Different ways to handle sales tax.
People are sometimes confused by the different methods of collecting tax in SP-1. SP-1 is capable of handling five different tax rates with in our standard (non-Canadian) version. We then setup the taxable items in the Menu Group file. As a reminder, Menu Groups are main categories. For example, Coffee, Tea, Pizza, Sandwich, Beverages etc.
In the menu group, you can distinguish further by having a different taxable rates by the order type. Each Menu Group can have a different rate for Carry Out, Dine In, Pick up and Delivery. For example. You might have 8.5% for carry out coffee and 9.5% for dine in coffee etc. There is also the ability to set a Menu Group to the 0 tax rate. That will indicate that this is a non-taxed item. This is different than a tax exempt sale however.
Tax exempt sales happen when you sell an item that is usually taxed to a customer that does not pay sales tax. This is handled by creating a customer record and then setting the taxable switch for that customer to non-taxable.
Not to take this too far but we also have the ability to handle the GST / PST tax rates in Canada. Lastly, we handle a VAT (Value Added Tax) ability and the ability to add a PIF (public improvement fee).
Any questions? Just let us know!
Hire SP-1 as your 24/7 Coffee Shop Manager
Don’t you wish you had the money to hire an assistant? You know, that mythical person that would:
Keep track of employees.
Get your payroll ready for you.
Track labor costs.
Verify pricing on tickets and insure employees know the correct prices.
Track and look for menu items that are not selling.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a 40 hour a week assistant? What if you could get away with paying that assistant $2.40 an hour? Think about it – paying someone the same minimum today as they did in 1988 (Washington State rate). What if I told you that not only can you do that but that after the first year, they will work for FREE?
Sometimes you have to think of things in different terms. SP-1 is a fantastic POS system. It turns out it’s also makes for a pretty good coffee shop manager.
Why? Let’s list some things that SP-1 will help you with on a daily basis:
1) With integrated time keeping, you will know what time employees clocked in and out. Don’t forget, at the end of the payroll period, SP-1 will gather all that information and provide it to you.
2) At a moments notice, SP-1 can give you a labor cost and percent.
3) If you want, kick it another nickel a day and SP-1 will even email you every hour of the day with sales totals, labor percent and more.
4) SP-1 will diligently make sure your employees ring things in at the right price.
5) Don’t worry, when you need to communicate with your staff, just tell SP-1 and all your employees will be updated. You will even be able to see who has seen the message.
6) Theft will shrink because SP-1 only allows employees to use discounts, voids etc when they are supposed to . Further, SP-1 will track those and let you know what happened.
7) By the way, SP-1 will never lie to you or cheat you.
8) SP-1 will help your staff stay on top of inventory and even help you calculate a cost of goods sold each day.
9) SP-1 will work 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. No vacations or sick days!
10) SP-1 will do all this without complaining !
5 Questions you should ask before buying a POS.
Here are some questions that only a handful of customers ever ask.
1) How long is my initial technical support plan good for? A week? Month? Year?
2) What is considered a “call” on technical support? Are technical issues different than menu questions and are those different than training? This is an important question as some companies handle menu changes differently than problem calls. Others don’t count training time as part of technical support and have a different fee for this.
3) How many updates have you had in the last year? Not bug fixes but updates. This is important as a lot of companies count bug fixes as updates
4) How many years have you been in business? How many of those were designing POS systems? How long ago was this software designed?
5) Where is your support handled? Is it handled by the same company as development and sales? Is it in the same building?
In order to save you time. . . Here are our answers 
1) How long is my initial technical support plan good for? A week? Month? Year?
One year is included.
2) What is considered a “call” on technical support? Are technical issues different than menu questions and are those different than training?
Not with us. Tech support, problems, questions, menu changes, training are all covered under the same plan. We have one plan that covers all of this.
3) How many updates have you had in the last year? Not bug fixes but updates.
Eight different updates to our software that enhance functionality. We typically have more updates but some small features do not warrant an actual version change.
4) How many years have you been in business? How many of those were designing POS systems? How long ago was this software designed?
26 years in business. All 26 years have been designing, devloping and selling POS systems. This paticular
5) Where is your support handled? Is it handled by the same company as development and sales? Is it in the same building?
It’s all handled here at SelbySoft (8326 Woodland Ave E. Puyallup WA 98371 – Stop in and say Hi!). We have never outsourced any of our support or sales!
Is paper important to think about with your POS?
Paper. It’s not an exciting subject to some people but like everything, we take it pretty serious. You would think that we could just buy paper and then resell it right? Not exactly.
We carry:
Thermal receipt paper (in two sizes). This is great for printing receipts. The thermal paper and printers are quick and quiet. There is no ribbon needed and that reduces the moving parts as well.
Thermal sticky paper. This paper is simular to the above but when used with the right thermal printer, has a sticky gum backing. That makes this perfect for coffee cups and to go orders.
Non-Thermal receipt paper. (in two sizes). This is the paper for a kitchen or food service. This paper will not blacken with heat so it can be used around heat lamps. The printers for this paper come with our without automatic cut as well as a red / black ribbon for distinguishing certain menu items.
Non-Thermal reciept paper in two ply. Perfect for having one printer make two copies. It’s a type of carbon paper that allows for a white and yellow copy in one print.
Box labels. We carry two different kinds. These are thermal sticky labels that are designed to stick to boxes or bags. Perfect for pizza and sandwiches.
Barcode labels. We carry a line of two different labels that are great for barcodes and retail items. These are small enough to fit most retail items but large enough to read the price and description.
So next time you think about paper, also think about the fact that SP-1 has the functionality to handle all of these different printing roles (no pun intended)!
PCI DSS Credit card information
PCI DSS is confusing stuff. The fact is that as a business that processes, stores or transmits credit card data, you are required to validate your compliance with the PCI-DSS standards.
Note that I said you have to validate. That does not mean that your data is safe! Most stores are responsible for completing an annual Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and a quarterly report from an Authorized Security Vendor (ASV) that you have passed a network scan.
Note that the PCI SAQ C-2 is the document that most of our customers are required to fill out. It’s 26 pages long and considered the “shortened version”.
So, what does it say? In short, use common sense. There are 11 sections to the document and each has its own particular bit of verification. NOTE, don’t take any of the following as legal advice or as the final word on how to fill out your PCI documents!
1) Installed a firewall and have it configured properly. Hopefully you have secured your WiFi and separated it from your POS system.
2) Don’t use default passwords . We won’t let you do this in version 7.60 and above but you still need to do it with your other passwords in Windows, your router etc.
3) Protect cardholder data. Make sure that your POS does not store data and insure that the credit card numbers are masked etc. Don’t write credit card numbers down and use an integrated solution.
4) Encrypt transmission of the card data on networks. We encrypt the data per standards between the local nodes on the network.
5) Use an anti-virus. We like Microsoft Security Essentials.
6) Develop & maintain secure systems. Make sure you maintain your POS with the most updated version . Also your Windows critical updates need to be kept up to date.
7) Restrict access to cardholder data to people that need it. Since the cards are not stored in SP-1, this is handled. If you write numbers down and save them, then you are opening a whole other can of worms.
8) Assign unique ID’s to each person with POS access. You do have unique employee ID’s right?
9) Restrict physical access to cardholder data. Since we don’t store cardholder data this should be a no brainier. If you write numbers down for some reason you need to have polices and procedures in place to insure that the data is not taken off site. Also, they need to be destroyed and secured in store (i.e. locked) until they are destroyed.
11) Test your processes and security systems. Make sure that you have a way to see if the network has been comprimised (hacked). Even just USB drives plugged in, software downloaded that is not approved or a wireless devices installed can through this question. Make sure you don’t let your POS become a home computer. Also, you have to have an qualified internal or external party perform a quarterly scan.
12) Maintain a policy that addresses information security. This concerns a lot of security issues in your store. One of the things most stores have never thought about is that you must have policies and procedures in place as far as employee electronic devices. Yes you are supposed to have a list of which employees are allowed to have what type of electronic devices in your store!
Color coded On-Hold
Here is a neat new tweak of a feature. For those of you with SP-1, you know that you can use our “On-Hold” button for running tabs. In an environment with a bar, you may run a tab for a customer and need to go back to it often to add to the tab.
While our integrated table service system is usually the best way to handle this, there are times it is not. If you have a bar situation where the bartender or server is dealing with customers that are not seated, then the On-Hold system works best as you can name a tab.
Recently we made a change to make this even easier. Now, if you pull up the on-hold screen, the tickets on that screen will be highlighted if they were entered by the person who is currently logged in.
In the example below, the orders for Mike & Chris were taken by employee 9999 who is currently clocked in.
When’s the last time you changed your password?
When is the last time you changed your password? Want me to guess it?
Is it one of these?
23456 12345
123456789 Password
iloveyou princess
rockyou 1234567
12345678 abc123
Based on research found here. I might be right.
In Version 7.60 and above SP-1 requires a “strong” password that is 7 characters in length with at least one number and one letter. Further these passwords expire every 90 days and you are prompted for a new password. Because you can’t use the same password more than one out of four times in row, you can’t cheat the system by using the same one.
That’s great but what about those of you on previous versions? Well, first, get updated! However, if you can’t for some reason, then please be smart about your passwords! We all see the stories online of the top 100 passwords etc. Please make sure you are following the rules for strong password creation even if SP-1 is not forcing you to.
How do you close your shifts?
How do you handle the shift closes you have? A very common way is that the employee runs the 40 column shift close report in SP-1, counts the money and then hands it all over or stores it in the lock box or safe. The challenge with this is if you have employee theft issues. Allowing the employee to count their own till and match it against a report can lead to them ‘adjusting’ the cash they have on hand.
What you should look at is doing a blind close out. This can be done by not allowing the employee to run the balance till or 40 column shift close reports. Then, when the employee finish their shift, they print one ticket with a comment on it. The comment will read something like “end of shift”. This receipt goes into the cash bag along with the till count.
At the end of the night or shift, the owner or trusted manager runs the shift close report and enters the ticket number off the receipt in the bag. SP-1 will automatically show you just the close out for the tickets during that shift ! While this puts a little more work on the manager or owner, it helps insure that the employees are accountable for their actions.
Nice customer comments!
Recently we have been running some customer comments in our advertising. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things our customers have felt confident to share about us:
“We couldn’t have asked for better customer service. SelbySoft Rocks!”
- John & Lynelle from Mudhouse with 4 locations in VA.
“Where would we be without SelbySoft? This POS system is worth the investment! It makes ordering a breeze so we can give our clients great customer service. Plus, as an owner it’s amazing how useful all the reports and other features are for running our business! And of course the support staff are incredible!
Thanks SelbySoft Team!”
- Pam Thomas – The Place To Be Canby, Or.
“With SelbySoft, we have been able to better manage our nine locations. The hourly Recaps and sales data have allowed us to eliminate wasted accounting time and to better manage our labor on an hourly basis.”
- Lori Foerster , Prior owner of Crane Coffee, 9 locations Omaha, NE.
We are a small owner operated coffee shop/bistro and started with a very primitive cash register and order system. We attended the Coffee Fest trade show in DC. in 2008 and meet the SelbySoft team. While at the convention there were other POS systems present, however we were constantly drawn back to the SelbySoft booth. Here is why, first the product development is user friendly with pictorial options. This makes serving the customer faster and more accurate. The knowledgeable sales team were able to answer all questions with examples and expertise. Once home, we had a phone conference with Mike and did many phone demos. This is what secured our purchase. Not only did Selby Soft have a great product and great team, they were able to develop a system to suit our personal needs. Our business was growing into not only coffee but a bistro, so our POS had to define both those needs. We ended up with a barista monitor and food monitor in 2 separate places in our store. This shortened our initial order time, wait time and service time. The way our store operates is at such a professional level, that now it is seamless. Now 3 1/2 years later we will be ordering another system that will complement our expanding kiosk business for 2012. Thank you SelbySoft, you are amazing !
Jim and Kathy Kozak, Talia Espresso, North Wilkesboro, NC.
Pike Creek Coffee Roasterie really leaned on the expertise of the SelbySoft team in choosing our POS system. That was nearly 4 years ago, and they have never let us down! When we have questions, they are fast to respond, always offering helpful solutions to make our coffee shop run more smoothly. Stepping into the world of coffee shop ownership as total newbies, we are SO glad we discovered SelbySoft!