Settings and Setup

Once PostalPoint is installed, it's time to do the setup. Connect your label and receipt printers, barcode scanner, and postage scale, then open "PostalPoint Retail" from the system launcher (Start menu on Windows).

Click the System Menu button in the bottom-left corner (on smaller screens, you might just see an icon with three horizontal lines), then click "Settings".

After making changes, remember to save! Click "Save Settings" in the top-right corner to do that.

You'll see several sections down the left side. We'll go through each one in order.

Business

Business Address

Fill in your business name and address here.

PostalPoint License key

Enter your license key here.

Rate Display

You can hide shipping cost from being shown on the Rates tab when sending a package. This is useful if customers can see your screen.

Measurement Units

Set which units to use for entering and showing package size and weight.

Cash Rounding

You can enable cash transactions to round to the nearest nickel if you don't have pennies. Always on when the business address's country is Canada.

Markup and Tax

Shipping Markup

By default, PostalPoint tries to use the shipping carriers' retail prices as the sale price. If this isn't working or you want a different price, you can manually set your profit margins here. If your state or local government collects a tax on services and not just product sales, you can set the tax here as well.

Note that many carriers do not provide retail rates in a format PostalPoint can use; you'll almost certainly want to set your own margins. USPS is the only carrier where retail rate data is reliably available.

Tax and VAT

Set the name of sales taxes here. The names will be shown anywhere tax rates appear.

You can also make PostalPoint include sales tax in the displayed prices, and include a sequence number in receipt IDs.

Branding

Receipt

Put your business name and any other info (phone number, website, etc) in the "Receipt Branding" section. You can customize the top and bottom of printed receipts.

You can also set an image to show at the top or bottom. Use a PNG file, and keep in mind it'll be printed in black and white. Images are not resized on the receipt, so you might need to use an image editor to change the image width until it looks right. You might want to leave some blank space at the top or bottom of the image so it won't be cut off or overlapped by text.

The receipt branding text will be shown on email receipts, but the images will not.

Press the Print test receipt button to print a sample with your customizations.

Email Receipts

PostalPoint's cloud service sends email receipts on your behalf, so you don't need to connect and maintain an email account for it yourself.

Set the name and email address you want these cloud-sent emails to appear from. If a customer replies to a receipt email, you'll get their reply to the email address entered here.

You can also customize the receipt's color theme. Click on one of the color squares to open a color picker. To preview your email receipt colors, click the Preview Email Receipt button.

Customer Screen

If you're using a customer-facing display, you can customize the logo and background color to match your brand. The logo will be displayed whenever there is not a transaction in progress.

The screen can run a slideshow when a transaction isn't in progress. Make a folder on your computer with each slide as an image, and set that folder.

If your customers have trouble reading your customer-facing display, try increasing the font size.

Self-Serve Kiosk

You can set the logo and background color customers will see when using self-serve kiosk mode.

Label

There is a small area in the bottom-left corner of USPS shipping labels available for your custom branding. For best results, use a black and white image (no gray, only pure black and white) that's 300 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall (for a 300 DPI printer) or 200 by 100 pixels for a 200 or 203 DPI printer. Other images can be used as well, but they will be forced to black/white and 300x150 pixels, which could make them ugly.

After saving your changes, test your logo's appearance by using the "Print test label" button in the Printers section under Shipping Label Printer.

Printers

Shipping Label Printer

Select the type of printer you're using for 4x6 inch shipping labels. You probably want to use ZPL, TSPL2, or EPL2; most label printers support at least one of those languages. Check your printer's documentation for info. Generally, Zebra branded printers use ZPL, while older Zebras and Eltron printers use EPL2. Generic Chinese printers often use TSPL2, but they usually won't mention this or will call it something else.

Brother QL series printers with a 4-inch label width are also supported. With QL printers you don't need to set any of the below settings, just choose the printer and label size you're using.

On Linux if you're using a printer that is also configured as a Linux system printer (with CUPS), you'll want to use a printer type containing "via OS print queue". Instead of writing to the printer's USB cable directly, this will relay the printer data through the computer's printer system. If you don't do this, the printer will disappear from PostalPoint when something is printed from another program.

If you're using a printer that isn't natively supported in PostalPoint, such as a laser printer, select "System Printer" as the printer type. Make sure to select the page size. The shipping label will be centered on the page.

Set your printer's DPI (dots per inch). If you pick the wrong one, your labels will print too small or too large. If that happens, pick the other option.

Use a metric ruler to measure the labels and input the dimensions as closely as possible.

• The width and height are measured to the edges of the label excluding the backing or liner.
• The label gap is the distance between two labels on the roll.
• If label images go off the top or bottom edge of the label, adjust the label vertical offset.
• The label end type is how the printer aligns itself to the edge of labels. It is usually "Gap/Web" but if your printer and labels are designed to detect a black mark on the backside, use that instead. If your printer has an auto-cutter and you're using a continuous roll of label without gaps, the "Continuous" option will automatically cut the labels for you.
• The print orientation doesn't usually matter when printing single labels; however, if you're using the label printer as your receipt printer, multi-page receipts may print with each page upside down unless you change this setting.
• The label darkness/density tells the printer how much heat to use. You want it high enough the labels print a nice dark black, but don't go higher than that because it'll wear out the print head and waste power.

When you've set the label printer settings, press "Save Settings" in the top-right corner of the screen and then click "Print test label". If the test label doesn't print, you probably picked the wrong printer type. If it prints but doesn't look right, check the other settings.

Windows Setup

Windows makes printer setup difficult. You may need to configure the printer with the "Generic/Text only" driver. Contact us or a local IT person for help with that.

Stamp Label Printer

This printer is used for smaller postage labels without an address. It can print USPS First-Class Mail postage on small stamp-like labels. Select "Brother DK-1201 or Dymo 30252" when using "standard address labels" of 1-1/8 by 3-1/2 inches. Most label printers have an equivalent size, but may use a different part number. If you're using a Brother QL printer for shipping labels, you can use it for stamps as well by selecting the "Brother DK-2243" option.

You'll see several of the same settings as in the Shipping Label Printer section. The main difference is there is no option to set the label size, as the stamp label specifications are pre-programmed for you.

We recommend buying generic labels online; they're a fraction of the price of "genuine" labels, but perform the same.

Receipt Printer

If you're using a normal receipt printer, set the receipt printer type to "Thermal receipt printer". Most receipt printers use Epson's ESC/POS (a.k.a. ESC/P) language, but if yours doesn't successfully print a test receipt, check its manual for how to enable a compatibility mode or similar. Set the printer's name or port as well. You'll need to set the receipt width. This is usually 42 or 48, but it depends on the built-in font your printer uses.

If you wish to operate without a receipt printer, you can use your shipping label printer instead. Simply select "Use shipping label printer" as the receipt printer type.

You can print receipts on a normal printer if desired. Select "System Printer" as the receipt printer type, pick the printer from the list, and choose the page size.

For Windows users, see the Windows Setup information for label printers above, as it applies to receipt printers too.

Hardware

This is where you set up other hardware devices with PostalPoint.

If you're buying your own equipment, you should also read the supported hardware page.

Customer Display

If you have a second monitor facing the customer, select it here. If you pick the wrong one and your main monitor is "taken over", click anywhere in the window and press Alt-F4 to close it.

Main Display

If you're using a touchscreen, you can set that here.

Postage Scale

If you have a scale that communicates over USB, there's no additional setup needed.

If you have a scale that communicates over serial or a serial-to-USB adapter, change the scale type to "Serial" and enter the port name and scale protocol. "Toledo" will work for most Mettler-Toledo and Pitney Bowes scales.

If your scale uses a PS-IN202 indicator, you'll need to configure it to output continuously instead of when a button is pressed. Check your scale's manual for instructions.

Barcode Scanner

Select the type of barcode scanner you've connected. USB scanners are automatically detected and configured. For serial barcode scanners, enter the port and baud. If the scanner is emulating a serial port over a USB cable, you'll probably want to enter 115200 as the baud.

To test a barcode scanner, click "Save Settings" and close PostalPoint. Re-open it, go to the Ship or Prepaid page, and scan any barcode. You should see some sort of message about a barcode. If you don't, check your settings.

USB scanners are usually configured to emulate a keyboard from the factory. Check your scanner manual for instructions on programming it to USB HID or USB Serial mode.

Shipping

This is where you configure your postage and label provider.

Main Postage Provider

PostalPoint currently has built-in support for EasyPost, which provides U.S. postage and also shipping labels for over 100 carriers around the world. You just need to enter an EasyPost API Key from your EasyPost account settings. To get an API key, click here or log in to your EasyPost dashboard, click Account Settings, then click API Keys.

Plugins can add support for additional carriers and even replace EasyPost as the main postage provider. You can pick which postage provider to use with the dropdown menus.

Carriers

Other carriers can be added and configured separately from the main postage provider. Currently support for UPS is built-in, and plugins can add other carriers.

Shipping Insurance

Configure settings for insurance providers here.

Payments

This is where you can set up credit card readers and other payment methods.

Credit Card Processor

Select which card processor you want to use. By default, only Stripe is available, but other providers can be added with a plugin.

Stripe

If you're using Stripe to accept card payments, enter a Stripe secret key here. Then click "Set up a card reader" and follow the steps to pair your reader to PostalPoint.

Cryptocurrency

You can take Bitcoin payments with PostalPoint. As with card processors, you can use the built-in BTCPay processor or add another with a plugin.

InvoiceNinja

If you use InvoiceNinja for accounting and invoicing, enter your server address and API key here. PostalPoint will automatically create expenses and invoices for you. A new InvoiceNinja client will be created for "holding" transactions; you can instead set a preexisting client ID to use.

If you set the ID Number of an InvoiceNinja client to their PostalPoint account ID (found on the Point of Sale page in the Customer card), all future transactions you have with that PostalPoint customer will be linked to their InvoiceNinja client account instead of the default "cash" client.

QR Returns

This section only appears if you have one or more plugins for QR code return programs. You can configure those plugins here.

Employees

You can add and manage employees here. Click the "Open User Manager" button to add or change employees and their passwords.

If you enable the time clock, employees will be able to use it by pressing the button with their name (the User Menu) in the bottom-left corner of the screen above the System Menu button. If you haven't added any employees yet, the button will read "User Menu" and the time clock function will be hidden on it.

Receiving

These settings are for packages coming into your store for pickup by your customers.

Sign for Packages

You can require an electronic signature for packages being picked up.

Mailbox Package Slips

An extra line of text can be printed on the label notes PostalPoint prints to put inside mailboxes when the customer has a package.

Parcel Lockers

You can adjust these settings if your store has parcel lockers for customer pickups.

Automatic Mailbox Renewal

When a customer has a credit card on file, PostalPoint can process autorenewal payments for expiring mailboxes.

Hold at Location

This section sets up fees for receiving packages for customers without a mailbox rental.

If you need more than one fee schedule, add the additional ones in the HAL Alternate Fee Table.

Mailbox Rental Agreement

Customers can be made to electronically sign an agreement when opening a mailbox. Set the agreement text here.

If you type $box it will be automatically replaced with the mailbox number when displaying the actual agreement.

You can use Markdown formatting if you want. For example, put # in front of a line of text to make it a large heading, or * in front of a line to make it a bullet item. For a guide on Markdown formatting, click here.

Databases

Database

Certain data is stored in a database. By default, PostalPoint uses an internal database file. If your store has multiple computers running PostalPoint, you can link them together so the database on one computer will be shared with the others.

To connect to another computer already running PostalPoint with an internal database, select "PostalPoint Host PC" as the database type, then follow the instructions under Local Network Connection.

Address Autocomplete

To suggest street addresses while entering info on the Ship page, open the address database file here. Download a database file from this site and unzip it first.

Enter a list of local ZIP Codes your customers are likely to have in their return address. This greatly speeds up the autocomplete on "From" addresses.

Database Backup

If your database type is set to "Internal", you can set up automatic backups of it to a different location, such as a portable hard drive.

Internal Database Restore

If your database type is set to "Internal", you can restore a backup by opening it here.

Kiosk Mode

PostalPoint can run as a self-serve kiosk for customers. This is suitable for short-term or long-term use, with or without employees nearby.

Plugins

Install a Plugin

You can select a plugin .zip file here, then press Install Plugin.

Manage Plugins

Delete a plugin by pressing the trash can icon. If a plugin has configurable settings, press the icon with the three sliders to open its settings.

Advanced

You probably don't need to use most of the settings in Advanced, but we might tell you to if you're having problems. Here are the ones you should be aware of:

Settings Lock

Set a password here to prevent unauthorized access to or tampering with the settings. Notably, this prevents employees from accessing the Employees settings.

Reload Price List

PostalPoint refreshes the USPS price chart (Notice 123) every 24 hours. If a postage change has just occurred, use this button to download the new prices immediately.

Clear Caches

This deletes all locally-stored data that can be redownloaded from PostalPoint's servers when needed.

Upload Support Data

This button sends a report to the PostalPoint team containing a log of things you've done recently in PostalPoint, a copy of your settings, and various other details. It can be useful for troubleshooting problems.

Run Mailbox Autorenewals

Runs the mailbox autorenewal process immediately, ignoring the schedule configured in Receiving.

Load Settings from File

The automatic database backup also creates a file with all of your PostalPoint settings. You can restore that file here.