The scanner types the barcode into the box at the top of the sale screen — the one that reads Scan or search products... — and then presses Enter for you. The beep means the scanner read the label. It says nothing about whether the product was found.
Work through these in order.
Read the message on screen
A failed scan leaves a red line for a few seconds. Which one you get matters.
No product found for barcode: 012345678905
The code was looked up and nothing in your catalog carries it. Go to The barcode is not on the product below.
Barcode lookup failed: 012345678905
The lookup itself could not run. It is not a missing barcode.
Check the red bar at the top of the sale screen first. If it says you are offline, that is the cause — scanning asks the server for the code every time, so no scan works while the connection is down. See Selling when the internet drops.
If the connection is fine and this appears on every scan, it is a fault. Scanning a different product will confirm it. Report it to Stratamize; there is nothing to fix in your catalog.
No message at all, and the grid narrowed
The code did not match a barcode, and more than one product was left showing. The app will not guess between them. Tap the tile you want.
The barcode is not on the product
This is the usual cause. The register matches a scanned code against three fields on the product, and it must match the whole field, not part of it:
- Barcode / UPC
- Custom SKU
- The product's own SKU number
Fix it once and it stays fixed:
- Go to Products and search for the item by name.
- Open it.
- Scan the barcode straight into the barcode field, rather than typing it. A typed code is where a missing leading zero or a swapped pair comes from.
- Save, then scan it again at the register.
Two other things put a code on the wrong side of that match:
- A check digit the scanner does or does not send. A twelve-digit UPC-A stored without its final digit will never match a scan that includes it. Scan the label into the field rather than copying it off a supplier sheet.
- Leading zeros.
0123and123are different codes.
The scanner is not sending Enter
If the code appears in the box but nothing happens until you press Enter yourself, the scanner is not adding a carriage return after the barcode. Almost every scanner ships with that on, and almost every scanner has a setup barcode in its manual to turn it back on — look for suffix, CR, or Enter.
Until it is fixed, staff can press Enter after each scan and everything works normally.
Nothing appears in the box at all
The box has to have the cursor in it. Click it once, then scan. After a successful scan the cursor returns there on its own, so a run of scans works without clicking between them.
If the cursor is in the box and scanning types nothing anywhere, the problem is the scanner or its cable, not the POS. Open a text editor on the same machine and scan into it: if nothing appears there either, the POS is not involved.
Serialized and weight-priced items
A matching product barcode opens the serial picker or weight prompt, just as tapping the tile does. Select the physical unit or enter its measured weight before continuing. Confirm the serial or weighted line in the cart.
If barcode lookup fails, type the product name and tap its tile to open the same prompt.
Fall back to searching
While online, type part of the product's name into the same box. The search queries the catalog, including products beyond the first 200 browse tiles. Tap the correct tile and complete any serial, weight or option prompt.
A broad search displays up to 200 matches. Add more of the name or a specific SKU to narrow it. A very short scanned code can still miss because the lookup examines only its first few matches; use a name search when that happens.
Offline, only cached products can be used. Keep the browser open and follow Selling when the internet drops.
Driver's licences
The register has one place to scan into and it is a product lookup. Scanning a licence returns No product found for barcode. Age checks are entirely manual — the POS does not read, record or check an ID.