Performing Department Sales

Performing Department Sales

InfoWe have a video guide on configuring departments for department sales and adding them as a button to your point of sale screen - Department Sales
Retailer allows you to perform sales for a specific department without scanning a particular item's barcode if you do not have the stock item in your system or need to record it as a one-time sale. When a department sale is processed, a keypad will appear for you to enter the price of the product.
While convenient and useful, our recommendation is to avoid performing these types of sales as they can cause problems in the following ways:
  1. It is impossible to track the actual stock items sold
  2. Without any tracking, it can make returns and warranties difficult to account for
  3. Discrepancies will also appear during stocktakes
  4. Gross Profit will be recorded as 100%. Some reports can estimate Gross Profit for Department Sales based on the Department Markup percentage. 

Allowing Sales to a Department

  1. On the top menu bar of Retailer, click on Stock Maintenance → Suppliers and Departments.
  2. Click on the Magnifying Glass 🔎︎ button to search for the particular department.
    If the department does not exist, click on Add to create a new one. See Adding Department.
  3. In Department Barcode, press [Alt]+[G] to generate a barcode.
  4. In PLU, type in a short code for the department.
    For example, you could type MAGS for MAGAZINES.
  5. Press [Tab] on your keyboard.
  6. Click Save and Close.
Note: Department Sales can only be configured for Departments; it cannot be set up for Categories.

Performing Department Sales

  1. On the Point of Sale screen, enter the Department Barcode and press enter.
    Alternatively, type a tilde (~) followed by the PLU of the department and press enter.
    Alternatively, press [Enter] to open the Find Stock Screen and select the Department item.
  2. In the keypad that appears, type in the amount.
  3. When finished, tender the sale as normal.

(Optional) Creating a Touch Screen Button

See our Setting up POS screen article for more information
  1. From the Point of Sale screen, click the gear button ⚙️ at the top right and then select Edit.
  2. Click the button you wish to use as the Department Hotkey.
  3. In Button Type, select Barcode.
  4. In the barcode field, enter the tilde (~) key followed by the PLU of the department. Alternatively, press [Enter] to search for it in the Find Stock Screen.

(Optional) Creating a Stock Item for Miscellaneous Sales

Just like a department sale barcode, you can create stock items with a selling price of $0. When used on the point of sale screen, it will prompt you with a keypad to enter the price for that item during the sale. This can be useful for charging fees such as delivery, freight, or labour, or if it does not make sense to have the item created as a department.

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