The Importance of Logging Off Nightly 2
For some of you, the importance of logging off your systems on a nightly basis is a no brainer. However, many of you may not have been informed why this sort of thing needs to be addressed.
Staying logged into application software may leave certain data fields, data files, or applications in a "locked" (in use) state.
This kind of locking generally falls into one or more of the following areas.
1. Field level locking – Where specific datafield(s) are locked by a specific program.
2. File level Locking – Where specific data file(s) are locked by a user or application program.
3. Application Locking – Where part of a application program, or the entire program is locked.
5. Users License Locking – Where valid user logins are tracked, and access is controlled by the application for each user logging into the software.
This means that overnight procedures such Polling, Posting, Credit Card Settlements, Offline Ticket Entry updates, and data file/database backups may not be executing or completing properly. This type of situation can add to system and application instability, data synchronization issues, and cause data corruption, and physical loss of monies.
As a recent example…
An NCR Counterpoint SQL customer was having issues with both Daily Sales Activity not being posted, and Credit Card transactions not being settled with the processor.
This was later determined to be due to the following:
Users had been continuously logged into Counterpoint for several weeks, putting all available user licenses in active use. This meant that when the overnight posting and settlement routines ran, they would immediately abort because all of the available licenses were in use.
The following morning, staff would notice that the sales had not posted, and would manually post the activity. However, no one was checking to see that the Credit Card and Debit Card transactions were being settled. This process went on for over (3) three weeks before anyone noticed that the Credit Card and Debit Card transactions were not settling. When the cards were finally settled, the merchant was charged higher fees. Some of the Credit Card transactions would not settle because the cards had expired or the cards were over their limits. This also meant three weeks of lost interest and loss of cash flow.
If you are having any posting or settlement issues with your systems, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department for assistance.