Which My Local Shops App Should the Owner and Staff Use?

The business owner should use Trade Manager, Inventory Manager and Order Manager according to the work being done. An authorised employee who only needs to create customer bills should use Staff Bill, not the owner's Order Manager login.

This separation keeps each screen simple and prevents ordinary billing work from exposing supplier purchases, landed cost, invoice profit or owner reports.

Choose the app at a glance

Person and task	App to use	Why
Owner tracking a domestic or international purchase	Trade Manager	Keeps supplier order, payment, shipment, receiving, shortage, claim and actual landed cost together
Owner creating or maintaining products and stock	Inventory Manager	Manages products, colour-size SKUs, images, price, cost, barcodes and shop/godown quantities
Owner creating wholesale invoices and checking money	Order Manager	Handles GST/non-GST bills, parties, outstanding, payments, profit and owner/CA reports
Employee creating bills at the counter or dispatch point	Staff Bill	Uses the owner's parties, products and stock without showing owner-only cost, profit or reports
Owner who personally handles the counter	Order Manager	The owner gets the full billing workflow plus private business information
Employee receiving or transferring stock	No general staff inventory role yet	Inventory Manager remains an owner app; Staff Bill is focused on billing

One My Local Shops subscription connects all four apps. The owner does not buy each app separately and can add as many authorised billing staff as the business needs without an extra charge for each employee.

Why there are separate apps

A small wholesale business has several kinds of work, but the same person does not always perform all of them.

The owner may need to answer:

• What did we order from the supplier?
• How much has been paid and what is still due?
• How many pieces actually arrived?
• What is the real cost per received piece?
• Which colour and size is available at each shop?
• Which party owes money?
• How much profit did this invoice make?
• What records should be reviewed for the CA?

A billing employee usually needs a much smaller set of answers:

• Who is the buyer?
• Which item, colour and size are they taking?
• How many pieces are available here?
• What selling price was agreed?
• Is it a GST invoice or a plain bill?
• How much did the buyer pay now?
• Is any balance still pending?

Putting every owner control on the employee's phone would create confusion and unnecessary exposure. Removing owner controls from the owner's own app would make the business harder to manage. My Local Shops therefore follows a simple rule: one connected system, but a focused app for each job.

Trade Manager: owner-side purchase tracking

Trade Manager is for goods coming into the business. It follows a domestic or international purchase from placement until delivery and completion.

The owner can use it to record:

• supplier and purchase-party details;
• ordered items and quantities;
• supplier payments and pending amount;
• one or more shipments or consignments;
• transport, duty and other applicable charges;
• received quantities;
• shortage, damage and claims; and
• final actual cost per received piece.

Its hero calculation is important when the quantity received differs from the quantity ordered. If 100 pieces were purchased but only 80 usable pieces arrived, Trade Manager can distribute the applicable purchase and delivery costs across those 80 received pieces. The owner can then decide a selling price using the real recoverable cost rather than the original order quantity.

Trade Manager belongs with the owner or a highly trusted business decision-maker. It contains supplier obligations, purchase values, other charges and landed-cost information that counter staff do not need.

Read the complete Trade Manager guide and the landed-cost calculation guide.

Inventory Manager: owner-side product and stock control

Inventory Manager turns received goods into organised, sellable inventory.

The owner can use it to:

• create a product or bring received items forward from Trade Manager;
• keep a common product name, item code, category, HSN and GST rate;
• create separate colour-size SKUs;
• maintain SKU-specific images, selling price and cost;
• generate and scan product barcodes;
• distribute stock across shops and godowns;
• transfer quantity between locations;
• restock or adjust quantity with concurrency-safe writes;
• identify low-stock and out-of-stock products; and
• control whether a product and its price appear in the MLS digital shop.

Inventory Manager exposes information used to value and control stock. A general counter employee does not need access to landed cost, weighted cost, stock-value totals, transfers or write-offs merely to prepare an invoice.

This is why Staff Bill reads the safe product information needed for billing but does not turn into the complete Inventory Manager.

Read the complete Inventory Manager guide and how colours, sizes, SKUs and multi-location stock work.

Order Manager: owner billing, outstanding, profit and reports

Order Manager is the owner's full sales-side app.

The owner can use it to:

• create GST invoices and non-GST bills;
• select a Bill To party and, when applicable, a different Ship To address;
• add several colour-size SKUs from one grouped product;
• change the selling price for the actual deal;
• add an invoice-only custom item;
• record paid-in-full, partial-payment or full-credit sales;
• collect a pending amount later;
• close an agreed settlement difference deliberately;
• track party-wise outstanding;
• create invoice-linked credit notes for returns;
• print or share invoice and credit-note PDFs;
• see invoice-level sales, cost, profit and margin;
• review owner reports; and
• prepare the month-end CA pack.

Order Manager uses Inventory Manager's products and location stock. When an invoice is saved, the relevant SKU quantities are deducted safely and the owner can see the resulting bill and private profitability information.

If the owner personally creates every bill, no staff account is required. The owner can use Order Manager at the counter and retain the complete view.

Read the complete Order Manager guide.

Staff Bill: authorised employee billing without owner secrets

Staff Bill is for a counter employee, cashier or dispatch worker who needs to create and maintain customer bills under the owner's business.

An authorised staff user can:

• use the owner's active parties;
• add or update a party for the owner's business;
• search the owner's grouped products by name or item code;
• scan an inventory SKU barcode;
• see colour, size, SKU, selling price and available quantity;
• select several variants of one product together;
• deliberately complete missing HSN or GST information required for a bill;
• create GST or non-GST invoices;
• record full, partial or credit settlement;
• record a later payment against an invoice;
• print or share the buyer's invoice;
• create an eligible invoice-linked credit note; and
• see recent bills and their collection status.

Staff Bill does not provide the employee with:

• Trade Manager purchase records;
• supplier purchase values or charges;
• product landed-cost presentation;
• stock-worth dashboard;
• invoice profit or margin view;
• owner performance reports;
• CA month-end reports; or
• subscription and staff-management control.

The invoice still stores the cost snapshot needed for the owner's truthful profit calculation. Staff Bill simply does not render that owner-only information.

Read the detailed Staff Bill security and invoicing guide.

Owner and staff access comparison

Capability	Trade Manager	Inventory Manager	Order Manager	Staff Bill
Intended user	Owner	Owner	Owner	Authorised employee
Track supplier purchases	Yes	No	No	No
Calculate landed cost	Yes	Uses resulting cost	Shows cost at sale	Hidden
Create products and SKUs	No	Yes	Uses existing products	Uses existing products
Transfer or adjust stock	No	Yes	Deducts through a sale	Deducts through a sale
Create customer invoices	No	No	Yes	Yes
Add customer parties	No	No	Yes	Yes
Record customer payments	No	No	Yes	Yes
View party outstanding	No	No	Yes	Billing-related access
View invoice profit	No	No	Yes	No
Owner and CA reports	No	No	Yes	No
Invite or remove staff	No	No	Yes	No

“No” does not mean the apps are disconnected. It means that job is intentionally performed in another app while the relevant safe data continues to flow through the shared business account.

How the owner authorises a staff member

The owner should never give the employee the owner's Google account, MLS password or unlocked owner phone.

Use the staff flow instead:

1. The owner opens staff management in Order Manager.
2. The owner enters the exact Google-account email used by the employee.
3. The employee installs Staff Bill and signs in with that account.
4. Staff Bill shows the matching invitation.
5. The employee accepts it and completes their staff details.
6. The app binds that staff account to the subscribed owner's business.

A random signed-in user cannot enter another seller's data without this relationship. Party and product searches remain scoped to the bound owner rather than searching all subscribers.

An accepted staff account belongs to one owner at a time. The owner can remove the employee, and the employee can leave the owner from Staff Bill Settings. Ending the relationship removes future access without deleting the historical identity stored on invoices already created.

Which location does staff bill from?

If the employee has permission for one shop or godown, Staff Bill can use it directly. When the owner permits multiple locations, the employee selects the billing location from that permitted list.

That selection controls:

• which location's inventory is displayed and deducted;
• which business name and address appear on the invoice;
• which seller GSTIN is used where applicable; and
• which location is recorded against the sale.

The owner controls these permissions from Order Manager. All current locations begin selected for simple setup, and the owner can remove any shop or godown the employee should not use. Staff Bill does not offer a blocked location as a billing choice.

What happens when staff create an invoice

The invoice is saved under the owner's business, not under a separate staff stock book.

The process is:

1. Staff Bill resolves the accepted owner relationship.
2. The employee selects the correct billing location.
3. Party search reads only that owner's party records.
4. Product search reads grouped products available at that location.
5. The employee enters quantities and negotiated selling prices.
6. The app validates HSN/GST details where a tax invoice requires them.
7. The employee records the actual payment state.
8. Final save rereads current SKU quantities.
9. The invoice and stock deductions commit together when stock is sufficient.
10. The invoice appears in the owner's Order Manager with the staff identity attached.

The owner can then review outstanding, record or verify later payments, inspect landed cost and profit, and include the bill in owner or CA workflows.

This avoids two dangerous alternatives: creating a second unrelated stock book for staff, or sharing the owner's complete account.

Realistic two-shop example

Aliana Garments has two shops and one godown.

The owner uses:

• Trade Manager to track a shirt purchase from the supplier and calculate the final received-piece cost;
• Inventory Manager to create colour-size SKUs and distribute the received stock between both shops and the godown; and
• Order Manager to review invoices, party outstanding, profit and month-end reports.

Sana works at the first shop's counter. The owner invites her Google-account email from Order Manager and permits only that shop. Sana installs Staff Bill, accepts the invitation and sees the first shop as her billing location.

A retailer orders Red / M, Red / L and Blue / M variants of the same design. Sana searches the item code once, enters all three quantities and the negotiated selling price for each, records a partial UPI payment and shares the invoice.

The stock leaves the first shop's inventory. The pending amount remains against that party. The owner sees the invoice and Sana's identity in Order Manager, together with private cost and profit. Sana can continue billing without seeing how much the owner paid the supplier.

If the owner creates a large negotiated bill personally at the second shop, the owner uses Order Manager instead. Both invoices still belong to the same seller and connected stock system.

What should a solo owner install?

A solo owner does not have to install every app on the first day.

Start with the app matching the immediate problem:

• Trade Manager when purchases and delivery costing are the biggest burden;
• Inventory Manager when product and stock organisation is the priority; or
• Order Manager when wholesale billing and outstanding collection are the priority.

The owner can install the other owner apps later and sign in with the same account. Existing cloud data follows the account.

There is no reason for a solo owner to use Staff Bill as a substitute for Order Manager. Staff Bill intentionally omits the private owner view.

What should a business with one billing employee install?

The owner installs the owner apps needed for management. The employee installs only Staff Bill.

For a typical small business:

• Owner phone: Trade Manager + Inventory Manager + Order Manager.
• Billing-counter phone: Staff Bill.

The owner may use only two owner apps regularly, but keeping the role separation matters more than the number of icons installed.

What happens when staff change?

Local wholesale businesses may replace billing staff over time. The business should not be tied to one employee's personal data store.

When an employee leaves:

1. the owner removes their staff relationship in Order Manager;
2. that employee loses access to the owner's Staff Bill data;
3. invoices they created remain in the owner's records; and
4. the stored creator identity remains available for history.

The new employee receives a fresh invitation for their own Google account. The owner does not need to transfer the previous employee's login or recreate the catalogue.

Why sharing the owner login is risky

Using one owner password on every counter phone may look convenient, but it removes the boundary between operation and ownership.

It can expose:

• purchase and supplier information;
• landed and average cost;
• invoice profit and margin;
• complete business reports;
• other shops' operational information;
• staff-management controls; and
• the ability to make owner-level changes.

It also makes invoice history less useful because every action appears to come from the owner account.

Staff Bill solves this with a separate employee identity while continuing to write the resulting bill into the owner's business.

Current boundaries to understand

The role model is deliberately practical rather than infinitely configurable:

• Trade Manager, Inventory Manager and Order Manager are owner apps.
• Staff Bill is the employee app for billing work.
• Staff access depends on the owner's active subscription.
• A staff account connects to one owner at a time.
• The owner chooses which billing locations each staff member may use.
• Staff Bill does not provide a custom permission switch for every button.
• General employee inventory receiving, transfers and write-offs are not a Staff Bill role.
• Owner and Staff Bill invoice creation require the connected cloud service; they are not designed as independent offline ledgers.
• The apps record payment information but do not themselves move cash, UPI or bank funds between buyer and seller.

These boundaries should guide real operating procedure. Give Staff Bill only to employees trusted to create customer bills and select the correct dispatch location.

Frequently asked questions

Should the owner use Staff Bill for billing?

The owner can, but Order Manager is the correct owner app because it includes the complete billing, outstanding, profit and reporting view.

Should counter staff install Order Manager?

No. Invite them to Staff Bill instead so they can bill without receiving the owner's private screens.

Can staff see landed cost or invoice profit?

No. Staff Bill does not display landed-cost, invoice-profit, margin or owner-report screens.

Can staff create GST and non-GST invoices?

Yes. Staff Bill provides the authorised billing flow, including applicable HSN, GST and payment handling.

Can staff add a new retailer?

Yes. The party is created under the bound owner's business and becomes available to the owner as well.

Can staff change selling price?

Yes. The saved price is prefilled, but the employee can enter the actual negotiated price for each SKU on that invoice.

Can staff see stock?

They can see availability needed for billing at the selected location. They do not receive the complete Inventory Manager stock-control and cost experience.

Can staff transfer products between shops?

No. Transfers and general inventory adjustments remain in Inventory Manager for the owner.

Does each staff member need a paid subscription?

No. Staff Bill works under the authorised owner's active seller subscription. Add as many billing staff as the business needs without increasing the subscription price.

Can staff work for two owners at once?

An accepted staff account is bound to one owner at a time.

Can the owner see who created a staff invoice?

Yes. The staff name and account identity are snapshotted onto the invoice.

Does removing staff delete their old invoices?

No. Historical invoices remain part of the owner's business records.

Can one staff member be permanently restricted to one shop?

Yes. The owner can permit only that shop for the employee. Staff Bill shows only the locations allowed by the owner.

Download the right app

• View all My Local Shops business apps
• View Trade Manager
• View Inventory Manager
• View Order Manager
• View Staff Bill
• Understand unlimited billing staff with no extra charge
• Compare current subscription plans

The next guide explains what happens to business records, images and account access when the owner changes or loses a phone.