---
title: "Set up cart and order screen timeouts in Jovvie Point of Sale"
description: "Clear the cart and start a new order when a register sits idle, with separate timers for the cart, payment screen, and order completed screen."
url: https://docs.jovvie.com/point-of-sale/set-up/session-timeouts/
section: "Jovvie Point of Sale > Set up"
last_updated: 2026-10-08
---

# Set up cart and order screen timeouts in Jovvie Point of Sale

Section: Jovvie Point of Sale > Set up

> Clear the cart and start a new order when a register sits idle, with separate timers for the cart, payment screen, and order completed screen.

Set up cart and order screen timeouts in Jovvie Point of Sale to clear an idle register and start a new order automatically. That keeps one customer’s cart from being left on screen for the next customer. Each station has its own settings.

This page covers the cart and order screens. To log out inactive users, see [Log out inactive users](https://docs.jovvie.com/point-of-sale/set-up/auto-logout/).

## Before you start

- You need to be an administrator or shop manager.
- When a timeout clears the cart, items that were not saved are lost. Staff can save an order first. See [Save an order and finish it later](https://docs.jovvie.com/point-of-sale/orders/save-and-resume/).

## Turn on session timeouts

1. In your dashboard, go to **POS** > **Stations**.
2. Find the station and click **Edit Station**.
3. Open the **Cart** tab.
4. Go to the **Session** section.
5. Select **Session Expiration**.
6. Click **Save**.

This is off by default. When it is on, the register watches for inactivity on three screens. Each screen has its own timer and its own action. An empty register does not expire.

## Set the timers

For each screen, enter how many minutes of inactivity to wait, and choose what happens when the time is up.

| Screen                                       | Timer                                  | Action                            | Default timer | Default action |
| -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------- | -------------- |
| Cart with an order in progress               | **Cart inactivity timeout**            | **Cart expire action**            | 15            | **Ask first**  |
| Payment, tip, and Points and Rewards screens | **Checkout inactivity timeout**        | **Checkout expire action**        | 15            | **Ask first**  |
| Order completed screen                       | **Order completed inactivity timeout** | **Order completed expire action** | 5             | **Automatic**  |

1. In **Cart inactivity timeout**, **Checkout inactivity timeout**, and **Order completed inactivity timeout**, enter a number of minutes from 0 to 1440. Enter 0 to turn that timer off.

2. For each action, choose:

   - **Ask first**: shows an **Are you still there?** window with a countdown before a new order starts.
   - **Automatic**: clears the cart and starts a new order right away.

3. If you use **Ask first**, set **Confirmation countdown** to the number of seconds the window stays open. Choose from 10 to 300. The default is 30.

4. Click **Save**.

## What staff see

With **Ask first**, staff see **Are you still there?** and two buttons:

- **I’m still here** keeps the order and restarts the timer.
- **Start New Order** clears the cart now.

If nobody answers before the countdown ends, a new order starts.

When a timeout clears the cart, the register shows a message starting with “Session expired” to say a new order was started.

## Payments in progress

The timers do not clear the cart while a payment is being processed, or when part of a split payment has already been taken. A split payment is an order paid in more than one part. The register waits and checks again later.

If a new order starts while a customer was paying and you are not sure whether the payment went through, do not retry or charge another way yet. First confirm that no payment went through and none is still processing. Check the order list and your processor’s payment records. If you cannot confirm this, contact [Jovvie support](https://jovvie.com/support/).