Barcode labels: print scan-ready stickers on a roll or an A4 sheet

Who are barcode labels for?

Any business that keeps stock and wants the till to scan everything: shops relabelling goods that arrive without a usable barcode, wholesalers splitting cases into singles, pharmacies that want batch and expiry on the shelf, and anyone who has made their own products, such as a bakery or a paint mixer.

What does the labels page do?

• Prints labels for many products in one go, with a copies count on each row.
• Starts from the products list, a single product, or a delivery you have just received.
• Prints on thermal label rolls or A4 sticker sheets, with a true-size preview.
• Lets you choose what goes on the label: name, size or colour, price, barcode, product code, batch and expiry, shop name.
• Gives products that have no barcode their own in-store barcode, so they scan at the till.

How do I switch it on?

There is nothing to switch on. Barcode labels is part of stock, so every business with products has it. It is not a row in the menu; you reach it from the products screens and from goods received, as described below.

Anyone who can see products can print. Saving templates is for owners, admins, managers and warehouse managers. Giving products barcodes is for owners, admins and warehouse managers; others see "Ask a manager to give them barcodes."

Where do I start a print run?

On the Barcode labels page itself you can search for more products by name, code or barcode, or press Add from a delivery to pull in every line of a delivery.

When you add a delivery, a switch sets how many labels each line gets: One per unit (the default), One per product, or One per carton. One per carton divides the quantity by the product's units per pack and rounds up.

What goes on the label?

The page has three zones: To print, Paper and label, and Preview.

Under Paper, choose Label roll for a thermal printer or A4 sheet for an office printer, then the size. Under On the label, switch fields on or off: Product name, Size or colour, Price, Barcode, Product code (SKU), Batch and expiry and Shop name. The barcode shrinks to fit whatever else is switched on.

The price printed is the price the customer pays, with VAT, in your currency. Under Price shown, choose Normal, Was/now or Offer, then type the Was price or Offer price on each row.

Batch and expiry come from the delivery line when you start from a delivery, or from the product's newest batch when batch tracking is on.

Save the set-up you use most with Save as a template. You can keep up to 10 templates, and the page remembers the last one you used.

What if a product has no barcode?

The row says it has no barcode and will print its product code instead. That works at your own till. If you would rather it carried a proper barcode, press Give barcodes to the products listed. The confirm reads "Each gets its own in-store EAN-13 (starting with 2), saved to the product so the till scans it. Barcodes products already have are never changed." Codes starting with 2 are kept for in-store use, so they can never clash with a maker's barcode.

Step by step: label a delivery

1. Open Goods received and the delivery that just arrived.
2. Press Print labels for this delivery.
3. Check the switch above the list: One per unit for single items, One per carton for outer boxes.
4. Look down the copies on each row and change any that are wrong.
5. If any products have no barcode, press Give barcodes to them, or let them print their product code.
6. Under Paper, choose your roll or sheet size.
7. Under On the label, tick what you want, such as name, price and barcode.
8. Check the Preview at Actual size.
9. Press Print. The confirm tells you the total, for example 240 labels and how many sheets; press Change the numbers if it is more than you expected.
10. Scan one printed label at the till to check it adds the right product.

How do I line up a printer that prints off-centre?

Press Adjust and use Move right and Move down to move the print in half-millimetre steps. This is saved on that computer only, because every printer feeds a little differently.

On the desktop app, the Print with section offers Print dialog or Label printer, direct. Direct printing sends the label in the printer's own language, ZPL (Zebra) or TSPL, which gives sharper bars and lets the printer repeat identical labels quickly. Direct printing has been tested in software but not yet on every model of printer, so print a test strip first.

Can I print labels for goods sold by weight?

Yes. Weighed items on the labels page, and the Weighed at the counter screen in the menu, print a label for a pack weighed on the spot: name, weight, price per kg, the total, packed date, use-by and a barcode that carries the price (or the weight). Put the goods on the scale, or type the weight, and press Print; the product stays chosen for the next pack.

When the till scans that label, it adds the product at the weight that gives the printed price, so the customer pays exactly what the label says. A manager sets the barcode format once to match your scales; the default is the usual supermarket one. A product needs a short scale code: its own code is used when it fits, or Give a scale code picks the next free number. Before printing, the page checks that the code scans back to the same product and price.

How many labels can I print at once?

Up to 2,000 in one run. Beyond that, the page prints the first 2,000 and asks you to print the rest as a second run. A worked example: a delivery of 18 products with 240 units in total, printed One per unit on a 65-up A4 sheet, is 240 labels on four sheets, with 20 spaces left on the last one. Next time, set Start at label to 46 to use those up first.

What does it not do yet?

• No shelf-edge labels without a barcode, and no QR codes on labels.
• No free-form label designer; you choose fields, not positions.
• The "was" price is typed; it is not taken from price history.

Related features

Labels feed straight into barcode scanning at the till. Add by scanning is the quick way to add the products in the first place. Deliveries come in through purchasing, and our stocktake guide explains why labelled shelves make counting faster.