Install & set up your shop

From downloading the installer to ringing up your first sale.

Installing takes about ten minutes. You need the internet once, to register your shop and put your licence in. After that the till works with the internet down: sales, printing, stock, reports and backups all run on your own computer.

What you need

A computer at the counter: a Windows PC (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit) or a Mac (macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel).
About 1 GB of free disk space.
An internet connection for the first-run steps only.
A receipt printer and a barcode scanner if you use them. Both can be added later.

Step 1: Download the installer

Open the Download page. It works out which computer you are on and offers the right file, with the others linked beside it.

Windows: a single file called something like SalezFlowPOS-Setup-<version>.exe.
Mac: a file called something like SalezFlowPOS-<version>-arm64.dmg, the build for Apple silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3, M4).

We offer the Apple silicon build first because a Mac's browser cannot tell us which chip it has. On an older Intel Mac, click the Intel link beside it and take SalezFlowPOS-<version>-x64.dmg instead. If you are not sure which you have, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac.

Step 2: Install it, and get past the warning

Both Windows and macOS are cautious about software they have not seen many times before. Whatever you see here is expected: it is about the app being newly published, not about what is in it.

On Windows, you will very likely get a blue box saying "Windows protected your PC".

Click More info.
Click Run anyway.
Follow the installer. Accept the default install location unless you have a reason not to.

The installer also adds a firewall rule so other tills on your network can reach this PC later. Say yes if Windows asks.

On a Mac, open the .dmg file and drag SalezFlow POS onto the Applications folder. Then, the first time only:

Open your Applications folder.
Right-click (or Control-click) SalezFlow POS and choose Open.
Choose Open again in the box that appears.

If you double-click it that first time instead, macOS says "SalezFlow POS cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer" and refuses. Right-click → Open is what gets you past that, and you only need to do it once. From then on it opens like any other app.

Step 3: Choose how this computer runs

The first time the app opens it asks how this machine runs. There are three answers, and you can change your mind later in Settings → Network without reinstalling.

Choice	Pick it when
Single PC	One computer runs the whole shop. The simplest setup, and the right answer for most shops.
Main PC (server)	This computer holds the shop's data and other tills connect to it.
Extra till (client)	This is a second counter connecting to the Main PC. You will be asked for the Main PC's address, and there is a Scan button that finds it for you.

Most second counters do not need this app installed at all. They can simply open the Main PC's address in a web browser. Install Extra till only when that counter needs its own receipt printer. The multi-till guide covers all of this properly.

Step 4: Set your shop up

Now fill in the setup form. This is the step that needs the internet: finishing it registers your shop with us so a licence can be issued for it.

Shop name: what prints at the top of every receipt.
Your name, email and password: this account is the shop's Owner, and the Owner can do

everything. Use a real email: it is where a password-reset link would go.

A 4-digit recovery PIN: write this down. It is how you get back in if you forget your

password and have no internet. Nobody can read it back to you, so keep it somewhere safe.

Country, currency, timezone: the form guesses from your PC and you confirm. Getting the

timezone right matters: it decides which day a sale is counted on.

Shop type: grocery, pharmacy, restaurant and so on. This only decides which screens you

start with, and you can change any of it later in Settings.

Referral code: optional, if another shop recommended us.

If it says an internet connection is required, connect and press the button again. Nothing is lost, because the form keeps everything you typed.

Your shop may start with staff roles set up by whoever sold you the system. Whatever they are, they are yours: Settings → Roles can change every one of them, or add more.

Step 5: Put your licence in

Open Settings → License, type the licence key you were sent, and press Activate. This ties the licence to this computer. If you later move the shop to a different PC, the backup guide explains how to release it.

Once activated the app checks in with us quietly every so often. If your internet is down it carries on working and tries again later. It never stops you trading because it could not reach us.

If setup says your clock is wrong

The app refuses to create a shop on a computer whose clock is badly wrong, because every sale, report and licence date depends on it. Fix the date and time (on Windows turn on Set time automatically, and on a Mac use System Settings → General → Date & Time), then try again.