Products and Inventory

Products are the items and services you sell. SabiBooks helps you keep track of what you have, how much it costs, and when you need to reorder.

If you sell a service rather than a physical item — printing, repairs, installation — you can switch stock tracking off so you do not have to invent a stock count. See Selling services.

If you sell by weight or measure — cooking gas by the kilo, fuel by the litre, fabric cut from the roll — you can let a product take decimal quantities like 12.5. See Selling by weight or measure.

Viewing Your Products

1. Tap “Products” in the bottom navigation
2. You will see a list of all your products
3. The total product count appears at the top (e.g., “127 products”)

Each product card shows:

• Product name
• Selling price (in Naira)
• Current stock quantity
• Stock status badge (In Stock, Low Stock, or Out of Stock)
• Category (if assigned)

Services with stock tracking switched off show no quantity and no stock badge — there is no stock level to report.

Searching for Products

Use the search bar at the top to find products by name. Start typing and results appear instantly.

Tip

Example: Type “Peak” to find “Peak Milk Tin 400g”.

Scanning Barcodes to Find Products

1. Tap the barcode icon next to the search bar
2. Point your phone camera at the barcode on a product
3. Hold steady — SabiBooks will read the barcode
4. If the product is found, you will be taken to its detail page
5. If the barcode is not recognised, it will be used as a search query

Tip

Make sure there is good lighting when scanning barcodes. Hold your phone steady and wait for the camera to focus.

Filtering Products

Tap the filter button (funnel icon) next to the search bar to show filter options:

By Category:

• Tap category pills (e.g., “Beverages”, “Provisions”, “Electronics”) to see only products in that category
• Tap the same pill again to clear the filter

By Stock Status:

Filter	What It Shows
All Stock	Everything, including services that are not stock-tracked
In Stock	Products with good stock levels, plus every service that is not stock-tracked
Low Stock	Products below the reorder level
Out of Stock	Products with zero stock

Services with stock tracking switched off are always treated as available, so they appear under In Stock and never under Low Stock or Out of Stock.

Note

SabiBooks loads products as you scroll down (infinite scroll). When you reach the bottom, more products load automatically. You do not need to tap “Next Page”.

Adding a New Product

1. Open the Products page

   Tap “Products” in the navigation.

2. Tap the add button

   Tap the ”+” button (top right on desktop, floating button on mobile).

3. Fill in the product details

   Field	Required?	Description	Example
   Product Name	Yes	What you call the product	”Peak Milk Tin 400g”
   Selling Price	Yes	Price you charge customers, in Naira	₦850
   Track stock for this item	—	On by default. Switch it off for a service you sell repeatedly	On
   Sold by weight or measure	—	Off by default. Switch it on to sell decimal amounts like 12.5 kg	Off
   Stock Quantity	Only when tracking stock	How many you have right now	50
   Cost Price	No	How much you paid for it (for profit tracking)	₦720
   SKU	No	Your own code for the product	”PEAK-400”
   Barcode	No	The barcode number on the packaging	”5449000000996”
   Category	No	Which group this product belongs to	”Beverages”
   Reorder Level	No	Stock number below which you want a warning	10
   Unit	No	How you count this product	”pcs”, “carton”, “kg”
   Description	No	Extra notes about the product	”Evaporated milk, 400g tin”
   Product Image	No	Photo of the product	(upload from phone camera or gallery)

4. Save the product

   Tap “Add Product” (or “Save Product”).

Tip

Mama Chidi says: “Count your stock carefully before adding a product you keep on the shelf. SabiBooks will track it from here.”

Selling Services Without a Stock Count

Some of what you sell is not a thing on a shelf. Printing, phone repairs, installation, delivery — you can sell the same service every day and never run out of it.

Switch “Track stock for this item” off and SabiBooks stops asking for a stock count. The Initial Stock, Unit and Low Stock Alert fields disappear, and you can save the item with just a name and a price.

1. Add a new product as usual

   Tap ”+” on the Products page.

2. Switch off “Track stock for this item”

   You will find it above the Inventory section. The stock fields disappear.

3. Enter the name and selling price

   For example, “Business Cards” at ₦15,000.

4. Enter the cost price if you know it

   Cost Price stays available, and you should fill it in. It is what lets SabiBooks work out your profit on the service — without it, the service looks like pure profit in your reports.

5. Save

   Tap “Add Product”.

Tip

Emeka says: “I charge ₦15,000 for a box of business cards and ₦4,000 goes to the printer. I put both in, so my reports show me the ₦11,000 I actually made — not ₦15,000.”

Once saved, the service behaves like this:

• It appears at the POS and you can sell it any number of times
• It never shows a stock badge, and never reads as Out of Stock
• Selling it does not reduce any stock count
• Its cost price still flows into your profit reports

Note

Products you created before this feature existed are unaffected — they all keep stock tracking switched on and behave exactly as before.

Caution

Do not switch tracking off for something you actually keep in stock. If the item has a quantity on hand, switching tracking off leaves those units sitting in your inventory valuation with nothing to reduce them.

Tip

Use product names that your customers will recognise. Keep names short and consistent. If you call it “Peak Milk 400g” today, do not call it “Peak Evaporated Milk” tomorrow.

Using the Markup % Helper

If you set a Cost Price, you do not have to calculate the selling price by hand. The product form has an optional Markup % field that fills the selling price for you.

1. Enter the Cost Price (what you paid for the item)
2. Enter a Markup % (e.g., 30 for a 30% markup)
3. SabiBooks fills the Selling Price automatically (cost + markup)

Tip

Example: Cost price ₦720 with a 30% markup gives a selling price of ₦936 (₦720 + 30%). Change the markup and the selling price updates instantly.

The markup is just a helper to fill the field — only the resulting Selling Price is saved. You can always type a different selling price directly to override it.

Adding a Product Image

1. On the product form, tap the image upload area
2. Choose “Take Photo” to use your camera, or “Choose from Gallery” to pick an existing photo
3. The image will be uploaded after you save the product
4. Product images appear on the POS screen and product list, making it easier to find items

Selling by Weight or Measure

Some goods are measured, not counted. Cooking gas is weighed out by the kilo, fuel is pumped by the litre, fabric is cut by the yard, and frozen chicken goes on a scale. For these products, switch on “Sold by weight or measure” and SabiBooks accepts decimal quantities like 12.5 everywhere the product appears.

The switch is per product and is off by default. Products you leave alone keep working in whole numbers only, so nobody can mistakenly sell 0.5 of a tin of milk.

Turning It On

1. Open the product form

   Create a new product, or open an existing one and tap “Edit”.

2. Switch on “Sold by weight or measure”

   You will find it below the “Track stock for this item” toggle. The helper text reads: “Lets you sell amounts like 12.5 kg of gas or 1.5 yards of cloth”.

3. Choose the unit you measure in

   Set the Unit field to how you measure: kg, g, L, or ml. The unit prints on receipts and invoices next to the quantity (e.g., “12.5 kg”).

4. Enter the price per unit

   The Selling Price is now the price of one unit. A gas seller charging ₦1,600 per kilo enters ₦1,600.

5. Save the product

Note

The toggle works with stock tracking on or off. A fabric seller who does not keep a stock count can still switch it on to sell a quantity of 1.5 at the POS, and the Unit field stays available so receipts read clearly.

What Changes

Where	With the toggle on
POS quantity	Accepts decimals up to 3 places. Tap the quantity in the cart and type 12.5, 1.25, or 0.75
Receipts and invoices	Show the exact amount with its unit (e.g., “2.5 kg”) at the unit price
Stock level	Reduces by the exact quantity sold. Sell 1.25 kg from 50 kg and 48.75 kg remains
Stock adjustments	Accept decimal quantities. Add a 250 kg delivery or remove 3.5 kg of damaged goods
Reorder level	Can be a decimal too, so a gas seller can ask for a warning at 37.5 kg
Reports	Sales and profit figures add up the exact quantities sold

You type quantities by hand. SabiBooks does not connect to your scale or pump, so enter exactly what the scale reads.

Example Set-Ups

Business	Product name	Unit	Selling price	A typical sale
Gas retailer	Cooking Gas Refill	kg	₦1,600	2.5 kg for ₦4,000
Filling station	Petrol (PMS)	L	₦1,400	15.5 L for ₦21,700
Frozen food seller	Turkey	kg	₦4,500	1.8 kg for ₦8,100
Fabric seller	Ankara, per yard	pcs	₦3,000	Quantity 1.5 for ₦4,500

Tip

If your measure is not in the unit list, like yards, put it in the product name (“Ankara, per yard”). Generic units such as “pcs” do not print on receipts, so the line still reads clearly.

Note

Selling by derica, mudu, or paint bucket? Leave the toggle off. Container measures are whole units, customers buy 1, 2, or 6 of them, never half. Create the product as “Rice (derica)” with the price per derica and keep selling whole numbers. The toggle is for scales, pumps, and tapes, where the true amount can land between two whole numbers.

Whole Numbers Stay the Rule for Everything Else

For products with the toggle off, SabiBooks keeps enforcing whole numbers. Type a decimal quantity on a normal product and it will tell you the quantity must be a whole number, and point you to the toggle if the product genuinely sells by measure.

Turning the toggle off again is only possible once the stock level is a whole number. If the product holds, say, 48.75 kg, SabiBooks asks you to adjust stock to a whole number first, so no fraction of your inventory silently disappears.

Viewing Product Details

From the product list, tap on any product to see the Product Detail page:

Product Information:

• Product image (or a placeholder icon)
• Stock status badge (In Stock / Low Stock / Out of Stock)
• Product name and category
• Description
• Selling price (large, in teal)
• Cost price (if set)
• SKU and barcode numbers (if set)

Stock Level Card:

• Current stock quantity and unit
• Reorder level
• “Adjust Stock” button

Stock History:

• A timeline of all stock changes (sales, adjustments, returns)
• Each entry shows: date, reason, quantity change, and who made the change

Danger Zone:

• “Delete Product” button (see Deleting a Product below)

Editing a Product

1. Open the product detail page (tap on a product in the list)
2. Tap the “Edit” button in the top right
3. You will see the product form pre-filled with current details
4. Change any fields you need to update
5. Tap “Save Changes”

You can update: name, description, selling price, cost price, SKU, barcode, category, reorder level, unit, active/inactive status, and product image.

Note

Changing the selling price only affects future sales. It does not change past sales records.

Deleting a Product

1. Open the product detail page
2. Scroll to the bottom to find the “Danger Zone” section
3. Tap “Delete Product”
4. A confirmation pop-up will ask “Delete [product name]?”
5. Tap “Delete” to confirm or “Cancel” to go back

Caution

Deleting a product is permanent. It removes the product from your inventory. Past sales that included this product will still show in your records, but you cannot sell it again. Its SKU and barcode become free again, so you can give them to a new product, for example when you restock an item you had deleted. If you want to temporarily stop selling a product, consider setting it as inactive instead of deleting it.

Categories

Categories help you organise your products into groups. This makes it easier to find products and to see reports by category.

Tip

For full details on creating, managing, and using categories, see the dedicated Categories page.

Stock Adjustments

Sometimes you need to update stock numbers outside of a sale. For example:

• New goods arrive from your supplier
• Items are damaged or expired
• You find a counting error during stocktaking
• Items are lost or stolen

How to Adjust Stock

1. Open the product

   Go to Products and tap on the product.

2. Tap Adjust Stock

   On the product detail page, tap “Adjust Stock”.

3. Choose the adjustment type

   • Add Stock — When new goods arrive or you find extra items
   • Remove Stock — When items are damaged, expired, stolen, or miscounted

4. Enter the quantity and reason

   Enter the quantity to add or remove, then select a reason from the list. For a product sold by weight or measure, the quantity can be a decimal, like removing 3.5 kg of spoiled stock.

   Reason	When to Use
   Purchase	You bought new stock from your supplier
   Return	A customer returned an item
   Damaged	Items are broken, spoiled, or unusable
   Expired	Items have passed their expiry date
   Theft	Items were stolen
   Adjustment	Fixing a counting error from stocktaking
   Transfer In	Received stock from another branch
   Transfer Out	Sent stock to another branch

5. Save the adjustment

   Add notes explaining the adjustment (optional but recommended), then tap “Save”.

Tip

Alhaji Musa says: “Always write a reason when you adjust stock. It helps you track why numbers changed when you check later.”

Tip

Best Practice: Do a physical stock count at least once a week. Compare the actual count with what SabiBooks shows, and adjust any differences using the Adjustment reason.

Stock Movement History

Every time stock changes — whether from a sale, an adjustment, or a return — SabiBooks records it.

1. Go to the product detail page
2. Scroll down to “Stock History”
3. You will see a timeline showing:
   • Date and time of the change
   • Reason (Sale, Purchase, Damaged, etc.)
   • Quantity change (e.g., -2 for a sale, +50 for a purchase)
   • Previous quantity and new quantity
   • Who made the change (useful when you have staff)
   • Notes (if any were added)

Note

This history is permanent and cannot be edited. It creates a complete audit trail of your inventory.

Low Stock Alerts

SabiBooks warns you when products are running low so you can reorder before you run out.

How Low Stock Alerts Work

• Each stock-tracked product has a reorder level (default: 10)
• When stock falls below this level, the product gets a “Low Stock” badge
• Low stock products appear on your Dashboard in the “Low Stock Alerts” section
• Products with zero stock show an “Out of Stock” badge
• Services with stock tracking switched off are never included — they have no stock level to fall below

Setting the Reorder Level

1. When creating or editing a product, find the “Reorder Level” field
2. Enter the number at which you want to be alerted
3. Save the product

Tip

How to choose a good reorder level: Think about how many days it takes for your supplier to deliver new stock. If you sell 5 units per day and delivery takes 3 days, set the reorder level to at least 15 (5 × 3 days). This gives you enough stock to last until the new order arrives.

Tip

You can set a default low stock threshold in Settings that applies to all new products.

CSV Import and Export

If you have a large number of products, you can add them all at once using a CSV file (a spreadsheet file) instead of adding them one by one.

Importing Products from CSV

Note

Only you and staff with Full Access can import or export products, or download the template. Cashiers and Accountants will not see the Import or Export buttons.

1. Open the import menu

   Go to Products, tap the Import button in the top right, and select “Import Products”.

2. Download the template

   Download the template CSV file — this ensures your data is in the correct format.

3. Fill in your data

   Open the template in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app and fill in your product data:

   Column	Required?	Example
   name	Yes	Peak Milk 400g
   selling_price	Yes	850
   quantity	No	50
   track_stock	No	true
   cost_price	No	720
   sku	No	PEAK-400
   barcode	No	5449000000996
   category	No	Beverages
   reorder_level	No	10
   unit	No	pcs
   vat_category	No	STANDARD
   description	No	Evaporated milk tin

   Note

   Leave track_stock blank and SabiBooks assumes true, so CSV files you already use keep working unchanged. Set it to false for a service. true/false, yes/no and 1/0 all work. Anything else and that row is reported back to you.

   Caution

   quantity must be a whole number in the CSV, even for products sold by weight or measure. To start a product at a decimal stock level like 120.5 kg, import it with a whole number, then set the exact figure with a stock adjustment in the app.

4. Upload and import

   Save the file as CSV, then back in SabiBooks tap “choose a file” and select it. SabiBooks shows a preview of what it found. Review it and tap “Import 93 Products”, which names however many rows your file has.

5. Fix any rows that could not be imported

   The results screen lists the rows that failed by row number (the header is row 1, so the numbers match your spreadsheet) and names the cell to fix. The first eight are shown on screen. Tap “Download error report” to get a CSV holding every one of those rows, with your own values and a final problem column saying what to change. Correct the cells in that file, leave the problem column in or delete it, and import that file. Rows that were skipped because their SKU or barcode is already in your catalogue are not in the report: they need no fixing.

Tip

This is especially useful when you are first setting up SabiBooks and need to add your entire inventory. Instead of adding 200 products one by one, you can enter them in a spreadsheet and import them all in one go.

Caution

Common CSV errors:

• Missing required fields: every row needs a name and a selling_price. Quantity is optional: leave it blank and the product starts at zero stock.
• Number formats: 3800, ₦3,800, NGN3800 and 3 800 all work. A cell holding anything else, like abc or two prices in one cell, is reported with its row number instead of being imported with the wrong value.
• Two columns meaning the same thing: if your file has both a price and a selling_price column, rename or delete one. SabiBooks cannot tell which holds the real price.
• Wrong file format: Make sure you save as CSV (.csv), not Excel (.xlsx)

Exporting Products to CSV

1. Go to Products
2. Tap the Export button in the top right (only you and Full Access staff see it)
3. The CSV file downloads to your phone or computer

This is useful for:

• Backing up your product list outside of SabiBooks
• Sharing with suppliers (so they know what you stock)
• Analysing in Excel (pivot tables, charts, etc.)
• Printing a stock sheet for physical inventory counts

Barcode Scanning

If your products have barcodes (the black-and-white striped labels on packaging), you can scan them with your phone camera for fast product lookup.

Setting Up Barcodes

1. Open the barcode field

   When creating or editing a product, find the “Barcode” field.

2. Enter or scan the barcode

   Either type the barcode number manually, or tap the barcode icon to scan it with your camera. The number will be filled in automatically.

3. Save the product

   You only need to link a barcode to a product once. After that, scanning the barcode will always find the right product.

Using Barcode Scanning

In the Product List

1. Tap the barcode icon next to the search bar
2. Point your camera at the product barcode
3. SabiBooks navigates directly to the product detail page

In the POS (New Sale)

1. Tap the barcode icon next to the search bar
2. Scan the product
3. The product is automatically added to your cart

Tip

Emeka says: “Scan every new product when it arrives and link the barcode. After that, checkout is fast-fast — just scan and sell.”

Caution

Troubleshooting barcode scanning:

• Your phone camera must have permission to access the camera
• There must be enough light in the room
• The barcode must not be damaged or blurry
• Hold the phone steady

Further Reading

Long-form blog reads on managing products well — pricing for profit, stock-taking without closing the shop, and selling by weight or measure:

How to Price Your Products for Profit in Nigeria Markup vs margin, hidden costs, and the formula every Nigerian shop owner should run before setting a price.

How to Do Stock-Taking Without Closing for the Day The section-by-section method, schedule by shop type, and what to do when the numbers do not match.

How to Sell by Weight or Measure in SabiBooks Why whole-number records fail gas, fuel, fabric, and frozen food sellers, and how the sell-by-measure toggle keeps stock exact.