Overview: Retail Pro 9 Promotions is a separate program from Retail Pro 9 that handles various discounts such as Buy One, Get One, Quantity Discounting, and even just markdowns. The advantage of this module over the built-in Retail Pro Price/Cost Manager is that it goes beyond simple price reductions and it is particularly helpful to retailers who want to show the original price of an item and then automatically give it a discount at POS, so the customer can see the original price and sale price on their receipt.
The drawback to this module is that it was developed outside of the Retail Pro 9 Oracle ecosystem. As such, it uses a Microsoft Access database in the backend to handle the promotions and this requires the Microsoft Access database to be copied not only to each store-server, but if a retailer is using the local client install of Retail Pro 9, the database to be stored on each computer that will ring sales.
Computers Used:
· Head Office Servers
· Store Servers
· Store Workstations (POS computers and Back Office computers)
How Retail IQ has this configured for clients: Almost all of Retail IQ’s customers use the local client install of Retail Pro 9 (each register and back-office computer has a local C:\RetailPro9 folder that they run Retail Pro from, but they are pointed to look at the local store server’s Oracle database). Therefore, Retail IQ had to come up with a method to copy the promotions database out on an automated basis. Here’s how it is set up.
1. Users at the Head Office location create/edit Retail Pro 9 Promotions on the Head Office Server. In many cases, they use a custom field in inventory and mark each item they want to apply to a promotion they are running. Then in the Promotions module, they create the promotion, filtering for all of those items they just marked in inventory using that custom field (an Aux or UDF field).
2. A third-party program called Febooti (which is Windows Task Scheduler on steroids) is constantly monitoring the Microsoft Access database on the warehouse/main server (\RetailPro9\RproProm\RProProm.mdb).
3. When Febooti detects the database file has been updated (using the Modified Date in Windows), it copies the Microsoft Database file to Google Drive
4. Google Drive is installed on not only the warehouse/main server, but all store servers using the same Google Drive account, and the updated file syncs via Google Drive
5. The Store Servers run a scheduled task via Windows Task Scheduler at the beginning of every hour to copy the Microsoft Access file to their \RetailPro9\RproProm folder. Each server is set up to keep this file offline which helps in getting the file copied.
6. At 5 or 10 minutes after the top of each hour, each register and back-office PC run a task via Windows Task Scheduler to copy the RProProm.mdb file from their store server to their local client (if a retailer is not using the local client install and just using UNC paths or mapped drives to run Retail Pro 9 from their server, no local copy would be needed).
a. The nice part about this is that Retail Pro 9 doesn’t need to be closed to read the new database file, so this process occurs in the background, and the registers just get the new promotions.
Where things can go wrong:
Despite tweaking the process and making improvements to it over the years, things can still go wrong, and there are a lot of moving parts to this.
1. Google Drive is not working on the main/warehouse server or at a store - Google Drive only works when a user is logged into the Windows desktop. Therefore, each server is set to automatically log into Windows when it boots up so that Google Drive can run. Possible causes:
a. The server(s) isn’t logged into Windows due to a Windows message/ad
b. Google Drive is hung and needs to be restarted on a server
c. Google Drive needs to be updated and/or logged back in.
d. The RProProm.mdb file did not properly copy from the main/warehouse server’s RProProm folder to Google Drive via Febooti, and must be manually copied in. If this occurs, it is best to delete the file in Google Drive and copy the newly updated one in to ensure it properly updates
2. Issue with the scheduled task in Windows Task Scheduler – this is rare and typically would only happen on computers that were just set up to replace another computer or are for a new store and things weren’t properly configured.
a. When you go to Windows Task Scheduler, there will be a RetailPro folder in the list of scheduled tasks. If you check the “Actions” tab, you will see that a batch file is executed. Find that batch file and edit it in Notepad. Many times, the path to the server is incorrect, or it’s pointed to the wrong server.
How to install Retail Pro Promotions on a POS register or Back Office PC:
1. Copy the RProProm folder from the store server into the local client
2. Copy the batch file from another client and put it into C:\RetailPro9
3. Edit the batch file to make sure it’s pointing to the correct store server and path
4. Import the scheduled task:
a. Navigate to the RPRO Tech folder on the server (typically inside the POS folder)
b. Look for a folder that says “Win10 Tasks” and open it up.
c. Then look for a folder called “RP9 Promotions Workstation” and open it up.
d. In there, there will be a “Windows 10 WS Promo Import.xml” file that you can use to import the scheduled task.
e. Ensure the user is set for the task. Aside from that, all other properties of the task should be set already.
f. Test running the task manually in Windows Task Scheduler to ensure no errors come up.