Help: the owner guide

For shop owners and managers. Short sections, plain English. Print it, or read it online at tradejunction.co.zw/help. Trade Junction has two parts. The dashboard is where you, the owner or a manager, run the business (on the website, or in the app under "Owner or manager"). The till is the app your sellers use to ring up sales (they sign in as "Shop staff").

Set up your shop

1. Sign up on the website and add your business and shop name. You start on a free trial.
2. Open Store settings. Fill in the store details: name, town, phone and WhatsApp number.
3. In the same page, check the Till rules: how big a discount a seller may give without asking you, the default credit limit for customers, and whether returns need your approval.
4. If you take US dollars and Zimbabwe dollars, set the Currency section. Only an owner or manager can change the rate, so keep it up to date.
5. Add your sellers on the Staff page (see "Add sellers and managers").
6. Add your products (see "Add products"), then download the till app and sign in with a seller to try one sale.

Do you have more than one shop? In Store settings, use "Add another store". Each branch pays its own subscription, so add the branch to your plan on the Billing page first. A switcher in the side menu moves you between them.

Add sellers and managers

Go to Staff.

• Add a new seller: give a name, a username and a 6-digit PIN you choose (not an easy one like 123456). Tell the seller the username and PIN. There is no sign-up in the till app.
• Attach an existing seller: if a person already has a username from another of your shops, attach them by username.
• Reset a PIN: use "Reset a seller's PIN" if someone forgets.
• Locked out: after 5 wrong PINs a seller is locked for 15 minutes. The Staff page shows who is locked and lets you unlock them.
• When someone leaves: remove them from Staff straight away so they can no longer sign in.

Managers see everything you see, except billing, some owner-only settings and deleting the business.

Add products

Go to Products.

• New product: name, selling price and, if you want profit reports, what it cost you. Cashiers never see cost prices.
• Categories keep the list tidy and are used by your online store.
• Import your product list lets you upload a spreadsheet instead of typing each item.
• Bundles let you sell several items as one.
• Set a low-stock level on a product and the dashboard warns you when stock falls to it.

Sell

Sellers sell on the till app.

1. Sign in with username and PIN. Pick the shop if the seller works in more than one.
2. Open a shift by entering the cash in the drawer.
3. Tap products (or scan a barcode) to add them to the sale, then go to checkout.
4. Choose how the customer pays: cash, mobile money, card, bank transfer, credit (for a saved customer), or a split between two ways. Give change, or note that you owe the change if you have no coins.
5. Send the receipt to the customer on WhatsApp with one tap. Old receipts are on the Sales tab.

Selling without a saved customer is fine. Quick sale is for an item that is not in your list yet.

Discounts and approvals

• Each seller can give a discount only up to the limit you set in Store settings, and must give a reason.
• If a seller needs to go above the limit, they ask you from the till. You approve or decline on the dashboard, and the seller can then finish the sale.
• A customer can also have a standing discount that you set on their record.

Returns

On the till, open the Sales tab, tap Return next to the receipt, then tap the items coming back.

• If your shop needs approval for returns, the refund waits until you or a manager approves it on the dashboard.
• If you turned on automatic returns in Store settings, the return goes through straight away.
• Returned items go back into stock.

Count stock

Go to Stock on the dashboard.

• Adjust a quantity when you find a mistake, with a reason.
• Write off damaged, expired or stolen items. Write-offs are listed, and the owner can undo one made by mistake.
• Stock takes let you count shelf by shelf. Enter what you counted and the system shows the difference before it changes your stock.
• Suppliers and restock records goods you receive and what you owe each supplier. Paying a supplier is recorded there too.

Move stock between shops

If you have more than one store, open Stock and use the transfer page. Choose the shop it is going to, the items and quantities. Stock leaves one shop and is added to the other.

Handle credit

Go to Customers and credit.

• Add a customer with a name and WhatsApp number. Set a credit limit, or leave the default.
• A seller can sell on credit only to a saved customer, and only up to the limit.
• Record a credit payment when the customer pays some of what they owe. Choose how they paid.
• The aging table shows who owes you and for how long, and flags debts older than 30 days. You can download it.
• Write off a debt only when you are sure it will not be paid. It is recorded in the activity log.

Cash up and handover

Go to Cash up.

• Each seller opens a shift with the cash in the drawer and, at the end of the day, closes it by counting the cash.
• The dashboard shows what the drawer should hold, what was counted, and the difference for each seller. Cash-ups that need a look are listed first.
• When the seller hands the cash to you, they record the handover on the till. You then confirm what arrived. If the amounts differ, the difference is shown.
• Shifts left open past the closing time are flagged so you can follow up.
• You can set the opening float for the day and the difference that should alert you, in Store settings.

Quotes and invoices

Go to Quotes and invoices. Make a quote for a customer, turn it into an invoice when they accept, and record the payment when they pay. Send the document to the customer on WhatsApp, or download it as a PDF.

Money and reports

• Finance and profit shows income, cost of goods, expenses and profit for a period. Record expenses here.
• Month end closes the month so the figures for that month do not change by accident.
• Reports can be downloaded from the pages that show them (stock, credit, profit).
• The Activity log lists who did what and when: price changes, write-offs, voids, approvals.

Your online store

In Store settings, turn on the Online store. Your shop then appears on the Trade Junction marketplace (tradejunction.co.zw/market) and gets its own page that shows your products. Customers send you their enquiry on WhatsApp. You can hide out-of-stock items.

The marketplace shows shops whose account is active, on a free trial or paid. If your plan lapses, your shop leaves the marketplace until you renew.

Your plan and billing

Open Billing to see your plan and when it runs out. You get reminders in the app before it expires. If a plan is not renewed:

1. A few days of grace: everything still works.
2. Then read-only: you can look at your records but not sell.
3. Then locked. Your data is kept safely, and paying brings everything back at once.

Renewals add to the time you have left, so paying early loses nothing.

When the network is down

The till keeps selling. Every sale is saved on the phone and sent as soon as the phone is online again. The Sales tab shows sales still waiting to send. Do not delete the app or clear the phone's data while sales are waiting. The dashboard needs the internet, so wait until it is back to look at figures.

Safety

• Never share your owner password. Give each seller their own username and PIN.
• Remove staff who leave.
• Check the Activity log and Cash up regularly.
• You can delete your account or the business in Store settings. This cannot be undone.

Your privacy and your account

Read the privacy policy. Sellers delete their own account on the till (Cash up tab, Delete my account); managers use Delete my account at the bottom of the dashboard; owners delete the business from Store settings. More on Delete your account.

Who to contact

Email support@tradejunction.co.zw. Say the name of your business and what you were doing when the problem happened.