There are lots of companies offering epos, but only one that concentrates on making you more profitable

HEAD OFFICE TO STORE

OPENXPOS – Multi Branch The system was designed to allow a head office to control multiple branches. You need to consider which branches are responsible for which tasks, where the data will be located and what communications are required. This document is intended to provide an overview of the different configurations available with the advantages and disadvantages of each. The system keeps a snapshot of stock on hand and on order quantities at any point in time to provide quick response. It also keeps auditing information to enable complete auditing of stock movement. All the functions are also interrelated. When you do a goods receipt, it marks the purchase order as having been received and adjusts the average cost at the cost you expected to pay. When you do an invoice, it marks the purchase order as being received and adjusts the average cost by the difference between what you expected to pay and what you actually paid. Data must be moved between head office and branches and this is generally done by replication. This is a means of recording changes in information at head office and sending just those changes to another branch. This involves determining what data needs to be transferred which requires an understanding of the data within the system. It also means that some form of communication is required, e.g. ISDN, to transfer the data between the sites. This task is generally only set up to run as part of a scheduled timed update usually end of day which means that there is a time lag in getting data from one head office to branch and vice versa. There are three basic scenarios which are available for multi-store configuration. These are described below with there advantages and disadvantages.

OPENXPOS – Multi Branch Scenario 1 Head office maintains the items which can be sold, the costs and the sell prices. The stores do all stock control including purchasing, receiving, stocktakes and selling. Stores send back sales and stock on hand statistics back to head office. Head office will not see sales or stock information until the next day. This is the most common configuration. Advantages Stores can trade independently of head office. Communication costs are minimal. Disadvantages Stock control cannot be done at head office. Replication must be configured at both head office and stores.

OPENXPOS – Multi Branch Scenario 2 Head office maintains the items which can be sold, the costs and the sell prices. All purchase ordering, invoice matching and transfers are is done at head office. Sales are done at the branches. This is basically a variation of Scenario 1. Although sales are performed at the branch, they are not processed there. The raw sales information is sent to head office and processed there. This keeps all the stock transactions in one place. Processed sales information can then be sent from head office back to the branch. This means that there is a time lag for the branch to see their sales. Generally sales information would not be available until the next day which means that till reads cannot be done until the next day. Note, if the branch do not need to see accurate cost of goods sold, you can process the sales at the store as well as head office. This means that basic sales are available immediately which allows a till read to be performed. Since stock on hand information is controlled at head office, the branch is sent a snapshot of their stock on hand each night from head office. The branch will not see the effect of any of their transactions during the day. The timing of stocktakes also needs to be considered. You can't simply do a stocktake at the branch during the day because they will not have had their transactions processed yet which means the expected stock on hand will be wrong. Advantages Branches can trade independently of head office. Communication costs are minimal. Disadvantages Purchase orders, receipting and invoice matching cannot be done at a branch. Stocktakes can be initiated at a branch but must be sent up to head office and accepted at head office. Branch cannot see sales or do a Till Read until sales have been processed and sent back from head office. Replication must be configured at both head office and branches.

OPENXPOS – Multi Branch Scenario 3 Head office maintains the items which can be sold, the costs and the sell prices. However, ordering and invoicing of stock can be done either at head office or the store. This is actually the least complicated but the most expensive option to configure. A single database is kept on a centralised server which contains all the information from all the branches. The branches are connected to this central server with a direct communication link. Because all the data is kept on one server, there is no need to move data between computers which makes things extremely simple and all data is available to everyone. This means head office can raise a purchase order for the branch, the branch can enter a goods receipt and the head office can enter the invoice. The disadvantage is that this can be an expensive option for the communications required. The stores need to be connected continuously at a highspeed link in order to be able to talk to the central database. Advantages Complete flexibility in stock control. All information available to everyone immediately. Replication does not need to be configured. Disadvantages Costs of communications infrastructure. If a communication link goes down, the branch cannot trade.

OPENXPOS – Multi Branch Multi-Location Stock The system keeps complete control over inventory at a branch. In some circumstances, you may want one branch to know the stock on hand of a particular item at another branch. To do this you need to have one branch act as the master location (usually head office) which will contain the stock on hand information for all branches. This master location is then responsible for distributing the information back to the other branches. Once stock on hand is known at head office, there are two ways a branch can enquire about stock at another branch. They can use terminal services with windows 2000 server which means they get connected to the head office machine and perform the stock query on the head office computer.. The system will then show the stock on hand at nearby locations as well as expected deliveries. This requires a dial up isdn line and a router together with the appropriate head office license to run terminal services. The second method involves sending out the stock on hand information to each branch. The branch can then use either versatill or back office terminal to enquire about the stock on hand. This is more convenient for the sales staff but becomes more difficult to implement as the number of branches increases. To use this method you must be using stock auditing as this will consolidate all the stock movements to reduce the amount of data being sent to and fro the branches. This forms the basis of informing branches of changes only in stock. If this was not used, the system would have to send stock on hand for all items to all locations which would result in enormous amounts of data being processed.

STOCK - BRANCH ALLOCATION VALUE OF STOCK REQD AND P/ORDERS PER BRANCH CODEPRODUCT NAMETOTALBR1BR2BR3 1234ici bug gun

HEAD OFFICE TILL PRODUCT PRICING

HEAD OFFICE NEW LINES

HEAD OFFICEPRODUCTS AND BARCODES CHANGES

HEAD OFFICE CUSTOMERS

HEAD OFFICEPROMOTIONS

HEAD OFFICE STORE

INVOICE PRODUCT A 2 X 2.99 PRODUCT B 3 X 1.99 MULTIBUY TOTAL 9.96 CASH 9.96 ACCOUNT STL001 LOYALTY POINTS 5 INVOICE PRODUCT A 2 X 2.99 PRODUCT B 3 X 1.99 MULTIBUY TOTAL 9.96 CASH 9.96 ACCOUNT STL001 LOYALTY POINTS 5 STORE CONSOLIDATED SALES

HEAD OFFICE STORE CONSOLIDATED SALES STORE CONSOLIDATED SALES

HEAD OFFICE STORE CONSOLIDATED SALES

HEAD OFFICE STORE No Broadband Data Issue Alerts picture

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION