Selling at the till
The till is built for one thing: getting a customer served without looking at the screen more than you have to. Everything below follows from that.
The layout
| Area | What it is |
|---|---|
| Search / scan | Always focused. Type a name or scan a barcode |
| Product grid | Tap to add. Ordered by what you actually sell |
| The basket | The current sale, line by line |
| Total and pay | The one button that ends the sale |
Keyboard, not mouse
A busy counter is faster on keys. The till is built to be worked without lifting your hand.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Type anything | Searches — the box is always focused |
| Enter | Adds the top match |
| F11 | Fullscreen kiosk mode, for a touch screen |
| Esc | Clears the search, then the basket |
Shortcuts do not fire while you are typing
A product called "Pay As You Go" will not trigger the pay action halfway through the word. Shortcuts stand down inside a text field.
Scanning
Barcode scanners need no setup. A USB scanner is a keyboard as far as Windows is concerned; it types the barcode and presses Enter, which is exactly what the search box expects.
If a scan does nothing, the search box has lost focus — click it once.
Taking payment
Cash, mobile money, card, or on credit. Mobile money at the till can also request the payment to the customer's phone, so they approve it rather than reading a number to you.
Selling on account
Every shop that matters keeps a book of who owes what. The till keeps it for you, and keeps your accounts right at the same time.
Pick the customer — or type a new name and Add them, which works with the internet down — and an On account button appears. It carries their name and what they already owe, so nobody puts a bill on the wrong Grace, and you can see before you agree whether somebody is already deep in the book.
The slip prints ON ACCOUNT — NOT PAID and what is owed now. Nobody paid, so nothing goes into your drawer and the cash-up at the end of the day is not affected.
When they come to pay, record it against the customer and the money lands in whichever account they actually paid into. If you set a credit limit on a customer, the till refuses a sale that would go past it; with no limit set, the till never second-guesses you.
Rounding to a coin that exists
If the smallest coin around you is 50 or 100, a total of 2,350 cannot be paid, and until now the cashier did that arithmetic in their head.
Set your smallest coin once (Settings), and the till charges what the customer can actually hand over. The sale is still 2,350 in your books — the few shillings are their own line, not quietly added to the price. Only cash is rounded: mobile money and cards can send an exact figure, and a debt is never rounded because the figure has to match what you collect later.
Splitting a payment
One sale, more than one method — half cash, half MoMo, the rest on the tab. Genuinely common, and the reason a lot of shops keep a paper book alongside their till.
The split must add up to the total. A till that lets you record a part-paid sale as complete is a till that loses money quietly.
The customer display
A second screen the customer watches. They see each item as it is rung up, the running total, exactly where to send the money, and a clear confirmation.
Everything on it is oversized, because it is read from about a metre away.
This is trust, not decoration
A customer who can see the line go in does not have to take your word for the total. In a market where people count change carefully, that is worth more than it costs — and it is one screen and a HDMI cable.
Restaurant tabs
The Tables screen is the room at a glance. A table is either free or has an open tab; occupied tables show what is on the tab and how long it has been open, ageing from fresh through amber to red so nobody gets forgotten.
Tabs live on the till and work offline, like everything else.
Dated stock
For a pharmacy or a grocer, batches track lots with expiry dates. Sales draw from them automatically, earliest-expiring in-date lot first — which is what you would do by hand, done for you.
Use the batches screen to take delivery of a dated lot, and to take expired or damaged stock off the shelf. It is where that truth is kept accurate.
When stock runs out mid-sale
The till checks stock the way the server does, before taking payment — and it checks the stock at this branch, not the company total.
So you get "only 2 left at Main Bar — there are 12 at Store Room", which is a sentence somebody can act on, rather than a refusal.
When something is wrong
Get help in the sidebar writes to support for you. Say what is happening and the till attaches its own details — which version, which server, when it last synced, how many sales are waiting to go up. Those details are usually how the problem gets found, so leave them in.
It will copy the whole message for you, or open your email or WhatsApp with it already written. The address is info@smartbusinessbook.io and it is on the screen to copy, because a counter machine often has no email program installed.
Related
- Working offline — what happens when the internet goes
- Cashiers & shifts — who rang it up
- Receipt printers & hardware — printing, scanners, drawers
- SBB Desktop — the manual