Entering offline mode

There are two methods of accessing offline mode, when the Point of Sale starts but no connection to the server is available, or when the operator chooses to force enter offline mode.

No connection to Server

When the Point of Sale is launched, if there is no connection to the Fusion Data Server, you will see the no connection screen.

From here, you can choose to operate in offline mode by:

1. Click the Start Offline button.
   
2. The software will load up and you will be presented with the login screen, you’ll notice the red Offline status at the bottom right-hand corner.
   
3. Login using your usual credentials.
4. The Point of Sale will now be opened and you will now be able to perform transactions in offline mode. The ‘Waiting for a customer’ screen will show a red ‘OFFLINE – DATA SERVER UNAVAILABLE’ message along with the date and time that this PoS went offline and how many transactions have been performed, awaiting synchronisation with the database.
   

Force offline mode

The second method is for the operator to opt to enter offline mode. This is useful when you are having intermittent connectivity issues and would rather operate offline. You can do this by:

1. On the ‘Waiting for customer’ screen, press anywhere on the green ‘ONLINE – DATA SERVER CONNECTED’ box.
   
2. This will ask if you are sure that you want to switch into offline mode while the data server is still available. Press Yes to confirm.

*If the currently logged in user does not have permission to force the switch to offline mode, a log in prompt will be displayed instead, so that a login who does have the ‘Force point of sale offline’ permission can authorise the switch.

3. The green ‘ONLINE’ box mentioned in step 1 will now be replaced with an orange ‘OFFLINE – DATE SERVER AVAILABLE’ one. This indicates that while the Point of Sale is in offline mode, the data server can be contacted. Just as with the full, red offline message, this will display when the PoS was switched into offline mode, and how many transactions have occurred.
   

4. Perform transactions as normal.
5. Periodically, you will be notified that there are transactions pending synchronisation. This is to encourage you to shift back into online mode where possible. This is covered in the next section Going back online & synchronising transactions.