Selling school uniforms in a book depot: sizes, stock and the school rush

Many book depots sell a school's uniform next to its books. A parent comes in with the class list and a child who has grown since last year, and wants the shirt, the trousers, the tie and the sweater in the same visit as the books. For the shop, uniforms bring a problem that books do not have: every piece comes in several sizes, and a piece that is "in stock" is no use if the size the child needs is not.

This guide covers how to set uniforms up by size, how to bill them quickly in the rush, and how to keep an eye on the sizes that run out. Under each part is how BooksPOS handles it. School uniforms work in BooksPOS from version 1.0.0 on the store PC and are covered by automated tests.

Why sizes change everything

A book has editions; a uniform has sizes. The shirt of one school in size 26 and the same shirt in size 30 are, for stock, two different things: you can sell out of one while the other sits on the shelf. A register or a spreadsheet that records "Shirt, City School: 40 pieces" hides that, and you find out at the counter, with the parent waiting.

The opposite mistake costs time too. If every size is entered as an unrelated product, the counter's search fills with near-identical lines, the cashier picks the wrong one, and nobody can see a piece's sizes side by side.

What you want is both: each size counted on its own, and each piece seen as one.

• In BooksPOS: each size is its own item with its own SKU, price, barcode and stock, and the sizes of one piece share its title, such as Shirt – City School. The till and the stock page treat them as one piece. How BooksPOS handles school uniforms.

Before the season: set each piece up once

Start from what each school wears: the pieces (shirt, trousers or shalwar, tie, sweater, blazer), their colours, and the sizes you stock. Decide your price per size; if the larger sizes cost you more, they can sell for more.

• In BooksPOS: open Catalog and choose New uniform. Type the piece and school, for example Shirt – City School, and the sizes once, separated by spaces (22 24 26 28 30) or by commas (S, M, L, XL). Choose Make sizes, type one price and Apply it to every row, then change the rows of the sizes that cost more. Save sizes adds every size together, or none if something needs correcting.

New uniform: the sizes typed once, one price for every size, size 30 dearer. Screenshot of the current build (30 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

A few choices made now save trouble later:

• Name pieces the same way every time: the piece, a dash, the school. Cashiers search by the school's name, so city school should find every piece of that school.
• One colour per piece. If a school has a white shirt for summer and a blue one for winter, make them two pieces, such as Shirt – City School (white) and Shirt – City School (blue).
• Set a low mark. Low at is the number of pieces per size at or below which a size shows as low. Set it before the rush, not in the middle of it.
• Barcodes. If the supplier's pieces carry a barcode for each size, type it in that size's row. The other sizes get a BooksPOS label to print, which says the size (Size 26). See Barcode labels.

If you already keep your uniforms in Excel, import the workbook itself (from BooksPOS 1.1.0), or save the sheet as CSV and import that: put uniform in the Type column and each size in the Size column, one row per size with the same title. A row without a size, or the same size twice, is shown as an error before anything is saved. See Importing from Excel or CSV.

Stock then comes in like any other item: with the supplier's bill, or as opening stock, one line per size. More sizes can be added to a piece later: choose New uniform again with the piece selected, and only the new sizes are added.

At the counter: the size, not the piece

In the rush, the cashier's question is always the same: which size? The till should ask it, instead of leaving the cashier to scroll through five similar lines.

• In BooksPOS: search for the piece or the school. The piece shows once, with its sizes: Shirt – City School · sizes 22 · 24 · 26 · 28 · 30. Choosing it opens Which size?, with every size, its price and how many are in stock. Pick the size with the arrow keys and Enter, or click it.

Which size? at the till, with each size's price and stock. Screenshot of the current build (30 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

Scanning a size's own barcode, or its BooksPOS label, adds that size straight away, without the question. The bill and the receipt name the size (Shirt – City School (26)), so a parent who comes back knows exactly what was bought.

Exchanges for another size are part of every season: the shirt was a size too small. Take the return against the original bill, which names the size, and bill the other size as a new sale. The returned piece goes back to the stock of its own size, never to the piece in general.

Uniforms in the school's set

If you already sell a school's books as a set, the uniform can be part of it. The difference is that the books are the same for every child in the class, and the uniform is not.

• In BooksPOS: add any size of the piece to the class list. The list shows it as (any size), with the stock of every size, and it starts as optional, because parents may buy the uniform elsewhere. When the set is added at the till with School set (F6), BooksPOS asks the child's size for each uniform line and bills that size with the set discount. Another piece is never accepted on that line. Selling a school course set at the till.

During the rush: watch the sizes, not the pieces

The size that runs out first is not always the one you expect. In the busy weeks, check the sizes every day and reorder by size, not by piece.

• In BooksPOS: on the Stock page choose Uniform sizes. Each piece is on one line with every size's stock at every place (shop floor and godown), smallest size first: 22 → 6 · 24 → 0 · 26 → 8. A size with none left is red; one at or below its low mark is amber.

Uniform sizes: each piece on one line, none left in red and low in amber. Screenshot of the current build (30 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

With more than one branch, a size that is short in one shop may be on the shelf in another. Stock sent between branches arrives as the same size of the same piece. On the Cloud edition, the owner portal and the BooksPOS Owner app show each size's stock at every branch, such as Shirt – City School (26), with the time the branch last reported. Your shop on your phone.

After the season

Count what is left, size by size, and note which sizes ran out early and which hardly moved. That is your best guide to next year's order. Leftover sizes are ordinary stock: they wait on the shelf for the next season, and where a supplier takes goods back, a supplier return works for a size as for any other item.

Good to know

• School uniforms need BooksPOS 1.0.0 or later on the store PC.
• Uniforms are added on the store PC, in Catalog › New uniform, or from a CSV file.
• Each size is its own item, so renaming a piece means renaming each of its sizes.

Common questions

Is each size a separate item?

Yes. Each size has its own SKU, price, barcode and stock. The sizes of a piece share its title, so the till shows the piece once and asks the size.

Can larger sizes cost more?

Yes. One price fills every size when you add the piece; change the rows of the dearer sizes before saving.

Can I add a new size later?

Yes. Select the piece in Catalog and choose New uniform again: only the new sizes are added. A size the piece already has is refused, and so is a barcode that is on another item.

Can the uniform be part of a school's set?

Yes. The set's uniform line takes any size of that piece; the till asks the child's size, and the set discount applies.

Can a parent pay for a uniform on khata or from an advance?

Yes. A size is an ordinary item on the bill, so every way to pay works for it, including khata within the customer's credit limit and money the parent paid ahead. Taking an advance from a parent.

More on the school uniforms page and in the help article Selling school uniforms in sizes.