POS Setup

Plan: Pro Add-on: POS Terminal Where: StoreEngine → POS (admin) and your-site.com/pos (the till)

Requires: The free Inventory add-on must be active first.

The POS add-on turns any computer or tablet with a web browser into an in-store checkout till. Scan a barcode, take cash or card, and print a receipt. Works with any standard USB barcode scanner — no drivers needed.

What You Can Do

• Ring up in-person sales in a fast, full-screen till interface.

• Scan products with a USB barcode scanner or look them up by name/SKU.

• Take cash, card, or QR/online payments — including split tenders — and calculate change.

• Open and close cashier sessions (shifts) with opening float and counted closing total.

• Park and recall carts, assign a customer, and apply discounts or price overrides.

• Process refunds right at the till.

• Print receipts, or email/SMS them to the customer.

Turn On POS Terminal

1. Go to StoreEngine → Add-ons.

2. Toggle on POS Terminal.

Note: A POS admin area appears with Sessions, Registers, Staff, Card readers, and Reports pages. The till is available at your-site.com/pos.

POS Terminal Settings

How to reach it: WordPress admin sidebar → StoreEngine → Settings → select the POS Terminal tab on the left. This tab only appears when the POS add-on (Pro) is active. After making changes, click Save Settings at the bottom right — nothing is saved until you do.

1. Tender methods

Pick which payment methods cashiers can use at the till. Cash is always on as a fallback and cannot be turned off.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Cash (always on)	Always available. This guarantees the cashier can always take payment even if other methods are off.
Card (Terminal)	Enables card payments taken through a connected card reader / terminal.
QR / Online	Enables a QR code the customer scans to pay through your storefront gateways (Stripe, Razorpay, etc.).

2. Card (Terminal)

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Label shown to cashier	The name the cashier sees for this tender at the till. Default is Card (Terminal).
Require reference / last 4	When checked, the cashier must enter a reference or the last 4 digits of the card before completing a card sale.

3. QR / Online payments

The customer scans the QR and pays via your storefront gateways. These settings control how the till waits for confirmation.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Poll interval (ms)	How often (in milliseconds) the till checks whether the online payment has completed. Default 3000 (3 seconds). Allowed range: 1000–30000.
Timeout (sec)	How long the till waits for payment before giving up. Default 300 seconds (5 minutes). Allowed range: 60–3600.

4. Parked carts

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Auto-discard after (days)	A parked (held) cart is automatically discarded after this many days. Default 7. Allowed range: 1–90.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Auto-discard after (days)	A parked (held) cart is automatically discarded after this many days. Default 7. Allowed range: 1–90.

5. Discounts

A discount above EITHER threshold requires a supervisor PIN to authorize. Presets render as quick-pick buttons in the discount popover.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Threshold percent (0–100)	Any percentage discount above this needs supervisor authorization. Default 20.
Threshold amount	Any flat-amount discount above this needs supervisor authorization. Default 100.
Percent presets (comma-separated)	Quick-pick discount buttons shown to the cashier, e.g. 5, 10, 15, 20.
Allow discounts to take the order total below zero	When checked, discounts may push the order total below zero. Off by default.

6. Tips

Cashier sees these as quick-pick buttons during checkout. Percent buttons compute against the bill total.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Percent presets	Tip buttons as percentages, e.g. 10, 15, 20.
Amount presets	Tip buttons as flat amounts, e.g. 1, 2, 5.
Label on receipt	The wording printed for the tip line on the receipt. Default Tip.
Tip is taxable (most jurisdictions: off)	When checked, the tip carries the register’s default tax class. Off by default — most jurisdictions treat tips as non-taxable to the merchant.

7. Receipts

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Auto-email receipt when the customer has an email on file	When checked, a receipt is automatically emailed to the customer if their email is known.
From name	The sender name on the receipt email (e.g. your store name).
From email	The sender email address, e.g. [email protected].
Subject template	The email subject. Supports placeholders {site}, {order}, {total}. Default Your receipt from {site}.
SMS receipts	Sends receipts by SMS. Requires an SMS gateway add-on to wire up storeengine/pos/send_sms_receipt.

8. Card reader

Stripe Terminal integration. API keys come from your existing Stripe gateway settings.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Driver	The card-reader adapter. None disables hardware reader integration; select the Stripe Terminal driver to enable it.
Terminal location ID	The Stripe Terminal Location identifier, e.g. tml_xxx.
Webhook signing secret	The provider’s webhook signing secret used to verify inbound events, e.g. whsec_….

9. Security

Supervisor authorization tokens live for this long after a successful PIN. PIN length and lockout policy are set below.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Token TTL (seconds, 60–1800)	How long a supervisor authorization stays valid after a successful PIN. Default 300 (5 minutes).
Inactivity lock (seconds, 0 to disable, 60–3600)	After this many idle seconds, the terminal locks and requires the cashier’s PIN to resume. Default 300. Set to 0 to disable.
PIN min length	Minimum allowed PIN length. Default 4.
PIN min length	Maximum allowed PIN length. Default 12.
Lockout after attempts	Number of failed PIN attempts before lockout. Default 5.
Lockout duration (s, 30–3600)	How long the lockout lasts. Default 600 seconds (10 minutes).

10. Thermal printer

ESC/POS over TCP. Most receipt printers (Epson TM-T20, Star TSP-100) listen on port 9100 by default. Leave the driver as None if you only need the browser print fallback.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Driver	Select None (browser print) to print through the browser, or the network ESC/POS driver to print to a networked thermal printer.
Printer host / IP	The printer’s IP address on your network, e.g. 192.168.1.50.
Port	The printer’s TCP port. Default 9100.
Auto-print receipt on every completed sale	When checked, a receipt prints automatically after each completed sale.

11. Cash handling

Cash rounding helps in regions where small denominations are retired (CA $0.05, AU/NZ $0.05, BD ৳1). Quick-cash buttons let the cashier one-tap common bill amounts.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Rounding increment	Rounds the cash-due display so the cashier collects only whole-coin amounts. None disables rounding. Affects the display only — the order total is untouched.
Pre-fill cash tender	What the cash input starts with. Exact (blank) leaves it blank for the cashier to type; the round-up option fills the smallest banknote at or above the total.
Quick-cash buttons (comma-separated amounts)	One-tap tender buttons next to the cash input, e.g. 500, 1000. Leave empty to hide the row.

12. Receipt content

Visual elements rendered on every receipt. Per-register receipt header/footer is configured in POS → Registers.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Logo URL	The URL of an image rendered at the top of the receipt.
Print “Served by” line with the cashier name	When checked, the receipt prints the serving cashier’s name. On by default.
Print a scannable barcode of the order ID (for quick returns)	When checked, the order ID prints as a scannable barcode so returns can be looked up by scanning.

13. Refund policy

Hard policy enforced server-side. Cap-based PIN escalation for refunds is separate and lives in roles.

Field / Option	What it does / What to enter
Refund window (days, 0 = unlimited)	How many days after a sale a refund is allowed. 0 means no time limit.
Require the cashier to type a reason for every refund	When checked, the cashier must enter a reason on every refund. Off by default.

⚠ RememberClick the Save Settings button at the bottom right after any change. Nothing is saved until you do.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to Check
Scanner is not adding products	Click into the search box first so it has focus; confirm barcode/SKU matches.
Cannot open the till at /pos	Must be signed in and have a POS role, or be an admin/shop manager.
Session is not open when selling	Open a session on the register before ringing up sales.
Cashier cannot refund or apply a big discount	Those need Senior Cashier/Manager — have a supervisor authorize it.
Stock dropped at the wrong location	Check which location the register is tied to.
Cash variance at close	Recount the drawer and check paid-in/paid-out entries.