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Daily work at the till

Held bills, unsaved bills and reprints

Put a bill on hold with F8 and resume it, what happens to a bill after a crash or when the store PC does not answer, and how to reprint a receipt.

A busy counter is interrupted all the time: a parent goes back for one more notebook, the power goes, the network cable is pulled. BooksPOS keeps the bill you are working on safe through all of it, and never saves the same sale twice. This guide covers held bills, what happens to an unfinished bill, and reprinting receipts.

How to hold a bill

  1. With items on the bill, press F8 (or choose Hold). "Bill put on hold. It reserves no stock."
  2. The bill clears, and the Held button shows how many bills are waiting.
  3. Serve the next customer as usual.

How to resume a held bill

  1. Choose Held. The Held bills window lists each one with its lines and total.
  2. Choose the bill and Resume bill.
  3. If another bill was on the screen, it is put on hold in its place, so nothing is lost.

Prices and stock are checked again when you resume, because they may have changed while the bill waited.

Held bills stay on this PC, for this counter. They are drafts, not sales: they are not on the store PC, another till cannot see them, and they hold no stock. If the last copy of a book is on a held bill, another counter can still sell it. To keep copies aside for a customer, make an order with F7 instead. See Orders and pending deliveries.

Clearing a bill

Clear empties the bill and sets the customer back to walk-in. Nothing was saved, so nothing needs undoing.

When BooksPOS closes in the middle of a bill

The bill on the screen is written to the PC's disk after every change. If the power goes, Windows restarts or the program is closed, the bill comes back the next time BooksPOS starts: "The unfinished bill from before was restored." Check it with the customer and carry on.

When the store PC does not answer

A till on another PC saves every bill through the store PC. If the network or the store PC fails at the moment you complete a sale, the till cannot know whether the bill was saved. BooksPOS never guesses:

  1. The bill is locked: "Waiting for the store server to confirm this bill. The bill is locked so it cannot be posted twice."
  2. The message says: "The store server did not confirm this bill. Press Retry: it resends the same bill and cannot charge twice."
  3. When the store PC is back, press Retry. It sends exactly the same bill. If the first attempt had in fact been saved, you get that saved sale back, with its number; if not, it is saved now. Either way there is one sale.

While a bill is locked, you cannot start another one on that till ("Finish the waiting bill first (Retry)."). If BooksPOS is closed while a bill is waiting, it comes back locked at the next start: "A bill was waiting for the store server's answer. Press Retry to finish it."

If the store PC refuses the bill outright (not enough stock, a credit limit), nothing was saved: the bill unlocks so you can fix it. For a till that cannot reach the store PC at all, see A till cannot reach the store PC.

How to reprint a receipt

The last receipt: the Last receipt panel on Point of sale shows the receipt of the last sale. Choose Reprint or press Ctrl+P.

An older bill: open Sales, find the bill by its day, number or customer, open it and choose Reprint. A4 PDF saves the bill as a full-page invoice. A cashier sees only the bills they made; the owner or a manager reprints anyone else's. See Returns, reprints and A4 invoices.

What a reprint does:

  • It prints one copy, marked DUPLICATE COPY 1, 2 and so on, so a customer cannot present a copy as a second original.
  • It never opens the cash drawer.
  • It is recorded with the name of whoever reprinted it. Cashiers may reprint.
  • If the first print had failed (the printer was off), the next print is still the original.

Printing never creates or changes a sale. A sale is saved first; printing comes after. If the printer jams, the sale stands and you simply print again.

A bill's page: totals, items, cash payment, one return against it and the printed receipt

A bill. A bill with its lines, payment, the returns against it and the receipt as printed. Screenshot of the current build (28 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

Common questions

How many bills can I hold?

There is no set limit, but held bills are meant for minutes, not days. They do not reserve stock and are only on this PC.

I held a bill on the store PC. Can I resume it on the other till?

No. Held bills stay on the PC and counter where they were held. Resume it where it was held.

The customer left and the bill is still locked. What do I do?

Press Retry once the store PC answers. If the sale was saved, it comes back with its number; if the customer did not take the goods, take a return against it. Never type the bill in again while it is locked: that would make a second sale.

Can I reprint a receipt from last week?

Yes, from Sales: choose that day (or type the bill's number), open the bill and choose Reprint. A cashier finds only their own bills there; for another person's bill, ask the owner or a manager.

Last updated 27 September 2026. Still stuck? Contact us.