Sales Receipts (POS)
Immediate cash sales for walk-in customers. Invoice and payment in one document.
A sales receipt combines the invoice and the payment into one document. Use it for walk-in customers who pay at the point of sale — there is no separate receipt step, no AR created, and no outstanding balance. When a sales receipt is saved, cash hits the bank immediately and revenue is recognized in the same action.
Sales receipts are the correct document for retail counters, cash-and-carry operations, and any sale where the customer pays before leaving.
When to Use Sales Receipts vs Invoices
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Customer pays cash at the counter today | Sales Receipt |
| Customer collects goods and pays immediately | Sales Receipt |
| Customer will pay in 30 days (credit terms) | Invoice + Receipt later |
| Customer is a recurring account with outstanding balances | Invoice + Receipt later |
| Business needs to track aging and overdue accounts | Invoice + Receipt later |
Two Ways to Sell at the Counter
| Surface | Where | Built For |
|---|---|---|
| POS mode on the sales receipt form | Sales → Sales receipts → New (POS Mode is on by default; Standard switches to the ordinary form) | A cashier at a desktop: item tiles, a cart with free-text quantities, Hold to park a cart and serve someone else, promotions, and Submit & Print. |
| The POS terminal | /pos — opened from Settings → POS Terminals → Open POS, or automatically on a paired till | Tills and restaurants: sections for Items, Price list, Categories, Cash account, Loyalties, Open orders, End of day and Today; orders sent to the kitchen in rounds; a Take payment dialog. |
The POS Terminal
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Items | Tiles for the terminal's catalogue with name, SKU, price and stock; search by name, SKU or barcode. Tap a tile to add one unit. |
| Cart | Walk-in by default, or attach a customer. Each line has a − / + stepper. Subtotal, Tax and Total. Lock, Clear and Cancel; Send sends a round to the kitchen. |
| Pay | Pay {total} settles the whole cart. |
| Take payment | Cash, Card or Bank Transfer into a Receiving account. For cash, Amount tendered with Exact and quick-tender buttons, and the Change (or Short). Confirm {amount} posts the sale. |
| Payment received | The receipt number, Change due, Print receipt, and New order. |
The Sales Receipt Form (Standard mode)
Navigate to: Sales → Sales receipts → New → Standard
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Customer | Required. For anonymous sales the POS uses a customer named Walk-in, created once for the business. |
| Date | Required. Defaults to today. |
| Payment Method | Required. Cash by default, or any configured method. |
| Deposit Account | Required. Which bank or cash account receives the money. |
| Items | Same item table as invoice: Item, Qty, Rate, Discount, Tax, Amount. |
| Center/Location | Shown when the business has centers. Enables location-specific pricing and stock. |
| Note, Attachments, Subject, Project, Tags | Optional fields, revealed by their pills. |
Click Save (or Save & Print). A sales receipt always reads Paid — its status is fixed, not derived, because a cash sale is settled by definition.
Saving without one is refused by the server with a plain message: "Sales receipt requires a deposit account (paymentAccount). Pick a Cash or Bank account before saving." The account you choose is the one debited, so choosing the wrong till is a real error, not a cosmetic one.
Sales receipts appear under Cash Sales in the document lists. That list deliberately drops the Status column — every row would read Paid — and offers only a Draft tab, because no other state means anything for this type.
Journal Entries
When a sales receipt is saved, revenue and cash are recorded simultaneously. No AR is created.
Revenue is credited at the gross line value and any line discount is posted separately to Discount Allowed. This is deliberately different from an invoice, where a discount simply reduces revenue and no Discount Allowed line appears: at a till the higher price was on the shelf and the discount is a real concession, so it is shown as one.
Without Inventory Items (Services)
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank / Cash Account | 2,160 | — | Full amount received at point of sale |
| Sales Revenue | — | 2,000 | Revenue recognized immediately |
| Sales Tax Payable | — | 160 | Output tax collected |
With Inventory Items (Products)
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank / Cash Account | 1,620 | — | Full amount received at point of sale |
| Sales Revenue | — | 1,500 | Revenue recognized immediately |
| Sales Tax Payable | — | 120 | Output tax collected |
| Cost of Sales | 850 | — | Cost of inventory sold at weighted average |
| Inventory Asset | — | 850 | Stock reduced at weighted average cost |
With a Discount Given at the Till
| Account | Debit | Credit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank / Cash Account | 1,800 | — | What the customer actually handed over |
| Discount Allowed | 200 | — | The concession, recognised as its own cost |
| Sales Revenue | — | 2,000 | Credited at the gross line value |
Unlike invoices, sales receipts do not create an AR balance. The customer (if selected) will show this sale in their transaction history — and it counts as both a sale and a collection on their page — but there is no outstanding amount to collect. If a customer needs to be invoiced and pay later, use a standard invoice instead.
Printing a Receipt
The format follows the printer preset chosen in Settings → Templates for the business:
- PDF Document — A4 / Letter, the same layout as invoices
- 80mm Thermal — standard POS receipt printers
- 58mm Thermal — compact POS printers
Print from the document page (More → Print), tick Print receipt after each sale in POS mode, or use Print receipt in the terminal after Payment received. A kitchen ticket is available for sales orders and sales receipts when the kitchen template is enabled.
Working the till in POS mode
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Item tiles | The catalogue for the selected centre. A tile carries the stock position — a green count, an amber Low, or a red Out. Service items carry none. Adding an out-of-stock item warns you but never blocks the sale. |
| Categories / All items | Narrows the tiles. A clear control removes the filter. |
| Standard prices | The price list in force. Switching centre resets it, and the cart re-prices with a toast naming the list — or "Reverted to default pricing". |
| Hold | Parks the current cart so you can serve the next customer, and lists the held carts for you to resume or discard. Up to five at once; the button explains itself when the limit is reached. |
| Recent | The last sales rung on this till, for a quick reprint or a look-up. |
| Promotions | Applied automatically when the till is online and the basket qualifies. The cart shows a "Promotions −" line. Offline, a note explains that promotions apply when the till is online. |
| Loyalty | Appears only when a programme is running and a customer is attached. Redeeming shows a "Loyalty discount −" line with a control to clear it. |
Promotions are applied before loyalty points, so points are earned and spent against the price the customer actually pays.
When the day has been sealed, the till shows: Day closed. — no new sales receipts can be rung until tomorrow, naming who closed it. This is the end-of-day control, not a fault. The EOD tab beside Transactions is where that happens, and it appears only for businesses running the loyalty programme.
Related
- The credit-sale alternative: Invoices and Creating an invoice.
- Taking a return against a cash sale: Credit notes.
- Reading the till's output: Tracking sales documents.
- Where the money landed: Banking.