Most point-of-sale setup guides start by asking you to find a server address, type it correctly on a touchscreen keyboard, and then copy a long activation token from an email onto a device that cannot see that email. It is the kind of job that gets postponed until someone technical is around — which, on a farm or at a market stall, might be a while.
Adding a till here takes about a minute and needs one thing pointed at another thing.
The whole flow
Why there are two QR codes
The registration screen shows two codes, and they do different jobs.
One is for the TallyTill app itself, on a device that already has the app installed. The other works with any phone camera, so a device that does not have the app yet can be sent to the right place to get it. If you are setting up a tablet that came out of the box an hour ago, the second code saves you typing an app-store search on a device you have not configured yet.
Either way, the one-time token is embedded in the code. It is consumed when it is used, so a photograph of your screen taken after the fact is worth nothing.
What "claims itself" means
When the till reads the code, it registers against your account and pulls down what it needs — your catalog, your tax settings, your printer configuration, your device-level preferences. That happens once, on first connect. From then on the device is a known till in your portal, and you can see and change its settings without touching the device.
This matters when you run more than one. Registering a second or third till is the same minute of work, and the catalog does not have to be built again on each one.
Taking the first payment
Once the till is connected, checkout works the way it does everywhere else in the product, and it is worth being precise about it because "camera checkout" gets described loosely.
Recognition is always something the customer or the cashier starts. There are two ways to put an item in the basket:
- Scan its barcode. For anything packaged, this is the fast path.
- Tap to photograph it. For loose or unpackaged goods with no barcode, a tap takes a picture and the item is identified from that photo.
The camera is not passively watching the counter and it does not ring things up on its own. Somebody scans, or somebody taps — which is what keeps the basket predictable and the customer able to see exactly what was added and when.
To take the payment, tap Card and the Stripe reader takes over. Tap, insert or swipe all work on the same terminal, so you are not deciding in advance which kinds of card your customers will bring. When it approves, the receipt prints and the sale appears in your portal alongside everything else that till has sold.
What you need
| What | Notes |
|---|---|
| An Android tablet, a phone, or a browser | The till runs on hardware you can buy and replace off a shelf. |
| A network connection for setup | Needed for the initial sync. |
| A card reader | Only if you are taking chip and contactless cards in person. |
| A thermal receipt printer | For printed receipts, and for wristbands if you sell entry passes. |
If something does not connect
The two most common stumbles are worth knowing in advance. A token that has already been used will not work a second time — go back to the portal and register a fresh device rather than reusing an old code. And a till that reads the code but never reaches Connected is almost always a network problem on the device rather than a registration problem in your account; the portal will still show the device, just not connected.
Set up your first one
You can create a free account, build a catalog and register a device without talking to anyone first. TallyTill is transparent about what things cost — the pricing page has the current numbers, and there is no contract to sign.
If you would rather see a working till before you set one up, the demo store runs with no setup at all.