Getting started & feature guides

Register and name your business

Click Get started, enter business name, email, and password. Your 14-day Pro + VoltaBooks trial starts automatically. You land in onboarding to confirm business type and tax settings.

Create your first location

Add a shop or site under Locations (or follow the onboarding prompt). Name it clearly, for example Main Store, because reports, terminals, and stock all filter by location.

Add products

Go to Products → New product, or import CSV, or seed sample products during onboarding. Assign categories so the till layout is usable. Set price and optional cost for margin reports.

Tip: Subscribe before your trial ends to avoid interruption to the till and back office.

Create and pair a terminal

Terminals → Add terminal → choose location → note the 6-digit pairing code. On the till device open the Volta POS app (Windows or Android), sign in as owner or cashier, enter pairing code when prompted.

Open a shift and sell

On the till, Open shift with your starting float. Add items to the basket, choose payment method, and Complete sale. View the sale under Sales in back office and on the dashboard.

Open shift

At shift start on the till, tap Open shift. Enter the starting cash float (coins and notes in the drawer). Trading is blocked until a shift is open. That attaches every sale to the session for cash-up reports.

Record sales during the shift

Sell as normal. Completed sales increment expected cash/card totals for the shift. Park tickets if customers are not ready to pay; recall and complete later on the same shift when possible.

Close shift and cash up

Open Menu → End shift. Count the cash in the drawer and enter the counted amount. If the role can view cashup expected totals, the screen shows expected cash and the variance. If that permission is off, the cashup is blind and the expected total stays hidden. Cash payouts and pay-ins from Menu → Cash management are included in the drawer.

Tip: History is under Reports → Cashup and Reports → Shifts.

Build the order

Add items and modifiers as usual. Use Park instead of Pay when the table is not ready to settle.

Recall a parked ticket

Open Open sales / parked tickets on any till at the same location, select the ticket by name or time, and continue. Add items if needed, print the bill from the ticket menu if the guest wants it before paying, then complete payment or tip.

Understand removal rules

Removing a line from a parked ticket is a separate permission from removing a line on a new ticket. Staff without that permission need a manager PIN. Voiding the ticket needs the void permission or a PIN from someone who has void. Removals and voids appear in loss-prevention reports.

Enable Payment Gateway

In Settings → Features (or Billing), turn on Payment Gateway. Open Settings → Payment Gateway and tick every location that should send pay links. Save locations. Each enabled site bills at R100/month.

Connect a provider

On the same page, open Payfast, PayGate, or Yoco. Enter your merchant credentials, choose Sandbox/test or Live to match your keys, tick Mark as connected, set as default if needed, then Save. For Payfast and PayGate, copy the Webhook / notify URL shown on that page into your provider account. Use that exact Volta URL so payments can complete the sale. Yoco registers the webhook automatically when you Save.

Tip: Do not point the webhook at your own website. If Volta does not receive the notify call, Pay online tickets stay unpaid.

Order Pay online on the till (optional)

Settings → Payment methods: enable Pay online and move it with ↑ ↓ so it sits where staff expect it on the Charge screen.

Optional: WhatsApp Business API

Settings → Communications. Enter Phone number ID, WABA ID, access token, approved utility template name and language. Mark connected and Save. Without this, till staff still use Create link & open WhatsApp (wa.me).

Send a test pay link

Open a shift on the till, ring a small sale (Yoco minimum R2), Charge → Pay online, enter a WhatsApp number, and send the link. Pay with test cards if in sandbox. When payment succeeds, Volta completes the sale, updates stock, and prints the tax invoice.

Tip: Awaiting tickets sit under Open sales until paid or voided. Pay links expire after about 60 minutes.

Create ingredient products

Add each raw item as its own SKU with cost and stock tracking, for example bun, patty, and cheese. Receive initial stock via GRV if needed.

Create the composite SKU

New product for the finished item (e.g. Classic Burger). On the product form, open the recipe section, add ingredients with quantities, set yield percent if there is waste, and save.

Verify cost and stock

Recipe cost calculates from ingredients. Sell one unit on the till, then check Products → Movements to confirm ingredient deductions.

Tip: Use Production for batch prep without a customer sale.

Start a new GRV

Back office → Suppliers → Goods receipts → New. Select location and supplier. Add lines: product, quantity received, and either unit cost or the invoice line total. Entering one updates the other.

Use UOM if buying in cases

For case/pack products, enter quantity in the unit you physically counted, such as cases on the delivery note, using the UOM fields on the line.

Post the receipt

Save and post. Stock increases immediately and weighted average cost updates for margin reports. The movement appears in Products → Movements with a GRV reference. If the delivery came from a purchase order, receive that order into the draft first, then check costs before you post.

Tip: On the till, Menu → Receive stock drafts a receipt when the staff member has receive-stock permission, or enters a PIN from someone who does.

Start a count session

Products → Stock counts → New session, then choose the location. You can limit the count to selected categories and do the shop in sections.

Enter counted quantities

Walk the floor and enter counted qty per product. UOM-aware entry supports packs and cases where configured.

Complete and review variance

Complete the session. Positive variance increases stock; negative variance decreases stock and is recorded in your inventory movement history.

Tip: Schedule counts after hours to avoid sales moving stock during the count.

Enable KDS

Settings → Features → turn on Kitchen display. Save.

Create stations and routes

Settings → Kitchen displays → add stations (Grill, Bar, etc.). For each station, assign which product categories should appear on that screen.

Open KDS on a tablet

On the kitchen device, open Kitchen Display login (/login/kds) and sign in with your back office owner or manager account. Choose the display for this device, then park or pay a test sale on the till. Tickets should appear only on the correct screen, with prep timers.

Invite or create staff

Settings → Staff: add team members with email. For till-only cashiers, create POS credentials with a login email and PIN. Assign Cashier, Supervisor, or Manager, or customise permissions on that person.

Set permissions

Edit the preset under Settings → POS role tiers, or override one person under Settings → Staff. Cashiers sell, park, discount, look up loyalty, and cash up without seeing the expected total. Supervisors add voids, refunds, line removals, expected cashup totals, member registration, and opening counts. Managers also open shifts, receive stock, transfer between branches, edit the till layout, and change terminal settings.

Test on the till

Lock the till and sign in as the cashier. Selling should work. An action the role lacks, such as a void, should ask for a PIN from someone who has that permission.

Enable loyalty

Settings → Features → turn on Loyalty. Open Settings → Loyalty & discounts and set the program name, points per rand spent, and an optional signup bonus.

Add members

Register customers in back office with name and phone. Cashiers with permission can add members on the till during checkout.

Create a Buy X Get 1 Free rule

Add a loyalty rule: reward type free item, trigger product purchase, select the product (e.g. Flat White), set buy quantity to 5 and free quantity to 1. Save and set sort order if you have multiple rules.

Tip: Staff must link the customer to the ticket before rewards appear.

Test on the till

Open POS, link a test member, add paid units of the product, and confirm the free line is offered. Complete the sale and check points balance in back office.

Choose products to count

Settings → Opening stock count. Turn the count on for the location and select the products, for example premium spirits or coffee beans.

Choose when the count is required

You can block shift open until the count is in, block shift close until it is in, or leave both off so the count is available from the till menu without stopping trade.

Cashier workflow on the till

Staff open Menu → Stock count, enter blind quantities, and submit. If open is blocked, Open shift stays unavailable until the count is in. If close is blocked, End shift stays unavailable until it is in.

Review variances

Posted counts update stock and appear in Products → Movements.

Add employees

Open Payroll → Add Employee. Enter name, job title, employment type, monthly gross or hourly rate, tax number, bank details, and start date. Set pension or medical aid deductions if applicable.

Configure payroll settings

Open Payroll → Settings. Confirm SDL is enabled if your payroll exceeds the threshold, and set your default pay day. VoltaBooks uses the current SA tax year (March–February) for YTD totals.

Run payroll for the month

Click Run Payroll, select the period, and review each line. PAYE, UIF, SDL, and net pay are calculated automatically. For hourly staff, enter hours or import a timesheet CSV before processing.

Tip: Use Record Leave if anyone took annual or sick leave this period.

Post, payslips, and bank file

Finalize the pay run to post expenses to your ledger. Download payslip PDFs for each employee. Export your bank salary file (FNB, Capitec, Standard, or generic) and upload to your bank to pay net salaries.

EMP201 reminder

Check the payroll reports panel and dashboard widget for the EMP201 summary: PAYE, UIF, and SDL payable for the month. Download the EMP201 PDF for your records and mark filed when submitted to SARS.

Open VoltaBooks

During your Pro trial, VoltaBooks is already on. Open Books from the back-office sidebar. After the trial, turn Books on from Billing (R499 standalone or +R399/mo with Pro), then refresh.

Open Products & stock

In VoltaBooks go to Purchases → Products & stock. The table is the live VoltaPOS catalogue: SKU, name, price, and cost. Use Refresh from POS if you have just changed products in the back office.

Invoice from that list

Those products are available on invoice and quote lines. Edit names, prices, and stock in VoltaPOS. Books does not keep a second copy you maintain by hand.

Link the Books company to the shop

In VoltaBooks → Settings, edit the company and set POS shop to the VoltaPOS location. Cashups and payouts for that shop then show up in POS reconciliation. Books start date, if you set one, limits the import to shifts on or after that day.

Import from POS

Open Business → POS reconciliation, choose the location, and click Import from POS. Each row is a shift: cash, card, EFT, payouts, and pay-ins.

Review and post

Check the figures against the cashup in VoltaPOS reports, then post the shift. Skip a line if you do not want it on the ledger. Individual sale lines stay in VoltaPOS. Books receives the shift totals.