Is Your Store Temporarily Closed? Some POS Tips

I have fielded several calls from retailers asking what to do regarding their point of sale system while their store is temporarily closed. Some general suggestions:

1. Make sure that you have a backup of all data. Best to have a backup that is off site (like a thumb drive or external hard drive) or cloud based
2. See if your point of sale provider will reduce any monthly fees while the store is closed
3. It is normally OK to power down the hardware but do not unplug anything - some of the hardware may lose settings if electrical connections are lost. Check with your point of sale provider to see which hardware can be powered down or put in to "sleep" mode without risking the loss of programming (this especially applies to payment terminals and other devices without actual power switches)
4. Make sure that dust does not accumulate on any hardware
5. Ensure that it can easily been seen that the cash drawers and till's are empty
6. Make sure that you have written down all passwords and user ID's (and keep in a safe location). These can be easy to forget if not used on a daily basis.
7. Check with your point of sale provider to see if it is OK to shut down any WiFi or network equipment - including the router for your internet connection. I normally recommend leaving the router on so you maintain the internet connection.
8. If in doubt, leave everything as is but in "sleep mode" or similar.

Two other recommendations:

1. When getting ready to re-open, test everything at least 2 days before you open to help prevent any last minute surprises.
2. This is also a good time for Microsoft RMS point of sale software users to start looking at RMS replacement options. Even if you won't be making a purchase until late 2020 or early 2021, it doesn't hurt to use this down time to explore options like Retail Management Hero and Cloud Retailer (these are the only two direct replacement programs for RMS at this time).  You may find this RMS and Cloud Retailer comparison video here to be helpful as a starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sNWdpw5pKo

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments on the above, please contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632

Urgent Advice: Cloud and Subscription Based POS Software Programs

For those of you using Cloud and Subscription Based Point of Sale Software:

I am sure that many of you have seen the vast number of retail stores and restaurants that are currently closed or only offering limited service. I am in the process of having phone conversations around 50 retailers across the US (of varying sizes and type of products being offered).  While it would be awesome if all of them survived this economic downturn, it is clear that some will not.

That means that the point of sale companies will see declining monthly revenues. It is very likely that some point of sale providers will not survive the economic downturn either.  Most likely on the restaurant side of things but I expect to see some closing on the retail side as well.

Thus I would highly suggest ensuring that you are keeping a backup of all of your inventory/product, customer, and supplier information on a daily basis.

You may be able to request a backup from the place that provided your point of sale system.

Alternately, you should be able to run product, customer, and supplier reports at the end of each day and then export these reports to a spreadsheet. These exported reports can then be saved to a thumb drive, dropbox, or similar as a CVS or similar file.

This is purely for your protection in case you no longer have access to your point of sale system due to the provider ceasing operations.

Please contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632 with any questions.

Setting Up Microsoft RMS for Curbside Pickup / Use of Square

A quick video showing what is needed to set up the Microsoft Dynamics RMS point of sale software for curbside pickup. Also how to change tender types to use a Square Device.

This has been highly requested as many retailers adapt to the Coronavirus by offering curbside pickup.

This is only one example as there are many different ways to offer curbside pickup with Microsoft RMS.

Please note that that the POS station(s) will need to be Z-ed out and restarted for the new Square tender type to appear.

For more information, please contact myself or RITE at 888-267-7483 or sales@rite.us