FAQ
Short answers to the questions that come up most often — each one points to the full page when you need the detail. New to BuddyStall? Start with For Admins or For Staff, and keep the Glossary handy for any unfamiliar term.
Accounts, roles & login
What's the difference between owner, manager, and staff?
The owner is the full-access admin account that creates every other account and reaches every store and feature. A manager is also an admin account, but the owner scopes it to specific stores and feature permissions. A staff account is the Staff Portal account — by design one per store, dedicated to the store's device rather than to a person. See For Admins and the Glossary.
If the staff account isn't a person, how do we track who actually worked?
The people who work are registered separately as employees tied to the store. Whoever opens the register or clocks in picks their employee name at that moment, so attendance and register history record the real person — independent of the shared staff login. See How time and pay work.
Is it intended that the whole store shares one staff login?
Yes. There is one staff account per store on purpose, meant to live on the shared POS device. You don't create a login per worker — you add each worker as an employee and identify them at clock-in and register open. See For Staff.
I forgot my password or can't log in — what do I do?
Use the password-reset flow on the login screen, or ask your owner/manager to help. The full walkthrough is on Login & password.
How do I give a manager access to only some stores or features?
The owner assigns each manager their stores and toggles individual feature permissions. See Users & permissions.
"Master" vs. "Store" — why two of everything?
Why is there a master and a store version of menu, inventory, and expenses?
BuddyStall separates the shared definition from each store's local copy. The owner defines an item once in the master (the catalog), and every store then carries its own version with its own price, availability, and stock. One definition, many independent stores. See the overviews for Menu, Inventory, and Expenses.
I added something to the master but it's not showing in my store. Why?
Adding to the master only defines the item — each store still has to adopt it. Open the store's setup screen and add the item from the master. See Set up your menu or Set up your inventory.
If I change a price in one store, does it change everywhere?
No. A price set at the store level is that store's own override and stays local. The master holds the shared default; changing it affects stores that haven't overridden it. See Store menu.
Do I have to define every item again for each store?
No — you define each item once in the master, then each store quickly adds from master rather than re-creating it. See Set up your inventory.
POS, register & the daily flow
Do I have to open the register before taking orders?
Yes. The POS only opens once the register is open for the day — that's what ties each sale to a session and the opening cash float. If the portal sends you to the register screen, open it first. See How your day flows and Open & close register.
The POS keeps asking me to open the register — why?
Because the register is currently closed for that store. Open it from the register screen and the POS becomes available. See Open & close register.
What if I forget to close the register at the end of the day?
It simply stays open, and any later sales attach to that same session until you close it. Close it when you next pick up the device. You can review past sessions in Register History.
How do I refund or correct a sale I already rang up?
Refund it from Sales History — full or partial. See How to refund.
Where do I see today's and past sales and register totals?
Per-transaction detail is in Sales History, per-session cash totals are in Register History, and the roll-up by store is on the Dashboard.
Inventory, recipes & waste
How does stock go down automatically when I sell something?
Through recipes. A recipe lists the ingredients (and quantities, optionally per size) a menu item uses, so each sale at the POS deducts the right amounts from that store's stock — no separate step. See Set up recipes and Inventory overview.
My inventory shows a negative number — what does that mean?
Usually it means more was sold or used than was ever recorded as coming in — most often a restock or purchase that hasn't been entered yet (stock bought off-book). It's a prompt to record the missing restock, or to run a stocktake to reset the count to what's physically on the shelf. Review the movements in History & logs.
What's the difference between logging waste and doing a stocktake?
Waste records a specific, known loss — spoilage or a spill — which drops stock and posts its cost to expenses. A stocktake recounts everything and resets each count to the physical amount, capturing the variance. See Logging waste and How to stocktake.
When I log waste, why does an expense appear too?
So you can see how much you're losing. The waste appears in Expenses under the Waste category, valued at cost — but it's not added to your expense total, since that stock's cost was already counted when you bought it (under Material). Counting it again would double it.
How do I move stock between stores?
Use a transfer: stock leaves one store and arrives at another in a single recorded movement. See Transferring stock.
Orders & suppliers
How do I record a purchase or restock from a supplier?
Create a purchase order with the items and expected delivery, then mark it received when the goods arrive — that's what raises the store's stock. See Place & receive orders and How purchasing works.
What if the quantity I received doesn't match what I ordered?
Enter the actual quantity received when you mark the order received — the order keeps the ordered amount, and stock rises by what truly arrived. You can recapture the receive if you got it wrong. See Place & receive orders.
Expenses & money
What counts as an "expense" versus an order or purchase?
Buying tracked inventory goes through Orders, which raises stock. Everything else — rent, utilities, salaries, one-off costs — is recorded directly in Expenses.
How do I record salary, rent, or a one-off cost?
Add an entry on the expense recording screen and pick the matching expense item. Salary specifically is posted from payroll. See Recording expenses.
How do I record the money I put in to start the business?
Record it as an initial investment entry, so your startup capital is on the books from day one. See Recording expenses.
Attendance, shifts & payroll
How is pay calculated — by hours, by shift, or a fixed amount?
Pay is built on the planned shift, then reduced by what didn't happen on the floor (lateness, early-outs, breaks). Working past the shift end doesn't add pay. See How time and pay work.
An employee forgot to clock in or out — how do I fix it?
Edit that day's attendance record to the correct times, then payroll recalculates from it. See Clock in & out.
Do I need to set up shifts before staff can clock in?
You can clock in without a shift, but payroll needs a shift to pay against — a day with attendance but no shift can't be paid. Add the shift for the day, then re-run payroll. See Shift management and Payroll.
Offline & the app
Does the app work without internet? What still works offline?
The staff portal does: taking orders, refunds, clocking in/out, logging waste, recording costs, and opening/closing the register all keep working and queue on the device. The owner/manager console (dashboard, master data, payroll) is online-only. See Working offline.
I made sales offline — when and how do they sync?
They're saved on the device and upload automatically in the background once the connection returns. The header status badge and each row's Pending tag show exactly where every action stands. See Working offline.
How long can the device stay usable offline?
A device must connect at least once to log in and download its menu, staff, and expense data. After that it runs offline, but reconnect regularly so sessions and data stay current and the queue can upload. See Working offline.
The screen looks stale, or a sale didn't show up — what should I check?
Check the header status badge: Offline or Slow means uploads are still queued, and a red Failed badge means an item needs review. Reconnect, let it sync, and reload if needed. The full badge guide is on Working offline.
Dashboard & reports
The dashboard numbers don't look right — how are they calculated?
The dashboard aggregates synced sales, expenses, and inventory for the period you select, so anything still pending on a device won't be counted yet. Make sure the portal is fully synced first. See Reading the dashboard.
How do I compare performance across multiple stores?
Use the store comparison view to put your stores side by side. See Store comparison.
Joining and working with a franchise
What does connecting to a Franchisor actually share or sync?
Connecting links your store to the Franchisor so shared catalog and ordering flows become available — the franchise features stay hidden until you connect. See Joining a franchise and Connect & sync.
We just joined a franchise — what changes for our existing menu and inventory?
Your store keeps running as before; the franchise connection adds the shared pieces on top rather than replacing what you already have. The details of what flows down are on Joining a franchise.
How is "Purchase from Franchisor" different from a normal supplier order?
It's an order placed against your Franchisor instead of an outside supplier, using the franchise's shared catalog and flow. See Purchase from Franchisor.
Still stuck?
Didn't find your answer here? Reach out from the Contact page and we'll help you out.