Frequently Asked Questions - Website Customization

Can you install osCommerce addons?

Yes. We have been customizing eCommerce stores for more than 7 years.

If I cannot find what I want can you customize it for me?

Yes. If you can imagine it, we can build it. Please contact us for a quote.

Do you do search engine optimization?

Yes. Some of our customers you will find #1 on google for their target key words. As with all reputable SEO companies, we cannot guarantee #1 placement on search engines. That being said, we have 6 years experience seeing our customer stores on top and refernces from customers that have been wowed by our services. We do not require monthly contract for search engine optimization and our one time services start at $299. As with any area of customization, we do offer monthly support but this is not a requirement for seo customers.

Do you only work with eCommerce?

No. We work with every variety of websites from eCommerce sites to flash, html to blogs.

Frequently Asked Questions - OllaCart Point of Sale

System Requirements
Server requirements:

* Apache Web Server (IIS is not fully tested. $25 setup fee if IIS installation is required.)
* MySQL (3.x, 4.x, 5.0)
* PHP (4.x, 5.x)

Since OllaCart Point of Sale is accessed via a web browser, any operating system, including Windows, may be used to access OllaCart Point of Sale. The actual installation of OllaCart Point of Sale, however, is supported for use on Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD systems. Most of the time you'll be uploading these files to your web hosting company. Though, most web hosting companies use Linux, verifying the operating system they use will be a good idea. OllaCart Point of Sale may function properly on other operating systems, but supportability is not guaranteed.
If you want to use the IIS web server on Windows, though, there is a $25 setup fee, since IIS does not provide a key component of information required for proper license validation.

Why OllaCart Point of Sale?
OllaCart Point of Sale is the key to smooth order processing. Why? Because it uses your store database natively, there is no data synchronization. You don't have to process website orders through the point of sale just to keep accurate inventory and customer data. It's all in one place, one database, no synchronization necessary.

Can I use my existing printer, scan gun, and receipt printer?
Many modern point of sale solutions now simply use PC hardware with Windows. All you need to access OllaCart Point of Sale is a web browser. Make sure that the receipt printer is available to Windows, and you will be able to print receipts. (They'll look better if you turn off the browser print header and footer.). Keyboard wedge barcode scanners work just like a keyboard. In other words, if you open up Notepad, and scan an item, the barcode will be typed into the Notepad window. These types of scan guns work wonderfully with OllaCart Point of Sale.

Since OllaCart Point of Sale is technically running on the same web server as your web store, it is unlikely to be physically connected to your cash drawer. Cash drawers usually need your PC to send a special code to open them. Most of the time this is a simple code (see the Tip below), but it can vary for different models. In most cases, a web search will find instructions on how to create a batch file to send this special code and open your cash drawer.

Tip: A common method to open the cash drawer is to simply send a "beep" to the port where the cash drawer is plugged in. You might want to try running our cash_drawer.bat on the PC where the cash drawer is connected to see if this will work in your case. The cash_drawer.bat file may need to be changed slightly depending on your setup. It currently reads:

echo ^G > LPT1

Cash_drawer.bat is designed for a cash drawer that is plugged into the printer port. If the cash drawer is plugged into a serial port, change LPT1 to COM1 or COM2. Note: If editing cash_drawer.bat is required, note that the ^G is a CTRL-G, not simply a ^ followed by a the letter G. As such, it may not display properly in Notepad or some other text editors.

Do I have to enter all my products and customers again?
Absolutely not! OllaCart Point of Sale uses the same database that your web store does. All of your customer and product data will be instantly available via the point of sale interface as soon as it is installed and configured.

How can I use my products' barcodes?
There are two main ways to do this:

* Enter the barcode numbers (with your scanner, if you want) as the product model for the product. This works well if you are not already using the product model field.

* Install a contribution (add-on) to osCommerce (or ZenCart, etc) that adds a new field to the product table specifically to use for barcodes. There are a few contributions that will do this for you. Contact us if you like, and we can explain further or arrange to install the add-on for you.

Can I get a trial version?
Of course! Click here to order a 14 day trial version and test it out on your own store!

How many licenses do I need?
Run as many terminals as you want on just one license! Unlike other systems that require additional licenses for every workstation, OllaCart Point of Sale only requires one license for the entire store. You can access it from any web browser.

Can OllaCart Point of Saleb be customized?
We do offer customizations to OllaCart Point of Sale and bill at $75/hour but OllaCart is written in PHP. This means that if you know php you can customize your copy of OllaCart to fit your needs. Add your own features, change the ones that are already there, or just change the look and feel of the site. You choose!

Does it support feature x or feature y?
osCommerce and its derivatives have thousands of freely available add-ons. It's possible that you'd like to use one of these contributions in your store, and need OllaCart Point of Sale to support it. No problem! Using the same ideas you use to install the contribution, you can customize your OllaCart Point of Sale installation to support the same new features or again, you can contract us to make the changes for you. We have done hundreds of customizations and may have a few suggestions to make your store even more effective.

Remember, since OllaCart Point of Sale keeps its data in the same database as the rest of the web store, you have access to hundreds of tools to import data, export to accounting packages, or just to run custom reports.

Will it conflict with other store customizations?
No. OllaCart Point of Sale accesses the database directly. It does not require modification to any existing osCommerce, ZenCart, etc. files. Again, remember that changes could have been made to your website and therefore will not natively work the same in OllaCart. A good example of this is the multiple tax rates. OllaCart was developed and is supported from the United States. Here we use only a single tax rate. Your government could (for Canadian or European contries) require multiple taxes to be collected and your website could have this structure added however that change is not automatically carried over to the Point of Sale. These customizations could be made available to you by WebCart Consulting (contact us for a quote) or you could have your current web developer perform them for you.

What about product attributes?
If your store uses QT Pro, then your store uses a slightly different way of keeping track of inventory. The basic OllaCart Point of Sale interfaces with the default osCommerce method of inventory storage. Support for QT Pro is now included in the Pro version of OllaCart Point of Sale.

Do I have to have an internet connection?
OllaCart Point of Sale needs a network connection to your database server to function properly. For most scenarios, this will mean that an internet connection is required.

Which payment methods can I use? Does it process credit cards?
OllaCart Point of Sale supports cash, check, and credit card payments. It assumes that you already have the means to charge the customers' credit card. This can be a card swiper or another mechanism, like a web virtual terminal. There are no payment gateways included with OllaCart at this time however, we now offer a bolt on to the OllaCart Point of Sale to process credit cards using your existing Authorize.net module. With this payment module you can process in-store transactions as seamlessly as placing an order on your website, no additional harware needed (yes, you can still use your keyboard wedge if you have one).

Other payment modules can be customized at your request. Contact us for a quote.

Does it support non-English languages?
Yes! OllaCart point of Sale 2.0 and later includes multi-language support. As of January 2009, the following languages are available:

* English
* Spanish
* Swedish
* Norwegian

Though some of the Swedish and Norwegian were translated by native speakers, computer translation was used also as features were added. Translations will be improved in future versions. Additional languagues will also be available in the future.

What about taxes?
OllaCart Point of Sale uses the primary tax rate from your web store.

Ok, but what about multiple tax rates?
Let's say you have tax classes as follows:

Food Items, Non-Food Items.
Let's say you have tax rates as follows:
Food Items: 5% (local goverment) + 3% (state government)
Non-Food Items: 7% (local government) + 2% (state government)

osCommerce will apply both the 5% and 3% for the Food Items, and similarly calculate both the 7% and 2% for the non-food items. ocPOS will apply only the first found tax rate for each tax class. If the 5% was created before the 3%, then that's the one it will use. It only supports one tax rate per tax class.

If you have only one tax rate per tax class (i.e. Food Items: 5% and Non-Food Items: 7%) then it should work just fine.

Compounding and prioritized tax classes are under consideration for a future release.

Demos and Purchasing
Ready to try it out? OllaCart Point of Sale is attractively priced at $199 per store and OllaCart Point of Sale Pro at $399 per store. 14-day demo licenses are free. See Our Order Page for more details.