Customer accounts: let regular customers buy now and pay later

A builder picks up screws and cement every few days and pays at the end of the month. A notebook behind the counter works until someone forgets to write a sale down. Customer accounts keep that tab in Kasenso: every sale charged to it, every payment taken, and what is still owed.

How do customer accounts work in Kasenso?

A customer account is a running tab for one customer. At the till you choose On account instead of a payment method and pick the customer. The sale is recorded as usual, and the amount is added to what they owe. When they pay, you record the payment and the balance goes down.

Open an account

Go to Accounts and tap New account. Only an admin can open accounts.

• Name: the customer or the business, such as Reyes Construction.
• Phone: optional. The till's search finds accounts by name or phone.
• Credit limit: optional. The most they may owe at once. Leave it blank for no limit.
• Already owes: optional. What they owed before you started using Kasenso, from your notebook. It goes on the statement as the opening balance.
• Note: optional. For example, "Pays on the 15th".
• Trade customer: on for builders, contractors and other buyers who get trade prices.

Once a shop has at least one account, the till's payment window shows On account next to your payment methods. A shop with no accounts never sees it.

How do I charge a sale to a customer's account?

1. Ring up the sale as usual and tap Pay Now.
2. Choose On account.
3. Search for the customer by name or phone, and tap their name.
4. Check what they owe now, this sale, and what they will owe after it.
5. Tap Charge to Account.

The receipt prints Payment: ON ACCOUNT with the account's name. Charging works offline too: the sale and the new balance save on the device and sync when the connection is back.

How do trade prices work?

A trade price is a second, lower price for trade customers, such as builders and contractors. Set it on the product, switch Trade customer on for the account, and the till charges the trade price whenever that customer is picked, on account or paying cash. Products without a trade price keep their normal price.

1. On a product, fill in Trade price, next to the cost price. Leave it blank for products sold at one price to everyone.
2. On the customer's account, switch on Trade customer.
3. At the till, tap Add customer above the subtotal and pick them. You can do this before or after scanning the items. Choosing them under On account at payment does the same.

The product tiles and the cart switch to trade prices, with the normal price crossed out, and the cart shows what the customer saved. For example, 10 boxes of screws at $5.50 cost $55.00. At a trade price of $4.75 they cost $47.50, a saving of 10 × $0.75 = $7.50.

The receipt names the customer and prints Prices: Trade. Sales and profit in your reports use the price actually charged, so no discount is needed to make the numbers right.

To set trade prices for many products at once, add a trade price column to your product import. A 0 in it removes a product's trade price.

A customer picked for a sale they pay in cash is only named on the sale. Nothing is added to their account, and a return from that sale is refunded the way they paid.

What happens when a customer goes over their credit limit?

If a sale would take the balance past the account's credit limit, the till says by how much and asks for an admin's approval. An admin signed in at the till approves it just by confirming. Anyone else hands the device to an admin, who signs in to approve. The sale records who approved it, and Kasenso's server checks the approval too, so a sale past the limit can't go through without one.

For example, Reyes Construction has a $500 limit and owes $420. A $95 sale would take them to $420 + $95 = $515, which is $15 over, so it needs approval. A $75 sale takes them to exactly $495 and goes straight through.

Approval needs a connection, because the admin signs in. Offline, a sale under the limit charges as normal.

How do I record a payment on an account?

Open the account under Accounts and tap Take payment. Enter the amount, or tap All of it to clear the balance, and choose how they paid. Cashiers can take payments if their account can open Accounts. Set this under staff permissions.

A payment in Cash goes into the drawer, so shift close adds it to the expected cash on a line of its own, + Account Payments in Cash. Without that, the drawer would count over.

A payment larger than the balance leaves the account in credit, shown in green, and their next purchase uses it up.

Read the statement

Each account shows what is owed now, the credit limit and how much is left, then the statement, newest first:

Line	What it means	Balance
Charged	A sale on account	Goes up
Payment	Money they paid you	Goes down
Returned	Goods brought back from a sale on account	Goes down
Sale voided	A sale on account was voided	Goes down
Adjustment	An admin's correction, with the reason	Either way

Each line shows the balance it left. Tap a Charged line to see what was in that sale.

Statement lines are never edited or deleted, so a statement you showed a customer last month still adds up today. To fix a mistake, an admin taps Adjust, chooses Take off what they owe or Add to what they owe, and gives a reason. The reason appears on the statement.

Returns and voids on account

• Returns: on Return / Refund, a sale charged to an account offers Take off their account first. No money changes hands; the refund comes off what they owe. If they have already paid up, choose cash or another method instead.
• Voids: voiding a sale on account takes the whole charge back off the account.

Who owes what

The Accounts screen lists every open account with the most owed first, and the total Owed to you across all of them. Accounts over their limit are marked in red.

In your sales reports, sales on account count as sales on the day they were charged and appear under On account in the payment breakdown. A later payment is not a second sale, so it never counts twice.

Close an account

An admin can close an account once its balance is zero, from the bottom of the account. A closed account drops off the till's list but keeps its statement. Find it under Closed on the Accounts screen and tap Reopen account to use it again.

Frequently asked questions

What is a customer account in Kasenso?

A customer account is a tab for a regular customer who takes goods now and pays later. Sales are charged to it at the till by choosing On account, payments bring the balance down, and a statement shows every charge, payment, return and correction with the balance after each.

Who can open accounts and set credit limits?

Only an admin can open, edit or close accounts, set a credit limit, or adjust a balance. Cashiers can charge sales to accounts at the till and, if their permissions include Accounts, take payments. A cashier can't raise a limit or change what a customer owes by hand.

Does a sale on account count in my sales for the day?

Yes. A sale on account counts as a sale on the day it is charged, with its profit, and appears under On account in the payment breakdown. When the customer pays later, that payment is not counted as a sale again, so takings are never doubled.

How does a cash payment on an account affect the cash drawer?

Shift close adds cash account payments to the expected cash, on a line of its own called Account Payments in Cash. If a customer pays $200 toward their account in a shift that started with $100 and took $300 in cash sales, the drawer should hold $600.

Can I charge a sale to an account while offline?

Yes. The sale and the new balance save on the device and sync when the connection returns, like any other sale. The till checks the credit limit against the balance it last saw. Approving a sale over the limit needs a connection, because the admin has to sign in.

What if a customer pays more than they owe?

The extra stays on the account as credit, shown in green. Their next sale on account uses it up first. For example, a customer who owes $80 and pays $100 has $20 in credit, and a $50 sale then leaves them owing $30.

Can trade customers get lower prices automatically?

Yes. Give products a trade price and switch Trade customer on for the account. Whenever the till picks that customer, every product with a trade price is charged at it, on account or paid there and then. Products without a trade price stay at their normal price.

How do I enter what customers already owed before using Kasenso?

When you open the account, type it under Already owes. It goes on the statement as the opening balance. For an account that already exists, an admin can use Adjust, choose Add to what they owe, and give the reason "Opening balance".