Which commerce add-ons a shop actually needs
Point of Sale, Warehousing and Wholesale: what each Achekam commerce add-on does, which screens it opens, and how to match them to the way your shop sells.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A shop owner setting up Achekam for the first time often opens the menu, looks for the till, and cannot find it. Nothing is broken. The selling and stock screens sit behind add-ons, and which ones you need depends on how your business actually trades: a single counter with a cash drawer, a shop with a storeroom and a warehouse, or a trade counter selling to builders and caterers on account.
Choosing well matters. Too few add-ons and the screen you need is missing; too many and you are paying for, and training people on, screens nobody uses. This article explains what each commerce add-on opens, what it does on the server behind the screen, and how to match them to your shop.
When the Commerce & POS menu appears
A business workspace in Achekam leaves out the accounting-firm areas, and its Commerce & POS menu stays hidden unless the business holds a commerce add-on. Without one, you have the accounting, invoicing, banking, procurement and payroll screens, and no till.
That is a perfectly good set-up for many shops. A boutique that sells a few high-value items a day and invoices each one, or a business that records its daily takings from a separate till, may never need the commerce screens at all. The add-ons are for shops that want the selling and stock work done inside Achekam.
Point of Sale: the till and the server checks behind it
With the Point of Sale add-on, a business has a till under Commerce & POS. Without it, the business neither sees the till nor can use it: the server refuses its till requests, so the check is not just a hidden button.
The till is the heart of a retail set-up. Sales rung up there post to the ledger, take stock off the location the till was opened at, and produce receipts. If you sell over a counter to walk-in customers, this is the add-on you cannot do without.
Products: the Item Master needs one of three add-ons
The Item Master lives in the Accounting menu. It lists and creates products on the server, each with a SKU, a name, a category, a selling price and a cost price, an opening quantity and a VAT treatment.
It needs the Point of Sale, Warehousing or Wholesale add-on; any one of the three opens it. Products are the shared foundation for all three add-ons, so set them up carefully once rather than separately for each. Investopedia's guide to stock-keeping units explains how retailers build and use SKUs to track stock and sales, and how a SKU differs from the barcode on the pack, which is a useful read before you design your product codes.
Warehousing: locations, counts and transfers
With the Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations on the server, such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans, with the quantity on hand at each. On top of the locations it adds two jobs:
- Stock counts. A count sets a location's quantity to what was counted and records the difference as an adjustment.
- Transfers. Stock transfers between locations go from draft to dispatched to received, and a short delivery is recorded as wastage.
You need Warehousing as soon as stock lives in more than one place that matters: a shop floor and a back storeroom you count separately, a second shop, a warehouse feeding the shops, or a delivery van. It is also the add-on that makes proper stock counts possible, which every shop needs eventually; see running a stock take.
Wholesale: price lists, trade customers and account sales
With the Wholesale add-on, a business keeps price lists with quantity breaks, and trade customers with credit limits, terms and a hold. It confirms, dispatches and prints a waybill for orders.
Wholesale also changes what the till can do. A till sale can be charged to a trade customer's account, which writes a receivables invoice and checks the account's hold and credit limit, unless a supervisor or manager overrides it with a reason. But trade customers are created on the Wholesale screen, so account sales at the till need the Wholesale add-on too. A hardware store whose builders buy on account at the counter needs both Point of Sale and Wholesale. The trade-counter set-up is covered in more depth in selling at a trade counter on account.
Matching add-ons to the way the shop sells
| How the business trades | Point of Sale | Warehousing | Wholesale |
|---|---|---|---|
| One shop, one counter, walk-in customers, stock in one place | Yes | Not yet | No |
| One shop with a storeroom or warehouse counted separately | Yes | Yes | No |
| Two or more shops | Yes | Yes | No |
| Shop with a trade counter selling on account | Yes | If stock is in several places | Yes |
| Distributor selling only on orders, no counter | No | Yes | Yes |
| Shop that invoices every sale and does not track stock | No | No | No |
Three questions settle most cases:
- Do you ring up sales over a counter? Then Point of Sale.
- Is your stock in more than one place, or do you need proper counts? Then Warehousing.
- Do trade customers buy on credit at agreed prices? Then Wholesale.
Start with what you need today. A shop with one counter can begin with Point of Sale alone and add Warehousing when it opens a second branch; the planning for that day is in opening a second shop.
Write down how your shop sells, answer the three questions, and set up your products in the Item Master before the first day you use the till.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
