How to use a Cash Register: Tip #2 - Reporting
After a busy day of sales, multi-tasking during closing proceedures is a common practice for most businesses. There is usually plenty of work to do around the shop that can be preformed while waiting for reports to print from the cash register. So when it comes time to start on the closing paperwork, there can be a sudden sense of dread to realize something went wrong when printing the end of day report. Whether the paper ran out part way through printing, or some type of paper jam occurred, what are the options to access the important information you just reset?
The first line of defense against data loss is to plan ahead. Here are a few methods to take to ensure you won't run into issues.
- Check paper levels before running reports. It never hurts to open up the printer cover and verify that there will be enough paper to run the entire report. Most receipt paper will have a colored stripe that will appear when nearing the end of the roll.
- Run an X report before running the Z report. Running reports with the key in the X position will let you eXamine the total without resetting it. If a paper jam occurs during this process, you can always run the report again and the numbers will still be there. Just be sure to run the Z report to Zero the totals when you have a full copy.
Upgrade registers. Newer registers have a failsafe that stops operations when paper runs out. A warning message will be displayed and the current task is held in memory until a new roll is loaded. Printing will resume where it left off.- Skip the paper report and go digital. Using either a reporting software on your computer to connect directly to the cash register, or saving reports to an SD or USB drive from the register allows you to ignore the uncertainty of paper reports. This can also save time by importing data into your sales database rather than entering numbers manually.
Of course, those suggestions are all best case scenario where you're not already in the middle of a reporting catashrophe. If you happen to find yourself in a situation where the printer ate your only copy of your data, what do you do then?
- Check the journal. Regular transactions as well as reports are saved on the journal. If your register doesn't have the second printer that serves as a hard copy journal, you may have a model that uses an electronic journal. In many Sam4s models, this is accomplished by turning the key to the X position and pressing 3 0 0 SUBTOTAL.
- Run the weekly/period report. If you run a period report at the end of each week and have the totals from each day since the last time you can do a little math. Run the period report in the X position and subtract out the previous daily numbers to get the current totals.
- Run a Daily Sales report. Often times the end of day procedures call for resetting the Financial, PLU and maybe Group reports. There are a handful of other reports that will remain intact including the Daily Sales Report. Purely a breakdown of sales totals over the last 30 days, this report will at the very minimum, allow you to balance the drawer.
For help determining the capabilities of your specific model of cash register, enabling or using electronic journal or for information on reporting software, contact us with the button below.
