Bossmiles POS User Guide (Draft 3)

Point of Sales Business Solution (Bossmiles Edition)

2007-12-08

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(C) Copyright 2007 by Computing Business Inc. All rights reserved.

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Preface

Bossmiles POS is a web based point of sales application offered to Bossmiles community members and is free of charge sponsored by Computing Business Inc. (CBI). It has all the basic features required by most single store single lane retailers. More optional features are available for restaurants, spa & beauty and multi-store retail chain, please contact sales@bizsoln.com for details about other POS BizSoln offering.

For simplicity, scope of this document is only limited to the discussion of Bossmiles Edition of POS BizSoln.

Introduction

Bossmiles.Net application services includes two major applications: point of sales (POS) application and its administration console. Both of them can be launched directly from Bossmiles.Net.

In essence, POS application is an intelligent cash register for the cashiers or sales persons entering sales orders and producing customer receipts. During this procedure, sales transaction information including product / service items, customers, cashiers, price, quantity, discount and commission data are all collected. These data are valuable for many purposes such as keeping track of inventory level, amount in cash drawer and etc.

Administration console allows you to manage the POS application. With the administration console in the Bossmiles edition, you can manage product definitions, customer profiles, employee profiles, product categories and taxes. You can add, update or remove product items with the administration console. In addition, you can configure taxes to be applied to the products.

In this documentation, we will use the terms sales order and transaction interchangeably.

Getting Started

To take the advantages of the free application service offering, you have to subscribe to the service from Bossmiles.Net. Then you can start the applications directly from the Bossmiles.Net home page as long as you have met the application prerequisite requirements documented in the Application Prerequisite Requirements section.Application Prerequisite Requirements

Bossmiles.Net Sign Up

To subscribe to the Bossmiles.Net service, register to the Bossmiles support forum with the following web page:

http://www.bossmiles.net/PHPBB/profile.php?mode=register http://www.bossmiles.net/PHPBB/profile.php?mode=register

First of all, agree to the forum's registration agreement terms. Secondly, provide your username, email address, password and the confirmation code. Finally, click the submit button at the bottom of the page, if you have no preference change to make. You are also suggest to provide you location and phone number, if possible for better support service.

Application Prerequisite Requirements

Here is a list of prerequisite for POS BizSoln Bossmiles Edition:

• Windows XP
• Java JDK 1.5 or above, which can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index_jdk5.jsp. Just pick the latest update, say "JDK 5.0 Update 14", see screen captured below
• Internet Access
• Mouse, Keyboard, a PC and etc.

Launching the Application from Web

To launch the POS application, one has to be a member of the Bossmiles community and log on the Bossmiles.Net site. Once the user login, the POS application can be launched with the "Start POS" link on the top of the Bossmiles.Net home page.

Similarly, the administration console can also be launched with the "Start PosAdmin" link on the top of the Bossmiles.Net home page.

Before launching the application, please make sure you have met the prerequisite described in the previous section.

For the first time a machine that the user launches the application on, the launch process may take between 5 to 10 minutes to download all necessary files.

Additionally, the POS application will request full access to your machine with a security warning message below. Please grant access to the POS application by checking on “Always trust content from this publisher.” option and click the Run button. Bossmiles POS should then launch smoothly.

During the first time launching, the POS application will also prompt for the company information for the purpose of receipt printing. In addition, you have to accept the user agreement to proceed.

Logon

Once the POS application is launched, user can logon with the pre-defined user id and password. The user id is 02 and the password is also 02. They can be changed with the administration console later.

Logoff

To logoff the POS application, user can select the Function button menu by clicking the button with "Functions..." label at the bottom right corner of the button menu.

Then, user can click the "Log Off" button on the second row of the Function Button Menu.

Shutdown

To shutdown the POS application, user can either logoff and then click the OFF button on the login screen, or select the Function button menu by clicking the button with "Functions..." label at the bottom right corner of the button menu and then click the "Shutdown" button on the Function Button Menu.

NOTE: It is recommended NOT to shutdown down the application in the middle of a sales transaction.

Screen Lock

POS screen can be locked as in most window systems. To lock the screen, user can click the Lock button on the second row of the Function Button Menu. The application will start prompting the user ID and password to unlock the screen. User can enter the user ID followed by enter key. Then enter the password followed by enter key.

A POS Quick Tour

Bossmiles POS' screen layout is flexible and is fully configurable. You may rearrange the screen layout to fit your unique requirement. For example, if you are left handed, you can have receipt area moved to the right hand side of the screen from left. More buttons and button menus can be added. Contact Bossmiles or our Bossmiles business partner for more details.

By default, Bossmiles main screen is divided into four (4) sections. The left half is display of current transaction. The upper left section is for the information about the current sales transaction. The bottom left is mainly for receipt display. It is also for other detail reporting purpose.

The right upper half is POS response and status area.

The middle portion of the right half has layers of buttons. By convention, buttons with “...” are for navigation among button layers, called navigation button. Button layers can be applied to restaurant scenarios as a food menu. Each layer can be considered as a page similar to a web page, and user can navigate among pages with the navigation buttons.

Each button is corresponding to a function in the POS application. By default, it comes with the following layers:

• Home – Basic buttons for daily operations.
• Discount – Features to discount all product items or selected product items
• Cheque – Features to accept cheque payment
• Card Payment – Features to accept credit card, debit card and gift card payment
• Foreign Currency – Features to accept payments in foreign currency
• Function – Menu of less frequently used features.

Home layer has the following functional buttons:

• PLU – select a product by product ID
• Quantity – specify the quantity of the line item.
• Void Item – void the selected line item in the current sales order.
• Cash – acknowledge amount of cash payment accepted from customer.
• Subtotal – calculate the before tax subtotal of the current sales order.
• Total – calculate the after tax total of the current sales order
• Void Sales – void the current sales order
• Return Sales – specify the current sales order as return transaction, before the 1st product item is added.
• Product Tree – select a product item by product category
• Service Tree – select a service item by service category

Discount layer has the following functional buttons:

• Markdown by % – discount the selected product item by specified percentage
• Markdown by $ – discount the selected product item by specified dollar amount
• Price Override – override the price of the select product item as specified dollar amount
• Discount This Sales 10% – discount all product items in the current sales order by 10%
• Markdown All by % – discount all product items in the current sales order by a specified percentage.

Cheque layer has the following functional buttons:

• Cheque Amount – accept check payment of specified amount
• Check Cash Back – accept check payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• Check Exact – accept check payment of the amount exactly the same as the sales total.

Card Payment layer has the following functional buttons:

• CC Amount – accept credit card payment of specified amount
• CC Cash Back – accept credit card payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• CC Exact – accept credit card payment of the amount exactly the same as the sales total.
• CC Exact PreAuth – Check if a credit card is valid and has a credit limit to cover the total of the transaction.
• DC Amount – accept debit card payment of specified amount
• DC Cash Back – accept debit card payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• DC Exact – accept debit card payment of the amount exactly the same as the sales total.
• Gift Card – accept gift card payment of the amount exactly the same as the sales total.

Foreign Currency layer has a list of foreign currencies that the cash register can accept. Please contact Bossmiles.Net business partners for help to configure proper list of of foreign currencies. The layer facilitate acceptance of the following currencies:

• US$
• EURO
• Swiss Francs
• UK

Function layer has the following functional buttons:

• X-Report – Daily Sales Report
• Z-Report – Daily Sales Report with all tender registers cleared including cash, cheque and etc. This is usually done as part of the daily closing procedure.
• Upload – Synchronize sales and customer data with back end server. This feature is not available to Bossmiles POS, please contact Bossmiles.Net business partners for more.
• Toggle Alternate Tax – Optionally waive some taxes for some product items in the current sales order.
• Shutdown – Shutdown the POS application.
• Logoff – Log off from the POS application.
• Lock / Unlock – Lock and unlock the user interface similar to screen saver in most window systems.
• Training Mode – Allow trainees of your stores to practice without actually posting real sales transactions.
• Paid In – Record cash put into the cash drawer, which is usually done as the daily open procedure.
• Paid Out – Record cash taken from the cash drawer for bank deposit, which is usually done when there are too much cash stored in the cash drawer.
• Pickup – Record cash taken from the cash drawer for any other purposes such as purchase of product items.
• Store – Save the current sales order temporary as suspended order, so that the cashier can process the next sales order.
• Recall – Recall the suspended orders.

The lower portion of the right half is the customer relationship module. User can search customer by name and phone number. Historical orders associated with any customer can also be retrieved.

Regular Tasks

Basic Order Entry with Bar Code

Bar code scanner helps to enter the product ID (such as product number or serial number) on behave of the end user. Without the bar code scanner, end user can key in the product ID manually for retrieving the corresponding product item.

After the number is entered, end user can press the PLU button on the screen or plus key (+) on the numeric pad of the keyboard to retrieve the product item. The retrieved product item will be listed in the receipt section as a line item. By selecting a line item in the receipt section, you can discount, void, associate sales person and waive taxes of the line item. In addition, you can declare the selected line item as a return item. These operations will be discussed further in the next few sections.

NOTE: In general, if the user enters something incorrectly, the user can keep pressing the Escape button on the keyboard to abort the current operation. For example, after an incorrect product ID is entered, one can press the Escape button to clear the incorrect input.

Basic Order Entry with Product Tree

Instead of retrieving product items with product ID, users can also retrieve them by product and service trees. Products and services can be categorized under different departments or product categories. These categories can be defined and assigned to products and services with the administration console.

Product tree lists all products with product type = PRODUCT. On the other hand, service tree lists all services with product type = SERVICE.

Select an Ordered Item

First of all, you can select an order item directly on the receipt section with your mouse or touch screen monitor. Click once is enough to select the line item.

In addition, you can also use the up and down buttons above the receipt area. Four buttons are

• First Receipt Record
• Previous Receipt Record
• Next Receipt Record
• Last Receipt Record

Descriptions of these four buttons can also be retrieved by hovering your mouse on these buttons.

Basic Order Entry with Manually Created Product

The user can also artificially create a product based on a generic product. For example, there is a generic product called “Standard”. You can retrieve this product by either product ID (1000) or product tree. With the generic product line item listed on the receipt section, you can select the line item and modify that by double clicking the line item. A Line Details window will pop up and you can update the product description and the unit price from that. In addition, you can also update the sales representative and return flag, if necessary.

Press OKAY button to confirm the change.

Discount an Order

After entering the entire sales order, you can discount all line items on the receipt section by a specific percentage. If you want to discount the sales order by 10%, you can press the button labeled “Discount This Sales 10%”. However, if you would like to discount the sales order by a different amount, you can either use the button labeled “Markdown All by %” to discount the order by a specific percentage, or contact our business partners to configure new buttons to discount by other percentage as the 10% button.

If you would like to discount individual line item, please refer to the subsequent sections.

Discount an Ordered Item

By selecting a line item on the receipt section, you can navigate to the discount layer of the button menu and press one of the discount buttons on the Discount Layer to apply appropriate discounts.

• Markdown by % – discount the selected product item by specified percentage
• Markdown by $ – discount the selected product item by specified dollar amount

In addition, you can also override the price of an ordered item. Please refer to the next section.

Override Price of an Ordered Item

There are two ways to override price of an ordered item. The first way is to select the line item on the receipt section and then press the Price Override button on the Discount Layer

• Price Override – override the price of the select product item as specified dollar amount

The second way is to double click the line item on the receipt section. A Line Details window will pop up and you can update the unit price from that. In addition, you can also update the product description, sales representative and return flag, if necessary.

Void an Order

For any reason, you can void an order easily with the “Void Sale” button on the home layer of the button menu.

Void an Ordered Item

There are two ways to void a line item.

First, you can select the line item and then press the “Void Item” button on the home layer of the button menu.

Second, you can select the line item and then press the “Void Current Item” button (with cross icon).

They both results in an line item with zero quantity and hence voided.

Associate Sales Person with an Order

Normally, a sales order is associated with the sales person that log on the application. If there are multiple users on the application, there will be multiple tab of cash register screens. The sales person has to ensure that the order is entered under the correct tab. Otherwise, the sales order entered will be associated with another sales person.

By associating sales person with an order, management can calculate any commission involved and measure the performance of the sales team members. Optional report facility is available upon request, please contact Bossmiles.Net or our business partners.

Associate Sales Person with an Ordered Item

Sometimes, it is convenient to associate a line item with another sales person, so that a sales order can include mix of line items under different sales persons. This way, the management structure will not be explored in front of the customer.

By default, all line items on the receipt area are associated with the log on user. However, the user can associated a particular line item with another sales person by double clicking the line item and then change the default sales representative to another sales person.

Alternatively, you can right mouse click on the line item and select the sales person to be associated to. However, it will only work with few number of sales person on the list.

Tax Calculation and Manual Override

Sometimes, you need the flexibility to waive the tax of a specific line item because various reasons such as incorrect tax assigned and a manually created item. The user has the capability to override the tax involved.

First of all, select the line item on the receipt section that you want to change the applicable taxes. Then, press the “Toggle Alternate Tax” button to select the applicable taxes. You should be able to observe the changes in transaction total.

Tenders and Split Payments

After all line items are added to the receipt section, the cashier is about to close the transaction by collecting money from the customer. Receive of money can be in the forms of cash, credit card, debit card, gift card, cheque, foreign currencies and may be more in the future.

To close the transaction, cashier can press one of the tender buttons to calculate the after tax total of the transaction.

Customers may pay for the products and services with multiple tenders. For example, combination of credit card and debit card. Bossmiles POS does support split payment.

Cash

After all line items are added to the receipt section, cashier can press the “Cash” button on the home layer of the button menu to close the transaction.

Followed by entering the amount received from the customer, amount of cash payment can be entered and recorded by pressing enter key. The POS application will calculate and displayed the change on the receipt section. In addition, receipt would be displayed or printed directly, if POS printer is connected and configured. Otherwise, receipt would be previewed on screen. User can close the preview window to proceed.

Cashier can keep pressing the enter key until “Register Open” message is displayed on the POS response / status area.

Credit Card

Similar to Cash button, user can close the transaction and accept credit card tender with Credit Card buttons including “CC Amount”, “CC Cash Back”, “CC Exact” and “CC Exact PreAuth”.

• CC Amount – accept credit card payment of specified amount
• CC Cash Back – accept credit card payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• CC Exact – accept credit card payment of the amount exactly the same as the total balance due.
• CC Exact PreAuth – Check if a credit card is valid and has a credit limit to cover the total balance due.

Debit Card

Similar to Cash button, user can close the transaction and accept debit card tender with Debit Card buttons including “DC Amount”, “DC Cash Back” and “DC Exact”.

• DC Amount – accept debit card payment of specified amount
• DC Cash Back – accept debit card payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• DC Exact – accept debit card payment of the amount exactly the same as the total balance due.

Gift Card

Similar to Cash button, user can close the transaction with Gift Card button.

• Gift Card – accept gift card payment of the amount exactly the same as the total balance due.

Cheque

Similar to Cash button, user can close the transaction and accept cheque tender with Cheque button.

• Cheque Amount – accept check payment of specified amount
• Check Cash Back – accept check payment of the amount equals to the sales total plus the specified change amount.
• Check Exact – accept check payment of the amount exactly the same as the total balance due.

Foreign Currencies

Similar to Cash button, user can close the transaction and accept foreign currency tender with Foreign Currency buttons including “US$”, “EURO”, “Swiss Francs” and “UK”.

• US$ – accept US dollar as foreign currency
• EURO – accept EURO dollar as foreign currency
• Swiss Francs – accept Swiss Francs as foreign currency
• UK – accept UK pounds as foreign currency

Split Payment

If a tender entered is not large enough to cover the transaction total, additional tenders can be included to cover the transaction total.

For example, a user closes a transaction of $20.00 in total and accepts a cash tender of $15.00. The user can press the Cash button and enter $15.00, then POS will report total balance due as $5.00. The rest of the balance can be paid with any tender, say cheque. The user can press the “Check Exact” button and receive a cheque of $5.00

Order Entry with Associated Customer

With the customer relationship module at the bottom right corner of the main screen, user can search customer by name and phone number. If only one customer is returned from the search, that customer will be associated with the current sales transaction. If multiple customers are returned from the search, the user can toggle to the grid view and highlight the customer to be associated with the current sales transaction.

As the POS application operates, you may accumulate a lot of customer information. This information will be very useful to

• improve customer service, since you know what a specific customer wants and
• shorten the check out time with the receipt copy feature.
• improve sales with mail, email or phone campaigns.

Customer relation is one of the keep success factors of your business. For more information about the customer relationship module, please refer to Customer Data Management Section in Administration Tasks Chapter.Customer Data ManagementAdministration Tasks

Store / Recall Transactions, Layaway and Service Orders

Incomplete sales transactions in draft state can be stored for future use. To store the current sales transaction, the cashier can press the Store button on the Function layer of the button menu. The current sales transaction is then on-hold until it is recalled again. To recall the transactions, the cashier can press the Recall button on the same button layer. The Saved Transaction window will be open, a list of on-hold transaction will be displayed. Cashier can selected the transaction to be recalled.

This feature would be useful for the following example scenarios:

Thinking Customer

When you have long line up of customers, the first customer in the line cannot complete the transaction for any reason such as still thinking about that and not confirming the sales. One way to get around that situation is to store the transaction and start serving the next customer in the line.

When the first customer is ready to proceed again, cashier can recall the transaction and complete the transaction as normal with one of the tender button. However, if the customer has decided not to purchase, cashier can recall the transaction and then void the transaction with the Void Sales button.

Layaway

Layaway is a way to purchase an item without paying the entire cost at once. The layaway customer does not receive the item until it is completely paid for.

This store and recall features support layaway by storing the layaway order as on-hold transaction until the order is completed paid. Once the order is completely paid by split payments (as discussed in the previous sections), the sales order is then completed.

Work Orders

For certain retailers such as restaurants, Pizza stores and PC hardware stores, customers place orders and then orders will be fulfilled later. For PC hardware stores, the customers may even have to pay deposits for the orders.

Once the orders are fulfilled, customers completely paid for the work orders. Then the sales orders are then completed.

For this scenario, cashier can prepare the order as usual. If the customer is paying a deposit, then the deposit amount can be recorded with one of the tender buttons. After the order is recorded and “stored”, the order can be passed to the back office for order fulfillment. Once the order is fulfilled, order can be recalled and completed.

Return Transactions

When customer returns an item, cashier can either create a return sales order or create a normal sales order with a return item. The second way will be discussed in the next section (Return An Item).Return An Item

A return sales order is created by clicking the Return button. The normal Register Open prompt is changed to Register Open [-] prompt. All product items added will be return items of the return sales order.

Return An Item

A return item can be created in a normal sales order by double clicking the product item in question. Line Detail window will be displayed in response to the double click action. User can check the Return check box to indicate the product item in question as a return item. The sub-total and total will be adjusted accordingly.

Along with return items, user can put regular sales item to the same order. By mixing return and sales item in the sales order, cashier can checkout customers faster.

Receipt Printing

Receipts can be printed using three different ways.

• JavaPOS printers
• Epson ESCPOS printers
• Regular printers (e.g. Inkjet or laser) or POS receipt printers via printer drivers

By default, the application is configured to utilize Regular printers or POS receipt printers via printer drivers. User has to install and configure the printer driver before receipt can be printed on the target printer.

For discussion about printer installation and configuration, please refer to Printer Setting Section.Printer Setting

Cash Drawer

Most POS receipt printers come with cash drawer connectivity. When receipt is printed, cash drawer will be kicked. We recommend using Epson printers for better compatibility.

For discussion about printer installation and configuration, please refer to Printer Setting Section.Printer Setting

Daily Closing and Daily Open

Most, if not all, retail stores go through a daily open procedure every day before the store is open. This is to put cash in the cash drawer and to keep a record of amount of cash in the cash drawer. Once the initial amount of cash in cash drawer is correctly recorded, the POS application can keep track of all subsequent transactions to report the most up-to-date cash balance of the cash drawer.

By the end of the business day, most retail stores go through a daily close procedure. This is again to keep a record of amount of cash in the cash drawer. The amount of cash in the cash drawer is expected to be the same as the amount of cash reported by the POS application. However, if there is any discrepancy, then some transactions may not be recorded. This is an indication of operation problem and store manager should investigate and prevent similar problem from happening again.

Normally, cash drawer would be cleared after store is closed.

X-Report & Z-Report

To report the amount of cash in the cash drawer and all transactions completed during the day, cashier can execute the X-Report. X-Report starts with a summary of tenders received during the day and followed by all sales, return, login and log off transactions of the day. X-Report can be executed any number of times during the day.

Normally, all cash and other tenders are removed from the cash drawer after the daily close procedure. Therefore, all registers should be reset to zero. Z-Report offers the convenience to reset all registers, while reporting the same content as X-Report.

Paid-in and Paid-out

As part of the daily open procedure, cash may be added to the cash drawer. To facilitate this, Paid-in button can be used to add cash into the cash drawer. X-Report can be executed to ensure cash amount in cash drawer and cash amount in record are tally.

If there is any discrepancy in the daily open procedure, Paid-in and Paid-out button can be used to adjust the cash amount .

Pickup and Cash Limit in Drawer

When the amount of cash in the cash drawer is higher than certain maximum limit ($10000.00 by default). The POS application will report warning, so that store manager can pick up the cash and may be saving them to bank account.

To pickup cash from the cash drawer, user can press the Pickup button and the amount to be pick up from the cash drawer.

Failover Web Site

In remote possibility, Bossmiles failover web site (http://ww3.bossmiles.net) is available and ready to serve you, if its primary site is off-line. This is a mirror site of the original site (www.bossmiles.net), so that POS start up procedure is the same as the original site.

NOTE: This failover site is still under construction. We will make announcement once it is ready.

Off-line Operation

To start POS application off-line, one can launch via the Java Application Cache Viewer. The viewer lists all downloaded Java Applets and Java Web Start Applications. One can start POS application off-line by double clicking the POS BizSoln 1.x item. POS application will be started as usual.

NOTE: Although users can start POS off-line, it is NOT recommended, because starting POS from web will automatically upgrade the POS with new features and fixes.

Administration Tasks

Administration tasks involves mainly management of data including product, inventory, user (employee), customer, tax and etc. That would also involves data backup, recovery and purging.

In addition, printer and cash draw setting will also be discussed in this Chapter.

Administration Console

POS administration console works hand-in-hand with the POS application. It helps to management of data including product, user (employee), customer, tax and etc. Optional data management modules such as inventory, currency, data purge and data import/export are available and can be requested separately.

An Administration Console Quick Tour

The launch, login and logout procedure for administration console is the same as the POS application. The shutdown procedure, however, is as simple as closing the administration console window.

The administration features are organized with the little icon buttons on the left hand side of the administration console. By default, the icon buttons are listed in the following order:

• Product Manager,
• Product Category Manager,
• User / Employee Profile Manager,
• Customer Profile Manager,
• Site Manager and
• Tax Manager

Each of them helps the store manager manages specific data in the local data repository. When one of the above icon button is pressed, the corresponding data management tab will be displayed on the right side of the screen.

Each data management tab has a list of buttons on the top of the tab. In general, they are

• Search – Press the search button to initiate a data search. Search criteria can then be entered followed by pressing the enter key on the keyboard. Any record matched the search criteria will be displayed on a data grid. Please noted, all data can be retrieved from the local repository simply by pressing enter without any search criteria.
• Toggle – Data can be displayed on either grid view or form view. User can toggle between these views by pressing the toggle button. To display a record in form view, user can select the record on the grid view and then press the toggle button. To switch from the grid view to the form view, user can press the toggle button again.
• Refresh / Cancel – This button serves dual purposes. First, it refreshes the retrieved data based on the search criteria. Second, it cancels any in progress operation such as search, new record and edit record.
• Save – Newly created record or record update can be confirmed and saved with the save button.
• New – To create a new record, user can press the new button. User can then fill up the blank record form and press the save button to store the newly created record into the local repository.
• Edit – To update an existing record, user can select the record to be updated and then press the edit button. User can then make any required update and press the save button to store the updated record into the local repository.
• Delete – To delete a record, user can select the record to be deleted and then press the delete button to delete the record.

Product Management

To search a product, user can click the Search button and enter the search criteria. Product can be search by product name, SKU#, PLU#, product category, product price and tax group. To list all products defined in the local repository, hit enter on the product name, SKU# or PLU# fields.

If only one product is returned based on the search criteria, product detail form will be presented to the user. Otherwise, list of products will be displayed.

To add a new product, user can click the New button and fill up the product detail form displayed.

Item Name is the name of the product to be added. SKU Number is a product number that uniquely identifies a product.

PLU Number is normally the same as SKU Number. This number is usually printed on product labels in bar code, so that cashier can retrieve the product name and price by scanning the bar code (PLU).

However, if inventory is to be tracked by serial number, PLU Number should be filled with serial number instead. This implies that multiple PLU# will correspond to a single SKU#.

Configuration # should normally be left as default, unless the product in context is only retrievable from a specific POS configuration.

Price Option should normally be standard.

Item Price is the price of the product sold to the customers

Activation Date and Deactivation Date are normally left blank.

Department / Category specifies the product category. This defines where the product is under in the product / service tree.

Tax Inclusive flag specifies whether tax should be added to the invoice, when the product is sold.

Tax Exempt flag specifies whether tax should be exempted, when the product is sold.

Locked flag is for internal use only.

Tax Group defines the amount of tax to be charged when the product is sold.

Product Type is the type of product sold to the customer. It can be product, service or job.

Attribute Set is for more detail description of the product such as size and color. This is reserved for higher editions of POS BizSoln.

After product detail form is completely filled, user can click Save button to save the changes. Otherwise, Cancel button can be clicked to undo the changes.

To update a product, user first searches product. Then selects the product to be updated and clicks the Edit button to switch to the product detail form. After product definition is updated as required, click Save button to save the changes.

To delete a product, user first searches product. Then selects the product to be deleted and clicks the Delete button to delete the product definition from the local repository.

Product Category Management

The terms product category and department are equivalent in the sense that they can both be classifications of products. They are used interchangeably in this document.

To search a product category, user can click the Search button and enter the search criteria. Product category can be search by product category number (department number) or product category name (department name). To list all product categories defined in the local repository, hit enter on the product name, department number or department name fields.

If only one product category is returned based on the search criteria, product category detail form will be presented to the user. Otherwise, list of product categories will be displayed.

To add a new product category, user can click the New button and fill up the product category detail form. Department# uniquely identifies the departments within the user's organization. Department Name is the name of the department in context.

It should be noted that after a new product category is added, user must exit from the administration console to use the new category in the product management tab.

To update a product category, user first searches product category. Then selects the product category to be updated and clicks the Edit button to switch to the product category detail form. After product category definition is updated as required, click Save button to save the changes.

To delete a product category, user first searches product category. Then selects the product category to be deleted and clicks the Delete button to delete the product category definition from the local repository.

Inventory Management

This feature is currently only available as an optional module. Please contact sales@bizsoln.com for details

User / Employee Data Management

The terms user and employee are equivalent in the sense that they can log in the applications. These terms are used interchangeably in this document.

To search a user profile, user can click the Search button and enter the search criteria. User profile can be search by Employee's First Name or Last Name. To list all user profiles defined in the local repository, hit enter on the first name or last name fields.

If only one user profile is returned based on the search criteria, user profile detail form will be presented to the user. Otherwise, list of user profiles will be displayed.

To add a new user profile, user can click the New button and fill up the user profile detail form. Employee Logon ID uniquely identifies the user within the application. First Name and Last Name are the first name and last name of the employee / user in context. Password is the logon password of the user.

To update a user profile, user first searches user profile. Then selects the user profile to be updated and clicks the Edit button to switch to the user profile detail form. After user profile definition is updated as required, click Save button to save the changes.

To delete a user profile, user first searches user profile. Then selects the user profile to be deleted and clicks the Delete button to delete the user profile definition from the local repository.

Customer Data Management

To search a customer profile, user can click the Search button and enter the search criteria. Customer profile can be search by Customer's Last Name, Full Name or Phone Number. To list all customer profiles defined in the local repository, hit enter on one of searchable fields.

If only one customer profile is returned based on the search criteria, customer profile detail form will be presented to the user. Otherwise, list of customer profiles will be displayed.

To retrieve previous customer orders, user first searches the customer profile. Then switch to the Order tab to show the previous customer orders in SUSPEND or COMPLETE states.

When e-Commerce orders are received from the web site, Incoming tab will be switched to the front tab and that will show the incoming e-Commerce orders.

To add a new customer profile, user can click the New button and fill up the customer profile detail form. Name is the full name of the customer. Address, City, State and Zip are the address fields of the customer. Phone, fax and email are extra contact information of the customer.

Since phone number can be used to search the customer records, please try to collect this information if possible. In addition, when Caller ID module is activated, customer is displayed based on the phone number reported by the caller id of the incoming phone call.

To update a customer profile, user first searches customer profile. Then selects the customer profile to be updated and clicks the Edit button to switch to the customer profile detail form. After customer profile definition is updated as required, click Save button to save the changes.

To delete a customer profile, user first searches customer profile. Then selects the customer profile to be deleted and clicks the Delete button to delete the customer profile definition from the local repository.

Tax Configuration Management

By default, the POS application is configured with GST and PST of Ontario, Canada. You may want to adjust these taxes to localize for your own purpose.

The default GST and PST are calculated in the following way:

Total Tax to be collected = (GST Rate) x (Sales Sub-total) + (PST Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

GST to be remitted = (GST Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

PST to be remitted = (PST Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

In some locations, taxes are calculated by compounding multiple taxes, which can also be defined similar to the above.

For example, suppose two taxes A and B are calculated by compounding one another:

Total Tax to be collected

= (Tax A Rate) x (Sales Sub-total) + (Tax B Rate) x (1 + Tax A Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

Tax A to be remitted = (Tax A Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

Tax B to be remitted = (Tax B Rate) x (1 + Tax A Rate) x (Sales Sub-total)

Suppose Tax A Rate is 10% and Tax B Rate is 5%. Then we can define a tax group with associated taxes of 0.10 (= 10%) and 0.055 (= 5% x 110%)

To search a tax group, user can click the Search button and enter the search criteria. Tax Group can be search by Tax Group Number and Tax Group Name. To list all tax groups defined in the local repository, hit enter on one of searchable fields.

If only one tax group is returned based on the search criteria, tax group detail form will be presented to the user. Otherwise, list of tax groups will be displayed.

To add a new tax group, user can click the New button and fill up the tax group detail form. Tax Group# uniquely identifies the tax group. Tax Group Name are the symbolic name of the tax group in context. Then, switches to the tax tab to add associated taxes as required.

To update a tax group, user first searches tax group. Second, selects the tax group to be updated and clicks the Edit button to switch to the tax group detail form. After tax group definition is updated as required, click Save button to save the changes. If changes for associated taxes are required, switches to the tax tab and then adds, updates and deletes associated taxes as required.

To delete a tax group, user first searches tax group. Second, selects the tax group to be deleted and switches to the Tax tab to delete all associated taxes. Finally, switches back to the tax group tab and clicks the Delete button to delete the tax group definition from the local repository.

Printer Setting

Bossmiles POS supports two types of printer interfaces: Regular Printer Driver and JavaPOS. These facilitate printing of receipts and work orders via regular and thermal printers. With some thermal printers, cash drawer can be attached and Bossmiles POS can open the cash drawer as required.

Regular Printer Driver approach is the recommended approach for most users. User can download and install the printer driver of the respective printer. The printer driver configuration wizard should guide the user through paper cutting and cash drawer opening configuration. EPSON TM88IV printer driver, for example, can be instructed to cut the paper by the end of the page and to open the cash drawer under certain scenarios.

JavaPOS configuration file, for Windows environment, is located on C:\cbi\pos\etc. The configuration file name is jpos.xml. User is NOT recommended to make any change to that without enough JavaPOS knowledge. If JavaPOS is the option of your choice, please contact either one of our business partners or sales@bizsoln.com for help.

Data Export

Data stored on Bossmiles POS can be exported for external applications should as MYOB or QuickBook. Data export facility is available as an optional module. Please contact us at sales@bizsoln.com for details.

Data Import

Data such as product and customer profiles can be imported into Bossmiles POS from other data source for data migration purpose. Data import facility is available as an optional module. Please contact us at sales@bizsoln.com for details.

Data Backup

Data back up for business contingency purpose can be achieved by copying all database files into an off-site media. In case database is corrupted because of different reason such as hardware failure, user can recover the database files from the off-site media.

Database files, on Windows platforms, are located under c:\cbi directory. These files on Unix and Mac platforms are located under $HOME/.cbi directory.

Before back up is performed, Bossmiles POS and the administration console have to be stopped. This is to ensure data file consistency during the back up process. Back up all database files under the directory mentioned above depending on the user's platform. Once all files have been copied successfully, Bossmiles POS and the administration console can be started again. Application operations can then be resumed to normal.

In addition to the above manual back up procedure, database back up can optionally be performed automatically. Please contact sales@bizsoln.com for optional remote backup service.

Data Restore

With the database back up created above, user can recover from hardware failure. User can start Bossmiles POS on a spare machine. The initialization program will ask for initialization data such as company name and address. User can leave all data field default, except the user agreement acceptance.

Once Bossmiles POS can be started normally, the application can be shut down. All database files under the database file directory (depending on the platform) can then be replaced by the database files on the back up media.

Purging Data

User should define a data retention policy that defines how long the POS data will be kept on-line. Normally, this should not be an issue, if the amount of free disk space is large enough. However, it is recommended to perform house keeping tasks periodically. The frequency of house keeping depends on the amount data generated during the course of the business.

To purge old POS data, user can optionally purge order, customer and product data with the Data Purger. The purge criteria is specified by a trim date. Data purger will purge the data older than the specified trim date.

Training Mode

Under the Functions Button Layer, by default, there is a Training Mode button. By clicking this Training Mode button, the operation mode toggles between normal operation mode and training mode. Any transaction created under training mode will be ignored and not recorded. That is, both X-Report and Z-Report will NOT be affected by transactions created under training mode.