Wickets Administrator

Transcription

1 Wickets Administrator Software For Managing Stored Value Wickets 01/08/2008 Product Details And Operating Instructions Overview This page describes each major function of Wickets Administrator in detail. This page and the information found in the Wickets Administrator application itself serve as the complete manual for this product. You will find a lot of descriptive labels and text on the various screens that serve as hints and reminders, and you will also find numerous little? buttons sprinkled around the screens that contain detailed descriptions about the data needed or the choices you are trying to make. Summary information about Wickets Administrator, the station hardware, and how to download and install it are found on the Web or in a separate companion Summary and Installation document. The main Wickets Administrator screen is shown to the right. There is a drop-down list box to select the SiteID and location you wish to work with (if there are more than one). There are seven function buttons to select from that will be described below. In the upper left is the serial port WR88 connection status. System Setup Once you have downloaded and installed Wickets Administrator, the first thing to do is to click the Setup button on the main screen to bring up the screen shown to the right-top of the next page. Company Information: First, identify your location by filling out the Company Information section in the upper left. This information is used in any reports you may later create to view or print. When done, check the Lock Data box to disable the text boxes from being accidentally changed (by clumsy fat fingers on your keyboard). The text will grey when the text boxes are disabled. You may uncheck the box if you wish to make changes later.

2 Password Setup By Screen: You may separately protect access to each screen with a password. All screens have some function that either affects your money, your accounting, or the functionality and pricing of the Wicket Readers on your equipment. If all employees are trustworthy, or nobody else has access, then you may decide not to use any passwords at all. Just click the Pop-Up Keypad button for the password you want to set. Set it to zero if you want no password at all. If the Setup Screen is password protected, then the passwords will be replaced by ##### characters to prevent straying eyes from seeing them. However, you may click the View Passwords button above and enter the Setup Screen password to show the real values of the passwords. Screen Access Timeout: Particularly if you have password protected screens, you probably want to enable the automatic exit timeout for opened screens. The timeout is set to 1 minute in the example screen above and you can see that there are 54 seconds remaining before timeout and automatic exit. The timer is reset when any of the buttons or text boxes on a screen are clicked or otherwise used. Wicket Reader COM Port: The Wicket Reader Programming Module connects to the computer through an RS-232 serial port, or COM port. Many newer computers do not have a 9-pin serial port connector anymore and you must instead use a USB (universal serial bus) adapter to convert a USB port to a serial port. Generally you must use an installation disk with a USB adapter to have it be recognized by your computer. When it is recognized it will be assigned the next available COM port number on your computer. Note that this will be tied to the physical USB connector it is plugged into... so if you plug it in a different USB port your computer will assign it a different COM port number. When you open the Setup screen, the available serial ports will be shown as enabled. Those ports that are invalid on your computer will be disabled (shown in grey). Click the radio button associated with the correct COM port. Click the Test Port button to verify communication with the Wicket Reader. Site Division: You may operate multiple field site installations using the same SiteID and view all of the data back on a central office computer. To do this you must set a Site Division value for each field site installation to a value greater than zero and different from one another. The Site Division value for the central office computer is always set to zero. If you change the Site Division value of a field installation site at a later time, no data is lost because the Site Division value is only used in the process of naming the data files that are exported (downloaded) to your USB Flash Drive for the purpose of importing (uploading) it to your central office computer. However, you must delete the files associated with the prior Site Division on the central office computer to prevent possible report duplication. The Division number is located in the file name following the right-most dash in its name. All data export files contain the full history of the particular site. Add Another SiteID: If you have multiple businesses that are substantially different in nature you can add another SiteID by clicking the Add Another SiteID button and following the outlined procedure in that screen just as you did for the original installation procedure. The Online Update buttons and the Backup & Restore button functions are described separately below.

3 Make Or Revalue A Customer Wicket Read Wicket: Upon opening the screen to Make A Customer Wicket you will first see the screen to the right. When you tap a Wicket on the Wicket Reader it will read and display the contents of its memory, including the type of Wicket, the unique UserID number, the SiteID, the Application ID, and the values of the Account Balance, Bonus Balance, and Loyalty Points. It is helpful to see what you are starting with before making a change to the Customer's Wicket. Clicking the Wicket History button on the lower right portion of the screen will bring up a screen showing all Wicket Transactions by date, or for a particular Wicket. Standard / Commercial Wicket: The only difference between a Standard and Commercial Wicket is in the encoding of the card type on the Wicket. The Revalue Station Wicket Reader uses this information to determine what percentage of the purchased revalue amount to add to the Wicket as Bonus Bucks. It can be set differently for Standard and Commercial customers. This difference is set by how you've programmed that Wicket Reader. Also, Wicket Readers track and report how many commercial customers have used the equipment. Before you can write a new balance value to a Standard or Commercial Wicket you must first indicate whether payment was received and indicate whether the new values should be added to existing Wicket balances or only the specified amounts are to be written to the Wicket memory. Click the corresponding radio-buttons to do this. Then select the amount to add to the Account Balance and select a percentage of this amount that is to be added to the Bonus Balance. Finally, slowly tap the Wicket on the reader to write the new amounts to the Wicket. One Loyalty Point will be automatically added for each dollar added to the Account Balance. The amounts added to the Wicket will be shown on the screen. A "$" symbol will follow the Loyalty Points on the list if payment was received, and an "x" or "+" will follow to indicate if the prior balance was first cleared or added in with the new amount. The total value of the Account Balance (which may include the prior Account Balance) is also shown in a separate text box on the middle of the right side of the screen (77.25 in displayed example). Gift Wicket: A Gift Wicket is different from a Standard or Commercial Wicket in that the Account Balance (real money) is always zero and its Bonus Balance holds either an amount of Bonus Bucks (not redeemable) or a number of Free Starts. The advantage of Free Starts is that the person using the Wicket will always be able to use it to try your services even if you later change your prices or in spite of the fact

4 that you may have three different kinds of equipment requiring different Startup Amounts. This is possible to do because each Wicket Reader knows what the Startup Value is for the equipment is serves. Refund Or Redeem A Customer Wicket Read Wicket: Upon opening the screen for Refunds and Redemptions you will first see the screen to the right. When you tap a Wicket on the Wicket Reader it will read and display the contents of its memory, including the type of Wicket, the unique UserID number, the SiteID, the Application ID, and the values of the Account Balance, Bonus Balance, and Loyalty Points. It is helpful to see what you are starting with before making a change to the Customer's Wicket. Clicking the Wicket History button on the lower right portion of the screen will bring up a screen showing all Wicket Transactions by date, or for a particular Wicket. Redeem Loyalty Points: One Loyalty Point is accumulated for each dollar loaded onto the Wicket Account Balance. As dollars are spent from the Account Balance and it declines, then the difference between the Account Balance and the Loyalty Points are representative of the actual services consumed by the patron... and therefore the number of "Available Points" that there are for redemption. To redeem Loyalty Points, the Wicket is first read by tapping it on the Wicket Reader so that the number of Available Loyalty Points can be shown. Then you set the number of Points To Redeem using the Pop-Up Keypad. When the Wicket is again read, the set number of Loyalty Points will be deducted from the balance. The transaction result will be displayed on the screen. The example transaction shows that there were originally 80 Loyalty Points, 5 were deducted, and 75 remain. It also shows that after the redemption that there are now no Available Points. Refund Wicket Account Balance: The Account Balance holds real customer money and is refundable, whereas the Bonus Bucks in the Bonus Balance is not real money belonging to the customer. To refund a portion, or all, of the Account Balance, first read the Wicket by tapping it on the Wicket Reader. The "Before column" values in the lower left of the screen will now be filled in. Then set the Refund Amount using the Pop-Up Keypad. Then read the Wicket again to actually execute the refund. A pop-up message will ask you to confirm that you really want the transaction to proceed. Keep the Wicket on the Reader while you click its OK button. The transaction will then be displayed on the screen and the "After" column will then also be filled in to show what remains on the Wicket.

5 Revalue An Equipment Service Wicket Your equipment service personnel generally need a way to test start your equipment in the process of maintenance and repair without having to use their own money and without begging you for money for this part of their job. An Equipment Service Wicket satisfies this need by providing a limited number of Equipment Starts... in the event your service guy decides to departs and takes his Equipment Service Wicket with him. Read Wicket: Upon opening the screen for Equipment Service Wickets you will first see the screen to the right. When you tap a Wicket on the Wicket Reader it will read and display the contents of its memory, including the type of Wicket, the unique UserID number, the SiteID, and the Application ID. The values for the Account Balance, and Loyalty Points will be reported as "--" for an Equipment Service Wicket. The Bonus Balance will either reflect a dollar amount or a number of free starts for the equipment. Clicking the Wicket History button on the lower right portion of the screen will bring up a screen showing all Wicket Transactions by date, or for a particular Wicket. Make Equip. Service Wicket: Click the number of Equipment Starts you are comfortable giving your service personnel before they must come back to have additional starts added. Then, tap the Wicket on the reader to write the new Equipment Starts to the Wicket. Please also note that Wicket Readers are programmed to limit the number of Equipment Starts accepted per day, irrespective of the remaining balance on the Equipment Service Wicket. See Reader Programming section for more information. Make Reader Programming Wickets All of the WR88 Wicket Readers that you have installed in your service equipment, in your Revalue Station, or one of the Turbo Accessories Modules must be configured to properly interface, to charge the proper price, to accept only Wickets with your SiteID, and so forth. Wicket Readers are shipped from the factory in a "virgin state" and must be programmed in the field by reading this data from a Reader Programming Wicket. You will need one Reader Programming Wicket for each Group of equipment that is to operate different from other Groups. Each tab on the screen will be used to define how its Group will operate. The data for each tab Group is then written to a Reader Programming Wicket which is then taken around to each Wicket Reader that is to use those set parameters.

6 Read In A Programming Wicket: Upon opening the screen for Reader Programming Wickets you will first see the screen to the right. When you tap a Wicket on the Wicket Reader it will read and display the contents of its memory, including the type of Wicket, the unique UserID number, the SiteID, the Alternate SiteIDs, and the Application ID. The values for pricing, communication and other options will be displayed as appropriate for the Wicket contents. Clicking the Wicket History button on the upper right portion of the screen will bring up a screen showing all Wicket Transactions by date, or for a particular Wicket. Make A Programming Wicket For The Revalue Station: The first tab (most left) is Group 0 and is reserved for setting the parameters for the Wicket Reader installed in a Revalue Station. (see middle screen on right) A Revalue Station is different from other service equipment in that it doesn't care how much a service costs or anything about output pulses, but it does need to know the amount of Bonus Bucks to add to a Wicket when additional real money funds are added to the Account Balance. The steps for setting this up are below: 1.) On the right side of this middle screen you have five parameters to set: 1.) The Commercial Bonus Percent is the percentage used to calculate how many Bonus Bucks are to be given to a Commercial Customer Wicket when additional funds are added to the Account Balance. It is set to 15% in the example. 2. & 3.) The Standard Bonus Level and Standard Bonus Percent set the threshold level of Available Loyalty Points that must be present on a Standard Customer Wicket to be given the Standard Bonus Percentage of Bonus Bucks when the customer adds funds to the Account Balance. In the example, 20 Available Loyalty Points must be on the Wicket in order for the Revalue Station Wicket Reader to give the customer 10% in Bonus Bucks. If you like, you could make the Standard Bonus level zero so that the customer gets at least this 10% bonus for any purchase of additional funds added to the Account balance. 4. & 5.) The Special Bonus Level and Special Bonus Percent set a higher threshold level of Available Loyalty Points that must be present to be given the even Special Bonus Percentage of Bonus Bucks when the customer adds funds to the Account Balance. In the example, 100 Available Loyalty Points must be on the Wicket in order for the Revalue Station Wicket Reader to give the customer 20% in Bonus Bucks. 2.) On the left side of the middle screen you may choose up to two Alternate SiteIDs that the Wicket Readers programmed from the data on any of these tab Groups will accept. If you have two different businesses using Wickets that each have their own SiteID you may want to allow Wickets from one business to be used at the other business. 3.) Check the Rainbow When Idle box you would like the Wicket Reader face to occasionally depart from its normal blue idle color and quickly cycle through the colors of the rainbow. This feature can help

7 attract attention to the Wicket Reader, but some may be concerned that it may confuse the customer if it occurs about the time the customer is reading his Wicket. Your choice. 4.) Check the Disable Refund Until After The 1st Purchase Has Been Made box if you wish to discourage customers from using your Revalue Station as a change machine (if your model gives refunds). 5.) When you are done, tap your Reader Programming Wicket on the Wicket Reader Programming Module to have it write this configuration information to the Wicket. 6.) Take the Reader Programming Wicket around to all of the machines that will operate with these particular configuration parameters and tap the Wicket on the machine s Wicket Reader to have it read in and program itself with these parameters. The Wicket Reader will blink green to indicate that it has successfully read the parameters from the Reader Programming Wicket. Make A Programming Wicket For Service Equipment: Each tab Group (except for the first one reserved for Revalue Stations) is associated with a group of service equipment expected to operate with the same prices, the same interface, and other parameters that will configure the equipment (WR88 Wicket Reader) so that it knows how to communicate with the equipment and what to do with customer Wickets when presented. The screen shot on the right shows example setup parameters that must be programmed into Wicket Readers. Below are the setup steps to take. 1.) Click the Make A Programming Wicket tab, then click a Group Tab for a group of equipment that will all operate with the same prices and parameters. 2.) Set the Group Name by clicking the drop-down box arrow and selecting a name from the list, which include names for laundry and other applications, or you may directly enter any name you like in the box. This name will then be shown on the tab. 3.) Set the Wicket Reader Interface according to the hardware interface the machine requires. Select the Coin Pulse Output if the equipment requires coin pulses to activate it and you are using the WK-LV Module or the WK-HV Module to interface to the machine. Select the MDB Vendor Protocol if the equipment is a vending machine or a Revalue Station and you are using the WK-MDB Module to interface to it. 4.) If you have selected the MDB Vendor Protocol in the last step you will see most of the other controls on the screen become unavailable as they are irrelevant to vending machine or revalue station applications. Skip directly to step 10 to write this data to your Reader Programming Wicket. 5.) Set your operating prices (so the Wicket Reader will know how much to debit from a Customer Wicket) by setting the Start Up Value and the Increment Value using the Pop-Up Keypad. The Start Up Value is the minimum amount to debit to get the machine started and the Increment Amount is usually some smaller amount to debit for additional time or services once the start amount has been satisfied. If

8 the Wicket Reader finds that the presented Wicket does not have sufficient funds to start a machine, it won t debit any funds at all from it and will blink yellow to warn of insufficient funds. Just above the Start Up Value is a checkbox for enabling payment by using Loyalty Points instead of money in the Account Balance or Bonus Balance. When checked, the Start Up Value becomes the Points To Start that will be debited by the Wicket Reader to start the equipment. Also the Pulse Value (or Coin Value) becomes Start Pulses (or Start Coins) so that the Wicket Reader knows what to send out to the equipment to get it started. When this option is selected, the Wicket Reader will work only with Loyalty Points and completely ignore the Account Balance and Bonus Balance of the Wicket. 6.) Set the Debit Limit Options according to the number of incremental debits the machine can handle. 7.) Set the Pulse Time (in milliseconds) according to what your equipment expects to receive from coin operated equipment as a valid coin pulse. Generally this value will be between 15ms and 100ms. If you cannot find this information about your equipment, IDX recommends 25ms be used in the laundry market as your default choice. 8.) Set the Pulse Value. In most North American sites, coin pulses are based on a $.25 coin. However you can set the coin pulse value to be pretty much anything you like. For example, in Europe and Australia there are no 0.25 coins, so 0.20, or 0.50 or 1.00 may be what is required. 9.) In the Reader Options section: a. Check the No Service - Debit Lockout Enable box to lockout further debits to customer Wickets if there is no Service Sense signal (machine did not start) for 10 minutes following a debit from the Wicket. When a lockout occurs, the Wicket Reader will continuously blink red to indicate the problem. The debit lockout condition can be cleared by starting the machine or cycling power. During debit lockout a customer can get his money refunded to his Wicket simply by reading his Wicket on the same Wicket Reader one more time. The Wicket Reader will blink green to indicate that the money has been refunded to the Wicket. b. Check the Service Sense = High box if the voltage sensed by the Service Sense Input to the Wicket Reader goes high when the machine is activated. This is the case with most equipment. However, in cases the opposite is true, such as in Maytag laundry machines that produce a machine available signal which does the logical opposite and thus requires you to leave the box unchecked. c. Leave the Xtra-Time Enabled box unchecked. d. Check the Rainbow When Idle box if you would like the Wicket Reader face to occasionally depart from its normal blue idle color and quickly cycle through the colors of the rainbow. This feature can help attract attention to the Wicket Reader, but some may be concerned that it may confuse the customer if it occurs about the time the customer is reading his Wicket. Your choice. 10.) When you are done, tap your Reader Programming Wicket on the Wicket Reader Programming Module to have it write this configuration information to the Wicket 11.) Take the Reader Programming Wicket around to all of the machines that will operate with these particular configuration parameters and tap the Wicket on the machine s Wicket Reader to have it read in and program itself with these parameters. The Wicket Reader will blink green to indicate that it has successfully read the parameters from the Reader Programming Wicket.

9 System Reports System Reports: The following screens are accessed through the System Reports button on the main screen. The top three tabs provide for viewing your information via charts, viewing it via spreadsheets, and for reading System Report Wickets used for collecting data from the WR88 Wicket Readers installed on your equipment. When the CHART tab is clicked you further have four display categories: Credits/Debits, Cash Received, Loyalty Points, and Equipment Starts. They all function similarly, but present different data. On the far right side you can select between a Line or Bar type chart, and you can select from a variety of time periods to display. Earlier or later periods can be displayed by clicking the <--Prior or the Next--> button. Choices for what to display are made beneath the chart. Please note that there is an Explain Chart button and a Groups? button on the screen to help you understand the terms and exactly what is being displayed. Please be sure to read them, as the details provided there are not repeated here!! The Bar chart to the right just shows the difference in display styles in addition to a different set of data. You may print these charts to your computers' default system printer by clicking Print Screen in the upper left. The spreadsheet style report to the right is produced from the same data as used for the charts. You may select from either quarterly or annual reporting periods and may shift the period backward or forward in time. When you have the desired report showing on the screen you can make either a.csv (comma separated variable) spreadsheet for data import to accounting applications or an.rtf (rich text format) document so you can print a professional looking version for your records. Copies of these documents are saved to disk in the folder C:\WAdmin. Most of the data gathered for these reports comes from the Wicket Programming History file. However, some of it must be gathered from the field installed WR88 Wicket Readers which

10 collect summary information about transactions they conduct with Wickets... such as how much Account Balance funds were used, how much Bonus Balance funds were used, how many free Gift Starts and Service Starts there were, and how many commercial customers used the equipment. This information is collected on a System Report Wicket by taking it to the Wicket Reader installed on each service equipment controller and each Revalue Station and then very slowly tapping the System Report Wicket on the Wicket Reader. The Wicket Reader will recognize it as a System Report Wicket and upload to it a summary of all activity since the previous upload. Wicket Readers programmed with the same group number will report together with a single summary. After you have collected all of the information on your System Report Wicket, you then come read your System Report Wicket into the Wicket Reader Programmer (there is a lot of data to transfer - wait for the displayed progress bar to complete) to upload the data to Wickets Administrator. The data will be displayed in the rows and columns and written to the database where it may be later viewed via clicking the Wicket History button or on various other reports and charts. Data on the System Report Wicket is deleted after it is read. Click the Explain Columns button on the screen for a detailed explanation of the data collected. Software Update You can update both the Wickets Administrator software application and the WR88 Wicket Reader Firmware by downloading an update online, or by having IDX an update for you to put on a USB Flash Drive and then bring to your Wickets Administrator computer. Wickets Administrator Update: To update Wickets Administrator, from the Setup screen click the Online Update Wickets Admin button. The yellow screen to the right will come up. It will look for the update file "WAUpdate.zip" on all drives D: and higher (presumably USB Flash, but any drive will work). It will also try to contact our Internet server to try to get the most recent version posted there. In the example screen, an update was found on drive F: and a connection was made to our Internet server. Click the appropriate button to get the update. When it has been acquired the message "Update Received Successfully - Click OK to process the update." will pop up. When you click OK, the smaller dark blue screen will pop up and process the update. When complete, Wickets Administrator will automatically restart.

11 Wicket Reader Update: If an update to the firmware of a WR88 Wicket Reader is required, click the Online Update Wicket Reader button and the screen to the right will be displayed. It will look for update files on all drives D: and higher (presumably USB Flash, but any drive will work). It will also try to contact our Internet server to try to get the most recent version posted there. In the example, files were found both on the local F: drive and on the internet. Furthermore, it found a number up update files that had already been downloaded. Either select an existing update file or click one of the Download buttons to get the appropriate update file on your hard drive. Click the file you want to use in the lower left list... the Perform Update button will then be enabled. Make sure the reader you want to update is connected to the serial port... the blue box in the lower right will indicate the status of the connection. Then just click the Perform Update button and watch the update progress in the text box under the green bar. If something goes wrong during the update, try to restart the process and follow the instructions given on the screen to complete the update. Note that when you update a Wicket Reader that was operating with a Coin Pulse Output interface or operating with the Card-Display Protocol interface, you will first have to use a Reader Programming Wicket to change its interface to the MDB Vendor Protocol so that it can communicate with this software. If you do not have an appropriate interface box to connect your WR88 to a serial port on your computer, please contact IDX sales to obtain one. Data Backup, Data Restore, And Data Import-Export Data Backup And, Data Restore: Wickets Administrator will automatically create a backup/restore point every time you exit the program. The screen to the right is accessed by clicking the Backup And Restore Data button found on the Setup screen. In addition to these automatic backups, you can choose to create a backup point at any time you like from this screen with the Backup To Hard Drive Now button.. On the right side of the screen, the four most recent backup files are listed. Clicking them restores that data to the current working data files. If you are not sure what you may lose, make sure you backup the current questionable data in case you really do want to return to it later. You may also create backup and restore files on your USB Flash Drive for safe keeping elsewhere. This is a good practice to prevent loosing everything from a hard drive failure.

12 Data Import-Export: If your operation has a central office with multiple field installations there are three primary ways you could handle all of the information. Choice #1: For multiple field locations and just one SiteID you can set up each location to have a separate Site Division. Each has its own Wickets Administrator computer on-site, sets the configuration for its Wicket Readers on-site, performs all Wicket transactions on-site, and collects data from all of the on-site Wicket Readers. Thus, each site controls and maintains the data pertinent to it. At the end of each accounting period, data from each field site is exported to a USB Flash Drive, and then imported onto your central office computer using the corresponding screens to the right. When the data is exported, it is tagged with the Site Division information as part of the file name. For example, in the upper screen you can see a -2 in the file names that are ready to be exported to the USB Flash Drive. Once imported to the central office computer, Wickets Administrator can view the data for each Site Division individually or collectively. Choice #2: Alternatively, for multiple field locations and just one SiteID you can treat them all as one general site without Site Divisions and use the same System Report Wickets at all locations to retrieve data then only read them into your central office Wickets Administrator software. While this is quite simple since you won't need a separate Wickets Administrator computer at each location, you will not be able to separate the data by location for management analysis or accounting purposes. Choice #3: If you have multiple locations and have a unique SiteID for each of them, you can choose to do your accounting and Wicket Reader programming from a Wickets Administrator installation either at each separate location or from the central office. If you do both, make sure you set up the field installation as a Site Division, otherwise any data you import to the central office computer will over-write the transactions you may have made for that SiteID at the central office computer. Note that System Reports can roll together a report that sums all Site Divisions of a particular SiteID, but it cannot roll together a report that contains multiple SiteIDs.

13 Wicket Transaction History Report Wicket Programming History: All of the screens providing the ability to read and show the content of a Wicket also have a Wicket History button that brings up the screens shown to the right. When it initially comes up it will show a daily summary (not shown) of activity that includes the number of Wickets of each type that were written, the total purchases, the total redemptions, and the total number of equipment starts. To view the specific details for each Wicket on a particular date you just double-click the particular line for that date on the list. The upper screen to the right shows the details for 11/5/2008. The UserID, the time of day, the type of Wicket, and the transaction details are shown. There are two ways to see all of the records for a particular Wicket UserID. First, when you are looking at the details for a particular date you can double click a line on the list having that UserID. Second, if you read a Wicket on the Wicket Reader Programming Module it will go find and display all the records pertaining to that UserID.