Opening a HK retail till: checkout, receipts & e-payments checklist

First Saturday open. Queue at the door. Printer will not spit a receipt; FPS paid but ticket numbers will not match; part-timer does not know who approves refunds. New shops and shops swapping tills often discover the gaps when the crowd arrives. This checklist is shop-floor ops, for ticking before go-live. Tax, licences and bank terms: confirm with your accountant, bank or payment provider. This is not legal or tax advice, and it invents no official rules.

1. Till and hardware

• Checkout device (tablet / PC / dedicated terminal) has stable network; backup hotspot or second line tested
• Receipt printer, scanner, cash drawer (if you take cash) connected, test print and test scan done
• Multi-user: personal logins and basic permissions (who refunds, who changes price)
• Shift handover / day-end rehearsed once (including cash expected)

2. Products and prices

• Must-sell SKUs on day one loaded: name, sell price, cost (can refine later), barcode if any
• Tax or service charges, if they apply, set per your accountant’s advice (do not invent rules)
• Event and member prices: who may change them, and end dates, agreed aloud
• Dry run: scan → change qty → discount → take payment → check stock deducted

3. Receipts and customer proof

• Receipt shows shop name, contact, ticket number, date/time, lines and amounts (tune to what you need)
• E-receipt / email or SMS path, if you offer it, tested end-to-end
• In-store returns policy against receipt or ticket number written down; staff can say it
• Backup when printer is out of paper or offline: handwritten ticket format or reprint path

In practice, a clear ticket number and a traceable record help most on returns and complaints. How long to keep records, and whether paper is mandatory for your shop, confirm with your accountant.

4. E-payments and FPS

Hong Kong counters often run card terminals, wallets, FPS Faster Payment and cash side by side. Before go-live:

• Each channel live; merchant name and settlement account correct (confirm with bank / acquirer)
• POS or counter flow can split tenders for day-end reconcile
• FPS: payee account / QR and matching method fixed (e.g. ticket number in reference), and do not rely on “it went through” verbal only
• Refund path: original route or shop policy; staff know who approves
• Offline or terminal-fail backup tender rehearsed

Acquirer terms differ. Fees, settlement days and dispute handling follow the contract you signed. This list only flags “ask before opening day”; it does not replace bank documents.

5. Footfall and opening day

• Opening / launch peak: do you need a second person on till?
• Held / unpaid / stepped-away tickets: process agreed (avoid double charge)
• Staff walk real scenarios once: cash, FPS, card, refund, one of each

If you use Stribe POS, a demo can walk receipt fields, tenders and permissions against your shop so opening day is not the first full rehearsal.

Soft open before the advertised launch

If you can, run a soft open: friends, neighbouring shops, or a quiet weekday with full tenders live. Force one refund, one held ticket, one FPS match, one printer-out-of-paper moment. Opening marketing can wait until those four survive. Soft opens catch wiring and permission mistakes without a queue watching.

Also photograph your receipt once it looks right, and keep that photo in the staff chat as the “golden sample”. When someone changes a logo field or tax line later, you have a visual baseline. Small shops skip this and then argue for weeks about what the receipt “used to show”.

Keep bank and accountant questions in a separate checklist column so ops ticks do not get blocked by legal uncertainty, and so nobody invents an answer under Saturday pressure.

Related reads: Multi-till, multi-staff: permissions and shift handover without chaos and Saturday rush / event day: design the queue and checkout before it hits

What’s next

Print this list or drop it into Notion / paper and tick down. Mark tax and bank items “pending accountant / bank”. For till, receipts and payment reconcile in one system view, book a Stribe POS demo or enquire with Retail Sale Solutions. We can check against your go-live date, without inflated promises.