Selling at the till
The till is the same app as the warehouse terminal, on a device whose role is Till. It loads none of the picking and packing screens, and a handheld in the aisles loads none of these.
A counter needs a sales channel of its own: the channel decides prices, tax and order numbering, and it is named on the device when it is enrolled. → Setting up a device
The shell
Section titled “The shell”Down the left, on a wide screen, runs the rail with the six places a day passes through: Sale, Parked baskets, Return, Catalogue, Cash in and out and X report. Below the width at which the goods need the whole screen the rail is hidden, and the menu is again a drawer, opened by the three lines in the top left corner or with F9.
The drawer holds the same places in two groups, because selling and running a shift are two different tasks:
- Till — Sale, Pinned, Parked baskets, Return, Sales history, Customer, Buyer, Catalogue;
- Shift — Cash in and out, X report, Close the shift.
The top bar carries two pieces of information: the shift, as Shift number or No shift open, and the name of the customer on the sale where there is one.
Nothing can be sold without an open shift → The shift and the drawer.
The sale screen
Section titled “The sale screen”This is the screen a cashier works on for most of the day. The lines are listed on the left, the totals and the actions on the right, and no element covers the list.
An empty basket says Nothing in the basket yet. Scan an article.
Getting goods into the basket
Section titled “Getting goods into the basket”Scanning is the ordinary way in. Which product codes a scan is matched against, namely the product number, the EAN and the manufacturer number, is set in the till settings; a receipt, a loyalty card and a packing label are recognised by their own prefix first. A code that matches nothing is reported as Nothing answers to followed by the code.
A scan is acted on only where it can mean something: an article on the sale screen, the shortlist and the catalogue, a receipt where one is being brought back, a loyalty card where a customer is attached. Anywhere else, for example while the drawer is being counted, the scan is refused with a message rather than ignored, so that the same code is not scanned a second time.
The goods beside the basket are the shop’s own shelf, the same wall of cards the catalogue shows. The box above it narrows the grid as it is typed — Scan an article or type a name — and / puts the cursor in it. The chips over the grid stand for the shop’s departments, All goods being the whole of it.
Tiles are the merchant’s buttons, above the shelf, for goods without a barcode: a named product, or an open line where the cashier types the price. They appear over the whole shop only. → Tiles
The pinned shortlist is this counter’s own, and it is a shortcut to articles that do scan. It is filled from the catalogue, with Pin to this till in the corner of an article, and it belongs to the device rather than to the shop. With nothing on it the list says Nothing pinned yet. Open the catalogue and use the pin in the corner of an article.
Choosing a size happens on the tile itself. The form the question takes is set by the shop in the till profile: every combination as a button of its own, or one row per option group. Where the answers would not fit the tile in two rows they are shown as a list instead, so that a card for six sizes in three colours stays the size of its neighbours. An article with more groups than a tile can hold opens a sheet with the same question in the same form.
The card behind the picture states whether the article is in stock and where it stands: the photograph, the price, what is on the shelf, the other sizes with the figure for each, and the walk to it. It carries a quantity of its own, so four units are added with one press, and Esc closes it. A size the shop has run out of cannot be added from it, unless this channel sells what it has run out of.
The multiplier adds several units of one article: the quantity is typed first, then the article is touched. The keypad shows what has been typed, and Esc clears it along with anything else narrowing the view.
An article the shop has run out of is refused with The shop would not sell that — it has none left., unless Sell what the shop has run out of is on for this sales channel.
One line
Section titled “One line”Tapping a row opens the line screen. It is a screen and not a dialog, so the hardware back button closes it, and it shows the article it is about: its picture, its number and what it costs.
One mode at a time, chosen on the screen, and the field says what is being typed and in what unit:
- Set quantity — how many;
- Discount % — a percentage, with 5, 10, 20 and 50 within reach;
- Discount amount — money off instead;
- Storno — the line goes.
A discount carries a Why. The reason is kept with the line and travels with it into the order, so that a change in margin can be accounted for afterwards.
Take it off appears on a row that already carries a discount and returns it to the shelf price, leaving the article in the basket; Storno removes the article itself. A discount given twice replaces the first rather than compounding on it: both are measured from the shelf price, so ten per cent followed by twenty is twenty.
Above the limits set in the till profile, the till says A manager has to approve a discount this size. and asks for the approval on the spot, under the heading Approval needed with the instruction to type the approver’s PIN or scan their badge. Who may approve is named in the till settings; with nobody named, nothing can be approved and the limit simply holds. Taking a discount off never needs an approval.
A discount on the whole sale
Section titled “A discount on the whole sale”Discount (F3) applies a discount to the whole sale rather than to one line. It is entered the same way, as a percentage or an amount and with a Why, and it appears in the basket as a row of its own rather than as a new price on each article, so that both the screen and the receipt state on one line what was taken off.
A percentage follows the basket total: after another article has been scanned it is still ten per cent. An amount stays the amount it was. Pressing Discount again changes the discount rather than adding a second one, and Take it off removes it. An amount larger than the value of the goods is capped at that value; money handed back over the counter is a refund and has a screen of its own.
The same limits and the same approval apply as on a line, and the tax comes off every rate in the basket in proportion.
The customer and the buyer
Section titled “The customer and the buyer”Most sales at a counter are to somebody who will never give an address, and those are booked against the shop’s walk-in row. Customer (F2) is for the exception: somebody who wants an invoice, has a loyalty card, or is known to the shop. It searches by email or phone, and the quick create asks for a surname and one means of contact.
A found customer can also be corrected: the pencil in their row opens the same form filled in with what the shop has, and saving returns to the list rather than to the sale, because correcting the record is a separate task. The name, the email and the phone number are what it changes; the invoice address belongs to Buyer, against the sale it is for. The walk-in row cannot be edited, because it is not a person but the record every anonymous sale in the shop is booked against.
Buyer is a screen of its own: the company, the VAT id and the address, in the order a customer states them. It does not request an invoice: recording who is buying and choosing which document is produced are two separate decisions, and a VAT id can also be printed on an ordinary receipt. Buyer details require a named customer; without one the screen states this.
It is reachable while the goods are still being scanned, because a VAT id is usually given during the sale rather than after the total has been read out.
Payment
Section titled “Payment”Enter, or Payment, moves to the payment screen. It is built around one figure: how much is still owed.
The payment methods are the ones the merchant enabled for this sales channel, in their order and under their names. Two rules travel with them and both are checked again on the server:
- only a method the till profile marks as cash can be overpaid and give Change;
- everything else takes what is left.
Amounts are typed in minor units, so 1250 is 12.50, and the notes a counter is handed (10, 20, 50, 100, 200) are one press each. Take (+) books what was typed with the chosen method, which is how a bill is split; Finish the sale (Enter) settles whatever is still owed with that method, which completes an ordinary sale in one press.
Tenders are added one row at a time and each can be removed until the sale is sent, because until then nothing has reached the shop.
F switches what paper comes out: Receipt, Receipt + invoice, or Invoice only, according to the profile. An invoice needs a named customer with an address, and a sale outside the shop’s amount limits says This shop does not invoice a sale of this amount.
After the sale
Section titled “After the sale”The finished sale states whether the receipt reached the fiscal device.
| State | What it means | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Registered | the device took it and confirmed | serve the next customer |
| Registering | taken, not yet confirmed | the till waits and says so |
| Printer error | refused | Register again once the printer is fixed |
| Not a fiscal receipt | this till has no fiscal device | the slip in the customer’s hand is not a fiscal one |
Print again repeats the receipt, Invoice makes one for a sale that was finished without it, and Invoice PDF opens the document. Where the printer is missing or the queue refuses the job the document opens as a PDF instead.
A browser opens a tab only in response to an action by a person, so the document opens in the tab that the press itself opened. Where the browser blocks it anyway the till says The browser stopped the document opening. Allow pop-ups for this address and press again. The document has been created; pop-ups have to be allowed once for the till’s address.
New sale clears the counter.
Sales history
Section titled “Sales history”Sales history in the drawer is what this counter has sold, newest first: the code on the paper, the moment, the order number, the total, and the invoice number where there is one. It covers the three questions asked most often at a counter: reprinting a receipt, the total of the last sale, and identifying the sale a customer is holding.
It belongs to the till rather than to the cashier, because a customer returns to the counter: a sale made by a cashier who has since gone home is still this counter’s sale. This shift narrows it to the shift that is open now.
Pressing a sale offers Print again, Invoice PDF where there is an invoice, and Return, which opens the return screen on that sale. The last of these serves a customer who no longer has the receipt: a return is normally found by its receipt, and this list is the counter’s own copy of that record.
Parked baskets
Section titled “Parked baskets”A basket can be set aside where a customer cannot pay at once and others are waiting. Park (F4) puts the basket aside; Parked baskets (F8) brings it back, with the count on the rail. The cart itself stays where the shop keeps carts, so what comes back is the same basket with the same prices and the same promotions.
Taking one back while a basket is on the counter asks first, with Take this one instead?. The basket on the counter is not put aside by this; it is replaced.
The catalogue
Section titled “The catalogue”Catalogue (F7) shows the shop’s goods without a basket, for answering whether an article is in stock and where it stands. The same cards, the same box narrowing them, and a press opens the article: what it is, what is on the shelf, and the walk to it. Show each variant lists a family as its members rather than as one tile.
The keys
Section titled “The keys”Every control on screen carries its key printed on it, and the bar along the bottom lists them.
| On the sale screen | |
|---|---|
| 0–9 | the multiplier |
| ↑ ↓ | move down the lines |
| + − | the quantity of the line |
| Del | storno the line |
| Enter | payment |
| Esc | clear the multiplier, the search and the department |
| / | into the search box |
| F2 | customer |
| F3 | a discount on the whole sale |
| F4 | park the basket |
| F6 | return |
| F7 | catalogue |
| F8 | parked baskets |
| F9 | the menu |
| F10 | cash in and out |
| On the payment screen | |
|---|---|
| 1–9 | choose a payment method, while the amount field is empty |
| 0–9 | the amount, in minor units, once it is not |
| + | take what was typed |
| F | receipt, invoice, or both |
| Enter | finish the sale |
| Esc | back to the sale |
A hardware scanner reaches the browser as a keyboard, and the till distinguishes it from typing by the interval between keystrokes. A rapid burst is treated as a scan; a single keypress is not.