How do I put an item on layaway?

Not all stores using Quail offer layaway, but if your store does and you need to manage your layaway items or put a new item aside, here’s how you do it. Open the Layaway view on the left, and you’ll see a list of all items currently on layaway:

To put a new item on layaway, click the big orange New Layaway Item button in the top-right. This will open up a form you can fill in with details of the item and customer:

Click Add Layaway Item when you’re ready to save the layaway item. If you’ve marked Make Down Payment? as ON then you’ll immediately open up a window where you can record the customer’s first layaway payment. Otherwise, click Customer in the list of layaway payments to record a payment:

If you’ve set the Print Receipt option to ON, then after you’ve entered the customer’s first payment Quail will print a layaway payment receipt. Otherwise, you’ll need to click the Customer button next to the layaway item, then click Print Receipt on the latest payment record in order to print a receipt:

These are slightly different than normal receipts, but they’re pretty much what you’d expect to see. Details of the item, payment, and amount remaining on the layaway:

How do I accept layaway payments?

Already have an item on layaway that you need to take a payment for? No problem: open up the layaway view and click Customer. A form like the first payment one above will appear; fill that guy in, and you’ll be good to go. There’s no minimum payment amount that Quail requires, so you’re free to have whatever store rules you need:

How do I credit vendors for payments on layaway items?

It’s up to you when you credit your vendors with payments for layaway items. To credit a vendor for payments on a layaway item, click the Vendor button next to the item in the layaway items list:

My customer has paid off an item and taken it away; how do I remove it from Quail?

Congratulations on the (long-delayed!) sale! To remove a finalized item, first you’ll need to fully credit the vendor using the Vendor button. Once that’s done, you can remove the item from your layaway list by clicking the little green icon next to it:

I’ve got a delinquent item – how do I contact the customer?

Hopefully the clerk who rang up the original sale took down the name and phone number of the customer (see above). If they did, there should be a phone icon () just beside the Customer payment button. Click that phone icon, and you’ll see the name and phone number of the customer.

My customer has cancelled their layaway, and I need to close/refund/cancel the item.

That’s a shame, but it is at least easy to clear up. Click the red trash can icon next to the item to open up a refund-or-close window:

This window shows you the history of the layaway to date, from when it was first put on layaway to each payment that’s made and each time the vendor was credited. If you want to fully refund any payments to the customer and debit them back from the vendor, you can just go ahead and click Close Layaway – that’s the default! Otherwise, you can alter the amount (and method) you want to refund to the customer, adjusting the amount to debit from the vendor (to reverse credits already made for earlier payments) to match.