Selling at the till

The till is where you ring up a sale over the counter. You add items to a bill, give a discount if you may, choose a customer if you need one, then take payment. While you build the bill, nothing touches your accounts. When you complete a cash sale, one journal entry records the cash, the income, the VAT and the cost of the stock sold.

This page covers building the bill. Taking the money is on Taking payment.

Where

Point of sale, the till screen (after you open your register)

Number

INV-000001, given only when the sale is completed

Posts to

The drawer’s cash account, Sales Revenue, Output Tax Payable, Cost of Goods Sold, Inventory

Who

Cashiers, managers and admins. Price changes and discounts: managers and admins

What it’s for

• Selling stock items and bundles over the counter, paid at once.
• Giving a line discount or a whole-bill discount, when you have the right.
• Parking a sale (Hold) while the customer fetches something, and coming back to it.
• Selling an item you have not received yet, if your company switched that on.

Things to know before you start:

• Your register must be open. See Opening and closing the register.
• Only stock items and bundles appear at the till. A service cannot be sold here on its own. Use a sales invoice.
• Pay later, or paying only part now, needs a named customer. See Taking payment.

The till screen

Area	What you see
Top bar	The stock location and drawer of your register, the operator, the card machine, the date the register opened, and the connection
Search row	The search box (Scan barcode or search items), Products and Keyboard
Bill	One row per item: Item, Qty, Unit, Price, Discount and Total
Item controls (right)	The selected item’s name and stock, and a number pad for quantity, price and discount
Checkout (right)	Line discounts, Bill discount, Subtotal, Tax and Amount due, then Fast checkout: Cash, Card, Pay later, Bank transfer
Bottom bar	Hold, Held orders, Find bill, Return, Last sale / Reprint, Sale note, Cash in / out, Item tools, Remove item, Receipt on/off, Clear Cart

Keys that save time: F2 search, F3 or F11 quantity, F4 price, Ctrl+U unit, F6 hold, F7 held orders, F8 insert last item, F1 more.

Fields

Field	What it means	What it changes
Scan barcode or search items	A barcode, SKU, name, brand or model number (up to 120 characters)	Adds the item to the bill
Item	The item name and its barcode or SKU. A short purchase code may show under it	Display only
Qty	How many, in the selling unit. Up to 999 on one line. Decimals only if the unit allows	The line amount, the stock taken out and the VAT
Unit	The selling unit, such as pieces or a box of twelve	Changing it sets the price to that unit’s price and removes any discount on the line
Price	The price for one selling unit. A company setting decides whether prices include VAT. Only people who may change prices can edit it	The line amount and the VAT
Discount	A discount on this line, as an AED amount for the whole line or as a percentage	Lowers the income and the VAT. It needs a reason
Total	The line total with VAT	Display only
Reason	Why a price or discount was changed. Choose a quick reason or Other reason… (3 to 200 characters)	Saved with the sale
Bill discount	A discount on the whole bill, in the Take payment window. Reason is 3 to 160 characters	Spread across the lines. See Bill discount
Customer	Walk-in customer until you choose one	The name, phone, address and tax number printed on the bill
Sale note	An optional note, up to 500 characters	Printed on the receipt
Amount due	What the customer pays. If your company rounds totals, it is the rounded amount	The amount the payment must cover

Adding items

• Barcode. Scan it, or type it and press Enter. If only one item matches, it is added.
• Search. Type part of a name, SKU, brand or model. Pick a row with the mouse, or use the arrow keys and Enter.
• Products. Opens the catalogue. Filter by All items, Favourites (items you sold recently), a category or Uncategorised. It first shows 12 items; choose Show all for the rest.
• Same item again. Adding it again adds 1 to the quantity on the same line. An item never sits on two lines.
• Unit barcodes. A barcode for a box adds one box. If the item is already on the bill in another unit, the till asks you to change its unit first.
• Out of stock. An item with no stock cannot be added, unless your company allows selling stock not yet received. See Selling stock you have not received yet.
• Remove or reduce. Select a line, then use Remove item, or Qty − on the number pad.

The till checks stock against the figures it has loaded. When you complete the sale, the app checks again against the real stock.

Changing a price

Cashiers sell at the catalogue price. Managers and admins can type another price. They can also use Item tools › Price book… to pick the retail or the wholesale price, when the item has one.

• A changed price needs a reason if your company asks for one. The setting is Require a reason for item price changes, in Settings › Business details › Counter rules.
• A price must be above zero.
• Some items have a minimum selling price. The till blocks a price or discount that goes below it.
• Changing the unit puts the price back to the catalogue price for that unit.

Line discount

Select a line, then choose Amount or % (the % key on the number pad).

• Amount is the discount for the whole line, not for each unit. A 10.00 discount on 3 items takes 10.00 off the line.
• % is taken off the line total before any bill discount.
• A discount always needs a reason.
• The discount must leave something to pay. It must be below 100%.

Bill discount

Open Bill discount in the Take payment window. Choose % or an amount, enter the value, add a reason, then choose Apply bill discount. You must apply it before you can complete the sale.

The app works out the bill discount after the line discounts:

1. It takes the bill total after line discounts.
2. It takes the bill discount off that total. A percentage is rounded to whole fils.
3. It shares the discount across the lines in proportion to what each line is worth. Any fils left over are handed out one by one, so the shares add up to exactly the discount.
4. It works out the VAT on each line again, on the discounted amount. The VAT goes down with the price.

Note

A discount reduces your income and your VAT. The discount has no journal line of its own.

Worked example. Three items cost AED 1.00 each, prices exclude VAT, VAT is 5%. The bill discount is AED 1.00.

Line	Price	Share of the discount	Paid before VAT
Item 1	1.00	0.34	0.66
Item 2	1.00	0.33	0.67
Item 3	1.00	0.33	0.67
Bill	3.00	1.00	2.00

The VAT is 0.09 (it would be 0.15 without the discount). The amount due is 2.09. Sales Revenue is credited 2.00, Output Tax Payable 0.09, and the drawer’s cash account is debited 2.09. The cost of the three items is posted as in every sale.

When prices include VAT, the discount comes off the price that includes VAT. The VAT inside the price shrinks with it.

Choosing a customer

A cash sale does not need a customer. The bill says Walk-in customer and no customer record is touched.

• Choose one. In the Take payment window, choose Select (or Change) next to the customer. Search by name, code, phone or tax number, with at least 2 characters. Only active customers are found. To carry on without one, choose Continue as walk-in.
• What it does. The customer’s name, phone, address and tax number are saved on the bill. A bill paid in full does not change what the customer owes.
• Pay later. A sale left on the customer’s account needs a named customer. See Taking payment.

To add a customer at the till, choose New customer:

Field	Rule
Mobile number	Required. 7 to 15 digits. You may use spaces, a + at the start, and the signs ( ) . / -
Customer name (optional)	At least 2 characters. Without a name, the customer shows as “Mobile customer” with the last four digits
Email (optional)	A normal email address
Address (optional)	The first line of the billing address

A new customer gets a short code and starts with your company’s default credit limit. Someone who manages customers can change the limit later.

One mobile number belongs to one customer. The app compares the last nine digits, so “050 123 4567” and “+971 50 123 4567” are the same number. If the number is taken, the till shows who has it and offers Use ‹name›.

Holding a sale

Choose Hold (or F6) to park the bill. The till keeps the items, customer, note, bill discount and any payment you entered. Then it clears the screen for the next customer.

• Nothing is posted. No stock is set aside, so another sale can sell the same items.
• Held sales stay in this browser. They belong to you and your company, on this computer. Another till does not see them. Clearing the browser’s data removes them. A browser keeps up to 50.
• Recall. Open Held orders (F7), search by customer, item, date or location, then choose Recall. The cart must be empty first. The recalled sale leaves the list.
• Prices on recall. A line at the catalogue price takes today’s catalogue price. A line you changed on purpose keeps its price. The till says how many prices changed.
• Items that are gone. An item that is no longer sold is left out, and the till names it.
• Discard. Choose Discard, then Discard held sale to confirm.

Selling stock you have not received yet

This works only if your company switched on Allow selling stock that has not been received yet in Settings › Accounting rules. It does not depend on your role.

• A line that asks for more than the location holds shows “‹n› not in stock, will be owed”.
• In the Take payment window, the till lists these items. You must tick I confirm these items are not in stock yet. before you can complete the sale.
• The sale is recorded now. The missing quantity is owed to the customer until the stock arrives. Stock never goes below zero.
• The missing items are booked at an estimated cost: the item’s average cost. If it has none, the cost of the latest purchase or goods receipt. If it has none, the item’s Default purchase cost.
• When the goods arrive, or stock is added at that location, the owed items are covered automatically. Cost of sales is corrected then.
• This applies to the items inside a bundle too. A bundle made only of services is never owed.

Bundles

A bundle is a set of items sold together at one price.

• It shows a Bundle tag in the search and in Products. The stock shown is how many bundles the items can make. A bundle of services only shows No stock limit.
• The bundle is one line on the bill. The income and the VAT are booked once, on that line.
• The items inside leave stock in a separate entry, at their own cost. A service inside a bundle takes no stock and posts nothing.
• A discount works as on any other line.
• The bundle line itself has no cost. If an item is short, you see the bundle message in What the app blocks.

The purchase cost code

Under an item’s price, the search, Products and the bill may show P: and a short code, such as “P: SIE”. It is the item’s purchase cost, written as letters with the keyword in Label setup (Catalogue). It is the same code printed on your labels.

• Staff who know the keyword can read the cost. The customer cannot.
• Which cost it shows (the latest purchase or the average cost) is set in Label setup.
• An item with no known cost shows no code. A bundle never shows one.
• The code is not saved on the sale, a held sale or the receipt.
• Every till user sees it, including cashiers.

Clearing a bill

Clear Cart empties the bill, the customer, the note and the bill discount. It does not ask first. For 30 seconds, while the cart is still empty, Undo clear puts everything back. Adding a new item ends the undo.

If the connection drops while you complete a sale

The till may show Last sale not confirmed. Do not take payment again. Choose Check sale. The till sends the same sale again. If the app already saved it, you get its bill. If not, it is saved now. It cannot be recorded twice.

If the app refused the sale, the till says so and offers a way to discard it. Nothing was saved. Correct the problem and ring the sale up again.

Buttons

Building the bill changes nothing in your accounts. Only completing the sale does.

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
Products	Always	Opens the catalogue to pick items	No change
Keyboard	Always	Switches between the on-screen number pad and your own keyboard	No change
Qty + / Qty −	An item is selected	Changes the quantity by 1. At 1, Qty − is off. Use Remove item	No change
%, Clear, Undo (number pad)	An item is selected	% switches a line discount between amount and percentage. Undo reverses the last edit	No change
Hold	The bill has items	Parks the sale in this browser	No change
Held orders	Always	Lists parked sales. Recall or Discard each one	No change
Item tools	Always	Insert last item, Verify Price, Verify Stock, and Price book… if the item has a wholesale price and you may change prices	No change
Remove item	An item is selected	Removes that line	No change
Sale note	The bill has items	Opens the note box. Choose Save note	No change
Receipt on/off	Always	Turns automatic receipt printing on or off	No change
Clear Cart	The bill has items	Empties the bill. Undo clear appears for 30 seconds	No change
Cash in / out	Always	Opens cash in and out. See Cash in and out	Separate screen
Find bill	Always	Searches finished bills. See Finding and editing bills	No change
Return	Managers and admins	Starts a return. See Returns	Separate screen
Last sale / Reprint	After a sale at this register	Shows the last receipt to print again	No change
Cash, Card, Pay later, Bank transfer	The bill has items	Opens Take payment. See Taking payment	Posts when you complete the sale

What the till says: Item added. Item removed. Item updated. Sale held. Held sale resumed. Cart cleared (‹n› items). Select Undo to restore it. Cart restored.

What gets posted

Completing a paid sale writes one journal entry, dated on the sale date. The sale date is today’s company date. A manager or admin can choose another date in the Take payment window. At the same time the app takes the stock out of the register’s stock location and records the VAT.

Example 1A cash sale of two itemsPrices exclude VAT · cash · VAT 5%

• 2 × item at 100.00200.00
• VAT 5% on 200.0010.00
• Amount due210.00
• Cost of the item (average cost 60.00 each)120.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
The drawer’s cash account	210.00		The sale is paid into the drawer
4000Sales Revenue		200.00	Income, after any discount
2100Output Tax Payable		10.00	VAT you owe the FTA
5000Cost of Goods Sold	120.00		What the 2 items cost you
1200Inventory		120.00	Your stock value goes down
Total	330.00	330.00	Balanced

Two items leave the stock location. If the customer hands you 220.00, the drawer still keeps 210.00 and you give 10.00 change. See Taking payment. Profit on this sale: 200.00 − 120.00 = AED 80.00.

The first line goes to the cash account of the drawer you opened. Each drawer has its own cash account. Other payment methods go to other accounts. See Taking payment.

Discounts and the journal

Income is booked after all discounts. The VAT is booked on the discounted amounts. A discount has no line of its own, and the drawer receives only what the customer pays.

Round-off

If your company rounds totals, only the amount due is rounded. Income and VAT are never rounded. The difference goes to Rounding Difference. The lines below leave out the cost lines, which are posted as in example 1.

Example 2A sale rounded to the nearest 0.05Prices include VAT · cash

• Item A 6.30 + Item B 4.62, VAT included10.92
• Income before VAT10.40
• VAT 5%0.52
• Amount due after rounding10.90

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
The drawer’s cash account	10.90		The rounded amount is paid
6760Rounding Difference	0.02		The customer paid 0.02 less than the lines
4000Sales Revenue		10.40	Income before VAT
2100Output Tax Payable		0.52	VAT is never rounded
Total	10.92	10.92	Balanced

When the total rounds up, Rounding Difference is credited instead. The cost lines of both items are also posted, and are not shown here.

Selling a bundle

A bundle sale posts two entries. The first records the sale at the bundle price. The second takes the items out of stock at their cost.

Example 3aSelling a bundle for cash: the saleAC package at 2,000.00 · VAT 5%

• 1 × AC package2000.00
• VAT 5% on 2,000.00100.00
• Amount due2100.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)
The drawer’s cash account	2,100.00
4000Sales Revenue		2,000.00
2100Output Tax Payable		100.00
Total	2,100.00	2,100.00

Example 3bSelling a bundle for cash: the items leave stock1 AC Unit (cost 1,000.00) + 2 Pipe kits (cost 100.00 each)

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
5000Cost of Goods Sold	1,200.00		The cost of the items in the package
1200Inventory		1,200.00	Your stock value goes down
Total	1,200.00	1,200.00	Balanced

The VAT is booked once, in the sale entry. This entry touches no cash. A service inside the package posts nothing and moves no stock. A discount of 200.00 on the package gives income 1,800.00 and VAT 90.00. The cost stays 1,200.00.

Stock owed

When your company sells stock it has not received, the app first records the missing quantity as stock owed, then posts the sale. Here a customer buys 12 items and the shop has 10, with an average cost of 60.00.

Example 4Recording the 2 items that are owedEstimated cost 60.00 each

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
1200Inventory	120.00		The 2 missing items are added at the estimated cost
2060Stock owed (estimated cost)		120.00	You owe these items to the customer
Total	120.00	120.00	Balanced

The sale then posts as in example 1. The stock cost of the whole sale is 720.00: 600.00 for the 10 on the shelf and 120.00 for the 2 owed items. The shop ends with no stock, and never below zero. When the real stock arrives, the owed amount is cleared and the cost is corrected to the real cost.

Other rules that apply on every sale

• Stock cost: the item’s average cost across the whole company. If the sale takes the last units at a location, it uses exactly the value left there.
• No VAT: if your company is not VAT registered on the sale date, every line is 0% and there is no Output Tax Payable line.
• A refused sale posts nothing. The app saves the sale, the stock, the VAT and the journal together, or none of them. The bill number and journal number are not used up.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes after the sale is completed
Sales history	The bill is listed as a POS bill. See Sales history
Day book	One entry for the sale
Drawer cash	The cash part raises the cash the drawer should hold. See Opening and closing the register
Stock reports	A sale movement at the register’s stock location. Owed items show in the stock owed report
VAT return (Detailed Reports › Tax)	The VAT counts in the period of the sale date
Profit and loss	Sales Revenue and Cost of Goods Sold
Balance sheet	Cash, Inventory and Output Tax Payable
Customer	The bill is saved with the customer’s name, phone, address and tax number. A fully paid bill adds nothing to what they owe
Receipt	The items, discounts, VAT, customer, sale note and any owed items

What the app blocks

Each check happens before anything is saved. A refused sale leaves no half-written records.

Situation	What you see
A search finds nothing	No product found for “‹text›”. Check its barcode, SKU, or name.
Several items match and you pressed Enter	Several products match. Tap the correct product, or use the arrow keys and Enter.
More than the stock in the till (owed stock off)	Only ‹n› ‹unit› is available at this location.
An item with no stock (owed stock off)	‹item› has no more available stock at this location.
The real stock is lower when you complete the sale	Only 4 PCS of ‹item› is in stock at this location. or ‹item› is out of stock at this location.
A quantity that is not a number	Enter a positive quantity with no more than 6 decimal places.
A quantity of 0	Quantity must be greater than zero.
More than 999 on one line	Quantity cannot exceed 999 in one POS line.
A box barcode when the item is on the bill in another unit	‹item› is already in ‹unit›. Change its unit before scanning this barcode.
Adding an item while another line has an error	Finish or undo the highlighted item edit before adding another item.
A cashier tries to change the price or give a discount	You don’t have permission to change the price. Use the retail catalogue price without a manual discount.
A price change by a person without the right, refused when you complete the sale	You do not have the right to change the price or give a discount: use the catalogue price without a manual discount.
A discount by a person without the right, refused when you complete the sale	You do not have the right to apply line or bill discounts.
A price of 0 or too many decimals	Enter a price greater than zero, with no more than 4 decimal places.
A price that is really a barcode you typed in the wrong box	This matches a product barcode. Undo the edit and use Scan / search.
A price or discount with no reason	Enter a reason for this price change. or Enter a reason for the discount.
A reason that is too short or too long	Enter a reason between 3 and 200 characters.
A bill discount reason that is too short or too long	Use 3–160 characters to explain the bill discount.
A discount of 100% or more	Discount percentage must be below 100.
A discount as large as the amount	Discount must be less than the entered sale amount.
A discount amount with more than 2 decimal places	Enter a discount amount with no more than 2 decimal places.
A price or discount below the item’s minimum price	‹item› would fall below its minimum POS price.
Completing the sale before applying the bill discount	Apply the bill discount before completing the sale.
Holding a 51st sale	This browser already has 50 held sales. Discard one before holding another.
Recalling while the cart has items	Hold or clear the current cart before recalling another order.
Owed items not confirmed	Confirm the items that are not in stock before completing the sale.
An owed item with no known cost	No cost is known for ‹item›. Set its Default purchase cost or receive stock first.
A bundle item is short (owed stock off)	Not enough stock of ‹item› for this bundle (need 6, have 5).
New customer: no mobile number	Enter a mobile number.
New customer: odd characters in the mobile number	Use digits and phone separators only.
New customer: too few or too many digits	Enter a mobile number with 7 to 15 digits.
New customer: a one-letter name	Enter at least 2 characters or leave the name blank.
New customer: the mobile already belongs to someone	This mobile belongs to ‹name› (‹code›).
Date inside a locked period	The accounting period is locked through ‹date›. Choose a later date, or ask an administrator to reopen the period.

Warnings that do not stop the sale

• Held prices change. A recalled sale says how many prices changed to today’s price.
• Unavailable items. A recalled sale leaves out items that are no longer sold, and names them.
• Selling below cost. The till does not stop you. Only a minimum selling price on the item stops a low price.

Who can do it

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
Ring up and complete a paid sale	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change quantity or unit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add a customer from the till	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hold, recall and discard sales	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change a price, or pick the wholesale price	Yes	Yes	No
Give a line discount	Yes	Yes	No
Give a bill discount	Yes	Yes	No
Choose another sale date	Yes	Yes	No
Start a return	Yes	Yes	No
Sell stock not yet received	A company setting decides, not your role	A company setting decides, not your role	A company setting decides, not your role

These are the standard roles. Your administrator can give a custom role each action separately in Settings › Users & access. At the till, the price, discount and bill discount controls show only for people who may change prices. Holding a sale needs no special right.

Fixing a mistake

1. Wrong item or quantity on the bill, before payment. Select the line, then use Remove item or change the quantity. The bill is not posted yet.
2. The whole bill is wrong. Use Clear Cart. If you cleared it by mistake, use Undo clear within 30 seconds.
3. A held sale you do not need. Open Held orders, then choose Discard and Discard held sale.
4. A wrong price or discount on a bill you have not completed. Select the line and change it, or remove the line and add the item again to go back to the catalogue price. Only managers and admins can change prices.
5. The sale is complete, but something is wrong with it. Use Find bill. A manager or admin can change the items, the customer or the payment. See Finding and editing bills.
6. The customer brings goods back. Use Return. See Returns.