Canteen

The canteen uses the same items, purchasing, suppliers, stock quantities and accounts as the rest of Inventory. It adds a fast, phone-friendly point of sale for food and other counter items, cashier shifts, outlets, PDQ terminal records and canteen-specific reports.

Before the first sale

1. Create the products under Inventory → Items. Enter each item’s unit, reorder level and default selling price.
2. Use the normal procurement workflow to order from suppliers, receive stock and record credit bills. This also applies to regular canteen suppliers such as a bakery or milk supplier.
3. Confirm that the cash, bank, M-Pesa and PDQ-clearing accounts used for receipts exist in Finance. ShuleOne creates the pocket-money liability control account automatically the first time pocket money is used at the canteen.
4. Go to Inventory → Canteen → Setup and check the default Main Canteen outlet. Add another outlet only when sales must be identified separately.
5. Register each card machine with a clear name, its terminal code, model and acquiring bank or payment provider. Assign it to the outlet where it is used.

Supported terminal records include the NEW8210 EFT-POS, Ingenico AXIUM DX8000, PAX S920 and other models. Registering a terminal does not install banking software on it.

Moving stock to the canteen

Goods received through procurement first form part of the school’s total inventory. Before selling them at a counter, go to Inventory → Canteen → Stock, select the outlet and select Transfer beside an item.

Choose Main store → outlet, enter the quantity and save the movement. A transfer is an internal allocation: it reduces the quantity available in the main store and increases the outlet balance, but it does not change the school’s total stock or create income or expense. Use Outlet → main store when returning unopened or unused stock.

Each outlet has its own quantity and reorder level. An item shown as Not stocked has never been allocated to that outlet. It will not appear in the POS catalogue until stock is transferred there.

Counting outlet stock

Select Count beside an item and enter the physical quantity, the outlet reorder level and a reason or stock-count reference. ShuleOne records the difference as an audited movement. Unlike a transfer, a physical-count variance changes the school’s total stock because it represents an actual shortage or surplus.

Starting a cashier shift

Go to Inventory → Canteen → POS. Select the outlet, enter the actual opening cash float, then select Open shift. A cashier can have only one open canteen shift.

All sales made during the shift retain the cashier and outlet. At handover or closing time, select Close shift, count the physical cash and enter it. ShuleOne compares:

opening float + completed cash sales = expected cash

The difference between expected and counted cash is retained as the shift variance. Explain a non-zero variance in the notes before completing the close.

Making a sale

1. Choose Student, Teacher or Staff, then search by name or identifying number and select the customer.
2. Search or tap products to add them to the cart. Change quantities if necessary. The catalogue shows only stock allocated to the shift’s outlet, and ShuleOne prevents a quantity above that outlet balance.
3. Select Cash, Card / PDQ, M-Pesa, Bank transfer or, for a student, Pocket money. Pocket money shows the student’s live available balance and cannot be used above that balance. Teachers and staff cannot use a student’s pocket money.
4. To combine methods, select Add tender, choose each method and enter its amount. Each cash, bank, M-Pesa or PDQ part needs its own receiving Finance account. The checkout becomes available only when the allocated tenders equal the sale total.
5. For each card tender, choose the physical terminal and enter the PDQ receipt’s RRN or transaction reference. For M-Pesa or bank transfer, enter the provider reference.
6. Check the total and select Complete sale. Print the receipt if the customer needs a paper copy.

Teacher results come from the school’s active Teachers register, and staff results come from the active Staff register—the same records used by Attendance and Inventory issues. A teacher or staff member does not need to be imported into HR or Payroll before they can buy from the canteen. Salary or payroll deduction is not a canteen payment method; use one of the listed receipt methods.

Completing the sale reduces stock and posts both the receipt and cost of goods sold to the accounts. It also stores the item’s cost at that moment, so later buying-price changes do not rewrite the sale’s gross profit. A pocket-money tender atomically reduces the student’s balance, appears on the pocket-money statement with the canteen sale number, and debits the pocket-money liability control account. If any part fails, the whole sale is rolled back.

Assisted PDQ entry

The initial PDQ workflow is assisted: collect payment on the bank terminal first, then record its terminal and reference in ShuleOne. Never type or store a card number, PIN or CVV. A recorded card receipt remains marked for reconciliation until it is checked against the acquirer statement.

Reports and reconciliation

Go to Inventory → Canteen → Reports and choose a period. The page shows:

• revenue, cost of goods sold, gross profit and voided-sale count;
• totals by cash, card, M-Pesa and bank transfer;
• totals for students, teachers and staff;
• the top-selling items with quantity, revenue, cost, gross profit and margin;
• each PDQ terminal’s transaction count, value and entries awaiting reconciliation; and
• the detailed sales register, including outlet, cashier and reference.

Use Inventory → Canteen → Stock for the selected outlet’s value, low-stock and out-of-stock totals, current balances and complete movement register. The register shows main-store transfers, counter sales, void returns and physical-count adjustments. Both the balance report and sales report can be exported to PDF or Excel.

Use PDF for review or printing and Excel for further reconciliation. For daily PDQ reconciliation:

1. Compare each terminal’s ShuleOne total and RRN values with the terminal settlement or acquirer statement.
2. In the sales register, select Reconcile beside an awaiting PDQ tender.
3. Enter the settlement or batch reference, settlement date and amount received. A difference from the expected amount is recorded as the settlement variance and needs an explanatory note.
4. Save the reconciliation. The terminal report then separates expected, settled, reconciled and still-unreconciled values.

If a reconciliation used the wrong statement or amount, an authorised supervisor can select Reopen, enter a reason and reconcile it again. ShuleOne retains every reconcile and reopen event with its user and time in the audit history.

Correcting a completed sale

Do not edit a completed receipt. An authorised supervisor opens Inventory → Canteen → Reports, finds the receipt and selects Void sale in the Actions column. Enter a clear reason and confirm the warning. Voiding returns the items to stock, reverses the accounting entry, restores any pocket money, marks its payment records voided and keeps the original receipt and reason in the on-screen and exported audit trail.

If Void sale is unavailable, check the receipt’s PDQ tenders. A reconciled PDQ payment must first be selected and Reopen used with a reason. Reopen every reconciled PDQ part before voiding; this prevents a settled transaction from being silently removed from the canteen register.

Access rights

Assign the least access needed under Settings → Users → Rights → Inventory:

• Use canteen point of sale — view outlet balances, open and close the user’s shift, and record sales;
• Manage canteen shifts and setup — maintain outlets and terminals, transfer and count outlet stock, and supervise the canteen; and
• View canteen reports — view and export sales, stock movement and PDQ reports.

Inventory administrators, finance administrators and super administrators retain the corresponding access. Ask users to sign out and back in after their rights are changed.

What’s new - 2 September 2026

Canteen POS, cashier shifts, outlet-level stock, internal transfers, physical counts, assisted PDQ tracking and canteen reports are now available under Inventory. The existing Student Sales screen remains available for non-canteen retail workflows such as uniforms and books. After upgrading, transfer each outlet’s opening quantities from the main store before its next canteen sale. Cashiers can also split a sale across multiple tenders and use a student’s pocket-money balance. Supervisors can reconcile individual PDQ receipts to settlement references and amounts, record variances, and reopen mistakes without losing the reconciliation history. Supervisors can now void a completed receipt directly from the sales register; stock, payment, pocket-money and accounting reversals happen together, while the reason remains visible and is included in exports. The report also ranks the top-selling items and shows their quantities, revenue, costs, profit and margin. Teacher and staff customer searches now use the operational Teachers and Staff registers, so a missing optional HR import no longer hides an active person from the canteen.