Setting up your shop · 3 of 3 · 2 min read
Weighing scales
Connect a scale and sell by weight from a printed label.
On this page
If you sell loose goods — fruit, meat, sweets, hardware by the metre — a connected scale removes the step where someone reads a number off a display and types it into a till.
How it works
The scale sits on your shop's network. You weigh the item, the scale prints a label, and the label's barcode carries both the product and the weight. At the till you scan that label and the line is complete: right product, right weight, right price.
Nobody transcribes anything, so nobody transcribes it wrong.
Connecting a scale
In settings, add a scale with its address on your network and give it a name — "Deli counter" is more useful than "Scale 2" when something stops working.
Once it is active, the till connects on its own each time it starts, and reconnects if the network drops. The connection status is shown on the scale settings page.
Several scales can run at once, each on its own connection. A scale that has been switched off shows as disconnected rather than making the others look broken — so an unplugged deli scale does not imply anything about the one at the fruit counter.
Setting up products for weight
Mark the product as sold by weight and give it a price per unit — per kilo, per hundred grams, whatever you actually price in. Its number in your barcode scheme is what the scale prints on the label, so the till knows which product came back.
Selling a cut from a larger item
If you break down a whole item and sell portions of it, set the portion up as a child of the parent product. The portion has its own price, but its stock comes out of the parent — so a side of something is bought once, sold in pieces, and the stock figure still means something.
The quantity you record for the child is expressed in the parent's unit, which is the part people get wrong the first time. If the parent is held in kilos, the child's quantity is in kilos.
When a label will not scan
- Nothing happens. The label is probably printed too small or too light. Increase the size.
- The wrong product comes up. The product's number in your scheme does not match what the scale is printing. Check both.
- The weight is wrong. The scale is set to a different unit from the product. Make them agree.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — we would rather fix it than have you work around it.