Glossary

A plain-English A–Z of the words you'll meet across this guide. Each entry is kept short, with a link to the page that explains it in full. If a term in another page is unfamiliar, this is the place to look it up.

A

Aged receivables

A report that lists who owes you money and how long it's been outstanding — for example "30 days" or "60+ days" — so you can chase the oldest debts first. See Reports.

B

Balance Sheet

A financial statement showing what your business owns and owes at a moment in time — assets, liabilities and equity. Built automatically from your books. See Accounting.

Barcode

The striped code on a product that a scanner reads to identify it instantly. Each product can have its own barcode. See Barcode labels.

Batch

A group of the same product received together, usually sharing one expiry date — common in pharmacies. See Batches & expiry.

Business mappings

The rules that tell the POS which account each automatic entry posts to — e.g. a sale goes to "Sales revenue". Defaults suit most shops. See Accounting.

C

Cart

The current customer's basket on the POS screen — the list of items being bought before payment. See The POS screen.

Cash drawer

The till tray that holds notes and coins. It usually pops open automatically when a cash sale finishes. See Shifts & cash drawer.

Chart of accounts

The master list of "buckets" your money is sorted into — cash, bank, sales, rent and so on. Every accounting entry files into one. See Accounting.

Credit sale

A sale where the customer takes the goods now and pays later. It can only be done for a saved customer, and the unpaid amount is added to their balance. See Customers.

Customer display (CFD)

A second screen facing the shopper that mirrors their basket as you scan, shows the amount and change at payment, and a thank-you at the end. Display-only — the customer just watches. See Customer display.

D

Debit & Credit (Dr / Cr)

The two sides of every bookkeeping entry. You always type a positive amount and the system puts it on the right side for you — Dr for assets/expenses, Cr for liabilities/equity/income. See Accounting.

Debit note

A record created when you return goods to a supplier, reducing what you owe them. See Purchase returns.

Digital receipt

A paperless receipt the customer opens on their phone through a private link — usually by scanning a QR on the customer display. See Digital receipts.

Drug schedule

A classification for controlled medicines (such as those needing a prescription), used by pharmacies to stay compliant. See Drug schedules.

E

Equity

The owner's share of the business — what's left after subtracting what you owe from what you own. Includes owner's capital and retained profit. See Accounting.

Expense

Money paid out to run the shop — rent, utilities, wages, supplies — as opposed to buying stock. Recorded so your cash and profit stay accurate. See Expenses.

Expiry / FEFO

The use-by date of a batch. FEFO means "First Expired, First Out" — the system sells the soonest-to-expire stock first so nothing is wasted. See Batches & expiry.

F

Fiscal period / year

Your accounting calendar — usually each month (period) inside a 12-month year. You can lock a period to freeze it and close a year to roll its profit into equity. See Accounting.

Float

The starting cash you put in the drawer at the beginning of a shift, used to give change. See Shifts & cash drawer.

G

General Ledger

A report that shows every movement in and out of a single account, in date order — the full history for one "bucket". See Accounting.

J

Journal (day book)

The complete diary of every accounting entry the system has made, newest first — and where you can post a manual entry or reverse one. See Accounting.

K

Kiosk (self-ordering)

A customer-operated touchscreen where shoppers browse, scan and build their own basket, then either pay at the machine or take a pickup number to the counter. Unlike a customer display, the shopper uses it themselves. See Self-ordering kiosk.

L

Low stock

A product that has dropped to or below its reorder level, flagging that it's time to buy more. See Stock overview.

M

Markup

The amount added to a product's cost to set its selling price, usually as a percentage. The system can apply it automatically when you receive stock. See Purchases.

O

Offline / Sync

Offline means the till keeps working without internet; sync is the automatic upload of those sales once you're back online. See Selling offline.

Opening balance

The starting figure each account already had on the day you began using the POS — cash, bank, stock, who owes you. Entered once, before your first sale. See Accounting.

Outstanding balance

The total a customer still owes you across all their unpaid sales. See Customer payments.

P

Permission

A single thing a user is allowed to do — like "give refunds" or "edit products". Permissions are grouped into roles. See Users & roles.

Pickup number

The short code — K001, K002 — a kiosk gives a customer at the end of their order. Staff use it to match the person at the counter to their order. See Self-ordering kiosk.

Placed order

An order a customer submitted at a kiosk that is waiting for payment at your counter. It holds its stock, and becomes an ordinary sale once you take the money. See Self-ordering kiosk.

POS

Point of Sale — the checkout screen where you ring up sales, and the name of this software overall. See The POS screen.

Print bridge

A small helper program that lets the browser send receipts to your printer and open the cash drawer. See Hardware & printing.

Profit & Loss (P&L)

A financial statement showing whether you made money over a period — income minus expenses. Built automatically from your books. See Accounting.

Purchase

An order of stock you buy from a supplier; receiving it adds the goods into your inventory. See Purchases.

R

Receipt

The printed (or digital) proof of a sale handed to the customer. See The POS screen.

Receivables

The money customers owe you in total — the opposite of what you owe suppliers. See Customer payments.

Refund / Return

Giving a customer their money back for goods they bring back. The returned items go back into stock. See Returns & refunds.

Reorder level

The stock figure at which a product counts as low and should be reordered. See Stock overview.

Role

A named bundle of permissions you assign to a staff member — for example "Cashier" or "Manager". See Users & roles.

S

Scale barcode

A special barcode printed by a weighing scale that carries the item and its weight, so the till knows the price without typing. See Weighed & scale items.

Scheduled report

A report set to be emailed to you and your team automatically on a daily, weekly or monthly cadence, as an Excel or CSV file. See Scheduled reports.

Shift

One cashier's session at the till, from opening with a float to closing with a counted drawer. See Shifts & cash drawer.

SKU

"Stock Keeping Unit" — a unique code you give a product to identify it in your catalogue and stock records. See Products.

Sold by weight

A product priced per kilo or per litre rather than per piece, so the till asks for a weight when you sell it. See Weighed & scale items.

Split tender

Paying for one sale with more than one method — for example part cash, part card. See Taking payments.

Stock adjustment

A manual correction to a product's stock — for damage, breakage or a miscount — with a reason recorded. See Stock adjustments.

Stock movement

Any change in a product's stock — a sale, purchase, return, transfer or adjustment — logged so you can trace every unit. See Stock overview.

Stock take

A physical recount of what's actually on the shelves, compared against the system to find and fix differences. See Stock reconciliation.

Stock transfer

Moving stock from one store (location) to another within your company. See Stock transfers.

Store

A physical location of your business. One company can run several stores, each with its own tills and stock. See Stores & terminals.

Supplier

A vendor you buy stock from. You record purchases against them and track what you owe. See Suppliers.

T

Tax component

A single tax rate, such as 5% VAT. Components can be combined into groups. See Taxes.

Tax group

A set of tax components applied together — handy where two taxes stack on one product. See Taxes.

Tender

The method a customer uses to pay — cash, card, QR and so on. "Split tender" means more than one in a single sale. See Taking payments.

Terminal

An individual till or register within a store, identified so its sales and printing can be set up separately. See Stores & terminals.

Trial Balance

A report listing every account's total with debits equalling credits — a quick check that your books balance. See Accounting.

V

Variance

The difference between what the system expected and what was actually counted — in a cash drawer at close, or on a stock take. See Shifts & cash drawer.

Void

Cancelling a completed sale (while the shift is still open) so it's reversed cleanly — stock and balances go back as they were. See Sales history.

W

WAC (weighted average cost)

The running average price you've paid for a product across purchases, used to value stock and work out profit. See Purchases.

X

X report

A mid-shift summary of takings that you can print without closing the till — useful for a quick check. See Shifts & cash drawer.

Z

Z report

The end-of-shift summary printed when you close the till, finalising the day's takings and cash count. See Shifts & cash drawer.

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