Custom software · Retail chains

Build a retail chain system where head office and the counter see the same stock.

One shop is a counter and a shelf. Six shops is a different business. The question stops being what sold today and becomes why store four is out of flour while store two has eleven cases of it.

Most chains grow into three or four disconnected things. A billing program at each counter, a purchase register at head office, a spreadsheet for transfers, and a loyalty scheme running on a phone number written on the bill.

A system GullySystem builds for your chain would join them. Item masters and prices would be set centrally, indents raised by the store, and goods received against them. Stock would move between shops with a document, and head office could see the day close before the shutters come down.

Share your requirements

Who this is for

Retail businesses we can build for.

A three-store grocery chain and a forty-store apparel network buy, price and replenish in different ways. Yours decides how much a store should be allowed to settle for itself.

Supermarket chains
Grocery and convenience store chains
Departmental stores
Hypermarkets
Apparel and fashion chains
Footwear chains
Pharmacy chains
Mobile and electronics retail
Home appliance showrooms
Bakery and sweet shop chains
Optical chains
Stationery and book retail
Hardware and paint retail
Agri input retail chains
Toy and gift retail
Retail brands with some stores run by franchisees
Cash and carry outlets
Consumer brands running their own stores
Chains adding a delivery business

What can be built

The modules, and what each one covers.

Nothing here is a fixed package. Each module is built, left out or changed to match how your organisation already works.

Stores and formats

Store code and name
Address and area
Format and size
Counters and terminals
Store manager
Staff strength
Operating hours
Owned or franchise
Assortment applicable
Price list applicable
Warehouse it draws from

The item master

One list, controlled centrally, because stores creating their own codes for the same soap is how a chain loses its numbers.

Article code and description
Category, sub-category and brand
Pack size and unit of measure
Barcode and alternate barcodes
Tax category and rate
Printed maximum price
Purchase and selling price
Shelf life
Loose or packed
Assortment by store
New, active and discontinued

Barcodes and weighing

Printed barcode scanning
Own label printing
Weighing scale labels for loose items
Price-embedded barcodes
Shelf label printing
Reprint on price change

Talking to a weighing scale or a label printer depends on the model and what its manufacturer exposes. It is checked device by device before it is promised.

Pricing

Central price list
Store and region-wise pricing
Printed price changes by batch
Effective date of a price change
Margin by category
Landing cost
Competitor price notes
Price change approval
Price history

Offers and promotions

Offers are announced centrally and have to apply at every counter the same way, including the one that has been closed for a week.

Flat and percentage discounts
Buy one get one offers
Combo and bundle pricing
Category-level offers
Store-specific offers
Offer period and timings
Coupon codes
Member-only prices
Automatic application at billing
Offer cost by store and category

The counter

The counter is often four customers deep at seven in the evening, so everything on the screen has to happen with one hand.

Fast billing by scan or code
Loose items by weight
Quantity and price override with permission
Offers applied automatically
Loyalty number lookup
Hold and resume a bill
Split payment
Tax invoice
Print, WhatsApp or email the bill
Cashier login and shift

Payments at the counter

Cash
Bank transfer or QR payment
Card
Wallet
Gift voucher
Loyalty points redeemed
Credit for account customers
Advance and token
Split across modes
Payment reconciliation at day close

Returns and exchanges

Return against a bill
Return without a bill under your policy
Exchange for another item
Refund mode
Reason for return
Approval for high-value returns
Stock put back or written off
Return history by customer

The return policy is yours. The system applies the rule you set and records every override with the name of whoever approved it.

Day close

The half hour after the last customer is when a chain keeps or loses its cash discipline.

Sales summary by counter
Cash denomination count
Expected against actual cash
Short and excess with reason
Card and digital payment settlement figures
Cash handover
Bank deposit record
Day close approval
Report to head office

Store inventory

Stock on hand by item
Batch and expiry where it matters
Backroom and shelf stock
Stock movement history
Negative stock flags
Slow and non-moving items
Overstocked items
Days of cover
Stock value

Stock transfers between stores

Transfer request
Approval
Delivery note
Dispatch
In transit
Receipt at the other store
Short and damaged noted
Stock updated

Stock that leaves one store and never formally arrives at another is the commonest hole in a growing chain. Transfers without a receipt should be visible on a screen, not discovered at stock count.

Warehouse and distribution

For chains that buy centrally and push to stores rather than letting each store order.

Warehouse stock by item and batch
Inward from suppliers
Put-away and locations
Store allocation
Pick lists
Dispatch to stores
Vehicle and route
Returns from stores
Warehouse stock count

Replenishment

Minimum and maximum levels by store
Reorder suggestions from sales
Automatic indent generation
Store manager review of the indent
Seasonal and holiday adjustments
Fast mover priority
Items short at the warehouse
Substitutes

An automatic indent is only as good as the sales history behind it. The first months after go-live still need a store manager who overrides it.

Procurement

Indent
Consolidation
Purchase order
Approval
Supply
Goods receipt
Vendor invoice
Payment

Vendors and buying terms

Vendor profile and tax ID
Items supplied
Purchase rate and scheme
Credit period
Delivery lead time
Return and expiry policy
Vendor performance
Outstanding payable
Vendor credit notes

Goods receipt

Receipt against the purchase order
Quantity received
Short and excess
Damaged on arrival
Batch and expiry captured
Rate variance against the order
Barcode labelling
Goods receipt note
Invoice matching

Damages, expiry and shrinkage

Near-expiry list by store
Expired stock removed
Damaged and broken items
Vendor return for expiry
Write-off with approval
Shrinkage by category
Shrinkage by store
Internal investigation notes

Stock counts

Full physical count
Cycle count by category
Count sheets on a phone
Blind count option
Variance against system stock
Recount
Adjustment with approval
Count history by store

Loyalty

A phone number at the counter is worth having only if something is done with it.

Member enrolment at billing
Points earned by value or category
Points redeemed
Tiers and member prices
Birthday and anniversary offers
Member-only campaigns
Points expiry rules
Member spend history
Members who have stopped coming

Customer records

Phone number and name
Home store
Purchase history
Basket size and frequency
Categories bought
Credit account balance
Delivery addresses
Complaints and feedback
Consent for messages

Customer data belongs to your business and carries obligations. What is collected, how long it is kept and what is sent to it are decisions your company makes, with its own legal advice.

Home delivery and phone orders

Orders by phone and WhatsApp
Order from the store’s own app
Item substitution
Picking list for the store
Delivery slot
Rider assignment
Payment on delivery
Delivery confirmation
Returns at the door

Your own online store

Catalogue by store and delivery area
Live stock and prices
Offers and member prices
Cart and checkout
Payment gateway
Order routed to the nearest store
Order tracking
Customer account

Store staff

Staff records by store
Shifts and rosters
Attendance
Cashier permissions
Discount and override rights
Sales by staff member
Incentive calculation
Leave and replacements

Store operations checklist

The things a head office asks about on a call and cannot otherwise verify.

Opening checklist
Cleanliness and display checks
Shelf availability of top items
Price tag audit
Expiry check
Closing checklist
Photographs from the store
Area manager visit report

Franchise stores

Franchise agreement and terms
Assortment and pricing control
Supply from your warehouse
Franchise stock and sales
Royalty or margin calculation
Franchise outstanding
Performance against target
Limited access for the franchisee

Management dashboards

Sales today by store
Bills and average bill value
Sales against target
Stock value by store
Out-of-stock top items
Transfers pending receipt
Shrinkage
Loyalty enrolment and redemption
Vendor payable
Cash variance
Staff productivity
Store profitability

Accounts and tax

Sales posting by store
Purchase posting
Sales tax or VAT summaries
Vendor payables
Expenses by store
Cash and bank entries
Export to your accounting software

The POS you already run

Most chains cannot replace every counter on day one, and should not try.

Read sales from the existing POS
Push item and price masters to it
Reconcile stock against it
Run new stores on the new counter
Move old stores across in batches
Retire the old system when it is safe

Whether your current POS can be read from or written to depends on what its vendor exposes. Some do it properly, some export a file at night, and a few offer nothing at all. We check yours before designing around it.

The journey

One connected workflow, end to end.

Every stage below can sit in one system, so nobody re-enters what the last stage already captured.

Indent
Purchase order
Goods receipt
Warehouse stock
Store allocation
Store stock
Billing
Payment
Loyalty points
Day close
Replenishment
Vendor payment
Analytics

Built in phases

You do not have to replace everything at once.

Each phase is usable on its own, so the system earns its place before the next part is built.

1
Masters and the counter
Item master, pricing, offers, billing, payments and day close. The chain gets one list of items and one price behind it.
2
Stock across stores
Store inventory, transfers with documents, goods receipt, stock counts and the expiry and damage records.
3
Buying and the warehouse
Indents, purchase orders, vendors, warehouse stock, allocation to stores and replenishment suggestions.
4
Customers and analytics
Loyalty, home delivery, your own online store, category analytics and the dashboards a weekly review runs on.

How we work

How a build actually runs.

01
Understand
We stand behind a counter at the evening rush and then sit with the buyer the next morning. Both views are needed.
02
Map
Stores, formats, counters, item hierarchy, pricing rules, transfer habits, buying terms and every offer you ran last year.
03
Design
A counter screen a new cashier can learn in an hour, and head office screens built for someone with a keyboard.
04
Build
Masters, billing and stock first. Loyalty and analytics are worth nothing until the stock figure can be trusted.
05
Test
One store runs on it for a full month, including a stock count and a peak-season weekend, before any other store moves.
06
Deploy
Store by store, with cashiers trained on their own counter and the old system kept running until the new one is proven.
07
Improve
Replenishment rules, franchise access, the online store and whatever the category review starts asking for.

What you bring

What you bring, and when.

The build moves at the speed of the answers. These are the things we ask for, in the order we ask.

01
Item lists, price files and day close sheets
Share the item master, latest price file, a promotion circular and a day close sheet. Add a store stock report. They show how stores differ.
02
A store manager and a merchandiser
Store managers know the counter. Merchandisers know the range. The head of retail decides when store habits collide with chain rules.
03
Offer rules and return policy
Offers, return rules and approval limits at the counter are settled as the build proceeds. Store staff try screens at a real counter. Early answers keep work moving.
04
Rollout plan and opening stock
Stores switch in an order you pick. Each store counts stock beforehand. The head of retail agrees each switch.

What we can build

Systems we can put together for you.

Retail chain management systems
Point of sale software
Central item and price management
Multi-store inventory systems
Stock transfer and warehouse systems
Procurement and vendor systems
Loyalty programmes
Retail CRM
Home delivery and ordering apps
Online store platforms
Franchise management systems
Store operations audit apps
Retail dashboards and analytics
Multi-tenant retail SaaS platforms

Common questions

Questions owners ask before starting.

What is retail chain management software?

It is the system that keeps one item master, one set of prices and one stock position across several stores, while each counter keeps billing at its own speed. Single-shop billing software does not do this.

We have three stores. Is a ready product enough?

Quite possibly. Our Grocery Management System handles billing, stock, customer credit and delivery for a shop or a small chain. Building makes sense when central buying, a warehouse or franchise stores enter the picture.

Can it work with the POS we already have?

Sometimes. It depends on what your POS vendor allows a second system to read or write. We check that first, because a chain rarely wants to replace every counter in one go.

Can prices and offers be controlled centrally?

Yes. Prices, assortments and offers are set at head office with an effective date, and each counter picks them up rather than being telephoned about them.

Can stores raise their own indents?

Yes. Indents can be suggested from sales history and then edited by the store manager, which is usually the arrangement that works in the first year.

Does it handle loose items sold by weight?

Yes. Rice, lentils and oil sold loose are billed at your rate per kilogram, alongside packed goods that are scanned, with the weighing scale connected where the model allows it.

Is a loyalty programme possible?

Yes. Enrolment at the counter, points by value or category, member prices, redemption and expiry rules are all configurable, with a list of members who have stopped visiting.

Can we keep using our accounting software alongside it?

Yes. Sales, purchases, expenses and payables post to your accounting software in the ledger structure your accountant already uses, agreed with them before go-live.

Can franchise stores be included?

Yes, with restricted access. A franchisee sees their own stock, sales and dues, and head office sees the network along with the royalty calculation.

Is selling online from the same stock possible?

Yes. Your own ordering app or website can read live stock and prices and route each order to the nearest store that can serve it.

Can we start with one store?

Yes. One store for a full month, including a stock count, shows how the build works better than planning does.

What will this not do?

It will not list your stores on quick commerce apps, and it will not stop shrinkage by itself. It shows you which store and which category it is happening in.

Your trade

How we work with this trade.

Kirana and grocery stores

Ready products

Ready products for this work.

If one of these fits, it is cheaper and faster than building from scratch. We will say so.

Grocery Management System

Build the system your chain runs on, store by store.

A chain stops being a set of shops the day head office can answer a stock question without ringing anybody.

Call head office and ask how many of one item are in the chain right now. The length of the silence after that question tells you how much of this page applies to you.

Tell us how you work

Tell us how your retail chains runs today.

We will tell you what can be digitised, what can be connected, what is worth automating, and what you should leave alone.

What happens after you share your requirements

A senior engineer reads your answers. Nobody phones first.
Within one business day you get a written note: what we understood, what we would start with, and the questions we still have.
If it fits, a proposal follows with the order of work, what we need from you and what you receive at each step.
No call is booked and nothing is paid until you have read the note. Your details stay with us.

Start with your requirements

Seven short steps that tell us what you need. A senior engineer reads them before anyone gets in touch.