Sparto how-to

How to do it in Sparto

Short guides, one task each. Set a location up, serve at the counter, run the day.

Setting up

For the owner, once: what a location needs before it can take its first sale.

  1. What a location needs before it can tradeThe checklist at the top of Setup says what is missing and takes you to where it is set.
  2. Put your business on the receiptThe address, phone number and the lines above and below every receipt, and the weekly email.
  3. Set your tax ratesName each tax your location charges, its rate, and what it applies to.
  4. Build your menuAdd what you sell, put it in a category, and give it modifiers such as size or milk.
  5. Add the people who work hereMost staff need only a name, a role and a PIN. An email is for people who use the portal.
  6. Set up a tablet as a counterThe tablet shows a code. Type it on your computer. Nobody signs in on the tablet and nothing is typed on it.
  7. Pair a card reader with a counterThe reader is its own device beside the counter. Add it from the counter's row and it is paired in the same step.
  8. Connect a receipt printer and a cash drawerSet a network printer from your computer, or choose a USB one on the tablet. The drawer plugs into the printer.
  9. Decide what a cashier may do aloneWhat a cashier may discount or refund without a manager, the tips offered, and when the Merchant Display locks.
  10. Choose when the day closesThe hour your business day ends, so a sale after midnight lands on the right day.
  11. Add a Customer DisplayA Customer Display shows the order as it is rung and asks for the tip when the reader has no screen.
  12. Pay for SpartoThe owner subscribes from Setup, a monthly price per location and per Merchant Display, paid on Stripe's pages.
  13. Sell alcohol, tobacco and other age restricted productsMark the product and the Merchant Display asks the customer's age before payment. Ages and hours are set under Setup.
  14. Set up card processingThe owner chooses how the location takes cards under Setup, Stripe or SpartoPay. Stripe can start today.
  15. Add a Lane terminalA Lane on the counter takes the card on its own screen. Type the code it shows, and Sparto registers it with SpartoPay.
  16. Set the Customer Display's lookHow the order looks, your logo and colour, the thank-you screen, and what plays while nothing is happening.
  17. Turn on the time clock, correct hours and export themStaff clock in with their PIN. Choose the breaks, fix a missed punch with a reason, and export the hours for payroll.
  18. Print kitchen tickets by categoryAdd a station for each kitchen printer, then choose which categories print there. A sale prints a ticket at each.
  19. Charge less for cashYour shelf prices become the card prices, and a sale paid in cash gets a percentage off.
  20. Run a promotionHappy hour, two for one, or a set for one price, which the Merchant Display applies by itself in its hours.
  21. Pictures and colours on the Merchant DisplayGive an item a picture or a colour under Menu, and choose under Setup whether the Merchant Display shows them.
  22. Let customers order aheadA page where customers order on their phone and pay at the counter when they collect, in the hours you set.
  23. Print a shelf labelA label with the name, the price and a barcode the Merchant Display scans, on the receipt printer.
  24. Sizes and coloursOne item with a variant per size or colour, each with its own SKU, barcode, price and count.
  25. Send each day to your booksConnect QuickBooks Online or Xero, map the accounts once, and each closed day goes to your books as one journal.
  26. Text offersAsk customers for their mobile number, with their consent, so you can text them offers later.
  27. Add a Stripe readerA Stripe reader sits on the counter. Type the pairing words it shows, and Sparto registers it to your account.

At the counter

For whoever is serving: ringing sales, taking money, and putting things right.

  1. Sign in and lock the Merchant DisplayYour PIN signs you in. Lock the Merchant Display whenever you step away.
  2. Ring a sale and take cashTap the items, take the money, give the change the Merchant Display tells you.
  3. Take a cardTwo taps in the same spot send the sale to the reader. The customer does the rest.
  4. Modifiers, notes and an open priceSize and milk, a note for whoever is making it, and an item priced on the spot.
  5. Give a discountTake a percent or an amount off, and say why.
  6. Hold an orderPut one order to one side while you serve the next customer.
  7. Split tenderOne sale, two ways of paying: cash and a card, or two cards. The first part is taken, then the rest.
  8. Mark something sold outTake an item off the Merchant Display for the rest of the day.
  9. Refund a sale, or part of oneGive back the whole sale, one line, or one of several of the same item.
  10. Print a receipt againFor the customer who asks after the next one has been served.
  11. Check an IDWhen a sale has beer or cigarettes in it, the Merchant Display asks for the customer's age before it takes the money.
  12. Sell by weightPrice cheese, coffee beans or fish per pound or per 100 g, and weigh each one on the scale at checkout.
  13. Clock in and outUse your PIN at the PIN pad to clock in, take a break and clock out. You never have to clock in to sell.
  14. Print, email or a code to scanAfter a sale the customer chooses how to get their receipt, or none at all.
  15. Orders placed aheadAccept an order from the Pickups strip, mark it ready, and ring it up when the customer collects.
  16. Put a sale on accountFor a customer with a house account, pay the sale from their account instead of cash or card.
  17. Take goods back without a receiptA manager takes items back at today's price, with a reason, and hands the cash back or swaps them for something else.
  18. Ring up a tax-exempt saleA customer with a tax-exempt certificate pays no tax; the certificate number goes on the sale and the receipt.
  19. Print a gift receiptA receipt with no prices on it, for a present, from any sale under Day.

Running the day

For a manager: the drawer, the close, and what the numbers say.

  1. Open and close a cash drawerCount the starting cash in, count the cash out, and let Sparto say what should be there.
  2. Move cash in or out of the drawerA drop to the safe, change brought in, or money paid out.
  3. Check the card total against the readerRecord the reader's batch total so the day's card sales can be tied to it.
  4. A card was taken but no sale was rungRare, and Sparto keeps hold of it until somebody deals with it.
  5. Read the day's numbersSales, how they were paid, tips, refunds, discounts and the tax collected.
  6. See who did whatEvery refund, discount, drawer move and changed setting, with who did it and why.
  7. What happens when the day closesThe day closes by itself at the hour you chose. Here is what to check if it has not.
  8. Stock on the shelfReceive deliveries, count a shelf, and see what is running low before it runs out.
  9. Your customersWho ticked offers or was added at checkout, what they bought, a note; export, stop offers, or forget one.
  10. House accountsLet a regular or a business customer put sales on an account, with a limit you set, and send them a statement to pay.
  11. Text sign-upsWho signed up for texts, since when, and how to stop texts to a customer.
  12. Receive a distributor's invoicePut a whole delivery on the shelf at once, in cases or units, and record what each product cost.
  13. Ask Sparto for helpWrite to Sparto support from inside the app and read the reply where you wrote it.

Opening on Sparto

For a new business: what the configuration call sets up for your kind of counter, and what to read next.

  1. Open your cafe on SpartoWhat the Cafe starter sets up, what to have on the counter, and the three guides to read next.
  2. Open your shop on SpartoWhat the Retail shop starter sets up, what to have on the counter, and the three guides to read next.
  3. Open your convenience store on SpartoWhat the Convenience store starter sets up, the age checks it switches on, and what to read next.