Point of Sale

Point of Sale is included on every plan. Use it to sell at the counter, at shows and at events from the same products and stock as your online store. Every sale becomes a regular order (numbered POS-…) that takes stock and shows in your reports, just like an online sale.

Find it under Sales → POS Terminal (opens full-screen in a new tab) and Sales → POS Sessions. POS settings are at Settings → POS, and card readers at Settings → Card Readers.

Opening the register

1. Open Sales → POS Terminal on the laptop, tablet or phone you'll sell from.
2. Under Open Register, type the cash in the drawer (the opening float) on the number pad and, optionally, a Device name.
3. Click Start Selling.

The Open Register screen

Each register session belongs to the person who opened it. It stays open until you close it, so you can leave the page and come back.

Making a sale

• Add products by tapping them in the grid, filtering by category, or typing in the search box. Products with variants ask which variant to add.
• Scan barcodes with any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner: click the search box and scan. The register matches the product's part number or a variant's SKU, then the maker's UPC/EAN on the product or a variant, and adds it to the cart. A 12-digit UPC and the same number as a 13-digit EAN ring up the same product.
• Scan with the camera: on a phone or tablet, tap 📷 Camera next to the search box and point it at the barcode. It beeps on each scan; Sound: on turns the beep off on that device.
• Custom amounts: $ Manual adds a charge that isn't a product (a service, a one-off part). Enter an amount and an optional description.
• Discounts: % Discount takes a percentage or fixed amount off one line or the whole cart, with a reason. Your POS settings set the largest percentage staff can give, or turn discounts off.
• Tax is worked out from your Tax Rates for the store location set in POS settings.

Taking payment

Click PAY $… under the cart. The payment screen shows Total, Paid and Remaining. Pick a method:

• Cash: enter what the customer handed you (or tap a quick amount) and the register shows the change due. Take Cash records it. Only the sale amount goes in the drawer count, never the change.
• Card Reader: charges the customer's card on your Stripe card reader (tap, chip or swipe). See Card reader below. Appears once a reader is registered.
• Manual Card: type the card details in; it's charged through Stripe (Stripe Connect or your own Stripe keys, whichever the store uses). The register checks with Stripe that the card payment went through before it counts it.
• Venmo: shows a QR code for your Venmo handle. Once you see the payment arrive, tap Payment Received. Venmo is reported as its own method and never counts toward the cash drawer. Appears only when you add a Venmo handle in POS settings.
• Square: takes the card in your Square app. On a phone or tablet with the app, tap Open Square; Square opens with the amount filled in, and the sale finishes when you come back. If you use the POS as an installed app on Android, Square comes back to your browser instead: that page says the payment was recorded, so switch back to the app, where the sale has finished. On a computer, or if the sale doesn't finish, charge in Square and tap Payment received (the Square receipt number is optional). Square is reported as its own method and never counts toward the cash drawer. Appears only when you turn it on in POS settings.

Splitting a payment. A customer can pay part one way and the rest another, for example $20 cash and the rest on a card, or across two cards:

1. Take the first part. For cash, enter the cash handed over; if it's less than the total, it's taken as a part payment. For a card or Venmo, change the amount before charging.
2. The screen shows what's been paid and what's left. Pick the next method for the remainder.
3. When nothing is left, the sale completes. The receipt lists each payment.

Once the first payment is taken the cart is locked, so the total can't change while the customer is paying. If you reload the page, the register reopens the sale where it stopped.

Cancelling a sale part-way. Cancel Sale on the payment screen gives back everything taken so far: card payments are refunded to the card automatically, and the register tells you how much cash to hand back (and any Venmo or Square to give back). The cart stays, so you can try again. You can't close the register while a sale is part-paid.

After the sale the register asks the customer Would you like a receipt? with three large buttons, so you can turn the screen to them:

• Email: they type their email and tap Send receipt.
• Print: a receipt sized for a thermal receipt printer (it prints through the browser).
• No receipt: straight on to the next sale.

Skip — next sale under the buttons lets the cashier move on without asking. Receipts list each payment, with the card brand and last four digits, the cash given and change, and any tip. A sale with a customer email is attached to that customer.

Card reader

Take tap, chip and swipe payments on a Stripe Reader S700. (A BBPOS WisePOS E still works, but Stripe has discontinued it, so buy the S700.) The money goes to the same Stripe account as your online sales (your own Stripe keys, or Stripe Connect).

Getting a reader. In your Stripe Dashboard open Terminal → Shop and order a Stripe Reader S700. Use the Stripe account your store takes payments with.

Registering it.

1. Open Settings → Card Readers.
2. Location: Stripe groups readers by the address you sell from. Pick a location you already have in Stripe, or Create location. The address is filled in from your ship-from address.
3. On the reader, swipe in from the left edge, open Settings and choose Generate pairing code.
4. Type the code and a name for the reader (for example Booth reader) and click Register reader.

The reader is listed with its device, serial number and whether it is online. Remove unregisters it. Once a reader is registered, Card Reader appears on the register's payment screen. To hide it without removing the reader, turn off Card reader at the register in POS settings.

Taking a payment.

1. On the payment screen tap Card Reader. The first time on each register device, pick which reader is at that register; it's remembered after that (Change picks another).
2. Check the amount (by default everything still owed; change it to split) and tap Charge … on reader.
3. The register shows Tap, insert or swipe and the amount. The customer pays on the reader.
4. When the card goes through the sale completes (or, if you split, the register shows what's left).

If the card is declined the register says so, for example Card declined. Try another card. Tap Try again for another card, or Cancel to take a different payment method. Cancel stops the reader; if the card had already gone through, the payment is kept. After two minutes without a card the register asks whether to keep waiting.

Tips. Turn on Ask for a tip on the card reader in POS settings and the customer picks a tip on the reader before paying: 15%, 18% or 20% by default, or $1, $2 or $3 on sales under $10. You can change all of these; set the small-sale amount to 0 to always offer percentages. Tips are not taxed, are not counted in sales totals, and the platform fee is never charged on them. They show on the receipt (Tip and Total charged), on the order page, and as Tips in the session report.

What the customer sees. While you ring up, the reader's screen lists each item with its price and quantity, the tax and the total, and follows every change you make to the cart. When you press Card Reader it switches to the payment screen (with the tip prompt if tips are on). Emptying the cart, or finishing the sale, clears the screen. The register remembers which reader is beside it, so this starts working as soon as you have picked a reader once.

Practising in test mode. When your Stripe is in test mode, register Stripe's simulated reader with the pairing code simulated-wpe (or simulated-s700). While the register waits for the card, a Simulate tap button appears, with an optional tip, so you can run a whole sale without a reader. It never appears in live mode.

Internet. The reader and the register both need internet. At events use the venue Wi-Fi or a phone hotspot; the reader joins Wi-Fi from its own Settings.

Receipt printer and cash drawer

A Wi-Fi receipt printer prints register receipts with no print dialog and opens the cash drawer plugged into it. It works from any register device (phone, tablet or computer) and needs internet, like the card reader: Wi-Fi, or a phone hotspot at events. Kaniva works with Star printers that have CloudPRNT (mC-Print3, TSP143IV and others); plug the cash drawer into the printer's drawer port.

1. Open Settings → POS and, under Receipt Printer & Cash Drawer, click Manage receipt printers, then Add a printer (owners and admins). Give it a name, pick the paper width (80 mm or 58 mm), and leave Open the drawer for cash on.
2. Kaniva shows the printer's CloudPRNT address once. Copy it.
3. Connect the printer to Wi-Fi and open its settings page in a browser (hold FEED while turning it on to print its address). Under CloudPRNT, turn it on, paste the address as the Server URL, and set polling to 3 seconds. Save and restart it.
4. Back in Kaniva, press Test print. The printer shows Online once it checks in.

At the register:

• Pick the printer once per device: Printer in the register menu. With only one printer it's picked for you; No printer goes back to printing through the browser.
• Cash sales open the drawer as soon as the sale is paid. Print on the receipt screen prints on the printer and shows Printed ✓; if the printer is offline you get Print again or Print in browser.
• Open drawer (register menu) opens the drawer with no sale and prints a short slip. It's logged with your name and reason, and the session report lists every no-sale.
• Cash refunds open the drawer too, and refund receipts print on the printer.

Receipts that can't print within 15 minutes (printer off or offline) are dropped rather than printed late. New address replaces a printer's address if it's been shared by mistake; put the new one into the printer.

Voids and refunds

Recent sales in the register's top bar (in the ☰ menu on a phone) lists this register session's sales, newest first, with the time, receipt number, total, how it was paid and a badge for Voided, Refunded or Partially refunded. To find an older sale, type its receipt number (POS-…), order number or the customer's email and tap Find: it searches every register for the last 90 days. Tap a sale to see its items, payments and any earlier refunds.

Void undoes a sale completely. Use it for a sale rung up by mistake or a customer who changes their mind on the spot. It's offered only for a sale from the register session that is open now, rung up today, with nothing refunded yet.

1. Open the sale and tap Void sale.
2. Check what will happen, pick or type a reason, and tap Void sale.
3. Do what the register says: card payments (and any tip) are refunded to the card automatically; Give back $X cash comes out of the drawer; Send $X back on Venmo and Refund $X in the Square app are for you to do in those apps.

Every item goes back into stock, the order is marked refunded, and the sale comes off the session's sales total.

Refund is for anything else: an earlier sale, a different day, or part of a sale.

1. Open the sale and tap Refund….
2. Use − and + to pick how many of each item are coming back. Put back in stock is ticked for physical products; untick it for anything damaged. Or type an amount instead (for a price adjustment, or to keep a restocking fee), up to what's left to refund.
3. Pick or type a reason and tap Review refund. The register shows where the money goes. Tax is refunded with the items, in proportion.
4. Tap Refund.

The money goes back to the card first (the most recent card if there were two), then Venmo or Square, then cash from the drawer of the register that is open now, even if the sale was rung up on another day. A refund that needs cash needs an open register. A tip goes back only when the whole card payment is refunded.

If a card refund fails. Card refunds happen one at a time. If Stripe refuses one (for example, your Stripe balance is too low), the register stops and says which payments were refunded and which wasn't. Nothing else changes until it's finished: the sale isn't voided, no cash is handed back, and stock isn't touched. Tap Retry once the problem is fixed. A card that was already refunded is never refunded twice.

Receipts. After a void or refund, tap Print refund receipt or Email refund receipt. It lists the items returned, the tax, and how much went back to each payment. The original sale's receipt also shows Refunded $X on {date} when it's printed or emailed again.

Who can void and refund. Owners and admins can void and refund straight away. Staff need an owner or admin to approve each one: the register asks them to type their approval PIN. Each owner and admin sets their own 4-digit PIN on Settings → POS, under Refund approval PIN. Five wrong PINs lock that register out of approvals for five minutes. The session report records who did each void or refund and who approved it.

Refunds made in Stripe. If you refund a register card payment from your Stripe dashboard, Kaniva records it on the sale as Refunded in Stripe and updates the order. Stripe doesn't know which items came back, so nothing is restocked, and register totals don't change. Refund at the register when you can.

In the session report, refunds made at that register come off the method the money went back through (Card, Cash or Venmo), and a Refunds total shows everything voided or refunded in that session. A Voids & Refunds list shows each one with the reason, who did it and who approved it.

The register menu

The top bar (the ☰ menu on a phone) has:

• Recent sales: this session's sales, for receipts, voids and refunds (see Voids and refunds)
• Cash In and Cash Out (see Cash in and out)
• Open drawer and Printer, when you use a receipt printer (see Receipt printer and cash drawer)
• Light mode: dark text on white, easier to read in daylight and outdoors. It's remembered on that device.
• Close Register (see Closing and counting)
• Exit back to the admin

Cash in and out

Use Cash In or Cash Out in the register's top bar when cash goes into or out of the drawer for something other than a sale (change from the bank, paying for supplies). Enter the amount and a reason. Both count toward the cash you should have at close.

Closing and counting

1. Click Close Register in the top bar (in the ☰ menu on a phone).
2. Count the drawer and type the total on the number pad. Add notes if something needs explaining.
3. Click Close Session.

The register compares what you counted with what it expected (float + cash taken for sales + cash in − cash out − cash handed back for cancelled sales, voids and refunds) and records the difference as over or short.

Session reports

Sales → POS Sessions lists every register session. A closed session with no sales, refunds or cash in or out (a test, or a mistyped opening float) has Delete session at the bottom of its page. Open one to see its sales, the payment breakdown (Cash, Card, Venmo, Square and Tips), cash in and out, and expected versus counted cash. A split sale counts each payment under its own method, and the sales list shows each payment on the sale.

POS settings

Open Settings → POS:

• Tax Settings: the store's state and ZIP, used to pick the tax rate from your Tax Rates.
• Receipt Settings: footer text, whether to show your logo, whether to open the print dialog after each sale, and whether a customer email is required before a sale can complete.
• Payment Options: allow Manual Card, allow custom-amount charges, allow discounts, and the maximum discount percentage.
• Receipt Printer & Cash Drawer: Manage receipt printers (see Receipt printer and cash drawer).
• Card Reader: how many readers are registered, a link to Card Readers, and Card reader at the register to show or hide the Card Reader button.
• Tips: ask for a tip on the card reader, the tip percentages, the small-sale amount, and the fixed tips offered below it.
• Venmo: your Venmo handle, which turns on the Venmo button.
• Square account: Connect Square links your Square account, so the register finds each Square payment itself and finishes the sale, even when the Square app doesn't come back on its own. If you have more than one Square location, pick the one the register sells from. A session's page then lists any card payments in Square that no sale records. Kaniva can only read payments and locations; Disconnect Square removes its access.
• Square: Take payments in the Square app turns on the Square button. Sign in to the Square app first, on the same phone or tablet as the register. Check the first sale's total in Square: on Android, Square can add its own tax if you have one set up there, so turn that off in Square. Tips you collect in Square stay in Square and don't show on the Kaniva sale.
• Pricing: Pricing Mode is Retail (base price for all) or Customer-specific (dealer/group pricing), which uses the customer's dealer or group price when there is one.
• Refund approval PIN: owners and admins set their own 4-digit PIN here for approving staff voids and refunds. It's separate from shop-floor Staff PINs and doesn't open the PIN pad.