Documentation

Novend Documentation

A practical guide to setting up your organization, selling on the counter, managing inventory and wholesale stock, syncing offline work, connecting hardware, and administering users, branches, and billing — on desktop, web, Android, and iOS (PWA).

01

Getting Started

Create your account, set up your business, and reach the dashboard ready to sell.

  • Open Sign up, enter your name, email, and password, and accept the Terms and Privacy Policy
  • After signup, complete onboarding with your business name and optional contact details
  • You land on the dashboard — your live overview of sales and activity
  • Add your first branch, products, and activate a selling device from Settings when ready
  • Invite cashiers and managers with the correct roles — never share owner credentials
  • Run a test sale, print or preview a receipt, then verify the order and inventory movement
  • Use Sign in next time, or get the desktop app, Android app, or iOS Home Screen PWA from Downloads
Create your account and accept Terms & Privacy
Set up your business name and details
Land on your dashboard after onboarding
Sign back in anytime to your workspace

02

Sales & Checkout

Fast, barcode-ready checkout with holds, discounts, payments, receipts, and returns.

  • Search or scan products into the cart; quantities and prices are locked in at sale time
  • Apply discounts according to your store policy before taking payment
  • Choose one payment method per sale (cash, card, or mobile money)
  • Hold incomplete sales to free the counter, then resume without losing the cart
  • Complete checkout to create one receipt and reduce inventory with a recorded reason
  • Open Orders to review history, reprint receipts, or start a return
  • Keep selling offline — queued sales sync when the network returns
Sell with barcode search and a live cart
Immutable receipt after payment
Review and reprint from Orders

03

Inventory & Catalog

Products, stock levels, valuation, and wholesale storage you can trust at the counter.

  • Track quantity, cost, and sell price per product — stock cannot go negative
  • Import an existing catalog from CSV or Excel: Products → Import, download the template, map columns, preview, then import
  • Opening stock on new products applies to the branch you choose; updates never silently rewrite on-hand quantity
  • Keep wholesale / warehouse inventory separate from branch floor stock
  • Use low-stock thresholds and archive products instead of deleting history
  • Pharmacy workflows can use batch and expiry detail where enabled
Products, SKUs, and pricing
Branch stock with low-stock visibility
Wholesale storage separate from the floor

04

Catalog Import

Bring an existing product list into Novend with a guided CSV or Excel wizard. Administrators and managers only.

  • Open Products and choose Import. Download the CSV template (Excel on Pro and above) so headers match Novend fields
  • Required columns: Product Name, SKU, Category, Cost Price, and Selling Price. Optional: barcode, quantity, unit, minimum stock, description, status, and expiry fields
  • Map each spreadsheet column to a Novend field. Saved mappings can be reused on the next file
  • Preview creates vs updates. Opening stock applies on new products only, to the branch you select — existing SKUs are not restocked by import
  • Your plan’s product limit still applies. Spreadsheet files are not stored; Novend keeps job counts, filenames, and your column mapping
  • Cashiers cannot import. Cost prices in the file follow the same visibility rules as the rest of the catalog
Products → Import: template, map columns, then preview
Imported SKUs appear in Products with the same catalog fields

05

Transfers & Adjustments

Move stock between warehouse and branches, and correct counts with a clear audit trail.

  • Issue warehouse stock to a branch when replenishing the floor
  • Transfer between branches when one location needs what another has
  • Adjust stock only with a business reason (damage, count correction, write-off)
  • Review transfer and adjustment history when quantities look wrong
Transfer stock between branches
Issue warehouse stock to a branch
Adjust quantities with a clear reason

06

Offline & Sync

Keep selling when the network drops, then reconcile automatically with the Novend cloud.

  • Sales and inventory updates save on the device first so the counter stays fast
  • Pending changes upload when connectivity returns
  • Watch sync status in the app — do not edit completed sales to “fix” sync
  • Desktop and web use the same account and sync model — including the Android app and iOS Home Screen PWA
See what synced after you reconnect
Local backup options on device

07

Hardware & Devices

Barcode scanners, cameras, thermal printers, and activated selling devices.

  • USB and camera barcode capture search the same product catalog
  • Thermal receipt printing from the POS using your branch receipt template
  • Activate desktop, Android, and iOS PWA devices within your plan’s device limit from Settings
  • Prefer the desktop app for dedicated counters that need printers and barcode hardware
Configure barcode scanning
Connect a thermal receipt printer
Manage activated selling devices

08

Customers, Suppliers & Returns

Keep relationships and corrections connected to real sales — not spreadsheet side notes.

  • Attach customers to sales and review purchase history on their profile
  • Maintain supplier contacts and delivery context alongside inventory
  • Process returns against completed orders so stock and money stay consistent
  • Completed sales stay immutable — corrections use return workflows
Customer profile and purchase history
Supplier records in one place
Returns against completed sales

09

Analytics & Reports

See revenue, profit, and operational reports — then export CSV, Excel, or PDF when you need a file.

  • Monitor KPIs and trends from the analytics overview
  • Review expenses and profit & loss views as your plan allows
  • Export sales, inventory, and branch reports as CSV on every plan, plus Excel and PDF on Pro and above
  • Use daily breakdowns when you need to drill into a specific day
Revenue and performance at a glance
Exportable business reports
Profit and loss insights

10

Users, Branches & Billing

Roles, branch setup, plan limits, upgrades, and organization controls.

  • Assign cashier, manager, and administrator roles from Users
  • Open additional branches as you grow; stock and reports stay branch-aware
  • Monitor plan capacity for products, users, and devices before hitting limits
  • Upgrade without rebuilding your catalog — entitlements change, data stays
  • Manage billing, receipts, and business profile from Settings
Invite and role-manage your team
Open and manage branches
Plans, capacity, and upgrades

11

Security & Access

Protect accounts, staff access, and customer data in day-to-day operations.

  • Use strong unique passwords; do not share owner or admin logins across the floor
  • Deactivate users who leave instead of reusing credentials
  • Limit cashier permissions so pricing, inventory, and user admin stay protected
  • Install updates from the official Download page and lock unattended devices
Keep your profile and access current
Organization profile and defaults