Getting Started with the register

Getting Started is the setup wizard that takes a new business from its order to its first sale on a Fran-Trak tablet.

Who can do this: the business owner, signed in with the email address on the order. People the owner hands a step to can do that step. A corporate administrator can also open the wizard from the portal.

Sign in to Getting Started

You do not need a password. You prove your email address with a code.

1. Go to app.fran-trak.com/onboarding/.
2. In Email address, type the address you used when you ordered.
3. Select Send my code.
4. Open the email titled "Your Fran-Trak sign-in code".
5. Type or paste the 6-digit code. The wizard continues by itself, or select Continue.

The wizard opens on the first step that still needs work.

No code arrived?

A code is only sent to an address that has an order with us. Check the spelling and your spam folder. Select Send a new code after a minute. To try another address, select Use a different email.

A code is good for 10 minutes. After five wrong tries, ask for a new one.

Come back later

You can stop at any point. Everything you saved stays saved.

1. Go to app.fran-trak.com/onboarding/ again.
2. On the same browser you usually go straight back in. Otherwise, sign in with a new code.

If you already have a portal login, you can also open the wizard from the portal. Click Administer, then Administration Home, then Getting Started (POS Setup).

Find your way around the wizard

• The step list on the left shows every step. A green dot means done. Red means something there would stop your first sale. Orange means something to look at. Blue means parked for later.
• Overview sits at the top of the list. It shows your progress and What to fix, in order. Select Fix in step to jump to a problem.
• Back and Next at the bottom move one step at a time.
• The refresh button next to Next re-checks every step against your live setup.
• Mark reviewed appears on steps the wizard cannot check for you. Select it when you are happy with that step.
• Do this later parks an optional step. Undo reverses either choice.

Most steps have a form that does the work right in the wizard. A portal button below it opens the full page for advanced settings.

Create your business

The first time you sign in, the wizard asks about your business. This creates your account, your web address and your first store.

1. In What kind of business is it?, choose the closest type.
2. Type your Business name.
3. In Your web address, choose the name that goes before .fran-trak.com. Use letters, numbers and dashes.
4. Fill in the Business address.
5. Under Your first store, type the Store name and choose its Time zone.
6. Set the hours the store Opens and Closes. You can set each day later.
7. Select Create my business.

Choose your web address carefully

You can change everything else later, but not the web address. You and your staff sign in to the portal there.

After that, the Business step shows About your business. Work through it:

1. Under What you sell, check the Closest type. Then answer the six Yes/No questions. They decide which steps you see and how they are worded.
   • Do customers pay on this POS? Answer No if the tablet only prints price labels and customers pay at another register. Your order fills this in for you.
2. Not sure? Under Not sure where you fit?, describe your business in a sentence. Select Work it out for me and check the answers.
3. Under Your logo, add your logo. It shows on your sign-in page, reports and receipts.
4. Under How your business is organized, say whether you run more than one concept, and whether you have franchisees. Add their names if you do.
5. Under Online ordering and apps, answer the questions about online ordering, a mobile app, delivery apps, timesheets and card processing.

Your answers save as you select them. Save answers saves them again.

Create your portal login

The email code only opens this wizard. A portal login opens the full back office: reports, menus, users and more.

1. Open the Your portal login step.
2. Type your First name, Last name and Mobile phone. Your username is your email address.
3. Type a password of 8 or more characters in Password and Password again.
4. Select Create my portal login.

You can now sign in at your own web address. To do this later, select Skip for now.

Add your stores

A store is each place that rings sales. Its time zone and hours decide which business day each sale falls on.

1. Open the Stores step.
2. Select Edit next to a store, or Add a store for a new one.
3. Fill in the Store name and the full address.
4. Choose the Time zone.
5. Set the Hours for each day, or tick Closed. Same hours every day (copy Monday) copies Monday to every day.
6. If staff will clock in on the tablet, set Payroll and timesheets.
7. Select Save store or Add store.

If your business has several concepts or franchisees, choose the store's Concept (brand) and Franchisee (owner) too.

Set up sales tax

The tablet charges exactly the tax lines you set here.

1. Open the Taxes step.
2. For each store, type the Sales Tax %, for example 8.25. Type 0 for a store that charges no sales tax.
3. For an extra tax, such as a liquor or soda tax, select Add a line (liquor, soda, local tax). Name it, type its rate and tick what it Applies to.
4. Select Save.
5. To give every store the same table, select Copy to all other stores on the first store.

Warning

A store with no sales tax set rings every sale tax-free. The wizard marks it red until you fix it.

Choose how you take cards

Choose one option for each store. Start this early: approval can take a few days.

No payments on this POS

If you ordered with No payments on this POS, or answered No to Do customers pay on this POS? on the Business step, the Payments and Tenders and discounts steps sit under After go-live. Skip this section. Your last step is printing a price label and scanning it at your front register.

1. Open the Payments step.
2. Choose Built-in card processing or Use my own merchant account.
   • Built-in card processing is payment processing through Fran-Trak. You do not need a merchant account of your own.
   • Use my own merchant account keeps the payment processor and rate you already have.

For built-in card processing:

1. Select Set up card processing for this store. The payment processor asks the owner for identity, business and bank details. You come back to the wizard when you finish.
2. Watch the store's status. It reads A few details are still needed, then Your details are being reviewed, then Cards enabled.

If you left before finishing, select Continue setup. Check again refreshes the status.

For your own merchant account:

1. Type the Merchant ID (MID) from your processor. It is on your processor's welcome sheet or statement. Leave it blank if you do not have it yet.
2. Select Save.
3. Your processor supplies the card readers, called PIN pads. You assign one to each tablet in the Hardware step. See Connect a card reader.

Fran-Trak support switches live processing on once your processor has set you up.

Selling fuel?

Built-in card processing does not accept fuel sales. A store that sells fuel needs Use my own merchant account.

Import your menu

This step is called Menu, Products, Menu and products or What you sell, depending on your business. It brings in everything the tablet sells.

1. Open the step.
2. Under Import your menu (or Import your product list), choose a way in:
   • Photos or PDF: upload up to 6 photos or PDFs of your menu or price list.
   • CSV file: upload a spreadsheet saved as CSV. Select Download a template to see the columns. Only the item name is required.
   • From a web address: type the address of your website's menu page and select Read it. Leave also collect item pictures ticked to copy item photos onto your tablet buttons.
3. Wait while the wizard reads it. This takes from a few seconds to a few minutes. You can work on other steps meanwhile. Keep the page open.
4. Review the list. Correct names, departments, prices and categories. Untick anything you do not want.
5. Select Import the ticked items.

Nothing is saved until step 5. Imported items go on sale at every active store. Importing the same names again updates them instead of adding copies.

Tip

Delivery app pages (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) often come back empty. Take screenshots and use Photos or PDF instead.

To fine-tune items later, see Menus.

Check departments and tax classes

Each item has a department, the tab it rings under on the register. A department's tax class decides the tax on most of its items.

1. Open the Departments and tax classes step.
2. Check each department's Tax class. Select Save after a change.
3. Untick active to hide a department.
4. To add one, type a name next to Add, choose its tax class and select Add.
5. If the step lists department names that exist only on items, choose a tax class and select Adopt.
6. A deli or bakery counter also sees a Front register code on each department: the 5-digit item number the store's own front register maps the department to, so each department rings and is taxed as its own item there. Ask whoever runs the front register for the numbers. Blank uses the tablet's default item code. See Front register codes.

The Concierge can help. Select Create departments for me or Review my departments. Nothing changes until you select Apply these departments.

The Departments, Categories and Both buttons at the top switch views. A category is the kind of sale, the line on your sales report. Both counts the items in each department and category.

Set up modifiers

Modifiers are the choices a cashier asks about when ringing an item, such as a size, a side or extras. If you sell nothing made to order, this step sits under After go-live.

1. Open the Modifiers step.
2. Choose how to build them:
   • Type your menu page address and select Read my website.
   • Select Read photos or a PDF.
   • Select Suggest from my items.
3. Review each group. Set Must choose or Optional, and how many choices a guest may pick.
4. Correct the choices and their extra prices. Select Change to pick which items ask the group.
5. Select Save the ticked groups.

If your menu has no choices, select Mark reviewed.

Decide on gift cards and EBT

Cash and card are always on. This step covers the rest.

1. Open the Tenders and discounts step.
2. For each store, select On or Off under Gift cards.
3. Do the same under EBT (SNAP).
4. Select Mark reviewed.

A blue answer marked "suggested" is not saved until you select it.

The first time you switch gift cards on, the wizard adds a Gift Cards department. It holds $10, $25 and $50 cards and a reload, none of them taxed. Change the amounts in Manage Menu Items, but keep the department name. See Gift cards.

Note

The register does not take EBT payments yet. Your EBT answer is saved for when it does.

Discounts and refunds on the tablet need a manager's PIN. Add managers in the next step.

Add your people

There are two lists. Portal users sign in to the website. POS employees sign in on the tablet with a PIN.

To add a portal user:

1. Open the People step.
2. Select Add a portal user.
3. Type the first name, last name and email address.
4. Choose a role: Corporate Administrator, Store Owner or Store Manager.
5. For a Store Owner or Store Manager, tick their stores.
6. Select Add user. We email them a temporary password.

To add a POS employee:

1. Select Add a POS employee.
2. Type their name as the tablet should show it.
3. Type a PIN of 4 to 6 digits.
4. Choose Cashier or Manager. Managers can discount, refund and open the drawer.
5. Tick the stores they work at, if you have more than one.
6. Select Add employee.

The tablet picks up a new employee within about two minutes. Every store needs at least one manager.

For more on users and roles, see Stores and users.

Enroll your tablets

1. Open the Hardware step.
2. Under the store, select Good for 24 hours or Good for 7 days. A code appears in large print.
3. On the tablet, type the code to enroll it.
4. Connect the receipt printer to the tablet with a USB cable, or to the store network.
5. Plug the cash drawer into the receipt printer. The register opens the drawer through the printer.
6. On the tablet, tap Tools, then Printers & labels, and set up the printer. The Receipt printer column of the tablet list then shows it.
7. If the store uses its own merchant account, type each tablet's PIN pad serial and select Save.

One code enrolls one tablet. The full steps are in Tablets, printers and scanners.

Ring your first sale

The First sale and go-live step watches for a test sale on a real enrolled tablet.

1. Ring an item.
2. Take a card.
3. Print the receipt.
4. Void the ticket.
5. Close the drawer.

The step turns green for a store once it has a closed ticket and a void. See Selling on the register and Refunds and voids.

Finish the after-go-live steps

These steps sit under After go-live in the step list. None of them blocks your first sale.

• Inventory: upload your suppliers' invoices or order guides. Vendors, products and costs are read from them. Then recipes are suggested for your menu items.
• Online ordering and apps: website ordering, your own app, and delivery app orders. Each needs a few details from you and a short turnaround from Fran-Trak.
• Sales history: bring in past sales from your old system.
• Getting help: choose who hears about your stores' questions.

For Getting help, choose one:

• Fran-Trak support handles it: every question comes to us. Nothing to set up.
• My team handles some of it: store questions go to one person you pick. Questions about the register, the portal, hardware and payments still come to us. Pick the person and select Set it up.

A business with one store, one concept and no franchisees sees "Nothing to set up" here. To choose anyway, select More stores or owners coming? Show the choices. Anyone can still use Get help from Fran-Trak in the portal menu. See Your company's help desk.

Hand a step to someone else

You can ask a manager to do the menu, or your accountant to do taxes. Only the owner, signed in with the email code, can do this.

1. Open the step you want to hand over.
2. Under Hand this step to someone, type their name and email address.
3. Select Send.

They get an email with a link. They sign in with their own email code and see only the steps you handed them. The link is good for 90 days. To stop their access, select Take back.

The Business, Your portal login, Online ordering and apps and Getting help steps cannot be handed over.

Use the Concierge

The Concierge is a helper panel that stays beside every step.

• It says what the step is for and lists what is still missing under Right now.
• It offers actions, such as reading your menu or sorting your departments.
• It tells you when a long job, like a menu import, has finished.

To ask a question:

1. Type it in Ask about this step....
2. Select Ask.

To show or hide the panel, select Concierge at the top. You can drag it anywhere.

The label at the top of the panel says who answers. on your computer means Chrome's built-in AI answers, and nothing you type leaves your computer. via Fran-Trak means Fran-Trak's server answers, using Google's Gemini under Fran-Trak's account. Select the label to see the details or switch.

Note

The Concierge never deletes anything on its own. If you ask it to remove items, it prepares a list. Nothing is removed until you select the remove button yourself.

Open the full portal from the wizard

Buttons such as Open Manage Stores open portal pages. They need your portal login.

The page opens in a panel beside the wizard. Select Back to wizard to close it, and the step re-checks itself. To use a browser tab instead, select Tab, or Always open them in one tab.

When you are done

There is no final submit button. When every step is done, the Overview says your business is ready to go live. You can come back at any time to change anything.

To leave, select Sign out at the top. If you came from the portal, select Back to portal.