Sales

Goldenseal is point of sale software that tracks customer sales.

Use Sales transactions to enter items that you sell to customers, or services that you provide to them.

Website Info Links
Accounting Software | Accounts Receivable Software | Bookkeeping Software | Point of Sale Software

Who Needs Sales

Use Sales transactions to cover all direct sales of goods or services to customers. Consider it a sale whether you are paid immediately, or bill for the items later.

If you are a retail or wholesale business, Sales will be a very important part of your business.

If you are a service business or professional and you bill directly for goods or services, use Sales. Otherwise, use Projects.

If you are a construction business, property manager or developer, you probably won't use sales, unless you do some direct sales through a showroom or a sideline business.

When to Use Sales

Use Sales transactions for any of the following:

When you sell retail goods
When you sell wholesale goods
When you provide services to customers

You can also use Sales transactions to track miscellanous amounts that that you receive or are owed. For example:

Referral fees
Commissions
Miscellaneous debts that are owed to you

When Not to Use Sales

Do not use sales transactions for the following types of project work:

If you will receive more than one payment for goods or services that cost a relatively large amount. In that case, create a draw schedule or progress payment Project account for the item.
When you will bill for time and materials. In that case, create a time and materials Project account for the item.
When you sell an expensive item or provide an expensive service, and you'd like to track job costs for it separately. In that case, create a Project account for the item.

Do not use sales transactions for the following:

When you receive money back from a supplier for rebates, credits or returns. In that case create a Material Purchase and set it up as a credit.
For long-term property or equipment rentals. For those set up Leases and Rental Transactions.

Entering Sales

To enter a Sale, follow these steps:

Choose Sales from the Income menu.
Click the New button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Enter details for the sale.

Data Fields

Enter the following information for each Sale:

Sold To-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter a customer name.
HINT-- If you don't know the names of your customers, set up a special Customer account for 'unknown name' sales.
One Time Name-- If the customer account allows you to enter one-time names, turn on the One Time checkbox to enter a name for this customer. Otherwise this field shows the full name of the Customer account.
Brief Description-- Enter a brief description of the item sold or the service provided. This is the name that will appear when you reference this transaction in menus.
Delivery Method-- If the item will be delivered, mailed or shipped, enter the Delivery Methods that you will use.
HINT-- If you never deliver items, use the Custom Layouts command to remove the delivery fields.
Gross Price-- Enter the price of the item.
Tax Rate-- If you charge sales tax on the item, use the clairvoyant field to select the sales tax rate.
Delivery Charge-- Enter the delivery charge. If you have set up delivery methods, Goldenseal will compute it automatically.
Net Price-- Goldenseal calculates the total amount with sales tax.

Date-- Enter the date of the sale (today's date is entered automatically).
Record Number-- A sales number is assigned automatically.
Conditions-- Use the pop-up menu to enter the conditions if the sale is a backorder, capital sale, credit, layaway, or special order. Otherwise you can leave the conditions as none.
Payment Method-- Use the pop-up button to enter a Payment Method.
Terms-- For a billable sale, enter the Payment Terms.
NOTE-- Goldenseal automatically fills in payment terms from the Payment Method or the Customer account. If the Payment Method does not allow variable terms on each sale, this field will not be editable.
Comments-- Enter any comments you'd like to make about this sale.

More Info

Click the More Info button to enter additional details for this sale.

Sales Details
Sales Branch-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter the location where the sale takes place.
Estimate-- If you prepared an Estimate for this sale, enter it here.
Details-- You can enter further details about this sale.
Delivery Weight-- Enter the weight of the item, if it is needed to compute delivery charges.

More Details
Message-- Use the pop-up button to enter a stock customer Message.
Sales Rep-- If an Employee will receive a commission on this sale, enter their name.
Delivery Instructions-- Enter any delivery instructions. Goldenseal fills in this field automatically if you have standard delivery instructions in the Customer account.
Billing Date-- Goldenseal automatically enters the billing date for billable sales, based on the sale date and payment terms.

Sales Conditions

Use the Conditions field to mark sales that receive special treatment:

None-- Use this choice for a simple sale with no special conditions.
Back Order-- Enter a back order for an item that is not currently in stock. An order for it will be held until it is available.
Credit-- Enter credit when issuing a refund to a customer, when no inventory is being returned.
Layaway-- Enter layaway for cash sale items where the customer puts down a deposit or down payment now, to reserve an item that they'll take later.
Rain Check-- A rain check is similar to a back order, but sale pricing will still be honored on it even if the sale is over.
Return-- Enter return when issuing a refund when inventory is returned.
Special Order-- Enter special order for items that must be ordered for later delivery.

Sales Status

A new cash sale will be given Paid as a status. A new billable sale will automatically get Sold as a status.
When you bill the client for a billable sale, the status will automatically be changed to Billed.
When you receive payment for a billable sale, the status will automatically be changed to Paid.
Sales with some items on back order or special order will automatically be given Incomplete as a status.
If a customer is disputing a sale and it must wait for resolution, change the status to Disputed.
For an estimated future sale entered for planning purposes, change the status to Planned.
To cancel a sale, change the status to Void.

Category Breakdowns

Use Category breakdowns to type in a list of items that you are selling. To add a Category breakdown, choose Category from the breakdown popup at the left side of the window.

To enter items into a category breakdown, follow these steps:

Click in the first row under Category, and choose a Category.
Hit the Tab key and enter an optional subcategory.
Hit the Tab key and type in the item you are selling.
Hit the Tab key and type in the cost of one item.
Hit the Tab key and type the unit size.
Hit the Tab key and type the quantity you are selling.
Hit the Return key (Macintosh) or Enter key (Windows) to add a new row.
Repeat steps 1 to 7 until you have entered all items.

Item Breakdowns

Use Item breakdowns to enter a list of specific Cost Items that you are selling. To add an Item breakdown, choose Item from the breakdown popup at the left side of the window.

When you use an Item breakdown, Goldenseal will automatically fill in the price for each item. It will also adjust inventory quantities automatically.

To enter items into an item breakdown, follow these steps:

Click in the first row under Category, and choose a Category.
Hit the Tab key and enter an optional subcategory.
Choose the item you are selling. You can enter a UPC code for the item with the keyboard or a scanner, or enter the Cost Item directly by clicking or tabbing into the Cost Item field.
Hit the Tab key and type the quantity you are selling. Goldenseal automatically fills in the item cost and size.
Hit the Return key (Macintosh) or Enter key (Windows) to add a new row.
Repeat steps 1 to 7 until you have entered all items.

Using UPC Codes

If you use an Item breakdown to enter specific Cost Items, you can enter items by either their UPC code or their item name.

To enter items by their UPC code, you'll first need to enter the code into the UPC Code field in the Cost Item records.

When entering an item by its UPC code, follow these steps:

Click in the UPC Code field.
Type in the UPC code, or use a scanner to read in the bar code.
Goldenseal will fill in the matching cost item in the Cost Item field.
Enter the quantity in the Quantity field.

On Sale Pricing

Turn on the On Sale checkbox to use the Reduced prices for each Cost Item and Assembly that you sell.

Credit Limits and Restrictions

If a customer's credit rating is No Sale, you won't be allowed to enter a sale for them. If the credit rating is Prepaid Only, you won't be able to enter sales that have Billed as a payment method. If the credit rating is Cash Only, you won't be able to enter sales that are billed or paid by check.
HINT-- To restore the customer's access to credit, open the customer's account and change the credit rating field.

If a sale puts the customer over their credit limit, you'll be warned of that fact when you finish the transaction.
HINT-- To change the customer's limit, open the customer's account and change the Credit Limit field.

Sales from Inventory

When you sell items from inventory, follow these steps:

Choose Sales from the Income menu.
Click the New button.
Enter the customer and other transaction details.
Enter Items into the Breakdown popup menu.
Enter the items that have been purchased.
Enter the inventory account from which these items are taken into the Inventory Account field.

Goldenseal will adjust the inventory quantities for the Inventory account, and for each Cost Item that you sell.

HINT-- If you would like to be warned about low inventory, choose Preferences from the Options menu, choose Income from the submenu, and turn on the Warn About Low Inventory checkbox.

Low Inventory

When you enter items in a sale with an Item breakdown, Goldenseal checks whether the item is tracked in inventory, and also checks the current inventory amount.

If inventory is low, Goldenseal will check the Low Inventory Action field in the Cost Item record, and take that action (the default is to ask you what to do about the low inventory).

If an item is back order, the back order quantity appears in the Back Order column.

If you selected Create Purchase Order, Goldenseal automatically creates a Purchase Order for the items that are out of stock.

Printing a Sales Receipt

To print a customer sales receipt, choose Print Form from the File menu, and select the type of receipt you'd like to use.
You'll have the option to print all the found sales, or just the sale transaction that is currently visible.

HINT-- If a sales transaction has a negative balance, print a Refund or Credit Memo.

Cash Sales

Prepaid sales are generally handled as follows:

Enter the sales transaction.
When you are ready to deposit sales income, choose Deposit Funds from the Bank menu. It will let you determine where the cash, checks or credit card income will go.
Once cash sales have been deposited, their status is changed to Paid.

Billable Sales

Billed sales are generally handled as follows:

Enter the sales transaction.
When you are ready to make a billing, choose Billing from the Bank menu, and choose the Sales submenu. You'll see a list of customers and the amount to bill for each. Click the Create Bills button to prepare billing records or statements.
Once a Billing Record transaction has been created, the status of each Sale transaction on it is changed to Billed.
When payment is received on the Billing Record, the status of the Sale transaction is changed to Paid.

Price Quotes

To give a customer an estimate for a possible sale, enter information as usual and change the status to Price Quote.
NOTE-- To give a price quote on work that will be tracked as a Project account, use an Estimate.

If you never fulfill the sale, you can change the status to Void (or just leave it as is).
If you do get the sale, change the status to Sold.

Updating Prices

If you fulfill a sale that was delayed for some reason, you'll have the option to update the sale to current pricing.

If you used no breakdown or a Category breakdown, updating will have to be done by hand.

If you used an Item breakdown, click the Update Prices button to do the update.

One Time Names

To sell to a one-time customer who doesn't have their own Customer account, follow these steps:

Make sure you have at least one Customer account that has the Allow One Time Names checkbox turned on.
Choose Sales from the Income menu.
Click the New button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Enter the Customer account that allows one-time names.
Turn on the One Time checkbox.
Type the customer's name into the One Time field.