Canteen and School Shop (Point of Sale)

Separate Canteen and POS permissions

Under Admin → Users & Privileges → Canteen, an administrator can separately assign Receive and Return Stock, Sell In-Stock Items, Change Item Price, Give Customer Discounts, and Add and Edit Products. Screen access and permitted campuses still apply. Disabled controls explain which permission is needed; the server checks every save.

Existing Canteen Items and Point of Sale users retain the corresponding controls only within their existing campus scope. Administrators can remove individual permissions after the upgrade. Product editing alone cannot alter an existing item price. A new product needs its initial price; opening stock, including an Excel import, also needs stock permission. Return to main store records goods leaving canteen stock with an audit reason; it does not add quantities to a separate Inventory & Assets store.

Import canteen items from Excel

Open General → Canteen & POS → Canteen Items and choose Import Excel. Download the Excel template. Fill the Items sheet using Campus IDs from the Campuses sheet. Category, Item name and Sale price are required with Campus ID. Optional columns include code or barcode, unit, stock tracking, opening stock, low-stock level, sale status, sort order and notes. Instructions and Example sheets explain the fields; examples are not imported.

Upload an Excel workbook, up to 500 rows and 2 MB, then choose Review workbook. Use plain values without formulas. Correct any listed row errors in Excel and review again. After a successful review, choose Import items and confirm. Every row saves together or none do. The same item name may appear at different campuses; existing names at the same campus are rejected and never overwritten. Only permitted campuses are available. Every campus requires school-wide access.

Opening stock requires stock tracking and creates a Receive entry in Stock history. Review does not save items. Imported active items become available to the till. If a connection fails during import, check the catalogue before retrying. This import does not make sales, payments or send messages.

Let the assistant finish the form

In autonomous mode, ask the assistant to do the work. The task finds the named record, asks for missing or ambiguous details, fills the actual form and shows the change for confirmation before saving. A Yes answering a salary prorating question keeps the employee and month in the conversation; it is not approval to save. Check the separate confirmation card.

For a named student’s fee plan, the assistant opens that student’s Create form. Fee-head discounts and first-time arrears have distinct labels. A final fee amount means Fee After Discount; the assistant asks which fee head when unclear, then saves with the existing Create checks after confirmation.

For several canteen item sizes, use General → Canteen & POS → Canteen Items → Add several items. Select Sold at and Category, then enter one name | price per line, up to ten items and 300 characters. Review every price. Track stock applies to the list; opening stock is zero and stock can be received separately. Save items uses the existing item writer and privileges. The assistant shows the whole bounded list on one confirmation card.

If part of the list fails, saving stops. The panel reports confirmed saves and keeps the remaining rows. Check the catalogue before trying again because a disconnected request may have reached the server. Existing same-name items are rejected; nothing is resent automatically. No SMS, WhatsApp, email or app notification is sent.

The canteen and school-shop module lets a school sell canteen food, uniforms, books and stationery over the counter. A sale is paid in cash or charged to the student's family account, and every sale prints an 80 mm thermal receipt. The canteen screens are in the General menu, under Canteen & POS.

1. Set up your items — General → Canteen & POS → Canteen Items

Click Add item. Choose a category (Canteen, Uniform, Books, Stationery or Other), type the name and the sale price, and pick the campus that sells it — or Every campus.
For things you count (uniforms, books), tick Track stock and enter the opening quantity. The till will then refuse to sell more than you have. Leave it off for canteen food.
When new stock arrives, tick the item and use Receive stock (give the supplier bill number as the reason). After a physical count, use Correct stock. Every change is kept in the item's Stock history.
An item that has ever been sold cannot be deleted — it is deactivated instead, so old receipts still show it.

2. Sell — General → Canteen & POS → Point of Sale

Pick the campus. Tap items to add them to the cart (search by name or code — a barcode scanner types into the search box). Change quantities in the cart.
Customer: leave it as Walk-in for a cash sale, or search a student by name, roll number, student ID or family number. The family's balance and credit limit appear.
Payment: Cash (enter the amount tendered; the change is worked out) or Family credit (the total is added to what the family owes).
A discount is an amount off the cart and always needs a reason.
Click Complete sale. The system checks prices, stock and the family's limit and shows you the totals and the family balance before and after. Confirm, and the receipt opens and prints.
Today's sales under the till lists every receipt at that campus today, with Reprint and Void.

3. Voiding a sale

A sale is never deleted. Void needs a reason, records who voided it and when, puts tracked stock back and, for a credit sale, takes the amount off the family's balance. Only today's sales can be voided at the till; correct an earlier credit sale with a family account adjustment.

4. Family accounts — General → Canteen & POS → Canteen Family Accounts

A family is every student who shares the same family number (a student without one has an account of their own). An account opens by itself the first time something is charged, or you can open one in advance with Open account (search the student) to take a deposit.
Statement shows every charge, payment, void and adjustment with the running balance, and can be printed for the parents.
Settle records a payment from the family (cash or bank, with a reference). Paying more than is owed leaves an advance that later credit sales use up.
Limit & block: set a credit limit (0 means the family can only spend money it has paid in advance), or block credit for the family altogether.
Adjust (a write-off or a correction) always needs a reason and changes nothing until a different user approves it on the Pending adjustments tab.

5. Reports — General → Canteen & POS → Canteen Sales Reports

Daily register: for each day and cashier — cash sales, credit sales, discounts, voids, family payments received, and the cash in hand the drawer should hold.
Item-wise: quantity and amount sold per item (before discounts; the total discount is shown underneath).
Voided: every voided receipt with who voided it, when and why.
All receipts: search by cashier, payment mode or status, and reprint any receipt.

Things to watch

Prices always come from the item list at the moment of sale; changing a price does not change old receipts.
A campus-restricted user sees and sells only at their own campuses.
To use these screens, a user needs access to them — ask your school administrator to grant Canteen access in Admin → Users & Privileges.
For a clean print, choose your 80 mm receipt printer and set margins to None in the print dialog.

Enabled modules are in the General menu, each under its own heading. A module appears there only when it is enabled for your institute. Your user privileges still control which screens you can open. Ask EDUBase support about enabling a module.