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Inventory · Service items
Sell the installation. Buy the repair. Count nothing.
A service is an item that never holds stock. Catalogue it once with its price and income account, then put it on quotes, invoices and the till beside the goods you sell — no shelf check, no cost of goods, revenue booked the day the invoice is issued. Buy one the same way: RFQ, purchase order, then confirm the work was done.
Quotes · Sales orders · Invoices · Recurring invoices · POS · Price lists · KRA eTIMS · RFQs · Purchase orders · Withholding tax · Import · API · Android · QuickBooks
INV-1042 · Rafiki Logistics LtdIssued
Network switch, 24-port32,000
Network installation, per site45,000
Site visit, Karen3,000
Subtotal, KES80,000
No stockno shelf quantity, no check-in or check-out, no reservation, no count and no low-stock alert — ever
At issuea services-only invoice books its revenue the day it is issued, to each service’s own income account
8020891800the KRA eTIMS services class code a service files under, unless you give the item its own
PO priceconfirming a service was delivered books what you owe the supplier at the price on the order
Why it goes wrong as a stock item
An hour of work is not a box on a shelf. Most systems make you pretend it is.
The usual workaround is to create “Installation” as a product and give it a stock of 9,999. It sells, until it shows up on the low-stock alert, in the stock valuation, in the count sheet the storekeeper is asked to fill in, and in a cost-of-goods figure that was never spent. The other workaround — typing the service as free text on every invoice — keeps it out of stock, and out of every price list and every sales report with it.
A service item is the third way. It sits in the same catalogue as your goods, with a code, a category, a price and a barcode label if you want one. Every sales and purchasing document takes it. Every place that moves, counts, values or reorders stock leaves it out.
Who sells work as well as goods
Most businesses do. The invoice just has not admitted it.
Examples in KES. The prices are illustrative; your catalogue holds whatever you charge.
Installers
Solar, CCTV and borehole pumps: the panel is stock, the fitting is a service on the same invoice.
Solar installation, 3 kW · 25,000Repair shops
Phones, motor vehicles, appliances: parts leave the shelf, labour does not.
Diagnostic, per unit · 1,500Hotels and lodges
Spa treatments, laundry and airport transfers sold at the front-desk till beside the minibar.
Laundry, per bag · 800Clinics
A consultation fee at the till and on the invoice, with dispensed items counted as stock.
Consultation, GP · 2,000Consultancies
Advisory days and retainers on quotes and recurring invoices, priced from a client’s own list.
Advisory day · 60,000Transporters
Delivery and haulage charged per trip, and bought from subcontracted trucks on a purchase order.
Delivery, Nairobi CBD · 2,500IT support
Monthly support, setup and call-outs, sold beside the hardware and bought from specialists.
Support retainer, monthly · 25,000Organizations that buy
Generator servicing, cleaning, security and audit fees, bought through procurement like any purchase.
Generator service visit · 12,500 Three kinds of line
Stock item, service, or custom line. Each document says which.
Quotes, sales orders, proformas, invoices and recurring invoices label every line as one of three. You choose a service with the Item type select at the top of the item form, or the toggle in the Android app.
Item · in the catalogue
Stock item
Goods you keep on a shelf. Its selling price is its cost plus your markup.
- Checked against the shelf at the till and on the invoice.
- Reserved or backordered when a sales order is confirmed.
- Revenue and cost of goods booked when the stock leaves.
- Received on a purchase order by a check-in.
Service · in the catalogue
Service
Work you sell or buy. Its selling price is typed; a buying price — what it costs you to deliver — is optional.
- No stock check at the till or on the invoice, ever.
- Never reserved or backordered by a sales order.
- No cost of goods. On a services-only invoice, revenue books at issue to the service’s income account.
- Received on a purchase order by confirming delivery.
- Priced by your price lists like any item.
Custom line · free text
Custom line
Still there for the genuine one-off — a site visit you will never charge again, an agreed adjustment.
- Typed description and price, nothing in the catalogue.
- No stock involved.
- Revenue goes to Sales Revenue.
Anything you sell twice is worth cataloguing: it gets a price list row, a line in Sales by item, and its own income account.
Selling, worked through
A services-only invoice reaches the ledger the moment it is issued.
An invoice with goods on it books its revenue when the goods are checked out of stock. An invoice of services has nothing to check out, so it books when it is issued — and the Checkout button is not offered on it at all. Amounts in KES, VAT at 16%.
INV-1043 to Rafiki Logistics Ltd, Westlands
Two catalogued services, each with its own income account, and one custom line. No goods.
Network installation, per siteService · income account: Installation income45,000.00
Support retainer, monthlyService · income account: Support income25,000.00
Site visit, KarenCustom line3,000.00
VAT 16%11,680.00
Invoice total84,680.00
Issued, 6 Oct revenue for INV-1043
DrAccounts receivable84,680
CrInstallation income45,000
CrSupport income25,000
CrSales revenue3,000
CrTaxes payable11,680
No cost of goods line, and no stock movement. Cancel the invoice and the same entry is reversed.
Two more things that happen on issue
Filing and the till, the same day.
KRA eTIMS filed when the invoice is issued
Each service line files under the services item class code8020891800
Goods file under the goods class code5059690800
Or the item’s own classification code, where you set oneyours
At the till web POS and Android
Diagnostic, per unit — sold with no shelf check1,500
Screen protector — checked against the shelf as usual700
A POS return of the diagnostic never restocks it—
A mixed invoice goods and services together
Books its whole revenue once, at the stock checkout, as an invoice of goods always has. The service lines on it still carry no cost of goods.
Buying a service
Requested, quoted, ordered, confirmed, paid.
Procurement requests, RFQs, supplier quotations and purchase orders all take a service. A request for a service always goes to an RFQ on approval — there is no shelf to issue it from. Awarding a quote updates the service’s cost, never its selling price.
PO-0318 · Lakeview Power Services1 of 4 confirmed
Services on this order
| Service | Ordered | Confirmed | Outstanding | Confirm delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generator service visit | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1Confirm |
Confirmed, 14 Oct 1 visit × 12,500, the order’s price
DrPurchases12,500
CrAccounts payable12,500
Whole units, never past what is outstanding. The history keeps when, how many, the amount, who confirmed it and their note.
What the confirmation unlocks
A service is received by confirming it was done, with the same permission that checks goods in.
Delivered statusThe order is marked delivered once goods are checked in and services confirmed
Three-way matchingConfirmations count as received
PaymentOne rule on every pay path: each line received or confirmed. A services-only order is paid through the vendor payments ledger
Vendor portalThe supplier sees a work status on a services-only order
AndroidA Confirm services sheet on the purchase order screen
Landed costs and returnsLanded costs skip services; a supplier return refuses one — use a debit note
Withholding tax lands on the service, not the parts
On a supplier bill, withholding is levied on the service lines and free-text lines only. Goods on a mixed bill are left out of the base. Illustrative 5% rate.
Generator service visitService12,500.00
Air filter, replacementStock item4,200.00
Withholding 5% of the service line, 12,500625.00
Withholding base12,500.00, not 16,700.00
Reports that know the difference
Services in the sales figures. Out of every stock figure.
Sales by item lists services beside goods, with a goods-versus-services revenue split. Where a service has no cost recorded, its margin reads n/a rather than a flattering 100%. Every stock report, low-stock alert, dead-stock scan, reorder suggestion, forecast and the nightly reorder-point recalculation leave services out.
Sales by item · October Goods: KES 280,000Services: KES 395,000
| Item | Qty | Revenue | Cost | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network installation, per site · Service | 6 | 270,000 | — | n/a |
| Support retainer, monthly · Service | 5 | 125,000 | 75,000 | 40.0% |
| Network switch, 24-port | 8 | 256,000 | 198,400 | 22.5% |
| Patch cable, 2 m | 120 | 24,000 | 14,400 | 40.0% |
The custom report builder carries an Item Type column and dimension, so any dataset that includes items can be split the same way.
Everywhere an item goes
One type, carried into every corner.
A form that fits
Choosing Service hides the stock fields — inventory account, stock, reorder point, tracking, preferred vendor — and asks for a typed selling price, an optional buying price and an optional income account.
Switching type, safely
A service can become a stock item at any time, starting at zero. A stock item becomes a service only once it holds no stock, reservation, open count or serial and batch records. The type is a governed field, so a change can wait for approval.
Lists and details
A type filter and a Service badge on the item list, with stock and reorder shown as a dash. The item page drops its Stock, Adjustments and Predictive tabs for a service.
Bulk import and export
An Item Type column in the import template: a service row needs no inventory account and ignores stock and reorder point. An existing item keeps its type. Excel and PDF exports carry it.
Web and Developer API
item_type on every item, a ?item_type= filter, and stock fields returned as null for a service. Low-stock endpoints and the public stock API leave services out.
Android
The type toggle, a Service badge, no stock pill or check-in for a service, sale at the till without a shelf check, the three-way line editor on invoices, and confirming services on a purchase order. The offline cache carries the type.
QuickBooks Online
A service is pushed as a QuickBooks Service item, with an income and an expense account and no asset account. Goods are unchanged.
Search, scan and the assistant
Global search tags a service. Scanning its label offers open and print, nothing that moves stock. Ask the assistant how many you have and it says the item is a service and carries no stock.
A start in every new workspace
New workspaces begin with a Sample Service and a Services category, so the first invoice can carry one without any setup.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- An Item type of Stock item or Service, chosen on the item form and in the Android app, with the stock fields hidden for a service.
- A typed selling price, an optional buying price and an optional income account on each service, with Sales Revenue as the fallback.
- Services on quotes, sales orders, proformas, invoices, recurring invoices and price lists, labelled Item, Service or Custom line on every document.
- Sale at the till and on the invoice with no stock check, a sales order that never reserves or backorders a service, and a POS return that never restocks one.
- Revenue at issue for a services-only invoice, split across each service’s income account, with no cost of goods and a full reversal on cancellation.
- KRA eTIMS filing under the services item class code 8020891800, overridden by an item’s own classification code where one is set.
- Services through procurement requests, RFQs, supplier quotations and purchase orders, with a quote award that updates cost only.
- Delivery confirmation on the purchase order in whole units, booking Purchases against Accounts Payable at the order price, counted by three-way matching and the payment rule.
- Withholding tax on service and free-text lines only on a supplier bill.
- Sales by item with services, an n/a margin where no cost is recorded, and a goods-versus-services split, with every stock report and reorder job leaving services out.
- Item Type in bulk import, exports, the Web and Developer APIs, the Android app and the QuickBooks Online sync.
More we can add to your workspace
- Decimal quantities on services, so 1.5 hours bills as 1.5 rather than as whole units or a 30-minute block.
- A third item type for non-stock goods — stationery, cleaning supplies — bought and expensed but never counted.
- A per-service expense account picker on the item form, so each bought service books to its own cost account rather than Purchases.
- A services quantity unit on eTIMS, filed in place of the general unit every line carries today.
Decimal quantities are the item in that middle column that most changes how a time-billing business invoices, and a non-stock goods type is the one that most tidies a purchasing ledger. Tell us how you bill and buy today and we will come back with a written spec, a timeline and a price.
Around the service
Where a service meets the rest of the system.
Inventory managementThe catalogue a service shares with your goods, and the stock rules it stays out of. Quotes, sales orders and proformasPrice lists and the quote-to-invoice flow a service rides on. Point of saleThe till that sells a service beside a shelf item. KRA eTIMS and taxInvoice filing at issue, and the class code each line carries. Purchase orders and receivingGoods checked in and services confirmed on one order. Withholding taxThe deduction a supplier bill carries on its service lines.
Service items
Frequently asked questions
What is a service item?
An item whose Item type is Service rather than Stock item. It sits in the same catalogue as your goods, with a code, a category, a selling price and optionally a buying price and its own income account, and it can be sold and bought anywhere an item can. It never carries stock: there is no shelf quantity, check-in, check-out, reservation, count, transfer, reorder point or cost of goods for it.
How is it different from a custom line on an invoice?
A custom line is free text typed on one document. A service is catalogued once, so it is priced by your price lists, appears in Sales by item, books to its own income account and files to eTIMS under the services class code. Custom lines are still there for genuine one-offs, and every document labels each line as Item, Service or Custom line.
When does the revenue for a service reach the ledger?
On a services-only invoice, when the invoice is issued: accounts receivable for the total, each service’s income account for its share (Sales Revenue where none is set, and for custom lines), and taxes payable for the tax. Cancelling the invoice reverses it. An invoice that also carries goods books its whole revenue once, at the stock checkout, as before. A service never books cost of goods.
Can I sell a service at the till?
Yes, on the web POS and in the Android app. A service sells with no shelf check, and a POS return of a service never puts it back into stock.
How does a service file to KRA eTIMS?
Under the services item class code, 8020891800, where goods use 5059690800. An item can carry its own eTIMS classification code, which overrides either default. The quantity unit stays the general default for now; a services quantity unit is something we can add to your workspace.
How do we receive a service we bought on a purchase order?
By confirming delivery on the purchase order rather than by a check-in. The order shows a Services on this order panel with the quantity ordered, confirmed and outstanding; you confirm whole units, never more than is outstanding, with an optional note. Each confirmation books Purchases against Accounts Payable at the order price, counts as received for three-way matching and payment, and the order is marked delivered once every line is in. It uses the same permission as checking goods in.
Does withholding tax apply to the goods on a mixed supplier bill?
No. Withholding on a supplier bill is levied on its service lines and free-text lines only, so the goods on a mixed bill are left out of the base.
Can I bill half an hour?
Quantities on the till, purchase orders, RFQs, quotes and delivery confirmations are whole units today, so bill time in whole units or catalogue a block such as a 30-minute session. Decimal quantities on services are something we can add to your workspace.
Can an existing stock item be turned into a service?
Yes, once it holds nothing a service cannot: no stock or shelf quantity, no reservation or hold, no unfinished count and no serial or batch records. The change is refused until then. A service can become a stock item at any time, starting at zero. Item type is a governed field, so where item master approval is on, the change waits for it.
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