The trade counter, customer first

The trade counter is where wholesale pricing goes wrong most often. A regular walks in, picks up a few cases, and the person on the till has to remember which price list he is on, what discount was agreed, and whether he is already close to his limit. This tour shows a till set up the other way round: the customer comes first, and everything else follows from that choice.

Step by step

1. Start the sale by choosing the customer. This till is set to start every sale with a customer. The person on the counter picks the regular from the list before touching a product. The setting lives in the till's selling mode: customers only for a pure trade counter, or both if walk-in buyers use it as well.

2. See their terms land on the cart. As soon as the customer is chosen, three things appear on the cart: their price list, their agreed discount and the credit they have left. Nothing has been sold yet, but the counter already knows the rules for this sale. In the tour's sample, the agreed discount is 5% and the customer has £319.60 of credit left.

3. Read the tiles, which now show their prices. Every product tile shows this customer's price, not the shelf price. Staff never have to remember who pays what, and a new starter on the counter quotes exactly the same as someone who has been there ten years.

4. Add the products. Tap a tile or scan a barcode. Ten cases of cola, four boxes of crisps and twelve cases of water go on, each at the customer's price.

5. Watch the discount spread over the lines. The agreed 5% is taken off before VAT and shared across the lines. It is not a single figure knocked off the bottom. That matters because each line's VAT is then worked out on the discounted amount, so the receipt, the invoice and the VAT figure all agree to the penny.

6. Charge it to the account. With the total showing, the counter charges the sale to the customer's account. If the sale fits inside the credit left, it goes through.

7. Let the limit do its job. A sale that would take the customer over their limit stops and asks for a manager. That is deliberate. The person on the counter should not have to decide, with the customer standing there, whether to extend credit.

The sale, line by line

Here is the tour's sample sale worked through, at the customer's prices, with the 5% agreed discount and VAT at 20% on these lines.

The discount is £9.29. VAT at 20% on £176.49 is £35.30, so the sale comes to £211.79. With £319.60 of credit left, it goes on account with £107.81 still available. Each line's discount is rounded so the lines add up exactly to the total discount, which is why one line may differ from a straight 5% by a penny.

Why the order of operations matters

If the discount is taken off the total after VAT, the VAT on the invoice is worked out on a price the customer never paid. The customer's accountant will notice, and so will yours. Taking it off each line before VAT keeps the paperwork honest. Our guide to VAT invoice requirements covers what a full VAT invoice must show, including how discounts are presented.

When customer first is the wrong setting

Not every counter should work this way. If most of your trade is cash buyers who walk in, pick up and leave, making them choose a customer first slows every sale for no gain. That is what the "both" mode is for: account customers are chosen first and get their terms, while a walk-in sale can still go through at the standard price. A pure trade counter, where nearly every buyer has an account, is where customers only earns its keep. It removes the most common pricing error at the counter, which is a regular being rung through as a stranger.

A useful test: look at last month's counter sales. If most of them ended up on an account or on a customer price list, set the till to customers only. If most were cash at the shelf price, leave it on both.

Tips for the trade counter

• Use customers only on a dedicated trade counter. It removes the temptation to ring a trade sale through as a walk-in at the wrong price.
• Keep price lists up to date in one place. The till can only show the right price if the list behind it is right.
• Agree discounts in writing, then set them once. A discount set on the customer applies every time; one keyed in by hand varies with who is on shift.
• Tell the customer their credit left when it is getting low. It is a friendlier conversation at the counter than on the phone a week later.

Common mistakes

Adding products, then choosing the customer. Some tills reprice the cart; some do not. Choosing first removes the question.

Overriding the price "because he always gets that". If he always gets it, put it on his price list. Otherwise the next person on the counter will charge something else.

Knocking the discount off the total. It looks the same on the screen, but the VAT on the invoice comes out wrong.

Letting staff approve their own limit overrides. The manager prompt is there so that extending credit is a decision, not a habit.

What the counter sale leads to

An account sale adds to what the customer owes, so it appears on their statement and in the money-owed-by-age view the owner sees on Home each morning. If it is paid late, credit control picks it up. At the end of the day, sales on account appear as their own line in the day close, separate from cash and card, so the drawer count is not confused by money that was never meant to be in it.

What to do next

Read customer credit for wholesalers to set limits and terms your counter can enforce without argument. If you are comparing tills for a trade counter, how to choose a POS system lists the questions to ask, including whether the till can start with the customer and apply their price list.