❌ A cloud-only POS
When the connection drops, the screen spins. Staff write slips by hand, prices come from memory, and the day's sales have to be typed in again — usually wrong.
Sell when the internet drops
CountOS Offline POS is the counter app that keeps billing during an outage. Scan barcodes, take cash, partial or credit payment, and print the receipt — then let every queued sale sync itself the moment the connection returns.
No internet
Counter keeps selling
0
App store downloads needed
Auto sync
Pushes sales on reconnect
1 ledger
Offline and online, same books
An outage should not stop the counter
Load shedding, a snapped fibre line, a router restart, a busy Friday evening — the queue does not care. A cloud-only POS turns the counter into a notebook at exactly the worst moment.
❌ A standalone cash register
It keeps billing, but stock never moves, credit customers are not recorded, and nothing reaches your reports. The drawer and the software disagree by month end.
✅ A CountOS offline till
The counter app carries its own catalog and prices in the browser. It sells with no connection, and the sales join the same stock ledger, ledgers, and reports once it can talk to the server again.
✅ No separate system to reconcile
Because the offline till is CountOS — not a bolt-on cash app — a synced sale posts stock, COGS, cash, and the customer balance through the same posting engine as an online sale.
The offline till, screen by screen
These are real CountOS Offline POS screens from the till that runs on your counter — the same interface your staff see with the network cable pulled out.
How offline billing works
Four steps from setup to a sale that has already reached your books.
1
Connect the till once
Sign in on the counter device with a CountOS user that holds the pos.offline permission. The till registers a long-lived device token.
- Choose the branch the till sells from
- Download catalog, customers and stock
- Install it to the home screen
2
Sell with no connection
The till searches its local catalog by barcode, SKU or name, prices the cart, and takes full, partial or credit payment.
- Item and bill-level discounts
- Retail and wholesale price selection
- Receipt prints with a provisional slip number
3
Sync on reconnect
The outbox pushes automatically, or staff press Sync now. The server accepts each slip, assigns real invoice numbers, and posts stock, COGS and cash.
- Retry queue and rejected list on the till
- Rejected slips carry the server's reason
- Oversold lines are flagged for review
4
Report as normal
Synced offline sales behave exactly like online sales, so there is no parallel set of numbers to reconcile.
- Sales, profit and cash-collected reports
- Customer ledger and outstanding invoices
- Cashbook and audit trail
What the offline till includes
Everything a counter needs to keep trading — plus the controls an owner needs to trust the numbers.
📴
Sells with no internet
A service-worker shell and a local IndexedDB catalog mean the app opens and sells even when the browser is completely offline.
🔁
Automatic outbox sync
Queued sales push on reconnect — automatically in the background, or on demand with the Sync now button.
🏷️
Barcode scan at the counter
USB or Bluetooth scanners work as normal: the scan matches the local catalog and drops straight into the cart.
💳
Cash, partial and credit
Walk-in customers pay in full; named customers can pay part now or go fully on credit, exactly as online.
📦
Offline stock counts
Walk the shelves with the tablet, enter counted quantities against the system estimate, and post the variances on sync.
🖨️
Provisional slip numbers
Every offline receipt carries its own slip number so the counter and the server can never be confused about what was sold.
🔐
Revocable device tokens
Each till holds its own token. Revoke it from POS Devices and a lost or stolen device stops syncing immediately.
🧭
Branch-aware tills
Point a till at a branch when it connects, and move it to another branch later from its Catalog tab with a fresh stock pull.
🧪
Sync review queue
Anything the server had to accept with a warning — an oversold line, a changed product — lands in Sync review for a manager.
What happens offline, and what happens on sync
No surprises: the till tells you exactly what it knows, and the server stays the authority on stock and numbering.
| Action at the counter | While offline | After sync |
|---|---|---|
| Barcode scan and pricing | Matches the downloaded catalog and price list | Re-validated against the live catalog |
| Completing a sale | Saved to the till outbox, receipt prints with a provisional slip number | Server assigns the real invoice number |
| Stock deducted | Local estimate only — the till labels it as an estimate | Authoritative stock movement and COGS posted |
| Cash and credit | Payment mode and received amount are stored with the slip | Cash account, receivable or payable updated |
| Customer credit balance | Shown as a local estimate for cashiers | Recalculated from the posted invoice |
| A line that oversells | Sale is still completed — the customer has the goods | Accepted and flagged for review instead of silently blocking the till |
| Stock count | Count sheet held on the device | Variance posted as a stock adjustment |
| Reports and ledgers | Not yet visible to head office | Identical to an online sale in all 25+ reports |
What you need to run it
If the device has a modern browser, it can be a CountOS till.
🖥️ Hardware
Any counter PC, laptop, Android tablet or iPad. A USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner and a receipt printer work as they do online.
🌐 Browser
Chrome, Edge, or Safari. The till installs to the home screen as an app icon — nothing to download from an app store.
🔌 One online connect
The till must reach the server once to register and download the catalog. After that it is independent of the connection.
🔑 Permission
Offline selling is its own permission. Grant pos.offline only to the users who actually run a till.
🏢 Multi-branch
Register a till per counter and point each one at its own branch. Every till syncs to the branch it was registered for.
📈 Reporting
Offline sales are ordinary posted invoices, so they flow into sales, profit, cash-collected, ledger, and cashbook reports.
Offline POS questions
The questions shop owners ask us before they trust a till with an outage.
Can CountOS POS work without internet?
Yes. The CountOS Offline POS is a progressive web app that a till installs once while it has internet. After that, staff scan barcodes, take cash or credit, and complete sales while the connection is down. Sales are queued on the device and synced automatically when the internet returns.
Do I need a special machine or app store download for offline billing?
No. The offline till runs in a normal browser on the counter PC, laptop, Android tablet, or iPad you already have, and installs to the home screen as an icon. There is no Windows installer, no separate Android app, and no extra licence per till beyond your CountOS plan.
What happens to sales made offline?
Each sale gets a provisional slip number and is stored in the till outbox with its cart, customer, payment and discount details. When connectivity returns the till pushes them to the server — manually with Sync now, or automatically in the background — and the server assigns the real invoice number.
Can an offline sale oversell stock?
It can, and CountOS accepts it rather than stopping the sale, because the customer is standing at the counter with the goods. The synced sale is flagged for manager review so the stock count or price is corrected deliberately instead of a cashier being blocked at the till.
How do I stop a lost or stolen till from syncing?
Open POS Devices in CountOS and revoke the till. Its device token stops working immediately, so nothing further can be pushed to your books. Every till also signs in with a named user and needs the pos.offline permission, so the audit trail shows who sold what.
Which reports include offline sales?
All of them. Once a queued sale syncs it is a normal posted invoice, so it appears in sales by period, sales and profit by product, cash collected, outstanding invoices, the customer ledger, and the cashbook alongside sales taken online.
Does the offline till work for more than one branch?
Yes. A till is pointed at a branch when it connects, pulls that branch catalog and stock estimate, and can be moved to another branch later from its Catalog tab, which re-registers the till and re-downloads the stock for the new branch.
Watch a sale go through with the network off
In the demo we disconnect the till, ring up a cart, print the slip, and then reconnect and show the same sale land in your reports.