POS2Net Quick Start Guide Introduction POS2Net integrates your merchant s in-store QuickBooks Point of Sale (POS) system with Ecommerce Solution to offer added service, simplicity and convenience to your customers. E-Commerce Solution and POS2Net provides a total solution for Retail Solution Providers to offer their clients by giving them easy-to-create online storefronts that are automatically integrated with their in-store POS systems. Intuitive, draganddrop web-design tools that are compatible with Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, and Microsoft FrontPage web-design programs provide customers with unparalleled convenience and ease-of-use. This easy-to use, simple to maintain software, offers domain hosting, dynamic online catalog creation, shopping cart and your own secure payment gateway all backed by NetStores comprehensive training support and customer service. Already have a web presence? When you use separate instore and online solutions, you are only getting half of the picture at any given time. At the end of the day you still need to manually reconcile your books. POS2Net does this automatically. www.pos2net.com 888.345.4322 You may send questions to: support@netstores.com or view latest POS2Net information at http://www.pos2net.com. If you have any questions regarding setup or the services offered at NetStores, Just call our toll free customer support line: 888-345-4322.
Tool Installation 1. Using NetStores POS2Net Installer 1. Download and Installation of NetStores POS2Net. 1. Go to NetStores.com s homepage and move your mouse over the Downloads tab at the top of the screen. A little menu should drop down, on this menu click POS2Net (See Figure 1). 2. Next Click download or the POS2Net logo image. 3. Fill out the registration information and click Continue. Save the file to download to your desktop. 4. The downloaded file is the installer. Double-click the file to begin the installation. 5. Upon loading you will see the following screen. (Figure 2) Figure 1 Figure 2 This is the NetStores Support Registration screen. By Filling out this information we can better serve and support you as you use POS2Net. Page 2 of 34
6. Please fill out this simple form and click continue. Your information will be submitted across the internet to our servers. So please be sure to be connected to the internet before continuing. 7. Welcome to the POS2Net Installer. (See Figure 3). Figure 3: Setup Wizard Figure 4: Prerequisite Installer 8. Next you may be prompted that you are in need of a few programs before installing POS2Net. Please review the list and click Download and Install. The program will automatically download these programs and run them after your computer has received them. (See Figure 4). Page 3 of 34
Figure 5: License Agreement Figure 6: Installation Folder 9. After successfully installing all prerequisites, you will be prompted with the POS2Net license agreement read the licensing agreement carefully before agreeing to the terms and conditions. Click I Agree then click Next to continue. (See Figure 5). 10. Select a folder to install POS2Net into. After selecting and reviewing you choice click Next to continue. (See Figure 6) Figure 7: Installing POS2Net Figure 8: Short Cuts 11. The installation will only take a few minutes. When the install is complete click Next (See Figure 7). 12. After the installation is completed you will be prompted with your choice of where to put an short cut to POS2Net. Make your selections and then click Next (See figure 8). Page 4 of 34
Figure 9: Install Complete 13. The installation of POS2Net is now complete. Click Close to finish the installer. (See Figure 9). Setup Wizard 1. Upon first running on POS2Net you will be prompted with the new store setup wizard. This short simple automated setup will guide you through the initial setup of the POS2Net application. Setup Wizard 2. By clicking next you will be prompted with a screen requiring you to fill out your company information. Please fill out all the text boxes. It is important to note here that the merchant ID you setup here will be your login to your NetStores account. While you are filling out this Page 5 of 34
form POS2Net will be detecting your installation of QuickBooks Point of Sale. After you see the store information in the list box and you have filled out the form completely click next. Fill out all boxes while the QBPOS Store is detected 3. You will be prompted with a certificate for the connection of POS2Net to QBPOS. Click "yes always" on the screen as shown bellow. Connection Certificate Page 6 of 34
3. This last portion of the setup wizard is completely automated and you can let run in the background if you wish. POS2Net will create your NetStores account, export all your items and customers to the account. Then publish the pages of your store statically. This first time export and setup will take longer than future exports. An average store containing around 5,000 products will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Where stores containing 20,000+ items will take closer to an hour. Create a new NetStores Account 1. In the event you wish to create a new NetStores account, this can be done by clicking the Setup tab. Then clicking the Create a new NetStores account Button. Click Create a new NetStores Account Page 7 of 34
. New Store Window 2. Fill out this simple form to create your new NetStores Account. Upon clicking Create New Store button your information will be sent over the internet and your store will be created. 3. Upon successful store creation you will get a success message. 4. You will see the Merchant ID and password for the NetStores Account you just setup are already inputted. Input the name of your Quickbooks Point of Sale Company and the version of QBPOS you are currently running. And test the connection to be sure it is correct. Connection Settings 1. To setup the connection settings for POS2Net click the Connection Settings tab. This will bring you to a screen like that show bellow. Page 8 of 34
Connection Settings Options 2. Here you can edit the various user name and passwords of the accounts used by POS2Net. If you ran the setup wizard your NetStores account user name and password will already be filled out. And your POS Company data settings will be populated. If you didn't then fill them in now and click the test connection box. 3. It is also highly recommended you test your connection to QuickBooks Point of sale also before you continue. 4. Clicking Detect Store Settings will cause POS2Net to go out onto your local network(if one exists) and detect all copies of QBPOS running. If there is more than one found you will be prompted with a selection screen. Select the one you wish to use and test the connection. 5. The hosting account settings will be your user name and password for your cpanel account setup with NetStores. 6. Store URL is the address of your web store front. In the format of http://www.mystorefront.com/ 7. Ftp Account settings are your settings for your hosting account's ftp connection. Please refer to your hosting account setup information for this. Usually it will be the same user name and password as your hosting account though. 8. The FTP URL is the address of your ftp access. This must be in the format of ftp://mystorefront.com/public_html/ The last portion is the public web accessible folder on your ftp site this is very important that it is included. In most cases it is simply /public_html/. 9. Test all connections and click save when finished. Page 9 of 34
Advanced Connection Settings 1. Advanced connection settings are accessible through the tab on the bottom on the connection settings screen. From here various adavanced settings that are integral to the functioning of POS2Net can be modified. Advanced Settings 2. These settings are not recommended to be modified unless directed to do so by a member of the NetStores Technical team. 3. The first section of this interface deals with the URLs for connection to a number of web functions in POS2Net. These URLs should never be changed unless directed. 4. Export Chunk size is the number of records that will be exported to NetStores on an form of export. This should not be changed unless an error occurs during an export. See the troubleshooting section for more information. 5. Record Chunk size is the number records that will be read from QuickBooks point of sale at an point in time. Please refer to the troubleshooting section for more information about adjusting this value. 6. The invoice server controls turning on and off the invoice server. Refer to the section on using the Invoice Sever for more information about this feature. 7. The final section deals with resetting various options in POS2Net back to a "Factory Reset". These resets are permanent and not undoable. It is not recommended that you reset any of the options unless directed to do so. There is more information about what you can reset safely in the troubleshooting section. Page 10 of 34
Product Details Editor 1. POS2Net has extended data fields for e-commerce that are missing from QBPOS. The data of these fields are editable in the product details editor. To open this editor start by clicking the administration tab. Then click the Edit Product Details button. Click Edit Product Details to bring up the product details editor 2. This will load the product information from QBPOS and display it to you on the screen in a data grid. This load time varies from machine to machine but average stores with about 5,000 products should take no more than 1-5 minutes. Large stores with 20,000 products may take up to 10 minutes. Product Details Editor 3. The data displayed to you here is some select product information from QBPOS and also some extended data. This data includes: Export to Web - Uncheck this box to exclude this item from being exported on your next item export. Page 11 of 34
Product Image URL - This is the currently assigned value for the product's image. This link points to the product image to be shown online for this product. Product Thumbnail URL - This like the product image url is a link to the product's thumbnail image. This value is the currently assigned value. Full Description - This is value is an unlimited character HTML friendly value for the products full and more complete description. Version 6 and below of QBPOS didn't include a unlimited character description field. This field alows you to input that description here. NOTE: Even though version 7 does support this full description it is highly recommended that you use this field for your full html description to be used on the web. Weight - The weight of the product used for shipping calculations. Tax Code Product Page URL - If you have a complete and custom page setup for a particular product that you want linked to on your storefront. This is where you would input that URL for the particular product. 4. Columns are reorder able, you can click the column header and drag them to any position you wish that is more functional for you. 5. To edit a field simply double click it and make your changes. The data is saved automatically as you go. The fields that came directly out of QBPOS are not editable here. They are simply shown for a more complete picture of the product you are apply the information to. 6. The data grid functions much like excel. Multiple row copy and paste is available, as well as copy and paste directly from excel. 7. If you have a spreadsheet in excel that you wish to merge into your product data here you can do so by clicking the Merge excel worksheet button. This will get you a screen like the one below. Excel worksheet merger utility Page 12 of 34
8. Start by selecting the excel file you wish to merge. Click the browse button and find your excel file. 9. Next input the name of the workbook located in this excel file, and click Open Excel File. 10. This will read in the information found in the excel workbook and populate the grid with the column data found. 11. Select the column that you will use as the merger key. This key value is what will be used for matching up records during the merger. The key value must match a record value in QBPOS such as the item number or the item name. But be careful that they are unique to that product. 12. Select the column type for each of the columns you are merging. 13. Click merge workbook. This will go through each record found in the excel file and match up based on the key value you selected. This data will be automatically saved into the POS2Net database. Setting up Image files 1. To setup the image files used on your e-commerce web site POS2Net includes an easy to use interface. To launch the image setup start by clicking the Setup tab. Then the Setup Image Files button. Click the Setup Image Files Button 2. The first thing that this interface will do is load select data from QBPOS. Like the product details editor this may take a few minutes based on the number of products you have in QBPOS. Page 13 of 34
3. Upon loading you will get screen similar to that shown below. This data grid contains a few fields of data from QBPOS and a few new columns that will be extended for image data. These include the Product Image URL and Product Thumbnail URL. NOTE: The URLS shown in these fields are not necessarily the currently set values for the products image links. These links are auto generated based on the store URL (that you set in the connection settings), the location of the image files on the server (that you set in the image setup settings), and by default the product's item number from QBPOS. These values reflect what will be assigned when a picture is assigned to the product record. If no picture is currently assigned the value is defaulted to "imageunassigned.jpg". To view/modify the actual value of the image links use the product details editor. Image Setup 4. The value of the image links can be edited by double clicking the cell and editing the value. It is important to have the values to that you wish before you start to assign image files. Because upon assigning the image files they will be renamed to match what is in the link. 5. If you wish to use a different value from QBPOS instead of item number for your image links. You can auto rename all the image links by selecting "Rename image URLs after QBPOS field" from the I want to menu. You can have the links named after item number, ALU, UPC, or item name. 6. To assign image files you already have to products select the "Assign images I have to products" from the I want to menu. 7. This will prompt you for a directory that contains the product image files. Select the directory that contains the images you want to assign and click next. Page 14 of 34
Select the folder containing your images. 8. POS2Net will look through the folder and all sub folders to find image files. Supported image file formats include jpg, and gif. 9. After the image files are located you will be displayed a grid of image file thumbnails. 10. To assign one of these images to a product, you have 2 options. You can simply drag and drop the image file to the record that you want to relate to this image file. Of you can click the record and then double click the image you want assigned to it. 11. To assign the same image file to multiple records select the records by clicking the first and holding down shift and clicking the last, or holding ctrl and selecting each record. Then double clicking the image to assign to them. Drag the image to the record you want it assigned to. Page 15 of 34
12. The image will be processed and assigned to that record in the database. NOTE: Nothing has gone to the server yet. This is important to remember. The changes still need to be sent to the server. 13. Image processing involves renaming the image file to match that of the one in the image links, resizing the image file, and creating a thumbnail image. This can be done every time you assign an image file, or you can do it all in one batch by turning on batch mode. To turn on batch mode select " Image Processing Batch Mode" from the I want to menu. This will cause the process assigned images button to appear. After you have assigned all the image files you wish to do you must then press this to process every image that is in the queue. 14. If you wish to change the location on the server where the image files will be located. You can do this from the settings menu. Here you can change where the image files and the thumbnail files will go on the server. The link is formatted to be the location right after your store URL. So for http://www.mystore.com/images/. You would input /images/ 15. Thumbnail files will be generated by default at the size of 100x100. You can turn off thumbnail generation by clicking generated thumbnails on the I want to menu thus unchecking it. The size of the thumbnail is editable from the menu that extends out from the generate thumbnails menu. Here you will see two text boxes with a number in each. The top number represents the width of the thumbnail, and the bottom the height. These numbers are measured in pixels. Thumbnail size specified by the 2 text boxes to the right 16. Image files assigned can be automatically resized to a specified height and width. This is off by default. By you can turn this on through the I want to menu by checking resize image files. And setting a size just as you would the thumbnail images. 17. Other options for assigning image files include searching online for image files. Select Search online for images from the I want to menu. Then when you click a item record it will search online for possible image files. Assign these files the same you would local image files. 18. If your image files are named after one of the following: Item number, Item name. ALU, or UPC. You can use the auto image assign function. Select auto assign image files from the I want to menu. You will be prompted with a folder selection dialog. From here select where you image files are located. POS2Net will find all the image files in the selected folder then will go through and match up the images to the records that it can do this matching for. The found images will be processed, thumbnails and image resizing will occur is selected. 19. After all image files you want to do have been assigned you must upload these image files to the web server. NOTE: In order to perform this upload the FTP information MUST be setup in the connection settings. Double check your ftp settings are in order before performing an upload. Page 16 of 34
20. Click the upload assigned images button and the image files you have assigned will be sent to the server. 21. It is important to note now that the image files have been placed on the server but the Item records that you updated with the new image links have not been updated on the server. 22. See the Section on exporting items for more information about exporting the item data to the server. 23. After uploading image files you may want to check the validity of your image URLs assigned to your products. You can do this by selecting the Test Image URL Validity from the I want to menu. 24. This will load up the image URL verification tool. From here select Start testing. This will go through ever assigned image URL and verify that the image that it points to exists. If it is valid a check will appear in the valid column. If not this column will be unchecked. Items with a checked valid column have a valid image URL. Page 17 of 34
Exporting / Updating Item data to the web 1. To export you item's data to your NetStores account start by clicking the Setup tab. Then from here you will see the option to export item list to NetStores. By clicking this button your item data will be exported to your NetStores Account. Click Export Item List to NetStores 2. A connection to your QBPOS company data file will be made and only items that have been changed since last time will be queried and updated to NetStores. NOTE: Only modified records since the last export will be exported. To export all records see the troubleshooting section. 3. Your departments will be exported as Categories and your items will be exported. Wait till you see the Export finished successfully message, and you items will have been exported. Page 18 of 34
Exporting Items Exporting Customer data to the web 1. To export your customer data to the web select the setup tab. Then click export customer list to NetStores. 2. A connection to your QBPOS company data file will be made and all customers found will be exported to your NetStores account. 3. Wait till you see the export finished successfully message and all your customers have been exported. Exporting Customers POS2Net Guide www.pos2net.com 1/11/07 Page 12 of 30 Page 19 of 34
Copyright 1995-2007 Fishbone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Setting up QBPOS to work with POS2Net: Setting up the NetStores Tax Location: 1. To use POS2Net with QBPOS a NetStores Tax Location is required. Please follow the appropriate instructions for your version of QBPOS. QBPOS Version 4 How to: 1. Click Edit off the menu bar then select Preferences, then Company. Company Preferences Option Page 20 of 34
Company Sales Tax Preferences 2. On the company preferences window you will see a left side bar. Near the bottom of the bar there is an option called Sales Tax. Click Sales Tax.. 3. Next you should see the windows as shown above. In the upper right corner of this screen you will see a button labeled Manage Tax Categories. Click this button. 4. A list of the tax categories currently in place is shown. Click the Add Tax Category button. Tax Categories Create New Tax Category 5. In the text entry box type NETSTORES. Then Click OK. 6. You have setup the NETSTORES Tax location successfully. Now setup the tax percentages charged for state sales taxes for each state you collect for. There is no need to setup any states that you do not collect sales tax for. 7. You have successfully setup QBPOS version 4 for usage with POS2Net. NETSTORES Tax Categories Setup Successfully Page 21 of 34
QBPOS Version 5 How to: 1. Click Edit off the menu bar then select Preferences, then Company. Company Preferences Option Company Sales Tax Preferences 2. On the company preferences window you will see a left side bar. Near the bottom of the bar there is an option called Sales Tax. Click Sales Tax. 3. Next you should see the windows as shown above. Scroll to the bottom of the list where you will find the Add Tax Location button. It is circled in Red in this figure but not on the actual window. Click Add Tax Location Page 22 of 34
Add Tax Location. 4. The Add Tax Location dialog box is shown above. Input NetStores for the Tax Location Name. It is circled in red. 5. Click OK. 6. You have successfully setup QBPOS with a NetStores tax location. 7. Next setup your state sales tax. You should see a window similar to that shown below. 8. NetStores Tax Location. 9. Setup the percentages charged for state sales taxes for each state you collect for. There is no need to setup any states that you do not collect sales tax for. 10.You have successfully setup QBPOS version 5 for usage with POS2Net. Page 23 of 34
QBPOS Version 6 How to: 1. Click Edit off the menu bar then select Preferences, then Company. Company Preferences Option Page 24 of 34
Company Sales Tax Preferences 2. On the company preferences window you will see a left side bar. Near the bottom of the bar there is an option called Sales Tax. Click Sales Tax. It is circled in Red). 3. Next you should see the windows as shown in below Scroll to the bottom of the list where you will find the Add Tax Location button. See below it is circled in red in the image but not on the actual window. Click Add Tax Location Add Tax Location. 4. The Add Tax Location dialog box is shown above. Input NetStores for the Tax Location Name. See above it is circled in red. 5. Click OK. 6. You have successfully setup QBPOS with a NetStores tax location. 7. Next setup your state sales tax. You should see a window similar to that shown below. NetStores Tax Location. 8. Setup the percentages charged for state sales taxes for each state you collect for. There is no need to setup any states that you do not collect sales tax for. Page 25 of 34
9. You have successfully setup QBPOS for usage with POS2Net. Logging into your NetStores account 1. To log into your NetStores account. Start by clicking the Administration tab. 2. Now click Log into NetStores Account Administration Tab Buttons 3. An internet browser will popup and load your NetStores Administration back end. NetStores Administration Back End Page 26 of 34
Logging into your Hosting account 1. To log into your hosting account. Start by clicking the administration tab. 2. Now click Log into Hosting Account Administration Tab Buttons 3. An internet browser will popup and load your hosting account control panel. Hosting Account Control Panel Page 27 of 34
Import Sales Receipts to QBPOS from NetStores 1. To Import your sales receipts to QBPOS from your NetStores account. Start by clicking the Administration tab. 2. Now click Import Sales Receipts to QuickBooks POS Administration Tab Buttons 3. The sales receipts will be requested from your NetStores store, and imported into your QuickBooks Point of Sale Company. You can watch the progress in the Import Status window. Sales receipt Import Status 4. Import Finished successfully Message will appear in the status when complete. Now your sales receipts have been successfully imported into your QuickBooks Point of Sale Company. Page 28 of 34
Automatic Invoice Import Server 1. The invoice import server when setup and turned on will import any invoice as they are made online automatically into your QBPOS system. 2. To turn on the invoice server go to the connection settings, then select advanced settings. And then in the middle of the form you will see the checkbox for "Invoice server" check this and save the settings. This will turn on the invoice importation server. 3. You must also open port 4296 on your router and have it forward to your computer's IP address. Please refer to your router's manual for more information on how to do this. Setting up Scheduled Events 1. POS2Net allow scheduled exports, and imports. To set these up select the administration tab first. Then click setup scheduled events. Select setup scheduled events. 2. This will load the scheduled event maintenance window. You will be prompted with a window similar to that below. Page 29 of 34
Scheduled event setup 3. From this interface you can setup one of the 3 events to happen on a selected interval. 4. You can setup events to occur at a specific date/time or at an interval you set. Such as every Monday at noon. 5. First select new event. Then pick the date(only if this even occurs on a specific date), the time(only if the event occurs on a specific time) the interval (or specific time) the date (or Selected date). Then click save event. 6. Upon closing the window the event selected will go into effect and will be carried out at the specified interval. Uninstalling / Upgrading POS2Net Uninstalling POS2Net 1. To uninstall POS2Net, run the POS2NetUnInstaller program. You will be prompted with the POS2Net Uninstall Wizard. Page 30 of 34
POS2Net Uninstall Wizard Uninstalling POS2Net 2. Click Next and the program will uninstall POS2Net from your computer. This will remove the program and all settings from your computer. 3. When the Uninstall is complete click Next and POS2Net has been successfully uninstalled from your computer. POS2Net Successfully Uninstalled Upgrading POS2Net 1. Upon attempting to install a newer version of POS2Net, the installer will automatically detect the previous version installed Page 31 of 34
POS2Net previous version detected 2. 3. 4. 5. Upgrading POS2Net You can select to upgrade or uninstall POS2Net. Click Upgrade then Next. POS2Net will be upgraded and your settings will all remain in place. When the upgrade is completed click Next. You have successfully upgraded POS2Net. Upgrade Complete Troubleshooting Page 32 of 34
Out of memory error on exporting - Go to the advanced settings under connection settings and set the Export chunk size to 100 and then try to do the export again. Out of memory on when loading image files for assigning - Try and point to a directory with less image files in it. Copy a few of the image files to separate directory and load them in chunks. Had an error on export now will not export any items - Go to the advanced settings in the connection settings and under reset options select database update time stamp, then click apply selected resets. Then atempt your export again. Want to export all items again - Try the same as above. Product details editor loads no products - Try the same as above. POS2Net Support 1. Visit NetStores tutorial page at http://www.netstores.com/tutorial 2. Visit NetStores POS2Net page at www.pos2net.com 3. Call our toll free customer support number, 888-345-4322, for help and training on the use of POS2Net. 4. Email support@netstores.com for help and to request training on the use POS2Net. For More Information Visit NetStores tutorial page at http://www.netstores.com/tutorial Vist NetStores POS2Net page at Visit www.pos2net.com Call our toll free number, 888-345-4322, for help and training on the use of POS2Net. 5. Email support@netstores.com for help and to request training on the use POS2Net. 1. 2. 3. 4. Page 33 of 34
Copyright 1995-2007 Fishbone Communications, Inc. All rights reserved Page 34 of 34