Transcript for the December 2008 Open Forum Chat for Microsoft Dynamics RMS
Product: Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) team
Topics: Open Forum
Date: December 4, 2008
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Receipt printing
Q: I have two printers. Is there a way to configure RMS 2.0 such that payment using store account would be printed on my laser printer full page format, while the regular all cash transaction would be printed on the receipt printer 40-column format?
A: The only way that this could be accomplished would be to use the 'Print receipts only after asking the cashier' option (Manager | Database | Registers | Register List | Properties | Receipt Printer 1 and Receipt Printer 2).
Q: And I have to set both printers to always ask cashier to print.
A: Yes. This would be required since there is not a way to print receipts based on the tender type used. If you have this option enabled the cashier will be prompted on each transaction asking if they want to print a receipt on receipt printer 1 and if they want to print a receipt on receipt printer 2. They can then choose to print on the full page printer, the 40-column printer, both, or none.
Q: Since I need to journal my all my receipts, would that mean I will have two copies of each receipt (one 40-column and one full page) for every transaction?
A: If you only need to keep the receipts in one format (for both on account and cash) you could choose to only journal the 40-column receipts or only journal the full page receipts. If you need to journal both types, then yes, you would have two copies of each.
Q: When printing barcode in receipt number, must the Human readable number be displayed under the barcode, can the number only be removed ?
A: Yes, you can remove the Human Readable Number by opening the Receipt.xml file in Notepad and changing the "PRINTCAPTION" Boolean value in the Barcode section of the receipt from True to False. You will need to open your Receipt Template and reselect the receipt template file after making this change.
PCI compliance
Q: Is the current version of RMS PCI (payment card industry) compliant?
A: Yes, RMS has been certified as of SP2.
Transaction numbering
Q: Is it possible to make transaction numbers seem random; for example, by using time stamp instead of 1 2 3.
A: This is a customization that is not available. Our Business Logic is designed to sequentially number the transactions using the standard numeric format (1,2,3 etc.).
Q: So can the receipt number 1 2 3 be reset every month?
A: This should not be attempted and would not be a supported method, since reusing old numbers could cause issues with numbers that are in use with other transaction records.
Q: Since the receipt number cannot be reset, how large can it go? Will it be used up if we have 1000 transactions a day?
A: The TransactionNumber in the Transaction table is the same as the ReferenceID in the Journal table and it is declared as an Int data type, which is a number I do not think you will see a limitation for. Please review the data type information below:
Integer (whole number) data from -2^31 (-2,147,483,648) through 2^31 - 1 (2,147,483,647).
Prices and discounts
Q: When using the quantity discount pricing table, we leave the "discount odd items" option unchecked and set (single) unit price of .20, 10 for .15 each, and 100 for .10 each. When we ring up more than 100 at POS, all additional items ring up for .10.
A: In testing, I believe you would need to uncheck the 'Discount odd items' option if you do not want additional items over the listed number to be discounted.
Q: Please read my original question as I already mentioned that this option was left unchecked! Please confirm this bug.
A: Sorry that I missed that. However, I cannot recreate the issue you are seeing. If I sell 109 of the items the price shows as $.11.
Q: Which version of RMS are you using? I'm still using 2.0.0115 since I have an add-on that is not SP2-compatable yet.
A: I am using version 2.0.0123; but in taking a look at the fixes released for 2.0 I don't see anything listed for this. However, I will try and find a pre-SP2 version to test on.
A: I just tested on build 2.0.0105 (base build of RMS 2.0) and the price for 109 of the items showed up as $.11. If you are experiencing issues you may want to try making a backup; and then run Database | Check and Database | Reindex. You could also try the same transaction steps in the sample database to see if it is a database specific issue.
Q: How often should the Reindex function be used, daily, weekly, after how many transactions?
A: It is only recommend to run this if you are experiencing database performance issues.
Q: Is it possible to set discounts per specific item for a customer cause we set different prices for different customers in wholesale environment, I know its 'Retail’ Management System, but is it possible?
A: You should be able to use Price, Price Level A, Price Level B, and Price Level C to provide four different levels of pricing; then you can assign a price level per customer.
Q: How can we give cashiers only limited discount privileges (like up to 10% or no more then 25%)?
A: These is nothing within the application that would allow you to set this; but you could take a look at the Solution Finder to see if there is a third-party product that does this. You will want to filter on Works With - Retail Management System
Q: Can the item retail price be rounded after taking percentage from cost (e.g., I want it to be 1.50 instead of 1.47 after percentage margin)?
A: When using the Inventory Wizard Task 110 (Change Item Prices) you can set rounding rules when setting your prices.
Database size
Q: How large can the database grow for RMS if Microsoft SQL Server is not used as the database?
A: If you are using SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, the maximum database size would be 4 GB. If you are using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 MSDE, the maximum database size would be 2 GB.
Customization
Q: Is customization tool available to owner of RMS Store operation ?
A: What type of customization do you want? You can do some customization from within the product, and a variety of add-ins are available from Microsoft partners.
Q: Is there a newer version of RMS Customization Guide available for RMS owner ? I am using the 2004 version..
A: There is a newer version, but the changes since the original release have not been substantial. The guide is only available to partners.
Q: How can we obtain a listing of all the hook for version 2.0 of RMS?
A: Partners can download the Customization Guide from PartnerSource. If you are not a partner, your partner would be able to assist you.
Q: I'm a partner.
A: The Customization Guide is here (PartnerSource login required).
Upcoming releases
Q: When is Microsoft releasing more info about Microsoft Dynamics POS 2009? Does it have the "floating cashier" option? Which other enhancements will it have? Why is this information not readily available?
A: The Statement of Direction is available now on CustomerSource and PartnerSource. The CustomerSource version is here: https://mbs.microsoft.com/downloads/customer/rms/2009SODNovember.pdf (login required)
Q: Can you talk about your roadmap with POS 2009. I understand it's a standalone product when it will be generally available. Also, when do you think POS 2009 will be an enterprise multi-chain store product. We are thinking about buying RMS today.
A: The roadmap has only been released to customers on service plans. We cannot discuss it here. However, you can send your questions and feedback to posrdmap@microsoft.com.
Q: My RMS will arrive next week, will upgrading to POS 2009 be smooth when it’s out?
A: A migration tool will be provided for single-store businesses.
Q: In the upcoming 3.0 versions, are there any plans to make Bin Location a store-specific field instead of a global field as it is now?
A: I'm sorry, we can't discuss features in upcoming releases. If you haven't already, you can enter or vote for this as a product suggestion here.
