Sell by weight with a connected scale or typed weight
Ring up produce, deli meats, bulk candy or coffee beans by the kilogram or pound, with the weight read from a connected scale or typed on the keypad.
Sell by weight in SeroPOS
Enable Weight per product
Tick Enable Weight on a product in the back office and the till treats its quantity as a weight.
Reads a connected scale
Put the item on the scale and SeroPOS takes the reading when it settles.
Keypad fallback
No scale, or the reading will not settle? The keypad asks staff to enter the weight for the item.
USB, serial or network scales
Connect a scale over USB, RS-232 serial or the network, depending on the device the till runs on.
Decimal quantities
Weighed lines carry decimal quantities such as 0.465, priced from the per-unit price on the product.
Bound to one till
A network scale is bound to the till it sits beside, so two counters never read each other's scale.
Selling by weight in SeroPOS
Grocers, delis, butchers, bulk food stores and candy shops sell much of their stock by weight. In SeroPOS you mark those products with Enable Weight in the back office product form and price them per unit of weight, such as per kilogram or per pound. The flag syncs down to every till, and from then on the till asks for a weight instead of counting whole units.
Products without Enable Weight behave exactly as before, so a café selling coffee beans by weight beside its drinks menu only sees the weighing step on the beans. Decimal quantities are supported throughout the cart, receipts and reports, and units can be set up with decimals in the Units screen so the right precision prints.
Connecting a scale
When weighing is enabled for the business, an Add Weighing Scale row appears in the side drawer. It shows a live reading panel, lists detected scales and lets you connect with one tap. USB scales are found automatically, serial scales show their COM port and baud rate, and Scan again looks for anything newly plugged in.
Scales on the network, through a serial-to-network adapter, are added by IP address and port and bound to one till. You can set the unit, and there is an option for serial scales that send a weight without a unit. Supported protocols include HID POS scales such as Dymo M10 and M25, CAS and Aclas, Mettler Toledo MT-SICS, and scales that stream continuous serial output.
- Windows: USB HID and serial scales
- Mac: USB HID and serial scales
- Android: USB scales over OTG
- Any till: typed weight on the keypad
Weighing at the counter
When a cashier adds a weighed product, the till asks them to put the item on the scale or enter the weight. Once the reading settles, the weight becomes the line quantity and the price is worked out from the per-unit price. If the reading will not settle, for example on a windy market stall, the till says so and offers the keypad.
With no scale connected, the keypad asks for the weight straight away, so a shop can start selling by weight before buying hardware, using a separate scale and typing the reading. The weighed line can then be edited like any other: add a note, apply a discount, or mark it as a return if the customer brings something back.
What to check before you start
Check your scale against the platform list. iPads and iPhones cannot connect to a scale, so on iOS use the keypad. Android tablets need a scale that works over USB OTG. Windows and Mac tills support both USB HID scales and serial scales, and a network adapter lets several kinds of scale reach a till over the local network.
Trade rules for weighing vary by province and state, and many places require an approved, inspected scale for sales by weight. SeroPOS reads and records the weight your scale reports; it does not replace a legal-for-trade scale. Test the setup with a known weight before opening, and check that the unit on the receipt matches the unit on your price.
Frequently asked questions
Which weighing scales work with SeroPOS?
SeroPOS reads HID POS scales such as Dymo M10 and M25, CAS and Aclas scales, Mettler Toledo scales using MT-SICS, and serial scales that stream continuous output. They connect over USB, RS-232 serial or a serial-to-network adapter, depending on whether the till runs Windows, Mac or Android.
Can I sell by weight without a scale?
Yes. If no scale is connected, the till asks staff to enter the weight on the keypad when they add a weighed product. Many shops start this way with a standalone scale and connect a scale to the till later.
Does weighing work on an iPad?
iPads and iPhones cannot connect directly to a weighing scale in SeroPOS. You can still sell by weight on iOS by typing the weight on the keypad. For a connected scale, use a Windows PC, a Mac or an Android tablet with USB OTG.
How do I mark a product as sold by weight?
In the web back office, open the product and tick Enable Weight, then set the price per unit of weight. After the next sync, the till asks for a weight whenever that product is added. Products without the tick are counted in whole units as usual.
Can two tills share one network scale?
A network scale is bound to one till, so each counter reads its own scale and two cashiers never pick up each other's weight. If you have two weighing counters, give each its own scale and add it on that till's Add Weighing Scale screen.