The rules for rounding in Australia have been in effect for more than 20 years with no changes. There are 2 different scenarios that can be applied to Rounding depending on the Tender used.

As Australia no longer has 1 and 2 cent coins, all Cash sales must be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 or 10 cent denomination. New Zealand no longer has 1, 2 and 5 cent denominations, and therefore all Cash sales must be rounded to the nearest 10 cent denomination.

When using EFTPOS, Credit Cards or Cheques, you are able to be charged the correct and total amount before rounding, as these payment methods support the use of any cents from 1 through to 9. Rounding of these tenders is not allowed and there are serious fines that can be imposed if you are found to be in breach of these rules.

More information on this can be found here.
If you are in New Zealand, your information can be found here.

To be able to use Tyro Tipping, the Pin Pad and Tyro software will need to be upgraded if they are not on the supported version. Tyro will upgrade the terminals overnight, but they need to be informed beforehand to ensure it is included in their schedule. Contact Tyro or your Idealpos reseller for more information on using and updating to this functionality. The Idealpos User Guide has been updated to reflect these changes.

Tyro Payments is the first new entrant in the EFTPOS business in over 15 years. As Australia’s first and only independent acquirer, Tyro processes credit, debit, EFTPOS, gift and loyalty card acquiring and Medicare claiming/rebating services. Tyro’s transparent Payment Solutions are uniquely merchant focused, enabling reduced fees, greater productivity, better cost management and a superior payment experience for consumers. Partnering with more than 40 POS providers Tyro serves the retailing, hospitality and health industries. Tyro Payments holds an authority to carry on a banking business as a Specialist Credit Card Institution (SCCI) operating under the supervision of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Tyro does not take money on deposit.

Idealpos has been working closely with Tyro for more than 6 months and we use the Tyro facility within our own business. We recommend the use of Tyro based on our own requirements for the business, and we also recommend that you do your research before making a commitment of your own.

A kitchen monitor system is commonly for fast food businesses, but it can be used in multiple businesses of varying degrees and requirements. The single reason to use IKM over a kitchen printer is ease of use, but there are many more benefits which are:
• No paper dockets, so no orders will be lost or not printed.
• You can enlarge the orders as needed and view them in multiple stations throughout the kitchen.
• Multiple orders on screen, with Sale Type and Time Alerts for each order.
• Colour coding for priorities and order differentials.
• Recall orders that have previously been finalised to confirm details or ensure the customer gets their meal.
• Consumables become a thing of the past as all the data is stored on a PC.
• Ability to run reports on service times for orders to improve customer service standards.
• Customer Order Display to visually give customers a cue on when their food is ready.

One of the more recent and highly featured functions that has been added is the Customer Order Display. This function gives you the ability to fully customise the way that your guests know it is time to collect their meal. Using animations, displaying multiple order numbers at once and configuring custom colours and logos, this is certainly a new standard in customer service.

Ideal Kitchen Monitor is able to run direct from a POS Terminal, or a POS Embedded PC designed for this purpose. IKM can help to streamline any kitchen, and provide advanced tools to help manage orders in what is a hot and stressful environment.

Not to be limited just to the kitchen either, the ability for the system to be used in busy cafes and coffee shops is a bonus. A coffee machine is a fast paced multi-skilled environment where speed, clarity and efficiency are paramount. Being able to view all coffee orders in a summary and know that you have a total of 11 cappuccinos, 7 flat whites, with 1 soy and another skim, helps take the thinking from the barista and present it in an easy to manage format.

For more information on using this feature, please visit our on-line User Guide for information on both IKM and Customer Order Display.

An example of this in action is a restaurant that sells a bottled beer for $6. The cost of the beer is $4 so the Markup on the beer has been 50%. Many people wrongly assume then that the profit is also 50%, but this isn’t the case. To work out the Margin we need to apply the following formula:

(Total Sales – Cost )/Total Sales*100% = Profit Margin % .

(6-4)/4*100=33.333333 or 33%.

As you can see, our Markup is 50% and our Margin is only 33%.

If the business owner did not know these calculations, imagine the disaster when they try and add up their finances. They buy their beer for $4 and add a 50% Markup to sell at $6. Once the beer is sold, they take what they think is their Profit of 50% of $3.

Additional Information:

http://www.calculatenow.biz/business/markup.html

Lately there has been a sharp spike in the amount of our customers who are getting caught out when their security is lacking. The latest virus that is affecting a lot of our customers is the fake “System Restore” or “Windows Recovery” virus. These mask themselves as a genuine message that informs the user the PC is infected, and to click options that download more malicious software or stop the PC from working altogether.

Although relatively minor, they no doubt cause a massive amount of panic when inexperienced or ill-informed people believe them. In the case of these viruses, we can generally sort the issue out within an hour to get the terminal into a working state. We recommend however, that the terminal be returned to us to be re-imaged to ensure that all of the infection has been removed, as the tools we run are no guarantee.

All of this hassle can be prevented by simply having some security installed on any computer that connects to the internet in your workplace. Idealpos Solutions use and sell Kaspersky Internet Security to keep our computers protected. We would recommend that any POS terminal that has access to the internet is protected.

For more information or to purchase Kaspersky, please contact us at support@idealpos.com.au.

One of their recent articles provides some detailed information to consider when looking for a Point of Sale System.

Read the full article here >>

If you would like information on the points that are listed or would like a demonstration of how Idealpos can help you, please contact us. We are more than happy to help you ourselves or we provide contact information of a reseller in your area.

Although the amount of shrinkage that is taken by consumers is less, it is still a large 37.3%. These figures put into perspective the value that is gained by having a good Stock Control Point of Sale System, with clear guidelines for all stock movements.

Idealpos offers advanced Stock Control, from receiving and invoicing, to Stock-takes, Sales and Write-offs.

Options to cut staff theft:

• Give each staff member a Customer Account for all their purchases, that they can then pay off at the end of each week.
• Ensure that any staff purchase is put through the POS by someone else.
• Have a clear and defined set of procedures for how stock is handled.
• Perform mini stock-takes on random items each week.
• Let staff be involved in the Stock Control measures so they can see how it works and the costs that can be involved.

Not all shrinkage is purposeful.

An example of how quickly shrinkage can add up is to take a cafe with 7 staff on during the day. Each staff member wants a drink each day, and has a can of coke. As the staff are busy, they tell themselves they will record and pay for it later. They forget to do that and then do the same thing tomorrow.

Over a week, even if it is only 4 cans not being purchased by staff each day, that adds up to 28 cans a week. Over a year it is a greater total. 28cans/week x 52 weeks = 1456cans. That’s over 60 cartons of cans a year, just going missing.

Find the holes, and plug them up. for any more information or advice, please get in touch with us.

Pre-Paid Bar Tabs

An additional function has been added to enhance the way that Bar Tabs can be used. Pre-Paid Bar Tabs allow for the customer to add funds to the Bar Tab before finalization, which will then decrease with each transaction. When the customer wants to leave the monies remaining can be paid back to the customer. Once the threshold has been reached the customer can add more monies to the Bar Tab, the Bar Tab can be finalized, or the Bar Tab will then function normally and the customer will need to pay for the difference.

This can be used for wedding functions or staff parties and is a great way to take a deposit for a function in the future.

Fast Customer Searching Grid

The Fast Customer Searching screen has had a makeover and will now display selected Customers within a grid as a selectable button, so that when you select them they will be added to the transaction. This process will mean one less button click as you don’t need to select them from a list and then press “Use This Customer”.

The grids have been designed to maximize screen usage and display the customer information as neatly as possible. As with the old system, the more information that is entered to find the customer results in less Customers that will be displayed.

New Features include:
Customer Type Incentives

Employee Time Clock on Home Screen, Gaming Interface – Max Gaming, Titan, Flexi-NET, Maxetag
Interstore Ordering
Multi-Site Management
POSServer
Send Pictures/Display Folder
Raffles

The POSServer has been completely re-written to comply with our latest programming techniques using .NET and SQL databases to provide a more stable structure for future releases and features. The POSServer will now run as a service and not as a separate program in the task bar.

With the increase in POS Hardware and Software sales, it is necessary to relocate to a larger premises with more space and better design.

Our new office is within the same building complex in Unit 1 & 2.

Phone numbers and postal address will remain the same.