Minzani Support Center

What is Item List, and do I need to use it?

Item List is entirely optional — a business that just uses the ledger never has to touch it. If you sell physical stock (sugar, rice, soap, anything measured by count, weight, or volume), it lets you track how much you have on hand, automatically reduce it when you record a sale, and top it up when you restock — all while feeding the exact same ledger and Profit vs Loss you already use.

How do I add an item to track?

From Item List → Add item (Owner/Admin only), give it a name, a unit, and optionally a category, a reorder level, a starting quantity, and a unit price. Leave SKU/barcode blank and Minzani assigns a unique one automatically — or type your own if the product already has a real manufacturer barcode you want to scan. It's ready to sell and restock immediately. New items are only ever added this way — there's no separate from-scratch restock form that can create one.

What units can I track stock in?

Piece, Kilogram, Gram, Litre, or Millilitre — or Custom, if you'd rather label it yourself (e.g. "box", "bag", "dozen"). An item sold by the Piece only accepts whole-number quantities on a sale or a transfer; the others accept fractional amounts (e.g. 2.5 kg).

How do I record a sale?

Use Sale (top of the Ledger or Item List page) — search for the item by typing part of its name or category, pick the quantity sold, and the amount you actually received. The amount isn't calculated from a fixed per-unit price — you enter what was actually paid, since prices are often negotiated. This creates an ordinary receipt in that day's ledger and reduces the item's stock by the quantity sold. The item is entirely optional — leave it blank to just record a plain receipt with nothing to do with stock.

How do I restock an item?

From the item's own Edit page in Item List — there's no separate, from-scratch restock form. Enter how much you're adding under "Add stock," pick "This was a purchase" under "Why is stock changing?", then fill in "Total amount paid" (and how you paid) — this creates an expenditure in that day's ledger, always categorized under "Cost of Goods/Supplies" (an item's own Category — Foods, Snacks, and so on — is a separate, item-organization-only thing now, see below; it has no bearing on how a purchase is categorized), and updates the Cost Price shown on the item's row to this purchase's per-unit cost automatically. Total amount paid can suggest a total for you once you've also filled in Cost per unit, but it's only ever a starting point — type the real amount paid, since prices are often negotiated. Optionally, if your business tracks more than one location, say where it went.

What's the difference between a tracked purchase and "Record expenditure"?

Both create an expenditure in the ledger. A tracked purchase (Edit item's "Total amount paid") updates a specific item's stock as part of the same action. Record expenditure (from the Ledger page) has no item field at all, for a plain expense that has nothing to do with tracked stock (rent, wages, and so on). If you need to fix a stock count without any money involved, use Edit item's "Quantity" field (with the Add/Remove toggle next to it) and pick "Stock count correction" (damage, loss, a miscount) under "Why is stock changing?" — nothing about it touches the ledger.

How do I set an item's starting stock, or add stock without a purchase?

When adding a new item, there's a "Starting quantity" field for whatever you already have on hand — pick "Already owned (opening stock)" under "Why is stock changing?" if you didn't just pay for it today (paying for it instead? pick "This was a purchase" and it's tracked as a real expense from day one). Editing an existing item offers the same idea via "Quantity" (paired with an Add/Remove toggle, so a reduction never needs typing a minus sign), with a third option, "Stock count correction," for a stocktake fix, damage, or loss. Any quantity added always requires picking one of these — it's how you tell Minzani whether to record it as spending; removing stock never needs a reason.

How does Item List connect to my ledger and Profit vs Loss?

Directly, with nothing extra to configure. A sale is just a receipt; a tracked purchase is just an expenditure under "Cost of Goods/Supplies" — one of the same categories Profit vs Loss already breaks spending down by. That spending shows up there exactly like any other expenditure you'd typed in by hand.

I have deposit/expenditure approval turned on — when does stock actually move?

Not until the linked receipt or expenditure is confirmed — same rule as everywhere else in Minzani: an unconfirmed entry doesn't count yet. If a sale needs deposit approval, the item's stock stays exactly where it was until someone confirms that deposit; once confirmed, the stock updates immediately.

What is a low-stock alert?

Set a "Reorder level" on an item (in Add/Edit item) and Owner/Admin, Shopkeeper, and Accountant get an in-app notification the moment its stock drops to or below that number. You're only notified once when it first crosses the line, not again on every sale after that — so it doesn't get spammy while you're waiting to restock.

Can I use a barcode scanner?

Yes — any ordinary USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner works, no setup needed. Every item has a SKU/barcode to scan — either one you typed in yourself (a real manufacturer barcode) or the one Minzani generated automatically when you left it blank. On Sale, scan (or type the code and press Enter) into the "Scan or type barcode" field — the matching item is selected automatically. Restocking doesn't need a scanner, since you're already on that specific item's own Edit page. A camera-based scan straight from your phone isn't built yet.

What does an item's Category do?

It's a separate category list just for organizing your item catalog — Foods, Snacks, Drinks, Soaps, and anything else you add — deliberately independent from your ledger's own expenditure categories (Rent, Utilities, Cost of Goods/Supplies, ...). It has no effect on the ledger at all: a tracked purchase is always categorized under "Cost of Goods/Supplies" there, regardless of an item's own Category. Manage both lists from Categories (in the header, or Item List's own button row) — it opens with a switcher between Item Categories and Expenditure Categories. A brand-new business starts with a small example list (Foods, Snacks, Juices, Drinks, Books, Pens, Beverages, Lotions, Soaps) already set up, fully editable — rename, delete, or add your own any time. The Ledger's own Edit entry window shows every item linked to a sale or restock, with its Category, for reference — correcting it is done from that item's own Edit page in Item List.

What's the difference between Cost Price and Selling Price?

Cost Price is what you most recently paid per unit — worked out automatically from your last tracked purchase's amount and quantity once you've recorded one. Before that, it falls back to the "Cost per unit" you can optionally type on the item form (Add or Edit item) — the instant a real purchase happens, that always takes over and the typed-in value stops being used, even if you edit it again later. Cost Total is Cost Price × current quantity, always calculated, never entered directly. Both show as "—" only for an item with neither a tracked purchase nor a manually-set Cost per unit yet.

Selling Price is different: it's a plain "what you plan to charge per unit" field (labeled "Selling per unit" on the item form) you type in yourself, always editable, never overridden by anything. For most items it's purely a reference, showing what you'd like to charge — Record a Sale still asks what was actually received, never auto-filled or checked against this. The one exception is a "fixed price" item — see the next question. Selling Total is Selling Price × current quantity. When both a Cost Price and a Selling Price are set, the item's edit page also shows a suggested margin — the difference between the two, as an amount and a percentage of Selling Price.

Can I stop a specific item's price from being negotiated on Sale?

Enable fixed price in Business Settings needs to be on first (Owner/Admin only; on by default — it just unlocks the option, it's not a rule for every item). With it on, a Fixed price action appears next to Edit for each item in Item List — nothing is fixed automatically, so pick which items should be: the item needs a Selling Price set first, since that becomes the fixed amount. Click it again to make the item negotiable once more. A fixed item shows a "Fixed" badge wherever its price is displayed; on Record a Sale, picking it locks Amount received to quantity × that price instead of asking what was actually received. Turning the business setting back off suspends this immediately for every item, without having to un-fix each one individually.

What are suppliers for?

From Item List → Suppliers, keep a simple reference list of who you buy stock from — name, what they supply, and how to reach them. Search it by name or product. It's not tied to any specific item or restock — nothing in the item forms asks you to pick a supplier — it's just a directory you check yourself when you need to know who to call.

Can I track stock in more than one place?

Yes, if you need to — from Item List → Locations. Most businesses never create one and see nothing extra: with zero or one location, a tracked purchase on Edit item never even shows a location field. Add a second location and it appears (and becomes required for a purchase), so every restock says which location it happened at, and an item's edit page shows its stock broken down by location.

How do I move stock between locations?

From Item List → Transfer stock between locations (only reachable once you have at least two). Pick the item, quantity, and the two locations — it moves stock from one to the other with no ledger impact at all, since no money changes hands in an internal transfer.

Who can manage items, suppliers, and locations? Who can record sales and restocks?

Adding, editing, or deactivating an item, supplier, or location — including restocking one — is Owner/Admin only, the same tier as Categories. Recording a sale or a transfer is open to anyone who can already record ledger entries: Owner/Admin, Shopkeeper/Accountant, and Bursar.