Three people never sit at the counter PC: the owner who is out of the shop, the booker who is in a market, and the rider who is on the road. The app is built for those three, and it keeps working where their phones do not have a signal.
The shopkeeper is not sitting at a counter. He is walking a wholesale market with a phone in one hand and a sample box in the other, and he has about four seconds to answer “is this price good?” before the conversation moves on. An app that needs a menu, a login and three taps has already lost him; an app that needs a signal has lost him twice, because the market is exactly where the signal is worst.
So the app is small on purpose. A few screens, thumb-sized targets, and every figure that matters on the first screenful without scrolling. The product catalogue is downloaded onto the phone while it is still on the shop's WiFi, so a scan in the market is answered from the phone's own storage in a few milliseconds with no network at all — and the screen says plainly how old those figures are, because a number you cannot date is a number you cannot trust.
It cannot change your books. The owner's app can look at anything he is allowed to see, but it cannot post a sale, move stock or change a price. A phone is lost far more often than a till, and a lost phone must not be able to rewrite the accounts. The server enforces the same rule, so even a stolen login cannot write.
Everybody installs the same app. What it opens on depends on who signs in — a booker lands on his order screen, not on a dashboard he is not allowed to read.
Away from the shop
Everything you would walk in and ask for, without walking in. Today's sale and profit, what customers owe, what is running out, what needs your approval — and a price check that works standing in a market with no signal.
In the market
He opens the app to take orders and nothing else, so that is the screen it opens on. Orders are taken against live stock and the party's real balance — and when the signal drops mid-bazaar, they queue on the phone and post themselves when it returns.
On the road
The round in his pocket and the cash on his name. Each delivery is assigned to him, and the money he collects at the door stays his responsibility until it is handed in and recorded — which is what makes the day's cash tally instead of nearly tally.
The order on this page is the recommendation. Start with the QR; add the shop code the day somebody needs live figures from outside the shop.
Open Settings → Owner Phone App on the shop's PC and it shows a QR carrying the shop's address on its own WiFi. Point the phone at it once and it is paired.
This needs nothing else to exist — no domain, no tunnel, no directory, no code to read out on a phone call. For most bookers it is enough for the whole day: he takes his beat in the morning on the shop network and works from the phone's own storage after that.
Your licence comes with a code like GPP-4821. Type it once and the phone finds your shop wherever it is today — the shop's PC reports its current internet address every few minutes, so the code keeps working even when that address changes.
This is the one that buys reaching your shop from outside its WiFi, which matters when a booker needs live stock standing in a market. It needs the shop to have an internet address; we set that up with you.
Signing in still happens against your own shop's server, with the person's own username and password — the same one they use at the till. The directory only answers “where is that shop today”; it never sees a username, a price or an order.
Today's sale, profit, expenses and cash — the first screenful, no scrolling.
Scan a barcode or search a name. Price, stock, cost and pack size, answered offline.
What customers owe, oldest first, and what you owe your suppliers.
Take orders shop by shop against live stock and each party's balance.
What to reorder, worked out from your own sales rather than a supplier's suggestion.
Count a shelf or a whole category from the phone. A supervisor approves before anything moves.
The rider's round, what was delivered, and the cash he is carrying.
Low stock, expiry, and credit that has gone quiet.
The things waiting on the owner — approve or refuse from wherever you are.
For restaurants: what is running on each table right now.
Each screen is gated on what that person is actually allowed to do. A tab nobody can use is worse than no tab, so a booker simply does not see the ones that would refuse him.
The parts that matter, yes. The product catalogue is downloaded onto the phone while it is on the shop's WiFi, so price checks and stock lookups are answered from the phone itself with no network at all. Orders taken with no signal are queued and sent when the connection returns. Live figures — today's sale, a party's current balance — need to reach the shop, either on its WiFi or through your shop code.
No, and that is deliberate. The app cannot post a sale, move stock or change a price. A phone goes missing far more often than a counter PC, and a lost phone must not be able to alter your books. The server enforces the same rule, so even a stolen login cannot write.
Not at the moment — you install it from the file we give you. Android asks you to allow installing from that source the first time, which is normal for business apps distributed outside the store. We will tell you when a new version is worth updating to.
Through the short shop code issued with your licence. Your shop's PC reports its current internet address to our directory every few minutes, so the code keeps working even if that address changes. The directory holds only the code, the address, the shop's name and its version — no customers, no prices, no orders.
No. Most shops start with one — the owner's. Bookers and riders get the app when you actually put people in the field, and each of them signs in with their own username, so what they can see and do follows the role you already gave them at the till.
Not yet — the app ships for Android today. The same screens do open in any phone browser on the shop's network, including an iPhone, so an owner on iOS is not shut out while he is at the shop.