Admission sells itself at the desk: the ticket buttons are right there, and cashiers tap them without thinking. Merchandise is different. When the only way to ring up a water bottle or a trail map is to search an item list, staff slow down, guess at names, or skip the sale and take cash “to sort out later.” A few well-chosen buttons and a sane naming scheme fix most of that.
This guide covers how to think about merchandise in Altru’s daily sales screen, which items deserve a button, and how to name items so cashiers, receipts, and reports all make sense.
Start in the merchandise setup, not the sales screen
A button can only point to something that already exists. Before touching daily sales, confirm that each item you want to sell is set up properly in Altru’s merchandise area, with:
- A department or category grouping that matches how your finance team reports retail revenue.
- A price, and tax settings that are correct for your location.
- An active status, so it can actually be sold.
- An item number or barcode, if your setup supports them and you plan to scan rather than tap.
Items that are missing a price or are set up in the wrong department are the usual reason an item “won’t show” where staff expect it. Fix the item first, then worry about where it appears on the screen.
Adding merchandise to the daily sales layout
Altru lets administrators configure what appears on the daily sales screen, and the exact options depend on your version and how your site was set up. In general terms, you’re looking at the daily sales configuration (sometimes described as the sales or order page layout) to see which sale types and items can be placed as quick-pick buttons.
Because the screens differ between sites, the safest approach is:
- Check your daily sales configuration options as an administrator and see whether merchandise items or merchandise categories can be added alongside programs, events, and memberships.
- Test in a sandbox or during closed hours. Add one item, log in as a cashier-level user, and confirm the button shows up and rings the right price and tax.
- If merchandise can’t be placed as its own button in your setup, ask Blackbaud support whether it’s supported in your version rather than assuming. Some organizations end up relying on item search or barcode scanning for retail and saving buttons for admission.
Don’t build out twenty buttons before you’ve confirmed one works end to end, including on the receipt and in the daily sales report.
Which items actually deserve a button
Screen space on the desk is limited, and every button you add makes the others harder to find. Good candidates:
- High-volume, low-price items sold at admission: maps, guidebooks, stroller rentals, feed cups, locker tokens.
- Items without barcodes that cashiers would otherwise have to search for.
- Seasonal items you’re actively promoting, as long as someone removes the button when the season ends.
Poor candidates are the full gift shop catalog, items with many sizes or colors, and anything sold a few times a month. Those are better handled through scanning or search, or in a dedicated retail workstation.
Name items for the person holding the receipt
The item name you enter in Altru tends to appear in more places than the button itself: receipts, transaction history when a sale is tied to a constituent, and reports. A name that makes sense to your retail buyer (“4471 BTL SS 20OZ”) means nothing to a guest reading a receipt or to a finance colleague reading a revenue report.
A naming pattern that holds up:
- Lead with the thing: “Water Bottle, Stainless” rather than “Stainless 20oz Bottle Blue.”
- Keep the variant at the end: “Kids T-Shirt, Medium” sorts next to “Kids T-Shirt, Small.”
- Keep internal codes out of the name; put them in an item number or code field if one is available.
- Keep it short enough to read on a button without being cut off. Check how many characters actually fit on your desk screens before you finalize names.
If the button label and the item name can be set separately in your configuration, use a short label on the button and a fuller name on the item. If they can’t, the item name has to do both jobs, which is another reason to keep it short.
Keep it maintained
Buttons tend to accumulate. Pick a check-in rhythm, such as the start of each season, to remove retired items, update prices, and confirm that new seasonal products are set up before the first weekend they go on sale. A simple query of merchandise items sold through daily sales over the last quarter shows which buttons earn their spot and which nobody taps.
Quick answers
Can I add merchandise to the same screen as admission tickets?
Many sites do, but what’s possible depends on your daily sales configuration and version. Test with one item, and confirm with Blackbaud support if the option isn’t there.
Why does an item show at the desk but ring the wrong price?
Check the item’s price and tax setup in merchandise first. The button only points to the item; it doesn’t hold its own price.
Should every gift shop item get a button?
No. Save buttons for fast, frequent desk sales and use barcodes or search for the rest.
