Can a POS store software have too much automation in the z-report and Counting the cash drawer features?
So we had this customer that has been using our software for a while and they claim they love it, but they’re pleading with us that something is missing in the z-report and Counting of the cash drawer features. Now we have all kinds of stores use our software, from people using it as a clothing store software, to a computer store software, to a grocery store software and everything in between. But once in awhile, we will get the customer that desperately wants to use our software because our software is really nice but also is free of charge and are support is free of charge so there’s an overwhelming people that want to use it including those that are software is not the best fit for because we didn’t have their complex and unique operations in mind when we built our software.
Customer feedback on store software
One of those instances presented itself recently, when a young store owner came to us to inquire about why our software doesn’t do that cash drawer counting feature a little more automatically than what it already does and in our opinion they wanted to be too automatic with no input from the user just by clicking one button to tell you what you should have in the drawer.
Store Software limitations for complex businesses
Now no matter how smart the software is we should never assume how you run your business and that every close of the drawer and Counting of the drawer will be on the same circumstances and we’ll explain later on what we mean by this, but also it’s worth noting that this person has a store that they describe not as general retail but they describe it as close to a pawn shop but they said it’s definitely not a pawn shop either , so they couldn’t explain it very well themselves either but their slogan is buy sell trade so we assume they do a lot of buying selling and bartering.
Customer request for automatic cash drawer counting
They complained or requested of us that the software should instantly give them a number as to what the countdown of the cash in the register should be at the end of their working day, at night, just by clicking one button on that report and going to the report, without having any input whatsoever.
Limitations of automatic cash drawer counting
We started explaining that every business is different but we tried to cater to General retail with our retail software and general retail doesn’t exactly work exactly like their business but they argued that it does even though again they’re doing buying selling and bartering in their business and they’re describing it like a pawn shop and we insisted that a general retail business like your average Walmart and Target do not do that. Still at first glance it seemed like they had a very good argument when they said no matter what kind of a store I have and that it Strays away from the typical retail blueprint, they argued that the closing z-report and tool for counting down the register in their view should be all in one and same window or report and should take just one click and no input from the user whatsoever, the software should immediately give them a number, a numerical value as to what is to be in the register and if it’s not adding up, then you have a problem.
Different types of businesses require different reports
What we tried to explain to them is that if we did that, we are assuming that this business, mind you we have to cater to hundreds of thousands of businesses literally, has only one Countdown or reconciliation or balancing of the register in the day and always at the end of the day and it will always be one calendar day without any spillovers into the next day for the working day. Here’s what we mean by that, if we were to do all this with one button, we’re supposing that everyday goes on with cash drawer counting, with one cashier, responsible for one till and set of money and changing the drawer in this process happens only once a day so that when you click the button all of that is assumed and you just get a flat round number that makes you feel nice like everything is automated and you don’t have to have any input and be afraid of the human error. In all reality we have different types of businesses that we cater to and we shouldn’t pretend that there’s only one type of business in the world and especially one type of a retail business and make our retail software just cater to that way of working, for example there are businesses that have five or six cashiers that will change on that cash register that will be open and running for the entire calendar day so you would have five or six cash out and cash register counting, so these events need to be separated in separate z- reports by not only the date but specific hours in a format of from date and time and then to date and time and then based on that report to take that figure that should be in the cash drawer for only that strict time frame and insert that into your cash drawer counting tool and expect to get the money only from that shift, not entire day, and as cashiers change maybe five or six of them you have to do this five or six times a day on five or six different time frames with five or six different totals and each of them having started their till with a potentially different change in the till for the initial money operations and having enough money to make change for the people that will overpay with larger bills and will need change back.
Spillover of business operations into different days
Another very common reason of why this cannot be absolutely automated with one button click is that a lot of businesses like bars and nightclubs or restaurants stay open past midnight so their operations spill over into the next day meaning the next calendar date, so the report needs to involve two calendar dates partially. To see we cannot assume that all businesses are the same and they’re done in one way and that there’s only one right way to do business and make a software that is way too automated and not expect any user input or flexibility but just tell you everything that you need to know in one final figure with just by just pushing one button. Perhaps you can get that if you order a custom-made software, a custom store software for your business operation which will cost six figures and then you would still have the war in the limitation that in the future if you change your business practices even slightly it will not even fit your own business. So it’s not that we’re not good enough programmers to develop the software good enough to be more automated or we don’t have the imagination to make it better, it’s just that when you build a software that needs to cater to all sorts of businesses and you want to mass deploy it and give it away for free so as many people as possible can use it, we need to consider all types of businesses and flexibility, from hardware store software – to music store software and we’re obviously always going to miss some certain type of businesses and certain extremely specific needs.
