Would you like to know how the latest point-of-service technologies can help your business run more efficiently? Well, the experienced staff at Honeywell and pcAmerica know how important this is to your bottom line and they can offer valuable information and solutions that just might fit your needs.

Join Honeywell and pcAmerica on Tuesday, May 25th at 1pm(EDT) as they present the new webinar series, “Ask the Expert.” Hear from a Honeywell expert detailing the most recent developments in 2-D bar code scanning technologies, form and document filling, ID scanning, and more that will enable retailers to improve store revenues and customer satisfaction.

Special guest David Gosman, CEO of pcAmerica, will give you an understanding of who pcAmerica is and how they can help your business. He will also be discussing a pcAmerica case study in which a real world situation is used to demonstrate an effective solution, the result, and the knowledge gained from the experience.

To participate in this informative webinar, follow the link below and sign up!

Register for “Ask an Expert” webinar series.

So you’ve altered your gift card program to adhere to new mandates set forth by the Credit Card Act of 2009 and are ready to sit back and revel in the sales? Not so fast!!

Contrary to what many merchants and restaurant operators may believe, the gift card requirement “buck” doesn’t stop with the provisions of the Act itself; state laws come into play as well.  How? Simply put, the Act doesn’t prevent states from enacting more stringent laws that give consumers additional leeway and/or protection when purchasing and using gift cards. For example, states can mandate that gift cards cannot expire for seven years after they’ve been purchased, rather than for five years as required by the Act.

Some states, such as Massachusetts, already have stricter gift card regulations in place, and others may follow suit. Bottom line: Check into the gift card laws of those states in which you do business, to ensure that you’re in compliance with both state and Federal laws. Continue to track state requirements down the road, as they may change with time.  And as always, consult your knowledgeable pcAmerica representative with any questions or issues.

There’s more to the gift card rules compliance puzzle than adjusting your program’s fee structure and approach to expiration dates. Merchants and restaurateurs alike must also ensure that dormancy fees and other service charges associated with gift cards policies are fully disclosed to consumers. And that’s not all: disclosures must be shared with consumers before, not after, they pay for a gift card. Your disclosures must also specify the exact amount of each additional fee to be charged in conjunction with a gift card, and how frequently it will be subtracted from the balance (for example, a $3 dormancy fee every two months).

Keep in mind, too, that fee disclosures must be made whether a gift card is purchased in your store or restaurant, online or by telephone. Including full dormancy fee disclosures on gift card packaging is a “must” in all three channels, but use signage and reminders from employees to emphasize the message in-store and online or verbal reiterations when selling gift cards in cyberspace and via telephone order, respectively. Need help implementing a gift card program? Contact pcAmerica to learn about how gift cards can help grow sales for your business.

By now, you’ve no doubt heard about the Credit Card Act of 2009, which President Obama signed into law last year. While the Act pertains primarily to credit cards, it also brings with it new rules surrounding gift cards.

Slated to take effect on August 22nd, the new rules pertain to two types of charges associated with gift cards—dormancy fees and service fees—as well as to expiration dates. Under the Act, dormancy fees cannot be charged until after a gift card has remained unused for one year after it was issued. Additionally, only one dormancy fee per month, per card can be imposed on gift card holders. The old rule was significantly more lenient: It allowed an unlimited number of dormancy fees to be charged on each card, starting a mere six months after the card had been issued.

The Act also prohibits merchants and restaurant operators from collecting various other gift card fees. These include transaction (gift card purchasing) fees, maintenance fees and fees for maintaining a balance on a long-activated, but still dormant, card.

As for expiration dates, no gift card issued on or after August 22 can expire less than five years after it was first issued or last reloaded. While the summer seems a long time off, it’s best to be proactive by removing from circulation and re-printing all gift cards that currently have an expiration date of less than five years from the issue date. Failing to comply with this new law puts you at risk of another type of “gift”—fines for non-compliance. For help in sorting things out and printing new gift cards in time for the deadline, contact pcAmerica.

Using your POS system as a marketing tool is a great idea, but unless you have the right inventory, customers will probably not demonstrate as much loyalty to your store as you would like. Lack of control over inventory can also have a negative effect on a retailer’s bottom line.  In short, accurate inventory control is critical to your store’s profitability and overall success—and it, too, can be achieved by availing yourself of a comprehensive POS software package.

With the inventory tracking capabilities of systems like pcAmerica’s Cash Register Express, you can easily see which products are selling and which items should be re-ordered, as well as identify any merchandise that just doesn’t seem to appeal to your customers. The end-result: Your store offers the right merchandise, in the right quantities, at the right time—a wise practice overall and a particularly necessary one when retailers must strive harder than ever to maintain their share of customers’ shrinking dollar.

The inventory tracking capabilities of any good POS system also enhance your profit potential by identifying any items that may have been pilfered or broken.  Meanwhile, an integrated purchasing functionality can be used to track vendor lists, manage item costs and generate and receive purchase orders. With Cash Register Express, you can also increase inventory management efficiencies by conducting inventory counts and/or recording the arrival of merchandise at your store using integrated Pocket Inventory software on a hand-held computer.

Increasing transaction speed and customer throughput is one of retailers’ key goals in computerizing a point of sale system. POS systems that give you the biggest bang for your buck have added features you can leverage to maximize both of these.

With computerized POS systems, many sales can be rung up by simply by scanning the bar code on the item or items being purchased. However, not all merchandise is bar-coded. Advanced POS systems, such as pcAmerica’s Cash Register Express, allow you to quickly ring up items that do not have bar codes by touching a corresponding button on a touch screen. Customers can then move through the checkout line as quickly as they would had all of their items been scanned at the point of sale.

Features that make it easier to handle sale and specialty pricing also work to your advantage. A comprehensive POS system can automatically calculate this type of pricing, again contributing to faster customer throughput—and enhanced customer satisfaction, to boot. You get the same result from quick tender keys, which reduce the number of buttons that must be pushed to complete cash sales.

Visit www.pcamerica.com for more information.

Sure, your POS system is great for ringing up sales. But did you know that its features also allow it to be used as a powerful tool for marketing to customers and bringing them back to your store?

Software components within full-featured systems such as pcAmerica’s Cash Register Express are configured so that retailers can maintain databases of customer information and “pull” the names of customers to whom they wish to send mailings about sales, promotions, in-store events, new merchandise or anything else that may interest them. The software is intelligent, meaning that it can weed out only those customers who fit a user-defined profile—for instance, individuals who live in a certain zip code or those who always buy a certain product from your store.  Because the mailings are targeted towards a specific group of people, they are much more likely to be effective than blanket mailings sent to just anyone.

Full-featured POS systems are also great marketing tools because they interface with other hardware peripherals, such as receipt printers.  Systems like this can be programmed to “tell” a printer to generate, right on customers’ receipts, coupons that contain special offers—for example, “buy one, get one free” or discounts off their next purchase.  Some savvy retailers leverage the interface by programming their POS systems to generate, again on shoppers’ receipts, information about their participation in store loyalty programs—for instance, the number of points they have accumulated and what their next reward may be. Again, it’s a very personalized approach—and it keeps customers coming back to your store.

Taking advantage of your POS system as a marketing tool is an easy thing to do. Contact pcAmerica to get started.

While the advanced features of a good restaurant POS system can be instrumental in cutting costs, there are other benefits to be reaped from using a configuration that isn’t just a cash register. The ability to generate repeat business and bolster incremental sales tops the list.

There’s no denying that attracting patrons to a restaurant has become a competitive sport. An increasing number of quick-service, fast-casual and fine dining establishments alike are implementing loyalty programs designed not only bring diners into their operations, but to keep them coming back time after time rather than patronizing the competition. With a restaurant POS system such as Restaurant Pro Express, you can easily set up and administer a card-based loyalty program that also simplifies the process of paying for meals in your restaurants. You can even leverage social networking to take customer loyalty to a higher level. One of pcAmerica’s restaurant clients has integrated its loyalty program with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Its customers are not only racking up points for their patronage, but automatically letting their friends know about their activities—bringing even more loyal customers into the fold.

As for boosting incremental sales, advanced restaurant POS systems can monitor and tally servers’ sale of “extra” items not ordered by every patron—think appetizers and desserts. Waitstaff try much harder to induce guests to buy these items when they know you’re using a computer to track their success—and that their efforts will result in commissions. Additionally, the more enthusiastic servers appear, the higher the tips. It’s a win-win proposition.

Contact your pcAmerica rep to learn more about using a restaurant POS system to achieve these and many other benefits.

If you’re like most restaurant operators, you’re constantly thinking about ways to cut costs—even with the recession’s ugly head beginning to retreat. Leveraging the advanced, yet easy-to-use features of a comprehensive restaurant POS system like pcAmerica’s Restaurant Pro Express can yield significant savings—in more areas than one.

Let’s start with ingredients. Ingredient tracking features seen on some restaurant POS systems allow orders to be based on previous usage, rather than on estimates alone. This eliminates over-purchasing and the subsequent waste of otherwise good ingredients. Recipe configuration tools allow operators to create recipes for individual menu items; each recipe includes a list of ingredients and the specific quantity of each ingredient used to prepare that item. Reports that show the total overall usage of each ingredient over a particular date range can be generated, too. For example, you might produce a report that indicates how many pounds of beef, chicken, fish, vegetables or the like were utilized on a given weekend day. The report can then become the basis of a more accurate order for the same day of the following weekend.

Restaurant POS software is also being used to curb labor expenditures. With a good system in place, you can monitor servers’ sales dollar per labor hour, in tandem with table turnover, to determine whether staffing levels are sufficient, but not excessive. Integrated time clocks, labor scheduling tools and associated reporting features, such as those found on Restaurant Pro Express, provides a great snapshot of restaurant labor costs.

For more information on using Restaurant Pro Express as a cost-cutting tool, contact pcAmerica.

As a consumer, you’ve no doubt seen the front end of credit card processing. But what happens after a card is presented for payment? The process is one with which you should become familiar if you’re going to join the ranks of merchants and restaurateurs that take credit and debit cards.

When a card is swiped through an electronic POS terminal, an electronic request is submitted to the processing network for authorization. Upon receiving the request, the network electronically determines whether the cardholder’s account is valid and if funds are available to cover the transaction. If so, an authorization code, guaranteeing your access to the funds, is transmitted to you. Your POS terminal or computer prints a receipt for the customer to sign and return to you.

At the end of each business day, you initiate a process called “settlement”, wherein you electronically submit a final request to the processing network to capture funds for all authorized transactions completed on that day. Once the settlement has been approved, a response is sent to your POS system or computer. Funds associated with each batch settled are electronically deposited into your business bank account, usually within 48 to 82 hours.

At the end of every month, your transaction rate and any fees paid to the merchant account provider are deducted from your account. The merchant account provider then issues you a monthly statement that lists your credit card activity for that month and the associated fees you have been charged.

Of course, the process is slightly different for Internet and e-commerce merchants, which rely on specialized software programs to capture and process credit card information on their Web sites instead of through a POS terminal. One such program is a shopping cart, or secure series of scripts or coding that track items a visitor chooses to purchase from a Web site until the consumer proceeds to the checkout function. The credit card number, billing address, authorization number and card expiration date are collected on the checkout screen. The other program is a payment gateway, to which information collected in the shopping cart is transferred for authorization once an online shopper is ready to finalize the transaction. For mail and telephone orders (MOTO), touch-tone processing or an automated response unit allows for credit card authorization and processing over the telephone.

For more information on how to set up your particular operation for credit card processing, contact pcAmerica.