Working the till with Complete Retailer

Read sections 1 to 4 before your first shift on the register. Supervisors and the office also need sections 5 and 6. Section 7 is what to do when something looks wrong, and it's the first place to look before calling support.

Before your shift

1. Turn on the register PC, the receipt printer and the customer display. Wait for the printer light to stop flashing.
2. Open Complete Retailer. If the Select business window appears, choose your shop and press Open. The business name shows at the top of the sign-in screen; if it's wrong, use Switch business.
3. Sign in with your user number and passcode on the number pad. Never sign in as another cashier: the read-off and every void carry the name of whoever is signed in.
4. Open Cash Register. Check the title bar shows the right register number (for example REG 02). If you see Register in use elsewhere, read section 7 before you sell anything.
5. Count your float and keep the slip. The read-off at the end compares expected cash with what's in the drawer.

1. Ringing up a sale

Adding items

• Scan the barcode, or type the item number and press Enter.
• Tap a menu button for fast sellers. Buttons show the description and current price (Patty & coco bread - $350.00). Menus can have sub-menus; the Back button returns to the main menu.
• Search by name when you don't know the number: start typing the description in the item box and pick from the list.
• For a quantity, type the number first then scan or tap, or change Qty on the line afterwards.
• Items with modifiers (no pepper, extra gravy, large) show a prompt; choose and continue. Modifiers print under the item on the receipt and on the kitchen ticket.

Changing a line

• Select the line and change Qty or Price (price changes need a supervisor where the site requires it).
• Line discount: select the line, enter the discount % or amount. The receipt shows the full price and the discount separately; that's how the read-off reports it, so don't lower the price instead of discounting.
• Remove a line: select it and press Delete line. If the whole order is wrong, Clear cancels the receipt and the receipt number is reused.

Hold and recall

A customer who steps away to get money: press Hold. The order is saved with its receipt number. Serve the next person, then Recall and pick the held order from the list to finish it. Held orders stay on your register until recalled or cleared, and they're not part of your sales until paid.

Printing a bill before payment (restaurants)

Print prints a bill for the table and marks the order ISSUED. It is not a sale yet. When the table pays, recall the order and tender it. Tables paying together: use Combine to join their orders into one bill.

2. Taking payment

1. Press Tender. The total due is shown.
2. Choose the tender: Cash, Card (debit/credit, processed on the bank terminal), Charge (to an approved customer account), or Lunch card (swipe).
3. Enter the amount received. For cash, the change is calculated and shown on the customer display. You can split a payment: part cash, part card.
4. Press Complete. The receipt prints and the drawer opens. Give the receipt with the change.

Lunch cards

On the tender screen, swipe the student's card. The till checks the card and the student. When accepted, the receipt prints the card number (last 4) and the remaining balance. The cursor returns to the swipe box automatically, so you can swipe the next student straight away.

• If the amount is more than the card allows, the till tells you how much the card can pay; take the rest in cash or remove items.
• A card can be used only a set number of times per day and per week (the school sets this). The till refuses the swipe over the limit.
• Never type a card number from memory. If the stripe won't read, send the student to the office.

When a card is declined

Every decline is written to the log with the reason, so the office can see it later. Don't try the swipe again and again.

3. Mistakes: void and refund

• Before payment: fix the line or Clear the order. Nothing is recorded.
• After payment, same shift: Void the receipt. Enter the receipt number (it's printed at the bottom), a supervisor enters their passcode, and a void slip prints. The stock goes back, a lunch-card charge is reversed, and the receipt shows as VOID in the read-off with its value. Keep the original receipt stapled to the void slip.
• Customer returns an item later: Refund. Select the items, choose how the money goes back. Refunds are listed separately on the read-off.

4. End of shift: the read-off

A read-off closes your shift on your register. It prints two reports and then clears the register so the next shift starts at zero.

1. Finish or clear every held order. Held orders can't be read off.
2. Count the drawer. Use Cash count to enter notes and coins by denomination; the till adds it up.
3. Press Read. The till prints:
   • Z1 – Daily sales report (details): every item sold, grouped, with quantities and values, then the discount total.
   • Z2 – Register summary: number of receipts, sub total, tax, sale total, each tender (CASH, CARD, CHARGE, LUNCH CARD…), voids and refunds, expected cash versus counted cash, and a reconciliation line.
4. Check the two agree. The item total on Z1 (after discounts) should equal the sale total on Z2. If Z2 prints UNRECONCILED, stop and call the supervisor before clearing.
5. When the supervisor is satisfied, Clear the register. The receipts are marked read, the summary is stored, and the cash goes to the office with both slips.

5. Supervisor tasks

Items and prices

Item Centre (desktop) or Stock ▸ Edit item (web). Changing a price updates the list price in every warehouse and the text on the menu button that sells the item. Mark an item inactive instead of deleting it; history depends on it.

Stock counts

On hand in this system is the sum of every stock movement. When you count, you enter what is on the shelf and the system posts the difference as a STOCK VARIATIONS movement. From the web: open the item, choose the warehouse, count, enter the quantity and a reason. For a full stock-take use the desktop Stock Adjustment document, which can also zero everything you didn't count.

Receiving goods

Stock Transaction ▸ Purchase: choose the supplier and warehouse, scan or enter the items and quantities, enter the cost, then Post. Cost lands on the item and on hand increases. Transfers between warehouses use the same screen with a from and to warehouse.

Customers and charge accounts

Customer Centre / web Customers: create the customer, set the credit limit and status. Only active customers can charge or use a lunch card. Payments on account are taken under AR payments.

Lunch cards (schools)

• Issue: Card Centre ▸ new card, swipe the blank card, pick the student, save. The card starts active with the default balance.
• Replace a lost card: issue a new card to the same student; the old card is deactivated and released automatically.
• Student leaves: set the student inactive (card is then declined) or remove the student from the card so it can be reissued.
• Balance: PATH balances recharge monthly. A manual correction is done on the web (card ▸ adjust) with a reason; it's recorded as a transaction and a note.

Users

User Accounts: create cashiers with a numeric passcode (4 or more digits). Types decide what a person can open: CASHIER sells; MANAGER/SUPERVISOR can approve voids, read off and edit; ADMINISTRATOR does everything, including setup. Passcodes can be reset from the web by a manager or administrator; administrators' passcodes only by another administrator.

6. The web back office

Open the address your administrator gave you (it starts with https://). Choose the business, sign in with your POS user number and passcode. Cashier accounts can't sign in to the web; managers and administrators can.

Read-only users see the same pages without the edit buttons.

7. When something goes wrong

8. For support and administrators

• Logs: desktop %ProgramData%\CompleteRetailer\Logs (one file per day: LOGIN, TENDER, CARD, PRINT, REGISTER, STOCK, SCHEMA lines); web App_Data\Logs\web-yyyymmdd.log (LOGIN, DASHBOARD, API, AUDIT).
• Schema check: CompleteRetailer.exe /check compares the database with the application and adds missing tables, columns and indexes; /check-dryrun only reports. Cashiers never see this; run it after an upgrade, once per business.
• New business: Database Connection ▸ type a new database name ▸ OK ▸ answer Create, enter the business name and address. Tables, indexes and start-up data are created; the default administrator is user 101. Change its passcode at once.
• Receipt counter: Setup ▸ Warehouse Register ▸ Next Receipt. The till skips numbers already used on that register.
• Registers: one register number per machine (Setup Register). The station check in section 7 reports clashes.
• Web access: user types allowed to sign in and to edit are set in the web Web.config (Auth:AllowedTypes, Auth:EditTypes). All web changes are in tblWEBAUDIT.

Cashier checklist