Keeping staff on the POS: what a lock can and can’t do

A tablet on the counter is also a tablet with YouTube on it. When the shop is quiet, it wanders. Then a customer waits, an order chimes behind a video, or the app is closed and nobody notices. So owners ask whether the POS can be locked.

Yes, up to a point, and we would rather say where that point is. The lock keeps honest people on the POS. It is not a hard lock, and it will not stop someone determined.

On Android

In the POS app, an owner or a manager opens Settings and, under This device, turns on Lock this device to the app. Android then asks in a window of its own, and the device stays on the POS. This is Android’s app pinning. Staff do not see the switch, and they cannot turn it off.

Here is what it does not do:

• Android asks every time. Each time the lock starts, whoever stands there can say no.
• It ends when the app closes or the device restarts. The app does not open by itself after a restart, so after a power cut someone has to open it and say yes again.
• A button gesture can leave it. Holding Back and Overview, or the same on the gesture bar, unpins the app. Android may even show how.

The setting that matters

That last one has a fix, and it is in Android, not in Bill&Go. Give the device a screen lock with a PIN, then turn on Ask for PIN before unpinning, most often under Security, beside app pinning. The gesture then asks for the PIN. Keep the PIN from staff. Bill&Go cannot set this for you, so do it when you set the device up.

Things that open another app stop working while locked. Sign-in with Telegram is hidden, and sign-in with Google or Apple may not work on every device, so staff should use a password. Choose a USB scale before you lock the device. To unlock, an owner or a manager signs in, opens Settings and turns the switch off.

On an iPad

Apple lets an app lock itself only on a managed device, so there is no switch in the app. Use Apple’s Guided Access instead: turn it on under Accessibility in the iPad’s Settings and set a passcode, open Bill&Go POS, then press the side button three times and press Start. Leaving takes the passcode, which your staff should not have.

What a lock does not protect

A lock keeps people on the POS. It does nothing about what they do there. For that, the POS has rules of its own, and these matter more:

• Each person signs in as themselves, so every order, void and refund has a name on it.
• Refunds are for the owner and managers. Staff cannot give money back.
• Voids need a reason. Staff can void only unpaid orders from the current shift, and the owner and managers can get a notification for each one.
• The drawer is counted. Closing a shift shows if it is over or short, and taking over someone else’s drawer means counting it without seeing what it should be.
• Opening the drawer without a sale is for the owner and managers, and each time is written in the shift’s report.
• Reprints can wait for a manager’s yes, if you switch that printing rule on.

If your worry is the money, read the shift reports. If your worry is a tablet full of videos, the lock and a PIN will do.

Tip. The full steps and every limit are in Lock a device to the POS.