Dashboard → Merchandise is where the school sells things to students. A sale is an ordinary invoice tagged Sale: it appears on the student's ledger, statements and the parent portal like any other invoice, and it is paid, waived and voided the same way. The storekeeper has no access to Merchandise; the rest of the store stays under Assets.
Setting up the catalogue
Merchandise → Items lists what the school sells. Each item has one price.
- Click New item, or Add from template to start from the school uniform list.
- Enter the name and price, and choose a category if you use them (Categories manages the list).
- Choose How is it handed over?
- From stock — taken off the shelf. Turn on Track stock to keep a count.
- Made after the order — produced after the sale, for example tailored or engraved. Optionally set a lead time and a share that must be paid before work starts.
- Nothing to hand over — a fee-like item such as a photo or a workshop.
- Optionally turn on Paid in full before handover.
- Add Detail fields for anything recorded on each sale — a size, a colour, a name to print, measurements. Fields marked Print on invoice appear on the printed invoice.
Every setting starts off. A difference that changes the price, or needs its own stock count, is a separate item (a size-34 blazer priced above a size-28). A difference that does neither is a choice field.
The template is a draft. Nothing is created until you confirm, every ticked row needs your price, and items already in the catalogue come unticked.
To apply one rule to many items, tick them and click Edit settings.
Selling
Merchandise → Sales has two buttons.
| Direct sale | Raise invoice | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Paid in full now; you're asked whether to print the receipt | None, or a part payment now |
| Items from stock | Handed over now | Handed over now, or later from Orders |
| Items made after the order | Go to Orders, already paid | Go to Orders |
A direct sale is recorded completely or not at all: if an item is out of stock, nothing is saved. Catalogue items are always sold at their catalogue price; a discount is a waiver on the invoice.
To take a later payment for a sale, open it and click Record payment. That payment goes to this invoice only. A payment recorded from Finance → Payments instead clears the student's oldest debt first, whatever it is for.
Unpaid merchandise never blocks a parent's portal access. Unpaid fees, fines and other charges still do, under the school's portal fee-block setting.
Orders
Merchandise → Orders lists every sold item not yet handed over, under Pending, In progress and Ready, plus Handed over for the record. Open an order to move it on, correct its details before work starts, add notes, or go back a step with a reason. Print work sheet downloads the made-to-order work still to do, grouped by item, with every detail field as a column.
When an item's payment rules are not met, the order shows how much more must be paid. A headmaster or admin can override with a reason, which is kept in the order's history.
Payments land on the whole invoice, so they are counted in a fixed order: items already handed over and items with nothing to hand over first, then deposits on orders already started, then the item being checked.
Stock
Merchandise → Stock shows, for each item that tracks stock:
- On hand — what the count says is in the store.
- Promised — sold but not yet handed over.
- Available — on hand, less promised, less any decrease awaiting approval.
Stock leaves the count when an item is handed over, not when it is invoiced.
Every other change — Receive stock, Adjust, Stock count, and Record return (from a handed-over order) — is sent to a headmaster or admin, and posts only when they approve it. A stock count posts the difference between what was counted and what the system showed at the time of counting, so sales made before approval still stand.
Received stock cannot be sold until its receipt is approved.
Cancelling and voiding
- Cancel or return one item: raise a waiver on the invoice for that line. When waivers cover the whole line, its order is cancelled. If the goods came back, record a return from the order.
- Void a whole sale: void the invoice from Finance → Invoices, as for any invoice. Open orders are cancelled. Stock already handed over is not counted back until a return is recorded and approved.