Roles, branches and a shared counter with PINs
Four roles decide who sells, who approves and who sets up, and each person sees only the stores they may switch to. On a shared counter, staff sign in with their own PIN, so every sale shows who made it.
PLANSEvery plan
The problem it solves
- Everyone at the counter uses the owner's login, so a short drawer or a wrong discount has no name on it.
- A cashier at one branch can look at another branch's sales and cash.
- Giving each counter boy his own login and password is slow, and passwords end up on a sticky note.
How it works
- The POS Administrator gives each user one role under Settings > Users, section Point of Sale: Cashier, Supervisor, POS Manager or POS Administrator. Each role includes the ones below it.
- Each user is given the Entities (stores) they may switch to. Registers, sessions, orders and payments of other stores stay hidden from them.
- For a counter shared by several people, the administrator ticks Shared Counter on the register and picks the Employees allowed on it. Empty means every employee of that store.
- Each employee gets a counter PIN of 4 to 8 digits from Set Counter PIN on their employee form.
- At the counter the screen asks Who is selling? The employee taps their name, types the PIN and sells. A colleague taking over signs in with their own PIN.
- Each sale keeps Sold By next to the logged-in cashier, and the reports count discounts by the person who sold.
Everything it does
The four roles
- Cashier: sees Point of Sale > Counter; opens and closes sessions, sells and takes payments. Gives discounts up to the register's limit, records cash in and out, prints receipts
- Supervisor: everything a cashier does, and approves refunds, discounts above the cashier's limit and items on the house. Also large cash moves, cash differences, and receipt copies where the register asks. Decides App Conflicts; ticks May Pay Later at the Counter on a customer
- POS Manager: everything a supervisor does, sees Point of Sale > Reports, approves the highest discounts and the largest amounts on the house, approves promotions
- POS Administrator: everything, and Point of Sale > Configuration (registers, payment methods, products, reasons, card terminals, approval chains)
Branches
- Registers, payment methods, sessions, orders and payments carry their Entity; a user sees those of the Entities they may switch to
- The register form calls the Entity Branch
Shared counter
- Shared Counter on the register, with Employees allowed (empty: every employee of the store)
- PIN of 4 to 8 digits, kept only as a salted hash; nobody can read it back, a forgotten PIN is set again
- An employee with a login sets their own PIN; only an HR officer or a POS Administrator sets someone else's
- After 5 wrong PINs that employee is locked for 5 minutes ("Too many wrong PINs")
- A sale cannot be paid on a shared counter until someone has signed in with a PIN
- Orders show Sold By; the Orders list can be grouped by it; cash moves keep the employee too
Who uses it
Cashier or counter employeeSigns in with a PIN on a shared counter and sells under their own name.
SupervisorApproves what a cashier cannot do alone, with a password or a PIN.
POS ManagerReads the reports and approves the highest discounts and amounts on the house.
POS AdministratorGives roles and Entities, makes counters shared and sets PINs.
Where you use it
- Web: Settings > Users (roles), the register form (Shared Counter, Employees), the employee form (Set Counter PIN)
- Web: Point of Sale > Counter > Sell asks Who is selling? on a shared counter (Growth)
- The SmartMy POS app: Who is selling? with the list of names and a PIN pad (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
- Not built: signing in with a card, a fingerprint or a face at the counter
What you control
Settings
- Shared Counter: off for a new register
- Employees: empty, so every employee of the store may sign in
- PIN length: 4 to 8 digits; lock after 5 wrong tries for 5 minutes (fixed)
Approvals
- Counter approval: supervisors and POS managers approve at the counter by password, or by PIN on a shared counter
Works with
SmartMy HRMSThe employees who sign in with a PIN are the same employee records your HR team keeps.
Questions
Do PIN users need their own login?
No. One login is open on the counter, and each employee signs in on it with a PIN. Cashiers who sign in with a PIN are not counted as users.What if someone forgets their PIN?
Nobody can look it up, because only a hash is kept. They set a new one from their own employee form, or an HR officer or POS Administrator sets it for them.Can a cashier of one store see another store?
No. A user sees only the registers, sessions and orders of the Entities they may switch to. Give a manager several Entities to let them see more.Does the shared counter work in the app without signal?
Yes. The PIN is sent with each sale and checked when the sale reaches the server. A wrong PIN then turns the sale into an App Conflict for a supervisor.Related features
SELLINGRefunds and discounts with a supervisor PINRefund the lines and quantities that come back, with a reason, found by receipt number or customer. Give line or bill discounts with a reason up to the cashier's limit. A supervisor approves each refund on the cashier's screen with a password or a PIN that works once.SELLINGHigher discounts, price changes and items on the houseEach register sets three discount bands: what a cashier gives alone, what a supervisor approves and what only a POS manager approves. Items or whole bills given on the house need a reason and an approval, and their value is reported apart from discounts.SET-UPRegisters, products and barcodesEach register is one till with its own payment methods, price list, cash rounding, walk-in customer and favourites. Products carry a POS category, a barcode, a picture and the rules for discounts and price changes.STORES AND REPORTSSeveral stores, each with its own booksRun each store as an Entity with its own registers, payment methods, journals and settings. Each store's sessions post in its own books, and its staff see only their own store. A manager who may switch to several stores sees them together in the same lists and reports.ACROSS SMARTMY POSApproval chainsTwo kinds of approval run through the approval chains of SmartMy POS. Counter approvals are decided on the spot by a supervisor or POS manager at the cashier's screen. Promotions can wait for one or several approvers before they run. Each Entity has its own chain of each kind, and every decision is kept with who made it.WEB COUNTER AND APPSmartMy POS app for phones and tillsThe SmartMy POS app runs the whole shift on one device. Open the session, sell, take payments, refund, and print or share receipts. Move cash and close with a cash count. It keeps the register's products, prices and taxes on the device and keeps selling without signal. It runs on Android and iOS phones and tablets and on Windows, macOS and Linux tills.
See a day at your counter, start to close.
Tell us what you sell and how many counters you run. We will show you the opening count, a sale without internet, a refund and the closing report.