Linking Tables with Customer Accounts

[whiterabbit]

Hi,

So I was wondering how exactly you go about linking a table with a customer account.  In the resources there is a drop down menu labeled "account" but it's empty even when I add a customer account.

Cheers

[emre]

Hello whiterabbit.

Since there might be thousands of accounts recorded we don't pre-fill account selection combobox with all account names. When you type first few letters of an account, avaliable names will appear.

Alternatively click Customers button on POS screen, edit a customer and click "Create Account" button for creating and linking accounts automatically.

To be able to make it work we should configure related resource template to tell which type of accounts it accepts and how we name them. As configured on Customer Resource template Customer Resources accepts customer accounts and Customer accounts will automatically named as [Name]-[Phone]. Since we've included phone numbers in account names you should enter phone numbers before creating accounts.

[whiterabbit]

Thanks for the reply.

I should say first that I also have the sample data installed with SambaPOS 3.

I'm still trying to get my head around the "Manage" section of the program and how the "Resources" and "Account" sections interact.  I am also confused about how to add customer accounts.  There seems to be two different areas you can do this.  Through the "Manage" section and the "POS" section.  Are these essentially just two different ways to add customer accounts, or do they differ somehow?

For me at least I think there needs to be a more detailed workflow when it come to creating tables, customer accounts, and how to link them. 

I do understand that you are still in Alpha state of development so this is probably something that will be addressed farther down the line.

[emre]

Hello Whiterabbit.

On V3 creating a customer record (card) and opening an financial account for customer are different things. That seperation creates some benefits.

1. You'll open an account for the customer when you want to permit late payments for that customer.
2. You may link multiple customers to a single account. For example to a company account.
3. You may have thousands of customer records but you'll only deal with customers with accounts while working with financial data.

In a restaurant or in a hotel we communicate through table names or room numbers. So in some businesses creating accounts for rooms or tables might be useful. So instead of choosing customer names on tickets we can choose room numbers and debit room account until check out.

That meeans we need accounts for different entities such as customers, personnel, other businesses we sell/buy stuff or even for rooms or tables. So what is their common name? How we'll call them? I preferred "Resource" keyword but of course I'm open to suggestions.

Normally you'll create and link them on management screen but during operation you'll create customer accounts through POS screen. To be able to make account creations easier for operator I created a shortcut on POS screen. Both functions does the same thing but POS shortcut names created accounts automatically.

[whiterabbit]

Alright,

So I think I got a couple of "Rooms" setup and linked them to a customer account named the same as each of the rooms.  Now when I search for each room account I can see their balance and the list of tickets.  But I don't see a "make payment" button like in SambaPOS 2.

Are my settings off somewhere?

[emre]

Better definition will be:

You'll create a new Account Template named "Room Accounts" and create accounts for each rooms.
You'll create a new Resource Template named "Rooms", create new rooms and link them to accounts.
You'll create a new Resource Screen for room display and add rooms to the list.
You'll include that screen in main department or you can create seperate departments for "Hotel" and "Restaurant"

Now you should be able to choose a table, room or a customer for ticket.

You'll create a new Payment Template and create a Payment button for transferring ticket amount to room account. You can do it by checking the Customer Account payment template. 
Finally you'll create document templates on account menu for creating "make payment" buttons on account screens. Default buttons that created for Customer Accounts will help.

This is the basic idea.