BIZA · Point of sale
Hardware & building materialsA trade counter and a retail counter, in one queue
For hardware shops, building materials, plumbing and electrical merchants · September 2026
The man in front is buying six metres of cable and a box of screws, cash. The man behind him runs a contracting company, buys the same cable by the drum at his own price, and expects it on his account. The same counter has to serve both without slowing down.
Customer groups carry the trade price and the quantity breaks. The walk-in pays at the counter; the account customer is invoiced in Sales, on the same stock and the same ledger.
What a builders merchant needs
Trade pricing that follows the customer
A price list holds per-item prices with quantity breaks and is attached to a customer group, a counter, or both. Pick the customer and their list applies; leave it walk-in and the shelf price stands. The cart shows the list price under the line so the cashier can see why it changed.
- Price lists with quantity breaks (from 1, 6, 12 …)
- Attached to customer groups and counters
- Resolution: customer group, then counter, then shelf
- List price shown under the line
- Promotions can be limited to a group
- Everything not on the list sells at the shelf price
Goods sold by length, weight and each
Cable by the metre, sand by the kilo, fittings by the each — the unit rides on the line and prints on the receipt. Where you use in-store scale labels, the weight or price embedded in the barcode decodes into the right quantity at the counter.
- Unit per line, printed on the slip
- Fractional quantities keyed or scanned
- Scale labels with weight or price embedded
- Quick quantity steppers on touch screens
- Line notes for a cut length or a special
- Price override with the list price kept for the audit
The yard, the shop and the site
Each counter sells from its own stock location, so the shop floor and the yard hold their own figures. Moving stock to a site or between branches is a transfer, opened from the counter menu, not a phone call — and the valuation follows it.
- A stock location per counter
- Transfers from the counter menu, in a new tab
- Not stocked here versus out of stock, shown plainly
- Backorder where the product allows it
- Purchase orders, supplier invoices and landed costs
- Stock value and margin by location
The account customer pays at the counter — or does not pay at all
A contractor who buys on account no longer has to be sent to the office. On account is a tender at the counter: the goods go out, the balance goes onto their receivable, and the counter shows what they already owe and what their credit limit leaves before the cashier commits. Collection happens at the same counter when they come back to pay, or in Customer Receipts, with terms, statements and ageing.
- “On account” as a tender, beside cash and card
- The customer’s balance and remaining limit shown at the counter
- Refused on a walk-in, and refused past the limit — by the server
- Part cash, part account, on the same sale
- The balance paid off at the counter, oldest invoices first
- Quotations, orders and delivery notes when the office raises it instead
A counter you can trust with cash
Floats, cash in and out with reasons, a blind count at close and a variance that is a ledger fact rather than a note on a printout. Every drawer opened without a sale needs a reason, and the dashboard flags the shift that does it too often.
- Shift per counter with a counted float
- Cash in / out with a reason and a counter account
- Void a mis-keyed movement with a reversing entry
- Blind count and variance at close
- No-sale opens recorded with a reason
- Attention flags per shift for the manager
A day at a builders merchant
- 07:00Open the counter with a float; the yard counter opens its own.
- 07:45Six metres of cable, cut and keyed by length; the unit prints on the slip.
- 09:30A contractor is picked on the sale; the trade list drops the drum price two breaks.
- 11:15A pallet moves to the site: a stock transfer from the counter menu, not a phone call.
- 14:00An account customer orders by phone; it is invoiced in Sales, on the same stock.
- 16:20Cash out 150.00 for a delivery, reason recorded, posted as its own journal entry.
- 18:00Close both counters. Two blind counts, two Z reports, one ledger.
What the books get
A 420.00 trade counter sale with 15% VAT, paid half cash and half transfer:
Specification
| Trade | Price lists with quantity breaks per customer group and counter; units of measure per line; scale labels; stock transfers between shop, yard and site; account sales invoiced in Sales with terms, statements and ageing |
| Devices | Windows, macOS and Linux desktop app; iPad and Android tablet; phone; any browser, installable as a web app |
| Printing | ESC/POS thermal printers over the network, or USB / serial / Bluetooth through the computer's print queue; 58 mm and 80 mm; cash drawer opens on cash sales |
| Tenders | Cash, card, bank transfer, gift card, store credit, loyalty points and on account (the balance stays on the customer's receivable); mada in Saudi Arabia, UPI with a scan-to-pay QR in India; split across any number, each banked to the account you choose |
| Cash control | Shifts per counter with a counted float, cash in / out with reasons, blind count at close, X and Z reports, variance, cashier PIN switch, audited drawer opens |
| Offline | Every sale, return and cash movement queues on the device and posts exactly once when the connection returns |
| Compliance | ZATCA Phase 1 QR and Phase 2 clearance (Saudi Arabia), GSTIN with HSN/SAC and a UPI QR (India), TRN (UAE), plain receipts elsewhere |
| New | Trade accounts paid at the counter, oldest first; hire deposits taken and returned; tiers |
New at this counter
What the trade counter now has:
- Trade accounts settle at the counter. A contractor pays down their balance where they buy: pick them, see what they owe, take cash, card or transfer. It clears the oldest invoices first through Customer Receipts and counts in the drawer.
- Deposits on hired tools taken and returned at the same counter, less anything kept for damage, recorded on the rental agreement.
- Loyalty tiers for retail regulars, and the customer-group price breaks your trade buyers already get.
Integrations on request: delivery routing, and card terminals from your country’s acquirer (Geidea and mada in Saudi Arabia, Pine Labs and Razorpay in India, Stripe elsewhere).
The whole counter
Everything above sits on one product. This is all of it, the same in every edition, whether or not your counter needs each part on day one.
Selling
- Search by name, SKU or barcode; category chips; sort by best-selling or recently sold
- Variants on one card, with a picker; a variant barcode adds that variant directly
- USB and Bluetooth scanners with no setup; camera scanning in the mobile app
- Keyboard shortcuts: F2 search, F4 pay, F6 park, F8 returns, F9 exact cash
- Line and cart discounts, and price overrides, each behind its own permission
- Sold by the piece, kg, metre or litre; weight and price labels from scales
- Options with minimum and maximum choices, priced on the line
- Park a cart with a note and resume it on any counter
- A second screen for the customer; a self-checkout kiosk
- Full-screen register mode; phone and tablet layouts built for touch
Payments
- Cash with quick-amount chips, a keypad and exact cash; change worked out
- Card and bank transfer with a reference, banked to the account you choose
- Gift cards, store credit and loyalty points as tenders
- On account, within the customer’s credit limit
- mada in Saudi Arabia; UPI with a scan-to-pay QR in India
- Split one bill across any number of tenders
- Tips to a liability, never revenue; a service charge by percentage
- Account payments at the counter, oldest invoice first
- Trade-ins and charge-to-room, where the counter uses them
Receipts
- 58 mm and 80 mm thermal slips, printed as an image so every script prints as shown
- Auto-print, and the drawer opens on cash sales
- Email with the invoice PDF attached; WhatsApp with a link to it
- Reprint any sale from Transactions
- The receipt title, tax number and fiscal QR your country requires
- Serial, batch, expiry and HSN on the lines that need them
Customers and loyalty
- Walk-in by default; any customer from the address book in one search
- Customer groups, with their own promotions and price lists
- Price lists with quantity breaks, by group or by counter
- Promotions: percent off, amount off, fixed price, buy X get Y, N for X
- Schedules, days, hours, limits and coupon codes that say why they did not apply
- Points, tiers with multipliers, and punch cards that pay out as store credit
- Gift cards sold, reloaded and voided, booked as a liability
Stock
- Each counter sells from its own location, with live on-hand on every card
- Low stock, out of stock, not stocked here and backorder, per product
- Serial numbers and batches with expiry, soonest-expiry first
- Returns put back the exact unit or batch that came back
- Recipes that take ingredients off the shelf, costed first-in-first-out
- Transfer stock between locations from the counter
- Price and product changes reach open counters without a reload
Cash and trust
- Shifts per counter with a counted float
- Cash in and out with reasons; a mistake is voided with a reversing entry
- Blind count at close, X and Z reports, and the variance
- Every cashier is a real user; switch by PIN, lock the counter to step away
- Permissions checked by the database, not just the screen
- Voids, no-sale drawer opens and sign-ins recorded with a name
Returns
- Return any line or all of them, against the original sale
- Refund in cash, as a credit on the account, or as store credit
- A credit note every time, with its own number
- Returns work offline against the counter’s own copy of the sale
Tables and kitchen
- Floors and tables with seats; table states: free, seated, not sent, bill printed
- Move or merge tables, or move some items onto another table’s bill; the kitchen gets a slip
- Kitchen tickets per station, printed and on a kitchen screen, in rounds
- A kitchen log with time to plate, reprints and cancelled tickets
- Courses and seats; split by item or seat; print the bill before paying
- Comps with a reason, a daily limit per person, a manager PIN past it, and a report
- Guests order from the table by QR, from the categories you choose
- Pickup and delivery orders, with a delivery charge added for you
- Reservations and a waitlist; tips paid out to each server
Offline
- Sales, returns, cash movements and shift open and close all work offline
- Everything queues on the device and posts exactly once when the line returns
- Anything the server refuses stays visible, with the reason, until someone acts
Oversight
- A live dashboard of every counter and outlet, refreshed every 15 seconds
- Sales by hour, tender mix and top items
- Attention flags at thresholds you set: variance, voids, refunds, discounts, no-sales
- Reconciliation: what the counters took against the ledger and the journal
- Reports for tips, comps and ingredient shortfalls
Compliance
- ZATCA Phase 1 QR and Phase 2 clearance in Saudi Arabia
- GSTIN with HSN/SAC in India; TRN in the UAE; VAT numbers elsewhere
- Age checks and prescriptions before the line goes on the bill
- A controlled-drug register, batch recalls and warranty checks by serial
Devices and hardware
- Desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux
- iPad and Android tablets, and phones; or any browser, installable
- ESC/POS printers on the network, or USB, serial and Bluetooth through the computer
- Cash drawers on the printer’s port; ticket printers per kitchen station
Screens from a demo workspace, “Cardamom Cafe & Store” in Kochi.
See it on your own counter
Start a free trial at my.biza.app, or ask for a walkthrough with your own trade lists, your own units and a real counter printer. The POS guides are at biza.app/docs.