POS proposal, I need suggestions....

[garrys]

Hi all,

I'm working on a proposal for a bookstore POS system with 3 branches and a warehouse which is also their main office. Receiving/dispatching of books is done on the warehouse (main office).

At any branch, they would like to be able to query stock in the other branches as well as stock in the warehouse. e.g:

Book Title........B1 Stock......B2 Stock......B3 Stock.......Wrhouse Stock

Filemaker Bible..........2.............5.............3................10

My approach is to have a local copy of the stock file in each branch, and at the end of the day:

1) Each branch will communicate to the warehouse PC via DSL link and upload stock change and sales details.

2) The warehouse PC will update the stock file according to the details received from the branches.

3) After the update, the warehouse PC will then forward the updated stock file to each branch replacing the old stock file.

This approach only need to communicate to the warehouse PC during upload/download of sales details. Hence, stock query will not be accurate since there might be sales or stock transfer took place in other branches/wrhouse at the time of query.

or

My other approach is to have a FMServer instaled on the warehouse PC and host the stock file via DSL link (VPN). Query in this approach will be in realtime since they are querying from master host file via DSL link (VPN). I'm not sure if this would be possible and reliable. I need some advice...

Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Garry

[David McQueen]

You do not say which version of FMP so I am assuming FMP7. A server client setup is entirely possible and if you have the resources including support staff advisable. I have two programs in FMP5-6 working on WAN's now and one on FMP7 that went live last week.

The FMP5-6 programs have been really useful to the clients. However, the performance boost on FMP7 is really remarkable.

With a central system, all you need then is a location code on the stock record:

Main

Store1

Store2

.

.

Sold

Lost

Depending on whether you wish to actually track the movement of the stock or just know where it is at any particular time will infuence whether you create a stock record every time an item moves or just change the location code.

HTH

Dave McQueen

[stanley]

Garry:

I think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you went with your first option. There's no reason (other than REALLY bad internet service) to not go with FM Server. Also, if your data is actually live, you won't have someone from Branch 1 calling the warehouse to say "hey, I see you had one copy of the FileMaker Bible yesterday, do you still have it?"

You would then also be able to take advantage of the power of FMServer - automated backups, all the branches would have access to the EXACT same data, and the data reflect the actual stock situation at the moment. Further, you could eventually put in some kind of automatically triggered ordering system, to keep popular titles in stock at the branches, etc.

If you have further questions regarding the use of FMS on a WAN, post a solid query in that vein to the appropriate Forum.

-Stanley

[garrys]

Sorry, I was away from the keyboard for a while and not able to check the forum. Thanks Dave & Stanley for your advice, I would consider adopting the FMServer approach via WAN.

Thanks a lot guys!

-garry

[garrys]

Hi guys,

I now got a green light on this project and currently working on it. Please have a look at my approach and would appreciate your bright suggestions....

Server.FP7 (Hosted in the warehouse PC via VPN, broadband). Fields are:

ISBN

Title

Author

List Price

Retail Price

Warehouse Qty

Branch1 Qty

Branch2 Qty

Branch3 Qty

Total Qty (Warehouse Qty + Branch1 Qty + Branch2 Qty + Branch3 Qty)

Branch{X}.FP7 (There will be 3 branches connected via VPN. On every transaction, each branch updates their corresponding qty in the server. Say a sale transaction on Branch1 will decrease Server->Branch1 Qty and so on and so forth. These are the fields of branch{X}.fp7

ISBN(related to Server.FP7->ISBN)

Qty

DateSold

Retail Price (lookup value)

Discount

Total (Retail Price * Qty)

Net(Total - Discount)

It is my first time to do this and I need some feedback if this is the right approach for this kind of solution.

Thanks in advance,

Garry