Using Your Phone as a Barcode Scanner: Scan With the Camera and Sell

1Can You Use Your Phone as a Barcode Scanner?

Yes. A barcode is a pattern of lines that a camera can see, and your phone's camera reads it easily. What turns the phone into a barcode scanner is the app that opens the camera and converts the pattern into the product's code.

An app that only reads barcodes shows the code on screen and leaves the rest to you. In a sales app, the scanned code finds the product right away: it goes into the cart with its price, comes off your stock when you complete the sale and shows up in your reports. In PratikKasa the camera is part of the sales screen, so the phone works as both a barcode scanner and a till.

2How Do You Scan a Barcode With Your Phone?

In PratikKasa you scan barcodes from the sales screen:

• Open the camera. Tap the camera button on the sales screen to open Scan Barcode. The first time, the phone asks for camera access.
• Line up the barcode. Hold the phone 10–20 centimeters (4–8 inches) from the barcode and keep the lines inside the frame on screen.
• Scan and move on. When a product is read, you hear a short beep and see the product's name and price. The camera stays open, so you scan the next product.
• Tap Done. The number of items and the amount to pay stay at the bottom of the screen. Done closes the camera and shows the cart; Go to Payment takes you to the payment.

If you scan the same barcode twice in a row, the app waits about two seconds before accepting the second read, so a product isn't added twice by mistake. To sell several of the same product, raise the quantity in the cart. For clothing, scanning a product's main barcode opens the color and size picker; if you gave each color and size its own barcode, scanning it adds that color and size directly.

3Which Barcodes Can It Read?

It reads all the common barcodes found on products:

• EAN-13 and EAN-8. The barcode on most products sold in Europe and many other countries.
• UPC-A and UPC-E. The barcode on products from North America.
• Code 128, Code 39 and ITF-14. Barcodes used on shelf, carton and warehouse labels.
• QR code. The square code; if you gave a product a QR code, that works too.

If the scanned barcode doesn't belong to a registered product, you see an «Unrecognized barcode» notice. If you're allowed to add products, you can add the barcode as a new product or link it to an existing one right from the notice; once linked, the scanned barcode becomes that product's code.

You can also give a code to a product without a barcode: type its code when you add the product and print a barcode label on a label printer in the Windows app.

4What to Do When Your Phone Won't Scan a Barcode

Most of the time the cause is the camera permission, the light or the distance:

• Camera access. If the screen says «Camera Access Needed», tap Allow. If you declined earlier, tap Open Settings and turn it on in your phone's settings.
• Light. In dim light the lines can't be made out; turn the product toward the light. If shiny packaging reflects, tilt the phone a little.
• Distance and focus. A barcode held too close is blurry. Move the phone back a little; the read comes once the camera focuses. Wipe the lens if it's dirty.
• Damaged barcode. No scanner can read a torn, crumpled or faded barcode. Find the product in the search box on the sales screen by its name or by typing the barcode number.

5When Do You Need a Separate Barcode Scanner?

Scanning with a phone is enough for a till that sells at a counter, in front of a shelf or next to the customer and scans a few products per sale. At a till with a queue and many products per sale, a separate scanner is faster: pulling a trigger takes less time than pointing the phone at every product.

Computers don't scan with the camera. In PratikKasa's Windows app you scan with a barcode scanner connected to the computer; if you don't have one, you type the barcode number.

Using the phone as a scanner that sends barcodes to the computer isn't available in PratikKasa today. The phone and the computer work as separate tills; a sale or stock change on one is applied on the other too.

6Payment and Receipt on the Phone Too

You take the payment for the scanned products in cash, by card, on account or with a Gift Card. For cash, enter the amount received and the change is calculated.

The phone doesn't read cards itself. You take the card on a connected Token cash register or on your own card terminal, and the sale is recorded on the phone as a card payment.

You print the receipt on a Bluetooth thermal printer. If you don't have a printer, you send the receipt as a PDF by WhatsApp or email from Sales History. Selling continues even when the internet drops; once the connection is back, the sales reach your other devices.

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