Unable to delete users?

na1978 · February 16, 2014, 9:58pm

Hi Emre,

I am not able to delete old users. I made sure they do not have any open orders. See demo video below.

Demo Video

Thanks

JohnS · February 16, 2014, 10:04pm

That user has placed orders. For reporting purposes they cannot be removed.

na1978 · February 16, 2014, 11:26pm

Hi JohnS,

I think we should be able to delete an user even though they placed orders as long as they do not have open orders. User should still remain in all closed orders since these are already committed to database.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

JohnS · February 17, 2014, 2:02am

There is a direct link between orders and users in the database.
Having an option to disable a user is practical, but we would be unable to reuse that username in the future, unless that staff member returned.

The last thing you need is a customer coming back complaining about an order (and this is not just food, but any retail business) and you have removed the user and then don’t know who served the customer.

You make a valid point, but there is a downside for many others to delete users.

Would disabling a user help?

na1978 · February 17, 2014, 5:07am

Hi JohnS,

I believe, we should be able to delete an user and their ticket details will remain in ticket database.

I am able to delete users by renaming and deleting them. After I did this, I checked Tickets screen and deleted user is still on ticket details. Maybe we can have Emre chime in.

I think your point is valid regarding a customer coming back and complaining, but users can be referenced in Ticket detail.

Other scenario is customer will come with a ticket for the order they are complaining and this ticket will have user name on ticket. In honesty, customers do not know server names so it does not matter if servers are in POS system.

I think hiding is a good option, but deleting should be an option as well. Having a “Former Employee” checkbox under user will be great. When checked, it should hide user from current employees. Right side of Users list should have a “Show Former Employees” option.

In our case, we like to delete or hide users because it easier to manage current users. We have about 10-13 current servers. Usually, 2-3 will quit or find other jobs each month, so this list of former employee gets lengthy after running SambaPOS for a couple of years.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

JohnS · February 17, 2014, 7:20am

I had a look through the database, the Usernames are stored in the orders, but for payments its the UserId number from the Users Table.
Deleting a User doesn’t seem to have any impact, but there is a reason for not being able to, so @emre will need to shed some light on the logic behind it.

emre · February 17, 2014, 11:07am

If we delete a user you won’t be able to see their activities in past reports. How many voids he did, how much cash he processed etc. We store many data relationships to users in database. Hiding their names might be an option. To solve uniqueness problem we can rename old accounts to something like Emre[Deleted] so I can also know this is an old user account. I also suggest to use full names instead of using just first names for users. Since they login with their pin numbers using long names won’t be an issue.

na1978 · February 17, 2014, 3:22pm

Hi Emre,

Thanks for detailed explanation. I reloaded our DB to another computer and deleted users by renaming. It seems that Ticket details and Total sales per user are not effected. Payment by user are effected after an user is deleted.

Is possible to store user name in “Settled by”(not sure what table this is in DB)?

For now, I will use your recommendation to rename users with [Deleted].

Regarding full name:
It is not preferred way here in US for two reasons:

Servers get very friendly with customers to increase their tips, since their wages are primarly based on tips
Having a full name on a ticket, opens the door for customers stocking servers. Google search server’s First Name and Last Name you’ll get server’s residence. You would think stuff like this does not happen, but I have been doing this for a while and it does seems to happen. Crazy people out there. )

vicky · May 21, 2015, 9:53am

hello emre,
i want delete user list permanently .and i user role is admin how delete.

vicky · May 21, 2015, 9:56am

JTRTech · May 21, 2015, 1:21pm

@vicky You cant delete an admin user, you would have to change it to non admin role.
The rule above will still apply if its been used in a transaction.
Not sure how you have two users with the same name! Thought name had to be unique.

@emre I would like to see the facility to ‘Archive’ users as described above, hospitality is renowned for staff turnover and think it makes more sense reporting wise to ‘Archive’ a user rather than rename and agree deleting a user is not the way forward. Also employee full name is a fair shout but @na1978 does have a fair point with full name being displayed on ticket… I wouldn’t have thought of that being male but this could be a concern for the ladies
Perhaps you could introduce Full Name and Short Name fields, Short Name taking place of the existing username field for ticket tags and the full name for database keys…?