FAQs for BatchLine users

To unlock returns, open the BSM module from Help & Exit. Bottom left of the form there is an 'Unlock Module' tab. Click on that and then click on Unlock Returns.

In some instances (usually on client machines) you may find that the shortcut to BatchLine POS has disappeared from your desktop. Don't worry – this doesn't mean you've lost the program. To fix it, go to C:\Bertrams\Bertline 401 where you will find the BatchLauncher file. Right clicking on this will give you the option to send the icon back to the desktop.

If you have lost your BatchLine icon, the BSM icon might also have disappeared from your the desktop. It is exactly the same procedure to restore it in both cases: just go to C:\Bertrams\Bertline 401\Tools and 'Send to desktop' as shown. (This also applies to the web exporter icon if you are using that.)

When 'Daily Updates Is Locked' appears, it means that a field on the database has a lock flag on it to stop people using the system while it updates. Daily Update is a critical process during which sales figures are updated to reflect the previous day/week/month and year's sales. This means that at the beginning of a week/month/year, it may take a little longer than normal, but it is essential that the update be allowed to run. If it is interrupted for any reason, it may result in the database being flagged as in 'update' status, and that is one reason why Daily Update locks. The Bertline Support Module (BSM) will clear the lock:

To use this, go to Help & Exit and click on the large B of the BSM module. Select the Unlock Modules tab (bottom left) and Unlock Daily Updates to unlock and restart.

The same process applies for the Returns module if that gets locked: simply click on the Unlock Returns button to unlock.

Need more help?
* Watch a video about the Unlock Module that sits on the desktop on our BatchLine YouTube channel.

Open BatchLine and go into Back Office/Maintenance and System Config then select the 'System' tab. You'll find 'Default Backup Directory' in the 'Paths' section of the Systems window. If you click on the three dot button next to Paths, you can configure BatchLine backups to go to whichever folder you like.

–There are three main reason why BatchLine will not start: two major ones which can stop the entire system from starting and a second one that will stop a client from starting. The errors you may see are:

1. Unavailable server or unavailable database
2. Daily updates are locked
3. Network issue at 96% (Clients Only)

Download the Startup Problems and Solutions PDF to fix the errors.

When a client PC loads, it connects to the main PC (server). At 96% of the load process it attempts to connect to the file structure of the server. After a Windows Update this may fail because the update had set the server ‘Password Protected Sharing’ option to ‘on’. It is for this reason that the connection fails. To fix this problem we need to set Password Protected Sharing to ‘Off’. The typical error message you will see is shown.

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 1. Although the error is on the client, the fix is applied to the Server. In the Search Bar of a Windows 10 PC, type the words ‘Control Panel’ and press Enter. In the next window you should see the following. (If you don’t, make sure the ‘View by’ setting (top right) is set to Category.) Select ‘Network and Internet’ and on the next screen ‘Network and Sharing Center’.

2. On the next screen select ‘Change advanced sharing settings’.
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3. The next screen is entitled ‘Change sharing options for different network profiles’. Scroll down until you can see the entry for ‘All Networks’ and, if necessary, click on the arrow to expand the section.
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4. At the bottom of the section you will see an entry for Password Protected Sharing. Click on ‘Turn off password protected sharing’ and save changes. Exit from all screens and try to start BatchLine on the client PC. If password protected sharing has been successfully turned off it should load.

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In the past the process of printing slips always ended in ‘Do you wish to delete the printed slips’. For both our customers and from a support perspective this was a problem. Version 4.50 brought in an improvement that means you are no longer prompted to delete slips. Instead, if for any reason the slips fail to print there is a new button in Front Office/Goods In called ‘Reprint Slips’. This allows slips to be reprinted for any date, including today’s date.

Note: Slips are only available for the previous fortnight because any older than that are automatically deleted.

If your scanner is beeping but not sending out any information, you might like to try giving it a quick tap on the counter. There is a spinning mirror inside and sometimes a quick tap will unjam it. If that doesn't work, contact us.

BatchLine can't offer a stocktaking service, but these instructions will help. You will need either to have your own scanner or to hire one from us. (Email us for details.) The recommended model is the KDC100 by Koamtac.

Always make a backup before you start and check with your accountant for any new requirements they may have regarding stocktakes.

The software for KDC scanners can be found at https://koamtac.com/wp-content/uploads/KTSync_Driver_Installer_V224.zip. Allow permission for the driver install when you are asked. It should be set up to download data as a Text file, not Excel which is the default. Also untick 'Application data' and tick 'Delete data after download' and 'Burst mode'.

If you do a stocktake with a tethered (keyboard) scanner follow the instructions but note that you will scan directly into a BatchLine ISBN list. 

Download full instructions here:

Using a KDC scanner v24

There is a simple way to do this in BatchLine. Go to Back Office>Maintenance>System Config. Then select the SMS Config tab, top right. This will open a box with an area for Message Text at the bottom. You'll need to click the Edit button (top left) before you type in your text and Save once you have finished.  

BatchLine took over the Clickatell subscription from Bertrams, as a service to booksellers. The previous setting will still work and does not need to be changed. There is 2% failure rate, but if you have an issue where you feel Clickatell is no longer working correctly, send an email to mail@batch.co.uk and we will investigate for you.

To create a new product in a category:

1. Select 'Stock' from the Administration menu on the left-hand side.
2. Click the 'Products' button.
3. Click on 'New': the button with a yellow star on it.
4. Give your new product a unique Name, Reference and Barcode (these must not be the same as any other products).
5. Enter a buy price, a sell price and a tax category for this product. (Leave sell price blank to have Open Bravo prompt you for a value when you use this button.)
6. Click on the 'Save' icon, which is the one with the picture of a floppy disk on it. 

To create a new category in Open Bravo:

1. Select 'Stock' from the Administration menu on the left-hand side.
2. On the Stock screen, click the 'Categories' button under Maintenance.
3. Click on 'New': the button with a yellow star on it.
4. Give your new category a name in the Name field, but leave the Category drop-down blank and do not edit the ID field.
5. Click on the 'Save' icon, which is the one with the picture of a floppy disk on it.

To create a new product in this category:

1. Select 'Stock' from the Administration menu on the left-hand side.
2. Click the 'Products' button.
3. Click on 'New': the button with a yellow star on it.
4. Give your new product a unique Name, Reference and Barcode (these must not be the same as any other products).
5. Enter a buy price, a sell price and a tax category for this product. (Leave sell price blank to have Open Bravo prompt you for a value when you use this button.)
6. Click on the 'Save' icon, which is the one with the picture of a floppy disk on it. 

OpenBravo comes free of charge as part of your BatchLine subscription. You can read about some of its features – including the ability to sell and redeem National Book Tokens – in the PDF.

Yes. The upgrade to BatchLine POS version 4.30 included the option for booksellers to sell, top up and redeem NBTs through OpenBravo. Follow the instructions in the guide: NBT OpenBravo User Guide. 

Yes, BatchLine can create customer invoices from purchase orders.

1. To do this, go to 'Back Office'.

2. Then go to 'Invoicing' and 'View all invoices'.

 3. Select 'New', then select a customer, enter an invoice reference etc.

4.Once the invoice has been created, click on 'Details'.

5. This brings up the invoice details window. Click 'Select Order', which will allow you to choose a purchase order from which to add items for the invoice.

The way you would sell a book in this situation is:

* Go to the Books category on Open Bravo and click on the Book product.

* Enter a price by keying in the value. There is no need to click anywhere.

* Complete the sale.

That process sells ‘a book’ for the price you sell it at on the till; it does not sell ‘the book’.  If you want to record the sale on BatchLine follow the steps below:

* Do a title search for the EAN/ISBN/title.

* If you cannot find the title on the main search, click on the downward arrow between Search and Biblio and select Stock Search.

* Once you find the title, click on it so it is the highlighted line.

* Click on Cash Sale.

* On the Cash Sale Confirmation Screen click on Process Sale. 

BatchLine will normally have a default order, which is the ‘do nothing' order. This will be automatically displayed when doing a customer or stock order in Title Search. It will also recreate itself when transmitted, providing you with a new blank order ready and waiting for new orders.

Things to note:
* There can be only one default order.
* The default order is flagged with 3 in the final column:

To set up a default order for a new order:
* When the order header form is displayed as below, select Single Default Order.

To set up a default order for an existing order:

* Highlight the order.
* Click on Edit.
* Select Single Default Order as shown below.

There are two methods, depending on what the status of the order is.

1) If there is an ‘A’ in the ack field:

Right click and select ‘Abandon Acks’, then follow the instructions below for ‘F’.

2)  If there is an ‘F’ in the ack field:

Right click and select ‘Move to on order’. Once you have moved to on order (the ’On Order’ tab) you can either leave it there as ‘on order’ so you can do goods in against it or you can delete if not needed.

If this doesn’t fix the problem, send an email to mail@batch.co.uk.

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Yes - you can use BatchLine to place orders with all your suppliers. To do this, click Edit and fill in your logon name and password (you will need to ask Gardners for those), change the FTP URI to gateway1.gardners.com and make sure the default transmission method is set to Internet (TCP/IP) then click Save.

If you have orders waiting to be sent to Gardners, you will have to edit those and change the transmission method because the default only affects newly created orders. The other settings on this page should be OK. 

The only other thing you might need to check with them is whether they have the correct SAN/GLN for you. This can be found in Back Office > Maintenance > System Config on the address tab (the bottom right). These identify your shop in electronic orders you send, which is why it's important they are correct.

NOTE: Gardners use EDIFACT. For other suppliers, make sure you change the Order File Format to TRADACOM.

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We would recommend (although Gardners will probably suggest it anyway) sending one order and making sure Gardners receive it okay before sending any more.

If you don't want to see the message 'Does customer have a loyalty card?' you can change this in Open Bravo, though you have to be an Administrator. Open the Configuration screen from the left-hand menu and scroll down to Loyalty Cards as shown in the image below. Then change the drop-down option to Enabled No Prompt, select Save and restart Open Bravo. If you don't have Loyalty Cards, choose Disabled.

This error is a result of loyalty card transactions failing to sync with Batch back-end systems. To see these transactions open BatchLine and go to:

 BackOffice -> Maintenance -> Loyalty Cards -> Outstanding Transaction (highlighted below)

That will take you to the screen below where you will see the details and the error message the Batch systems returned when BatchLine tried to sync the transaction. (There are no error messages in this example.)

Once you've found the transactions you can try hitting 'retry selected' to see if they work. If this doesn't solve the problem, email us with the error messages so we can investigate further.

If you can log on to BatchOne you should be able to adjust the amounts on the cards based on the info in the outstanding transaction screen. If so, make sure you delete these transactions as you proceed so BatchLine doesn't try to sync these.