BreakPoint Technical Newsletter #127

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127 - BreakPoint Customer Card Scanning

BreakPoint supports the use of Customer Scan Cards for identifying Customer Account Numbers for a variety of functions. The use of Customer Scan Cards is an excellent method of quickly identifying Customer Account Numbers for Charge Account Tracking, Frequent Shopper Tracking, Bad Cheque Inquiry, Customer Inquiry, Preferred Customer Pricing, and anywhere else that BreakPoint requests a Customer Account Number.

A Customer Scan Card is simply a card with a Bar Code Number and a Customer Name. The Customer Scan Card may be generated using any standard Bar Code printing software. Since BreakPoint supports a Customer Account Number of up to ten digits, the standard 10-digit UPC Bar Code type is ideal for this purpose.

To implement this feature, there are virtually no setups required. At any point that you would normally enter a Customer Account Number, you can simply scan the Customer Scan Card. BreakPoint will interpret the Customer Scan Card entry just as if you had entered the Customer Account Number manually. The Customer Scan Card will work anywhere that a Customer Account Number is requested in BreakPoint.

BreakPoint will treat the Customer Scan Card just like any other Bar Code Number. You may need to set the various System Flags to strip off the UPC Bar Code lead-in identifier codes and the trailing check digits, so that the Customer Scan Card is read exactly as you wish it to be read.

The Global System Flags that may be of concern when setting up Customer Scan Cards may include the following:

System Flag 24 - Retain PLU check digit on UPC-A.
System Flag 25 - Retain PLU lead-in code on UPC-A.
System Flag 290 - Retain UPC 7 Type lead-in code.
System Flag 301 - Drop lead-in code on 13-digit UPC bar codes.
System Flag 416 - Retain Type 4 UPC-A lead-in code.
System Flag 417 - Retain Type 4 UPC-A check digit.

There is never a concern that a Customer Scan Card will be interpreted as a scanned PLU Item since the Customer Account Number is never requested during Cashier Level operations. PLU Items are scanned only into the NEXT ENTRY: prompt of the Cashier Level operations, whereas Customer Account Numbers are only entered either during a Data Capture or a Programming operation. Since Customer Account Numbers are never requested in the Cashier Level operations, there can never be a conflict between a Customer Scan Card and a PLU Item. Consequently, you may assign Customer Account Numbers that are the same as PLU Items and they will never conflict in BreakPoint.