[Revised Nov 14]
Different Rounding Types on RxOne
From the RxOne Start Menu go to Tools, Options and POS Settings. There are several rounding options:
Option 1 Round all the time
In options if Round On Cash Only is unticked then all prices will be a multiple of the Lowest Coinage, i.e. 5c,10c
The pharmacist has a choice of Round Up, Round Down and Round Nearest
Option 2 Round On Cash Only
In Options if Round On Cash Only is ticked then RxOne will round in the following places:
- When calculating Cash Out or Cash Totals
- When calculating Change
- For Patient Price in Dispensary
The pharmacist has a choice of Round Up, Round Down and Round Nearest
Option 3 Global Rounding (Psychological Pricing)
See Price Points. There is a special Global Rounding program available for RxOne for which there is a charge. Please contact HealthSoft if you are interested in using this.
Design Considerations
After discussion with many pharmacies who had tried different methods, it became apparent that there is no rounding method that is acceptable to all customers.
Swedish rounding has been tried... that is all items priced to 1c, and the grand total rounded where 28c, 29c, 31c and 32c all go to 30c, whereas 33c, 34c, 36c, 37c all go to 35c. This caused a surprising amount of disagreement from customers, some of who stormed out vowing never to return when $3.28 was rounded to $3.30.
So, instead the program rounds at item level, thus an item whose raw retail works out at $3.57 is rounded to a retail of $3.60. There is therefore no problem since a price of $3.57 cannot appear on the sale since it is stored at $3.60. What the customer sees is what they pay. Of course, this makes it impossible to have the item displayed at $3.99, it has to be either $3.95 or $4.00. However, what is lost on some items where the decision is made to round down is more than gained back from those where it rounds up…. $3.57 to $3.60.
There will be users who will feel passionately that it should price to 1c and use Swedish rounding. There will be others who will be equally passionate for item-level rounding so that you avoid all the arguments. Both sides (and there will be others) will not only know what they want but also be sure that all 'Right thinking' people would feel the same and that anything else is wrong (and probably illegal and immoral as well).
There is no right answer on this… in one way the problem is that of having a debased currency whose l smallest currency unit does not have a coin. But on the other hand, even when 1c coins existed the problem still existed in that a price could come out to $3.575 which was rounded to $3.58 because there was no 1/2c coin. Now there is no coin less than 5c, so by the same reasoning one rounds the unit retail price to the size of the smallest coin, thereby avoiding arguments.
Apply Rounding /Apply No Rounding’ option in stockcard
[this option added Nov 14]
a) If psychological pricing (price points) is switched on and you do not want to apply psychological rounding to a particular stock item, then go to the stockcard and select ‘Apply No Rounding’ in the stockcard.
You can apply this change to a range of product in Bulk Stock Edit utility. Under Tools, Stock Utilities, Bulk Stock Edit Utility, use the filters available to bring up the selected stockcards. Click on the ‘Select Option’ tab. Tick ‘Rounding type’, then select ‘Apply no rounding’.
b) In rare situations you may have the option ‘Apply Rounding on Cash Only’ unticked. I.e. you’ve chosen to round the retail prices at the stockcard level. If there is a particular card that you don’t want to round, click on ‘Apply no rounding’ in the stockcard.
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