Retail mode: sell goods that keep their own stock count

A café makes what it sells: one coffee uses 18 g of beans, a cup and a lid. A hardware store sells what it bought: the box of screws on the shelf is the box of screws that leaves. Retail mode sets Kasenso up for the second kind of shop.

How does Kasenso track stock for a retail shop?

In retail mode each product keeps its own stock count, and every sale takes it off that count directly — there is no recipe and no ingredient list. Restocks add to the count and update the product's cost, and the Inventory screen lists your products with their counts and reorder warnings.

Switch to retail mode

New accounts choose at sign-up, under What do you sell? — pick Retail goods, or Food & retail if you also make food. An existing account switches under Settings → What You Sell, then Save. The change reaches your staff when you save, the same as every other setting, and you can change it again any time.

What changes:

	Food & drinks	Retail goods	Food & retail
Stock is kept on	Ingredients	Each product	Each product chooses
A sale takes off	Its recipe's ingredients	One of the product	Whichever that product uses
Menu in the sidebar	Menu / Product	Products	Menu / Product
Choices (sizes, flavours)	Shown	Hidden	Shown
Kitchen display	Used if switched on	Not used — sales complete at once	Food goes to it; goods don't
Order type at signup	Dine-in, takeout, delivery	Takeout only, so the POS never asks	Dine-in, takeout, delivery

Switching hides screens but deletes nothing. A shop that switches back to food finds its choice groups and recipes where it left them.

Can I sell food and retail goods in the same shop?

Yes. Choose Food & retail under Settings → What You Sell. Each product then says how it is stocked: Made here uses a recipe, and Sold as bought keeps its own stock count with a barcode and SKU. One sale can mix both, and the Inventory screen has a switch between Ingredients and Products with stock.

For example, a café sells a latte, a 250 g bag of beans and a mug in one order:

Item	Set up as	What comes off stock
Latte	Made here	18 g beans, 200 ml milk, a cup and a lid, from ingredients
Beans 250 g	Sold as bought	1 bag, from the product's own count
Mug	Sold as bought	1 mug, from the product's own count

With the kitchen display on, only the latte goes to the kitchen. An order of only goods completes at once. A product's setting can be changed later on the product. Switching one back to Sold as bought fills in its last stock count for you to check.

Add a product with its stock

Go to Products and tap +. Alongside the name, price and category, a retail product has a Track stock panel:

• Cost price — what you pay for one unit. This is what turns sales into profit figures.
• SKU — optional. Your own stock code, up to 32 characters, such as SCR-2IN-100. It is saved in capitals, so scr-2in-100 is the same code. Two products cannot share one.
• Barcode — optional. Type it, scan it with a USB or Bluetooth scanner into the box, or tap Scan beside the box and hold the product's barcode up to the camera. Two products cannot share one.
• Starting stock — what is on the shelf today.
• Counted in — pc, box, pack, m, kg and so on. Pick the unit you sell in: a box of 100 screws sold by the box is counted in box. Lengths, weights and volumes (m, ft, kg, g, lb, L, gal) are sold by measure.
• Low at — the count at which the product shows as REORDER.

Switch Track stock off for things you sell but don't stock, like key cutting or a delivery charge. They still sell and still carry a cost price.

Once a product is saved, its count is no longer typed on the product form. It moves only through sales, voids, restocks, counts and write-offs, so every change is in the stock history.

How do I import my products from a spreadsheet?

On Products, tap Import / Export. Start from Blank template, or tap Export to get your current products, and fill it in with Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. Save it as CSV, then choose the file under Import.

Column	Needed?	Example
name	For new products	Wood screws 2in, box of 100
price	For new products	5.50
trade price	No — for trade customers	4.75
sku	No	SCR-2IN-100
barcode	No	4006381333931
category	No — new ones are created	Fasteners
cost	No	3.00
stock	No	40
unit	No — pc if blank	box
low stock	No	10

Kasenso shows a preview before saving anything: how many products are new, how many change, how many are unchanged, and each row it can't use, with the reason. Rows with a problem are skipped; the rest import when you tap Import.

• A row updates a product when it has the same id (from an export), SKU or barcode. Any other row becomes a new product.
• Blank cells change nothing. To change only prices, a file with just the sku and price columns is enough.
• A new stock figure for a product that already counts stock is saved like a shelf count, so Inventory → History shows the change.
• Columns can be named the way your old system names them. "Item code", "Qty", "Selling price" and "Reorder level" all work.

In Excel, set the barcode column to Text before you type or paste barcodes. Otherwise Excel turns a long barcode into a number like 4.00638E+12 and drops its last digits. Kasenso spots this and skips the row rather than saving a wrong barcode.

Restock when a delivery arrives

On Inventory, tap Restock on the product and enter how many arrived and what the whole delivery cost. Kasenso adds the quantity and re-averages the cost price over everything on the shelf.

For example, you have 40 boxes of screws at $3.00 a box ($120 of stock). A delivery of 60 boxes costs $210 ($3.50 a box):

• Stock: 40 + 60 = 100 boxes
• Value: $120 + $210 = $330
• New cost price: $330 ÷ 100 = $3.30 a box

Every sale after that is costed at $3.30, so your profit reflects what you actually paid. If you paid the supplier from the till, choose Paid from → Drawer and the payment is recorded as cash out of the drawer at the same time, so the shift doesn't close short.

Count a shelf and correct the number

Tap Count and type how many you can see — not the difference. If the app says 12 and the shelf has 9, type 9. Kasenso records a change of −3 with a note of the count, and the product shows 9.

Write off damaged or lost goods

Tap the red write-off button and enter how many to remove, with an optional note such as "water damage". A write-off is recorded as wastage at the product's cost price, so a $3.30 box written off shows as a $3.30 loss in Inventory → History rather than disappearing into a corrected count.

What happens at the till

• Each product tile shows how many are left, in orange once it reaches Low at.
• A sale takes the quantity off the product as the order is saved, online or offline.
• Voiding an order puts the quantity back.
• A Bundle / Combo of retail products — a hinge kit of hinges and screws, say — takes each part off its own count.
• Kasenso shows the count but never refuses a sale because of it. If the shelf has goods the app says are gone, the count is wrong, not the customer. Fix it with Count.

Can I sell by the metre or the kilo?

Yes. Count a product in m, ft, kg, g, lb, L or gal and set its price per unit, say $1.15 per metre of chain. When you tap or scan it at the till, a keypad asks how much: type 2.3 and the order gets 2.3 m for $2.65. Stock goes down by 2.3 m, and the receipt prints 2.3 m x $1.15/m.

You sell	Count it in	Price is per	At the till you type
Chain off a reel	m	metre	2.3
Nails loose from a bin	kg	kilo	1.25
Rope	ft	foot	12
Paint mixed to order	L	litre	0.5

Each line is rounded to the cent once, so the lines on a receipt always add up to its total: 2.3 m at $1.15 is $2.645, which shows as $2.65 on the line and in the total alike.

To change an amount already in the order, tap it — 2.3 m — and type the new one. The same works for anything sold by the piece: tap the quantity and type 50 instead of pressing + fifty times.

Scan barcodes at the till

Plug in a USB barcode scanner, or pair a Bluetooth one with the phone or tablet, and scan. The product goes into the order as if you had tapped its tile — no need to tap the search box or open its category first. Scan it again for a second one.

• A scanner that types into the search box works too: the product is added and the box clears for the next scan.
• Labels you print with your own SKU as the barcode scan the same way. You can also type a SKU into the search box and press Enter to add it.
• A barcode Kasenso doesn't know shows Barcode not found. Add it to the product under Products.
• Scans are ignored while a window is open, such as payment or the receipt, so a stray scan can't add to an order you've already charged or press Confirm Payment. Close the window and scan again.
• The search box reads Search or scan a barcode once the till is ready to scan.

Scanning works with any scanner that acts as a keyboard, which is how most USB and Bluetooth scanners ship. Not sure which to get? See which barcode scanner to buy.

Can I scan barcodes with my phone's camera?

Yes. Tap Scan beside the search box on the till, and hold each item's barcode inside the frame. The item goes into the order with a beep, and the camera stays open for the next one. Tap Done when the basket is scanned. In a retail or food & retail shop the button is always there; in a food shop it appears once a product has a barcode or SKU. On a narrow phone it shows only the barcode icon.

• The first time, the phone asks to let Kasenso use the camera. Allow it. If you said no, turn it on in the phone's settings under Kasenso's permissions.
• The camera reads the barcodes on goods (EAN and UPC), Code 128, Code 39 and ITF labels, and QR codes.
• A product that asks a question first, such as how many metres, closes the camera so you can answer. Tap Scan again for the next item.
• Scanning works offline. The picture is read on the device and is never saved or sent anywhere.

A camera is fine for a few items at a time. For a busy counter, a USB or Bluetooth scanner is faster: it reads from further away, in poor light, and without holding the phone steady. The camera window links to which barcode scanner to buy.

Frequently asked questions

What is retail mode in Kasenso?

Retail mode is a setting for shops that resell goods, such as hardware and general stores. Each product keeps its own stock count, a sale takes it off directly, and food-only screens like Choices are hidden. You choose it at sign-up or under Settings → What You Sell.

Can one shop sell both food and retail goods?

Yes. Choose Food & retail under Settings → What You Sell. Each product is then either Made here, from a recipe, or Sold as bought, with its own stock count. One sale can mix both, and the Inventory screen switches between Ingredients and Products with stock.

How does Kasenso work out a product's cost price?

It uses a weighted average. Each restock adds the delivery's cost to the value already on the shelf and divides by the new count. 40 boxes at $3.00 plus 60 boxes bought for $210 gives $330 over 100 boxes, so the cost price becomes $3.30.

Can a cashier restock or count stock?

Yes, if their account can open Inventory. Cashiers can restock, count and write off, and their sales move the count. Only an admin can add products or change names, prices and barcodes. Set this under Staff — see staff permissions.

Why is a product's stock below zero?

More was sold than the app knew you had — usually a delivery that arrived before it was entered. Kasenso never blocks a sale over a count. Enter the restock, or tap Count and type what is on the shelf, and the number corrects itself.

Does switching to retail delete my recipes or choices?

No. Switching hides the food screens but deletes nothing. Recipes, choice groups and ingredients stay in your account, and switching back to Food & drinks under Settings → What You Sell shows them again.

How do I sell something by length or weight?

Set the product's unit to m, ft, kg, g, lb, L or gal, and its price per unit. At the till, tapping or scanning it opens a keypad: type 2.3 for 2.3 metres. The line total, the stock count and the receipt all use that amount, rounded to the cent once.

Can I import my products from Excel?

Yes. Save the sheet as CSV and import it under Products → Import / Export. Only a name and a price are needed for each new product. Kasenso previews every row before saving, updates products that share an id, SKU or barcode, and skips rows it can't use, saying why.

What is a SKU, and do I need one?

A SKU (stock-keeping unit) is your own code for one product, such as SCR-2IN-100 for a box of 100 two-inch screws. It's optional. Add one if you already use codes on shelf labels or supplier orders: you can search by it on the till, Products and Inventory, and scan it from your own labels.

Can I scan barcodes at the till?

Yes, with a USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner, or with the phone or tablet's camera. Scan a product and it goes straight into the order, whichever category is on screen. An unknown barcode shows Barcode not found. The Scan button sits beside the till's search box.

Do I need a special barcode scanner?

No. The phone or tablet's camera scans barcodes for free. For a busy counter, any scanner that acts as a keyboard works, which is how most USB and Bluetooth scanners are sold. Plug it in or pair it with the device running Kasenso. It needs to send Enter after each code, the usual factory setting. The guide to which barcode scanner to buy covers what to look for and what to pay.