We’re excited to bring you some tips and tricks to help you make the most out of your Vending Management System. Today, we’re talking about rolling back services, opening a finished route, and deleting cash meters! Let’s get started.
Tip #1 Rolling back a Service
Previously when an operator saw that a machine or market had been serviced in error, our support team had to be contacted in order to roll this service back. We have now made this option available to VMS users with Manager permissions. Now, you can roll back a service anytime to ensure the proper machines are serviced!
To roll back a service, navigate to the route either in the Routes tab if the route has other machines pending service, or through Routes > Service History if the route is already finished. Once you are on the route page, Click on the location name and locate the machine or market. Navigate to the Support Column and click on the Options dropdown Menu located to the right.
This will revert the service and undo any prekitting that has been added to the machine in the system. The machine can then be removed, or you can continue to service the machine as normal once the driver is on location. We recommend only rolling back the most recent service.
Tip #2 Changing Service Type
We’ve also added the ability for managers inside the VMS to change service types. For example a machine planned as “Service Only”, can now be changed to “Service and Collect.” This allows money counts to be entered into the consolidation page for that machine or market. Alternatively, a “Service and Collect” action type can be changed to “Service Only” to prevent the option to add money counts. This ability to change service types helps you maintain flexibility and service locations as you see fit! As a note, machines or markets planned as “Collect Only” or “Repair” will need to be removed and re-added to the route in order to change the service type. These two service types need to use this method because no prekit is generated for them.
To change the service type, navigate to the route, click on the location, navigate to the support column, and click on the options dropdown menu. If the action type is “Service Only”, the option to change to “Service and Collect” will be available. If the action type is “Service and Collect”, the option to change to “Service Only” will be available.
Tip #3 How to open a Finished Route
Another new feature available to manager roles is the option to open a finished route! This functionality comes in handy when you need to add additional machines, remove machines, or make any changes to the route before it is officially marked as finished in the system.
To open a route, navigate to the finished route in the Service History page and click on the Service Date. This should bring you to the finished route. Click on the wand next to the Route Header and Click on Open Route. This will bring the Route back to the Route dropdown and the Route Status will be changed to Started. As a note, we recommend only opening the most recent routes.
Tip #4 Editing the Prekit Alias
When looking at your Prekit Alias, either in the machine modal or in the stock app, you may notice that some machines may have inconsistent Row and Column numbers. This could happen if the DEX changes how it reports the Selections, if the machine board or the machine itself has been recently remapped or replaced, or you may just want a different visual reference for each selection. Keeping correct prekit aliases helps you keep your machine selections organized and tidy.
To update the Prekit Alias, navigate to the edit machine page and click on the Options button on the top right. Click on Modify Layout and this will bring you to the mapping page. Click on Edit Rows to enable the Prekit Alias fields. From here, you can rename Selections to match the machine selection numbers or the row and column (for Example A1, A2, A3, or 01, 02, 03. If the machine has any other discrepancies regarding the mapping, you can reach out to our support team to assist.
Tip #5 Deleting Cash Meters
If you are looking at your consolidations and come across a large over or short, you may wonder how to correct this and what may have happened. This large inconsistency is what we refer to internally as a “crazy sale.” A crazy sale is generated when the DEX number jumps from one report to the next and triggers an excessive amount of sales. Often, this is a result of a fault in the board where the machine will send an incomplete or faulty DEX report, or if a device is moved from one machine to another without routing for a final collection. The good thing about crazy sales is that the numbers are so big that they are very obvious to spot. We created a tool that gives managers the ability to delete cash meters and recalculate expected amounts for a machine in the route progress, and consolidation page. Removing crazy sales helps you accurately measure, analyze, and report correct machine sales information.
To access this navigate to the Routes > Service History page and click on the consolidation page of the route, and consolidated icon. From here, an orange button will be available showing the amount after the cash meters have been deleted. You can also recalculate the expected amount from this same view. As a note, you cannot delete cash meters if the machine has already been serviced after the consolidation. If you have already gone through the steps mentioned and are still showing a discrepancy, you can reach out to our support team for further assistance. Another note to mention is, If a telemeter has been offline for a while and has not dexed recently, then comes back online, the new dex may generate accumulated sales information, these may be actual sales and not crazy sales.. If you need these for reporting purposes, it’s best to leave them as is, however you still have the option to remove them. If you need further assistance with accumulated sales, you can reach out to our support team.
These tips and tricks should help you get more out of the Parlevel VMS while running a more efficient operation! If you have any questions or suggestions on more tips, let us know!
Have any suggestions on other tips and tricks you would like to see covered? Let us know!
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