HELIOS V10 - POS Screen

[Andy]

A number of Salon Owners have posted comments regarding the new V10 POS screen, also a number of my clients using Helios have also expressed concerns.

I am under no misconception that Helios will welcome my input or proposal on this topic, but I would most certainly welcome yours.

The screen shot below reflects my thoughts on a possible alternative structure of the main Client Profile / POS screen that takes advantage of the new "Current Session" concept in Helios V10 and maintains the power of the current POS screen. I have always felt that Helios provided the quickest, smoothest and most advantageous approach to the POS operation in a salon.

In order for all relevant data to be displayed my proposal includes:

1. Reduce from 5 to 4 the number of POS lines in the current session box (scrolling will handle additional lines when they occur). The most recently entered line should also be displayed at the top of the area.

2. Reduce from 12 to 8 (which is still an increase from 6) the number of lines in the POS History display on the Point of Sale Tab.

3. Move the Work Phone # up and to the right of the Home Phone #.

4. Move the two new eMail address fields to the "More Info" tab.

5. Relocate the User Defined fields back onto the Primary Client Profile / POS screen.

6. Relocate the Photo and Accumulator/Membership Data back to their original position. The Photo (camera) is used by many Helios Users and since space is still available I do not see the logic of removing it from the primary screen.

7. Maintain the structure of the Client Balances area, including the presentation of the Visits Due field which is omitted from the current V10 screens.

8. Increase the size of the Sales Code field in both POS areas to accomodate the full field size of 13 characters. Currently only 6 to 8 characters are displayed.

9. The Method of Payment indicator "M" in the Current POS session area serves no purpose, once the Method of Payment is entered the Transactions related thereto are no longer in the current session.

This same field does need to be added to POS History area on the Client Profile / Point of Sales screen.


Note that on the More Info tab compared to the Summary Tab in V9, 4 fields have been removed from the display of Sales by Department and Division. I am interested if anyone feels that they should have been maintained.

These fields are Date of First Visit that each Department and/or Division had a sale and the employee that served the client and Date of last visit that each Department and/or Division had a sale and the employee that served the client.


Ok, here is an alternative proposed layout of the Client Profile / Point of Sales screen - your comments are welcome.


Here is the current V10 Point of Sales Screen

Here is the current V10 More Info Screen

Historically these comments/suggestions as well as the items outlined in my Issues post would have been communicated to Helios as part of the beta testing that I historically did for Helios (in the interest of my clients). Since May 2002 my input and comments have not been welcomed by Helios, my hope is that Helios Users can still benefit from my observations if Helios responds to the issues posted.

Hoping this helps.


_________________

Andy Thompson
ACT Business Solutions
Toll-Free 877-777-6717
andy@atso.ca
ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2002-07-05 11:36 ]

[Andy]

I would really appreciate some input on this topic, hopefully Helios will address some of the primary issues - but I would not hold my breathe. Comments from Users that will be impacted would be appreciated.

For any User that does for whatever reason "upgrade" to V10 when available - the current Helios Proposed layout will be a problem related too many issues:

Field Sizes
Customer Balance Info
User Defined Fields including Skin Type
Method of Payment Indicator
Photo, for Salon currently using Camera and/or Membership Cards
etc etc etc.

[tcn813]

One of the reasons I originally selected Helios 8 years ago was because it was so flexible as compared to others on the market. It seems like most of the new changes will limit the user to what they (Helios people) think the user should have or do.

I have been exchanging e-mails with some guy named Ian at ETS. I am still trying to decide if I'm going to get involved with V9 and the whole maintenance agreement thing. I told him that I think it's a real hose job offering the product only that way. How far do you think that comment will get?

I will not upgrade to V10 if the encryption items stay. There is no way I would agree that they can have access to my clients information. Now if they want to pay me a monthly service fee . . .

[Sonshinetans]

Andy, I personally like you layout the best.
I am helped often by the photo's of our clinets when I can only remember a portion of their name. With all the deception on the layout of 10 I doubt I will upgrade.But if I did I would want your layout.
tommy

[Andy]

Well I did not expect Helios to adopt my suggested layout BUT they could have at least fixed the things that were wrong.

http://www.tantalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=2327823&forum=2



_________________

Andy Thompson
ACT Business Solutions
Toll-Free 877-777-6717
andy@atso.ca
ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2002-11-06 12:42 ]