Business books: walk-in sales, expenses, money owed, profit, Nana, offline and staff

Business books, under My account, keeps the books for the selling you do in person, next to your online store: who bought what, what you spent, who owes you, and what you made today, this week and this month.

Record a sale: tap ＋ Record a sale. Search your items by name or SKU (items from your store, and items from a stock list you imported), or type a one-off ("2 yards lace"). Change the quantity and the price (for a discount), then choose how they paid: Cash, Transfer, POS or Credit. Turn on Customer owes for a sale on credit: choose the customer (or add one, with their WhatsApp number, or their @username if they're on #NotesApp), what they paid now and the day they'll pay by. The rest goes to Money owed to you. A sale of an item lowers its stock through Inventory when you have it; without Inventory, stock isn't counted and Books says so.

Receipts: every sale has a receipt link on #NotesApp, with your shop's name, the items, the total, how it was paid and what's still owed. It never shows your phone number or your customer's. Receipt PDF opens it ready to save as a PDF (it has a QR code that opens the link). Send it by WhatsApp (it opens on your phone with the message written; you tap Send), or by email and the bell to a customer who is on #NotesApp.

Expenses: tap Add expense: the amount, the day, how you paid, a category (stock purchases, rent, staff pay, power, transport and loading, market and LG levies, data and airtime, repairs, salon or workshop supplies, bank and POS charges, other, or your own) and a note, with up to 3 receipt photos. The photos are kept privately; only you see them.

Online orders come in by themselves: when a buyer pays for an item in your store, the order shows in your books as a sale marked Store, with #NotesApp's commission as an expense line, so your profit is true. A refunded order gets a refund line next to it. An order is never counted twice. Online money is paid out by #NotesApp, so it's never in your cash in hand.

Today: profit so far (sales, minus the cost of what you sold, minus expenses), sales, expenses, cash in hand (your opening float plus cash taken, minus cash paid out; transfer and POS money are shown apart), money owed to you, today's entries, what's running low, who you owe and the week's best sellers. Tap an entry to see it, open its receipt or photos, or Void it with a reason (online orders follow the order instead).

Profit and loss: for a day or a week, and on Pro and above a month. Sales (walk-in and online apart), refunds, the cost of what you sold, gross profit and margin, expenses by category and net profit, with the change on the period before. PDF report and CSV take it with you. Profit needs cost prices: when items have none, Books says so and links to Inventory to add them.

Honest numbers: sales recorded, expenses recorded and the stock you hold are always separate numbers. Stock value is what you own, not business you did, so it is never added to sales or profit.

Money owed: Owed to you lists customers with what they owe, since when and the due date, late ones first. Record payment takes all or part (oldest sales are paid first). Remind by WhatsApp opens WhatsApp on your phone with a polite message and a link to their statement; customers on #NotesApp get email and the bell instead. Each message to someone who isn't on #NotesApp ends with a short line: "Sent with #NotesApp Business books. Keep your own books free: …/books". One reminder a day at most. A customer can stop reminders from their statement link; email reminders stop then, and WhatsApp asks you first. SMS comes with Send-Na. You owe is a simple list of suppliers, what you owe and when; tap Paid when you pay.

Import your records: Import and export brings in a stock list, past sales, expenses or customers and debtors from a CSV file. Excel: File → Save As → CSV. Google Sheets: File → Download → Comma-separated values. From Tralo, choose Tralo: its inventory and sales exports are matched for you. Upload the file, check the columns we matched from its headings, and see the dry run: new rows, updates, duplicates skipped (items by SKU then exact name; sales and expenses by the same day, amount and item or description; customers by phone, then exact name) and rows to fix (for example a price that isn't a number, stock below 0, or prices in cedis, which wait for cedi support). Nothing is saved until you tap Import, and you can Undo an import for 24 hours. Up to 5,000 rows and 5 MB a file, 10 imports a day. Imported sales don't move stock, send receipts or reminders, or count toward the monthly limit. A stock list needs Inventory: items already in your store get their stock, cost price and SKU updated (their online price stays as it is), and new ones are kept as Books-only items, not for sale online. Download a template for each kind to start from.

Export: Export everything gives you your sales, expenses, payments received, money owed both ways and stock as CSV files that open in Excel and Google Sheets.

What it costs: free on Free Basic for 150 walk-in sales and expenses a month (online orders and customers paying you back never count), up to 20 customers owing at once, imports of 500 rows a file, and profit and loss for the day and the week. Pro, Business and Enterprise have no limits, the month's profit and loss, and imports of 5,000 rows. Stock counting is Inventory (included on Business; an add-on on Free Basic and Pro).

Tell Nana: tap Tell Nana and type it the way you'd say it, or tap Say it and speak (your phone's own speech-to-text): "Sold 3 bags of rice ₦45,000 to Mama Bisi on credit, due Friday", "Bought diesel 18k cash", "Chinedu paid 20k transfer", "Bought 10 bags garri at 52k each". Nana understands "5k", "45 thousand", "₦45,000", "on credit", "she paid half" and days like "Friday" or "the 15th". It writes a draft for each entry (a sale, an expense, a payment received or a purchase) with your own items and customers; where it isn't sure (two rice items, a customer it doesn't know) it says so on the card. Check each draft, change what you need, and tap Save. Nothing is saved before that. It uses a little of your Nana allowance (Pearl), then Nana credit; when both are used up it says so, and typing an entry yourself is always free. Nana sees your item names and prices and your customers' first names, never balances or profit. It needs a connection.

No connection? Keep selling: on your phone, Business books opens with no signal once you've opened it online before. Sales, expenses, purchases and payments you record are kept on the phone, with a badge like 3 waiting to sync, and sent as soon as you're back online (by themselves on Android; on iPhone when you next open Books). Each is saved once, however many times the phone tries, and keeps the day you recorded it. When it syncs, Books tells you anything you should know: an item that sold more than was in stock (the sale is still saved; count the shelf), a customer who wasn't in your books (they're added), or an entry that couldn't be saved and why, with Try again. Receipt links come once a sale has synced; receipt photos and Nana need a connection.

Purchases (restock): record goods you bought to resell (from Tell Nana, for example "Bought 10 bags garri at 52k each"): the stock goes up, the cost goes into expenses under Stock purchases, and you can update the item's cost price.

Staff: cashiers and managers (Business and Enterprise): open Staff and invite someone by @username or email as a Cashier or a Manager. They get a bell and an email and accept on their invitation page. A Cashier records sales and payments received, sees the sales they recorded today, and prints or shares receipts; they never see profit, costs, the expenses list, exports or settings. A Manager does everything except settings and staff. Every entry shows who recorded it, and on Sales and Expenses you can choose one person to see theirs. Change a role or remove someone at any time; their entries stay. On an organisation's account its admins can invite staff too. Staff need their own #NotesApp account (free) and never see your payouts or bank details.

Customers paying online: a customer's statement link has Pay now: they pay all of it or a part, by card or bank transfer through Paystack, no account needed. It comes off what they owe straight away (oldest sales first), shows in your books as Paid back · online, you get an email and a bell, and they get a receipt. The money is held for a few days like a store sale, then paid to your bank with your other earnings, less your normal commission on store sales.

Monthly email: on the 1st of each month you get a summary of the month before: sales (walk-in and online apart), expenses, profit and the change on the month before, best sellers, money owed and what's late, and what's running low, with a link to the month's profit and loss. Only when your books had entries that month. Turn it off from the email or in Email settings.

Who sees it: you, on an organisation's account its admins, and the staff you invite, as their role allows. Nobody else, not even other teammates, can see your books.