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Configuring your POS app
Jon Patch avatar
Written by Jon Patch
Updated over a month ago

Offset Commerce has an iOS POS app that is available for iPhone and iPad that can be downloaded from the Apple App store.

This article covers the software setup steps, see this article for details on purchasing hardware for your POS app.

Enabling POS access for your account

In order to be able to log into the POS app, you'll need to first enable the POS via the Offset Commerce browser app. This allows you and others on your team to log into the POS app from any iOS device using their Offset Commerce credentials.

Settings > More > POS and Admin

Enabling Receipts

Please ensure you have a Hospitality Receipt template filled out in settings > emails. POS receipts will utilize this form.

Note: If the Hospitality Receipt email subject is blank, your customers will not be able to receive receipts for POS orders.

Guest Checkout Explained

This is an optional setting that allows you to place orders on a neutral customer account without needing to search for and / or create a new account for the specific person making a purchase.

The convenience here is that you can check people out quite quickly, but orders placed on the Guest Account have no customer name and email associated with them, so you do lose the opportunity to market to that customer again, or store the order on their account, although orders can be moved from the Guest account to a different customer account after they are placed.

One advantage to have the Guest Account enabled (even if you intend to collect customer details for most orders) is that you can start building a cart on the Guest Account immediately and then search for or add the customer later in the checkout process, instead of starting the order process by searching for or creating a customer.

Guest Checkout email receipts

Guests DO have an opportunity to type in their email address after checkout to receive an email receipt. You can either enter this for them, or turn the iPad to them for typing it in. This email address is stored with the order under the Guest Customer Account, but it doesn't create an account for that email address.

Defining a Guest Account ID

A "Guest Account" is simply a customer account in your database where all the orders will be stored. It should have an email address that you have access to, since transactional emails will be sent to that email address.

It's best to create a new customer in your Offset Commerce account to define as the guest account, so every order on that account will only be from the POS.

If you choose to use an existing account for the Guest Account, just make sure that the account isn't a member of any Groups that receive discounts.

Note: If you are activating a Guest account, we don't recommend using your admin email since that would cause email receipts to be sent from the same address they are received at.

Configuring a Guest Account

From the Guest Account customer page, copy the ID from the URL and paste it into the Guest Customer Checkout ID field.

Configuring a Pickup method

Since the primary use-case for the POS is to easily charge a card for something purchased on-site, if you will be selling wine on-site, having a Pickup method configured is necessary to ensure you're able to quickly check customers out without needing to enter a shipping address.

Check to see if you have a fulfillment method available in your Figure / Offset Commerce settings where the type is set to "Pickup."

If you need to create a new method for this purpose, and you don't want it to show on your website to customers, ensure the that status is set to "inactive."

Once you have a method in place, you'll be able to access it in the POS app automatically without further configuration.

Configuring a Default Shipping method for the POS

If you prefer to have one of your shipping methods showing on default for the POS during checkout, it can be configured.

Other settings

There are other optional POS settings to optimize your POS experience:

  • Default POS Inventory Location

    • If you have multiple inventory locations enabled, this allows you to set a default

    • You can select between different inventory locations in the POS, but an order can only consist of products from the same inventory location

  • POS spotlight message

    • If you want to communicate message to your staff when they open the app, you can enter a message here

  • Enable tips (optional, two settings)

    • Three customizable % options, custom amount, or none

    • Custom amount or none

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