Switching Users
Each staff member should ideally use Pointa under their own login. This makes sales, cash movements, register opening/closing, customer records, and staff actions easier to trace.
In practice, many businesses leave one front-desk user signed in all day because it is faster. That is convenient, but it reduces accountability.
For a front desk or shared terminal our recommended setup is:
Create Pointa users for staff who use the terminal.
Assign each staff member the correct authority level.
Ask each staff member to set a PIN.
Set Settings > General > Lock after to a practical timeout.
Train staff to use Switch user when taking over.
This gives the business a workable compromise between speed and accountability.
See below for a full breakdown of these different steps:
Locking Pointa
Locking Pointa keeps the app secure and requires a PIN or password before work can continue.
To lock manually:
Open the user menu in the top-right corner.
Select Lock.
When Pointa is locked, the unlock screen says Enter your pin or password to unlock.
This is useful when stepping away from the computer or when another staff member needs to take over briefly.
Automatic Locking
Pointa can automatically lock after a period of inactivity.
To set this:
Go to Settings.
Go to General.
Set Lock after to the number of minutes.
Select Save changes.
If this is blank or zero, automatic locking is effectively off.
This setting is useful for businesses that want each staff member to use their own login without making the front desk workflow painfully slow. A short timeout improves accountability; a longer timeout is less disruptive.
Switching User
Switch user is used when another staff member needs to take over without fully signing out of Pointa.
Open the user menu in the top-right corner.
Select Switch user.
Choose a recent user from the list.
Enter that user’s PIN or password.
If the user is not listed, select Can’t see your account? and sign in with email and password.
Switching user is better than continuing under someone else’s login, especially before taking payments, making cash movements, changing bookings, or closing the register.
Sign Out
Signing out ends the current session and returns to the sign-in screen.
Open the user menu in the top-right corner.
Select Sign out.
Use sign out when finishing on a device, changing to a different physical computer, or when the device should no longer remember that user.
Lock vs Switch User vs Sign Out
Use Lock when the same user will return shortly.
Use Switch user when another staff member is taking over on the same device.
Use Sign out when the user is finished on that device or the device should not retain access.