Version 6

New Features In Phoenix Version 6.0 Will Help Grow Your Business

Discover the new features in Version 6 like gift cards, rental purchase targeting, and a new payout module that can help put more money in your pocket. This release may be your most important investment this year.

“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”

- Epictetus

 Phoenix for Windows Version 6.0 Upgrade

Gift Card Program

This release of Phoenix for Windows contains an exciting new gift card program. Just like the gift cards you see at major department stores, you can have a fully functional gift card program that is built right into your POS software (Phoenix). What’s even better is that there are no transaction fees paid to 3rd parties so more of the profits go into your pocket.

Gift card programs are more beneficial to your business than the old-style gift certificates. With cards, your name is in front of the customer each time he opens his wallet. National studies show that only 85% of the money on gift cards will be redeemed for merchandise. That means that 15% of gift card sales could be all profit; this is on top of your markup on the products they do purchase.

We have left no stone unturned and have incorporated all aspects of a premiere gift card system right into Phoenix.

• Selling of cards (activation)
• Redeeming for purchases
• Looking up card balances
• Deactivating cards
• Financial figures on the end of day
• Commissionable (employee incentive)
• Barcode and magnetic strip identification

When it comes to the cards and the image you wish to portray, it’s all up to you. You have three options for card creation:

1. Choose a stock card
2. Choose a stock background and insert your name, logo, and message
3. Create a custom card using your images, name, logo, and messages

Purchase Targeting Report

This release contains yet another tool to help you in your title purchases. This new targeting report is aimed at identifying a profit margin at the end of a certain time frame. For example, you may want to target 150% return at 25 weeks.

This report and editor will show you, by title, how close to target you were. It will indicate how much over or under your target you where, and suggest how many copies should have been purchased to hit your target. This information is valuable when you are doing your next months purchasing. Retailers have been using this process to determine how many copies to purchase on a given title by comparing it to a like title. Now the process has been automated within Phoenix.

The information you will see is:

• Number of copies
• Total cost
• Cost per copy
• Target weeks
• Target % return
• Target revenue
• Actual revenue
• Revenue difference
• Revenue variance
• Copy variance
• Retro-order

This information is available in the title editor on the specific title you have pulled up, and in report form with all the standard title and copy filters.

Cash Payout System

A complete payout system has been incorporated into this release of Phoenix. You will setup the descriptions ahead of time in the supporting tables and when the need arises for a payout, you can simply pick from the list of reasons. The information about the current day’s payouts will be found on the End of Day report.

Cash Due Window

You will see a major change in the cash due window at the close of each transaction. As you can see, the window has been made larger and some of the fields stand out for easy viewing.

The process of accepting funds has been streamlined and steps have been removed. For example, when running a credit card, you simply swipe the card at this time (without clicking the payment type), the system will identify the card and prompt you for the amount to be paid. The default will be the cash due, so a simple “Enter” key and the credit card is being processed, and the transaction is complete.

Sample screen 

Cash transactions are just as simple. Simply click cash, the default is loaded in the amount window, press “Enter” and the transaction is complete.

Sample screen 

The split payment method is still available on this new window. When you are prompted for an amount you simply enter a lower value than the cash due then select your next payment method. When the cash due reaches zero, the transaction automatically completes.

Taxed Revenue Figures

You will see an addition on the bottom of the first page of the End of Day report. There you will see the taxed revenue for each taxing type. The figures show you the total revenue that was taxed. This figure can be used for your sales tax forms; the field labeled taxable revenue.

Title Performance History

In the title editor, you will see a new button that gives you a quick method to graph a title’s performance over a certain number of weeks. You can adjust the number of weeks to graph, and the type of graph (bar, ribbon, line, so on).

Sample screen 

Customer History Window

You will see a change in how the customer history is displayed at the transaction window. You can see we removed the tree-view style and replaced it with a grid style display. In addition, you can print multiple invoices at the same time by placing a check mark in the printer column.

Sample screen 

Additional Changes in Version 6.0

Supporting Table Editor Vendors - An access point to the vendor table was added to the Support Tables area. From here you can access the vendor’s information: address, telephone numbers.

Operational Control Switch – A new switch has been added “Close Transaction Screen When A Cash Drawer Is Closed”. When activated, this switch will cause the transaction screen to unload (and not ask for a new opening balance) when a cash drawer is closed out.

Force Employee Login – When this existing switch is in enabled, the system will now prompt for a login when you first go into the transaction screen (from the main menu). Prior to this release, you could go into transaction and perform one transaction with who was logged in at the main menu.

Duplicate Customer Check – A new function has been added to the duplicate customer list (when adding a new customer). You can now right-click an entry in the duplicate customer list to view that customer in the customer editor.

Current Standings Window – Added two new fields on this window: Rental Product Total Cost (active) and Total Retail (active).

Inventory Transfer – Added the total cost and total retail to the inventory transfer report.

Customer Notes – Added a function to insert a date/time stamp in the customer notes by using CTRL-D.

Invoice Search (reprint/edit) – A new View Detail button was added to the invoice search window, which will provide detailed invoice information on the selected invoice. The invoice list also will show “Held” transactions (since the last closeout).

Reservation Report – An option was added to print the reservation notes on the reservation report. The notes will print as a second line beneath the main reservation information.

Package Pricing – A new search button has been added when you select a merchandise sale as an entry. You can search the merchandise database and it will bring back the ID number to the package pricing construction area.

Employee Work History Report – A starting and ending time has been added to the report filters. This allows you to window the report to your own hours.

Overdue Rental Notice (at check-in) – A new tool button was added to display the original check-out invoice on the overdue notice screen.

AR Screen – A new tool button was added to display the check-in invoice for the displayed AR.

Customer Inventory Out Window – We added a new column for genre and shelf location to this window. You can now resize the window and the size of the window is persistent between sessions.

Customer AR Screen – We added a button to print a customers AR billing statement from the customer’s AR screen. You can also right-click to show the original invoice for the selected item.

Rental Product Search Screen – A new option to display the “available for rental” copy count has been added to the rental product search screen. The window size has been increased slightly to allow for this new column.

Rental Product Editor – The item type field, that indicates rent/sell/both, will now be defaulted with the last value chosen when you add a new copy.

Phoenix for Windows Version 6.0 upgrade is certainly going to make a positive impact on your business. Contact us today at (800) 922-4556 to get your copy of this upgrade today. We are more than a software company, we are your partners in success and are here to help you every step of the way.