Once you have signed up to Hike and entered your store details, the first thing you’ll want to do is configure your store settings. This means, going through the various settings as set by Hike, to get your store ready.
This includes things such as importing your store’s logo to applying general rules like whether or not your business will incorporate Layby sales. Customizing the settings so that they are suitable to your retail operation, is essential and will largely shape how your business will perform.
On this page, we’ll go through the various sections of the General Settings page and explain step-by-step what each field means.
To begin, simply select Store Setup from the Hike menu and navigate to General.
Clicking this will take you directly to the General Settings page, where you’ll be able to edit the fields as you deem necessary. We will run you through the page, by their sections.
YOUR STORE DETAILS
Trading Name.
This is the trading name of your business and will be added to your receipt printer and emails issued from Hike POS. Your trading name can be edited at any time, however, you will need to separately update your receipt template, to reflect the changes.
Cloud Address.
This is your store’s web URL that you use to sign into Hike, and it is the reference against which we store all your data on the cloud.
New: A new feature in Hike allows you to change your cloud address, should you so desire.
By selecting Change, a new pop-up will appear explaining that by changing your store’s login address, the new address will be applicable to all users, you currently have in Hike. Click on Yes, please to continue.
You will then be able to change your store’s login address to something new. If the name has not yet been taken, you will see that it is Available, and will be free to select Continue. If it is unavailable, a red cross will appear, with the Continue button unable to be clicked.
LOCALE SETTINGS
Language.
Use the drop-down menu to choose the preferred language for your Hike Store. The Hike is available in multiple languages.
Currency.
Use the drop-down menu to choose your currency.
Note: You can only choose one currency, as Hike does not currently process across multiple currencies. You will need to have a separate Hike Store for each additional currency.
Time zone.
Use the drop-down menu to choose your time zone.
This is a key component of the General Settings screen, as Hike will use the local time on your device, to record the payment time and date of a sale. Ensure that time zones are the same across all integrations with third-party applications as well.
Tip: The time zone helps confirm time periods across a range of areas, such as rosters or reports. Especially useful if you have multiple stores located in different time zones.
Themes.
Use the drop-down to select the theme that is more comfortable for you in using the Hike system.
ACTIVATE OR REMOVE FEATURES
Activate tips/surcharge.
Ticking this box will display tips/surcharges on the Process Sale screen in the sales cart, where your cashier can add tips/surcharge to the final price.
Activate ‘on account' sale.
‘On account' sales are when a sale occurs, but the payment is not collected at the time of the sale, yet the customer is still able to take the goods with them. The arrangement will then be made for the customer to pay off the transaction at a later date.
By ticking this box, you will enable your store to have ‘on account’ sales as an option.
Activate lay-by.
A lay-by agreement allows your customers to pay off a product in installments before they can take their goods.
Ticking this box will allow your customers to purchase via lay-by.
Activate loyalty point rewards.
If you wish to provide loyalty points to your customers on the purchases made by them, you can activate this option. You can set your own loyalty program by navigating to Store setup >> General >> Loyalty points.
Activate Gift cards.
You can activate gift card feature in order to sell gift cards from the POS screen. Once it is enabled, you can sell gift cards by navigating to Point of Sales >> Process sales screen.
Activate customer welcome emails.
If this option is activated, your customers will receive an welcome email as soon as the customer is created in Hike. You can edit this email at any time.
Delivery docket print option in sales detail view.
When this option is activated, you will get an option to print delivery docket receipt from the sales transaction under sales history.
Activate Weighted Average Cost for purchase cost calculation.
When this option is selected, the purchase cost will be calculated by averaging the cost if it is purchased at different prices.
Activate option to add shipping.
When this option is activated, the Shipping field will be added in the cart while billing.
Activate quote issuance feature.
When this option is activated, the quotation feature will get enabled on the Process sales screen. You can create Quote sale from the POS screen by navigating to Point of Sales >> Process sales.
GENERAL RULES
Point of Sale
If you are unsure, which general setting applies to a specific section? We have bifurcated the tabs according to the sections
so that it gives you more clarity. Click on the "Point of sales" tab to get the
general setting only related to the Point of sales screen. The same applies to
Inventory, Customers, Reporting, Users, and Integrations tabs.
When you first log into Hike, you will have the ability to select various settings that may be applicable to your business.
Simply tix the box to the corresponding feature to activate it, or un-tick to deactivate it.
Display line-item discounts on receipt
By ticking this box, if any of your products are being sold with discounts, the discount total will show on your receipts.
By not ticking this box, the discount total will be hidden.
Show tax-inclusive prices.
Tax-inclusive prices refer to whether you're in-store prices include tax in the final sales. Tick this box, if your store requires inclusive tax prices.
Not ticking this box will result in tax being added to the sale price at checkout.
Round-off totals to the nearest cents.
Ticking this box will open options for you to select the nearest round-off cents from the drop down. For example, round up sales totals to the nearest 0.05, 0.10, 0.50, or 1.00.
Prompt to print receipts on every sale.
By ticking this box, Hike will prompt a merchant copy of the receipt for every sale. You will then be offered to select an email or printed receipt of the customer's copy.
Park paid orders for fulfillment.
By ticking this, all completed orders will appear in the Sales history, with the status Awaiting Fulfillment. This may be relevant when a store sells items, but the customer returns later to collect, and the store needs to confirm the collection.
Hide the last 3 digits in the ‘sold’ gift card numbers listing.
By ticking this box, the last 3 digits of sold gift card numbers will be hidden. This is so as to prevent any card frauds that may take place.
When a parked sale is completed, keep invoice date unchanged.
If this option is selected, a parked sale invoice date will remain same as the date the sale was created and parked. If unchecked, the sale completion date will become the sale invoice date.
When a layby sale is completed, keep invoice date unchanged.
If this option is selected, a layby sale invoice date will remain same as the date the sale was created and layby. If unchecked, the sale completion date will become the sale invoice date.
Activate coupon code in discount offers.
If this option is selected, the option to enter coupon code will get activated under discount offer screen (Products > Discount offers > Add discount offer). If unchecked, the option to enter coupon code will be removed from the discount offer screen. This option is useful if you are using Hike E-commerce site.
Inventory
Allow selling 'Out-of-stock' items.
If you wish to allow selling products even if it is out of stock then you can enable this option. By selecting this option from Store setup > General, this option will get activated for all the products. However, if you wish to enable this option for any specific products then you can enable it from inside the product.
View inventory count on POS screen.
By activating this option, you will see the counts of the products stock on the POS screen.
Show other outlets inventory on product details screen in POS.
If this option is activated, users will be able to see the products stock on the POS screen of the other outlets as well to which they have access.
Allow to include non-inventory items in purchase orders.
If this option is activated, you will be able to add those products in the purchase order which you have selected to be non-inventory item in the products page. If this option is disabled, then you will be able to add non-inventory items in the purchase order as well.
Show Retail Price in Purchase Order Excluding Tax:
Receive:
With this option, you can choose whether you wish to show the retail price of the product on the Purchase Order or not.
If the above option is selected in General settings, you will be able to see the details about the Retail pricing by clicking on the Received price.
Moreover, you can also choose whether you wish to show the ‘Retail price excluding tax’ or ‘Retail price including tax’ in the Purchase Order. You can change that setting from the General settings under Store set up > General. Refer to the below screenshot for reference:
If in the above setting, “Tax-inclusive price” is selected then the Retail price will show including tax in the purchase order. Or else, if the above setting is not selected then the Retail price will show excluding tax in the purchase order.
Item costs defined on product page are tax-inclusive cost prices.
If this option is selected, then the cost price added to the products on the products page will be considered as tax-inclusive cost price. Or else, it will be considered as tax-exclusive cost price.
Auto-generated barcode type.
You can enable this option and select whether you want the system to auto-generate 8-digit alphanumeric, 6-digit numeric, or 13-digit numeric.
Customers
Every customer must have a unique phone number.
By activating this option, all the customers that are created in Hike should have a unique phone number. Duplicate numbers will not be allowed.
Do not collect birth year for customer profiles.
This option is useful whether you wish to collect birth year of the customers while creating the customer or not.
Customer profiles by outlet.
If this option is enabled then, while creating a customer, you will get an option to select outlet/s on which you want this customer to be visible. If any of the outlets is not assigned to the customer then the customer will not be visible on that outlet/s.
Reporting
Do not include 'Parked orders' in sales reports.
If this option is activated, the total amount of parked orders will be excluded from the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary.
Do not include 'On account orders' in sales reports.
If this option is activated, the total amount of On account orders will be excluded from the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary.
Do not include 'Backorders' in sales reports.
If this option is activated, the total amount of Backorders will be excluded from the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary.
Do not include 'Layby orders' in sales & payment reports.
If this option is activated, the total amount of Layby orders will be excluded from the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary and from the payments report under Reporting > Payments > Payment summary.
Exclude Gift card sales from sales reports.
If this option is activated, the total amount of Gift card sales will be excluded from the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary.
Exclude refunds in COGS and Gross profit reports.
If this option is activated, the refunded amount will not be calculated in COGS and Gross profit in the sales report under Reporting > Sales > Sales summary.
Users
Rule for auto-lock and user PIN request.
This option is useful if you want your users to enter their user pin after every sale or not and whether you want to auto-lock the screen when the screen is inactive for selected specific time or not.
Use unique 4-digit pin for all users and allow changing between users by simply entering the pin.
If this option is activated, your users will have to create unique user pin for their user account and they can use that pin in switching between the users.
Switch between users using 4-digit PIN.
If this option is activated, then user will be able to switch between the users.
Allow users to manually lock POS screen.
If this option is activated, user will get an option to manually lock POS screen by clicking on their profile icon.
Integrations
Send 'sync log' notifications by email.
Ticking this box will trigger Hike to send an email to the account creator daily to confirm the sync to third-party programs took place.
INVENTORY NOTIFICATIONS
With this option, you can select exactly how Hike will notify you of low inventory. Your options are:
- Do not set low inventory notifications.
- Send notification as soon as an item reaches the re-order level.
- Send a consolidated low-inventory notification, once a day.
You can specify who receives inventory notifications based on their user roles. There are three options to choose from to send inventory notifications to:
- Admins only
- Admins & managers
- All users
Obviously, ‘All users’ mean no restrictions, and ‘Admins & managers’ mean that Cashier users will not receive low inventory notifications, and the first option as the name says, only Admins will get inventory notifications.
The re-order quantity can be set by you from the product. Refer to the below screenshot for reference:
STORE LOGO
- To insert your store logo into Hike’s receipt template, click on the blank image box and you will prompt to select a file image from your computer.
- Hike allows you to select an image in JPG/JPEG/PNG file formats, with a maximum of 5MB in size.
- Use the capture box to crop your image in the way you want it to appear on your receipt.
- Click on the SAVE button when done.
- If you need to change your logo, simply click on the remove button to delete the logo image.
Note: All thermal receipt printers print in black and white, so make sure you consider how your store’s logo will look in the grey render.
WEB ADDRESSES
With web addresses, you can record your applicable social media and website links, for personal reference.
Note: Hike is fast working on a new feature so that you can soon integrate all your social media lines. Stay tuned for updates.
Once you’ve made the relevant changes to your General Settings, ensure you’ve clicked SAVE.
After setting up your General Settings rules, it’s time to also apply the tax rules you will be using with Hike.