Overview

This document provides insight to the Vend Visits screen and its related screens.  The Vend Visits database is the transaction database that contains one record for each Visit (service or collect) that is made to a vending machine by a route driver (not to be confused with Service Calls).

Vend Visits can be manually entered into the system using VendMAX , however typically, Vend Visits are created by the Route Handheld or mobile device.  One Vend Visit record will be created for each machine that is serviced by each Route Driver.  The Vend Visits records can be viewed as soon has the handheld or mobile device has synced.

Notes on inventory in the Vending Machines

VendMAX does not deal with inventory, par machines, or product accountability in the same way that many systems do.  When Vend Visits are entered into the handheld or manually into VendMAX, the system will fill in the current inventory value based on par if it is left blank by the user. There are one of three calculations that are possible in a visit. They are D=Dex. M=Manual and C for Calculated. This information will be explained further in this document.

For example, if a driver writes in the handheld that in an inventory for a product or Dex ID  he removed 2 products and added 4, the system performs the following calculation:

              Current Inv-removed-spoiled+added = current inventory –or—

              10-2+0+4 = 12

This system has an important process to be followed

1. VendMAX will always calculate numbers for “vended” even when a full inventory has not been taken.  This number may be wrong, however once an inventory is taken on that column, the total of the “vends” since the last collect will be correct.  Occasionally this can result in a negative value for vends being calculated when the collect takes place because it is making up for the previous services where the driver did not fill to par.

Note that this does not apply to full DEX machines because in this case, both current inventory and added inventory are filled in by the handheld based on the DEX reading.

What happens when Vend Visit records are posted

Like all VendMAX transaction files, vend Visits must be posted for the information in them to affect other parts of the system.  Posted records cannot be changed, however they can be un-posted, changed, and re-posted.

When a Vend Visit record is posted, the following actions and calculations occur:

• VendMAX fills in the current inventory if the driver does not have a value input either via dex or manual entry.
• Inventory records are adjusted appropriately.  Generally this means that the inventory on the truck that serviced the machine is reduced by the amount the driver added to the machine. If applicable as this is established by Route policy or POS specific setting override.
• Financial Calculations are performed, specifically:
  • Sales Taxes are calculated if set to calculate at each visit in the global settings
  • Commissions are calculated if set to calculate at each visit in the global settings
  • P & L information is calculated
  • All DEX information (if applicable) is parsed and stored.
  • Cash accountability information is calculated.
• This service record is now available to be “matched” up by bag number using the Money Room interface.

Note: not all data viewed in Vend Visits and related screens will be accurate until the record is posted, and money collected has been entered in, where applicable.

Looking at Vend Visits

You can get the Vend Visits screen by Choosing Transactions | Vend Visits.  A standard transaction browse screen will show up as shown below (the data you see will be dependent on your “Choose Fields” settings.

Route Performance

Cash Over/Short Performance

On this screen, you will notice that Route “108” service POS Don Kehn Construction Pepsi Glassfront.  $45.85 worth of Coins, and $47.00 dollars were pulled out of the machine, and a DEX reading was taken and was OK and used.  By double clicking on a record we can go into it and view the detail calculations.

Looking at Vend Visit detail

Vend Visit – Detail

The Vend Visit Detail screen contains calculated and summary data for the Vend Visit.  The screen can be accessed with the Detailed Calculations button on the Main Vend Visit tab or with the Detail tab as shown here.

Header Area

Every Form View detail tab of Vend Visit data maintains the header information shown below.  It contains a navigation bar.

Details Area

 TIP: Financial information will not show up on this page until a collect has been entered on or after this vend visit. After money has been collected, the revenue is distributed across all applicable services.

Service Fields 

Sellouts– This will report the number of columns in the POS which were empty when the Vend Visit began.

% Filled– This will be a calculated value of the fill level, relative to the Global Option of Par or Capacity at the close of the Vend Visit. This will be a measure of how close to “full” that the driver left the machine.

% Depleted– This will be a calculated value of the depletion level, relative to Par at the opening of the Vend Visit. This will be a measure of how “full” the machine was when the Vend Visit began, and is a good measure of whether the service frequency is appropriate.

Avg. Daily Sales– This stands for “Average Daily Sales”, and represents the number of units vended on a daily average from this POS, considering all products together.

Product Sales– The Product Sales field contains the Sum of the Product Sales values from each column in the POS. Each Column’s Product Sales value is defined as (Price)*(# Vends).

Metered Sales– The Metered Sales field is defined as the Cash Meter value of sales.

Meter Sales:

If the Vending Equipment uses DEX, then Meter Sales = DEX Sales

If DEX is NOT used for the Vending Equipment, and Primary Accountability is:

Cash Meter, Product, DEX, or None – VendMAX will use the first enabled meter for the Vending Equipment in this order: Cash, Vend, Group

Vend Meter – VendMAX will use the first enabled meter for the Vending Equipment in this order: Vend, Cash, Group

Grouped Meter – VendMAX will use the first enabled meter for the Vending Equipment in this order:  Group, Vend, Cash 

TIP: Whether or not the meter or DEX is used in the vend visit is irrelevant – this is based on the settings at the vending equipment.

DEX Sales– (Current DEX Vended Cash – Previous Dex Vended Cash) * 0.01 + DEX Card Sales

Free Vends-This will be the dollar value recorded as free vends for the entire POS for this Vend Visit.

Spoils– This will be the number of units recorded as spoils for the entire POS for this Vend Visit.

Vends– This will be the number of units calculated as Vended for the entire POS for this Vend Visit.

Expenses

Spoils Costs– This is the Sum of the Spoil Costs calculated for each column in the machine. Each column’s Spoil Cost is defined as (Product Cost)*(# Spoils)

Vends Costs– This is the dollar value of unit cost for the products Vended from this POS. This value is defined on the Products Main page. If the product cost has been defined as “Average Cost” on this page, the Product Cost is the average cost of the product when it was taken out of the zone the machine was filled from (usually the Truck’s zone). This field is a calculated total of all COG for all Vends during this service period.

Service Costs– This field is not currently calculated in VendMAX.

Fixed Costs– This field is not currently calculated in VendMAX.

Depreciation– This number takes a daily depreciation cost, calculated using the setting on the Vending Equipment –General tab and multiplies by the number of days since the last Vend Visit.

Paid Comm: Commissions that have already been paid for this vend visit.

Total Comm: Total Commissions earned on this vend visit. Not including Paid Commissions.

Expenses: Costs + Total Commissions + Total Depreciation + Paid Commissions

Revenue

Actual Sales– Portion of money from a collect vend visit, allocated to that vend visit.

Sales Tax– Calculated sales tax for this vend visit.

Subsidy Sales– Total of all subsidy revenue owed on this vend visit.

Subsidy Tax– Portion of the tax allocated to the subsidy sale. (If price does not include tax, you are owed the total of Subsidy Sales + Subsidy Tax – VendMAX is just allocating taxes accordingly. If the price does include tax, then the amount owed is Subsidy Sales only)

Revenue– Actual Sales + Subsidy Sales

Total Tax-Sales Tax + Subsidy Tax – Total Tax owed on this vend visit.

Profit

Total Revenue – Total Tax – Total Expenses

DEX

Got DEX: Yes/No: Whether or not a DEX file was obtained for this vend visit.

Dex St (HH):

This shows the Handheld DEX status, which can be:

OK – Used:  The DEX file was OK (no errors) and the system used it.

OK – Not Used: The DEX file was OK, but the handheld did not use it (this is because it was the first reading and no previous cumulative reading was available, or this machine is configured for Cash Only DEX.

Error: The DEX file had an error. If the file could be read from the machine, the specific error will be listed below in the Dex Err (HH) field.

Not Read

DEX Status: This indicates the DEX Status from the server. If the handheld had an error with the DEX file, the server will not use it for cash information. It is possible for the Handheld to use the file, but the server will reject it as a valid source of cash audit information because the DEX board did not report all required Cash Audit fields. 

How VendMAX calculates based on the Status:

OK, Used – VendMAX will calculate DEX values

Not Read, Error or Ignore – VendMAX will not calculate values for the current and the next vend visits. (For the next vend visit, even if the DEX is ok the previous values are not valid.)

Replaced – The current vend visit does not have any DEX values, but the next one (if the dex is OK) will have values calculated.

DEX Bills to Stacker The DEX Bills to Stacker field is pulled directly from the DEX data file at the time of the Vend Visit.

Acc. Bills to Stk The Accumulated DEX Bills to Stacker field will be tracked by VendMAX as the total of all Bills to Stacker for this POS since the last collection.

DEX Err (HH) When Dex St (HH) indicates the DEX file had an error, If the file could be read from the machine, the specific error will be listed here.

DEX Error When Dex Status indicates the DEX file had an error, the specific error will be listed here.

DEX Coins to Box The DEX Coin to Box field is pulled directly from the DEX data file at the time of the Vend Visit.

Acc. Cn to Box The Accumulated DEX Coin to Box field will be tracked by VendMAX as the total of all Coin to Box for this POS since the last collection.

Recycler Bills In The value of bills that were redirected from the bill stacker to the recycler. 

Rclr Bills Out The value of bills that were dispensed to the consumer as change.

Rclr Content The current value of bills in the recycler.

The top of the screen lists header information about the Vend Visit, including the money collected if this is a collect and the money has been counted.  There are several fields to note here:

Route, Truck, Zone, Driver, and Date are filled in by the handheld or mobile device.

Bag Out is the bag number the driver used if this was a collect.

Coins and Bills are the amount counted in the money room (which may or may not be filled in yet).  This only applies if the Visit was a collect.

Card Cash is the cash that came from a debit or smart card system

Refunds are the amount of money returned to a customer during this visit.  This may or may not come out of a depleted changer fund depending on settings on the routes screen.

Change from Fund is the amount of money the driver took out of a change fund to fill the Coin Tubes back in the vending machine.

Free Vends are the amount of money that was attributed to free vends during this service.  This is usually calculated by the driver / office staff based on a beginning and ender meter reading.

Missing Cash and Missing Reason allow you to enter in cash that is legitimately missing from the collection.  On the accountability report, the driver will not be held accountable for this money.  This is the best way to handle test vends and stolen money from the machine.

The second section of the screen (1 Meters) shows any collected meters.  Meters don’t have to be used for each machine, and sometimes they are taken from the Dex system.  This information is collected by the handheld.

The last section of the screen (2 Items) shows the planogram and inventory information that was in effect when this machine was serviced.  This information is collected by the handheld.

Viewing Detail Calculations

Often you will want to see how VendMAX is calculating financials and other information based on this Vend Visit and how master files are set up. 

Detail Calculation Main Tab

The Main tab provides overview detail calculations about this Vend Visit.  Here are some things to note:

Product, Metered, and DEX sales information will be provided for this Vend Visit and on an accumulated basis.  The accumulated fields carry forward any balances from previous services (not collects) that will be part of an over short calculation at this or the next collect.

Product cost and machine depreciation will be filled in. 

Detail Calculation Items Tab

The Items tab shows the planogram items.  Notes about this view:

Product Cost is the average cost of the product when it was taken out of the zone the machine was filled from (usually the Truck’s zone).

Act Sales is the ratio of the total dollar sales that as attributed to this product and column.  This is used as the basis for Sales Tax and Commissions calculations that are set up by product or product family.

Detail Calculation Commissions Tab

The Commissions Tab shows all the commissions that were in effect when this Vend Visit was created, and shows the various commissions items for each configured commission.  The total of all types of commission is listed at the bottom of the screen.

Detail Calculation Sales Tax Tab

The Sales Tax Tab shows the different Sales Taxes that were in effect when this Vend Visit was created.  Like the Commissions tab, it will show all the items associated with a specific sales tax.

Detail Calculation Dex Status Tab

The DEX Status tab shows the status if the DEX file.  The first two lines show the Handheld DEX status, which can be:

OK – Used:  The DEX file was OK (no errors) and the system used it.

OK – Not Used: The DEX file was OK, but the handheld did not use it (this is because it was the first reading and no previous cumulative reading was available, or this machine is configured for Cash Only DEX.

Error: The DEX file had an error.  If the file could be read from the machine, the specific error will be listed below the Status.

The second two lines have the Dex Status from the server.  If the handheld had an error with the DEX file, the server will not use it for cash information.  It is possible for the Handheld to use the file, but the server will reject it as a valid source of cash audit information because the DEX board did not report all required Cash Audit fields.

See the next section below to view the actual Dex file.

Viewing the DEX file

The View DEX File button on the main Vend Visits edit screen can be used to display the DEX file where applicable.  This will bring up a dialog that will show you what type of machine the file cam from, and how it was identified by our system.  By choosing DEX fields from the Add drop down, you can view specific DEX fields from the file.

The Raw Dex… button allows you to view the raw DEX file.