Two and a Half Kilos
An agro-dealer sells fertiliser by the kilo, a hardware shop sells wire by the metre, a filling station sells diesel by the litre. Since 14 October every item carries a unit of measure, and stock moves in decimals wherever the unit allows it.
A farmer in Eldoret asks for two and a half kilos of DAP, scooped from an open 50 kg bag. The sale is three seconds of work at the counter. For the stock system it used to be a small dilemma, because a quantity of 2.5 had nowhere to go.
Where the half went
Until this release, stock quantities here were whole numbers. A whole-number field does not reject 2.5 with a helpful message. It keeps a whole number — the half is rounded or cut, depending on which screen took the entry — and nothing on the receipt or the stock card tells you it happened.
One sale loses half a kilo of record. A busy Saturday at an agro-dealer is forty loose-weight sales, and if the fractions average a quarter of a kilo each way they do not cancel out neatly: the open bag drifts away from the stock card by several kilos a week. By the time someone counts it, the difference reads as shrinkage, and the person behind the counter gets the conversation.
The half kilo did not go missing from the shelf. It went missing from the record, which is worse, because only one of those can be counted.
Every item now has a unit
Each item carries a unit of measure, chosen on the item’s create or edit screen on the web or in the mobile app, and shown beside the stock figure everywhere you see one. The units fall into two families, and the family decides what a quantity may look like.
Whole units
- pcs, box, pack, carton, pair, set
- dozen, roll, bag, bottle
- Quantities are whole numbers
- A quantity of 2.5 is refused at entry, with the unit named
Measured units
- kg, g, t, l, ml
- m, cm, m2, m3, hr
- Up to three decimal places
- 2.5 kg, 37.25 l and 0.125 t are all valid
Decimals run end to end, not just at the till: receipts, issues, transfers between warehouses, stock counts, quality holds, reservations, POS sales and returns, purchase requests, quotation requests, purchase order lines and reorder suggestions. A measured quantity entered on a purchase order arrives as the same measured quantity on the check-in and leaves as the same on the sale.
Who this is for
| Business | Item | Unit | A typical sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agro-dealer | DAP fertiliser, loose | kg | 2.5 kg |
| Hardware | Binding wire | kg | 0.75 kg |
| Hardware | PVC conduit | m | 13.5 m |
| Fuel and gas | Diesel | l | 37.25 l |
| Fabric and tailoring | Kitenge cloth | m | 2.75 m |
| Pharmacy | Bulk syrup base | ml | 150 ml |
| Quarry and builders | Ballast | t | 0.125 t |
The rule that keeps a count honest
Making every item decimal would have been simpler to build and worse to use. A box of screws is not something you sell 0.4 of, and a quantity field that accepts it invites a typing slip to become a stock figure. So the unit decides: a whole-unit item still refuses a fraction, and a measured one accepts up to three decimal places.
Changing an item’s unit is guarded in the same spirit. An item that is currently holding fractional stock — 412.5 kg on hand, say — cannot be switched to a whole unit until that stock is adjusted to a whole figure. Otherwise the switch would quietly reproduce exactly the rounding this release exists to remove.
Selling loose from a bag, today
Set the item up in kilograms rather than bags. Receive twenty 50 kg bags as 1,000 kg, price the purchase order line per kilo, and sell by weight at the counter. The stock card then reads in the unit you actually sell, and a count is a weighing rather than an estimate of how full the open bag looks.
That last workaround points at the one thing this release does not do. Many shops buy in one unit and sell in another — cartons of 24 in, single pieces out; 50 kg bags in, kilos out — and would like the system to hold both on one item and convert between them. That is a real piece of work, and it is the first thing in the ledger below. Until it lands, set each item up in the smallest unit you transact and buy in that unit too.
For how quantities feed the reorder calculation, see reorder points and safety stock; for the item set-up screens themselves, see inventory management.
Three questions to ask of any stock system that claims decimals
Enter 2.5 on a piece-counted item. What happens?
A good answer sounds like
It is refused, and the message names the unit.
What it tells you
Decimals everywhere is as risky as decimals nowhere.
Receive 37.25 litres on a purchase order. What does the stock card say after?
A good answer sounds like
37.25 l, on the receipt and on the card.
What it tells you
Decimals that stop at the till become rounding somewhere upstream.
Can I switch an item from kg to pcs while it holds 12.5 kg?
A good answer sounds like
Not until the stock is adjusted.
What it tells you
A silent switch is the old rounding defect wearing a new label.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- A unit of measure on every item, picked on create or edit on the web and in the mobile app, and shown beside the stock figure.
- Whole units (pcs, box, pack, carton, pair, set, dozen, roll, bag, bottle) that refuse a fractional quantity.
- Measured units (kg, g, t, l, ml, m, cm, m2, m3, hr) that accept up to three decimal places.
- Decimal quantities through receipts, issues, transfers, counts, holds, reservations, POS sales and returns, procurement lines and reorder suggestions.
- A guard that stops an item holding fractional stock from being switched to a whole unit until it is adjusted.
More we can add to your workspace
- Unit conversion on one item — buy in cartons of 24, sell in pieces, with the stock held once and shown in either.
- Alternate purchasing units per supplier, so one vendor quotes per bag and another per tonne for the same item.
- Catch weight, for goods sold by the piece and priced by the weighed kilo, such as meat or fish.
Where we point you to a specialist
- Weights and measures certification for a scale or a fuel pump is a matter between you and the metrology authority. The system records the quantity the scale or the pump gave it.
Anything above that you need, we can build for you
Everything listed above as something we can add describes what ships in the standard product today — it is a starting point, not a limit on what AWRA OpsHub can do for your organisation. Kenya's eTIMS integration and its maintained payroll engine are both in the product because clients needed them and commissioned them; neither appeared by itself, and the same door is open for whatever you just read about. One qualification so this is worth what it claims: a small number of things on this blog we deliberately leave to a specialist rather than build — a statutory ledger we will not sign our name to, a rule that would decide a tax question for you, a clinical or member-funds record that belongs in a regulated system — and where that is true the post says so in those words. Everything else is a scope, a timeline and a price.
The operational work, which is what most commissions actually are
An extra approval stage in a chain that does not match the standard one, a custom field set on employees or assets that only your sector needs, an expiry that has to block an order rather than send an email, a report your board asks for in a shape nothing produces, or a scanner or weighbridge feeding the goods-in door. These are the commissions we are asked for most often and the smallest ones we quote — and unlike a revenue-authority pipeline, none of them waits on a regulator.
The module-shaped additions, which are the ones readers ask for most often
A price list with real discount authority, a customer-facing quotation that expires, a bill of materials or recipe costing, a staff advance that is issued, acquitted and chased, a member or unit ledger, a matching rule that holds a payment. Each of these is a build rather than a setting, and each has been quoted before — a bigger piece of work than a custom field, with a written spec and a date instead of a roadmap slide.
The report, document or pack nothing currently produces
The board pack in the shape your board actually asks for, a donor or funder layout, an invoice or receipt template carrying what your regulator or your customer expects, a dataset the report builder cannot reach yet. Usually the fastest thing on this list to deliver, because the data is already in the system.
Systems, rails and hardware you already run
The accounting package, CRM, online store, core banking or custom database you intend to keep — connected through our API so a fact is entered once and appears everywhere it is needed. Plus the physical edge: a scanner, a scale, a weighbridge or a till peripheral feeding the door it belongs to.
How it works: you describe the requirement, we return a written scope, timeline and cost, and once agreed it is built into your environment and maintained as part of the product. Nothing here waits on a regulator or a published specification, which is why operational builds are the ones we quote fastest. Tell us the requirement that would otherwise rule us out — that is a better first conversation than a demo.
Tell us what your operation needsSet your items in the unit you sell
Open an item, pick its unit, and the next receipt and sale carry the decimals through. If you buy in one unit and sell in another and want both on one item, tell us how your shop works.
Talk about unitsFrequently asked questions
Can I sell 2.5 kg of an item at the till?
Yes, if the item’s unit is a measured unit such as kg. Measured units accept up to three decimal places at the till and everywhere else stock moves.
Which units allow decimals?
kg, g, t, l, ml, m, cm, m2, m3 and hr accept up to three decimal places. pcs, box, pack, carton, pair, set, dozen, roll, bag and bottle are whole units and refuse a fraction.
Can I buy in cartons and sell in pieces on the same item?
Not yet. Unit conversion on one item is something we can add to your workspace. Today, set the item up in the smallest unit you sell and buy in that unit too.
Why can I not change an item from kg to pieces?
The item is holding fractional stock. Adjust the quantity on hand to a whole number first, then change the unit, so nothing is rounded away in the switch.
Does the mobile app show units too?
Yes. The unit is shown beside the stock figure in the app, and the item create and edit screens there carry the unit picker.
