Pathfinder Software Blog

Should You Make Your Facility Cashless – Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus Mayer) — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Part 4 - Minimizing Employee Theft Opportunities

The FBI has called employee theft “the fastest growing crime in America!” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that more than 30% of business failures are caused by or related to employee theft. The Chamber also estimates that 75% of employees steal from the workplace, and the majority will repeat the theft. The American Society of Employers estimates that 20% of every dollar earned by a U.S. company is lost to theft. And in 2007 over $50 billion was lost by U.S. companies to employee theft, with the majority of these losses coming from cash handling companies in retail, hospitality and entertainment. What are you doing to protect yourself?

The first line of defense is a good Point of Sale system. Gone are the days that a simple cash register can ensure your security and accountability for monies entering your facility. Now it is imperative to have a sophisticated computer system monitoring your employees’ performance and reporting discrepancies as they occur.

Since you are reading this blog, I assume you already use a strong Point of Sale system (hopefully Pathfinder Advantage), or you are considering getting a system (hopefully Pathfinder Advantage). However have you considered removing or limiting the opportunity to handle money from your employees? By removing the ability to handle money, you are in effect removing their ability to take your money as well.

With a Cashless System, customers are given a card or some form of media in exchange for currency. This exchange can take place at a Point of Sale station, where one employee would still have access to cash, or at a self-serving kiosk, where the money leaves the hands of the customer, enters a machine where it is calculated, and then a card is dispensed for the customer’s use. The Cashless Card can then be used to purchase food and beverages, admission tickets, arcade game plays, retail, or anything else your facility sells.

Unlike a typical transaction where an employee can use schemes such as short-changing the customer, memorization of prices, and sharing with friends; a cashless system transaction is an exchange of currency, not assets. Therefore the system not only expects a specific amount of currency, but also requires it in order to finalize the transaction. It is then the card, not cash, which the employees will handle in order to finalize further transactions.

One of the hardest things for an owner or manager to keep track of is their arcade or batting cage tokens. Because of the constant in and out flow of the tokens, standard inventory control measures for preventing employee theft are nearly impossible to implement. The use of Cashless Cards to operate your arcade games and attractions eliminates the oppurtunity for an employee to steal or giveaway play tokens. The Point of Sale system simply won't allow the employee to issue a card with value without also expecting the money at the end of the shift.

Generate Revenue With Online Ticket Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:29:00 +0000

With the advent of the World Wide Web, internet sales have been a great way to help a business improve their revenue by generating additional sales. Recently, online ticket sales have become more and more prevalent. In order to help our clients improve their business, we've implemented the Advantage Web online system.

Advantage Web allows you to sell tickets to your customers quickly and easily. It supports both regular and will call ticketing, and uses barcodes to control access. The barcodes can be validated at any Point of Sale station, or using turnstiles. Even better, we collect customer information for each transaction, helping you to build your customer database for marketing.

For our clients who operate movie theatres, laser tag, or other
capacity managed venues we can also sell capacity managed tickets. The web server and your local server remain in constant communication to prevent overselling tickets, and allow you to continue to sell tickets online right up until the time of the show or event

The biggest advantage of using Advantage Web is the seamlessness of the integration to your existing software. You manage the system directly from Manager Console, just by enabling specific ticket items for sale on the web. You can also provide pictures, descriptions, alternate pricing, convenience fees, and many other options. After a sale is completed, all of the sales data is immediately transmitted back to your local system, and appears alongside all of your other sales data.

Also, setup is quick and painless. We will host the service on our servers so you don't need to worry about internet connection stability, security, or any of the other issues related to operating a web store. You just have to add a link from your web site to the store. We can even work with your to make your online store look as much like your website as possible.

Also, later this summer we'll be adding web-based party booking to the system. Once that system is complete, you'll be able to use the same web system for both ticket sales and party bookings, with the same seamless integration to your existing software.

So if you're interested in quickly and easily adding online ticket sales to the services that you offer your customers, just give us a call at (336) 598-5934 or e-mail us at info@pfasoft.com for pricing. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to increase your business and join the information era!

Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? - Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus Mayer) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Part 3 – Selling Time

Token operated arcades have two methods of activating a game. 1. A customer can activate a game by placing the appropriate amount of tokens into the coin slot, or 2. The facility can configure the all of the machines in the arcade for “free play”. However, these two methods cannot exist in the same facility at the same time. If you want to sell access to your arcade for a time period, you have to close your arcade to all of your other customers.

One of the biggest advantages in pricing with a cashless device is the ability to sell time. You are no longer limited to the typical 50 cent play or the corporate event where all games are in free play mode. An arcade owner can have active participants paying to play each game individually, while allowing others to participate for a prepaid amount of time simultaneously.

In my experiences I have seen facilities use time play as a group package item (group members are provided an hour time play as part of their group participation), as an incentive to bring in customers during a slow period (customers purchase a slice of pizza, soft drink, and an hour of time play for $20 at lunch), and as another means to purchase play time at their local entertainment facility ($18.99 provides you unlimited rides on go-karts for an hour). Since cashless devices are not limited to arcade games, time play works excellently with go-kart rides or other attractions as well as arcade games.

You might be asking yourself, ‘what about redemption games?’ Excellent question. Most facilities would not want someone to have the ability to play their redemption games for an hour with no limitations. You’d probably be out more in redemption prizes than the money you took in for the purchase of the time play. This problem is easily addressed because cashless readers have the ability to be identified as a redemption game, and set to disallow the use of time play cards.

The next question that gets asked is 'if they have a time play, how do they play my redemption games that don't allow time play?' That's actually the simplest part. The same card that has the time play can also have regular value as well. So if they swipe the card in a game that accepts time play, the game is activated for free. But if they use a game that doesn't accept time play, value is removed from their card instead. To reduce customer confusion, you can even easily change the color of the display screen so your customers can identify which games can be played using their time play card.

Time play is another aggressive way to increase revenue through a cashless system.

New E-mail/SMTP Settings

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Beginning with version 7.3.1.4, we've added support for more SMTP e-mail server settings. We now support non-standard port numbers and SSL/TLS encryption. Combined with the previously added support for SMTP authentication, this now allows us to send e-mails using almost any e-mail server on the internet. In particular, this adds support for gMail. So if you're having any trouble with outgoing e-mails for groups, birthday parties, or automatic notifications, this can help fix your problem. Just call us and we'll be glad to help you get it configured.

Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus Mayer) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:36:00 +0000

Part 2: Getting away from typical pricing

Growing up in the 80’s, I spent a great deal of time in arcades. I would collect my quarters all week, then on Friday and Saturday nights head down to the local arcade to spend a fun-filled 15 minutes of playing Pac-Man. In the 2000’s, those local arcades have now become entertainment facilities with multiple options for entertainment; however the technology that many of them use for payment is the same as it was 20 years ago… tokens and quarters. Sure, some arcade games now charge $1.75 instead of the dreaded $.50 we used to experience, but the multiple is always the same… 25 cents.

By adding debit card readers to your arcade games, you are gaining the ability to set your own pricing structure or structures. No longer does a game have to cost a multiple of a quarter. Now you can price your arcade games at $1.33 instead of a $1.25. Those few cents might not seem like a big deal in the scope of your entire business. In fact, it’s so small that your customers usually won’t even notice. However when you put into perspective the number of plays multiplied by the difference in your price, it is not hard to see the potential.

Odd dollared transactional amounts on cashless readers are not the only means to create a distinguishable and profitable pricing structure. A cashless facility can also create multiple pricing structures for one attraction or game. Using the example above, the $1.33 could be a regular guest’s price; however $1.20 could be the price for a loyal guest who has been rewarded VIP status through a customer loyalty program. Or if Thursday afternoons is your worst business day for a specific attraction or game, you can create special Thursday afternoon pricing, which will adjust itself according to the calendar and clock. Try all of that with your typical quarter or token game.

Stay tuned for more of the advantages of operating a cashless facility.

Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? – Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Marcus Mayer) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:03:00 +0000

Part 1: Don’t Leave Money In Your Customers’ Pockets

When we decided to start this blog, I knew immediately that I should address the advantages of turning a facility cashless. I have been asked numerous times, “what are the advantages of the cashless system?” Unfortunately there are so many advantages, the message gets lost as a “sales pitch.” I hope with this series of posts to answer the question thoroughly while providing real life examples and solutions.

Whether you are negotiating a salary, selling a car, requesting a donation for your charity, or operating an entertainment facility; you do not want to “leave money on the table.” How often does a customer walk into your facility with a specific amount of money to spend? How often has a teenage been given x dollars to spend at your facility? Now ask yourself, how often do you feel they have walked out without spending every penny of their allowance?

Let us analyze two identical locations, FunRUS, traditional facility that does not utilize cashless technology, and JunglePlex, a fully cashless facility. For our example, let us also assume both facilities utilize the same pricing scheme. Also, you should note that the same principles would apply if JunglePlex only used the cashless system in their arcade rather than their entire facility.

After school Sue decides to go play for a while at FunRUS. Her parents have given her $20 for a fun-filled afternoon.

Across town, Matt decides to go to JunglePlex, and his parents have also given him $20.

When Sue arrives at FunRUS, she first purchases a $3 hotdog and a $2 large soda. She plays a round of miniature golf for $5, and afterwards spends $8 on go-kart rides. She cannot find anything to do with the $2 remaining, and decides to pocket it for a future purchase.

Across town, Matt was purchases a debit card in order to participate in activities at JunglePlex. After putting his $20 onto a card (either at a Point of Sale station or at a self-service kiosk), he decides to purchase a $3 hotdog and a $2 large soda. He then plays a round of miniature golf for $5, and afterwards spends $8 on go-kart rides. He also cannot find anything to do with the $2 he has remaining, so he decides to leave the facility with his debit card with the expectation he’ll use it when he comes back to JunglePlex.

Although the above examples are simplified, they are quite common. If these scenarios happen 100 times in a day, then FunRUS has lost the opportunity to receive an additional $200; while JunglePlex has received $200 in additional cash with little to no cost. It is true that Matt might return and spend that $2; however he will probably also return with another $20. Additionally, depending on your local income tax laws, you can usually defer the $2 in revenue and not pay taxes on it until it is used later.

By utilizing a cashless system, you can avoid one avenue for “leaving money on the table.” Stay tuned for more advantages that can be offered by using a cashless system.

Checking In Large Skating Groups

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:12:00 +0000

In the skating industry it is very common to sell large groups private sessions in your facility. Often these groups get a discounted admission rate, but the individuals attending are still expected to pay for their own admissions and skate rentals. While this can be easily accomplished by using a discounted button on your POS screen, this provides only a limited ability to track the sales figures historically for each organization that books your facility.

This is where the ability to process sales for groups through POS comes in handy. Simply book the event in the Groups application, and then you can select it in POS and have all the sales your ring in and payments you take applied to the group for historical tracking.

Additionally, you can use the special "Select and Lock" function to speed up the admissions. If you use this function, after you complete a transaction the next transaction will also be rung in against the same group. This way you don't have to repeatedly select the same event for each transaction, and you can use the group tracking feature without sacrificing any of your transaction speed.

New Employee A/R System

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:14:00 +0000

One of the cool new features we've added to Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 is the Employee A/R system. We've had a bunch of customers request this feature, which allows you to process employee sales at your POS stations and charge it to an account for that employee. You can then either take payment later, or just deduct it from their paycheck.

One reason for using this system is to ensure that employees don't handle their own cash while they're working. It can also be used to increase revenue from employee sales.

Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:23:00 +0000

For those of you who missed the e-mail we sent out last week, Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 is now available. Follow the link below to read about all the new features we've added for this highly anticipated release. In particular, we've added a lot of features that should be great for the skating and FEC industries.

Note that you'll need Adobe Reader, which you can download for free from Adobe, in order to read the document.

Pathfinder Advantage Release 7.3 Information

As always, upgrades are free to all customers with a current support contract. Just contact us at (336) 598-5934 or support@pfasoft.com to request an upgrade.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Brant Burnett) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:48:00 +0000

In our continuing efforts to improve customer support, we have decided to join the Web 2.0 trend and start a blog. We will be making regular posts to our blog, including information about new software releases, bug fixes, as well as tips and tricks that our users might find useful. Subscribe to the blog using a feed reader, such as the free Google Reader, and get notified whenever we make a new post!