Question: What is a department or group on a cash register Answer: A Cash Register department or group are the major sales catagories of collecting sales data. Every Cash Register must have at least one department or group in order to funtion. Often times these departments are very simple for example "Food" "Beer" "Wine" "Pop" "Cigs" "Lotto". Department or groups are used to charge tax or not. Question: What is a "PLU" Answer: A PLU is a "Price Look Up". Most every Cash Register on the market today has a limited number of "PLU's". PLU's allow you to sell items by code number. For an example maybe you operate a small restaurant and you wish to track the different menu items you sell. By assigning each menu item it's own unique PLU number that item is sold and tracked with that number. There are several ways to sell items by PLU number the most common and oldest way of selling by PLU numbers is by enetering the PLU number of an item (PLU#100 = Hamburger) on the ten pad, then pressing the PLU# key, which causes the register to sell that item at a preset price. Another option is to place PLU's directly on a cash register keyboard. Many of todays modern cash registers accomadate linking a keyboard space to a particular PLU number. Question: What is the relationship of PLU to Cash Register Group or Department Answer: As described above a Cash Register must have a least 1 department or group to operate. A department is a major sales catagory used fot reporting sales. A PLU is an actual inventory or menu item. Each PLU in most cases must be linked to a cash register department. So you may have all of the Sandwich Items programmed with unique PLU numbers. Each Sandwich PLU number is linked to a Cash Register Department. So when you sell PLU#101 which is a Ham Sandwich the Register counts for reporting purposes that 1 Ham Sandwich PLU was sold, and in the Department of Sandwich 1 sale was made for $6.99. Why is this done? Must operators at the end of the day want to know how much sales were done in the department of "Food" not how many Ham or Turkey Sandwiches were sold. Oten times the PLU sales are never reported on, but most often operators will take a seperate PLU report once a week or month. Question: What is an "X" or "Z" report? Answer: One of the most important function of a cash register is to record your sales, tax collected, media totals, discount, voids, and more. The report printed at the end of day or shift that reports this information and resets it for the next day or shift is known as the "Z" report. The "Z" report function prints the sales on the cash register tape while erasing the data from the memory. A "Z" is a once only report for the period of time you are reporting on. Many Cash Register have "Z2" feature that allows you to add "Z" reports togther and "Z2" them out to erase them for a longer period of time. And example of a "Z2" report is a monthly or period to dates cash register sales report. Every time the register is "Z'd out" (Report taken) that total is erased from the daily sales files and added to the "Z2" file. Most people then "Z2" the cash register at the end of the month for a monthly report. Just like to "Z" report the "Z2" when taken erases the "Z2" report from memory. So the "X" report are the identical information, however it only reports, not resets, or clears the memory. "X" reports can be taken as often as you would like with no effect os sales data. Question: What is the best type of Cash Register Printer? Answer: There is no one right answer. There are two options of printers. The first and traditional Cash Register Printer is the "DOT MATRIX", or "IMPACT PRINTER" these two printer print on standard bond paper of differnt sizes depending on the cash register model. These printers use an Ink Ribbon or Ink Roller to print the image onto the paper. Although this has been the most common way of printing for several decades now the industry has been moving to thermal paper printers. The "DOT MATRIX and IMPACT PRINTERS" paper is less exspensive to purchase, but require Ink ribbone or rollers. While the modern "THERMAL PRINTERS" do not require an inking device the paper is without a doubt more expensive. However there is no debate that THERMAL PRINTERS last longer, are less prone to fail, faster, a more quiet then an IMPACT or DOT MATRIX cash register printer. If I were buying a register hand down I would purchase the cash register with the thermal paper. The paper is more expensive, however don't forget the cost of ribbons you will be saving and the failure rate between Thermal and IMPACT is huge. Question: What is a Receipt/Journal (R/J) printer:For twenty years or most cash registers were built with an R/J printer also known as a two station printer. The R/J printer is made of two parts, one side is the receipt tape issued to the customer, the other side is the "Journal" or audit tape that remains in the register for your used to audit transaction throughout the day or shift. The "Journal/Audit" tape should not be confused with the "Z" tape as it is not a recap of the days sales. The "Journal/Audit" tape is a blow by blow record of every transaction made step by step. It is most useful for going back in the day to look for mistakes made. The R/J printer has been a staple in the cash register industry since its conception. These treand is now shifting to a single tape to eliminate cost and with the advancement of electronics. |
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