A cash drawer is a big part of most businesses that deal with face to face customers. But cash drawers can be a pain to get going due to the systems required to make them work. You can’t just hook it up to your laptop and expect it to work. But first, what is a cash drawer and how do they work?
How does a cash drawer work?
Cash drawers store cheques, cash, coins and other valuable items. They work in conjunction with your Point Of Sale (POS) system, which has a receipt printer which sends a signal to the cash drawer, signalling it to open when a sale is put through. This means that the cash drawer can’t just be opened at any time. You can also get others that can connect to your POS computer through a serial port and get signaled to open that way. Most cash drawers will have key override, however.
Due to the design of these systems, the cash drawer has to be physically connected to your POS system in order for it to work and be able to be opened. Which leads to the question, is there a way to do this wirelessly, through the cloud?
Accessing the hardware via a browser, is it possible?
This is an issue that the cash drawer needs to be connected physically by means of a cable to your POS, which means that opening it wirelessly is not an option. So is there a way to get the drawer working remotely?
The question is really is it possible to send a hardware command via a browser to a local PC where the POS software is not hosted? In other words, can I trigger a command using a cloud hosted POS system. Many would say this is not possible, in fact we have had discussions with senior developers that have stated that is would not be possible to trigger the hardware if it’s not connected to the machine hosting the POS software. This has long since been a debate between developers that this is not a possible option. Many developers all over the world have been at work on this issue, trying to “crack the code”. And up until now, it wasn’t. YHP have come up with a unique method to enable this to be done by using Chrome extension ability and the right code.
What does this mean?
This solution will allow you to manage a cash drawer without the use of a POS system or printer. Up until now, POS developers have essentially “locked in” customers into buying a printer and POS to manage their cash drawers, which can cost up to thousands of dollars. Now, this is no longer necessary!
With YHP’s cloud solution, we allow you the ability to bypass the printer and POS system entirely, giving you full control of the cash drawer through the means of cloud technology and any computer equipped with Chrome. This means that you can run your business for your laptop should you wish. It also means that you can access your cash drawer remotely, or with a different device, should you need to. And, if you system goes down, you no longer have a disaster. Simply log into a different computer and you can carry on business as usual!
Security
Naturally, the first question would arise is would this not make the cash drawer very vulnerable? We have taken steps to ensure they your cash drawer is as protected as possible. There are two steps to the security verification when it comes to accessing the drawer.
Step one: Online login. You will need a user name and password to access the cloud based POS system which will allow you to access the cash drawer. Being a cloud based system, it can be accessed from any computers with Chrome. However, access can be restricted to only specific machines by means of step two.
Step two: Optional 256bit security tokens can be placed to specific devices and coded to your POS system to only allow the devices with the tokens to connect. So even if you have the username and password, you still won’t be able to log in and access the POS system if your device doesn’t have the token. This prevents the system and cash drawer being tampered with, even if someone manages to crack the login.
Your cloud POS system will be designed around the type of business you run and will a custom solution for you, so we can integrate a range of features you may need for your business into the system. This ensures a fully tailored solution which will go what you need it to. If you would like to begin designing a POS system for your business, talk to us at YHP today!
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