Originally written by John Hardwick, last updated Feb 24, 2026, on the Swan Retail knowledge base (FRS).
Overview
The Quick Sale is an anonymous sale processed in either back office or on a tablet, where the customer is paying for the goods and taking them away immediately.
This feature requires at least one SwanPay licence to operate, and it is not essential to use the Clear Course payment provider solution.
The licence enables the quick sale operation in all locations for systems where one or more SwanPay PED is connected.
Quick Sale is available for us in the UK, Ireland and the USA. (SwanPay is not available in the USA).
Configuration
To operate SwanPay a subscription is required.
If you wish to use the SwanPay, please raise a ticket with Swan Support or discuss with your implementation consultant.
It is possible to operate the quick sale process without integrated PEDs however a licence is required to release this feature.
Quick sales are effectively an immediate sale whereby the customer fully pays for stock (and / or services) which become an instant sale as opposed to the deferred sales concept handled by the New Sales features within SwanFRS.
Using Quick Sale now offers the ability to produce either an A4 sales order acknowledgement (as per standard sales) or, where configured, a smaller 8cm wide transaction receipt slip. This document details how to configure (and use) a dedicated receipt printer and where available control the automatic opening of a till drawer.
Swan can provide receipt printers and till drawer, please contact your Account Manager for details.
The receipt printer connects to a PC or Printer driver using standard cabling.
The cash drawer connects to a port in the back of the receipt printer.
To operate with SwanFRS a small control program will be required to be installed on EVERY computer using the quick sale process
Configuration
Application Parameters
Menu Location: System Admin > Administration > Set Up Application Parameters
SwanPay is controlled via the following application parameter.
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Roles |
Details |
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USE_SWANPAY_TERMINAL |
This field is not user amendable. Where ticked, SwanFRS has been integrated with SwanPay. Swan will turn this on as part of installing the SwanPay feature. |
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SO_AUTHORISED_QUICK_COLLECT |
Where SwanFRS is configured to require sales orders to be authorised (USE_SO_AUTHORISATION), processing a quick sale may leave the order in it’s pre-authorisation state, setting this control bypasses the authorisation step marking them immediately as completed. |
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SO_ALLOW_NEGATIVE_ACCESSORIES |
Checking allows the quick sale to ‘sell’ an item classed as accessory even though there is insufficient stock in the selling location. If stock goes negative any free to sell stock GRN’d in or written on is ‘consumed’ by the system thus returning the stocking levels a non-negative state. |
When operating with one or more Clear Course SwanPay licences, access to the Quick Sale feature is available.
Quick sales will operate in any location within the estates as long as there is at least one active SwanPay licence. It is necessary to set up a ‘pseudo’ PED device but not necessary to set up the payment details for quick sales to work, however the operator must possess the CREATE_SALES_ORDER_QUICK role privilege to gain access and the location must be configured appropriately.
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Checking allows the quick sale to ‘sell’ an item classed as accessory even though there is insufficient stock in the selling location. If stock goes negative any free to sell stock GRN’d in or written on is ‘consumed’ by the system thus returning the stocking levels a non-negative state. |
Roles
Menu Location: System Admin > Security > Set Up Roles
See Set Up Roles (1211) for details
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Field |
Comments |
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CAN_OPEN_TILL_DRAWER |
This privilege needs adding to any operator who is allowed to open a cash receipt till drawer as an ad-hoc action. for example, when cashing up. |
Locations
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Locations
There are four main requirements for a location to be able to process sales via the Quick Sale functionality.
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Field |
Comments |
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Receipt Logo Filename |
If the 3-inch sales receipt is to contain a logo or corporate image, specify the filename of the image in this field. The image will be scaled to fit on the receipt |
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Can Pay and Take |
Tick to allow immediate (pay and takes / cash and carry) sales. |
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Can Sell |
The location must be able to create sales orders. |
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Default Cash Customer |
To allow quick sales, the location must have a default ‘cash’ customer assigned. One customer per location is required - the same customer cannot be used in multiple locations. It is recommended that the cash sale customer’s address is the trading address of the store it is to be linked to. |
Source of Business
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Source of Business
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Field |
Comments |
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Default |
Where source of business are in use it is necessary to set one as the default. This is then used when creating the quick sale removing the need for the operator to set before accepting the sale. |
Tender Types
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Tender Types
Where the use of a specific tender will require a linked till drawer to open, ensure the Open Till Drawer check box is ticked.
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Field |
Comments |
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Open Till Drawer |
Any tender requiring the automatic opening of a linked cash drawer should have the Open Till Drawer check box ticked. |
Tender Type Bank Codes
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Tender Type Bank Codes
When the ‘quick sale’ process is in operation (back office mode), the quick payment page displays a maximum of 6 payments designated as relating to ‘cash and carry’ payment types.
For a tender to display on the quick payment screen it must have a sequence number (in the range 1 to 6) allocated. This sequence number controls the order in which payment types are listed.
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Field |
Comments |
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Quick Sale Sequence |
Specify up to 6 tenders available for use within the Quick Sale payment screen. |
Cash does not need to have a sequence number - it is assumed cash is accepted as a Quick Sale payment.
Cash Sale Customer
Menu Location: Sales > Find Customer
A different ‘Cash Sale' Customer must exist for each location where the Quick Sale feature is to be used.
Recommendations
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Set the customer's name to reflect its use, for example ‘cash’. Keeping this consistent for all locations makes it easier to find and group this group of customer records.
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Do not set telephone number or email address - this effectively turns off the ability to email information to the customer - if this is required, the order should be raised with a ‘known’ customer.
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Set all three addresses to the trading location this customer is to be linked to.
Once created, make a note of the Customer Number allocated to the account by SwanFRS. This is visible in the customer search results listing within Find Customer.
Once set as the default cash sale customer, it is not possible to amend the record.
It is recommended that the address used for the customer is that of the store where the record will be set as the default ‘cash customer’. This is of particular significance for the US market, where taxes are calculated based on the customers' delivery address.
Receipt Printers
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Receipt Printers
Set up the receipt printer, linking it to the trading location it will be used. Receipt printers need to be linked to a ‘base station’ or printer driver and configured onto the network, thus making them visible to the operating system of any PC or tablet within the local network.
Configuration of printers is a task for your local IT provider / Systems Administrator.
It is possible to have multiple receipt printers in a single location.
Receipt Designs
Menu Location: System Admin > Sales > Set Up Receipt Designs
This routine may be used to specify what is printed on the receipt, with the option to have different formats for different trading locations.
Print Driver
A small piece of software is required to run on any PC where receipt prints are to be generated.
Please request this software from your implementation / support team who will provide instructions re its installation.
If this print service fails, or there are no receipt printers active / available for a selling location, SwanFRS will revert to printing A4 sales order acknowledgements.
Operation
In the back office, this displays as a Quick Sale option on the menu bar within the Sales menu.
When operating with a tablet, the Quick sale is an option on the main menu.
For this feature to work, the following configuration is required.
Quick Sale
The quick sale process requires the operator’s trading location to be configured to allow cash and carry type sales / has a default cash and carry customer set.
Selecting Quick Sale (in the back office) from the Sales menu for a location without the correct settings will create a warning message and access to the routine will be prohibited.
Where allowed, the screen will display showing an ‘empty’ cash sale order.
At this point a new Sales Order has now been created, if entering this page in error, please ensure the order is cancelled (from the side panel) before selecting a different feature from the menu.
The quick sale is restricted in operation.
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Only locally available stock items can be added to the order, the exception to this are ‘service’ classed items which can be sold as required.
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It is not possible to order goods from the supplier or take stock from other locations
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All orders must be fully paid before they can be completed
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It is not possible to change the default cash customers' details. It is however possible to change the customer this order is linked to, i.e. making it a known customer order in which cash the restrictions relating to selling locally stocked items are removed.
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The ORDER button is inactive for all but service classed products.
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A quick sale may be converted into a standard sale by changing the customer.
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Quick sales will be automatically cancelled overnight if there is no payment associated with the order.
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If a quick sale is to be ‘parked’, it may be recalled by searching for the sales order reference (as per any other sales order).
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Quick sales may be instigated on the mobile and recalled in the back office, or vice versa.
It is possible to configure SwanFRS to automatically cancel Quick Sales that are open at the time of running a clear down script. Only orders linked to the selling location’s default cash sale customer where no deposit has been taken will be cleared down. If this service is required, please raise a ticket or speak with your implementation consultant.
When searching for items to ‘sell’ the product search results page will only show locally available stock even though there may be stock in other locations.
Quick sales generated via the tablet version produce an A4 print irrespective of whether there is a receipt printer assigned to the selling location.
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The default cash sale customer for the operator’s trading location will be used when opening the quick sale, however at any time this can be changed to a ‘known’ customer at which point the quick sale restrictions are released making it possible to sell the same products as the standard sales engine.
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Quick sales assume the customer is taking the goods now and requires FULL payment of ALL goods prior to allowing the sale to complete.
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It is possible to ‘suspend’ a sale and then to recall it via keying in the order number or using the Find Sales Order process.
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Suspended sales can be automatically cancelled overnight with any ‘reserved’ stock released, thus making them free to sell again.
If you wish to use this feature, please ensure your implementation / support team are aware at time of set up.
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The Quick Add Product feature allows the scanning of stock barcodes should a suitable (keyboard wedge type scanner) be available.
Prior to completing the quick sale, the order must be fully paid.
On completion of the sale (via the COMPLETE option on the side panel), dependent upon configuration, the routine will produce one of the following audits.
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If there are no receipt printers set for that trading location, an A4 sales order acknowledgement will be displayed to the screen.
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If the selling location has a single receipt printer, the receipt print will be produced directly on the printer and where the payment has appropriate tenders the till drawer will open.
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If the selling location has multiple receipt printers associated with it, the routine will offer a pick list to the operator, from which a receipt printer is to be selected, the receipt print will then be sent to the selected printer.
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If the chosen receipt printer has a linked till drawer and at least one payment type has been used which requires the till drawer to be opened, printing the receipt will also open the till drawer.
Payments
When operating on the tablet the payment screen appears similar to that shown below
When operating in back office mode the payment page appears similar to …
The screen is split into 3 sections
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Order values and payments (left hand side)
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Tender value (centre)
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Tender types (right hand side)
The left hand side show the value of the sale, value left to pay on this sale and a history of payments previously processed against this sale.
The central section shows the payment value being specified, with a series of quick set buttons.
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Quick values
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Exact ‘to pay’ balance
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To pay value rounding up to the next whole unit
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To pay value rounded up to the next multiple of 10
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To pay value rounded up to the next multiple of 5
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Numeric buttons
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A back / remove previous character button
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Clear entry button
The keyboard numbers are not operational whilst this window is open.
The right hand side offers a series of payment types.
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Cash is always available and becomes active once a tender value has been specified
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Till Number - this will form a filter enabling / disabling tenders linked to the till and is specifically used for ‘embedded’ payments
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Tenders, this is the list of available payment options for a quick sale. A maximum of 6 buttons will display, with the buttons becoming inactive if an overpayment is specified - overpayments can only be processed when paying by cash.
If an overpayment occurs the required change is displayed to screen.
Once the balance has been settled, the payment screen automatically closes and a receipt is printed
The system will trigger a linked cash receipt drawer if one or more tenders used to clear the balance has been configured to open the drawer (and there is a receipt printer assigned to that location).
If there are no receipt printer, the system will generate an A4 style standard sales order Acknowledgement.
Receipt Example
Reprinting the Receipt
Once a quick sale has been completed, it is possible to reprint a receipt at any time by selecting Reprint Receipt from the side panel.
The printed receipt will show the words REPRINT immediately above the details of products and services sold.
The date and time stamp used relates to the original sale rather than the reprinted date.
Opening the till drawer
SwanFRS offers empowered operators the ability to open the till drawer when required via the ‘avatar’ menu. This feature forms part of the list of options when clicking on the avatar in the top right of the SwanFRS menu.
For locations with a single receipt printer / till drawer, clicking will automatically open the receipt drawer. If more than one printer is linked to the location, clicking will require the operator to choose which till drawer to open.
Amending / Returning Quick Sales
Subject to permission, it is possible to amend the completed sales order.
The SO_EDIT_HEADER, SO_EDIT_HEADER_ACCEPTED & SO_EDIT_HEADER_COMPLETE role privileges can be used to restrict editing which are used in partnership with the SO_AUTO_SAVE_HEADER application parameter,
To stop staff editing completed sales orders, the SO_AUTO_SAVE_HEADER application parameter should be unticked with the SO_EDIT_HEADER_COMPLETE role privilege not being present in the list of available features.
Products can be returned via the standard Return Item option on the side panel.
General Auditing
SwanFRS does not differentiate between the quick sale and any other sales order.
Quick sales are reported as per any other order within the system.
It is suggested that a Find Sales Order - Profile is created to show Quick Sales -This can be achieved by using the cash sales customer number as the search filter (in partnership with any other filters required_
Files from the Confluence page
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