Getting started with Daftar.pro

Set up your shop (about 20 minutes)

1. Press Sign up, enter your business name, your email and a password of at least 8 characters, then press Create account.
2. Right away, open Settings and find Recovery codes. Press Create recovery codes and keep the codes somewhere safe (you can copy them or use Download as a file). If you forget your password, a recovery code is the only way back in, and the codes are shown only once.
3. In Settings, under Business, upload your logo with Upload a logo, fill in the shop's name, phone and address, and write a Message at the bottom of receipts such as "Thank you for shopping with us". Set the Country code for phone numbers (963 for Syria) so WhatsApp can open phone numbers that start with 0. Press Save business details.
4. Under Money, enter your Sales tax rate (%) if you charge tax (leave it at 0 if you don't). Everything is stored in Syrian pounds. US dollars is already on your list under Currencies, at a starting rate: check the Pounds per 1 unit column and change it to today's rate. You can add other currencies with Add currency. Then switch between pounds and dollars with the buttons at the top of any page.
5. Under Language, choose English or Arabic. In Arabic you can also choose which Digits to see.
6. Add what you sell. Open Inventory, fill in the item's name, unit, what it costs you, what it sells for and how many you have, then press Add item. To add many at once, press Import from Excel, download the template with Download Excel template, fill it in Excel, choose the file and check the preview. Nothing is saved until you press the final import button.
7. Customers who already owe you money: open Customers and use Add customer, or Import from Excel for a list.
8. Tell the app how much cash you have: on the Dashboard, press Set opening balance / adjust, choose Cash added and enter your cash with the note Opening balance.
9. Once a week, open Settings and press Download a backup (under Backup). Keep the file somewhere safe. The Dashboard reminds you when a week has passed.

At the till: selling and collecting money

1. Open New Sale. Type in the search box to find an item, or scan its barcode: a USB barcode scanner works as if you typed the code, and Scan with the camera uses your phone's camera. Tap an item to put it in the Basket.
2. Items you sell all day can be starred. Tap the star next to an item to add it to Favourites, which are shown first.
3. In the basket you can change each quantity and price. Choose a customer if you want to keep a record of the sale: Walk-in (no customer record) for someone you don't need to record, an existing customer, or + New customer….
4. Choose how it is paid: Paid in full, Part paid now, the rest on credit, or All on credit (pay later). Selling on credit needs a customer. Then press Complete sale. Stock and cash update by themselves, and the receipt opens.
5. On the receipt press Print, or Share on WhatsApp to send it to the customer. A window shows their number and the message. You can change the number, the language of the message, and the wording, then press Open WhatsApp. You press Send in WhatsApp yourself; nothing is sent without you.
6. When a customer pays off a debt: open Customers, open their Statement, and use Collect a payment. Enter the amount and press Record payment, or press Pay full balance.
7. To remind someone who owes you money, press Remind on WhatsApp next to their name in Customers, or Send statement on WhatsApp on their statement page. Money owed to you is not counted as cash until it is collected.
8. A sale made by mistake: open the receipt and press Void. Its items go back into stock. If the customer has already paid something toward their account, undo those payments first.

In the stock room: buying and keeping track of stock

1. When goods arrive, open Purchases, choose the item, enter the Quantity bought and the total you paid, and press Record purchase. Stock goes up, the cash you paid comes out, and the item's average cost updates by itself so your profit stays honest.
2. A wrong purchase can be undone with Undo, as long as the stock it added has not been sold yet.
3. In Inventory you can search, sort the columns, and press Edit to fix a name, quantity, cost, price or barcode. Tick several items to move them to a category (Move to category…), add them to favourites, or delete them.
4. If you keep stock in more than one place, open Lists then Warehouses. Add another place with Add warehouse and move stock between places with Move stock. Then New Sale and Purchases ask which place the stock comes from or goes to.
5. To group items (for example Drinks, then Soda inside it), open Lists then Items tree.

For the owner: money, staff and the numbers

1. The Dashboard shows your Cash on hand, Total inventory value and Customer debt (sold on credit), with your recent transactions underneath.
2. Rent, electricity and other running costs: open Expenses, pick or type a category, enter the amount and press Record expense.
3. Staff: add everyone under Lists then Employees (or Add employee on Payroll), saying whether they are paid monthly, daily or hourly. To pay them, open Payroll, choose Pay wages or Give advance, and press Record payment or Record advance. An advance you gave can be taken off their next pay.
4. Open Reports to see Revenue, Gross profit and Net profit for Today, Last 7 days, This month or This year, with charts and your best sellers. Show custom range lets you pick any dates.
5. Profit is not the same as cash: buying stock changes your cash straight away, but it only becomes a cost in the profit report once you sell it.
6. To see each branch or activity's profit separately, add Cost centers under Lists and choose one when you sell, spend or pay. The Chart of accounts shows where every pound is filed.

Handy extras

• Night mode (the moon button at the top) is easier on the eyes in the evening.
• Inventory, Customers and employees each have Import from Excel to add a whole list from an Excel or CSV file.
• Customers and employees can be archived (Archive) instead of removed, and brought back with Restore. Their history stays.
• The Lists page gathers employees, the items tree, currencies, cost centers, the chart of accounts and warehouses in one place.

If something goes wrong

• If a page shows "Something went wrong on this page", press Try again, or Reload the page. Your data is safe, and we are told about the problem automatically.
• Forgot your password? On the log-in page press "Forgot your password?" and use one of your recovery codes. Without a code there is no way to reset it, so create your codes today.
• Entered something wrong? Sales are cancelled with Void; purchases, expenses, payments and wages with Undo. They stay in your history, marked as voided or undone, so your books remain complete.
• Questions or problems: write to abdullah0dabbagh@gmail.com.