How to choose the software for your Point of Sale Terminal (POS / POS)

Long time let's use linux he told us about The best free software for your Point of Sale Terminal (POS / POS)In it, it gave us a large number of free application alternatives to be installed in our POS. In this opportunity, we want to help you choose the right software for your Point of Sale Terminal (POS / POS), They are small instructions and tips that we should take into account so that our choice is the most appropriate. Point of Sale Terminal

Why does it make sense to use POS software?

There are many reasons why a Point of Sale system, It is essential for retail businesses or wholesale and retail sales. It helps owners manage and automate inventories, transactions, offers (such as discounts, coupons, and specials) and improve employee efficiency, allowing them to spend more time interacting with customers.

In addition, these systems provide important reports, such as performance monitoring, use customer data to help generate more business, allow the owner to have control when he is away, etc.

A Point of Sale consists of various components, including hardware, operating system, software, etc. An important part is precisely the Point of Sale software.

In the market there are many alternatives: Custom Developed, Commercial, Specific, Point of Sale in the Cloud, etc., choosing the most suitable one is a complex and important task, which we hope we can help you do in the best possible way.

What should we do to properly choose the software for our POS?

They are many the criteria that we must take into account when choosing the software for our Point of Sale Terminal, go from the amount of money to invest, the needs of our business, hardware limitations, software support, among others.

In a broad way, we observe 5 steps that we must take to choose the software for our Point of Sale Terminal, but these must be complemented with your criteria:

Define the needs of your business.

Each business model has different operational needs, we must define in an adequate way, what are the main characteristics that the software requires to satisfy our needs.

It is important to note that there is software for Point of Sale Terminal designed to work in specific business models, that is, software for restaurants, hotels, schools among others, there are also those that are designed to work in anyone, using functionalities that they are standard in any company.

Creating a list with the needs of your business and comparing it with the software that is available is the easiest way to carry out this step.

Evaluate the hardware you have.

One of the main problems that users have when choosing a software for their point of sale, is that they have hardware that does not guarantee the correct operation of the tool. For this we must correctly analyze the characteristics of our hardware, highlighting: the operating system, the processor, the memory, the storage capacity, the ports, accessories, connections and the possibility of improvements.

Evaluate the functionalities of each software.

This step is directly related to your needs, we must evaluate each of the functionalities offered by the software that we are analyzing, the updating capacity, improvements, adaptation to your business model, scalability, usability, among others.

The main thing is to choose the software that has the greatest number of functionalities associated with our business and also the possibility of adapting to growth or the creation of new functionalities. It is quite an important point to evaluate the transparency of your code and the processes it involves for its operation.

Make forecasts with the hidden costs of the software to choose.

One of the most common mistakes we make when choosing our point of sale software is the zero importance we give to the evaluation of administration costs, the additions required by the software in question, the limitations that some software companies apply, among others.

It is important to clarify exactly the following questions: What does it offer? What does it cost? What does it require? How much is the support worth? What is free and what is paid?

Test and verify software support.

As much as if you choose a proprietary or free software, you must bear in mind that the support you can obtain from the tool is essential, either from a consultancy, the help of the software, or the communities around it.

The normal thing is that you investigate its documentation, the steps to follow in case of an error, user manuals, personalized support, forums and blogs, read comments about the software and interact with developers or representatives of the tool.

We may have chosen the most complete software, but if there is no way to learn it, to solve its faults or simply to add new functionalities, the investment of money and effort has probably been of no use.

To concludeWe must emphasize that we must look at software for POS as tools that will allow us to increase our sales and reduce our losses. Based on this, we must give them the importance they deserve, the alternatives exist, using the most appropriate for your business is your responsibility.

Personally, I have had very good experiences using the terminals vonus y Open Bravo POS, in the first it is worth noting, which is a 100% cloud software, with high usability, in addition to excellent functionalities and the second that perfectly complements my favorite ERP Idempier.

We want to know what you think about these tips and also read yours. Do not forget to leave your comments.


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  1.   Gregory ros said

    In the company we work for (Productoe, we are small) we use Odoo as a management package, including pos. The printing is very good, it runs in any web browser (we use Chrome) so practically any machine can run it, also as an office suite we use Google's, also on the web, with what the same as with Odoo.
    The hardware issue is secondary for us, with 250 euros you have a sufficient tower to go loose on the web, for 120GB SSD storage and it is going great, super fast (the data is on the web and we do not take up disk). With these prices it does not deserve much to complicate with old machines, except for greater necessity. And for the monitor it accepts the touch, very comfortable for the POS (price apart).
    For the OS you can already imagine that we use GNULinux, therefore neither antivirus nor other ballasts.
    In the case of the POS we do not use the typical boxes that are already assembled for them, therefore I do not think, although I suppose that if they are necessary they will also be compatible for GNULinux (some at least).
    The only problems we have are with the peripherals, we must be careful that the labellers, weights, etc. are compatible, you can not buy lightly or they will strain you.
    Conclusion, if you adapt to the standard you can have very good solutions for a minimal cost. We already had other software for Windows, it was not cheap and not because it was paid was better or more complete, the change is appreciated. Logically, we are not all programmers, we have to contract maintenance, that is, someone who installs the server on the web, makes backup copies, etc, etc. but the important thing is the saving in licenses, both for the program, the OS, the office suite, antivirus, etc. with what gives us a lot of margin in the budget. Therefore, it has not hurt us much to change an incompatible peripheral or to have a modification programmed to adapt the program to our needs.
    A pity that, generally due to ignorance, companies do not pay more attention to free solutions, they give fewer problems and represent significant savings for the times that run.
    A greeting.

    1.    Luigys toro said

      What a good comment my dear, I know Odoo and its excellent scope, although I have spent more time working with COMPIERE, Adempiere and Idempiere, which like Odoo use the same data dictionary.

      Obviously your experience is what we want to read at all times, companies that are encouraged to use free software and that allow themselves to create structures with standards, which allow adopting the tools in any circumstances.

      Free Software, more than a saving in Licensing, is an opportunity to know what your software really does, to be able to adapt the software to your needs, to add and improve the software and above all to be able to reward those improvements without limitations.

      I hope one day to read your experience in more detail and exchange the knowledge acquired at the business level.

  2.   Tom said

    Hello, does anyone know of POS for a small business, that is not obsolete and that you do not have to go around putting things and things together so that it works?
    Or someone who has developed something that works and wants to negotiate for a fair price?
    open bravo, unicenta, lemon pos are not an option.

  3.   kristian said

    Good morning,
    I just joined the forum and asked why "open bravo, unicenta, lemon pos are not an option"

  4.   Oscar Quezada said

    Good morning I was analyzing I am very interested in cloud technology but I did not find more than:
    https://wallypos.com/ but I didn't really like its interface.
    https://www.smarttouchpos.com.pe/ I see that it is new, has anyone tried it because I see that it is very complete? Some help if someone already used any of it to be able to choose the best system on the market.

  5.   njmube said

    Hey.

    Very good article.

    Other things that I would add to take into account are: how long has the software developer company been in the market? How stable is it? How often do updates come out? etc.