Using POSper/Quick tour

Based on an original document by Amar Minhas.

Overview

Run posper.exe (win32) or posper (Unix) to start the Application.

This starts the application in a maximised window. It is possible to start the application in fullscreen mode as would likely be required in a deployment scenario. See below for further details.

The left part of the screen lists all of the current valid accounts. By default, these are

• Admin
• Manager
• Employee
• Guest

You can log in as any of these users by selecting the relevant icon. You will not be prompted for a password since all of the default accounts are created without a password.

Select the Admin login

Once logged in as admin, you are directly in the sales view. In the bottom left corner you see a Menu button. When you hit this button the menu opens on the left side of the screen contaimimg three collapsible panels. These are

Principal

This is where the basic point of sale operations take place. It is possible to record sales, issue refunds, register cash in and cash out payments, close the cash for the trading period, and create and edit customer records.

Administration

Here you can set up the product catalog and tax categories. You can also run reports and configure the basic application level objects (users, tables, floors and other resources).

System

Here you can set up or change your password and enter the setup menu where all local options can be configured like layout options, device configuration, the location of the persistent store (by default, a HSQL DB in your home directory), and the applications operation mode where retail and restaurant modes are available. If you choose Keyboard a virtual keyboard will pop up, if configured. You can either completely log out or just go to the login menu to login as another user. Multiple users can be logged in at the same time, see below for more details.

Getting Started

User Management

To add a new user, select the third last icon from the top toolbar and fill in the values for Name, Role, and visibility. You can optionally set the password and provide an image for this user. For the other entries see the detailled reference.

You can delete the existing accounts by selecting them in the listbox and clicking the icon with the red cross.

WARNING: There is no confirmation for any deletion!

The top right icon means Save. However, if you change to another record or proceed with another new record your changes are automatically saved! Lassana Ru Salon & studio

Tax Management

From the administration panel, select Maintenance then Taxes. Here you can set up tax bands that will later be associated with products. This allows taxation calculations to be performed automatically. POSper is very flexible in dealing with taxes: you cannot only assign multiple taxes to a product but also switch between taxes according to specific sales situations, e.g. dine-in or take-away.

Category Management

Managing the catalog consists of setting up categories and adding products to those categories. Note that

1. Categories CAN be nested
2. Products must belong to a main category and may belong to any number of additional categories.

The main category is evaluated e.g. for sales statistics while the additional categories define where a product is shown in the sales panel.

To set up a category, go to the Administration panel and select Stock, then select Categories. The form layout is similar to the user management form. Select the third icon from the right and fill in the values for ID and Category. Note that the category ID need not be unique. It is only used in printer templates for selection purposes. You also need to specify the parent category. All categories need to have a parent (the root category has itself as a parent). The parent category is the category to nest in. For instance, if you had a top level category of Soups you might have nested categories in Soups for Puree and Chunky. Finally, you can pick an image for the category if you wish.

Product Management

From the administration panel on the left, select Stock then Products. Here you can add, remove and edit products. To add a new product, select the third last icon from the top toolbar and fill in the values for Reference, Name, Buy Price, Sell Price, Tax, and Category.
The value for Reference is not used by POSper and may remain empty. By default it's a numeric value. When you've installed the database triggers as desibed in the README file the reference number will start with 100000 and automatically be incremented by one with each new record.
If you want this product to be selectable from the sales screen, go to the Properties tab and enable the In Catalog checkbox.

In the Categories tab you can select additional categories in which the product shall be displayed for selection. This is particularly useful for consignment products that can belong to products in different categories.

In the Properties tab you can mark a product as consignment. When you select a consignment product it will be inserted just below the marked ticketline instead of at the end of the ticket and will be automatically deleted when the line it belongs to is deleted.

Typical Workflow

• Concept of closing cash
• Procedure for ringing up sale
• How POSper interacts with
  • Barcode scanner
  • Cash Drawer
  • Credit card reader
• Report generation

Bulk Operations

• JDBC configuration
• DB Schema layout
• Sample bulk import procedure

-- !! How does one import a product list?

There are various applications out there that provide access to MySQL data  

from  EXCEL.  One example is found at http://www.sobolsoft.com/excelmysql. 

 It is $29.00 for the full featured Excel Add-In, but it provides complete 

IMPORT and EXPORT data flows - all the features of a spreadsheet, and all the 

functionality of a database.

The free-est, cheapest method would be to key the Product data into a file (CSV 

or some other data format), and then use the MySQL loader tools. PostgreSQL has 

loader tools, too.