Barcodes

[PhilG]

I am evaluating the Actinic EPOS system and very nice it is too.

I do however need to scan "977" ISSN barcodes these are found on publications (newspapers, magazines etc). The last two digits are date based and therefore do change very regularly. Is there any way of applying rules to types of barcodes in this system. I could switch off the 2 digit suppliment on the barcode scanner however I need it for other applications. If any one knows a way to add rules to the scan data it would be most useful to me. Thanks in advance. PhilG

[James M SellerDeck]

Hi there

The only ways I can think of doing this is to either enter the new barcode each day for the newspapers, or you could simply create a generic barcode for say The Daily Mail, which is used every day of the week, this could be scanned whenever one is brought, rather than scanning the actual barcode on the newspaper itself.

Im also checking with the development team to see if there is any other ways they can come up with to get round this.

[Neil_P]

Hi Phil,

I had the same problem - our old system was linked to WHS Connect2u so could download the new codes every day. I have set up a button for each of the dailies and 2 more sets of buttons for the weekend papers (as the prices are obviously different) you don't have to worry about the barcodes at all then. We don't scan our magazines, I have set up a dummy item called 'magazines' within the publication category with zero price. The cashier just hits the button and we enter the price manually. Its a little bit 'messy' and sounds complicated, but in practice it works fine and saves a massive amount of work in trying to keep on top of the changing codes. Luckily we do not have a big shrinkage problem so i'm not too worried about tracking the stock by item, and to be honest even with our old system it was almost impossible to track the stock accurately, and took ages inputting deliveries and returns every day.

We did initially try scanning everything and then attaching the new codes to the existing products, but even that is very labour intensive, plus I've reduced our product file by 1600 items by not tracking our magazines by title.

Food for thought, hope its useful.