Comarch POS Agent – Support for the offline mode in the ERP system

In order to meet the market requirements, a feature has been introduced to facilitate the operation of ERP systems using Comarch POS Agent Broker service to communicate with Comarch POS Agent in case of lack of Internet connection.

The previous solution required a constant online connection with the POS Agent service, which helped to eliminate some errors in the synchronization of documents issued on the Comarch mPOS workstation. However, this solution required the machine on which the POS Agent service was running to be constantly turned on in order to allow issuing documents for mPOS warehouses in the ERP system.

An alternative approach has been implemented to enable the generation of warehouse documents in the ERP system even when the POS Agent/POS Agent Broker services are unavailable. With this change, users can continue to generate and process warehouse documents in the ERP system, regardless of the availability status of the POS Agent/POS Agent Broker service.

From now on, if the POS Agent/POS Agent Broker service is unavailable due to the shutdown of computers in stores or network instability, it is possible to continue working on warehouse documents in the system. The system queues warehouse operations, which, as soon as the connection is restored, are automatically transferred to POS Agent for further processing. In this way, it is possible to maintain the continuity of work with the ERP system and effectively manage warehouse operations despite technical obstacles.

The following changes have been implemented in connection with the new functionality:

• Support for negative stock levels in the POS agent service
• Support for resource reservations/quantity reservations if they exceed stock levels
• Modification of current inventory validation mechanisms

The above changes have been introduced in order to avoid problems related to the fact that certain information (documents) may reach Comarch ERP Standard system with a delay. When properly configured, the new functionality prevents negative stock levels or excessive reservations from appearing in the database after all the data has been transferred.

In Comarch ERP Standard, a new POS Agent parameter has been added. To allow performing operations in the system that are related to a warehouse assigned to POS Agent when the POS Agent/POS Agent Broker service is disabled or unavailable, the new parameter POS Agent – support offline mode must be enabled. The parameter is available in the System menu → Configuration → POS in Comarch ERP Standard.

Changes to the reservation process

The reservation mechanism has been modified to support the offline mode of the POS Agent service. After the POS Agent – support offline mode parameter is enabled, warehouse documents can be issued in the ERP system, creating subsequent reservations. For this purpose, the reservation mechanism has been adjusted to allow POS Agent to increase resource reservations even when there are insufficient quantities in stock. This is to prevent the loss of information on reservations in the case where data on all deliveries has not yet been transferred from the ERP system to POS Agent.

Changes to the availability verification mechanism

Information on temporarily negative stock levels held by the POS Agent service will not be displayed in the Comarch mPOS interface to avoid confusing users. In such a case, POS Agent will return zero quantity instead of negative quantity.

Changes to the item list and item preview

The list of items and the item preview window contain columns that display item quantities. Following the changes related to POS Agent, these columns will display:

• Available Quantity – the quantity of resources in stock available on the mPOS workstation:
  • If Quantity > Resource reservation, it displays the difference between the quantity and resource reservation
  • If Quantity ≤ Resource reservation, it displays zero value

• Total Quantity (hidden by default) – the total quantity; it can be negative if such a quantity occurs

Changes to the inventory process

Following the changes related to POS Agent, item quantities may now have negative values in the POS Agent database. At this point, it is not possible to count negative stock levels in the inventory process. In this process, the Expected item quantity is retrieved from the POS Agent database. If the quantity of a given item in the POS Agent database is negative, the Expected quantity in the inventory process will always be updated as 0.