Products and Services
Pointa uses Products and Services to control what can be sold through the Point of Sale, what can be booked in the Appointment Book, and what can be made available through Online Bookings.
Before creating a large number of products or services, it is worth reviewing your default item settings:
Settings > Items
These defaults control whether newly created items have settings such as rewards, commission, service booking, and online booking enabled by default. Changing these defaults affects new items created after the change. It does not automatically update existing items.
Products, services, and packages are managed from:
Products & Services > Items
From this screen, you can search, filter by item type or status, edit existing items, delete items, and restore deleted items if required.
Related setup such as categories, brands, and suppliers is also managed under Products & Services. These are especially useful for reporting, product organisation, supplier stock receiving, and keeping your item list tidy.
Creating a Product
Products are retail items that can be sold through the Point of Sale. Products may also be tracked as inventory if you want Pointa to manage stock quantities.
Go to Products & Services > Items > New Item > Product
Complete the product details.
Key fields include:
Name
The product name shown in Pointa and at checkout.Category
Required. Used for organisation and reporting.Brand
Optional, but useful for retail reporting and stock management.Gender
Optional. Used where relevant for categorising products.Available for sale
Controls whether the product can currently be sold.Allow staff commission
Determines whether sales of this product are included in staff commission reporting.Allow customer rewards
Determines whether sales of this product are eligible for customer rewards, if rewards are enabled.Barcode
Optional. If a barcode is entered, the product can be added to the POS by scanning the barcode.Purchase price
The cost price of the product, including tax.Sale price
The retail price charged to the customer.Track inventory for this product
Turn this on if you want Pointa to track stock on hand for this item.Minimum and maximum stock levels
Used to help manage ideal stock levels.Deplete alternate item inventory
Used where selling one item should reduce the stock quantity of another item. This may be useful for products sold in different sizes or configurations.
Select Save when finished.
Turning on inventory tracking does not automatically add stock. Stock can be added through Receive Stock, a Stock Adjustment, or a Stocktake.
Creating a Service
Services are the bookable and sellable treatments or appointments performed by staff.
Go to Products & Services > Items > New Item > Service
Complete the service details.
Key fields include:
Name
The service name shown in Pointa, the Appointment Book, POS, and potentially Online Bookings.Category
Required. Used for grouping services and reporting.Available for sale
Controls whether the service can be sold through Pointa.Available online
Controls whether the individual service can be booked directly by customers online.Allow staff commission
Determines whether sales of this service are included in staff commission reporting.Allow customer rewards
Determines whether this service is eligible for customer rewards.Booking duration
The hands-on appointment time required for the service.Booking gap
Any processing or waiting time after the hands-on part of the service, before the staff member can begin their next service.Booking colour
The colour used for this service in the Appointment Book.Only specific staff can provide this service
Use this if only certain staff members are qualified or available to perform the service.Sale price
The price charged to the customer.
Select Save when finished.
Best practice is to think carefully before making every individual service available online. Individual services are useful when they are simple and standalone, such as a basic haircut or brow wax.
For more complex appointments, packages are usually the better option.
For example, a customer may need a full head of foils, a semi colour, a haircut, and a blow-dry. If all four services are exposed individually online, the customer may not know which services to choose, what order to choose them in, or whether they have selected enough time. This can result in messy or incorrect bookings.
In this situation, create a package instead. The customer chooses one clear booking option, while Pointa handles the underlying services and timing.
If a service is included inside an online package, the service does not necessarily need to be available online as an individual service. Consider turning off Available online for services that are mainly used as part of packages. This keeps the online booking menu simpler, reduces customer confusion, and encourages customers toward the correct booking options.
Building Packages
Packages are used to group multiple services together into one sellable and bookable item.
Go to Products & Services > Items > New Item > Package
Complete the package details, then add the services that make up the package.
Packages are best used for composite services, multi-step appointments, or common combinations that should be booked together.
Examples may include:
Full colour package
Foils, toner, cut, and blow-dry
Bridal trial package
Skin treatment bundle
Consultation plus treatment
When building a package:
Enter the package name and description.
Choose whether it is available for sale.
Choose whether it is available online.
Add the services that make up the package.
Put the services in the correct order.
Set the package sale price.
Save the package.
The package price is set separately from the prices of the individual services inside it. The component services help Pointa understand what is involved, how long the booking should take, and which staff can perform it.
Packages are the preferred way to expose grouped services through Online Bookings. They let the business control the structure of the appointment instead of expecting the customer to understand the correct combination and order of services.
If a package is available online, the customer can book that package even if the individual services inside it are not separately available online.
Bulk Importing of Products/Services
Bulk import can be used when setting up a new business or when adding a large number of products or services.
Go to Settings > Import
Download the import templates first. Pointa provides spreadsheet templates for importing data.
Important: do not rename, move, remove, or change the template columns. Add your data underneath the existing headings only.
Bulk import is available for:
Customers
Products
Services
Product imports can include details such as category, item name, gender, cost price, sale price, tax settings, and barcode.
Service imports can include details such as category, service name, gender, sale price, tax settings, booking duration, and processing time.
Packages are best created manually after the services have been created, because packages rely on selecting and ordering existing services.
After importing, review the imported items in:
Products & Services > Items
Check pricing, categories, booking durations, tax settings, online availability, and commission/rewards settings before using the items live.
Stock Management
Stock management applies to products that have Track inventory for this product enabled. There are three ways to manage your stock levels:
Stock Adjustments – Best used to make a small correction to the stock level of an individual product.
Stocktake – Used when physically counting stock on hand to reconcile your recorded stock levels with the actual quantities.
Receive Stock – Best used when new retail stock is received from a supplier to increase your on-hand inventory.
Stock Adjustments
Go to Products & Services > Items > Open tracked product > New adjustment
You can then choose:
Increase quantity
Decrease quantity
The date of the adjustment
The quantity adjustment or new quantity on hand
The reason for the adjustment
Use stock adjustments for things such as breakages, damaged stock, missing stock, or correcting an incorrect quantity.
Stocktake
Go to Products & Services > Stocktakes > New Stocktake
Pointa will load tracked inventory products for the current branch. For each item, Pointa shows the quantity it thinks you should have, and you enter the actual counted quantity.
The variance shows the difference between the expected quantity and the actual count.
You can:
Save changes to keep the stocktake pending
Save & apply to apply the stocktake and update stock quantities
Only apply a stocktake once the counts have been checked. Once applied, Pointa creates the required stock movement adjustments.
Receiving Stock
Go to Products & Services > Receive Stock > Receive Stock
Complete the stock receipt details:
Select the supplier
Enter the invoice date
Add any details or notes
Search for and add the products received
Enter unit prices and quantities
Confirm whether line totals include tax
Only products that are tracked as inventory can be added to a stock receipt.
You can:
Save changes to leave the stock receipt pending
Save & apply to apply the receipt and increase stock on hand
Best practice is to use Receive Stock whenever supplier stock arrives, rather than manually adjusting product quantities. This creates a clearer stock history and makes it easier to understand how stock levels have changed over time.