Optical shop software in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh: orders, lab jobs and advances

An optical shop is three businesses in one: a retail counter for frames, sunglasses and solutions, a made-to-order workshop where every pair of spectacles passes through a fitting lab, and a lender of sorts, holding the customer’s advance for a week. Software built for a general store handles the first and none of the others. That is why opticians in Coimbatore, Madurai, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam often run billing on one program and orders in a notebook.

This article is for optical shop owners in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, standalone shops and optical counters inside eye hospitals, comparing optical shop software.

1. The prescription

The order starts with the spectacle prescription: sphere, cylinder, axis and add for each eye, and the pupillary distance. Every time those numbers are copied by hand, from the doctor’s slip to the order book to the lab’s job card, there is a chance of a swapped eye or a missed minus sign.

• From an eye clinic on the same system, the prescription should arrive in the shop’s queue with the powers for each eye.
• From an outside doctor, the powers should be entered once, on the order, and printed for the lab from there.
• The lens type (single vision, bifocal, progressive) should be asked for, not assumed.
• The powers should be frozen on the order, so a later refraction cannot change a pair that is already at the lab.

2. Orders to the fitting lab

Most opticians in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh send lens work to a fitting lab, in their own town or in a larger one nearby. The software should:

• put every order on a board by stage: to start, ordered, at the lab, ready;
• print a job ticket for the lab with the powers, the frame and the measurements;
• record which lab each lens was sent to and the date it went;
• show the orders that have been at the lab too long, and the ready pairs nobody has collected.

3. Advances and the balance at delivery

The advance is the optical shop’s working capital. It should be taken on its own numbered receipt when the order is placed, in cash, UPI or card. At delivery the balance is collected, and one GST invoice is raised for the whole order, showing the advance received and the balance paid. If an order is cancelled, the software should show what that undoes: stock returned to the shelf and the advance to refund.

4. The counter

Not every sale is an order. Sunglasses, readymade glasses, solutions and accessories are sold off the shelf. Look for bills in tabs with barcode scanning, each sale credited to the salesperson who made it, a refusal to sell an item with no stock recorded, and discounts capped by the owner, with anything above the cap waiting for approval.

5. Frame and lens stock

Frames are the hardest stock in retail: hundreds of models, each in several colours and sizes, often with the price written in a code on the temple. The software should hold frames by brand, model, colour and size, import the existing stock from a spreadsheet with a preview before anything is written, print barcode labels, and send write-offs for broken or lost frames to the owner for approval.

6. GST and the books

Spectacles, frames and lenses carry GST, so every sale needs a tax invoice with HSN codes, and every purchase from a supplier needs to be matched to GSTR-2B for input tax credit. See GSTR-2B reconciliation for optical shops. At month end the owner needs collections by payment mode, the GST summary and order value by salesperson, for incentives.

7. An optical counter inside an eye hospital

When the shop sits inside an eye hospital, the prescription should come straight from the consult, the shop should find the hospital’s patients by name, phone or UID, and the hospital’s reception should be able to collect the shop’s bill on the same payment as the consult. See eye hospital software.

Questions to ask in an optical shop software demo

1. Take an order from a prescription and print the lab’s job ticket.
2. Change the patient’s refraction after the order is placed and show that the order keeps its powers.
3. Take an advance by UPI, then collect the balance at delivery and show the invoice.
4. Give a discount above the staff limit and show who has to approve it.
5. Import fifty frames from a spreadsheet and show the preview.
6. Show the orders that have been at the lab for more than a week.

Where 92health fits

92health runs an optical shop from the prescription to the pair:

• spectacle prescriptions from the eye clinic in a queue, with the powers for each eye, accepted onto the orders board or held with a reason;
• an orders board from to start, ordered and at the lab to ready, with every move confirmed and undoable, stage dates that can be corrected, and a job ticket for the lab;
• powers and PD frozen on every lens line, the lens type asked for, and a lab chosen for each line, with fitting labs on 92health receiving the order on their own board;
• the advance on its own receipt, dated to the day it was paid, and one GST invoice for the whole order at delivery;
• a counter with bills in tabs, barcode scanning, salesperson credit, no sale without stock, and discount limits for staff, managers and owners;
• frames, readymade glasses, lenses, contact lenses, solutions and accessories in stock, a CSV import with a preview, barcode labels, and write-offs through approval;
• collections, the GST summary, order value by salesperson and a monthly allowance sheet.

It runs in the browser for an optician in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Tirunelveli, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore, Tirupati or Rajahmundry alike. To see it on your own shop, book an optical shop demo.