Nov 21

Take a Tour of BeanCounter

Take a guided tour of the BeanCounter software with this 5 minute video. Don’t like to watch videos? Read the transcript below.

Transcript

Introduction

Still managing your vending operation with phone calls, text messages, and notes written on paper?

Still keeping all your machines’ service histories in file folders?

Still doing math in your head?

BeanCounter can help you and your staff get your work done more easily and more efficiently.

It makes the job of servicing vending and coffee machines a whole lot easier – and lets the staff at head office see what’s happening in real time.

BeanCounter is web-based and mobile friendly, and it works on practically any modern computer or mobile device. The BeanCounter system doesn’t require any additional expensive hardware or integration – you can start getting value from it immediately.

Here’s a quick tour of how it works:

Manager Dashboard

As a manager, your dashboard shows you at a glance what service visits are scheduled, and how your staff is making progress. The map points are colour-coded by servicer, with a different shade once they’ve finished a visit.

The machines listing shows you all your machine locations in one place – and you can even do a quick search by name or address.

The machine profile shows all the important information about a machine, including upcoming visits and service history – all in one place and accessible from any device anywhere.

The scheduling interface lets you quickly and easily assign upcoming service visits.
One very useful feature is the field for automatic follow-up visits.

Servicer Dashboard

Then as a servicer in the field on a mobile device, your dashboard shows you where you need to go today, complete with a map.

Tapping on a visit lets you see an overview, with the address, map, and any notes entered. Simply tap to start.

Note that as soon as the visit is started, the management dashboard is updated to show that it is in progress. No more phone calls or text messages to see if your staff are on site yet!

BeanCounter is built with flexibility in mind, to support many different workflows and types of machines. Here we’re going to show the two most popular: vending machines and coffee machines, but it can be customized to fit your particular requirements.

Vending Machine Visit

Here’s how a vending machine service call works:

First you record the meter levels. No more writing things down on paper or doing math in your head or trying to decipher bad handwriting. Just enter the numbers into these fields. BeanCounter automatically gets the previous values and shows you the differences instantly.

Then come the counts.
Most vending machines have a “par” of stock per item. This is already tracked in the machine profile. You don’t need to know the par – just count how many items are left and then enter that into the fields.

Also, at the bottom BeanCounter is actively cross-referencing with the meter counts from the first panel, so you can immediately catch any discrepancies.

Now the next step is restocking. This is where BeanCounter is super helpful. Based on the values entered in the last screen and the pars stored in the machine record, BeanCounter can show EXACTLY how many of which item needs to be restocked. This can save lots of extra carrying and trips back to your vehicle. While you’re stocking, you can even mark items as stocked so you can quickly see how much you still need to do.

Then you get a set of customizable “don’t forget!” reminders and a place for notes.

Then you’re done and ready for the next visit on their list.

Meanwhile back at head office, the visit is now marked as completed, and the map pin has a different colour.

Coffee Machine Visit

Let’s take a look at a coffee machine visit:

First you enter the counts recorded per button in the machine. You can also note if the machine counts were reset on this visit or not. Note that it tracks the totals at the bottom as you type.

Then you enter how much was used or restocked. Each machine can have different items specified.

Then you can enter any money recovered from the coin box etc. Different kinds of machines and business models have different ways of handling payment, so this part of the system is very flexible and can be customized to fit your particular way of doing business.

On the activities panel, you see all the things you might need to do during a visit.
These are customizable by vendor and machine type. Just tap on the things you’ve done.

Finally there’s a space for entering notes about the visit, as well as “DON’T FORGET” box at the top – customizable by type as well.

Auto-Followup

Back to the manager experience: if you go to the calendar view, you can see the completed visits have a different colour. You can also see the next follow-up visits have already been scheduled for a week from today.

Conclusion

The BeanCounter system has been built to be modular and extensible, so it can be adapted to any kind of location-based service machine – from water coolers to institutional payphones.

Please contact us if you want more information or to sign up for a free trial.