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Focus POS

Updated

Avero & Focus POS

Focus is supported for Sales data and Labor data.

Avero processes and presents data from your Focus 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 IT technician) and for some changes, such as global category associations, you'll need to reach out to our support team. 

In this article:

 

About Focus POS

POS Type: On-Premise

Avero is proud to offer Free Installation & Reinstallation for Focus, and most POS systems.

Focus 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 Focus & Avero 

Focus reports are expected to match Avero's reporting in most circumstances. 

Net sales will match if there is no inclusive tax. If there is inclusive tax, then total net sales will be off by the inclusive tax amount. There is no way to see this at the category level, only in total. Discounts will not match because Avero backs the inclusive tax amount out of discounts.

Installation & Reinstallation on Focus

Focus is an on-premise system that is installed by an Avero technician. Once your subscription is enabled, your salesperson will open a case with our Installs Team, and they will provide you the necessary information to prepare for your install; then you'll schedule an appointment when you're ready.

There are 3 steps to installing Avero. 

Step 1 - Prepare

First, you'll prepare for the installation. This means following the checklist below, to 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!). 

Step 2 - Submit your Request

Fill out this form with all your POS information.  Make sure the above step is completed before submitting the form. 

 

Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes for Focus 

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 Focus

Whenever meal periods are changed in Focus they need to be updated in the Avero DEU to reflect the change. 

To inform Avero of meal period changes in your Focus system, open a request with Avero Support and detail what is changing. 

Important to note - Meal Period changes/additions will not automatically update your logbook or saved reports. 

Change or Add a Revenue Center in Focus

You can change or add revenue centers to your POS 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. Avero Support cannot change or edit your revenue centers for you. 

Categories & Items in Focus

Avero provides the following Global categories: Beverage, Food, Misc., Other, and Retail. The major and minor categories come from your POS. 

To make changes to items, you'll need to update Focus - changing an item name, price, or moving it between categories.

To make changes to major/minor categories, you'll need to update your POS - changing category names, updating which items are in a category, making categories more specific, and changing minor to major category relationships. 

To make changes to global categories, you'll need to open a ticket and request that 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. 

Focus 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 your system, 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 Focus

If you notice your sales data is not matching up with your POS reports, there are three actions you need to complete:

  1. 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
  2. Run a Register Report from Focus for the date in question that shows the figures that aren't matching, Open a Data Ticket, attach the report and explain the discrepancy. Make sure to include the report, the date, and the 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 Focus

Why don't Avero's sales look the same as my Focus reports?

Avero and Focus generally do not have variances, except for voids from deleted checks missing. If you are experiencing a data discrepancy, run sales reporting from Focus to show the discrepancy, Open a Data Ticket, attach the report and explain the discrepancy. 

Is there any information Focus doesn't export to Avero?

There are some data limitations you may notice based on what we receive from Focus.

Focus does not send the following data points: 

  • Order Type Information
  • Transferred Check Information
  • Sales: Cashier Information
  • $0 Modifiers (Read more about this here: Modifiers)
  • Labor: Adjustment Info - Avero will not display that timeclock punches were adjusted

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 Focus system?

No. Avero pulls payment type information, such as what type of card is used and the payment amount from all systems. We can also pull payment reference information (what is contained depends on your configuration) and Customer Name from Focus, 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 Focus 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, however, you must request that Focus makes historical dates available in your data feed folder. 

Instructions on running the data extraction are here: Missing / Incorrect Data

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