Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I download LiveEpos?
How do I set up a company?
How do I reach a Menu or Button without using the mouse?
How do I put in a credit note?
How do I select a non-stock (or Ad-hoc) item?
How do I choose a product for an Order item?
How do I search for a product from the order screen?
Why do I get some orders with no items in my Sage dataset?
Nothing happens when I press the delete key on the Barcode Maintenance form
Why Is Additional Discount Greyed Out?
How do I change the print layout of my invoices?
How do I reprint an invoice?
What if my prints have not appeared?
How do I set up a printer?
Can I customise my Invoices?
How can I see what discounts are given?
How do I find out which orders have been abandoned?
How do I set up price to be cost price + percentage?
What do I do if I incorrectly key a message line or a non-stock item?
What do I do if Live Epos fails to recognise a barcode?
I need to reprint an invoice, but the 'finished' button is greyed out
I wish to Post to Sage, or do End of Month accounts, but the RUN buttons are greyed out.
How do I check MySQL is running.
I have already have MySQL installed for another application and Live EPOS won't install
How do I make a delivery without a prepayment? .
Can I use a till receipt printer
Why are there two discount schemes, and how do I change mine?
Can I use Windows Vista
Can I use Windows Vista For a MultiCompany Version
Can I User Windows XP as a server

Where do I download LiveEpos?

Click here for download some additional installation notes describing the installation prerequisites (things you have to have installed to allow LiveEPOS to work) see installation notes here.

How do I set up a company?

Choose menu Utilities/Parameters, and click on company list button
Type cash account and path into the grid e.g. 'ZZZZ','C:\projectcvs\counterSales\testdata\countersales\ACCDATA'
Click 'Save'

You will see a message asking you to close and reopen the parameters form
So click OK, then click Close.

Choose menu Utilities/Parameters

Click on the data set you want, then click OK.
You will be asked for user name and password to login.

How do I reach a Menu or Button without using the mouse?

Hold down the {ALT} key to see the underline on menus and buttons.
You can then key that letter to choose the menu or button.

How do I put in a credit note?
Type a negative amount for the order quantity. For example, if a PLUG is returned, the quantity is -1. LiveEpos will work out whether to post a credit note or an invoice (or both) to SAGE.

How do I select a non-stock (or Ad-hoc) item?

For Non stock items press {TAB} instead of entering the product code.

Do this if the product has not yet been entered on Sage

How do I choose a product for an Order item?

Enter the product code and press {TAB}.
If you do not want to change quantity or anything else, just enter the product code and press {ENTER}.

For messages or non-stock items, press {TAB} instead of entering the product code.

How do I search for a product from the order screen?

Use / in the product code field to start a search,
then describe what you are looking for /red* will find all items starting with "red" e.g. "REDPAINT"
/red or /*red* will find all items containing red e.g."REDPAINT" and "BATTERED"

You can also search in the description field
/red will find e.g."Red paint" and "Battered Fish"

If you know the first part of the product code, search /BOO* for "book", "books" etc. The search will use the product code index. On the other hand, searching for /BOO would not use the index and would have to look through all product codes. It would however also find "notebook" and other variants.

Why do I get some orders with no items in my Sage data set?

When Live Epos first creates an order or invoice, it just puts in a skeleton,
so that different tills are not competing so much to use the data set.

A member of staff with full permissions on the SOP module of the Sage Data set
will need to choose 'Orders ''Post to Sage' or 'Orders ''End of Month Accounts'
to complete the process.

Nothing happens when I press the delete key on the Barcode Maintenance form

You need to use the mouse to select the line with the barcode you want to delete,
then press the 'Delete Barcode' Button on the form.

Why Is Additional Discount Greyed Out?

First check that your company policy allows you to grant an additional discount.
If so, you probably have a problem with your configuration.
From the menus, choose Utilities, Parameters, Options and untick the 'disallow addtional discount' checkbox.

How do I change the print layout of my invoices?

Choose Utilities/Parameters from the menu
Then click on the Options tab,
Click on either 'A4 Paper' or 'Sage Stationery'
Then click OK.
To print more than one copy,
Choose Utilities/Parameters from the menu
Then click on the Print tab,
then put in the number of copies required.
(Paul - it seems more natural to have both of these on
the Print tab. I may move these at a later date.)

How do I reprint an invoice?

Choose Reports from the menu,
then click on Invoices/Delivery Notes
You may want to change the layout used (but don't forget to change it back if this is not your regular layout)
'Latest' will give you the last printed invoice or delivery note
or you can click 'Select from list' for more choices.

What if my prints have not appeared.

Use Utilities, Parameters print, and check that number of copies >0.
If this is OK, look at the Windows printer setting, see 'How do I set up a printer?'

How do I set up a printer?

LiveEpos uses the Windows settings to choose a printer.
You can change this from the Windows Control Panel, "printers and faxes"
by right clicking on your preferred printer and choosing "Set as default printer"
The invoices and other reports use the default paper size of the printer. There
is usually a choice between A4 and Sage Stationary. Sage Invoice stationary is not the standard A4 but is 8.5 inch by 11 inch normally called 'Letter'.

How do I set up a cash drawer?
It must be connected to port COM1, and will not work on COM3/4 alternative.

Can I customise my Invoices?

You can choose from a small selection of layouts provided, using the Layout button on the Report screen. There is no user facility built into EPOS live to customise reports. However, an IT support facility with the right facilities can do this.
. Please note that although the current system is based on this technology this may change in the future. Ensure that you have a copy of the original version of the files before editing them.

These files are standard Crystal Reports format produced with the Visual Studio.net Crystal Reports version and can be edited with a similar tool or with a suitable standalone version of .net.

Support for editing reports is not included in the standard support package, GMT or your Sage supplier can offer a report update service to add logos, bank account details, terms or other appropriate details.

How can I see what discounts are given?

Choose Cost/Discount from the report form, with appropriate filters.

How do I find out which orders have been abandoned?

Use the 'Orders with no payments' report

How do I set up price to be cost price + percentage?

This needs to be done in Sage, (e.g. at Line 50 v11, edit a product, click the pricing structure button) and will be used by Live Epos.

What do I do if I incorrectly key a message line or a non-stock item?

Live Epos puts in Sage's 'special' product codes for these - e.g. M, S1 or S2.
If, for instance, you have the missed keying a quantity and price in,
Live Epos will automatically correct the special code.

What do I do if Live Epos fails to recognise a barcode?

Check the barcode maintenance screen and make sure you have keyed the product name correctly
e.g."REDPAINT" not "REDPIANT" or "RED PAINT"

I need to reprint an invoice, but the 'finished' button is greyed out?

See 'How do I reprint an invoice' above.

I wish to Post to Sage, or do End of Month accounts, but the RUN buttons are greyed out.

You may only do this if your username is a Sage user with full SOP permissions.

How do I check MySQL is running
The 'non sage' data used by LiveEPOS is stored in a MySQL brand database on your server. For this to function correctly it needs to be up and running at all times.

This can be checked on the server by going to the control panel and checking that it is set to start automatically with the server / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services.

Find the MySQL service and check it is set to Automatic. It should look like the image below.

Startup type should be set to automatic

The following command run from the dos prompt (Start/Run/'cmd') should set the mysql service to run if it is missing.

c:\mysql\bin> mysqld-max-nt --install

I already have MySQL installed for another application and Live EPOS won't install

The MySQL database technology underpins Liver EPOS. A single instance of this runs on one of the machines on your network to keep account of the data that Sage Line 50 doesn't account for. When LiveEpos Is run for the first time it will ask if the current machine is meant to be the server. If the answer is yes it will attempt to install the details into the installed MySQL database.

If the MySQL database is an old version used for another application or some other purpose it may have (should have) a master password that the system can't guess hence it can't login to add the Live EPOS database. To workaround this the 'Root' password will have to be temporarily changed back to a known password. (please contact support for this known password).

Please note that when Live Epos is first run if there is no master password on MySQL it sets one, while this increases the security slightly from casual attach you would still be vulnerable to a more determined attach. Users are advised to change this to a more secure password.

How do I make a delivery without a Prepayment?

Mark the order 'Not despatched'. The driver would take the delivery note out on site with the outstanding amount printed on the order. He/she would then collect the outstanding money and return to the office and the order would then be moved to the stage 'Fully despatched' At this point an invoice can be printed and the order posted to Sage.

Can I use a till receipt printer

Standard Windows technology is used for printing reports and printer available to windows can be used.For example an 80mm receipt is in use by a Live EPOS user for a small receipt printer. A charge may be made for producing new format reports please contact support.

Can I use Windows Vista

Vista can be successfully used for single company versions of Live EPOS. However there are a number of technical issues that may need support to resolve.

Vista Security prevents the setup of the Sage ODBC driver with normal user permissions. If this is not your default Sage database, it can be done from the control panel, updating the ODBC driver directly to point at the relevant accounts files.

Vista Security also prevents the installation of the correct registry entry 'Crystal Reports KeyCode', leading to an error when a report or invoice is generated. The solution to this is to directly enter the registry settings by using RegEdit from the command line. Unfortunately the keycode required contains invisible characters and must thus be edited in the registry binary editor. We are unclear as to the copyright issues of publishing the actual registry entries on this web site (although they are the same as those that would be included in a Windows XP install from the provided installations). Hence you will need to contact support for assistance.

There have also been cases where the user is unable to open the cash drawer on Vista installations.

Can I use Windows Vista For a multi-company version

Vista security prevents the update of the Sage ODBC driver to change company, but this can be overridden by setting LiveEpos to run as Administrator. However, with this setting on Vista cannot see the server as a mapped network drive. You will need to change each company path to the format //server/path using the parameter form (instead of the usual s:/path). Then for every computer connecting to LiveEpos, you will have to manually choose the company with the new path.

See also all issues affecting the single company version.

Why are there two discount schemes, and how do I change mine?

The original discount scheme simply returned the maximum discount allowed. Currently (2008) the Sage discount scheme is more complex, and some users may wish to change to it from the configuration utility. Posted orders will not be affected, but take great care because any orders that were started under the original scheme may give a different discount now.

Can I use Windows XP as a Server

While Windows XP is not designed or marketed as a workgroup server it can be used as such at least on small networks. There are restrictions on the number of simultaneous users that can connect although this is unlikely to be a problem. The core server technologies (Sage Accounts and MySQL database) both work on Windows XP. Note that by default the Windows XP firewall blocks connections to the Live EPOS database. The firewall has to have the 'Port' for MySQL switched on (this is 3306). On the server machine:-

Windows Firewall / Exceptions / Add Port...

Name: MySQL
Port number: 3306