POS, Inventory & Small Business Glossary

A

Accounts payable (also: supplier debt, money you owe): The total amount your business owes to suppliers for goods or services already received but not yet paid for. In a Kuwait shop context, this is what you owe your wholesalers, distributors, and service providers. QuickBiz tracks this via the supplier ledger — every credit purchase increases the running balance, every payment reduces it.
Accounts receivable (also: customer credit, money owed to you): The total amount customers owe your business for goods or services already delivered but not yet paid for. In Kuwait shops, this is your "Salim owes me 23 KD" notebook page, digitized. QuickBiz tracks this via the customer ledger — credit sales increase the balance, payments reduce it.
Aggregate rating: The average star rating a product receives from multiple reviewers (e.g. 4.8 out of 5 from 12 reviews). Search engines display aggregate ratings in search results when properly marked up via schema. QuickBiz's Reviews page will display this once we have enough verified customer reviews.

B

Barcode scanning: Using a phone camera or a dedicated handheld scanner to read a product's barcode and auto-populate a sale line with the right product, price, and inventory deduction. Faster than typing or searching for the product, especially when a shop has hundreds of similar-looking items.
Bluetooth thermal printer: A small receipt printer that pairs wirelessly with a phone over Bluetooth. Uses heat-sensitive paper rolls instead of ink. Most Kuwait shops use 58mm or 80mm paper widths. QuickBiz supports both widths plus LAN-connected thermal printers.

C

Cash flow: The actual movement of money in and out of your business. Different from profit — you can be profitable on paper but cash-poor if customers owe you a lot and you've prepaid for inventory. Watching cash flow is how shop owners avoid the surprise of "I'm profitable but the bank account is empty."
COGS (Cost of Goods Sold): The direct cost of the products you sold during a period. If you sold 100 items that cost you 5 KD each to buy, your COGS is 500 KD. COGS is subtracted from revenue to calculate gross profit. QuickBiz auto-calculates COGS on every sale using weighted-average cost (WAC) — no manual entry required. See Know your real profit, not just revenue for how this works in practice.
Credit sale (also: sale on credit, آجل): A sale where the customer takes the goods now and pays later. Common in Kuwait small shops with regular customers. Different from a card payment — a credit sale means no money changed hands at the time of the sale. QuickBiz records credit sales by setting the payment category to "Credit" and linking the sale to the customer, so the running balance is always visible.
Customer ledger: The running record of all sales, payments, and returns for a specific customer. Shows the current outstanding balance (what they owe you, if anything) and the full transaction history. Replaces the notebook page with that customer's name on it.

D

Dashboard: The home screen of a POS app showing today's key numbers at a glance: sales, profit, top products, low-stock alerts, outstanding credit. The point of a good dashboard is to answer "how did today go?" without scrolling through reports.
Due amount: The outstanding portion of a sale that hasn't been paid yet. A partial-payment sale (e.g. 10 KD paid, 5 KD owed) shows 5 KD as the due amount until the rest is collected.

E

Expense: A cost of running your business that's not the direct cost of goods sold. Examples: rent, electricity, internet, salaries, marketing, repairs. Expenses are subtracted from gross profit to calculate net profit. QuickBiz lets you record expenses with categories so monthly P&L reports are accurate.

F

FIFO (First In, First Out): An inventory costing method where the oldest stock you bought is assumed to be the first sold. Different from WAC. FIFO is more accurate during periods of price changes but harder to track. QuickBiz uses WAC by default because it's simpler and accurate enough for most small businesses.

G

Gross profit: Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The money left after covering the direct cost of what you sold, before deducting operating expenses like rent and salaries. Example: 1000 KD revenue − 600 KD COGS = 400 KD gross profit.

I

Inventory (also: stock, مخزون): The goods your business has on hand for resale. QuickBiz tracks every product with quantity-on-hand, cost, and price, and auto-deducts inventory on every sale.
Invoice: A written record of a sale issued to the customer. In Kuwait small shops, the printed thermal receipt from the POS often serves as the invoice. For B2B sales or larger transactions, a more detailed A4 invoice may be needed — QuickBiz generates both formats.

L

Ledger: A running record of all transactions for a specific entity (a customer, a supplier, or an account). Each entry is dated and shows the running balance. The digital equivalent of a paper accounting book.
Low-stock alert: An automatic notification when a product's quantity falls below a threshold you set, so you can re-order before running out. Each product can have its own minimum stock level. Critical for avoiding stockouts during busy periods.

M

Margin (also: profit margin): The percentage of revenue you keep after deducting costs. Gross margin = Gross profit ÷ Revenue. Net margin = Net profit ÷ Revenue. Most shop owners overestimate their margin because they forget to include all costs. QuickBiz's auto-calculated WAC makes the real margin visible.

N

Net profit (also: bottom line, real profit): Revenue minus everything — COGS, expenses, returns. The money you actually keep at the end. The single most important number for a shop owner. QuickBiz shows net profit as the headline number on the dashboard, computed automatically.

O

Offline mode: The POS app's ability to keep recording sales when there's no internet connection. Sales are stored locally and sync to the cloud when the connection comes back. Critical for Kuwait shops where internet drops occasionally during busy hours.
Online (payment category in QuickBiz): The QuickBiz payment category for any card or electronic transfer that doesn't physically hand over cash. Covers card payments processed through a local card-payment terminal alongside QuickBiz. Cash, Online, Credit, and Partial are QuickBiz's four core payment categories.
Opening balance: The starting amount when you first set up a customer, supplier, or inventory item in QuickBiz. For example, if Salim already owed you 30 KD when you started using QuickBiz, his opening credit balance is 30 KD.

P

Partial payment (payment category in QuickBiz): A sale where the customer pays part of the total now and owes the rest. The paid portion is recorded as cash or online; the unpaid portion is recorded as credit linked to the customer's ledger. Common in Kuwait shops where customers settle a portion at the counter and pay the rest at month-end.
Payment status: The current state of a sale's payment — Paid (fully settled), Partial (some paid, some owed), or Due (nothing paid yet). QuickBiz computes payment status from the actual payment ledger, not from headline amounts, so the status is always accurate.
POS (Point of Sale): The software (and sometimes hardware) used to record a sale at the moment it happens. A POS app turns a phone or tablet into a cash register, inventory tracker, customer database, and report generator. QuickBiz is a mobile POS app built for Kuwait small businesses.
P&L (Profit and Loss statement): A summary report showing revenue, COGS, expenses, and net profit over a period (daily, weekly, monthly). The single report most useful for understanding "how is the business doing?"
Product cost (also: unit cost, تكلفة الوحدة): What you paid (or pay on average) for one unit of a product. Distinct from the selling price. Maintained automatically via WAC as you record purchases.

R

Reconciliation: The process of confirming that two records of the same transactions match. Example: matching your POS sales report to the bank statement showing card-payment deposits. Daily reconciliation catches errors before they compound. See From cash to QR — reconcile every channel.
Receipt: A printed (or digital) record of a sale handed to the customer. Includes products bought, prices, total, payment method, and date. QuickBiz prints thermal receipts in Arabic, English, or bilingual format depending on configuration.
Returns (sales returns / purchase returns): When a customer brings back a product (sales return) or you return goods to your supplier (purchase return). Returns reduce revenue (sales returns) or inventory cost (purchase returns). QuickBiz updates both inventory and the relevant ledger automatically when a return is recorded.
Revenue (also: sales, gross sales, إيرادات): The total money received from sales, before deducting any costs. Revenue is NOT profit — many shops mistake high revenue for high profit. Revenue minus everything else (COGS + returns + expenses) is what you actually keep.

S

Schema markup: Structured data added to a webpage that helps search engines and AI engines understand what the page is about. QuickBiz's marketing site uses Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb, SoftwareApplication, and Organization schema so search results can show rich snippets (e.g. expandable FAQ answers, star ratings, breadcrumbs under titles).
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique code identifying a specific product. Used internally to distinguish between variants (e.g. red large t-shirt vs blue medium t-shirt). Often the same as the barcode for retail items.
Stockout: When a product runs out and you can't sell it because there's none left. Stockouts are the most expensive silent loss in retail — you lose the sale AND often the customer. Low-stock alerts exist to prevent stockouts.
Supplier ledger: The running record of all purchases, payments, and returns for a specific supplier. Shows the current outstanding balance (what you owe them) and full transaction history.

T

Thermal printer: A receipt printer that uses heat to mark special heat-sensitive paper instead of ink. Fast, quiet, and ink-free — the standard for retail receipt printing. Available in 58mm and 80mm paper widths.

W

WAC (Weighted-Average Cost): An inventory costing method where every purchase updates the average cost of that product. If you bought 10 units at 5 KD each, then 10 more at 6 KD each, the WAC is 5.50 KD per unit. When you sell, COGS uses this 5.50 KD figure. QuickBiz uses perpetual WAC — the cost basis updates the moment a purchase is recorded, so profit reports are always accurate. See Know your real profit, not just revenue for the full explanation.

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If you've come across a term in QuickBiz or in your shop's bookkeeping that isn't here, message us and we'll add it. This glossary is meant to be a working reference, not a finished list.

Small-business glossary — POS, inventory, profit.

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