Demo Retail Group LLC: a controlled POS branch day

This fictional case follows the Abu Dhabi branch of Demo Retail Group LLC from cashier login to end-of-day close. The branch sells furniture, groceries, and seasonal bundles through two tills. It accepts cash, card, UPI, loyalty points, and gift vouchers. The lesson is deliberately operational: every sale has a cashier, shift, item, price, tax, warehouse, tender, receipt, and audit event.

Branch and terminal setup

The branch administrator creates the branch, address, tax registration, default warehouse, price list, currency, operating hours, receipt template, payment types, and terminals. Each terminal has code, name, branch, register, printer, barcode scanner, active status, and assigned cashier roles.

Field	Example	Purpose
Branch	Abu Dhabi Mall	Legal/operational location
Warehouse	WH-AUH-STORE	Stock source for the till
Terminal	POS-AUH-02	Device and register identity
Cashier	Sara Khan	Actor for sale and void audit
Price list	UAE Retail VAT-inclusive	Customer-facing pricing
Shift	09:00–23:00	Cash accountability window
Payment types	Cash, card, UPI, loyalty	Tender reconciliation

Branch access is not the same as permission to change prices, refund, void, close a shift, or adjust loyalty. Test each role with a permitted and refused action.

Open a cashier session

Sara joins the open session with terminal, user, opening cash float, date, and shift reference. The opening float is not sales revenue. It is cash entrusted to the till. The supervisor records the counted amount and any discrepancy before the first receipt.

If a cashier leaves mid-shift, the session remains attributable. A second cashier joins with a separate user event; never share the first user’s login. The session report should show who opened, joined, left, voided, refunded, and closed.

Scan and price a sale

The customer buys one lamp, two grocery packs, and a seasonal bundle. The cashier scans barcode, verifies item description, UOM, quantity, warehouse, batch/expiry where applicable, unit price, discount, tax code, and line total. A barcode lookup is not proof that the item is saleable; inactive items, expired batches, and reserved stock can still block checkout.

The cart records customer if known, branch, terminal, cashier, price list, currency, lines, promotion, discount, tax, rounding, shipping or service charge, and total. The customer display and printed receipt must reflect the same price basis. If prices are tax-inclusive, OSERP derives net and tax; do not add tax a second time in an integration.

Offers and price overrides

The bundle offer gives a 10% discount when the customer buys the lamp and two grocery packs. The offer evaluation records offer ID, eligibility, qualifying lines, reward, date window, channel, customer group, and approval. A manual price override records reason, original price, new price, cashier, approver, and time. “Customer requested” is not enough evidence for a high-value override.

The discount changes taxable base and margin. It should remain visible as a discount line or field, not be hidden by changing the item’s master price. Test overlapping offers, expired offers, excluded customer groups, and a manual override over the approval threshold.

Payment and split tender

The customer pays AED 300 cash, AED 500 by card, and AED 50 in loyalty points. Checkout records tender type, amount, currency, gateway/provider reference, card authorisation or capture state, loyalty account, and allocation. A card authorisation can fail after the order is created; the sale must not be treated as settled until the configured capture state exists.

Split tender is one sale with multiple settlement facts. Cash is counted at close; card is matched to the acquirer; loyalty points reduce the loyalty liability or balance under programme policy. A gateway callback must be signed and idempotent. Retrying the same provider event cannot create another receipt.

Receipt, stock, and tax

The receipt includes sale number, date/time, branch, terminal, cashier, customer if supplied, item lines, quantity, unit price, discount, tax components, total, tender summary, and return policy. The stock movement records item, quantity, warehouse, bin/batch where used, and source sale. The tax summary records tax category and component amounts.

The POS receipt and the accounting journal may be created at different stages. A sale can relieve stock immediately while bank settlement occurs later. The GL Mapping and POS policy decide whether the first entry debits cash/card clearing or customer receivable and credits revenue/tax. Verify the actual configured posting rather than teaching a universal journal.

Loyalty and customer history

The loyalty account is identified by card/phone/customer relationship, not by a free-text note. The sale can earn points; a redemption spends points. Each adjustment records programme, account, points, reason, cashier, approver, expiry policy, and source sale. Manual point adjustments should be restricted and audited.

Customer history combines sales, returns, points, credits, and payment states. A customer lookup is not permission to expose private data to every cashier. Limit fields by role and mask sensitive information on shared terminals.

Void before close

The cashier scans the wrong item and voids the line before final checkout. A void records original line, reason, cashier, time, and approval if required. A completed sale is not voided by deleting a database row. Use the supported void or reversal action so stock, tax, loyalty, and audit effects are reversed consistently.

High-value or post-settlement voids route to a manager. The manager reviews receipt, reason, payment state, stock state, and customer communication. A void with no reason is an audit failure even if the till total appears correct.

Return and refund

The customer returns the lamp the next day. The return flow identifies original sale, line, quantity, reason, condition, batch/serial, receiving warehouse, and refund tender. A sale return is not automatically a cash refund; the policy may issue card reversal, store credit, or exchange.

Damaged goods go to quarantine. Saleable goods return to stock only after inspection. The refund reverses the relevant revenue/tax and settlement allocation. A partial return cannot exceed sold quantity. Test a receipt from another branch, no-receipt return, expired return window, damaged item, and refund to a different tender.

End-of-day close

At 23:00 Sara prints the session report. The supervisor counts cash, compares card/UPI/gateway settlements, checks loyalty movements, reviews voids/refunds/discounts, confirms stock exceptions, and records over/short reason. The close includes opening float, sales by tax and tender, refunds, voids, discounts, cash deposits, and closing float.

Example close:

Opening cash float                    AED 2,000
Cash sales                            AED 18,450
Cash refunds                          AED    450
Expected closing cash                 AED 20,000
Counted closing cash                  AED 19,980
Variance                              AED    -20

The AED 20 variance needs an explanation and approval; it is not silently added to sales. Card and UPI totals are reconciled to acquirer reports, not to the cashier’s memory. The branch close is complete only when every tender and exception has an owner.

Management and consultant view

Managers review sales by branch, terminal, cashier, item, category, offer, customer group, hour, tender, tax, return reason, and margin. Useful measures include basket value, scan-to-receipt time, void rate, refund cycle, stock-out, offer conversion, tender variance, and close duration. A high sales total with high refunds or unexplained cash variance is not healthy performance.

Repeat this case with offline terminal recovery, duplicate payment callback, price-list change during cart, barcode substitution, loyalty expiry, cash shortage, card chargeback, cross-branch return, tax-exempt customer, and a locked accounting period. Capture field, operator, permission, stage, stock effect, accounting effect, customer communication, and audit evidence for each.

Use this chapter with POS operations, Inventory, Sales lifecycle, Advanced GL Mapping, and API Library.