Merchandise accounting for a professional cosmetics store

How to organise inventory accounting in a professional cosmetics store

A professional cosmetics store combines several different sales scenarios within one assortment. Alongside hundreds of shades of gel polishes, hair dyes and decorative cosmetics, there are files, drill bits, gloves and other small consumables. Beauty professionals and salons buy some products in bulk, retail customers purchase individual items, while lamps, nail drills and sterilisers may require serial number tracking.

Therefore, inventory accounting in this niche should be built around the product structure rather than the checkout process. First, the store determines how to distinguish shades, volumes and product lines, then configures receiving and labelling, inventory rules, stocktaking, wholesale sales, equipment handling and online orders. Torgsoft records these operations in documents and provides data that allows the manager to check stock balances, product movements and employee actions.

First, determine what should be treated as a separate product item

Professional cosmetics products often differ by only one parameter. One hair dye line may include many shade numbers, gel polish — many shades, and shampoo — several volumes. If these differences are not incorporated into the database structure from the start, it becomes difficult later to find products, reconcile receipts and stock balances, and prepare a catalogue for the website.

The inventory manager creates a product category tree: for example, manicure materials, hair care products, eyebrow and eyelash products, disposable materials, tools and equipment. For each specific item, Torgsoft stores the name, manufacturer, SKU, barcode, price, description and other parameters.

Dynamic product characteristics are used for parameters that are not included in the standard product card. In a professional cosmetics store, these may include shade, tone number, volume, collection, material type, equipment power or another characteristic required for search, purchasing and website export.

If several items are variants of the same model, Torgsoft allows you to configure a model ID generation rule. The model includes shared characteristics, while colour, size or another variant attribute is excluded from the rule. This is especially useful for an online store: the website can display one model with a choice of the required variant instead of a set of unrelated product cards.

Requirements for batches, expiry dates, the responsible person, notification and cosmetics labelling are better kept separate from the daily warehouse process. They are covered separately in the article «How to keep records of cosmetics in Torgsoft under the new rules».

Receiving should continue the existing product catalogue

When receiving goods, the inventory manager creates a goods receipt or imports prepared data from Excel. Before creating a new item, it is worth checking the barcode, SKU and name to avoid creating duplicates of the same product.

If a product has a manufacturer barcode, the store uses it for searching and sales. For items without suitable labelling, Torgsoft can generate its own barcode. Labels are printed from the program's working forms using a configured template: they can include the name, price, SKU, barcode and other required fields.

For small bottles, files, buffers and drill bits, the label size should be selected according to the packaging and printer capabilities. There is no single «correct» format for the entire beauty industry.

If goods are first received at a central warehouse and then distributed among stores, an employee creates an internal transfer. For transfers between locations, Torgsoft provides the «Goods in Transit» workflow: until the goods are received at the other location, they are shown as being transferred.

Returns to suppliers, write-offs and other outgoing operations are recorded in separate documents. This means that every stock change has a specific reason, date and document author.

Stock should be planned for specific products and locations

In a beauty store, the total quantity of goods in a category says very little. There may be many gel polishes in stock while a popular base coat, top coat or shade is already out of stock. Therefore, the purchasing manager needs stock balances for each item and each store.

The Minimum and maximum stock levels by warehouse option allows stock limits to be set separately for individual products and sales locations. The same product can have different target levels for a large store, a small outlet and a central warehouse.

For more advanced planning, there is the Automatic calculation of warehouse stock option. It calculates the recommended stock level based on sales and delivery lead times. The purchasing manager uses this calculation as source data but makes the final ordering decision independently.

The inventory manager creates a supplier order for the required items. Once the goods arrive, the goods receipt continues the same accounting chain. The program also keeps track of settlements with the supplier, so the manager can check both product documents and the related financial balance.

For a chain with a central warehouse, the «Store Order to Warehouse» workflow can also be used. The store creates a request, the warehouse processes it and creates a transfer to the required accounting centre.

Stocktaking should reveal discrepancies rather than suggest the expected quantity

For polishes, files, drill bits, brushes and other small items, stocktaking quickly becomes a separate process. Torgsoft creates a stocktaking sheet into which the employee enters the actual quantity of goods.

Counting can be performed manually, using a scanner or a data collection terminal. Torgsoft documentation separately describes stocktaking with Android devices and the mobile app.

For the employee counting the goods, access to the recorded stock quantity can be restricted. The «Restrict the stocktaking sheet when stocktaking is performed by a salesperson» setting hides the stock balance at the time of counting, the stocktaking results and the wholesale price. The employee enters what they actually see on the shelf, and the manager analyses the discrepancy after the count is completed.

If the actual and recorded quantities do not match, it is worth checking goods receipts, sales, returns, write-offs and transfers. The User Activity Log and document change log can be used to analyse user actions. They help reconstruct the sequence of operations before adjusting the stock balance.

Retail customers and salons require different sales workflows

At the checkout, the salesperson creates a sale using a barcode or product search. Torgsoft stores the contents of the sale, quantity, price, discount, payment and the user who worked with the document.

A professional store often sells the same materials in larger quantities to beauty professionals and salons. For such a customer, the manager can create an invoice, reserve goods if necessary, record payment and prepare the shipment. This creates a separate documentary chain for B2B sales instead of mixing them with ordinary checkout receipts.

If the price depends on the quantity of a specific product, the Wholesale pricing policy option applies configured pricing thresholds. The owner defines the rules, and the salesperson sees the appropriate price when creating the sale.

For regular salons and beauty professionals, the manager separately checks unpaid documents and settlements. This is important when materials are shipped with deferred payment.

Starter kits are better managed as product bundles

In a beauty store, one ready-made kit often consists of products that are also sold separately. For example, a starter kit for a beauty professional may include a lamp, base coat, top coat, several coatings and auxiliary materials.

Torgsoft provides «Product Bundling» and «Bundle Template» for this purpose. The inventory manager defines the contents of the kit and creates a finished bundle from goods in stock. The program maintains the link between the finished item and its components, so the bundle can be accounted for together with other products.

This is also convenient for gift sets and for businesses where one package is divided into several separate product units according to a defined rule.

A gift certificate is a different scenario. There is a separate Gift certificates option for issuing, selling and accounting for certificates. A certificate should not be mixed with a physical product bundle in the accounting model.

Professional equipment should be separated from consumables

A nail drill, lamp, steriliser or other device has a different lifecycle from shampoo or a pack of files. For warranty service, it is important to know which specific unit was received from the supplier and to whom it was sold.

The Serial number accounting for warranty goods option adds serial number tracking, warranty periods and warranty document printing. The inventory manager records the serial number of a specific unit, and during the sale it is linked to the corresponding transaction.

If the store also accepts equipment for servicing, this is a separate process. The Repair and warranty service option is provided for this purpose and records repair requests, work stages, materials and payments.

Recommendations from beauty professionals can be managed as a separate sales channel

In the professional beauty industry, a store often works with stylists, hairdressers, brow artists and nail technicians who recommend products to their clients. When there are many partners, the owner needs to see which partner a customer is associated with and which purchases came through this channel.

The Referral program option allows you to manage referral partners, associate customers with them and use this data in settlements. The owner defines the partnership rules and evaluates the results based on actual purchases.

This process differs from a standard customer discount program. The customer card is responsible for the purchase history and discounts of a specific customer, while the referral program records the relationship with the partner who referred that customer.

The online catalogue should use the same product catalogue

If a store maintains products separately on the website and in the accounting software, names, characteristics and stock balances begin to differ. This is especially noticeable with a large colour palette: a customer orders a specific shade that has already been sold in the physical store.

The Online store synchronisation option transfers products, characteristics and orders between Torgsoft and the website according to the configured workflow. Data exchange can be performed on a schedule, so the website update speed depends on the specific synchronisation settings.

For Prom.ua and Rozetka.ua, separate Integration with Prom.ua and Integration with Rozetka.ua options are available. Before launch, you need to determine which products, characteristics, prices and warehouses will participate in each channel and check a test order.

Received orders can be viewed in the «Remote Customer Order» mode. The manager links the order to a customer in the database, checks the contents of the order and creates the required documents for further processing. In the «Sales with Invoice Issuing» mode, an invoice can be created based on such an order.

Separate integrations with delivery services are available for shipments. For example, Integration with Nova Poshta supports the creation, printing and tracking of consignment notes within the workflows provided by the option.

Employee permissions should be based on roles

A salesperson needs access to sales, product search, customer operations and permitted cash desk transactions. The inventory manager works with goods receipts, transfers, supplier orders and warehouse operations. The manager needs financial data, change history and reports.

The Torgsoft administrator configures permissions by role. This allows employees to access the forms they need while restricting purchase prices, financial documents or operations that are outside their responsibilities.

There are also specific restrictions. For example, a salesperson can be prohibited from entering a discount card number using the keyboard and allowed to identify the card only by scanning it. This rule defines the card identification method in the checkout process.

Permissions should be reviewed after job responsibilities change. Otherwise, an employee may retain access to forms that are no longer needed for their work.

Checkout equipment should be selected based on actual operations

A typical checkout in a professional cosmetics store requires a Windows computer and a barcode scanner. A label printer is needed where the store regularly labels goods with its own codes or prints price tags. A receipt printer is used when paper receipts or sales documents are required.

If the store accepts cashless payments through a POS terminal, the Bank terminal integration option transfers the purchase amount from Torgsoft to the terminal. For fiscal sales, you can use Software ECR or another fiscal workflow supported by Torgsoft.

Scales are not typical equipment for an ordinary professional cosmetics store if the entire assortment is sold in bottles, boxes and individual units. They are needed only where the business actually sells raw materials or other products by weight.

For a large warehouse or frequent stocktaking, it is also worth considering a data collection terminal or an Android device with scanning capability.

The owner needs a regular review routine

Data is useful when decisions are made based on it regularly.

Every day, the manager checks sales, cash desk operations, returns, manual discounts, unpaid documents and unfinished online orders.

Every week, it is worth reviewing low-stock items, purchasing requirements, transfers between locations, settlements with suppliers and B2B customers.

Periodically, it is useful to analyse sales by product type, manufacturer and supplier, inventory turnover, slow-moving goods, customer activity and discount usage. Torgsoft also provides ABC and XYZ analysis for evaluating assortment structure and demand stability.

This routine gives the owner a consistent picture: what was received, what was sold, where discrepancies occurred, what is running low and what needs to be ordered.

What to determine before transferring your accounting

Before launch, it is worth defining six things:

1. Which product types and characteristics are required for search, purchasing and the online catalogue.

2. How many stores, warehouses, checkout stations and employees will work with the system.

3. Whether there are wholesale customers, invoices, deferred payments and separate pricing rules.

4. Whether the store sells ready-made sets and equipment with serial numbers.

5. Which websites, marketplaces and delivery services need to be connected.

6. Which operations are permitted for the salesperson, inventory manager, administrator and manager.

After that, it is worth testing the complete cycle using several real products: creating a product card, receiving goods, printing a label, selling, transferring, stocktaking, creating a supplier order and processing an online order. If you need to choose a Torgsoft version, number of workplaces, options and equipment, there is a separate commercial page for the cosmetics store software.