Cash Sales let you raise an invoice for a walk-in or one-off customer without searching for an account every time. A single, pre-configured "cash sale" customer is used for these transactions, so a new invoice can be started from the Invoice Register with one click — already dated, referenced and assigned to your branch, ready for you to add items.
This is ideal for counter sales, point-of-sale style transactions, or any ad-hoc sale where you don't want to create or maintain a separate customer record.
One-Time Setup (Administrator)
Before the Cash Sale button appears, an administrator needs to nominate the customer account that cash sales are billed to. This is done once.
- Go to Settings and open the Sales tab.
- Find “Select Account to use for cash sales”. Start typing in the search box to find the customer you want to use as your cash sale account, then select it. The first contacts are shown by default so you can also just pick from the list.
- (Optional) Find “Default Invoice type for Cash Sales” and choose the document/invoice type that cash sale invoices should use. Leave this unset to use the system default.
- Click Save.
Where to Find It
Sales → Invoice Register
Once the cash sale account has been configured, a point of sale icon (point_of_sale) appears in the top-right of the Invoice Register, next to the standard “new invoice” button.
If you don't see the icon, the cash sale account has not been set up yet — see One-Time Setup above.
Creating a Cash Sale
- Go to Sales → Invoice Register.
- Click the cash sale icon (point_of_sale) in the top-right.
- A new invoice is created and opened automatically against your cash sale account. Add your items and complete the sale as you would any other invoice.
The new invoice opens pre-filled with:
- Customer – your configured cash sale account
- Reference – “Cash Sale”
- Date – today’s date
- Invoice type – the default type you set (if configured)
- Branch – your branch (see below)
How the Branch Is Set
The cash sale invoice is assigned to your branch automatically.
If your user is set to “All” branches rather than a single branch, the system uses the branch of the last invoice you created, so the sale lands in the branch you were most recently working in. You can always change the branch on the invoice before completing it.
Completing the Sale
From here the invoice behaves exactly like a normal invoice:
- Add inventory items, labour or free-text lines.
- Apply any discounts as needed.
- Take payment and allocate it against the invoice.
- Commit the invoice when you’re ready to finalise it.
Delivery Address on Cash Sale Projects
Projects raised for the cash sale account belong to many different customers, so saving each customer's address as a site would fill the shared account with addresses that are only used once. Instead, a cash sale project can keep its own one-off delivery address. Nothing is added to the cash sale account.
Turning it on (Administrator)
- Go to Settings and open the Projects tab.
- Set “One-Off Delivery Address On Cash Sale Projects” to Yes and save.
It is off by default, and it only affects projects whose customer is the account chosen in Select Account to use for cash sales (see One-Time Setup).
Creating a cash sale project
On New Project, choose the cash sale account as the customer. Site (card 4) then starts with a Deliver to choice. It is one or the other, never both:
- One-off · Cash sale (the default): search for the customer's address, or type it into the One-off delivery address fields. The address is required, is kept on this project only, and is not saved as a site on the cash sale account. The site picker is hidden: the project has no site.
- Site address: pick one of the cash sale account's sites, and dispatches use its address. There is no one-off address.
How the order goes out (our truck, a carrier, or the customer collects) is not a site. Plan it in the Delivery card instead, and the project gets that activity.
Add new site is not offered on the cash sale account. See New Project for the rest of the form.
Changing it on the project
On the project's General tab, Site & Delivery Address shows the project's site on the first line and where it delivers to on the second. A badge tells you whether the address comes from the Site or is a One-off cash sale address. Click it to open Site & delivery address. At the top, under Deliver to, choose one:
- Site address: pick or change the Site Name. Dispatches use the site's address. Any one-off address is cleared.
- One-off · Cash sale: search for the address or type it in. The site panel hides, and Use this address sets the project's site to Not Applicable.
Click Use this address, then Save Changes on the project. A project saved before this rule may still have both a site and a one-off address; it keeps both until you choose one here. Until you save, the address shows Unsaved. Each change is recorded in the project's history.
Dispatches and delivery documents
A new dispatch for the project starts with the project's delivery address, ahead of the project's site. Dispatch dockets and run sheets print the dispatch's address, so they show it too. On the dispatch, Use address lists the project address first.
When the project has no delivery address of its own, the dispatch uses the project's site as usual.
Shopify orders
When a Shopify order is imported against the cash sale account, the order's shipping address (or its billing address, when the order has no shipping address) goes onto the new project as its delivery address, and no site is created. See Shopify — Orders.
Dispatch Only Once Paid
A cash sale customer has no account with you, so goods on a cash sale project only leave once they have been paid for. Every dispatch on the project is checked, so dispatches can go out in parts as payments come in.
The rule
A dispatch can be saved when the value of all goods going out on the project, including this dispatch, is no more than the amount paid on the project's invoices.
- Going out is every committed dispatch on the project, less goods returned through Return Goods, plus the dispatch being saved. Goods are valued at the project's sell prices. A line that is not on the project is valued at the item's sell price.
- Paid is the payments received on the project's committed invoices, plus any credit note amounts allocated to them. When an invoice also has lines for another project, only this project's share counts.
- Both are ex GST. A difference under $1 is ignored, so rounding never stops a dispatch.
- A project with no invoice, or an unpaid invoice, can't dispatch. A part-paid invoice can dispatch up to the value paid.
When it is checked
The check runs whenever a save would add value to a dispatch: creating one, adding lines, or raising a quantity on a dispatch that is not committed yet. Saving other changes, lowering quantities and removing lines are never stopped. It applies however the dispatch is made:
- the project's Dispatch button, including Create dispatch from the Shipping hub and call-ups;
- saving a dispatch on the dispatch page;
- Dispatch on a picking slip;
- dispatches created by scheduled servicing.
When a dispatch is stopped
Before anything is saved, a window shows what is going out on the project, the value of this dispatch, the amount paid and the shortfall. Take payment against the invoice, then try again.
- On a picking slip, the slip is still committed because the goods were picked, but no dispatch is created. Once the goods are paid for, dispatch them from the project's Dispatch button.
- A dispatch made by scheduled servicing is skipped and the reason is recorded in the project's history.
While a project is short, the dispatch page shows a Cash sale flag with the same figures.
Dispatching anyway (Administrators and Accounts Receivable admins)
An administrator, or a user with Admin access to Accounts Receivable, can override the check. They see the same figures with a warning first, and the dispatch is only saved if they choose Dispatch anyway. Every override and every refusal is recorded in the history of the project and of the dispatch, with who, when, the value going out and the amount paid.
Credit limit and stop credit
Because this check stands in for them, the cash sale account is not credit checked: its credit limit never stops an invoice, and setting it to Stop Credit does not hold its quotes, projects, invoices or dispatches. Every other account works as described in Credit Limits & Stop Credit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change the customer after starting a cash sale?
Yes. The cash sale account is just a starting point. You can change the customer on the invoice if a particular sale needs to be billed to a named account.
The cash sale icon isn’t showing — why?
The icon only appears once an administrator has selected a cash sale account in Settings → Sales. If it’s missing, complete the one-time setup.
Can I report on cash sales?
Yes. Because every cash sale is billed to the same account and carries the “Cash Sale” reference, you can filter the Invoice Register (or sales reports) by that customer or reference to review them.