Receiving stock from suppliers and publishers

When a publisher's cartons arrive, the stock and the supplier's bill go into BooksPOS together as a purchase receipt. It adds the copies to the shelf, values them at what you paid, and adds the bill to what you owe the supplier, or records that you paid it. This guide covers suppliers, receipts, free copies and costs.

Suppliers

Choose the supplier at the top of New receipt (under Purchasing in the menu), in Supplier / publisher. For a new one, choose New and fill in:

• Name, for example a publisher's Lahore office;
• Phone and Address;
• This supplier is a publisher, for the publisher reports;
• Return window (days after delivery, optional): how long after a delivery the supplier accepts returns. Returns after it need a manager and a reason. Empty means no limit.

With a supplier chosen, the line under the name shows what is Owed to them, any Advance paid to them, and open Return claims. A supplier's contact person, email, NTN and credit days are kept on the Suppliers page (Edit), with their whole account. See Supplier payments and advances.

How to enter a delivery

1. In New receipt, choose the supplier.
2. Type the Supplier's bill no. exactly as printed on their bill.
3. In Add an item: type its title, ISBN or SKU, find each item and add it. Scanning works too.
4. For each line fill in:

5. At the bottom, enter what you Paid now and choose Paid with: cash, bank transfer, card, EasyPaisa, JazzCash, or From advance (money you paid this supplier earlier). Leave it at 0 (on credit) to owe the whole bill.
6. Check the Receipt total against the supplier's bill, and choose Post receipt.

BooksPOS shows, for example, "MAIN-P000017 posted · Rs 42,500.00 from …". The copies are in stock on the shop floor at once. Recent receipts lists the last ones; choose one to open it on Purchases.

Cash paid here comes out of this counter's drawer and is subtracted at the shift close, so a shift must be open for a cash payment.

Saving a bill as a draft

A long bill can be entered in parts, or put aside while the supplier's bill is checked. Save draft (next to Post receipt) keeps everything on the page on the store server: nothing goes into stock and nothing is owed yet. The draft shows in the Drafts card above Recent receipts and on Purchases › Drafts, with who saved it and when. Open it (from this PC or another), finish it and choose Post receipt: the bill is posted and the draft is gone in the same step. New receipt on a draft's banner starts an empty page and leaves the draft saved; Delete draft removes it. If an item or unit on the draft changed since it was saved (for example a box now holds 10, not 12), the banner says so and posting waits until you check the line and save the draft again. See Drafts and same-day voids.

New receipt. Goods and the supplier's bill together, with free copies, paid now or on credit. Screenshot of the current build (28 Sep 2026), synthetic demo data.

How costs are worked out

BooksPOS values stock at a moving weighted average. Each item's stock has a total value and a quantity; the average cost is value ÷ quantity.

• A delivery adds its quantity and its net cost.
• Free copies add quantity at zero value, which lowers the average. 10 copies at Rs 450 plus 2 free is Rs 4,500 for 12 copies: Rs 375 each.
• A sale takes stock out at the average cost of that moment, and the bill keeps that cost for its profit.

The till warns about lines that would sell below this average cost.

Rules worth knowing

• The same supplier bill number cannot be entered twice. "Invoice 4471 from … was already received as MAIN-P000012 on 20-09-2026." It is checked per supplier, whatever the capitals; a bill voided the same day does not count.
• Pay no more than the bill. "The payment is more than the receipt total. Record an advance to the supplier separately." See Supplier payments and advances.
• Only units marked bought can be received. A unit sold but not bought is refused: "… is not bought in …".
• Posted receipts are never edited. On the day it was entered, an owner or manager can Void this bill on its page on Purchases, with a reason, while every copy it brought in is still here and none of them has been sold or moved since: its copies go back out, what the supplier is owed comes off, and money paid with it comes back (cash into a drawer, or onto their advance). After that, a wrong quantity is corrected with a stock adjustment, and goods going back are a publisher return.
• Who can enter receipts: owners, managers and warehouse staff.
• The licence. If the store's licence has run out or is suspended, new purchases stop until it is renewed. See Your BooksPOS licence.

Finding a bill later: Purchases

Purchases (under Purchasing) lists every supplier bill, newest first, with its total, what was Paid with it when it was entered, and what is still Due. Narrow the list by:

• From and To (type dates as dd-mm-yyyy, then Show), or a quick choice: Today, This month, Last month, Year (from 1 July) or All;
• the supplier, in All suppliers;
• text: the bill number, the supplier's bill number or the supplier's name;
• Unpaid only, for bills with something still due;
• All bills or Voided, for bills voided the same day.

The cards above the list add up every bill that matches, not just the page shown: Bills, Billed, Paid with the bills and Still due. A voided bill is listed with a Voided badge (its tooltip says who voided it, when and why) and counts in no total. Drafts next to Bills lists the bills saved to finish later.

Choose a bill to open it. It shows each line with its unit, quantity, Free copies, unit cost, discount and Net; whether it was received against a purchase order; who entered it; and Paid against this bill: what was paid with it, then the later payments, credit notes and returns that settled it. A payment to a supplier settles their oldest bills first, so a newer bill stays due until the older ones are paid. The supplier's name opens their account, and Pay supplier records a payment there and then.

CSV saves the list or the bill for Excel, PDF saves an A4 copy and opens it, and Print sends it to the printer. Buyers, whoever pays suppliers, owners, managers, accountants and auditors can see purchases; cashiers cannot.

Deliveries against an order

If you placed a purchase order, open Orders, choose the order and Receive a delivery. The lines fill in with what is still to come at the agreed cost ("Receiving against MAIN-PO000004: lines show what is still to come; change them to what arrived."). Change them to what actually came, and post as above. See Purchase orders and deliveries in parts.

Sale-or-return copies

Copies a supplier leaves on consignment are not a purchase. Use Consignment on the same page. See Consignment (sale or return).

Common questions

The supplier's bill shows a discount percentage. What do I enter?

Enter the rupee amount of the discount for each line, or enter the unit cost after discount and leave Discount empty. Either way the Net should match the bill.

Can I receive stock into the godown?

Receipts go onto the shop floor. Move them to the godown afterwards with Move stock on the Stock page. See The godown and the shop floor.

We paid part of the bill now. How do I record the rest later?

Enter the part paid in Paid now. The rest is owed to the supplier; pay it later with Pay supplier on the Suppliers page or on the bill itself on Purchases. The bill then shows the payment under Paid against this bill.

A carton of 10 boxes arrived. Which unit do I use?

The unit on the bill. If the bill counts boxes, receive boxes; BooksPOS converts them to pieces for the stock.

I entered the bill against the wrong supplier. What now?

If it was today and nothing from it has been sold or moved, ask the owner or a manager to open it on Purchases and choose Void this bill, then enter it again against the right supplier; the same bill number is accepted again. Otherwise send the goods back on Publisher returns.

Related guides

• Purchase orders and deliveries in parts
• Supplier payments and advances
• Drafts and same-day voids
• Owner reports
• Publisher returns and credit notes
• Units, packs, prices and barcodes