A gold shop is unlike any other store: the price of its stock changes every day, a piece is sold by its weight and karat rather than a price tag, and a customer may walk in to sell used gold rather than to buy. So a gold shop needs software that understands gold itself, not general accounting software or an ordinary point of sale. This guide explains what gold and jewellery shop management software should do, and what to ask before you choose, wherever your shop is in the GCC or Egypt.
Why general accounting or point-of-sale software is not enough
General software is built around an item with a fixed price and a quantity counted in pieces. In a gold shop:
- The price is daily and per karat: today's price per gram of 21K differs from yesterday's, and from 18K, 22K or 24K.
- A piece is priced from its weight: weight × today's price per gram of its karat + the making charge, and the making charge is the shop's margin.
- Gold comes in from customers: used-gold purchases are recorded by weight, karat and the seller's details.
- Suppliers are paid in gold and in cash: so each supplier has two balances, one in cash and one in grams.
- Stock is measured in grams: the daily question in a gold shop is “how many grams do we have?” before “how many pieces?”.
The core modules of gold shop management software
| Module | What it should do |
|---|---|
| Sales and invoices | Work out the price from the weight, today's karat price and the making charge, and print a tax invoice carrying the branch's identity. |
| Used-gold purchases | Record the weight, karat and seller's details, and bring the gold into stock by weight. |
| Supplier purchases | By value and by weight together, with a cash balance and a gold balance for each supplier. |
| Inventory | A barcode for every item with its weight and karat, an RFID tag that identifies each individual piece, and a balance by weight for each karat and its 24K equivalent. |
| Stock counts | By barcode or with an RFID reader, with minutes that record each difference and the decision taken on it. |
| Cash and shifts | A cash box per branch, opening and closing shifts, and a daily settlement that reconciles cash with sales. |
| Accounts and reports | Customer and supplier balances, journal entries, financial statements, and sales and inventory reports. |
Inventory in detail: How to manage gold inventory by weight and karat in your shop. Stock counts in detail: How to run a gold shop stock count with barcodes and RFID.
Karat and the 24K equivalent: the formula the software must understand
Grams of different karats cannot simply be added up: ten grams of 18K are not the same as ten grams of 22K. So the software converts every weight into its pure-gold equivalent:
24K equivalent = weight × karat ÷ 24 — for example, 10 grams of 21K = 10 × 21 ÷ 24 = 8.75 grams of 24K.
With this equivalent the shop compares branch balances, settles accounts with suppliers it deals with in gold, and knows its real gold position whatever mix of karats is on the shelves.
Tax and invoicing in the GCC and Egypt
The software must apply your country's rules, not another country's, and let each branch use its own tax rate when branches are in more than one country:
| Country | VAT | What to ask the software for |
|---|---|---|
| Kuwait | Not applied as of publication | Dinar with three decimal places, and Civil ID card reading |
| Saudi Arabia | 15% | The tax invoice and its QR code, and integration with the Fatoora platform (phase two) if your shop is required to use it |
| UAE | 5% | The tax invoice in dirhams |
| Bahrain | 10% | Dinar with three decimal places |
| Oman | 5% | Rial with three decimal places |
| Qatar | Not applied as of publication | The Qatari riyal |
| Egypt | 14% | The e-invoice and e-receipt system if your business is required to use it |
Investment gold (high-purity bars) may be treated differently from jewellery in some countries, and tax rules change, so check with your country's tax authority or your accountant before relying on any rate.
Multiple branches and currencies
A successful shop becomes two branches, then more, and may cross borders. Ask about three things:
- Moving gold between branches: on a voucher confirmed on receipt at the actual weight received, not the weight written when it was sent.
- A currency per branch: one branch in dinar and another in riyal within the same company, with every document carrying its branch's currency and exchange rate.
- Permissions per role: the cashier sells, the branch manager oversees, the accountant sees the accounts, and each sees only their own branch.
Questions to ask any vendor before you decide
- Does it work out the price automatically from the weight, karat, today's price and the making charge?
- Does it record used-gold purchases by weight, karat and the seller's details?
- Does it track supplier balances by weight as well as in cash?
- Does the barcode carry the piece's weight and karat, and does it support an RFID tag that identifies each individual piece?
- How are stock counts done, and does it support an RFID reader?
- Does it support branches in more than one country with different currencies?
- What exactly does it offer for your country's invoicing requirements, and what does it not offer yet?
- Is your company's data in a database of its own?
- Can you try it in your shop before you buy?
For ten detailed criteria to compare vendors, see How to choose the best gold and jewellery shop software in Kuwait; and for when you need one system that brings every part of the shop together, see our guide to all-in-one systems for gold and jewellery shops.
How ZMZMGold applies this
ZMZMGold is gold and jewellery shop management software built around these requirements:
| Requirement | In ZMZMGold |
|---|---|
| Pricing by weight and karat | A price for each karat (18, 21, 22 and 24), with the making charge on every sale and purchase line. |
| Used gold | Purchases from customers with their details, and in Kuwait it reads the Civil ID card to fill in the customer's details. |
| Suppliers | A cash balance and a gold balance for each supplier, and purchases by value and by weight. |
| Inventory | A barcode for every item by weight and karat, an RFID tag for each piece, and each branch's balance by weight and as its 24K equivalent. |
| Stock counts | With an RFID reader once each piece has its own tag, or by barcode, with count minutes. |
| Branches and currencies | A currency per branch: Kuwaiti and Bahraini dinar, Saudi, Qatari and Omani riyal, UAE dirham and Egyptian pound, and gold moved between branches on a voucher confirmed on receipt at the actual weight received. |
| Tax | A rate per branch where VAT applies, and the QR code on the tax invoice in Saudi Arabia (phase one). |
| Accounts | Customer, supplier, bank and cash balances, with journal entries and financial statements in the “Integrated Accounting” module. |
| Your data | A database of its own for your company alone. |
Accounting in detail: Integrated accounting software for gold shops: what it should do.
In short
Choose software that understands gold: it prices by weight and karat, tracks used gold and gold balances, counts pieces one by one, and applies your country's tax and currency. Ask every vendor what it does not offer as much as what it does, then try it before you pay.