Settings
Share Customers and Suppliers Between Outlets
Customer and supplier sharing is an account-wide visibility rule. It takes effect on the next search without copying or moving records; inventory quantities always remain outlet-specific.
- Menu path
- Manage -> Core Settings -> Sale -> Shared between your shops
- Verified from
- Posnic demo and current POS source reviewed on 2026-09-13
Technical source evidence
Live demo rechecked 2026-09-13 at Manage -> Core Settings -> Sale sharing controls, frontend/modules/settings_write.html sharing_fieldset, frontend/static/script/js/modules/js/settings.js loadSharing and saveSharing, api/src/services/data-sharing.js read-time visibility rules, api/src/repositories/customer.repository.js, api/src/repositories/supplier.repository.js, api/src/controllers/branches.controller.js new-outlet defaults, api/src/services/catalogue-copy.js product-copy boundary
Understand What the Switches Do
| Control | When on | When off |
|---|---|---|
| Customers | Every outlet can find the same customer records. The same customer balance, credit and loyalty identity follows the person across outlets. | Search is limited to records owned by or deliberately granted to the active outlet. |
| Suppliers | Every outlet can find the same supplier records for purchasing and supplier history. | Search is limited to suppliers owned by or deliberately granted to the active outlet. |
| Products | Not controlled here. A product list may be copied once while creating a new outlet. | Each outlet keeps its own product records and quantities. |
| Stock | Never shared by these switches. | Always belongs to the outlet where the count is physically held. |
Know the Visibility Boundary
These switches change which existing customer or supplier rows a search may return. Posnic evaluates the account rule when the list or picker is read, so the next search reflects the new setting. It does not duplicate, merge, reassign, move or delete records.
- Turning sharing on can reveal existing records from other outlets immediately.
- Turning sharing off narrows future searches; it does not erase a customer or supplier.
- A deliberate per-record branch grant can remain visible even when account-wide sharing is off.
- A failed settings read falls back to the narrower, non-shared result.
- Only an owner-class user can change this account-wide visibility rule.
Decide the Customer Policy
| Business model | Typical choice | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| One brand with customers shopping at several outlets | Share customers | A single balance, credit and loyalty identity is intended across the business. |
| Legally or operationally separate stores on one installation | Keep customers private | Staff at one outlet should not see another outlet's customer list or balances. |
| Mixed franchise or concession model | Keep private until governance is approved | Consent, ownership, credit collection and loyalty liability are documented. |
| Migrating duplicate customer lists | Resolve duplicates before relying on sharing | Sharing exposes records; it does not merge two records for the same person. |
Decide the Supplier Policy
- Share suppliers when the same legal vendors supply all outlets and centralized purchasing is intended.
- Keep suppliers private when contracts, prices, tax identities or purchasing teams are outlet-specific.
- Verify supplier legal name, state and GST identity before making the record visible across outlets.
- Sharing supplier identity does not share stock or automatically consolidate purchase documents.
- Do not use a shared generic supplier to hide which vendor actually supplied an invoice.
Change the Account-Wide Setting
- Sign in as an owner and select the outlet whose Core Settings page you can review.
- Open Manage -> Core Settings and select Sale.
- Scroll to Shared between your shops.
- Read the current Customers and Suppliers switch positions before changing either one.
- Select Customers when one customer identity, balance and loyalty record should be available in every outlet.
- Select Suppliers when the same vendor directory should be available in every outlet.
- Use Save sharing inside this fieldset; the main Core Settings Save is a different branch-level action.
- Wait for Saved. Applies to every shop, then perform the two-outlet verification below.
Verify from Two Outlets
- In outlet A, create or identify a harmless test customer and supplier with unmistakable names.
- Switch to outlet B without changing the records.
- Open the customer list and a New Sale customer picker, then search the exact customer name or phone.
- Open the supplier list and a New Purchase supplier picker, then search the exact supplier name or phone.
- When sharing is on, confirm each record resolves to the same identity rather than a new duplicate.
- When sharing is off, confirm an outlet-A-only record is absent unless it has an explicit branch grant.
- Check that item stock in outlet B did not change and no catalogue row was unexpectedly created.
- Remove or clearly label test records according to the business's data policy.
New Outlet Defaults
The Add Branch panel preselects Customers and Suppliers as shared for a new outlet when the account has never made a sharing decision. Once the account has saved an explicit choice, creating another outlet does not silently overwrite it.
- Review both sharing boxes before saving the second outlet.
- Choose Start with the same products as separately; it is a one-time catalogue copy.
- Copied products begin with zero stock in the new outlet.
- Creating a third outlet must not be used as a way to reset an established sharing policy.
- After creation, use Core Settings -> Sale to review the account-wide rule.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely reason | Controlled response |
|---|---|---|
| A customer from another outlet is missing | Customer sharing is off, the search is stale, or the record lacks an explicit branch grant. | Refresh the list, verify the account switch as owner and search by exact phone before creating another record. |
| The same person appears twice | Separate customer records already existed before sharing was enabled. | Stop creating records, compare IDs and transaction history, then use an approved data-cleanup process; the switch does not merge duplicates. |
| A cashier can see unexpected balances | Customer sharing exposes the same account-wide customer identity. | Review the policy and cashier permissions immediately; turn sharing off only with owner approval and verify both outlets. |
| Save sharing returns Unauthorized access | The signed-in user is not owner-class. | Ask the account owner to review and save the rule; do not share owner credentials. |
| Could not read the current setting | The account-level settings request failed. | Do not guess the switch state. Refresh once, retain the narrower visibility behavior and report the error if it repeats. |
| Stock appeared to move between outlets | A catalogue copy or wrong active outlet is being confused with sharing. | Check the active outlet, item IDs and Inventory Logs; customer/supplier sharing cannot move stock. |
| A supplier remains visible after sharing is off | The record has a deliberate branch_access grant. | Review that supplier's branch access rather than deleting the supplier or repeatedly toggling the account rule. |
Owner Audit Checklist
- The customer visibility policy matches privacy, credit and loyalty ownership.
- The supplier visibility policy matches contracts, tax identities and purchasing responsibility.
- Both on and off behavior have been tested from two real outlet contexts.
- Duplicate people or vendors are documented for controlled cleanup.
- Product catalogue copying and stock ownership are understood as separate decisions.
- Cashiers and purchasing staff know whether a search result can originate from another outlet.