New Features in Aloha Version 6.1

Highlights

Customer Survey in QuickService
The Customer Survey feature provides restaurants the ability to prompt randomly selected guests for feedback about their dining experience. The prompts print on the guest check, along with a phone number for the customer to call and take a customer survey, or poll, in exchange for a reward or discount. You can define the times the survey is valid, the frequency the survey prints for a specific day part, the text to appear in the survey, and can print up to a 16-digit code for reference information.

Course Ordering
Course ordering refers to the sequence of food deliveries to the table to complete a multi-course meal experience. This type of ordering is very common in banquet environments and fine dining restaurants, however, the types and number of courses vary depending on geographical location and custom. The following is a common sequence of a multi-course meal:
  1. Soup course
  2. Salad course
  3. Main course
  4. Dessert course

Allowing Employees to Start Checks with Tables and Tabs
Currently, the system determines if an employee can order with tables or tabs based on the selection of the ‘Sees Tabs’ option in Maintenance > Labor > Job Codes > TableService tab. If you select ‘Sees Tabs,’ then the employee orders and works with tabs. If you clear ‘Sees Tabs,’ then the employee orders and works with tables. Additionally, if you select ‘Bartender,’ then the employee also orders and works with tabs. When you upgrade to v6.1, the present ‘Sees Tabs’ option is removed, and you can now specify whether employees can work with tabs, tables, or tabs and tables, depending on your needs.

Enhancing Screen Navigation for Team-Service Bartenders
With this enhancement, you can configure signature requirements based on the amount closed to a credit card. This new feature offers ultimate flexibility, as the restaurant can define the signature threshold amount and the input method, by tender type. For example, a busy quick-service environment may wish to streamline speed of service by requiring signatures only for credit card transactions that exceed a certain amount. A manually entered card might always require a cardholder signature, where a swiped card might only require a signature for amounts over a specific threshold value.

Suppressing Pay Rates on the Edited Punches Report
The Edited Punches report displays the pay rate for each employee for which a manager performed a punch edit. In some environments, lower-tiered managers are paid hourly, rather than salary, and should not be privy to this information. You can now suppress the Pay Rate column on the Edited Punches report based on an employee’s back office security level.

Supporting RFID Credit Cards
Some credit card companies, such as MasterCard, American Express, and Visa, have introduced contactless credit cards equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that allow guests to pay by tapping their card against a proximity reader device. These cards are also referred to as tapped cards. When configured, the device captures the credit card number, name of the cardholder, and the credit card verification value (CVV) needed to charge against the guest’s account. In the first stage of implementation, the Aloha system now supports the VivoPay 4000 proximity reader, either mounted as a stand-alone device or
attached to the POS terminal.

Reroute Printer Group by Revenue Center Event
In TableService operations, revenue centers are typically determined by the table number, which allows for minimal system configuration; however, there is no existing printer routing that supports this setup. You can now reroute orders to print in the kitchen based on the revenue center assigned to the table, which improves the ability to route orders to the correct kitchen station.

Configuring Status Headers on Guest Checks
In accordance with DIAN (Direccion de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales) in Columbia, you must be able to pick up any receipt and determine the state of the guest check at the time it is printed, via a header printed at the top. Currently, the system automatically prints a ‘Closed Check’ line at the bottom of a closed guest check; however, this does not meet the DIAN legal requirements. Using this enhancement, you can define a separate header to indicate the open or closed status of a guest check.

Displaying Tax Breakout for Exclusive Taxes on Guest Check
In accordance with some International taxing jurisdictions, you must display a tax breakout section at the bottom of the check to indicate the taxes being applied, the tax rate, and the amount taxed. Currently, you can configure the system to display a tax breakout section for inclusive taxes. You can now independently display a tax breakout section for exclusive taxes. You can print either or both types of taxes.

Enhancing the Check Counter Format
In some International jurisdictions, such as Latin America, you are required to print a perpetual check counter number on the guest check, to provide a unique description for each check at the store that does not reset after the End-of-Day. You can accomplish this in the Aloha system by creating file called Counter.bin in the root directory of the terminal from which you want to use a perpetual check counter.number. file, created and located in the root directory of the terminal from which you generate the guest check. The file accumulates data from each check generated at the terminal.

Supporting Alternate Layout for FOH Start Break/Clock Out Screen
Currently, the system uses a default design of the FOH Start Break/Clock Out screen that lists all break buttons vertically down the left side of the screen. You can display an alternate design that separates by pay type. Using this alternate FOH Start Break/Clock Out screen reduces the risk of an employee touching the wrong break type button; therefore, causing unnecessary punch edits.

Converting Debouts to CLF-CSV Format
When troubleshooting a problem, a common practice for help is viewing debout files using Utilities > View Debugging Files. Debouts open in MS Wordpad®, which does not support columns or commas, and list each action the system performs. When you upgrade to v6.1, the system opens all debouts using common log format-comma separated values (CLF-CSV), by default. If the computer does not have an application that supports CLF-CSV format, such as MS Excel®, the system opens the debout file using MS Wordpad, as before.

Waiving Meal Period Breaks and Using Break Reminders
In accordance with the shift and break rules, if an employee works a defined number of hours, restaurants are required to offer rest period and meal period breaks. The employee can opt to not take their meal period breaks, in lieu of compensation, if it is ‘mutually agreed’ between the employee and the employer. This action is called a waive consent. You can track employee consents at the time the employee clocks in or when the employee clocks out. If the employee waives their meal break, the response is recorded within the Aloha system as a penalty pay record in the Other Wages function when the End-of-Day occurs. If the employee does not waive a required meal break by the time they clock out, you can configure the manager to approve their clock out, which could incur penalty pay.

Rest breaks cannot be waived; however, you can require an employee to take them in accordance with the shift and break rules. If an employee does not take a required rest break, the system creates a penalty pay record in the Other Wages function when the End-of-Day occurs. You can configure reminder messages to help ensure an employee takes their breaks.

Including Non-Sales Categories in GndSales File
In a typical database setup, beverages are usually configured in multiple sales categories, such as non-alcoholic beverages items in a ‘Food’ sales category, beer items in a ‘Beer’ sales category, and liquor items in a ‘Liquor’ sales category. To determine a total sales for all beverages, these items are usually placed in a non-sales category; however, non-sales categories are not included in the GndSales file. When you upgrade to v6.1, you can now configure the system to include non-sales categories in the GndSales file for additional performance measure reporting, such as comparing domestic beer sales to your overall beer sales for a shift. Similarly, you can compare appetizer sales to total food sales. This configuration is optional because reporting such categories requires additional disk space and processing time.

Including Item Control Name in GndItem File
The item control name, also known as BOH name, is commonly used to associate a corporate name, number, or any other alternative denotation, to a POS menu item, as defined in Maintenance > Menu > Items > Item tab. The system now includes the item control name in the GndItem file, upon the grind process. You can use this data to report and sort information to your needs.

Securing Credit Card Information with EDC
This requirement stresses the need to prevent the insecure storage of cardholder data. When the system does store cardholder data, even if momentarily, the system should encrypt the information to render it unreadable. Configure the Aloha system to disable any audit processes that may result in the storage of full credit card numbers, or other information obtained from the magnetic stripe. Mask cardholder data and card numbers, whenever possible.

We recommend you use Aloha v6.1 or above, as these versions take advantage of 128-bit encryption, required by these standards, for the brief periods of time when cardholder data may be stored on disk. The Aloha system encrypts cardholder data any time it is at rest, and purges non-essential data, such as track data, after completing the authorization process.

Also with Aloha v6.1, Aloha EDC is capable of storing data files related to credit card processing outside the established ‘Iberdir’ path, by using a new environment variable, EDCProcPath. This change affords more data security and customer protection by moving non-temporary files related to transaction authorizations and settlements outside the ‘Bootdrv’ share currently used by the Aloha system. Data not stored within the shared file structure is much less likely to be available to anyone entering the system from an external location. You can configure Windows and the Aloha system together to permit only the system administrator access to these files.

Enhancing Tip Declaration Threshold Methods
In the United States, employees are required, by law, to declare the tips they receive as income. Unfortunately, employees intentionally do not always adhere to this policy. The responsibility then falls upon the restaurant to ensure their employees declare at least a minimum amount of tips, or the restaurant could be fined, if they are audited. The POS system tracks gratuity applied with credit card payments but cannot gauge tips received via cash transactions, so restaurants are using alternative methods to determine and
enforce the minimum amount of tips employees should declare.

With the tip threshold feature, the Aloha POS system supports three types of tip thresholds for employees who must declare tips for their shift: Amount, Global Percentage, and Percentage. The ‘Amount’ threshold is based upon a fixed dollar amount, by job code. The ‘Percentage’ threshold is based upon a percentage of the employee’s tippable sales, by job code. The ‘Global Percentage’ is based upon a percentage of the employee’s tippable sales, enforced on all employees. You can also define a message to appear when the
declared amount does not meet or exceed the tip threshold amount.

When you upgrade to v6.1, you can now configure the following types of tip declaration thresholds, in alphabetical order:
» Amount (existing)
» Charged Tips minus Percentage
» Global Percentage (existing)
» Hourly Amount
» Hourly Amount plus Charged Tips
» Percentage (existing)

Additionally, when the employee declares less than the calculated tip amount, you can configure the system to either complete the clock out process, re-prompt the employee to declare their tips, or display a manager approval screen to allow a manager to let them clock out.

Masking Card Numbers in EDC
To safeguard sensitive credit card and debit card information, the EDC program now masks card numbers. Only the last four digits of the card appears in the following areas where it appears within the program:
» EDC Transaction Report. When you view and print the EDC Transaction report, only the last four digits of the card appears for each card transaction.
» EDC Void function. When you void a card payment in the BOH, using EDC, only the last four digits of the card appears on the Select Transaction and Void dialog boxes.
» EDC Adjust function. When you adjust a card payment in the BOH, using EDC, only the last four digits of the card appears on the Select Transaction and Adjust dialog boxes.

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  Aloha POS Enhancement Release v6.1