What the Commerce Industry Packs switches do
What the Industry Packs switches under Commerce really change for a gym, why they add nothing to the till or stock, and what the Industry CRM offers.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Fitness businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Somewhere in the Commerce & POS screens there is a tab of Industry Packs switches, with options that sound made for a gym. A club owner switches on the fitness option, expecting the till to start behaving like a gym system: memberships at the desk, packages counted down, members recognised when they buy a shake. Nothing of the sort happens, and it is not obvious why.
The answer is that those switches were never connected to anything that does that work. The industry features a gym needs live in the Industry CRM instead. This article explains the difference, so that nobody in your club spends an afternoon trying to make the wrong screen work.
Switches kept only in the browser that change labels
The Industry Packs switches in Commerce are kept only in the browser and change labels. They add nothing to the till or to stock. Achekam's own catalogue of capabilities lists the commerce industry packs and service workflows as not built.
In practice that means:
- Nothing is saved for your business. Because the switch lives in the browser, another computer at reception will not show the same setting, and clearing the browser loses it.
- Words change, behaviour does not. Some labels may read differently, but the till sells, takes payment and posts exactly as before.
- No member features appear. There are no memberships, packages, trials or member records behind the switch.
If staff have been switching it on and off to see what happens, nothing in your books has changed as a result.
Nothing added to the till or stock
The till itself is real and fully server-backed for businesses with the Point of Sale add-on. It records sales, payments and cash-ups, posts to the ledger and moves stock. None of that depends on the Industry Packs switches, and none of it changes when they are flipped.
So for gym retail, such as drinks, supplements, towels and day passes, keep using the till as it is. What the switch does not do is link those sales to members or memberships.
It helps to be clear about what the till already does on its own. Every till sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step, with each payment method to its own account, revenue, output VAT, and cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price. The sale also takes the sold quantity off stock at the till's location. A live X report of an open till and a Z report frozen at cash-up can both be opened as PDFs. Your accountant can rely on those records whatever any switch on the Commerce screens says, because none of the switches touches them.
The Industry CRM that retires the tab
The industry features a gym is looking for belong to Achekam's Industry CRM. When a business switches it on, it picks one of twenty industries, and switching to another industry later keeps every record. Each industry pack sets the words the screens use, its record types, pipelines, workflows, documents, reminders, starter catalogue, ledger accounts and home-page counts.
The Fitness, wellness & spas pack calls customers Members and keeps Memberships with their freezes, Session packages counted down session by session, and Trials. Alongside it, the Industry CRM links till sales to a customer's timeline, turns low stock into a reorder task, and reads its dashboards from the ledger. That is the connection between the desk and the member that the old switches only hinted at.
Two boundaries are worth knowing before you plan around it. The Fitness pack reads no access-control, turnstile or class-booking system, and runs no debit orders: visits are recorded by staff and memberships are invoiced. And only the business's own administrator can switch the Industry CRM on, change industry or grant its authorities, even when an accounting firm works in your books.
Investopedia's guide to customer relationship management describes the sales, service and forecasting processes a CRM covers. For a club, the Industry CRM is where members, their memberships and their history are kept; the till remains where things are sold.
Choosing one industry per workspace
A workspace runs one industry pack at a time, and a record keeps the pack it was made under. Most clubs will pick Fitness, wellness & spas without hesitation, but think about it if your business is mixed: a physiotherapy practice with a small gym, or a hotel with a spa. Pick the industry that describes most of your customer relationships, because that pack's words and workflows will shape your team's day.
If you change your mind later, switching to another industry keeps every record, so the choice is not a trap. It is still worth making deliberately.
If the switches are still on your screen
Until the old tab disappears from your Commerce screens, a short note to staff saves confusion:
- Leave the Industry Packs switches alone; they change only labels in that browser.
- Use the till for sales at the desk exactly as before.
- Use the Industry CRM's Fitness pack for members, trials, memberships and packages.
- Ask your administrator, not a colleague with a different browser, which industry the workspace runs.
For help choosing an industry and what happens if you change it later, read choosing an industry pack and changing it later, and for how a member's purchases at the desk appear on their record, see till sales on the member record.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
