---
title: "What each person on your counter should be able to see"
source: https://www.lskhata.com/blog/what-each-staff-role-should-see
category: "Team"
language: en
published: 2026-08-29
reading_time: 7 min
---

# What each person on your counter should be able to see

_A cashier, a manager and an owner need three different views. Getting this wrong costs you either your margins or your ability to take a day off._

## In short
- Start from what the job needs, not from how much you trust the person.
- Cost price and profit are the two things a cashier almost never needs and that cause the most trouble when visible.
- Give one person the ability to run the shop without you, or you can never be away.
- Every entry carrying a name is worth more than tight restrictions on what people can do.

The instinct when setting up staff access is to think about trust. It is the wrong starting point, and it makes the conversation personal when it does not need to be. Start from the job instead: what does somebody standing at that counter actually need in order to do their work well?

_[Figure: The same product, two views. The cashier can sell it perfectly well without knowing what it cost you.]_

### The three views

|  | Cashier | Manager | Owner |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Raise bills, take payment | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See stock levels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See cost price and margin | No | Usually not | Yes |
| Give discounts | Within a limit, or not at all | Yes | Yes |
| Cancel a bill | No, or with a reason recorded | Yes, with a reason | Yes |
| Add or change products and prices | No | Yes | Yes |
| See customer khata balances | Yes — needed to serve them | Yes | Yes |
| Raise purchase orders | No | Yes | Yes |
| Approve purchase orders | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| See overall reports and profit | No | Sales, not profit | Yes |
| Manage other staff | No | Sometimes | Yes |

Nothing in the cashier column is a statement about the person. It is a description of what billing requires. A cashier with no access to cost prices can do every part of their job without difficulty, which is the test that matters.

### Why cost price is the one to be careful with

Your buying prices are among the very few genuinely confidential pieces of information in a small shop. They tell a competitor what terms you have, they tell a customer how much room there is to negotiate, and they can make a staff member's own wage feel like a different number than it did yesterday. None of those conversations improve your shop, and none of them are necessary for anybody to sell anything.

**This is standard, not suspicious.** Hiding buying prices from counter staff is completely ordinary retail practice, everywhere, at every size. It is worth saying out loud when you set it up, precisely so it does not look like a judgement about the individual: the cashier role does not include buying prices, and that is true regardless of who is doing the job.

### The mistake in the other direction

Restricting everything to yourself is a real cost, and it is the more common failure among shopkeepers who have been running alone for years. If nobody can raise a purchase order, adjust stock or deal with a supplier, then you cannot be ill, cannot travel, and cannot take a day off — and the shop's capacity is permanently capped at what one person can personally handle.

One person with a manager's access, chosen deliberately, is what buys back that flexibility. They do not need to see profit to run the shop for a week.

### Names matter more than locks

If there is one thing to take from this, it is not the permission table. It is that every person should have their own login.

- A bill with a name attached can be asked about. A bill from a shared account cannot.
- Most problems are mistakes, and a mistake you can trace is a mistake somebody can explain and stop repeating.
- People are noticeably more careful when their name is on the entry, which does more for accuracy than any restriction.
- When somebody leaves, one account is disabled — rather than a shared password being changed and told to everybody again.

> Permissions decide what can happen. Names decide whether anybody can find out what did.

## Common questions

**What should a cashier be able to see?**

Enough to sell: products, prices, stock levels, and the ability to raise bills and take payments. What they generally do not need is cost price, margin, overall reports or the ability to change prices — not because cashiers are untrustworthy, but because none of those help with the job and all of them create problems if they leak.

**Can I hide purchase prices from my staff?**

Yes. Cost price and profit can be hidden from staff while they continue to bill normally. This is the most commonly used permission for a reason: your buying prices are one of the few genuinely confidential things in a small shop.

**Should staff have their own logins?**

Yes, and it is the single most valuable thing on this list. Shared logins mean every entry is anonymous, so a mistake cannot be traced back to be explained, and nobody feels any particular responsibility for what happens under a name that belongs to everyone.

**What happens when someone leaves?**

Disable their account the same day. Do not delete it — their past work should keep their name on it, and deleting the person is what orphans months of entries.