In this article, we will be looking at how to start using the Fastoko Platform to start setting up your POS and managing your business with Fastoko.
What is Fastoko?
Fastoko is created to be the all in one tool to run your shop. Start inviting other employees and manage them in the organization, create products and catalogs, setup your POS and other sales channels, and keep track of your customers behaviour all in one platform.
Fastoko was created because we found it was hard to manage a business from scratch and we strive to eliminate this barrier of entry so you can focus more on growing your business.
The platform consists of two main components: the Admin back office page, as well as the Employee portal that you and your employees can use for operations such as taking order on your store just like a POS and take attendance. Both are available via the web hence you don't need to download any app and will work in both android or iOS as long as you have a web browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Safari, etc.)
Registration
To start using Fastoko, just register your organization on the platform. You will need to create a name for your organization. An organization is the business entity that you own. It can consist of multiple stores as sales channels.
Note: Your password will be sent to your registered email address so make sure that your email address is active and you have access to it. This email address will be the first administrator of your organization.
After registering, go into your email and follow the link to login with the default password that is generated. After logging in, feel free to change your password in the Settings > Security section.
Create Products and Variants
Let's now start creating products and variants that can be sold in your organization. Products are the smallest unit of item that can be sold in your organization. A product can have one or more variants that can be attached to the product to modify the product. For example, if your organization is selling tea as a product, the variant could be ice / hot and sugar level for the tea.
To create a product, navigate to the Products > Products tab in the side navigation bar. You will need to supply the following fields:
Name - the name of the product - can be changed per sales channel in the catalog later
Internal name - (optional) just an internal name to understand the product by
Description - (optional) the description of the product
Media - image for your product - will be used in the POS platform
Price - the base price of the product - this can be modified per sales channel later on when you setup your catalog
Variants - you can create your variants directly here or you can connect an existing variant you have created before.
To create a variant, navigate to the Products > Variants tab from the side navigation bar. You will need the
Name - the name of the variant - will be shown in the POS
Internal name - (optional) just an internal name to understand the variant by
Min & Max Selection - the min and max number of options the users can choose to modify the product
Values - The different values that the variant can take, together with the additional price if any,
Setup your Catalog
Catalogs are used to showcase your products to the customers. Each sales channel that you have will be able to have 1 catalog and each store that you have can have multiple sales channel. The diagram below shows the relationships between these concepts:
Setup Stores
Stores are a representation of a location of where you are selling your products. Separate stores can be used to filter data in the dashboard in the platform. To create your store, simply go to the Stores tab and add your store there with basic information including name, address (for geofencing), and timezone (for dashboard reporting).
Setup Catalogs
Catalogs contain the products that you can sell at each of your sales channels. If you are selling food for example, your sales channels could be your store (via our POS), GoFood, and GrabFood. Each sales channel can have its own catalog that you can customize in terms of the products that you sell in the catalog, the name that you show to the customers in the catalog, as well as its pricing.
To setup your catalogs, go to the Stores tab and select your created store in the previous step. Navigate to the Catalog tab and select the channel (for example, POS) you want to setup your catalog for (we will continuously add new channels to the platform so stay tuned).
Creating Categories and Items
In a catalog, you can setup multiple categories which can help your users to search for products easier, and you can add products as items that you sell in each categories. To create a category, click on the three dots menu on the Categories section and add a category. Select a category and you can start adding items to that category from the list of products that you have created in the previous step.
For each item that you add, you can also click on the pencil button on the right side to edit the properties of the item, such as the name, description, and the price. This allows you to sell at different prices at different sales channels (e.g. in the POS you can sell a product at Rp. 20,000 but Rp. 25,000 in GoFood for example).
Publish your Catalog
Once you are done adding the different categories and items, you will need to publish the catalog for the changes to take effect in the respective channel (e.g. in the POS). To do so, click the icon on the top right and select Save. Once saved, you can proceed to Publish the catalog. Only published catalog will be reflected in the respective channels.
Note: While the platform supports GoFood and GrabFood as channels, it is not automatically integrated to the respective channels yet. Hence, you will need to manually modify the GoFood and GrabFood menu in their respective portals afterwards.
Validate your POS
Once you have created and published your catalog for the Point of Sale, you can check if everything is connected properly in the POS. To do that, login to our POS website and using the menu bar, navigate to the Point of Sale tab. You should be able to see the categories and items that you have added to the POS catalog with the correct pricing.
Congratulations! You are ready to start using Fastoko as your POS in your store through our Employee portal!