Let’s start with the most simple actions to learn how Smartlaunch works. Click the Graphical Overview button. You will get the screen representing the physical layout of your computers. Make sure, that you have booted a couple of client computers as we need them to get you started.
There are several ways to start a new session on a computer depending on your cafe policies and type of customer:
- Does your customer have a user account?
- Should it be Play & Pay or Pay & Play?
Starting a New Prepaid Session
Let’s start with the most common type of session; a customer who does not have a user account.
1. Right-click a free computer (it should have a green screen in the graphical overview if you have Wake-On-LAN you can also choose a computer, which isn’t turned on – as it will turn on automatically).
You may get asked to reset the account in case the previous session hasn’t been finished. You will see the following screen in that case:
If the customer by an accident has been logged out, you can choose to continue the session by pressing Continue – the customer will then get logged in immediately. If you press the Reset button, the balance will get reset and you can add time to the account.
If you choose to reset a guest account it will not affect your financial report as the remaining balance will appear as unused time.
2. Now choose Login as guest. You will now be presented with this screen below, which is the main window to add all kinds of stuff to a session – that could be time, money, beverages, candy, offers, etc.
3. If the Time panel isn’t already marked please click on it at the navigation panel on the left. You will also notice, that the computer you chose to login as a guest is displayed in the list on the right.
4. Adding prepaid time to the guest account is done by pressing the buttons equal to the time he/she needs.
5. Add two hours by pressing the 60 buttons twice. Click the Add time button to finally add the time to the session. Besides the time you can choose to add products or offers – that is done the same way as adding time.
6. At this time the sale isn’t paid for yet, but you will see an amount due in the lower right corner of the window. Choose the payment method by clicking the button indicating Cash as this is the standard payment method.
7. Before you click the Pay button you can specify the amount you actually received in cash and choose whether you want a receipt printed (only works if you have a printer installed). When you click the Pay button the cash drawer will open if you have attached one.
8. The screen will close and your customer has a computer ready to use with two hours of the session. You will notice, that the computer screen will turn red to indicate, that it currently is occupied. If you move the mouse pointer to the selected computer and hold it still a small box will popup showing the exact time left and the current user.
Starting a Prepaid User Account Session
As explained before, the current action you just did was a prepaid customer without a user account. If the customer already has an account, the actions needed to begin a session are almost the same. The difference lies in the way you locate the account, which needs to start a session. As described you can find a search line just beneath the toolbar. Ask the customer what the name of the user account is and type it in the text field – you will notice that Smartlaunch automatically will jump to the User account screen and locate the user account as you type. At this point there are two ways to start a session – you can either right-click and choose Add time and add time the same way as you did with the guest account or you can just open the account and let the customer have an open session.
Starting a Play & Pay Session (Open Session)
In Smartlaunch you can also choose to start a Play & Pay session, either with or without a user account.
- Choose a computer for the guest.
- Right-Click the computer. Choose Quick Logon and then New Open Session
- As in the previous scenario, you might get asked to reset the account.
- The customer can now begin his/her session.
Starting a User Account Session in Play & Pay Mode
- Locate the user account by entering the username in the Search field in the top of the Smartlaunch Administrator.
- Once the account is found, Right-Click.
- Choose Open Account.
- The customer can now login to any computer and begin his/her session.
The customer might have a credit limit disallowing him/her to log in. You can view/change the credit limit in account management.
Monitoring Active Sessions
Let’s move a bit further in the daily procedures and see how you can monitor all the current sessions at your computers.
Try to move yourself to a Client computer and type the username you just chose in the previous section or use another new and unregistered user account. After you press the OK button the registration procedure will commerce. The customer will be presented with an easy form, which needs to be filled out with the appropriate personal information. After the procedure, the menu will begin to load and your customer can begin to use the computer. Please notice, that this procedure only is necessary the first time a customer logs in.
If you go back to the Administrator computer you will notice, that the small computer screen has turned red indicating its occupancy. If you are in the graphical overview try move the mouse over the computer – the small popup box will display the current balance and the amount of time the session has been in use. The second thing you will notice is, that the balance is going negative in comparison of the prepaid guest account we looked at earlier. The ability of an account to go negative is specified in the user group policies or you can specify it manually for a single user account by accessing the account management.
The small computer screen will stay read until the customer logs out from the client by pressing the Logout button at the Client computer. Alternatively, you can force a log out from the Administrator by right-clicking the computer and then on Logout user. If the session has deposited money on the account or prepaid time a small vertical bar will appear next to the computer in the graphical screen indicating that there is less than an hour left – this will help to get your employee an overview of the session ending soon.
When a user logs out or a prepaid session is finished, the computer screen will turn green indicating, that the computer is available. Notice now, that the session isn’t finished yet – the fact that the user has been logged out from the computer doesn’t reset the account to zero.
So, how does your employee actually end the session?
