Selling offline

When the internet drops, the till can keep selling. Sales are kept on the till and sent to the server, in order, as soon as the connection is back. This needs the Offline mode add-on on the shop's subscription.

Is offline selling on for your shop?

• With the Offline mode add-on: the till keeps selling when the connection drops, and stores each sale until it can be sent.
• Without it: a sale paid while offline is refused with No connection. This shop does not sell offline: try again when the connection is back. Wait for the connection and pay again.

See Your subscription and billing to add it.

Note: If you switch the add-on off, do it only after every till has sent its waiting sales. Sales sent after that are refused and stay on the till to be redone.

How you know the till is offline

The header shows Online or Offline. Next to it, the offline sales button shows the queue:

What keeps working offline

The till stores what it needs in the browser:

• the app itself (after it has been opened once online),
• the catalogue for your store, prices and the till settings (VAT, payment methods, warehouses),
• the promotions that were live the last time it was online,
• the open cart, which survives a reload or a crash,
• customers already used on this till.

So offline you can add items, scan barcodes, use offers, pick a recent customer, and take cash, card or split payments. The total on screen uses the same pricing rules as the server.

If the shop uses cash closing and no session is open, the till still sells offline and warns No open cash session: offline sales are kept and checked when sent.

What needs a connection

• searching for other customers and quick-adding a customer,
• opening and closing a cash session,
• drafts, tables and returns (their buttons are disabled offline),
• a manager's approval for a discount above the cashier's limit,
• checking a coupon code with the server,
• signing in. Keep the POS tab open: reopening the app offline works in the same tab, but a new tab needs a connection to sign in.

Receipts made offline

An offline sale prints straight away. The invoice number shows as "Pending", because invoice numbers are given by the server when the sale arrives.

When the connection comes back

The till sends the waiting sales in the order they were made, with their real time (up to 72 hours back). The server:

• accepts them even if things changed: stock ran short, the cash session closed, or prices changed. The goods and money already changed hands.
• never saves a sale twice: if a sale reached the server just before the connection dropped, sending it again returns the saved sale.
• prices each sale with the offers the till had at the time of the sale.

Open the offline sales button to see the queue, send now, retry a refused sale, or discard it.

Sales that need review

If an offline sale broke a rule the till could not check, it is saved anyway and marked To review in the Sales list. For example: no open cash session while cash closing was on, a discount above the cashier's limit, a card payment above the total, an underpaid sale without a customer, or a total that differs because prices changed. A manager checks it and chooses Mark as reviewed.

Refused sales

A sale the server refuses (for example, an item was deleted in the meantime) stays in the queue as refused, with the reason. Fix the cause and retry it, or discard it and ring the sale up again.

Example: a market stall with a weak signal

A coffee cart at a weekend market loses its mobile signal at 10:15. The header switches to Offline. The barista keeps selling; receipts print with "Pending" as the invoice number, and the queue button counts up to 12 waiting. At 10:40 the signal returns. The till sends all twelve sales in order, the button changes to All sent, and the sales appear in the Sales list with the Made offline mark and their real sale times.

Related: Using the POS till, Taking payment, Troubleshooting.