David Gosman, CEO of pcAmerica, has been chosen to be a panelist at the upcoming Business Optimization Summit being help on October 28th and 29th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. Hosted by Vertical Systems Reseller Magazine, the session will focus on discussing how independent software vendors (ISV’s) and value added resellers can form better collaborative working relationships. Under the leadership Rich Rotbard, president, and David Gosman, pcAmerica provides award winning retail and restaurant point of sale software through a comprehensive network of channel partners. Visit www.pcamerica.com to learn more about Becoming a pcAmerica reseller partner.

When selecting a PC based point of sale (POS) system most restaurant and retail store owners focus on improving the speed of customer checkout or gaining better inventory control. While these functions are important, many businesses often over the look the importance of compliancy issues related to credit card processing. In fact, many businesses fail to realize that not taking the steps to ensure safe payment processing can result in a data breach that will jeopardize the security of your customer’s credit card data. In the aftermath of a data security breach not only will you lose the confidence of countless customers but your business will also incur stiff penalties and fines.

At pcAmerica we are committed to offering safe and secure integrated payment processing with our POS systems. pcAmerica has met the requirements to ensure that both Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express point of sale (POS) software are Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) compliant. In fact, through a partnership with magnetic stripe reader manufacturer Magtek, pcAmerica offers encrypted swipe technology which encrypts credit card track data at the reader, ensuring the merchant’s point-of-sale never handles data in a useable format.

What is PA-DSS? The Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS), formerly referred to as the Payment Application Best Practices (PABP), is the global security standard created by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). PA-DSS was implemented in an effort to provide the definitive data standard for software vendors that develop payment applications.

While most restaurant and retail store owners use a point of sale system to more effectively manage their daily operations, savvy business owners utilize a variety of features from their point of sale system to market to customers in new and innovative ways. The most popular POS system marketing trends are:

1. Dual display – some point of sale systems come equipped with a customer facing pole display or dual display capability in which advertising messages can be displayed to customers as they check out.
2. Advertising on receipts – one of the more popular recent trends is to place a discount or promotional ad at the bottom of a receipt given to a customer to entice them to return.
3. Loyalty programs – Want your good customers to return? A good point of sale system should have a loyalty program that will help you create and deliver attractive promotions to keep customer’s coming back.
4. Gift programs – The sale of gift cards is a great way to promote your store or restaurant.
5. Direct Mail and Email Marketing- Analyze and extract accurate customer data including buying preferences and purchasing history.

Owners of retail stores and restaurants typically focus on generating more profits by increasing the number of dollars coming in the door — which is definitely a valid tactic that should be the goal for any business.  Often, however, not enough attention is paid to the profitability of the dollars already coming in.

Several of our upcoming blog postings will give some recommendations of ways  to increase profits that don’t rely on an increase on sales.  Many of them tie in the technology of a retail POS or restaurant POS system to further increase efficiency and drive costs down further.

One great tool to introduce to your point of sale system ia a DVR-based camera security system.  These systems can store several hours of video, are usually web accessible, and can be used to review past events in your store.  A couple ways they can help out:

1 — Reduce theft.  Shoplifters are less prone to steal products from businesses that have visible cameras.  Review of past video clips helps identify, catch and prosecute shoplifters.

2 — Employee theft.  Cashiers have an even higher level of accountability if their activities at the cash register are monitored and recorded.  Claims such as miscounted cash or cash stolen from their till by someone else drop substantially with a camera security system.  In addition, some casheirs have been known to bar-code swap the items they ring up for a friend — for example, scanning a pack of gum for a friend buying a case of beer.  Security systems hold cashiers to a higher level of accountability for their actions, typically forcing a higher level of honesty.

The Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express point of sale software packages export over 20 different cash register activites to DVR-based camera security solutions, including a live stream of items as they are rung up, payment accepted, change given, and almost every other action within the POS that effects money or accountability.

How have you saved money in your business by using a security system?  Share your stories with us to help other business owners!

Coffee shops are one business type that face above average challenges in an ailing economy.  The “$ 4 latte” is a purchase that several consumers consider removing from their budget.  Most people are spending less money, and are basing their purchases more on value than price.   Below are three quick and easy ideas you may want to consider for your coffee shop that will help preserve and increase traffic…ideas that can be applied to almost any retail or restaurant business.

1 — Bake smaller versions of your pastries, and give a mini-pastry free in the morning with every cappucino or latte purchase.  This has the double bonus of making consumers feel like they’re getting more for their money, and at the same time will introduce your customers to your pastries that will result in them purchasing a full size dessert in the future.  Your coffee shop point of sale system can print a message on the receipt

2 — Select a coffee shop POS that has customer loyalty functionality built in.  A plan as simple as a ‘Buy 6 lattes get the 7th free’ makes customers feel as if they are earning something when they buy coffees at your shop.  Customers wont’ want to miss out on their loyalty points — meaning they’ll return to your coffee shop to make their purchase.  Restaurant Pro Express has integrated customer loyalty features that are free with no transaction fees.

3 — Nothing beats old-fashioned, friendly service.  Choose cashiers and baristas that are naturally friendly and conversational.  If you’re the owner or manager, spend some time out front personally greeting customers and thanking them for visiting your shop.  People feel good spending their money at friendly places, and a great experience will keep them coming back for more.

What’s working in your business?  Send us your ideas and we’ll post them on the blog!

As you know, the mark of a good point of sale system is speed and efficiency.  No one knows this more than the owner or manager of a deli or grocery store.  Lines can get rather long in such businesses so speed is certainly an issue.  With Cash Register Express’ scale interface, a checkout clerk no longer has to fumble around with weighing an item and manually entering the weight into the register.  With the NTEP certified scale interface, Cash Register Express will work with a weight scale that is plugged directly into the point of sale system.  If you have a deli scale that prints bar codes, Cash Register Express will automatically caluculate the price based on the bar code readout as well.  Features like this make Cash Register Express a great Deli or Grocery Point Of Sale System.  For more information, please go to http://www.pcamerica.com/retail_pos_systems.html

Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express both have integrated coupon tracking.  Many retailers are using their retail point of sale system to enable coupons and discounts for specific items to drive traffic into the store.  Several restaurants are also offering coupons, such as a free appetizer with any two entrees, to give more value to potential customers.  The restaurant POS would have a button created for this coupon to automically discount the appetizer from the check.

The coupon interface within Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express is robust.

• Coupons can be configured to include or exclude specific items (for example, a coupon for $ 1 off all sandwiches except the portobello mushroom sandwich)
• Expiration dates can be assigned with optional manager overrides, helping ensure a more immediate surge of traffic
• Set valid times and dates for coupons, so they are only valid during specified days and times (ex: early bird dinner special Monday – Thursday, 2 PM – 5 PM.)
• Coupons are entered as their own item, allowing coupon redemptions and marketing success to be easily gauged.  Simply run a coupon sales reports, and you can see exactly how many of each coupon were redeemed.  This information can be used to run future successful campaigns.

Have you seen pcAmerica’s Restaurant Pro Express Restaurant POS System on TV?  If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to watch excerpts from We Mean Business on the A&E channel.  We Mean Business has been nomintated for a Day-time Emmy and is about stuggling restail or restaurant businesses that are given a second chance by receiving a design facelift as well as technology from Dell in the form of digital signage and a point of sale system.  pcAmerica’s Restaurant Pro Express POS System for Fine Dining and Quick Service Restaurants were featured in two of the eight episodes.  To view these episodes, go to www.pcamerica.com and check out the What’s New section or browse through the News and Press section.

Employee theft is one of the leading causes of losses in a retail store.  Usage of a secure retail point of sale system can help drive down theft in your retail environment.  Cash Register Express has several tools that help prevent theft by closely tracking your cash and inventory.  One of the most important security aspects of the CRE retail POS system is the employee security settings.

Cash Register Express has over 75 different security permissions that control access to every feature of the program that can effect cash or inventory levels.  These permissions can be set per employee, or alternatively by job role (such as cashier, manager, etc.)  The system administrator or store owner sets the permissions for the employees, which will restrict or allow staff member access to the various features of the POS software.  For example, a cashier can be restricted from voiding an invoice, but allowed to delete one specific line item.

Effective use of the various security permissions within the Employee Maintenance screen will help reduce employee theft by restricting from specific functions for employees that shouldn’t be using them, and keeping a detailed audit trails for the functions they are allowed to use.

One of the top priorities when choosing a liquor store point of sale system is detailed inventory control. Cash Register Express keeps track of the stock levels of every product in your liquor store.  A detailed record is logged every time you sell, order or receive product, and you can even perform inventory adjustment to account for instances where bottles are dropped and damaged.  The POS system can generate detailed or summarized inventory reports to analyze the movement of your inventory into and out of your stores.

One example of a useful inventory report is the Item Activity Report, which details, for each item in your criteria, how many were sold, received and damaged within a date range.  These figures are useful to see how fast or slow specific products are moving, and also help pinpoint theft in instances where the theoretical count differs from the actual count.

Another great report in the CRE Liquor POS is the Low Stock Alert report, which offers a real time glance into which products are understocked within your liquor store.  Usage of this report, combined with the automated replinishment tools within the purchase order section of Cash Register Express, help you keep your store stocked with the products your customers are looking for.