Thursday, February 5, 2015

Dedicated Severs for Large Sites

While the onePOS Point-of-Sale for Restaurants system normally does not need a dedicated file server or manager PC, very large sites (10+ terminals) do benefit from having such. A few of the benefits would include:

  • Speed - a dedicated machine will have much more predictable and stable throughput than a machine shared for other tasks
  • Stability - as a server type machine, it can be kept in a secure location with limited access - especially to the power button
  • Remote Support - since no one is using the server during normal operations, it becomes un-obtrusive for a technician to connect, even during business hours.
  • We have a customer that is using two mac minis, one as the primary file server, and the other as a backup, to power their 28 terminals and handhelds. Through the use of VMWare or Parallels, Windows 7 is launched as a dedicated file server on those devices. Remote technicians now have 2 ways to connect to each server remotely, once on the OS X side and once on the Windows side - so if the Windows side becomes unresponsive or a prompt for Windows Security pops up the technician is not locked out. It also allows the server to be shutdown and the VM's image to be copied and backed up - even offsite.

    Monday, October 27, 2014

    Hot Schedules Interface

    onePOS Point-of-Sale for Restaurants now supports labor scheduling enforcement through the Hot Schedules application. This new interfaces allows for employees created in onePOS to automatically appear on the Hot Schedules website and downloads employee schedule information from Hot Schedules for clock in / out enforcement as well as allowing each employee to print their current and upcoming schedules from any POS terminal.

    Monday, October 10, 2011

    Taxing Changes



    This is a pre-view of the new taxing setup. We are still doing some tweaking on these screens so the final released product might be different from what is shown here, but we are wanting to share with you in advance some of the massive changes we have been making for out 3.5 release (aka 3.4 beta).

    You may have up to 10 Tax Departments in the system. These are designed to be unique tax reporting areas (such as Sales Tax, Liquor Tax, VAT Tax). There are 100 total Tax Categories available, possibly with all 100 allocated to a single department or split out over multiple departments, but there can only be 100 total Tax Categories. These categories can be thought of as rules to how and when to apply the tax for the department. You cannot report on Tax Categories, so it is important that they be used only as rules.

    Each item can be marked as taxable for each Tax Department. If the item is not marked, the item's sales are not included in either the taxable or non-taxable sales amount for that item. Each Dining Area is also marked as taxable for each Tax Department. If an item is marked as taxable, but the Dining Area is not marked, the item's sales are considered non-taxable.

    Each Dining Area also has a list of the Tax Categories available for each Tax Department. If they are selected, then that rule will be available, and if valid, used for calculating tax.

    Each Tax Category can be configured by time of day, day of week, inclusive or exclusive, have a unique rate, have both a minimum and maximum tax charged, have both a minimum and maximum taxable amount, and those minimum and maximum taxable amounts can vary by Sales Department.

    Each Tax Category can also calculate by item, by line, by guest, or by table, depending on how the site prefers their rounding.




    Sunday, October 9, 2011

    Speed Menus




    This is a pre-view of the new Speed Menus setup. We are still doing some tweaking on these screens so the final released product might be different from what is shown here, but we are wanting to share with you in advance some of the massive changes we have been making for out 3.5 release (aka 3.4 beta).

    You are allowed to have 20 different Speed Menus layouts per location. Each Speed Menu may now have 10 Main Speed Menus with up to 12 items under each. The speed menus buttons will automatically reduce size if you choose to use a lot of them. There is also now a Default Speed Menu page and an Initial Default Speed Menu page. The Initial would be used to go to the drinks page, with all subsequent access of a check going to the Default (food).

    These schemes are also controllable by time of day and day of week. A Dining Area can use one or more Printer Schemes. The schemes are scanned (in order) and which ever one is allowed for the Dining Area and have valid TOD and DOW will be used.

    Print Routing Scheme


    This is a pre-view of the new Printer Routing Scheme setup. We are still doing some tweaking on these screens so the final released product might be different from what is shown here, but we are wanting to share with you in advance some of the massive changes we have been making for out 3.5 release (aka 3.4 beta).

    The Routing Schemes allow a simplified way to tag each Printer Type to Physical printer. These taggings will work consistently by location of the check, not where they are rung in from, allowing a server working on a patio to enter orders on a kitchen terminal and have those drinks print to the outside bar.

    These schemes are also controllable by time of day and day of week. A Dining Area can use one or more Printer Schemes. The schemes are scanned (in order) and which ever one is allowed for the Dining Area and have valid TOD and DOW will be used.

    Friday, October 7, 2011

    System Preferences Setup



    This is a pre-view of the new INI setting by System Preferences. We are still doing some tweaking on these screens so the final released product might be different from what is shown here, but we are wanting to share with you in advance some of the massive changes we have been making for out 3.5 release (aka 3.4 beta). We will likely add "tool tips" over each item so that a user can hover the mouse on an option and get more details on what it does.

    Here are things that are system wide (such as time clock settings, tipping, server check out, etc).

    Hardware Devices Setup


    This is a pre-view of the new INI setting by Hardware Devices. We are still doing some tweaking on these screens so the final released product might be different from what is shown here, but we are wanting to share with you in advance some of the massive changes we have been making for out 3.5 release (aka 3.4 beta). We will likely add "tool tips" over each item so that a user can hover the mouse on an option and get more details on what it does.

    Here are things that are terminal specific (such as opening cash drawers, speed of a terminal, etc).