The sell screen is where most people are going to spend the majority of their time within Shopfront, this article will walk you through navigating around the sell screen's basic functionality.

Navigating the Sell Screen

Shopfront's sell screen is commonly split into two sections, the sell screen actions and the sell screen summary. In the image above, the sell screen actions are on the left and contain the search bar, the sale keys and tabs - to the right of the actions is the summary which contains the product list, totals and the finalise button.

Alternatively, users have the option to switch the orientation, placing the actions on the right and the summary on the left. This adjustment can be made by modifying the Sale Keys Position setting in the general settings. Throughout this article, we will assume the default configuration with actions on the left and the summary on the right.

Sell Screen Actions

The sell screen actions contain the search bar, sale keys, parked sales and sale tabs (which integrations can add custom functionality into).

Searching for Products & Customers

The search bar can be used to search for products and customers, simply type any part of the product's name in any order to start finding the item you're looking for.

Note: You can customise how in-depth the search is to improve performance which may mean that you can only search for products or customers by the start of their name instead of anywhere in the name.

After searching for a product or customer you can add it to the sale by pressing the screen, clicking with the mouse or using the arrow keys on your keyboard and pressing enter.

If you highlight a product, you'll see more details about that product on the summary side.

Note: Only one customer can be added to a sale at a time.

You can also scan barcodes in this box for them to automatically add the correct quantity and product the barcode relates to.

Tip: You can also type the quantity for the product before adding it, so if you have three items to scan, you can type "3" and then scan the barcode and Shopfront will automatically add 3 x the barcode.

Using Sale Keys

Shopfront supports a huge range of sale key functions, anywhere from showing active promotions, to displaying live profit to providing proof of age dates.

Sale keys can be optionally different for each User, Register or Outlet and can all be modified through the sale keys setup page.

To cover all our built-in sales keys, we've written an article check out the Sale Keys article.

Parked Sales

If you need to temporarily hold a sale for later processing, you can add it to your parked sales, the parked sales feature is quite in-depth so we've got an article you can check out in relation to it.

Sell Screen Summary

The summary side of the sell screen contains customer information, the current products on the sale, the sales summary and the finalise button. It also has additional information overlaid on it based off actions from the sale keys.

Customer Information

Customers can be added by either searching for them in the search box or by pressing the Add Customer button and finding the customer.

Once a customer is added to the sale basic information is displayed about the customer including which group they're in, how many loyalty points they have and what they currently owe (if applicable).

Additional information about the customer can be retrieved by pressing the customer's name, this will show the last 10 sales and allow you to view all details about the customer.

Customers can also be removed from the sale by pressing the x button on the right-hand side of the customer information.

Products Within the Sale

Once products have been added to the current sale, basic information is displayed in the summary. The active product will be highlighted in blue. The active product can be changed by pressing the name of a non-active product or by pressing the up and down buttons on the keyboard.

The quantity of each product can be changed by either pressing the quantity next to the product or by pressing the + and - buttons on the keyboard when the product is active.

Products can also be discounted in a variety of ways if you have permission to discount products, by pressing the price of the product. For more information, check out the section on How to Discount Products. 

Viewing Product Details via a Sales Key

If you would like to see additional details about a product currently in the sale, including price points and prices you have associated, current inventory, recent sales and recent purchase orders you can click on a Product Details Sales Key. By default Shopfront includes a Product Details Sales Key which looks like:

Alternatively, click on a product's description to expand the product details.

Finally, if you need to remove the product, press the trash button next to the price.

Transaction Summary & Finalise Button

At the bottom of the screen is the transaction summary and finalise button. You can finalise the sale by either going into the finalise screen or by adding payments via payment methods. For more information about paying for sales, check out our article.

You can also discount the entire sale by pressing the sale total, for more information, check out the section on discounting.

Completing a Basic Sale

Wow! A lot of information to process so far, so let's put it to the test and do it in real life.

Note: You may want to put your register into Training Mode, otherwise you can cancel the sale once it has been completed.

Starting with an empty sale, either scan or search for a product, I'm using our demo data so I'm going to search for "Pure Blonde"

If scanning a barcode, the product should be automatically added to the sale, otherwise if you're searching, select the product you'd like either by using the arrow keys and enter or by selecting the product on your screen.

Now we'll pay for the sale, you can do this in multiple ways, either select a sale key with the payment:

Or we can press the finalise button (or just press enter) to get to the finalise sale screen, which is what we'll do in this case, simply add the value you wish the customer to pay and select a payment method (we'll choose cash).

Once paid, you'll be returned to the main sell screen with a preview of the receipt for the sale.

That's it! You've successfully completed a basic sale!

Additional Functionality

Discounting Products and the Sale

Shopfront supports a variety of different types of discounts which can apply to both products on the sale and the sale overall. For more information on discounting, check out our help article.

Email Receipts

Not only can you print standard receipts and A4 receipts, but you can email receipts to customers too. You'll need a template setup and once you've completed a sale you can press the Email button and follow the prompts to send the receipt to the customer's email.

More information can be found in our dedicated help article.

Create Customers

Customers can be created from the sell screen by pressing the Add Customer button where the Customer Information is and then pressing Create New under the search bar. This will show the create customer wizard and once completed the customer will be automatically added to the sale. For more information on creating customers, check out our help article.

Loyalty

Shopfront supports a powerful and dynamic loyalty system allowing your customers to earn and redeem points based of the value of products on the sale. If you have a loyalty enabled in your store and you have a customer who can earn loyalty added to the sale they'll automatically accrue the correct number of points.

Products can then be redeemed for previously earned points by adding the items to the sale, going to the finalise sale screen, selecting the loyalty payment method and following the prompts.

More information can be found about your loyalty system in our help article.

Gift Cards

Shopfront supports the sale and redemption of custom gift cards. Gift cards can be added to a sale by searching for "gift card" like a product or by adding it from a sale key and then following the prompts.

Redemption works in a similar fashion, simply add the products the customer wishes to purchase to the sell screen, open the finalise sale screen, select the gift card payment method and follow the prompts.

We'd highly suggest purchasing pre-printed gift cards with unique numbers and a barcode on them for easy identification and scanning.

Note: In Australia it's a legal requirement under most circumstances to have a minimum 3 year expiry date for gift cards.

For additional information on getting started and customising how gift cards work in your store see our help article Setting up and Selling Gift Cards.

Returning / Refunding

There are several ways to refund or return a sale in Shopfront. First you'll either need to find the sale to refund or you can add the products to the sale and refund them directly.

Finding a Sale Using the Barcode on the Receipt

If you print barcodes on your receipts, you can simply scan the barcode in the register and the sale will be reloaded.

Note: If you're in Offline Mode only recently completed sales on the current register are available for returning.

Finding a Sale From the Reload Invoice Sales Key

If you've setup a Reload Invoice Sale Key and have the sale's invoice number available, you can simply select the key and type in the Invoice Number. Once you press Reload, the sale will be reloaded and be ready to return.

Note: If you're in Offline Mode, only recently completed sales on the current register are available for returning.

Finding a Sale From the Sales History

If you're unsure of the invoice number or are unable to use the Reload Invoice sales key you can find the sale using the Sales History.

1. Open the Menu
2. Select Register
3. Select Sales History
4. Search for the invoice using the filters
5. To apply the filters entered and see the search results click the Filter button

Once the sale is located expand the sale by pressing the sale. Select Return Items from the actions within the expanded sale.

This will take you back to the sell screen with the sale reloaded. 

Returning a Product Without Using an Existing Sale

Note: We highly recommend using one of the other options as they link returns and refunds with the original sale. The below method does not apply any promotion calculations or other discounts. It returns at today's everyday price based on its quantity.

You can return products directly from the sell screen if you have a Return Product Sales Key set up.

1. Scan or select the product you wish to return
2. Select the Return Product Sales Key

This will flip the quantity to be returned. If you've selected the wrong product to return simple select the Return Product button again.

Handling a Sale With Returned Products

Once you've got an active sale with returned products on it you can handle the sale as if it was a normal sale (such as removing products, modify quantities, using sale keys, etc). Once you're finished with the sale you can finalise the return / refunds like a normal sale using either the payment method sales keys or by selecting the Finalise Sale button. 

Sale Keys

Sale keys are quick actions which are used on the sell screen and can be customised in position and design, each Outlet, Register and User can have a different set of sale keys if desired.

For information about customising sale keys and what functions are available, check out our help article Sale Keys.