Settings & Security

Settings → Staff is the roster. Each person gets a name, an optional email and phone, a staff type (Cashier, Manager… — types with the Manager flag can approve manager-only actions at the register), a security profile, and the locations they work at.

Two credentials, granted separately:

• Register PIN — 4–6 digits, how they unlock a register. It's hashed on save and never displayed again; there's a Clear PIN button if it's forgotten.
• Back-office software access — a checkbox that allows email/password login to this website. Leave it off for register-only staff.

Hire date and termination date do what they say: no access before the first, none after the second. Staff are deactivated, never deleted — their history stays intact.

Permissions are default-deny: a profile allows nothing until you grant it. Three system profiles ship with your account — Admin (bypasses every check — keep this list short), Power User (everything except security and business settings), and Regular (use the register, view items and stock, gift cards, rentals).

Build your own under Settings → Security Profiles: create a profile (optionally copying an existing one's controls), then toggle individual controls in the grid — dozens of fine-grained keys like *void orders*, *apply discounts*, *view item costs*, *receive POs*, *close batches*, *grant store credit*, *manage banks*. Each control also has a log toggle: flip it on and every use of that permission is written to the activity log, not just denials. The register enforces the same keys — a cashier without discount permission simply has a grayed-out Discounts button.

Settings → Activity Log is the append-only record of everything: sales voided, prices changed, stock adjusted, PINs set, permissions denied. Each entry carries when, who, the event name, the target record, and the details. Filter by event, staff member, or date range. It can't be edited or pruned — which is precisely the point when a discrepancy needs explaining.

Time Clock (Settings → Time Clock) shows who's clocked in right now with live durations, supports Force Clock-Out for the person who left without punching, and lets managers correct entries — every edit gets an "edited" badge with the reason.

Settings → Taxes has two halves. Tax rates come in three kinds:

• Percent — ordinary sales tax (7% of the price).
• Per unit — a fixed amount per item, like a 5¢ bottle deposit.
• Per volume (excise) — a rate per ounce, milliliter, liter, or gallon that HeroPOS converts to each item's container size automatically. Enter the rate exactly as the ordinance states it — $3.00 per gallon of liquor, 1.5¢ per ounce of sweetened beverage — and a 750ml bottle gets its correct share. The item must have its container volume set (Identifiers tab) or the tax can't apply.

Tax groups bundle rates and attach to items — "Taxable," "Liquor," "Non-taxable" (a group with no rates). Change a group once and every item in it follows. Tax-exempt customers are flagged on their customer record instead, and the Taxes & Fees report breaks collections out by group for filing.

Settings → Register & Receipts concentrates the register's behavior: your pricing program (None, Dual Pricing, Cash Discount ≤15%, Admin Fee ≤10% or $25, or credit-card Surcharge ≤3% — one at a time, with the legal caps enforced and a compliance checklist shown for surcharging), penny rounding for cash change, Level III card data for better B2B interchange, layaway deposit and cancellation percentages, scale-barcode decoding, offline sale limits, the receipt header and footer text, and the hot button editor — a 12-slot grid of colored category and item buttons for the register's right panel.

Settings → Business holds the business name, an optional review link (Google/Yelp — it rides emailed receipts as a "Leave us a review" button), and Training mode. Settings → Locations & Stations manages stores (address and timezone, which controls what "today" means everywhere) and their stations, including each station's auto-lock idle timer.

Settings → QuickBooks posts one journal entry per night summarizing the previous day's settled sales — cash and card in; sales, tax, and fees out — into QuickBooks Online. It never reads or touches your QBO customers or invoices.

Connect with the Connect to QuickBooks button, then map six accounts from your chart of accounts: sales income, sales-tax liability, fees income, cash/undeposited funds, card clearing, and rounding gain/loss — all six must be mapped or the sync skips the day. Toggle nightly sync on, and use Sync yesterday now for a manual run (re-running an already-posted day creates a duplicate entry, so don't).

HeroPOS works out of the box for ringing, inventory, and reporting. These features need something from outside:

• SMS (order-ready texts, marketing texts) — your own Twilio account, entered in Settings → Fulfillment.
• Email (receipts, statements, marketing, snapshot/scorecard digests, PO emails) — a Resend API key on the server (RESEND_API_KEY).
• AI invoice scanning — an Anthropic API key on the server (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY).
• Push notifications — a Firebase service account on the server.
• QuickBooks — the Intuit app credentials above.
• Integrated card readers — a Handpoint API key and device serials; direct receipt printers need a LAN IP (or use CloudPRNT).

Everything else — including the public gift-card checker and this guide — runs on the standard install.