How to connect Companion and set up a register

Tariffs and time products are set up, but there is nothing to sell them through yet: you need a point of sale — a PC from which the admin sells products and time products. Gizmo Companion turns it into a point of sale — an app that works as a bridge between the Gizmo server and the POS hardware: card terminal, cash drawer, barcode scanner, receipt printer. Sales will not work without Companion.

The setup works like this: each point of sale gets its own Companion, which connects to the server and is then linked to a register in Gizmo Manager. A club can have several registers. The card terminal and receipt printer can be connected right away or later — they do not affect the Companion and register setup. For more about Companion, see Gizmo Companion.

Step 1. Create a Companion in Gizmo Manager

One Companion is for one point of sale (PC).

  1. Open Settings → Server → Companions and click Create Companion in the top right corner.

  2. Enter a Name — a clear one, for example based on where the point of sale is: "Front desk, 1st floor".

  3. Save. The Companion appears in the list.

  4. Double-click the Companion to open its card. Copy the token with the copy icon in the Token field: you will need it in step 3.

For more details, see Companion.

Step 2. Install Companion on the point-of-sale PC

  1. Open Settings → Others → About and download the Gizmo Companion installer in the Downloads block.

  2. Run the installer on the PC you will sell from (usually the admin PC) and go through all the steps.

For more details, see About.

Step 3. Connect Companion to the server

  1. On the point-of-sale PC, open the Companion interface — with the desktop shortcut or at localhost:8000 in a browser on the same PC.

  2. In the connection settings, specify:

    • Protocol;

    • Host name — the local IP of the Gizmo server;

    • Port — 80 by default.

  3. Paste the token from step 1, make sure the value in the field has changed, and save.

  4. Go back to Gizmo Manager, to Settings → Server → Companions, and check that the Status column says Connected. If it does not, go through the steps again.

To find out the local IP of the server, see Network access to Gizmo.

Step 4. Connect the barcode scanner and other POS devices

You need this step if a barcode scanner, a cash drawer or a smart card reader is physically connected to the point-of-sale PC.

  1. In the Companion interface, open POS Devices in the left panel.

  2. Specify the COM ports of the connected devices: cash drawer, barcode scanner, smart card reader.

  3. Save the settings.

Do not touch the register connection section in Companion yet — it is covered in step 6.

A barcode scanner helps you find products faster than by hand. For a product to be found with the scanner, fill in the Barcode field in its card — see Product card. You can also set a barcode for a time product.

How to prepare the barcode scanner

By default, most scanners work in keyboard emulation mode. To work with Companion, the scanner must be switched to COM port mode:

  1. Connect the scanner to the point-of-sale PC and install the virtual COM port driver for your model — it is available on the scanner manufacturer's website. The driver for scanners, using the SB2108 Plus as an example: [LINK: virtual COM port driver].

  2. Switch the scanner to COM port emulation mode — to do this, scan the service barcode from the scanner's manual.

  3. Open Device Manager → Ports (COM & LPT): the scanner appears there with its COM port number. Specify this port in the POS Devices section of Companion.

  4. Set the CRLF (Enter) suffix — the scanner sends data in the <prefix>data<suffix> format, and without the suffix the product is not added to the cart automatically. The suffix is also set with a service barcode from the scanner's manual.

If it is not clear what data the scanner sends, use the ScannerTest utility — [LINK: ScannerTest]. Run it, select the scanner's COM port, click Start and scan a product: the utility shows the scanner output in ASCII and HEX. Before you run it, close other programs that use this COM port.

  1. Open Settings → Finances → Registers. There may already be registers here — these are the names of all PCs that have ever connected to the server.

  2. Open the register of the point-of-sale PC. If it is not there, click Create Register.

  3. Fill in the fields:

    • Branch — a required field;

    • Companion — the Companion from step 1;

    • Number — the sequence number of the register among all points of sale;

    • Name — any convenient name, a required field;

    • Shift starting cash — leave 0, or enter an amount if the register should already hold cash at the start of a shift.

  4. If the club has only one point of sale, turn on Default register for the branch.

  5. Do not touch the terminal and printer number fields yet — you need them only to connect a card terminal and a receipt printer.

  6. Save the changes.

You can delete the registers you do not need and keep only the real points of sale — this makes the section easier to read.

All register fields are described in the Register card article.

Step 6. Connect the card terminal and the receipt printer

Only for clubs that connect a card terminal or a receipt printer to Gizmo.

The technical connection of the card terminal and the receipt printer is a separate process, and support helps with it remotely. On the Gizmo Manager side, do the following:

  1. In Settings → Finances → Registers, open the register of the point of sale and enter the Payment terminal number and/or the Receipt printer number.

  2. In Settings → Organization → Taxes & Currency, set the currency and fill in the tax settings — these parameters are used when receipts are printed. If the branches belong to different legal entities, their taxes are reassigned in the Branches section. For more details, see Taxes & Currency.

  3. Save the changes.

If Companion does not see a connected device, check that:

  • the device is turned on and ready to work;

  • the USB or Ethernet cable is firmly connected and not damaged;

  • the device driver is installed on the PC;

  • Companion is running with administrator rights;

  • the Gizmo server address is set correctly in the Companion settings.

Error details are in the Companion logs: the Companion installation folder, the Logs subfolder.

To make card payments go through the terminal, turn it on in the payment methods — see How to set up payment methods.

Result

  • The admin PC has become a point of sale: Companion is connected to the server and linked to a register.

  • Sales of products and time products go through this register.

  • If a scanner is connected, products are found by barcode.

  • If a card terminal and a receipt printer are connected, Companion sends them the commands to take card payments and print receipts.

Working with the register during a shift is described in the POS article.