Multi-Store Environment

This chapter covers how to set up and manage multiple store locations in Quasar. Even if you operate a single store today, understanding these concepts helps if you expand later. If you have only one store, you can skip this chapter and move to Chapter 6.

When Do You Need Multiple Stores?

Quasar’s multi-store features apply when your business has:

• More than one physical retail or warehouse location
• A head office that consolidates financial data from branch stores
• Separate inventory pools that need independent stock tracking
• Different pricing regions (e.g., urban vs. rural)

Each store in Quasar maintains its own:

Creating Additional Stores

Go to Setup → System → Stores and click New. Complete the three tabs:

1. General — Name, number, business number, tax number, and price zone
2. Addresses — Mailing, shipping, and head-office addresses for the store
3. Ledger — Fiscal year start, day-start time, tender reconciliation method, cheque payment method, and transfer pricing
4. Accounts — Default GL accounts (Retained Earnings, Bank, AR, AP, Transfer Acct, etc.)

See the full reference at Store Master.

Price Zones

Each store is assigned to a price zone. Regular selling prices on items are defined per zone, allowing you to maintain different pricing for different regions without duplicating items.

For example:

Each zone also has a rounding table that controls price endings (e.g., round all prices to end in .99 or .95). See Price Zone Master.

Stocking Items Across Stores

An item is only available at a store if it has a stocking record for that store (set on the Item Master’s Stocking tab). This controls:

• Whether the item appears in that store’s inventory reports
• The Min/Max/Multiple reorder levels for Auto Ordering
• The Location (bin/shelf) at that store

Use the Clone button on the Stocking tab to copy stocking parameters from one store to many stores at once.

Inventory Transfers Between Stores

When stock needs to move from one store to another, use Item Transfer from the Inventory panel. Quasar uses a two-transaction model:

1. Transfer Out — at the sending store, items are removed from inventory and placed “in transit” via the Transfer Account (clearing account)
2. Transfer In — at the receiving store, clicking Receive Transfer posts the items into the receiving store’s inventory and clears the Transfer Account

Until the receiving store confirms receipt, the goods remain in the Transfer Account (an asset clearing account). This provides full visibility into stock that is between locations.

See the full reference at Item Transfer.

Transfer Pricing

When transferring inventory between stores, you need to decide how the transferred goods are valued. This is set on the Store Master’s Ledger tab under Transfer Price Type:

See the Store Master Ledger tab for these settings.

Ledger Transfers Between Stores

In addition to stock transfers, Quasar supports Ledger Transfers for moving cash and account balances between stores. These are available from the Ledger panel.

Like stock transfers, ledger transfers flow through the Ledger Transfers accrual account configured on the Store Master Accounts tab. Cash moves out of one store into the accrual, then out of the accrual into the other store.

See Ledger Transfer.

Tender Transfers

Tender transfers move cash between stations or employees within a store or across stores. The pattern is the same: cash moves from the source into the Transfer Account, then from the Transfer Account to the destination. This is used for:

• Moving cash from a register to the safe
• Transferring till floats between cashiers
• Moving cash between stores for deposit

Consolidated Reporting

Most reports in Quasar include a Store filter at the top. Set it to a specific store to see that store’s data, or leave it blank to see all stores consolidated. Key multi-store reports:

Selling to Multi-Store Customers (Chains)

Multi-store concepts apply to your customers as well. When you sell to a chain or a company with multiple branches, the customer may need invoices and shipments sent to different locations. Quasar handles this through the Ship To feature on the Invoice Master.

How It Works

Each customer can have multiple addresses defined in the Customer Master (e.g., Head Office, Warehouse, Branch 1, Branch 2). When you create an invoice for that customer:

1. Select the customer — the Address field shows their default (billing) address
2. Use the Ship To dropdown to select which of the customer’s addresses the goods should be shipped to
3. The Ship To Address updates automatically to show the selected location’s full address
4. Set the Ship Via field (carrier/method) as needed

This allows you to maintain one customer record for the chain while shipping to any of their locations. The billing goes to whoever should receive the invoice (typically head office), while the physical goods go to the branch that ordered them.

Customer Store Assignments

In a multi-store environment, you also control which stores a customer can charge at. This is set on the Customer Master using the Store and Store Group fields:

Employee Store Assignments

In a multi-store environment, each employee can be assigned to (see Employee Master):

The store assignment works together with the employee’s security rules to control what they can see and do. An employee can only access data and perform actions at the stores they are assigned to, and only within the permissions granted by their security type.

Multi-Store Setup Checklist

1. Create Price Zones if stores need different pricing (Setup → System → Price Zones)
2. Create each additional Store with correct address, ledger settings, and default accounts
3. Assign each store to the appropriate price zone
4. Add stocking records for items at the new stores (use the Clone button for efficiency)
5. Set item prices for any new price zones
6. Configure Transfer Account and Ledger Transfers accrual accounts on each store
7. Set the Transfer Price Type (At Cost or Cost Plus) on each store
8. Create Stations for each store’s POS terminals (Setup → System → Stations)