How Float fits together

One mental model carries the whole app: a sale happens, and Float updates everything else automatically. The sale itself can be rung up in Float's own till, or it can come from a Yoco / SnapScan / external POS — Float treats both the same.

No manual reconciliation. No "did I update stock yet?" Sell once, see everything line up.

Quick tour of the app

Float is organised into a left sidebar (the menu) and a main content area. What you see depends on your role and which optional features you've turned on in Settings. Here's the live map of the app:

Your first 15 minutes

The fastest way to get going: run through the setup wizard, then add a few products, then make a test sale. Here's the path.

Step 1: Run the setup wizard

When you first sign up, the wizard appears automatically. It asks you five quick questions:

1. What's your shop's name? (e.g. "Lephalale Hardware")
2. What kind of shop is it? Pick from Hardware, Feed & Farm, Spaza, Salon, Restaurant, or Other. Each one pre-loads sensible categories and example products.
3. What's your business address? Used on receipts, quotes and invoices.
4. VAT registration? If you're VAT-registered (turnover above R1m), tick yes and enter your VAT number. Otherwise skip.
5. Currency & tax basics — already set to South Africa (Rand, 15% VAT). You shouldn't need to change anything.

After the wizard runs, your shop is set up with example products you can edit, delete or build on. Skipped the wizard? Open it again any time using the Reopen setup wizard button at the bottom of this page.

Step 2: Add your first real products

Go to Products → Add product. For a normal shelf item you only need name and sell price — leave role on For sales. Stock and cost help later but aren't required to ring the first sale. Full walkthrough: Products & pricing.

Step 3: Add yourself (and your team)

Go to Employees. Tap Add employee, enter the person's name, role (cashier or admin), and a 4-digit PIN they'll use to sign in at the till.

Your owner account is automatically set up with PIN 0000. Change it the first time you sign in — it's the master PIN.

Step 4: Open your register

Go to Register. Count the cash you have in the till to start the day (the float). Type that amount into Opening cash and tap Open register. You're now ready to ring up sales.

Making your first sale

Tap Sale in the sidebar. The screen has three parts:

• Left: the products grid, with category tabs and a search bar at the top
• Right: the cart (empty until you add something)
• Bottom of the cart: payment buttons (Cash, Card, EFT, Account, Store credit / voucher) plus split

Adding products to the cart

1. Find the product. Use category tabs, or search by name / barcode.
2. Tap a product tile — it jumps into the cart with quantity 1.
3. Increase with +, tap the tile again, or tap the quantity to type any amount.
4. Mistake? Tap × on the cart line, or Clear cart.

Choosing how the customer pays

• Cash — type amount tendered; Float calculates change
• Card — with Yoco connected, charges the reader; otherwise confirm after your separate machine
• EFT — bank transfer; capture a reference
• On Account — needs a real client (not Walk-in); adds to their balance
• Store credit / voucher — redeem wallet or voucher balance

You can split across methods (e.g. R200 cash + R150 on account). Only the account / store-credit legs hit the client ledger — cash and card do not.

Useful till extras

• Park a sale — hold the cart and come back (tabs / parked sales)
• Checkout note — multi-line note on the sale (refs, job detail)
• Schedule delivery — mark for a future delivery / collection date
• Offline slip — tick when capturing a handwritten slip after load shedding
• Layby from cart — if Layby is enabled, start a layby instead of a full charge
• Quotes — build on Quotes, send, then load to cart; quoted price is treated as agreed

Completing the sale

1. Tap the big Charge button.
2. Receipt opens — print, email, or WhatsApp.
3. Tap Done. Cart clears for the next customer.

Your daily routine

Most days: open the till, ring up sales, close the till, reconcile.

Morning: open the register

1. Sign in with your PIN.
2. Go to Register.
3. Count the cash in the drawer.
4. Enter Opening cash → Open register.

If you run more than one till, use Manage registers and pick the register before opening.

Through the day

• Discounts: % on a line or on the cart total
• Refund: History → find the sale → Refund. Choose cash, card, or store credit. Voided sales cannot be refunded — void already reversed them.
• Void: mistake while the customer is still there — cancels rather than refunds
• Petty cash: on Register — amount + note so closing variance still makes sense
• Trace: in History search, Trace follows one reference across documents

Evening: close the register

1. Register → count drawer → enter Actual cash.
2. Float shows expected (opening + cash sales − refunds − petty) and your variance.
3. Close register → print / save the closure report. Use Closure history later if you need to revisit a day.

Products & pricing

Your catalogue lives under Products. Most shops only need the basics below. Variants, pieces, recipes, and bulk import stay collapsed until you need them — so you can learn Float without drowning in options.

Add your first product — four taps

Open Add product (top right). Leave the form on a normal single product. Do this:

One choice that matters: how is it used?

Near the recipe section Float asks this. For a normal shop item, leave the default.

Same flour brand, two jobs in the shop → two products in Float. That keeps shelf stock and kitchen stock from fighting each other:

Production & recipes

If your business makes things — bread, pre-mixed feeds, prepared meals, hampers — the Production section is your home. It lives at the top level of the sidebar under Operations.

The three Production tabs

• Schedule — planned production runs grouped by date (Today, Tomorrow, This week, Overdue). This is the default landing tab — what to make today.
• History — every completed run, with the staff member, time, and ingredients consumed.
• Production products — your kitchen / workshop catalogue. Shows only products with role "For production" or "Both". Renamed from "Products" to disambiguate from the main Products page.

Setting up — the order to do it in

1. Add your ingredients first. Each one as a product with role For production. Set a unit appropriate for recipes (grams, ml, each). Set a cost price (what you pay per unit).
2. Configure pieces where needed. Pack of buns? Tick 🔪 Pieces → 6 pieces per unit → piece name "bun".
3. Add your finished product. Bread, Hamburger, whatever you make. Role depends on whether it's sold or used as another recipe's ingredient — most finished goods are For sales or Both.
4. Add the recipe. Click Add recipe in the green section. Search for each ingredient (only production-role products appear), specify quantity and unit.
5. Optional: turn on Production-tracked. If you make this in batches (bread) rather than to-order (burgers), flip the Production-tracked switch. Now it appears on the Production page for planning.

Recipe products — two flavours

Once a product has a recipe, you choose how stock works:

• Made-to-order (Production-tracked OFF, default). When sold, each ingredient deducts from its own stock. The product itself doesn't track stock — it doesn't exist until ordered. Examples: hamburgers, cocktails, plated meals.
• Production-tracked (Production-tracked ON). Pre-made in batches. Stock fills up when you record a production run; stock drains when items sell. Examples: bread, cakes, pre-mixed feeds.

The two-step planning workflow

Production splits PLANNING from EXECUTION:

1. Plan production — schedule what to make on which day. No stock change yet.
2. Record production (or "Mark produced" on a planned row) — confirms what was made, deducts ingredients from stock, adds finished units to inventory.

The owner can plan the week on Sunday night. The baker checks Monday morning to see what to make. As items finish, they're recorded — that's when stock actually moves.

Recording the production run

The form shows a live recipe preview: each ingredient with a red SHORT badge if stock is low. Pick a staff member (required — keeps the audit trail honest), confirm date and time, add a waste qty if applicable, save.

Float deducts every ingredient from kitchen stock and adds the finished units to the product's stock.

Reversing a run

Mistakes happen. To reverse: open the run in History → Reverse run → optionally type a reason → confirm. Ingredient stock is restored, finished units removed. The run stays in History with a strikethrough + REVERSED badge — the audit trail is preserved.

External POS mode (Yoco, SnapScan, other tills)

If you already ring sales up on a Yoco device, a SnapScan QR till, or any other POS, Float can act as your back-office without forcing you to switch tills. Stock, recipes, finances, customers, and reports still work — you just feed sales in differently.

Turning it on

1. Go to Settings → Stock & Production.
2. Toggle "I sell on a different POS" ON.
3. The Sale and Register items disappear from the sidebar — you won't be using them.
4. A new External sales item appears in the sidebar. The History page also gets a Log external sale button.

Two ways to log sales

• One-at-a-time (manual entry). Open External sales → add the products sold → split the payment across cash/card/etc. → save. Float decrements stock, runs recipes for made-on-demand items, and updates reports just like a normal sale. Good for end-of-day reconciliation: enter your Yoco z-report totals.
• Bulk CSV import. Export your Yoco transactions CSV from the Yoco Business Portal. In Float go to History → Import button → drop the file. Float auto-detects Yoco's format, skips aborted / system rows, and creates one Float sale per Yoco receipt. Duplicates (same receipt reference) are skipped automatically, so re-running the same file is safe.

When this is the right mode

• You already trained staff on Yoco's till and don't want to retrain.
• You need Float's back-office strengths (recipes, production planning, profit margin reports, supplier invoices) but Yoco is fine for the actual selling.
• You run a multi-channel business (Yoco at the front, EFT invoicing in the back) and want one place for stock + reporting.

Stock & suppliers

The sidebar item is Stock & Suppliers — one page with tabs. Float tracks stock automatically as you sell. Sell 1 bag of cement, the cement count drops by 1. Sales-facing inventory lives here; kitchen ingredients (role: For production) also show under Production.

Stock tabs you'll use

• Overview — what you have, what's low
• Receive — log a delivery so counts go up and costs stay honest
• Stocktake — physical count vs Float; save to post variances
• Smart Reorder — below reorder level → suggest / generate purchase orders
• Suppliers — the businesses you buy from (no longer a separate sidebar item)
• Purchase orders / invoices / jobs — ordering and what you owe suppliers

Receiving stock

1. Open Stock & Suppliers → Receive.
2. Pick the supplier and enter the invoice reference.
3. Add each product with quantity and cost (Float updates average cost for profit reports).
4. Save. Stock goes up; the supplier document is logged.

Wrong receive? Open it in Receive History → Reverse receive (owner/admin). Stock is taken back off, the GRN stays with a REVERSED badge, and linked PO progress is unwound. Average cost is not un-blended — re-receive at the right cost if needed. Auto-created supplier invoices are not voided; check Invoice Tracker.

Stocktake

1. Go to Stocktake.
2. Walk the shop, count each product, type the actual count next to Float's figure.
3. Save. Variances are recorded and on-hand numbers update.

Your team & PINs

Float supports as many team members as you need. Every staff member has their own login, their own PIN, and their own permissions.

Roles & access

• Owner — full access including billing and account settings.
• Admin / managers — broad access; subscription ownership stays with the owner.
• Cashier / till staff — sales, register, and their own history; reports and catalogue edits follow the permissions you set.

Permissions are finer than three labels — when you add someone, set what they can open. If a menu item is missing for a staff member, check their role first.

Adding a team member

1. Go to Employees.
2. Tap Add employee.
3. Enter name, contact, role / permissions, and a 4-digit PIN for the till.
4. Save. They appear on the team picker immediately.

More than the till

Employees also covers attendance, advances / loans, payslips, leave, and discipline notes — so payroll and HR light-touch live next to the people who ring up sales.

PINs at the till

On a till, each person taps their tile, enters their PIN, and sales tag to their name for end-of-day accountability.

Customers & accounts

Walk-in sales need no customer. Account customers, store credit, and statements live under Clients.

Account customers

1. Clients → Add client — name, contact, credit limit, payment terms.
2. At the till, pick the client on the cart, then On Account (or a split with an account leg).
3. When they pay, open the client → record the payment (cash / card / EFT / store credit).

Two pots: balance owed vs store credit

Float keeps these separate on purpose:

• Balance owed — money they still owe you (account / invoice charges minus payments)
• Store credit — money you hold for them (loads, refunds to credit, overpayments you chose to credit)

The statement shows both on one ledger (debits and credits with a running balance). A banner tells you if the closing figure matches the stored balance (net of store credit). Print, email, or send via WA Centre — screen and PDF use the same ledger.

What appears on a statement

• Account / invoice charges (including only the account leg of a split)
• Store-credit spend (full or split)
• Payments and payment reversals
• Opening balances brought in from a previous system
• Manual store-credit adds / deducts, and refunds issued as store credit

Pure cash / card / EFT sales do not appear as account debt — that money never touched the tab.

Ageing & Tools

Payment terms drive the ageing strip on statements and the due pills on the client list. The Tools menu covers import, dedupe, and balance reconcile helpers when scalars drift.

Vouchers

The Vouchers tab is for gift certificates you sell or issue. Store credit from refunds is separate and shows on the client record.

Layby

Turn Layby on under Settings (not a Pro gate — just a feature flag). Customers pay a deposit now, pay off over time, then collect. Layby money is held towards goods not yet collected — it does not sit on the account balance the way on-account sales do.

Filters

• All open — every layby still in progress (on track and overdue together)
• On track / Overdue — mutually exclusive views
• Paid up — fully paid (balance ≈ 0) but not yet collected
• Collected / Cancelled — closed book

Compact list

The Book list uses mini cards. Collapsed rows show client, ref, status, owing (or Fully paid), % paid with a progress bar, due date, and last payment. Tap a row to expand items, plan, payment history, and Take payment / Collect / More. Under Settings → Layby, Default list expanded sets whether cards open expanded or collapsed when you open Laybys (unset default: collapsed).

Workflow

1. From the cart Layby tile (or New layby on the Layby page) start with client details and a deposit.
2. Take payment until the balance is cleared.
3. Optional payment plan (daily / weekly / monthly × N) helps flag overdue — you can add or set the plan later if you skipped it at creation.
4. Collect when balance is about zero — books the sale / stock and moves the layby to Collected.

Deliveries & Float Online

Deliveries & Bookings

Schedule a sale for future delivery or collection from the till, then manage the calendar under Deliveries & Bookings. Filters: Scheduled / Completed / All. Click a day for what's due and the “items to prepare” summary; mark completed when done. Booking statuses, manual bookings, and the full scheduling suite are Float Pro.

Float Online (Pro)

Float Online is your public shop / booking page. Tabs: Requests (New / Confirmed / All) · What's online · Booking times · Page & sharing. Turn the page live, copy one portal link for customers, open the portal to preview, confirm or decline requests, and convert a request to a sale when you're ready.

WhatsApp Centre

WA Centre (WhatsApp Centre) is the hub for customer WhatsApp — invoices, statements, balances — so you are not hunting through individual screens.

• Outbox / suggestions → pick recipients (search, select all, or Outstanding only) → choose a template → send
• Templates include invoice/quote, account statement, outstanding balance, store credit balance, and custom
• Clients need a phone number on file to be selectable
• Account statements here use the same ledger as History → Statement (screen and PDF match)
• You can still WhatsApp a receipt straight from the till after Charge, or send a statement from the Clients page

Reports

Reports is for understanding the shop day-to-day. VAT and accountant packs live under Finances → Accounting (see next section).

Overview

Period picker (today / week / month / custom) with KPIs for the range.

Sales

• Sales — takings and payment mix
• Products — what sold
• Insights — patterns worth acting on
• Loyalty — repeat / loyalty views where enabled

Operations

• Register history — every session, variance, reprint closure
• Production — runs and consumption
• Stock recon — movement eagle-eye
• Closing stock — stock on hand and value as of a chosen date (full catalogue or one category)
• Petty cash / Safe — cash movements off the till

Export to CSV from reports when your accountant wants the raw rows.

Finances & VAT

Finances is a Float Pro page (Finances & expenses). It covers money beyond till reports: expenses, P&L, bank recon, and SARS-facing packs. Header Export CSV / Export Excel follow the active tab — Summary figures for the selected period, or that month’s expenses on the Expenses tab.

Tabs

• Summary — period KPIs (This week / month / year / custom), day-by-day, by category, recent expenses. Always press Apply after picking custom dates.
• Reports — P&L · Monthly · Annual
• Expenses — All / Recurring / Budget. Filter streams: Running costs vs Stock bought (or All) so margin stays truthful. Budget is Pro-gated.
• Reconciliation — bank reconciliation: pick a day → New reconciliation → match Float totals to the bank, tick rows, check variance
• Accounting — Turnover pack · VAT 201 · Accountant pack

VAT 201

For VAT-registered shops. Under Finances → Accounting → VAT 201 (moved off the old Reports home). Choose the SARS period (current/previous 2-month, this/last month, or custom), then Print / CSV / Xero / QuickBooks / Email. Output VAT by tax code for eFiling — not tax advice; input VAT from supplier invoices is still reconciled with your accountant.

Security

Security has three tabs: Till Security · Suspicious patterns · Activity log. Till camera capture is Float Premium — enable it (and POPIA signage) under Settings → Till Security. Photos attach to events like refunds so you have evidence after a disputed void or refund.

Yoco card payments

Float integrates with Yoco. Connect under Settings → Integrations (not a separate sidebar item anymore).

Connecting

1. In your Yoco merchant account, create an API key (Settings → Developers).
2. In Float: Settings → Integrations → paste the key → Connect.
3. When green, Card at the till can drive the reader.

Charging

Cart → Card → Charge. Customer taps / inserts on the reader. Float records success and offers the receipt.

Importing Yoco sales

If you also sell on Yoco's till, import the CSV from History → Import, or use External sales mode (see above). Product CSV import lives on Products.

Backup & offline

Every sale, product, and customer syncs to the cloud as you work. There is no separate "save". Sign in on another device and your shop is there.

Manual export

Use the Backup tool in the sidebar footer (not a main nav item). Float packages sales, products, customers, and related tables for an accountant or your own archive.

Load shedding / offline slips

Float needs internet to sync. For outages:

1. From History, print a stack of offline slips (pre-numbered paper).
2. Write sales by hand while the line is down.
3. Back online: on the Sale screen tick This is an offline sale, enter the slip reference, and capture as normal.

A small UPS on the wifi router keeps most shops online through short cuts. True offline mode is still on the roadmap.

When things go wrong

Common situations. If yours isn't here, see Getting help.

"I can't sign in"

Email + password open the account; PINs are for the till. Use Forgot password? on the sign-in screen if needed.

"My PIN doesn't work"

Owner: Employees → staff member → reset PIN.

"The till won't ring up a sale"

Register is probably closed. Register should say open. Open with your float and retry.

"Internet just dropped"

Don't refresh mid-outage. Use offline slips from History, write sales by hand, capture later with the offline-sale toggle. Card via Yoco needs internet too.

"I made a mistake on a finished sale"

Refund from History (cash / card / store credit) and re-ring if needed. You cannot refund a voided sale — void already reversed it.

"Statement doesn't match balance"

Open the client statement. The banner compares ledger close to stored balance (net of store credit). Use Recalculate from ledger when offered — or Tools on Clients if imports drifted. Split cash+account sales should only debit the account leg.

"My closure variance is huge"

Walk cash sales in History for the day; check petty cash and card-vs-cash mix-ups.

"My stock count looks wrong"

Run a stocktake on Stock & Suppliers. Consistent gaps often mean unlogged receives, unrecorded returns, or sales not rung up.