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, hand over a receipt, 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, prints or shows a receipt, and sends it up automatically the moment the connection is back.

Card payments need a connection — a card can’t be authorised offline, so if the link is down, take the sale as cash or cheque, or wait until you’re back online.

What you’ll see

A couple of gentle banners keep you in the loop — you don’t 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 something “needs attention in the back office,” one sale couldn’t be filed and is waiting for you there.
• “N synced offline sale(s) rang at a changed price” — a sale went up fine, but a price had changed since you rang it. It was accepted at the price you charged (the customer paid what the receipt said); the note is just so you can review it in the back office if you want to.

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.

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 is ever rejected when it finally reaches Swann Retail, it isn’t dropped — it’s held and flagged so you can sort it out in the back office. So your only job is to keep the app open and let it reconnect; anything that genuinely needs you shows up in the back office to review.

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 an item’s price changed between when it was rung offline and when it synced — the sale was accepted at the price on the customer’s receipt (they paid what they were charged), 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 at least one item’s price had changed between when you rang it offline and when it synced. It was accepted at the price you charged — the customer paid exactly 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. It never stops a sale from going through, syncing, or being reconciled.

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 needs attention in the back office

Just occasionally, a queued offline sale is turned away when it finally reaches Swann Retail — something about it couldn’t be filed as it stood. It is never dropped: it’s held and flagged, and the “needs attention in the back office” message on the sync banner points you to it. Open the back office to see what it needs and put it right there.