I just returned from a week long trip up and down the west coast of Florida (hence, the hiatus from the weekly newsletter). I rarely take a vacation without some work thrown in and this trip was no exception. A day with the Legendary Andrew Wood is always time well spent. He always pushes me to think (even when I am in lazy vacation mode). Look for some changes to our website in the coming weeks and a new whitepaper on The 15 Indisputable Reports Required for Effectively Running a Golf Facility! I am also pushing Legendary Marketing to help me do a better job in tracking my own marketing efforts. I will let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit http://www.cunninglyclevermarketing.com/ -- it's a great marketing book! I read it once and am on my way through it a second time already.

     During my trip, I played three courses in Florida, all of them in a rush from the car to the first tee, since in two of these cases I was playing on arrival to the town, and in the third case, it was just way too early in the morning. I did not have to stop in the pro-shop at any of the three clubs. Great for me, but maybe not so great for the club.

     These were all high end private clubs. So the fact that I did not stop in the pro-shop on the way in may not be a big deal, as long as I have a chance to stop in to purchase a logo shirt, hat, etc., on my way out. However, for the staff, this can be an issue for checking in the players to record the round. In many private and semi-private clubs where the golfer does not need to purchase anything (i.e., You don't need the Sales Screen just the Tee Sheet) a one screen / one click effort can make the Check-In a breeze.

     Each of the members who invited me to play just had to stick their head in the door of the pro-shop or wave as we passed the shop and the pro staff checked us in. Since none of these clubs use our software, I'm sure that either our round was not recorded at all, or there were some choice words mumbled at the POS station as the staff checked us in. In StarterHut, there is a quick and easy feature to Check-In players on the StarterHut Tee Sheet with a simple click.

     Batch Check-In Option: This option is intended to Check-In a player without opening the POS Sale Screen. Typical cases for this are for private members to charge the Green Fee (and associated fees such as Cart or Caddie) to their member account. Also, for Members that are charged $0 for a green fee. Once set up, the cashier clicks on the Batch Check-In button which will queue the sale to a "Batch" table. When the Sale screen is next accessed, any outstanding Batch charges will be posted.

     To enable Batch Check-In, from StarterHut:

1) Click on Admin
2) Click on Setting
3) Click on Option
4) Click on POS Integration
5) Click on Use Batch Check in

     Now that the option is set, to Check-In a player going forward, this is all you have to do on the Tee Sheet:

1. Select the Player(s) you want to Check-In
2. Click on the Batch Check-In button.

     That's it! You will notice the Paid "$" indicator will appear on the cell(s) selected and the color of the cell will change. Behind the scenes, a Batch Sale record will be posted in the database. The next time you open the Sale screen on that terminal, you will notice the following message:

     This is when the charge(s) will actually be posted and you can then see the posting in the given members' ledgers.

Until next time,

Enjoy :)