Working offline
Connectivity is not guaranteed, and a till that stops when the internet does is not a till. SBB keeps working without a connection.
Two kinds of offline
The web app queues what you enter while the connection is down and syncs it when you are back. Good for the occasional drop.
The Windows desktop app is fully offline-first. It holds your catalogue and stock locally and keeps selling with no connection at all — for hours or days. This is what you want if outages are routine.
How the desktop app handles it
Selling never stops. Products, prices and stock are on the machine. Sales complete, stock decrements, receipts print.
Sales queue. Each sale is stored with a client reference and marked queued. The sidebar shows sync state and the count waiting.
Sync is automatic. When the connection returns, queued sales upload and are marked synced. Nothing needs pressing.
Duplicates are prevented. The client reference means a sale that was already received is not counted twice if a sync retries.
Failures are visible. Anything the server rejects shows as failed with a reason and a retry, rather than disappearing.
Several tills, no internet
Tills on the same local network tell each other what they sold, so stock counts stay in step across counters even with no internet at all. Each till only listens to others in the same business, and a replayed message is ignored — one sale decrements stock once.
What needs a connection
- Signing in for the first time on a device
- Syncing to the server
- Mobile money request-to-pay — it needs the network to reach the customer's phone
- Kiongozi and anything AI-driven
- Reports drawing on server-side data
Cash sales, card-free selling, stock and receipts all work offline.
Good practice
Sync at least daily. Queued sales are safe but they are only on that machine — and machines get stolen, dropped and reinstalled.
Check the sync badge at open and close. If it says queued or failed, deal with it before going home.
Do not reinstall with sales queued. Sync first.
Take cash carefully during an outage. Mobile money request-to-pay needs a network; cash and pay-to-merchant do not.