Version 11 Printer Selection & Report issues

[Tropical Tanning]

Hello Andy and all:

My conversion from version 9 to Helios 11 was almost painless. Everything went pretty smoothly.

I'm having one issue that perhaps you can help me with. When I generate a shift report, Helios selects the receipt printer and formats the report for my Star212 printer. The report will print on the receipt printer too, but the right side with the sales numbers does not print.

To correct the problem one has to:
1. Select the correct printer
2. Close the report
3. Regenerate the report

After this, the report is formatted for the report printer (Kind of Formatted anyway), and will print out OK.

In Helios system setup, my printers are correct. The receipt printer is the star 212; all other printer selections are directed to my "Canon i560". I only have the two printers connected.

This printer reselection occurs each time one goes into reports and asks for the shift report.

Report format:
In my opinion the report format for the shift report is not very user friendly. I get long and narrow 2 to 3 page report for every shift. The column could easily print on one page if there were a way to adjust the font and margins. The report date only prints on the last page, it would be helpful to have the report date in the header.

What are the chances of changing this one report? The others that I have run have been good so far. The formatting is better than it was in version 9.

Thanks,

John
Tropical Tanning
Michigan

[Andy]

In V11 Helios have hardcoded the Shift Report to print to the Receipt Printer rather than the Report Printer.

Not sure what you are referring to about sales print (not printing) on the right side of the report ... I believe all info is displayed on the left and up to 40 column wide related to the receipt printer.

The report is longer than in V9 because it now reports a section for each Cashier rather than for all Cashiers only as it was in V9.

If you wish to print the Shift report to the Report printer you will have to select it each time ... the format should be the same as on the Report printer just sent to the different printer.


Only suggestion I can give you here is to send a request to Tech Support if you believe anything should be different here ... the changes would deliberate in V11.

_________________

Andy Thompson
Authorized HELIOS Independent Consultant
Office: 877-777-6717
CELL: 317-529-0041
andy@myatso.com[ This Message was edited by: Andy @ MyATSO.ca on 2004-07-19 08:49 ]

[Tropical Tanning]

Andy:
Thank you for your reply. It is nice to know that this change has been programmed in to Helios. Now I can stop looking for ways to fix what isn’t broken.

I have determined that I can indeed print the report on my receipt printer, as long as I use "Generic /text only" as the printer driver. The unfortunate side of this is that on that setting I will go broke paying for printer paper.

I have been using a Star printer driver that allows me to print receipts without wasting paper between transactions. With that driver installed, sales receipts’ print great without wasted space between receipts, the “shift report,” however, does not print correctly.

When I switch back to “GenericText Only” print driver, the report prints OK, but the printer spits out 11 inches of paper for every receipt.

After playing with the “GenericText Only” properties and defining a new paper size, I may be able to live with this driver. I copied the "Letter" form using the name “LetterS” and changed length from 11 in to 6.5 in. Then selected “LetterS” as the default paper size in the printer properties and it works. The receipts fit well in that space, and the shift report prints out fine.

Another Question:

The shift report seems to run a subtotal for all the cashiers that have transactions during the period reported. The first section to print seems to be for those transactions without a cashier entry. I have looked at several reports and, these are all non-revenue transactions.

Helios adds a transaction every time a client release is updated. The sales code UPD-RELEASE is used with no cashier recorded. UPD-RELEASE sales code is hidden (at lease I couldn’t find it). Is there a way to change that sales code so that a cashier is recorded and I do not waist 8 inches of paper each time my shifts change? On the other hand, perhaps there are some reasons for this section of the report that I have not discovered?

Thanks again

John
Tropical Tanning
Michigan


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[ This Message was edited by: Tropical Tanning on 2004-07-20 01:29 ]