This single sheet of paper can give you comparatives on vendors, items, classes, and departments. Who gives you the best turn rates and sell-thrus, vendor A or Vendor B? Knowledge to make smart business decisions. The typical retailer is overstocked by 10-25% at any given point in time, meaning that for every $100,000 in sales, there can be $5,000 to $25,000 (at retail) in excess inventory on the shelves. When you start looking at $500,000 in sales, the wasted investment runs into six figures. Imagine converting $100,000 of excess inventory into cash.

I talk quite a bit to not only prospects but also recently sold customers new to the use of ProphetLine and often new to PC Based Point of Sale Software. These are courtesy calls to make sure things are progressing as expected after the sale. My first contact this morning expressed this sentiment. "Now that we have ProphetLine, we have learned who pays promptly and who does not.  we were surprised to find that we were wrong in what we thought". This company is operating multiple store operations; effectively three stores, two of which are mobile stores located on trucks. Additionally this account said, "For the first time, we know what we need to reorder and when we need to reorder before we run out." This is Retail Management.

ProphetLine is constantly developing POS Software that will enable small retailers to react to changes in customer buying habits and give them an advantage over the big box retailers. Read the full story in the Dow Jones Market Watch.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere else,” said Yogi Berra. If you don’t have a roadmap for your business, you’ll probably end up at that fork in the road that Yogi talks about and it’s a different spot than you intended. Your POS Software should watch your inventory and purchasing decisions by using the POS transactions and showing you logical actions to take to be a RETAILpreneur. You don’t need a technical staff and professional buyers to make good purchasing decisions. You just need information that is simple to obtain and easy to understand. If you are not using a good Retail Stock Ledger, you are not maximizing your revenues.

RETAILpreneur is a new word I made up yesterday. It reflects what a retailer in this day and age needs to become. A retailer is a person that buys at a certain price and sells at a higher price and hopefully there is a little money left over. An entrepreneur is a risk taker that has the ability to put the past behind and seize new opportunities in the future. If you put entrepreneurial qualities in a retailer, you will get a person not afraid to try new and exciting things. You need quality information from your POS software to enable you to make the decisions that will allow you to control your niche markets. Big box retailers have cornered the market on cheap, but can’t compete when it comes to being nimble and turning on a dime. When your Retail Stock Ledger tells you that Vendor A has a higher sell through and better turn rate than Vendor B, you now have the information needed to make quick informed buying decisions. Stock less inventory, turn more times and have higher margins is a recipe for success.

Backward compatibility is a key function that most users want and expect in today’s upgrade products. Is Microsoft listening to its users? Find out what you should expect in terms of backward compatibility if a Vista upgrade is on your 2007 agenda.



Click Here to read the complete article at SQL Server Magazine.

If you are still using older receipt printers, it could make your business look antiquated and out of date. New receipt printers, like the Epson TM88 IV series, are faster, can display your company logo and print coupons for future customer redemption, all on the same receipt ticket. So the next time you are interested in updating your company image and make the check out process smoother, look at new printers.

Small specialty retailers have always been at a disadvantage before now because of technology funding and staffing. ProphetLine POS/Retail Management has built into their POS software all the inventory analytics only found previously in expensive and complex software. With less money and staffing, you can not only compete, but thrive against the big boys. Click here to read the full press release.

A Point of Sale solution depends on many data types to perform fundamental duties such as selling, purchasing, paying vendors and tracking customers buying habits. All of these responsibilities depend on one common data set that is central to not only effective long-term operation but also a rapid setup of a Point of Sale solution ““ that data type is inventory.



Inventory detail is the key to just about every retail management decision that you will face. It also can be the most readily available data to a retailer moving to a PC Based Retail Management System. Existing data can be manipulated and hours of manual entry can be avoided by contacting vendors, distributors, industry trade groups or government agencies. Sometimes even other retailers outside of your geographical area of competition might sell you inventory information.



The point is that a wealth of inventory information is often available in some electronic format that can save time on setup. Inventory detail is required for any Point of Sale or Retail Management solution to be effective and rapidly put into daily use. It is the most critical database and much of the information you need is already in electronic format. Find it, use it and refine it.

How many times do we risk losing customers by a quick reaction rather than a more thought out response.

reӢact (r Рkt )

v. reӢactӢed, reӢactӢing, reӢacts
v. intr.

1. To act in response to or under the influence of a stimulus or prompting: reacted strongly to the sarcastic tone of the memorandum.
2. To act in opposition to a former condition or act: composers who reacted against romanticism.
3. To act reciprocally or in return.

reӢspond (r -sp nd )

v. reӢspondӢed, reӢspondӢing, reӢsponds

v. intr.


1. To make a reply; answer.

2. To act in return or in answer.

3. To react positively or favorably: The patient has responded rapidly to the treatment.

On a recent trip to get my truck worked on, I described the problem (it felt as if it were missing) to the service department and they suggested I needed a tune up. I had the tune up done and not only did my problem continue, but my truck now idled worse than before.

I called the service department and told them of the change to the negative and they suggested an electronics diagnostic. Since I really wanted my main issue fixed, I agreed to the 69.95 charge to ‘find’ the problem.

A full day later I received an estimate for just over $800 which included plug wires, a Distributor Cap and rotor (remember the tune up), an EVP valve and a minor leak to my oil pan. When I questioned the plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, they simply stated ‘a tune up is only changing the spark plugs’. Ok, granted most cars now have electronics and don’t need all the work for a tune up in the past, but (as I told them) shouldn’t a ‘tune up’ actually ‘tune’ the motor to run correctly? (apparently it does not)

I asked what was causing the issue I requested the diagnostic for in the first place (since I know it isn’t the oil leak) and they stated the EVP valve (also the most expensive part on the estimate). I had the valve replace and $488 later, my problem still exists. I called the service department again (notably upset) and asked why the problem was not fixed as stated. The answer from the service manager was ‘you didn’t fix everything on the estimate, so it’s not our fault’. Again the estimate was not just for the issue being fixed since the oil leak isn’t causing the truck to miss, but the plug wires, distributor cap and rotor could cause it. I scheduled the additional work and asked if the work could be done by 3pm as I needed to pick my son up from school. When I didn’t receive a call by 2pm, I called them. The response was ‘we found it and it wasn’t the cables at all, it was the coil wire’ (note that was not on the estimate). I went to get my truck and it runs great, but never did they say they were sorry for the mis-diagnostic, the additional $600 (EVP and ‘tune up’) I spent to get the issue fixed and for the refusal that it could in any way be their fault since I didn’t ‘do all the things on the estimate’.

All in all, the end result is I now feel as an intrusion on their day if I need to allow them to work on my truck. They Reacted to the issue rather than Responding and making me feel they cared about my issue.