Author Topic: Print Jobs Based on Users  (Read 47393 times)

JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #45 on: February 27, 2012, 07:24:50 am »
Have you ever printed a 'Z' tape from a cash register  ??? Some are 2mtrs long.

One extra line on a printout 60+ lines long is kinda trivial. I will take a nice clean layout over an inch of wasted paper any day.
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JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #46 on: February 27, 2012, 07:55:40 am »
John, In software development good communication is everything. That conversation might ended up with a result of nothing. Mostly your persistence and patience for delivering the information did it. From technical side that was not a big implementation but I think we handled an interesting case.

While evaluating a software people focuses on features and if there are lots of buttons, menus or settings they thinks that software is good. Features by themselves have no value. The important thing is what cases that software can handle. There are lots of software filled with awesome features but %80 of it implemented without thinking the full case and when user tries to use these features together in real life it simply doesn't work as expected.

Lots of development teams does this mistake. Thinking about nice features is simple but generally it ends with no real value. Thinking about cases is harder and needs more time but when people contributes like John did, it generates great value. Technically we only added a department selection feature for terminals and added about 40-50 lines of code. Any developer can do that. Understanding the need is our real job. I hope every restaurant owners focuses on their cases instead of the features they think they'll need.

John thank you very much again for investing your time for that great result.


I have no problems in investing my time into the SambaPOS project, because I believe in the project.
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JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #47 on: March 05, 2012, 04:39:58 am »
Emre,

We have put the system into production, and have found a bug in the WPR around the Cash & Credit Card sales between departments.

The Restaurant was the only one to receive payment by Credit Card, yet this was added to the Bar Income. And there was $30.30 in cash mis-allocated to the Bar.

Please see the attached WPR. I can supply the DB if needed.
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emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #48 on: March 05, 2012, 08:23:47 am »
Yes, I'll be happy to investigate DB..

Update:I think I found the problem. When a bar customer wants to pay with credit card does Restaurant department settles bar tickets? As I see in code that can only happen when a bar ticket settled with credit card. I thought I avoided that by disabling Settle button but I think I forgot disabling fast payment buttons. If credit card payments can only made through restaurant department it looks like we should support cross payments too. But If we support that another problem arises because we should display this ticket as a restaurant cross sale because it paid at restaurant. Hmm.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 09:02:55 am by emre »

JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #49 on: March 05, 2012, 03:22:14 pm »
Emre,

The Restaurant has taken orders, then the customers have gone to the Bar and gotten drinks which were added to the Table ticket. Then at the end of the meal the customer has paid for all at the Restaurant with Credit Card.


Update:I think I found the problem. When a bar customer wants to pay with credit card does Restaurant department settles bar tickets?
Not normally, but yes they can.

As I see in code that can only happen when a bar ticket settled with credit card. I thought I avoided that by disabling Settle button but I think I forgot disabling fast payment buttons.
You can not settle a ticket outside your own terminal department. ie, For the Bar to settle a Restaurant ticket, they need to settle in the Bar department on a Bar terminal. All payment buttons will be disabled if they try to settle using the Restaurant department on a Bar terminal.

If credit card payments can only made through restaurant department it looks like we should support cross payments too. But If we support that another problem arises because we should display this ticket as a restaurant cross sale because it paid at restaurant. Hmm.
You are correct. A cross sale technically happens when one department receives money on behalf of another department.

The cross sales are working great for the items, its just the payment side that needs fixing.
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emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #50 on: March 05, 2012, 05:04:10 pm »
Quote
The Restaurant has taken orders, then the customers have gone to the Bar and gotten drinks which were added to the Table ticket. Then at the end of the meal the customer has paid for all at the Restaurant with Credit Card.

That case does not creates that problem but after investigating it further I found the problem.

1. Bar terminal creates a ticket
2. Clicks "Select Table" and moves that ticket to a table. At that point this is still a bar ticket because user did it while bar terminal is active. Assigning it to a table does not change ticket department because this is still a bar sale and at that point we don't consider it as a cross sale from restaurant to bar.
3. Restaurant user settles that bar ticket with credit card. Since he accessed it from restaurant department screen he could settle that.

Quote
The cross sales are working great for the items, its just the payment side that needs fixing.

What we should do is changing ticket department to restaurant and display it as a cross sale. That will fix that case. (In fact I don't call it a bug fix, I call it cross payment feature :) ) By disabling settle buttons I tried disabling cross payments but that case was something I didn't noticed. If it is the case, cross sale numbers should be wrong too.

Changing ticket department will solve that case without disabling settle buttons but permitting it creates other problems. Since we permit half payments and if customer drinks a $10 beer and pays $5 cash at bar and $5 credit card at restaurant, we'll show that beer sale as restaurant cross sale and they won't be able to match numbers. Our current database scheme won't permit splitting a beer sale between departments by payment amounts. So we'll assume users won't do that or disable some features.

Maybe your user does not do what I found and another case we didn't noticed created that problem. We should find the reason of the problem to be able to fix it.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 05:18:19 pm by emre »

JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #51 on: March 05, 2012, 05:20:53 pm »

Quote
The cross sales are working great for the items, its just the payment side that needs fixing.

What we should do is changing ticket department to restaurant and display it as a cross sale. That will fix that case. (In fact I don't call it a bug fix, I call it cross payment feature :) ) By disabling settle buttons I tried disabling cross payments but that case was something I didn't noticed. If it is the case cross sale numbers should be wrong too.
Cross Sale numbers were correct. Restaurant started the ticket, the Bar added to the ticket, then the Restaurant (in some cases) added more items and the Restaurant took payment at the end.

Changing ticket department will solve that case without disabling settle buttons but permitting it creates other problems. Since we permit half payments and if customer drinks a $10 beer and pays $5 cash at bar and $5 credit card at restaurant, we'll show that beer sale as restaurant cross sale and they won't be able to match numbers. Our current database scheme won't permit splitting a beer sale between departments by payment amounts. So we'll assume users won't do that or disable some features.
There will never be part payments across departments for a single ticket. If that is needed, then the items would be moved to a new ticket and then paid. People here don't expect to run a tab, and pay at each department - they want to pay for the whole ticket at one department.

Maybe your user does not do what I found and another case we didn't noticed created that problem. We should find the reason of the problem to be able to fix it.
Summed up - all departments added to a ticket, then only one department took the money.
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emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #52 on: March 05, 2012, 05:46:27 pm »
Am I understanding it wrong? Restaurant user processed credit card payments but WPR showing these CC totals under bar department. The reason of that problem is :

Quote
Restaurant started the ticket, the Bar added to the ticket, then the Restaurant (in some cases) added more items and the Restaurant took payment at the end.

Does your test setup produces that error when you do that? I've tested lots of different uses but I didn't noticed an error other than I described on my previous post.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 05:49:00 pm by emre »

emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #53 on: March 05, 2012, 06:54:04 pm »
OK. It won't fix old data but if you can reproduce that error you can test if it fixes it or not.
http://code.google.com/p/sambapos/downloads/detail?name=SambaSetup288c.exe

JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #54 on: March 05, 2012, 07:14:09 pm »
Thanks Emre. We're are in the middle of moving house. I have started testing if I can reproduce the scenario before I update to 2.88c.
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JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #55 on: March 05, 2012, 11:23:38 pm »
Update - I can reproduce the problem with payment allocation, and have found that it is to do with merging tickets.

If you have an active Restaurant table and add Bar items by selecting the table first then the items - all OK at payment time.
If you select the items and then select the table, you get the ticket merged message, then when you settle, the payment is allocated to the Bar.

I reproduced this by

Start new Work Period
Make 1x cash Bar sale
Take Restaurant order and assign to a Table
Select Bar items and then select the Restaurant Table (Merged Msg)
Settle at Restaurant.
Check WPR.

I will check with 2.88c shortly.

Update - Confirmed fix in 2.88c - after short testing, I was unable to reproduce the issue. All payments allocated correctly.

Good work Emre.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2012, 11:34:45 pm by JohnS »
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JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #56 on: March 06, 2012, 01:20:29 am »
Emre,

Is it possible to get the Account Balance total (from Incomes) into the separate Department Income totals aswell?
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emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #57 on: March 06, 2012, 06:22:10 am »
Emre,

Is it possible to get the Account Balance total (from Incomes) into the separate Department Income totals aswell?

I have to check implementation but I think it is possible.

emre

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #58 on: March 06, 2012, 05:38:44 pm »
John, while checking it I realized that was something missed.
http://code.google.com/p/sambapos/downloads/detail?name=SambaSetup288d.exe

If everything works fine I'll refresh translations and release 2.89 tomorrow.
Thanks.

JohnS

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Re: Print Jobs Based on Users
« Reply #59 on: March 07, 2012, 07:03:10 am »
Emre,

It's been a hectic day with work and moving house. I haven't had a chance to test the new version yet. I'll look at it in the morning when I'm more awake.

The pilot site has been working well since installed last Saturday. The staff have accepted SambaPOS with open arms, and we even used an iPad for table service at a function and it was a great success. The staff loved that the table service tickets would print at the bar so they could gather the drinks and deliver to the tables in a fast and smooth manner.

Even the guests commented on the high level of service and the "High Tech" approach to the table service which usually (at most venues) is handled in a poor manner.

The Restaurant owner couldn't be happier, and he loves the simplicity of the system. He has used other systems in the past, some good and some not so good. He now wants to use an iPad for table service like they used in the function room.

Overall a great success.

In a little over 8 weeks, we have made some amazing updates to SambaPOS and have put it thru some tough scenarios with great results.

Thank you to Emre and the SambaPOS Team.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2012, 07:16:02 am by JohnS »
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