Retail · Hardware and building supply
Half your customers pay at the till. The other half pay at the end of the month.
A hardware store runs two businesses over one counter: retail, which settles today, and the pro desk, which settles on terms to a contractor whose crew you have never met. The second one is where the money and the risk both are.
What actually changes at the pro desk
Four things a hardware retailer deals with that a general-purpose terminal was never asked about.
House accounts with a real limit
An account is a customer, a limit, a list of authorised buyers and a statement cycle. The counter checks all four before it lets a charge through, which is the difference between extending credit and hoping. The statement goes out on the same day every cycle, without anyone deciding to send it.
Rentals with a deposit that releases
The deposit is an authorisation at collection, not a charge. At return, the actual amount settles against it and the rest releases. That is the version a customer accepts without an argument, and the version that still protects you when the mixer does not come back.
Cut goods and contractor pricing
Rope, chain, pipe, timber, sand. The price comes from the measured quantity at the counter. Contractor pricing comes from the account record, so two customers buying the same thing get the same answer regardless of which one knows the manager.
Special orders on will-call
A special-order fitting is somebody's job stalled on your shelf. The deposit, the order and the customer are one record, so the person on the counter on Saturday can say what it is, whose it is and what is owed, without finding the person who took the order.
Buying guide: what to ask before you sign anything
Written for a hardware retailer comparing three proposals, including ours. Ask every one of them these questions.
- Open a house account in front of me.Set a limit, add two authorised buyers, then try to exceed the limit at the counter. If nothing stops it, the limit is decoration.
- Show me a rental deposit released at return.Ask what the customer's bank shows in the meantime, how long the hold takes to clear, and what happens if the return is a week late.
- Where does statement billing live?Ask whether statements come out of the same system as the sales, or out of an accounting package somebody re-keys into. The second answer is where the disagreements with contractors come from.
- How is a quantity priced at the counter?Cut a length of something and watch it ring. Then ask how a return of the offcut is handled. Both are daily and both are where a general retail system improvises.
- Can you export the account ledger?Who owes what, aged. Ask for it on demand, in a format you can open, without a support ticket — this is the file your bank manager will ask for.
- Is the hardware yours, and is it locked to one processor?The answer decides whether your next decision is a negotiation or a rip-out. Ask before you sign.
Questions hardware retailers actually ask
How do contractor house accounts work?
A house account is a customer with a credit limit, authorised buyers and a statement cycle. Any of that crew can charge to the account at the pro desk, the limit is checked at the counter rather than remembered, and the statement goes out on the same day every cycle.
Can a card be held against a tool rental?
Yes. The rental takes an authorisation as a deposit at collection and settles the actual charge at return, so a customer is not charged for damage that did not happen and you are not chasing a tool that never came back.
What about cut goods and bulk pricing?
Anything sold by length, weight or volume prices at the counter from the cut quantity, and contractor pricing applies from the account rather than from whoever is serving. Two customers buying the same thing should not depend on which one knows the manager.
Do we have to move off our pro desk and inventory system?
No. The pro desk, the cut-goods pricing and the yard handhelds stay exactly where they are, and we look only at the processing underneath them. A store that already knows what is on its racks does not need new software to take a card.
Tell us about your store
Name and one way to reach you is enough. A person reads this, not a scoring model.
Thank you — that reached us.
We will be in touch. If it is easier, book the call directly: pick a time.
We will implement whatever is right for you — including keeping what you have.
Two free tools, before you talk to anybody
Both are open to anyone. No account, no card, and nothing signed before you have seen your own numbers.
- Answer the boarding questions Tell it you run a retail till and a pro desk on terms, and it comes back with a starting configuration that treats those as two different jobs.
- Get a free statement audit Send one month that included a heavy contractor week. We name every line on it, including the ones that only appear when the pro desk is busy.
Last updated: 2026-08-17