Add to EasyTaskr: send a mix from Paint Partner or MIXIT to the till

Who is it for?

Paint shops that mix automotive or decorative colours from a brand's computer system and then ring the sale up at an EasyTaskr till. Today the painter reads the recipe from Paint Partner or MIXIT, mixes the paint, and then somebody types the same colour, size and price into the till by hand. Toner stock is then guessed from sales, or counted at the end of the month. Add to EasyTaskr removes the second typing and ties the toner that was actually used to the sale that was actually made.

What does it do?

• Adds a button to the recipe screen in Nippon Paint Partner and AkzoNobel MIXIT. The painter can also use the extension's toolbar icon or a keyboard shortcut. All three do the same thing.
• Reads the one recipe on the screen: the colour details, the size, the toner grams for each layer, and the price the brand app shows.
• Sends it to your own EasyTaskr. It waits at the till under Mixes waiting.
• Adds each layer you choose to the cart as a mixed-paint line, at the brand's price for that layer.
• Takes the toner grams off stock when the sale is completed, together with any waste you entered.
• Puts the grams back if the sale is voided.
• Keeps the toner list with the sale, so a repeat job for the same colour can be found later. Only mixes that were sold are kept, and only inside your shop.

How does a mix reach the till?

1. The painter opens the recipe in the brand app and sets the size. In Paint Partner the size is the quantity box and the unit menu. In MIXIT it is the Amount box, which is applied by pressing Enter.
2. The painter clicks Add to EasyTaskr. A recipe on screen is recognised by what is on the page, not by the web address, so it still works if the brand changes its addresses or opens recipes in a new tab.
3. If the recipe has several layers, a small window asks which ones to add. All layers are ticked to start.
4. The extension sends the mix to your EasyTaskr. A line at the bottom of the screen says what happened.
5. At the till, a Mixes waiting button appears with the number waiting. The cashier opens it, checks the mix and adds it to the cart.

If the extension is not sure about what it read, it tells the painter and does not send. If it read the screen but some figures did not add up, it sends the mix marked for checking, and the till then opens the check window whatever your shop setting says.

Two ways to set it up

One computer. The mixing computer is also the till. Choose One computer in Paint, then Add to EasyTaskr. A mix lands straight in that computer's cart, as long as the check window is switched off and nothing looked doubtful.

A bigger shop. The mixing computer sends the mix to a counter, and the cashier at that counter adds it. Choose A counter and give each till a name under This till. When you pair an extension you can say which counter its mixes go to, or leave it empty so any till can take them.

The check window

Under At the till you choose whether every mix is checked before it goes in the cart. It is on to start with, which is the safe choice.

The window shows the layers, the grams of each toner, the waste and the price of each layer. Everything can be changed. The cashier types waste as the grams of paint that were made but not used, and it comes off stock together with the rest. If a gram figure is changed, or a price, only that change is sent.

A mix that looked doubtful always opens the window, even when your shop has it switched off. The window says why, in words, without showing any recipe figures.

Prices

The brand app's price is used by default. MIXIT shows no currency, so your shop's own currency is used. Paint Partner shows one, and if it is different from yours the mix is marked for checking.

The cashier can always type a different price: in the check window, or afterwards with the Price button on the cart line. The change is recorded the same way a manager's price change is, and the brand's price stays on the mix.

Toner and stock

Brand recipes are weights, so EasyTaskr keeps these toners in grams. Each brand code is matched to one of your toners, and the match remembers which brand and which paint system it came from, because the same code can mean different things in different systems.

The first time a code is seen, EasyTaskr creates the toner at zero stock and adds it to Toners to fill in. Fill in the tin size and the cost per gram when you have a moment. The sale is never held up for this. A toner that was not stocked can show a negative level for a while, which is the sign that its stock was never counted in.

Toner comes off stock when the sale is completed, never when the paint is mixed and never when the mix is added to the cart. If a cashier takes the mix out of the cart, nothing needs to be put back, and the mix returns to Mixes waiting. If a completed sale is voided, exactly the grams that sale took go back.

If you already track a toner in millilitres, give it a grams-per-millilitre figure and it can still be taken off by weight. Without that figure EasyTaskr refuses the sale of that mix rather than guess.

Safe by design

• The extension reads the page only. It never logs in or out, never calls Nippon's or AkzoNobel's servers, and never reads their saved data.
• It reads only when someone clicks. Nothing is read in the background, and search results and colour lists are never copied.
• It can only talk to your own EasyTaskr. It is paired once with a short code, the code works once for ten minutes, and EasyTaskr stores only a scrambled form of the extension's key. An owner can remove an extension at any time and it stops at once.
• If a brand changes how its pages look, the extension reports which field it could not find, by name only. It never reports grams, prices or recipe codes.
• Mixes that were never picked up are removed after 24 hours by default, so yesterday's recipe is not added by mistake. You can change the hours or turn this off.

When it will not send

The extension would rather stop than send figures it is not sure about. It says what to do. The common ones are: open a recipe first; log in to the brand app again (both allow one sign-in per person, so signing in on another computer ends the first); wait for Paint Partner to finish recalculating; type the quantity and press Enter when the unit is kilograms; press Enter in MIXIT so the size is applied; set MIXIT's display mode to Absolute; and fix a size when the unit was changed without converting the number.

What it does not do

• It does not mix paint for you, and it does not read a scale.
• It does not copy a brand's colour library. EasyTaskr learns only from mixes you sold.
• It does not sell hardener, thinner or clear coat. Those are ordinary products that you sell at the till as usual.
• It does not need your web address to stay the same. If a brand moves its app, add the new address under Websites in the extension's settings and allow it when Chrome asks.

How do I switch it on?

Add to EasyTaskr is off by default. Your EasyTaskr contact switches it on for your shop. Then:

1. Open Paint, then Add to EasyTaskr, and choose how mixes should reach the till.
2. Install the extension on the mixing computer. It is a zip file you unpack and load once, and the steps are in its README.
3. Choose Pair an extension in EasyTaskr, and type the six-character code it shows into the extension, along with your EasyTaskr address.
4. Open a recipe, set the size, and press Add to EasyTaskr.

The first few times, keep the check window on and compare the grams against the brand screen. When you trust it, you can switch the window off for clean reads.