Install and Configure | 2 | RetailPro POS Plugin

Install and Configure | 2 | RetailPro POS Plugin


Video Walkthrough provided by Retailpro:



It is assumed that plug in files have been added to the Retail Pro 9 "plugins" folder. 


Add UDF and Price Discount:


1. First login as SYSADMIN or the equivalent and go to Options > System Preferences.

2. Scroll down to the Local Preferences, select Customers, and then choose UDF/AUX. 


3. Create a new Field Definition. The custom UDF must be named "AstroLoyal" for a Astro Loyalty to work. Give it two field entries, ACCEPTED and DECLINED. Then save the changes.
This allows the plug-in to link Retail Pro customers with Astro Loyalty customers.

4. Next go to Local Preferences > Point-of-Sale > General > Price/Discounts. 

5.  Add a discount reason that will be used to indicate Astro Loyalty reward items. This can be anything you want but should not be used for any other purpose so make it unique. I created one named simply "Astro."

Configure Plugin:


Now that the two options above are set in Retail Pro System Preferences, let's go configure the plug-in itself. Make sure the steps above have been completed before proceeding. 


License:

1. Under Options, go to Work Station Preferences. 


2. Go to General, User Interface plug-ins and double click on Astro Loyalty. 


3. The defined Retail Pro stores are listed on the left but none of them can be activated until you've entered a plug-in license key and validated it. Once that is entered click unlock and the license key will be validated. Its store name and expiration date will be listed.



4. Now the stores are available and you can click on them to configure them. Each store must have a unique account with Astro Loyalty. Once you have that information ready go ahead and type in your username and password


Click the check button to test the credentials. If you have issues with your Astro Username or Password, please contact Astro Support at support@astroloyalty.com. Once they're tested and verified there will be a check mark by the corresponding store.


Programs:

5. Now you can click on that store and access options for the other tabs. The other tabs are specific to the store that is selected. On the Programs tab, you will enable the various Astro Loyalty programs in which the store is involved.

Loyalty Points:

If you are using the Astro Loyalty Points service, when selecting that check box in RetailPro. The Points program requires the selection of a non-inventory item to be used for redeeming discounts and rebates from points that are not associated with any item.


You can search for them in a similar way to inventory in Retail Pro.


Once selected, its description is listed.


If you would like more information about Astro's Loyalty Point service, please contact support@astroloyalty.com!

Customers:

6. On the Customer tab, you can match selected Retail Pro customer address and phone fields to send to Astro Loyalty. Address 1 is always sent us the "address" but you need to select which address fields are used in your store's customer screen for city and state. If the city and state are combined in one address line, select the same address for both and the plug-in will extract them as long as they are in standard city-comma-state format.

Options:

7. Finally the Options tap lists three more configuration settings, the first of which is critical for using Astro Loyalty rewards in Retail Pro. The Item Discount Type must be set to the Retail Pro item discount type we created earlier in System Preferences; it is used for redeeming Astro Loyalty rewards. (See UDF and Price Discount Step 4). 

8. When working with receipts, you can interact with Astro Loyalty functions by clicking the side button that activates a floating menu with "Auto Receipt Menu" checked. The floating menu will automatically pop up when placing a customer on the receipt.


9.  The plugin saves its interactions with the Astro Loyalty API in log files. If you need to troubleshoot a problem you can check this "Debug Logging" check box and the plug-in will store a lot more information about what it's doing behind the scenes in the log file. You could eventually fill up a disk if left on for a long time so this option automatically turns itself off after 7 days. You can also click the View Log Files button which shows you a list of the files that it has created allowing you to view them in any regular text editor or send them for support.


Multiple Stores: 

Now that the settings have been established for the first store above, we can set up the second store and enable that one as well. As soon as one store is enabled you can select a store to be used as a default store. "Default Store" is only really used in the Customer module where there is no concept of current store. Click on the store you would like to make the Default and click on the checkmark icon to make it the Default Store in RetailPro. 


10. Once all these options are done, the plug-in is fully configured and ready to use!