POSnet - The concept

[guest]

Hi
is thar a way to turn it off do to the fact it is a global register and you can cant make a sale??
and if it is to hard to write it out of the program i quess we can put up with it


Thanks

[Tommy]

Hi
i need help for setting up posnet.

IF i am going to have a register as a server backup do i set it to a global or local ???
But some times if we are relly bussy we will log in as a register can that be done Or do you need to have 2 copys of pos one for act like a server and the other for a register?

and also i have a server in the back and not going to be use as a register do i still put a network path ? and what do set it on global or local ?

Thanks
Tommy

[Andrew]

I don't quite get what you mean.

Do you want the global register to be unable to ring up sales?

If not, please clarify your question.

[bazza]

[A1] I am willing to go with "feature" if you are. With the way the program is currently written there is no way for one register to know who is logged on on the other registers. I could do something about this in the future but until then try just smacking your employees if they log on to two registers at the same time. Let me know how that works out. .

To be honest I wouldn't really need to use this 'feature'. I am sure that my employees would be honest and knowledgable to not to log into two or more registers (I doubt this as we only have 4 at the moment).

I only suggested it for the ''security-minded'' manager of an employee. But, would be a good idea is to be able to view who is on a register at any time. All it would do is list the register names against the employee name.

[A2] As you probably can figure out the "stand alone" version, the "local network" version and the "global network" version of the program are actually all the same version. It just morphs from one version into another depending on the application. Since blocking or unblocking stuff in the different modes takes space and could possibly cause errors in the program I have decided to leave in some things that are pointless in some versions. My tactic is to just ignore them and so far this is working out pretty well. I imagine that they will be blocked out eventually.

I guess that's a fair enough deal. If it doesn't make the results out of place or anything this is fine. (Although If I do find that I have an extra $185.85 in my totals, I know where it came from!)

Secondly, I want to confirm two things.

[1] Can I run the POS global version on an ordinary computer without having the drawer and scanner attached?

Also, and I guess the first might answer the second:
[2] Do I need to run a local version of POS on the same computer as i do my network? I understand if I don't, then I won't have *any* registers, so it was just a thought so that noone doesn't make a sale on the 'server register'/...

[A3] Actually the POS program itself does not have any limit on the number of registers that you can have on the network at one time. You can actually use any ASCII character as the register letter although I would probably not use the first 33. That still leaves 223 registers but I wonder if the network can handle that? And of course you can give the registers duplicate letters or no letters at all but that way leads to madness.

If that is the case then I guess POS will broden the client base which it can be offered to. Imagine 223 registers! I just can't understand why each register needs it's own 'network identifier'.

I guess if this is used to identify the receipt at all, you could include a section on it saying "register: 1". something like that up to 9.

Well I guess going beyond register 9 wouldn't be possible, just to include just another byte to allow for register numbers 10 to 99. ...


Bazza.

[Andrew]

Barry, for auditing purposes, there must always be some way of identifying the register.

If the employee feature is implemented where you would be able to see who is on which register, then you would need to see the register identifier also.

The reason letters A-Z are used (or any ascii character as we have discovered) is that Dale allocated anough room for one character, and because the transaction numbers are numeric, and the register character is added to the end of that e.g. 2056D (transaction 2056 on register D) they couldn't be numerical or things would get confusing.

Sure, another section could be added to the receipt to print the register, but is it worth using up some more paper?

[Dale Harris]

Boy, you step away from the forum for 20 hours to sleep and go to work for 12 hours and the place goes nuts. Well let's see how many things on this page I can answer.

Tommy,
On the computer that has the global folder you must also put a local folder if you want to be able to use the computer as a register. Load the POS program from the local folder and you have a register. Load the POS program from the global folder on the same computer and you have the global features.

On your second note you have me totally confused.

Barry,

Consider me stupid. From several posts around here it has been brought to my attention that having one person log on to two registers at the same time is somehow a bad thing. I have no idea why that would be a bad thing or why anyone would want to do this, could you enlighten me? On chat someone mentioned that a person on one register could log on to another register, open the cash drawer to remove money and then log off.

Seems to me that they could also do that before they started their shift or after they ended their shift, or even during their shift they could log off their register, and then even if the POS would not allow dual logons, since they would not then be logged on to any register, they could then logon to a register they are not supposed to be on. So in this case how would preventing dual logons help?

The other problem is that since the POS program does not really let you log on, it just remembers who entered their employee or PIN number last, there is no way to log off.

So please explain the problem in terms so simple that even I could understand.

Since drawer, printer, and scanner controls are "local" to the folder that the POS program is in you can set the controls in the global folder to anything you want including not using any of those features.

It would be a good idea to have the global folder on one of the register computers because if the network goes down only the register with the global folder (and of course a local folder) will be able to ring sales until the network comes back up.

The register ID letter, character, whatever, is a code that only you and your employees need to know about, customers have no need to know what it is. Since it was real easy (and I am real lazy) to stick a one character code after the transaction number and since this would actually be able to identify over 200 different registers on the network, I assumed that it would be good enough. I still think it is, particularly since on stand alone registers no letter will appear and no one will notice that one letter is missing.

Ok, I think I have answered all the questions on this page and if I have not I am sure that someone will point that out.

[Dale Harris]

Here is the link for POSnet version 5.04 BETA http://keyhut.com/pos3.htm

A few bugs have been fixed in this version and the PURCHASE.EXE program can now be used over a network.

[Guest]

When I go into "reports" on the global register, i am prompted for the password, and then get:

"Bad file mode in line 99 of module FILEINFO at address 0820:7CBD
Hit any key to return to system"

Otherwise, no major problems, Reports work on all client registers.

Well done!

PS - It would be good to have POS check to see that the operator is not logged in to another register... But then, for that to be effective (for an operator to move between lanes and take their drawer with them), you would need to pull a report for sales by operator (to balance their drawer), but that data is stored locally, isn't it?

[Bazza]

From several posts around here it has been brought to my attention that having one person log on to two registers at the same time is somehow a bad thing. I have no idea why that would be a bad thing or why anyone would want to do this, could you enlighten me? On chat someone mentioned that a person on one register could log on to another register, open the cash drawer to remove money and then log

The only suggestion to that is how that store uses one draw per register or one draw per employee.

If anything is lost using the register method, you wouldn't know who lost the money but, the way I do it is that each employee has a draw and whatever they lose they'll have to pay back.

Seems to me that they could also do that before they started their shift or after they ended their shift, or even during their shift they could log off their register, and then even if the POS would not allow dual logons, since they would not then be logged on to any register, they could then logon to a register they are not supposed to be on. So in this case how would preventing dual logons help?

I guess it would help, but it wouldn't really prevent it.

The other problem is that since the POS program does not really let you log on, it just remembers who entered their employee or PIN number last, there is no way to log off.

So please explain the problem in terms so simple that even I could understand.

Um, login could be went you type your password, logoff when it goes to the main menu.

[bazza]

doing some more testing,

when you try and export the stock table it crashes.

thought i add that in.

bazza.

[Bobby]

Hi Dale,
I noticed that I was not able to retrieve a parked sale from the purchase screen. I had to ring merchandise and then total the sale before it would let me retrieve the parked sale. Then I had to choose void this sale and retrieve parked sale. Would it be possible to retrieve the parked sale from the purchase screen. Here is the scenerio:
Cust A forgot wallet in car, goes out to get it. Cashier parks sale.
Cust B rings up purchase, pays, leaves.
Cust A comes back in and there are no cust in line. Cashier has to create dummy sale to void to retrieve parked sale.
Hope I explained it well.

I had a little difficulty setting up posnet, but it was because I did not fully read the instructions. Now that I have it set up, it works great.

Thanks Dale

[Guest]

Hello Dale,
When I try to change the printer port from LPT1 to FILE in Posconfg.exe so I can use the Aprint feature, I am able to press Tab to toggle it to File but when I escape it defaults back to LPT1 for some reason.

Hope this is useful to you,
Chas

[Dale Harris]

Here is the link for POSnet version 5.04 BETA http://keyhut.com/pos3.htm

The "out of stack space" when printing the stock table has been fixed.

[tryklief]

three little problems on running ver 5.04 beta

when doing sales and switching to next sale it takes a long pause before next sale starts!

if all tills are set to 40 col printer and global folder on server set to 80 col then when i set the header and footer for printouts they all set to 80 col i must then set the server's 80 col to 40 col printer.

and the slips on 40 col printers are skipping a line per item when printing out on slip printer thereby wasting paper! even though set to no in posconfg for skipping lines on all tills!!!

please help or did posnet5 sort this out or did i configure incorrectly?