Advice for newsagents getting back into their businesses after the floods

Tower Systems published the following advice earlier today for newsagents using its newsagency software and getting back into their businesses following time away because of the recent floods.

Magazines
With truck routes dramatically affected, a lot of newsagents have missed their usual magazine deliveries. This advice outlines what to do when the stock does arrive in-store.

1. Arrive magazines via EDI.

You may find that not all of your magazine bundles have been delivered, so it is best to print a Pending Invoices report (by selecting the invoices to arrive, then clicking the ‘View’ button at the bottom and printing that report) before you arrive the invoices. This will give you a list of what you should have received, which you can compare to the delivery labels showing what you actually received. You will then have a list of magazines to process shortages for.

2. Process multiple returns in order.

You may have received several returns forms from magazine suppliers but not yet been able to process any returns through Retailer yet. The best process for this situation is to scan all of your returns into Returns Scanning as normal, then process the oldest returns form first. Don’t change any of the Early Returns, Retailer will work them out correctly to ensure you receive credits on time. (Don’t press the ALL button in the Early Returns screen.)  Print the forms and create the EDI returns file as usual, then process the next returns form the same way for that supplier. Ensure you always process the oldest form first.

When you return Network stock, make sure you print all of the forms from NetOnline, and include all of the appropriate barcoded labels on each box.

Newspapers
To ensure that customers are not charged for newspapers that were not delivered, a Non Arrival should be added.

1. From the Main Screen of Retailer, go to Stock Maintenance  Receipt of Stock  Non Arrivals.

2. Click ‘Add Non Arrival’.

3. Type the PLU for an item that didn’t arrive, select the date that it didn’t arrive, then click ‘Save Non Arrival’.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all other items and dates necessary.

Customers
If you didn’t print Customer Statements on December 31/January 1, our recommendation is to do the weekly billing as normal (make sure you’ve done the Non Arrivals first!), then print statements at the end of January and print a two month statement (covering Dec and Jan). Any payments made during the period will still appear, so the only difference will be a higher than normal total balance.

Subagents
To ensure that subagents are charged correctly, it is best to go into the All Orders grid for each subagent and change the Number Delivered to zero for any items that the subagent did not receive.

Non Arrivals will only affect subagent orders if the orders had not yet been generated when the Non Arrival was added.

Write-Off stock
If you have any water-damaged stock, use the Write-Off Stock function to ensure your stock holding figure is kept up to date. You could also print the Write-Off Report for a list of the damaged products. Refer to Advice Sheet G08.

Other recommendations
1. Take photographs of water-damaged stock before throwing it away.

2. Take photographs of water-damage to the store’s fixtures and fittings.

If water entered the store, even if it didn’t touch any equipment, have a professional technician check all of the equipment. There may be an issue further down the track with moisture build up.

In addition to emailing this advice, it was provided RSS feed directly into our software in each user location.

I am posting it here given that some newsagents are yet to get back into their businesses and collect emails.