Help & troubleshooting
A small POS glossary
Everyday terms used in POS.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Reference
Step by step
SKU / barcode: an internal product code / the code a scanner reads. Variant: a size or colour of a product.
Batch / expiry: a delivery lot / its last eligible date. FEFO: use the earliest-expiring eligible stock first.
Receivable / payable: money customers owe you / money you owe suppliers. Store credit: a customer's prepaid balance.
Float / variance: opening drawer cash / the difference between counted and expected cash. Split payment: one bill, multiple methods.
A
- Aged receivables — Unpaid customer amounts grouped by how long they have been due.
B
- Balance Sheet — Assets, liabilities and equity at a selected date.
- Barcode — A scannable code used to identify an item.
- Batch — A tracked lot of stock with its own reference and, where used, expiry date.
- Blind count — A physical count made without showing the expected system quantity.
- Business mappings — Links between business transactions and the accounts used for posting.
C
- Cart — Items and quantities in the current sale before checkout.
- Cash drawer — The register drawer holding cash and the opening float.
- Chart of accounts — The list of accounts used to classify financial entries.
- Count sheet — A printable worksheet for recording a physical stock count.
- Credit sale — A customer sale with an unpaid amount to collect later.
- Customer display (CFD) — A shopper-facing screen showing the basket, totals and receipt information.
D
- Debit & Credit (Dr / Cr) — The two sides of an accounting entry; a balanced entry has equal totals.
- Debit note — The supplier-return document that records a reduction in the payable.
- Digital receipt — A sale receipt available through a private web link.
- Drug schedule — A medicine classification configured for the pharmacy’s applicable requirements.
E
- Equity — The owners’ interest after liabilities are deducted from assets.
- Expense — An operating cost recorded against an expense category.
- Expiry / FEFO — The batch expiry date; FEFO prioritises stock that expires earliest.
F
- Fiscal period / year — The accounting date ranges used for reporting, locking and year-end close.
- Float — Cash counted into the drawer when a shift opens.
G
- General Ledger — The detailed transaction history for an account.
J
- Journal (day book) — The record of posted accounting entries and their debit/credit lines.
K
- Kiosk (self-ordering) — A customer-operated ordering screen; the order is paid at the counter.
L
- Loyalty points — Customer rewards earned and redeemed under the configured rules.
- Loyalty liability — The redemption value of customers’ unspent points.
- Low stock — Stock at or below the configured reorder threshold.
M
- Markup — A selling-price increase calculated as a percentage of cost.
O
- Offline / Sync — Offline sales are stored on the device; sync sends pending records after reconnection.
- Opening balance — The starting amount used when bringing an account into the books.
- Outstanding balance — The customer’s remaining unpaid amount.
P
- Permission — An allowed action, such as viewing costs or approving a return.
- Pay-in / pay-out — A recorded cash addition or withdrawal outside a sale.
- Pickup number — The kiosk order code staff use to find a customer’s order.
- Placed order — A submitted kiosk order awaiting counter payment and completion.
- POS — Point of Sale: the checkout workspace used to record sales.
- Print bridge — The device helper used by a supported printer connection.
- Profit & Loss (P&L) — Income and expenses over a selected period.
- Purchase — A supplier stock order; receiving posts the delivered quantities to inventory.
R
- Receipt — The sale document showing items, totals and payments.
- Receivables — Amounts the business is still due to collect from customers.
- Redemption — Using available loyalty points towards a sale.
- Refund / Return — A recorded reversal of eligible sold items; external bank refunds are processed separately.
- Reorder level — The quantity threshold used to flag replenishment.
- Role — A named set of permissions assigned to a user.
S
- Scale barcode — A barcode containing a product code and an encoded weight or price.
- Scheduled report — A saved report delivery plan with recipients and a repeat schedule.
- Shelf location — A physical position such as aisle, rack, shelf or bin within a store.
- Shift — A cashier session from opening cash count to closing reconciliation.
- SKU — The unique catalogue code used to identify a product or variant.
- Sold by weight — An item sold using a measured quantity rather than whole pieces.
- Split tender — One sale paid using multiple payment methods.
- Statement — A dated account history of invoices, returns and payments with a running balance.
- Stock adjustment — A reasoned increase or decrease correcting recorded stock.
- Stock movement — A recorded inventory change with its transaction reference.
- Stock take — A physical count compared with an inventory snapshot.
- Stock transfer — A tracked stock movement between stores.
- Store — A business location with its own stock and terminals.
- Supplier — A business or person from whom stock is purchased.
T
- Tax component — An individual configured tax rule and rate.
- Tax group — A collection of tax components applied together.
- Tender — The method used to record a payment.
- Terminal — A register within a store with its own device settings.
- Trial Balance — Account debit and credit totals used to check that the books balance.
V
- Variance — The difference between expected and counted cash or stock.
- Void — Reversal of an eligible completed sale, with its recorded stock and balance effects.
W
- WAC (weighted average cost) — Average unit cost weighted by the quantities bought.
X
- X report — An interim shift summary that leaves the shift open.
Z
- Z report — The final shift summary produced at closing.
