Products and catalogue
Build a clean catalogue: name, category, VAT-inclusive (TTC) price, image and starting stock — the foundation every sale, receipt and stock report is built on.
Your catalogue is the heart of CEMAC POS. Every item you ring up at the till, every receipt, every stock report and every SYSCOHADA journal entry starts from a product record. Spend an hour here at the beginning and the rest of the shop runs itself.
A product in CEMAC POS carries a name, an optional category, a selling price expressed in whole CFA francs (XAF), an optional image, and a stock quantity. Prices are stored VAT-inclusive — the TTC amount your customer actually pays — because that is how prices are shown on the shelf in Cameroon.
How it works
CEMAC POS keeps money as whole XAF integers: there are no centimes, so 1 500 means one thousand five hundred francs exactly. When you type a selling price you type the TTC price — the sticker price. The system works backwards from it to derive the VAT (default TVA 19.25%) and the net amount for your accounts, so you never do that maths by hand.
- Name and category — used for search at the till and for grouping in reports.
- Selling price (TTC) — the whole-franc amount the customer pays, VAT included.
- Image — optional, helps cashiers find items faster on a touch screen.
- Stock quantity — the number currently on the shelf; it decrements automatically on each sale.
Because the app is offline-first, a product you add on the shop tablet is saved locally at once and synced up when the connection returns. You can build your whole catalogue with no internet and it will upload safely later.
Add your first products
- Open Inventory then Products, and tap Add product.
- Type the product name (for example, Savon de Marseille 200g).
- Choose or create a category — Groceries, Drinks, Cosmetics, and so on.
- Enter the selling price in whole CFA francs, VAT included (TTC). Type 1500, not 1 500,00.
- Optionally add a photo so cashiers recognise it instantly on the till grid.
- Set the opening stock quantity — how many units you have on the shelf right now.
- Save. The product appears immediately in the till search and the stock list.
Pharmacies and any shop selling regulated goods should track batch numbers and expiry dates. Record them on stock intake so you can pull expiring lots off the shelf before they lapse.
Common errors and how to fix them
| Message / symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Price looks ten times too high (15000 not 1500) | A decimal or thousands separator was typed; XAF has no centimes | Re-enter the price as whole francs with no separator: 1500. |
| Product does not appear at the till | It was saved as inactive, or it belongs to a category the till view is filtering | Open the product, mark it active, and clear the category filter on the till. |
| Stock shows 0 and blocks the sale | No opening quantity was entered when the product was created | Do a stock intake to set the on-hand quantity, or allow negative stock in settings. |
| Duplicate product with two spellings | The item was added twice under slightly different names | Keep one record, move its stock, and deactivate the duplicate. |
| New product missing on the web dashboard | The tablet has not finished syncing while offline | Reconnect and wait for the sync indicator to clear; the product uploads automatically. |
Frequently asked questions
Common questions
Do I enter prices with or without VAT?
With VAT — the TTC price the customer pays. CEMAC POS derives the 19.25% TVA and the net amount for your SYSCOHADA books automatically.
Can I import a big catalogue at once?
Yes. Prepare a spreadsheet with name, category, price and quantity, then use the import tool under Inventory to load them in one pass.
What if a product has no fixed price?
Leave it as an open-price item; the cashier enters the amount at the till each time it is sold.
Try it in your own shop
Start a free 30-day trial and follow along — no card required.
Start the free trial