Window10 updates are REQUIRED now, for nearly every function. 
If you notice your computer is running slow, or you can't communicate from Datamakers to your register (specifically Verifone sites, please do the following to check your PC for these critical updates. 
1) In the lower left corner/Cortana search box type "updates"
2) If it  looks like "you're up to date" look a little bit further down and you might notice a "download and install" link. 
3) Click on this and let that finish downloading AND installing. Be patient as it may take 5 - 10 minutes. It will prompt you to "Restart now" when it is finished. 
Restart your computer. 
Repeat this process after the restart, once more, because it pushes updates down sequentially. 

If you are on a Verifone POS system with the enhanced deal options, you will be excited to learn that Stretch has now programmed Datamakers to give you the ability to enter all these deal options into Datamakers and then send them up to the register. I've sent out emails and training documents and videos on how to get the update & how to use these new functions.  If you missed any of them, please email me at datamakers@gmail.com or call me! 

For all of our customers, you now have the capability to print a shelf tag for each of the items that are included in a deal! We love to get new ideas from our customers, and I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Justin for this one! He needed to be able to print a shelf tag with the deal price, the regular retail price and the expiration date of the deal. Well, we did it! I've sent out the emails, videos and documents on this as well. 

We are always looking for new way to help you manage your c-store. 

Thank you for choosing Datamakers! 
Carie 

​Theft. It seems all too convenient to get away with at convenience stores! There are so many ways in which theft can decrease profit in a convenience store - and typically, the margins are tight enough already! 

People are turning to social media to help catch theives, but it is so important to be proactive about preventing it in the first place. Theft occurs not only with drive-off's, but sadly, also with saavy cashiers, dishonest managers, and even with vendor contract pricing! I had a customer tell me that she discovered one of her small local vendors charged her an excess of $400 over 6 months! She found it only because she started with Datamakers and began tracking her vendor costs week-to-week.  I have another customer that told me he discovered his manager was ordering excess items that he/she personally drank/smoked/used and was simply taking them home. He found this out when he started tracking his inventory and noticed a huge gross profit gap in these departments. I had another customer tell me that they caught their cashier ringing up items onto their customers transactions by doing a quick scan when the customer wasn't looking! Ugh!! The stories we could all tell! 

For all these reasons, it is SO important to have backoffice software!! Social media is great to help recover theft, hopefully. But, please, let Datamakers help you prevent it in the first place. If you are wondering how you can better manage your store, please give us a call. If you have examples of how Datamakers has already helped you, please share below. Let's work as a team to run a successful & profitable business. This is an exciting time in the c-store industry. We are here for YOU! We can help you track theft, manage your ordering, track your vendor costs, track your sales & count your high-theft departments. We want to help you MANAGE your store efficiently and profitably!

Greetings! A hot topic these days is this question: "How do I get my scan data (transaction data) to the tobacco companies in order to take advantage of their incentive programs?"
Datamakers does not pull in transaction data, and therefore we cannot provide the tobacco companies with the scan data they need to enroll you in an incentive program.
Instead, we've worked with and referred a lot of our customers to SKUPOS and I haven't heard a complaint yet. I just heard (from a customer, not from SKUPOS themselves) that if you sign up with them by the end of 2017 - you might be qualified for a decent sign-on bonus! Call them for details if you are interested in this type of program and have not yet signed up. You can reach Lauren Denaullt at lauren@skupos.com, call (800) 559-1358 or visit www.skupos.com and tell them Datamakers sent you. I promise we do not get $$ from them for this advertising - we are just happy to help our customers run their business as efficiently as possible!
If/when you do contract with a scan data company whether or not it's SKUPOS, please give myself or Stretch a call to ensure compatibility. 
~Carie

Customized software is just that, customized to what you want and need to run your business profitably and efficiently.  Stretch and I are always trying to think of ways that we can customize Datamakers to help you do just that. The intelligence level of my Dad never ceases to amaze me. Stretch has a very unique way of 'just knowing' how to do things. Do you know that when he was in his 40's he taught himself how to do this computer programming stuff? And, he was successfully running his own petroleum service company at the same time! Then one day during my Junior year of high school, he hires me and says to me "I want you to sit down at this computer and figure out how to do this programming."  Eeeeks!!! He took about 5 minutes and said, here's what I did, here is how I did it, now I want you to write me a time card program for us to use.  

Challenge accepted!!!! I learned so much that summer. Not just about computer programming, but also about the petroleum service industry.  After high school, I went off and earned my Bachelor's degree in Finance. I worked with a prominent financial company where I was able to use my software programming and financial knowledge and customer service skills as they were builidng a ground-breaking industry software for a nation wide network. I had a lot of experience with working on the design team, travelling to MI where the coders were and working hand-in-hand with them. I had to do a lot of research with our end-users, internal users, and coders to make sure everything was seamless and exactly what everyone needed. I've been working with my Dad, Stretch, full time since 2009 here at Datamakers. 

I am very proud of the Datamakers software that we provide. We offer a lot of unique features that you cannot find with other companies. Our customer service is pretty top-notch, if I do say so myself....but I can also say that because I hear it often! Sometimes, though, we get caught up in trying to keep up with just the industry changes, that we forget to put ourselves in YOUR shoes! And that's why, when I was working with a customer and we had to send items to the register 8 times, I lost my mind.  We need a speed key for this!!! It was a huge light bulb that I'm almost embarassed to say that I never thought of before, but it's so simple to do!!! I told Stretch, and within 24 hours we rolled it out to you. 

What's my point? I want all of our customers to know that we are in this business for YOU! To help you! We want Datamakers to be the best software company you could ask for. We want to hear what ideas you may have. What 'light-bulbs' are we not thinking of? We appreciate all feedback, all ideas, all constructve criticism, and all of YOU who work hand-in-hand with us day in and day out, year after year! 

Communication is the key to all successful business relationships. If you have a Facebook page, please "like" ours at https://www.facebook.com/datamakers/  We love to "like" yours back and see pictures of your store, specials that you're running, new things happening in our industry, and to just be able to interact socially with you.
 
Thank you for your continued support of Datamakers! 
~Carie 

Please let us know! There are a lot of things that we want to help you prepare for! 

Are you staying branded with VeriFone, but are upgrading to a Commander Site Controller? To ensure a smooth transition, we need to make sure that your Datamakers software is backed up, converted correctly and that your backoffice computer is on the right Microsoft Windows platform. 

Are you receiving a software upgrade? This applies to VeriFone branded sites only. Please inform us as soon as you can if your brand is pushing down a software upgrade to your register. We have a checklist to go through to make sure that your Datamakers will continue to communicate with your register properly, and it may include an upgrade to your Microsoft Windows platform on the backoffice computer. 

Are you switching from Gilbarco to VeriFone or vice versa? CALL US! We have a cool feature in Datamakers that will convert all the data from one brand to the other in a matter of minutes. Then, we can work with your installation technicians ahead of time to help them program your new register with your existing data.