Dynasty, the chain of retail fashion accessories outlets, did a combination of in-store and classroom euro-related training for its 150 staff from 28 shops.
"We started planning last July and training began in August. We don't envisage any problems at this stage. The staff have been very interested and very enthusiastic about it," says group managing director Mr Cyril Walsh.
It helped that most of the staff are young.
"We found that to be the case. People who travel are well-used to having one or more currencies and they are familiar with computer packages."
He estimates that the training programme cost them between £25,000 (€32,000) and £30,000.
"On site, we had a till set up with the new euro software which came from our service provider, Retail Integration; they run our electronic point-of-sale system.
"We did the training ourselves. We have a euro coordinator, Charlene Dennehy, who went around all the stores. It was managed by our finance director, Angela Cahill, who ensured she did system tests and spoke to a number of different service providers to ensure she had a seamless package that integrated the accounting and payroll.
"The other key person was Elizabeth O'Leary, the personnel manager, who had the extraordinarily difficult task of scheduling training in all of the different stores."
He said the group did not have a set budget for the changeover training.
"This was simply because we wanted the job done properly and decided expense was not going to be a limiting factor."
Dynasty shops - located in shopping centres all over the State, with nine in Dublin and four in Cork - are open on December 31st, closed on New Year's Day and open again on January 2nd.
"Our scanning system continues exactly as before. Everything is dual-priced in the stores. On January 1st, the day our system upgrades, our central electronic point-of-sale computer dials into all our stores and changes the sequence of each transaction so the options are changed for the sales assistant using the computer.
"Every person would have spent one-to-two hours on a role-play exercise and, with and without the till, they are trained to be able to use a calculator if the system is down."
Mr Walsh does not foresee any security problems with two currencies in operation at the same time.
"We have taken delivery centrally of euro notes and coins and they are being delivered to the stores at the last minute. There is a cost factor in that, yes. Minimising the number of notes and coins means additional cost for extra deliveries."
