How to run an optical shop with OpticAdmin

A typical day

Five steps, always the same. Everything else in the software revolves around them.

The customer

Search before you create: three letters of the name are enough. If they have been before, their record holds their old prescriptions and what they still owe you.
The visit

The prescription, the lenses, the frame, the deposit. This is the central screen: everything about this sale lives here.
The order slip and the invoice

Printed from the visit, numbered, with nothing retyped. The slip goes to the lab, the invoice stays with the customer.
Delivery

When the lab delivers, set the order to "Received": the customer is told. "Delivered" when they leave with it — that is when stock is deducted.
The money

Every payment is entered on the visit. What remains due shows under Unpaid, cheques under Cheques, and in the evening the Cash desk compares the drawer with what it should hold.

The customer file

How do I find a customer and see where they stand?

One record per person, kept for good. Their purchases, their successive prescriptions and what they still owe you attach to it by themselves.

Search before you create: Three letters of the name, or the last digits of the phone number, and the list narrows. A customer created twice is a debt cut in half that nobody sees whole.
The colour tells you what to do: Blue: their glasses are in the shop and nobody has come for them — call them today. Red: they still owe you money. Nothing else is coloured, so that these two stand out.
The tabs do the sorting: Who owes you money, who has owed it for a long time, who has never been in: ready-made lists instead of searching. The number on the tab says how many people are waiting on something from you.
Your old customers come with you: An Excel or CSV file is enough. The screen shows the expected columns before you pick a file, and rejected rows come back to you with their reason: fix, re-import.

The visit and the prescription

How do I record a sale of glasses without forgetting anything?

The prescription, what the customer takes away, what they pay and where their order stands — in one place.

The prescription follows the product: Lenses open distance vision; contact lenses open the contact-lens grid; a frame alone opens nothing. You fill in only what the sale asks for.
Never retype what you already have: For a returning customer, one button brings back their previous measurements: you correct only what changed. When both eyes are the same, "Copy R → L" does the rest.
A quote is not a sale: A quote writes down a dated price, valid for a month, that touches neither your revenue nor your stock. The day the customer says yes, one click makes it a sale — dated that day, with its own number.
The record is read, not filled in: After creation you do not go back into the form to change a line. Each action has its button — collect, mark received, mark delivered — because those three are most of what ever happens to a visit afterwards.

The paperwork: slip, invoice, receipt

Which documents does an optician print, and for whom?

Everything prints from the visit, with nothing retyped. Each paper has its recipient, and only one takes a number in the accounting sequence.

Three papers, three recipients: The mini slip travels with the frame to the workshop. The order slip goes to the lab with the correction and the agreed prices. The invoice is for the customer, and it alone takes a number in the accounting sequence.
One receipt per payment: The deposit has its own, the balance has its own. The customer leaves with proof of what they paid that day, and you with a record of who took it.
A credit note, not a deletion: An issued invoice is never deleted — the law says so, and it is also what keeps your figures right. A return or a mistake is corrected with a credit note, numbered as well.
Your identity in the header: ICE, IF, RC, CNSS, patente: entered once in the settings, printed on every invoice. An invoice without an ICE is one your customer cannot put through as an expense.

The lab order and the delivery

How do I track glasses between the lab and the customer?

An order goes through four states: pending, ordered, received, delivered. Two of them set something in motion.

"Received" tells the customer: When the lab delivers, set the order to Received: the customer appears under "To collect", in blue, and one click sends them a message that their glasses are ready.
"Delivered" deducts the stock: The frame leaves the shelf when the customer leaves with it, not when you enter it. An order still at the lab has taken nothing off your shelves.
Who has been waiting too long: The dashboard shows you the ready glasses nobody has come for. A customer reminded in time is a customer who pays the balance; a forgotten one is an unpaid balance.

Payments, unpaid balances and cheques

How do I know who owes me how much, and since when?

Payments add up, nothing is erased. The amount due is always the sum of what was collected — which is what makes the figure trustworthy.

A deposit, then the balance: Two lines, never one corrected line. Cash, card, cheque or transfer: each payment says how it came in, and that is what lets the evening cash desk count cash alone.
Unpaid balances, with their age: The "With debt" tab shows who owes, and "Old debt" who has owed for more than two months. Under the amount: for how long, and over how many visits. You collect from the list, without opening the record.
A cheque needs its date: Enter the cashing date agreed with the customer. That date triggers the reminder on the morning it has to go to the bank — without it, the cheque sleeps in the drawer.
A cheque that bounces: A bounced cheque is reversed with one click: the amount becomes due again on the customer's visit, and nothing is erased from the history. You can still see that it was handed in, and when.

The evening cash desk

How do I check an optical shop's cash drawer every evening?

You count the drawer, the software says what it should hold, and the difference shows at once — not at month end, when nobody remembers the afternoon.

Cash only: Cheques and cards are shown for reference but never enter the count: they do not go through the drawer. Mixing them in would make the difference wrong every evening.
Write down what went out: A taxi, a quick purchase, a supplier paid in cash: without "cash outs" this looks exactly like a shortfall, and someone ends up suspected. A lab paid in cash from its invoice is deducted on its own.
A difference with a reason: A difference with a comment is information; a difference with no explanation is a problem. The field is there for that.
Closing locks nothing: A customer who comes back to pay at seven o'clock happens. You can reopen the day — the reopening is simply recorded under your name.

Frame stock

How do I know which frames to reorder before they run out?

Every frame sold leaves the shelf on its own. The rest — the threshold, the reminder, the order — is yours to decide, article by article.

A threshold per article, if you want one: Give a reorder level to the models that matter; the others will never alert. Below the level, a badge on Articles and a line on the dashboard.
The morning reminder reads like a purchase order: Articles out of stock or below their level reach you grouped by supplier, ready to order.
A frame typed by hand comes out of nothing: If you type a frame's name instead of picking it from the catalogue, stock does not move — and the form says so on the line. Accurate stock beats an alert about inaccurate stock.

Lens price lists

How do I get lens prices filled in automatically?

What you buy your lenses for and what you sell them for. This list is what fills in the prices by itself when you enter a visit.

The starting catalogue: "Install a catalogue" loads the ranges sold in Morocco — Essilor, Hoya, Zeiss, Nikon, Indo — so you do not type five hundred lines by hand.
It arrives without prices, on purpose: Your purchase price is what you negotiated with your lab; your selling price is your decision. Giving you another shop's would be wrong twice.
The "to price" filter: It shows the lines with no selling price yet: a short work list, rather than a lens going out at zero dirhams on a busy day. The list imports and exports as Excel.

Suppliers and their invoices

How do I track what I owe my labs?

The same ledger as for your customers, the other way round: their invoices, your payments, and what is still due — per supplier and in total.

One payment, several invoices: You pay an amount; it spreads over the open invoices, oldest first. A cheque that covers four invoices stays one cheque in your books.
The cheques you have given: A cheque or bill of exchange handed to a lab carries its due date. It shows above your customers' cheques and in the morning reminder: you know what will leave the bank before it does.
The statement, ready to print: Each supplier has a statement: invoices, payments, balance. When you and the lab disagree on a figure, this is the paper that settles it.

The team: who sees what

How do I give an employee access without showing them the figures?

Two roles. The owner sees everything; an agent sees what it takes to run the counter — customers, visits, payments, cheques — and nothing of the figures or the accounts.

One account per person: Everyone signs in with their own access, and every entry carries their name. A shared password is a story nobody can tell on the day money is missing.
What an agent does not see: Purchase prices and margins, supplier invoices, revenue, settings. They take a sale and invoice it in full; they do not see what it earns you.
Deleting: their own entry, the same day: An agent can remove what they just entered by mistake, within twenty-four hours. Beyond that, or for someone else's entry, it is the owner's call. An invoiced visit is deleted by nobody — you issue a credit note.
The activity log and payroll: The activity log keeps who did what, and when. Payroll holds each employee's salary and advances, in lines that add up, like everything else.

Reminders and messages

How do I forget nothing, and tell customers without calling them?

The software tells you in the morning, only on days when there is something to do; and it writes to customers on your behalf, when you decide.

An email when the morning comes: Cheques to take to the bank, frames to reorder, a subscription about to expire: one list per subject, and nothing on quiet days.
SMS and WhatsApp to customers: "Your glasses are ready" goes out by SMS or WhatsApp when you set the order to Received, with the customer's name already filled in. For the rest — a payment reminder, a question — their number opens WhatsApp in one click. A customer who asked not to be written to no longer is.
You choose where each notice reaches you: In Settings → Notifications: in the bell, in the browser or by email, notice by notice. What you act on while working goes in the bell; what has to reach you elsewhere goes by email.

Shop settings

What should I set up on the first day?

Half an hour at the start, and you hardly come back.

Identity first: The shop name, address, phone, ICE, IF, RC, CNSS and patente. All of it prints on your documents; an empty field is a hole on every invoice.
Two languages, two settings: The globe in the header changes the language on screen, for this device. The language on your profile decides that of your emails. An owner can read the screen in French at the counter and receive reminders in Arabic.
Prescribing doctors: The list of ophthalmologists who send you customers. It fills up as prescriptions come in, and the doctor's name prints on the lab order slip, where the lab expects it.

Your data

Where is my data, and is it mine?

It is yours. It is backed up every night, nothing in it is ever erased, and you can take it with you whenever you want.

Nothing is really deleted: A removed customer or visit is archived: your figures stay right, and everything can be restored from the bin.
Backed up every night: A copy of your shop is taken every night, automatically. Nothing for you to do, nothing to install.
Export whenever you want: Customers and price lists export to Excel, the month's figures go to the accountant from "Accounting export", and "My data" prepares a complete file of everything you have entered. The day you leave, it leaves with you.

The five things that surprise people

Nothing complicated, but these are the ones that raise a question in the second week.

A quote is not a sale: It counts neither in your revenue nor in your stock, and it has its own numbering. It becomes one with a click, the day the customer accepts.
Stock leaves on delivery: Not on entry. An order still at the lab has taken nothing off your shelves.
The cash desk counts cash only: Cheques and cards are shown, but they do not go through the drawer: counting them would throw the difference off every evening.
A cheque needs its date: That date triggers the reminder on the morning it has to go to the bank. Without it, the cheque sleeps in the drawer.
Nothing is really deleted: A removed customer or visit is archived: your figures stay right, and everything can be restored.

Two shortcuts

/ go to search, from anywhere
Ctrl + S save a visit

Frequently asked questions

The ones we get in the second week, once the shop is in.

How do I correct an invoice that is already printed?

You neither edit nor delete it: you issue a credit note, which cancels it in full or in part, then a new invoice if needed. Both are numbered, and your accountant finds the complete sequence.

The customer paid in several instalments — how do I enter that?

Each payment is added on the visit with its date and method: a cash deposit on the day of the order, the balance by cheque on delivery. The amount due recalculates itself, and each payment has its receipt.

What do I do with a bounced cheque?

Open the cheque and mark it bounced. The amount becomes due again on the customer's visit, which turns red in the list, and the cheque stays in the history with its bounce date.

Why does my stock not go down after a sale?

Because the order is not delivered yet, or because the frame was typed by hand instead of picked from the catalogue. Set the order to "Delivered", and always pick the frame from the list so it leaves stock.

How do I give an employee access without showing them the figures?

Create them an account with the agent role. They enter customers, visits, payments and cheques, print slips and invoices, and see neither purchase prices, margins, revenue nor settings.

How do I bring my customers over from my old software or my Excel file?

Export them as Excel or CSV, open Customers → Import: the screen shows the expected columns and a template to download. Rejected rows come back in a file with their reason, to fix and re-import.

Does the software work on a phone?

Yes, in the browser, with nothing to install. The visit record and the prescription read well on a phone screen; entering a full day is more comfortable on a computer or a tablet.

How it works