Hardware Store POS: Cut Lengths, Sizes and Contractor Accounts
A hardware shop has two awkward habits. Things are sold in fractions — 2.5 metres of cable, 750 grams of nails — and the same item exists in a row of sizes that are not really different products. On top of that, a good share of the turnover walks out on a contractor's account and gets settled later.
The Hardware store preset covers the first two directly and the third through the credit ledger.
What the hardware preset switches on
- Sell by weight — decimal quantities for cut lengths and loose weight.
- Sizes & colours — one product with a size matrix under it, instead of eight nearly identical rows.
Credit sales are on, and the till is set to search — a hardware catalogue is long and specific, and staff find things by name or code, not by scrolling tiles.
Selling a fraction of something
With decimal quantities on, 2.5 metres is 2.5 metres. The unit list is ordered for a hardware shop — pieces, metres, kilograms, boxes — and the quantity field, the stock count and the reports all carry the decimals through rather than rounding at some point in the middle.
Worth knowing: the unit list is a reorder, not a filter. All units stay available, so a product you saved on an unusual unit does not get silently reset when you change business type.
One bolt, eight sizes
Variants let you keep a single product — say a hinge, or a PVC pipe — with its sizes underneath. Each size has its own stock, its own barcode and, if the sizes are priced differently, its own price. The parent keeps the catalogue readable; the variants keep the count honest.
Reports show each size separately by default, which is what you need when deciding what to reorder, with an optional roll-up when you want the product's total instead.
Contractor accounts that close out
Credit sales are a ledger per customer, not a note. Each contractor has a running balance, a full history of bills and payments, and an optional credit limit the till enforces. A payment is recorded against the customer, so settling four bills at once is one entry.
A limit of zero means no limit — set a number when you want a ceiling on somebody.
The supplier side, done properly
Hardware buying is where margin is made and lost. GOF POS separates the order from the delivery: a purchase order books no stock, and stock moves only when you record what actually arrived. Partial deliveries are normal — a van brings 60 of the 100 you ordered — and the bill shows what is still expected rather than pretending it all came.
Freight is allocated across lines by value, so 100 kg of something at Rs 200 with Rs 3,000 of delivery genuinely costs Rs 230/kg in your figures. Purchase tax is deliberately kept out of that cost, because cost is compared against sale price everywhere downstream and putting purchase tax on one side of that comparison makes a healthy margin read as a loss.
Supplier balances state a direction in words — whether you owe them or they owe you — rather than leaving you to interpret a minus sign.
Stock takes you can do with a phone
Counting a hardware shop is a walking job. The stock take runs on Android and iOS, so you count the shelves with a phone in your hand and reconcile against the system afterwards, rather than carrying a printout to a desktop.
Getting started
Setup takes about ten minutes. When you sign up you pick Hardware store as your business type, and GOF POS switches on the features above for you — no configuration screens to hunt through, no consultant. If something in the preset does not suit you, every switch is yours to change afterwards in Settings → Business type.
The app runs on Windows, macOS and Linux for the counter, and on Android and iOS for stock checks and quick sales on the move. The desktop till keeps working when the internet does not, and syncs when it comes back.
See pricing or download GOF POS and try it on a real day's trading.
