Mission:  RICS is a commonly used POS that has a data exporter that will collect data in a format that can be directly uploaded to Retail Orbit.  The purpose of this document is to outline some common questions that come up regarding the export process so that you can better understand how it works, what to expect, and what practices you need to put in place in order for Retail Orbit to receive the best data possible.

Which version of Shuttle should be installed for this POS?

N/A

Does this POS use a relational database?  How does this affect Shuttle?

Yes.  This means that when you make a change to an item (i.e., the department on the item), it automatically updates history in the POS with the changes you made.  Therefore, if we repull the historical data, the changes will be reflected in Retail Orbit as well.

How does the department mapping work for this POS?

Department mapping is set inside the RICS POS (SETUP>MANAGE STORE>Open to Buy Setup).  Here you define the Store Mapping as well as the department mapping. 

Are there any character limitations that we need to be concerned with for Shuttle to work?

We highly recommend that Class Codes should be limited to Letters and Numbers with a length not exceeding 10 characters. Shuttle currently has the following limitations:

-Maximum Number of Characters: 20 (Please note that reporting can be thrown off if the combination of class code, class name, location name and category are too long).

-Characters Accepted: A-Z, 0-9, &, /, $, +, -, #, <, >,?
-Characters NOT Accepted: |, %, ‘, `, ,(comma)

Is Shuttle able to collect 24 months of historical data, and if so, how is the historical inventory populated?

Yes, history can be obtained for 24 months, however, Inventory and On Order values are not available during this process.  To get the historic inventory values, we will need to run shuttle for the current month, and then calculate the historic inventory based on the transactions obtained during the history pull.

What options are available for collection of Markdown data?

POS markdowns are read through this shuttle.

Permanent markdowns are not available.

What dates are used when determining where to collect the Purchase Order data?

The ShipOn date is used to determine which month the On Order goes into.

How far back do we collect data on Open Purchase Orders?

The RICS export looks at all Open Purchase orders from the past.  The POS should be maintained so that any Orders that will not come in (or will not be accepted if they do come in), should be cleared out of RICS so that they don’t affect the OTB.  Please note that RICS only exports On Order for the next 10months.  Any On Order beyond 10 months will not be included in their file export.

What stops shuttle from working properly with this POS?

The RICS export is not a shuttle but rather a report that is run from the RICS POS.  It does, however, produce a file similar to the file produced by local installs of Shuttle.  While RICS does allow scheduling of reports, it cannot upload the report automatically to Retail Orbit (currently) and so the file must be uploaded manually.

Are there any other nuances with Shuttle that I need to be aware of for this POS?

Since the export and the mapping are all done within the RICS POS, if there are department changes (specifically added reports), the department mapping must be maintained inside of RICS in order to ensure we are getting all data.

If there is an issue, where do I get support?

The best place to start with support regarding the collection of data is to contact RICS support by going to their help page:  https://support.ricssoftware.com/hc/en-us .  They have knowledge base there that includes help with Open to Buy topics, as well you can submit a ticket through their system there as well.

Retail Orbit support can be reached by email at support@retailorbit.com, by phone at 520-612-2001 or by appointment at retailorbit.setmore.com

• RICS Shuttle FAQ.pdf100 KB