Optical Shop POS: Frames, Lens Powers and Orders That Come Back

An optical shop has two halves that behave completely differently. Frames are ordinary display retail — you can see them, count them, and a customer picks one off a board. Lenses are made to a prescription, ordered in, and collected days later.

The Optical preset is set up for the frames side, with the customer ledger carrying the ordered side.

What the optical preset switches on

• Sizes & colours — one frame model with its colours and sizes as variants beneath it.

The till is set to browse, a category-first layout that suits a shop where the customer points at a display board. Credit sales are on, because a spectacle order usually takes a deposit and settles on collection.

Frames as variants

A model in four colours is one product with four variants, not four products. Each variant carries its own stock, barcode and price where they differ. The sale records the exact variant, so the count on the board and the count in the system agree.

Reports break variants out by default — you want to know which colours move — with an optional roll-up for the model's total.

Deposits and collection

The usual optical sale is: pick a frame, order the lenses, pay something now, pay the rest on collection. GOF POS handles that as a credit sale with a part payment — the bill records what was paid and what stands outstanding, and the customer's ledger carries the balance until they collect.

A bill can also be settled with more than one tender, so a deposit in cash and a balance on card are recorded as two legs rather than filed under one method. That keeps the day's cash count correct, which is where mixed payments usually go wrong.

Prescriptions and customer history

Every customer has a record with their full purchase history, so when somebody comes back you can see the frame they bought and when. The order's details — the prescription, the lens type, the collection date — go on the sale's note, which stays with the bill.

Optical is repeat business on a two-year cycle, and the customer list is the asset. It exports, so it is yours.

Slow stock, which is the real risk

Frames do not expire, they just stop selling — and a board of unsold stock is capital sitting still. Reports over any date range show what has actually moved, and stock valuation shows what is tied up. Where a product's cost was inherited rather than measured from a real purchase, the valuation report says so out loud rather than presenting a guess as a fact.

Repairs and adjustments

If you also do repairs — a hinge, a nose pad, a re-fit — switch on Repair jobs in settings and you get a job card per item: what came in, what is wrong, ready-by date and charge. It is a switch, not a different product, and the business type never stops you turning it on.

Getting started

Setup takes about ten minutes. When you sign up you pick Optical 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.