the price is 23.56 then you should enter...

<pre>00256987223561
FFFSSSSS PPPP</pre>
Once you have filled in a sample scale barcode number and identified the parts by placing the letters underneath press [TAB] to set the flag in the program. This is important; the flag will not be set unless you press [TAB]
Pressing [TAB] will also show you the stock number that you must use to enter the stock number for this item into the stock table. This will usually consist of the flag plus the stock number followed by trailing zeros. In the sample above the stock number for that item would be 256987000000. When you enter the item into the stock table you must enter the price per unit weight as the price. For example if the price were 2.98 per pound then you would enter 2.98 as the price. If the price were 8.45 per kilogram then the price entered in the stock table would be 8.45.
Now when you scan a scale barcode into a sale it will recognize that the item is from the scale. It will look up the item in the stock table by 256987000000 (NOT 00256987223561), and use the description entered for that item. The POS program will use the price in the stock table for the price, and calculate the weight of the package as the pieces. For example if the price in the stock table is 4.30 and the price on the scale barcode is 12.36 then the weight (pieces) must be 2.874. NOTE: I do the best that I can but your scale and the POS program may round off differently and there may be a rounding error of .001 on the weight (pieces) or .01 on the price.
For this feature to work properly it is absolutely required that the scale and the POS program have the same price (per unit weight) for the same item. If they are not the same, then you will have to ring up the package by entering (for example) the 256987000000 number as the stock number. Then manually enter the price and weight (pieces) so that the total price for that item comes out to the same price that is on the scale label.