Originally written by John Hardwick, last updated Apr 29, 2024, on the Swan Retail knowledge base (FRS).

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This document describes how the ‘style’ ticket feature works within SwanFRS.

Overview

This document details the display ticket style feature available which allows a label blank to be used which is influenced by the promotion and imperfect status of stock items.

The concept is that once you have a display ticket design created you can change the logo, colours, and content of the label via a ticket style which is linked to a promotion.  i.e., as the promotion changes, so does the display ticket produced via SwanFRS.

There is also the option to have a clearance / mark down ticket style which is automatically used whenever a display ticket is generated for a stock item with a mark-down clearance reason / value.

General Concept

The style ticket is a semi-flexible ticket engine which allows a base design to be tweaked dependent upon the data sent to the ticket engine.

The design of the ticket should take into consideration the controls available with the Style record, for example the colour used for the price, inclusion of the supplier’s name etc. The layout is fixed however using controls certain fields can be switched off for a particular print run.

The data control effectively starts with the SKU or stock item being printed.

For a given SKU or stock item, the program established the promotion the product is linked to on the date specified by the operator. Having established the promotion, the print pulls in the style associated with the promotion and from this controls what is printed on the ticket.

The exception to this rule are marked down stock items - when printing a marked down stock item the routine automatically use the ‘markdown’ style, effectively ignoring the promotion style in that marking stock down bypasses the prevailing promotion for that item.

For a successful utilisation of the style ticket engine, it is important to be using timed promotions linked to a style sheet / ticket design.

There are a number of standard ticket designs for use within SwanFRS. These can be tweaked by the style engine to change the font colours, images presented etc however the layout is fixed.

If these layouts are not suitable, Swan offer a ‘customisation’ service whereby a ticket blank can be created to suit your requirement which will, so long as the layout remains constant, change as the promotion changes.

Configuration

This section details how to commission the style ticketing system.

Application Parameters

Ensure the USE_TICKET_STYLES is checked.

Ticket Styles

Promotions

This routine allows a block of cost and / or selling prices for specified SKUs to be collated, thus providing a time frame in which these prices are active.

When using Ticket Styles, it is also possible to link a ticket style to the promotion, which is used to influence the contents of tickets generated for SKUs within the promotion.

Label Design

There are several places within SwanFRS where tickets can be generated.  Warehouse search, goods receipting, purchase order creation etc., it is also possible to use the ticket style to control the presentation of menu tickets.

The contents of the ticket are controlled by the active / selected promotion and the ticket style chosen.

When designing the ticket, please consider how it will be used and what information is required.

Whilst it is possible to influence the colour of text, it is not possible to reposition or change the size of text via the ticket style.   If the content is variable, these factors need to be accommodated when designing the ‘blank’.

Examples of style controlled labels are shown below

Files from the Confluence page

• Style Ticket Guide.pdf