One feature provided by FlexQuery Viewer is the ability to launch it from inside Retail Pro (v 8 and v9). This allows delivery of Custom Views specific to the area of FlexQuery.

A button appears in the following areas:

• ASN (Retail Pro 9 only)
• Adjustments (not viewable in a Retail Pro 8 Store Remote)
• Inventory
• Receipts
• Sales Orders
• Slips
• Vouchers

So why would you want to do this? Firstly, it gives easy access to Custom Views designed for the strategic Retail Pro areas for all Retail Pro users on a site (assuming FlexQuery Viewer is installed onsite of course!).  Secondly, providing this ability in a store allows the provision of selected Custom Views for specific tasks in-store in a fixed format (which cannot be changed). This means that the Custom Views designated for each area of Retail Pro can form part of a store procedure and is delivered in a way that allows that procedure to be part of a store operating manual.

Additionally, it can be used to provide information to enhance customer service or provide a quick way to see information relevant to that area, such as a summary of sales by salesperson ranked in order where the sales environment emphasises Commission sales and internal sales competitions.

The Viewer does not allow the same level of functionality as FlexQuery Professional. In the Viewer, the date range can be changed, filters can be applied and the output can be printed. This makes it ideal for deploying at any site, Head Office or store, where the user needs access to data but does not need to design Custom Views. In a store, it can provide the information needed by a store manager to manage the store without running the risk they will spend more time reporting at the expense of their other designated duties.

All Custom Views have to be marked by Head Office as available to be shown in the Viewer. If a Custom View is not marked for Viewer, it is simply invisible when Viewer is run. In the example below, FlexQuery Professional is being used to set up the Viewer. Note the ‘Viewer’ field has to be ticked.

HINTS:

• The screenshot above shows a ‘Plugin Viewer’ group, which is an easy way to collate all Custom Views intended for the Viewer.
• FlexQuery Viewer can also be run separately from Retail Pro and can contain additional Custom Views not viewable from Retail Pro.  When a button is clicked in Retail Pro, only the Category specific to that area is shown. Eg the Receipts button shows only the Receipts category

Let’s look at some scenarios:

Note: including the VEND_NAME field allows a Viewer user to filter for one or more vendors. The display automatically resorts to show the top salespeople for that vendor.

Benefit: Some stores have a requirement to report daily figures in a different format. Having one source of data ensures these figures are collected in a consistent manner, saving a lot of time at Head Office following up issues related to bad data.

Allows quick identification of problem discounts, in this case preset to discounts over 30%. The ‘drill-down’ allows the items sold to be shown.

Benefit: Controls discounts to minimize their effect on profitability at the source quickly.

Benefit: Identifies stock control errors early, when it takes less time to correct. Saves Head Office investigation time, improves stock control. Inventory valuations are more accurate (will increase as a negative on hand will result in an artificially low valuation), as are KPI reporting where inventory is a factor. E.g. GMROI, stock turn.

Benefit: Allows the store to track what stock is on its way separated as transfers and stock ASNs. When an item is out of stock, staff can quickly check if it is incoming soon and offer to take a customer order. Reduces lost sales caused by Out of Stocks