Billing at the till

Point of sale is where your counter staff bill customers. It is built for the keyboard: scan or type, press Enter, adjust the quantity, press F9, take the money and the bill is saved. This guide walks through a bill from start to finish, explains what the till checks, and lists every shortcut.

Before the first bill: open a shift

Cash has to pass through a counted drawer, so a counter needs an open shift before it can bill. If none is open, Point of sale says "No shift is open on this counter".

1. Choose Open shift.
2. Count the cash already in the drawer and type it in Opening float (Rs).
3. Choose Open shift. The bar at the top now shows, for example, Counter 1 · Shift 3 open.

Pressing F9 on a bill with no shift open offers the same step. See Shifts and closing the day.

How to bill a customer

1. Open Point of sale. The cursor is already in the search box: "Scan a barcode, or type a title, author, ISBN or SKU (F2)".
2. Scan the barcode. The item goes straight onto the bill. Scanning the same item again adds one to the same line.
3. Or type two or more letters of the title, author, publisher, SKU or ISBN. The results appear as you type, each with its stock, and the first one is highlighted. Press Enter to add the highlighted one, use Up and Down to highlight another, or click a result once to add it. The search box is then empty and ready for the next item. If you press Enter before the results appear and only one item matches, it goes straight onto the bill.
4. On the line, change the Unit (copy, piece, dozen, box…) and the Qty if needed. Press Enter in the box to go back to the search for the next item.
5. When everything is on the bill, press F9 (pay). The Take payment window opens with the total.
6. Take the money (see below) and choose Complete sale, or press Enter.

The till shows "MAIN-C1-S000042 saved · Rs 1,250.00 · change Rs 250.00", clears the bill and shows the receipt under Last receipt. If Print the receipt as soon as the sale is saved is on in Settings, it prints at once.

A bill on the till. A book at its promotion price, an Urdu title and a pen sold by the piece; the total rounds to the rupee. Screenshot of the current build (28 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

Searching well

• Every word you type must start a word in the item: eng gram finds English Grammar, oxf 5 finds titles with a word starting oxf and a 5.
• ISBNs can be typed or scanned with or without dashes, as ISBN-13 or ISBN-10.
• Urdu titles, authors and publishers are found by their Urdu words.
• SKUs such as BK-MAIN-000123 and old barcodes from your previous system are found too.
• If a scanned code belongs to several items, often two editions of one title, the till asks: "Several items carry this code (often two editions of one title). Choose the one in the customer's hand." It never picks one for you.
• If nothing matches: "Nothing matches … Check the code, or add the item in Catalog."

What each line shows

Under the lines are the Subtotal, the Discount and the Total. When items on the bill carry a tax rate, the bill's tax is shown too; tax is added on top of the price (see Adding books and stationery items). The total is then rounded as the shop chose under Counter & receipts (to the nearest rupee unless changed), and a Rounding line shows the difference. A POS service fee line of Re 1 appears only for a shop that has switched on FBR POS integration with the fee option, in Sandbox or Production. See FBR POS integration.

Discounts

Type a percentage in Disc % on the line.

• Anyone who may bill can give up to 10% on a line. More needs the price-override permission, which owners and managers have. A cashier's bill with a larger discount is held back with This bill needs a manager's approval above the lines: a manager chooses Manager approval, picks their name and types their PIN, and that one bill goes through. See PIN sign-in and manager approval.
• Lines added from a school list get the list's set discount without a manager.
• A line that would sell below its average cost shows Below cost. Unless its price comes from a clearance promotion the owner set up, such a line needs the below-cost permission, which owners and managers have, and a reason. See Price lists, quantity breaks and promotions.
  • When an owner or manager completes the sale, the till asks for the reason in Sell below cost, for example clearance or old edition; Save the bill saves it, and the reason is kept with the bill line. Closing that window leaves the bill on the till, unsaved.
  • A cashier's bill needs a manager's approval by PIN for selling below cost on that bill, and the reason is still asked for. Or lower the discount.

What the till checks

The screen is a preview. When you complete the sale, the store server checks everything again and refuses the whole bill, with a message, if something is wrong:

• Stock. A line asking for more than is on the shelf shows Only 3 in stock in advance; at payment it is refused: "Not enough stock of … available, … needed." Negative stock is never allowed.
• Held copies. Copies held for a customer's order cannot be sold to someone else: "Only 2 of … are free; 3 are held for customer orders."
• Credit limit for bills on khata. See Taking payment.
• Discontinued items still sell while stock lasts; the line says so.

Nothing is saved when a bill is refused. Fix the line and press F9 again.

Choosing a customer

Most bills are for a walk-in customer. Press F4 to choose a named customer by name or phone, or Walk-in customer to go back. The panel then shows their balance and credit limit ("Balance Rs 2,400.00 · limit 10,000" or "cash only"). A customer is needed for khata, for paying from an advance, for orders and for customer prices.

Keyboard shortcuts

Common questions

Can I change a bill after it is saved?

No. A saved bill is never edited. Take a return against it and bill again if needed. See Returns, reprints and A4 invoices.

The internet is down. Can I still bill?

Yes. Billing runs on the store PC and needs no internet. The records go to BooksPOS Cloud later.

What if the power goes in the middle of a bill?

The bill in progress is kept on the PC and comes back when BooksPOS starts again: "The unfinished bill from before was restored." See Held bills, unsaved bills and reprints.

Can two counters sell the last copy?

No. Every bill is saved by the store PC, one at a time, and a bill that would take stock below zero is refused.

Related guides

• Taking payment: split tenders, EasyPaisa, JazzCash and khata
• Held bills, unsaved bills and reprints
• Units, packs, prices and barcodes
• Selling a school set at the till