Point of sale system - suggestions?

[pratlou]

Hi all

I would like some suggestions regarding which point of sales would you recommend for hardware type retailer?
Currently retailer is using manual system to capture sales, payments and consolidate everything on excel sheet, this system has proved to be prone to errors e.g incorrect sale figures , uncaptured suppliers invoices etc
Therefore their looking for something that can allow them to manage inventory, debtors and creditors all in one.
i done some research into following software but not sure of public experience regarding these softwares:
*Pastel (i have worked on pastel during my undergrad years and not sure whether to go pastel route or not)

*Quick Books (i haven't used quickbooks before but open for suggestion )

*4POS (nice software from visual perspective but aftersales support questionable based on hello peter reviews)

Any suggestion would help

 

[swakop_toe]

With any Point of Sales system comes the requirement to have a proper stock inventory list.

If you keep it generic, you might as well stay on Excel.

So a stock take-off project is required with creditors and debtors too...

Apart from printing a till slip with the correct selling price posting to the correct ledgers, what else do you wish to manage?
Stock costs? Stock levels? Stock BIN locations, barcodes and movement reports?

Identify "dead" stock, loss leaders and stock losses? Run "special campaigns", customer credit accounts and lay-byes?

So many questions will determine what you should consider.

 

[pratlou]

Excel currently works well but issue i have is that sometimes a bank would need updated management accounts e.g applying for working capital funds atleast with Pos system in place one would be able generate reliable figures. Also with Till slip would help a lot in cracking down fictitious sales.
Mostly i wish to manage following:

1. Identification of most selling items either by category or individual item e.g Mower or bolts
2. Generate sales report for specific period
3. stock write off, stock levels (re order point), change of selling price .
4. Running specific campaigns
5. Customer credit accounts
6. Supplier management
7. Sales return
8. Item location

 

[Johnatan56]

Pratloou, at this point you most likely need a custom solution. Most of your requirements are simply software requirements.

Although I can develop a custom solution for you, I would assume that you are not willing to spend that much money to get the system implemented by having it fully custom built from the ground up.

I can however offer you an implementation such as what I have done for my own shop. Though my system is designed to be used as an all-in-one online system, it not only sells my products but also keeps track of who my suppliers are for each product, how much stock is on hand at any one point in time (and how much brute profit can be made at the current markup, etc.

I can fairly easily modify this system to be for internal use only but it is your choice whether you actually want an online store and not just a pos.

There are however some minor bits of code that I would need to implement to cater for your reporting needs.

Let me know, I can setup a demo for you within a few minutes so that you can see the full capabilities.
The public side & e-commerce shop can be seen at: https://leobot.net

With the private demo, I will give you full admin access to test the system to see if you are interested and what shortcomings it may have for you.
Kind Regards
Leon

Pretty sure he does not need a customized solution as it looks like a normal commerce use.

@pratlou
Is something like this okay? https://www.capterra.com/p/176624/Chromis-POS/
I am just looking at cheap/open source so you can look at a couple and get an idea of what you want/what's out there.

This costs but looks like something you might like: https://www.capterra.com/p/149980/Ehopper/
Problem is U.S. so might be bad for use case.

Just find a couple and ask for demos to play around with. I am sure you don't need a customized solution for your usage.

 

[mh348]

For Hardware business I suggest IQ from www.iqretail.co.za they have a few different options, depending on the size of the company and features required.

Most Hardware groups use IQ. Mica, Buildit, Essential Group etc

Has all your requirements and much more.

With any software you decide on, make sure your department structures are carefully planned and set up so your reporting will be meaningful. If you part of a hardware group that uses IQ, they should be able to provide the department structure.

 

[pratlou]

Pratloou, at this point you most likely need a custom solution. Most of your requirements are simply software requirements.

Although I can develop a custom solution for you, I would assume that you are not willing to spend that much money to get the system implemented by having it fully custom built from the ground up.

I can however offer you an implementation such as what I have done for my own shop. Though my system is designed to be used as an all-in-one online system, it not only sells my products but also keeps track of who my suppliers are for each product, how much stock is on hand at any one point in time (and how much brute profit can be made at the current markup, etc.

I can fairly easily modify this system to be for internal use only but it is your choice whether you actually want an online store and not just a pos.

There are however some minor bits of code that I would need to implement to cater for your reporting needs.

Let me know, I can setup a demo for you within a few minutes so that you can see the full capabilities.
The public side & e-commerce shop can be seen at: https://leobot.net

With the private demo, I will give you full admin access to test the system to see if you are interested and what shortcomings it may have for you.
Kind Regards
Leon

The issue i have with custom softwares is that change in windows version woukd mean either redeveloping the software and also RSA tends to introduce or change laws therefore i would need something that would provide updates.

 

[pratlou]

For Hardware business I suggest IQ from www.iqretail.co.za they have a few different options, depending on the size of the company and features required.

Most Hardware groups use IQ. Mica, Buildit, Essential Group etc

Has all your requirements and much more.

With any software you decide on, make sure your department structures are carefully planned and set up so your reporting will be meaningful. If you part of a hardware group that uses IQ, they should be able to provide the department structure.

Definitely would contact IQ, i tested the demo and looks fair and meets my requirements.Thank you.

 

[Johnatan56]

The issue i have with custom softwares is that change in windows version woukd mean either redeveloping the software and also RSA tends to introduce or change laws therefore i would need something that would provide updates.

You shouldn't have to worry about that one. Law changes yes, security updates, yes; but not windows versions.

Is this company able to afford custom solutions? Does it need custom solutions? Would you like to build an e-commerce solution and use that for physical as well instead?
E.g. Woocommerce would be a good idea, even has PoS integration addons: https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-pos/ as woocommerce is so large it will definitely get updates.

Again, not sure what business you're in, so difficult to point suggest the "perfect" solution.

 

[Sapphiron]

Hi @pratlou

We do consulting on business software as our core business.

For small to medium size businesses, We have found the following combination to work very well.
https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/
https://www.xero.com/za/

Unleashed would be the core of the inventory and orders system, which integrates very well with Xero for Accounting.

If the hardware business does assemblies or repairs, it will keep track of those too. They also have ecommerce integration, if you want the shop to have an online store.

They also have dozens of 3rd party integrations, if you needs something very specific.

PM me if you would like an extended trial, or would like some help setting it up.

 

[pratlou]

Ok, let me change my initial suggestion to request for quotation and information.

Based on what everyone is suggesting, my requirements are fairly basic and mostly I require the following:
*Option for setting up users.
*Ability to monitor inventory in form understanding what units that should be left.
*ability to input inventory as it received from suppliers
*Write off inventory that is damaged
*Generate daily, monthly and year sales report either in pdf or via slip printer.
*Ability to change selling price for promotional purposes or normal change in selling price.
*Ability to capture supplier details and their invoices (creditor’s management)
*Ability to capture debtors details and invoices (debtor’s management)
*Support expansion of terminals (adding extra terminals)
*Allow for discount on sales only by authorization from supervisor (input supervisor username and password).
*Categorize inventory e.g. Electronics, chemical and nuts & bolts
*VAT option
*Extra feature to highlight which items sell the most.

The other day I was at Alzu Feeds marble hall branch, I notice their Pos sytem is pure basic and uses BIOS type like interface (Someone correct me if I am wrong about BIOS type interface).
After all, what I am looking for is basic Pos system and nothing glamorous. I am open for custom solution and would like to explore the option also. Cost guidance is welcomed.

 

[clint007]

based on my experience and usage, HumbleTill might work for you. I have a post about it on this forum. Its not perfect but it does the basics well. Its cloud based which is another + factor (https://www.humbletill.com/pricing/)

Next year I will be moving to Vend for POS and Xero for Accounting due to the short falls in humbletill. Its more expensive but worth the extra money for what you get.

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/anyone-using-humble-till-pos.982375/