Ways to Shorten the Wait at the Till

1Where Does the Time Go at the Till?

A sale at the till has three steps: the products go into the cart, the total is announced and the payment is taken. The line usually grows at one of these steps. A product is searched for in the list, a customer goes back for a forgotten item while everyone behind them waits, or the payment gets complicated.

Saving a few seconds at each step changes the length of the line at busy hours. The four methods below follow these steps.

2Scan the Barcode

Scanning a barcode is faster than searching the list and removes the risk of mixing up two products with similar names. In PratikKasa a barcode can be read in three ways:

• A scanner on Windows. On the sales screen, a product you scan goes straight into the cart. No scanner? Type the code in the Scan Barcode window.
• The camera on a phone. On Android phones and iPhone, Scan Barcode opens the camera and the scanned product is added to the cart.
• A code that isn't registered. If the barcode doesn't belong to any product, PratikKasa tells you. If you can manage products, you can add the code as a new product or link it to an existing one.

3Keep Quick Picks at Hand

For products without a barcode and the few products you sell most each day, use Quick Picks instead of searching. As you sell, PratikKasa lists your best sellers here; add the products you use often to your favorites to pin them at the top.

To add a favorite on Windows, click Edit and then the products; on a phone, press and hold a product. In Settings you can choose whether the sales screen opens on Quick Picks or on All.

4Put a Waiting Cart on Hold

When a customer goes back for a forgotten item, set the cart aside instead of deleting it. The cart on hold is kept, the till is free and you can serve the next customer. When the customer returns, tap their cart under Carts on Hold and the sale continues where it left off.

• Name the cart. You can type a name when you put it on hold; if you leave it empty, the cart gets a number. If a customer is selected in the cart, their name is filled in.
• The discount comes back too. A discount applied before the cart was put on hold comes back with it, as long as the person resuming the cart has permission to apply discounts.
• You see how long it has waited. Each cart on hold shows how long it has been waiting, its number of items and its amount.

5Split the Payment Between Two Methods

Some customers want to pay part of the amount in cash and the rest by card. In the Windows app, enter the cash amount first when taking the payment; the remaining amount appears on screen and is taken by card as the second method.

A split payment uses at most two methods and only combines cash and card. On-account sales and gift cards can't be part of a split payment.

The drawings in this post are based on the screens of PratikKasa 2.1.0.