Random Weight Barcodes on Harbortouch Retail

Description: Review how Random Weight Barcodes work on the Harbortouch Retail POS system below. 

---

Random Weight, or Price Embedded, barcodes are primarily used for un-packaged items, like deli products such as meat and cheese.

• A Deli department will have a label printing scale of their own where they will punch in the PLU code for that particular product on that scale, weigh it, and then print out a barcode label from the scale and attach it to the wrapped product.
• This product with the price embedded price code is then brought to the cashier and rung up on the POS. 

These types of labels are typically used at a deli or butcher shop where the employee weighs the item, prints a label with the weight and price, and the POS is able to understand the bar code and input the item when it's scanned.

Posted below is an example of a random weight barcode. The first yellow box is the PLU or SKU. The second box is the price of the item. HT Retail will look at these two sections while it’s scanning and pull the correct SKU and the price of the item off the barcode without syncing with the scale.

Important: There are no label printing scales that are directly integrated with our POS systems because this is a third-party setup. As long as the scale prints either EAN13 or UPC-A barcodes, it will work with HT Retail and our scanner. You are responsible for programming your deli scales with the PLU codes and unit price for the barcode to print properly and be accurately read by the POS.

The best way to see if the scale/label printer is compatible with HT Retail is to send us sample labels and we can test them in-house. Below is an example of a random weight barcode: 

PLUs

Price Look-Up Codes, also known are PLU codes or PLU barcodes, are identification numbers that are fixed to items in order to make check-out and inventory control easier, faster, and more accurate.

PLU Codes are usually four digits long, with numbers ranging from 3000-4999. However, there may be a fifth leading digit added for some “non-conventionally grown” products, such as a 9 for organic produce or 8 for genetically modified produce.

Regardless of the length of the PLU, this number can be manually entered on the POS to look up select inventory items, whether or not a scale is involved.

Random Weight Barcode Labels

Using the barcode label above as a specific example, this price-embedded barcode consists of five parts:

2 00001 8 0754 1

• 2 – This is the leading check digit (flags the barcode as price embedded)
• 00001 – This is the PLU of the product
• 8 – Check digit of the PLU
• 0754 – The price of the product (here, $7.54)
• 1 – The check digit of the price

To have this read by the POS and be recognized as the “All Natural Uncured Ham” product, the inventory item will need to be created in a specific way.

The five-digit PLU must be entered into the SKU field, and it will need to have both ‘Partial Qty’ and ‘Unit’ selected in the product’s details, as well as the unit price per pound (in this example, $3.99).

Keep in mind if you have already entered a similar UPC, that will be the first target of HT-Retail, and it will bypass the price-embedded functionality in favor of the lookup/UPC. So those must not only be deactivated, they must be deleted entirely from the POS beforehand.

If you use Random Weight Barcodes on HT-Retail, one of the following two formats MUST be used:

EAN13 – 13 digits

02 1111 x 00444 y

02 (default leading characters) 1111 (4 digit PLU) x (Check digit) 00444 (Price, first 3 digits are dollar amount, last 2 are cents, so in this case $4.44) y (check digit)

So an EAN13 barcode of 0211118004448 would give you SKU 1111 for $4.44.

UPC-A – 12 digits

2 12345 0 1234 5

2 (default leading digit for UPC-A Type) 12345 (5 digit PLU) 0 (check digit) 1234 (price 2 decimal places, so 12.34 in this case) 5 (check digit)

So UPC-A barcode of 212345012345 will get you SKU 12345 at $12.34.

The maximum price in either of these scenarios will be $999.99. The pricing and SKU check digits are calculated by the scale that prints out these labels for the customer.

Important: If your scale is printing the EAN-13 variety, HT-Retail automatically removes the leading zero, and it will not recognize the barcode. Either set the printer accordingly or set the barcode scanner to not recognize leading zeroes using the Scanner booklet. (NOT RECOMMENDED in cases where your other inventory has leading zeroes, this solution is provided only as a last-resort fail-safe).