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The Sailia point of sale (POS) lets you handle in-person transactions — from walk-in activity bookings to shop product sales. It runs in your browser and gives staff a fast way to add items, apply discounts, and take payment on the spot.

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What you can do in the POS

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POS terminals

A POS terminal is a virtual workstation that your staff use to process sales. Each terminal can be assigned to a specific location and linked to a physical card reader.
  • The first terminal is created automatically — additional terminals require the Manage POS permission.
  • You can activate or deactivate terminals without deleting them.
  • Each terminal has its own grid layout, so you can customise the product tiles shown to staff at different locations.
To connect a physical Stripe card reader to your terminal, see the card readers guide.

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Processing a sale

1

Add items to the basket

Tap activities or shop products to add them to the current basket. For items with custom pricing, a keypad appears to enter the price.
2

Apply discounts (optional)

Enter a discount code or let auto-apply discounts take effect. You can also apply membership discounts if the customer is a member.
3

Collect attendee details

For activity bookings, enter the attendee name and any required information. Link the booking to an existing customer account if available.
4

Take payment

Choose a payment method — card, cash, invoice, or other. See payment methods below.

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Payment methods

The POS supports four payment methods. The method you choose determines how the transaction is recorded and settled. You can also email a payment link to the customer directly from the POS. The customer receives a link to complete the payment online.

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Till shifts

A till shift tracks cash transactions for a POS terminal during a period of time — typically a single day or staff shift. Opening a shift is required before you can accept cash payments.

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Open a shift

1

Select a terminal

Choose the POS terminal you are working on.
2

Enter the opening cash amount

Count the cash in the drawer and enter the amount. This becomes your starting balance.
3

Add a note (optional)

Record any details about the shift — for example, the staff member opening the till.
Only one shift can be open per terminal at a time. If a shift is already open, you must close it before starting a new one.

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Close a shift

When you close a shift, count the cash in the drawer and enter the amount. Sailia calculates the expected cash total based on the opening amount plus all cash received and refunded during the shift. If the closing amount does not match the expected amount, the difference is flagged as a variance — useful for identifying discrepancies.

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Shift statistics

While a shift is open, you can view:
  • Cash received — total cash taken during the shift
  • Cash refunded — total cash refunds issued
  • Expected cash — opening amount plus net cash transactions
  • Transaction count — number of transactions in the shift
After closing, you can view a full list of balance transactions for the shift, including the transaction type, amount, fees, and net total.

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Cash payments

Cash payments are recorded separately from card payments. When you record a cash sale:
  • The order is marked as paid with a cash payment method
  • The payout appears in your finances under cash payouts
  • If accounting sync is enabled, cash payouts are sent to the Sailia Cash Clearing Account in Xero

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POS and inventory

The POS shares real-time data with your online booking page. When you sell an activity session through the POS, available spots decrease immediately for online customers too. This prevents double-booking across sales channels.
Capacity limits apply to POS sales the same way they do to online bookings. You cannot add a customer to a fully booked session through the POS.

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POS grid layout

The POS uses a tile grid to give staff quick access to products, activities, memberships, activity passes, gift cards, and discount codes. You can organise tiles into folders and customise how each tile appears.

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Tile types

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Live product names

Tile names update automatically when you rename the underlying product, activity, membership, or activity pass. You don’t need to edit POS tiles after renaming an item elsewhere in Sailia.

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Custom tile titles

You can set a custom title on any tile to override the default product name. Custom titles are useful when the full product name is too long for the grid or when you want a shorter label for quick scanning.
  • Custom titles have a maximum length of 20 characters.
  • If no custom title is set, the tile shows the current name of the linked item.
  • Folders and category tiles also use custom titles for their display name.

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Folders

Group related tiles into folders to keep the grid organised. When you delete a folder, all tiles inside it are removed at the same time.

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Duplicate a layout

If you manage multiple POS terminals, you can copy the grid layout from one terminal to another. This replaces all tiles on the target terminal with a copy of the source terminal’s layout, including folder structure. Duplicating a layout requires the Manage POS permission.

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Permissions

Any staff member with POS access can process sales. To configure which staff can access the POS, manage their permissions in the staff settings. The Manage POS permission is required to:
  • Create additional POS terminals
  • Duplicate grid layouts between terminals

Card readers

Set up a Stripe card reader for in-person payments.

Custom pricing

Override product prices at the point of sale.

Shop products

Set up products to sell through the POS and online.

Payments and Stripe

Connect Stripe and manage payouts.