Triple Heads in Vend-Trak

[bulkboy]

I have just begun entering my route information  to Vend-Trak.  I operate triple-heads and keep very accurate track of what each head generates so that I can tweak products choices for maximum profitability.  It appears that you can only enter a single total figure for the machine each time it is serviced.  With all that Vend-Trak does, I can't believe this is the case.  I must be missing something.  Any help would be appreciated. 

Thank you,

Stan

[vendtrak]

Yes that is true. Dollar amounts are per machine. To track the best selling products, enter the product usage when you service. This way you will know which products are the "high movers" and which ones aren't.

[bulkboy]

Thanks, Jeremy, for the timely response.  Being new to your product, I am still confused, however.  Could you please elaborate on how I "enter product usage?"  Keep in mind I track product use via dollars.  Also I don't want to track only the best selling products, I want to track all three canisters of each machine on an independent basis.  Perhaps my approach is different, but I view a triple-head as three separate machines when it comes to inventory control.  It would be nice to have a three-line graph for each machine with a single line tracking each canister.  Is this possible?

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Stan

[vendtrak]

Stan/Kelly,

The way it works now is this: when you service your machine, you record the amount of money that comes out. You can also record the amount of product that goes in. So if you add three different types of product when you service, you'll have three entries. This is tracked in "units" (a unit is whatever you want it to be for your business...pounds, bags, individual packages, etc...whatever suits you best).

This information is then used to calculate historical averages. Just like we use money collections to calculate "average/day or month" we can use product usage information to calculate the same thing (by product, by location, or by location/product, etc.).

Thank you for the feedback on product/inventory usage. Perhaps we can look at making the interface easier to use after we launch our newest release (Version 3.0) soon. It is comments like that that lead to improvements that make our service better for everyone.

Until then, it would be helpful for you in the long run to enter the records now. That way, when it does get more user friendly, all of your historical information will already be there.

[bulkboy]

Kelly, thank you  for your response.  I think you understand exactly what I am looking for.

And Jeremy, I think I will have to follow Kelly's advice and track the individual canisters either on paper or in the "notes" section.  It's unfeasible to count the number of M&Ms I add; I need to count the number of quarters I remove.  But I thank you for your response.  Judging by the comments of others, you have created quite a program.  I look forward to utilizing all of its features.

Stan

[vendtrak]

Again, appreciate the feedback.

Personally, for our routes (bulk) we keep track of inventory by "bags" (that's what we use as a "unit"). So if I add a little bit of M&Ms, we may just enter .5 for the units (to represent half a bag). If it's all empty and we have to add two bags, we will enter 2. This way we start to build a history of what we use (or what we will need) when we go service.

[bulkboy]

Thanks, Jeremy, but that method doesn't provide the level of accuracy I want.

Stan