Category: Employees

Jan
27
2011
January 27th, 2011 by ssadmin
How do you handle delivery?

For those of you that offer delivery service, you have had some big questions you had to address.   It seems like such a simple situation when you open a store but delivery is actually a very complex affair.
SelbySoft has some solutions for you however!  Today we will talk about the different ways that stores charge customers for delivery.
Most of our delivery customers choose to have a minimum delivery amount.  With SP-1 this can be based on the ticket or a menu group.  An example of the ticket amount would be that you may want a total ticket dollar amount of $10.00 in order to deliver.  An example of the menu group would be to only deliver if they order $10 of pizza, regardless of how much they order otherwise.  This stops the an employee from taking a salad delivery only.
Once a minimum charge is setup, you can choose to allow the customer to pay the difference between the minimum and the ticket total in order to meet the requirement!  For example, if a customer buys $8.00 of product, then SP-1 will add $2.00 to the ticket to meet the $10.00 minimum.  You can also add an option for overriding the additional charge if needed.
If the customer meets the minimum delivery requirements, then we get into what and how do we charge them?
With SP-1 you have four main methods of doing this. . .
Per ticket – With this you can add a charge per ticket for the delivery.  For example -$2.00 per delivery.
Per item – A little more complex.  In this method, you are charging based on the menu item and / or the order type.  So, if a customer orders 1 pizza for delivery, you may charge $1.00, 2 pizzas, $1.00, 3 or more would be $3.00 for the charge.  This can be used for a variety of different charges as well.   There is another method of doing this as well by using the accumulation switch.  With that turned on, the per item charge is accumulated.
Street Names:  With this activated, you can set a delivery address based on the specific street a customer lives on.
Map:  With this optional software, you can setup a delivery based on the range.  So under 1 mile is free, 2 miles out and more is $2.50
All of these options allow for delivery charges based on the time of day or day of the week as well!

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Delivery, Employees, Order Entry, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Dec
07
2010
December 7th, 2010 by ssadmin
Miscellaneous Charge
Do you ever run into into situations where you need to charge someone but don’t have a menu item programmed?
SP-1 has a Miscellaneous Charge button that allows you to handle this!  In Order Entry, select the Miscellaneous Charge button and the above screen pops up.

You can change the description on the fly so it reflects what was added as a charge.  Enter the amount and you are done.
As usual, there are many other options involved with this:
  •  In System Setup | Operations:3 you can default the description of the Miscellaneous Charge to something other than “Misc. Charge”.  You can even setup if tax should be added to this based on the order type (Delivery, Dine In, Carry Out, Pick Up). 
  • You can also decide if discounts will apply to Miscellaneous Charges.  This can be setup in Master Files | Discounts. 
  • Of course we report on all of this as well!  Miscellaneous charges are reported in detail in Reports | Daily Sales | Business Summary.   If you want to get more specific, you can run the Reports | Ticket History | Misc. Charge report (shown below).  

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Order Entry, POS Features, Uncategorized Tagged with:

Oct
14
2010
October 14th, 2010 by ssadmin
Employee Security

It’s true, the days of one and two letter employee passwords are gone.  Chances are you might be one of the people that created an employee code and then used 123 as your password.
In order to better safeguard our customers and to insure our customers are in compliance with PCI and PA-DSS regulations for credit card systems, we have moved to providing secure employee password systems in the SP-1 POS system.
In versions 7.60 and above, you are required to have passwords that meet industry standards for security.
Employee Password Specifications:
  • Must be 7 characters or more.
  • Must contain a combination of numbers and letters
  • Must expire every 90 days.
  • Will not allow for the same password to be used within last 4 times.
  • SHA-512 Cryptographic Hash system for password security.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA_hash_functions
  • Employee lock outs after multiple failed attempts

In addition to this, all the employees access is being tracked and logged as well!

The great news with all of this is to insure that your system is as secure as possible!  For those of you that are dreading typing long complex passwords. . . Implement the Card Swipe or Fingerprint ID – With those items you don’t have to type the password every time!

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, theft, Uncategorized Tagged with: , ,

Jul
19
2010
July 19th, 2010 by ssadmin

Different Wages For Different Jobs?

Occasionally we run across stores that have a clear delineation between the job the employee is assigned to and the wage that employee will be paid.   SP-1 has a clear cut method of dealing with this.

Let’s set the example up first. . .  Take a typical location that does delivery and dine in orders.  In this scenario you may have employees that work as delivery drivers and are paid a lower wage than a cook because they are being supplemented by the delivery tips (hopefully!).    Now, to further complicate things, on certain days of the week one of these drivers works as a cook at a higher than normal (for him) wage!

With SP-1 you can utilize our Job Class system to accommodate this easily.  The Job Classes are setup in System Setup.  In this section of the program, you assign the three letter id for the job and the more descriptive name on the right hand side.

Once you have setup the Job Class names and descriptions, they can be entered into the employee master file.  You can enter a custom wage and overtime wage for each Job Class you assign to each employee.
Now, when the employee clocks in, they are presented with a choice as to the Job Class they are working under and the wage will be reported correctly on the employee time keeping reports as well.
By the way, you can also run a report based on the total number of hours each class worked and how much that cost you.  This is a great way to distinguish how much you might be spending on cooks, delivery drivers, counter people etc.

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
http://www.selbysoft.com/
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Reporting, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Jul
13
2010
July 13th, 2010 by ssadmin
After my last blog on Job Classes, I was thinking about the other use for them.  Tracking how much training you are doing!
As you (hopefully) remember, my last blog was on how Job Classes work.  As a recap: 
Each employee can be assigned up to five (5) Job Classes.  Each of these Job Classes has a description and a separate wage and (if you accomdate it) an overtime wage.   So, once these are assigned to the specific employee, they appear on clock-in.  Your employee then selects what Job Class they are working for that time period.
There is a great secondary use for this feature however – Training. 
We have a number of clients that take the training of their employees pretty seriously and want to make sure that employees are up to speed before they are being paid fully.  It’s a pretty common idea in a lot of businesses.   For example, you may require that an employee work a certain number of hours as a barista trainee before getting a raise.  Or, you might require a certain number of hours on the clock after being hired before that employee is past their “probation” timeframe.

We do it here at SelbySoft and it helps us in making sure that the employee and the company are on the same page.  For anyone that is interested in how we do it, we have a three month evaluation and training period before any raises and before the rest of the guys stop referring to them as “that new guy” and actually use their name.

With SP-1 you can create a training Job Class that is used when that employee clocks in each shift.  That will allow you to effectively track how much time was spent on training in that job.  SP-1 will report that on the time keeping and also report the total training time your store utilizes over a set time frame.

This is a really great feature to help track and control your training programs in your location. 

Contact us at:
 SelbySoft Mike Spence
800-454-4434 Sales@SelbySoft.com
 http://www.selbysoft.com/
 8326 Woodland Ave.
 Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Reporting, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

May
14
2010
May 14th, 2010 by ssadmin
Cash Drawers, Theft and Employee Accountability
Every day here at SelbySoft, we receive calls asking about shortages in the cash drawer.  While a number of these are simple mistakes by the crew, theft is an issue as well.  If we can make our cash handling employees accountable for the mistakes and shortages, then we are on our way to eliminating them.  
So, the question is how can we help?   It all starts by deciding who has access to cash in drawers and how we can minimize that.  
Let’s start by defining how you probably handle the drawer in your location:
  • Do you allow anyone in the store to handle the cash? 
  • Do you have a dedicated cashier that must ring up every order?
  • Do you have a couple people that you trust? 
All of the above work but only if handled properly.  The basic problem in most stores is that there are just too many hands in the drawer.  Then, when the drawer is short – who do you look at?
Let’s talk about how we can make it better and more secure with SP-1
First, we lock down the cash drawer.  In SP-1 you can assign a cash drawer to an employee.  This helps insure employee accountability because only that employee can access the cash.  
The inconvenience with this is that the cashier may not always be at the front counter when the customer is ready to order.  With SP-1 we can make this an easier situation in two ways:
  • Set your system to allow anyone to start a ticket but only the approved employee code to close out a ticket.  This provides you with the flexibility of having every employee being able to start an order (and then place it on hold) but only having one employee cash that customer out.
  • Use multiple cash drawers.  SP-1 allows up to five cash drawers per station!  With this, you are actually assigning 1-5 employees to their own drawers.  If employee one takes an order, drawer one opens, employee two takes an order and drawer two opens.
With either method, you will be on your way to eliminating the potential for shortages in your drawer and increasing employee accountability.

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
http://www.selbysoft.com/
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Hardware, theft Tagged with: , ,

Feb
16
2010
February 16th, 2010 by ssadmin

I’m finally back on the blogs for each week . . . We are getting ready for two big shows that are coming up and have had some interest in showing off our Fingerprint ID Security System at these shows.

One of the things that we have heard more about in the last year is the incidents of employee theft increasing.

So what is a Fingerprint ID System and how does it work? These units are connected to the software and then either sit on the counter or attach to a monitor. They are designed to allow the employee to use any one of their fingers to both clock in to the system and to be used as an id for employee tracking.

What this means to you is that you will have a complete piece of mind when dealing with your employees. For instance, you can reduce the incidents for employee time theft easily. So, when the employee wants to have a buddy clock in for him . . . can’t happen.

But this works both ways. . . If you assign employees to cash drawers (future blog topic?), then the fingerprint helps that employee feel secure. Let’s play this out. . .

Bob is assigned to a cash drawer – he is the only person that should be handling the money at the counter. Now, Bob walks away and Susie knows his four digit code. She enters that, hits no sale and pockets the cash. Bob get’s blamed. So, what if we use the employee swipe card instead? Same scenario. . .

Susie walks up, grabs the card Bob left behind, swipes it and steals the money. Bob get’s blamed. Finally, let’s play this out with a fingerprint. . .

Susie walks up and . . . Nothing – she can’t open the drawer. Bob is secure in knowing that the cash in the drawer is his responsibility and that it is accurate.

So, if you have a fingerprint through us – use it! If not, call us and ask how we can implement it in your location.

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Hardware, Uncategorized Tagged with:

Jan
25
2010
January 25th, 2010 by ssadmin

Do your employees bug you about the time that they work? We have a feature that will allow your employees to see how many hours they worked each time they clock out.

So, when an employee clocks out SP-1 will print a receipt with the clock in, clock out and total hours worked as a receipt for the employee!

This option can be found in System Setup, Operations:1 and then select Print Employee Hours Summary on Clock Out.

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Reporting, Uncategorized Tagged with: , ,

Dec
15
2009
December 15th, 2009 by ssadmin

Security Levels! I know it’s not the most exciting topic but I am amazed by the number of stores that have open levels of security for their employees. Security is important so you can remain on top of who is doing what and when. After all, you lock your doors right?

SP-1 has 11 levels of security available. The first ten are labeled 0 through 9 with 9 being the highest. The 11th level is by leaving the security code blank.

Let’s tackle some of these. . .
The blank security code is the most interesting to start with. By entering an employee and leaving their security code blank, you are telling SP-1 that this employee will ONLY be allowed to clock in and out. They cannot access any other area of the program. This is great for having cleaning staff or anyone else that you track time with but is not actually working on the POS.

Levels 0 through 9 are used to assign what an employee can and can’t do. If a zero is assigned to an employee, that employee only has access to the order screen (Order Entry) in SP-1.
Levels 1 – 8 can be assigned to employees that may need access to any of the other areas of SP-1.

Our general suggestion is to assign employees as follows:
Owner – 9
Manager -5
Shift Supervisor – 3
Employee – 0
It is VERY important that only the owner has a 9 on their account.

This leaves you with some levels for growth and for multiple stores.

Once you have assigned the security level, you would place that code in the system security section on each of the items you want to control. Remember that if you enter a number, then anyone with that level or higher could access that item. So a 3 can do anything a 0-2 can and so on.

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Uncategorized Tagged with: ,

Oct
05
2009
October 5th, 2009 by ssadmin

Theft – It’s a fact that it happens in your store. It happens in everyones store. Over the years I have seen a ton of methods that employees and managers will use to steal / give away product.

Recently in Washington State a fine dining restaurant found out that an employee was using a managers code to void cash transactions. This employee wound up stealing over $30,000 over three years through this method. Think about that – $30k. Now, even if it is only $1k that is still unacceptable!

So, this brings us to the question of audit tracking. Are you using your balance till, employee summary, business summay and audit reports? If not, you should be. These are the best ways to see the ‘red flags’ that we all know about and to catch what is happening.

Remember that we show re-opened tickets on the Balance Till – this shows which tickets have been re-opened and which code was used. A good start as to what is going on.

Employee Summary – Run this periodically over a timeframe. This will show voids by employee. If one employee has a larger percent of voids as opposed to another then there is something going on. Either that person needs re-training or they are doing something funny.

Business summary – each and every day, look at the total number of voids and edited voids. This will show you a total dollar amount that you will be responsible for.

Audit reports – This is the absolute best report to run. Remember that this report is not stored inside SP-1 so it is not accessible to the normal employee. This will show you every ticket that has been changed or voided along with who did it, when it was done etc.

Please take a look at these on a regular basis! This does not have to be a ‘negative’ topic – it’s just about protecting yourself!

Don’t hesitate to contact me or our support guys for more information!

Contact us at:
SelbySoft
Mike Spence
800-454-4434
Sales@SelbySoft.com
WWW.SelbySoft.com
8326 Woodland Ave. E
Puyallup Wa 98371

Posted in Employees, Reporting, theft, Uncategorized Tagged with: , , , ,

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