Trades and activities

18 trades: the software set for your business

At sign-up, you are asked what you sell. Your answer decides the boxes on the product sheet and the moment stock goes down. The papers handed to the customer follow. Software for a grocery does not count like software for a garage.

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Two shop fronts, the same software behind: it is the trade that changes the screens GROCERY The same screens, the same register, the same stock. GARAGE repair order PHARMACY batches and expiry dates HARDWARE STORE selling by the metre The sign changes, and with it the fields, the documents and the moment of counting.
Pick a business

What is already set before your first sale

Touch a trade. You will see what is in place the day you open your space.

When stock goes down, trade by trade: at payment in a grocery, on order approval in a restaurant, at reservation for a wholesaler, when the repair order opens in a garage, and by batch in a pharmacy When should your stock go down? ORDER PREPARATION HANDOVER PAYMENT Grocery stock −1 at payment Restaurant ingredients out on order approval: the dish leaves for the kitchen before being paid Wholesale reserved, not yet out the pallet stays in the depot but leaves what is available really out Garage part taken in the workshop when the repair order opens, Monday — the customer pays Wednesday D+2 Pharmacy BATCH 02/26 BATCH 11/27 the batch nearest to expiry goes first COMZA offers the right batch to the cashier, then takes that batch off One single setting changes place, and all the stock accounting follows. That is what the trade decides for you at sign-up.
Grocery and convenience store

Plenty of customers, little margin

Two hundred customers in the day, three-dollar baskets. Software for a grocery, you judge on two things: speed at the counter, and what you know in the evening at closing.

Four modules already ready
✓Register and barcodes. You plug the reader in, it scans. Nothing to set.
✓Stock by the bag and by the unit. You buy the carton of 24, you sell the bottle.
✓Alert thresholds. The list of what to reorder fills in without you.
✓End-of-day report. Taken in, register gap, twenty best sellers.
Stock goes down

At payment. The goods leave with the customer. Nothing to take off before that.

Plan advised
Essential15 $

One place, the full register, the stock and the reports. That is what nearly every grocery takes.

What the cashier sees

The grid of the twenty best sellers, the scan area, the total, the change. He sees neither the purchase price nor the margin.

Restaurant and café

The kitchen starts before the customer has paid

The waiter enters it, the dish leaves for the kitchen, the bill comes an hour later. The ingredients, though, are already out. Software for a restaurant that waits for payment to take stock down lies to you all evening.

Four modules already ready
✓Orders in the room. Taken on the phone, they reach the register within the second.
✓Dish sheets. Every dish knows what it holds and what it uses up.
✓Split bill. Three people, three means of payment, one single table.
✓Report by service. Midday and evening counted apart, day by day.
Stock goes down

On order approval. The ingredients go out before the bill is paid.

Plan advised
Business30 $

Several accounts open at the same time (waiters, register, kitchen) and up to three places.

What the cashier sees

The open tables, their amounts, the split bill, the means of payment. Dish sheets are not on this screen.

Wholesale and semi-wholesale

The same pallet must not be sold twice

A customer orders twenty cartons in the morning and comes to load them the next day. In between, someone else wants the same ones. Software for a wholesaler that reserves nothing at the order ends up sending someone away empty-handed.

Four modules already ready
✓Prices per customer. One price for retailers, another for those taking the pallet.
✓Goods reservation. What is promised is no longer offered for sale.
✓Balance and credit cap. You know what the customer owes you before loading.
✓Delivery notes. Issued at loading, matched to the invoice afterwards.
Stock goes down

At reservation, as soon as the order is approved. The goods stay in the depot but leave what is available.

Plan advised
Growth50 $

Depot, shop, trucks: up to ten places, each with its own stock, and one single report to see it all.

What the cashier sees

The notes to prepare, the customer's balance, his cap. Cap passed, a manager decides before loading.

Pharmacy and medicine depot

An expired box is a dead loss and a risk

Two boxes of the same product are not worth the same: one expires in three weeks, the other in two years. Software for a pharmacy counts batches and dates, not units on the shelf.

Four modules already ready
✓Batches and expiry dates. Every entry carries its batch number and its date.
✓Short-date alerts. Three months, one month, one week: you are warned before it is too late.
✓Customer records. For regulars and invoices in the customer's name.
✓Turnover per product. What moves, what sleeps, what not to order again.
Stock goes down

By batch, the nearest to expiry first. COMZA offers that batch to the cashier.

Plan advised
Business30 $

Batch tracking and expiry alerts ask for a bit more than the register alone.

What the cashier sees

The product, the batch offered, the expiry date readable. An expired batch does not pass: the line is struck through.

Hardware store and building materials

From bulk to the metre, the kilo and the unit

Five thousand items, from the nail to the bag of cement. One customer buys a screw, the next wants a site quote with the fitting. Both go through the same counter.

Four modules already ready
✓Selling by measure. By the metre, the kilo, the unit, and the price works itself out.
✓Quotes at the counter. Two minutes to draw one up, one move to turn it into a sale.
✓Catalog by aisle. You find an item without remembering its exact name.
✓Supplier orders. What drops below threshold joins the next order.
Stock goes down

At payment at the counter. For cutting and making, at the workshop note: the material is started before it is paid for.

Plan advised
Essential15 $

One place, as many items as you want, quotes and invoices. Business the day you open a depot.

What the cashier sees

The search by aisle, the box for the length or the weight, and the price updating.

Garage and car repair

The part leaves the store long before payment

A car comes in on Monday. The mechanic takes a filter and two brake pads. The customer pays on Wednesday. Software for a garage takes the part off on Monday.

Four modules already ready
✓Repair orders. One per vehicle, opened on arrival, closed on handover.
✓Plate and mileage. Two boxes added to the customer record as standard.
✓Parts and labour. Counted apart on the quote as on the invoice.
✓History per vehicle. What was done, when, and by whom.
Stock goes down

When the repair order opens. Waiting for the invoice means showing parts on screen that are no longer on the shelf.

Plan advised
Business30 $

Several mechanics at the same time, each with his own account, and the workshop often separate from the parts store.

What the cashier sees

The open orders, the parts fitted on each, the hours of labour and the total to take. Nothing to enter again.

The 18 families · 1 of 3

Selling, feeding, housing, treating

The customer turns up, he leaves served. It all happens at the counter, and stock follows that rhythm.

Retail and distribution

Thirty seconds per customer, two hundred times in the day. In the evening, one question only interests you: what has to be reordered tomorrow?

GroceryConvenience storeClothingPhone shopBookshop
✓Fields: barcode, selling price, alert threshold, container bought.
✓Stock: at payment.
✓Documents: till receipt, invoice on request.

Catering and food

The dish leaves for the kitchen at 8:10 pm, the bill comes at 9:30. In between, the material has already moved: a kilo of flour makes thirty loaves.

RestaurantCaféBakeryCatererTakeaway
✓Fields: dish composition, selling price, service (midday, evening).
✓Stock: on order approval, before payment.
✓Documents: bill, kitchen slip, invoice.

Hotels and accommodation

You sell nights, and the bill grows all through the stay to be settled on departure.

HotelGuest houseInnServiced apartments
✓Fields: room, number of nights, number of people, deposit paid.
✓Stock: consumables taken off when added to the bill.
✓Documents: stay bill, deposit receipt, invoice.

Health and pharmacy

What does a box found expired at the back of the shelf cost you? Here the date gives the orders, not the quantity. And after the sale, you still have to be able to say which batch that box came from.

PharmacyHealth and beautyMedicine depotLaboratoryCare practice
✓Fields: batch number, expiry date, packaging.
✓Stock: by batch, the nearest to expiry first.
✓Documents: receipt, named invoice, short-date list.

Beauty and wellbeing

On a Saturday, the chair never stops: a cut, a treatment, a session taken off a package bought three months ago. Software for a salon must also separate the shampoo resold to the customer from the one used in the booth.

HairdressingBeauty instituteBarberSpaNail bar
✓Fields: service, duration, package or session card.
✓Stock: products resold go down at payment, booth ones as internal use.
✓Documents: receipt, package card, invoice.

Industry and production

You bring boards in, you send doors out. All workshop management hangs on one figure: how much material for how much finished product.

Processing workshopFlour millBottlingFurniture worksPacking
✓Fields: raw material, finished product, quantity per production batch.
✓Stock: materials go out on the production order, the finished product comes in when it leaves the workshop.
✓Documents: production note, delivery note, invoice.
The 18 families · 2 of 3

Building, serving, repairing, carrying

The sale starts with a quote and ends weeks later. The material and the hours go out well before payment. That gap is what has to be held.

On a site, stock goes down on the issue note and the invoice is only paid six weeks later: COMZA follows that gap day by day Quote signed nothing has moved yet DAY 0 Issue note 40 bags leave the depot DAY 3 · STOCK −40 Works statement first stage invoiced DAY 18 Invoice paid balance taken in DAY 45 42 days between the material going out and the money coming in All that time, stock is right, the site carries its costs, and the customer's balance is up to date.

Construction and works

Thursday morning, forty bags of cement leave the depot for a site you will invoice in six weeks. Everything attaches to it: the material, the hours, the payment stages. A bag with no job behind it means nothing.

MasonryElectricalPlumbingWaterproofingPainting
✓Fields: site reference, lot, unit of measure (m², linear metre, day).
✓Stock: on the site note, as soon as the material leaves the depot.
✓Documents: quote, works statement, invoice, issue note.

Services to businesses and households

Nothing to put on a shelf. A job, a visit, a monthly subscription, and the real risk is forgetting to invoice one.

CleaningSecurityEventsLaundryCourier
✓Fields: service, duration, frequency, place of work.
✓Stock: consumables only, taken off on the job note.
✓Documents: quote, signed job note, monthly invoice.

Associations and organizations

Who received what, and against which receipt? Software for an association follows membership fees, donations and goods handed out, not sales. The funder will ask for the accounts line by line.

AssociationCooperativeNGOSports clubMutual society
✓Fields: member, fee, donation, project or budget line.
✓Stock: grants and supplies go out on the distribution note.
✓Documents: fee receipt, donation receipt, statement of spending.

Motor trade and garage

Two years later, the same customer comes back with the same car. The file is the vehicle: you want to know what was changed, at what mileage, and by which mechanic.

Mechanical garageBody shopSpare partsTyresCar wash
✓Fields: plate, mileage, make and model.
✓Stock: when the repair order opens.
✓Documents: repair order, quote, invoice for parts and labour.

Farming and livestock

Everything goes over the scales, no two weighings come out the same, and the coming season will not look like the last.

Market gardeningLivestockFarming cooperativeInput salesFish farming
✓Fields: unit by weight, season or campaign, plot or animal batch.
✓Stock: the harvest comes in at weighing, inputs go out at use.
✓Documents: producer purchase note, weighing note, invoice.

Transport and logistics

One trip, eight tonnes, one driver: that is what you sell. Every run is found again by its waybill, and fuel as well as parts are counted per vehicle.

Road haulageFreight forwardingParcel deliveryVehicle rentalWarehouse
✓Fields: trip, tonnage, vehicle, driver.
✓Stock: capacity reserved when the transport order is approved; fuel and parts on the note.
✓Documents: waybill, delivery note, invoice.
The 18 families · 3 of 3

Know-how, advice, and everything else

Here you sell time, skills, case files. Stock is light or non-existent; against that, the documents count double.

IT and digital

A customer brings back a laptop bought eight months ago and talks about warranty. You need the serial number and the sale date right away, not at the back of a notebook.

Hardware salesRepairWeb agencyInternet providerInternet café
✓Fields: serial number, warranty length, subscription and renewal date.
✓Stock: at payment for hardware sold, on the workshop sheet for parts.
✓Documents: quote, warranty note, subscription invoice.

Teaching and training

A $400 course, paid in four instalments. What you follow is the instalment that has not come in yet.

Private schoolTraining centreDriving schoolLanguage coursesTutoring
✓Fields: learner, session, payment schedule.
✓Stock: books and supplies taken off when handed to the learner.
✓Documents: enrolment invoice, schedule, payment receipt.

Property

Few lines in the day, but not one due date to miss: a property is let every month or sold once.

Estate agencyLetting managementBuilding managementHoliday lets
✓Fields: property, rent, period, deposit.
✓Stock: a property leaves what is available as soon as the agreement is signed.
✓Documents: rent receipt, service charge notice, fee note.

Crafts and hardware

In the morning, a customer takes three screws. In the afternoon, another orders a door made to measure. The same counter for both, except the workshop starts the wood before being paid.

Hardware storeJoineryMetalworkSewingShoe repair
✓Fields: sale by the metre, the kilo or the unit, aisle, made-to-measure dimension.
✓Stock: at payment at the counter, on the workshop note for cutting and making.
✓Documents: receipt, made-to-measure quote, invoice.

Professional practices

How many hours have you spent on this file, and how many are invoiced? Business management software for a professional practice has no aisle to keep: files, hours, fees, and what is left to collect.

Accountancy practiceLawyerArchitectEngineering officeConsulting
✓Fields: file, hourly rate or flat rate, time spent.
✓Stock: no counting, the module is simply taken off the screen.
✓Documents: fee agreement, fee note, deposit invoice.

Other activities

Sometimes none of the seventeen families fits, and we do not know your trade better than you. You start from a neutral base and you set the three points that matter yourself.

Equipment rentalPrintingTravel agencyLeisure centreFuneral services
✓Fields: the basic fields, plus the ones you add yourself.
✓Stock: you pick the moment of counting from a list of five.
✓Documents: quote, invoice, receipt, you switch on what you use.
Your own fields

When the trade needs one more box, you add it

Add your boxes to the product sheet, the customer record and the sale. They then show everywhere: on screen, on the quote, on the invoice, in the reports.

✓A name, a type (text, number, date, pick list), and required if you want.
✓On every product, or on one family only.
✓The box becomes a search criterion: you find a sale by its site number.
✓You take a box away, nothing breaks: sales already recorded keep their value.
Three examples from our customers
Plate and mileageGarage
Batch number and expiryPharmacy
Site referenceConstruction

A garage owner types a plate and sees ten years of repairs. At the pharmacist's, a batch number pulls out every box it came from. And the mason knows the total spent on his site before sending the invoice.

To go further

What comes next

Tell us your trade, we set the rest

Four questions at sign-up and your space is ready. The free plan is $0 and is never charged. Unsure about your trade: write to contact@comza.app.

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