When the till is slow, everyone notices. The customer at the front, the five behind them, and the person on the till trying to find "Almond Croissant" in a list of eighty products.
So we rebuilt the Worktree point of sale around one rule: a sale should take three steps, and none of them should involve typing a price. Here's what that looks like.
1. Scan or tap
Plug any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner into the tablet, laptop or PC running the till. There's nothing to set up. Scanners type the code and press Enter, and the till is listening for exactly that. The product lands in the order, priced from your catalogue, and its line lights up so the cashier can see it arrive.
No scanner? Tap the product's tile. Tiles lead with the price, then the name, then how many are left:
- "14 left" when you're fine
- "Only 3 left" once a product is at or below its reorder level
- "Out of stock" when it's gone, and the till won't let you sell it
You can also search by name, SKU or barcode. Type a SKU and press Enter, and it's added just like a scan.
2. Charge
The order panel shows the total and one big Charge button. That opens the payment sheet.
For cash there's an Exact button, plus £5, £10, £20 and £50. Any note smaller than the total is greyed out, so you can't tap £5 on a £7.40 order. The change is worked out for you.
3. Done
The sale is recorded before the till says "Payment accepted", never after. That matters because recording a sale does three things at once:
- creates the sale and its items
- takes the stock down
- records the payment in Finance
Either all three happen or none do. If something goes wrong, the order stays on screen with the reason, and you haven't handed over change for a sale that didn't save.
Then print the receipt, and the till is ready for the next customer.
Built to forgive mistakes
A busy counter is where things go wrong, so the till is designed to recover:
- Reload the page mid-order and the order is still there. Anything deleted from your catalogue in the meantime is dropped, and quantities are capped at what's in stock.
- Clear the order by accident and you get eight seconds to undo it.
- Two people selling the last one at once won't take stock below zero. The second cash sale is refused, and the stock stays as it was.
Today's Sales, without leaving the till
At the end of the day, or mid-morning when a customer comes back for a receipt, open Today's Sales. It lists every sale since the till's midnight, newest first, with the total, cash and card takings at the top. Reprint any receipt and it's clearly marked as a copy.
It works on a phone, too
On a screen narrower than a tablet, the till switches layout. Products go full width, and a bar at the bottom shows the item count, the total and a Charge button. Tap the bar to see the order full screen. It sizes itself to the visible screen, so the browser's toolbar never hides the button you need.
On a counter tablet, the fullscreen button hides everything but the till.
Try it
The till is part of the Commerce module, which is included on every plan. Add a few products, plug in a scanner and ring up your first sale. It takes about as long as reading this post.
