First steps

This page takes you from signing up to a bar that can take money: creating your account, the welcome wizard, choosing a plan, signing in to the back office, giving managers access, adding another bar, and the setup checklist on Today. Pairing iPads is in Pair and manage iPads; plans and payment are in Plans and billing.

Create your account

1. Go to app.barformpos.com/signup. (From the sign-in page, click Create an account under "New here?".) The page reads "Create your account".
2. Under Language, pick Español or English. It starts on your browser's language.
3. Type your Email and a Password of at least 8 characters.
4. Click Create account. The line under the button says what you're agreeing to: "By creating an account, you agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy notice." Each name opens that page of barformpos.com in a new tab. The page then changes to "Check your email".
5. Open the email from Barform POS ("Your link — Barform POS") and click Open the dashboard. You land in the welcome wizard, signed in.

• The email comes from access@barformpos.com in English, or acceso@barformpos.com in Spanish, in the language you picked on the form. Its link works once and expires after one hour.
• If the address already has an account, the page still says "Check your email": sign in at app.barformpos.com instead.
• If something is wrong you see, for example, "Use a password of at least 8 characters.", "That password is too weak — use at least 8 characters, mixing letters and numbers." or "Too many attempts — wait a few minutes and try again."

Set up your bar in the welcome wizard

The wizard, "Welcome to Barform", has three steps: Your bar, iPad and Ready. If you leave and come back, it opens on the step you're on.

Step 1: Your bar

1. Under "Set up your bar", type the Bar name and Your name.
2. Type a four-digit PIN in Your PIN, and the same in Repeat PIN. This is what you type on the iPad to open the till — not your password.
3. Leave Start with a sample menu and floor plan ticked to start with an example menu and floor, or untick it to start empty.
4. Click Create my bar. You see "Your bar is ready." The line under the button reads "By creating your bar, you agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy notice.", each name a link to that page in a new tab.
5. Barform takes you to "One more step" to choose a plan. See Choose a plan.

You have to confirm your email first. Otherwise the wizard says "Confirm your email address first — open the link we sent you." Other messages: "Enter a name for your bar.", "Enter your name.", "Your PIN must be exactly four digits." and "The two PINs don't match."

What a new bar starts with

• You, as the bar's admin, with the PIN you chose.
• Mexico City time, pesos (MXN), IVA at 16% and included in menu prices, nights that start at 6:00 AM, weeks that start on Monday, and overtime counted on 8 ordinary hours a day and 9 double-time hours a week. With nights that start at 6:00 AM, everything until the bar closes after midnight counts on the night it started, and an afternoon belongs to its own day. If your bar is ever open or staffed at 6:00 AM, move the start to an hour when it's always shut (see Venue settings).
• The iPads and the back office in the language you picked when you signed up.
• Printing off (both POS printing and Auto-print receipts), and iPads that sign out after 5 minutes without a touch.
• Reason buttons for cash in and out of the drawer, and for discounts and comps, in that same language.
• With the sample ticked: 6 categories (Cervezas, Cocteles, Destilados, Vinos, Sin alcohol, Botanas); 25 products at $0 marked out of stock (86), so nobody can sell them until you price them and switch them on; the modifier groups Hielo and Preparación; and a floor with 6 bar stools (Barra 1–6) and 6 tables (Mesa 1–6).

You can change all of it later: see Venue settings.

Step 2: Pair your first iPad

Once you've chosen a plan, the wizard comes back on "Pair your first iPad".

1. Install Barform POS on the iPad with the link on this step, under "Install Barform POS on the iPad" — the app isn't listed in App Store searches. Open the link on the iPad, or click Copy link and send it there.
2. Click Get a pairing code. The code appears with the time it expires, 10 minutes from now.
3. On the iPad, open Barform POS and type the code on the "Pair this iPad" screen. See Pair and manage iPads.
4. Back in the wizard, click Go to the dashboard. Once the iPad is paired, the wizard moves on to Ready.
   • If the code has expired, click New code.
5. To leave it for later, click I'll do this later. The bar works without an iPad, but you can't take orders yet. The wizard comes back to this step on your next visit until an iPad is paired.

An iPad paired from the wizard has no name of its own: it shows as "iPad" in Settings › Devices. To give an iPad a name, pair it from Settings › Devices instead.

Step 3: Ready

"You're set up" lists what's worth doing before your first service:

• Build your menu — opens Menu › Products.
• Lay out your floor — opens Tables.
• Add a printer — opens Settings › Printers: "Add a printer, then turn on POS printing in Settings → Venue → iPads and service."

Click Go to the dashboard to open Today.

Choose a plan

Until your bar has a plan, every back-office page takes you to "One more step": "Your bar is ready. Choose a plan to open it — your card starts a 15-day trial and is not charged today."

Who can do this: the organization's owner or an admin.

1. Under Barra or Barra Pro, click Start 15-day trial. Each card shows what the plan includes and its price.
2. Enter your card on Stripe's page and confirm.
3. Back in Barform, "Setting up your subscription" waits for Stripe to confirm. It usually takes a second or two.
4. You go on to pair your first iPad in the wizard, or to Today.

The iPads aren't held up by this step. Trial, billing and what each plan includes: Plans and billing. The free trial is for your first bar: a bar you add later is charged from the day you subscribe (see Add another bar).

Sign in to the back office

The back office is for admins and managers. Everyone else signs in on the iPad with their PIN.

With your password

1. Open app.barformpos.com. When you're signed out, any back-office address takes you to the sign-in page, "Sign in to manage your venue".
2. On the Password tab, type your Email and Password.
3. Click Sign in. You land on Today.

With an email link

1. Open the Magic link tab.
2. Type your email and click Send me a link. "Check your inbox for the sign-in link."
3. Open the email "Your sign-in link — Barform POS" and click Open the dashboard. You land on Today.

If a link to a back-office page brought you to the sign-in page — a link in an email, for example — you land on that page instead of Today, whichever way you sign in.

Each link works once and expires after one hour. If a link has expired or was already used, the sign-in page says "That link has expired or was already used." Click Get a new one to ask for another. If you're already signed in, the sign-in and sign-up pages take you straight to Today.

Sign out

Click the button with your name at the bottom of the sidebar (Sign out). You're back on the sign-in page.

Get help

Help, in the sidebar under Settings, opens the help panel beside the page — on a phone, it fills the screen. It has two tabs. Help opens it on Ask Barform, the AI assistant (see Ask Barform). The ? next to the page's name at the top opens it on Help search, which searches these help pages:

• With nothing typed, Help for this page lists the parts of these docs about the screen you're on. Links of Barform's own come first: on Settings › Devices, the iPad app's App Store link.
• Type in Search the help pages to search all of them. Each result shows its page and section, with the words that matched; accents and capitals don't matter.
• Click a row to open that part of the docs in a new tab, in the back office's language.
• If search can't be reached, the panel says "Help search isn't available right now." and offers Open this page's help and Browse all help pages instead.
• At the foot of the tab, Contact support gives Barform's support address, access@barformpos.com. Click it to write from your email app.

Wherever the back office asks you to write to Barform — about billing, your plan or guest messages — it gives the same address.

If you can't sign in

• "Wrong email or password."
• "Confirm your email first — the link is in your inbox."
• "Too many attempts — wait a few minutes and try again."

The sign-in page follows your browser's language. Once you're in, the back office uses your bar's Admin portal language (Settings › Venue), and so do the sign-in emails sent to your staff.

Give a manager access to the back office

Only people whose role is Manager or Admin can use the back office. An admin invites them from the staff list, and Barform does the rest: it makes their sign-in, links it to their staff record and emails them a link.

1. An admin adds the person in Team › Staff, with their email and the role Manager (or Admin), and saves.
2. On their row, the admin clicks Invite, checks the address, and clicks Send invitation. The row now shows Invited. The full steps are in Staff and roles.
3. The person opens the email "{venue} invited you to the dashboard — Barform POS" and clicks Open the dashboard.
4. They land, signed in, on "Welcome to {venue}": "You're in the back office. Choose a password to sign in with next time — or skip it and use Magic link on the sign-in page whenever you need." They type a Password and click Save and continue, or click Skip for now. Either way they're on Today.

An invited person doesn't need to create an account at /signup: that page is for opening a new bar. The link in the invitation works once and expires after one hour. Once it has been used or has expired, they sign in at app.barformpos.com with Magic link and the same email.

If someone was added without an invitation

The "No admin access" page is where anyone lands who is signed in but not linked to an admin or manager at any venue: "You're signed in, but this account isn't linked to an admin or manager staff record yet. If a staff row already exists with your email, link it now — otherwise ask an admin to add you."

1. Sign in at app.barformpos.com with Magic link and the email on your staff record. If you don't have an account yet, opening the link creates one.
2. On "No admin access", click Link my account. You land on Today.

From the same page you can also click Set up a new bar, which opens the welcome wizard, or sign out.

• Link my account links every staff record with your email that isn't linked to someone else — at two venues, both — so you get the venue switcher.
• "No staff record with your email is waiting to be linked — ask an admin to add you." — nobody has added that email in Team › Staff yet, or it's already linked.
• "Confirm your email address first, then try again."
• Linking works for a bartender, server or barback too, but it doesn't open the back office: those roles use the iPad only.

Switch between venues

If you're an admin or manager at more than one venue, the venue's name at the top of the sidebar is a switcher (Switch venue). With one venue, it isn't there.

1. Click the venue name at the top of the sidebar.
2. Under Your venues, click the venue. A tick marks the one you're in.
3. You land on that venue's Today. Every page, report and setting — and the back office's language — now follows that venue.

Barform remembers your choice in this browser for a year, and only ever opens a venue you have access to. On another computer you start on your first venue until you switch there too. Switching always opens Today, not the page you were on.

Add another bar

Opening a second bar — or a third — is done from the back office, with the same sign-in. Each bar is a bar of its own: its own menu, floor, staff, iPads and reports, and its own plan and subscription. You move between them with the venue switcher.

Who can do this: the account's owner. Other admins see the Your bars list with "Only the account's owner can add a bar." in place of the form; managers don't see the tab.

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Your bars. The Your bars card lists every bar you can switch to, with the one you're in marked This bar: "Every bar you can switch to with this sign-in. Each one has its own plan and subscription."
2. Under Add a bar, read: "The new bar gets its own menu, floor, staff, iPads and reports — and its own subscription. Next you choose its plan; it is charged from today, because the 15-day free trial is for your first bar only."
3. Type the Bar name. Your name starts as your name at the bar you're in.
4. Type a four-digit PIN in Your PIN and the same in Repeat PIN ("Four digits: your PIN on the new bar's iPads.").
5. Leave Start with a sample menu and floor plan ticked, or untick it to start empty.
6. Click Add the bar ("Adding the bar…"). The back office switches to the new bar and opens its plan choice, "One more step": "Your new bar is ready. Choose its plan to open it — the free trial was for your first bar, so this one is charged from today."
7. Under Barra or Barra Pro, click Subscribe ("Card required. You're charged today and then monthly; cancel anytime.") and pay on Stripe's page.
8. Back in Barform, the welcome wizard picks up at Pair your first iPad for the new bar, then Ready.

To leave the new bar without a plan for now, click your other bar after "Not now? Go back to", under the plans. The new bar stays in the venue switcher and opens on its plan choice until it has one.

• The new bar starts like one made in the welcome wizard (see What a new bar starts with), except for its languages: it takes the back-office and iPad languages of the bar you added it from.
• Its subscription, card and invoices are its own, and adding it changes nothing in your other bar's billing. There's no free trial: it's charged from the day you subscribe, with IVA. See Plans and billing.
• A bar added here is never billed together with your other bars. To bill several bars on one account (the Grupo plan), write to Barform at access@barformpos.com.
• Clicking Add the bar twice makes one bar.
• The same messages as the wizard can appear: "Enter a name for your bar.", "Enter your name.", "Your PIN must be exactly four digits.", "The two PINs don't match." or "Confirm your email address first — open the link we sent you." Adding many bars in a short time is refused: "That's several bars in one hour. Wait a little, or write to us at access@barformpos.com if you really are opening another one."

Work through the setup checklist

While your bar is being set up, Today shows a card "Set up {venue}" with "{done} of {total} done" and a line for each missing piece. Click a line to open the page where it's done:

• Add the menu — products and prices
• Lay out the tables
• Set the opening hours
• Pair an iPad — while no iPad is paired, with "Install the app on the iPad first:" and the App Store link under it
• Add the staff, with their PINs
• Add a printer
• Add the stock items (plans with inventory)

A line is done as soon as there's at least one of that thing; the staff line is done once there's more than one person. The printer line also needs printing switched on: with a printer added but POS printing off — how a new bar starts — it reads Turn on POS printing in Settings › Venue › iPads and service and opens that page. The card goes away once the menu, the tables, the opening hours and an iPad are done. The sample menu and floor count as done, even though the sample products are $0 and out of stock. More about Today: Today.

Try the demo

app.barformpos.com/demo opens a demo bar of your own in the real back office, with no account: a week of made-up sales, a priced menu, a small floor and a little inventory, with every feature switched on. app.barformpos.com/demo?lang=en makes it in English; /demo alone makes it in Spanish. Ask Barform answers there too, from the demo bar's made-up week: 10 questions per demo bar (see Ask Barform). You're signed in as its admin, and everything can be changed. A banner at the top says "You're in the demo bar — everything here resets in a few hours. Ring up a drink, break nothing." (If you're already signed in to your own bar, /demo opens your own Today instead.)

A demo bar lasts about six hours. Until then, a refresh, or opening /demo again, brings you back to the same demo bar. After that, opening /demo starts a fresh demo bar, and your earlier changes are gone.

To ring up a sale from the browser:

1. Click Try the POS, at the top of the sidebar.
2. Under Pick a table, click a table.
3. Under Tap to add to the ticket, pick a category and tap drinks. They appear on the Ticket with the Total.
4. Click Charge $X in cash. "Paid — that sale is now in your reports."
5. Click See it in the reports, or New ticket.

Try the POS always charges cash and adds a 10% tip. It exists only in the demo: in your own bar, the iPad is the POS.

To create your own bar from the demo, click Create your own bar in the banner. It signs you out of the demo and opens the sign-up page. If the demo can't be opened, you land on the sign-in page; try again later.

When Barform support has access

If Barform support is given access to your venue to help with a problem, a blue banner across the top of every back-office page says so: "Barform support has access to this venue until {time}. They can see and change anything an admin can — everything they do is recorded."

To end it now, click Revoke access. The banner disappears. Any admin or manager of the venue can do it. If the access had already ended, you see "That support session has already ended."

Related

• How Barform works
• Plans and billing
• Pair and manage iPads
• Venue settings, hours and targets
• Import from a spreadsheet