Switching on the till

The till is the counter screen of the same application that runs on a warehouse handheld. On a new installation the function is disabled by default, and the till addresses answer as though they did not exist. Before a cashier can serve a customer, six separate conditions have to be met: an active setting, a device enrolled as a till, the shop that device sells for, a person with a PIN, the permission carried by that person’s role, and an open shift.

This page goes through the configuration in an order that removes the blocking points one at a time. Each of them is reported on a different screen, so a step taken out of order produces a message about something other than the step being worked on.

Before you start

The device has to reach an https address. The camera and offline working both require a secure context. On a plain http address the browser blocks both, and the application reports it. → The terminal app

An operator account that is not an administrator is required. A terminal PIN cannot be assigned to an administrator account, and the module rejects the attempt instead of weakening the sign-in.

A sales channel of the Point of sale type has to exist. The channel determines prices, tax and order numbering, and it is named on the device while the device is being enrolled. The type is not a label: it is how the rest of the module recognises a counter sale, and a till selling through an ordinary storefront channel is read as a web order everywhere afterwards — its goods are reserved for a picking nobody will carry out, and a carrier can be asked for a label for goods the customer has already taken away. The Shop field offers channels of that type only.

The plugin installs the type but creates no channel of it, so on a new installation one has to be created under Settings → Sales channels. Product visibility is set for each channel separately, so the articles the counter sells have to be made visible on the new one; a channel without them opens a till that can sell nothing.

1. Switch the till on

Stockly → Settings → Till settings → tab General → card Point of sale → Enable the till.

Until this setting is enabled the till addresses answer with an error page and no device can be enrolled for a counter. The enrolment dialog states Neither the warehouse terminal nor the till is switched on for this shop, so no device can be enrolled. Turn on whichever one this device is for. and offers Till settings. → Till settings

2. Enrol the counter as a till

Stockly → Warehouses → Terminals → Add terminal. The first step describes the device, the second displays the code.

Name identifies the counter in the terminal list. This device is determines what the application offers, and Till is the one value that changes what the application is rather than what it offers: a counter loads none of the picking and packing screens. The value is fixed once the device exists: a device that changes its job is revoked and enrolled again, because the credentials, the open shift and the shop behind it all belong to the purpose it was created for.

Shop names the sales channel this till sells for, and lists channels of the Point of sale type only; an empty list means none has been created yet. It is required for a till: the dialog does not save one without it. Without that check the refusal is issued by the counter instead, on the first request a cashier makes, after the device has been enrolled and put into service.

Address determines which of the shop’s addresses the device is directed to, and it has to be one the device can actually reach.

The code shown in the second step is valid for fifteen minutes, works once, and works only for this terminal. A second device that scans it is rejected and requires a code of its own. An expired code is replaced from the row menu, under Enrolment code. → Setting up a device

3. Give the cashier a PIN

Settings → System → Users & permissions → select user → card Terminal PIN → PIN and Repeat PIN, four to six digits, saved together with the rest of the form. The card states the current state of the account: No PIN set — this operator cannot sign in at a terminal yet.

Caution

An administrator account cannot be given a PIN. Create an operator account instead, assign the till permission to it, and set the PIN there.

4. Give that cashier the permission

A PIN allows a cashier to reach the sign-in screen. It does not determine what that cashier may do afterwards. Their role requires the permission Work at the till (open a shift, count the drawer, ring up and park sales).

The permission covers the till’s own records and nothing else. Write access to bins, transfers, purchase orders and thresholds is not part of it, so a cashier who may serve a customer cannot alter the warehouse. → Privileges

5. Open the shift on the device

A till sells nothing until a shift is open. After signing in, the screen asks for the drawer: Open the shift with the field In the drawer, under the instruction Count the drawer and type what is in it. Nothing can be sold until the shift is open.

The suggested opening float comes from the till profile of the sales channel. Without a profile the suggestion is zero, which is a suggestion and not a restriction. → The shift and the drawer

Checking it works

Open the till address on the device. The sign-in screen asks Who is working? and lists the cashiers who have a PIN. After the PIN and the opening count, the sale screen appears with an empty basket: Nothing in the basket yet. Scan an article.

When nobody is offered on the sign-in screen

The screen lists the people who may work at this counter, and that list is narrowed three times. A list that comes back empty reports only that the setup is incomplete, so the conditions are checked in turn:

1. The person has a PIN, set as described in step 3.
2. Where Roles that work at a till names any roles, the person holds one of them. Left empty, the setting offers every user who has a PIN. A shop that fills the field in after the PINs were given out empties its own sign-in screen.
3. The person is not an administrator. Administrators are never offered, because the PIN sign-in rejects them in any case.

Where to go next

• Selling at the till — the basket, the payment and the paper that comes out.
• Till profiles — the discount limits, the drawer and the equipment of one counter.
• Tiles — buttons for goods without a barcode.
• Shifts — what the administration records about a day at the counter.