Employee Issued Products
Your team uses products every day — shampoo at the wash station, wax, colour tubes, cotton. Employee Issued Products lets you record which products you hand over to which staff member, so your stock stays accurate and you can see who's using what. Once staff record in SimplePOS how much they used on each service, six more pages show where that product went: see Tracking how much staff use.
How to open it: Inventory › Employee Issued Products
Issuing a product
- Click Issue a product.
- Fill in:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Store | The store the product is taken from. Changing it reloads the item and employee lists |
| Issue date | When it was handed over. It starts on today |
| Item | The product. Type its name or barcode to find it; the list shows how many the store has now (Current Quantity) |
| Employee | Who received it. Only active employees of the chosen store are listed |
| Quantity | How many, 1 or more |
| Remarks | A short note, at least 3 letters. This is required |
- Click Save issue. You come back to the list, where the new row appears.
The quantity is taken out of that store's stock.
💡 In Item Master, each product has an Employee Issue Type. Set it to Once for things a staff member should only receive one time (like a uniform or a tool kit), or Multiple Times for everyday supplies. It's a guide only: this page doesn't stop you recording a second handover, so check the list first for items set to Once.
The list
Every product issued, with the store, employee, issue date, product, quantity and remark, plus its value:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sales Cost | The item's selling price per piece at that store on the day you issued it |
| Purchase Price | What the item costs you per piece, as it stands in Item Master now |
| Total Sales Cost / Total Purchase Cost | Quantity × each price |
- Use the filter on the Issue Date column title to look at a particular period.
- Type or pick in the boxes under the column titles to narrow by store, employee or product.
- Click Edit to correct an entry. You can change the date, item, employee, quantity or remark, but not the store; if you chose the wrong store, issue the product again from the right one.
- Click Export to Excel to download the list, if your role allows it.
Tracking how much staff use
Handing a product over is only half the story. When your staff open a colour tube or a bottle of developer, they can record in SimplePOS how much of it they used on each service, for example 40 ml of colour on a root touch-up. The six pages below, all under Inventory right after Employee Issued Products, turn those entries into answers: where your product goes, what each service really costs you, who uses more than others, and what went unrecorded.
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Consumption Register | Every single entry staff made |
| Product Consumption | How much of each product was used, and what it cost you |
| Service Consumption Cost | What each service uses, and how much of its price that takes |
| Employee Consumption | Who uses more or less than the rest of the team |
| Issued Product Balance | For each handover: given, used and what should be left |
| Services Without Consumption | Billed services where staff forgot to record what they used |
💡 These pages are different from Bill of Materials. There you tell Invoay how much a service should use; here you see what your staff say they actually used.
How entries reach the Back Office
- You issue a product to a staff member (see Issuing a product). Your stock goes down at this point.
- During or after the service, the staff member opens the appointment, job card or bill in SimplePOS and enters how much of that product they used, the unit (ml, gm or pcs) and a remark if they like.
- SimplePOS sends the entry to the Back Office. It shows on these pages the next time you press the page's button to show the report.
Staff add, change and remove entries in SimplePOS only. The Back Office pages just show them, and removed entries are left out everywhere.
⚠️ Before you start, turn it on for each store. Entries only arrive from a SimplePOS version that sends product use (your SimplePOS update notes will say when yours does). Then open Settings › SimplePOS Billing Counter › POS Settings, choose the store, find the setting whose Description says SimplePOS uploads product consumption entries, tick Is Enabled and save. Restart the billing counter afterwards. See POS Settings.
Set a unit and pack size on your products
To work out cost and balance, Invoay needs to know how much one piece holds. In Item Master, give each product you issue to staff a Unit (for example ml) and a Pack size (for example 500 for a 500 ml bottle). Without them, the counts still work, but cost and balance stay blank.
Good to know
- Recording use never changes your stock. Stock already went down when you issued the product.
- Units are never mixed. 50 ml and 2 pcs of the same product are never added together, so a product can have one row per unit staff used. Ask staff to record use in the product's own unit, otherwise it can't be costed or counted against the balance.
- Dates. Every page opens on the 1st of this month to today and shows up to 366 days at a time. Times are in each store's own time.
- Store and other boxes in the list. To look at one store, pick it in the box under Store Location. You can also type in the boxes under other column titles, and click Export to Excel to download what you see, if your role allows it. See Working with lists.
How cost of use is worked out
Product Consumption and Service Consumption Cost show what the product you used cost you:
- Cost of one piece is the price on your latest purchase of the product. Draft and cancelled purchases don't count.
- If you have never bought the product through a purchase, the purchase price saved on the product in Item Master is used instead, and the cost shows an Item price tag. Record your purchases to see what you really pay.
- Cost of use = amount used ÷ pack size × cost of one piece. Example: staff used 50 ml from a 500 ml bottle that cost 1,000. That's a tenth of a bottle, so the cost of use is 100.
- Cost of use stays blank when the product has no pack size or unit, or when staff recorded the use in a different unit from the product's own (for example pcs for a product measured in ml).
Consumption Register
Every entry your staff made, one row each: when, where, for which customer and service, who did it, which product and how much. Use it to check a particular visit, or to look behind the totals on the other pages.
How to open it: Inventory › Consumption Register
Filters
- Choose Date From and Date To. This is when staff made the entry.
- If you like, pick an Employee (who did the service), a Product, a Service, and Billed or Not billed. Leave a box empty to see everything.
- Click Show entries.
To find a customer, type in the box under Customer.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Date | When staff made the entry |
| Store Location | The store |
| Bill | The bill number from the receipt. Click it to open the bill. Not billed means the appointment or job card has no bill yet; it changes once the bill is made and SimplePOS syncs |
| Customer | Empty for a walk-in without a customer |
| Service | The service the product was used on |
| Employee | Who did the service |
| Product | The issued product that was used |
| Qty / Unit | How much was used, in the unit staff picked |
| Issued to | Who the product was issued to. Often the same person as Employee, but not always |
| Entered by | Who typed the entry in SimplePOS |
| Remark | Any note staff added, like Half tube |
💡 Before you compare or add up amounts, filter to one product and check the Unit column.
Product Consumption
A total for each product at each store: how much was used, on how many services, and what that use cost you. Use it to see which products go into your services, compare stores and spot waste.
How to open it: Inventory › Product Consumption
Filters: choose Date From and Date To (when staff made the entries), and a Category if you like. Picking a category or sub-category shows the products in it. Click Show consumption. To find a product, type in the box under Product.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Store Location / Product / Category | Where the product was used, and which product |
| Unit | The unit staff recorded the use in. A product recorded in two units gets two rows |
| Total used | Everything recorded for this product at this store in that unit, added up |
| Entries | How many times staff recorded using it |
| Services | How many services it was used on. Each service on a bill counts once, however many entries staff made for it. Without a bill, each appointment counts once; with neither, each entry counts as one service |
| Pack size | How much one piece holds, from Item Master. Not set means you haven't added one yet |
| Cost per piece | What you paid for one piece (see How cost of use is worked out) |
| Cost of use | What the product used here cost you. The total at the bottom adds up every row that has a cost |
When Cost of use can't be worked out, the cell tells you why:
- No pack size: the product has no pack size or unit. Edit the product in Item Master and fill them in.
- Unit differs: staff recorded the use in another unit from the product's own. Ask them to use the product's unit.
Service Consumption Cost
The same product use, but service by service: for each store, service and product, how often the service was billed, how often staff recorded using the product on it, how much they used on average, what that cost, and what share of the service's earnings it took. Use it to price your services and compare stores.
How to open it: Inventory › Service Consumption Cost
Filters: choose Date From and Date To, and a Service category if you like. Click Show costs. Bills count by their bill date and product use by the date staff made the entry. Only services with product use recorded in your dates are listed.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Store Location / Service | Where the service was done and billed, and which service |
| Times billed | How many times the service appears on bills at this store in your dates. Returned bills are left out |
| Times with use | How many visits had this product recorded for the service. Two entries on the same visit count once |
| Product / Unit | The product used and the unit it was recorded in. Each unit gets its own row |
| Total used | All the use added up |
| Avg used per service | Total used ÷ Times with use |
| Cost of use | What the product used cost you (see How cost of use is worked out). Not available means the product has no pack size or unit, or staff used a different unit |
| Service revenue | What the service earned at this store in your dates, before tax. It repeats on every product row of the same service, so it isn't totalled |
| Cost % | Cost of use as a share of Service revenue |
Reading Cost %
- Low means the product is a small part of the service price.
- High means the product eats a big share. Check the service price, how much staff use, or what you pay for the product.
- It's empty when the service earned nothing in your dates (for example it was only given free in packages) or when Cost of use is not available.
💡 If Times with use is much lower than Times billed, staff may not be recording use on every service. Services Without Consumption shows exactly which ones. Times billed can be 0 when use was recorded on an appointment that hasn't been billed yet.
Employee Consumption
How much of each product every employee uses per service, side by side with the average for everyone at the same store doing the same service. Use it to spot staff who use far more product than others, or far less, and have a chat with them.
How to open it: Inventory › Employee Consumption
Filters: choose Date From and Date To (when staff made the entries), and an Employee (who did the service) or a Service if you like. Click Show report. Picking an employee only hides other people's rows: the store average still counts the whole team, so you always compare one person with everyone.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Store Location / Employee | The store, and who did the service |
| Service / Product / Unit | The service, the product used on it and the unit recorded |
| Services done | How many times this employee did this service with this product. Counted the same way as on Product Consumption |
| Total used | Everything this employee recorded, added up |
| Avg per service | Total used ÷ Services done. For example, 200 ml over 5 services is 40 ml per service |
| Store avg per service | The same average for everyone at that store, for the same service, product and unit and the same dates |
| Difference | How far the employee's average is from the store's |
What the Difference shows:
- above, for example +25.0% above: the employee uses a quarter more product each time than the store average.
- below: the employee uses less than the store average.
- Same: the employee matches the store average.
- Only one doing it: every one of these services at that store was done by this employee, so there's no one to compare with.
💡 A few services can swing the numbers a lot. Look at Services done before you act on a big difference. Each store is compared only with itself.
Issued Product Balance
One row for every product you issued to a staff member: how much you gave, how much they recorded as used, and how much should be left. Use it to spot product that went unrecorded, or was used more than it should have been.
How to open it: Inventory › Issued Product Balance
Filters
- Choose Date From and Date To. These pick issues by the day the product was issued, not the day it was used, so an older issue that's still open only shows if your dates include its issue day.
- If you like, pick who it was Issued to, a Product, and a Status (Open or Closed).
- Click Show balance.
To see only the rows that need a look, pick a value in the box under Check.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Issue date / Store Location / Issued to / Product | When, where, to whom and what you issued |
| Issued (pcs) | How many pieces you issued, for example 2 bottles |
| Pack size / Unit | How much one piece holds, from Item Master, for example 500 ml |
| Issued (unit) | Pieces × pack size, for example 2 × 500 = 1,000 ml |
| Used | Everything staff recorded as used from this issue, in the product's unit. Entries in another unit aren't added in; the cell tells you how many were left out, so you can have them corrected in SimplePOS |
| Balance | Issued (unit) − Used: what should still be left |
| Balance % | The balance as a share of what you issued. 0% means all of it was recorded as used |
| Check | A warning when something needs a look (see below) |
| Status / Closed on | Open: the product is still with the staff member and more use can be recorded. Closed: the issue was marked finished in SimplePOS, so its balance should be close to zero |
The warnings in the Check column
- Not all recorded: the issue is closed but more than 20% of it is still in the balance. Staff may have used the product without recording it, or some was left over. Ask the staff member and look at their entries in the Consumption Register.
- More than issued: staff recorded more use than you issued, so the balance is below zero. Look for an entry with a wrong amount or unit, or use that belongs to another issue.
💡 If Issued (unit), Balance and Balance % are blank, the product has no pack size or unit. Add both in Item Master.
Services Without Consumption
Services on your bills where staff didn't record any product use. Use it to remind staff to record use, and to spot services done without the product they normally need.
How to open it: Inventory › Services Without Consumption
Which services are checked? Only services that normally use a product. A service counts as one that normally uses a product at a store when staff recorded product use for it at least 5 times at that store in the 90 days up to your Date To. Each store is checked on its own.
Example: your Date To is 30 June, so Invoay looks at entries from 2 April to 30 June. Hair Colour has 12 entries at your Andheri store in that time, so every Hair Colour on an Andheri bill in your dates with no entry shows here. A service with only 3 entries is left out.
Filters: choose Date From and Date To (these are bill dates), and an Employee if you only want the services that person did. Click Show services.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Store Location | The store |
| Date | When the bill was made |
| Bill | The bill number from the receipt. Click it to open the bill |
| Customer | Empty for a walk-in without a customer |
| Service | The service on the bill with no product use recorded |
| Employee | Who did the service, as shown on the bill |
| Usual product | The product staff recorded most often for this service at this store in the same 90 days. It's a hint of what was probably used, not a record |
A service on a bill counts as recorded when there's at least one entry for that same service on that same bill. If a bill has the same service twice, one entry covers both. Returned bills are left out.
What to do next: ask the employee to open the bill in SimplePOS and record what they used. The service drops off this list once SimplePOS syncs.
💡 Staff recorded use but the service still shows? The entry may have been made on the appointment or job card and not yet linked to the bill, or recorded under a different service. Check it in the Consumption Register.