Avero & Aloha POS
Aloha is supported for Sales data, Labor data, and Right Now Sales data.
Avero processes and presents data from your Aloha POS for your analysis and insight. This article details how to handle POS changes, make updates to this data, and how to handle discrepancies or problems you might encounter. For some things, such as adding meal periods or revenue centers, you must complete the action on your side in order for it to be reflected in Avero (maybe with the help of your POS reseller or NCR technician) and for some changes, such as global category associations, you'll need to reach out to our support team.
In this article:
- About Aloha POS
- Programming for Data Quality
- Installation & Reinstallation
- Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes
- Common Problems
- Frequently Asked Questions About Aloha
About Aloha POS
POS Type: On-premise
Avero is proud to offer Free Installation & Reinstallation for Aloha, and most POS systems.
Aloha is an on-premise system, meaning there is a server on-site at your restaurant that runs your point of sale. Avero's data extraction utility is installed on this server and each day runs the data from yesterday and transmits it to Avero to load into the platform that you can access via the web or in an app on your phone or tablet.
Differences between Aloha & Avero
Aloha & Avero calculate Gross and Net Sales differently, so you will see variation between your sales reports. Aloha includes taxes in Gross Sales, but Avero does not consider taxes to be sales.
Programming Aloha for Data Quality
Since you will be using Avero to review sales data through an analytical lens and make adjustments to operating procedures and standards as a result, it is important that clean and legible data is coming in from Aloha. See our article that explains some of the common ways to choose to set up categories and items for the best analysis in the Avero platform.
Programming Aloha For Data Quality
Installation & Reinstallation on Aloha
POS Code: aloha
Aloha is one of the most common POS systems and in use by many customers. We allow our customers to save on the wait time and cost of an assisted installation by providing a supported installation process instead. If you are moving to Aloha from another POS, installing Avero on your Aloha system for the first time, or reinstalling after a server upgrade or change, you can simply and easily perform the installation! Or your POS reseller can install the Avero Data Extraction Utility at the time they perform your server change or upgrade. Avero installation takes only a few minutes and has 4 major steps.
- Prepare for the installation. This means following our Pre-Install Checklist which will make sure you have the access needed and that our interactions will be marked safe by your system security by whitelisting Avero in your firewall (IT or your POS reseller can assist with this!).
- Retrieve your business information from our support team: Open a Reinstall Ticket
- Follow the Avero Installation Instructions, Aloha may have an extra step if not using the default settings. (8-12 minutes)
- 3B. If your Aloha system is not using default settings an extra step may be required. See below for special instructions.
- Our robust integration with Aloha also includes the option to install our Right Now Agent to deliver sales in real-time via our mobile app. If your server meets the Minimum System Requirements you can continue to Install Avero Right Now after the DEU is installed! (2-5 minutes)
Extra install step for unique Aloha setups:
If using ALOHA and not in default settings the following steps will be required when installing:
A new window will open and you will need to click through to the Aloha folder
- This PC
- Aloha (C:) or Aloha (D:)
- BOOTDRV
- Aloha
- OK
You may now return to the instructions at Input Store information and run data
Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes for Aloha
When changes or updates are needed who is responsible? If something appears incorrect or out-of-date, how should it be updated?
Change or Add a Meal Period in Aloha
Whenever meal periods are changed in Aloha they will be reflected in the next export we receive from Aloha. Nothing needs to be done on the Avero side to approve/accept/map your meal periods. Feel free to make an update or add a meal period and see the data flow straight to Avero. Note that changes reflect data going forward.
Important to note - Meal Period changes/additions will not automatically update your logbook or saved reports.
Change or Add a Revenue Center in Aloha
You can change or add revenue centers to your Aloha configuration and see them reflected in Avero as soon as the next day. Changing a revenue center's name will only affect the data moving forward.
To add a revenue center, or move a revenue center from one outlet to another in Avero, use our Business Mapping Instructions
To add a new outlet for revenue centers to be routed to, open a ticket with Avero Support to create the new outlet. They will provide you then information to complete Business Mapping Instructions.
To change an outlet name, open a ticket with Avero Support. Changing the name of a revenue center must be done in Aloha, but the business it reports to ('Business' box in report generator, name on the logbook) will be changed by Avero.
To remove an outlet, open a ticket with Avero Support to request it be removed from Avero. Doing so will remove access to the historical data which you may want for reports on previous years and cannot be undone, so be sure this is what you want before requesting.
Categories & Items in Aloha
Avero provides the following Global categories: Beverage, Food, Misc., Other, and Retail. The major and minor categories come from your POS. When pulling the data from Aloha, there is only one category level—this is unique to Aloha. See our complete guide to Programming Aloha For Data Quality.
To make changes to items you'll need to update Aloha - changing an item name, price, or moving it between categories.
To make changes to major/minor categories you'll need to update Aloha - changing category names, updating which items are in a category, making categories more specific.
To make changes to global categories, you'll need to open a ticket and request Avero makes the change. For example, if Appetizers are appearing under Beverage and need to be moved to Food.
When creating new Categories, they may default to Other and require a ticket to update this mapping.
To read more see: Categories
Common Problems
It is very important to keep an active connection to your POS server should you ever need Avero Support to access the server and assist. Please visit our article on Remote Access to On-site Servers.
Aloha Missing Data
Missing data happens. We invest ourselves continuously into making this process faster and more reliable, but it is not, and will never be, error-proof. The internet goes down; equipment fails, bugs pop up, etc. Occasional delays are to be expected. For Aloha systems, we provide you the ability to recover your own data on-demand, any time you notice it missing, in just a couple of clicks. This data is processed and loaded into the Avero platform automatically within 2 hours, so you don't have to wait for a support agent, have any back and forth, or wait an entire day to rerun your reports. You are able to select the date on a calendar and send it - which means you have your data when you need it.
Simple instructions that take less than three minutes are found here, see On-Premise Data Recovery: Missing / Incorrect Data
Data Discrepancies - Avero's sales data is not matching Aloha
If you notice your sales data is not matching up with your Aloha reports, there are three actions you need to complete:
- Make sure the data discrepancy exists in Avero by logging in and running a sales report. If you notice incorrect data in an emailed report, it may be related to email settings and not the data itself. See our troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting Email Reports with Missing or Incomplete Data
- Review the Differences between Aloha & Avero to make sure this isn't the discrepancy you are noticing.
- Run a Daily Sales Report from Aloha Manager for the date in question, Open a Data Ticket, attach the report and explain the discrepancy. Make sure to include the report, the date, and revenue center or location if you have access to several, as well as any examples you can provide.
Our team investigates all data discrepancies - due to the nature of our daily data extraction a single date and single-day sales report must be provided. We cannot investigate date ranges, but it is helpful to know if the issue is recurring and you can provide multiple dates.
Frequently Asked Questions About Aloha
Why don't Avero's sales look the same as my Aloha reports?
Aloha and Avero will have a variance in Gross Sales because we calculate that metric differently.
In Aloha: Net Sales = Total Item Sales + Discounts
In Aloha: Gross Sales = Total Item Sales + Discounts + Taxes
In Avero: Net Sales = Total Item Sales - Discounts
In Avero: Gross Sales = Total Item Sales
We do not consider taxes to be sales.
Is there any information Aloha doesn't export to Avero?
There are some data limitations you may notice based on what we receive from Aloha. Aloha has only one sales category level, although you can place items in additional non-sales categories. That means that in Avero you may see options for Minor Category, Major Category, Global Category but Minor & Major Category will be repeated information because Aloha only provides one level of category for items. Global Category is an Avero-supplied additional feature for high-level sales analysis and is not managed by your POS.
Aloha does not send us check transfer information, so this portion of Check Search and Loss Prevention are not available to Aloha locations.
Why do I recover missing data myself?
We've invested in improvements to our data extraction capabilities and documentation so that it is easy for users to recover their data without relying on a back-and-forth with support. We believe this creates a better user experience. Now, when users on-site follow the instructions to recover data (it takes less than 1 minute) they get immediate results and the data is loaded into the Avero platform within 2 hours. You can also open a ticket to recover missing data, but it will not load until the next day.
Does Avero pull credit card information from my Aloha system?
No. Avero pulls payment type information, such as what type of card is used and the amount of the payment from all systems. We can also pull payment reference information (what is contained depends on your configuration) and Customer Name from Aloha, if available. We do not have access to, collect or store, full credit card numbers, though the last four digits can be displayed to identify checks and payments. Whether or not this is shown depends on your POS configuration.
Can I pull back / historical data from my Aloha server?
Yes! If you are a new customer, are missing recent data, or have just added a new profit center that already had sales that weren't loaded to Avero, you can run the data extraction for previous dates. The data that is available and extractable on Aloha servers varies, but typically at least 90 days are available and up to a year may be available if stored on your server.
Instructions on running the data extraction are here: Missing / Incorrect Data