Special orders let you sell out-of-stock items, meaning you won’t miss a sale if a customer wants to purchase something that isn’t in stock. Retail POS gives you the tools to order more stock from suppliers or different locations, and manage contacting your customers to pick up their purchases.

You must have an open sale to create a special order, or you can make a special order during a regular sale.

Creating a special order

To access special orders on iPad, navigate to the Manager tab from the Profile page and follow the same steps below.

1. Navigate to Sales > Special Order.
   

   

2. Add a customer to the sale.
3. Add items to the sale.
4. Click Payment and complete the sale. If the customer wants to add a deposit:
   1. Click Deposit.

      

   2. Add an amount to the Deposit amount field.
   3. Click Next and complete the sale.

Creating a special order during a sale

To access special orders on iPad, navigate to the Manager tab from the Profile page and follow the same steps below.

If you've already added items to a sale and want to put them on special order:

1. Add a customer to the sale.
2. If you want to add all items in the sale to the special order, click Special Order All. If you want to add only some items to the special order:
   1. Click the item name.
   2. Choose Special Order from the Move To dropdown.

      

   3. Click Save.
3. Click Payment and complete the sale. If the customer wants to add a deposit:
   1. Click Deposit.

      

   2. Add an amount to the Deposit amount field.
   3. Click Next and complete the sale.

Managing special orders

On iPad, the Special Orders page can only be accessed from the Manager tab.

To access all open special orders, navigate to Inventory > Special Orders. The special order page shows each order with a status and a color:

• Not Ordered (red): The out-of-stock item hasn’t been ordered.
• Ordered (yellow): The out-of-stock item was ordered, but not received.
• Ready, Not Called (green): The item was received and added to inventory, but the customer hasn’t been contacted.
• Ready For Pickup (green): The item was received, added to inventory, and the customer was contacted.

To move a special order to the register, click the shopping cart icon.

To delete a special order, click the trash can icon and click OK.

To print the special order, click the printer icon. Anything entered in the Notes field will be included in the order.

Click Ready or Not Ready to toggle the order status.

When the order is ready and you have contacted the customer, click the Called checkbox.

Ordering special order items

Once the sale is complete, items in a special order can be added directly to purchase orders or inventory transfers if necessary. You can also add special orders to purchase orders through the Retail POS API.

Adding payments or deposits to a special order after it’s created

1. Navigate to Inventory > Special Orders.
2. Find the customer's special order using the search filters, or scanning the receipt barcode into the Item field.
3. Click the shopping cart icon to move the order to the register.
4. Click Payment.
5. Complete the sale. If the customer wants to add a deposit:
   
   1. Click Deposit.
   2. Add an amount to the Deposit amount field.
   3. Click Next and complete the sale.

Completing a special order

When your customer comes to pick up their special order:

1. Navigate to Sales > Special Orders.
2. Select the customer. This will bring you to the Special Order tab on the Sales screen.
3. Click Complete next to the items marked Ready For Pickup, or select Complete All to select all items.
4. Complete the sale.

What's next?