Reports
How to track profit in a retail business
Updated 2026-09-11
Retail profit is not sales. Combine bills, product cost, and shop expenses — and be honest about what the POS can and cannot know.
A busy day can still lose money. Sales is the cash (and credit) that left the counter. Profit is what remains after the cost of those goods and the cost of running the shop.
Three numbers, not one
- Sales — what you billed
- Cost of goods — what those items cost you, if you recorded cost
- Expenses — rent, transport, packing, generator fuel, wages you choose to log
BezPOS reports include sales, profit, expenses, inventory, and stock value. Profit in software is only meaningful if costs and expenses were entered. If every product cost is zero, “profit” is a cartoon.
Credit sales confuse people
A credit sale is still a sale. Cash may arrive later via the customer ledger. Do not treat unpaid credit as profit in your pocket. It is money the shop is owed.
Expenses belong in the same building as the till
If expenses live only in a personal bank SMS list, the POS profit will look too good. Record expenses that are actually shop costs.
Offline reporting
Because BezPOS keeps data locally, you can review the period on the same device that took the bills — including when the internet is down. That is useful at closing, not only at month-end on a laptop in another room.
For the product view, see the reports section on features.