Buy the right cash register question number 5

This should be an easy question to tackle today. When selecting a cash register you will have a choice of keyboards. There are only two types of standard keyboards available for Sharp Cash Registers and SAM4s Cash Registers and they are the raised keyboard or the flat keyboard.

The raised keyboard is made of individual buttons also known as tactile keys much like a computer keyboard or most desk top calculators or desk phone. Where this keyboard is crucial is in an environment where you will be entering lots of characters whether prices, PLU numbers, UPC numbers etc. Raised keyboards are hands down FASTER when keying in numbers such as a price or 12 digit UPC number. If you are hand entering prices and you do any volume at all never buy a machine with a flat keyboard even if you are a food service outlet or retail. So simple rule, entering prices and/or UPC/PLU numbers raised keyboard EVERY TIME!

The flat keyboard also know as the restaurant style keyboard is a great keyboard for any scenario where you are using preset prices. A preset price is a button or location on a cash register keyboard that is pre-programmed to sell a specific item. This is the most popular method for restaurants with cash registers. For example maybe you have a row of buttons that you program for your hamburgers. Button one being Hamburger, button two is Cheese Burger, button three is Bacon Cheese Burger, etc etc. When the clerk wants to sell a cheese burger you press that button and it registers that item, instead of you entering $3.49 than the food button. No two ways about it this is far faster and you will have fewer errors. Want to tighten it up even further than add a kitchen printer but that is a topic for another post.

How to buy the correct cash register for your business question 4 of 10

Number four on my list of top ten questions to answer when looking at your next cash register is "Do I need a bar code scanner?"

Of the  top ten questions this is one of the easiest to answer. If you run a C-Store or Grocery store it's a no brainer yes you want to bar code scan. If you don't need to bar code scan read no further and just skip to question number five. If you are going to employ bar code scanning pay attention to the following list of additional questions or concerns

1. Make sure the register you are buying has enough standard memory or optional memory for your UPC file. Remember a UPC file can grow to 2000+ quickly. I have sent machines out the door with 20K UPC's so understand your needs and match it to the register plus an error factor.
2. How many expansion ports does your new register need? A bar code scanner takes a port, a credit card interface takes a port as does a scale, PC interface, coin changer, DVR interface etc etc. Standard registers only have 1 to 2 ports. Again understand your needs and match to a register
3. Do you plan to manage your UPC file directly on the register or via back office software. Hands down managing the UPC file from a PC in most every case is far easier than at the register. Some registers are easier than others but hard to compete with the PC interface. If PC interface what type? Directly via rs232? Ethernet? Internet? How many machines? This option opens the door to many challenges that must be overcome. Don't skip this over lightly and talk to someone about it that knows what they are doing.
4. What type of scanner do you want? Single line laser, cheap CCD single line? Laser Omni Directional? Hand Held or In Counter. Take the time to look at the options and understand what will work for you.
5. Back up plan. How will you back up your UPC file? If PC interface then that might be taken care of. What do you do if you manage UPC file directly on the register? Easy answer make sure you buy a register that has an on board port for backing up like SD card port or CF Port. All cash registers are not created equally.
6. Will you have multiple cash registers in the same store with the same UPC file requirements? If so you will want a register system with IRC (inter-register communications) or at least a SD of CF port so you can transfer program if not interfacing to a PC.
7. Remember if multiple registers and you interface to a PC the interface is between the PC and one register and the registers talk via IRC. It is rare that you would connect one PC directly to separate registers in the same store. Seek a pro here to make sure you get the right equipment.

OK the overall theme here, match your requirements to the equipment. Do not try to buy a tiny cheap register and want all the above requirements IT WON'T WORK!

You will find the higher end Sharp Cash Registers and many of the SAM4s Cash Registers will handle even the most challanging requirments.

Help me select a cash register part three

The third important question you need to answer in order to find the correct cash register for your business is "How many sales tax rates to I need to charge/track?"

Maybe it has not affected your local area yet however many cities, counties or States have multiple sales tax rates. In the county I work in we have one sales tax rate for retail goods and a higher sales tax rate for restaurants and bars. So in the case of the restaurant or bar that sells shirts or hats they must have a register that calculates two tax rates in the same sale. Grocery stores face the same task as ready to eat prepared food from the deli is one rate, taxable non-grocery is another and than of course the non-taxable grocery items and in my counties case it also differs on whether or not your business is on a public bus route. So first check with your local/State department of revenue regarding your sales tax rates.

Most SAM4s cash registers and Sharp models can handle 4 sales tax rates and we have not yet encountered a taxing problem we could not solve with one of those two cash register lines. I know there are many smaller consumer grade registers on the market that can only calculate one or two rates so be aware of your needs and the features of the register you are looking at.

We will be blogging more tomorrow about selecting the correct register for your business.

Finding the right cash register for your business

OK still going into more detail regarding the top ten questions you need to answer when you buy a new cash register. Today I'm addressing question #2 "How many departments do I need?"

I often find many people I'm speaking to about buying a cash register have no idea what a department is much less how many they need. So first I think we should talk about what a department is and how are they used.

The primary function of the department is sales reporting. Also we need to look at groups and for the sake of this blog Departments and Groups are the same thing. There are cases where they are not but in this case they are! Sharp cash registers still use the term Department however SAM4s refers to them as groups. Department is the older cash register term and is still used in our shop.

On smaller cash registers where the cashier enters the amount of the item and presses a button on the register to make that sale that is entering the sale directly into the department. All cash registers have to have at least 1 department period! So on the smaller cash register we normally have the department buttons on the keyboard and cashiers make sales directly into them. Lets look at a small c-store that does not use bar code scanning and their departments may be as simple as the following

1. Taxable Grocery
2. Non Taxable Grocery
3. Cigs
4. Milk
5. Beer
6. Wine
7. Candy
8. Deli
9. Lotto
10. Misc

That is an example we see all the time. The cashier enters the amount of each item and presses one of the buttons to register the sale. That is selling directly into what is known as "Open Departments" Most cash registers can have 10 to 20 departments and some are capable of 99. Not all departments need to be physical buttons on the keyboard but we will cover that in bit. Departments almost always can be programmed with the following:

• Taxable or Non Taxable
• Open, Pre-set or both
• Name
• Sale or non sale item (means counts towards toward sales not ON SALE.)
• several other items not often used.

We also can use departments in more complex method which we normally run into when people are bar code scanning or a restaurant register with lots of pre-set menu items on the keyboard. Most people using their cash registers in any of these methods on a daily basis want to know their total sales per day, not that they sold 5 cheese burgers, 15 double cheese burgers etc etc. or for retail sold 25 snickers, 35 butter fingers etc etc what they want to see is how much Candy did they sell today, or how much in burgers did they sell. So in this case you will have menu items on the keyboard or PLU list or UPC's in the case of retail. Remember earlier I said every cash register must have at least one department? Here is where this all ties together. Every UPC or Menu item must be linked to a department. Yes even if you don't care about departments nor want them 99.9% of all cash registers require a department be linked to every UPC or menu item (PLU). In this case more often than not the department IS NOT ON THE KEYBOARD.

If we look a a fast food restaurant as an example. Lets say they have 120 menu items including burgers, sandwiches, drinks, ice cream etc. Lets say they have 12 different burgers but at the end of the day they don't want a report of 120 items. Each Burger PLU is linked to a department so in this example you may have the following departments

1. Burgers
2. Sandwiches
3. Sides
4. Drinks
5. Desert
6. Misc.

So every burger PLU is linked to the burger department and every time one is sold the burger department sales increase by that amount and quantity. Example today we sold 55 Hamburgers at $2.00 each,  75 cheese burgers for $3.00 each, 50 double cheese burgers for $4.00 each. Our sales report at the end of the day for burgers would be Quantity of 180 sales for $535.00 So see how that works? That is not to say you can't find out how many individual menu items were sold as you can but that is a different report and most places want that info once a week or month and some never!

So that is what a department is and yes you must have one. Sometimes people tell me I don't need any departments I only need a taxable button and a non-taxable button! What they need is two departments one taxable open, one non-taxable open!

Hope that helps!

Help Selecting a Cash Register

Yesterday I blogged about ten important questions you need to answer in selecting a cash register for your business. Now we are going to go deeper into the questions and answers starting with question number one. Do I need a cash register with a receipt and journal?

Many people buying a cash register today have no idea what the journal is so lets address that. Back in the day all cash registers came with a two station printer or could use two ply paper. The two stations are made up by the receipt and the journal printers. The receipt of course is printed and fed to the exterior or the register for you to tear off and give to the customer. The journal is the second tape that also prints all the details of the sale but is rolled up inside the cash register and must be removed and stored time to time. Why does it do that you may be asking? Well a Journal Tape is also known as an audit tape allowing the owner/manager to audit the transactions one at a time if needed. That is not the same thing as a sales report. A sales report (X or Z) are totals for the entire day NOT a transaction by transaction audit of sales. The journal/audit tape does not really have anything to do with sales reporting but all about auditing. Why is that important you may be asking now? Well for a couple reasons is can be nice to have an audit tape. Let's say as the manager you are closing the register for the day, you take an X report and notice the report indicated you have about a thousand dollars more than normal in sales and you know that can't be the case. With the audit tape you could begin to investigate what happened at the register sale by sale until maybe you find a cashier made a sale for 100 items @ 10.00 each when they meant to be 10 @ $1.00 and rather than fix the mistake they just cashed out and started another transaction. With the audit tape you can find that and make the changes on your register before  "Z'ing" out! That is just one example of a journal tape use but I'm sure you can now see the possibilities. In my opinon I would always buy a machine with a journal printer in most cases. A journal or audit tape may seldom be used however when you do need one they are worth their weight in gold! They help you run your business with more security, make it faster to correct mistakes and possible to rebuild records after a catastrophic failure.

Modern machines will either have a receipt and journal or they will have a receipt and Electronic Journal (E/J) which is a topic for another day. An E/J is a very close substitute for a real journal but falls a little short in some cases.

In my 20+ years experience I have never come across a city or state law requiring you to have a journal, receipt yes journal no but always check your local laws and regs!

Help me select a cash register

When looking for a cash register there are a a minimum of ten important questions you should answer before beginning your search.

1. Do I need a receipt and journal?
2. How many departments do I need?
3. How many sales tax rates to I need to charge/track?
4. Do I want to use a bar code scanner?
5. What style keyboard do I want? Restaurant style flat or retail style raised?
6. Do I need one register or multiple?
7. Do I need integrated credit card / gift card?
8. Do I want to program on my own or have it done?
9. Do I need a commercial grade cash register or a consumer grade register?
10. Do I want to track inventory or just sales?

There are of course many more questions but answering the above will get you started in selecting the correct type of register. We will try to address each of these questions over the next couple weeks on the blog.

Who makes the best cash register?

Are you looking for a cash register? Wondering who makes the best one? There are really only two good cash register makes in the United States now in the commercial grade category. They are the following

1. SAM4s Cash Registers
2. Sharp Cash Registers

Sharp can be a bit confusing because they offer both commercial grade registers and consumer grade models. I'm only talking about the commercial grade so please don't mistake my endorsement as favoring the XE models that Sharp makes. And consumer grade machine should be avoided unless you are a tiny store with very little volume and always owner operated!

Both SAM4s and Sharp make models that interface to credit card payments and gift cards. Both make bar code scanning machines and models with kitchen printers and touch screens.

Right now for the entry level cash register I think Sharp has a clear advantage with the ER-A247 and the ER-A347 models. Both have a unique PC interface as well as an interface tool to Quick Books that is included in the price.