HI All
I been browsing the forum searching if SambaPOS has the ability to manage Customer House Accountsor Wallets. A House Account is where Customers at a Private Sports Club prepay for products & services. A Customer may have multiple House Accounts say Bar House Account, Betting House Account etc.
A Customer may elect to pay Cash or use Value from their House Accounts. A Customer may split the transaction between Cash/House Account. A Customer may place more funds on their House Account as a reload. The accounts operate very similar to the Gift Cards detailed on this forum BUT House Accounts are typical part of the Customer profile as a fixed item.
House Accounts or Wallets are different to a Customer Account Balance.
Can someone please direct me in the right direction, thanks.
Paul from Aust, Perth.
From my readings I cannot confirm if Customers can have multiple accounts?
Also as most references are to “late payers” I assume the account can be reversed such as having surplus funds or Credit Value on the account?
I believe @pizzaeilat4 is correct. Entities (Customers) can only be linked to a single Account by default. Accounts can also be controlled so that they do not go into an overdrawn state, so if there is no credit in the Account, you could prevent its use, if so desired.
However, I see no reason we couldn’t link more Accounts to an Entity using some Entity Custom Data Fields. It would just take some extra work and Automation to allow for it to flow properly, but I’m sure it could be done in SambaPOS.
Handling prepayments or splitting payments is easy but I didn’t understand the need for tracking separate customer accounts… Won’t you let customer to pay for bar items from their Betting account?
Hi All and Emre what a great product you have here!
You said Won’t you let customer to pay for bar items from their Betting account?
The answer is NO unfortunately. This is a key feature of “Private Club POS Systems” and something which is rare to find. A customer may only use one account to pay for drinks and food, and use the other account to pay for court bookings.
The reason is the a customer/member/player may win an event and accrue credit. The credit value must be assigned to the “other wallet” or Account as you refer to it. Hence you cannot buy drink using your winnig credit you have won as in some cases it breaks the law in Australia especially if you won it on gaming machines.
THEREFORE: A customer can have several accounts and during the “tender/pay” process can elect to use one of the accounts -
1 Running Account Balance - Customer Account
2 Credit Funds in a House or Bar Account - Customer Account?
3 Credit Funds in a Player Winnings Account - Customer Account?
etc
Our Application manages invoicing, receipting and tournaments where they win credit. The application would populate these accounts above in SambaPOS with funds as customers Pay Invoices with House Levy’s OR win an event.
QMcKAy, I feel if they not part of mainstream SambaPOS (Entity: Customer Account) and because there could be 3-4 Accounts for every Customer, I think the automation of this using “Customer Fields” may be trying to do too much?
I hope all above explains my problem faced here in Oz. I may just have to tone down my excitement for now…
Hmm I see. I wish @JohnS was here. He has amazing experience on that field.
First of all even we can do something with automation I think that shouldn’t handled that way.
When thought fast other than assigning multiple accounts to entities there are few other possible solutions such as sub accounts or tagging account transactions. However it is hard to decide on something with to few experience about how business operates on that, how it should be reported… etc.
I can’t promise for a quick solution but I’ll be happy to hear more about other possible features that might be needed. I feel solving payment issue will not be enough…
I guess its similar to a Customer having a Wallet and several Credits Cards in that Wallet. Some things he can pay for with Card 1 and other things he can only use Card 2. Each card operates “almost” like a Customer Account which has a running balance. The restriction is typically only Operator enforced but if a rule could be applied - enormous…
I almost thought that having separate “permanent” gift cards accounts which can be “topped up” by paying Cash, Credit Card, or EftPOS over the Bar - would work?
There really only is 1 trick behind them - Card 1 may get wiped at the End of the Financial Year if it not used, but Card 2 will roll over each year and typically this “Wipe and Roll” is why there are 2 or 3 accounts maintained. A Levy at the start of the Year, if unused is WIPED, but Credits from Winnings OR “Top Ups” during the course of the year are ROLLED to the next Year.
My plan, if a number of accounts could be maintained, was to use a SQL/ODBC interface into SambaPOS and control the Wiping, Rolling and Topups (if Top ups from were start year invoicing). If SambaPOS could do all this well - I would have to put down my glass of beer and applaud loudly!
Without going too deep into SambaPOS as I am a newbie here - if these accounts can be created, I could promise a healthymarket here in Australia. I have 30+ years in IT and Software Development so a little handy in the areas I specialize in.
Look forward to your further comments, Paul.
PS: House Accounts applicable to: Golf Clubs, Yacht Clubs, Bowling Clubs, Sports Clubs, Mens Clubs i.e. The Presidents Club etc.
Hello @emre - hope you are well! I see you have been lurking a little during your test phase of the next release…
Sorry to bump this thread again but I am wondering (praying) that you may have considered Multiple Customer Accounts OR Wallets attached to a single Customer in Version 5? I have been reading the forum every day but have delayed revisiting this request until now.
Look forward to hearing from you soon, thanks.
Can you not use Sambacard Tutorial for this http://sambapos.org/en/content/sambacard-tutorial. Setup Multiple Sambacards and rename each to Bar House Card, Betting House Card etc. You can add funds and pay for products with each card. I am also new to SambaPos so maybe have one of the other guys confirm this. I am sure it is possible to set an expiry date on a Sambacard.
Yea Hi @jay007 - I hinted at this a few times but did not get a definite answer from the crew.
The issue here is the work required as every customer will require the same number of wallets (accounts). So to implement this I see the only way would be to interface into the SQL back end (use a preferred language/tool) to create the sambacards every time a customer is created. The clubs on our list have 1,000 members at each venue so a bit of a kludge I feel, regards Paul.
