IBIS Technology

The Retail items screen is used to manage the products you will sell through the Point of Sale screen.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Add a new retail item
• PLU code numbering
• Update additional retail item details
• Add a build item
• Prompt for extra info when an item is sold at Point of sale
• Set up minimum units for stock items
• Import retail items in bulk
• Make an item inactive
• View item details

Interested in opening up an online store or cafe? Learn how to sell retail online with IBIS E-Commerce or find out how to configure IBIS for your cafe.

Add a new retail item

To add items to a supplier, you must first ensure the supplier is set up in the Contacts screen, with a Retail Type set to either Consignment (meaning you will pay the supplier for these items after they have been sold) or Stock (you will purchase the items from the supplier before you sell them).

1. Open the Retail items screen and click Add. 
2. Enter the Item name (max 40 characters inc spaces), then select the Supplier from the drop list.
3. Select the item type - ensure you choose carefully as you cannot change after you set: 
   
   

   Type	Description
   Stock	An item you purchase from a Supplier that decreases the stock units when sold (includes consignment items).
   Non-stock	Items you do not purchase from a Supplier such as luggage storage, photocopying, or admin fees.
   Build item	An item that stores the sale value of a collection of individual items sold together.  See build item section for details.
   Postage	Not used.
   Surcharge	Adds a payment surcharge if configured on the payment type used in the sale.
   Cash commission	To record payouts of cash commissions to drivers/guides at POS.
   Ticket	Used in conjunction with admission packages, for selling a ticket for a 3rd party product in conjunction with an admission item.

   
   
4. If the item already contains a barcode, scan or type the number into the barcode field. 
5. If you know the Supplier code, enter it here. This is the unique reference code the supplier uses for the item and will display on purchase orders generated from IBIS if you are using the Stock module.
6. Enter an item group or subgroup, this will appear on sales reports. 
7. Choose the Price type to determine the following behaviour at Point of sale:
   • Fixed - the price cannot be changed
   • Editable - the price can be amended (the retail item will display with ** in the POS grid)
   • Prompt - the user will be prompted to enter the price (useful if you are selling items by weight)
   • Restricted - the user will be prompted to enter a supervisor password when adding an item of this type (the password needs to be set in the System settings > Point of sale > Restricted item password).
8. Enter the Cost ex and sell Price (ex or inc).
9. Specify whether to allow discounts to be applied at Point of Sale.
10. Click Save, the PLU code will generate automatically.
    
    
    

PLU code numbering

IBIS auto-generates PLU (Price Look-Up) codes starting from 1001, incrementing sequentially. These codes are designed for quick, reliable identification of items at the point of sale. While it's technically possible to modify PLU codes—for example, to represent suppliers or other product attributes—this is not recommended. Doing so can introduce confusion and create long-term management issues.

Key reasons to avoid using PLUs for other purposes

• Limited number range
  PLU codes are restricted to a maximum of six digits (up to 999999). If used to represent suppliers or product categories, you'll quickly exhaust the available range.

• Reusing and modifying codes leads to confusion
  Reassigning or reusing PLUs can make reporting unreliable and complicate future changes to product groupings or supplier links.

• Point of sale inconsistency
  Staff and customers expect PLUs to relate to pricing. Repurposing them can create confusion at the till and slow down transactions.

• Increased setup and management effort
  Managing thousands of PLUs for non-pricing purposes can become cumbersome and error-prone over time.

• Labeling limitations
  PLU codes longer than five digits may not fit neatly on printed labels, reducing readability or forcing you to use oversized labels or abbreviate item descriptions.

Recommended Alternative

Use Item Groups, Subgroups, and a clear, consistent naming convention to manage products by supplier, category, or type. These tools are flexible, scalable, and designed for that purpose—making your system easier to use and maintain as your business grows.

Update additional retail item details

Once a retail Item has been added, you can edit or add additional details. Highlight the retail item, and the additional item fields will appear on the right panel. Save your changes once complete.   

Add a build item

You can group a collection of individual items for a specific sale price while also decreasing the stock of each item by setting up a build item.

Prerequisites

• Ensure the individual items you want to package are set up first, and make a note of the PLU codes for each item.
• Set up a Sale Discount called "Build item discount" in the Discounts screen. 
• Set the default PLU code for the Build items discount in your System settings in IBIS Online.

To set up a build item: 

1. Add a new retail item following the steps above, selecting the item type "build item".
2. Enter the Build item PLUs in a comma-separated format of unit x PLU code. E.g. 2x1051, 2x1052, 1x1053.
3. Click Save.
4. If you need to make any changes after the build item is set up, the Build item PLU field can be found under the Attributes group in the Detail panel.

For each unit x PLU code specified, the items will be decremented from your stock units when the build item is sold. The discount is split across the items in the sale proportionally, and all sale revenue for the items is recorded against the item itself so your revenue can be allocated correctly for the item sold. 

Prompt for extra info when an item is sold at Point of sale

Once your new item is added, you can prompt your staff to capture additional info when the item is sold at Point of sale. This information will appear on the Sales report under the Detail field.

1. Highlight the item row you wish to capture additional details about in the POS screen.
2. In the detail panel, enter the Extra info question under the Attributes group.
3. Tick the box Extra info required to prompt the user to answer the Extra info question at POS.
   
   

Set up minimum units for stock items

When running the stock-on-hand report you can report on items below their minimum unit. To set up the minimum unit for a retail stock item see below:

1. Open the Retail items screen and locate the item you wish to add the minimum unit to.
2. On the right panel click on Attributes, then enter the minimum units you wish to maintain in stock.
3. Save and confirm your changes.
   
   

Import retail items in bulk

You can import retail items into your IBIS system from an Excel file. This will save you time if you have a lot of retail items to set up. You can import both new retail items, or you can update existing items updated with new details.

1. Under the Point of sale menu, open the Import item screen. Alternatively, can open this directly from IBIS Online under Setup > System > Import retail items. 
   
2. Download the import template file, and follow the step-by-step instructions on how to fill in the details and upload the file. You will find examples of how to enter the retail item data in tab 2 of the template (named Instruction Sheet). There are a few important things to note:
   • The columns can be in any order but the column captions MUST remain named as they are:
     
     
     
     
   • The Supplier Name must already exist as a Consignment or Non-Consignment retail supplier in your system. 
   • The spelling of the Supplier Name must match the Contact Name for the retail supplier in your system.
   • The Supplier Name must be filled in for each retail item (ie if you have multiple retail items for one supplier, the Supplier Name must be filled against each retail item, not just the top one in the list)
   • Fields in yellow are required fields and cannot be blank or the import will fail.
   • The import will only pull in retail items in the first sheet of the spreadsheet - any additional sheets will be ignored
   • As such the first sheet must be the items for import. The second sheet (instructions) must remain as the second sheet in the template
     
     
     
     
3. Once your spreadsheet is ready, click Browse and select the Excel template file to import
4. Click Upload, a report will appear advising you of the outcome of the import. If you have errors, you can either manually add the items to IBIS yourself, or you can fix the error as described and re-import the data.
   
   
   
   
5. When the items are imported into your Items screen all other fields will be set to the usual system default when adding a new retail item.

Make an item inactive

If you are no longer going to sell an item, you can make it inactive. 

1. Open the Retail items screen and find the item you wish to make inactive.
2. Untick the Active box in the item details on the right-hand panel. 
3. Save your changes.

Before you make an item inactive, please check the following: 

• if the item is a stock item, ensure the stock balance for the item is 0. See how to process an adjustment.
• If the item has a button on your POS menu, remove the button.
  
  

To view inactive items, you can click the Active property on the bottom of the Retail items screen to show inactive items.

View item details

The summary tab on the Retail items screen will show you your current stock on hand per location, the last time the item was sold, and by who. This is the same detail you can see in the Item lookup screen at POS.