See insufficiency before settle | HelloBooks POS Every cart-add hits the live stock RPC. The cashier sees the available count by warehouse and outlet before the line is added — no “oh, we are out” moment after the customer has already paid.
See insufficiency before settle
Every cart-add hits the live stock RPC. The cashier sees the available count by warehouse and outlet before the line is added — no “oh, we are out” moment after the customer has already paid.
Part of HelloBooks POS · Inventory at POS
Stock-out at the till is the worst customer experience a retailer can deliver. HelloBooks runs a live stock check on cart-add, on quantity-edit, and again on settle — three layers of guard that catch the problem early instead of after the swipe.
Every detail, dialled in
Built for the till, validated against the canonical accounting engine — so every POS sale closes the books cleanly.
Per-warehouse live count
The till queries the canonical inventory engine for available stock at the outlet warehouse. The cashier sees the count badge as a colour: green (plenty), amber (low), red (insufficient). No estimation, no last-night batch.
- Live RPC on cart-add
- Per-warehouse breakdown
- Colour badges per line
- Reservation aware (open carts deduct)
Insufficiency early-warning
When stock is short, the cashier sees the gap before the customer commits. Options: short-fill from another outlet, swap to a sibling SKU, hold the bill, or override (manager-only) under negative-stock policy.
- Gap shown pre-settle
- Swap to sibling SKU one tap
- Cross-outlet check
- Manager override path
Settle-time canonical check
Even after the cart-add gate, the engine runs a final check at settle to catch concurrent depletion (another till sold the last unit). The settle blocks if stock has flipped negative since the cart was started.
- Final check at settle
- Concurrent-depletion safe
- Idempotent retry
- Per-line failure surface
Why teams move off legacy tills
- Stock count from a nightly batch
- Cashier learns about stockouts after settle
- No cross-outlet visibility
- Customer leaves angry
- Live stock RPC at every step
- Insufficiency caught pre-settle
- Cross-outlet visibility
- Customer never leaves empty-handed
Questions, answered
How fast is the live check?
Sub-100ms typical. The inventory RPC is cached at outlet level with cache-bust on every move; the cashier sees the answer instantly.
What if stock disappears between cart-add and settle?
The settle re-checks. If another till sold the last unit, the bill blocks at settle and the cashier resolves (swap, short-fill, or cancel).
Does this work offline?
In offline mode the till uses the last known stock count and reconciles on reconnect. We flag any post-fact insufficiency for review.
Can I disable the check for high-velocity items?
Yes — per-item or per-category opt-out. The engine still records the move; only the live UI block is suppressed.
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