How to Organize Store Operations During Wartime: Safety, Cash, Inventory, and Recovery

For a store to resume operations after air raid alerts, outages, and supply delays, the owner should decide in advance who is responsible, how sales will be stopped, and under what conditions they may resume. Start with the route to a shelter, team contacts, checkout equipment checks, an accounting backup, and a cash forecast for the coming weeks.

This plan is intended for retail businesses in Ukraine. The organizational steps below are practical recommendations that should be adapted to the premises, product range, and shift staffing. Payment rules are set out under Ukrainian law; the special procedure for checkout operations during martial law has separate conditions.

Prepare instructions for an air raid alert

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) recommends heading to a shelter immediately after an alert and staying there until the all-clear. For a store, this means employees should know in advance how to stop serving customers and where to go with visitors. The main rules are set out in the official SESU guidance.

1. Identify a primary and a backup shelter. Find them through official local government resources, walk the route, and check the entrance. Write down the contact number of the responsible person. SESU recommends checking the condition of a shelter in advance; see the guidance on choosing a shelter for details.
2. Assign shift responsibilities. One employee tells visitors that service is stopping and points out the route. Another assists people who have difficulty moving. For a shift with one salesperson, set a short sequence of steps without extra tasks that delay leaving.
3. Prepare supplies in advance. Keep a phone, charged power bank, flashlight, water, first-aid kit, and essential personal items accessible. Keys and contacts should not be left somewhere you would have to return to retrieve them.
4. Agree on a message for customers. For example: “Service is temporarily suspended due to an air raid alert. The nearest shelter is at… We will notify you when operations resume after the all-clear.”

Do not make completing a purchase, counting the till, packing orders, or copying the database a required step before leaving. Arrange such tasks in advance. SESU warns against staying near display windows and windows, and against using elevators when moving to a shelter.

If shelling has already begun and reaching a shelter is impossible, SESU allows the “two walls rule” as a necessary temporary measure. Choose a place with at least two structural walls between you and the street, such as an interior corridor, as far as possible from windows and exterior walls. This does not guarantee protection. If the shelter is locked, go to the preselected backup shelter if you can reach it safely.

If explosions are heard nearby and there is no other shelter close by, SESU advises lying down immediately, covering your head with your hands, and using a depression or concrete barrier for additional protection. Report a locked shelter to local authorities, the police at 102, or emergency responders at 101. In case of fire or building damage, leave the dangerous area immediately if possible and call 101.

If you cannot get out, tell emergency responders your exact address and location.

After the all-clear, the shift manager should assess whether it is safe to return to the premises and resume operations. If there is damage or another hazard, notify the owner and customers that the pause will continue.

Set out responsibilities and contacts on one page

We recommend creating a short working document that is available on a phone and on paper. For each function, list the responsible person, their backup, phone number, and limits on independent decision-making. Employees should know whom to tell about a problem and what to do if that person does not answer.

Add the contacts for the landlord, the person responsible for the shelter, the accountant, technical support, key suppliers, and carriers. Agree on a simple check-in rule: the employee reports that they are safe and whether they can work the shift. If there is no reply, the designated person tries another communication channel. Do not require a work-related response at the cost of unsafe travel.

Decide which services the store can continue to provide

We recommend preparing three scenarios: a short outage, a shutdown until the next day, and a longer period when the premises are unavailable. For each, list the operations available, required staff and equipment, and the reason for stopping. This helps avoid accepting orders the team cannot fulfill.

• For a short outage, check whether the checkout device and communications have enough power, whether the required payment procedure is permitted, and whether goods can be stored under proper conditions.
• For a shutdown until the next day, decide who will inform customers, reschedule receipt of the delivery, and check prepaid orders.
• For a longer pause, prepare a procedure for accessing accounting from another location, contacting suppliers, and meeting obligations already accepted.

Choose a minimum set of services based on your capacity. For example, the store may temporarily continue consultations and accept requests without payment while restoring checkout operations. Assign a person to each service and check that they have access to the necessary data.

Check power, internet, and a lawful payment method

Test backup power and backup internet at the actual work station, including the checkout device, router, payment terminal, and other necessary equipment. Separately measure how long they operate under load. Check the terminal, accounting access, and connection to the fiscal server separately, because each function is needed for a different part of the sale.

The rules below apply to transactions for which a registrar of settlement transactions (РРО, the Ukrainian acronym) or a software registrar of settlement transactions (ПРРО, the Ukrainian acronym) must be used. Exceptions to the requirement are set out, among other places, in Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine No. 265/95-ВР dated 06.07.1995, which also refers to the Tax Code of Ukraine. An outage by itself does not create a general permission to sell without the required settlement document.

If the ПРРО is working but has no connection to the fiscal server

Article 5 of Law No. 265/95-ВР sets the general limits for offline operation: up to 36 consecutive hours and up to 168 hours during a calendar month. At the same time, paragraph 13 of Section II “Final Provisions” allows these limits to be exceeded during martial law, a state of emergency, or force majeure circumstances. These time limits must therefore be applied in light of this special provision.

Permission to exceed the limits does not cancel the other requirements. The ПРРО must receive a range of fiscal numbers for offline documents from the supervisory authority; operation in this mode without them is prohibited. An unused balance of numbers is required, and the settlement document must indicate that the transaction was processed offline.

1. Before outages occur, check with your checkout solution provider whether offline mode is configured, whether a range of numbers has been received, and whether signature certificates are valid.
2. When the connection is lost, monitor the ПРРО status and available numbers. If you stated during registration or operation that you would not process offline transactions, stop them until the connection is restored or use an authorized backup option.
3. After the connection is restored, check that the system has returned to online mode. Within one hour of restoration, the package of offline documents, including generated fiscal reporting receipts, and notifications of the start and end of that mode must be transmitted. Under Article 5 of Law No. 265/95-ВР, copies of settlement documents must be transmitted before the fiscal report or fiscal reporting receipt for the relevant day is sent. If it is time to generate a fiscal reporting receipt during offline operation, generate it after the last settlement document of the shift and before sending the notification that opens the next shift.
4. Make sure the fiscal server has confirmed delivery. The documents must remain stored in the ПРРО until confirmation is received.

The sequence of operations, generation of notifications, and document storage are governed by Section V of the Procedure approved by Order No. 317 of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine dated 23.06.2020. Ask a technical specialist to demonstrate these states at your actual workstation.

If the checkout device is faulty or has no power

A ПРРО malfunction requires a different procedure. Article 5 of Law No. 265/95-ВР requires settlement transactions through a faulty ПРРО to stop until the malfunction is resolved. Paragraph 12 of Section II of Procedure No. 317 also provides for connecting a backup РРО. A ПРРО malfunction must be reported to the supervisory authority, manufacturer, and/or service center, if one is available, on the day it is discovered, using Form No. 2-ПРРО. After the malfunction is resolved, submit an application using Form No. 1-ПРРО marked “Відновлення роботи” (“Resumption of operations”) to resume work. If this application is not received within a month, a record canceling the ПРРО registration will be entered in the register.

For a hardware РРО, Article 5 provides for the use of the settlement transaction record book and settlement book, or a properly registered backup РРО, during repairs or a temporary power outage lasting no more than seven working days. If the business owner selected, during registration, to stop settlement transactions without maintaining these books, they may not process transactions under this procedure during a malfunction or outage.

A hardware РРО malfunction or damage to control devices must be reported to the service center during the working day on which it is discovered, and to the supervisory authority at the place of tax registration within two working days after the day of discovery. Notifications are submitted in free form in writing or by electronic communications.

We recommend recording the permitted option for each checkout together with the accountant. A regular note of a purchase in a notebook does not replace the procedure established by law. If the main checkout cannot operate and no lawful backup method is available, suspend the relevant transactions.

Recalculate stock needs before each purchase

For inventory management, we recommend starting by checking the most important items: actual quantity, saleable condition, shelf life, confirmed orders, and the next delivery date. After a long interruption, reconcile physical stock with the accounting records before showing customers the available quantities again.

You can use your own formula to plan a purchase: expected sales until the next delivery plus a delay reserve, minus saleable stock and confirmed deliveries expected to arrive in time. Choose the reserve size based on available cash, shelf life, and storage conditions.

Illustrative example. A store expects to sell 6 units of a product per day, and the delivery is due in 5 days. The owner adds a 2-day reserve. Planned demand is 6 × (5 + 2) = 42 units. If saleable stock is 18 units and there are no other confirmed deliveries, the calculated purchase is 42 − 18 = 24 units. This is an assumption for planning; actual demand and delivery time may change.

At the same time, 18 units of stock at this rate of demand will last only 18 ÷ 6 = 3 days. Five days until delivery requires 30 units, so there is a shortfall of 12. The owner should arrange for at least these 12 units of the calculated purchase to arrive before the current stock runs out, or adjust the fulfillment times promised to customers.

For slow-moving goods, first check whether a smaller batch, an agreed return to the supplier, or a change to the product range is possible. Assess a discount together with cost of goods sold and selling expenses to understand how much cash it will bring the store.

Inventory management should be maintained independently of tax exceptions. However, the legal inventory accounting obligation under paragraph 12 of Article 3 of Law No. 265/95-ВР has an exception for individual entrepreneurs who pay the single tax and are not registered as value-added tax payers. The exception does not cover entrepreneurs selling technically complex household goods subject to warranty repair, medicines, medical devices, jewelry and household items made of precious metals, precious stones, precious stones of organic origin, or semi-precious stones.

Update the cash forecast every week

We recommend keeping an 8–13-week forecast broken down by week. For near-term payments, add a daily calculation if needed: receipts at the end of the week may not cover a payment due at the beginning.

For each period, list cash available at the start, expected receipts, purchases, payroll, taxes, rent, delivery, customer refunds, and other payments. Do not count transfers between the business’s own tills and accounts as new receipts for the business.

In this illustrative example, receipts fall by 40%: 90,000 × 0.6 = 54,000 UAH. If the owner sets an internal minimum of 20,000 UAH, the second scenario shows a shortfall of 16,000 UAH from that level. The entrepreneur determines the amount of this minimum independently, according to their obligations.

For each possible shortfall, record an action and a deadline: reduce a purchase that has not yet been agreed, discuss a new payment schedule with a supplier, or defer a nonessential expense. Agree on any deferral of contractual payments with the other party. Do not include expected assistance or an unconfirmed loan among available funds.

Check that accounting can be restored from a backup

We recommend deciding how many of the store’s most recent transactions can be restored manually and how long it can operate without the database. If losing a full day of data is unacceptable, arrange more frequent backups with a technical specialist. Store a backup separately from the work computer and restrict access to it.

1. List the data. Include the accounting database, open orders, supplier documents, and settings required for recovery.
2. Check the backup result. The responsible person should be able to see when the last successful backup was made and whether there were any error messages.
3. Prepare a safe test environment. Work with a technical specialist to isolate it from the production database and prevent fiscalization, mailings, and other external actions before launching a restored copy.
4. Run a recovery drill. Restore the backup in the prepared environment so that the production database is not overwritten. Then check the latest documents, stock, cash, and open orders.
5. Record the result. Note the recovery time, missing data, required access, and the person who will resolve any issues found.

After an actual recovery, compare the latest document in the database with transactions that occurred later. Check payments, shipments, and fiscal document status to avoid repeating actions that have already been completed. Repeat the drill after significant changes to the software, equipment, or backup storage method.

Agree on backup suppliers and customer timelines

For goods whose absence would most affect operations, we recommend having an agreed alternative. Confirm the minimum batch, delivered price, payment method, documents, product specifications, and return options in advance. If possible, test a small batch before placing a large order.

For each delivery, record the date of the last confirmation, the responsible contact, and a backup transport method. After a disruption, separately confirm that the goods are ready for dispatch and that the carrier can collect them. This prevents the manager from giving a customer a delivery time based only on a preliminary arrangement.

Keep the confirmed stock, payment, agreed shipping time, and next contact time in the order record. If the timing changes, inform the customer before the deadline passes and offer an available option in accordance with the order terms and the customer’s rights.

Example of a working message: “Your order shipment is delayed. The carrier has not yet confirmed collection. We will provide the next update tomorrow by 12:00. If waiting does not work for you, contact us to agree on the next steps.” Set the next update time to one the team can actually meet.

Prepare documents for a possible relocation

We recommend deciding in advance under what circumstances the owner will consider a temporary closure or relocation: inaccessible premises, inability to ensure proper storage, or a prolonged lack of the conditions needed to operate. Include transportation, new rent, setup, a pause in sales, and possible inventory losses in the financial calculation.

To prepare, collect lease agreements, documents for goods and equipment, an asset list with serial numbers, open orders, settlements with counterparties, and backups. Before moving, reconcile the asset count, arrange for the assets to be received at the new location, and assign people responsible for the handover.

For a ПРРО, a change to the business unit’s name or address requires re-registration under paragraph 8 of Section II of Procedure No. 317. Submit the application after sending the last fiscal reporting receipt and closing the shift. A ПРРО may be used only at a business unit whose details are entered in the register; also check the notification about the taxable object, whose details are needed for registration.

If you plan to seek government assistance for relocation, first check the eligibility requirements, required documents, and funding availability with the official program organizer. Until you have the terms of a specific program and a decision on participation, plan the move using your own confirmed resources.

How to use Torgsoft to track inventory, cash, and backups

In Torgsoft, the «Стан складу» form (“Warehouse Status”) shows product quantity, cost, and price, and lets you set minimum stock levels. We recommend using this data to review purchases after physically checking important items. Capabilities and pricing depend on the license. “Старт” (“Start”) does not support multiple accounting centers or transfers between warehouses. A paid terminal version is available for simultaneous remote work with a single database; it includes three client connections, with additional connections charged separately.

Check the current price and available license term at the link above before paying. After payment is confirmed, Torgsoft provides an electronic key or access to activation. Before switching, agree with a technical specialist on server, connection, and access settings, and check that the required operations work over the internet.

In «Фінансовий документ» mode (“Financial Document”), you can review receipts and expenses by tills and accounts. To see totals at the bottom of the table, enable the “Підсумки” setting (“Totals”) on the relevant tab. Tills and accounts with a zero balance do not appear in these totals. For the weekly forecast, reconcile the records with actual funds and add future payments separately. Set employee access according to their responsibilities. To review actions, use the user log, bearing in mind that entries can be deleted using the program’s designated tools, and clearing closed-period statistics also clears the corresponding log.

The official license page recommends regularly copying the database to an external drive or to the cloud. If a computer breaks down, the license can be transferred to another computer free of charge by calling support from the number associated with the license owner. Check backup settings in advance and run a recovery drill. Remote access requires internet; additional options are paid, and the scope of support depends on the selected terms. Data retention depends on the availability and condition of the backups and their storage location.

Check once a week that your plan is working

Set aside a short working meeting to check specific results. The shift manager confirms contacts and the route to the shelter; the person responsible for accounting confirms the time of the last backup and the recovery result; the accountant or owner reviews upcoming payments; the buyer checks stock and confirmed deliveries. Also review promises to customers that have passed their deadlines.

For each problem found, decide what needs to be done, who will do it, and by when. After an actual outage, check whether the backup internet worked, checkout documents were transmitted, power was sufficient, and customers received a message. Update the instructions based on the results of this review.