Saturday at the till

At nine on a Saturday morning the sample homeware and gift shop in this tour opens its doors, and for the next eight hours the till is where everything happens. Customers want cushions in a particular colour, candles that are on offer and a card to go with the present. The owner wants each sale to take seconds, the right item to come off stock, and the offer to apply without anyone working out percentages at the counter. This tour follows that day through four stops on the shop till.

Each stop is expanded below into what you do, what the till shows and why it matters. A worked receipt follows, then tips, common mistakes and where to go next.

What does the shop till look like?

On the left are product tiles, with category buttons above them (All, Home and Gifts in the sample) and a field showing the last item scanned. On the right is the sale: the customer (Walk-in by default), each line with its price, any offer applied, the total with VAT shown inside it, and the Card and Cash buttons.

When a product has options, such as colour and size, a panel opens to choose the one the customer picked.

Step by step

1. Scan the first item. At 09:00 the owner scans a barcode and the item joins the sale at its price. Nobody types a price or looks anything up. If something has no barcode, tap its tile or search for it.
2. Keep the customer as Walk-in unless you know them. Most shop sales are to people you will not see on an account. If the customer has an account with you, pick them so the sale is recorded against their name.
3. Choose the option the customer wants. At 11:30 a customer brings two linen throw cushions to the counter. The cushion comes in four colours (sage, oat, charcoal and rust) and two sizes (45 cm and 60 cm). The panel says "Choose the option the customer picked". Pick Sage and 45 cm.
4. Check the stock for that option. The panel shows how many of that exact cushion are left, not how many cushions in total. If sage 45 cm is down to its last two, you know before the customer leaves whether a third is possible.
5. Scan an item that is on offer. At 11:31 the customer adds a fig soy candle. It is in the spring offer, so the till takes 10% off that line and marks it "Offer applied". You do not choose the offer; the till picks it for the line.
6. Point out the saving. The till shows what the customer saved. Mentioning it at the counter costs nothing and makes the offer visible.
7. Add the last item. A greeting card at £3.50, scanned like the rest.
8. Read the total. The total already includes VAT, and the VAT is shown on its own line. You do not add anything on top.
9. Take payment. Tap Card or Cash. The sale is finished, stock comes off for each line, including the right cushion option, and the next customer is up.

How does the 11:30 sale add up?

The VAT is one sixth of each VAT-inclusive line at the standard 20% rate: £8.00 on the cushions, £1.80 on the discounted candle and £0.58 on the card, £10.38 in all. Notice that the VAT on the candle is worked out on the price after the offer, £10.80, not on the full £12.00. VAT is due on what the customer actually pays. Our VAT guide for small businesses explains why.

Why does stock by option matter?

Because "cushions: 9 in stock" tells you nothing useful when a customer wants sage in 45 cm. Keeping each option as its own product with its own stock means the till takes the right one off, the shop's Running low list shows the right one, and reorders ask for the right one. Without it, you find out the sage is gone when a customer asks, and you over-order charcoal because the total looked low.

The same logic is why barcodes matter. A scan finds exactly one product, at its own price, every time. Our guide on choosing a POS system lists options and barcodes among the things to test before you buy.

Tips for a busy Saturday

• Scan rather than tap whenever you can. Scanning is faster and avoids picking the wrong tile in a hurry.
• Always confirm the option out loud. "Sage, the smaller one?" catches the moment when a customer picked up the wrong cushion.
• Trust the till with offers. Do not work out discounts by hand; the till applies the right one to the right line.
• Use the category buttons for unlabelled items. Gifts or Home narrows the tiles when something has lost its label.
• Keep the saving visible. A customer who sees what they saved is more likely to notice the next offer.

Common mistakes

• Picking the first option on the panel. If the default is sage and the customer wants rust, the stock goes wrong for both.
• Giving an extra discount by hand on an offer line. The offer is already applied. Adding a manual discount on top doubles it.
• Adding VAT to the total. Shop prices include VAT. The figure on screen is what the customer pays.
• Typing a price for an item that will not scan. Find the product instead, or the sale will not take it off stock. Our barcodes tour shows how to add a missing code.

What should you do next?

The spring offer used here was set up in the offer tour before opening. Later in the day, a mug comes back chipped shows a return against a sale like this one, and cash up before locking the door shows the card and cash takings at closing. For pricing decisions, our guide on how to price products explains how offers fit with your normal prices.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's till scans barcodes, keeps each colour and size with its own stock, applies running offers to the right lines and works out VAT on every line. It runs on a tablet, desktop or phone and takes card or cash. The shop and figures in this tour are sample data.