Understanding Zoho POS - A Glossary

Items

Items in Zoho POS let you keep a record of the products that you sell and the services offered in your business. For example, a supermarket can have items like apples, oranges, milk, eggs, and bread, while a lifestyle-based service business can add their services like event planning, photography, repairs and maintenance, delivery, and much more.

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)

A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is a unique identifier assigned to an item to identify and track it within a business. For example, Zylker Supermarket may use ZYL001 for apples, ZYL002 for bread, and so on.

Opening Stock

Opening stock is the total stock of items available for sale at the beginning of an accounting period. This stock is provided by the business during item creation or import to start sales and is not associated with purchases.

Opening Stock per Unit

This is the price of an item from the opening stock. For example, if a grocery store sets the selling price at ₹20, the opening stock value per unit should also be ₹20.

Reorder Point

The reorder point is the threshold level that indicates when the stock of an item is low and helps businesses restock items on time.

Accounting Stock

Accounting stock refers to the inventory quantity recorded in the accounts rather than the actual physical stock in the store. It is calculated based on bills and invoices. For example, if a store creates a purchase order for 100 bottles of oil and generates a bill, the accounting stock will be updated with 100 units. This helps businesses plan new orders.

Physical Stock

Physical stock refers to the actual quantity of items present in the store, warehouse, or outlet, rather than what is recorded in the accounts. It is calculated based on receives and shipments. For example, if a store creates a purchase order for 100 bottles of oil and generates a bill, the physical stock remains unchanged until the items are received. This ensures the items are physically available for sale.

Stock on Hand

Accounting stock: The current stock recorded in the accounts, including stock committed to transactions.

Physical stock: The current stock physically available in the store, including stock committed to transactions.

Committed Stock

Accounting stock: Stock committed to sales orders but not yet invoiced.

Physical stock: Stock committed to sales orders but not yet shipped.

Available for Sale

Accounting stock: The stock available in accounts, calculated as stock on hand minus committed stock.

Physical stock: The stock physically available in the store, calculated as physical stock on hand minus committed stock.

Batches

Batches are specific quantities of products produced, purchased, or processed together that share common characteristics such as manufacturing dates, expiration dates, suppliers, or batch numbers. In Zoho POS, items can be added in batches based on batch numbers, and these batches are available during transactions.

Serial Number

A serial number is a unique, often alphanumeric identifier assigned to an individual item by a manufacturer to distinguish it from others. It enables precise tracking for inventory management, warranty claims, and theft prevention. This differs from batch numbers, which identify groups of items and are used for group-level tracking.

First In, First Out

First In, First Out is an inventory evaluation method which means that the oldest inventory items are recorded as sold first irrespective of whether its actually done this way or not.

For example, if an electronic store has an opening stock of 1000 smartphones added to their inventory. Later they purchase another 100 and record a bill for it. In this case, they will have two lots of smartphones; one is the opening stock (1000 smartphones) and the the other is the stock from the bill (100 smartphones). When they sell the smartphones, the stock gets deducted from the opening stock first since this is his first lot. After the opening stock of 1000 smartphones get sold out, the stock gets deducted from the next transaction recorded in Zoho POS.

Weighted Average Costing

Weighted Average Costing (WAC) is an inventory valuation method that calculates the average cost of all available units and uses this average to determine the cost of goods sold (COGS) and ending inventory. Instead of tracking each purchase separately, WAC smooths out price fluctuations by combining all purchase costs into one average rate.

For example, if a clothing store purchase 100 shirts at 200 each, 150 shirts at 220 each, and 50 shirts at 240 each, making a total of 300 shirts costing 65,000. Using weighted average costing, the total cost will be divided by the total units to get an average cost of 216.67 per shirt. When they sell 120 shirts, each is valued at this average rate, so the cost of goods sold is based on 216.67 per unit, and the remaining inventory is also valued at the same rate, regardless of when each shirt was purchased.

Item Groups

Multiple variants of an item based on parameters like size or type of material can be grouped together as Item Groups. For example, a pair of pants can be of different sizes and color. Instead of adding them as individual entries, they can be grouped as one in the Item Groups module.

Attribute

An item can be differentiated based on various parameters such as size, colour, type, etc. These parameters are called the attributes of an item and can be defined while creating an item group.

Composite Items

When two or more items or services are combined together, they form a composite item.
For example, a combo pack consisting of fabric conditioner and liquid detergent can be added as a composite item in Zoho POS. This is also termed as kitting.

Categories

Categories in Zoho POS lets you group various items together. You can group them based on common characteristics such as electronics, pet supplies, kitchen, home decor, and so on.

Price Lists

A custom rate that can be defined for the items that are sold. You can either enter a custom rate for each item, or specify a markup or markdown percentage. Say you want to give 10% off to regular customers at your store. Instead of computing the discount manually, you can simply select the pricelist at the point of sale.

Adjustments

Changes to the quantity or value of the item can be recorded as Adjustments. The quantity of the item has to be adjusted when there are discrepancies in the recorded quantity and the quantity at the store. You can also change the value of the item based on fluctuations in demand. For example, the cost of mangoes will be less during peak season, where they're readily available.

Embedded Barcodes

Embedded barcodes are barcodes which embeds item information, such as the item name, SKU, selling price and amount, into it. These barcodes simplify the process of packing and repacking of items based on their weight.

Transfer Orders

A document that keeps record of all the inventory transfers performed from one warehouse to another. This document helps you greatly reduce the hassle of manually updating the stock levels in the warehouses.

Vendors

The companies from whom the items are purchased that you sell at the store.

For example, Zylker sells bakery items, beverages, fruits, and vegetables. They purchase the bakery items from Cakes4sale, beverages from ABC company, fruits and vegetables from XYZ store. Here, Cakes4Sale, ABC company, and XYZ store are the vendors for Zylker.

Purchase Orders

A document that is issued to the vendor by the buyer with information about the items to purchase, the quantity, and the price. Once it's accepted by the vendor, they will start fulfilling the purchase order request.

Purchase Receives

A document that has the list of all the items delivered or yet to be delivered by the vendor. This helps you track the items received and adjust the stock accordingly.

Bills

A document sent by the vendor to the buyer requesting payment for all the items that are delivered from the purchase order.

Payments Made

All the payments made to the vendors for the unpaid bills are recorded in the Payments Made module.

Vendor Credits

The amount that the vendors owe to your business can be tracked as Vendor Credits. These credits can be used to pay up open bills that are raised by the vendors.

Orders

The sales that happen at the store will be recorded as Orders in Zoho POS. It contains the item summary, payment status, and delivery status, cancellations or returns if applicable.

Invoices

A document issued by the business to the customer requesting payment, with information about the list of items purchased, the quantity, tax rates, discounts if applicable, and the total cost.

Payments Received

The payment received from the customer for outstanding invoices raised by your business will be recorded in this module. This helps you identify whether a customer has paid the total amount owed to your business.

Picklists

A document assigned to a warehouse picker (salesperson) communicating the list of items and its quantities to pick from a specific warehouse to fulfil orders. You can also create a pick lists directly from a sales order.

Packages

The items ordered by customers to be delivered at their location can be packed, and a package slip can be generated in the Packages module of Zoho POS. The package slip includes the list of all the items packed from the sales order raised by the customer. Once the items are packed, they can be shipped to the desired destination.

Shipments

Once the packaging is done for the items raised in the sales order by the customer, they can be shipped to the desired location. You can either ship them manually or ship via carrier using the various shipping integrations such as Aftership and Easypost.

Returns

The items returned by the customer will be grouped under Returns. Here, you can monitor the status of return and the refund process.

Credit Notes

When items are returned by the customer, the appropriate value/cost of the item can be recorded as a credit note in Zoho POS. This can be applied later to any new purchases made by the customer.

Delivery Challan

A delivery challan is a legal document that is necessary for transporting goods from one location to another, which may or may not result in sales. This document normally includes item descriptions, order value, sender and recipient addresses, and other important information.

Imagine you run a toy store selling handcrafted products. You purchase them from suppliers, store them in a warehouse, and then move them to a packaging unit for painting, bundling, and labelling before sale. Since this transfer of products from warehouse to packaging unit does not involve a sale, you cannot create an invoice. Instead, you issue a delivery challan.

Sessions

A specific period in a day where the transactions are processed at the point of sale can be termed as a session. It usually depends on the business' working hours or shift hours. You can open a session while logging in to the app and also record the opening cash, cash in, cash out and closing cash.

Conflicts

A module where all the issues that are raised due to improper/missed synchronisation between Zoho POS web and Zoho POS windows/mobile applications will be listed. User with proper access permission can check the issues and take necessary action required.

For example, imagine you run a supermarket with three active registers. One of the registers loses internet connection for a certain period, and your staff continues billing offline. During this time, some of your stock items run out, but your staff still creates four sales orders that include these out-of-stock items. Once the register reconnects to the internet and synchronises with your web application, all these sales orders containing the zero-stock items will appear under Conflicts in the Zoho POS web application. From there, you can review the issues and take the necessary action.

e-Way Bills

A legal document required for transporting goods that exceed a particular transaction limit specified under GST treatment. It contains the details of a consignor, consignee, type of supply, item details, mode of transportation, and transaction type, and it can be generated through the e-Way bill portal. It can be generated individually or in bulk based on your requirements.

For example, imagine you run a supermarket with three active registers. One of the registers loses internet connection for a certain period, and your staff continues billing offline. During this time, some of your stock items run out, but your staff still creates four sales orders that include these out-of-stock items. Once the register reconnects to the internet and synchronises with your web application, all these sales orders containing the zero-stock items will appear under Conflicts in the Zoho POS web application. From there, you can review the issues and take the necessary action.

Users

A person who has access to the organization's Zoho POS account. For example, the cashier, sales manager, and other staff members.

Role

This defines a user's permission to access the data in the organization's Zoho POS account.

For example, the admin can export data, modify preferences, and manage integrations, whereas a staff member or store manager does not have access to these functionalities.

Registers

Register/counter is where the sales transaction takes place in a business. Normally, there can be more than one register or counter at use in any retain store to ensure an hassle-free experience at the point of sale.

Salesperson

A salesperson is an individual whose job is to sell products or services to customers or even to other businesses. In Zoho POS, you can associate a salesperson to an order or invoice with their name and email address for tracking purposes. If you don't find a salesperson field in your invoice/order creation or edit screen, you can enable it in the Settings.

Reports

Reports in Zoho POS provide comprehensive insights into sales, inventory, receivables, payments, payables, purchases, expenses, and activities. They help streamline data management, improve customer experiences, support tax compliance, monitor vendor relationships, and ensure data security.

Custom Modules

Custom Modules in Zoho POS allow you to create your own modules with the required fields and metrics. For example, a hair spa salon can create a custom module to collect customer preferences, such as treatment type, preferred stylist, and preferred time.

Workflow

Workflow in Zoho POS is an automation tool designed to help businesses streamline repetitive and complex tasks, eliminating manual effort. Whether it’s automatically assigning a salesperson to an invoice or integrating with third-party applications, workflows enable efficient and seamless process management.

Connections

Connections is a tool that enables Zoho POS to integrate with third-party services and access authenticated data. To establish a connection, businesses must provide details such as a connection name and authentication type.

Webhooks

Webhooks are workflow actions that allow businesses to communicate with third-party applications by sending instant notifications when specific events occur. Businesses can configure HTTP or HTTPS URLs and link them to workflow rules to automate notifications and trigger actions in external systems.

Custom Functions

Custom Functions are workflow actions that let businesses automate operations using short scripts. By writing code in Deluge and associating it with workflow rules, businesses can automate tasks such as applying special discounts or charging late fees.

Schedules

Schedules are workflow actions that allow businesses to create and run predefined tasks at specified intervals. Businesses can write tasks using Deluge scripts and schedule them to run at a particular time or on a recurring basis.

Clear Cart

Clear Cart is an option in the Zoho POS application that allows you to remove all items from the cart and start a new invoice or order. Once cleared, this action cannot be undone.

Hold Cart

Hold Cart is an option in the Zoho POS application that lets you temporarily save an invoice or order and proceed with a new transaction. The held cart can be recalled later to complete the sale. However, held invoices or orders will be cleared if the session ends or the user logs out of the application.

Recall

Recall is an option in the Zoho POS application that allows you to retrieve previously held invoices or orders and resume billing.