Use Item Availability in Saleculator

Use Item Availability in Saleculator POS 4.6 update 1 to mark menu items sold out, track how many portions you can sell, and record food waste. You can track quantities for selected items, such as biryani or a daily special, and leave the rest of the menu available for normal sales.

Open Item Availability #

1. If you are upgrading a 4.5 database, open the updated POS first and accept the database upgrade. Once POS finishes, connect the updated PDA to the same database.
2. In POS, open Stock and select Item Availability under Maintenance.
3. Use Find item to locate a product and select its row. Choose Refresh to see changes made at another terminal.

Availability is tracked per inventory location. POS and PDA sales use the same counts when they connect to the same database and use the same location. Manage availability and open the report from POS.

If an item is missing from the list, check that it is marked In Catalog in Stock → Products. Availability controls whether a listed item can be ordered. The In Catalog setting controls whether it appears in the sales catalog.

Mark an item sold out or available #

1. Select the item and press Mark sold out. The row shows Sold out (staff) and Saleculator blocks new orders for it.
2. When the item is ready to sell again, select it and press Mark available. If quantity tracking is on, the item also needs portions remaining before it can sell.

You can use these buttons even when quantity tracking is off. Starting a batch or adding portions leaves a manual sold-out setting in place until you clear it.

Track portions for selected items #

1. Select an item such as Chicken Biryani and press Start batch.
2. Enter the number of portions prepared on the number pad and confirm. The list shows how many portions are left.
3. Choose Add portions if the kitchen prepares more during service. When the count reaches zero, the item shows Sold out. Start a new batch when more portions are ready.

Example: Start with 30 portions. Sending a kitchen order ticket (KOT) for 5 leaves 25. Billing those same 5 portions later leaves the count at 25. Billing 3 portions directly, without a KOT, brings it to 22. The standard Send Order action counts portions before sending the ticket to the kitchen. Canceling food already sent to the kitchen or refunding a bill does not automatically put portions back.

To stop tracking an item, use or account for its remaining portions, then select Stop tracking when the count reaches zero. Quantity tracking is off by default for each item.

Record waste or correct the count #

• Choose Record waste to take spoiled, damaged, or unused portions out of the available count. Enter the quantity and select a reason. Add a note if staff need more detail.
• Choose Adjust count when the actual count differs from the displayed count. Enter the actual number remaining and select a reason. The report records this as an adjustment.

Compare production and waste #

1. In Item Availability, select Production and Waste.
2. Enter the From and Through dates. Optionally enter an item name to narrow the report.
3. Choose Day, Week, or Month under Group by. Weeks run Monday through Sunday. In Day view, choose a weekday if you want to compare the same day across several weeks.
4. Open Period totals to compare prepared, billed, wasted, adjusted, and remaining quantities. Open Activity to see individual changes, including who recorded them and any notes.

KOT records portions counted when orders are sent. Direct records portions first counted at billing. Billed shows billed portions on the billing date. Use Billed to compare sales. Adding it to KOT would count the same portions twice.

Give staff access #

On a fresh database, the default Administrator and Manager roles include both permissions. For an existing database, give the appropriate staff roles access to the Stock menu and add the relevant entries inside the role’s permissions XML.

<class name="sales.ManageItemAvailability"/>
<class name="sales.ViewProductionWaste"/>

sales.ManageItemAvailability allows stock and availability changes. sales.ViewProductionWaste allows staff to open the report. Save the role and have the staff member sign in again.

Related guides: Manager Guide and Set up and use Saleculator PDA.