📖 The Easy User Guide

What do you want to learn?

1 What is this software? 🧑‍💼 Everyone

Think of your shop's paper notebook — the one where you write what you bought, what you sold, and how much money came in. MadHound StockHound is that notebook, but digital and smart. It counts your stock for you, it never forgets, and it draws nice charts about your business.

Here is the whole idea in one picture:

…and the Dashboard & Reports watch all of this and tell you if you are making a profit 💰

2 Two kinds of users 🧑‍💼 Everyone

Not everyone in a shop does the same job. So not everyone sees the same menus.

Every menu in this software is like a locked door. The boss gives each user a key ring (called a Role). If you don't have the key, you simply won't see that door — it's not broken, it's just not yours. 🙂

Example of who sees what

3 How to log in 🧑‍💼 Everyone

Picture: the login page (drawing of the real screen)

1. Type your email in box 1. This is the email your boss used when creating your account.
2. Type your password in box 2. Nobody can see it — it shows as dots.
3. Click the blue Login button 3. Done! You will land on the Home dashboard.
4. Forgot your password? Click "Forgot password?" 4, type your email, and check your inbox for a reset link. 📧

4 Know your screen 🧑‍💼 Everyone

After login, every page has the same 3 parts. Learn them once, and you know the whole app:

Picture: the 4 parts of your screen

• 1 Sidebar (left, dark blue) — your menu of "doors". Click a name to open that part of the app. You only see doors you have keys for.
• 2 POS button (top) — one click jumps to the fast-selling cash counter screen.
• 3 Your profile (top right) — change your own profile or log out.
• 4 Work area (middle) — this big space changes depending on which door you opened.

5 The dashboard (Home) 🔑 Needs permission

The dashboard is the report card of your shop. You don't type anything here — you just look. It answers: "How is my business doing?"

The 4 number cards on top

The 3 charts below

Picture: what the dashboard charts look like

• 1 Sales & Purchases (last 7 days) — two bars per day. Navy bar = you sold. Gold bar = you bought. Tall navy bars = good week! 🎉
• 2 This month's donut — one circle showing this month's sales, purchases, expenses and more, as slices. Big slice = big amount.
• 3 Monthly cash flow — green line is money coming in 🟢, orange line is money going out 🟠. You want green above orange.

6 Get ready before your first sale 🔑 Needs permission

You can't sell from an empty shop! Before selling, someone (usually the Superuser or store keeper) must set up these things once, in this order:

7 ⭐ Your first sale, step by step 🔑 Needs "Sales" access

This is the heart of the app. Follow these steps slowly — after 2–3 sales you will do it in 30 seconds. 😎

1. In the sidebar, click Sales → Create Sale.
2. At the top there is a search box 🔍. Type the product's name (or scan / type its code). A list appears — click the product you want. It jumps into the cart table below.
3. In the cart table, set the Quantity (how many pieces). You can also give a discount for that line if you want. The line total updates by itself. ✨
4. Repeat steps 2–3 for every product the customer is buying.
5. Below the cart you can set Order Tax %, Discount % and Shipping for the whole sale. Not needed? Leave them at 0.
6. Now fill the small boxes:
   • Reference — filled automatically (SL…). Don't touch it. 🙂
   • Customer — pick who is buying.
   • Date — today is already filled in.
   • Status — Completed = goods handed over (stock goes down NOW). Pending / Shipped = not delivered yet.
   • Payment Method — Cash, Credit Card, Bank Transfer, Cheque or Other.
   • Amount Received — how much money the customer gave you. Click the little ✔ button next to it to auto-fill the full amount. If they paid less, type the smaller number — the rest is remembered as due.
7. Click the blue Create Sale ✔ button. Done! 🎉
8. You land in All Sales. Find your sale in the list and use the ⋮ action menu to view it, print the invoice 🖨️, or add a payment later when the customer pays the due.

8 Fast selling with POS 🖥️ 🔑 Needs "POS" access

POS means Point of Sale — the cash counter screen. It does the same thing as "Create Sale", but faster and more visual. Perfect when a queue of customers is waiting. 🏃

1. Click the round blue POS button at the top of any page.
2. You see your products as picture cards. Click a card — it drops into the cart on the side. You can filter by category to find things faster.
3. Change quantities in the cart if needed.
4. Click Proceed / Pay, enter the amount received, and confirm.
5. A small receipt is ready to print for the customer. 🧾

9 Products & barcodes 📦 🔑 Needs "Products" access

Create a category first (a shelf label)

1. Sidebar → Products → Categories.
2. Type a name like "Drinks" or "Snacks" and save. That's it — 10 seconds. ⏱️

Create a product

1. Sidebar → Products → Create Product.
2. Fill the important boxes:
   • Name — what you call it. e.g. "Cola 500ml".
   • Category — pick the shelf label you made.
   • Code — the product's ID / barcode number.
   • Quantity — how many you have right now.
   • Cost — what YOU pay for it. 🛒
   • Price — what the CUSTOMER pays you. 🧾
   • Unit — piece, kg, litre… (from Settings → Units).
   • Alert quantity — "warn me when stock gets this low." 🔔
3. You can also add a photo 📷. Then click save.

Print barcodes 🏷️

1. Sidebar → Products → Print Barcode.
2. Search the product, choose how many stickers, and print. Stick them on your goods — then at sale time you can just scan. 🔫

10 Buying stock (Purchases) 🛒 🔑 Needs "Purchases" access

A purchase is the opposite of a sale: you buy from a supplier, money goes out, and stock goes UP ⬆️. If you learned Chapter 7, you already know this screen — it's the same dance:

1. Sidebar → Purchases → Create Purchase.
2. Search products and add them to the cart (yes, same as a sale).
3. Set quantities — how many you are buying.
4. Pick the Supplier, the date, and set the Status — Completed means the goods arrived, and stock goes up immediately.
5. Enter how much you paid the supplier (partial is fine — the app tracks what you still owe).
6. Save. Check Products → All Products — the stock numbers just grew. 🌱

11 Returns ↩️ 🔑 Needs "Returns" access

Sometimes goods travel backwards. There are two directions:

1. Open Sale Returns → Create Sale Return (or the purchase version).
2. Add the returned products to the cart and set the quantity being returned.
3. Pick the customer (or supplier), save — stock and money records fix themselves automatically. 🧮

12 Quotations 💬 🔑 Needs "Quotations" access

A quotation is a price promise, not a sale. A customer asks: "How much for 100 chairs?" — you build a quotation and give it to them. No stock moves. No money moves. It's just a nice printed offer.

1. Sidebar → Quotations → Create Quotation.
2. Add products and quantities, exactly like a sale.
3. Pick the customer and save. Print it or send it to the customer. 📄
4. If the customer says YES 🎉 — open the quotation in All Quotations and turn it into a real sale from its action menu. No retyping!

13 Expenses 💡 🔑 Needs "Expenses" access

Not all money leaves through purchases. Rent, electricity, tea for the staff ☕ — these are expenses. Write them down here so your profit numbers tell the truth.

1. First make groups: Expenses → Categories → e.g. "Rent", "Electricity", "Salaries".
2. Then: Expenses → Create Expense → pick the category, the date, the amount, and a short note.
3. Save. The dashboard and Profit/Loss report now include it automatically.

14 Customers & suppliers (Parties) 👥 🔑 Needs "Parties" access

"Parties" = all the people your shop deals with. There are two lists:

1. Open the list and click Add Customer (or Add Supplier).
2. Fill in name, phone, address… and save.
3. From the list you can later view, edit or delete each one.

15 Reports 📈 🔑 Needs "Reports" access

Reports answer questions about your business. Pick a date range (like "this month"), and the app does all the maths. Here's which report answers which question:

1. Sidebar → Reports → pick a report.
2. Choose the dates (and customer/supplier if you want to zoom in).
3. Read the table. That's it — the app already did the maths. 🧮

16 Superuser zone 👑 👑 Superuser only

This chapter is for the boss. Here you create accounts for your team and decide which doors each person can open.

Step 1 — Create a role (a key ring 🔑)

1. Sidebar → User Management → Roles & Permissions → Add Role.
2. Give it a job name, like "Cashier" or "Store Keeper".
3. You now see a long list of checkboxes — every checkbox is a key to one door (see products, create sales, view reports…). Tick only what that job needs.
4. Save the role.

Picture: a cashier only gets the sales keys

Step 2 — Create the user and hand them the key ring

1. Sidebar → User Management → Create User.
2. Fill in their name, email and password (you can also add a photo).
3. Pick the Role you made — this is the moment you hand over the keys. 🤝
4. Keep Active switched on, and save. They can log in right now with that email and password.

Managing the team later

• Someone left the company? Open All Users → edit → switch them to inactive. They can't log in anymore — a deactivated user sees a clear message at login.
• Job changed? Just change their role. Their menus change on their next page load — like magic. 🪄

17 Settings ⚙️ 👑 Superuser only

Set these once, then forget about them:

18 Help! Something looks wrong 🆘 🧑‍💼 Everyone

19 Word dictionary 📚 🧑‍💼 Everyone

Big words, explained small: