# How stock and cash move

What a branch and a distributor create, where the goods and the cash go at each step of a round, when the invoices are posted, what a closing settles, and who may see what.

**Distributors** is built for a business that sells goods from vans: the stock stays at a branch, distributors take part of it on the road, sell to shops and come back with cash, leftovers and the goods the shops returned. Every round follows the same four documents: an opening, distributions, expenses and a closing.

## Branches and distributors {#records}

Saving a branch or a distributor creates everything it needs; renaming it renames those records too.

| Record | Creates on saving | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| **Branch** | A Main and a Returns warehouse, an analytic account (plan **Branches**), a cash journal on a cash account of its own | Main holds the stock handed out; Returns receives leftovers and returns at closing; the cash journal receives the closing cash |
| **Distributor** | A Sale and a Returns warehouse, an analytic account (plan **Distributors**), a cash journal on a cash account of its own, a user | Sale holds what he carries; Returns what shops hand back; the cash journal's balance is the cash he holds |

The cash accounts are numbered from the defaults of [Distributors settings](distributors-settings). The journals and accounts are ordinary ones of Accounting, explained in [Accounting: start here](/docs/accounting-start-here).

## The round, step by step {#round}

| Step | Goods | Money |
|---|---|---|
| Opening, **Confirm** | Main warehouse of the branch to the distributor's Sale warehouse, one internal transfer | None |
| Distribution, **Confirm** | Sale warehouse to the customer; the customer's returns into the distributor's Returns warehouse | A draft invoice and a draft credit note |
| Distribution, **Register Payment** | None | Credit note and invoice posted and matched; the payment enters the distributor's cash journal |
| Expense, **Approve** and **Register Payment** | None | A vendor bill posted and paid, or an employee expense |
| Closing, **Compute** | None | Unpaid **Direct** distributions posted and paid from the distributor's cash journal |
| Closing, **Receive** | Leftovers and returns to the Returns warehouse of the branch | A payment out of the distributor's cash journal and one into the branch's, through the transit account |

The returned goods never go back into a Sale or a Main warehouse: from the Returns warehouse of the branch, **Record Scrap** writes off what cannot be sold.

## Direct and deferred {#direct-deferred}

The **Payment Type** of a distribution says when the shop pays. A **Direct** distribution is meant to be paid on delivery: when it is still unpaid at closing, **Compute** posts its invoice and records the payment from the distributor's cash journal on the closing date, as cash he should hold. A **Deferred** distribution stays open after the closing, and its invoice is collected later with **Register Payment**. The invoices and credit notes are ordinary customer documents ([Customer invoices](/docs/customer-invoices)), and the cash journals ordinary cash journals ([Banks, cash and currencies](/docs/banks-and-cash)).

## What a closing settles {#closing}

A closing starts in **Draft**. **Compute** reads the opening and the confirmed distributions linked to it: what should remain per product, the customer returns, the total paid and the expenses of the round. **Receive** then records what is handed back, in as many sessions as needed:

- every product and return received and the cash recorded reaching **Total Paid**: the closing is **Fully Received**, and its opening **Closed**;
- anything less: **Partially Received**, and **Receive** stays available.

The amount the dialog proposes is **Total Paid** minus the **Approved Expenses** and minus what was already received. Because the full state asks for the whole **Total Paid**, a closing with approved expenses stays **Partially Received** after that amount is confirmed.

When goods are missing, step 2 of **Receive** offers **Compensate Shortage**: the missing goods are sold to the distributor himself at their sales price, on a distribution marked **Shortage Compensation**, confirmed and paid from his cash journal, so their value joins the cash he must hand in. The closing's **Shortage Sales** counter opens it. A **Distributor Manager** can **Reset to Draft** a closing: its transfers are reversed, its payments cancelled and its opening reopened.

## Who may do what {#access}

| Access right on Distributors | Can |
|---|---|
| **Distributor** | **Distribution** and **Expenses**, for his own records only: record and confirm distributions, register their payment, print them, record and send expenses. He cannot change prices, taxes or the distributor. |
| **Distributor Manager** | Everything of every distributor of his companies, plus **Opening**, **Closing** and the configuration: **Cancel & Reverse**, **Reset to Draft**, approving any expense, setting passwords. |

A user with only the **Distributor** access right sees, in the other apps, only the invoices, bills and transfers of his own distributions, expenses and openings.

## What the app does not do {#limits}

- It does not put the analytic accounts it creates on invoice or bill lines.
- It has no printed report of its own: **Print A4** and **Print Roll** print the invoices and credit notes.
- Its settings are shared by all companies of the database.
- It runs no scheduled job and sends no e-mail by itself; [Distributors automations](distributors-automations) lists what it does when records are saved.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/distributors/how-stock-and-cash-move
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- Version: Distributors 19.0.1.1.0