Guides / Operations & Tools

Running a Furniture Store on Pixelbase

The quick reference for the floor, the register and the back office: ringing up sales and deposits, keeping customers, stock across stores, purchase orders, and where the money shows up.

The shape of it

One catalog for the company, stock counted per store. A sale is the invoice: take a deposit today, the balance whenever, by any method. Customers are found by phone in a keystroke and remember how they like to pay. Anything you don't have goes on a purchase order, and the vendor's confirmation is checked line by line before the truck is due.

At the register

Open it from the sidebar. It runs on the iPad with a Stripe reader, or on any desk.

1

Find the customer

Type the last four digits of their phone, a name, or an email. New customer? Add them right there — name and phone is enough. Their last visit and anything they still owe shows on the row.
2

Ring the items

Tap a tile, scan a barcode with the camera, or type an item number and press Enter — SKU, barcode or the vendor's number all work. Tiles show what's available, less anything on hold for a deposit.
3

Discounts, delivery, no tax

The quick buttons take a percentage off the sale or a line, add the store's usual delivery charge (or any amount), flag clearance pricing, or remove tax for a resale certificate. Each shows on the receipt with its reason.
4

Take the money

Terminal, keyed card, a card the customer has on file, or cash. Lower the amount to take a deposit — the order stays open for the balance and the items are held for that customer. Print or email the receipt, or send a link to pay the rest from home.
  • Balances: open the order from Orders → Storefront and press Take, or send a pay link by email or text. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank account (ACH) all work on the link.
  • Refunds: from the order page, per payment, with the option to put items back on the shelf. Cash refunds are recorded; card refunds go back to the card.
  • Receipts and invoices: the order prints as a receipt when it's paid and an invoice while a balance is owed. Both can be emailed with one tap.

Customers

The customer card

  • Notes — dated, with who wrote them. "Husband picks up, wife decides."
  • Orders — everything they've bought and what's still owed, for the warranty question.
  • Payment — cards on file, and how they like to pay. The register opens on that tab for them.
  • Other numbers — the spouse's cell, the office. Any of them finds the customer at the register.

Cards on file

Tick Keep this card on file when keying a card at the register, or add one from the customer's Payment tab without charging it. Cards are held by Stripe — never stored here — and the register offers them first for that customer. Remove or change the default from the same tab.

Stock across stores

1

One catalog

A product is the company's: one name, price, SKU and barcode everywhere. What differs by store is how many are on the floor. Inventory → Products shows the count per store and a total. Inventory → Categories arranges it into departments and the types in each — what the register's chips and the catalog filter follow.
2

Counting and adjusting

Adjust stock on a product records why — received, damaged, recount — and every change is in Stock History. Nothing is ever edited away.
3

Moving between stores

Inventory → Transfers: pick the sending and receiving store, put items on the van, Send. The other store counts it in, short or not, and the difference is on record.
4

Labels and holds

Print barcode labels on Avery sheets or a 2×1 roll from the Products page. An item with a deposit on it shows as reserved on the tile and in the list, and the floor is told the moment the deposit lands.

Purchase orders

Purchasing in the sidebar. Vendors first, then orders.

1

Vendors

Name, your account number, terms, lead time, and the contacts — star the one a PO is emailed to. Products say which vendor they come from and what they cost.
2

Raise and send

New purchase order: vendor, the store it ships to, lines (the vendor's products first, or a custom line), the date you want it. From a sale, Order from vendor pre-fills the lines and ties the PO to that customer. Email it with the PDF attached, or mark it sent if it went by phone.
3

Check the confirmation

When the vendor's acknowledgement arrives, tick each line against it. A line they changed — quantity, finish, a backorder — gets a note, and the buyers are emailed. Nothing is acknowledged until every line has been read.
4

Receive on the dock

On a phone: photograph the invoice, tap Fill in from the photo to read the quantities off it, correct anything short or damaged, Put into stock. Labels for what came in are one tap away. A short truck leaves the PO open for the rest.
  • Costs show only to people with the purchasing costs permission. The PDF has a customer copy with no prices.
  • Chasing: a PO unconfirmed after three days, or past its expected date, raises an alert every morning and sits on the dashboard until it's dealt with.

Where the money shows up

Finances → Ledger

Every payment and refund the registers take lands in the company ledger alongside the rest of the books — the day's till, the month's card takings, by date and by store. An order's own payments and refunds are on the order page.

Going live at a store

The checklist for opening a store — or the third one.

  • Permissions. Give the floor Products and Orders (read/write) at their store; buyers Purchasing read/write; managers Purchasing costs, Orders refund and Customers write.
  • Register settings. Sales tax rate, discount buttons, delivery charge buttons and whether delivery is taxed — per store, in the store's settings.
  • Card readers. Register each store's Stripe reader from the register's Terminal tab. Cards on file and pay links need the legal entity's Stripe account to be fully set up; bank payments need ACH turned on in Stripe.
  • Texting. Pay links and messages go from the store's own number once A2P registration is approved. Until then, email.
  • Bring the history. Import the catalog (Products → Import CSV), the customer book (xRM → Import), then past sales (Orders → Import history) — in that order, so customers and sales match up. Tick continue the old numbering so receipts don't restart.
  • Labels. Print labels for anything without a barcode so the register can scan it.
Everything here works the same on a phone — the receiving dialog uses the rear camera, and the purchase order pages stack to one column.