PDA Buyback

Owned by Dawn Brunke (Unlicensed)
Jan 31, 2020
16 min read

The Buyback Line Buster application will allow you to scan books of the students in line, print a receipt and recall the transaction in PrismCore ICS Buyback.

In addition to logging into the PDA, you must use a valid Buyback login and password that has been entered at 212 Buyback Buyers in PrismCore ICS.

How to use Buyback Line Buster

Touch the Application icon if you are in another application, Touch the Buyback icon.

Touch “Configure” to configure your login. For detailed information on how to configure your login, refer to the “Logging into an Application “ section of this document. Note that there are additional fields that are unique to logging into the Buyback application.

Store #: Enter the store # for which the buyback is being done.

Buyer Name:   Your buyback login as entered at Buyback Buyers (JUMP SEQUENCE 212) in PrismCore ICS.

Buyer Pass:      The password for your buyback login as entered at Buyback Buyers (JUMP SEQUENCE 212) in PrismCore ICS.

At the bottom of the Login Configuration screen is the version number of the Buyback application and three buttons: “Set All”, “Cancel” and “Connect”. The “Set All” button will save all configuration data entered and keep the PDA on the Login Configuration screen. The “Cancel” button will move the user back to the main Buyback select screen. If the “Set All” button is not used prior to using the “Cancel” button all newly entered configuration data will be lost.

Once you have configured your login, touch “Connect”. This will save all entered information and display the “Select Session” screen.  The buyer name and password will also be validated against PrismCore ICS. If the buyer login and password entered on the PDA are not found in PrismCore ICS at 212 Buyback Buyers, the message 501 No Data Found will display and no connection will be made. At that time, you would need to touch “Configure” and re-enter the login information.

When the PDA has successfully connected to PrismCore ICS, the screen will display “Prism Buyback”. At the bottom of the screen CANCEL and SELECT will be displayed.

To return to the Buyback Login screen, touch CANCEL. To select PrismCore BUYBACK (which is highlighted), touch SELECT.

The main buyback screen will display with the option to CONFIGURE or BUYBACK. Touch BUYBACK if you are ready to begin buyback using the PDA. If the student ID is not required, the main Buyback receipt screen will display.

If PrismCore ICS is set to require a student ID on the Location Tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213), the “Scan Student ID” window will appear. If a student ID is required but the “Scan Student ID” window does not appear, the PDA was most likely left in the middle of a buyback transaction and you should touch DELETE to refresh the ticket.

Enter the student ID in the Student ID # field, if required. You can scan the ID or manually enter it using the keyboard (kb) or Graffiti. Or, if you have a portable printer attached to the PDA, you can swipe the student ID card through the MSR reader attached to the portable printer. If you wish to scan the card using the MSR reader, you must select the “Scan” button at the bottom of the screen.

Scanning a Student ID card

If “Scan” is selected, the screen will change to display “Student ID”. You must again touch the “Scan” button at the bottom of this second screen. When the PDA is ready for the card to be swiped, the message Swipe Card will display. If you want to abort the swiping of the card, touch “Abort”.

After a Student ID number is entered, touch “Continue” to display the Buyback screen. Touch “Cancel” if you want to return to the screen where you can select between “Configure” and “Buyback”. 

When “Buyback” is selected, the main Buyback receipt screen will display. In the upper left corner, Buyback will be highlighted. The buyback receipt number will display in the upper left hand corner. If a student ID was entered, it will show in the field labeled SID (Student ID) below the receipt number.

To buy back an item, enter the item ID in the XREF field at the bottom of the screen. The item ID can be the book’s XREF, SKU, ISBN (with or without dashes) or bookkey. The XREF/SKU can be scanned or you can enter the item ID using the keyboard or

Graffiti. If you manually enter the ID, touch “Enter.”

When the item’s ID has been entered, the PDA will transmit to PrismCore ICS and retrieve the item’s information. Depending upon which type of item ID you entered, you may have only one match or you may have multiple matches. For example, if you enter the XREF or SKU, you should see only one match. However, if you enter a bookkey, you may see several matches listed on a Select screen.

More than One Match to a Bookkey

If you enter a bookkey and there is more than one match, the items will be listed on a “Select Item” screen.

Titles that match the entered bookkey will be listed in the upper portion of the screen. The ISBN will be listed on the left and the SKU, if the item has been adopted in PrismCore ICS, will be listed on the right. If the book has no ISBN the left column entry will be blank for that item. For PrismCore, if the item does not have an ISBN (such as a copy center booklet), the left column will be blank. If the item has not been adopted into PrismCore ICS (and thus does not have a SKU), the SKU will display as 00000000.

If more than five titles match the search criteria, use the scroll bar on the right side of the screen to view the additional titles.

Highlight the desired item by touching it with the stylus. When an item is highlighted, detailed information on the item will display on the lower half of the screen. The detailed information includes bookkey, imprint, binding, edition, stolen book flag, Buyer’s Guide flag and author/title.

“Cancel” and Select” will display at the bottom of the screen. To buy an item, make sure the correct item is highlighted and then touch “Select”. This will add the highlighted item to the buyback transaction and you will be returned to main buyback receipt screen. If you wish to return to the main buyback receipt screen without selecting any of the items, touch “Cancel”.

If the selected item existed on more than one buyback list, the “Select Purchaser” screen will appear.

All purchasers for the item will be listed. Use the stylus to highlight the desired purchaser. When a purchaser is highlighted, detailed information will display in the lower portion of the screen. The detailed purchaser information includes buyback status, bought quantity, need quantity, buy quantity, buyback price and POS retail price.

“Cancel” and “Select” will display at the bottom of the screen.

If you wish to return to the main buyback receipt screen without selecting a purchaser or including the item in the transaction, touch “Cancel”.

To buy the item for the highlighted purchaser, touch “Select”. When you touch “Select”, the Edit Item Screen will appear.

Information on the Edit Item screen includes ISBN, author/title, purchaser, buyback status, buyback quantity needed for the purchaser and buyback price.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see four buttons: “Lookup”, “Details”, “Cancel” and “OK”.

The buyback quantity field is located near the lower left corner above “Lookup”. The quantity in this field will default to 1 (one). On the second to last line in the window, the first field with a keyboard button, “kb”, is for the buyback quantity. This field will default to the quantity of “1”. To change the quantity, touch KB to access the keyboard.

To the right of the quantity field (above OK) is a down arrow. If you want to change the buyback price for this item, touch the down arrow. The buyback price and alternate buyback price will be displayed. Touch a price to select it. If you wish to enter a price that is not the buyback price or the alternate price, touch KB next to the down arrow to access the keyboard. If no changes are made to the price, the buyback price (as displayed in the Buy Price field) will be used.

Touch “Lookup” to view detailed information about the item, if desired.

Once in Lookup, you can touch “P”to display product information or “I” to display the inventory information. With both types of information, you can use the scroll bar on the right side of the screen (or press the scroll buttons on the top of the PDA) to view more information. When you are finished reviewing the information, touch OK to return to the Edit Item Screen.

Touch “Details” if you wish to see detailed information about the item being bought back. The buyback detail information includes purchaser, NBC purchase flag (0 means that the item is not eligible for wholesale purchaser 9, 1 means that the item is eligible for wholesale purchaser 9), buy quantity, bought quantity, need quantity, buy price, alternate price, POS retail, status, SKU, bookkey, ISBN, edition, copyright, binding, stolen book flag (0 means there is no stolen books record for this item, 1 means a stolen book record has been entered for this item), Guide flag (Y means that the item exists in the Buyer’s Guide), and author/title.

Touch “Cancel” if you want to clear all the data and return to the main buyback receipt screen without buying the item.

Touch “OK” to add the item to the transaction with the quantity and price displayed, You will be return to the main buyback receipt screen where you can search for the next item, if necessary.

Checks that Occur When an Item is Placed on a PDA transaction

As the item is added to the transaction, several checks on the item are performed. These include:

  • If the buy price is set to 0.00 (zero) the message Price must be greater than 0.00 will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message. You will be returned to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the buyback price. Make sure the buyback price is not set to zero.

  • If the buy price is set higher then the buy price on the Purchaser’s buyback list the message Temporary buy price must be less than the listed buy price will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the buyback price.

  • If the buyback quantity is set to 0 (zero) the message Buyback quantity cannot be 0 will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the buyback quantity.

  • If the entered buyback quantity is greater than the current quantity needed for the selected Purchaser the message Buyback quantity cannot exceed the need will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the quantity.

  • If the entered buyback quantity is greater than the maximum quantity set on the Location tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213) in PrismCore ICS, the message Buyback quantity exceeds the transaction maximum of # will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the quantity.

  • If the entered buyback quantity plus any quantity already entered on the current transaction for the same title exceeds the maximum quantity set on the Location tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213) in PrismCore ICS, the message Buyback quantity exceeds the transaction maximum of # will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the quantity.

  • If the entered buyback quantity is greater than the warning quantity set on the Location tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213) in PrismCore ICS, the message Buyback quantity exceeds the transaction warning of #. Accept anyway? will display. Touch “OK” to accept the quantity or touch “Cancel” to return to the Edit Item screen to edit the transaction.

  • If the entered buyback quantity plus any quantity already entered on the current receipt for the same title exceeds the warning quantity set on the Location tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213) in PrismCore ICS, the message Buyback quantity exceeds the transaction warning of #. Accept it anyway? will display. Touch “OK” to accept the quantity or touch “Cancel” to return to the Edit Item screen to edit the transaction. When the need quantity has been met for a Purchaser the message Buyback quantity is within 0 of meeting the Buy quantity will display. Touch “OK” to accept the buyback quantity or touch “Cancel” to return to the Edit Item screen.

  • If a negative buyback quantity is entered and that negative buyback quantity plus the total bought quantity is less than zero the message Cannot do negative buyback for more than the bought quantity will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the quantity.

  • If the Purchaser’s need quantity is zero and a positive buyback quantity is entered the message Can only do a negative buy for this purchaser will display. Touch “OK” to clear the message and return to the Edit Item screen so that you can edit the quantity.

  • If warning percentage for the title is met with this transaction, the message Buyback quantity is within # of meeting the Buy quantity will display. Touch “OK” to accept the quantity or touch “Cancel” to return to the Edit Item screen to edit the quantity. The message will display when the quantity on the current transaction plus the already bought quantities for the same title is greater than or equal to the total requested buy quantity multiplied by the warning percentage. For example, if total requested buy quantity is 15 and the warning percentage is 60%, the message will show as soon as a quantity of 9 are bought back (15 x .60 = 9) because PrismCore looks for a quantity that is greater or equal to the warning percentage quantity.

  • If a text is flagged in the Buyer’s Guide as needing to be checked and the Condition Box is checked on the Location tab at Buyback Session Setup (SEQUENCE JUMP 213) in PrismCore ICS, the message Have you checked this books condition? will display. If you touch “No”, the message Please check this books condition will display along with “OK”. Touch “OK” to return to Have you checked this books condition?   Touch “Yes” if you have checked the book’s condition.

  • If a text flagged as NV (No Value) in the Buyer’s Guide and you are attempting to buy it using the PDA, the message THIS BOOK HAS NO VALUE!  Are you sure you want to buy it? will display. Touch “OK” if you wish to include the no value item on the transaction or touch “Cancel”. Please note that with the PDA, you can buy a NV title for Purchaser 9 as long as the buy price is set to something other than 0.00.

  • If a stolen book record has been entered for the item, the Stolen Book flag will appear above the quantity field.

View Stolen Book Information

To view the stolen book information, touch “More” which is located to the right of the stolen book flag. The Stolen Items Detail screen will list the student names that have been entered in PrismCore ICS for stolen book records for the item.

To return to the previous screen without viewing additional information, touch “OK”.

To view detailed information on one of the records, highlight the student name and touch “Details”. Information that will display includes student ID, student name, the date the stolen book record was entered in PrismCore ICS, the first 80 characters of the stolen book comments as entered in PrismCore ICS, SKU, bookkey, author/title (note that if the stolen book comment that was entered in PrismCore ICS exceeded 80 characters, the remainder of the comment, up to 80 additional characters, will display in place of the author/title), ISBN, edition, copyright and binding.

Touch “OK” to exit the details of the stolen book record.

Once an item has been accepted and added to the buyback transaction, it will display in the middle of the main buyback receipt screen.

The main buyback receipt screen is divided into three sections. The top section applies to the entire transaction. The dollar total of the current transaction displays under the SID field. Directly to the right of the dollar total are the buttons “Print”, “End” and “Delete”. Note that these three buttons in the top portion of the screen apply to the entire transaction while the buttons near the lower portion of the screen will apply to a highlighted item only.

Functions for the PDA Transaction: Print, End, Delete

Printing a PDA Buyback Receipt with the PDA

“Print” allows a receipt to be printed for the transaction, if a PDA printer is attached. You can print a receipt at any time during the transaction before it is ended. If the student must have the receipt to receive cash for the books, be sure inform the student of this fact. In you are not entering student IDs, it will be very difficult if not impossible to match a PDA transaction to a student without a receipt number. If a receipt is required, it must be printed on the PDA before the transaction is ended.

Ending a PDA Buyback Transaction on the PDA

“End” will transmit the buyback transaction to buyback in PrismCore ICS and clear the transaction on the PDA so that a new one can be started. Once a PDA transaction is ended, you cannot print the receipt nor access the transaction on the PDA. The transaction can only be accessed in Buyback in PrismCore ICS. See PDA Buyback Transactions for more information.

Deleting a PDA Buyback Transaction on the PDA

“Delete” will prompt you Delete current data?  (This refreshes ticket).  If you touch “No”, nothing is deleted and you are returned to the main buyback receipt screen. If you touch “Yes”, the current transaction is deleted, nothing is transmitted to buyback in PrismCore ICS and the screen clears so that you can start a new transaction. 

The middle section displays the items that are included on the transaction. The quantity bought, buy price and ISBN will show. You can highlight items in this section using the stylus. If more titles are on the transaction than can be displayed in this section, use the scroll bar on the right to view additional titles. 

Functions for a Single Item on a PDA Transaction: Lookup, Details, Delete, End

The lower section of the screen contains “Lookup”, “Details”, “Delete” and “End”. Use these buttons in relation to highlighted items on the transaction. Note that the buttons in the lower portion of the screen apply only to a highlighted item on the transaction while the buttons at the top of the screen apply to the entire transaction.

“Lookup” will display specific item information for the highlighted text. In the upper right hand corner of this item detail screen will be a “P” and an “I” display selection. The “P” is for Product and displays the item’s product information. The “I” is for Inventory and displays the item’s inventory information. Touch “OK” at the Lookup screen to return to the main buyback receipt screen.

Touch “Details” to display buyback detail information for the highlighted title. Touch “OK” to return to the main buyback receipt screen.

Touch “Delete” to remove the highlighted item from the transaction.

“Edit” will take you to the Edit Item screen where you can edit the quantity or price.

Directly below these buttons is the Xref field in which you would scan or enter the Item ID of the next item to be bought.

The PDA Transactions in PrismCore ICS Buyback

Once a buyback transaction has been transmitted from the PDA to PrismCore ICS using “End”, the transaction is no longer accessible on the PDA. It is only accessible in PrismCore ICS Buyback.

A transaction that is transmitted to PrismCore ICS from the PDA is considered to be a “suspended” transaction. The transaction will remain suspended until it is completed in PrismCore ICS Buyback.

Suspended transactions are not included in any of PrismCore buyback totals. Suspended transactions are also not included in any printed buyback reports. The quantities bought back on suspended transactions will not be included in the total bought quantity for the purchaser. Quantities on suspended transactions are not included when buyback totals are posted.

Suspended transactions cannot be viewed at Buyback Transactions (SEQUENCE JUMP 216) in PrismCore ICS.

A suspended transaction must be completed in PrismCore ICS Buyback so that the PDA bought quantities can be included in PrismCore totals, reports and posting. Please note that as books are purchased in PrismCore ICS buyback, titles bought via suspended transactions on the PDA are not included in the “bought” field at Buy Books (SEQUENCE JUMP 215). Therefore, it is in your best interest to complete suspended transactions as soon as you can to keep your buyback quantities as current as possible.

Completing Suspended Transactions in PrismCore ICS Buyback

Suspended transactions must be completed at Buy Books (SEQUENCE JUMP 215) in PrismCore ICS.

Access the Buy Books screen using your buyback login and password.

Suspended transactions are selected using the “Load Susp” button on the Buy Books screen using one of two methods:

  • Use the mouse to click on “Load Susp” or Press <Alt-L>.

The Find Suspended Transaction window will appear. The default sort method is the receipt number. At this time the barcode on the printed PDA buyback transaction receipt can be scanned or the transaction receipt number can be manually entered. The list can be resorted by Buyer or Student ID.

When a suspended transaction has been selected, the transaction will be displayed on the Buy Books screen. At this time, it will no longer considered suspended and it must be treated as a normal buyback transaction. If no changes are needed, end the transaction by clicking on End Transaction (or using <ALT-T>. If necessary, the transaction can be edited or deleted.

Note :  Once a suspended transaction is selected at Buy Books (SEQUENCE JUMP 215), it must be completed.  It cannot revert back to suspended. The transaction must be either ended or deleted just as if it were originally created at the Buy Books screen.

Concerns about Suspended Transactions

The possibility of over-buying

When using the PDA for buyback, be aware that small windows of time may exist when you can inadvertently overbuy if your store’s need-to-buy quantity is close to being met.

In theory, a student could sell their books to the buyer with the PDA and then be directed to another line where they would present the PDA receipt and receive the cash for the books. It is during this time, the first buyer entering the titles on the PDA and the next buyer retrieving the transaction in PrismCore ICS Buyback in which the same titles may be bought again. If the need-to-buy quantities of one or more of these titles is close to being met or is met during this time, over-buying may occur. This is because, as previously discussed, suspended PDA transactions are not included in PRISM buyback totals until the transaction is retrieved in PrismCore ICS Buyback and is completed.

In this situation, it is possible that the same title could be bought via the PDA, then over- bought by another PDA buyer, the same PDA buyer or at any of the regular PrismCore buyback terminals before the first suspended transaction is completed. This issue could be irrelevant or fairly major depending on how you use the PDA’s Buyback Line Buster at your store.

Ideally, there should be only a short period of time between the time the student presents the books to the PDA buyer and the time the transaction is completed in PrismCore ICS. However, if the student delays in receiving their cash, the chance of over-buying may increase.

PDA Transaction Receipts

If using receipts to retrieve suspended transactions, establish guidelines such as stamping the receipt or keeping the receipt and destroying it once the student has turned it in so that it cannot be presented again. Even though the cash for the transaction should be given to the student when the transaction becomes no longer suspended, by keeping the receipt or stamping the receipt, you will avoid the possibility of a student turning the receipt in a second time and arguing that a mistake has been made, even though the computer will show the transaction as complete.