Groups of companies: one view of several shops
Linking several shops or companies into a group - creating it, inviting and approving, roles, the consolidated dashboard without the business between them, the group profit and loss and balance sheet, VAT side by side, ask the group, transfers between companies, shared products and prices, other currencies, leaving.
What it is
Many owners run more than one company: a grocery in Al Nahda, a cafeteria next door and a trading company that supplies both. Each is its own CreekPOS shop, with its own account, its own books and its own VAT. A group shows them together, without mixing their data: sales, profit, stock, cash and what is owed, per shop and for the group, with the business between your own companies removed.
The group owner's shop must be on Online Chain. A shop on any plan can join a group. Groups are in Reports → Groups.
Creating a group and inviting
- The owner of a Chain shop opens Reports → Groups and creates a group with a name. Their own shop is the first member.
- Invite the owner of another shop by the e-mail they sign in with. A group has at most 20 shops.
- The invited owner sees the invitation in Reports → Groups and approves or declines. Approving, they choose what they agree to: transfers between the companies, receiving shared products and prices, and a shared credit limit for customers.
Nothing of a shop is read before its owner approves. Each owner can change those choices, or leave the group, at any time; from that moment the group reads nothing more of their shop. The group owner can remove a member or end the group.
Roles
- Group owner: everything.
- Accountant: the figures, the statements and the transfers.
- Viewer: the dashboard and ask the group.
The group owner names accountants and viewers among the users of the member shops, by their e-mail.
The dashboard
For a period, per shop and for the group: sales with and without VAT, cost, profit and margin, stock value at cost, cash in the drawers, what customers owe and what is owed to suppliers. Each line is shown in the shop's currency and in the group's, then added up, then between the group's shops, then the group.
Between the group's shops removes the business your companies do with each other: transfers between them, and the receipts to a customer or the deliveries from a supplier that you mark as another company of the group. Goods one company sold to another and still on its shelves carry a margin the group has not earned yet: it is taken out of the group's profit and stock value until those goods are sold. Cash and VAT are never removed.
Profit and loss, balance sheet, VAT
With Books on in each shop, the owner and the accountant see the group's profit and loss and balance sheet on one group chart of accounts. Each shop's accounts land on the group account of the same kind; you can move a shop's account to another one of the same kind. A shop without Books set up is listed with the reason and counted nowhere.
VAT shows each shop's VAT side by side, never added up: each company files its own return. Closing shows, per shop and month, whether the month is closed and the VAT month filed.
Every table can be exported to CSV or Excel, or printed and saved as PDF.
Ask the group
Type a question as in Ask your shop: "sales of the group today", "group profit this month", "what do customers owe the group", "which shop is below budget". The answers are worked out from the group's figures; the monthly sales budgets per shop are set by the group owner.
Transfers between companies
The owner or the accountant moves stock from one company to another at an agreed price, when both shops agreed to transfers: in the selling shop it is a sale, in the buying shop a purchase, and it is settled later. The buyer's products are matched by barcode, else by name; a product the buyer does not have stops the transfer, so share the product list first.
These transfers are recorded in each shop's stock and in the group's figures, but they are not posted into each shop's Books by themselves: the statements list them per shop so your accountant can post them.
Shared products, prices and suppliers
The group owner can push products, prices and suppliers to the shops that agreed to receive them, always after a preview of what will change. A group-wide credit limit for a customer adds up what the customer owes across the shops that agreed.
Shops in other countries
A group joins CreekPOS shops only. A member shop in another country, with another currency, is counted once the group owner sets its rate; without a rate it is listed and counted nowhere.
What it does not do
- Transfers between companies are not posted into each shop's Books automatically.
- Groups are not in the buy-once desktop program.
