Point of Sale: Run the Till in Your Shop

Overview

The register sells from the same catalogue, customer list and stock as your storefront. Each register belongs to one of your stores, so a sale there is taxed for that store and takes stock from that store's shelf. Open it from Channels → POS. It runs in the browser on any tablet or computer.

The register is on every plan. Loyalty and gift cards are on the Growth plan and above.

Step 1: Set up stores, registers and card readers

Go to Settings → POS setup (or click Set up locations the first time you open the till).

1. Click Add location and enter the store's name, address and time zone.
2. Set Sells stock from to the stock location this store sells from. Sales at its registers take stock from there, and returns go back there.
3. Add a register for each till you run in the store.
4. If you take cards on a reader, add it under Card readers. Readers on your own Stripe account are listed to pick from; you can also add one by its reader id (tmr_...). The till sends each payment to the reader from our server, so it works with Stripe smart readers that take payments that way. Mark one reader as the default.

Step 2: Add your cashiers

On the till, choose Add a cashier and enter their name. Give them a PIN and they must enter it to sign in, so each sale, tip and drawer is credited to the person who really made it. A drawer opened by a cashier with a PIN needs a PIN to close; any active cashier can enter theirs, so a manager can cash up.

Cashiers can also be linked to staff records for the time clock; see HR and timesheets.

Step 3: Start a shift

Click Start shift, choose the location and the register, confirm the cashier and count the Opening float in the drawer. A register has one open drawer at a time: if another device opens the same register, it joins the drawer that is already open.

Step 4: Ring up a sale

• Find a product by typing its name or SKU in the search box, scanning its barcode, or tapping it in the grid. A product with options asks which one.
• Attach a customer by looking them up by name, email or phone, or create one with New customer. Their loyalty points show next to their name.
• Add a tip with one of the preset percentages or a custom amount, if you take tips.

The till asks the server for the total as the sale changes and shows the goods, tax, tip and total. Tax is worked out for the register's store (for a sale you ship, for where it is going). Charge waits until the total is in.

Step 5: Take payment

• Split payment takes the total across more than one tender. The card reader is not offered in a split.
• Gift card: enter the card's code and its balance is applied first.

Interac debit on the card reader (Canada)

If your store sells in Canadian dollars (CAD), the card reader takes Interac debit cards as well as credit cards. Stripe sends a Canadian debit card over Interac, so most Canadian debit cards work. There is nothing to set up in BestWebby; your Stripe reader must be registered to a location in Canada.

Interac debit works differently from a credit card:

• It is taken in one step. The money is taken when the customer approves it on the reader. A credit card is only authorised and is taken when the till finishes the sale.
• It cannot be cancelled once approved. If the sale is refused after the card was approved (for example, the last unit sold online), the reader asks the customer to insert or tap the same card again to get the money back, and the till waits for it.
• Refunds need the card. Stripe refunds Interac debit only with the customer's card on a reader, never from the order page or the Stripe Dashboard. See Returns and refunds at the register below.
• It needs a connection. Interac debit never works offline.

The till, the receipt and the order show Interac debit for these payments. BestWebby is not endorsed by or affiliated with Interac Corp.

Ship a sale to the customer

When the customer wants the order sent rather than taking it with them (the shelf is out of it, or it is a gift), click Ship to customer before you charge.

1. Address: pick one of the customer's saved addresses, or type the recipient's name, street, city, province or state, postal code and country.
2. Ships from: the stock location the parcel leaves from. It starts on the register's own store; choose your warehouse or another store if the stock is there. The stock comes off that location, not the register's.
3. Shipping method: the rates your store charges online for that address, from Shipping, with the transit days and an estimated delivery date. The cheapest is picked until you choose another. A carrier you paused is not offered.
4. Email for the order confirmation: the customer's email is used unless you type another.

The total then includes the shipping, and the tax is worked out for where the parcel is going, as your online checkout would, not for the register's store: a Toronto till shipping to Vancouver charges GST and BC PST, to Calgary GST only. Take payment with any tender, including the card reader and split payment.

If none of your rates reaches the address, the till says so and nothing is charged; add a rate for it in Shipping, or use another address. If your store has no shipping rates set up at all, the sale ships at no charge, as it would from your online store.

The sale goes to Orders as a paid order waiting to ship, the same as a web order: buy the label, print the packing slip and mark it shipped there, and the customer gets the tracking email. The customer is sent the usual order confirmation with the shipping line and estimated delivery, and the receipt shows Ships to with the address and the shipping line. A shipped sale needs a connection, so it cannot be rung up while the till is offline. The whole sale ships; to send part of it and hand over the rest, ring them up as two sales.

Step 6: The receipt

The receipt shows your business name, the store's address, your tax number (as "GST/HST No." for a Canadian store), the lines, the customer, the cashier and how the sale was paid, including Interac debit or Card (reader) for a card-reader payment.

• Print prints it from the browser.
• Email the receipt to sends it to the attached customer or to an address you type. It goes from your store's own email address. If your email is not set up yet, the till says it was not sent.

Returns and refunds at the register

Click Return on the till.

1. Find the sale by its receipt number, the customer's email or their name.
2. Pick the items and quantities coming back.
3. Choose how to give the money back: Cash from this drawer, Back to the card (reader sale) for a sale paid by credit card on your card reader, Back to the Interac card on the reader for a sale paid by Interac debit, Refunded on my card machine when you refunded it on your own machine (recorded, no money moved), or Store credit.
4. Enter your authenticator code if you use two-factor authentication.

Interac debit refunds. The customer must be there with the card they paid with. The till asks the reader for that card and waits while the customer inserts or taps it; the refund is recorded once Stripe has made it. Stop waiting cancels the request on the reader, and nothing is refunded unless the card was already presented. At most what the Interac payment took can go back to the card; give the rest in cash or as store credit. If the customer is not there, give the money back in cash or as store credit. Refunding an Interac debit sale from the order page is refused with the same explanation.

Returned items go back on the shelf of the store the sale came from unless you untick restocking. A refund can never be more than the sale. A cash refund comes out of the open drawer and is counted at the end of the shift. When a sale is refunded in full, the loyalty points it earned are taken back. Only people who can refund orders can make returns.

Park a sale

If a customer steps away, click Park order to set the sale aside and serve the next person. Parked lists the parked sales; open one to carry on where you left off.

If the connection drops

The register keeps taking cash and the tenders it records, and stores the sales on the device. A sale shipped to the customer is the exception: its rate and tax come from the server, so it waits for the connection. When it is back online it sends them, once each: a sale whose first attempt was lost on the way is never recorded twice. A card-reader payment needs a connection, and Interac debit never works offline: while the till is offline, take cash or another tender.

If the server refuses a sale it queued, for example because the last unit sold online in the meantime, the till shows Sales not recorded with the reason. Try again sends it again; Discard drops it. You are also told under Notifications, because the goods may have left the shop with no order.

Step 7: End the shift

Click End shift and count the cash in the drawer. The till shows the opening float, the cash you should have (float, plus cash taken, minus cash refunds) and whether the drawer is over or short, and the shift summary breaks the takings down by payment method. Cash that reached a drawer after it was counted is listed separately. Every shift is under Channels → Shifts.

Good to know

• Stock, customers and orders are shared with your storefront: a till sale appears in Orders like any other, and you are told about it as a new order.
• Customers earn loyalty points at the till at the rate you set in Customers → Loyalty.
• If you run more than one storefront, the selector at the top of the till chooses which storefront's prices it charges.