Point of sale

The till is not a separate product with its own product list. It reads the same catalogue and writes to the same stock ledger, which is what makes the rest of the system trustworthy during opening hours.

Selling

Scan a barcode and the variant is on the ticket at its retail price. Items can be found by search when a label is missing. Each line accepts its own discount, as an amount or a percentage, so the common case of discounting one item in a basket does not require doing arithmetic on the total.

Payment

A sale can be tendered across cash and card in one transaction, which covers gift-card top-ups, part-cash payments and the everyday case of a customer splitting a large purchase. Where a supported card terminal is connected, the amount is sent to the terminal rather than typed twice.

Completing the sale writes the stock movements for the selling location immediately.

Returns and exchanges

Returns are processed against the original sale, so the refund knows what was paid and the stock returns to the right location and variant. An exchange is handled as one transaction rather than a refund plus an unrelated sale, which keeps returns reporting honest.

What the till tells you

• Live transactions. What is being sold right now, across locations.

• Returns and return rate. By variant and by period, which is how you find a product with a fit problem.

• Basket size and average order value. Comparable with the same figures from online channels, because they use the same definitions.

Practical notes

• Give each till its location explicitly. Stock accuracy depends on it.

• If a variant will not scan, fix the label rather than selling it by search. The second option is faster today and slower every day after.

• Cash reconciliation at close is easier when part payments are recorded as split tender instead of being rounded into one method.