Point of Sales - Preparing the Main Database
This page itemises the steps that you need to carry out in the main database to prepare it for point of sales. After carrying out these steps, please refer
here for details about connecting tills and cash machines to the server using live (direct) connections, and/or
here for details about connecting tills to the server using live-sync connections (connections that will allow the tills to continue working if the server is down, with the tills and server being synchronised when the server returns).
To carry out the work outlined on this page, log in to the server from a desktop client. Some of these steps might not be appropriate for every business and can be omitted:
- Default Customer In many retail businesses, Customers' names are usually not known and sales are assigned to a generic Customer such as "Cash Sale". This Customer is given the term "Default Customer" in these web pages.
Create a record in the Contact register for the Default Customer. Tick the Customer box in the header. If you will be printing POS Invoices and/or Bar Tabs on fiscal printers, tick the Fiscal Invoices Only check box on the 'Terms' card.
You can as an option use different Default Customers on different tills. If you wish to take advantage of this option, create separate records in the Contact register for each Default Customer, each specified as described in the previous paragraph.
- Prices and VAT/Tax In many countries (e.g. in Europe), a price tag attached to an Item in a shop should show the full price payable by the Customer i.e. the price shown should include VAT or tax. This price should also be shown on till displays and on printed receipts. You can achieve this using one of two methods:
- You can specify in the Account Usage S/L setting that Base Prices include VAT or tax. This option applies to all prices except those in Bar Tabs and therefore will apply to all Sales Ledger and POS Invoices, Sales Orders and Quotations throughout the system.
- If you do not want all prices throughout the system to include VAT or tax, you should create a Price List that includes VAT or tax. Assign this Price List to the Default Customer(s) that you created in step 1 and to all other Customers that you are likely to use in POS Invoices. Please refer here for more details about Price Lists.
You should specify separately in the Account Usage Restaurant setting whether Base Prices in Bar Tabs will include VAT or tax. Prices in Bar Tabs will solely depend on this option: the Price List in the Default Customer(s) will not affect prices in Bar Tabs.
- Items Ensure the Item register is up to date with the Items that you will sell in the point of sales environment. If you specified that Base Prices will include VAT in the previous step, ensure that the Base Prices in the Item records include VAT.
- Giving Change As an option, you can specify a POS Change Account on the 'Debtors' card in the Account Usage S/L setting in the Sales Ledger. Use 'Paste Special' to choose the correct Account. If a Customer overpays using cash or a credit card and requires the difference to be paid back in cash, the full amount paid by the Customer will be debited to the Account from the Payment Mode (i.e. to the cash or credit card account) and the change will be credited to the POS Change Account. This allows the change to be visible in the Nominal Ledger. If you do not specify a POS Change Account, then the sale value will be debited to the Account from the Payment Mode, so the change will not be recorded in the Nominal Ledger. Change from Bar Tabs is never recorded in the Nominal Ledger.
- Payment Modes Enter Payment Modes to be used for cash and credit card payments and for movements of cash into and out of the tills (e.g. placing a cash float into a Till Drawer, and removing the day's takings from the Drawer to the back office). For the Payment Modes to be used for movements of cash, be sure to specify Back Office Accounts on flip E. Please refer here for more details.
- Currencies for Cash Payments Use the Payment Currencies setting in the POS module to list the Currencies that you will use when receiving cash payments in your stores. This setting is described here.
- Local Machines (Cash Machines and Tills) Make a list of your cash machines and tills in the Local Machines setting in the POS module, creating a separate record with unique identifying code for each one. The terms "Machine" and "Till" used in this manual are interchangeable and refer to a terminal or cash till. You can also find the Local Machines setting in the Restaurant and Technics modules. For a full description, please refer here.
- Till Drawers Use the Drawers setting in the Point of Sales and Restaurant modules to make a list of the Drawers in your cash machines and tills.
Usually, you will need one Drawer for each till. If you need more than one Drawer per till, select the Allow Multiple Sessions per Machine option in the POS Settings setting (step 12 below).
The Drawers setting is described here.
- Connecting Drawers to Tills and Cash Machines Connect each Drawer to a Local Machine (i.e. to a cash machine or till) by entering an opening POS Session record for each Machine/Drawer combination. Please refer here for more details about POS Sessions.
If you are not using the Allow Multiple Sessions per Machine option (i.e. if each till has a single Drawer), opening a session for each Machine/Drawer combination connects and locks the Drawers to the Machines. As a result, each POS Invoice and Bar Tab that you enter on a particular Machine will be assigned to the correct Drawer. If you do not open a session for a particular Machine/Drawer combination, POS Invoices and Bar Tabs entered on the Machine will not be assigned to a Drawer and so will not be included in the cash up routines.
If you will have tills with live-sync connections to the server, you should not carry out this step now but instead you should wait until you configure those tills themselves. Please refer to the Preparing a Till for Live-Sync Connection page.
The Machine/Drawer combination is usually referred to as a "Till Drawer" in this manual.
- Opening Balances for Till Drawers Enter an opening POS Balance record for each Machine/Drawer combination. The balance in each of these records should be zero, and ideally the date in each record should be the day before you first use the Machine/Drawer combination. POS Balances are described here.
- Adding Tools and Buttons to the POS Invoice window The tools in the POS Invoice window are fully user-definable, using the POS Buttons, POS Button Groups, POS Settings and POS Commands settings, all in the POS module. Please refer here for details.
- General Settings Use the POS Settings setting in the POS module to control the behaviour of various aspects of the POS module. For example, here you can specify the Customer that is to be the Default Customer, as mentioned in step 1.
- Printers Connect printers to the tills or to the network.
If necessary (i.e. depending on the type of printer you are using), design the Form Template (s) that will be used to print till receipts from POS Invoices, and connect it to the form. In the Auto Actions setting in the System module, specify that POS Invoices will be printed automatically.
Please refer to the Connecting Printers page for more details.
- Establish credit card merchant accounts and connect card readers to the tills as appropriate. Please refer to the Credit and Debit Card Payments page for details.
After you have prepared the main database, please refer to the following pages:
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