Who this is for
TamilAccounting suits shops that sell over a counter and need the till, the shelves and the books to agree:
- Supermarkets and grocery stores with thousands of barcoded items and a queue at the counter.
- Apparel, footwear and lifestyle shops where exchanges are as common as sales.
- Electronics, hardware and pharmacy counters that track batches and expiry dates.
- Chains with more than one branch or a back-store godown, and shops that also sell online.
The everyday problems
- The billing software and the accounts are two systems, reconciled by hand at month end.
- Shelf stock and system stock drift apart, and nobody notices until a count.
- Fast movers run out because nobody saw them fall below the reorder point.
- Wholesale and retail customers need different prices, and the counter guesses.
How a shop runs in TamilAccounting
A sale at the counter is the same sales invoice the rest of the business uses. It takes the stock out of that branch's location, posts to the ledger and shows up in the sales reports as soon as it is saved. Returns come back as credit notes against the original bill. Stock is bought through Purchases, moved between branches with transfers, and counted back with reconciles.
The screens, module by module
POS
- POS › Point Of Sale — a typed Retail POS or a touch Grid POS, chosen once with POS Type in company preferences. Scan a barcode or search by name, give line and bill discounts, hold a bill, and split the payment across cash, card and UPI with the change worked out.
- POS › POS Return — pick the original invoice, choose what comes back, and a credit note is raised against it.
- POS › POS Receipt Designer — lay out your own thermal receipt, logo included.
- POS settings — each counter has a name, a default cash account and an inventory location, so every branch sells from its own stock.
- Reports › Sales › POS Daily Balance Report and POS Balance Summary — the day closed counter by counter.
Prices, barcodes and coupons
- Sales › Settings › Sales Types are your price lists (say Retail and Wholesale), each marked tax included or not. Prices are set on the item's Sales Prices tab by price list, location and unit, and a customer can carry their own price list. The Grid POS can switch price list for a sale.
- Barcodes — use the manufacturer's barcode or generate your own on the item, and print shelf labels from the Barcode report.
- Coupons (Sales Coupons app) — a coupon has a code, a percentage and/or amount off, a minimum purchase and an expiry date. The customer brings back an earlier bill with the code, and the Coupon button on the Grid POS or the sales invoice redeems it once for that bill. Coupon Invoices lists every redemption.
Stock across branches
- Items and Services › Reorder Levels — a reorder level and reorder quantity per item and location. The requisition list under Purchases gathers what has fallen short, and a purchase order is one click from there.
- Items and Services › Transfer — move stock from the godown to a branch, or branch to branch.
- Items and Services › New Reconcile (Inventory Reconcile app) — type the counted quantity next to the system quantity; the differences wait on Reconcile until you process them into an adjustment.
Selling online and collecting on credit
- WooCommerce app — web orders arrive as a sales order, delivery or invoice (your choice), with the customer created if new. Stock you receive, sell or transfer in TamilAccounting is sent back to the store's quantity.
- Sales › Reminders — for wholesale and credit customers, overdue balances open a follow-up case, with reminders on a schedule and promises to pay tracked.
Worked example: one day at Green Basket Supermarket
Green Basket (an invented store) bills 60,000 before tax across its counters. Tax here is 5% — a single VAT rate, or CGST 2.5% plus SGST 2.5%. One customer returns goods worth 1,000 plus tax and takes cash back.
| Entry | Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter sales | Cash | 25,000 | |
| Card account | 18,000 | ||
| UPI account | 20,000 | ||
| Sales | 60,000 | ||
| Tax payable | 3,000 | ||
| POS return | Sales returns | 1,000 | |
| Tax payable | 50 | ||
| Cash | 1,050 | ||
| Total | 64,050 | 64,050 |
The cash drawer should hold 23,950 more than the float, and that is the figure the POS Daily Balance Report shows for the day.
Getting started
- Set up locations for each branch and the godown, then items with barcodes and units.
- Create price lists under Sales Types and enter prices on each item.
- Choose the POS Type in company preferences, and add a counter in POS settings for each till with its cash account and location.
- Design the receipt, set reorder levels, and switch on Sales Coupons, Inventory Reconcile and WooCommerce if you need them.
FAQ
Can each branch sell from its own stock?
Yes. Each counter is tied to an inventory location, so a sale takes stock out of that branch only.
How do exchanges work?
Start a POS Return from the original bill. The returned value is raised as a credit note and can go towards the new item.
Can wholesale buyers get a different price?
Yes. Give them a Wholesale price list on their customer record, and their bills price from it.
Do I need the internet at the counter?
The standalone POS app and the mobile POS app keep selling offline and sync when the connection returns.
