Parcel scanner

The parcel scanner reads what's in your hand and does the matching job for you. Scan a box and it finds the item you're waiting for. Scan a postage label and it finds the order it belongs to. Scan a return label and it goes on the return you're sending. Each scan ends in one button to press, and every change it makes can be undone.

Open the scanner

• On a phone: press the MINT button, then Scan a parcel. The camera opens straight away.
• On Inventory: press Scan a parcel in the toolbar. With nothing in your stock yet, press Scan a box instead.
• On Supplier Refunds: press Scan a label. Returns come first here.
• From anywhere: press ⌘ K and choose Scan a parcel.

On a computer you choose how you scan, with the switch at the top:

• USB scanner: a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner types the code in and presses Enter for you. Press Enter again to do what the card suggests, so you can work through a pile without touching the mouse.
• Webcam: hold the barcode up to your computer's camera.

You can always type a code into the box under the camera instead, then press Look up or your keyboard's Search key. Done closes the scanner.

Scan a box

Point at the barcode on the box and hold it close, so the barcode fills most of the box on screen. If it's too far away, the scanner asks you to move closer rather than guess. It checks your stock for it first, then the StockX UK catalogue.

• You're waiting for it: press Mark received. The item is in hand, and its return window starts today.
• You already have it: it shows how many are in stock, with Log another and Sell.
• It's new to your stock: press Add to inventory. Log purchase opens with the name, size and photo filled in, so you only add the price and the shop. When you save, the scanner opens again where you left off.

Once you've logged a box, MINT HQ remembers its barcode. The next time you scan the same box, it knows the name, size, colour and photo straight away, even if the catalogue can't find it. If you change an item's name or size in Edit item, it forgets that barcode, and undoing a Mark received takes it off too.

If the catalogue can only guess, the card says Our best match: check the name. Pick the size if it asks, and MINT HQ doesn't remember the barcode from a guess.

On a phone, a box you leave in front of the camera is only read once, so you can take your time picking from a list or pressing Undo.

Looking boxes up in the catalogue isn't switched on for everyone yet. Until it is, a box you haven't logged before says Product scanning isn't live yet: scan the parcel's tracking label instead, or press Log it by name.

If the catalogue doesn't know a box, press Log it by name. Type the name yourself, or type the style code printed on the box label, which usually finds it in the catalogue.

Scan a postage label

A postage label's barcode is its tracking number. Add the tracking number when you log a purchase and the scanner can match the label the moment the parcel arrives.

1. Add the tracking numberIn Log purchase or Edit item, turn on Not received yet and paste the number from the shop's dispatch email.
2. Scan the label when it landsThe scanner finds the order straight away.
3. Press Mark receivedEverything in that parcel is marked received at once.

Don't have the tracking number? Scan the label anyway. The scanner asks Which order is this? and lists what you're waiting for, newest first. Pick the order and press Mark received. Anything else from the same order, with no tracking number of its own, is received with it. The tracking number is kept on the order, so the next scan of that label finds it.

While a parcel with a tracking number is on its way, its menu in Inventory offers Track on, followed by the courier's name. It opens the courier's own tracking page. The same link sits under the number in Edit item.

Scan a return label

Sending something back to a shop? Scan the return label, whether you've started the return yet or not.

• You haven't started the return: the scanner says Nothing is waiting for this label. Press Return an item with this label. Inventory opens and asks you to pick the item for that label. Click it, or tap it on a phone, and Log return opens with the tracking number already filled in. Press Confirm return and the return goes straight to Sent, with the number on it.
• You've started the return already: the scanner lists the returns that still need a label, under A return you're sending. Pick the return and press Add to this return and mark Sent. The tracking number is saved on the return, and it moves to Sent. If the label is for something else, press Return a different item or Return an item with this label underneath instead.
• The label is already on a return: press Open the return.

In Supplier Refunds and Log return, the scan button in the Tracking number box (Scan the label) opens the scanner just for that number. It asks you to point at the label's barcode: scan it and the number is filled in for you, with the courier. If you scan something that isn't a tracking number, it says so, and you can scan again or type the number.

The courier is worked out from the number, and the return links to its tracking page, so you can check on it whenever you like. MINT HQ doesn't follow the parcel for you yet: when the shop has it, move the return on yourself. See Supplier refunds for the rest of a return's journey.

Scan an order number or an eBay code

• The order number on a packing slip: the scanner finds every item from that order. Mark the ones still on their way as received, or press Start a return for one you've got in hand.
• An item's eBay code: the scanner opens that item, with Edit item and Sell.

Undo and the tray

Nothing happens until you press the button on the card, and every card has Undo for the change it just made. You can also undo a scan later from Activity in Settings → Export & backups.

The tray along the bottom counts what you've done so far: items received, stock logged and returns sent. Press Done when you've finished.