During a standard retail day, certain tasks are performed using the Transactionware product suite. On a business flow level, these tasks can be grouped into the following general areas:
Pre-Open
Store Open
Terminal Open
End of Day (EOD)
The preceding areas of business flow can be mapped to the following phases of data flow:
Pre-Open
Store Open
Opening the store
Opening the terminal
The sales day
End of Day (EOD)
Closing the terminal
End of Day processing
Polling
As an end user, whether that user is a cashier, a manager, or head office personnel, completes business flow tasks, data is created and moved or stored in some location for future reference. This creation and movement of data is known as the data flow, and is invisible to the end user. However, it is absolutely vital to the operation of the system.