Getting started
What Mopari needs, how to put it on more than one machine, and the two or three things that catch people out. If something here does not match what you are seeing, write to us and we will fix the page.
What you need
| Windows | Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or newer. 32-bit or 64-bit — one installer covers both. A Windows 7 that has never had its updates needs two of them first; see Windows 7 below. |
|---|---|
| Screen | 1024 × 768 or larger. |
| Disk | About 300 MB for the programs, and very little for the sales after that. |
| Internet | Not needed to sell. It is used once when you connect alerts to Telegram, and when you buy a licence. The till never needs it. |
| Network | Only if you have more than one machine. They talk to each other over your own network, not over the internet. |
| Printer | Optional. Any receipt printer your Windows can already print to, or none at all. |
There is nothing to install first. The .NET runtime is inside the installer, which is why it is 100 MB.
Windows 7 that has never been updated
Mopari runs on Windows 7 SP1, and most tills in this country are exactly that. But a machine that has had no Windows updates since it was set up is missing something everything modern needs, and the way it fails is unhelpful: Mopari installs perfectly and then nothing happens when you start it. No window, no error.
The only sign of it is in Event Viewer, under Windows Logs → Application, as a .NET Runtime error 1023 saying hostfxr.dll was found, but loading it failed, HRESULT: 0x80070057.
Install these two from Microsoft, in this order, and it will start:
- KB3020369 — the servicing stack update. About 4 MB, two minutes.
- KB3125574 — the convenience rollup. About 316 MB, twenty minutes, and it asks for a restart.
Both are for Windows 7 32-bit if that is what the till is, which it usually is. Nothing needs reinstalling afterwards — start Mopari and it works.
The installer checks for this before it copies anything and tells you if it finds it, so you are not left guessing. If you would rather we sent you the two files, ask.
Installing
Run the installer and tick what the machine is. That question is the only one that matters, and you can run the installer again later to change your mind.
| Everything on one machine | One computer that is the till and the back office. This is the right answer for a small shop and for having a look. |
|---|---|
| Till | A machine that serves customers. Put this on the second and third till. |
| Back office | The machine you do the books on. It holds the catalogue and the prices, and it is the one to keep backed up. |
| Mopari Sync | Only on the back office, and only if you have more than one machine. It is what the tills talk to. It starts with the computer, so nobody has to remember it. |
Adding a second till
Install Till on the new machine, and make sure the back office has Mopari Sync installed and the computer is on.
Then on the till:
- Sign in and press More.
- Choose Connect to the office.
- Type the back office computer's address — just the numbers, like 192.168.0.10. The back office shows it under Setup, Business: This computer's address. On a version that does not show it yet, open a command prompt on the back office computer, type ipconfig, and use the IPv4 address.
- Press Test and connect.
The till then takes the shop from the office: the catalogue, the prices, the staff and their PINs. It goes back to the PIN screen when it has them, because the people it knows have just changed.
A till that has already been selling on its own will say so and ask you to press Test and connect a second time. Its own sales and its own catalogue are removed when you do. They have to be: a sale rung up against a product that only ever existed on that one machine cannot be added to the shop's books. If those sales matter, cash up and write them down before you connect it.
Staff and PINs
Staff are added in the back office, under Staff, and they arrive at every till within the minute. Changing somebody's PIN there changes it everywhere, and the old one stops working — which is what you want the day somebody leaves.
A new shop starts with one person: the owner, with the PIN chosen when the back office was first opened. Choose that one carefully - there is nobody above the owner to reset it - and add everybody else under Staff before you open.
Customer accounts
Regulars who run a tab by the month are set up in the back office under Customers, with a credit limit if you want one. Leaving the limit off means no limit at all, which is a decision rather than an oversight.
To put a bill on somebody's account, take payment as usual and choose the account tender. The till asks whose account, shows what they already owe, and refuses to go past their limit.
When they come in to settle, use More → Account payment at the till. That is money in against a debt, not a sale, so it does not touch the day's takings or the stock.
Alerts on your phone
The back office can send you the day's takings, low stock and a few other things on Telegram. Under Alerts, add the phone number, then have that person scan the QR code on the screen with the phone the alerts are for.
It has to be that phone, with Telegram signed in on that same number. Telegram only accepts a number shared from the app on the phone it belongs to — its web version cannot share one at all. A phone signed in on a different number will confirm the wrong one, and everything will look right while nothing arrives.
You can also ask. Send /today to the bot and the shop answers with what it has taken so far, how many sales, and the profit in them. The back office computer has to be switched on: it is the thing that knows, and it answers from its own database.
- /today — what the shop has taken today
- /cashup — the last drawer that was counted
- /stock — what the stock room is worth, and what is low
- /limits — every account, what it owes and what it may owe
- /limit — pick an account from a list, then an amount. No spelling, no remembering whether the book says Corne or Corné
- /limit Corne 2000 — or say it outright (/limit Corne none takes the limit off)
- /newaccount John Smith — open an account, then set its limit from the same message
Changing an account is the one thing that has to be allowed first. In Back Office, under Setup then Alerts, each number has a tick box: May change accounts from Telegram. It is off for everybody until you tick it. A number is added to the alert list so somebody can see the takings, which is not the same as letting them open accounts or grant a regular another two thousand pula. When a limit changes or an account is opened, everybody on the alert list is told what happened and who did it — so it cannot happen quietly.
Only the message itself leaves the building, on its way to your phone. Your sales, prices and customers stay on your computer. When you ask a question, what waits on our side is that a number asked and when — never the answer, and the note is thrown away the moment your shop has replied to it.
Where your data is
Everything lives in C:\ProgramData\Mopari on each machine. Your sales and catalogue are in mopari.db, and copying that file somewhere safe is a backup. Do it while Mopari is closed.
Uninstalling Mopari deliberately leaves that folder alone, so removing it to install a newer version cannot cost you your sales.
If something goes wrong, the logs in C:\ProgramData\Mopari\logs are what we will ask for. They hold what the programs did, not what you sold.
Something not here?
Write to support@mopari.co.bw and tell us what you were trying to do. If it took you more than a minute to work out, it belongs on this page and we would rather know.