A courier counter selling sends and packaging
How a courier counter can use Achekam's till to sell parcel sends and packaging, how each kind of item is set up, and what every sale posts.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A courier counter in a shopping centre does two kinds of business at once. A customer walks in with a parcel, pays to send it across the country, and buys a box, bubble wrap and tape while they are there. The box and the tape are goods on a shelf that run out and need reordering. The send is a service: there is nothing on the shelf, only a price based on size, weight and destination.
Selling both through one till is entirely possible, but the till has to be set up for the difference. This article explains how a courier or parcel counter in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can do it with Achekam's till, and what to know before the first customer arrives.
The Point of Sale add-on
A business with the Point of Sale add-on has a till under Commerce & POS. A business without it neither sees the till nor can use it, because the server refuses its till requests. So the first step is to have the add-on in the workspace.
Once it is, several tills can run at once, each opened at one of the business's stock locations, which suits a business with a counter at more than one site. Each sale is rung up by the signed-in user, paid in full, and posted to the books as it happens.
Packaging as stock, sends as products
Everything the till sells is a product in the Item Master, in the Accounting menu. The Item Master lists and creates products on the server with SKU, name, category, selling and cost price, opening quantity and VAT treatment.
Set up the two kinds of item differently:
| Item | Category | Opening quantity | Cost price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxes, envelopes, bubble wrap, tape | Packaging | What is on the shelf | What you pay your supplier per unit |
| Parcel sends by service and size band | Sends | See the stock rules below | Nil, if the carrier bills you separately |
For sends, create one product per service and size band, such as "Overnight, small parcel" or "Economy, large parcel", matching your published price list. The till does not drive a scale, so weigh or measure the parcel separately and choose the band. A clear SKU scheme helps cashiers find the right band quickly; Investopedia's explainer on the stock-keeping unit explains how retailers build SKUs to track stock and sales.
One limit matters for courier price lists in particular: no screen lets a business change a product's price, cost or VAT treatment after creating it, or deactivate it. When your carrier's rates change, you will need new products for the new prices. Plan the product names and SKUs so a new price list can sit beside the old one without confusing cashiers, for example by including the price list's month in the name.
Stock rules for a service sold at the till
A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock in the same step, at the till's location, and refuses to sell more than is in stock unless the business allows negative stock. That rule protects packaging counts, but a send has no stock to count.
There are two honest ways to handle it:
- Allow negative stock for the business. Sends can then be sold without a stock figure behind them. The cost is that packaging could also be sold into a negative count, so a regular shelf count becomes more important.
- Give send products a generous opening quantity. Sends then sell like stock items until the quantity runs low, which needs watching and replenishing. It keeps the no-negative rule in place for packaging.
Choose one approach, write it down, and tell whoever sets up products. Mixing approaches across products is how counts stop making sense.
The receipt the sender gets
The till receipt is a PDF made by the server from the posted sale, showing every payment, VAT by rate and the business's tax number. It can be printed, downloaded or e-mailed to the customer. Many senders prefer the e-mail, since it is easier to keep with their tracking reference.
The carrier's own consignment note or waybill, with the tracking number, remains a separate document from your carrier's system; give the customer both. The till does not drive receipt printers, so if you print, it is from the browser like any other PDF. Card payments are recorded by the cashier from the bank terminal's slip, because the till is not connected to any card machine.
The journal each sale posts
Every till sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step:
- each payment method to its own account: cash 1050, card and QR 1060, EFT 1000, M-Pesa 1070;
- revenue to 4000;
- output VAT to 2150;
- cost of sales against inventory 1300 at the product's cost price.
In South Africa, each till line is taxed at its product's own VAT rate, so a 0% product stays at 0%, and otherwise at the approved standard rate. Ask your adviser which of your sends and packaging items are standard-rated before you create them, because the VAT treatment cannot be changed afterwards.
With a nil cost price on send products, the till posts no cost of sales for them, and the carrier's charges reach your books as supplier bills instead. That keeps the inventory account for real goods. Packaging posts its cost of sales at the cost price you entered. Stock kept for your own vehicles, such as tyres and diesel, is a different matter covered in tyres, spares and diesel as stock.
Before opening the counter
Write out your price list as products, decide the stock rule for sends, and test a sale of each kind on a quiet morning: a send, a box, and both together. Then check the journal the test posted, so you know exactly what every real sale will do to your books. Business customers who send regularly on account are covered in shipper accounts and ageing.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
