Tracking and paying Purchases created in Checkout

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Looking to track and pay the Purchases Orders created in Checkout? This document covers how to create the Payables in AccountEdge, so that you can write a check (cheque) to pay your supplier.

Checkout PCI DSS Update

Checkout 3.0.7 includes mandatory changes to credit card processing. Read on at The Checkout Blog.

Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a mandatory compliance initiative driven by VISA and MasterCard to govern the way merchants store, process or transmit cardholder data. One of their primary objectives is to develop a more secure system. Read more about PCI DSS.

Checkout 3.0.7 is a mandatory update in order to achieve PCI DSS compliance, and is a free update for all registered Checkout 3 users. Please note that after installing this update you will not be able to process credit cards until you follow the steps listed below.

Important Setup Information

To start using Checkout to process transactions, you must first enter two key bits of information on the Payments Gateway. You will be asked to do this one time only. Instructions are as follows or, you can view a brief video on the setup procedure and also how to process credit cards.

    * You will need to enter your API Login ID and Secure Transaction Key into your Checkout software. If you have already been given your API Login ID and Secure Transaction Key, please proceed to step 5. If not, follow to step 2 to acquire your ID and Key.
    * Log on to the Payments Gateway. You received your login information via email or fax when you first enrolled. If you cannot locate your Payments Gateway login information you can call ACH Direct at 866-290-5400 option #2.
    * Click on Gateway Settings then on Gateway Key.
    * You will be prompted to generate your API Login ID and your Secure Transaction Key. Click the API Login ID Generate button to generate a ID code. Do the same with the Secure Transaction Key Generate button. Click Update. Please keep the generated codes for your records, you will need to enter them in your Checkout Store(s).
    * Log into your Checkout store as a Manager, select Manager > General > Credit Card Processing Setup. Enter your API Login ID and Transaction Key from above and click OK.

That’s it. You should be able to begin processing transactions. If you have questions, please call us at 877-788-1202.

Taxes in Checkout

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Have a question about how Checkout handles taxes? This brief video covers setting up taxes, and should do the trick.

Overview of Checkout video now available

Read on at The Checkout Blog

Looking for a quick tour of Checkout? We now have a brief video that covers almost every major feature of Checkout.

When you have some time, you can also review our other blog posts which cover informative subjects ranging from backing up your store to customizing reports.

Importing Products into Checkout

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If you’re looking to import Products into Checkout, you should first import them into the Example Store. This is important since if you make a mistake when selecting fields, or there’s an issue with the text file, you will have to manually update each Product, or restore a backup of your store and import them again. We also strongly recommend making a backup of your store before doing the import.

You can import text files that are comma separated (CSV extension) or tab delimited (TXT extension) into Checkout. Tab delimited is generally easier since commas can sometimes be embedded in Product Names or Descriptions. If the file you’re working with is in an Excel spreadsheet, you can save it as a tab delimited file.

If you have any issues importing, open the file in Excel and remove unnecessary columns. If you exported the file from another application or received it from a supplier, check for html code and any inconsistencies in numeric fields. These inconsistencies could be blank entries, or text appearing in a numeric field.

In some cases, it’s been discovered that blank fields might not have a tab place holder. When importing the Products, if some entries are skipped, or Checkout does not import all products, it’s best to open the file in a text editor (such as TextMate) that can show the tabs. This video covers how to look for missing tabs and import Products into Checkout.

Checkout in Australia

Checkout gains a local focus in Australia.

We’re thrilled to make public a relationship that’s been forming over the past several months with our new Australian distributor, MonstaPOS.

Over the years, there’s been great interest from Australian stores and, while we’ve tried to service these prospects and customers from our Amsterdam and US offices, the time difference was just too great to focus on their needs to the extent we knew was necessary.  So when the guys at Monsta approached us with interest in becoming an exclusive distributor, we listened.  When we learned how much they love Checkout (flattery will get you anywhere) and how much Mac retail experience they bring to the table, we were instantly sold. And we have, collectively, hit the ground running.

Great news for Australian retailers who love Macs.

You can read more about the announcement here, here and here.

Checkout 3.0.6 update released

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Today, Checkout 3.0.6 was released. This update includes a change to the way Taxes are handled. When working with Tax Groups, you can now specify if the Group’s rates will be applied to All Transactions, Sales Only, or Purchases Only. This is an important change for Checkout users who pay a different tax rate when purchasing products than they collect from their customers when selling those Products. We also have a quick video that shows you how to setup your taxes if this applies to you.

The Suppliers report was changed to include the tax collected per Purchase Order and also per line item. The line item detail of the report can now also to exported to Excel, Numbers, or a to comma separated or tab delimited file.

Creating a custom Checkout template

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Checkout’s templates for Invoices, Orders, Purchase Orders, and Thermal Receipts can be customized to meet your needs. If you’d like to customize any of these forms, you’ll need to know HTML, and have an HTML editor. TextMate is a great example of a versatile editor.

The Checkout online manual has a section on how to customize templates. We also have a quick video that shows you how to make a change to the standard Invoice template to include the list price of each Product. If you’d like to, you can also download the custom template that was created in the video.

We have custom templates availble on the Checkout Extras page.

Have a suggestion for a future template? Please send us feedback and you just might see it added to the list above.

July 28th Apple Store Event at the Mall of America, Bloomington, MN

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Looking to learn more about Checkout and will be in the Bloomington, MN area July 28th? Stop in at that the Apple Store located in the Mall of America at 6:00pm and meet Terri Zeh Jacobson of Resources Inc.

Terri is an Elite Certified Consultant, and will be doing a live demo of Checkout. After the demo, she’ll answer any questions you might have about Checkout, and how it can save you both time and money.

To find out more about this Apple Store, please visit Apple’s website.

A tip on some free insurance

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We all have some form of insurance. Life, car, house, apartment, liability, health and maybe even pet. Would you be interested in some insurance that costs nothing?

When is the last time that you backed up your Checkout store? Has it been a while? What happens if your Mac had a hardware issue and your current hard drive wasn’t recoverable? How long would it take you to find your last backup and get it up to date?

If your answer to the last question gave you an uneasy feeling in your stomach, then the time to backup is now.

How do I backup? Launch Checkout and select Manage Stores from under the Checkout pulldown menu.

Where should I save the backup? It’s best to have it safely off of your Mac. While a CD/DVD or USB drive can be used, you can also compress the backup and email it to yourself.

How often should I backup? While once a day is suggested, the big question is how hard would it be to get up and running if you had to restore and use your last backup.

Hopefully this quick and free insurance will allow you to sleep a little better tonight. Pleasant dreams.