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Posted 12/01/2018 3:38 pm
Conder
If we were in a totally cashless society where no one used cash in their business or needed towrite a check to someone who might want to cash it, we would have no problem. You ask what software programming I am referring to. The devil is in the details, and the smallest problems can cause unforeseen issues . Here, the small problem I see that will require software programming is the final rounding to the nearest nickel. It must be accomplished and accounted for. The business I recently retired from would have needed to hire a software expert to adjust our accounting and billing software to accomplish the final rounding. Bigger businesses could encounter more complex issues, smaller businesses are more nimble and can adjust more easily on the fly.
In the case of a mom and pop specialty shop which might have a percentage rent lease requiring audit of register tapes, the business can avoid reprogramming or replacing the registers to do the final rounding simply by entering the separately computed total rounded down to the nearest nickel. But if the business is also using its registers for inventory control, problems will arise if each item is not entered separately in the register and the register will need to do the final rounding.
In the case of banks, insurance companies, brokerages, and utilities, the problem arises when the business has to pay money to or make a refund to a customer. No one's customer agreement presently calls for the final rounding. Revision of all the agreements could be avoided by simply tendering the customer the actual amount due rounded up to the nearest nickel (the customer would have to agree to rounding down) this would result in a cost of up to 4 cents per transaction, and the accounting system would need to be reprogrammed in any event to account for the rounding. Certainly, the business could write a check for the amount due to the penny, but what happens when the customer wants to cash the check, rather than deposit it.
So, the problem I see is in making the final rounding. Except in the smallest businesses, I see this causing software programming issues that will need to be dealt with. I learned over the years that even the smallest change comes at a cost.
If we were in a totally cashless society where no one used cash in their business or needed towrite a check to someone who might want to cash it, we would have no problem. You ask what software programming I am referring to. The devil is in the details, and the smallest problems can cause unforeseen issues . Here, the small problem I see that will require software programming is the final rounding to the nearest nickel. It must be accomplished and accounted for. The business I recently retired from would have needed to hire a software expert to adjust our accounting and billing software to accomplish the final rounding. Bigger businesses could encounter more complex issues, smaller businesses are more nimble and can adjust more easily on the fly.
In the case of a mom and pop specialty shop which might have a percentage rent lease requiring audit of register tapes, the business can avoid reprogramming or replacing the registers to do the final rounding simply by entering the separately computed total rounded down to the nearest nickel. But if the business is also using its registers for inventory control, problems will arise if each item is not entered separately in the register and the register will need to do the final rounding.
In the case of banks, insurance companies, brokerages, and utilities, the problem arises when the business has to pay money to or make a refund to a customer. No one's customer agreement presently calls for the final rounding. Revision of all the agreements could be avoided by simply tendering the customer the actual amount due rounded up to the nearest nickel (the customer would have to agree to rounding down) this would result in a cost of up to 4 cents per transaction, and the accounting system would need to be reprogrammed in any event to account for the rounding. Certainly, the business could write a check for the amount due to the penny, but what happens when the customer wants to cash the check, rather than deposit it.
So, the problem I see is in making the final rounding. Except in the smallest businesses, I see this causing software programming issues that will need to be dealt with. I learned over the years that even the smallest change comes at a cost.
