The account book under the counter
Your shop supplies a boarding kennels a few miles away, two local rescues, a dog walking business and a small cattery. They come in or phone through orders, collect or have them dropped off, and pay monthly. Each has an agreed discount. When they take goods, the staff member rings them through the till on an account key and writes the items, prices and date in the account book under the counter.
At the end of the month, the owner sits down with the book, a calculator and the till reports, and types invoices into the accounts package. Some entries have no prices, one has the wrong discount, and the rescue's volunteer collected twice without anyone writing it down. The kennel queries its invoice, and nobody can prove what was taken.
Why account sales go astray
Account customers are valuable and regular, but they do not fit the normal till flow of pay now and go. The till records a sale on account without knowing who it was for or what discount applies, so the real record is on paper.
- The till has one generic account key, not a record per customer.
- Discounts are applied by memory, sometimes wrongly.
- Several people from one account can collect, not all known to staff.
- Phone orders for account customers are written on paper.
- Invoices are typed up by hand at month end.
What the notebook costs you
Missing entries are unbilled goods. Wrong discounts go either way, and both cause friction. Month end takes the owner an evening or more, and disputes with account customers take longer, because the evidence is handwriting in a book.
Account customers also buy in a different way from walk-in shoppers. A rescue might send whichever volunteer is free, a kennel might phone an order on Monday and collect half of it on Tuesday and half on Friday, and the dog walker may pick up food for several clients at once. Paper cannot follow those patterns reliably.
There is also credit risk. Without a running balance per account, you may not notice that one customer's unpaid total is climbing until it is uncomfortable to raise.
Trade accounts built into the sale
- We set up each account customer with their contact details, agreed discount or price list, credit limit and the people allowed to collect.
- At the till, staff select the account, or scan an account card, and the account pricing is applied automatically.
- The sale is recorded against the account with items, prices and the name of the person collecting.
- Phone and email orders for accounts are entered once and appear on a pick list, then posted to the account on collection or delivery.
- At month end, statements are produced automatically and posted as invoices to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, and emailed to each customer.
- A dashboard shows balances, overdue accounts and credit limits, with a warning at the till if an account is over its limit.
| Task | Account book | Trade accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Recording sales | Written in a book | Recorded at the till |
| Discounts | From memory | Applied automatically |
| Who collected | Sometimes noted | Name on every sale |
| Month end | Typed invoices | Statements generated |
| Credit control | Guesswork | Balances and limits visible |
If your till already supports customer accounts, we configure and connect it to your accounts package rather than building something new.
Month end in minutes
On the first of the month, statements for every account are ready to review. The owner checks them, approves them and they go out as invoices. When the kennel queries a line, the statement shows the date, the items and who collected.
At the till, staff no longer need to remember discounts or write in a book. Account customers get the right price every time, and phone orders are waiting on the pick list with their name on.
Is your account book causing month end pain?
- Account customer sales are written in a book.
- Discounts are applied from memory.
- Month end invoices are typed up by hand.
- Account customers query their invoices.
- You do not have a running balance per account.