Looking into ideas on the reverse shopping cart for specific items for a vendor. Did some brief research. It sure would be nice if we could use existing tools to search for PO items. Then once they show up, be able to do the reverse shopping cart stuff. This feature has been requested many times, clear back from 2009 and 2010. Maybe a switch or something to help use the same pages. Started looking at other bulk tools. Small tweak to the bulk transfer parts page. I was checking it out and then looking at other bulk tools.

On a client meeting. We had four adilas folks on and they had three or so of their staff. We bounced all over the place. These are some of my notes:

- Too long to check out a customer. They want it faster with less clicks. As a note, if the items are in the system and they have a valid quantity, it goes really fast and smooth. Just scan it and it adds it to the cart.

- Being able to sell items that they don't have. Basically, we have them doing sub inventory for full inventory and cost controls. That's pretty tight and dosen't allow for selling into the negative. They haven't really checked to make sure everything is in the system and have already gone live (using it with their actual customers for full invoice creation and checkout). When something isn't in there, it is taking them a bit of time to enter it and get the customer out the door. They have to call a manager over and get the item into the system. In my mind, that's trying to go too fast without checking to make sure that their items are in there.

- They wanted full enterprise functionality - they have multiple stores and want to be able to change things in one place and then have that data cascade down to the other stores (separate systems or worlds). Some of that functionality already exists but some of that is still in the works.

- They are struggling and need help. They want us to be right there holding their hands. We had one of our guys onsite for over a week. This is now a couple of weeks later. Not everybody got trained.

- One of their needs is to be able to take EBT (electronic benefit transfers) - government payment type like modern food stamps. One of our guys is working on a solution that already has that integrated into the payment process and gateway stuff.

- Talking about expectations and requirements.

- One of our developers is helping them with a new QuickBooks API setup. We have never done this before and it's pretty deep. Basically, they sell items using adilas and then it does a nightly post out to the QuickBooks API web app. Lots of moving parts and customer mappings (matching up categories, items, id numbers, tokens, etc.)

- They are feeling an urgency level. I fully understand but they need to communicate. We jump on things as soon as we can but they want it right now.

- There are some terminology differences (almost barriers). We call things one thing and they call certain things another thing. That is a huge piece of the puzzle. We love to help our clients speak their own language (through settings); we just need to know (communication breakdown).

- We got most of the main employees trained. However, there is a lack of training for managers. That's good to know. We didn't know that there was a gap.

- Looking for speed at every action or transaction

- Wanting min and max quantity buffers. Not just mins and maxes, but also reorder mins and maxes based on case sizes and packaging. Deeper controls.

- Faster checkout options

- Be able to auto open the next subs (child packages), Be able to open and close subs through settings or automation. If they have problems with subs, they are calling over a manager and that takes time. If it's all in there, it goes pretty fast. They had us bulk update (aka fake the quantities) to get them using it quickly. Now that is biting both of us (them and us) as not everything is really ready to go. If it's there and in the system, the system is playing just fine. It's where the items aren't in the system or they don't really have the quantities in correctly. Once again, they asked us to help bulk update things for them to get them going. No one is really managing the input side so it makes it look like it's running out of quantity.

- They have 16,000 SKU's. That's a lot of items and products. Also, not all are the same or treated the same.

- There are so many ways to set things up (settings) - that's good and bad. If you get the settings correct, you are good to go. If not, you are fighting against the system. It comes down to education and setup. Most things are possible or have a flow but you have to know how to set it up in order to take advantage of the functionally that is built in.

- Talking about labels and subs - they want full control but want to run everything from a manufacture's barcode. You can do that, but you need to be on top of it. The other option is to label everything and then you don't have to worry because everything has its sub label and points to the correct sub or child package.

- Possible new settings or sub inventory rules - Maybe selling out of the oldest sub package if the item has multiple packages. Currently, if there are multiple packages, the system prompts for which one to use. They don't want their cashiers doing anything other than taking monies. It comes down to - how tight do you want your inventory levels?, Costs, margins, etc.?

- We talked about inventory items and how to treat them (unlimited, parent only, subs or child packages - parent/child)

- Almost wanting mini conversions (without all of the pain of setting those things up). Mini conversion are dealing with cases, packaging, sub amounts, and how do you buy it, and how do you sell it? What's the lowest common denominator? Drops, cups, quarts, gallons, pieces, singles, cases, bundles, etc.

- Each company has different business processes (how deep, loose, tight, etc.). This topic can get really deep.

- They are really wanting to know what their costs are (with all kinds of items). It gets tricky with deli level costing (unlimited items and COGS on the P&L through expenses), talks about operations and accounting and how we (they) mix those pieces, what are the rules? They want to look at a sales report and see all of the margins (not all the way to the accounting side of things), they want strict control for 95% of their items and super flexible on the other 5% of their items. We have some options for that, but you need to set things up (training, education, and consulting).

- They are missing some steps (clicking to make new sub inventory packages). They are altering things on the fly vs having a normal or standard proceedure.

- For PO's - they would love bulk tools (reverse shopping cart page - including new sub inventory - in bulk). They want the reorder process to be more automated and easier. It's all there, you just have to use the existing tools. They almost want an AI (artificial intelligence) level to help them restock and reorder. That would be cool, but we don't have that yet.

- Talking about processes for their stores

- Going back to maybe a new setting for flexible subs (open and closing subs behind the scenes)

- Quick payment and checkout options

- On credit card settings - making them stick - they have had to change it back and forth a couple of times (which terminal is associated with which register). Along with credit card stuff, they would like more error handling for card processing (swipe, EMV chip, visa gift card, etc.). Basically, if the system sees a credit card, it can handle any type without human interaction. We totally can do these different types, but the user has to help the system know which way to process things. One of the things that has been a little tough has been Visa gift cards (non EMV cards on EMV reader terminal).

- On their PO's - they want the part reference number to show up and be able to toggle on/off certain columns. They also want the new columns to show up on the searches and the printable PO's. We had the idea to maybe add an if/then logic piece looking for the part reference fields. They would like to duplicate PO's with subs (children), bulk upload of new inventory (csv based) - template based, and have more bulk updating tools (all kinds of things). They want it faster and more versatile. They want to be able to update costs, prices, vendors, etc. - all in bulk. We offer some of that, but you have to be careful if everything ties back to the accounting. You can't just change things like that. Costs and vendors are tied to payables, financials, and inventory value levels. You can't just change stuff like that without cause and effect relationships being affected.

- They would like to be able to change a vendor on an item (you can do it, but they want it easier).

- There was a request for a save and upload over and over again (a template and then bulk update the pieces). Basically, instead of using the system, using spreadsheets to control things in bulk. That sounds great but creates major disconnects between inventory values, accounting for costs, and matching up different systems. The best option is in-application bulk tools vs trying to crisscross and use spreadsheets for bulk updates.

- They want us to loop over one of their vendors (Walnut Creek) and update all barcodes to 12 digits. When they gave us the data, the system took off all of the zeros padding the numbers. For example: Say the barcode was 000000055555, it saw it as a number and only put in the 55555 value and took off the seven front 0's.

- This was new, they have a standalone deli scale(s) that prints complex barcodes on the fly. They scan it and then they wonder why the system can't read that complex barcode. It can, it just doesn't know what to do with it. We have to teach it or setup a way to parse or break the barcode apart. For example: which characters are the item, the cost, the quantity, etc. We need to do some complex barcode mapping. Sean will help track that down and work with the client. This was a new requirement that we didn't know about until today at the meeting.

- Reorder mins and maxes (more than just numbers - dealing with cases and even at the ordering level) - not just quantities - also tied to case sizes (for example a case of 12 per order), on the mins and maxes - be able to record that per item and then have that show up on either PO search results or PO bulk tools (almost a suggested order size). Basically, some advanced min/max quantity and reorder buffers.

- What are the timelines to get things done? We need to figure that out.

After the client left, we just had the adilas team on the meeting. Here are a few other notes:

- Making the PO process even faster (almost AI type level) - helping and making suggestions.

- Maybe allowing subs to go into the negative (tied to possible setting - we may want to think about this)

- They are trying to mix locations and sales (sales from the main store with sales from the warehouse without having it show up on the correct store).

- Auto close/open subs

- Everything that they are talking about is based on settings, new settings on subs - go to the next one and just sell it from there (regardless of what the package availability is)

- We can tell, the clock is ticking. What is our first priority and how can we help them? Development, training, education, settings, etc.?

- Being able to parse the deli scale barcode, we already do some complex labels (being able to decode that info), Sean is going to ask them about the complex deli labels.

- On the new sub settings... help setup the rules (ways to help us play), what about negative subs (what could we do there?), negative subs could cause problems with accounting

- ICC's (internal cost controls or internal cost corrections) - older project to update parent costs (backwards - looking up inbound quantities and costs and matching things up to outbound costs and quantities) - this would end up doing an auto leveling of things out.

- We talked about possible deal breakers

- We were talking accounting and costs. Average cost is or has a number of problems. We also talked about LIFO (last in first out) and FIFO (first in first out), and cost over time (stepped actual).

- Talking about bins and actual costs (bulk inventory or specific packages)

- We are planning to stay with the subs (child inventory) and loosen it up a bit.

- Talking about the reverse shopping cart (building a bulk PO or order or re-order), easy ordering process with mins and maxes and reorder quantity (case sizes and such).

- Good inventory requires maintenance. How can we help with some of the maintenance issues on the inventory control side of things?

- Prioritize things and then chip away on things

- We may want a re-order homepage (help them out)

- Speed to do things (automating things) - keep making it faster and faster and easier and easier.

- Enterprise things (updates) up and down (costs and barcodes). Automating processes across corporations or across worlds.

Anyways, kinda a long meeting. There was some good information and great feature and product requests that were made. I know it hurts sometimes, but if we actually listen to our clients, they will tell us what they want and need. We then harvest those ideas (idea farming) and keep building a better and better product, application, and platform. Good stuff!

Meeting with Cory on projects. She had a pretty long list for today. Lots of different topics. We talked about clients and requests for more settings for printing invoices, being able to share item photos between corps by reference (new request), API socket feeds for outside websites, merchant processing needs such as tips, new hardware, customer tokens, saving card data for non-card present transactions, and which gateways to connect to. We spent some time talking about how hopefully an integration with DataCap could help some of those things (stopping all of the one-to-many maintenance requirements).

Another big topic for the day was what we were calling stacked taxes. I've never seen this before. This was basically, do a sub total, tax it one way, then subtotal all of the previous taxes and items and then tax that new subtotal again. Here's the kicker... the request was for at least three levels deep (tax of a tax of a tax). I imagine that we would need to make it open, in case it got deeper. Once again, I've never seen this before. This was the first time seeing subs break into sub of subs and super smaller pieces.

Cory and I did some light quoting and figuring out how much some of these projects would cost or what they would take to get that done. Towards the end, we covered a few other topics. One was a bulk tool request for building and populating PO's by vendors and by part categories. Almost a reverse cart or reverse shopping cart way of building a PO and adding bulk items at a time. We looked into a possible bug on PO payments. We'll have to dig a little deeper on this one. Also, we added a little bit of client-side validation on the add/edit elements of time page for the main title or caption field. Busy session.

When I got on the call, Steve and Sean were already talking about sales. Sean said that as he was calling some our clients, they wanted an easy way to add multiple things at once to a PO. Basically an add bulk option. For example: Say you were adding in bowling balls and you entered the main bowling ball product name. It may show you the 6 pound balls, the 8 pound balls, and the 10 pound balls. Currently, you have to click on one and say - I got 3 of these. You then have to do the search again and click on the next ball and add those. They would like to be able to add multiple values at once.

As a side note, there has been mentioned earlier, options for PO's to be like a reverse shopping cart for PO's. Currently, the shopping cart allows for a simple search and multiple items may be added to the cart at once. We would love to make something similar for PO's. Just another request for such a feature.

The guys were talking about internal funding options and even selling some of the code and development for certain business verticals. Say for instance WanderWays (camp adilas). We have already put in $60K+ on that project. If we wanted to, we could virtually sell all of that prep work and R&D and then let someone else run with it. Basically, a way of pioneering ideas and concepts and then finding good owners for those pieces. All part of an adilas core platform and virtual ecosystem that rides on top of the business platform. Fun ideas and exploring.

As a side note, we keep talking about "fracture" as an upcoming project for adilas. In a way, it is already happening. Maybe we just need to keep letting it happen and help it along the way with some loving guidance with little tweaks here and there to make sure it fractures like we want it to. Just for fun, I have a post-it note on my desk with a date of 6/22/17 with a statement from Steve about fracture. He said that it might be a fun business name. Over three years later... it is already starting to happen. I'm also excited about the other ideas that we've been gathering up over the past months and years that go along with that. Good stuff.

Later on in the conversation, we started talking about checks and balances. We drew out a model with the US government and the three branches (legislative, judiciary, and executive) and talked about how they help to run checks and balances on each other. We, at adilas, would love to have some pieces in place that did similar things. They could run independently of each other but could also provide some checks and balances to each other. That would be really cool. Just for fun, see attached for a quick screenshot. We are still figuring out the adilas side of things, but we liked the concept.

We also talked about core pieces, outside 3rd party solutions, and inside 3rd party solutions (hybrids). Lots of options. Eventually everything that we have has to interact with the core or main platform. That's where we need to focus and put the correct checks and balances in place.

Dealing with sales, Steve and Sean were talking about Danny wanting to get CPA's (certified public accountants) on board and pitching our services. If a company gets help from their CPA, gets tax help, tax prep, and other consulting, it makes our product more sticky (in a good way). Fun discussion and conversation.

Going back to the adilas checks and balances, we offer a ton of different services. In a way, all of those services could fit under the adilas marketplace. That's not a for sure, but we wanted to record the idea.

The last concept we were talking about was the system core and platform and how we could virtually design what verticals go on that platform. As they get developed and designed out, we could find people (other businesses) that wanted to run those business verticals. If anything went wrong or whatever, we could always buy them back and run them from our internal teams. Lots of options. In a way, we help people and companies to build and run their own white labels. We have developers, a huge dynamic platform, and tons of other services. We also allow others to build their dreams and run it on our platform. Lots of options to mix and blend.

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Help to explain the graphic... The top left has a city looking figure... this is for industry specific business verticals. Eventually, we want to build out parts of the system that will be industry specific (like different buildings in a city). There are the words - checks and balances and US Gov or Government. It then shows a three-way figure with L, J, and E (branches of government - legislative, judicial, executive). Down lower, it has another three-way figure. This is the adilas version. It has the top as the adilas system or adilas core. The bottom right is Edu or education. The bottom left is services or clients or revenue (who is paying for what). It then shows a line saying the word hybrid... this means we could mix parts of the system, the services, and the education pieces into something that we could offer through the adilas marketplace. The term "AM" in the graphic is for the adilas marketplace. Hopefully that helps explain the graphic a little bit better. This explanation was actually added on 10/10/25, as I was doing some research on the reverse shopping cart.

Great little meeting with Jonathan Wells. We had Steve, Cory, Jonathan, and myself on the meeting. Cory was only able to stay for the first little bit. The main subject was dealing with a dashboard of sorts and mock-ups and samples in the fracture interface (future project for adilas).

Super cool mock-ups, tons of potential. We are going to be pitching some of these mock-ups to current and perspective clients. See attached for a number of screenshots.

Some other topics that we discussed are: investments, prototypes, reverse shopping carts (brining products into the system), global master lists, virtual catalogs and being able to copy values from the catalogs, predictive buying and selling trends, thresholds with maxes and mins, and other topics. Good stuff.

So, we had a client request a PO/Order wish list. This would be something that all parties could add to (what do we need and/or want). Once it is saved, it could be reviewed and then converted into a new request PO (order) or a whatever. This could be per vendor.

I was talking to Steve about it, and he had tons of ideas. This is not a real project yet (keyword yet). Here were some of the things that he was talking about.

- A reorder homepage

- Maybe have a backend system that helps with weighted values (what sells, how fast does it move, how long does it take to cycle, profit margins, etc.)

- We talked about meta data (data about the data) on each item. We could review, bulk add, remove, ignore, etc.

- Steve really wants to be involved with this project

- We talked in earlier days about a reverse shopping cart. Currently, the shopping cart is used for quotes and invoices. Wouldn't it be cool if we could do the same thing for making an order and/or wish list.

- Steve kept talking about an algorithm to help with the weight and the way the items were treated (basically a backend super program that helps make decisions)

- Settings, how to figure those values, rules, assignments, etc.

Anyways, just wanted to record a couple of those ideas. Once again, if possible, Steve really wants to be involved with this project. 

Went in to town to meet with Industrial Tool & Supply. We setup some new dates for a test and dry-run and also a live inventory counting date and go live date. I spent about 2 hours with Mindy, the head accounting lady. We went over lots of flow and even popped in and made a number of new expenses. We altered some location and tax settings and answered some other questions that she had. She is picking things up and doing very well.

One of the requests that Mindy has is to help with PO's, ordering, and vendor terms and discounts. For example, say you have some items that you need. If you pay prior to the vendor invoice getting too old, you get a discount. Say something like 20 net 10 (you get a 20% discount if you pay your bill within 10 days). Anyways, I asked Mindy if she would be willing to help work with us to get some of the vendor discounts and vendor special terms worked out and available in the system.

I also spent some time with the main manager, talking about needs and options for our dry-run and go-live dates and events. The other guy that I spent some time with was the IT or tech guy, Zak, we talked about bulk tools, possible import items and prices tools, API sockets, and a digital wish list for ordering. We went over some existing ideas and also how a new idea and/or concept might be really nice if we could gather up all of the wish lists (and/or needs per vendor) and then be able to look at that and use the wish list to help make and/or create the new PO (purchase order). We also talked about a way to keep things clean and easy so that if a certain wish list item was not needed, it could go away without any problem. On the other hand, if something was needed, it could be used to help build out the PO in a quick almost reverse shopping cart type manner. Just for the record, we could use a wish list PO, JSON storage, or something else to help capture the wish list items and then be able to push them out to a real PO or something. Some cool ideas.