Deleting Records (and Re-Instating Them)
How will Abacus handle transactions that go over the next day? (some Outlets close at 1am). This creates issues especially when at month-end when some transactions are closed after midnight and therefore have clocked over to the next month?
We have several 'settings' on how POS will handle Dates (Business Date vs. Transaction Date vs. System Date) in this regard -- relevant to the 'start' Date/Time of the Ticket.
It sounds like in this case you would set this for Business Date... and have POS Transactions that started at 12:05am on June 15th be considered in the June 14th Business.
The 'exact' time is immaterial... my example (of 12:05am) merely implied something the 'next day'... so 1:30am or 2:00am or whatever are okay... they are still recorded under the previous day's 'Business Date'.
Can the new day's transaction be started if Finance has yet to close the transactions from the day before? For example, Recreation and F&B staff start at around 5am and Finance starts around 8:30am, so won't be 'closing' until after Recreation and F&B have already started processing POS transactions for the new day.
This is absolutely no problem... the System was specifically designed to accommodate this kind of situation -- all the POS Transactions (and their postings) are Date-sensitive.
Same thing hold true for Accounting not doing every Section's POS for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- until they come in on Monday.
What is the Method for Correcting POS Tickets with postings to and a 3rd-Party PMS System?
There are special controls to safeguard the interface between Abacus and the Property Management System (PMS). We do not allow the voiding of tickets with posted room charges. This is because there is no way to void a charge that has been posted to the PMS - all we can do is to make additional postings - either positive or negative.
So the procedure for voiding a ticket is to first delete the payment. Although it appears to the operator that the payment is being deleted, the system is actually making a reversing posting to the PMS folio to back out the charge. Once the charge is reversed, the ticket can be voided.
However, if the PMS folio is closed at the time the payment is being deleted, there is a problem. Since there is nowhere to post the reversal of the payment, the operator is not allowed to proceed. If the payment were deleted without making the reversing entry to PMS, the systems would be out of sync.
You need to determine what the offsetting entry should be. If the guest is gone, the PMS bill is settled. The guest has already paid or the charge has been credited. If the charge has actually been paid, the reversal of the payment in POS should go to some kind of miscellaneous revenue account. You received the money... so it has to go somewhere. So you would delete all of the Items from the POS ticket and then add another payment line to reverse the amount that was posted to the room. The payment type would be linked to the miscellaneous revenue account. If the amount was credited from the guest's bill upon checking out, then you would use a payment type that is linked to the same account as was used when the credit was posted -- to wash out the transaction.
G/L postings simple examples:
Normal Sale and Settlement where Guest pays for the ticket:
POS Ticket: CR Sales / DR Guest Ledger
Checkout: CR Guest Ledger / DR Cash
If the person had already checked out, the Checkout postings are locked in place and Abacus forces the Guest Ledger posting to be left in place - although it has not yet been physically posted. So the POS ticket can be edited to remove the sale of the items. You then end up with the following postings when you add the additional payment line to reverse the room charge.
POS Ticket: CR Misc Revenue / DR Guest Ledger
Checkout: CR Guest Ledger / DR Cash
Normal Sale and Settlement where the Guest questions the charge and the charge is credited:
POS Ticket: CR Sales / DR Guest Ledger
Checkout: CR Guest Ledger / DR Writeoff
Then when the POS ticket is edited, a Payment Type linked to the same account as is used in the PMS checkout writeoff can be used. (Or another account if you wish.)
POS Ticket: CR Writeoff / DR Guest Ledger
Checkout: CR Guest Ledger / DR Writeoff
Referencing On-Line Documentation -
How can you distribute a Hyperlink to a Section of Abacus 21's On-Line Documentation?
If you want to create a Hyperlink to a 'page' of Abacus 21's On-Line Documentation, perform the following steps:
Call up Abacus 21's On-Line Help System:
From the Client Section of Abacus 21's Website, or
From you Browser: http://www.abacus21.com/online-help/Abacus-OnLine-Help.htm
Go to a particular Page of interest (for example, Address Type Setup). Right-Click on the Webpage and go to Properties:
Highlight the Page's URL Address and Copy (Ctrl-C):
Paste (Ctrl-V) it wherever desired:
Note: This technique also works at the 'Bookmark' points within a Webpage.
"Referencing On-Line Documentation is a 'Bookmark' point on this Page.
It's URL Address is: http://www.abacus21.com/online-help/Frequently_Asked_Questions.htm#Referencing_On_Line_Documentation_Segments
How do you Print a Section of Abacus 21's On-Line Documentation?
Go to a particular Page of interest (for example, Address Type Setup):
Close the 'Contents' Directory on the left-side of the screen (if it is open) by hitting the 'x' (close) icon in the upper-right corner of the Contents segment -- and then Right-Click on the Webpage:
Choose the Print option:
Make sure the Options Tab has the 'Only the selected frame' checked:
... and then print the Output as normal.
Question: We are trying to remove Items. Using the Item Setup screen, we delete the Items, but if we use the same Item-Code for another Item, we are prompted that this is a Deleted Item... and do we want to recover (Re-Instate) it. If we say No, then we are unable to use that Item-Code. If we say yes, then all the information that was previously entered (for the original Item) returns from the grave.
The above example is in Japanese font.
Answer: The way the system is responding in this situation is the way it is intended to:
When you 'delete' an Item (or anything for that matter), it is flagged as 'deleted' internally... but not 'erased'. (The Time/Date/User Stamp is affixed to the record.)
This is because the system needs to maintain its "referential integrity"... namely there may be (and in most cases undoubtedly are) transactions of various natures associated with that Item.
The Item may have appeared in numerous Inventory Purchasing, Receiving, Adjustment, Requisition, POS, Package, POS-Button, Sales History, etc. Transactions.
So, for Historical reporting and integrity purposes, the Abacus System 'retains' the Item... flagged as Deleted so that it does not appear in normal lookups and reports (unless asked for).... but is still available from a historical perspective.
When you recall the Deleted one, it recognizes the Item's status... and correctly asks you if you wanted to re-instate it (as Active).
The moral of the story is that you can not re-use Item Codes (or other Codes in general... there are a few exceptions).
If you have some dedicated purpose for deleting masses of records (such as might be associated with eradicating unnecessarily converted-in data), please contact Abacus 21 Support:
In some cases, Abacus 21 may already have an appropriate DELETION program (such as one we have for Deleting/Erasing unwanted Items, ItemAudit.exe) -- after judiciously and diligently examining all the related record references for possible links.
Or... Abacus may be able to write a special-purpose script or program (assuming you can define the deletion/erasure criteria).
Workstation-Terminal Lock Messages -
In a multi-User, multi-Workstation, or multi-Icon usage of Abacus 21's System 441, you may run into a POS Register "Lock-Message" situation in which a particular 'Section' is locked by another User's Workstation -- getting an System Control Message similar to:
Preamble -
Of course the question that precedes all of this is - Why are these Sections being left locked in the first place?
Whatever is causing this needs to be addressed:
First, there used to be a loophole in the POS Register. If you 'cancelled out' rather than 'posting', the Sections were left locked. This has already been corrected and is available as a Release 51 Fix.
Otherwise, the Program must be getting exited illegitimately. Error condition? PC turned off or re-booted - possibly due to a hang? Program Terminated? Whatever... If it is erroring, we need to know so we can make corrections. If Users are terminating illegitimately - they need to be told to "not do this anymore".
Suggestions -
There should only be two reasons they get a System Control Message stating that a Section is locked:
Case 1 - A User legitimately has the Section locked because someone is running the Register on another Workstation for that Section.
The option to correct this issue:
Wait for the User to finish with the Section... and that will unlock the Section normally.
Case 2 - The Register failed with an exception and the User is trying it again.
The option to correct this issue:
Wait 30-Minutes for the Time-Out.
Click 'Recover & Continue' (Note this Option will only be available if the attempt is being done from the Locking Terminal.)
Extreme measures like the following will forcibly release all locks and should only be used in Case-2 scenarios:
A Super User will have the option "Allow forced unlock of all Sections." When on the Lock Warning screen shows in the POS Register, the button "Force Unlock All Sections & Close" will appear.
Stop the System 441 Application Server - which resides (normally) on the actual Database Server... and delete the "A21ApplicationServer.bin.ResCtrl" file from the A21Services folder.
Symptom: Apparent Loss of Buttons on Screen
This could be associated with the Workstation Fonts/Window theme being 'goofy'. Check that your PC's Display Properties were NOT set up to use Large Fonts in Windows which might 'push' the System 441 controls around into odd positions on the Screen.
Should we have a warning on the website that using large fonts with System 441 will cause screen issues