iVend Retail 5.6 brings host of retail functionalities making iVend a much stronger retail management suite of application. 

iVend Unplugged 

iVend Unplugged is an Unplugged version of iVend Retail – unplugged from a core financial application. iVend Unplugged encompasses all that is offered by core iVend Retail. It retains the original features of iVend Retail and offers more. Unplugging the application from a core financial solution lets the Retailer run his retail operations the way he wants to run them, and not be constrained by the investment & processes of a financial solution. iVend Unplugged can be integrated with any third party financial system/ ERP using iVend APIs.

User Training Mode 

User Training Mode has been introduced in iVend to make iVend more users friendly. A new user can work in the training environment and learn to use the functionalities of iVend Retail better. The production environment however, remains unaffected by user activities in the training environment.

Coupons 

iVend Coupons are vouchers entitling the holder to a discount off a particular product(s). It is a promotional tool that can be used to get discounts while purchasing goods or services. Generally coupons are classified into Manufacturer and Store issued coupons, however in iVend treatment for both of these coupon types remains same and depends on the coupon setup.

Promotion – Bonus Buys 

iVend Promotion engine are used to handle complex promotion scenarios using Buy and Get conditions as means to define the prerequisites set by the customer. Some of the promotions that can be setup are

1. Buy X and get X free
2. Buy X and get Y free
3. Buy X and get discount on any item from Product Group Y
4. Buy N quantity from Product Group X and get discount on any item of Product Group Y
5. Buy N quantity from Product Group X of worth R and get discount on any item of Product Group Y
6. Buy any 5 Quantity and get X percent discounts.
7. Get X discount percent on the entire sale if Bill values exceeds N amount.
8. Get Gift Certificate /Coupon/Loyalty points if you buy item/item group X worth R.

Tax Condition Setup 

Using Tax Condition setup, a user can setup different Tax Conditions based on different parameters like Customer/Customer Group, Product/Product Group/Product Class, Warehouse/Store Group, Item Price range and Shipping Conditions etc.

Discount Group Setup 

Earlier in iVend, Discount was defined for a single Discount field. With iVend 5.6, Discount Group setup has been introduced where Discount field has been categorized into four types of Discount Group.

1. Manual Discount Group
2. System Discount Group
3. Coupon Discount Group
4. Promotion Discount Group

Depending on the grouping done, the user can determine the relationship of a particular group with the next Discount Group.

Sale Order Cancellation 

Cancellation of Sale Order at Point Of Sale can be done using Cancel option introduced in iVend 5.6. Previously Sale Order was cancelled using Sale Edit option.

Heartland Payment Processor 

Heartland payment processor integration for US has been incorporated in this release. The integration also supports the debit card sales with the PIN entry.

Signature Capture 

iVend 5.6 supports capturing of customer signatures on transactions. The captured signatures can then be printed on the thermal receipt. iVend 5.6 recommends that you use the Id Tech Sign & Pay (IDFA-3153) for this (http://www.idtechproducts.com/products/pos-peripherals/116.html).

SAP Business One Israel Localization Support 

Support for Israel localization is extended in iVend 5.6. Along with this iVend supports the Arabic language and also has support for RTL.

Extended Language Support 

Apart from English, iVend application is now also available in the following languages:

1. French
2. German
3. Greek
4. Italian
5. Latin American Spanish
6. Simplified Chinese
7. Vietnamese
8. Arabic

Enhancements 

Custom Transaction Information Grid 

Custom Transaction information can now be set individually for different store(s) using Custom Transaction Info Grid option in management console. This would enable users to setup the different button panel for individual stores.

Store Group 

Store group provides the flexibility of grouping the multiple stores based on their pricing, taxation and inventory needs.

1. Pricing Store Group: Price list can be attached to a pricing store group and therefore all the stores falling under this group would have a same price list applicable.
2. Taxation Store Group: Stores can be group based on their Taxation and then this store group can be used to setup different Tax Condition within iVend.
3. Inventory Store Group: Different warehouses can be clubbed together using an Inventory store group. Store would only be able to see the inventory or do inventory transactions with the stores/warehouses which are in his inventory store group or the stores/warehouses which are not part of any inventory store group.

Import/Export Data 

Import /Export of Data templates can be done in iVend using Import/Export data option. Forty two templates are available for import/export in iVend. The default location for these templates is iVend Retail Installation folderManagement ConsoleImport Templates.

Print Profile Enhancements 

The user can specify report printing option(s) (xml report, crystal report, printer selection on runtime) using Print Profile option. All the reports like Z-Tape, X-Tape, Labor session chit and others can now be printed on document printer also.

Business Date Validation 

On enabling this, the user would not be allowed to login in iVend POS if the system date and the business date are not same.

Force Clock Out while performing End of Day at Store 

If a user does not clock out from Point Of Sale, on commencement of the End of Day process, the user is force clocked out.

Display Loyalty Details under Customer Information Panel 

At Point of Sale, Loyalty details for the selected customer are available under Customer Information Panel. Loyalty details include Loyalty Points, Loyalty slab etc.

Changes in the serial scanning on GRPO 

While doing a GRPO, instead of manually entering the serial number(s) for the products, the serial number(s) can be directly scanned by the user.

Fulfillment Address Integration with SAP B1 documents 

The address captured on fulfillment in iVend will be populated in delivery address of corresponding document of SAP Business One. Since in iVend user can attach multiple fulfillment(s) on same document, therefore only first fulfillment address will be integrated with SAP Business One.

Customer Remarks Integration with SAP Business One 

Customer remarks captured in SAP Business One would be integrated with Customer comments of iVend.

Returns on Credit Card 

While doing a refund on a credit card, the original reference number will be auto populated by the system from the original sale transaction. This would ease the operation of cashier as currently cashier enters this number manually.

Z Report 

Apart from Fiscal Z-Report, iVend 5.6 provides the functionality for printing the Z-Tape Report for other countries.

Support for Rounding in Payment 

iVend 5.6 supports the following type of rounding of Payments

• No Rounding
• Round to Five Hundredth
• Round to Ten Hundredth
• Round to One
• Round to Ten
• Round to Fifty
• Round to Hundred
• Round to Thousand

If you are using SAP Business One as ERP system, then please ensure that you specify the over/under payment amount according to the Rounding selected in iVend. If this is not done correctly then your invoice may remain open in SAP Business One.

Issues Fixed 

Issue Description: The GRPO fails to integrate if the purchase UOM is set on an item while creating the Purchase Order.

Issue Description: While creating a backup of Store from iVend Enterprise, if the numbers of records are large then creation of backup fails.

Issue Description: If warehouse is created later in SAP Business One after system is initialized then the inventory records for that warehouse were not generated which was resulting in error while doing the goods receipt at the store.