Accuracy when ringing up sales in the Quickbooks POS is very, very important. Please note the following points:
- Scanning the barcode or price tag with a barcode will always be the most accurate.
- Guessing at the name or description of an item has a high chance of being wrong.
- The POS system includes items that we sell at all locations, but all locations don’t sell everything in the system.
- For instance, Fossil Butte National Monument products and Smokey Bear products are not sold at Dinosaur National Monument. Conversely, replicas from DINO are not sold at Fossil Butte or Flaming Gorge Dam.
- Inaccuracies mess up the inventory… if you sell an item that is not even in the building, it affects inventory numbers throughout the system.
- Visitors (customers) might be overcharged, ruining their trust that they will be treated well.
- Visitors might get undercharged, which affects profit margins… which affects how many folks we can hire and how much we pay them.
- Example: the Allosaurus Hand sells for $160 and the Allosaurus Arm & Hand sells for $58.99. If these items are mistaken for each other during a sale, INHA could lose a lot of money… just on one sale. Plus… now the inventory counts will be off, we’ll end up short on one item that won’t get re-ordered in a timely manner, and we’ll have more of the other item than the computer says and everything is all messed up!
- How do you avoid this (besides getting to know the products thoroughly)? A simple scan of the barcode would keep all of this straight. (If we place the wrong barcode on the item in the warehouse, it’s our fault… and the blame will be put squarely where it belongs.)
THE FIX
- Scan the barcode
- Don’t guess! Be careful… make sure you’re getting the right product entered into the computer.
- Get to know the products… knowledge is a great cushion.
- Ask questions… please ask questions! Never be afraid to ask a question!
- Let us know about problems and/or discrepancies.
- If a barcode is not working, let us know.
- If a price is ringing up incorrectly, let us know.
PRICE DISCREPANCIES DURING A SALE
If an item (say, a book) has a price printed on it and INHA has put a sticker on the book with a different price… always opt for the lower price.
If we have a sign that states a price that is lower than the sticker price… opt for the lower price.
99% of the time, we should opt for the lower price. If a visitor is buying five copies of the same item and two of them are marked at $5.99 and the other three are marked at $6.99… sell the two at the lower price and the other three at the higher price. If the visitor throws a fit and is going to back out of the sale, or leave unhappy… sell all five items at the lower price. We want to have the visitor leave happy, feeling like we took care of them and that their concerns were addressed!
PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES
Every item in the POS has an “attribute”… a letter designating where the item can be sold… as per an approval process. You will see other letters in the “Attribute” space sometimes, but the general ones to look for are:
“D” = Dinosaur National Monument
“B” = Fossil Butte National Monument
“F” = Forest Service locations, including Flaming Gorge Dam
If you are trying to figure out if you have picked the right item to sell in the POS and descriptions aren’t helping… look at the attribute letter and see if the item you picked is designated for your location, e.g. “D” for Dinosaur National Monument. (If it only has a “B”, it’s only approved to sell at Fossil Butte National Monument.)