Count yourself lucky if you are one of the fortunate few working for retailers who will not have to handle customer cash transactions from January 1st next year.

Usually it's a simple process. You hand the item for purchase to the sales assistant, who will either swipe the item's barcode in front of the scanner or enter the price manually. "£1.57 please," says the assistant, and you hand over the money, wait for your change and off you go.

The Retail Training Kit produced by the Forfβs EMU Business Awareness Campaign, and distributed to over 40,000 retail outlets around the State, offers step-by-step advice on how sales assistants should handle the six-week period of dual circulation.

For instance, when customers hand over amounts in both Irish pounds and euros the next steps should be followed. The price is €23.86. The customer hands over a €20 euro and £4.

The assistant converts the £4 - using the euro calculator provided in the Forfβs pack - to euros, making €5.08, and so the assistant should confirm this total amount to the customer ("That's a total of €25.08 you tendered").

The pack even provides advice for dealing with those customers who have been living on another planet for the past couple of years.

Listen to the customer, the guide advises. If he or she asks "these prices look a lot dearer, did you increase your prices?", the assistant should not say "I don't know", "they make it very complicated", "they should have left the Irish pounds", "it's not my fault" or "they probably did increase the prices".

Instead, the assistant should try to empathise with the customer and explain the process and the dual display of prices. Ensure the customer understands.

Expect longer queues at all retail outlets near you.