Sales

Put an item on layaway

A customer wants the phone but not all at once. Layaway lets them leave payments against it and take it home when it is paid off — without you writing names on sticky notes and without that money looking like profit you have not earned yet.

1. Turn it on first

   Layaway is off until you switch it on in Settings → Business. There you also set the default term — how many days a customer gets before it expires. Sixty is the default if you do not pick one. Until it is on, the menu item does not even appear.

2. Open it with a customer, always

   A layaway without a name is a box nobody owns, so the customer is required — by phone at the counter, same as a sale. You can put down a first payment right there. Repairs cannot be put on layaway: a repair is charged when you hand the device back.

3. Your stock is NOT frozen

   This surprises people, and it is deliberate. The system checks the item exists today so you cannot promise what you do not sell, but it does not take it out of inventory. Phones carry one to three months of distributor warranty and a layaway can run six, so you have to be able to rotate the old unit and restock before you hand one over. What you are promising is a model, not that exact handset.

4. Take payments as they come

   Each payment goes into your register, because the cash really is there and it has to balance at close. What it does not do is count as a sale or as profit yet. If it did, your business overview and your goal gauges would tell you that you earned money you still owe — and then count it again on the day you hand it over.

5. Watch the tabs, not your memory

   The list splits into active, due soon, expired, ready, delivered and cancelled. Ready is the one that makes you money: fully paid and the customer has not come back for it. The system also reminds the customer seven days before it expires.

6. Hand it over — that is the sale

   Delivering is what turns it into a normal sale: the stock comes off, the serial number is marked sold, and from that moment it is indistinguishable from any other sale, which is correct — the day you hand it over is the day you sold it.

7. If they never come back

   Cancelling gives you three ways to settle up: full store credit, credit minus a fee for the time it was held, or cash back. Keeping any of the customer money is an owner decision — the counter cannot do it on its own. You can also just extend the date instead, which re-notifies the customer.