Register Basics

Register Basics

HandyBook's Point of Sale turns a tablet, phone, or laptop into a register for in-person sales — parts off the truck, a counter, a pickup, or a walk-up payment. POS lives in the sidebar under the Point of Sale group. It's a Pro feature; on lower plans the POS screens are visible but locked behind an upgrade prompt.

First-time setup

Before you ring your first sale, walk through Point of Sale → Setup. It's a six-step checklist that tracks your progress:

1. Welcome to POS — read the intro, tap Let's go
2. Add a tax rate — sales tax for taxable items
3. Add at least one item — what you sell
4. Set up discounts — optional; you can Skip this step
5. Open your first shift — count your drawer
6. Make your first sale — ring something up to test

The header shows "X of 6 steps done." When everything's green you'll see All set! with an Open Register button. You can Skip setup at any time and come back later.

Opening the Register

Open Point of Sale → Register. If no shift is open, the Open shift dialog appears automatically. Count the cash in your drawer, type it into Opening cash, and tap Open shift. The header then reads "Shift open · [elapsed] · started with $X."

You can't add items or charge until a shift is open — the item tiles and Charge button stay disabled.

The Register screen

• A hardware status bar across the top shows printer, scanner, drawer, and card-reader state
• The item grid (left, wider) — tap a tile to add it to the cart
• A search box above the grid — filter by name, SKU, or barcode
• The Cart panel (right) with Customer and Discount selectors, line items, and totals

Adding items to the cart

Three ways:

• Tap a tile in the grid
• Search by name, SKU, or barcode, then tap the result
• Scan a barcode — if a scanner is enabled, scanning a matching SKU or barcode adds the item and shows "Scanned: [name]"

Tapping the same item again increases its quantity. Each tile shows the price and, for tracked items, a "X left" stock badge (amber when at or below the low-stock threshold).

Editing the cart

• Use the − and + buttons on a line to change quantity (dropping to 0 removes the line)
• Tap the trash icon on a line to remove it
• Tap Clear in the cart header to empty the whole cart

Customer and discount

• Customer — a dropdown that defaults to Walk-in. Pick an existing customer to attach the sale to their record. (Create customers under Customers first; there's no add-customer step inside the Register.)
• Discount — a dropdown of the reusable discounts you've set up under Point of Sale → Discounts. Only discounts whose minimum subtotal is met appear.

Checkout

The cart footer shows Subtotal, Discount (if any), Tax, and Total. Tap Charge $X to open the payment dialog. See the Checkout Flow article for tenders and receipts.

Ending a shift

Tap End shift in the header, count the drawer, enter Closing cash, and tap Close shift. See Daily Close & Reconciliation.

FAQ

Is POS available on the Starter plan? No — every POS screen requires the Pro plan. Lower plans see the screens locked behind an upgrade prompt. See Billing & Plans.

Do I need any hardware? No. The Register works on its own — cash, card (recorded), and check tenders all work without hardware. Add a printer, scanner, drawer, or Stripe Terminal later under Point of Sale → Hardware.

Can I run more than one register? Yes — open a shift on each device. Each shift reconciles independently, and all sales roll up into Point of Sale → Sales and Reports.

Can the whole team see sales? Sales are shared across your org under Sales and Reports.

How do returns work? Open the sale under Sales, then Refund or Void. See POS Refunds & Returns.