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School season

Orders and pending deliveries

Hold copies for a customer with F7, order what is not in stock, re-hold when stock arrives, hand over in parts and print the pending slip for the parent.

A parent wants the whole Class 7 list, but two titles are not in yet. A school orders 40 copies for next week. In both cases the books are promised but not yet handed over. In BooksPOS that is an order: copies on the shelf are held for the customer, the rest is awaited, and nothing is billed until the customer collects. Pending deliveries lists every open order.

How to take an order at the till

  1. Put the items on the bill as usual, with the quantities and prices agreed.
  2. Press F4 and choose the customer. An order always needs a named customer.
  3. Press F7 (Order: "Hold copies for the chosen customer and bill them when collected").

BooksPOS shows, for example, "MAIN-OR000012 for Ayesha: 3 held until 11-10-2026, 2 awaited. Hand over from Pending deliveries." The bill clears; no money was taken and no stock left the shelf.

  • Held copies are ones in stock now, set aside for this customer until the hold date, 14 days from today.
  • Awaited copies are not in stock. They are held when stock arrives (below).
  • Prices are fixed when the order is made. When the customer collects, they pay the agreed price even if the shelf price changed.

To take money now, record it as an advance first: see Customer advances. School sets can order their missing titles in one step: see Selling a school set at the till.

What holding means

A held copy cannot be sold to anyone else. If a cashier tries, the bill is refused: "Only 2 of … are free; 3 are held for customer orders."

When the hold date passes, the copies simply stop being held; no job has to run. The order stays open and says so: "The hold date has passed: nothing is held now. Reserve again to hold what is free."

Pending deliveries

Open Pending deliveries (under Sales). The list shows each open Order with what is still To collect, and the total still to collect at the top. Show closed adds finished and cancelled orders.

Choose an order to see it: the customer, Held until, any Advance they hold, and each line with what was Ordered, Collected (billed) and is Still to collect, split into Held and Awaited.

Pending deliveries showing an order for Parent: Ahmed (demo) with one title awaited

Pending deliveries. A parent's order: what is held, collected and still awaited, paid from their advance. Screenshot of the current build (28 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

How to hand over an order

  1. In Pending deliveries, choose the order and Hand over.
  2. Held copies are filled in. Change a quantity to what the customer takes now; the rest stays on the order at the agreed price.
  3. To pay now shows the amount. Choose Continue to payment.
  4. Take the money as at the till. From advance is there if the customer paid ahead.
  5. Complete the sale.

The hand-over is an ordinary bill with its own number: "MAIN-C1-S000051: Ayesha collected Rs 4,500.00 of order MAIN-OR000012." It needs an open shift on the counter. Collect in as many parts as needed; the order closes when everything is collected.

When stock arrives: Reserve what is free

After a delivery from the publisher, open the order and choose Reserve what is free. BooksPOS holds whatever is now free on the shelf for this customer, with a new hold date: "MAIN-OR000012: 2 held until 25-10-2026; 0 still awaited." Do this for orders that were waiting for that title.

The pending slip

Print pending slip prints a short list of what the customer is still to collect, to hand to the parent. It says plainly that it is not a bill.

Cancelling what is left

If the parent bought elsewhere, choose Cancel the rest, type a Reason (for example Parent bought elsewhere) and confirm. Held copies are free again: "MAIN-OR000012: what was left is cancelled and its held copies are free again." What was already collected stays billed. Choose Keep the order to change your mind.

Cancelling needs the order-cancel permission, which owners and managers have.

Common questions

Does an order reduce stock?

No. Stock leaves the shelf only when the order is handed over, as a normal bill. Until then held copies are still in stock, just not for sale to others.

Can I change the hold date?

Orders taken at the till are held for 14 days. After that, Reserve what is free holds again for another 14 days from that day.

Where do I see which titles I still need to buy for orders?

On School sets, each class list's demand shows what open orders still await beyond free stock (To buy). Reports › School sets lists sets still being completed.

Can the customer pay for the whole order now?

Take the money as an advance first, then make the order. Each hand-over is paid from the advance.

Last updated 27 September 2026. Still stuck? Contact us.