UltraPosAI User Manual

05Serial Numbers, Barcodes & Expiry

Serial numbers

• Automatic capture happens when the stock card carries [SN (or Para 178 = 1, capture on every item). A capture window opens before the line is added; each unit gets one serial.
• Manual capture — select a cart line and press Insert (INS). This works when Para 178 or Para 374 = 1, or the item carries [SN / already has serials; never on sized or non-stock lines.
• In the capture window: type each serial, press Enter; a blank Enter finishes. The characters | [ ] : + ^ # , and spaces are not allowed ("Serial cannot contain | [ ] : + ^ # , or spaces"). On sales, when Para 466 = 0 a serial must already exist in the item's list ("This item is not in the serial list!"); on receiving documents (GRN/Returning/Order-Supplier) new serials are added. Batch entry (prefix + start/end range) is supported. End finishes, Esc cancels.
• Serial Number Search (🔎 Serials) in the header (shown when Para 178 or 374 = 1) finds which document a serial was sold on and offers a Reprint.

Barcodes

Scanned into the PLU box — the scanner types the digits, Enter runs the normal lookup. Scaled/weight barcodes use the [K token. A scan is split into code + embedded amount/units only when Para 169 (barcode length) is set and the scan is numeric and longer than that; Para 167 optionally limits this to scans whose first two digits are one of its prefixes. A slip-number barcode can also be printed on the receipt.

Expiry

Items with an [Expires:…] token warn the operator at sale time when expired or within 30 days of expiry.

06Payment, Refunds & Held Sales

Taking payment

On Cash Sales, Cash Refund and Lay Buy, ✓ Process opens the tender window (every other document type goes straight to the Slip Preview with no payment step). It shows the document type, Doc #, account (or CASH SALES), line count, and Doc Total. Payment rows:

• Cash — pre-filled to the total for cash sales/refunds (one click for a straight cash sale).
• Card — with a Card type dropdown or a Card ref field ("Last 4 digits / auth code").
• EFT — with an EFT reference field.
• 🎟 Voucher — type the Voucher number and press Apply (hidden when Para 184 contains 4).
• Points / ★ Loyalty — for a loyalty customer a ★ Loyalty · panel shows the Balance, a Redeem points box and the Points to be earned on this sale; the redeemed points' rand value reduces the cash owed. Otherwise a plain Points row is shown. See Loyalty points below.

A band shows Total Due · Paid · Change (or Short in red if underpaid). Set Copies for the number of receipts. Finish with ✓ Process (or press End from any field).

• Account sales (and the other non-cash documents) take no payment — the amount is charged to the debtor account and checked against the credit limit.
• Multiple tenders — split across Cash/Card/EFT/Voucher/Points; the total paid must be ≥ the amount due.
• Lay Buy — a Deposit field; a minimum-deposit rule may apply, showing "minimum…" / "Short by…" and the outstanding balance.

Completing the sale

✓ Process opens the Slip Preview (Chapter 7); nothing is written until you press its main button (e.g. 🖨 Print & Process), which finalises all records and prints. For a lay buy the button reflects state (🔒 PAID UP when settled, or 🗑 Process Cancellation in cancel mode).

• Round-off (Para 93) — when set (1 = 5c, 2 = R1, 3 = R10, 4 = 10c; blank/0 = off), the document total is rounded down to that unit and the difference is posted as a VAT-exempt Round Off line. Not applied to supplier documents, voucher sales, branch (<BRA) invoices or later lay-buy payments.
• Cash monitoring (Para 267) — if switched on, the till's webcam records the tender window and the 30 seconds after Print & Process; see Cash Monitoring.

Refunds & returns

Pick the document type: Cash Refund, Credit Note (issues a credit and returns stock), or Goods Returning. These flip the cart to negative quantities. Lay-buy cancellations ask the refund amount and which till bucket the cash comes from; ↩ Reverse Cancellation undoes a cancelled lay buy.

"Credited before" protection. When a Credit Note or Cash Refund retrieves the original document, lines that were already fully credited are removed and partly credited lines are cut down to what's left. An amber ⚠ Credited before — document #N box lists the ✖ Not creditable — fully credited already items (credited X of Y) and the reduced ones, so the same goods can't be refunded twice.

After the credit is processed the original document is marked as credited. If that fails you'll see "⚠ Credit passed, but the original document was NOT marked: …"; a credit that wasn't retrieved from an original shows "⚠ Credit passed without a linked original — it will not be tracked" — check these manually so the goods aren't credited twice.

Gift vouchers (🎟)

The top-row VOUCHER / 🎟 Issue button (password level in Para 471, default Level 5; hidden when Para 184 contains 4) opens the voucher window with two tabs:

• Issue — create a voucher: value, min-spend, expiry (default one month from today), and quantity. Issuing a single voucher drops a VAT-exempt Voucher:<id> line into the cart, so the customer pays for it through the normal ✓ Process flow (like buying a gift card).
• Report — list the active (unredeemed) vouchers with a grand total (Level-10 password).

To redeem a voucher, type its number into the 🎟 Voucher row of the tender window and press Apply; it's validated (expiry, min-spend, not already used) and applied as a tender. The slip shows it as Voucher:.

Loyalty points

Customers earn points on qualifying sales, and can spend them at the till:

• Earning is automatic on a Cash Sale with a customer account selected (not the plain cash account), when the loyalty parameters (Para 343 / 344) are set. Customers whose name contains [NP don't earn. Para 458 uses the head-office central loyalty database.
• Redeeming — in the tender window, the Redeem points row converts points into rand and subtracts that from the cash owed.
• Balances and history are reported under Reports → ★ Loyalty Points (see Chapter 8).

Held / parked sales

• 💾 Save → 💾 Save Transaction — enter a number and park the current cart.
• ⬆ Load → ⬆ Load Transaction — recall a saved cart (or see "No saved transactions found").

Reprints

Type a document number into the header Reprint # box and press Enter. You're asked How will you use this data?

• 🖨 Print Only — Reprint Original (no new doc number) — reloads in REPRINT MODE: the next Process prints only, with no ledger/stock updates, and the slip is stamped *** REPRINT — NO WRITES *** (banner REPRINT MODE · #N). The cart is read-only: the banner reads 🔒 REPRINT — Read-only · End to print, lines show 🔒, and the document type and account are fixed. Editing shows "🔒 Reprint — read-only. Process to print, or Cancel to exit reprint mode."
• 📝 Use as Starting Data — loads the lines fully editable and processes them as a new document, with a new number and full updates.

Lines loaded from a stored document keep their original prices (the account's discount matrix isn't re-applied). Lay-buys reprint from the Lay Buy menu instead.

Reprinting a sale document (Cash Sale, Account Sale, Refund/Credit) from the 📒 Stock Ledger asks for a password of level 1 or higher when Para 156 is set and Para 234 is empty ("Re-Print Document [Para 156]").

07Printing, Receipts & Documents

What you see on screen is what prints — the same document flows through matched renderers (on-screen preview, thermal receipt, A4 PDF, email).

The Slip Preview window

Stationery Type (radio buttons):

• Slip (thermal) — an 80 mm receipt (42-column layout), printed straight to the receipt printer.
• A4 — a full-page styled PDF invoice/document.
• Custom — A4 with an operator-typed custom header.
• Delivery Note (qty only) — A4 that lists quantities but no prices/totals.

Output (tick any / all): 🖨 Print, ✉ Email, 💬 WhatsApp — tick-boxes, so you can combine them. The bottom button follows the ticks (🖨 Print & Process, ✉ Email & Process, 💬 WhatsApp & Process, or e.g. 🖨 Print + Email & Process); with nothing ticked it reads 👁 Process (no print). Unticking Print sets Copies to 0. End presses the button.

• Print — a thermal slip goes straight to the receipt printer; A4/Custom/Delivery open a new browser tab with a 🖨 Print button and the print dialog, so you can choose the printer. The document is saved either way. If a pop-up is blocked you'll see "Pop-up blocked — allow pop-ups…".
• Email — reveals From (your configured SMTP accounts; ones without SMTP show ⚠), To (auto-filled from the customer record when available), and 📎 Attach as PDF (on by default). The server sends via that account's SMTP.
• WhatsApp — opens WhatsApp with a short message ("Hi! Please find your attached. Total: …") and prepares the PDF: it is downloaded to this PC's Downloads folder with its full path copied to the clipboard — in WhatsApp click 📎 → Document, paste (Ctrl+V) into File name and send. If the PDF can't be made, WhatsApp opens with text only.

What a receipt contains

Top to bottom: letterhead (company trading name, address, Tel:, optional logo — suppressed on pre-printed A4 letterhead) → document title band (e.g. CASH SALE, plus * Tax Document * VAT Number: … on tax documents, *** REPRINT *** when reprinting) → metadata (Date, Time, a larger bold Doc#, Order #: when an order/reference was entered, Term, Op, Rep — reprints keep the original date and time) → customer block (on account docs: name, account #, address, tel, VAT no) → item table (Code/PLU, description, qty, price, total; sized items collapse into a size grid; optional SERIALS: lines) → totals (Ex VAT, incl VAT @ %, TOTAL; lay-buy adds Paid to date / BALANCE OF LAY BUY) → payment block (Cash, Card, Cheque — the EFT tender, Voucher, Points, Tendered, Change, plus a Loyalty Points earned / redeemed / balance block) → footer (a per-document-type message, Thank You! or delivery-note sign-off).

Balance due (Para 299). When Para 299 is above 0, Account Sales, Credit Notes and Receipts print the customer's latest balance due in bold at the bottom (slip and A4) — not on reprints or delivery notes.

Reprinting a previous document

• Reprint # box in the header (type a number, Enter).
• Click a document number in a ledger / itemised list — including the 📒 Stock Ledger and the Top Documents report.
• 🔎 Serials search → Reprint.

Reprints run in a read-only, no-write mode (badge REPRINT · no writes) and have their own copies count. Sale documents reprinted from the Stock Ledger may need a password (Para 156 — see Reprints). Pick the document type first — Reprint # looks up the number in the current type's documents. The slip is stamped *** REPRINT — NO WRITES ***.

The Local Print Agent (thin-client tills)

A till that only browses the POS (doesn't run the server) can't cut paper or kick the drawer from a browser. Settings → 🧩 Local Print Agent (this PC) solves this:

• A Status line shows ✅ running (printer: SLIP) or ⚠ not detected on this PC.
• ⬇ Download Agent Installer downloads a one-time installer; run it, give it the till's slip-printer name (default SLIP), and it auto-starts at login.
• A till with the agent prints on its own printer even when a shared network printer is also set. If the status shows Failed to fetch, allow Local network access for the site in Chrome and test http://127.0.0.1:9110/ping on that till.
• The agent reports its version when it starts, so you can confirm a till got the latest one. It also runs the label engine without freezing, reports if a label job hangs or fails, and keeps LABELS.csv after printing.

Printing from the cloud (Azure) — labels & slips

A cloud server can't reach the printers in your shop, so it queues each job and the UltraPos server on the shop PC collects and prints it (every ~5 seconds). The cloud only hands jobs to a PC registered to your shop.

1. On the shop PC wired to the printer, config.json needs cloudUrl and a syncKey (at least 6 characters); restart the UltraPos service.
2. Usually registration then happens automatically the first time someone at the shop opens the POS.
3. If labels don't print, go to Settings → 🏷 Cloud Label Printing (register this PC) (shown on cloud sites only) on the PC wired to the printer, while logged in as that shop, and press 🏷 Register this PC for cloud printing. Success reads "✔ Registered … labels print within ~5s". Once per shop, not per till.
4. Check relay status shows which PC last collected jobs and how long ago, whether its key was accepted, whether it can print labels, and how many jobs are waiting.

After a print, the till shows the job's real outcome — pending, taken by N s ago, or the final OK/error — instead of just "queued". The message "…its shared key is being REJECTED" means step 3 is needed.

Product labels — where they print

Labels (from a GRN, an invoice or the label screen) are printed by the label engine label-c-net.exe. The till tries, in order: its own Local Print Agent, then the UltraPos server on this PC, then the cloud relay. Messages tell you which one did it — e.g. "🏷 Sending N labels to label-c-net.exe…", "🏷 This PC cannot run label-c-net.exe, so the labels are being printed on another machine…", "🏷 No labels to print (all quantities were 0)". If none can, you'll see "Nothing on this PC could shell label-c-net.exe… set its address in Settings → Local server URL." Sized cart lines print a label per size; GRN labels use the selling price. A till with the agent installed prints slips, reprints, test prints and drawer kicks on its own printer; an agent error reads "🖨 Local print agent error: …" (the agent's printer name is in %LOCALAPPDATA%UltraPosPrintAgentprinter.txt).

Print settings

Settings → 🖨 Thermal Slip Printer (ESC/POS, RAW): Printer Name / Share (RAW), Printer IP (network) + Port, Open cash drawer (cash sales), plus Send Test Print. Receipt Copies defaults from Para 96 (per document type: Para 224) and can be changed per sale in the tender window or Slip Preview. (Receipt width is fixed to the printer — choose a 58 mm vs 80 mm printer rather than a slider.)

Printer shared from another PC. When the Printer Name starts with \\ (e.g. \\SHOPPC\SLIP), two extra fields appear: Log-on user on that PC (format PC\username — an account, not a printer path) and Share log-on password (blank = keep the stored one). They're needed because the UltraPos service runs as SYSTEM, which the other PC rejects with "Access is denied". If the spooler still refuses, the slip is copied raw to the share — cut and drawer kick still work.

08Reports

Reports live under the Stock Reports and Reports top menus.

How to run one: open the menu, click the report, set the filters in the top toolbar, then click the run button (⤓ Load, Run →, ↻ Refresh, or ⤓ Analyse). Results show in a searchable grid.

Export/print (shared toolbar): Search…, ⬇ CSV, ⬇ Excel (.xlsx), 🖨 Print (→ browser Print / Save-as-PDF), ⚡ Quick Print (core columns), and 🤖 AI Insights (a written AI analysis of the loaded rows). Statement/invoice-style outputs generate a PDF and can be emailed.

Column filters. Under each column header is a filter box. Text columns match word by word, in any order, and abbreviations work (man cas finds MANUAL CASH SLIP); number columns also accept comparisons — >0, <10, >=5, <=100, =0. While a search or filter is active you'll see N row(s) match and a clear filters button, and the totals recalculate for just the filtered rows. Click a header to sort.

Choosing columns & column templates

⬇ Excel and 🖨 Print first open a "choose columns" dialog:

1. Every column starts ticked — untick what you don't want (All / None buttons; an N of M ticked count).
2. 💾 SAVE Column Template → name it → Save, to reuse this selection (saving under an existing name overwrites it).
3. 📂 LOAD Column Template → pick from the list to re-apply a saved selection; 🗑 deletes one (after confirming).
4. Continue → Excel downloads a formatted .xlsx; Continue → Print opens a print view (choose Save as PDF there for a PDF).

Templates are stored on the server per main company and per report, so every till shares them. Available on: Stock Ordering, Full Stock Report, Sales Through Analysis, Debtors/Creditors Age Analysis, AI Detailed Analysis (incl. Top Documents), Stop Orders, Immediate Replenishment, Lay-buy Report, Audit Trail, Access Code Usage, Show All Lost Sales, Slow Moving Stock, 📊 Reports (Cash Book / Debtors / Creditors tabs), Replenish Stock to Branches (separate Excel and Print template sets), and Web Orders (Excel). Excel exports keep totals as live SUM formulas.

Stock reports

• 📦 Full Stock Report — a complete valued stock list grouped by stock group with per-group and grand totals. Filter by company range/list, group range/list, positive/negative stock, and optionally show product images.
• 🛒 Stock Ordering — a reorder worksheet: units sold over a window, average, on-hand, and an Order quantity to reach a chosen weeks-of-cover, with editable order qty and supplier. Options include date range, weeks of cover, supplier filter, "use reorder level", "only to order", and "by supplier (PO)". With "by supplier" on, 📦 Place Orders posts live creditor purchase orders, each printable/emailable as an A4 order.
• 📋 Stock Takes — a stock-count tool that produces a Discrepancy Report (system vs counted) saved as .txt / CSV.
• 🧺 Bill of Materials / Hampers — recipe / manufacturing / hamper maintenance; see Chapter 4.

📊 Stock Analysis (Stock Ordering). Right-click a line's Order cell ("Right-click for the full stock analysis (12-month movement)") — also F9 in the size grid. The Stock Analysis — PLU x window shows the bin location, total sold / purchased, current stock, per-branch stock (highlighting Stock > 4m Average / Received within 60 days), a monthly graph (Total / By company, Sold / Purchases) and a sortable cost history. Esc closes it. Cost is shown only to operators listed in Para 259 ("…operator not listed in Parameter 259.").

🐌 Slow Moving Stock

Stock Reports → 🐌 Slow Moving Stock lists stock that is sitting on the shelf: every item with stock on hand that has had no sale and no purchase for longer than the number of days you choose.

1. Co — a start → end company range, or a list such as 1/3/7/2 (a list overrides the range; the amber chip only co … ✕ clears it).
2. Grp — a start… / end… group range, or a list such as 2/5/11/1 (chip only grp … ✕).
3. Not moved in — 30 / 60 / 90 / 180 / 360 days, or ANY (every in-stock item). Default 30.
4. Press ⤓ Load. Results appear group by group as they arrive ("Loading Co N · groups a–b (k of m) · N item(s) so far…").

How "last activity" is worked out: the later of the item's last sale (Cash / Credit / Invoice) and last purchase (GRN / Debit note) on its stock-movement card. An item with no movement card at all counts as active today (so it only appears under ANY). Sized items use the total of their size grid and show a Sizing column (e.g. S x 2 | M x 1).

Columns: Co (multi-company runs), Code, Plu, Description, Qty, Sizing, Cost, Value (qty × cost), Last Activity, Days. Rows are grouped by stock group with TOTAL , TOTAL company N and TOTAL ALL lines. The status line reads e.g. "42 item(s) · no sale / purchase in more than 90 days · Co 1 · as at 2026-10-17". Companies that share one stock pool (Para 243) are loaded only once ("shared stock (loaded once): 4→1").

Export with the usual toolbar — Search, ⬇ CSV, ⬇ Excel, 🖨 Print (landscape), ⚡ Quick Print (Code, Plu, Description, Qty, Value, Days) and 🤖 AI Insights. Messages: "Enter a company.", "No stock groups in that range."

Financial & transaction reports

• 📊 Reports — a four-tab financial view: Cash Book Transactions, Transactions Cash and Account (Debtors) (a "summary by document type" panel, a BANKING ANALYSIS block — from cash & cash credits, from debtors receipts and lay-buy receipts, totals — and clickable doc numbers to reprint), Transactions Cash and Accounts (Creditors), and Profit & Loss. Filter by period (prev/next month, From/To, This month, All dates) and time span. Toolbar: ↻ Refresh, 🖨 Print / PDF, ⬇ Excel, 🤖 AI Insights. On the Debtors tab, 🔢 Check Document Sequences finds missing CASH / INVOICE numbers in the period.
• 🤖 AI Detailed Analysis of All Transactions — every transaction line in one grid with server-side grand totals. Period + company + time filters; auto-runs the current month. The Top Documents dropdown switches to a per-product view (see below).
• 📊 Debtors / Creditors Age Analysis — per-account aging (Current / 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / Total). Toggle "non-zero only ⇄ all accounts"; click a row for the ledger.
• 📈 Sales Through Analysis — units purchased vs units sold (sell-through % and gross-profit %), with KPI tiles, dead-stock bars, and views By Item / By Group / By Catalogue / By Creditor / Detail.
• 🔎 Audit Trail Report — every audit row across a date range with grand totals; filter by terminal and "uncompleted only".
• 🔑 View Access Code Usage — a date-ranged log of every access-code entry (Face, Date, Time, Term, Operator, Rep, Level, Reason).
• 🏷️ Lay-buy Report — every lay-buy in a chosen date range: goods taken, paid to date, and outstanding balance, with running totals plus a "stock on lay-buy" analysis. Sortable, searchable, printable, CSV/Excel export.

Top Documents (best sellers per product)

In 🤖 AI Detailed Analysis of All Transactions, the Top Documents dropdown offers ALL SALES (net of refunds), ALL PURCHASES (GRN net of debit notes), or any single document type found (with its line count). Choosing one switches the grid to 📊 TOP DOCUMENTS — : one row per product (G, R, Description), highest units first.

Payment and non-stock (0-0) lines are excluded; refunds, credit notes and debit notes are subtracted. Click a row to see that product's document list (Co, Date, Time, Doc No, Details, Account, Units, Sales Value, Cost, Profit) — click a Doc No to reprint. Choose — All transaction lines — to return to the normal view.

🚨 Immediate Replenishment

Every completed sale that leaves an item at zero or below is logged automatically. Reports → 🚨 Immediate Replenishment reads that log back, one row per item — your "re-order now" list.

1. Start / End dates default to month-to-date and the report runs on opening; change them and press ▶ Run.
2. Tick Only still short to hide items that have since been restocked.

Columns: Short (YES), PLU (G-R), Part Number, Description, Qty Sold, After Sale, On Hand Now (read live from the stock card), Times, Cost, Sold @, Last Sold, Doc No, Account, Term(s), Operator(s). Still-short rows are red. A summary strip shows Items hit zero / Still short / Occasions / Units sold. Export with 💾 Save CSV, ⬇ Excel / 🖨 Print / PDF (column chooser) or 🤖 AI Insights.

📉 Show All Lost Sales

Tools → 📉 Show All Lost Sales reports the lost sales logged at the till (Chapter 3). Pick From / To (default month-to-date), press ▶ Run. Identical items merge into one row: PLU (G-R), Part Number, Description, Times Lost, Qty Lost, On Hand, Reason(s), First Lost, Last Lost, Term(s), Operator(s), with Items / Times Lost / Qty Lost totals. Export via 💾 Save CSV, ⬇ Excel, Print / PDF, or 🤖 AI Insights.

🗑 Delete Lost Sales needs the Level-10 master password and wipes the company's entire log (not just the dates shown) — it cannot be undone.

📹 Cash Monitoring (Para 267)

With Para 267 = 1 and a webcam on the till (microphone optional), the till records a video clip of each cash transaction:

• Tender window — recording starts when it opens and stops 30 seconds after Print & Process.
• Pay Outs — in Post to Cash Book, each ↑ Pay Out is recorded the same way (other entries aren't).
• A cancelled/escaped transaction discards its clip. No camera or camera blocked → nothing is recorded, and the sale is unaffected.

Clips are saved in a hidden CASH MONITORING folder on the data drive, each named with date, time, terminal, document type, document reference and amount.

To review: Tools → 📹 Cash Monitoring — set Start/End date and Start/End time, press 🔍 Search, narrow with the Document type / Document number / Terminal number dropdowns (Clear filters resets), and press ▶ Play on a row. 🗑 deletes one clip, 🗑 Delete shown… deletes everything listed — both need the Level-10 master password.

Loyalty points

• ★ Loyalty Points — two tabs: Customers (every customer with points earned, redeemed, balance and value) and Transactions (the earn/redeem rows for a From – To date range — press Show; totals Earned · Redeemed; ⬇ CSV). 🗑 Clear Points (Level-10 password) clears the points of accounts with no activity for more than N days (N must be above 120), or of one account (enter -1). Points are earned and redeemed at the till — see Chapter 6 · Loyalty points.

Group web updates (WooCommerce / Shopify)

Tools → 🌐 Web Updates Across All Branches bulk-pushes a range of stock groups to your configured web store(s), streaming live per-item progress (SKU + description). Four modes:

• Only update stock (default) — pushes quantities only.
• Update stock + prices — quantities, the WEB regular / sale price, sizing and the size matrix; only touches products already on the store.
• Update all fields — also pushes the web title, categories, and prices.
• Update all fields + pictures — as above, and re-uploads item images.

Quantities are group-wide. For every item the system sums the on-hand across all configured branch companies; if no branches are configured it uses that item's own stock card. Sized items push a per-size grid. The single-item Web Integrate → Push to Stores button uses the same rule when it posts stock — but it now has a tick-box Don't post stock from branches — content, prices & pics only (fast; site keeps its own stock), ticked by default and remembered per till; untick it to push group stock too. If any branch is offline, nothing is pushed (the totals would be under-counted) — a red box explains why.

More options:

• …or a single code — fill in group and record to push only that one code (the group range is then ignored).
• 📍 Always update to main location & zero other locations (Shopify) — forces a write for every record, even ones already in sync.
• ✍ Overwrite existing web descriptions from the stock card — with either Update all fields mode; by default the web description is kept.
• 🔍 Diagnose only — reads and reports the size grid / on-hand per item with no writes to the web; use it to check before pushing.
• Which companies are summed comes from Settings → 📦 Group Stock Drive (blank = the Branch Logins companies).

Progress & errors. Counters show ↑ changed (orange), ✓ in sync, – skipped, and ✗ errors N. Failed items are listed in a red panel "✗ N error(s) — not updated on the web" (SKU, description, store and the full message), never truncated, with ⧉ Copy all. The live feed can be filtered (Hide skipped / Hide changed / Hide in sync / ✗ Errors only). If a run stops on an error, the progress and log stay on screen.

🧾 Slip Management

Tools → 🧾 Slip Management reconciles printed slips that are paid or checked at a separate point. It shows two lists with totals — SLIPS DUE and SLIPS SCANNED. Scan or type a slip number into SCAN SLIP ⇒ to move it to scanned; depending on Para 87 you are asked for the amount tendered and shown the Change (* = no payment prompt). A credit slip shows in red and asks for the refund ("This is a credit — the customer must be refunded at least X."). Admin keys in the same box: D = Day End Filter (keeps only unscanned slips; the file is backed up first — no sales may be running), R = Clear ALL, T = Terminal Cash Up; Enter refreshes.

Statements & remittances

• 🧾 Print Debtors Statements — batch A4 statements per debtor (PDF, with auto-email-all). Tick individual accounts (✓ N ticked · Clear) and ▶ Review & Send (N) / ⚡ Auto-Email All (N) act on just those instead of the whole filtered list (same on Creditors Remittances).
• 🧾 Print Consolidated Statements and Receipting — consolidated statements plus receipting.
• 🧾 Print Creditors Remittances — batch A4 remittance advices per creditor.
• The 🧾 Statement / Remittance Footer Text setting (banking details etc.) prints at the bottom of these.

09End-of-Day & Period Procedures

💰 Cash Up — two ways

There are two menu items:

• 💰 Cash Up + Day End Post (Dummy per Terminal or Full) — opens a chooser with 🧮 Dummy Cash Up per Terminal and 💰 Full Cash Up (no dummies) (Change mode returns to the chooser).
• 💰 Full Cash Up (direct, no dummies) — skips the chooser and goes straight to Full.

Opening a cash-up pops the cash drawer (if the open-drawer setting is on). The count form is the same in both: cash denominations (How many → value) plus Float, Cheques and Credit Cards (one amount per line — a new line appears as you fill the last), with surplus/shortage per section and a grand total. The float is not counted in surplus/shortage.

🧮 Dummy Cash Up per Terminal — count each till separately:

1. Pick the Date and the Terminal (‹ › arrows, the dropdown — ✓ marks saved terminals — or the chip strip, e.g. T1 ✓ +0.00 · T2 —; green = saved & balanced, red = difference).
2. Count that till and press 💾 Save + 🧾 Slip or 💾 Save + 🖨 A4. Saving the same terminal again replaces its count ("Terminal N saved — saving again replaces it"); going back to a saved terminal reloads its figures.
3. Optional: 🧾 All Terminals Slip prints the combined total so far.
4. When every till is counted and no sales are running, press ⮂ Merge → Final Cash Up ▸. It warns if any terminal has no count (its takings will show as a shortage), merges the terminal files, and opens ✅ Final Cash Up: the merged files, a Dummy cash-ups per terminal table (Term, Cash, Cheques, Cards, Counted, Expected, Surplus/Short, Saved, with a reprint-slip button per row) and the combined count.
5. 🧾 Final Slip / 🖨 Final A4 print FINAL CASH UP *** ALL TERMINALS *** with the per-terminal breakdown; ‹ Back to Dummies returns; Continue → Post Day End ▸ (enabled once at least one dummy is saved) posts.

💰 Full Cash Up — count the whole shop at once: pick Date and Bank, count, then ⮂ Merge Terminal Files, 🧾 Slip / 🖨 Print Cash Up, and Continue → Day End ▸.

Posting (both ways). Nothing is posted until you press Continue. Any unmerged terminal files are offered for merging first (posting always uses merged data). After you confirm, a 3-step wizard runs — Cash & Debtor → Creditor → Cash Book, each stage run with Merge + Post › / Post + Next › and marked Posted ✓ — posting the counted totals to the chosen Bank (the bank file is backed up first). The Bank selector appears only in the Full and Final views.

Other end-of-day and period items

• 🌅 Day End Routine (Merge + Sales Analysis) — the daily DETAILED SALES ANALYSIS for a chosen date (the Z-read equivalent): cash/account sales incl./excl. VAT, lay-buy activity, TOTAL SALES, VAT value, NET SALES, cost of sales, PROFIT and %, discount allowed, paid-outs, accounts paid, CASH IN TILL, and per-rep net sales. Includes Merge Terminal Files and a full data backup copied to the folder in Para 384 (or the PC's OneDrive) under CompuByte-Complete Backup. Goods Receiving, Debit Notes and Supplier Orders are not counted in the daily sales figures.
• 📊 View Multi-Terminal Sales — the same analysis broken down per terminal and per day across a date range (Detail and Totals views), with per-company colour coding.
• 📅 Month End Procedure — closes the month and ages debtor/creditor balances into the 30/60/90/120 buckets; produces a per-company Month-End report.
• 💰 Cash Book and 🧾 Post to Cash Book (Pay Outs/Deposits) — view and post cash-book entries for a date.
• 🏦 Asset Register — a fixed-asset listing.

10Settings & Administration

The Settings screen is one long scrolling page of cards. Most save through one action; a few settings are per-tenant (email accounts, supervisor PIN, operator access) so they never affect another company. Administrative cards are locked behind the Level-10 master password.

Access & security

• 🔐 Password Levels — set passwords for Levels 1–10 (Level 10 is the master, required to change these). Empty levels grant access automatically.
• 🔐 Operators Access (Level-10 gated) — per-operator lockdown, keyed by operator number (1–50), in five panels:
  1. Menu Access (F4 document types) — hide a document type, or require a password level to use it.
  2. Top & Sub-Menu Access — hide top/sub-menu items or require a level. (POS-Main always stays.)
  3. Exports & Dispatch — hide the 📤 Exports, 🚚 Dispatch and 🎟 Voucher buttons.
  4. Stock Editor Actions — require a level before Add / Edit stock / Stock Ledger.
  5. Debtors / Creditors / Goods Receiving — per-action levels for opening/editing accounts, ledgers, payments, and GRN cost/markup/selling-price fields.
• 👤 Operator Access Codes (a button inside Operators Access, Level-10 gated) — edit 50 operator slots, each with a name and login password. (Stored passwords are never shown; leave blank to keep the existing one.)
• 🔒 Supervisor PIN — change the numeric PIN (Current PIN must match). It gates in-sale price/size edits.

Company & documents

• 🏢 Active Company — switch sub-company (the number).
• 🏢 Company Details (Level-10 gated) — edit the company name, address, VAT number, telephone, etc. printed on slips/statements. Warning: changing name/telephone/terminal count requires re-registration.
• ✉ Email FROM Accounts (SMTP) — add sending identities (email address, display name, SMTP host, port, STARTTLS/SSL, username, password, and Always CC (optional) — addresses copied on every mail from that account, separated by ; or ,) with Send Test Email. Tips in-app: Gmail needs an App Password + 587/STARTTLS; Outlook 365 = smtp.office365.com/587. (Passwords are stored in plain text in the config file.)
• 🧾 Statement / Remittance Footer Text — banking details printed on statements/remittances.
• Opening balances — an opening balance typed on a new debtor/creditor (or imported from CSV with Allow writing balance fields) is now posted to the ledger as OPENING BALANCE / BALANCE B/D entries per ageing period ("Opening balance posted to the ledger…"), so the ledger agrees with the account. The ledger shows BALANCE BROUGHT FORWARD — written to file. or, in amber, Balance not yet brought forward.
• 🧹 Clear Account — in the Debtor/Creditor edit window, shown only for IBT (inter-branch) accounts. Zeroes Current/30/60/90/120+ and year-to-date figures and posts an ACCOUNT CLEARED ledger entry so the ledger balances to zero. Needs confirmation plus a Programmer code; it cannot be undone.

Importing accounts from CSV

Tools → 📥 Update - Debtors from CSV / Creditors from CSV / Database (customers) from CSV work like Update - Stock fields from CSV, in four steps — upload, map, preview, apply:

1. Choose CSV file… — the first 5 rows are previewed (← Choose a different file starts over).
2. Choose how rows are matched: By Name (creates new accounts) — case-insensitive; unknown names are added in the first empty slot — or By Account Number (the record position; numbers past the end create accounts there). Pick the Name or Account-Number column.
3. Map each account field to a CSV column, or leave it on — skip —. Mappings are suggested automatically, and only mapped fields are changed.
4. Options: Allow writing balance / points fields (⚠ normally system-maintained) — for opening balances only; Create accounts that don't match (otherwise they're reported as errors).
5. Preview → shows how many records will be updated / created; Apply — write N record(s) writes them. Then Import another file or Close.

Pricing & stock

• 💰 Stock Price Field — Show Cost column toggle, BT Scanner Delay (ms), and the Price field index (which field in the stock record is the sell price; a 🔍 Read stk-par Structure button helps identify it).
• 📦 PLU / CAT Lookup Table — field lengths, network CSV path, CSV upload, "Load from Index Files".
• 🔄 Rebuild Stock Index — rebuild the description/PLU/CAT indexes.
• VAT behaviour is parameter-driven (Parameters screen), not a Settings card; the company VAT number lives in Company Details.
• Parameter changes reach every till within about 15 seconds — no reload needed. A row tagged [*A*] saves to all terminals when All Terms is ticked.

Printing & devices

• 🖨 Thermal Slip Printer (ESC/POS, RAW) (incl. the share log-on fields for a printer on another PC), 🧩 Local Print Agent, and 🏷 Cloud Label Printing (register this PC) (cloud sites only) — see Chapter 7.
• 🫆 Fingerprint Sign-in (DigitalPersona) and 🔩 Spares Catalogue Location.

Branches & multi-company

• 🏢 Branch Logins (Multi-Company) — per-branch share path / drive and log-on credentials, with a status badge, plus Branch-stock timeout (seconds) (5–120). Not shown on cloud (Azure) sessions. The header sync line shows "⚠ Sync · N/M branches online · down: …" with a ↻ #co button to reconnect a branch; down branches also retry by themselves every 30 minutes, and at sign-in you're told which branches are still down ("⚠ Branch … is currently down…"). Rescue (Rescue stranded sync jobs) offers Reconnect, 🔌 Reconnect all and ↻ Scan again.
• 📦 Group Stock Drive (web stock summing) — one shared data drive and the list of branch company numbers whose stock is added together for the web stores.
• ℹ Connection Info — read-only connection details for support.

Integrations

• 🌐 Web Stores (WooCommerce / Shopify) — up to 10 stores (type, URL, keys/tokens, enabled flag).
• 🤖 Claude AI Settings and ✨ AI Image Upscaling — API keys (redacted on the wire).

Shared stock (multi-company at one site)

Several companies at one site can share one physical stock pool (same stock, reps, groups, PLU/description indexes) while keeping their own debtors, creditors, documents, and sales separate. This is controlled by a program parameter (set on the Parameters screen per terminal), formatted as: blank/0 = no sharing, N = everyone uses company N's stock, or a map like 6=1/1=1/9=5 (company on the left uses the stock of the company on the right).

Parameters referred to in this manual

11Offline, Backup & Multi-Terminal Resilience

"Server connection lost — reconnecting…"

If a till loses contact with the server, a full-screen dark overlay appears: "Server connection lost — reconnecting…" — "Your open sale is safe. This till will carry on by itself as soon as the server answers — do not reload or switch off." A small line shows how long it has been and the retry count.

• Do nothing — just wait. The page is never reloaded, so the open cart, operator and company stay as they were. The till checks the server every 2 seconds and the overlay disappears by itself when it answers; screens that were loading finish automatically (if the outage lasts more than about 2 minutes, reopen them).
• Saving actions are never re-sent automatically (a repeated Process could post a sale twice). If you pressed ✓ Process just as the connection dropped, check the last document number once reconnected before pressing it again.
• Very short blips (about a second) don't show the overlay. After about 60 seconds a Reload this till button appears as a last resort — reloading loses the open cart.

Automatic server recovery (Watchdog)

A separate Windows service, UltraPosAI Watchdog, watches the UltraPos server and restarts it by itself:

• Server down (not answering at all) → restarted after about 15 seconds.
• Server hung (connected but not replying) → restarted after 180 seconds. The long wait is deliberate: day-end, month-end and big imports legitimately keep the server busy and must not be cut off mid-write.
• It also clears any stuck process holding the port, so the old "blank Loading… → reboot the PC" problem now heals itself in about 20 seconds.
• It stands down while an update is being installed and whenever the UltraPosAI service has been stopped on purpose. It watches the HTTPS port too. Older installs get the Watchdog automatically from the hourly updater. Settings live in config.json (see Chapter 13); its log is watchdog.log in the app folder.

Backup & stand-alone

• 💾 Local Backup (Tools) — a local backup of the data set.
• 🛟 Emergency Stand-Alone (server down) (Tools) — when the live/cloud server is down, a LAN till can sell locally with a restricted document set: Cash Sales, Account Sales, Cash Refund, Credit Note (other types show "Stand Alone Mode — this document type is not allowed…"). A red ⚠ STAND ALONE MODE ⚠ banner shows while active.
  • On the cloud/live server, Open Local Server jumps to the configured local till.
  • Make stand alone asks for the stand-alone password (Para 506 — read from the local backup, so it works with the server down) and restores the last backup from C:\back-m\<Weekday>. If already stand-alone, it warns that re-restoring overwrites sales made since.
  • Back to live: Check documents is a dry run against the live server (needs the live login password); tick Post for real, then Restore back to live server to re-post the stand-alone documents into the live ledgers and return.
• Standby till / HTTP backup-sync — configured in Settings → 🛟 Emergency Stand-Alone (local server) on each till: Local server URL (the LAN till the app jumps to when the cloud is down; Test local) and HTTP Backup Sync (no file share) — Sync from server URL, Sync key (the server's supervisor PIN or Para 506) and, on a multi-shop cloud server only, Shop to pull (optional). Test sync is now run by the server and reports "✔ Sync OK — N files, company X @ shop", or warns about the wrong shop / 0 files. A standby till keeps a warm offline copy and shows an amber ⚠ STANDBY TILL banner; new sales are blocked there ("Trade on the LIVE server") unless it is in Emergency Stand-Alone mode.
• Where the offline copy comes from. The stand-alone status screen shows Terminal, Company, This server, Mode, Backup day, Backup drive, Last backup … · auto every N min, where sales write to, the Backup source and the live/local servers. The source depends on the PC's role:
  • LAN till (Sync from server URL set) → pulls from the shop server into its own C:\back-m, hourly by default.
  • Cloud (Azure) shop → this PC pulls from the cloud (cloudUrl). Without cloudUrl there is no offline copy — fix this.
  • LAN server (live data on the same physical disk as back-m) → no longer backs up to its own disk (a copy on the same disk doesn't survive that disk failing). Give each till a Sync from server URL + Sync key so the tills hold the copies.
  • A LAN PC whose live data is on a different disk from C:\back-m still backs up locally.
• Stand-alone limits — besides the document-type limit, new accounts can't be opened ("⛔ Stand-Alone mode — new accounts cannot be opened. Use CASH SALES until the server is back."). A backup pull from the wrong shop is refused with "⛔ REFUSED — nothing was written." — set Shop to pull.
• Terminal switching — terminals are chosen at login (per-terminal password; Level-10 gate for editing terminals; ♻ Reset All Terminals frees stuck slots — see Chapter 1).

12Reference — Shortcuts, Documents & Glossary

Keyboard shortcuts (POS-Main)

In the size/quantity grid: number keys type quantities, - toggles negative, Delete clears a cell, ← → Tab move between cells, Enter advances, F10 confirms, F5 shows branch stock, F9 opens the full stock analysis.

Document types

(In stand-alone mode only 1, 2, 3, 10 are available.)

Glossary

• PLU — Price Look-Up code; the short code that identifies a stock item.
• MAIN company / tenant — the data set your company password signs into.
• Sub-company — a numbered data set within a tenant (the "Company Number").
• Supervisor PIN — numeric PIN for in-sale overrides.
• Level 10 / master password — top administrative password.
• GRN — Goods Receiving Note (receiving stock).
• Lay Buy — a deposit-and-instalments purchase held until paid up.
• Stand-alone / standby — offline resilience modes (Chapter 11).
• Bill of Materials (BOM) / recipe — the list of ingredient items that make up a parent item (Chapter 4).
• Hamper — a parent item whose [LQ= list adds its component items to the sale.
• Slow-moving stock — in-stock items with no sale or purchase for a chosen number of days (Chapter 8).

13Notes & Field Setup

These items affect the software but are configured outside the app (installer, Windows, or the Parameters screen). Fill in your site's specifics here.

• Physical install — installing the server/service, mapping the data drive, and the Azure File Share are administrator tasks, not app screens.
• Printer hardware — install the Windows printer driver, create the share name (e.g. SLIP), and set the till's default printer before using browser-print (browser output goes only to the default printer). Cash-drawer kick requires the drawer wired to the printer (RJ11). 58 mm vs 80 mm is chosen by the physical printer, not a setting.
• The company password — provisioned by the administrator; there is no in-app "create/reset/forgot password" and no lockout. A lost password means contacting the vendor.
• Registration codes — generated by the vendor (CompuByte) from your fingerprint; the app only checks them.
• Program Parameters screen — VAT mode, shared stock, the stand-alone password, minimum lay-buy deposit, restrict/access-code gates, and many other behaviours are numbered parameters set on Parameters – Program Features. This manual describes their effect; the numeric values are a site/administrator setup task.
• Default Supervisor PIN — confirm your install's default (the shipped template uses 0000; some builds fall back to 690). Change it on first use.
• Per-operator visibility — remember that operators may have menus/reports hidden, so not every user sees everything in this manual.
• Watchdog settings (config.json) — watchdogEnabled (default on), watchdogDeadSec (15), watchdogHangSec (180), watchdogMinGapSec (120 between restarts), watchdogRebootAfterRestarts (0 = never reboot the PC; N = reboot after N failed restarts), watchdogPingEverySec (5), watchdogPort / watchdogHttpsPort (0 = don't watch HTTPS). Changes apply without a restart.
• Backup settings (config.json) — syncServerUrl + syncKey on each till; standaloneBackupDays (1–6 keeps only that many newest weekday folders, today's is never pruned; 7/unset keeps all seven); standaloneBackupSameDrive: true forces the old same-disk copy on a server; standaloneBackup: false disables it; standaloneBackupMin (default 60, minimum 5) sets how often it runs.
• Cloud printing — the shop PC needs cloudUrl and a syncKey (6+ characters recommended — a shorter key is only accepted from the shop's own public IP). IT can also register it from the office with tools\register-relay-key.bat.
• Cash Monitoring needs a webcam on each till and the browser's camera permission granted.

AAppendix — Program Parameters

The complete list of numbered program parameters, as set on Parameters - Program Features. Each entry is the parameter's own help text. Tags in square brackets (e.g. [STA-P], [VAT], [FAST]) group related parameters; entries marked [DOS ONLY] apply only to the legacy DOS program.