IBIS Technology

The Point of sale screen in IBIS can be heavily customised to suit your business requirements including optimising for touchscreens or keyboards. IBIS POS gives you the flexibility to create whichever buttons will help you perform more efficiently. It makes sense to create buttons for the things you use frequently such as commonly sold retail items and everyday Point of sale functions. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Point of sale layout
• Adjust POS grid height
• Working in design mode
• Create buttons
• POS system function buttons
• Change the button sizes & colours
• Button caption-text formatting
• Restrict buttons and functions with a password
• Button properties - using modifiers to save time
• Add submenus to group your items
• Edit POS buttons
• Move buttons around
• Remove buttons
• Setup keyboard shortcuts
• Configure unique POS menus per location
• POS buttons recommended for touchscreen use

Point of sale layout

You can manage your Point of sale screen layout under the System settings menu. You can adjust the number of button rows and columns as desired and save your changes. After saving, you will need to close/reopen the Point of sale screen to see your changes.

Adjust POS grid height

You can configure the sales grid height - this is useful if you do not sell retail or do not require any Point of Sale buttons - or if you frequently sell many retail items in one sale.

Working in design mode

Adding and editing buttons in the POS menu can only be done when you are in design mode. When you are in design mode, you cannot perform any other standard Point of Sale functions until you exit design mode. Follow these steps to enter and exit design mode:

1. Right-click on a button and select Enter design mode.
2. When prompted, enter the POS screen layout password. This password is set in the System settings screen.
3. When you are finished editing, right-click any button and select Exit design mode.
   
   

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Create buttons

You have the flexibility to create whichever buttons will help you perform more efficiently when using Point of sale. It makes sense to create buttons for the things you use frequently such as commonly sold retail items and everyday functions. There are 5 types of buttons you can create:

• Items - used to add a specific retail item to the POS grid. 
• Discounts - allows you to select from a list of discounts you have set up in the Discount screen. 
• Payments - allows you to select from a list of payment types set up in the Payment types screen.
• Submenus - opens a new button menu underneath when clicked, useful for grouping buttons.
• System functions - perform specific functions as described in the next section.

To create a new POS button, follow these steps:

1. In design mode, right-click an empty button and select Edit button.
2. Choose your button type by ticking the box to enable the selection field. 
3. Select the item, discount, payment, or system function from the droplist (note items, discounts and payment types must be set up first).
4. Once selected, the button caption will fill out automatically. Adjust the caption if required, avoiding control characters such as &, or % if possible.
5. Select any other properties as required then press OK.
   
   

POS system function buttons

The following functions can be added to your Point of sale menu (many already are shown by default).

Change the button sizes & colours

You can adjust the size of your buttons so they are double-wide, double-high, or both so they stand out on the POS screen. You can also add colours or icons to the buttons for easier visual recognition from your team. Follow these steps to set up button properties:

1. In design mode, right-click the button you want to make larger and select Edit button.
2. Select an option from the Size drop-down (make sure you have a free button space available to the right and/or beneath the button you are re-sizing):
   1. Extra Wide will cover the next button across on the right-hand side.
   2. Extra-High will cover the next button down in the column.
   3. Extra-wide and high covers the next button down and across.
3. Select a button type from the list on the right and set the caption.
4. Choose a colour or select an icon if required from the droplist.
5. Press Ok to save your changes.

Button caption-text formatting

IBIS POS allows you to format display text using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML formatted text contains markup tags, which define text appearance. Tags are enclosed with the '<' and '>' symbols, and typically have a corresponding end tag. If a tag is not matched by its ending counterpart, all text that follows the tag will be formatted accordingly. 

The following tags are supported in the Button Properties > Caption field:

Restrict buttons and functions with a password

If you have functions that require the authorisation of a supervisor, such as the No Sale function to open the till drawer, or item/sale returns, you can add a password to these buttons

1. Enter design mode as detailed above (note that if you are password protecting buttons you should ensure that only supervisors have access to the design mode password)
2. Right mouse click on the button or function you wish to password protect
3. Enter any password you wish in the Password box at the bottom right of the screen
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click OK
5. Repeat with any further buttons - passwords can be different for each button if necessary
6. Once done, exit design mode

You will now find the user is prompted for the password when attempting to access this function. If the password is incorrect, or not entered, the button or function will not work.

Button properties - using modifiers to save time

A modifier added to a button changes the behaviour in the Point of sale screen. Modifiers are useful when you want to make selling an item more efficient (e.g. selling postcards in multiples of 10, you can set up a button modifier of *10, so every time you sell the item it automatically multiplies the item by 10).

Add submenus to group your items

A submenu is indicated by 3 dots after the caption on the button name. When clicked, a submenu displays another button panel underneath. This is useful for grouping items together in your POS screen. To configure a submenu:

1. In design mode, right-click the button you wish to make a submenu and select  Edit button.
2. Tick the submenu box and enter a caption. Avoid any control characters such as &, or % if possible.
3. Set any other properties as desired such as a colour or icon - note passwords do not work for submenus.
4. Press OK to save your changes.
5. You can now open your submenu and start adding new buttons underneath.

Edit POS buttons

You can change any details about a button you have created easily.

1. In design mode, right-click the button you want to make changes on and select Edit button.
2. Make the changes required and press Ok to save.

Move buttons around

You can move buttons around the Point of sale screen by holding the CTRL key, then clicking and dragging the button with your mouse when you are in design mode.

Remove buttons

You can remove a button from the POS screen by right-clicking the button and selecting Clear when you are in design mode.

Note: when clearing a submenu, the button panel underneath stays intact. If you create another submenu with the same name in future, the buttons underneath will still show unless you remove them individually. 

Setup keyboard shortcuts

You can easily optimise your POS screen for use with a keyboard and mouse. Allocating a key code to any system function (i.e. a unique letter which behaves the same way as clicking the button with your mouse) will make using POS very efficient on a keyboard.

1. In design mode, right-click the button you want to key code and select Edit button.
2. In the Properties menu, enter a unique letter in the Keycode field. (The letter must only be unique on the menu the button appears. The same key code could be used on another button under the submenu for example).
3. Press Ok to save your changes.

Configure unique POS menus per location

You can customise the buttons that display on the bottom POS menu per location. Please note that the number of button rows/columns must be consistent but the display of the items can be unique. To create a unique button panel on the bottom for a location follow these steps:

1. Open the Locations screen under the System menu.
2. Select the location you require a unique button panel for and enter a number (2 or higher) in the POS menu column. 
3. Open the POS screen and configure the blank bottom button menu as required. Ensure your till name (i.e. device) is set up in the Machine settings screen for your new location before opening the Point of sale screen.
4. If you want to set up another unique menu, repeated the steps above and enter a unique number (e.g. 3) into the POS menu field.
5. If you need to revert back to the default menu, change the POS menu number back to 1.
6. If you want to set up 2 locations with the same menu, just ensure the same POS menu number is assigned to both.

 

If the bottom area of the POS screen does need any buttons to display:

1. Open the System settings screen under the System menu.
2. Set the Rows on the bottom panel to 0 to minimise the size of the bottom area of the screen.

NOTE: if the bottom area of the POS screen is mainly blank, e.g. there is only one row of buttons:

1. Open the System settings screen under the System menu
2. Set the Grid height to a value that works for the POS screen to your site to reduce the amount of blank space (maximum value is 100)

POS buttons recommended for touchscreen use

There are a number of functions that can be added to your POS menu to ensure ease of use with a touchscreen.