The branch settings your counter reads

Play this lesson as slides — one slide per step, with the same narration. The full text of every step is on this page.

This lesson is for you if you are standing up a new GadgetSphere shop, or explaining why one that has been open for years cannot take a card. Everything the counter does is decided by settings held against the branch — and they are spread across three applets, which is the part that makes them hard to find. About thirteen minutes.

Step 1 — Link settlement methods to the branch, or the counter has no buttons

After this step the till can take money. A settlement method — cash, card, e-wallet, voucher, cheque, bank transfer — is created in the Cashbook applet and then linked to the branches allowed to use it. Until a branch has at least one linked method, the point of sale shows no settlement buttons at all. This catches new branches more than anything else on the list: the items are there, the prices are there, the cashier is trained, and there is simply nothing to press. The link exists in two places that agree with each other, the branch’s Settlement tab and the method’s own Branch tab.

Reference: POS General — Troubleshooting

Step 2 — Give every method a cashbook and a GL code before you use it

After this step the money you take will actually post. Each settlement method carries a cashbook and a general ledger code, and every payment line posts to that cashbook. If either is missing, nothing stops the sale: the bill finalises happily, and the journal job then fails behind it with a missing cashbook or a missing GL code naming that method. You find out days later, from an accountant, with a bill that looks complete and has nothing behind it. Check it for every method the branch offers rather than the one you tested with, because cash is usually the one somebody set up carefully.

Reference: POS General — Before you can use it

Step 3 — Set the per-tender default where the point of sale will read it

After this step the right button is pre-selected at the counter. Each branch can name one method per tender type — one for cash, one for credit card, one for e-wallet, and so on down to membership points. The confusing part is where that lives. You set it in the Cashbook applet’s Branch Settings, and the Cashbook applet does not read it; the point of sale does, on its settlement adjustment screen. The point of sale has a screen called Branch Settings too, with a Default Settlement Method entry on it, and no page establishes how the two relate. The one documented as read by the counter is the cashbook’s, so set it there.

Reference: Cashbook — Applet settings

Step 4 — Decide what this branch may sell, and at which prices

After this step a branch sells what it is meant to sell. The point of sale keeps its own settings per branch: an item category filter that decides which categories the branch may sell, a menu list, a pricing scheme with a priority, and the receipt header and footer. The branch record in Organisation carries a default pricing scheme of its own, which applies to the branch’s documents generally, and a role can be linked to a scheme as well. GadgetSphere’s distribution branches and its retail branches sell the same laptop from different schemes, and this is the set of places that decides which price a cashier sees.

Reference: POS General — Settings and Personalization menus

Step 5 — Register the machines the branch sells from

After this step you will know why a working till suddenly refuses to trade. Devices are registered per branch — a code, a name, and the machine’s hardware address picked up through the point-of-sale agent — along with the card terminals and which settlement methods each device may use. One setting refuses to sell from a device that is not registered. Across twenty-two branches that is a sensible control and a reliable source of Monday-morning calls: a replaced machine at GS-PEN-02 is a new device, and until somebody registers it the counter will not trade at all.

Reference: POS General — Settings and Personalization menus

Step 6 — Round the way this branch rounds

After this step your totals come out as the shop expects. Five-cent rounding, the rounding item and the group discount item are set on the company and overridden on the branch, and the counter uses the branch’s values. Rounding is not arithmetic hidden inside the total: it is added to the bill as a line, using the rounding adjustment item you nominated. That item has to exist first, and it has to be of the right kind — the picker only offers items built for document header adjustments, which is a transaction type set in Doc Item Maintenance. So a rounding failure usually turns out to be a missing item rather than a missing setting.

Reference: POS General — The counter screen (Create Cash Bill)

How the steps fit together

    flowchart TD
  s1["Step 1 — Link settlement methods to the branch, or the counter has no buttons"]
  s2["Step 2 — Give every method a cashbook and a GL code before you use it"]
  s3["Step 3 — Set the per-tender default where the point of sale will read it"]
  s4["Step 4 — Decide what this branch may sell, and at which prices"]
  s5["Step 5 — Register the machines the branch sells from"]
  s6["Step 6 — Round the way this branch rounds"]
  s1 --> s2
  s2 --> s3
  s3 --> s4
  s4 --> s5
  s5 --> s6
  

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

Next lesson: What a branch prints, and what a branch is numbered · Back to the course