Stockora - Complete User Guide

Count everything. Know everything. Stockora is a complete stock, sales, purchase, and accounting system for any type of business - shop, wholesale, distribution, or trading. Built by Tech Bato Pvt Ltd with Laravel 12, MySQL, Tailwind CSS, and Chart.js.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Login & User Accounts
3. Dashboard
4. Products & Categories
5. Stock In / Stock Out
6. Purchases
7. Purchase Returns
8. Sales
9. Sales Returns
10. Customers
11. Suppliers
12. Payments - Receipts & Vouchers
13. Cash Book
14. HR Management - Users, Roles, Designations
15. Accounting
16. Reports
17. How Stock and Money Flow (Rules)
18. Roles & Permissions Matrix
19. FAQ & Troubleshooting

1. Getting Started

🚀 New to Stockora? Follow the step-by-step Setup Guide first - it takes you from your first login to your first sale, in plain language.

Stockora is a cloud service by Tech Bato Pvt Ltd - there is nothing to install and nothing to back up. Open the Stockora link we sent you in any browser (computer, tablet, or phone) and log in with your account. Tech Bato hosts everything, keeps it updated, and keeps your data safe.

Don't have an account yet? Contact Tech Bato Pvt Ltd to get started.

Language: English ⇄ नेपाली

The whole interface can switch between English and Nepali. Click the नेपाली / EN button in the top-right corner (or the switch at the bottom of the sidebar, or below the login box). Your choice is remembered for your session. Menus, buttons, table headings, and form labels all translate; your own data (product names, customer names, notes) stays exactly as you typed it.

Layout

Navigation lives in the left sidebar, organized into plain groups: Inventory, Buy & Sell, Parties, Money, Insights, and Administration - each item with an icon. On a phone, tap the ☰ button to open the sidebar. You only see menu items your role has permission for.

2. Login & User Accounts

What it does: Secure login with email + password, password reset by email, profile editing, and a record of every user's last login.

What you can do:

• Log in / log out, reset a forgotten password ("Forgot your password?" link)
• Edit your own name, email, and password from the top-right menu → Profile
• Admins create staff accounts in HR → Users (see section 14)

Every page is protected: a user only sees menus and pages their role's permissions allow.

3. Dashboard

What it does: Gives an at-a-glance picture of the business for any date range (default: last 30 days).

What you see:

• Stat cards - Sales for the period (with invoice count and today's sales), Profit for the period, Purchases for the period, and Cash Balance (with total receivable and payable)
• Sales vs Profit line chart - datewise time series for the selected range
• Sales vs Purchases doughnut chart - how buying compares to selling
• Top Customers bar chart - your 5 best customers ranked by sales, with profit shown side-by-side
• Highest Customer Dues - who owes you the most
• Low Stock list - products at or below their reorder level

How to use: Change the From / To dates at the top and press Apply. All cards and charts update for that period.

Super Admin (no business assigned) sees a different dashboard: total businesses, users, and today's sales across all businesses.

4. Products & Categories

What it does: Your product catalog with live stock quantity, cost/sale prices, and low-stock alerts.

What you can do:

• View the product list with current stock (stock is always calculated live from opening stock + all movements - it can never silently drift)
• Add, edit, and delete products
• Organize products by category, and manage categories

How to create a product: Products → New Product, then fill:

• Name, SKU, Barcode (SKU must be unique in your business)
• Category (create categories first under Categories → New Category)
• Unit (pcs, kg, litre…), Cost Price, Sale Price
• Opening Stock - how many you have right now when starting to use the system
• Reorder Level - when stock falls to this number, the product shows a red "Low stock" alert on the dashboard and stock report

How to create a category: Categories → New Category - name + optional description. Categories can be nested (parent category).

5. Stock In / Stock Out

What it does: Records every stock movement. Purchases and sales create movements automatically; this screen is for manual adjustments.

When to use it:

• Stock In - found extra stock, received free samples, opening corrections
• Stock Out - damage, expiry, theft, personal use
• Adjustment - physical count corrections

How to create: Stock → New Movement → choose product, type (In/Out/Adjustment), quantity, date, and a reason. Stock Out is blocked if it would make stock negative.

Every movement stores who created it and why - the full history is on the Stock page.

6. Purchases

What it does: Records buying stock from suppliers. Creating a purchase automatically increases inventory and updates the product's cost price.

What you can do:

• Make an invoice with auto-calculation - add up to 5 line items; quantity × unit cost, minus discount, plus tax is calculated per line and totaled automatically
• View any purchase invoice - click the invoice number to see items, totals, and the history of payments made against it
• Download a Purchase Voucher PDF
• Pay a due invoice - see section 12 (Supplier Vouchers); payment updates the invoice's paid/due/status automatically
• See datewise totals - invoice count, amount, paid, and due in Reports → Purchase Report
• Delete a purchase - stock is reversed and any payments/cash entries are removed. Deletion is blocked if the purchased stock was already sold, or if the invoice has returns (delete the returns first).

How to create: Purchases → New Purchase → pick supplier (or none), the invoice number is pre-filled (e.g. PUR-20260717-0001), pick products + quantities + costs, enter Paid Amount (0 for full credit; partial allowed) and payment method → Record purchase.

Tax: each line has a Tax % field, pre-filled from the business's Default Tax % - tax amount = (quantity × cost − discount) × rate, calculated automatically.

What happens automatically: stock IN movements per item · product cost price updated · if paid > 0, a supplier payment voucher + a cash-out entry in the Cash Book · invoice marked paid / partial / unpaid.

7. Purchase Returns

What it does: Returns products to a supplier from any purchase invoice. Stock and payments are auto-adjusted.

How to create: Finance → Purchase Returns → New Return (or the Return Items button on any purchase invoice page):

1. Choose the purchase invoice - its items appear with purchased qty and how much was already returned
2. Enter the quantity to return per item (you cannot return more than what remains)
3. Enter Cash Refund Received - the money the supplier gives back now. The rest of the return value is automatically applied as credit against the invoice's due amount
4. Record return

What happens automatically: stock OUT movements (blocked if you already sold that stock) · supplier payable reduced · invoice due reduced by the credited portion · refund recorded as cash in in the Cash Book · lines appear on the supplier's ledger.

Deleting a return restores everything (stock, due, payable, cash).

8. Sales

What it does: Sells to customers (or walk-in cash customers). Creating a sale automatically decreases inventory - and blocks the sale if stock is not enough.

What you can do:

• Generate a sale invoice against any customer with auto-calculation (qty × price − discount + tax per line)
• View the sales invoice - items, totals, payment status, and the history of payments received
• Download the Invoice PDF to print or send
• Receive payment on a due invoice - see section 12 (Customer Receipts)
• See datewise totals with profit - Reports → Datewise Sales & Profit shows invoices, amount, cost, and profit per day; Reports → Sales Report shows amount, paid, due
• Delete a sale - stock restored, payments and cash entries removed (blocked if the sale has returns)

How to create: Sales → New Sale → pick customer (or leave as "Cash customer"), invoice number pre-filled (e.g. INV-20260717-0001), add products (the dropdown shows live stock), enter Paid Amount and method, optionally attach a receipt photo → Record sale.

Tax: each line has a Tax % field - the tax amount is calculated automatically as (quantity × price − discount) × rate. It is pre-filled with your business's Default Tax % (set it under Businesses → Edit, e.g. 13 for Nepal VAT) and can be changed or set to 0 per line. The invoice shows both the amount and the rate.

What happens automatically: stock OUT movements · cost of each item captured at sale time (this is how profit is calculated exactly) · if paid > 0, a customer receipt + a cash-in entry · invoice marked paid / partial / unpaid.

9. Sales Returns

What it does: Takes products back from a customer against any sale invoice. Stock and payments are auto-adjusted.

How to create: Finance → Sales Returns → New Return (or Return Items on any sale invoice):

1. Choose the sale invoice - items appear with sold qty and already-returned qty
2. Enter return quantities (cannot exceed what remains returnable)
3. Enter Cash Refund Amount - money you hand back now; the rest is credited against the invoice's due amount
4. Record return

What happens automatically: stock IN movements (goods come back) · customer's balance reduced · invoice due reduced by the credited portion · refund recorded as cash out · lines appear on the customer's ledger.

Deleting a return restores everything (blocked if the returned stock was already sold again).

10. Customers

What it does: Manages all customers, their balances, and their full transaction history.

What you can do:

• Add, edit, delete, and search customers (name, phone, address, opening balance - what they owed you before you started using the system)
• See each customer's outstanding due - always calculated live: opening + sales − payments − returns + refunds
• View all sale invoices of a customer - open their Ledger: every invoice (debit), receipt (credit), return, and refund in date order with a running balance; filter by date; Print button for statements
• Manage dues: Reports → Customer Dues lists everyone who owes money

How to create: Customers → New Customer → name, phone, address, opening balance → save. The Ledger link is on each customer row.

11. Suppliers

What it does: Manages all suppliers and what you owe them - the exact mirror of Customers.

What you can do:

• Add, edit, delete, and search suppliers
• See each supplier's payable balance live
• View all purchase invoices of a supplier - open their Ledger: every purchase (credit), payment voucher (debit), return, and refund with running balance; date filter and Print
• Manage dues: Reports → Supplier Dues

How to create: Suppliers → New Supplier → name, phone, address, opening balance → save.

12. Payments - Receipts & Vouchers

What it does: Records money received from customers (Customer Receipts) and money paid to suppliers (Supplier Vouchers), separate from invoices.

How to receive payment from a customer: Finance → Customer Receipts → New Receipt:

1. Pick the customer - their current due is shown next to their name
2. Optionally pick a specific unpaid invoice - the payment then updates that invoice's paid/due/status; leave as "General payment" to just reduce the customer's overall balance
3. Receipt number is pre-filled (RCPT-…); enter amount, date, method (cash / bank / mobile wallet) → save

How to pay a supplier: Finance → Supplier Vouchers → New Voucher - same flow (VCH-… numbers, cash goes out).

Every receipt/voucher automatically writes a matching entry in the Cash Book and a line on the party's Ledger. Deleting one reverses all of it.

13. Cash Book

What it does: A classic debit/credit cash book - every rupee in and out, with opening balance, running balance, and closing balance for any date range.

What appears automatically: payments received with sales · standalone customer receipts · payments made with purchases · supplier vouchers · refunds from returns. These rows cannot be deleted directly - delete their source document instead, and the cash entry goes with it.

What you enter manually: other income and expenses:

1. First create your categories - Cash Book → Income Categories / Expense Categories (e.g. Rent, Salary, Transport; Bank Interest, Commission - some are pre-seeded)
2. Cash Book → New Entry → choose Cash In (Income) or Cash Out (Expense), pick the category, amount, date, note → save

Manual entries feed the Income Statement and the profit reports as expenses / other income.

14. HR Management - Users, Roles, Designations

What it does: Full control of who can log in and what they are allowed to do.

Users (HR → Users)

• Add, edit, delete users; search by name/email; see last login
• Assign each user a Role (their permissions) and a Designation (their job title)
• You cannot delete your own account; only a Super Admin can manage Super Admin accounts
• How to create: HR → Users → New User → name, email, password, role, designation → save. The user can log in immediately.

Designations (HR → Designations)

• Job titles you define - e.g. Store Manager, Cashier, Delivery Staff - and assign to users
• How to create: HR → Designations → New Designation → name → save

Roles & Permissions (HR → Roles & Permissions)

• Fully dynamic: create any role and tick exactly the permissions it should have, grouped by module (Products, Sales, Purchases, Cash Book, Reports, Accounting, HR…)
• Edit an existing role's permissions at any time - all users with that role update instantly
• Delete roles that have no users
• The Super Admin role is protected - always has everything and cannot be edited
• Level of access control examples:
  • A Cashier role: only sales.view, sales.create, customer-payments.manage, cashbook.view
  • A Store Keeper role: products + stock permissions only
  • An Accountant role: cash book, accounting, reports - no selling or buying
• How to create: HR → Roles & Permissions → New Role → name it, tick permissions → save → assign it to users

15. Accounting

What it does: Financial statements derived automatically from your daily entries - no double-entry bookkeeping knowledge needed. Find it under Finance → Accounting.

General Ledger (all transactions)

Every transaction in the business - sales, purchases, receipts, vouchers, returns, and manual cash entries - in one datewise list with pagination, date filter, money-in/money-out columns, and links to each document.

Account Ledger (account-wise transactions)

Pick one account and see only its entries with a running total: Cash · Sales Revenue · Purchases · Customer Receipts · Supplier Payments · Sales Returns · Purchase Returns · Expenses · Other Income. (For a person's account, use the Customer/Supplier Ledger instead.)

Trial Balance

Debit and credit balances of all accounts as of any date - Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory (at cost), COGS, Expenses, Sales Returns on the debit side; Accounts Payable, Sales Revenue, Purchase Returns, Other Income on the credit side. An Owner's Equity / Opening Balances line balances the statement (it absorbs opening balances that were never entered as transactions). Totals always match - shown in green.

Balance Sheet

Your financial position as of any date:

• Assets: Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory at cost
• Liabilities: Accounts Payable
• Equity: Retained Earnings (profit to date) + Capital & Opening Adjustments Assets always equal Liabilities + Equity. Printable.

Income Statement (Profit & Loss)

For any period: Gross Sales − Sales Returns = Net Sales → − Cost of Goods Sold = Gross Profit → − each Expense category (itemized) + Other Income = Net Profit. Printable.

16. Reports

All under Reports in the Finance menu. Every listed report has a date filter, and most have PDF and Excel export buttons (needs the reports.export permission).

Profit-related reports need the reports.profit permission.

17. How Stock and Money Flow (Rules)

Understanding these five rules explains every number in the system:

1. Stock is always derived. Current stock = opening stock + all IN movements − all OUT movements. Purchases, sales, and returns create movements automatically; deleting a document deletes its movements. Nothing edits a stock number directly, so stock can never silently disagree with history.

2. Customer balance = opening balance + invoices − receipts − returns + cash refunds. Supplier balance mirrors it. Ledgers show these same lines, so a ledger's closing balance always equals the balance on the list page.

3. Every cash movement writes one Cash Book row - sale/purchase payments, receipts, vouchers, refunds, and manual entries. Cash balance = sum of ins − outs.

4. Profit is exact, not estimated. Each sale item stores the product's cost at the moment of sale, so profit = selling price − that stored cost, unaffected by later cost changes.

5. Deletes are safe. Deleting any document reverses everything it created - and is blocked when reversal would corrupt data (stock already sold, invoice has returns). The error message tells you what to delete first.

18. Roles & Permissions Matrix

Default roles created by the seeder (all editable under HR → Roles & Permissions):

19. FAQ & Troubleshooting

Q: The charts on the dashboard are empty. There are no sales in the selected date range yet. Record a sale, or widen the From/To dates.

Q: I can't delete a purchase - "stock has already been sold". Some units received on that invoice were already sold. Delete (or return) the sales that used them first - this protection stops stock from going negative.

Q: I can't delete a cash book row. Rows created by sales, purchases, payments, or returns can only be removed by deleting their source document. Only manual income/expense entries have a Delete button.

Q: A staff member doesn't see a menu item. Their role lacks the permission. Go to HR → Roles & Permissions → Edit their role and tick the permission.

Q: How do I give a customer's ledger to them? Open Customers → Ledger (on their row), set the date range, press Print - the page prints as a clean statement.

Q: Trial balance shows a big "Owner's Equity" figure - is that a bug? No. It absorbs opening balances (opening stock value, customer/supplier opening balances) that were never entered as cash transactions. It is the normal balancing figure for a system that starts mid-history.

Q: What do the invoice number prefixes mean? INV sales, PUR purchases, RCPT customer receipts, VCH supplier vouchers, SRET sales returns, PRET purchase returns. Your sale/purchase prefixes can be customized - ask Tech Bato or your account admin.

Q: Do I need to install updates or take backups? No. Stockora is a cloud service - Tech Bato handles hosting, updates, and backups. You just log in and work.

Q: Can my whole business run on Nepali (BS) dates? Yes. In the business profile (Administration → Businesses → Edit, or ask Tech Bato) set Default Date System to Nepali (BS). From then on, every invoice, list, ledger, cash book, and PDF shows the Nepali date as the main date, with the English date as a small secondary line. Choose English (AD) and it flips back - the English date is primary and the Nepali date is the secondary line. Each business chooses independently.

Q: Nepali (BS) dates? Every dated document has a Nepali Date field that is filled automatically:

• In the browser: the moment you pick an English date on any form (sale, purchase, payment, return, cash entry, stock movement), the "Nepali Date (auto)" field fills itself with the converted BS date (e.g. 2026-07-17 → 2083-04-01). You can still type over it if you want a different value.
• On the server: if the field arrives empty (JavaScript off, API call), the system converts and stores the BS date automatically anyway. Both sides use proper Bikram Sambat calendar libraries (nepali-date-converter in the browser, anuzpandey/laravel-nepali-date in PHP), so the conversion is exact - 2025-04-14 correctly becomes 2082-01-01 (Nepali New Year). BS dates appear on ledgers, the cash book, and invoices alongside the English dates.