Centra help

Your products and services

In Catalog you add each product or service with its name and price. If it's a product you want to count, mark that Inventory keeps its stock and give it a minimum, so Centra warns you when it's running low. A service can have how long it takes, and the calendar takes it into account.

Your first sale

In Sales you choose whether you're making a quote, a proforma, an invoice or a work order. You choose the customer, add the lines from your catalog or type them in, and Centra works out the subtotal, the VAT and the total.

Once it's saved, you print it, save it as a PDF or send it to the customer on WhatsApp. If a quote is accepted, you turn it into an invoice with one tap, and the invoice takes what you sold out of inventory on its own.

Payments

When you get paid, in Payments you record it with the amount and how you were paid, and Centra makes the numbered receipt. If it pays an invoice, you choose it and the balance goes down on its own.

In Receivables you see who owes you and since when, and you send them the reminder on WhatsApp.

Expenses

In Expenses you write down what you pay, to whom and in which category. If you bought merchandise, you add the products that came in and they go up in Inventory on their own. That way Home shows you how much you really keep each month.

What you make

If you make what you sell, in Catalog you also add your supplies, which are what you buy to produce, like flour or fabric. When you buy them in Expenses, Centra works out on its own what each unit costs you.

In Production, Recipes you set how much of each supply goes into each product and how much is lost making it. Centra tells you what each unit comes out at and how many you can make with what you have. When you produce, you record it in Produce, and the supplies go down and the product goes up in Inventory on their own.

Your numbers

In Numbers you pick the dates and see what you sold and what you kept after what it cost you and your expenses. You also see how you're doing month by month, where you spend the most and which products earn you the most. What you buy to sell counts as cost on the day you sell it, not the day you buy it.

If an expense is for growing, like a new oven or a remodel, you mark it as a reinvestment and Centra keeps it apart from day-to-day expenses. You can download all of it in a file for Excel. Production and Numbers come with the Complete plan.

Your team

In Team you add each person with their position and how you pay them, and the shifts and payroll come from there.

If that person is also going to use Centra, you tap Give access on their record. They get an email to create their password, and when they come in they leave their details in their record. You choose which parts they see and whether they can change them. The Basic plan has no Team, and you invite the person from Settings, Users.

Colones and dollars

In Settings, Business you choose your main currency and, if you use one, a second one, for example colones and dollars. From then on each sale, payment or expense can be in either one.

Centra brings that day's Central Bank selling rate, and you can change it if you used another. The numbers in Home add up in your main currency.

Access hours

In Settings, Users you can give each person the days and hours in which they can use Centra. Outside those hours they can't sign in, and if they were already in, Centra locks for them until their hours start again. What they did offline isn't lost.

On the same screen you see when each person signed in and from what device.

Offline

If the signal goes, Centra keeps working. You can sell, take payments, write down expenses and use the calendar, and everything stays on your device until the internet is back, when it's sent on its own. In Pending changes you see what's still to be sent.

Your plan

The trial lasts 14 days and comes with all of the Complete plan. In Settings, Subscription you choose Basic or Complete, monthly or yearly, and pay with PayPal or by SINPE Móvil.

If you move to Basic, what that plan doesn't include is turned off, but your data stays and comes back if you return to Complete. In Settings, Modules you turn off the parts you don't use, so they don't get in your way in the menu.