Disappointed!

[Neil_P]

I have recently purchased EPOS Network plus 2 licences (totalling £1600 plus vat). Having experienced some minor technical glitches during the initial trial period I decided that I liked the software, and while it lacked some functionality, Actinic seemed to be a pro-active company who wanted to develop their product. I spoke to both Sales and Support who were both very helpful and generated a database for me quickly and without fuss containing all the data which I had exported from our old system.

I am now left wondering whether I have made a mistake.

Below I have included extracts from 2 emails which I have sent to Tech Support on the 2nd and 16th July respectively, to date I have not received any response in relation to either. While I would be happy to pay for support and software upgrades etc. I have not subscribed yet if this is the level of service which I can expect.

E Mail No.1 - "Further to our telephone conversation earlier today, please could you pass this on to the EPOS Development team. I have broken my observations down into 2 groups, bugs and wishlist to aid further development.

Bugs

Installation

• During installation thee MS Access Run Time service pack failed to load - there was no error message displayed during the install. Following this, the evaluation copy of the software was very unstable and crashed constantly. Error Message :"MS Access has encountered an error and needs to close." After consulting the Microsoft Knowledge this pointed back to the service pack which I believed had already been installed as part of the Actinic install routine. Checking the Access version number confirmed that this was not the case.
• I then tried to install the service pack "manually", double clicking the installer icon would start the process and then return the following error" Error 1316 - Network error reading C:/Actinicsetup/3c88ae97.msi" Further consultation with the knowledge base revealed this as a known problem when installing office updates over a previous version. (Apparently the original setup files are held as the default path in the registry, this can cause subsequent installations to look in the old setup directory for files which obviously do not exist). A further fix was downloaded (msicuu2.exe) which clears the registry errors. A second attempt at installing the Access Service Pack was succesful.
• Following a reboot I then started up epos again in the hope that it would now be stable and received the following message "Error setting global variables from main database. 3320 function is not available......" I found a reference to this error on the actinic forum. "James M actinic support" said that this was a known problem which would be fixed in the next release - This was 14th November 2006! Additionally the reply from "TraceyG" is incorrect, as the install program does not prompt for any options during the Actinic install, only when the OPOS installer is run on its own.
• The application now seems to be fine and is running in network mode with 2 Epos and Back office "server" with no major problems. However I still receive the :"MS Access has encountered an error and needs to close." message on occasion when closing the application and also when logging back on to the sales screen if it has been left in "locked" mode.

Other Bugs

• When adding new barcodes - the "quantity to reduce stock by" is always 1 more than it should be ie sold 1 the system wants to reduce by 2.
• In Sales screen - If the customer wants to add items to sales after the cashier has hit "pay", should they forget to press "close" to return to the sales screen, the barcode of the scanned item will be read as the amount tendered and the sale cleared. Surely the scanner should be disabled after pressing "Pay". This has happened on several occasions and also when packing customers goods and the scanner has picked up a barcode.
• On Z report cash paid out of till appears as a -ve tax exempt sale. For accounting purposes this is incorrect and also makes it more complicated when cashing up. This should appear as a seperate line on Z report with no effect on sales.
• "List of promotional products" in reports menu does not work (along with others). Additionally this seems to stop other reports generating unless you exit the screen and go back in again. Error Message generated - "the expression click you entered as the event property setting produced the following error: The report name 'rptPromoPrice' you entered in either the property sheet or macro is misspelled or refers to a report that doesn't exist" there is a ticket logged for this with support, who managed to reproduce the same error.

Wishlist

• Ability to input narrative for paid out of tills eg. Wages,Supplier Payment,Window cleaner etc. Plus function to add preseet paid out button to sales screen for regular payments - as a lottery retailer we pay out prizes frequently. As a workaround I have set up a dummy item which we refund in order to produce an audit trail, but this is not very satisfactory, too easy to forget to press refund button.
• The current method of recalling a transaction is cumbersome - is it possible to produce an electronic "audit roll" which can be recalled?
• Following on from above, need ability to reprint "duplicate receipt" from a recalled transaction.
• Cash reconciliation with Z report. Most Epos allow the operator to enter Cash, Cheques etc declared at end of shift, in order to tally against expected amounts and balance till, showing over/under amounts.
• Screen refresh needs to be improved when switching between screens ie sales to category button and back, or from sales to tender screen. There is a momentary pause before buttons appear which slows down transactions during busy periods. This only happens on Epos client machines not server.
• Is it possible to alter font sizes on buttons or make them Bold? Would be more user friendly if text was easier to read.
• Instead of using "copy data from server" it would be easier to "push" data from server after making changes or adding new barcodes etc.
• In "Purchase Order Pack" printout can Pack Qty column be moved next to supplier code, would be much easier to read when making telephone orders.
• Stock replenishment is very basic - by adding a few variables it should be easy to generate more accurate suggested orders.

E Mail No.2 - "I have attached below my e-mail which was originally sent to Kirit in your support department 2 weeks ago, to which I have not received any response. In addition I have encounterd some further problems as detailed below, to which I would appreciate your support and feedback:

For your information product details Actinic Epos Ver. 2.73


1. After generating an order using Piccolink there is no sales tax shown on the goods in screen. Sales tax code is present but % field is blank. This obviously causes the margin to report incorrectly and consequently we have to fill in the VAT fields manually in order to see the correct margin before updating the retail price if necessary.
2. In addition, on the same screen if we change the cost price of a delivered item, while it will reflect the change on the "product" screen, the single item cost remains unchanged. This causes the stock valuation to be inaccurate. Overtyping either the pack cost with the same updated figure as entered during goods in, or the pack size forces the single cost to refresh. Does this mean that the calculation of single item cost is only made by the system on the product screen? Surely this should be auto calculated from the raw data in the database and refreshed no matter which screen it is changed from?
3. Supplier pack code changes made on the goods in screen do not update in the supplier tab of the products screen.
4. Several reports do not work ie. Cash Back, Year end Purchases/Sales, Supplier invoices by date. These are either blank or return #error#
5. None of the graphs will export to Excel."

Maybe tech support would be willing to help now that this is in the public domain?

[gabrielcrowe]

i'm unable to help, but i have to say, excellent first post. welcome to the forum.

i do hope you get your help from support.

[James M SellerDeck]

Hi Neil

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I have passed your comments onto the development team regarding the bugs and am awaiting a response from them, when I hear back from them I will let you know.

The wishlist items I have added to our wishlist here, so hopefully we can see these changes/features in a future update of the software.

Ive been unable to recreate the installation bug you mention regarding the Access Runtime install, so im checking with the development team to see if anyone else has come across this problem.

Following a reboot I then started up epos again in the hope that it would now be stable and received the following message "Error setting global variables from main database. 3320 function is not available......" I found a reference to this error on the actinic forum. "James M actinic support" said that this was a known problem which would be fixed in the next release - This was 14th November 2006! Additionally the reply from "TraceyG" is incorrect, as the install program does not prompt for any options during the Actinic install, only when the OPOS installer is run on its own.

The 'Error setting global variables from main database' error was caused if the Epson Opos part of the installation was not carried out correctly, as there are a few settings that have to be selected during the install for Opos to work with Epos correctly, this was fixed by making the Opos installer silent, so you didnt get prompted for any options as you stated.

The application now seems to be fine and is running in network mode with 2 Epos and Back office "server" with no major problems. However I still receive the :"MS Access has encountered an error and needs to close." message on occasion when closing the application and also when logging back on to the sales screen if it has been left in "locked" mode.

Sounds like it could be a network issue with the Epos tills loosing their connecton to the back office, are you able to log back in or do you have to restart the software? If you can log back in, does it saying 'Network Error' on the main menu?

Im awaiting the development teams respone with regards to your other queries, and will let you know when I hear back from them.
________

[Neil_P]

Hi James

Thanks for the reply. I look forward to hearing the responses to the other queries - obviously the distortion of the book stock is an important issue (similarly as I mentioned previously, the problem with 'add new barcode' quantities being incorrect) as the whole point of an Epos system is the ability to track your stock accurately. I have noticed some other posts in the forum also querying differing stock values on various reports. I would assume that this is due to some calculating from actual/average purchase cost, and others using the single item cost which in some cases is reported incorrectly.

I have also noticed that in the order screen, if the quantity is changed in the grid after an item has been added, the line total is not updated on the purchase order report ie order 1 item then amend to 2 in the grid - the line total still reports the cost for 1 item.

With regard to the "Access has encountered a problem...." message. The network is working fine and there are no errors reported in the Epos screen. I would be aware of a problem fairly quickly anyway, as I use shared folders to store other information so that it can be accessed from both back office and till points.
I may not have explained it clearly enough - the problem seems to occur most frequently when locking the POS (not logging off windows), the cashier will return to the till point and log in to unlock the till which then crashes. When we restart the application there is still an instance running of the machine so we have to answer yes to the warning "do not run more than one copy of the program..." and then close the application, before starting it up again and continuing.
My staff are predominantly middle aged ladies, who are good cashiers but not very technically minded, and this is causing a great deal of angst for them (and therefore me ).
Your help would be much appreciated!

[Neil_P]

Just thought I'd add.....

There are several articles on the 'net suggesting that Access 2003 is more stable than 2002. As I already have a full version of office 2003 installed I have tried changing the Actinic shortcut to point to this version (with the /runtime switch!), the problem still occurs.

Also I managed to figure a workaround to the incorrect item cost issue. By copying the Pack cost and Quantities fields from the product table into Excel I was able to recalculate the item costs which I then pasted back into the table. I guess I will just do this again periodically to refresh the data, as it is lot quicker than amending the individual item records.

I would not recommend this to anyone else unless you're sure you know what you're doing and you backup your database first.

[James M SellerDeck]

Hi Neil

On speaking with the development team, they say there are no known problems with the installer - we install this on a regular basis and have not experienced any problems or error messages relating to this. The Access Service Pack 3 will not install if it is already installed on the target pc, and will simply say 'Already Installed'. ? Have you got office 2003 pro installed, or has it previously been installed as this will have put a later version of Access onto the pc which will cause problems - this could possibly be the case?

When adding new barcodes - the "quantity to reduce stock by" is always 1 more than it should be ie sold 1 the system wants to reduce >by 2

I havent been able to recreate this here, and the devlopers who are working on the lastest release (2.86) say they cant recreate it either, there has been some changes made in the software around this area, so may be worth trying the new version when its released, hopefully mid August, subject to testing.

> "List of promotional products" in reports menu does not work (along with others). Additionally this seems to stop other reports
generating unless you exit the screen and go back in again. Error >Message
generated - "the expression click you entered as the event >property
setting produced the following error: The report name >'rptPromoPrice'
you entered in either the property sheet or macro is >misspelled or
refers to a report that doesn't exist" there is a >ticket logged for this with support, who managed to reproduce the >same error.

This report no longer exists in the software, therefore causing the error, the link to this reportr has been removed from in 2.86.

After generating an order using Piccolink there is no sales tax shown
on the goods in screen. Sales tax code is present but % field is
blank. This obviously causes the margin to report incorrectly and
consequently we have to fill in the VAT fields manually in order to
see the correct margin before updating the retail price if necessary.

This is a bug, the SalesTaxPercentage field was missing from the SQL statement - this is fixed in 2.86

Several reports do not work ie. Cash Back, Year end Purchases/Sales, Supplier invoices by date. These are either blank or return #error#

These reports related to the inbuilt accounts features which is currently switched off - in 2.86 these reports are hidden from the end user.
Cash back - any report with no data to report against ie. no 'Cash Back' transactions will display #Error# which simply means there was no data for this report.

2.86 will hopefully be released mid August, so will fix some of the issues you have raised.

Hope that helps
________

[Neil_P]

Thanks James,

I am still puzzled as to why the application keeps crashing. The Epos terminals never had MS Office installed until recently, our old Epos software was a standalone 'text based ' system and required no other applications to enable it to run. Clearly there is some problem which is causing Access to be slightly unstable, but there was certainly no version conflict during the initial install. There are no other applications installed either as I am always worried about introducing any unneccesary software which may make the tills unstable, preferring to use the back office for all admin, internet access etc. I have even accessed the MS Office update site and installed all the suggested service packs and updates all to no avail.

Did you get an answer to the single item cost issue?

In addition, on the same screen if we change the cost price of a delivered item, while it will reflect the change on the "product" screen, the single item cost remains unchanged. This causes the stock valuation to be inaccurate. Overtyping either the pack cost with the same updated figure as entered during goods in, or the pack size forces the single cost to refresh. Does this mean that the calculation of single item cost is only made by the system on the product screen? Surely this should be auto calculated from the raw data in the database and refreshed no matter which screen it is changed from?

I have also noticed that a text file is generated for each transaction in the checkout folder - I now have 12,000 of them on our main till! Is this necessary, as all the transactions are presumably held in the server transaction database? And if so can this be disabled and/or is it safe to delete them periodically?

[James M SellerDeck]

The costprice issue issue relates to use of the Piccolink to scan stock in, are you getting the Cost_Pack updating from the Piccolink but
the single costprice on the product form is not automatically recalculated
when you use the piccolink? If so, ill get the development team to check this with their Piccolink scanner.

The transaction text files that are appearing in the checkout folder, if you go to Setup | Till Setup, switch off 'Log Errors' and that will stop those files being created.
________

[Neil_P]

We don't actually use the Piccolink to scan the goods in, the interface is too long winded - entering cost price etc. I prefer to use the Piccolink to generate the original order. The issue is in the 'goods in' screen - I select 'orders' and double click the relevant line to transfer the order previously created into the goods in grid. I can then match the order to the actual delivery, it is at this point that the problem arises, if I amend the pack cost to reflect the new supplier cost, it will change the pack cost on the product screen but not the single item cost. Overtyping either the pack cost or pack quantity will force the single item cost to refresh (even though strangely the margin remains correct). This causes the stock figures to report incorrectly. As I said previously, it is possible to recalculate all the single item costs in Excel which I have done, but after only one delivery from my main wholesaler I already have a £50 discrepancy in my stock figures, which were identical after recalculating.

I am sure that if you recreate the scenario you will be able to duplicate the same result.

Incidentally 'Stock value by category' and 'stock value by product' seem to calculate on a different basis, as negative stocks are not included in the category report totals but are included in the product totals.

It would make sense to calculate all the reports on the same basis so as to avoid any confusion in the stock values for accounting purposes. My preference is to include negative values as it is sometimes easier to create 'dummy items' for the purpose of deliveries where there are a lot of low value items in a category. ie deliver one dummy item at invoice cost. That way as the deliveries increase the stock holding, the sales create a negative stock on the actual items but the overall stock value remains correct. The category can then be counted occasionally to verify value of any shrinkage and 'realign' physical stocks.

Maybe you could add that to the wishlist?