Working offline on the tablet

The in-store tablet POS is built to keep you selling through a wobbly connection. If the internet drops mid-shift, you can still ring a sale, show the customer their receipt on screen, and let it catch up on its own once you’re back online — you don’t have to stop and wait.

The tablet POS is newer than the web back office. Offline selling is built in and works as described below — there’s nothing to switch on.

Ringing a sale offline

When the tablet can’t reach Swann Retail, a cash or cheque sale still goes through. The tablet saves it safely on the device, shows the receipt on screen, and sends it up automatically the moment the connection is back.

Card payments need a connection — only cash and cheque sales are saved to send up later. If you charge a card while the tablet can’t reach Swann Retail, the charge doesn’t go through and the sale stays on screen, so you can try again once you’re back online or take it as cash or cheque instead.

An offline sale’s receipt is on screen only

An offline sale doesn’t print a receipt when you charge. Its receipt shows on the tablet with a temporary order number and the note “Offline sale — saved on this device. It’ll sync and print the final receipt once you’re back online.” If the connection comes back while that receipt is still on screen, it switches to the sale’s real order number and prints then. If you’ve already started the next sale by then, it doesn’t print later — the sale itself still syncs and is filed as normal.

The cash drawer doesn’t open on its own offline

When you take cash for an offline sale, the cash drawer doesn’t pop open — the tablet gets the drawer’s open signal from Swann Retail, so it can’t send one while it’s offline. The Open drawer button can’t open it either until the connection is back. To make change, open the drawer by hand (most cash drawers have a key for this).

If the connection comes back while that sale’s receipt is still on screen, the drawer opens then, when the receipt prints. If you’ve already started the next sale, it doesn’t open later.

An offline sale doesn’t email its receipt

If the customer on the sale has an email address, an online sale emails them their receipt. An offline sale doesn’t — not when you charge, and not later when the sale syncs. So you’re not caught out, the payment screen warns you before you charge: “The receipt won’t be emailed”, naming the address that won’t get it.

The box for typing in an email address after the sale isn’t offered on an offline receipt either. The sale itself is unaffected — it goes through and syncs as normal. Just let the customer know they won’t get an email for this one.

The same goes for a tablet that thinks it’s online but can’t actually reach Swann Retail at the moment you charge: the sale is saved to send up later exactly like an offline one, and its receipt isn’t emailed either — not then, and not later when the sale syncs. The payment screen can’t see that coming, so the warning shows right after you charge instead: a “The receipt won’t be emailed” notice appears above the sale’s receipt on screen, naming the address that won’t get it. Show the customer the on-screen receipt.

What you’ll see

A couple of gentle banners keep you in the loop — you almost never have to act on them, they’re just there so nothing is a surprise:

• “N sales waiting to sync” — sales you rang offline that haven’t been sent up yet. It clears itself as they go. If it also says “check the connection,” you’ve been offline a while; if it says a sale “couldn’t be sent and is saved only on this tablet,” see A sale couldn’t be sent — that one needs you. If it says “your permissions don’t allow sending these,” the staff member signed in isn’t allowed to ring sales, so the tablet can’t send the ones waiting. Nothing is lost — ask a manager to enter their PIN and the sales send.
• “Your permissions changed. Re-enter your PIN to continue.” with a Re-enter PIN button — the sales waiting were turned away because the staff member’s role was changed while they were signed in, and the tablet is still working from their old permissions. It isn’t a connection problem, and nothing is lost. Tap Re-enter PIN, sign back in with your PIN, and the tablet picks up the new role and tries the sales again. If the new role doesn’t allow ringing sales, the banner then says “your permissions don’t allow sending these” — ask a manager to enter their PIN.
• “This device needs to be paired again before these can be sent” — under the same banner. This one does need you: see If the tablet needs to be paired again.
• “N synced offline sale(s) need review” — a sale went up fine, but something on it no longer matched your setup when it synced — usually a price, sometimes the VAT, the auto-gratuity or a modifier choice (see Price divergent for every reason). It was accepted exactly as you rang it (the customer paid what the receipt said); the note is just so you can review it in the back office if you want to.
• “Offline — scanned prices are from 2 hours ago” — how old the tablet’s saved catalog is. See How old the scanned prices are.

How old the scanned prices are

When you scan an item, the tablet rings it at the price in the catalog it has saved on the device — and while you’re offline, that saved catalog is all it has. So the Register screen tells you how old it is:

• Offline, and the catalog is less than a day old — a quiet note: “Offline — scanned prices are from N minutes/hours ago.” Nothing to do.
• The catalog is more than 24 hours old — the note turns into a warning: “Offline — scanned prices are N days old. Prices may have changed since. Check the price before you charge.” You’ll see this even while online (“Scanned prices are N days old”) if the tablet hasn’t been able to update its catalog for that long.
• Newer prices exist but haven’t downloaded yet — if the tablet has seen that prices changed but couldn’t download them, it warns “Scanned prices may be out of date” straight away, whatever the age.
• Offline, and the tablet doesn’t know how old its catalog is — “Offline — the saved catalog’s age is unknown. Check the price before you charge.”

The age counts from the last time the tablet checked with Swann Retail — not the last time a price changed — so a catalog that simply hasn’t changed doesn’t grow “old” while you’re online. The note updates itself about once a minute and clears once the tablet has caught up.

If prices changed while you were ringing

If an item’s price moved while you were building a sale, the tablet stops before charging and shows “Prices changed — review the updated total below, then charge again.” Check the new total with the customer, then tap Charge again. Nothing is charged at the old or the new price without you seeing it first.

Parking a sale still works offline

Held (parked) sales work with or without a connection — parking keeps the cart on the tablet, so you can park one customer’s sale to serve another and come back to it. Parked sales survive the app closing and reopening, and even a staff change on a shared tablet. See Your day at the register.

Usually, you don’t have to do anything

Queued sales send themselves — when the connection comes back, when you reopen the app, or when you bring it back to the front. There’s no button to press and nothing is lost if the tablet is closed in between.

If a queued sale ever can’t be sent, it isn’t dropped — it stays saved on the tablet and the banner tells you. That needs you: see A sale couldn’t be sent. So does a tablet that needs to be paired again — the queued sales wait on the tablet until it is. Otherwise your only job is to keep the app open and let it reconnect.

If the tablet needs to be paired again

Once in a while, Swann Retail stops accepting a tablet’s pairing. The tablet can’t send anything until it is paired again, and waiting won’t fix it on its own.

Your offline sales are not lost. They stay saved on the tablet, and they send by themselves once it is paired again. Don’t ring them again by hand — that would record them twice.

What the tablet shows

• On the register, the “N sales waiting to sync” banner says “This device needs to be paired again before these can be sent”, with a Pair this device button. Learn more opens Unsent sales, the list of those sales.
• Unsent sales says “This device needs to be paired again. Sales waiting on that will send by themselves once it is paired — don’t re-enter them.” Each waiting sale is listed with its receipt number, total and payment.
• If you try to take a payment, do a return, cancel a deposit, convert a quote, or open the till, move cash in or out or close it, the tablet says “This device needs to be paired again before it can do this. Trying again won’t help until it is.” Pair the tablet first, then do it again.

If your role can’t pair the tablet, you’ll see “Ask the store owner to pair it.” instead of the button.

Pair the tablet again

Pairing needs Manage settings (see Roles) — out of the ready-made roles, only the owner has it.

1. Tap Pair this device on the banner, on Unsent sales, or on the message. Device pairing opens with “Pair again to send sales and use the till” at the top, saying the sales rung on this tablet are saved on it and send on their own once it is paired.
2. Scan or enter a new pairing code from Swann Retail. Use the code for this tablet — a code for a different device pairs this tablet as that device instead. If you don’t have a code, contact support.
3. Once the pairing works, the tablet takes you back to where you were.

If it stays on Device pairing instead, it says why:

• “Paired, but this device couldn’t save its security key” — the tablet still can’t send. Pair it again with a new code from Swann Retail.
• “This tablet is now paired as a different device than before” — the code was for another device. Pair it again with the code for this tablet.

After pairing

The waiting sales send by themselves the next time the tablet sends its queue — when you come back to the register, reopen the app, or bring it back to the front. The banner clears as they go. There’s nothing to re-enter.

Squaring up at close

If an offline sale catches up after you’ve already closed the till and cut its Z-report, its cash isn’t folded into the totals behind your back — it’s set aside for a supervisor to review and reconcile on the next close. See Reconcile offline sales at close.

A held sale in that list may carry a “price divergent” flag. That just means something on the sale — usually an item’s price — no longer matched your setup when it synced (see Price divergent for every reason). The sale was accepted exactly as it was rung (the customer paid what their receipt said), and the flag is only there so a supervisor can review it. It doesn’t stop the sale from being reconciled.

What a synced offline sale can say

Once an offline sale reaches Swann Retail it’s filed like any other — but a few carry a short status so you (or a supervisor) know whether anything is worth a second look. None of these ever change what the customer paid or what’s on their receipt — they’re there for peace of mind, not for action.

Price divergent

The sale went up fine, but something on it no longer matched your current setup when it synced — most often an item’s price had changed between when you rang it offline and when it synced. It was accepted exactly as you rang it — the customer paid what their receipt said — and the sale carries a “price divergent” note so you can review it in the back office if you like. You’ll see the same flag beside a held sale in the offline sales to reconcile list.

The note says what was found. It can be one or more of these:

• A price changed — an item rang at a different price from the one in effect when you rang it, or an option’s price change (say, +2.00 for a large) differs from what it is now. The note shows both, e.g. “rang $15.00, now $18.00”.
• The auto-gratuity changed — the sale rang with one auto-gratuity rate, but your current settings would add a different one (or none).
• The VAT differs — the VAT on an item, your VAT pricing mode, or the customer’s VAT-exempt status was different on the tablet from your current settings.
• A modifier choice doesn’t fit the item’s current rules — the note names the line and the modifier group, for example:
  • a required group was skipped;
  • more than one option was picked in a single-choice group;
  • fewer picks than the group’s minimum, or more than its maximum;
  • the same option was picked more than once;
  • the group is no longer attached to the item;
  • options were added to a custom line, which has no modifier groups.

These are checked against your catalog as it is now, so a group you changed after the sale was rung can show up here too — treat it as something to look at, not as a mistake by the cashier.

The note can also mention that a discount was given by someone without the Apply discounts permission. On its own that doesn’t make a sale price divergent — it’s just recorded so you can see who gave it. A manager may have approved it on the tablet at the time.

Nothing is ever refused or re-priced for any of these. The sale is filed at what the customer paid, the money was taken as rung, and the flag never stops a sale from going through, syncing, or being reconciled. If something needs fixing, fix the item, its price, or its modifier groups in the back office so the next sale rings the way you want.

Price unverifiable

A quieter cousin of the above: the sale went up fine and was accepted at the price you charged, but Swann Retail couldn’t check that price against its records for the moment you rang it — there was no recorded price for that item at that time. Nothing diverged; it simply couldn’t be confirmed either way, so the sale is filed with a “price unverifiable” note for the record. You won’t get a loud banner for this one and there’s nothing you need to do — the note is only there so the price wasn’t quietly assumed to be right. If you’re curious, open the item in the back office and check its price.

Held for a supervisor at close

If an offline sale catches up after you’ve already closed the till and cut its Z-report, its cash is set aside rather than folded into a closed drawer — it waits for a supervisor to review and reconcile it on the next close. See Reconcile offline sales at close.

A sale couldn’t be sent

Just occasionally, a queued offline sale can’t be sent to Swann Retail — it’s turned away when it gets there, or the tablet can’t read it back to send it. It is never dropped, but it isn’t in the back office either: the sale is saved only on this tablet. The sync banner shows it as “N couldn’t be sent and is saved only on this tablet — contact support,” with a Learn more button.

Learn more opens Unsent sales — the list of every paid sale this tablet is holding because it couldn’t be sent. Any signed-in cashier can open it; you don’t need permission to manage settings. Each sale shows its receipt number, when it was rung, the total, how it was paid and why it wasn’t sent, with a Share button that hands a plain-text copy to email, messages or any app on the tablet. Staff who can manage settings can also find it under Settings › Register › Unsent sales. The list never deletes or re-sends a sale that couldn’t be sent — it only shows it and lets you share it.

If you see that message:

1. Don’t delete the app or reset the tablet. The tablet holds the only copy of the sale until it’s sent, and removing the app loses it.
2. Tap Learn more and Share each sale with support, or re-enter it in the back office yourself. If you contact support, tell us which tablet it’s on so we can help you get it into your records.
3. Keep selling. The customer has already paid and has their receipt, and your other queued sales still send on their own — one stuck sale doesn’t hold up the rest.