Machines, ATMs and host commissions

If your company runs vending machines or ATMs, they work the same way in TicketStacker: each one sits at someone else's business on one of your routes, needs regular visits (restocking a vending machine, loading cash into an ATM), earns money you need to check, and often pays the host business a commission. With Inventory, you'll find them under Sales & Inventory.

Machines

Machines in Sales & Inventory lists every vending machine and ATM (its tabs are Machines, Visits and Host commissions). For each one you see its route, terminal ID and address, this month's money (sales and what was paid for a vending machine; withdrawals, cash dispensed and what you earned for an ATM), cash collected, and the last visit.

Vending machines arrive on their own from SandStar stock imports. To add an ATM (or a vending machine before its first import), fill in Add a machine: its Kind, Name, Terminal ID or serial (the ID your ATM processor uses), Address and Route, then click Add machine.

Click Edit on a machine to change everything about it in one place, then click Save changes:

• Details: its Kind, Name, Nickname (what your team calls it), Terminal ID (ATMs) or Serial, Route (No route (inactive) takes it off your routes), Address and Notes (like where the key is). A vending machine from SandStar keeps SandStar's name, because each stock import finds the machine by that name; give it a nickname instead.
• Your own fields for that kind of machine (see below).
• Host business, with a contact, email and phone: the business the machine sits in.
• Commission: how the host is paid. Vending: % of sales, % of what was paid, % of gross profit or $ per item sold. ATMs: % of surcharge or $ per withdrawal. Either: $ a month. Gross profit is the machine's sales before tax minus the landed cost of the items sold (the same profit as the machine sales report), so a host on a profit share isn't paid on your costs. Sales of products that don't have a cost yet are left out until they do.
• For ATMs, Warn when cash is below: an amount that flags the ATM to refill.

Alerts on each machine

When something needs attention, the machine's card shows it at the top in a colored tag: Cash low for an ATM at or under its warning amount, No sales for a vending machine that has stopped selling, Sold out with the items that ran out, Low stock when it's under the company's low-stock level, and Expiring for stock near or past its best-by date. The same alerts show at the top of the machine's page. Click one to go where you fix it. Admins set the no-sales hours and the low-stock level on Setup → Alerts, and new alerts also arrive under the bell. See Inventory.

Your own machine fields

Every business tracks different things about its machines: the ATM's processor and model, whether it's owned or leased, a vending machine's SIM card. Company Admins add those as fields: click Machine fields on the Machines page. It's the same field designer you use to build a stack's ticket, so you pick fields on the left (text, numbers, money, dates, choices, a checkbox, a person, a Location and more), click one to set its label, choices, width and whether it's Required, and drag to reorder.

ATMs and vending machines each have their own list: switch between ATM fields and Vending machine fields. To start quickly, Add the usual ATM fields adds processor, model, owned or leased, install date, surcharge and cassette capacity, and Add SandStar's machine fields adds the details SandStar keeps (deployment scenario, SIM card number, container attribute and container version). Click Save fields when you're done.

The fields then show in each machine's Edit panel, and the ones filled in show on its row in the list. Fields are checked the same way ticket fields are, so a number field only takes a number and a required field must be filled in before the machine saves.

What machine cards show

Each machine in the list is a card, and you choose what it shows the same way you choose Kanban card fields. The name, kind, Visits and Edit always show; the rest is up to you: Route, Terminal ID or serial, Address, This month's money, Last visit, Cash left (ATMs), Host and commission, Notes and any of your own fields.

• For everyone: company Admins switch items on and off under On machine cards in Machine fields, then click Save fields.
• Just for you: click ▦ Card fields above the list, untick what you don't need, use the arrows to change the order, and click Save cards. Reset goes back to your company's choice.

Planograms: what goes in each slot

A planogram is a map of a vending machine: its shelves, the slots on each shelf, and what goes in each slot. With one, whoever restocks the machine knows exactly where each product belongs, and pick lists and the Driver view show the slot next to each item.

Click Planogram on a vending machine in Places → Machines, or open the machine from the Inventory Overview and click Lay out planogram (Edit planogram once it has one).

1. Enter how many Shelves the machine has and how many Slots per shelf, then click Lay out slots. Shelves are lettered from the top (A, B, C) and slots are numbered from the left, so the first shelf is A1, A2, A3 and so on.
2. Shelves don't have to match. Use − and + on a shelf to give it fewer or more slots, + Add shelf for another shelf at the bottom, and Remove shelf to take one off. You can rename a shelf by typing in its name box.
3. Tap a slot to fill it in. Change its Slot number if your machine uses its own numbers (like 101 or 12), pick the product (search by name or barcode, or scan it with Scan a product for this slot), and enter its Capacity, how many it holds. Products the machine already has are listed first, and their capacity is filled in for you. Remove product empties the slot; Next slot and Previous slot move along without closing the panel.
4. Number slots numbers every slot again (A1, A2 ... B1, B2 ...) after you've added or removed some. Products and capacities stay where they are.
5. Click Save planogram. Two slots can't have the same number; the ones that clash are marked in red until you fix them.

Machines that are set up the same way don't need to be laid out twice: choose one under Copy layout from, click Copy, adjust anything that's different, and click Save planogram. Nothing changes on the other machine.

The saved planogram shows on the machine's page, one row per shelf with each slot's number, product and capacity. A slot's capacity is also the product's par for pre-kit pick lists (see Par levels and pre-kit).

ATM reports

Your ATM processor already knows every withdrawal. Under ATM reports, upload its report as a CSV file or paste its rows from a spreadsheet. TicketStacker finds the columns on its own (the date, the terminal ID or ATM name, the withdrawal count, the cash dispensed, the surcharge and interchange) and shows what it found before you click Upload ATM report. A report with one row per withdrawal is added up by day. Uploading a day again replaces it, so overlapping reports are fine. Rows for terminals TicketStacker doesn't know are listed; add those ATMs, or put their terminal ID in the serial.

When you log a cash load, each ATM shows the cash left (what you loaded, minus what's been dispensed since), about how many days that lasts at the recent pace, and Load cash soon when it's under your warning amount or about to run out.

Visits

Machines → Visits is the log of every stop at a machine. Pick the machine and the Visit (Fill, Collect cash, Load cash for ATMs, Service or Other), enter the Cash collected or Cash loaded and a note, and click Log visit. Recent visits show who logged them and the amounts; Remove takes one back. Inventory → Visits is the log of every stop at a machine. Pick the machine and the Visit (Fill, Collect cash, Load cash for ATMs, Service or Other), enter the Cash collected or Cash loaded and a note, and click Log visit. A Collect cash visit needs the amount. Once you enter cash collected, Bills and coins lets you jot down what you counted (like 12 × $20 and $8.75 in coins), which helps when a count doesn't match. Recent visits show who logged them and the amounts; Remove takes one back. To check collections against the sales feed, see Cash collections, expenses and mileage.

To work a route, click its name under Run a route. Its machines are listed in driving order from the route's warehouse (the same order the Locations Map draws), each with its own Log visit, so a driver can log every stop as they go. Each machine's Visits link shows just that machine's visits.

Host commissions

Machines → Host commissions shows what each host is owed for a month: last month to start, with arrows for earlier months. Each machine with a host shows what the commission is based on (like 10% of $1,250.00 sales, or 340 withdrawals × $0.50) and the amount owed. When you pay a host, click Mark paid; Undo takes it back. Download CSV exports the month for your records or to send your hosts their numbers. Sales → Host commissions shows what each host is owed for a month: last month to start, with arrows for earlier months. Each machine with a host shows what the commission is based on (like 10% of $1,250.00 sales, 25% of $480.00 gross profit, 340 withdrawals × $0.50, or 610 items sold × $0.10) and the amount owed. A month with a loss pays nothing on a profit share. When a profit share leaves out sales because some products have no cost yet, the row says how much was left out, with a link to add the costs, so you can fix them before paying. When you pay a host, click Mark paid; Undo takes it back. Download CSV exports the month for your records or to send your hosts their numbers, including items sold, gross profit and any sales left out.