Lotto Balancing - All States Excluding Western Australia
This advice only applies to all Newsagencies except those located in Western Australia.
There are 4 different methods you can process a lottery transaction in Retailer today.
- Department Sales: you have a Lotto, Lotto Payout and/or a Scratchie Payout departments in Retailer. You enter the total value of each component of that sale/payout from your lottery terminal under the correct department in Retailer. Best practice here is to enter each sale and payout individually, so if a sale contains 3 payouts, then you enter the 3 payouts in the sale in Retailer.
- Terminal Connect: You use the sale summary slip printed from your Lotto Terminal or press the Terminal Connect button on your POS screen and select the correct transaction
- Scanning Individual Lottery Tickets: you scan each individual ticket produced by the lotto terminal into your POS provided you've setup the Lotto PLUs according to the Lotto Barcode and Wallet Setup advice sheet
- Entering Sale Totals: You enter the final amount of the lotto transaction as either a sale or payout in the same or separate departments
Which method you use will determine how easy it is to find a mistake.
Checking Your Balancing and Troubleshooting Errors
Gather Your Reports
On your lotto terminal, produce a Cash Balance Report.
In Retailer, in POS, press CTRL+D. Then click on the table icon in the top right of the biggest graph/middle section of the screen to get the sales values by department.
You could also run a Detailed Takings Report in Retailer just for today.
You could also run a Detailed Takings Report in Retailer just for today.
Method A: Department Sales
Not a recommended method as its open to human error
Comparing Sales and Payouts
Lotto Sales:
Compare the Cash Balance report: Total Gross Sales to your Lotto Sales figure from Retailer.
Lotto Payouts:
Compare the Cash Balance report: Payouts Total amount to the Lotto Payouts figure from Retailer. This works if you process your Scratchie Payouts and Lotto Payouts as the same department. Or Add the two department figures together to see if it matches
Compare the Cash Balance report: Payouts Total amount to the Lotto Payouts figure from Retailer. This works if you process your Scratchie Payouts and Lotto Payouts as the same department. Or Add the two department figures together to see if it matches
Finding Errors
Lotto Sales:
In Retailer, go to the stock screen, find your Lotto item. Click on the Arrivals and Sales tab. Click on Stock Item report. Only have "Print Sales Information" turned on and specify the correct date. Print the report.
In Retailer, go to the stock screen, find your Lotto item. Click on the Arrivals and Sales tab. Click on Stock Item report. Only have "Print Sales Information" turned on and specify the correct date. Print the report.
On your Lotto Terminal, compare this report to your Admin, Todays Sale screen
Payouts:
In Retailer, go to the stock screen, find your Lotto Payout item. Click on the Arrivals and Sales tab. Click on Stock Item report. Only have "Print Sales Information" turned on and specify the correct date. Print the report. Repeat for the Scratchie Payout Item if you have a seperate department for Scratchie Payouts.
You can compare this report to your physical payouts as you are meant to keep them. If you place them in a pile as they are processed, the first ones of the day are at the bottom of the pile, so you can either work through the report in reverse or in order: eventually you will find which payout was entered incorrectly. If you enter multiple payouts as one total, it makes finding the mistake much harder.
Method B: Terminal Connect - recommended as the best
Terminal Connect is recommended as the best method of processing lottery transactions in Retailer as it leaves almost no possibility of human error being able to be involved, with the exception of selecting the wrong transaction from the list of available transactions if you don't use the scan sale summary slip process.
Comparing Sales and Payouts
Lotto Sales:
Compare the Cash Balance report: Total Gross Sales to your Lotto Sales figure from Retailer.
Lotto Payouts:
Compare the Cash Balance report: Payouts Total amount to the Lotto Payouts figure from Retailer. This works if you process your Scratchie Payouts and Lotto Payouts as the same department. Or Add the two department figures together to see if it matches
Compare the Cash Balance report: Payouts Total amount to the Lotto Payouts figure from Retailer. This works if you process your Scratchie Payouts and Lotto Payouts as the same department. Or Add the two department figures together to see if it matches
Finding Errors
If the values are different, you can produce a Sales Details report from your lotto machine and run a Details Takings Report from Retailer. On the Detailed Takings report, turn on Show Individual Items and turn off Excluded Agency
Lotto Sales:
Starting with your Sales Details report from the lotto terminal, do a quick check of the quantities. The count on the Sales Details report should match the quantity sold on the Detailed Takings Report. If the count is wrong: at least you can identify which game the error occurred on.
Starting with your Sales Details report from the lotto terminal, do a quick check of the quantities. The count on the Sales Details report should match the quantity sold on the Detailed Takings Report. If the count is wrong: at least you can identify which game the error occurred on.
If the quantities match, you need to get the sales amount, minus cancellations plus commission to get the total sales figure from your Sales Details Report and compare that to the Total Sales value on the Detailed Takings Report
Lotto Payouts:
In Retailer, go to the stock screen, find your Lotto Payout stock item with the PLU of X7440. Click on the Arrivals and Sales tab. Click on Stock Item report. Only have "Print Sales Information" turned on and specify the correct date. Print the report.
In Retailer, go to the stock screen, find your Lotto Payout stock item with the PLU of X7440. Click on the Arrivals and Sales tab. Click on Stock Item report. Only have "Print Sales Information" turned on and specify the correct date. Print the report.
You can compare this report to your physical payouts as you are meant to keep them. If you place them in a pile as they are processed, the first ones of the day are at the bottom of the pile, so you can either work through the report in reverse or in order: eventually you will find which payout was entered incorrectly.
Scratchie Payouts:
Follow the same steps for the Lotto Payouts but look for the Scratchie Payout Item with PLU of X7441
Method C: Scanning Individual Lottery Tickets
This is the second best recommendation but open to human error, such as scanning the wrong ticket, not scanning a ticket or scanning a ticket twice.
Comparing Sales and Payouts
Lotto Sales:
Follow the exact same steps mentioned in Method B.
Follow the exact same steps mentioned in Method B.
Lotto Payouts:
Follow the exact same steps mentioned in Method B.
Follow the exact same steps mentioned in Method B.
Finding Errors
Lotto Sales:
Also refer to the same method in Method B
Payouts:
Also refer to the same method in Method B
Method D: Entering Sales Totals Only or Scanning Sales Totals Tickets
This method relies on you having just 2 departments and entering in only the final total of the sale. So the enter lotto transaction is entered as a sale or payout.
Or you might have 1 department and enter the amount as a positive or a negative.
You compare the total of the two departments in Retailer to the Cash Balance report. You cannot find any mistakes by using this method. It either matches, or doesn't. We recommend switching to Method B with Terminal Connect.
Related Articles
Lotto Balancing - Western Australia Only
This advice only applies to Lotterywest, therefore Western Australian Newsagencies, and cannot be used by any other newsagencies in Australia. There are 3 different methods you can process a lottery transaction in Retailer today. Department Sales: ...Lotto Barcode Setup - Lotterywest (Western Australia)
The following advice sheet explains how to setup Retailer with barcodes for Lotterywest Products. This is for Newsagencies in WESTERN AUSTRALIA only Please ensure you are running at least version 3.4.3.3 The barcodes in use by Lotterywest are ...Lotto Barcode and Wallet Setup
The following advice sheet explains how to setup Retailer with barcodes for Lotto products. This includes scanning the POS Barcode printed on tickets and using Terminal Connect. This is for Newsagencies only and applies to all States and Territories ...Importing Invoices From WESTERN PETS
Western Pets invoices have the ability to be imported into Retailer electronically, saving hours of data entry work. Electronic invoicing means that all of the stock you’ve received in an invoice can be imported into Retailer without having to be ...Processing a Lotto Sale With Digital Wallet
Before making a sale with Digital Wallet make sure you have completed the setup instructions Lotto Barcode and Wallet Setup Process the sale on Lotto and scan the POS barcode for all tickets into Retailer. Add any other items to the sale Click ...