What does switching to Nōwn mean and how does it differ from FIIT?
What is Nōwn?
Nōwn is our new and improved POS software custom built for your retail store. The incredibly intuitive interface allows your staff to master the software in no time and it provides a more enjoyable experience to both the staff and the customers. All the while containing a myriad of features that are not currently present in FIIT. In addition, we want to humanize transactional experiences and make it meaningful for every person, Nōwn focuses on the person not the transaction.
What do I need to switch over?
Nothing new! You keep all of the same hardware, simply install and configure the software and you’re good to go.
Business continues as usual on FIIT and no FIIT locations or rules are changed or disrupted by Nōwn
Will my credit card terminals still work?
First Data credit card terminals are fully compatible with Nōwn! However, if you use Open Edge credit card terminals they will work but not in semi integrated mode. What this means is that the terminals won't automatically receive the transaction total from the Surface Pro, it will have to have to be punched in manually.
How does this process work?
The configuration process is comprised of a few general steps:
- Add your employees
- Create your menu
- Link your hardware
And that’s it! All the: patron information, meal plans, service periods, meal equivalency rules all stay in FIIT and do not need to be configured again. The only piece of information you need to readd are your employees and menu.
For a complete guide on each step please view the following document.
How long does it take to launch?
We recommend an extremely conservative timeline of 20 days from set up to launch. However, this provides lots of buffer and the enterprising individuals can be set up in as little as a week.
How do Nōwn and FIIT differ?
FIIT remains your back end board system, think of it as a control centre. It will configure: meal plans, meal plan rules, patron information, patron meal plans, service periods, meal equivalency and any reports related to those topics. This will always remain in FIIT.
Nōwn strictly deals with sales for a retail location. Any sales related activities will take place in Nōwn. This includes: refunds, voids, transactions, sales reports, product mix reports, etc. You will be able to see an overview of DCB and Meal Plan usage but for further detail on both meal plans and patrons you will have to look in FIIT.
Will I still be able to use the same mobile app?
Yes, you would keep using the same app, you do not have to switch the Nōwn app. Further, you no longer need to use menu.lucova.com to configure mobile app menus. Simply turn a toggle in the Nōwn menu to make an item mobile order eligible. You are able to make these changes as soon as you link the two systems together.
How Does Nown Handle Service Periods?
As referenced earlier, service period configuration remains in FIIT and there is no setting or selection required in Nōwn in order to be in that service period. When you have Nōwn open within the hours of that service period, it operates within that period.
As a result, the service period changes based on what time it is with no action required on your end. For example: if it’s Friday at 1:00pm, Nōwn will take the service period for that location that the time period falls within.
Are there service period menus in Nōwn?
Yes, please reach out to Nōwn to enable menu scheduling, at that time you will be able to create different service period menus from your base menu without having to recreate the items.
Explanation of Nōwn Features
As mentioned above, Nōwn has several features that were not previously found in FIIT. Please see the breakdown below on how several of these areas vary from FIIT.
Reports: The reports of Nōwn compared to FIIT are very similar, one of the biggest differences are that you will be able to see an overview of DCB and Meal Plan usage in Nōwn but for further detail on both meal plans and patrons you will have to look in FIIT.
It is important to note that you can still see all sales data in FIIT, it is not exclusive to Nōwn only.
Nōwn also contains a few reports that FIIT doesn’t have, including the: gift card report, discount report, labour report, advanced item quantity summary report, employee shift report and loss prevention report.
The first two are self explanatory while the labour and employee shift report would only be relevant if you are tracking employee hours through the POS, which in most cases you are not.
The loss prevention report makes sure all your employees are accountable for their actions but this will be discussed in detail below.
The advanced item quantity summary report is very similar to the loss prevention report, however, it varies in a distinct way. This report shows you a full breakdown of all the modifier combinations that each item sold. For example: the modifier combinations for Cheese Pizza are as follows:
5 x Olives, Tomatoes Pineapples
2 x Pineapples, Peperoni
7 x Pineapple, Mushrooms
Etc.
ODS: If you have a kitchen in your retail location you might benefit greatly from an order display system. An order display system sends tickets to a digital screen in the kitchen which the staff can easily mark off when completed. This improves kitchen efficiency and allows the system to flow with greater ease.
Discounts: in Nōwn you can set a dollar or percentage discount amount per item or basket. However, in addition to manually doing this for every transaction, you have the ability to create customer discounts which allow you to apply them with the click of a button.
Custom Discounts allows the creation of easily accessible pre-populated discounts as well as customizable discounts that can be applied at checkout.
Custom Discounts also allows you to create and lock discount percentages for your Cashiers (ie any higher than 20% will require a Manager’s pincode) You can now also track and report which users use those discounts.
Access Set Up: Nōwn varies from FIIT in how logins work. In FIIT each cashier would have a log in, however, with Nōwn the only people that have logins are admins, managers, and stations. Cashiers have PINs that give them access within the POS once it’s logged in but they do not have a log in themselves.
The login username and password is to access the Nōwn POS app, while PINs are what employees will use inside of the app to track hours and their activity.
How LogIns Work: Admin and manager log in accounts should be used for business purposes in the back office, to view reports or make changes to the menu and configuration. It is not recommended that you use this as the POS login that is used at your location.
Station logins would be the account that you use to log into the Nōwn POS app itself on each of your tablets at your store. This is the account you would use to do transactions and it would always stay logged in. It varies from the manager login because many of the reports and functions are hidden to ensure privacy, only the essential transactional functions are available on the station log in.
The cashiers will not be logging into the POS. They will just use their PINs to clock in and clock out on the app that is already logged into using the station log in. Managers will also use their PINs to navigate the POS while on shift.
Further, roles in Nōwn and FIIT are independent of each other. This means that if someone is a manager in FIIT they can be a cashier in Nōwn and vice versa, there is no overlap.
Enhanced Security: It is important to monitor the actions of all employees handling cash, as a result we highly recommend enabling this toggle which will enable all enhanced security features. This means requiring a PIN input for operations such as: Refunds, Voids, Payout, Opening Cash Drawer, Closing Station, and Cancelling Transactions. It also enables the Loss Prevention Report.
In the loss prevention report you can view actions such as: opened cash drawer with no sale, number of cancelled items, refunded transactions, and void transactions. The name of the employee that executed each action will be listed.
Voids/Refunds: Nōwn can refund and void transactions which is something that wasn’t previously available in FIIT.
Void: A void completely removes a transaction as if it did not exist. You can only do this while the station is still open and before midnight. There should be no references of this Void in the FIIT or Nown reports, with the exception of a void count in the Nown End Shift report.
Refund: A refund is a monetary return of an order. This function is available anytime after the order in the Receipts section of the POS. This function currently is not supported for any meal card transactions in Nown.
Opening and Closing a Station: Similarly to FIIT, in Nōwn, when you open for the day you need to open the station and when you’re done for the day you need to close the station. One big advantage in Nōwn is that when you close the station it does the math for you and tells you exactly how much cash you should have. When you input the actual amount of cash it will tell you if you are over or under which takes the guesswork out of the equation.
Transaction workflow: Unlike FIIT, in Nōwn you are required to scan the meal card at the end of the transaction as opposed to at the beginning of it. The only exception would be students who use the bluetooth check in feature with the app. In that case you would simply click on their face and you wouldn’t have to scan their meal card again.
Menu Set Up: The menu set up is perhaps one of the best features of Nōwn. It is infinitely easier to set up than in FIIT and the best part about it is the modifier set up. You can easily link and duplicate modifiers from item to item, what this means is that if 20 items share the same set of modifiers, you do not need to keep recreating them from scratch. Simply create the modifiers once and then copy them over, it’s that easy!
Gift Cards and Loyalty: While this is a feature that you may not use right away, loyalty and gifts cards are integral to the Nōwn experience.
Our integrated closed loop gift card program means that the moment a gift card is loaded, you immediately have access to the funds. There is no third party that holds the funds until a patron redeems them. Further, patrons can link gift cards to the mobile app which allows them to redeem the balance through their phone.
Further, we have a built in loyalty program that offers “surprise” discounts and free items to customers once they earn a certain number of points. This leads to a wonderful customer experience and is quantifiably proven to increase basket size and frequency of visits among patrons.