Turning Counterpoint service records into storefront offers

NCR Retail Online was designed to connect Counterpoint inventory and store operations with an ecommerce frontend. Since the product has been discontinued, Australian retailers moving to Magento, WooCommerce or another supported platform through NCR Counterpoint partners should treat the catalogue migration as a business design project, not just a data export. Getting the service catalogue right protects stock records, pricing and the customer experience.

A Counterpoint non-stock item appears in a sale without being counted as units on hand. Typical examples include repair labour, installation, gift cards, booking deposits and memberships. Configuring Counterpoint’s non-stock items to display as services online therefore requires more than changing a storefront label: the item code, inventory behaviour, tax treatment and fulfilment rules must remain aligned with the register. Unlike boxed merchandise, a non-stock purchase should not reduce available inventory.

Before changing the frontend, export the item master and separate physical merchandise from services, add-ons and fees. This prevents a low-stock product from blocking an independently fulfilled sale and gives finance, store staff and the ecommerce team a common source of truth.

For Australian shoppers, prices are normally shown in Australian dollars and consumer prices include 10% GST. A Melbourne salon or Brisbane tradie may sell labour as readily as goods, while customers in Perth need appointments in their local time, two hours behind Sydney and Melbourne. Services should also meet Australian Consumer Law expectations for refunds and guarantees, with clear terms on travel, cancellation and on-site work.

Understand the service record before the storefront

Start by opening a representative non-stock record in Counterpoint and checking its item code, description, tax code, price or price overrides, active status and online eligibility. A service may combine a fixed fee with taxable components, so document the intended calculation rather than assuming the web price will match a register price. Keep the code stable because it is often the key that joins Counterpoint sales to the web catalogue.

Reporting should remain usable after the move. The migration note on Counterpoint reporting guidance explains how new frontend data can be reconciled with Counterpoint activity. For services, confirm that the online order becomes a matching sales line and is not treated as stock needing replenishment. Assign revenue to the same category used on the register, then check totals by tax and channel. Non-stock does not mean infinite capacity: gift cards still need controlled redemption and installation slots still need availability. Expose those states through the catalogue feed rather than labelling every service “in stock”.

Build a clean service catalogue

Use a consistent naming pattern that distinguishes services from merchandise, such as “Service”, “Booking” or “Labour” followed by a plain-language description. Include duration, inclusions, eligibility and any customer-supplied requirements. “Consultation” is too vague for a search result and difficult for staff to reconcile. Preserve capitalisation across Counterpoint, Magento and WooCommerce so support can identify the same line.

Make commercial rules explicit: standard-rate GST or exempt, a deposit rather than the full balance, included or additional travel, and refundable or non-refundable terms. Put these in structured fields where the platform supports them, not only in a long description. That gives shoppers a clear total and gives staff consistent information when an order changes or is cancelled.

Create separate records for a base service and optional add-ons only when they must be priced, taxed or fulfilled differently. For example, a Sydney house-cleaning booking could include an eco-friendly products charge as a non-stock line, while the cleaning itself remains non-stock and does not affect physical stock. Do not copy one Counterpoint item into several storefront products; duplicated codes make reconciliation ambiguous.

Connect catalogue records to the web store

The integration should use the Counterpoint item code as the stable identifier and send only fields needed for online sale. A product type can tell Magento or WooCommerce to show service controls, hide quantity selectors where appropriate, and remove shipping choices. Do not let a display label decide the behaviour: customers may add several units unless the underlying product type and validation are correct.

Match prices in AUD and apply Australian GST display rules once rather than adding tax twice. Show the tax-inclusive total before payment and retain a tax breakdown on the receipt. For variable services, such as quotes based on hours or materials, use a quote or booking workflow and define what happens when the final amount exceeds the authorised amount.

Build a rejection list for inactive items, missing prices, duplicate codes and unsupported tax categories. A failed feed should identify the affected service rather than publish a broken product. Log each sync with the Counterpoint code, web product ID, action and timestamp, making it possible to replay a failed update after a connector change or product rekey.

Shape checkout around service fulfilment

Service checkout should not ask shoppers to choose postage for work completed at home or in a salon. Hide delivery options only when no physical goods are involved, while still collecting the billing address, contact number and service address required for the job. If a booking is paired with product pickup, make that relationship clear so the customer knows which part needs collection.

Show the appointment window, date, location and timezone before checkout, together with rescheduling rules. Australia spans three main time zones, and daylight saving changes the gap between Perth and Sydney. Store times with an IANA timezone such as Australia/Perth rather than a fixed UTC offset. For a Melbourne tradie travelling between suburbs, allow travel buffers and do not sell an unavailable slot.

Give customers a reference and order status that store staff can read in Counterpoint. Emails and order pages should show “confirmed” only after the relevant service is accepted, while a booking awaiting staff confirmation remains “pending”. Support staff need the same notes, contact details and fulfilment steps to prevent customers receiving conflicting information.

Test payments, refunds and operational reporting

Payment testing should cover more than a successful card payment. The payment processing test outlines a controlled way to verify gateway responses, captured amounts and the resulting Counterpoint transaction. Run separate cases for a full deposit, a balance payment, a declined card and a refund or cancellation. Each test should have a traceable order reference and expected total in Australian dollars.

In a sandbox first, then a controlled production window, compare the storefront receipt, gateway record and Counterpoint sale line by line. Confirm that the customer sees one GST-inclusive total and the store sees the right tax category and service revenue. Set partial-refund rules before launch, including how deposits, platform fees and cancelled bookings are handled.

Test catalogue failures as well as transactions. Temporarily deactivate a service or publish an invalid price and verify that the connector rejects it without damaging a sale. Check that a non-stock line never appears in stock valuation or triggers a low-stock alert. Save connector logs and test receipts because finance will need the evidence when signing off the setup.

Secure the catalogue and complete a controlled launch

Protect the integration with least-privilege accounts, multi-factor authentication, encrypted connections and restricted catalogue permissions. Threat detection should provide context rather than a long list of raw alerts; the analysis of MITRE ATT&CK alert mapping shows how signals can be tied to tactics and response priorities. Review failed syncs, unexpected price changes and repeated authentication failures, and make sure staff know who can pause publication of affected services.

Run the first launch with a small range of services and a limited customer group, ideally in one store and one time zone. Check mobile layout, accessible descriptions, tax totals, confirmation messages and reconciliation over several trading days. Add services only after the catalogue and fulfilment process survive real demand rather than a single test order.

The concrete next step is a store manager’s sign-off on the non-stock classifications in an exported Counterpoint item master, completed before the first Magento or WooCommerce product is created.