POS overview & first-time setup

LaunchMyStore POS lets you sell in-person and online from the same catalog, stock, and customer list. This guide walks you from a blank dashboard to your first cash sale in about ten minutes.

What POS is for

POS is the in-person side of your store. Use it anywhere a customer pays you face-to-face:

• Brick-and-mortar shop — permanent register on a counter, with a receipt printer and cash drawer.
• Popup or market stall — phone or tablet, optional Bluetooth printer.
• Event, fair, or booth — iPad and a card reader, no fixed hardware.
• Mixed online + offline — the same product, the same inventory count, sold either way.

Stock is shared with your online store. A sale in POS decrements the same variant the storefront sells. Refunds restock it. There is no separate “in-store inventory” to reconcile.

Who can access POS

POS access is gated per store on a seat model. Seats are granted by:

1. A Platinum subscription, which auto-includes seats.
2. The $49/mo Stripe POS add-on, stacked on any plan.

If POS APIs return 403 POS is not enabled for this store, you have not yet consumed a seat. Upgrade or activate the add-on from Settings → Plans.

Step-by-step: your first shift

1. Enable POS on the store

Once a seat is allocated, the POS entry appears in the admin sidebar. Open it to land on the POS launcher.

2. Sign in as a cashier

The same admin account works, but for a real shop you should add staff first under Settings → Staff and assign each cashier a role:

• merchant — full access, no caps.
• Admin / Manager — can refund, void, close shifts, pair hardware.
• staff — cashier tier, capped at 10% manual discount, cannot refund or close the shift.

3. Open the shift

Click Open shift. You will be asked for:

• Opening float — the cash you put in the drawer to make change. $100 or $200 is typical.
• Device ID — optional label for the register (front-counter, ipad-1, etc.). Lets you separate drawers across terminals.
• Warehouse — which location the register pulls stock from. Sales at this register decrement that warehouse’s inventory.

The shift is now open. Every sale, refund, and cash movement you record until you close it is linked to this shift.

4. Ring up the first sale

1. Search for a product in the catalog tab, or scan its barcode.
2. Tap to add it to the cart. Adjust quantity or apply a discount.
3. Add a customer (optional) for receipts and loyalty.
4. Tap Charge, pick a tender (cash, card, gift card, split), and confirm.
5. The receipt prints (if a printer is paired) or emails to the customer.

The order shows up immediately in Orders on the admin side with channel = pos and the shift ID stamped on it.

What gets recorded

Each POS sale creates four ledger entries server-side:

• An Order row, same shape as an online order.
• An InventoryMovement row of type sale, signed delta = -quantity, channel = pos.
• A CashMovement row of type sale on the open shift (if the tender was cash).
• A StaffAuditAction row so the activity feed shows who rang it up.

This four-way trail is what makes end-of-day reconciliation honest — cash, inventory, orders, and staff actions all agree.

Common issues

• “POS is not enabled for this store” — You have no seat. Check Settings → Plans.
• “Shift closed” card right after a sale — You logged in as a cashier who isn’t on the shift’s contributor list. Clock in via More → Shift.
• Stock not decrementing the right warehouse — The shift was opened without a warehouse ID. Close and reopen with one set.

FAQ

Can I run POS offline?

Not yet. POS requires a live connection to the LaunchMyStore backend because every sale writes to inventory, cash, and order tables simultaneously. Offline mode with deferred sync is on the roadmap.

Do POS orders count toward my plan’s order limit?

Yes. POS orders are real orders. They count toward the same monthly order quota that online orders consume.

Can I use one register for two physical stores?

You can, but you shouldn’t. Open separate shifts with distinct warehouseId values so inventory decrements correctly per location. The shift entity stores warehouseId precisely so every order rung through inherits it.

Do I need a card reader to start?

No. Cash-only sales work out of the box. Add Stripe Terminal (or any supported reader) when you’re ready to accept cards in person.

How many cashiers can share a drawer?

Unlimited within a single shift. The shift opener is the owner; everyone else clocks in as a contributor. See the POS multi-staff & permissions article for details.

Where does the POS tile come from in the sidebar?

It’s a hidden item until your store has at least one consumed POS seat. The posEnabled column on the store account flips to true the moment a seat lands, and the sidebar entry appears on next refresh.