What's in this guide
The big idea (read this first)
A water refilling station has to keep track of two completely different things. Once these click, the whole app makes sense:
1. The water you sell
Filled gallons sitting at your station, ready to sell. This is your inventory / stock. It goes up when you refill, and down when you deliver.
2. The bottles you lend out
The physical containers customers borrow. This is the container deposit. You need to know who is holding how many of your bottles so they come back.
Think of it like a library
1. Set up your station
Do this once, in this order, and everything afterwards is faster.
- 1
Open Settings and set your defaults
Go to Water Refilling → Settings. Set your default price per gallon (e.g. ₱25), default container deposit (e.g. ₱0 or ₱150 per bottle), and a low-stock threshold (the number where Smapey warns you to refill).
- 2
Add your delivery routes
Go to Routes and add the areas you serve — e.g. 'Barangay San Jose' or 'Downtown'. This lets you group customers and plan a delivery run.
- 3
Add your customers
Go to Customers → New Customer. Just the name is required. Leave the price blank to use your station default, or set a special price for that customer. Assign them to a route if you deliver.
You only set the price once
2. Take a delivery order
Every time you sell water — walk-in or delivery — you create an order.
- 1
Go to Orders → New Delivery Order
Pick the customer. Their price fills in automatically.
- 2
Enter 'Gallons to Deliver'
How many filled gallons the customer is taking today, e.g. 5.
- 3
Enter 'Empty Returned' (if any)
If they hand back empty bottles at the same time, type the number here. Leave it 0 if they didn't bring any back.
- 4
Create the order
It starts as Pending. As the delivery happens you move it Pending → Out for Delivery → Delivered.
- 5
Mark it Delivered
When you confirm delivery, Smapey automatically subtracts those gallons from your stock and records the sale.
Why status matters
3. Container deposits explained
This is the part that confuses everyone, so let's go slow. For every customer, Smapey keeps a simple running count:
Bottles you've lent out − Bottles they've returned
= Containers the customer is still holding
Every time you deliver gallons, the "lent out" number goes up. Every time they return empties, the "returned" number goes up. The difference is what they still owe you in physical bottles.
Example: Juan
• Juan orders 10 gallons over the month → he's now holding 10 of your bottles.
• Next visit, Juan hands back 8 empties → he's now holding 2.
• Smapey shows Juan's "outstanding containers" as 2 — no notebook needed.
4. Record returned empties
There are two situations, and Smapey handles both.
A) Empties come back during a delivery. Just type the number in the "Empty Returned" field on the order (see step 2). Done.
B) A customer just drops by to return empties — no purchase. Use the dedicated Returns page:
- 1
Go to Returns → Record Return
Pick the customer. Smapey shows how many bottles they're currently holding.
- 2
Enter how many empties they returned
For example, 8. Add a note if you like.
- 3
Save
Their outstanding container count drops immediately, and the return is logged with the date and who recorded it.
Important: returned empties are NOT sellable yet
5. Inventory & refills
The Inventory page shows four numbers:
- Total Stock: Filled gallons you can sell right now.
- Reserved (pending): Gallons promised to orders that aren't delivered yet.
- Available (after pending): Stock minus reserved — what's truly free to sell.
- Empties on Hand: Returned empty bottles waiting to be refilled.
There are three buttons:
- 1
Restock — water from a supplier
Got filled gallons delivered from a bulk supplier? Enter the amount. Stock goes up.
- 2
Refill Empties — turn returned bottles into stock
After you refill the empties customers returned, enter the number here. Stock goes up and 'Empties on Hand' goes down. This is the step that closes the loop.
- 3
Manual Adjustment — fix mistakes
Use + or − to correct stock after a physical count, or to write off broken bottles.
Example: the full loop
• You start the day with 38 filled gallons in stock.
• Juan returns 12 empties → Empties on Hand shows 12. Stock is still 38 (empties aren't sellable).
• You refill those 12 bottles, then click Refill Empties → 12.
• Now Stock = 50, Empties on Hand = 0. The loop is closed. 🎉
6. Payments
Every order is Unpaid until you mark it Paid. Open the order and choose how they paid — Cash, GCash, Maya, or Bank Transfer. Your dashboard then shows today's revenue and any unpaid balances so you always know who still owes you.
7. SMS notifications
Smapey can automatically text a customer when their delivery is on the way. It's an optional toggle — turn it on when you want the heads-up texts going out, and off when you don't. Customers don't need any app; the message goes to their phone number.
8. The dashboard
Your home screen answers the questions you ask every day:
- How many orders today, and how many are still pending delivery?
- How much did I collect today and this month?
- Who hasn't paid yet, and how much?
- How much stock do I have, and am I running low?
- How many of my containers are still out with customers?
Glossary
- Stock / Inventory
- Filled gallons you can sell right now.
- Reserved
- Gallons promised to orders not yet delivered.
- Container deposit
- The bottles a customer is holding, lent out against a deposit.
- Outstanding containers
- Bottles a customer still has = lent out − returned.
- Empties on hand
- Returned empty bottles waiting to be refilled into stock.
- Refill
- Turning empties back into sellable stock with one click.
Ready to try it on your own station?
The free plan is enough to run a small station. No credit card, set up in five minutes.
Create your free account