You can now designate certain customers as being exempt from service and/or delivery charges in their customer profile. Typically this is done to reward certain customers by making them feel special, increasing customer loyalty. Version 2.6 helps in this regard - the description of the charge will automatically be changed to read “Default delivery/service fee of $X.XX waived”. Florists who are making an effort to reinforce their relationships with their best customers will find this feature very useful. You can of course add the service/delivery charge back in on a per-order basis.
FloristWare Version 2.6
Another major update to the most popular independent POS system for retail florists brings almost thirty exciting new features.
This update to the FloristWare POS system contains almost thirty major improvements and is a much bigger upgrade than the 2.6 version number would suggest. It could easily have been labelled 3.0 but we were able to get it out very soon after v2.5 and 2.6 seemed more appropriate.
Many of the features are centered around certain themes and the first of those is bar codes. With this version we integrated bar codes anywhere they could be useful - for looking up orders from worksheets, finding sales from receipts and finding accounts from payment slips. These are all improvements that save you time.
There are are also several new reports - including a really interesting take on predicting sales and planning your staffing based on past performance.
Another theme is storing specific defaults at the customer level - you can for example now tell FloristWare that certain customers are exempt from specific delivery and/or service charges and sales taxes, and you can also assign default discounts to customers.
New Features & Enhancements in FloristWare v2.6...
Click for more details on specific improvements to FloristWare v2.6.
The delivery portion of each worksheet (the section at the bottom that is intended to be attached to the order prior to shipping) now includes a list of all of the items in the order. This allows the delivery driver to ensure that they take/deliver the complete order.
The letter-sized receipt & invoice layouts have been re-designed to save space. Most simple delivery and pick-up orders will now print on a single sheet of paper. Orders with more than two items will still require additional pages.
When entering incoming wire order options you now have the ability to specify whether or not the order in question should be included on a future “Report of Orders Filled”. This is important for users who are entering orders that came in over their (for example) Dove or Mercury terminals. They now have the option of telling FloristWare to not include those orders on the “Report of Orders Filled”.
Version 2.6 includes a new feature that makes it quick and easy to make sure that you are charged for the outgoing wires that you sent and are only charged once. This report (best used on-screen) shows you all of the orders that you sent out through a particular service. As these orders are charged back to you and reflected in your wire service statements you simply click a button and FloristWare flags the order as charged and removes it from the list.
FloristWare now allows you to ring products in by scanning their bar codes. This is a very handy feature for those who carry a large inventory of gift items - instead of selecting from a large list of categories and then an even longer list of products you can simply scan the bar code. FloristWare can also print bar code labels for items that do not come with bar codes labels affixed or for the items that you create yourself. For example you sell a lot of sleeved bouquets you can now use FloristWare to print the bar code labels and then scan those same labels at check-out.
All order worksheets now include a bar code for fast and easy tracking. To find a particular order in the system all you need to do is scan the bar code.
All receipts and invoices now include a bar code for fast and easy tracking. To find a particular sale in the system all you need to do is scan the bar code.
When ringing up a product in version 2.6 you can either use the traditional method of first selecting a category and then selecting an individual product from within that category or you can search for a product by simply typing in all or part of the product name. This also includes a handy “type ahead” feature that saves time by trying to guess what you are looking for.
FloristWare now monitors the inventory of whatever items you wish. Each time you sell an item it is removed from inventory and you always see a live count during the product selection process. You can also generate an Inventory Report that shows you the value of your current inventory at cost and at retail.
When specifying a date in the reporting section you no longer need to select the month, day and year. Instead you simply click on a date using the convenient pop-up calendars. This is a real time-saver.
The Daily Sales Report is one of the most popular and powerful reports in FloristWare. In version 2.6 you can generate a new “Daily Sales Report Summary” that includes all of the information from the Daily Sales Report over a period of time. This is a very handy way of getting a sense of how your business performed over a certain period.
The Punch-Clock report (a report that shows the hours worked and wages earned by each employee) is now available from within the Daily Sales Report. This is very handy for the shops that use the Punch-Clock feature as it allows them to view all of the data for a particular day without having to run a separate report.
The Daily Sales Report now allows you to enter notes on each day - things like weather and more. This enables florist make use of the very valuable and powerful Notes Report mentioned below.
Let’s say it is a Thursday in March and the weatherman is telling you a cold, cloudy Friday is coming. The new Notes Report allows you to quickly and easily look at how your store tends to perform on cold and cloudy days, cloudy Fridays, cold Fridays, Fridays in March and more. This information can come in very handy - if you know that cold, cloudy Fridays in March are very slow you might want to cut back on your purchasing and/or staffing.
It is now possible to have FloristWare automatically open certain types of cash drawers when ringing in sales. For more information on compatible models please visit the hardware section of our website at: www.floristware.com/hardware.
FloristWare now allows you to store a photograph of each of your products. There are several advantages to this feature. If you are dealing with a customer over the phone you can instantly e-mail them a photograph of the item being discussed. If you have someone at the counter you can show them a photograph (even an enlarged version) of something that you might not have made up at that moment - a large sympathy piece for example. The photographs also help to remind the designers of what a finished piece should look like.
When sending delivery confirmations by e-mail FloristWare now allows you to include photographs. If a particular product already has a photograph on file it will be carried over, but you can replace it and/or include up to four more photographs (a total of five) in the delivery confirmation. This allows you to include (for example) photographs of the actual product as it went out the door, the product being prepared, the recipient receiving the flowers, etc. The possibilities are almost endless!
There has been a lot of work done to the Floral Strategies order process and it now works better than ever before. For more information on how this feature can help your business please contact Tim Huckabee of Floral Strategies at www.floralstrategies.com.
Florists that use the e-mail marketing feature in FloristWare will appreciate the ability of Version 2.6 to send multi-part e-mail. You can now enter both a fully formatted html design and a plain text alternative and FloristWare will combine them in to a multi-part message. This will ensure that your e-mail is viewable by more people on more platforms/systems and help you get it past various spam filters. It makes your e-mail marketing more effective.
FloristWare v2.6 now gives you complete control over six different types of print jobs:
Worksheets
Reports
Bar Code Labels
Enclosure Cards/Delivery Slips
Letter-Size Receipts & Invoices
Receipt Slips
You can now designate separate printers and/or paper sources for each of these types of jobs. This is very handy in larger shops where - for example - they might want all reports to print in the Manager’s office, all worksheets to print in the production area, etc.
Accepting payments on account is no longer limited just to managers. Anyone with basic user level access can now record a payment on account. This change was made at the request of users who explained that it is not uncommon for customers to walk in to a store and ask to make a payment on their account. They will find this new option very helpful.
Previous versions of FloristWare presented the user with every imaginable payment option during the check out process. You can now limit the options shown to the options you make available in your settings.
FloristWare v2.6 has expanded the integration of credit card CVV/CVS codes.
You can now designate certain customers as being exempt from one or more sales taxes in their customer profile. You can of course add taxes back in if you wish.
You can designate certain charge accounts as being exempt from one or more sales taxes in their account profile. You can of course add taxes back in if you wish.
You can designate certain products as being exempt from one or more sales taxes. You can of course add taxes back in if you wish.
You can now designate certain customers as being entitled to a default discount in their customer profile. Typically this is done to reward certain customers by making them feel special. Florists who are making an effort to reinforce their relationships with their best customers will find this feature very useful. You can of course choose to skip or modify any discount on a per-order basis.
FloristWare can now store a specific recipe for each of your products to help ensure consistency and cost control.
FloristWare now allows you to save a specific recipe for each product that you send out. If the item is a standard product FloristWare starts by copying the standard recipe for that product. If it is a custom product FloristWare starts with an empty recipe field. In either event, the designer then has the option to either edit the recipe as needed or enter it from scratch as they prepare the order so that it reflects what actually goes out the door. There are two main benefits to this. First it allows the owner/manager to have a better chance at controlling costs as they can review what actually goes out on each order. Secondly,if a customer ever complains that they did not get good value on an order you can check back and see exactly what they received.
