Most shops that deliver use the same few people. A rider who knows the area, a nephew with a bike, a logistics company for anything going out of town. Their numbers live in your phone, and who carried what lives in nobody's memory by the end of the week.
A courier in Tabs is anyone who takes goods from your shop to a customer. You save them once, pick them when a delivery goes out, and Tabs keeps the list of what each one has carried.
Adding a courier
Go to Couriers in the sidebar, after Suppliers, and press Add courier.
Choose A person or A company, then fill in:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | Required. The rider's name, or the company's. |
| Phone | Required. The number you call them on. |
| Contact person | For a company only. Who you speak to there. |
| Optional. | |
| Notes | Optional. "Covers the Island only", "Not on Sundays". |
As you type a name or a number, Tabs checks it against the couriers you already have. If one looks the same, a note under the field asks whether this is the same person, with a button to open them. It never stops you saving. It's there so "Musa Bello" and "Musa Belo" don't become two couriers.
Saying who is taking a delivery
There are three moments you can name the courier. One is enough, and the field is optional at all three.
When you record the sale. On the till, choose Delivery. Under the delivery fee is Who's taking it, which is optional. Pick a saved courier, pick one of your own team, or type a name. If the person is new, you can add them as a courier from the same list without leaving the sale.
Later, on the order. Press Edit on the order's delivery card and set or change the same field. This works while there are still items to send.
When the goods go out. On the order, press Send items and tick what's leaving. The items you tick go out together as one batch, and an order can go out in several. Send items opens on whoever was picked earlier, or empty. This is also where you enter What it cost you, the amount you paid for that delivery. For a company there's a Tracking number. For a name you typed in just this once there's Their number, which is optional.
A courier picked at the till or on the order is a plan. It shows on the delivery card as "Musa Bello is taking it". It becomes part of the record, and counts in the courier's figures, when a batch is made with them on Send items. A batch starts as pending. You mark it shipped when it leaves and delivered when it arrives, on the order, as for any delivery.
A swap deal that is being delivered has the same field on its ticket.
Three kinds of name
- A saved courier. Their name on the order opens their page.
- One of the team. For the day your own staff member does the run. Their name opens their member page.
- A typed name. For someone you'll use once. On the order, Save to couriers opens Add courier with the name and number already filled in. A saved courier needs a phone number, so add one there if you didn't type it earlier.
Changing who has it
On the order's delivery card, each batch that has gone out shows who took it, with their number to tap. Press Change to give that batch to someone else, or to take the name off. A batch sent with nobody named says "Say who's taking it".
A worked example
Mrs Ada Obi orders a blender and two pots for delivery to Yaba. At the till you choose Delivery, enter her address and a fee of ₦2,000, and under Who's taking it you pick Musa Bello, your usual rider.
The blender is on the shelf. The pots arrive tomorrow. You press Send items, tick the blender, and enter ₦1,500 under What it cost you. The delivery card shows one batch with Musa's name and number, and a line saying he takes the rest.
Tomorrow Musa is away. You send the pots, change the name to GIG Logistics, a company you saved earlier, and type their tracking number. The order now shows two batches with two couriers, and each courier's page shows the one they carried.
A courier's page
Click a courier to open their page. It shows:
- Three figures. Deliveries, Out now, and Paid to them. A delivery here is one batch, so an order sent in two parts with the same courier counts twice.
- Their details, with a number and an email you can tap.
- Their deliveries, ten at a time. Each one opens its order. A Status filter narrows the list to pending, shipped, delivered or cancelled.
- Activity. What was done to this courier's record, and by whom.
"Paid to them" is the total of What it cost you on the batches they carried. Tabs doesn't pay couriers. It keeps the figure you typed.
The Couriers page
The table lists each courier with their kind (Person or Company), phone, number of deliveries, how many are out now, and their last delivery. A company shows its contact person under its name.
- Search by name, contact person, email or phone.
- Filter by Kind, and by whether a courier is active or archived. That second filter is also called Status. It isn't the delivery status on a courier's own page.
- Each row's menu has Open, Edit, Archive and Delete. Tick several rows to export or delete them together.
Archive is for a courier you've stopped using. They leave the list and can no longer be picked, and every delivery they carried keeps their name. An order that only had them planned needs someone else picked before it goes out. Choose Status, then Archived, to see them again and unarchive one.
In the record
Sending and delivering are written to Activity on the order with the courier's name: who sent out which items, to whom, and with which courier. Giving a batch to a different courier is recorded too. So is adding or archiving a courier.
Who can do what
Couriers have their own permissions: viewing, adding, editing and removing. Set them under roles.
| Step | What it needs |
|---|---|
| See the Couriers page | Viewing couriers |
| Add a courier, or save a typed name to couriers | Adding couriers |
| Edit, archive or unarchive a courier | Editing couriers |
| Delete a courier | Removing couriers |
| Send items with a courier | Handing over and sending on orders |
| Change who has a batch | Editing what has been sent, on orders |
| Open an order from a courier's page | Viewing orders |
The built-in Staff role can't delete a courier. Someone whose role was given these permissions while they had Tabs open needs to reload once.
What couriers don't do yet
- A planned courier isn't counted anywhere. Until a batch is made with them, the name is a note on the order. It isn't in their figures or in Activity.
- No live tracking. A tracking number is kept as text. Tabs doesn't talk to a delivery company's system.
- Tabs doesn't pay or message a courier. You call them and pay them yourself.
- The search at the top of the app doesn't find a courier by name. Use the search on the Couriers page.
If something goes wrong
"Can't be picked any more." The courier was archived or deleted between being picked and the goods going out. Pick someone else, or unarchive them.
The Who's taking it field is missing on the order. Everything has already gone out. Use Change on the batch.
There's no Couriers entry in the sidebar. Your role can't view couriers. Ask the owner.
The same rider is in the list twice. Archive the one with no deliveries. If both have carried something, keep using one and archive the other: its past deliveries stay on its own page. Next time, read the note under the name before saving.