4 August 2026
VAT margin scheme for used devices: how it works
A plain-English guide to margin VAT on second-hand devices, and how to avoid over-declaring.
Read full blog: VAT margin scheme for used devices: how it worksFor electronics repair and retail shops
Repair shop software and POS
SlickCell is repair shop software for electronics repair and retail shops: phones, tablets, laptops, games consoles and smartwatches. Book repairs, sell at the till, track every device by IMEI or serial number, order from suppliers and keep staff rotas, all in one web app hosted in London.
14 days free. No card needed.
The problem
Where repair shops lose time and money
None of these are the shop's fault. They are what happens when the till, the repair notebook and the stock sheet do not talk to each other.
A paid repair is edited later, and the bill no longer matches what was taken.
A customer underpays and the difference quietly disappears.
A device is sold without the right IMEI or serial number against it.
A part is used on a job but stock is never reduced.
The invoice and the report show different totals for the same week.
A supplier delivery does not match the order, and nobody catches it.
Watch
Meet SlickCell in a minute and a half
The job, the sale and the stock, kept in one system instead of three. Press play for the short version.
The film plays here from YouTube, and nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Watch it on YouTube
The connected system
One repair, followed all the way through
The same job from the counter to the ledger. Each step writes to the next, so nothing has to be re-entered and nothing changes silently.
- 01Repair bookedDevice, fault and customer captured against a ticket.
- 02Deposit takenPayment recorded against the job, balance tracked.
- 03Part reservedStock is committed to the ticket, not just noted.
- 04Technician assignedThe job joins a queue with an owner and a due time.
- 05Extra work quotedAdded cost is quoted on the ticket before it reaches the bill.
- 06Final paymentBalance settles across card, cash or store credit.
- 07Device handed overHandover closes the ticket and the stock movement.
- 08Invoice & warranty issuedThe document, the VAT and the report agree.
Because those steps are joined, a part used reduces stock, the stock movement lands in cost of goods, and cost of goods lands in the profit and loss, and none of it can be changed silently.
Built for the way repair shops and electronics traders actually work
- Storefront
- Kiosk
- Trade Counter
- Online Store
- Multi-Branch
- Wholesale
Why SlickCell
What a general till does not do
Built for shops that repair and sell electronics, where every device has its own IMEI or serial number and its own cost.
Purchase orders & receiving
Raise a purchase order, receive stock against it in full or in part, and keep supplier bills and returns with the order that created them.
Device units by IMEI or serial
Every device is its own record: specs, cost, condition and history tracked per unit.
VAT margin scheme
Second-hand margin VAT handled correctly, so your returns add up first time.
Multi-branch & trade-in credits
Run several shops from one login, see every branch in one report, and settle trade-ins as store credit.
The platform
Repair shop management software, module by module
Repairs, point of sale, stock, invoices, suppliers, staff and reports share one set of records. Pick the part of the day you want to see.
Repairs
Book, track and hand over repairs
One ticket carries the device, the fault, the deposit, the parts committed to it and the handover. The money moves with the job because they are the same record.
Booked in → handed over, with the money correct at every step.
POS & sales
A till that understands repairs and used stock
Ring up a repair, an accessory by quantity and a device by its IMEI or serial number on the same sale, then settle it across more than one method.
Split payments across cash, card, bank transfer and store credit.
Invoicing & payments
Paid, due and change on every invoice
Each payment is recorded against the invoice it settles, so the balance is derived rather than typed, and a refund never quietly reopens a bill that was paid.
The balance is what the payments say it is, not a field someone edits.
Inventory
Parts by quantity, devices one unit at a time
A device is its own row with its own IMEI or serial number, condition, cost and price. Quantity is counted from the units on the shelf rather than typed into a box.
Two identical devices are two records, because they cost different amounts.
Purchase orders
What you ordered, what turned up, what you owe
Receive against the order you raised. A short delivery is visible at the moment it is booked in, not when the bill arrives three weeks later.
Ordered, received and billed are three separate numbers you can compare.
Reports & tax
Totals that open onto their records
Revenue, profit and tax read from the same ledger the till writes to, and every figure can be opened to see the invoices underneath it. Slick Intelligence reads your dashboard and reports back in plain English, next to the figures it is drawn from: what changed, what improved and what needs your attention. It is included on the Professional and Supplier Pro plans.
Margin-scheme tax is reported separately from standard-rate tax.
Workforce
Let staff use the system without handing over the shop
Roles decide who can discount, void, refund or see cost prices. Shifts, attendance and leave are recorded against each employee, and payroll prices the hours at the rate in force on each day.
Refunds, voids and price edits are role-gated on the server, not just hidden.
Supplier network
Order from a supplier who is already on the platform
Your purchase order arrives as their incoming order: not an email they retype. They confirm or re-quote, you approve line by line, and stock is reserved until the dispatch is confirmed.
Approving reserves the stock. Confirming the dispatch is what moves it.
Multi-branch
Several shops, one group view
Each branch keeps its own stock, staff and takings. The group view reads across them without merging anything.
Stock stays branch-owned; the group view is a read, not a merge.
At the counter
Watch the till do the work
The two things worth seeing move rather than read about: a sale being rung up, and a phone standing in for a barcode scanner.
POS & Sales
A till that speaks fluent repair shop
Ring up repairs, accessories and second-hand devices, take split payments across card and cash, and print or text a receipt in seconds.
Split payments across cash, card, bank transfer and store credit.
Mobile scanning
Turn any phone into a barcode scanner
Show the QR on the till, scan it with a staff phone, and start scanning stock straight into the open sale. No scanner hardware, no app to install, and no login on the phone.
No cost, no margin, no customer details, and it cannot change a price or take payment.
Slick Intelligence
Less searching. More knowing.
Your repair business already has the answers. Slick Intelligence brings them forward, turning the data already flowing through SlickCell into clear signals about performance, operations and what needs your attention.
Understand performance
See the changes that matter in revenue, margins, profit, refunds and sales on the dashboard and on the Revenue, Profit & Loss, Tax & Refund and Counter reports, without digging through each one. Included on the Professional and Supplier Pro plans.
Spot what needs attention
Overdue repairs, completed repairs with no invoice, unpaid balances, till differences and low stock are listed under Needs attention, each with a link to its list. Included on the Professional and Supplier Pro plans.
Work faster
Slick Match lines your spreadsheet's columns up with SlickCell's fields, and Slick Intelligence Import points out a possible existing item or a similar supplier name. On every plan.
You decide
An uncertain match waits for your choice, and the import preview writes nothing.
Your role, your view
A technician's summary covers repairs, never money. Till findings are for owners and managers.
Your own figures
Every figure in a summary is taken from, or worked out from, your SlickCell reports.
Product proof
Look at the paperwork, not a quote
Three things you can inspect. If the documents are right, the system underneath is right.
A sale settled two ways
Two payment lines on one checkout, with the total due and the amount collected side by side. The screen says paid in full only when the two meet: the case where money usually goes missing.
A device unit's record
One device as its own record: how many are on the shelf, its cost and sell price, the margin between them, and a movements tab for how it got there. Quantity is derived from units, never typed.
A report total, and its source
Gross revenue, refunds, parts cost and gross profit on one screen, each line the one above it less the one between. The total is not a separate number; it is the same lines, added up in front of you.
Overview
A clear, uncluttered shop dashboard
Today at a glance
Takings, open repairs and jobs due out: the moment you open up.
Numbers you can trust
Every figure traces back to the record it came from: no second spreadsheet.
Jump to any screen
⌘K opens a finder for every page, tab and action: no hunting through a sidebar.
Ten one-click jobs
A repair, a sale, a trade-in, a stocktake, and you only see the tiles your role can use.
Every device tracked by IMEI or serial
One device is one record. Quantity is counted from units, never typed.
Margin-scheme VAT built in
Second-hand VAT is computed on the margin and kept off the invoice.
One login across every branch
Each shop keeps its own stock and staff under shared ownership.
Help centre
How to do it, on the real screens
Short, numbered guides for the jobs a shop does every day. Each one is written against the app as it is, not as a promise of what it will do.
- Repairs
Book a repair in
Create a repair ticket at the counter: customer, device, fault, price, an optional deposit and technician, then print the ticket for the customer.
Read the guide - POS & sales
Ring up a sale
Put accessories, parts and a used device on one sale, take the money across more than one method, and print the receipt.
Read the guide - Inventory & device units
Add a device to stock
Put a second-hand device on the shelf with its own IMEI or serial number, condition, cost and price, so it is priced as itself rather than as a model.
Read the guide
Risk reduction
What happens if something goes wrong
Moving a shop onto new software is the real decision. These are the parts that make it reversible.
- Migration
- Bring parts, accessories and devices in from a spreadsheet, and preview exactly what the import will do before anything is written.
- Role permissions
- Staff see and change what their role allows: refunds, voids and price edits are gated.
- Audit trail
- Money and stock movements are recorded with who did what and when.
- Your country, your tax rules
- Pick your country and the currency follows. Tax is a rule you set (a rate, inclusive, exclusive or margin) scoped to devices, parts or accessories, and to new or used stock.
- Printing that matches
- Receipts, A4 invoices, tickets and shelf labels come off one template, so the PDF, the thermal roll and the printed page all say the same thing.
- A link the customer can check
- The QR on a ticket or invoice opens a status page for that job: no login, no account, and search engines are told not to index it.
- Support
- Email support on every plan, priority on Professional and above.
Repairs, POS, stock and reports are on every plan: plans differ by team size, locations, discounts, Supplier Operations, Slick Intelligence summaries and support.
Plans
Four plans, one platform
Flat monthly pricing, never per device and never per transaction. Every plan includes repair tickets, point of sale, invoicing, stock tracked by IMEI or serial number, purchasing, staff rotas and reports.
2 months free
Starter
£39.00/mo
excludes VAT
One location, everything you need to open up and trade.
- Repairs, POS, invoicing, stock and reports
- Slick Intelligence Import and Slick Match
- 3 app-access users
- 5 employee profiles
- Single location
- Hosted in London
- Manual one-off discounts
- Standard email support
Start 14-day Starter trial
14 days free. No card needed.
Professional
Most Popular£59.00/mo
excludes VAT
Multiple locations, discount rules and priority processing.
- Everything in Starter
- Slick Intelligence: performance summaries of your dashboard and reports
- 10 app-access users per branch
- 15 employee profiles per branch
- Multiple locations
- Discount rules, promo codes & automatic campaigns
- Priority large-job processing
- Custom domain
- Priority email support
- Additional branches £49.00/mo each
Start 14-day Professional trial
14 days free. No card needed.
Enterprise
Custom pricing
Tailored to your organisation.
- Repairs, POS, invoicing, stock and reports
- Slick Intelligence Import and Slick Match
- Unlimited app-access users
- Unlimited employee profiles
- Unlimited locations
- Supplier Operations included
- Discount rules, promo codes & automatic campaigns
- Super-fast large-job processing
- Custom domain
- Separate dedicated database
- Dedicated account manager
- Priority or contractual support
Supplier Pro
£99.00/mo
excludes VAT
Adds Supplier Operations: sell to other shops from your own catalogue.
Start 14-day Supplier Pro trial
14 days free. No card needed.
- Everything in Professional
- Slick Intelligence: performance summaries of your dashboard and reports
- 15 app-access users per branch
- 25 employee profiles per branch
- Multiple locations
- Supplier Operations included
- Discount rules, promo codes & automatic campaigns
- Priority large-job processing
- Custom domain
- Priority support
- Additional locations £49.00/mo each
Questions about SlickCell repair shop software
The quick answers. Can't find yours? Talk to our team.
SlickCell is repair shop software and POS for shops that repair and sell electronics: phones, tablets, laptops, games consoles and smartwatches. It runs repair tickets, the till, invoices, stock tracked by IMEI or serial number, trade-ins, supplier ordering, staff rotas and reports in one web app, hosted in London.
Yes. Phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and all-in-ones, games consoles, smartwatches, earbuds and headphones are device types in their own right, each with its own brand list. The intake checklist changes with the type, so a laptop is checked for its hinge and keyboard and a console for its controllers. Every device is booked in by its IMEI or serial number.
Yes. Every device is its own record with its own IMEI or serial number, cost, condition, selling price and history. A phone is usually tracked by IMEI; a laptop, console, tablet or smartwatch by its serial number. Both are free text, so a partial or unusual reference from older stock is accepted.
Yes, from one login, on the Professional plan and above. Each branch keeps its own stock and its own staff, the owner adds branches from the main shop, and every branch can be read together on one dashboard and in the reports. Each extra branch is £49 a month, excluding VAT.
Yes, with the one you already have. Take the payment on your terminal and the till records it on the sale, split with cash if needed. SlickCell takes no cut of your card takings.
Yes. Parts, accessories and devices import from CSV with a preview of exactly what will be written before anything is saved. Most shops finish open repairs on the old system and start new work in SlickCell from go-live.
Starter is £39 a month, Professional £59 and Supplier Pro £99, all excluding VAT, or ten times the monthly price for a year. Every plan includes repairs, POS, stock and reports; plans differ by team size, locations, discounts, Supplier Operations, Slick Intelligence summaries and support. Every plan starts with a fourteen-day free trial with no card.
Blog
Writing for the repair trade
Practical reads on running a tidier, more profitable repair shop.
4 August 2026
Why stock by IMEI or serial beats a quantity count
Tracking each device as its own unit changes what you can see, sell and trust on the shelf.
Read full blog: Why stock by IMEI or serial beats a quantity count
4 August 2026
Purchase orders, receiving, and the gap in between
Why booking stock in against the order you raised is what stops a short delivery quietly becoming your problem.
Read full blog: Purchase orders, receiving, and the gap in betweenPut a real repair through it
Start a 14-day trial on any plan, or see it on your own counter first.