RetailFlow

Multi-tenant SaaS POS & Inventory Management System for Indian Retailers

RetailFlow is a production-ready, multi-tenant backend system designed to handle real-world retail operations with scalable architecture and optimized performance. It handles billing, inventory, credit management, analytics, and AI-powered business insights for multiple isolated retail shops on a single system.

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🧠 Problem it Solves

Small retail businesses in India often rely on fragmented tools or manual methods to manage inventory, billing, and credit (udhaar).

RetailFlow provides a unified platform to:

• Manage billing, inventory, and credit in one system
• Track real-time business performance
• Handle multiple shops with secure data isolation

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🌐 Live Demo

🚀 Frontend (Vercel) → https://retail-flow-xi.vercel.app/ ⚙️ Backend API (Render) → https://retailflow.onrender.com 📦 GitHub → https://github.com/Ishant8287/RetailFlow

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✨ Features

Feature	Description
⚡ Fast POS Billing	Bill customers with split payments (Cash / UPI / Udhaar) and auto-generated invoices
📖 Digital Khata	Track udhaar, send reminders, set credit limits
📦 Smart Inventory	Batch tracking, expiry alerts, low stock warnings
📊 Profit Analytics	Revenue trends, top-selling items, payment breakdown
💸 Expense Tracker	Track business expenses and calculate net profit
🚚 Supplier Management	Manage purchases and supplier dues
👥 Staff Management	Role-based access (Owner / Manager / Cashier)
🤖 AI Business Insights	AI-based suggestions using Groq (LLaMA 3.1)
🧾 Professional Invoices	PDF invoices with QR codes & GST details
🔐 Secure Auth	OTP-based login + JWT + refresh token flow

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🔄 System Flow

User → POS Billing → Sale API → MongoDB Transaction (Sale + Inventory + Khata update) → Aggregation Pipeline → Dashboard Response

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⚡ Technical Highlights

• Multi-tenant architecture — complete data isolation per shop using shopId scoping across all models
• Dashboard performance — aggregation endpoint optimized from ~9s to <150ms using $facet pipeline, compound indexes on shopId + createdAt, .lean() reads, and field projection
• Atomic transactions — MongoDB sessions used for sale + inventory + khata updates to prevent data inconsistency
• RBAC — Owner / Manager / Cashier roles with middleware-level route protection
• Security — JWT auth, bcrypt hashing, rate limiting, Helmet.js, CORS, NoSQL injection prevention
• Third-party integrations — ImageKit (media uploads), Resend (OTP emails), Groq AI (LLaMA 3.1 insights)
• PDF invoice generation — dynamic invoices with shop branding, QR codes, and GST details

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⚔️ Challenges & Learnings

• Designing a multi-tenant architecture with strict data isolation
• Handling atomic updates across sales, inventory, and credit systems
• Optimizing slow aggregation queries (~9s → <150ms)
• Managing async API flows in POS billing system

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🚀 Future Scalability

• Introduce Redis caching for frequently accessed data
• Move analytics to background jobs using queues
• Break system into microservices (Auth, Billing, Analytics)
• Enable horizontal scaling using load balancers

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📸 Screenshots

📊 Dashboard

Shows revenue trends and key business insights

📈 Analytics

Displays sales performance and top-selling products

📦 Inventory

Track stock levels and manage product inventory

🧾 Invoice

Auto-generated professional invoice with GST and QR code

🏠 Landing Page

Entry point showcasing product overview and features

⚡ POS Billing

Handles real-time billing with split payment support

⚙️ Settings

Manage shop configuration and preferences

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 18 + Vite
• Tailwind CSS
• Recharts
• React Router
• React Hook Form + Zod
• jsPDF + QR Code

Backend

• Node.js + Express.js
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT + Refresh Token Auth
• bcrypt
• Groq AI (LLaMA 3.1)
• Resend (OTP emails)
• ImageKit (media uploads)

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📁 Project Structure

retailflow/
├── retailflow-backend/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── middlewares/
│   └── utils/
│
└── retailflow-frontend/
    ├── components/
    ├── pages/
    ├── api/
    └── assets/

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/Ishant8287/RetailFlow
cd retailflow

2. Backend Setup

cd retailflow-backend
npm install

Create .env:

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_uri
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET=your_refresh_secret
GROQ_API_KEY=your_key
RESEND_API_KEY=your_key
IMAGEKIT_PUBLIC_KEY=your_key
IMAGEKIT_PRIVATE_KEY=your_key
IMAGEKIT_URL_ENDPOINT=your_endpoint

Run:

npm run dev

3. Frontend Setup

cd retailflow-frontend
npm install

Create .env:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api/v1

Run:

npm run dev

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🔑 API Overview

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register	Register new shop (multi-tenant)
POST	/auth/login-password	Login with password
POST	/auth/send-otp	Send OTP
POST	/auth/verify-otp	Verify OTP & issue JWT
POST	/auth/refresh-token	Refresh token
GET	/items	Get inventory
POST	/items	Add item
POST	/sales	Create sale (atomic)
GET	/reports/dashboard	Dashboard analytics
GET	/ai/insights	AI suggestions

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🌐 Deployment

• Frontend → Vercel
• Backend → Render

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📄 License

MIT License