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Groqit and your business
Can I use a Groqit in my business?
The Groqit reads, displays and stores the most common retail barcodes:
the Universal
Product Code (UPC) and the European
Article Number (EAN).
Specifically, the Groqit reads all EAN and UPC codes,
including UPC-A, A+2, A+5 and UPC-E, EAN-13, +2, +5 and EAN8.
It also reads the Price Point UPC (PP-UPC), commonly used on paper-back
books. [This site can convertmost PP-UPC to the International
Standard Book Number (ISBN).]
If your inventory uses other barcode types or uses an in-house identification
system, a Groqit will not work for you.
International considerations:
The Groqit works on the two most common Global Trade Item Number formats:
GTIN-12 and GTIN-13. The former is most commonly referred to as the US/Canadian
UPC (universal price code); the latter is also known as the EAN (European
Article Number). These codes use the same font and most countries use the
EAN form. Other barcodes using the GTIN-13 format are JAN, the 13-digit ISBN, ISSN and
Bookland codes.
Can a Groqit verify my suppliers' barcodes and barcodes I print?
You can use your Groqit to verify barcodes on items you receive as well as checking printed barcodes for readability. Since the barcode is displayed when read, you can compare the numbers
printed under the barcode with the actual barcode. This is one of the unique features of the Groqit, as nothing else in the price range has a display. It also performs the standard checksum on the code, which verifies that the printed code is correctly formed.
Do I need to have my computer available?
No. A Groqit is a portable, standalone device. You can use
it almost anywhere. It does not require external power, another computer
or a wireless connection. If you travel in your business and carry
your inventory with you, your Groqit can keep track on the move.
I'm a plumber. What can a Groqit do for me?
In any craft, a small number of parts account for most of the cost. As
a plumber, you probably don't can much about how many copper elbows you've
used, but valves, gages, pressure regulators, etc. are expensive. By
creating a Category for each job, you can scan high-ticket items and know
exactly what you used for that job.
How can I use my Groqit with my existing inventory system?
The Groqit is designed with an extremely simple data storage design. Third-parties
have built programs to read and write Groqit files in only a few hours. Popular
spreadsheets can import and export Groqit files without any problems. The key is to use the | as the delimiter.
If you have barcodes in a sorted ASCII DOS format on your computer, you can create a category on your Groqit and place the barcodes in a file called "barcode" without any extension. Your Groqit, the GDA and Groqit.com will treat this file as if it was created by the Groqit.
Groqit file structure for searching.
• The file name can only have eight characters and cannot
have an extension.
• The file can contain upper case ASCII only. A-Z,
blank/space, 0-9
• Each record must be on it's own line ending with CR-LF (standard
DOS text file)
• The fields in a record are separated by the pipe character "|" (chr
124)
• The file must be sorted in ascending order.
The Groqit won't scan into my program.
The Groqit is a Personal Inventory Management System. It is not
a wand or scanning wedge. It stores data in simple flat files. Although
these files can be read by another computer, the Groqit will not operate
while plugged into the computer.
Duplicate items
Since the Groqit was designed for individuals to help them avoid buying
duplicate items, it warns you about them. It doesn't prevent
you from having duplicates, though. Within the data files, it just
adds an extra record for each duplicate. When you run a check, it
adds up all of the identical barcodes and gives you a total. When
you delete a duplicate item, it just removes one of the records.
The underlying design makes adding dozens of identical items a bit slow,
but it can be done. This may change in the future depending on demand.
Example: A simple warehouse re-stocking application
One Groqit customer wholesales DVDs. Their problem was dealing with returned merchandise. To return the DVDs to inventory, each item had to be checked against a print-out of a spreadsheet listing barcodes, titles, and bin locations.
Restocking involved three steps:
- Check each DVD and compare it to a printed list before crediting the store, because they frequently would get DVDs that were not part of their stock.
- Sorting the returns by aisle and shelf into carts. Again, looking at printed lists for location.
- Replacing DVDs in physical inventory.
The process, for a typical return shipment of 300 DVDs, was taking 16-20 hours.
The Groqit has a hidden feature that makes it useful in this application. When a barcode is scanned, the Groqit will search its BARCODE file, but if it doesn't find the code, it will then search the VERSION file, if it exists.
Here's the DVD warehouse's new method using the Groqit:
- Step 1 - A Category matching the RMA is created and a Groqit is used to scan ALL of the returns. A simple Access script compares the generated BARCODE list to the warehouse's base list and the store is credited only for correct returns.
- Step 2 - A second scan was performed against a VERSION* list of stock DVDs.
If a DVD is found, the bin location is displayed and the DVD is placed in the
correct cart for re-stocking. Any DVD that is "not found" does not
belong in their stock, so it can be set aside.
- Step 3 - The re-stocker checks each DVD before placing it on the shelf. This reduces errors.
Re-stock time was cut to less than 5 hours.
* Their VERSION file contains the barcode, a "|" as a field separator,
and a bin location. (This file only changes when they get new titles and is
a simple export from their spreadsheet.) When a sorter scans a DVD, the bin
location is displayed on the Groqit. No printout, no time wasted manually scanning
a 30-35 page list.
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