Selling at a point of sale is not an unbounded continuous thing; it is organised into sessions. This piece is about running a POS session in Odoo.
What a POS session is
A POS session is a defined period of trading at a point of sale. A session is opened when the point of sale starts trading, typically the start of a shift or a day, and closed when trading stops. All the sales made through that point of sale during that period belong to the session. The session is, in effect, the bounded period that the point of sale's selling is organised into: trading happens within sessions, each a defined period from opening to closing.
Why selling is organised into sessions
Selling at a point of sale is organised into sessions because it gives the point-of-sale trading a clean, accountable structure. Without sessions, the selling at a till would be an unbounded continuous stream, hard to account for. With sessions, there is always a defined period, the session, that a set of sales and the cash belong to. The session gives the trading a beginning and an end, and a defined scope, which is what makes the day's, or the shift's, takings genuinely accountable.
Running a session: open, trade, close
Running a POS session has a clear shape. The session is opened when trading starts. Through the session, the point of sale trades, sales are made, and they belong to the session. The session is closed when trading stops, and closing the session is where the session's trading is reconciled, what was taken during the session accounted for. So running a POS session is opening it, trading through it, and closing it, with the closing being the accounting for the session's takings.
Why the closing matters
The closing of a POS session is genuinely important, because it is where the session's trading is reconciled and accounted for. Closing the session is the point at which the business confirms what was taken during the session, the sales, the cash, and the session's takings are accounted. This is what makes the session's trading genuinely accountable: each session, closed properly, is a defined period whose takings have been reconciled. Running POS sessions well means closing them properly, so the point-of-sale trading is, session by session, genuinely accounted for.
Sessions and the connected system
Because Odoo POS is part of the connected system, the sales of a POS session are connected to the rest of the business: the session's sales reduce the genuine inventory, and the session's takings reach the accounts. So running a POS session is not an isolated thing; the session's trading is part of the connected operation. Closing a session properly is part of the point-of-sale trading flowing, genuinely and accountably, into the business's connected inventory and accounting.
The takeaway
Running a POS session in Odoo organises point-of-sale selling into sessions: a session is a defined period of trading, opened when trading starts, traded through, and closed when trading stops. Selling is organised into sessions because it gives the trading a clean, accountable structure, a defined period the sales and cash belong to. The closing of a session, where the session's takings are reconciled and accounted, matters most. And because Odoo POS is connected, the session's trading flows into the business's inventory and accounting. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.