Selling retail products and skincare

The online shop is available to clinics that have it switched on. Its setup and order controls below apply to those clinics.

Retail sales let you sell skincare and other products over the counter, take the payment however the patient pays, and have the sale drop straight into your stock levels and your finance figures. It is a simple till: no card is charged here, you just record the money you have taken.

Enabling a product for retail

As a clinic owner, go to Stock and add a product, or use Edit on an existing one. Tick Retail item and set a Retail price (£) (and, if you like, the cost so you can see your margin). Only a clinic owner can change Retail item, Category and VAT category. You can change price and cost later with Edit. New retail products start with Available in the online shop ticked, so set a price above zero or untick it for in-clinic sales only. Converting an existing product to retail saves it for in-clinic sales first; use Edit again to list it online. Only products marked as retail, and not archived, appear in the sale form, so your injectable consumables never show up as something to sell.

Recording a sale

On the Stock page, use Record sale:

1. Add one or more lines. Pick the product and the price fills in from its retail price; you can change the price and the quantity on the line.
2. Optionally link a patient, or leave it as a walk-in.
3. Choose how the patient paid: Card terminal, Cash, Bank transfer or Other. This is a record only, so take the payment on your own terminal or till as usual.
4. Set the VAT category for the sale. It follows the selected products when they share one recorded VAT category; otherwise it starts as Cosmetic. You can choose Medical or Cosmetic for the sale with your accountant's guidance. Each product line also keeps the product's recorded VAT category.
5. Press Record sale.

Fulfilment: taken away, to collect, or to post

Every sale records how the goods leave the clinic. Taken away is the default for a normal counter sale and needs nothing extra. Choose To collect if the patient will pick the items up later, or To post if you are sending them out.

When a sale is To post, capture the Delivery address (it prefills from the patient's record when one is linked and has an address) and, if you charge for postage, add the optional Postage (£, optional) amount. Postage is part of the sale total and follows the same VAT category as the goods, so there is nothing separate to account for. A postage line does not touch your stock.

Awaiting dispatch

Sales that are to collect or to post appear in the Awaiting dispatch list on the Stock page until you deal with them. When you have handed the items over or put them in the post, press Mark collected or Mark posted and the sale drops off the list.

If you let patients reserve online orders and pay when they collect, those orders sit in the same list marked Reserved, unpaid with the date the reservation expires. When the patient pays at the desk, choose how they paid and press Mark paid, then Mark collected once they have the items. Cancel reservation releases the stock if they do not come.

Stock and VAT

Recording a sale automatically deducts the quantity sold from each product's stock level, shown as a sold movement in the stock history, so your levels stay right without a separate adjustment. The payment lands in Finance like any other takings: it is included in your day and month totals, appears in the ledger as a retail payment, and is counted in the VAT report under the VAT category you chose for the sale (medical or cosmetic).

Reversing a mistaken sale

If you record a sale in error, two things need putting right: the stock and the money.

• Stock. Add the items back with a stock adjustment on the Stock page (a positive quantity for each product), so your levels are correct again.
• Money. If you have already refunded the patient, a clinic owner records a refund on the Finance page so your takings reflect the money going back out. That needs a patient on the sale, so link the patient when you record a sale you might later need to refund.

Also want to sell online?

Recording sales at the counter is only half the picture. You can also switch on an online shop on your booking page, so patients can buy your retail products and either collect them from the clinic or have them posted. For clinics that have it switched on: an owner turns it on under Stock, Online shop by ticking Sell products online. See Selling skincare online: your shop page to set it up.

An owner also chooses how online orders are paid for, in How orders are paid for on the same card: Pay online by card, Reserve, pay in clinic, or Either, the patient chooses. Reserving is only offered when patients can collect. See Letting patients reserve shop orders and pay when they collect.

Online orders come back to the same place as your counter sales, in Awaiting dispatch on the Stock page, and count towards the same retail and VAT reporting.

Price and VAT changes apply to future sales, not receipts already issued. An online checkout keeps the product names, prices and VAT categories captured when it was started. Editing a product later does not rewrite that sale.