Retail Pro® Tips

Tech Tip: Card Reader Cleaners

Why use a card reader cleaner?  The read heads on card readers become contaminated with magnetic oxides, dust, dirt, fingerprint oils and other environmental contaminants. Regular daily (for high volume readers) and even weekly cleaning (for low volume readers) will help eliminate processing errors, unnecessary equipment downtime, lost data, customer aggravation and expensive service charges.

Your card reader cleaner will also clean:

• Credit Card readers
• POS Terminals
• Key Card Readers
• Hotel Door Locks

If you would like to place an order, call Dianne today at 800-564-4488 x240.

*Patricia Lenti-Crane is vice president of national sales at BA Merchant Services, Louisville, KY. This excerpt is from the 2/10/06 issue of Digital Transactions News.

Bad card swipes will invoke downgrades because they require key entry. Merchants may be able to avoid some of this by making sure their terminals have clean read heads, [Patricia] Lenti-Crane advised. One merchant next to a bakery learned that flour from its neighbor was corrupting its terminals. When it started cleaning read heads weekly instead of monthly, it saved interchange by avoiding key-entered transactions. “It’s a little thing, but it was costing 50 basis points in downgrades,” she said.*

Trainer Tip: Purging Old Batches in Accounting Link

Clients that use the Accounting Link, please remember to go into Options > System Preferences ONCE A WEEK so it will prompt you to purge old posted batches.

Reminder: All work stations should exit Retail Pro at night, not just POS stations. Documents can be created on non-POS stations that will have the wrong date if you have not closed and logged back in.