User Guide

Royal Stock Register

A complete, step-by-step guide to using Royal's stock system — for office staff running the warehouse and for suppliers checking stock, requesting quotes, and tracking orders. No technical background needed.

For Royal staff & suppliers Two portals, one guide Updated 2026-08-15

Welcome

Royal Stock Register replaces the paper stock sheet with a live system that Royal's own staff and Royal's suppliers can both see at the same time. When stock is updated in the office, suppliers see the new numbers immediately — no more phone calls to check what's in.

There are two separate places to sign in, depending on who you are:

Royal Office StaffUse the Office Portal to manage products, stock, suppliers, and orders. This guide's Part One is for you.
Suppliers / CustomersUse the Supplier Portal to browse live stock, request quotes and samples, and track your orders. This guide's Part Two is for you.

Some of the features described in this guide may not be switched on for your business yet — Royal turns on new capabilities gradually. If something described here isn't showing up on your screen, ask your system administrator whether it's been enabled (see Turning features on or off).

Getting Started

You'll never be given a password directly. When Royal sets up your account — whether you're a new staff member or a new supplier contact — the system emails you a link to choose your own password. Nobody, including Royal's administrators, can see or set it for you.

sign in for the first time

  1. Look for an email from Royal Stock Register with a subject like "Reset your password" — this is your welcome link, not a mistake.
  2. Click the link and choose a password.
  3. Go to the correct sign-in page for you:
    • Office staff: /office/login
    • Suppliers: /login
  4. Enter your email and the password you just chose.
These are two different pages — an office login won't work on the supplier page and vice versa. Bookmark the correct one for you.

Forgotten your password? Click "Forgot password" on your sign-in page and a new reset link will be emailed to you, the same way as your very first login.

Part One

For Royal Office Staff

Everything you need to run the day-to-day stock register, manage suppliers, and process orders.

Your Dashboard

After you sign in, you land on your Dashboard — a quick-glance summary of the whole register:

  • Five headline numbers: how many products are listed, total units in stock, how many are running low, how many are completely out, and how many active suppliers you have.
  • Needs attention: the 8 products lowest on stock right now, so you know what to reorder first.
  • Recent stock imports: the last 5 bulk stock uploads, who did them, and whether they've been applied yet.

Everyone in the office — Staff, Admin, and Super Admin — sees this same dashboard.

Executive Overview

Managers and owners (Admin and Super Admin accounts) have an extra page, Executive Overview, with a deeper view:

  • Four KPI cards, including how total stock has moved over the last 30 days (▲ up or ▼ down).
  • A stock trend chart showing the register's total unit count over time — useful for spotting whether stock is generally growing or shrinking.
  • A combined activity feed of recent imports and manual stock edits, so you can see at a glance who changed what.

If you're logged in as regular Staff, this page isn't in your menu — that's expected, not an error.

Products & Stock

The Products page is the heart of the system — it's exactly what suppliers see on their register, so anything you change here is visible to them right away.

Every product tracks stock in three columns, matching the paper register you already know: STD (standard), ECO (economy), and G&A (grade A). The Total is always just those three added together.

Watch: adding a product by hand, then raising its stock with a bulk factory upload — the exact same product, the exact same numbers, everywhere.

Finding a product

On the Products page, use the search box to type a product or category name, or narrow the list with the group, category, and stock (In stock / Low stock / Out of stock) dropdowns, then click Filter. Click Clear to reset.

add a new product

  1. From the Products page, click + Add product in the top right.
  2. Fill in the Identity section:
    • Product name — required.
    • SKU — optional; leave blank and one is generated automatically.
    • Group and Category / finish — pick from the dropdowns.
    • Size — e.g. "600x1200" or "25kg".
    • Unit — boxes, pcs, bags, kg, or sqft.
  3. Fill in Stock quantities — starting counts for STD, ECO, and G&A, and how low the total should be allowed to drop before it's flagged as "Low-stock below" for this product specifically.
  4. If pricing is turned on for your account, optionally set a Unit price.
  5. Optionally set an Appearance — a swatch colour and texture (leave blank and one is generated automatically from the name/category), and tick or untick Visible to suppliers.
  6. Click Add product.
The product appears on the register immediately — including in the supplier portal, unless you left "Visible to suppliers" unticked.
The Add Product form filled in with a name, group, category, size, and stock quantities
Adding a product by hand — the same form used to correct a single product's details or starting quantities.

update a product's stock count

  1. Open the product from the Products list.
  2. Change the STD, ECO, and/or G&A numbers to the new counts.
  3. Click Save changes.
This is logged automatically in Stock History with your name and the time. If anyone is "watching" this product and its status (In / Low / Out) changes because of your edit, they're emailed automatically — you don't need to tell them yourself.
Tip

If your product's stock quantities look greyed out and read-only instead of editable boxes, it's because Warehouses & Showrooms is turned on for your account — see Warehouses & showrooms for how stock is edited in that mode.

Clearance & overstock

If Clearance Pricing is turned on, you can mark any product as on-sale: open the product, tick On clearance — show a discounted price to suppliers, and enter a Clearance price lower than the regular price. Suppliers then see that lower price instead of the normal one.

The Clearance page in the menu also shows overstock candidates — products sitting on more than three times their own low-stock level, worth considering for clearance even if nobody's flagged them yet. This list updates itself; you don't maintain it by hand.

Batch tracking & aging alerts batch_tracking

Flag specific products — typically ones that degrade with age, like cement or grout — and log when deliveries arrive, so aging stock doesn't get forgotten at the back of the warehouse.

turn on tracking for a product

  1. Open the product and tick Track batches for this product.
  2. Optionally set a Shelf life (days) — without this, batch dates are still logged, but nothing is ever flagged as aging on Reports.
  3. Click Save changes.
Increasing that product's stock now offers an optional "log it as a new batch" checkbox with a received date and lot code — the increase, not the new total, is logged. Receiving a purchase order for a tracked product logs a batch automatically, no checkbox needed. Click Mark depleted on any batch once it's sold through to stop it being flagged.

The Aging Stock report (under Reports) lists every tracked product's active batches, oldest and most urgent first, colour-coded OK / Aging / Expired based on the shelf life you set.

This is a log, not a strict ledger

Batches aren't reconciled against a product's STD/ECO/G&A totals the way locations are — deliberately lightweight, for knowing what's getting old, not a guarantee every unit on hand is accounted for in a batch.

Categories & Product Groups

Every product belongs to one Group (e.g. a product line) and one Category (e.g. a finish type). These two screens — reached from the sidebar — let you add, rename, or reorder them. Groups have a sort order that controls which order their filter buttons appear in on both portals.

Warehouses & Showrooms

If your business stores stock in more than one place — a main warehouse plus one or more showrooms — turn on the Locations & Showrooms feature to track exactly how much of each product sits where.

Understand this first

There's always one location called Central Warehouse that you don't manage directly — it automatically shows whatever stock hasn't been specifically moved to a named location yet. If a product has 500 total units and you've only recorded 120 at your Downtown Showroom, Central Warehouse shows the other 380 without you doing anything. This can never get out of sync with the real total, because it's calculated fresh every time, not typed in by anyone.

set up a warehouse or showroom

  1. Go to Locations in the sidebar and click + Add location.
  2. Fill in:
    • Name — e.g. "Downtown Showroom".
    • Short code — e.g. "DTN".
    • Type — Warehouse (stock storage) or Showroom (for viewing/collection).
    • Phone and Address — optional.
    • Sort order — controls the order locations are listed in.
  3. Click Add location.
A transfer isn't instant

The moment you submit a transfer, the quantity is taken off the "From" location's balance immediately, so it can't be double-counted or promised twice. But it does not land on the "To" location's balance yet — it sits "in transit" until someone at the receiving end confirms it actually arrived. Only then is it credited to "To". Nothing is ever recorded as received without someone actually confirming it.

move stock from one location to another

  1. Go to Stock Transfers in the sidebar and click + Transfer stock (or start from a product's page).
  2. Pick the Product, the From location, and the To location — these must be different.
  3. Enter how many STD, ECO, and/or G&A units are moving.
  4. Optionally add a note (e.g. "Delivery for showroom refresh").
  5. Click Initiate transfer.
The quantity leaves "From" immediately and shows up under the In transit filter on the Stock Transfers page — no longer counted at the source, not yet counted at the destination.

confirm a transfer has arrived

  1. Go to Stock Transfers — anything awaiting confirmation is flagged at the top of the page and listed under In transit.
  2. Once the stock has physically arrived, click Confirm receipt on that row.
The quantity is credited to the destination at that moment, and the transfer is marked Received. To call off a transfer before it's confirmed — wrong destination, wrong quantity, never actually shipped — click Cancel instead, and the stock returns to its original "From" location.

This two-step confirmation is the only way stock ever moves between locations, including into or out of Central Warehouse — which keeps a complete, honest trail of every move, with a name and timestamp attached to both the initiation and the confirmation.

If a location shows a negative number

That's a real warning, not a glitch — it means locations were collectively told about more stock than the product actually has on hand. Fix it with a transfer, or by correcting the count.

Deleting a location is safe — any stock recorded there simply reverts to showing at Central Warehouse, nothing is lost. Central Warehouse itself can be renamed, but it can never be deleted — and neither can In Transit, the system location that holds stock during the gap between initiating and confirming a transfer. You'll never pick In Transit directly; it only ever appears automatically while a transfer is pending.

Bulk Stock Uploads

If your stock counts come from a spreadsheet or an external system, you can upload the whole file instead of updating products one by one.

upload and apply a stock file

  1. Go to Stock Imports and click Upload.
  2. Choose your file (CSV, XLSX, or XLS, up to 5MB) and the date the report is for.
  3. The system shows you a preview before anything changes — each row is marked update (matches an existing product), create (a brand-new product), or skip (couldn't be read). Nothing is saved to the register yet.
  4. Check the preview looks right, then click Apply.
Every row is applied together — if anything goes wrong partway through, nothing changes at all, so you never end up with a half-updated register. Once applied, an import can't be undone from this screen — go correct individual products instead.
Import preview showing one row matched to an existing product, marked Update, with old and new totals
The preview always shows exactly what will happen before you apply anything — here, a row correctly matched an existing product by name, size, and group, and shows the total changing from 0 to 600.
One number, everywhere

Whether a quantity was typed in by hand, came from a bulk upload, or was deducted by a fulfilled order, it all lands on the exact same STD/ECO/G&A fields — so the Products page, Stock History, the supplier portal, and any order all ever show that one real number. There's no separate copy of stock data anywhere in the system to fall out of sync.

Stock History

Every stock change ever made — whether typed in by hand, from a bulk upload, or deducted by a fulfilled order — is recorded here permanently, with who made it, when, and a note explaining what triggered it. Search by product name, filter by source or date range, or open a single product to see its quantity plotted over time.

Stock History page showing three entries for one product: created, bulk import, and an order fulfillment deduction
A single product's full history — manual creation, a bulk import, then a deduction from a fulfilled order — one continuous, honest trail.

Suppliers

add a new supplier

  1. Go to Suppliers and click + Add supplier.
  2. Fill in Company name (required), plus Contact person, Phone, Company email, Address, Status (Active/Inactive), and any Internal notes.
  3. Optionally give them portal access straight away: enter a Login holder's name and Login email — or leave both blank and add a login later.
  4. Click Add supplier.
If you provided a login email, that person gets a welcome email immediately with a link to set their own password.

give an existing supplier a new portal login

  1. Open the supplier from the Suppliers list.
  2. Under Portal logins, enter a Name and Email.
  3. Click + Add login.
Each login can be switched off any time with the Disable button next to their name — without deleting their history — and switched back on with Enable.

Credit limits credit_limits

If turned on, you can set an optional spending limit per supplier — a warning, not a hard block, so your judgment always has the final say.

set a supplier's credit limit

  1. Open the supplier and enter an amount in Credit limit.
  2. Click Save changes. Leave it blank for no limit at all — nothing changes for that supplier until you set a number.
The supplier's page then shows a Credit card — how much of their limit is currently outstanding, as a percentage with a colour-coded bar. If creating an order (or converting a quote request into one) would push them over, you'll see a warning with the exact numbers and a Create the order anyway checkbox — tick it and submit again to proceed. Nothing is ever silently blocked. If Credit Approval Workflow is also turned on, this soft warning is replaced by a stricter hold that Finance has to clear before the order can dispatch.

Customer Tiers & Portal Visibility customer_tiersNew

Not every account buying from Royal is a dealer on a standard tier. If your business also sells to individuals, contractors, government bodies, or other non-dealer customer types, two settings work together to handle them properly.

Customer type & non-dealer tiers

Every supplier record has a Customer type (Dealer, Individual, Contractor, Government, and others) set on their profile. Dealers keep using the existing Dealer tier field (Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum, tied to sales targets). Any non-dealer type instead gets its own separate Customer tier field — a simpler, independent list you manage under Customer Tiers in the sidebar, since non-dealer accounts don't need sales-target machinery.

What non-dealers see on the portal

A system-wide setting, Non-dealer portal visibility, controls how much of the register non-dealer accounts can see once logged in:

FullNon-dealers see the register exactly like a dealer would — live stock and pricing.
RestrictedNon-dealers see live stock quantities and status, but pricing (unit price, clearance price, "priced" flag) is hidden entirely.

This is one switch for every non-dealer account at once, set under System Settings — dealers are never affected by it either way.

Bulk Customer Import customer_importNew

Onboarding a batch of customers from a spreadsheet works the same safe, preview-first way as Bulk Stock Uploads.

import a batch of customers

  1. Go to Customers and click Bulk imports, then Upload.
  2. Choose a CSV or XLSX file with columns Company, Contact, Email, Phone, Address, Type.
  3. Review the preview — each row is marked update (matched an existing customer by email, or by company name if no email was given), create (a new customer), or skip (missing a company name, or a duplicate of another row in the same file).
  4. Click Apply.
Matching is deliberately conservative — email first, company name as a fallback — so it never guesses at merging two genuinely different customers. Once applied, an import can't be discarded; go correct individual customer records instead.

Orders

An order can start in one of two ways: you create it directly for a supplier who calls or walks in, or a supplier's own quote request gets converted into one (see Quote & sample requests).

create an order directly for a supplier

  1. Go to Orders and click + New order.
  2. Choose the Supplier and Payment terms (Cash on delivery, Net 15, Net 30, or Net 60), and add an optional note (e.g. "Phone order, walk-in customer").
  3. In the products table, type a quantity next to each product the supplier is buying — leave the rest blank. Only priced products can be ordered; set a Unit price on the product first if it's missing.
  4. Click Create order.

An order moves through stages as work progresses:

Pending→ Confirmed→ Loading→ Delivery note issued→ Invoiced→ Payment received→ Dispatched→ Fulfilled ·Cancelled (from most stages)

move an order to its next stage

  1. Open the order.
  2. Under Update status, choose the new status from the dropdown.
  3. Click Save & notify supplier.
The supplier is automatically emailed (and sent a WhatsApp message too, if they've opted in) every time you change an order's status — you never need to call and tell them yourself.
Watch: one order taken start to finish — Confirmed, payment confirmed, through to Dispatched and Fulfilled — with the progress bar advancing at each step.

Stock holds — reserving stock for accepted orders

If Order Stock Holds is turned on, Royal's stock is protected the moment an order is accepted, so it can't accidentally be promised twice:

  • Setting an order to Confirmed automatically holds the ordered quantity for a set number of hours (your administrator sets this — 48 hours by default). The physical stock count doesn't change yet, but it's no longer shown as available to other suppliers.
  • Setting the order to Fulfilled actually deducts that stock for real.
  • If you cancel the order, or if nobody fulfils it before the hold's time runs out, the hold is released automatically and that stock becomes available again — you'll get an email if a hold expires unfulfilled, so nothing goes unnoticed.

You can see every hold tied to an order — what it reserved, and whether it's still active, was fulfilled, released, or expired — right on the order's page, and a running list of all of them under Reports.

Order Status Tracker New

Every order page opens with a visual progress bar — the same style whether you're viewing it in the office or a supplier is viewing it on their own account, so everyone is reading the exact same picture of where an order stands.

Office order page showing the detailed 8-step progress bar, checked off through Dispatched
The office view shows all eight real stages, including the internal ones (Loading, Delivery note issued, Invoiced, Payment received) that a supplier doesn't need to see individually.

Suppliers see a simpler five-milestone version of the same bar on their own order page — Order placed → Confirmed → Processing → In transit → Delivered — with the four internal administrative stages folded into a single "Processing" step. In transit stays highlighted as the current step for the entire time a truck is on the road, from the moment you mark an order Dispatched until you mark it Fulfilled; it only checks off once the order is actually fulfilled.

A cancelled order shows no bar at all

A checked-off progress bar always means real, completed steps — never a guess. If an order is cancelled, both the office and the supplier see a plain "Cancelled" notice instead of a partially-filled bar, since a cancelled order was never actually on track to finish.

Discounts order_discountsNew

Anyone in the office can request a discount on an order; only a Sales Manager or Super Admin can approve or reject it — keeping the ability to ask for a discount separate from the authority to grant one.

request a discount

  1. Open the order and find the Discount card.
  2. Enter an Amount and a Reason (e.g. "loyal dealer, matching a competitor quote").
  3. Click Request discount.
The order's total shows the discount as Pending and a Net total alongside the original. Every Sales Manager is notified by email.

approve or reject a discount Sales Manager

  1. Open the order — the Discount card shows Approve and Reject buttons only once a discount has actually been requested.
  2. Optionally add a decision note.
  3. Click Approve or Reject.
The person who requested it is emailed the decision. A rejected or still-pending discount blocks dispatch if Loading Authorization is also on — an order never ships at a discounted price nobody actually signed off on.
Watch: creating an order and requesting a discount on it.
Watch: a Sales Manager approving the discount request.

Credit Approval Workflow credit_approval_workflowNew

This replaces the soft Credit limit warning with a real hold that has to be formally cleared. If a new order would push a supplier over their credit limit, it's created anyway but flagged Credit: Pending automatically — nobody has to remember to check.

FinanceA dedicated role that sees the Credit approval card and can clear it. Notified by email the moment an order is flagged.

clear a credit hold Finance

  1. Open the flagged order — the Credit approval card only appears at all once an order genuinely exceeds that supplier's limit.
  2. Optionally add a note (e.g. "approved, dealer has paid down balance").
  3. Click Approve or Reject.
The order can't be authorized for dispatch while credit is Pending or Rejected — Loading Authorization checks this automatically.
Watch: Finance clearing a credit hold — the Credit approval card only appears at all once an order genuinely exceeds the limit.

Dispatch & Loading Authorization loading_authorizationNew

This is the one hard gate in the system: an order can't move to Dispatched until every relevant check has genuinely passed — payment confirmed, credit clear, stock actually held, and any discount approved. Each check is simply skipped (counted as passed) if its own feature isn't turned on.

confirm payment before dispatch

  1. Open the order and find the Payment confirmation card.
  2. Enter the Payment reference (bank transfer ref, teller number, etc.).
  3. Click Confirm payment received.

dispatch an order

  1. Set the order's status to Dispatched and optionally fill in Vehicle reg and Driver.
  2. Click Save & notify supplier.
If any check hasn't passed, you're told exactly which one — payment, credit, stock, or discount — instead of a generic error. A Super Admin can override a failed check with a written reason, which is permanently recorded against that dispatch.

Splitting a dispatch across more than one truck partial_dispatch

If an order is too large for one load, dispatch it in parts: when you set status to Dispatched, each line item defaults to "everything still outstanding" but you can reduce any quantity to send only part of it. The order's items table then shows Dispatched and Remaining columns, and the order only reaches Fulfilled once every last unit has actually gone out across however many loads it took.

Quote & Sample Requests

When a supplier adds products to their cart and submits it, or requests a single sample, it lands in your Quote Requests queue for review — nothing changes on the register until you act on it.

review and respond to a request

  1. Open the request from the Quote Requests list — you'll see exactly what was requested next to the product's current live stock, plus any note the supplier left.
  2. Choose a new Status: Acknowledged (you've seen it and are working on it), Fulfilled, or Cancelled.
  3. Optionally add a Note to supplier — e.g. delivery timing or a substitution.
  4. Click Save & notify supplier.
The supplier is emailed your status update and note right away.

turn a request into a priced order

  1. Open the request (this only applies to reorder requests, not samples, and requires pricing to be turned on).
  2. If any product listed isn't priced yet, you'll be told which ones — go set a Unit price on them first.
  3. Choose Payment terms.
  4. Click Convert & notify supplier.
A new order is created using current prices, the supplier is notified, and the request now links straight through to it — it can only be converted once.

Vendors & Purchase Orders purchase_orders

Raise a proper purchase order against one of Royal's own vendors and receive against it — including partial shipments — with a full record of what was ordered versus what actually arrived. This is the opposite direction from suppliers, who buy from Royal — vendors are who Royal buys from.

add a vendor

  1. Go to Vendors and click + Add vendor.
  2. Fill in Vendor name (required), plus contact, phone, email, address, and status.
  3. Click Add vendor.

raise a purchase order

  1. Go to Purchase Orders and click + New purchase order.
  2. Choose the Vendor, optionally an Expected date and a note.
  3. In the products table, enter a Qty and Unit cost for anything you're ordering — leave the rest blank.
  4. Click Create purchase order.
The PO starts Open. Its line items are fixed once created — if something needs to change, raise a new PO rather than editing this one.

receive stock against a purchase order

  1. Open the purchase order.
  2. Under Receive stock, enter what actually arrived for each line — can be less than ordered (a partial shipment) or more (the vendor over-shipped); leave a line blank if nothing from it arrived this time.
  3. Click Record receipt.
Received stock lands as STD and credits Central Warehouse immediately. The PO moves to Partially received after a partial delivery, and to Closed automatically once every line is fully received — or click Close PO — no more expected at any point to close it out short deliberately. A PO can only be cancelled while still Open with nothing received yet; once anything has arrived, close it instead.

Reports

The Reports page gives you a step back from individual products: stock totals by group and by category, how much activity (manual edits vs. bulk uploads) has happened in the last 30 days, which suppliers are most engaged (by how much they're watching and when they last logged in), and your most-watched products. If stock holds are turned on, a dedicated table shows every active and recently-resolved hold with full details; if credit limits are on, a Credit exposure table lists every supplier with a limit set, sorted by how much of it they're using; if purchase orders are on, an Open purchase orders table lists everything still awaiting delivery; if batch tracking is on, an Aging Stock table lists every tracked product's active batches, most urgent first. A full CSV export of the register is one click away.

Complaints customer_complaintsNew

A complaint can come in two ways: you log one yourself after a phone call or site visit, or a supplier files one directly from their own portal — both land in the same Complaints queue.

log a complaint

  1. Go to Complaints and click Log complaint.
  2. Choose the Dealer and a Type (breakage, delivery delay, availability, or other), and optionally link the specific Order and/or Product involved.
  3. Set a Priority and write a Description.
  4. Click Log complaint.

work and resolve a complaint

  1. Open the complaint, set Status to In progress and optionally Assign it to a staff member — the supplier sees this update immediately.
  2. Once it's sorted, set Status to Resolved and write what happened in Resolution.
  3. Click Save & notify dealer.
Only once a complaint is genuinely marked Resolved does the supplier's own complaint page unlock a "How did we do?" feedback box — they can't leave feedback on something that's still open, and you can't see their feedback before they've actually sent it.
Office complaint detail page showing status, priority, and the update form
A complaint's detail page — status, priority, assignment, and resolution all in one place.
Watch: logging a complaint, working it, scheduling a follow-up directly from it, then resolving it.

Follow-ups follow_up_managementNew

Schedule a call, visit, or check-in against any dealer — optionally tied to a specific complaint, order, or product — so nothing important relies on memory.

schedule a follow-up

  1. Go to Follow-ups and click + Schedule follow-up (or click it directly from a complaint's page, which pre-fills the dealer and links it automatically).
  2. Choose the Dealer and Type, and optionally an Order, Product, and who it's Assigned to.
  3. Set Scheduled for and add any notes.
  4. Click Schedule follow-up.
Resolving a complaint automatically creates its own follow-up activity, so a resolution is never the last anyone hears of it. Reminder emails go out ahead of the scheduled time, and anything left undone becomes overdue and escalates automatically if it isn't marked complete.
Follow-up scheduling form, linked to a complaint
Scheduling a follow-up directly from a complaint — the dealer and complaint link are pre-filled.

Proforma Invoices proforma_invoicesNew

A proforma invoice is a formal quotation document — not a confirmed order, and it never touches stock or pricing until you decide to convert something for real.

generate a proforma invoice

  1. From an existing order's page, click Generate proforma invoice — its line items and prices are pre-filled automatically (still editable), or start fresh from Proforma Invoices in the sidebar.
  2. Adjust the Dealer, Payment terms, Valid until date, quantities, and prices as needed.
  3. Click Create proforma invoice.
It starts as a Draft you can download as a branded PDF at any time.
A generated proforma invoice, pre-filled from an order
A proforma invoice generated directly from an order, ready to download as a PDF.
Watch: generating a proforma invoice straight from an order's page.

Staff Accounts

add a new staff member

  1. Go to Staff Users and click + Add staff user.
  2. Enter their Name and Email.
  3. Choose a Role:
    • Staff — manage products & stock, day-to-day operations.
    • Admin — full access, including Executive Overview and other staff users.
    • Super Admin — everything, plus system-level settings (only visible if you're a Super Admin yourself).
  4. Click Add staff user.
They're emailed a link to set their own password — no temporary password is ever shown or sent in plain text.

To remove someone's access, open their account and untick Active — this disables them without deleting their history, and can be reversed. You can't deactivate your own account, and only a Super Admin can change another Super Admin's role.

Roles, Departments & Approval Routing New

Two extra roles exist alongside Staff, Admin, and Super Admin, each tied to one of the approval workflows elsewhere in this guide:

Sales ManagerEverything Staff can do, plus approving or rejecting discount requests. See Discounts.
FinanceEverything Staff can do, plus clearing credit holds on orders. See Credit approval workflow.

set up a department and a reporting line

  1. Go to Departments and add whatever departments match your business (e.g. "Sales", "Warehouse", "Finance").
  2. Open a staff member's account, set their Department, and optionally who they Report to.
A reporting line is optional, and only changes who gets notified first — when a discount or credit approval is needed, the system looks for the requester's own manager (someone above them in the reporting line who holds the right role) before falling back to notifying every Sales Manager or every Finance user. Nothing about who is allowed to approve changes — that's still governed purely by role.

Securing Your Account (Two-Factor Login)

If your administrator has turned on Two-Factor Authentication, you can add an extra layer of protection to your own account — a code from an authenticator app, in addition to your password. This is optional per person, even once it's turned on system-wide.

turn on two-factor login for your own account

  1. Go to Security in the sidebar.
  2. Click Set up two-factor authentication — a QR code appears.
  3. Scan it with an authenticator app on your phone (any standard one works).
  4. Enter the 6-digit code the app shows you to confirm.
  5. Save the 8 recovery codes shown immediately afterward somewhere safe — this is the only time they're ever displayed.
From now on, signing in asks for your password, then that 6-digit code. If you ever lose your phone, one of your saved recovery codes gets you back in.

You can generate a fresh set of recovery codes at any time, or turn two-factor login off entirely by re-entering your current password.

System Settings Super Admin only

One page controls the shared setup for the whole system: your company's name/email/phone/address (shown on exports and emails), the default low-stock warning level for brand-new products, outbound email and WhatsApp delivery details, your currency, and — if Order Stock Holds is on — how many hours a hold lasts before it releases automatically (1 to 720 hours). "Send test email" and "Send test WhatsApp" buttons let you confirm delivery is working without waiting for a real event to trigger it.

Turning Features On or Off Super Admin only

The Features page is a single switchboard listing every optional part of the system — pricing & orders, stock holds, warehouses & showrooms, two-factor login, WhatsApp alerts, multiple languages, and more — each with a plain-English description and an on/off switch.

Turning something off hides it from both portals — nothing is deleted, so switching it back on later picks up exactly where it left off. This is the safe way to try something out or roll it back if it's not needed yet.

Connecting Other Systems Super Admin only

If Royal uses (or plans to use) an outside system — an accounting package, an ERP, or a custom script — to read data out of the stock register automatically, the Integrations page is where that access is granted.

  • Access keys — create a named key and choose exactly what it's allowed to read (orders, products, or stock history). The key is shown once, right after you create it — copy it immediately, as it can never be shown again. Revoking a key takes effect instantly.
  • Outbound notifications (webhook) — give the system one web address, and it will automatically notify that address whenever an order's status changes, so an outside system always has the latest information without you doing anything extra. A "send test" button lets you confirm it's working.
Part Two

For Suppliers

Everything you need to check live stock, request quotes and samples, and track your orders with Royal.

Signing In & the Register

Once you sign in at /login, you land straight on the live stock register — the same numbers Royal's own staff see, updated the moment they change anything.

Depending on what Royal has enabled for your account, you may also see a card showing your named Royal contact, a loyalty status card, and buttons to add products to a request or star ones you want to track.

Tile Mode & Icon Mode

Two buttons at the top of the register switch how stock is displayed — this doesn't change what data you see, only how it's laid out, and it's just for you (nothing is saved between visits).

Tile ModeA dense table, best for scanning many products or products at once. Click any column heading to sort by it.
Icon ModeLarge visual cards with a colour swatch for each product — best for browsing by look and feel.

Both views share the same search box and filters: text search, product group, category, size, stock status, your watchlist, and a sort dropdown.

What the colours mean

In stock — plenty available
Low stock — below Royal's warning level for that product
Out of stock — none available right now

Watching Products

Click the star (★) next to any product to watch it. From then on, if that product's quantity or status (In / Low / Out) changes, you'll get an email automatically — and a WhatsApp message too, if you've opted in (see Alerts & preferences). Click the star again to stop watching. Use the ★ My Watchlist filter to see only what you're tracking.

Requesting a Quote

send a reorder request to Royal

  1. Click the + button on any product row or card to add it to your cart.
  2. Open the cart (the cart icon at the top, showing how many items are in it).
  3. Adjust quantities or remove items as needed, and optionally add a Note to Royal (e.g. delivery timing or a project reference).
  4. Click Send request.
Royal's office is notified right away. Track your request any time under My Requests — you'll see its status and any note Royal sends back. If it's approved and converted into a priced order, you're notified and it moves to My Orders.
Request cart open with one product, quantity, delivery address, and a note filled in
The request cart — quantity, delivery address, needed-by date, and a note to Royal, all optional except quantity.
Watch: sending a request as a standard account (self-checkout off) — it lands in Royal's review queue rather than becoming an order instantly.

Instant Ordering (Self-Checkout) dealer_self_checkoutNew

If Royal has switched this on for your account specifically, sending your cart skips the review queue entirely — it becomes a real, priced order immediately, with no wait for someone in the office to approve it first.

This is per-account, not global

Self-checkout only works for accounts Royal has individually enabled it for, and only while every product in your cart is priced. If anything in your cart doesn't have a price set yet, your request quietly falls back to the normal review queue instead of failing outright — you'll never lose a request over it.

Everything after that point works exactly like any other order — the same status tracker, the same email and WhatsApp updates as Royal's office moves it through Confirmed, processing, dispatch, and delivery.

Watch: adding a product to the cart and sending it — it becomes a real order immediately, no waiting for office review.

Requesting a Sample

Deciding on a large order and want to see the product first? Use the sample-request button (⚑) on any single product for a one-click, no-cart, one-item request — separate from your regular cart. It goes to Royal's same review queue, just tagged as a sample.

Your Orders & Tracking

The My Orders page lists every order on your account with its current status and full details — and you're notified by email (and WhatsApp, if opted in) every time Royal updates a status.

Open any order to see a visual progress bar across the top, showing exactly how far it's got:

Order tracking page showing Order placed, Confirmed, and Processing checked off, In transit highlighted as current, Delivered still ahead
Order placed, Confirmed, and Processing are done; the truck icon shows this order is currently In transit — highlighted until it's actually delivered.

A step only ever checks off once it has genuinely happened — you'll never see "Delivered" light up ahead of the actual delivery. If an order is cancelled, the bar is replaced with a plain cancellation notice instead.

Complaints customer_complaintsNew

file a complaint

  1. Go to My Complaints and click New complaint.
  2. Choose a Type and write a Description — link an order if it's related to one.
  3. Click Submit.
It lands directly in Royal's Complaints queue — you can track its status (Open, In progress, Resolved) any time from My Complaints.

Once Royal marks a complaint Resolved and writes up what happened, opening it shows their resolution and unlocks a short "How did we do?" box — one piece of feedback per complaint, and it's the only time you're asked for it.

A resolved complaint showing the resolution text and a feedback form
A resolved complaint — the resolution is visible, and the feedback box only appears now that it's actually resolved.
Watch: opening a resolved complaint and sending feedback, from the dealer's side.

Alerts & Preferences

Email alerts (for watched products, requests, and orders) are always on for anything you're following. If Royal has WhatsApp alerts turned on, you can add that as a second channel:

turn on WhatsApp alerts

  1. Go to Notification Preferences (the bell icon).
  2. Enter your WhatsApp number in international format, e.g. +971501234567.
  3. Tick the opt-in checkbox.
  4. Click Save preferences.
You can't opt in without a number on file — add the number first.

Changing Language

If Royal has multiple languages turned on, a language dropdown appears at the top of your screen. Choose from English, Arabic, Hindi, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Spanish, French, Chinese, or Portuguese — Arabic automatically displays right-to-left. Your choice is remembered on your account for next time.

Note

Translations are machine-generated. If something reads oddly, the English version is always the most precise — especially for anything important like order details.

Market Insights

If enabled, this page shows general trends — which categories are moving fastest and which are getting the most requests — aggregated across all suppliers. Your own activity is never shown to other suppliers, and theirs is never shown to you individually.

Exporting the Register

A CSV export (matching whatever you currently have filtered) is always available for opening in a spreadsheet. If Branded PDF export is enabled, you can also download a formatted, Royal-branded PDF of exactly what's on your screen.

Part Three

Reference

Terms explained in plain language, a quick who-can-do-what table, and answers to common questions.

Glossary of Terms

STD / ECO / G&A
The three stock tiers Royal tracks for every product — Standard, Economy, and Grade A. A product's total is always these three numbers added together.
In / Low / Out of stock
A product's status, worked out automatically from its total: Out if there's none left, Low if it's below that specific product's own warning level, otherwise In stock. Every product can have its own warning level — it isn't one number for the whole catalog.
Central Warehouse
The default location every product's stock starts in. If you're using Warehouses & Showrooms, Central Warehouse always shows whatever hasn't been specifically moved to a named location — it's worked out automatically and can't drift out of sync with the real total.
In transit
The state a transfer's stock is in between being sent and being confirmed received. It's held in a system location you never pick directly, and doesn't count toward either the source's or the destination's balance until someone confirms it arrived.
Vendor
A company Royal buys stock from — the opposite direction from a supplier, who buys stock from Royal.
Purchase order (PO)
A record of stock ordered from a vendor. Tracks what was ordered, what's actually arrived so far (which can happen across more than one delivery), and what it cost.
Batch
A logged delivery of a tracked product, with a received date and optional lot code, used to flag aging stock. A product's stock total isn't required to add up to its batches — batches are advisory, not a strict ledger.
Stock hold
A temporary reservation placed on stock the moment an order is accepted (confirmed), so it can't be promised to two people at once. It's released automatically if the order isn't completed in time, or turned into a real deduction once the order is fulfilled.
Available vs. physical stock
When stock holds are active, suppliers see "available" stock — the physical count minus anything currently on hold — as the headline number, so what's shown is always genuinely obtainable. The STD/ECO/G&A breakdown always shows the real physical count.
Quote request
What a supplier sends when they add items to their cart (or request a sample) and submit it. It's a request for Royal to review — it isn't a confirmed order until Royal converts it into one.
Order
A confirmed, priced commitment — either created directly by Royal's office, converted from a supplier's quote request, or (if self-checkout is on for that account) created instantly from a supplier's own cart. It moves through stages: Pending, Confirmed, Loading, Delivery note issued, Invoiced, Payment received, Dispatched, Fulfilled (or Cancelled at most points) — see the order status tracker.
Payment terms
COD = cash on delivery. Net 15 / 30 / 60 = payment due within that many days of the order.
Credit limit
An optional cap on how much a supplier can have outstanding (ordered but not yet paid) at once. On its own, exceeding it only warns office staff — it never blocks an order outright, unless Credit Approval Workflow is also turned on, in which case it becomes a real hold Finance has to clear.
Loading authorization
The one hard gate before an order can dispatch — payment confirmed, credit clear, stock held, and any discount approved, all checked automatically. See Dispatch & loading authorization.
Self-checkout
An account-level setting that lets a specific supplier's cart become a real order instantly, with no office review step. See Instant ordering.
Proforma invoice
A formal quotation document, not a confirmed order — never affects stock or a supplier's real order history until you separately create an order for real.
Feature
An optional part of the system that Royal's administrator can switch on or off for everyone — like Pricing & Orders, Stock Holds, or Multiple Languages. If something in this guide isn't on your screen, it likely just hasn't been switched on yet.

Who Can Do What

RoleCan do
SupplierBrowse the register, request quotes/samples, view own orders — strictly limited to their own company's information.
StaffDay-to-day office work: products, stock, suppliers, orders, quote requests, imports, transfers, reports, complaints, follow-ups, proforma invoices.
Sales ManagerEverything Staff can do, plus approving or rejecting discount requests.
FinanceEverything Staff can do, plus clearing credit holds on orders.
AdminEverything Staff can do, plus Executive Overview and managing other office staff accounts.
Super AdminEverything, plus System Settings, Features, Integrations, overriding a failed loading authorization, and granting the Super Admin role itself.

Questions & Troubleshooting

"A feature I need isn't showing up."

Some features depend on another one being on first (for example, Stock Holds needs Pricing & Orders switched on too). Ask your Super Admin to check the Features page — it lists what each one requires.

"A product's Central Warehouse number looks wrong, even negative."

A negative number is a genuine signal, not a glitch — it means the named locations were collectively told about more stock than the product actually has. Fix it with a Stock Transfer, or by correcting a location's recorded count.

"I can't finish setting up two-factor login."

Double-check your phone's clock is correct and set automatically — the codes are time-based, and even a small clock drift will make every code look wrong.

"I never got a WhatsApp alert."

Three things all need to be true: Royal's WhatsApp delivery must be switched on and correctly configured, and you personally need both a WhatsApp number saved and the opt-in box ticked on your Notification Preferences page.

"A transfer I initiated doesn't show up at the destination."

That's expected until someone confirms it — transfers hold stock "in transit" between initiation and confirmation. Check the In transit filter on Stock Transfers and confirm receipt once the stock has actually arrived.

"An order won't move to 'Fulfilled'."

If Stock Holds is on, fulfilling is blocked when the physical stock on hand can no longer cover what was reserved (for example, if it was corrected downward afterward) — nothing is partially deducted. Check the product's current STD/ECO/G&A numbers against what the order needs.

"Daily emails (low-stock summary, reminders) never arrive."

These run on a schedule behind the scenes — if they've stopped, ask whoever manages your server to confirm the scheduled task is still running.

"An order won't move to 'Dispatched'."

Open the order and check the loading authorization checks it lists — payment, credit, stock, and discount. Whichever one hasn't passed is named explicitly rather than a generic error. A Super Admin can override with a written reason if it's genuinely urgent.

"I approved a discount but the order still won't dispatch."

Loading authorization checks payment, credit, stock, and discount independently — an approved discount clears only that one check. Look at the same card for whichever of the other three is still outstanding.