DKStoute wrote:
This feature is going to be Awesome. Does anyone know the status on when this will be available?
I haven't heard anything further, but that doesn't mean that it isn't in the works. I am really looking forward to it because it will make my life much easier when I am at trade shows and conventions.
Ever since I had to dump my own POS software, I have been basically entering my customer's CC info into PayPal's online interface as though I was them. I created a subdomain on my website that I go to when at a show, there I have a buy button for $1. I just select this and change the quantity to the amount due. This makes the total what I need to charge to their card. This is very cumbersom because I am forced to sit there and enter everything, including their mailing address and phone number for the card. Oh and if there are ANY details that do not match the card's records, it rejects them. To make matters worse, if they have the card linked to their own PayPal account, it rejects it outright unless they log into their own PayPal account and send the payment that way.
My whole point is, with a simple interface with authorize.net as the backend, you can simply swipe the card and run it like a normal POS would. That brings up a gew suggestions...
1. Add provisions for any simple credit card swiper to be used. The nice thing is, these act like a keyboard input. When you swipe the card, the string is printed to wherever the cursor is. I can simply open Notepad, swipe a card and the string shows up in the window. I have some well working parsing code down in VB.net to read in this string and parse the CC info out. I am even willing to share this with the developers.
2. Add some kind of "payment type" option to the invoice window. I would like to see "Cash", "Credit" and "Check". When Credit is selected, have the printed invoice show the CC holder's first and last name, last four of the CC number (possibly with leading * signs) and a line for a signature.
Last week, I attended a large convention where I used EI for the first time live. It worked VERY well, but when I did a credit card, there was no way to reflect this on the printed invoice. I simply had the customer sign the bottom of the invoice and I kept it. I printed a second copy to give them as a receipt.
Another suggestion down the road would be support for continous paper printers for receipt printing, especially CC signing. I use the popular Dymo Turbo printers for printing labels and postage. They also have a tape roll and I have one, but I can't use it yet. Just another suggestion to make EI more POS like.
