A visitor sets a mug, a plush otter, and two postcards on the counter. The cashier picks up a scanner, points it at the mug, and nothing happens. Or something happens in the wrong field. Gift store scanning in Altru tends to break in small, specific ways, and almost all of them trace back to three things: how the hardware sends data, how your merchandise items are set up, and where the cursor is when the beep happens.
This guide covers what to set up, how to test it, and when it makes more sense to run the shop on a separate point of sale.
Start with how barcode scanners actually work
Most retail scanners sold for small shops are “keyboard wedge” devices. To the computer, they look like a keyboard. When you scan a label, the scanner types the barcode’s digits into whatever field has focus, then usually sends an Enter keystroke at the end.
That has two practical consequences:
- Altru does not need a special driver or integration to receive the scan. If you can type a value into a lookup field and get the right item, a wedge scanner can do the same thing.
- Focus is everything. If the cursor sits in a quantity box, a search bar, or a different browser tab, the digits land there. Many “the scanner doesn’t work” reports are really “the cursor was in the wrong place.”
Before blaming Altru, open a plain text editor and scan a few items. If the correct numbers appear followed by a line break, the hardware is fine. If you see garbled characters or nothing at all, look at the scanner’s configuration guide (keyboard language, USB mode, suffix settings) before going further.
Get the merchandise records ready
Scanning only works if the code on the label matches a value stored on the item in Altru. Check these on your merchandise setup:
- Every sellable item has a barcode or code value entered. If you use manufacturer UPCs, enter them exactly as printed, including leading zeros. A UPC that starts with 0 is a common source of mismatches when someone retypes it or imports it from a spreadsheet that dropped the zero.
- Variants have their own codes. A T-shirt in four sizes needs four distinct codes if you want inventory and reporting by size. One shared code means the cashier has to pick the size by hand every time.
- Items you print labels for in-house use a consistent format. Decide on a numbering scheme (for example, a department prefix plus a sequence) and stick to it. Make sure your label printer outputs a symbology your scanner reads; Code 128 and UPC-A are widely supported.
- Prices, departments, and tax settings are correct. A fast scan that rings up the wrong price is worse than a slow manual lookup.
The exact fields and options for merchandise items vary with your Altru configuration and the modules your organization has. If you aren’t sure where barcode values are stored or whether item lookup in daily sales searches that field, check the Altru help documentation or ask Blackbaud support before tagging your whole inventory.
Test in daily sales before you go live
Run a short test, ideally in a sandbox or with test items you can void:
- Open a daily sales transaction and click into the field where you’d normally search for a merchandise item.
- Scan a known item. Confirm the right item is added, at the right price, with quantity 1.
- Scan the same item again. Note whether Altru adds a second line or increases the quantity, and train staff on what to expect.
- Scan an item with a leading-zero UPC and a variant (size or color) to catch the two most common setup errors.
- Scan something that isn’t in Altru. Make sure staff know what the “not found” result looks like and what to do next.
- Check that the cursor returns to a sensible place after each scan. If staff have to click back into the lookup field between items, note it; that’s a training point, not a setup failure.
Also try a combined order: a ticket plus merchandise in one transaction, if your shop and admissions share a counter. Mixed carts are where workflow surprises tend to show up.
Common problems and fixes
The scan adds nothing
Check focus first, then whether the scanned value exactly matches the stored code. Compare the digits from your text-editor test with what’s on the item record.
The scan triggers the wrong action
If the Enter suffix submits a form or jumps to another step before the item is found, try reconfiguring the scanner to send a Tab instead of Enter, or no suffix at all. Most scanner manuals include programming barcodes for this.
Some items scan and others don’t
Usually a data issue: missing codes, dropped leading zeros, or a label printed in a symbology the scanner isn’t set to read. Pull a list of merchandise items with blank code values using a query and fill the gaps.
Inventory counts drift
Scanning helps only if every sale is scanned. If staff key some items under a generic “misc merchandise” entry when they’re in a hurry, counts will drift. Decide whether a generic item should exist at all, and if it does, review its use weekly.
When a separate retail system makes more sense
Some organizations with large or busy shops run merchandise on a dedicated retail point of sale and post summarized revenue into Altru. That can make sense if you need things like purchase orders, vendor management, deep inventory reporting, or e-commerce for the shop. The tradeoff is that sales live in two places and you lose the single view of a visitor who bought a ticket and a souvenir in one trip.
If your shop is modest and staff already work in Altru for admissions, keeping merchandise in Altru with scanning set up properly is usually simpler. Make the call based on how many items you carry, how often they change, and how much retail reporting your finance team actually needs.
Quick answers
Do I need a specific scanner model for Altru?
Not usually. A standard USB keyboard-wedge scanner works the same way typing does. Test any model with your workstations and browser before buying several.
Can we use the manufacturer’s UPC instead of printing our own labels?
Yes, as long as the UPC is stored on the item exactly as printed. For items without a UPC, print your own labels with a consistent numbering scheme.
Will scanning work on a tablet?
It depends on the device, the browser, and how the scanner connects (Bluetooth scanners often act as keyboards too). Test the whole setup with Altru before committing to it at the register.
