Objective
The goals for the participants of this session are to understand how to create and manage information related to vending points of sale.
Creating Points of Sale
Overview – Points of sale also referred to as a “POS” are the final destination where vending and delivery takes place. As an example in VendMax the hierarchy is customers>locations>points of sale. A point of sale is often referred to in name by the type of machine being used (Coffee, Snack, Glassfront, etc).
A point of sale is created for eachtype of vending equipment a customer has at a specific location. A “POS” will need to be defined as to what type of service is provided (Vending, Delivery, Cold Food, Vending Non Revenue etc.)
Main Tab
Overview – Thistab housed selections pertaining to the scheduling and vending methods as well as the option to make the “POS” active.
Vending / Delivery type – There are two options here:
Off Truck – Products are removed from the truck as needed by the Route Driver.
Pre-kit – VendMax will use its predictive modeling techniques to estimate the needs of the POS before the driver goes to the account.
Schedule Type – there are three options here:
Dynamic – Choosing this option allows the Point of Sale to be scheduled Dynamically.
Inherit Settings from higher level
Point of Sale will use the settings defined elsewhere in the hierarchy. This could be Vending Equipment Type, National Account, Customer or Location.
Use Point of Sale Specific Settings
POS will use the settings defined here and override all other settings.
Schedule Lead Time
Determines how far in advance a Point of Sale can be scheduled. Essentially, how long will it take to next reach this machine. Recommended time for most Routes is 24 hours.
This setting prevents the dynamic scheduler from automatically updating a schedule that is within the designated lead-time hours. The lead-time counts back from midnight today. For example, if you set the lead-time to 13 hours, and the scheduler is run any time before 11am ‘today’, it will update today’s schedule with latest information. After 11am, the user must make changes by adding or removing the POS from the DS schedule. Keep in mind that if the dispatch day is locked, the DS scheduler will not make any changes.
If you set the lead-time to 24 hours and you want to use today is 3AM remote data and create a new schedule at 5AM for today, the dynamic schedule will not create a new schedule even if you manually run scheduling! The 24-hour lead-time will prevent the Dispatch from generating a new schedule.
TIP: The Dynamic Scheduling Lead Time does not affect service orders. Its job is to control whether the auto-scheduler (DS) can create/update a route schedule.
Allow Service on Holidays
If this box is checked, the system will schedule a collect for a POS even if the chosen day contains a Scheduled Event.
Use Proactive Scheduling
If this is checked, the system will make scheduling preemptive. A machine is normally scheduled when a threshold is triggered. A Proactive machine is scheduled a certain number of days before a threshold is triggered. For example, if a POS needs to be serviced three open days from now, and the proactive number of days is set to two, the POS will be scheduled one open day from now.
Schedule ‘x’ Days Earlier – Enter the number of open days in advance to a service threshold being met that the Dynamic Scheduler will schedule a POS. Open Days refer to the days on which a POS can be serviced.
Here are two examples of how to use Proactive Scheduling:
If you wish to service a POS just before any product has been sold out, set the DS product sellout threshold to one and use Proactive Scheduling setting the number of open days early to at least 1. This will trigger a service schedule before a product is sold out.
Let us say you have a machine in a shopping mall and you do not run a weekend route. You are concerned that if you do not service the machine on Friday, there will not be enough product in the machine to handle the weekend traffic. If you have, the POS days open set to Monday through Friday, use Proactive Scheduling and set the days earlier to one. The scheduler will schedule the POS on Friday if service thresholds will be hit on Saturday or Sunday.
Scheduling Thresholds: The following thresholds will determine when a Point of Sale should be scheduled. If a threshold is enabled it must have a value. All Thresholds are independent. If any single threshold is met, the system will schedule a Collect for that POS.
Sold Out Columns: Number of Column sellouts to trigger a visit.
Sold Out Products: Number of Product sellouts to trigger a visit. If there are multiple columns of the same product, this will not trigger until all columns of that product sell out.
Percent Depleted: Percentage of total product volume in the POS, which must be sold before a visit, will trigger.
Max Sales ($): Amount of revenue the machine must make before triggering a visit.
Max Number of Days: The most days a machine should go without a visit.
Core Products Sold Out: Number of Core Product sellouts to trigger a visit.
On Demand – This option would not require the VendMax user to establish Route information in order to activate the POS. Under this circumstance, there is no permanent schedule.
Scheduled – This would be the normal setting for this field, where the machine has a permanent schedule, which can also be adjusted by one-time schedule changes or by non-scheduled services at anytime. In this case, VendMax will not allow the user to activate the POS until the schedule has been defined.
Hide in Dynamic Schedule Dispatcher
This option is only available when the Schedule Type is On Demand or Static. By default, the value is YES, indicating the POS will not be shown in the list of POS under Dynamic Dispatch. Be sure to set this value to NO, to see statically scheduled machines in Dispatch.
Limit Added Using
This setting affects the automatic adjust of adds on the handheld when the POS Vending Delivery Type is set to prekit.
None – The handheld adds are not automatically adjusted. The driver needs to make all changes relating to adds.
Par – When the machine is DEXed, the benefit will automatically be limited by Par. For example, if the column has a par of 10 and the prekit estimate results in an ending inventory of 12, the handheld adds will be reduced by two in order for ending inventory to equal par. This option is mainly a time saver for the drivers.
Capacity – When the machine is DEXed, the benefit will automatically be limited by Capacity. For example, assume the column has par of 10 and capacity of 15 and the prekit estimate results in an ending inventory of 12. In this example, the handheld will not adjust the adds. The adds are adjusted only when ending inventory exceeds capacity.
DEX Forecasting Rounding Policy
Vending Points of Sale have a setting called ’DEX Forecasting Rounding Policy’.
The options are:
Round by Column – Will use rounding as in previous version, IE each column shall round based on the rules set in the Product Family Master File.
Round by Flavor – This will round for each unique Product based on the rules set in the Product Family Master File. Useful for Space to Sales and multiple rows of the same product
No Rounding – No Rounding rules will apply to this POS.
TIP: When using “Round by Column” and “Round by Flavor” and the Point of Sale is using service orders, the handheld adds will be overwritten using these policies when the driver changes the beginning inventory value.
Alert Assignment
Defines the Alert Profile that is associated with this Point-of-Sale. Alert Profiles are created on StreamwareOnline and control which machine alerts are monitored. If no profiles are created, the Alert Assignment droplist will be empty. Alerts Profiles follow VendMax hierarchies and can be assigned at the Administration (Alert Profiles) level.
Use for Subsidy Billing
This setting is used when subsidy billings for multiple POS are to be combined into one delivery sale. When subsidies are posted, all subsidies for the customer are combined and a single delivery sale is created for the POS that has this check box checked. Check the “Use for Subsidy Billing” check box for ONE Point-of-Sale per customer.
TIP: This field is only used when the Global Setting “Invoice Per Account” is selected.Pull From Specific Zone
If inventory for deliveries to this POS will not be pulled from the Truck, which services the account, you can enter a specific pull zone here. In this case, the Inventory Zone indicated here will be depleted for all product delivered to this POS.
This may be the case when product will be pulled from a mini-warehouse or storage room maintained at a large account. This can also be used when all deliveries are pre-staged in the warehouse, and you are not tracking truck level inventory. This setting can then cause all inventory to flow effectively from the warehouse directly to the customer.
Service Order tuning
These fields are available for tuning the VendMAX predictive modeling numbers. For users who Pre-kit, under certain circumstances, VendMAX can lag in recognizing sales acceleration. As an example, when the first hot weather weeks arrive in spring, cold drink sales may accelerate very quickly. Since the predictive modeling numbers work from historical data, this sudden increase would not be picked up. These fields allow the manual tweaking of the numbers when necessary.
These check boxes are available to indicate which days of the week the Point of Sale is available for sales. This usually corresponds to the days that the account is open where the POS is located. This data is used in the calculation of Average Daily Sales. As an example, if the POS has sold five units in 1 week, this data will allow VendMAX to know how many days to divide the sales figures by. The Average Daily Sales numbers are used for calculating fill estimates for the Route Driver, and for the functions of the VendMAX Optimizer.
Prekit Permanent Adjust Percent
This adjustment factor will raise or lower the calculated fill amounts for all products in this POS by the percentage indicated. The adjustment factor will be applied to all Vend Visits until the factor is removed from this screen. The value entered can be positive or negative.
Active Hours
These are the active hours of operation for the POS. When remote dex is used, this information is used to compare the ending time of operation to the last remote dex. If the remote dex comes in after the End Hour, the day is not counted in the ADS based calculation for sales as the assumption is there will be no more sales on that day. If the remote dex comes in before the End Hour, the remaining hours of operation will be pro-rated ADS calculation.
For example, if the POS is open 7-5pm (10hrs) and the last remote dex comes in at 6pm, then only remote data is used. If the last remote dex comes in at 1pm, then 4/10ths of ADS will added. Start Hour is informational only.
TIP: Checking the Default check box will reset the Start and End Hours to values set under Global Settings. Keep in mind that Global Settings are loaded when you log into VendMax, and the Start/End hours will be reset to the values from Global Settings when you last logged in. If the Start/End hours do not match current Global Settings, log out and back into VendMax to view the refreshed values.Calc Sellouts based on
This setting is used to determine how the number of sellouts on the vend visit is calculated. The vend visit sellouts is reported on Vend Visit Grid, QuickViews, End of Day report, Over/Short reports, DEX Exceptions 2 report, etc.
Default Value (Columns): Calculated sellouts based upon the number of sold out columns in the planogram. Planograms set up, as STS with multiple physical columns in the machine will be considered one column.
Columns: Calculated sellouts based upon the number of sold out columns in the planogram. Planograms set up, as STS with multiple physical columns in the machine will be considered one column.
Products: Calculated sellouts based upon the number of sold out products in the planogram. Planograms with multiple columns with the same product will only be counted as one sellout.
Lead Time (hours)
Use this to set the length of time in which Service Orders can no longer generate. For instance, setting this to 24 hours prevents Service Orders from being created today. Use a longer period for those Points of Sale, which need packed further in advance.
Enable Remote DEX
These fields are only used if Remote Dex has been activated. When the remote device is added to the POS as Non-Vending Equipment, these fields will automatically populate. See Telemetry Device Setup for detailed instructions.
The information in this section applies only to Delivery Points of Sale and Over the Counter (OTC) Points of Sale. These options will not be visible when creating a Vending or Vending Non-Revenue POS.
Delivery Sell Type
This field is for informational purposes. Its setting will have no effect.
This field will indicate the level in the Customer Hierarchy to who the invoices will be sent and the accounts receivable managed. This can be the National Account, Customer, or Location. All rules about Billing Terms, Credit Limits and Accounts Receivable will be handled by the settings on the Financials Tab of the Bill To Master File screen.
If there is a specific PO Number that should be referenced when invoicing for deliveries to this POS, enter the number here, and it will appear on the printed invoices.
Use OCS Meter?
Checking this box will display a field for entering the Current OCS Meter Value. This field is visible on this screen only. When the Current OCS Meter Value is changed, the previous value is replaced with the new value. Historical OCS Meter values are not stored in VendMAX. This field is not visible when the POS type is OTC.
Requires Signature?
Checking this box will require the driver to get a signature on the handheld when doing a delivery order. This field is not visible when the POS type is OTC.
Exclude from Rental Billing Grouping
When selected, the delivery sale for this POS rental will be generated separately. It will not be combined into a higher-level delivery sale. The message “Group Rental Billings Invoices (Higher Level): Yes” indicates a rental billing group is being used for this customer, location or national account. The message “Group Rental Billings Invoices (Higher Level): No” indicates a rental billing group is not being used.
Track Back Ordering
| Automatically create back order | A back order is always created for the POS. |
| Confirm once per sale | When creating a sale (on client or handheld) which contains less product than ordered, confirmation on creating the back order is requested. |
| Confirm once per item | When creating a sale (on client or handheld) which contains less product than ordered, confirmation on creating back order is requested for every product this is candidate for back order. This allows you to limit back orders to specific items. |
| Never create back order | Back orders are not tracked for the POS. |
In order for a back order to be created for a POS, this setting must be set.
TIP: By default, the back order system is not enabled. Please contact Technical Support to activate back orders for DeliveryMax before trying to use.Pull From Specific Zone
If inventory for deliveries to this POS will not be pulled from the Truck, which services the account, you can enter a specific pull zone here. In this case, the Inventory Zone indicated here will be depleted for all product delivered to this POS.
This may be the case when product will be pulled from a mini-warehouse or storage room maintained at a large account. This can also be used when all deliveries are pre-staged in the warehouse, and you are not tracking truck level inventory. This setting can then cause all inventory to flow effectively from the warehouse directly to the customer.
The information in this section applies only to Micro Market Points of Sale. These options will not be visible when creating a Vending or DeliveryMax POS.
A micro market POS is a unique POS type in VendMAX. Existing vending points of sale cannot be converted into a MM point of sale. To create a micro market POS, press the + sign on the POS screen. Select the POS type Micro Market. If micro market POS type is not available, the security permission has not been set.
When planogram product on POG tab is set to prekit (this is the default when creating a POG), this setting overrides the ‘off truck’/’prekit’ setting on the main POS tab. When a service order does not exist, the prekit on the HH is set to PAR and the adds on the HH are set to this par value.
Micro Market Provider
The Micro Market software system, which controls the market kiosks. If the Micro Market provider is not listed, it can be added to drop list by pressing + sign and adding a new record.
Activate Micro Market Exchange
This setting determines if the exchange of data is activated for this micro market and it controls the flow of information.
| Setting | Description |
| None | The interface is turned off for a market POS and data is not passed between VendMAX and the Micro Market provider. |
| Import | The interface is partially turned on for the market POS. Sales activity is imported from the Micro Market System into VendMAX. No data from VendMAX is exported into the Micro Market system. In order for this setting to work, the MicroMarket provider must send sales transactions, which contain the VendMAX product code and a matching barcode. VendMAX sales tax reports will only work with this setting when the MM sales contain VendMAX tax rules. |
| Export | The interface is partially turned on for the market POS. VendMAX activity is exported from VendMAX into the Micro Market System. No Micro Market sales activity is imported into VendMAX. |
| All | The interface is fully turned on and both sides are passing information. |
| Provider Setting | The interface setting is controlled at the Micro Market Provider level. |
MM ID
The micro market Point of Sale identifier is used to connect the VendMax Point of Sale to the Micro Market Provider software Point of Sale. This Micro Market ID must entered into the Micro market software system in order for data to be shared for this market.
Creating New Micro Markets
Depending on the micro market software system, the steps to create a market POS can differ. Use the tables below to match your micro market software with the type of market you are creating. Follow the instructions provided.
| Micro Market System | Instructions |
| Avenue C (365) | See 365 Market Setup Process |
| Avanti | See Avanti Market Setup Process |
| Breakroom Provisions | Not Available |
| Company Kitchen | See CK Market Setup Process |
| Vendors Exchange | See Vendors Exchange Market Setup Process |
| 32 Market | See 32Market Setup Process |
If your micro market provider is not listed or the table shows “Not available”, the market provider has not completed the VDI integration with MarketConnect as of the last update to this Help file.
Note: The Micro Market interface between VendMAX and the market system will automatically create the kiosk as Non-Vending Equipment in VendMAX and assign it to the market POS. Do NOT perform this step manually, unless it is outlined in special instructions.
TIP: When the export of VendMax data to the Micro Market system is active, it is necessary to have Point of Sale pricing in place before activating the Micro Market POS in VendMax. If pricing is not set on the Micro Market Point of Sale, zero prices may be passed to the MM system and market kiosks!Once the POS is created and saved, send the MM ID and the POS description to the MM software provider. They will look up the MM description on their system and add the VendMax MM ID value. This step is necessary for the two systems to communicate.
Prekitting Micro Markets
The prekit operation for your micro market POS use many of the same tools as prekitting for vending POS. There are several subtle differences, which are important. A micro market contains multiple areas, which are defined in the planogram. The planogram may contain every product currently sold in the market, of which, some products are conducive for prekitting and some are not. For example, the planogram may contain fresh food products. When fresh food is rotated frequently (for variety reasons), it may be difficult to generate good prekits for this type of product.
On the micro market POS, there are new prekit fields. The main tab contains several prekit checkboxes:
The Pre-Kit checkboxes correspond to the merchandising product type assigned to products. Check the checkbox for the group of products to be prekitted.
The POG tab for the micro market contains the market planogram. In order for the product to be prekitted, the prekit checkbox on the POG must also be selected. Only products listed on the planogram with the prekit checkbox checked can be prekitted. By default, this checkbox is automatically checked when creating a planogram area.
TIP: When the planogram product is set to prekit, this setting overrides the POS Vending Delivery Type when this setting is set to “Off truck”. For example, when a service order does not exist, the prekit on the handheld is set to PAR and the adds on the handheld are set to this par value.
Just like vending, the POS lead time controls when service order estimates are updated with recent activity. It is recommended to set the lead-time on micro markets to ensure all real time market sales are included in the forecast. Often zero is the best value for markets.
MicroMarket Integration Assistance
The micromarket VDI integration is based on sending information back and forth between VendMAX and the micromarket software system. When a new market is created in VendMAX, basic market details and a full list of market products is sent to the micromarket system. From this point forward, VendMAX sends only information, which has changed.
Sometimes a MicroMarket provider is unable to process the VendMAX information and may ask for it to be resent. This can be done using the “Re-Send Market Data” and “Re-send Product Catalog Data” buttons found the Main tab on the POS.
Re-Send Market Data – When pressed, this will send the market description, code and MM ID for this POS.
Re-Send Product Catalog Data – When pressed, this will send all products and pricing for this POS.
As a user, you may want to check the time when data was transmitted from VendMAX to the market provider. This data can be found in the VDI Activity section on the Main tab of the POS. Tap into the VDI Activity window and arrow up/down through the list of messages.
Last Full Product Catalog Push: – Displays the date and time when the entire list of market products was successfully sent to the provider for this market.
Last Partial Product Push: – Displays the date and time when the most recent VendMAX product change (for this market) was made and transmitted to the provider.
Last VDI Sale Received: – Displays the date and time when the most recent sale (for this market) was received in VendMAX.
Last VDI Consumer Trans Received: – Displays the date and time when the most recent consumer transaction (for this market) was received in VendMAX.
Last VDI Collection Received: – Displays the date and time when the most recent kiosk collection (for this market) was received in VendMAX.
The “Last time this product was sent” section provides the ability to lookup a particular product and see the last time this product was sent to the provider. Use the scroll bar to view all the information delivered to the provider.
Product Lookup: – Use the product lookup to search for a particular product and see when it was last sent to the provider. Product details delivered to the provider are provided.
Resend this product – Use this button to resend to the provider the particular product shown in the Product Lookup.
InfoVend – Not Used
Dex forecasting rounding policy – Three options here related to how product will be called for when needed (full case vs. ½ case).
Round by Column – Each column will round based on rules set at the product family level. Round By Flavor – Each Unique product in columns will round based on rules set at the product family level.
No Rounding – Product will be called for as needed in whatever quantities required to bring levels to Par/ Capacity.
Limit Added using Par – If this box is checked and a machine is DEXED, the benefit will automatically be limited by Par
Pull from specific Zone – This is checked if inventory is being depleted for a zone other than the truck (Closets, Pre-kit Zones, etc.).
Open days – Days open for this “POS”
Pre-kit permanent adjustment – This adjustment factor will raise or lower the calculated fill amounts for all products in this POS by the percentage indicated. This can be a positive or negative adjustment.
Lead Time – Use this to set the length of time in which Service Orders can no longer generate.
Equipment Tab
Overview – The Equipment Tab of the Point of Sale Master File is the place to assign a piece of Vending Equipment to a Vending Point of Sale, or to assign Non-Vending Equipment to any type of POS. Vending Equipment can only be assigned to Vending or Vending Non-Revenue Points of Sale.
Procedure – To add Vending equipment or Non Vending equipment to a POS please use the following steps:
-Click on the Add Vending equipment tab or the Add Non Vending Equipment tab
-A dialogue box will open add click on the double arrows at the end to pull up the Equipment Masterfile list of machines that are not currently assigned
-Locate the correct piece of equipment and either double click or the machine in the line or highlight and select “Choose”
-Then click on OK
-You will need to do other data maintence to be identified later in this module
Vending equipment – Equipment currently assigned to this “POS”.
Add Vending Equipment – This button will reveal a dialog box for selecting a Vending Equipment and the date and time for the move to become effective.
Remove Vending Equipment – This button will reveal a dialog box for selecting the Zone to which the equipment will be moved. Vending Equipment must always be located at a POS or in a Zone. This box will also provide a place to set the date and time that the move will become effective.
Non-Vending Equipment – List of non-vending equipment currently assigned to this POS
Add Non-Vending Equipment – This button will reveal a dialog box for selecting Non-Vending Equipment and the date and time for the move to become effective.
Remove Non Vending equipment – This button will reveal a dialog box for selecting the Zone to which the equipment will be moved. Non-Vending Equipment must always be located at a POS or in a Zone.
Placement History – This screen area keeps track of all of the Vending and Non-Vending Equipment moves, which have been made to this POS.
Effective Date – This field will show the date and time that the equipment placement history item became effective.
Add / Remove – This field will show either Add or Remove to indicate what action was taken.
Equipment – These fields will provide a list of the Description, Code, Category and Serial Number of the equipment, which has been added or removed on this line.
Planogram Tab
Overview – The PlanOgram Tab of the Point of Sale Master File describes all information about the products in the POS. this includes product layout, pricing and related info.
When building a POG there are two options. One is to build from scratch and the other is to perform a “Copy from” another existing POS with a similar machine type and edit the products list.
To build from scratch click the Load PlanOgram button. Right click in the blank area and you should see the following window
New Shelf – 10 Columns: This option will add a new shelf to the template, which contains 10 columns. The new shelf will be inserted above the cursor position.
New Shelf – 5 Columns: This option will add a new shelf to the template, which contains 5 columns. The new shelf will be inserted above the current cursor position.
New Shelf – 1 Column: This option will add a new shelf to the template, which contains 1 column.
Cut: When used in conjunction with Paste, this option will remove the product (and column) from one row and insert it into another row.
Copy: When used in conjunction with Paste, this option will copy the product (and column) from one row and insert a new column with the product into the paste row.
Paste: Will paste and insert the product from the clipboard into the new shelf.
Copy From: This option provides the ability to create a template from another template. When this option is used, a dialogue box will open up where the user can select a Template from which to copy. Keep in mind, any existing rows/shelves in the template will be replaced with the newly copied template.
Add 5 columns to current shelf: This option will create 5 new columns directly to the left of the cursor position.
Add 1 column to Current Shelf: This option will add 1 column, to the left of the current cursor position.
Add a double-wide column to Current Shelf: This option will widen the image space allocated to the product. This can be used to differentiate between narrow and large products.
Increase column width: This option will slightly widen the image space allocated to the product. This feature can help the template more accurately represent narrow, medium and large products.
Decrease column width: This option will slightly narrow the image space allocated to the product. The feature can be used to differentiate between narrow and large products.
Remove five columns from current shelf: This option will remove five columns directly to the right of the current cursor position.
Remove one column from Current Shelf: This option will remove the highlighted column from the current shelf.
Remove Shelf: This option will remove the entire shelf from the template.
After all of your columns have been added then you can add the Dex IDs and the Product information in the following further in this module.
Load Button – this will display the selected Planogram in a graphical fashion, showing information related to products in the Planogram
Template – If a template is assigned to a “POS” the name of the template will appear here. The pull down menu will show the list of available templates as well as allow for creation of new templates.
Reapply Template – this allows any changes made to the template lower levels to be overridden and original template to be restored
Grid view/ Planogram view – This Button toggles between graphical PlanOgram view and Grid view
Copy from – For simplicity in POS setup, this button allows copying of PlanOgram data from another POS. Once the button is hit, a dialogue box will open up where user can select the POS to copy from.
This button appears after a planogram change has occurred.
These fields are displayed when a licensed POS has sent planogram changes over-the-air to the vending machine.
Cashless Two-Tier Price Adjust
Two-tier pricing on a cashless device allows the vending operator to charge a different price for cash and cashless transactions. For example, the cashless price for a product is $1.25 and the cash price is $1.00. Two-tier pricing allows the user to share the costs associated with cashless with the consumer.
In VendMax, the difference between the cash and the cashless price is referred to as the price adjustment. This field contains the cashless price adjustment. This field is “display only” and cannot be edited.
Cashless price adjustment can be set on the Financial Tab in Global Settings, at the Customer or Location levels. It can also be set or overridden on the POS Overrides tab
Optimize – this button will automatically optimize the current template based on historical performance data for the current POS and its template
Column – This is the column name, or description. This corresponds to the physical label in the machine that the user would press in order to vend the column
DEX IDs – The DEX Column description is a characteristic of the Vending Equipment, and is therefore stored as part of the Vending Equipment Master File
Par – This is the target fill level for the column
Capacity – This is the total number of products that will physically fit in a column
Product Code – this is the product code created from the Product master file
Price – This is the price for which the column should be set to vend.
Product Description – the product name from the Product master file.
Product Locked – If this checkbox is turned ON, a permanent product change cannot be made to this column.
Family Locked – If this checkbox is turned ON, permanent product changes are limited to products, which belong to the same product family as the product being replaced.
Permanent Template Override – If this checkbox is turned ON, the product assigned to this column of this POS will override any product placements made for that same column on a PlanOgram Template if one has been assigned.
Product Assignments
This area of the PlanOgram screen allows you to lookup and assign products to the columns of the Point of Sale.
The objective is to find the desired product. There are two methods to accomplish this task. The first method is to use the >> button to open a dialog box accessing the Products Masterfile Grid View This dialog box will provide all of the typical VendMAX Search and Sorting options to aid in finding the desired product. The second method is to select the product family using the ‘down arrow’ to reveal a list of families. When you have selected the family, all products, which are part of that family, will be shown in the List area below. The product can then be chosen from this list.
In either case, once the product has been chosen, the Bitmap (Crane Master Product Library or own images added) picture assigned to that product will appear in the bottom of the three screen area. If no bitmap is available for the product, the Description of the product will appear in the bitmap area instead. In either case, to assign the selected product to a column, grab the bitmap using the left mouse button and drag it to the column where you would like to place it. Drop the product by release in the mouse button when the mouse is situated over the appropriate column.
TIP: When creating a new planogram in planogram view, if the planogram is saved without entering all of the products, prices, pars and capacity, the planogram view remains in “wizard” mode. If you change any price, it will update all prices in the same row. Once you enter all products, par and capacity and save – if you then change a price it will only change the columns with the same product to the new price.
WARNING: When adding product to a planogram, the Merchandising Product Type assigned to the product must match the Vending Equipment Type settings for the Vending Equipment assigned to the POS.
Planogram Column Details
The following popup is available by double clicking on a product in the planogram. This popup can be used to navigate between planogram selections.
Permanent Template Override
This check box indicates whether the assigned template controls the selection. When checked, product changes for the selection are not controlled by the template.
Ignore Remote Exceptions
This check box indicates how remote dex is handled. For example, if a column in the DEX repeatedly has DEX cumulative errors, checking this check box will ignore the DEX errors for the column and provide estimates based solely on ADS, whenever cumulative errors are present.
Next on OK
This check box indicates whether the pop-up closes or navigates to the next planogram selection when OK is pressed. When checked, the OK button will navigate to the next selection.
Planograms can be configured to consider product attributes during Merchandising. This can be done from the planogram image view and planogram grid view. Choose the selection to which the attribute(s) will be assigned. Press “Add” and choose the desired attribute(s).
Use the Required check box to specify the attribute must be present on the new product.
Use the exclude check box to specify the attribute cannot be present on the new product. For example, the “Nut” attribute may need to be excluded from school planograms concerned with nut allergies. Thus, products with the “Nut” attribute will not be considered for the selections, which have the Nut attribute, and the exclude check box marked.
When attributes are assigned to a planogram selection, it is possible to receive warning message when a new product is added which does not match the attribute settings. For example, if a healthy attribute is assigned to a chip column, and you change the product to something without the healthy attribute, you will receive the following attribute conflict message.
Driver handheld changes must also conform to attributes assigned to the planogram.
Grid View
The grid view allows the user to make mass changes to selections using special buttons or by simply click on the field they wish to change. This can be done on one item, selected items, or all items. You can select the items to perform the change to by holding either the shift key down and clicking on items in series (one after the other), or the control key down for multiple items not in series. Note the only fields that are editable from this screen are Description, DEX ID, Product, Par, Capacity, and Price
Select All
This button allows the user to select all of the selections for editing at one time and is used with the special buttons below. An example of how this button is used would be to Select All and then check the Price ($) button and entering a new price and then hitting the OK button. This would change the price of all selections to the price entered.
Price ($)
By checking this box and entering, a new price and hitting the OK button would change the price of all selected selections to the new price entered.
Par
By checking this box and entering, a new par and hitting the OK button would change the par of all selected selections to the new par entered.
Capacity
By checking this box and entering, a new capacity and hitting the OK button would change the capacity of all selected selections to the new capacity entered.
Set Par to Capacity
By hitting this button, the Par for all selected selections will be updated with the current value of the capacity for each selection.
Set Capacity to Par
By hitting this button, the Capacity for all selected selections will be updated with the current value of the Par for each selection.
Set DEX ID to Col Desc
By hitting this button, the DEX ID for all selected selections will be updated with the current value of the Column Description for each selection. This function is very helpful when setting up a machine for Space to Sales.
Use the Print button to print the planogram grid view.
Right Click Menu Options
When using planogram grid view, there is a right click menu, which enables you to assign parameters across multiple selections at once.
Copy Product – Copies the product code to memory for pasting into another selection.
Paste Product – Pastes the product code into the current selection.
Sellout Alert conditions – Allows you set the sellout alert depletion percentage and days of inventory for the selected rows. The Product SellOut alert uses depletion percentage and Days of inventory thresholds for medium and top selling products only. When the % depleted for the product falls below the percentage here, an alert is triggered. If the days of inventory remaining in the selection is at or below the Alert DOI entered, an alert is triggered.
Note: If there is a vend visit scheduled up through and including ‘today’, a Sellout Alert will not be raised as it assumed the driver will be replenishing the machine inventory.
Add Attributes – Set product attribute requirements for the selected rows.
Remove Attributes – Remove product attribute requirements for the selected rows. Highlight the attribute to be removed and press the ‘Remove’ button.
TIP: Do not try to right click on the Product description Column. Right click in any other column to see the menu pop-up. Use the Add Attributes and Remove Attributes to add/remove attributes from all highlighted selections.
Space to Sales PlanOgram
A Space to Sales POS is set up as any other vending POS with two exceptions. First, the Vending Equipment assigned to the POS must be set for Dex Full, as STS-Man is no longer necessary. Second, the layout of the Planogram. What follows are the most common examples of a Space to Sales POS. When setting up the Planogram, it is vital to have the DEX configuration available. The most important thing to remember is that in all Space to Sale setups, each product will be set as a unique column.
WARNING: Do not leave a space between the commas and the DEX IDs. You cannot use the same DEX ID twice, but the DEX IDs need not be in a particular order. The Capacity and Par will be the total for all of the rows assigned under DEX ID. Therefore, four columns of six each would be a Capacity and Par of 24.Complete this procedure for all columns.
Example #1: POS has more buttons than inventory columns and reports DEX by Button.
In this configuration, the POS has 12 buttons, but only nine columns from which to pull (such as a “High Visibility Vendor” or “HVV”). As always, create a POS column for each unique product. Set the DEX IDs to incorporate each of the associated DEX buttons for that flavor, as follows:
Numbers inside the red box will be used as the DEX IDs when setting up columns.
The large numbers in BOLD indicate the Column number in the Planogram Setup.
Each flavor should be set up as an individual column as outlined above, meaning the planogram will display six columns, each numbered off the first button with which it is associated. For example, if buttons 1, 2 and 3 sell Cola 20oz at $1.25 and share 3 columns of inventory totaling 102 bottles, the first column would be given a Column identifier of “1” , DEX IDs set as “1,2,3” and a Par and Capacity of 102 (68 from column 1 + 34 from column 2). The next entry would have a Column identifier of “4” and have DEX IDs of “4, 5” with a product of “Dt Cola 20 oz.” and a par and capacity of 68. Continue until the Planogram mirrors this Grid View:
Example #2: POS has more buttons than inventory columns and reports DEX by Column.
In this configuration, the POS has 12 buttons, but only nine columns from which to pull (such as a “High Visibility Vendor” or “HVV”). As always, create a POS column for each unique product. Set the DEX IDs to incorporate each of the associated DEX columns for that flavor, as follows:
Numbers inside the red box will be used as the DEX IDs when setting up columns.
The large numbers in BOLD indicate the Column number in the Planogram Setup.
Each flavor should be set up as an individual column as outlined above, meaning the planogram will display six columns, each numbered off the first button with which it is associated. For example, if buttons 1, 2 and 3 sell Cola 20oz at $1.25 and share 3 columns of inventory totaling 102 bottles, the first column would be given a Column identifier of “1” , DEX IDs set as “1,2” and a Par and Capacity of 102 (68 from column 1 + 34 from column 2). The next entry would have a Column identifier of “4” and have DEX IDs of “3, 4” with a product of “Dt Cola 20 oz.” and a par and capacity of 68. Continue until the Planogram mirrors this Grid View:
Example #3: Glassfront POS
Newer Glassfront Beverage machines allow the user to slave buttons to report as only the first in a series. For instance, columns A1, A2, A3, and A4 all report as A1 and share inventory. This aids in rotation of product and eases loading by allowing a user to load cases or half-cases of product. Using Space to Sales in VendMAX, it is possible to replicate or account for this feature. Much like in the above configurations, create a POS column for each unique product. We configure this as follows:
Numbers inside the red box will be used as the DEX IDs when setting up columns.
The large numbers in BOLD indicate the Column number in the Planogram Setup.
Each flavor should be set up as an individual column as outlined above, meaning the planogram will display six columns, each numbered off the first button with which it is associated. For example, if buttons 1, 2 and 3 sell Cola 20oz at $1.25 and share 3 columns of inventory totaling 102 bottles, the first column would be given a Column identifier of “1” , DEX IDs set as “1,2” and a Par and Capacity of 102 (68 from column 1 + 34 from column 2). The next entry would have a Column identifier of “4” and have DEX IDs of “3, 4” with a product of “Dt Cola 20 oz.” and a par and capacity of 68. Continue until the Planogram mirrors this Grid View:
Scheduling for Vending or Delivery
Schedule Tab
This area of the screen contains the graphical representation of the service schedule for this POS. The information displayed here will correspond to each of the Route Schedules defined in the Schedule Definition Section above. If there is more than one schedule set up, click on the row in the screen area above corresponding to the schedule you wish to view or edit.
Schedule Priority
The schedule priority is used in Dynamic Scheduling and designates POS to receive a higher service priority over other POS. In Dynamic Scheduling, if the POS weight is greater than zero, POS with a HIGH priority will be scheduled for service before POS with normal priority.
Normal – The POS will not receive priority scheduling over other customers.
High – The POS will receive priority scheduling over other customers.
TIP: In certain situations, high priority POS can be scheduled even though the total number of POS to be serviced for the day exceeds the route POS Target. This can happen when there are many high priority POS needing service, or normal priority POS have not been serviced in a long time resulting in very high weighting.
A series of boxes will be displayed representing each day to be scheduled. They will be laid out left to right for each day of the week, with one row for each “week in rotation”.
Each box contains two numbers in the upper left hand corner. The first number represents the week number in rotation, and the second number represents the day number in that week. In this example, the schedule setup in this box would be run on Sunday in the first week of the cycle. Must always be a Sunday
Scheduling is accomplished by clicking in the center of the box. One click creates a Service on the selected day, two clicks will change to a Collect, and three clicks will remove the service all together. To add an Inventory to the Service or Collect, click in the bottom right corner to reveal an !. This indicates an Inventory, as shown below:
If a Point of Sale is set up for Dynamic Scheduling, each day clicked upon will yield an ‘Open’ day. The POS can be serviced on these days. Therefore, if the POS can be accessed Monday through Friday, click on each of the days to mark them Open. If the Driver is only in the area on Tuesdays and Thursdays, only choose those 2 days. When the system schedules a Collect for the POS, it will only place it on days marked as ‘Open.’ All Collects will appear in the Calendar View but not on the Standard View.
WARNING: If an Open day is changed to Closed, and the POS was scheduled on that day, the next time the DS process runs, it recognizes the change and will cancel the service on the closed day and reschedule the POS on the open day.
Reset ADS – The reset ADS checkbox enables VendMax to restart the average daily sales calculation using the first vend visit posted after the effective date entered.
Effective Date – This is the starting date when average daily sales will be reset. Using the first vend visit on or after the date specified, Average Daily Sales will be restarted. This is very useful when there will be implementing major changes with the POS. For example, the number of employees doubled and cashless is being introduced.
WARNING: If the date entered is in the past and posted vend visits already exist, ADS will not be reset, even after unposting/reposting the vend visits. If resetting ADS on an already posted vend visit is desired, unpost the vend visit and check the reset ADS checkbox on the vend visit this will restart ADS with the vend visit.
There is a mouse-over feature, which will explicitly display the schedule details for a schedule block. When you pass your mouse over a schedule block, VendMAX will place a text description of the schedule under the Clear All button, as shown below:
- If you are setting up a schedule with several weeks in rotation, and for quick setup, you want to copy the schedule from the first week to all others, press this button.
2. If you are setting up a schedule with several weeks in rotation, and for quick setup, you want to copy the schedule from the first 2 weeks to all others, press this button.
‘CLEAR ALL” – This button will erase the schedule from all boxes in the Schedule Tab area.
There is also an options menu under the mouse right click. Hover the mouse over the schedule date, which you would like to operate on, and click and release the right mouse button. The following menu will be revealed:
Collect / Service / None – This will change service type in the current schedule block.
Inventory – This will add an inventory to the service type in the current schedule block.
RCM Inventory – This will add a Recycler Coin Mechanism inventory to the service type in the current schedule block.
Repeat First Week -Copy the schedule from the first week to all others.
Repeat First 2 Weeks – Copy the schedule from the first 2 weeks to all others.
If the Point of Sales is configured for Dynamic Scheduling, driver inventories can be managed by selecting the “Inventory Every” check box and setting the number of visits between required full inventories. When setting this value for the first time, the first inventory will be scheduled the specified number of visits from the last time an inventory was scheduled for this Point of Sale. If an inventory has never been scheduled for this Point of Sale, VendMAX will count the number of schedules up to the requested date and if the number of schedules is greater than this setting, it will schedule an inventory.
To schedule a Dynamic POS for Recycler and Coin Mech inventory, select the “RCM Inv. Every” check box and set the number of visits between RCM inventories.
TIP: These settings are only available when the POS is configured for Dynamic Scheduling. To view this setting during initial setup, set the POS to dynamic and save. Return to grid view and refresh the POS search. The inventory settings will show when you return to the POS scheduling tab.
Schedule Change Message
When making changes to an existing POS schedule, the following message may appear:
Change to NEW route wherever OLD route was used – Automatically change the schedules when the old route(s)-to-change matches the scheduled route(s).
Change to NEW route everywhere – Automatically change the schedules to use new route(s) – even where the old routes did not match the one(s) that are changing.
Stay AS IS – All current schedules stay on the OLD route.
TIP: If the POS is serviced by only one route, and route number is not changing, use “Stay AS IS”.
The Global Setting “Action on Scheduled Route Change” controls the frequency of this message.
Calendar View
When scheduling is defined in terms of week 1, week 2, week 3, etc., and then the schedule repeats, it can become difficult to figure out what week you are currently in. Therefore, if the route schedule alternates Tuesday, Thursday one week with Monday, Wednesday and Friday the following week, the Calendar View screen will help you figure out which week you are currently in.
Choosing this option changes the Schedule Tab to boxes which have dates in the top left of each box, indicating real dates. This causes VendMAX to apply the weekly schedule, starting with the Start Date to the calendar, and then display the results in a four-week period beginning with the current week.
Below is an example of this type of schedule displayed in the Calendar View:
This information can be used as reference when an account calls and asks if you are coming on Thursday or Friday this week. You can also make one-time schedule changes on this screen. Schedule changes can be made on this screen in exactly the same way as schedules are defined on the Schedule Tab, with the exception that changes made here will only effect the actual calendar day that they are indicated.
If any one-time changes have been made to the schedule, the schedule box will get a large red X in the top right corner, to clearly indicate the change. The following is an example:
There is a mouse-over feature, which will explicitly display the schedule details for a schedule block. When you pass your mouse over a schedule block, VendMAX will place a text description of the schedule under the Clear All button, as shown below:
This screen area will show both the planned, or permanent schedule, and the Actual Schedule, so you can see if any one-time changes have been made.
There is also an options menu under the mouse right click. Hover the mouse over the schedule date, which you would like to operate on, and click and release the right mouse button. The following menu will be revealed:
Collect / Service / None – This will change service type in the current schedule block.
Inventory – This will add an inventory to the service type in the current schedule block.
Default Route – This option will change the Route back to the default route if it has been changed otherwise.
Override Route – This option will allow you to change the Route the service will be performed on.
Dynamic Scheduling and Calendar View
Below is a sample screen of VendMax Calendar View:
GREEN – indicates open day
ORANGE – indicates DS scheduled visit.
All dynamic visits are collects, so you will be BIG “C” in the middle of the ORANGE day.
For calendar cells in the past: (When viewing dates prior to today):
| Value | Meaning |
| E | No service order and no vend visit |
| F | No service order and a fulfilled vend visit |
| M | Service order and no vend visit (Missed Service order) |
| V | Service order and a vend visit (Fulfilled) |
For calendar cells in the future (When viewing today and future dates):
| Value | Meaning |
| N | No service order |
| V | No service order and a vend visit |
| Variable | Service order and no vend visit |
| F | Service order and a vend visit (Fulfilled) |
Notice the calendar view has ORANGE for future dates. DS schedules 14 days out, so these future dates are forecasts, which will be revised nightly as new information is posted.
Service Orders Tab – This will be covered in the PreKit module.
View Vend Visits – This will be covered in the Accountability
Quick View Inventory – This will be covered in Accountability and warehousing section
Pricing Tab – This will be covered later in the DeliveryMax module
Commissions tab
The Commissions and Taxes Tab contains all of the settings for Commissions and Taxes that will be applied to the Point of Sale. The Commission settings for this POS may have been dictated by a setting at the National Account, Customer, or Location above this POS. If this is the case, the Commission or Tax information on this page will appear “grayed-out”. If this is the case, the user can choose the ‘Override’ button for that commission or tax item and change it if necessary. If the Commissions or Taxes for this Point of Sale will be the same for all Points of Sale at this Customer, then it is recommended that you make these assignments at this level.
Sales Person
This field allows you to establish an employee of your company who is responsible for selling the account. This will allow that person to be paid commissions generated from the Sales Person commissions defined for this POS.
Tax Area
Taxes are applied to Points of Sale by assigning the POS to a Tax Area. Tax Areas may contain one or more individual Taxes, and each Tax may contain one or more Tax Item. A specific taxing authority, like “State Sales Tax”, or “County Snack Tax”, usually defines taxes. All taxes, which apply to a specific geographic area, like a county, are collected together into a Tax Area, which is named for that County. Therefore, this parameter allows you to establish to which Tax Area this POS belongs.
The Tax Area setting for this POS may have been dictated by a setting at the Site, Customer, or Location above this POS. If this is the case, the Tax information on this page will appear “grayed-out”. If this is the case, the user can choose the ‘Override’ button for the tax area and change it if necessary. If the Taxes for this Point of Sale will be the same for all Points of Sale at this Customer, then it is recommended that you make these assignments at that level.
This application button will expose a dialog window which will show all of the Tax Items which are in effect for the POS. This is provided as a quick check to make sure that the Tax Area assigned to the POS accurately represents the Tax definitions for the geography.
The dialog box also provides the ability to call up Tax definitions from the History Table, to see how these Tax rules have changed over time. There is also a button to Copy this information to the Windows clipboard, which can then be pasted into other Windows applications like Word or Excel.
This is the area to define all of your Commission Agreements.
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