Got a Need for Speed? Cleaning Up Your Data to Speed Up Sales

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No one likes waiting around for a website to load. Whether receipt printing is slow or completing an order is taking longer than expected there are plenty of things that you can do to keep your database running at top notch. Just like you take your car to get the oil changed or tires rotated, your Altru database needs the same care & attention.

Are there any programs, events, or designations that have past or that are no longer in use? What about a discount you created for that one-time promotion that is no longer going on? We have all created these types of records at some point but have you gone back through to inactivate them?

At some point, Altru needs a tune-up. Here is a checklist of items we recommend going through to speed up & improve the overall performance of your database.

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Review & Inactivate Past Discounts

Keeping a close eye on the number of discounts & promotions is going to go a long way. Once a discount or promotion expires or is no longer in use, we recommend inactivating it. Along those same lines, if there are any discounts that can be consolidated (same % or $ off), make them one discount instead of two. We also like to point out that the fever automatic discounts, constituency based or ā€œwith required purchaseā€ discounts the faster your system will be able to process an order. While there are plenty of discounts that need to be configured this way, we just recommend keeping the list as clean and concise as possible.

Workstation Cleanup

  • Ensure all printers have unique names

When adding a printer to a workstation, ensure that the printer does not share the name of a printer on another Altru workstation. For example, if you have two workstations with a printer named EPSON TM-T88V, this will cause slowness in receipt printing. Each printer should have a unique name for optimal performanceĀ (for example: Receipt Printer Workstation 1, Receipt Printer Workstation 2).

  1. Go to Start, Devices and Printers
  2. Right click on the receipt printer, select Printer Properties
  3. In the Name field, rename the printer
  4. Click OK
  5. In Altru, go to Tickets, click Print Setup
  6. Click Workstations
  7. Select the appropriate workstation
  8. On the Printers tab, delete the old printer (if its attached to a cash drawer remove this first)
  9. Select the newly named printer
  10. Click Save
  11. Add the printer to a printer list


  • Removing Network/Domain Names on Workstations


  1. Go to Tickets, click Print Setup
  2. Click Workstations
  3. Select the appropriate workstation
  4. Click Change machine name
  5. Remove any network/domain information at the end of the name. For instance, LWU840.blackbaud.com should just be entered as LWU840


  • Remove Duplicate Printer Lists

Altru allows you to have multiple printer lists. However, the more printers list the more the system has to look through to figure out which printer to send the information. This in turn can slow down the receipt printing process. To increase the speed of ticketing printing, we recommend create 2 (and only 2) printer lists. You will have a receipt printer list and a ticket printer list. You will also want to make sure that all the printer names are unique in those lists, no duplicates!

  1. From Tickets, click Print Setup
  2. Click Printer Lists
  3. Delete any duplicate printer lists
  4. Edit the existing lists, select all the printers that should be included
  5. Here is a sample of what your Printer List page might look like:

printer

Note: We recommend updating printer lists & printers before/after hours. This could disrupt your ticket sellers if they are in the middle of completing a transaction.

Remove Old Printers from Workstations

To prevent Altru from having to look through too many printers on your workstation, we recommend removing any old or unused printers from your workstation.

  1. Go to Tickets, click Print Setup
  2. Click Workstations
  3. Select the appropriate workstation
  4. On the Printers tab, highlight the old/unused printer
  5. Click Delete

Consolidate Duplicate Sales Documents

In Altru, Sales Documents are preconfigured templates that your organization can use to print documents, such as receipts & tickets. There are 7 default sales documents that your sales staff will use regularly. We recommend eliminating any duplicate sales documents.

  1. From Tickets, click Printer Setup
  2. Click Sales Documents
  3. Verify you have all the sales documents listed below (and only 1 of each)


  • Credit Card Receipt
  • Itemized Receipt
  • Mailing Header
  • Refund Credit Card Receipt
  • Refund Itemized Receipt
  • Ticket
  • Will Call Header

4. Highlight any duplicate sales documents, click Delete
5. Note: Your organization may not use all of these documents, which is perfectly fine. For the documents that you use regularly, assign the appropriate printer list. For example, the credit card receipt, itemized receipts & refund receipts will have the receipt printer list attached. Just edit the document to select the appropriate printer list.

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