Aralco Point of sale ( POS ) Software System information blog

Aralco Point of Sale User Definable Taxes

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:29:00 -0400

Aralco is developing a new user definable tax. This tax will be used for cases where POS sales are made for shipments to out of Province/State and the correct destination taxes need to be charged and reported in the back office for tax remittance purposes. For further information please contact

email: info@aralco.com

Aralcos Built-in ecommerce/ shopping cart solution

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:11:00 -0400

Although Aralco offers an interface utility for Aralco and client's existing shopping cart / ecommerce systems, the demand for an inexpensive, robust & "built-in" ecommerce program was overwhelming so we have developed and are now offering a completely integrated system that includes an ecommerce program which directly interfaces with the Aralco Back Office, automatically imports web designated products and automatically exports web orders to Aralco POS Order Entry system. Retailers can now review their web orders from an automatically generated report and use the Aralco POS to ship the orders to customers anywhere in the world. To find out more about this module, please email

email: sales@aralco.com

or call 604.980.4199 ext 4 (Sales)

Aralco Order Management System (OMS) Launch

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:04:00 -0400

We will be launching our new OMS system on Aug. 11th 2010. This system has been in development for over two years and will be tested at a furniture retail client with multiple locations in British Columbia and Alberta. Once the initial tests for two locations are completed successfully, the system will be turned on for all locations and the product will be available as an additional feature to all Aralco clients. For inquiries, please email

email: info@aralco.com

or call 604.980.4199 ext 4 (Sales)

Accounting programs that interface with Aralco POS

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:43:00 -0400

Aralco POS and Inventory management system will interface with many different types of accounting programs such as Quick books, ACCPAC, Simply Accounting and more. It can accommodates your existing or preferred accounting system and will eliminate the need for double entries If you wish to inquire about the Aralco POS software and learn how these accounting programs will interface with Aralco POS please contact our sales department.

email: sales@aralco.com

Please click this link Aralco BOS features to view more features available for the Aralco Point of Sale and Inventory Management System

Windows XP operating system downgrade option available until 2020

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:54:00 -0400

If your company's hardware and operating system requires an upgrade and you still would like to use Windows XP operating system it will be available as a downgrade option from Microsoft until 2020. Please click this link Aralco News to view more news available for the Aralco Point of Sale and Inventory Management System

Aralco POS supports Windows 7 Pro 32 bit operating system

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:38:00 -0400

Aralco POS now supports the new Windows 7 Pro 32 bit operating system. Only Windows 7 Professional will be supported by Aralco in a network environment NOT Windows 7 Home Editions. If your company needs to upgrade to a Windows 7 operating system please contact Aralco Support to perform the Aralco software installations. Please click this link Aralco News to view more news available for the Aralco Point of Sale and Inventory Management System

Order Management & Distribution System

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:44:00 -0400

When orders are entered at the stores into the POS systems, the new Order Management System (OMS) can enable both the Warehouse Staff as well as the Store Staff to view the status of outstanding orders and access them to perform various functions. OMS Accessibility:
Both Warehouse and Store staff will have access to the OMS system as it resides on the server. Warehouse staff will have their own functions (color coded in "blue") and the stores will have access to other functions related only to them (color coded "green") although they can view the status of the orders in case they need to inform the customers. Store Staff Functions:
At POS level, once entering a new order, you can specify the delivery options such as:
" Home Delivery
" Customer Pickup at Warehouse / Other Store locations
" Customer Pickup at the store where order is entered
Once goods are in the warehouse:
" Call customers and request final payment for orders with a balance to be paid
" Call customers to notify them of the goods that have arrived at the store for pickup Warehouse Functions:
" Warehouse staff can view orders that are ready for shipment (for cases when inventory is available at the warehouse and order balance is zero)
" Notify store staff to call customers that have a balance remaining for their order to either come into the store to pay their balance or pay by phone
Once the order balance is zero:
" Notify customers & arrange home delivery
" Arrange truck deliveries (by postal code to pick the optimal routes)
" Stamp order as "complete" after delivery paperwork is complete
" Auto complete POS orders by turning them into a "Sales Transaction" after which the item is removed from inventory and the store is credited with the sale. Please click this link to view more features available for the Aralco Back Office

Aralco Back Office Features

New Report Generator Engine

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:51:00 -0400

We have been busy over the past year working on a new "Report Generator Engine" using the .Net technology. This will be a separate module that would continue working in "parallel" with the existing system. It is a very useful tool to use when the older product has reached its limits and our customers can continue using the old system while building some of the more challenging report using the new system. This system will have advanced graphics, interface to Excel, Microsoft Reporting Services and the reports will also be available and be posted live through the web access. All Point of Sale transactions can be viewed and analyzed live through this system so you can access it from any location by logging to your website and pulling up the latest (and preset) reports. We are in final stages of the development of this new module and are hoping to start shipping around September 2010 Aralco President

Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:49:00 -0400

Our Canadian clients are aware of the changes that recently took place in British Columbia and Ontario due to the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Although it seemed straight forward for most retailers, the complexities surfaced for certain type of retail applications such as children clothing, custom orders where the customer had placed their order PRIOR to the new tax activation and took delivery of the order AFTER the tax changes took place. Most of the issues would naturally appear at (POS) Point of Sale locations and regardless of the challenges we had as software engineers ( as did our clients), we have managed to deal with all the details and idiosyncrasies of the aftermath and are now looking forward to "business as usual" . Over the next few weeks, we will continue to work with our clients to address any discrepancies resulted from these changes resulting from the sales tax modifications. Aralco President

Guide to buying POS software

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:05:00 -0400

Today, there are many stores that have established their businesses in different parts of the country. The system they follow is, each and every customer are free to pick whatever they are interested in and at the end they have to get their goods checked, priced and packed. The system of checking, pricing and packing at the end of purchase is called POS (Point Of Sale). Point Of Sale has been adopted in stores recently to bill the goods. This system comprises of many gadgets to facilitate the point of sale program. Gadgets like a bar code reader, POS software, and a POS machine. It is advisable that a business which incurs large transactions should make use of a POS system to help with the function of billing and tracking of their goods. Before purchasing a POS system, one has to go through the "Guide to buying POS software". It is tough to shift from the cash register to electronic cash register i.e. a POS system. Anyone who wants to buy a POS system should ask the the following questions. " Does the POS software have a user definable screen?
" Does it have any Customer Relationship Management options?
" Does it have any Excel/word interface?
" How easy is it to update retail prices and taxes.
" Does the feature of credit card processing work with your current business account?
" What kind of reports is the POS system capable of creating?
" Does this POS software support the feature of transacting a gift card?
" What inventory management features does this POS software have?
So by asking these questions one can be sure that this product will be a perfect match for your business.

Aralco for the "Hospitality" Industry

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:07:00 -0400

Our Aralco POS software is now developed to work in the restaurant and hospitality industry. This industry is a first for Aralco. This new development has been implemented in our first restaurant Casual Gourmet Bistro in North Vancouver and has surpassed our expectations and continues to be enhanced with each additional feature. Our product supports this industry by providing the following features: " Touch screens for Quick Order Entry " User definable menu buttons " Unlimited main & sub-category menu setup " Employee swipe card or RFID login " Instant Bar & Kitchens Order Printing " Recipes & Food Cost Tracking " Inventory Control for Bar & Kitchen " Table assignments " Fine dining Operating Environment " Take-out feature " Gift cards sales and usage tracking built-in " Customer sales tracking " Loyalty programs " Instant Tip calculation by shift and Tip distribution Reports

Anti-Virus Software

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:45:00 -0400

The use of anti-virus software has become necessary over the past few years and when you are running a large network over the internet, it becomes compulsory rather than optional. Although it is extremely important to have this in place, you need to make sure that your anti-virus software is compatible with the Aralco POS and Inventory Control Software so that it does not conflict and hinder its SQL database operation. Also, it is important to know how to setup the anti-virus software as if not correctly optimized for your retail application, it can significantly affect the performance of your system and slow down or completely halt the SQL database operation when trying to access the database, run reports or simply record and save data. For further information, please contact the Aralco Support Department at support@aralco.com

Webinars

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:11:00 -0400

In my recent visits with some of our clients, I was asked about certain features and their availability as well as mention of certain requirements to run reports at preset times or having them emailed etc. I was very happy to inform our clients that all those features plus a lot more useful business tools had recently been completed and included in our recent version 8.400. They were all pleased to hear the good news but asked how come they don't know about those great new products?? Well here is when I got disappointed. We have been using our "Mass email" system to let everyone know about all of the recent developments at Aralco and invited them to view the list of new features on our websites as well as notifying them of the upcoming "Product Webinars". We have even emailed them after the webinars to let them know where to go to watch the "Recorded" webinars in case they missed the live sessions. It's surprising to find out how many people actually read their emails and the information they receive from us. I guess a lot of us, including myself, are guilty of pressing "Delete" on some of these emails. With the "bombardment" of masses of emails we all receive every day, you can "go out of business" trying to keep up with other people's business! But then I thought, Aralco is not just emailing their clients to "promote" the sale of any new features. We are mostly letting them know how to make use of "What they have already paid for" and it's a great disservice to their business if they don't take advantage of this free service. After all, a business such as Aralco, is running some "mission critical" processes in the clients businesses and the more aware they all are about its strengths and capabilities, the more efficiently they can run their businesses while reducing their operating costs. In conclusion, I would like to plead with any of you who have thoughts about improving the system, its existing processes and methods, to watch the webinars, view the "New Feature List" or call us to share their ideas or their individual needs. The questions I have asked people recently to get the answers I want is "tell us what keeps you up at night" and we WILL address those right away! Aralco President

How do you run a profitable Inventory System?

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:54:00 -0400

Over the years we have witness retailers work diligently to figure out what to buy, when, how many, from who and for which store. It's quite a task for any buyer. Some businesses involve many staff to run various reports, analyze what was sold, where, by which store them see the current on hands and put the two figures together and come up with a calculated guess as to what to do next. This of course is what companies do who have resources dedicated to this task. I dread to think what the others with limited time and staff do. Years ago, we worked with a very knowledgeable buyer who had worked most of his professional life in a large and well known North American based department store. He had semi-retired and started to helped his wife run a six store retail chain. He wanted to apply the decades of experience he had gathered and work with Aralco to develop a very easy to use and yet sophisticated and extremely powerful "Inventory Replenishment System". We worked through all his complex formulas and methodologies and eventually we came up with the first draft back in 1996. Since that date we have installed the system in a handful of places who frankly have told me "they cannot run their business without it"! Of course it's not our mandate to "push" technology on to our clients and unfortunately whenever we did try, the retailers invariably told me different reasons why they wouldn't want to use such as tool, some would say "I don't want the computer to write cheques out to my suppliers" or "How do I know if the computer is accurate"? Eventually we perfected this tool to a point where it actually let you see the exact reasons why it would suggest the order quantities so it ensured the user that it is working accurately. We also placed many "User Definable Controls" to "Tweak" the system to their individual needs. The system would prepare Purchase Order ONLY when the retailer with approve of its recommendations and give it the "go ahead". In November 2009, we finally convinced a client of 11 year who has a complex, "Matrix" product line with up to 4 inventory dimensions to give the system a try. After a very short time, their full-time buyer managed to do purchase orders (automatically generated) and what used to take 35 hours per week ended up taking 2 hours. The management was astonished to see this new revelation. "The cost saving, speed and accuracy was simply amazing"! In recent talks with some clients, it became apparent that through the use of some of these effective tools, Aralco can certainly provide much more than the "basic necessities" of a POS System. In this example, it can help you "Optimize" your inventory levels and increase your "bottom line". A similar system is available for retail chains where the system would help with "Stock Balancing" across your stores to make sure each have got the right number of units on hand to meet their forecasted/ targeted sales.

Scheduled Reports

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:43:00 -0400

A great new feature now available in Aralco Back Office system is the option to apply a "Scheduler" to any report available in Aralco. This will let you setup the time to run the report when you like (set your own Day of the Week, Time to run) and have it emailed to one or more recipients. Once this is set up, the system will automatically load the report and run it at the preset day & time and forward the HTML report to your email address. This is a great time saver as well very useful when you need to run a certain report at a certain time (e.g. Month/ Year End), especially if that date happens to fall on a weekend/ holiday. I heard prior to this feature, customers used to pay overtime to have their staff come in after hours to run reports and have them ready for management for first thing in the morning!