JPH0337791A - POS terminal control device, POS system, and payment method for POS system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a POS system that accumulates sales data, performs settlement processing, and outputs data at business breaks such as at the end of business hours, and particularly relates to a POS system that The present invention relates to a POS terminal control device, a PoS system, and a payment method for a POS system that can perform payment processing based on time.

[Prior Art] A POS system includes a plurality of terminal devices and a terminal control device that connects these devices via a communication line, and further includes:
This terminal control device is configured to be connected to an upper host information processing device as necessary.

The terminal control device that constitutes this system exchanges data between the central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU) that processes data input/output processing, calculation, storage, retrieval, etc., and the terminal device or host device. It also has an auxiliary storage device such as a disk storage device as a means for storing data. This terminal control device is 1, for example, 1
One device is installed in each store, and a plurality of terminal devices are connected to it. The terminal device is, for example, a cash register.

In such a POS system, at the time of product sale, data regarding the product name, sales price, quantity, the terminal operator (hereinafter referred to as "operator"), etc. is entered into the terminal device using an automatic reading device or by manual keystrokes. do. The terminal device sends sales data to the terminal control device,
It is registered in the file configured in the storage device and the sales data is updated. Then, at the end of business hours, etc., the terminal control device logs the sales data for each product, sales data for each store, sales data for each terminal device, sales data for each operator, etc. Printout is performed, data is cleared, and the day's sales are settled.

By obtaining such data, the POS system can perform sales management such as confirming the day's sales, identifying products that are selling poorly or dying, product management such as checking inventory, employee sales management, customer management, etc. can be done.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] By the way, in recent POS systems, the number of products handled is increasing as demand diversifies.
The number of product records that record sales data for each product has increased from several thousand to hundreds of thousands.

Furthermore, as the scale of stores increases, the number of terminals and the number of operators of the POS system itself also increase, and the amount of sales data that must be acquired for each terminal device and each operator also increases.

For this reason, when the IB completes the transaction, it takes a lot of time to clear the sales data file.

Normally, an employee such as an operator or store manager performs this settlement process and reconciles it with the sales proceeds.

I can go home. Therefore, even after business hours have ended, employees will be held captive until the payment process is completed. Therefore, it is undesirable for employees and store management to take a long time to complete payment, and P.O.
In the S system, shortening the payment processing time was an issue.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a POS system that can acquire necessary data in a short time after the end of a business and can perform payment processing, thereby reducing the time required for operators and the like.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage means to which two or more terminal devices are connected and which accumulates and stores sales data obtained in connection with transactions. A POS terminal control device, wherein the storage means is provided with a file for storing data that requires immediate settlement among sales data and a file for storing data that does not require immediate settlement, and The present invention is characterized in that it is configured to include means for storing the obtained sales data by dividing it into necessary data in each of the files, and a settlement means for executing settlement processing for each file when a settlement instruction is received. Provides a PO5 terminal control device.

The present invention also provides a POS system having one or more terminal devices and a terminal control device equipped with a storage means for accumulating and storing sales data obtained from transactions sent from the terminal devices. There it is.

A terminal control device including the POS terminal control device is provided.

Furthermore, the present invention provides a payment method in a POS system that includes one or more terminal devices and a storage means for accumulating and storing sales data obtained in connection with transactions, wherein the storage means includes: Of the sales data, a file is created to store data that requires immediate settlement, and a file is created to store data that does not require immediate settlement, and the obtained sales data is divided into the data necessary for each of the above files. For files that store data that requires immediate settlement when a settlement instruction is received,
To provide a settlement method in a POS system, which is characterized in that a settlement is executed, and then a settlement is executed for a file storing data that does not require immediate settlement.

In the present invention described above, preferably, an identification means is provided to indicate whether each file has been paid or not. In this case, it is preferable that the payment means is provided with a function of, upon receiving a payment instruction, referring to the identification means and executing payment processing for unpaid files.

Further, in the present invention described above, preferably, a settlement file name file is provided in which at least the file names of files requiring immediate settlement processing among files requiring settlement processing are registered. In this case, it is preferable that the payment means has a function of, upon receiving a payment instruction, referring to the payment file name file and giving priority to executing payment processing for files that require immediate payment processing.

[Operations] The present invention is based on the fact that among sales data, some data require a large amount of time to process and some data do not require much time, and some data must be processed immediately after the end of business, while others require a large amount of time to process the payment. This was done by noting that there is data that does not require payment.

That is, for example, data such as sales amount needs to be checked against the amount handled by the operator, and immediate settlement processing is required. Moreover, since it is updated sequentially, the final settlement process can be executed in a short time. On the other hand, sales data for each product is used for checking product inventory and placing orders.

This is data necessary to understand which products are best-selling and which are not.
It is not necessarily necessary immediately. Moreover, to obtain sales data for each product, it is necessary to search for the sales status of all registered products, which range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of items, and output the data, which requires a large amount of processing time. It takes.

According to the present invention, a file is constructed for sales data, taking into account the nature of the data and distinguishing whether immediate settlement processing is required or not. Therefore, when paying later,
It is possible to separately instruct the execution of payment processing.

At the time of settlement, as mentioned above, files that require immediate settlement processing and files that do not require settlement processing can be separately instructed to be settled, so that files that require immediate settlement processing can be processed first. Logging data can be obtained. Therefore, sales by store, sales by terminal, sales by operator, etc. that require reconciliation with cash, etc., are stored in files that require immediate settlement processing, and sales data for each product is stored in files that require immediate settlement processing. Storing data in unnecessary files will take time to process the payment, but if you decide to postpone the payment for files that do not require data immediately and process it by the start of the next business day, for example, the operator etc. The necessary data can be obtained in a short time. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to wait until the settlement of all data is completed, as was the case in the past.

In addition, by registering files that require immediate settlement processing in advance, even if instructions for settlement processing are issued all at once, files that require immediate settlement processing can be processed preferentially by referring to this registration. I can do it.

Furthermore, by providing identification means for indicating whether each file has been settled or not, even if settlement processing is instructed all at once, settlement processing is performed only on unpaid files.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The first drawing is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the POS system of the present invention.

The POS system of this embodiment is configured by connecting a POS terminal control device and a plurality of PO3 terminal devices 2 to a communication line.

The POS terminal control device I includes a central processing unit (CPU) 14 that executes calculations, searches, various controls, etc., a communication control function 15 that communicates with the POS terminal device 2 and a host device (not shown), and the CPU 4. The computer includes a ROM 16 in which processing programs are stored, a disk storage device 17 as an auxiliary storage device, and a RAM 18 that constitutes a work area.

The terminal device 2 includes an optical reading device such as a barcode reader, a keyboard for inputting single numbers, symbols, etc., calculation means for performing calculations on given numerical values, input numerical values,
It has a display device that displays calculated numerical values, etc., a printing device that prints out sales statements, receipts, etc., and communication means (none of which are shown) that exchanges data with the POS terminal control device.

The disk storage device 17 includes sales files 171 and 172 in which sales data is stored, and a settlement file name file 1 indicating the name of a settlement file that requires immediate settlement processing.
73, and payment flags 174 and 175 indicating whether or not payment has been made for each file.

The sales files 171 and 172 record the total number of sales items, total sales amount, total number of customers, sales for each product, etc. for each POS terminal and each store. Of these, sales file 17
1 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 2, in which the total number of sales items, total sales amount, and total number of customers are recorded for each POS terminal and each store.

Furthermore, the sales file 172 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 3, and records sales for each product.

Here, the sales file 171 is a file that requires immediate processing after the business ends, and the sales file 172 is a file that does not require immediate processing. The former requires data immediately after business ends. The latter is not necessary immediately after the business ends, but it must be settled by the time the first business begins.
This is to obtain the necessary data. The file name of the sales file 171 is registered in the settlement file name file 173.

The settlement flags 174 and 175, together with the CPU 14,
It constitutes a means for identifying payment and non-payment.

In this embodiment, the settlement flag 174 is set to the sales file 171.
The settlement flag 175 is used for the sales file 172.

The CPU 14 stores a file in the storage means that stores data that requires immediate settlement among the sales data;
It also functions as a means to provide a file for storing data that does not require immediate settlement, and to separate and store the obtained sales data into necessary data in each of the files. Further, the CPU 14 also functions as a payment unit that executes payment processing for each file upon receiving payment instructions.

Next, regarding the operation of this embodiment, we will discuss each of the above drawings and the fourth section.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

At the time of business, sales data including the product name (product code) of the sold product, unit price, quantity, sales amount, code of the operator who operated the product, etc. is input into each POS terminal device 2. This input can be performed using optical reading means such as a barcode reader. It may also be done by key personnel. The number of sales points, total sales, etc. are calculated from the input sales data, and the results are displayed and printed out. Further, these data are sent to the POS terminal control device 1 via the communication line 3.

The CPU 14 of the POS terminal control device 1 has a communication control function 1.
5 is divided into data to be stored in a sales file 171 and data to be stored in a sales file 172, and the data is stored in each file.

When storing data in the sales file 171, the CPU
14 reads the data stored in the file 171, adds the corresponding value of the received data to it to obtain a cumulative value, and stores this value in the file 171.

When storing data in the sales file 172, the CPU
14 reads data from the file 172 for each product code included in the received data, adds the value of the received data to this data, and stores this value in the file 172.

As a result, the sales files 171 and 172 are
Each time data is sent from a terminal device, the previous data is updated and each sales data is accumulated.

When a payment operation is instructed from one of the POS terminal devices 2 after business hours, the POS terminal control device 1 uses the CPU 1
4 first obtains the file name for which immediate payment is to be made from the payment file name file 173. Next, CPU14
Checks whether the settlement flag corresponding to the file, in this embodiment, the settlement flag 174 corresponding to the sales file 17↓ is in an unpaid state (step 41).

If it is in an unpaid state, the data in the sales file 171 is read and logging data is acquired (step 42).
), in this POS terminal, logging data refers to logging data that is used to make it easier for other devices (host computer, etc.) to handle various sales data held within the terminal. This is data that has undergone data conversion such as conversion to the EBCDIK code in use.

After reading all data in the sales file 171, a clearing process is performed to set each of the total number of sales points, total sales amount, and total number of customers included in this data to 0 (step 4).
3).

Further, the CPU 14 sets the payment flag 174 corresponding to the file 171 to the value of payment completed (step 44).

Thereafter, the logging data obtained in step 42 is sent to the POS terminal device 2 via the communication control function 15 and the communication line 3, and outputted from the terminal device 2 as a report.

In this embodiment, only the sales file 171 is shown, but in addition to this, the operator file storing sales data etc. for each operator can also be settled in the same way. In this case, the operator file is numbered for each operator, and this operator file is registered in the settlement file name file 173 as a file that requires immediate processing.

This operator file can be created not only at the end of business hours, but also at any time when the operator in question ends his business hours.

For operator files that have been settled before the end of business, the settlement flag will be set to "settled", so they will not be settled at the end of business.

As described above, after completing the settlement for all files that require immediate settlement processing, if you instruct the settlement operation again from the PO3 terminal device 2, the CP
U14 executes the settlement of the sales file 172 that does not require immediate settlement processing, since the settlement flag 174 is set to be settled for all files marked Wta in the settlement file name file 173.

Settlement of this sales file 172 is performed by searching for products sold on the day from among all registered products, reading out the data, clearing the original data read out, and immediately following the flowchart shown in FIG. When the data has been read out, the settlement flag 17 for the file 172 is set.
5 is considered to have been paid.

Regarding the settlement of files that do not require immediate settlement processing, the operator only needs to instruct the settlement operation, and there is no need to wait until the execution of the operation is completed. Therefore, after the operator completes the settlement of a file that requires immediate settlement processing, the operator can instruct execution of the immediate settlement processing and go home.

At the time when all the settlement processes are finished, that is, when the settlement flags for all files become settled, the CPU 14 sets the settlement flags corresponding to each file to a value indicating unpaid.

Note that in this process, the settlement flag may be set to an unaccounted state after the settlement process is completed for files that require immediate settlement processing, but before settlement of files that do not require immediate settlement processing.

As explained above, in this embodiment, the checkout operation is divided into two times, and between the first checkout operation and the second checkout operation, the logging data that is desired to be obtained immediately after business hours is obtained, and
Retrieve the remaining logging data during the second operation. For this reason, from the end of business.

Data necessary for settlement can be obtained in a short time before the operator etc. go home.

In the embodiment described above, a settlement file name file is provided, but a configuration may be adopted in which this file is not provided. In this case, for settlement immediately after business hours, settlement processing is performed for a certain fixed file (steps 42, 43, and 44), and before the operator returns home, an operation to settle the file whose settlement flag 175 is in the unpaid state is performed at PO3. Do this from terminal 2. At this time, all payment flags 174 are reset to values indicating unpaid status.

In order to issue such an instruction, it may be possible to separately execute commands for instructions for files that require immediate settlement processing and instructions for files that do not require immediate settlement processing. Furthermore, a configuration may be adopted in which keys corresponding to these commands are provided in the terminal device 2 (or in the terminal control device 1 if necessary).

Furthermore, in the embodiments described above, the settlement flag is used to identify whether the transaction has been settled or not. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, in the settlement file name file,
Although an example has been shown in which only file names for data that require immediate settlement processing are registered, file names for data that do not require immediate settlement processing may also be registered. In this case, files that require immediate settlement processing and files that do not require immediate settlement processing can be registered separately. Further, the payment processing may be registered with priority order. Items that can be processed first are placed in the same order, so that items that are instructed to be processed first are paid preferentially.

Further, in the embodiments described above, an example of a POS system including a plurality of POS terminal devices 2 and one POS terminal control device 1 was shown, but the present invention is not limited to such a system configuration. do not have.

For example, POS
It may also be configured to have the function of a terminal control device. In addition, in a POS system, multiple POS terminal control devices 1
It is good also as a structure which has.

Please note that before the close of business, payment instructions will only be given to the necessary individual files, and after the close of business, instructions will be given to all files (excluding those that have already been paid).
The configuration may be such that instructions are given at the same time.

By the way, in the above-mentioned embodiment, an example was shown in which payment is made after the business ends, but the present invention can also be applied to a POS system in a 24-hour store or the like. In this case, the end of business may be set at a single point in time, and sales may continue.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to perform payment processing that allows necessary data to be obtained in a short time after the end of work, thereby reducing the time required for operators and the like.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams illustrating the contents of the sales file of the POS system in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the main part of the sales data update process after the interim payment operation in the POS system. Engineering: POS terminal control device, 2: POS terminal device, 3: Communication line, 14: Central processing unit (CPU
), Engineering 5... Communication control function, Engineering 6... Fixed storage device (ROM), 17... Disk device, 18... Storage device (RAM), 171... Sales file, 172.
...Sales file, 173...Settlement file name file, 174.175...Settlement flag.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A POS terminal control device connected to one, one, or two or more terminal devices and equipped with a storage means for accumulating and storing sales data obtained in connection with transactions, the storage means comprising: Among the sales data, a file is created to store data that requires immediate settlement, and a file is created to store data that does not require immediate settlement, and the obtained sales data is stored in each of the files as necessary. A POS terminal control device comprising: means for storing data separately; and a settlement means for executing settlement processing for each file upon receiving a settlement instruction. 2. A POS system comprising one or more terminal devices and a terminal control device equipped with a storage means for accumulating and storing sales data obtained in connection with transactions sent from the terminal devices, the POS system comprising: The terminal control device includes, in the storage means, a file for storing data that requires immediate settlement among the sales data, and a file for storing data that does not require immediate settlement, and
The present invention is characterized in that it is configured to include means for storing the obtained sales data by dividing it into necessary data in each of the files, and a settlement means for executing settlement processing for each file when a settlement instruction is received. POS system. 3. An identification means is provided to indicate whether each file has been settled or not, and upon receiving an instruction for settlement, the settlement means refers to the identification means and executes settlement processing for the unaccounted for file. PO according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises the functions
An S terminal control device or a POS system according to claim 2. 4. A settlement file name file is provided for registering the file names of at least files that require immediate settlement processing among files that require settlement processing, and upon receiving a settlement instruction, the settlement means refers to the settlement file name file. 4. The POS terminal control device according to claim 1 or 3, or the POS system according to claim 2, wherein the POS terminal control device has a function of giving priority to executing payment processing for files that require immediate payment processing. 5. A settlement method in a POS system having one or more terminal devices and a storage means for accumulating and storing sales data obtained in connection with transactions, wherein the storage means stores information of the sales data. , a file for storing data that requires immediate settlement, and a file for storing data that does not require immediate settlement, and the obtained sales data is divided into necessary data and stored in each of the files, Upon receiving a settlement instruction, the system executes settlement for files storing data that require immediate settlement, and then executes settlement for files storing data that do not require immediate settlement. Payment method in POS system.