Extended Quick Start Guide - Long Form (Cash Register Quick Start Guide)
Opening/Closing The Tray
When you first open Pinogy's Cash Register application you will need to login with your employee PIN:
For your protection "Save login credentials" should never be checked on a shared computer. Whenever you are logged in your actions on the system are tracked and can be viewed in a report. Best practice is to remain logged out of the POS when you are not actively using it.
Opening the Tray
Once logged in you will click on the large blue "Tray Functions" bar at the bottom left of the application. A dialog box will pop up and you will click "Open Tray":
Note: If you do not see “Open Tray”, you do not have access to this feature and will need to speak to your Admin.
You will then enter another dialog box that says "Open Cash Tray." Here you will locate and click on the icon that looks like a square pad:
Yet another dialog box will open and this is where you will count the cash for your drawer:
Next you will count out the bills, coins, and rolls by type, enter the number in the field and Pinogy will do the calculations for you. For example, if you have 5 $20.00 bills, you would enter the number 5 in the field not 100.
Once you've finished counting your cash click the green "Return Total" button. This will send you back to the Open Cash Tray dialog. Click "Open Tray" and you are ready to do business for the day.
Closing The Tray
At the end of day you will need to close your tray session. When you click the blue "Tray Functions" button, you will see the option to "Close Tray." Clicking this will open up the "Close Cash Tray" dialog box, whereby you will count your drawer in the same manner as described above. You may be over or under your starting amount depending on the type of transactions and cash outs performed during the day.
Adding a Product to a Sale
There are multiple ways to lookup a product to add it to a sale. To toggle between them you will see a dropdown in the "Quick Entry / Search" area to the right of the app:
Smart Search: Manually search any information about the product including product keywords, description and SKU. You will utilize this to add services, gift cards and products to a sale that can't be found via the barcode lookup method.
Barcode: Search by barcode number. The most accurate way to search for a product is by using the barcode scanner, or manually entering the barcode number.
SKU: Search by SKU. An alternative to the barcode, this number is used exclusively by Doggie Style Pets and is shorter, so it can be entered quicker than the barcode number.
Description: Search by the product name. Can be helpful to narrow down results if smart search is yielding too many results.
“Barcode” is the recommended search method.
Tip: As a shortcut, you can enter the qty + * + barcode to quickly add multiple quantities to your invoice.
Once selected or scanned in you will see the products show up as line items on the left side of the cash register app:
You can click on a line item and edit it using the following:
Quantity: Click on the number in the quantity column to quickly raise or lower the quantity of an item.
Price: Click on the price if you need to raise or lower it. Lowering the price in this manner may require manager level permissions. Discounts should be performed as described further down on this document.
Pencil: Click on the pencil if you would like to write a note on the sale. Your note will also display on the receipt.
X: Click on the "X" to the far right of the line item to remove it from the sale.
Looking up a Current Customer
When conducting a transaction it is best practice to ask if the customer has an account with us. If they have an account you can add them to a sale by clicking the magnifying glass to the left of the invoice total:
The app will toggle you to the "customers" screen. Here you can lookup a customer by name, phone number, or email. If you are getting many results for a common name we suggest utilizing Multi Search to lookup by a combination of information.
Once you have found the correct account, highlight the row and click on the green "select" button at the bottom right of the app:
You will be sent back to the sales screen where you will now see the customer to the left of the invoice total:
You may receive a prompt about enrolling the customer in Astro Loyalty. For more information on this please visit the "Customer Awards & Discounts" section of this document.
Creating a New Customer
If the customer does not already have an account, but would like to create one, click the green plus button to the left of the invoice total:
A new dialog will open where you will enter the new customer's information. The minimum requirement is:
First Name
Last Name
Email and/or Phone Number
Getting either an email or phone number is necessary for tracking if they wish to receive our customer loyalty rewards.
While you’re here, this would be a good time to ask their pets name! If you toggle over to the "Notes" section of the customer account you will see an info field where you can place a short bit of information about the customer:
Once you click the green save button at the bottom right of the dialog box the new customer account will be created and added to the sale. You will also see your info note now appears on the sales screen:
The next time the customer comes in, you or another sales associate can see the note and say, "Hey how is Duke doing?" Having this little bit of information at your disposal can pleasantly surprise and help you provide the customer with a more personalized experience.
Completing the Sale
Once all items have been added to the invoice, click the green "Pay" button beneath the invoice total:
A dialog box will open which is referred to as the "Payment Screen":
There are a number of options you can select (if applicable to your store’s configuration):
Bonus Bucks: If a customer has an available Bonus Bucks balance, click this button to apply it to the sale. More information on bonus bucks can be found under the "Customer Rewards & Discounts" section below.
Cash: When you click cash you will be able to enter the amount you are receiving and the application will calculate the correct amount of change to be given.
Check: Dependent upon your store policy. Some stores do not accept checks.
Credit/Debit: When you select Credit/Debit, instructions are prompted on the PIN pad for the customer to press the green button to confirm and then enter or swipe their card.
Gift Card: If a customer is using a gift card or store credit, you can apply it using this button.
House Account: Applicable only if your store has House Accounts module installed. More information on house accounts can be found under the "Customer Rewards & Discounts" section below.
Split Payments
Accepting multiple payment options can be done by editing the amount in the field above the payment options:
Here you would enter in the amount for the first form of payment, then click on the payment option to accept it. The remaining balance due will update. You will then accept any additional forms of payment until the balance is paid in full.
Please note that an itemized customer receipt is not automatically printed at the end of the transaction. It is best practice to ask if a customer would like their receipt. If they would like a receipt you will have to click on the "print receipt" button after payment is finalized.
Placing a Sale on Hold
Pinogy gives you the option to put a sale on "hold" and reopen it at a later time. For example you are in the middle of ringing up a customer, but they say "Oh! I forgot to grab treats." At this time you could put the sale on hold and start a new transaction with the next customer in line.
To put an invoice on hold simply press the blue "hold" button at the bottom left of the cash register app:
Once the customer returns and you wish to resume the transaction press the blue "open hold/quote" button:
Next, a dialog box will open where you can find invoices on hold and select the open transaction:
Please be sure to close out any invoices on hold (Holds and Returns tabs) before closing your tray for your EOD.
How to Issue a Return
The recommended way is to click on the brown "Invoices" button in the top left of the Cash Register app. If it is your store policy, you should have a customer receipt to look up the date of the original transaction in order to issue a refund.
Set a date range that coincides with the receipt and perform a smart search of the customers invoice number. Note that there is an "Only At This Location" check box. Make sure this is unchecked in case the customer made the purchase at a different location. Alternatively, you can search by the customer's name or phone number and then locate the invoice number.
Once you've located the invoice, click the blue "Return Invoices" Button in the bottom right hand corner and a new dialog box will show up where you can next select "Start Return."
You can then begin to "X" off any items that don't apply to the return, and click the green "Refund" button.
In the checkout dialog you will be able to see the past form of payment, to which you should refund the purchase. You should always attempt to refund the payment to its original form, but depends upon your store’s policy.
Note: Exchanges are one of the most common spots where inventory and money gets messed up. Because of this, to do an exchange, you will need to first complete a return, and then a new sale. If there is no money exchanging hands, then we recommend refunding the sale to a gift card, and then completing the new sale and paying for it with the same gift card.
Gift Cards & Store Credit
Gift Cards can be purchased by a customer for any amount, but they also are to be used when issuing store credit. Issuing one to a customer is a simple process. In your cash register screen with smart search enabled type "GC" into the product search bar and select Gift Card.
This will bring up a dialog box asking for the gift card number and amount. You can then scan a new gift card and then enter the amount of the gift card you are selling. It is recommending to always scan a card vs. manually typing it in to reduce errors.
For issued gift cards, if you scan a gift card it will display the balance underneath the amount field once you hit enter.
For Store Credit, stores typically use a customer’s 10-digit phone number. It is important that the number entered is uniform per your store policy, i.e. 10 digits, no hyphens, etc. This makes looking up the numbers much easier.
Customer Rewards and Discounts
Astro Frequent Buyer Program
Frequent Buyer is a customer retention program sponsored by participating manufacturers. Depending on the brand, when a set number of purchases are made the customer is eligible to redeem a free product of equal or lesser value to their least expensive purchase. In Pinogy, customers are automatically enrolled and tracked through its seamless integration with another piece of software called "Astro."
With this integration—there's only a few key components a sales associate needs to be aware of: Linking, Account Lookup, and Redeeming.
Linking:
When a customer is added to a sale that has not been previously linked to Astro in Pinogy, you will get this automatic prompt:
Here is where you should ask the customer if they had been previously enrolled in Frequent Buyer before. If the answer is "yes", you will want to click on the "+Already in Astro" button, where you will be prompted with an additional dialog box. If a match is not found automatically, you will be prompted to search for alternate email addresses or phone numbers:
Enter the customer's phone or email and if they have an account it will be linked through that matching data. This is an important step to effectively help eliminate duplicate customers in the Astro tracking system.
If the customer has not previously participated and would like to be enrolled, simply click the YES button to begin tracking their purchases.
Account Lookup
If a customer would like to know how close they are to redeeming their free products, their Frequent Buyer program counts can be located in their customer account. On the main screen of the Cash Register App you can run a customer search by clicking the green "Customer" button in the top left. Once you've found the customer click "Manage" in the bottom right corner to open the following dialog box:
Here you can select the tab that reads "Astro Loyalty Info" where you can see all of that customers enrollments and purchase tallies.
Redeeming
When a customer has become eligible to redeem their free product a dialog box will automatically prompt with their options the next time they are added to a sale:
Once a selection is made from the list it will be added to the transaction for $0.00. The customer is still required to pay tax on the original price upon checkout. If they opt to redeem on a later date you can always click "cancel" to exit out of the dialog box and continue with the current transaction.
Bonus Bucks
Depending on your store’s settings, Bonus Bucks are given as a certain percentage cash back on certain products. The bonus bucks balance is displayed in their customer profile when added to a sale:
Please be aware that, based on a store’s configuration, Bonus Bucks can be set to be redeemed in increments, i.e. $5.00, $10.00, etc.
To apply their reward to a sale, simply click on the bonus bucks button on the payment screen and it will be applied to the transaction.
Discounts
Discounts are applied manually to a sale for various reasons. If you are applying a discount, select the product and click the blue "discount" button at the bottom left area of the cash register app. A dialog box will appear asking you to select a reason for the discount:
A Discount Reason can be set as either a fixed amount, a percentage, or as a "variable" discount, which will allow for you to type in a custom discount amount. If selected, a variable discount will open up an additional dialog box allowing you to discount by dollar amount or percentage:
Promos
Promos are product-specific discounts that are automatically applied upon checkout, and are set up in the Products module.
They will appear as a line item in the product description on the payments screen.
Additional POS Functions and Troubleshooting
Manually Entering Credit Cards
Manually entering credit cards is not entirely intuitive. Here are the correct steps to do so:
On the Payments screen you will select "Credit/Debit" as you normally would.
When the Bolt pin pad asks you to confirm you instead hit the red button to cancel.
Pinogy will prompt an error, but in this dialog you'll be allowed to click "Manual Entry"
Now on the Bolt pin pad you may manually enter the credit card number and hit the green button. Enter the expiration date and hit the green button again.
When inputting, it looks like there's space for 16 digits of a CC number and a 3 digit CVC code, but that's not the case. You only need the CC number—no need for the CVC code.
Drawer-pop Issue
This fairly common issue is often a result of the receipt printer being out of paper. If the receipt printer does not have paper the drawer will not pop upon completing a transaction.
Pinogy Technical Support
Should you ever have an issue with Pinogy, you are free to contact Pinogy's customer service. Information can be found in the top right corner of the application by pressing the blue "Help" button.
Our call center is open M-F 9am-6pm EST. Support is available outside of these hours for critical issues only. Critical issues are defined as anything relating to Pinogy software that is preventing sales or returns. Examples of this would include the drawer or pin pad not functioning, or a software glitch that won’t allow you to complete a transaction, etc.
You may also submit a support ticket by emailing support@pinogy.com