At a grocery or clothes shop, the cashier scans an item, its price appears, and the customer pays. In a gold shop, a piece's price moves with the gold price on the same day, and it is made up of weight, karat and making charge. That is why ordinary cashier software will not do. This guide explains what the point of sale in a gold shop should do, and what to ask before you choose.
The difference in one table
| Topic | Ordinary till | Gold shop till |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Fixed on the item | Weight × (today’s gram price for the karat + making charge) |
| Barcode | Identifies a product | Identifies an item by karat, colour and weight in a particular branch |
| Discount | A percentage off the price | A set ceiling, and never below the gold price |
| Stock | A count of pieces | A count of pieces and a weight for each karat |
| Returns | A quick cancellation | A return note with a time limit, a ceiling and approval |
| Closing the day | Total sales | Sales, payment methods and the weight of gold sold for each karat |
What should a gold shop till do?
- Sell at today’s price: the gram price for each karat is shown at the top of the screen, and the piece’s price is calculated from it directly.
- Keep the making charge apart from the gold: the making charge is a fee on every gram, while the gold is the value of the metal. Mixing the two spoils the profit calculation.
- Guard the price: it accepts no gram price below the karat rate without prior permission, and no discount above the set ceiling.
- Know the customer: name, mobile and ID number, because a gold invoice is a document the customer comes back with for returns and the guarantee.
- Accept split payments: part in cash and part by card, with a reference number for every non-cash payment.
- Control returns: with a written return note and a set time limit, not with a cancel button.
- Close the day clearly: a shift that is closed, and a daily settlement that brings everything together.
The price calculation is explained in How to calculate the gold price with the making charge, and the types of making charge and how they are priced in Making charges in gold shops: how to know your real profit.
A worked example: an invoice with two pieces
A customer buys a bracelet and a ring. The figures are for illustration only, in your branch’s currency.
Piece price = weight × (gram price for the karat + making charge per gram)
| Piece | Karat | Weight (g) | Gram price | Making/g | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bracelet | 21 | 12.350 | 25.800 | 2.500 | 349.505 |
| Ring | 18 | 4.200 | 22.100 | 4.000 | 109.620 |
- Subtotal 459.125, and a discount on the invoice of 4.125 ⇒ total 455.000.
- If tax is enabled for your branch, it is calculated after the discount and added to the total.
- Payment: 155.000 in cash and 300.000 by card, with its reference number.
- Stock: two pieces fewer, and 12.350 g less of 21K and 4.200 g less of 18K.
The question here is: does your software work all of this out by itself after the barcode is scanned, or does the cashier type it in by hand?
The barcode: one scan brings everything
At a gold shop till, a single scan brings up the item with its karat, colour and weight, fills in the gram price for the karat, and suggests the making charge recorded at purchase. The barcode identifies an item by its weight and karat in a particular branch, so there may be more than one piece of it in stock. The till does not accept a barcode from another branch, nor a piece whose stock has run out. Reserving codes and printing tags are explained in Barcodes in a gold shop: from reserving the code to printing the tag and selling by scan.
And a small problem that often confuses cashiers: the keyboard set to Arabic while scanning. Good software converts Eastern Arabic digits into ordinary digits and removes the hidden marks some readers add, and if an Arabic letter still remains, it shows a clear message: switch the keyboard language to English, then scan again.
Returns: a return note, not a cancellation
Quickly cancelling an invoice opens the door to manipulation: a piece goes out and nobody knows where the money went. That is why, in a gold shop, it is replaced by a return note:
- It is opened with the original invoice number, within a time limit set by the finance manager.
- The customer is never refunded more than they actually paid for the returned pieces, after their share of the invoice discount.
- The refund method is recorded, and the customer’s signature is confirmed.
- The branch manager approves it, and the piece goes back into stock. A cash refund larger than the cash box balance is not approved.
The shift and the daily settlement
All of a branch’s sales and returns are tied to a shift. The shift opens automatically with the first transaction, and closes manually or automatically at a time set for each branch. On closing, a snapshot of its sales, returns and gold balance for each karat is saved, and its report is sent by email. Then the daily settlement is generated for each branch: sales broken down by payment method, returns, profit, and the weight of gold sold for each karat, and it is emailed to those subscribed to its reports.
Permissions: the cashier sells, the manager approves
- Cashier: sells, adds customers, creates return notes, and does not see cost or profit.
- Branch manager: approves returns and reviews the shift history.
- Finance: sets the discount ceiling, the return period and the rules for selling below the gold price, links payment methods to bank accounts, and reviews the daily settlement.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Is a piece’s price calculated automatically from today’s gold price, the weight and the making charge?
- Does it prevent selling below the karat rate, and does the discount have a ceiling the cashier cannot exceed?
- Can payment be split between cash and card, and does it ask for the reference number?
- How are returns handled: a cancellation, or a return note with a time limit, a ceiling and approval?
- Does it close the shift and generate a daily settlement by payment method and gold weight?
- Does the cashier see cost and profit, or are they hidden?
- Does it cope with an Arabic keyboard while scanning barcodes?
How ZMZMGold works at the point of sale
| Area | In ZMZMGold |
|---|---|
| Price | The gram price for 18K, 21K, 22K and 24K at the top of the screen, updated automatically, in the branch’s currency. |
| Scanning | The barcode brings up the item, karat, weight and suggested making charge, and whatever an Arabic keyboard layout garbles is normalised. |
| Controls | No selling below the karat rate except under a rule and a percentage set by the finance manager, and a discount ceiling for the piece and the invoice together. |
| Customer | Every invoice in a customer’s name: search by name, mobile or ID number, or add one from the sales screen, or from the civil ID card reader. |
| Payment | Split payment across the payment methods enabled for the branch, with a mandatory reference number for every non-cash payment. |
| Saving | A serial number for each branch, reserved on saving, and the same piece is never sold twice, even if two devices save at once. |
| Returns | A return note within a time limit, a ceiling at what the customer paid, and the branch manager’s approval. Invoices are never cancelled. |
| Shift and settlement | A shift that opens with the first transaction and closes manually or automatically, and a daily settlement for each branch delivered by email. |
| Printing | After saving, the invoice is printed directly or shown for preview, on A4 or A5 in the branch’s design, and it can be sent to the customer’s email as a PDF. |
Details on the gold and jewellery shop management software page, and what the invoice looks like in both languages in Gold invoices in Arabic and English: why travellers need them.
In short
A gold shop till is not an ordinary till with higher prices. It is a screen that calculates from weight, karat, today’s price and the making charge, guards the price and the discount, knows the customer, controls returns, and closes the day with a settlement that management can read. So choose software that does all this by itself, leaving the cashier free for the customer.