In this guide (12)
- What should you decide before looking at any POS system?
- What goes on a POS buyer's checklist?
- Does a POS system need to work offline?
- Why does the link between sales and stock matter so much?
- Do you need customer credit and price lists?
- What reports should a POS system give you?
- What questions should you ask in a POS demo?
- What are the red flags when choosing a POS system?
- What does it really cost to switch POS systems?
- When is a till not enough?
- How EasyTaskr helps
- Questions people ask
Key takeaways
- Write down how you sell today before you look at any till.
- Test the awkward cases in the demo: a refund, a credit sale, a scan of an unknown barcode, the internet going down.
- A till that is not linked to stock only tells you what you sold, not what you have left.
- Ask how you get your data out before you put it in.
- The real cost of a till includes the hours it takes to switch, not just the monthly fee.
What should you decide before looking at any POS system?
Decide how you sell. Write it down on one page before you book a single demo, because every till looks good when someone else is driving it.
Answer these questions for your own business:
- Who buys from you? Walk-in customers, account customers who pay later, or both?
- How do you price? One price for everyone, or different prices for trade, retail and big customers?
- How many products do you carry, and do most of them have barcodes?
- How many places do you keep stock? One back room, or a shop plus a warehouse?
- How many tills, and how many people on them at the busiest hour?
- Who looks at the numbers, and what do they need to see each week?
A corner shop with 800 barcoded items and cash sales has very different needs from a wholesaler selling 3,000 items on credit to 200 shops. Both need a till. They do not need the same till.
What goes on a POS buyer's checklist?
Eleven things decide whether a till will suit you. Score each candidate from 0 (missing) to 2 (works well for us), and write down what you saw, not what you were told.
| Area | What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Runs on tablets, computers or phones you can buy locally; works with your scanner, printer and cash drawer | Special hardware is expensive to replace when it breaks |
| Offline | Keeps taking sales when the internet drops, then catches up | A till that stops is a queue that walks out |
| Barcode | Scans fast; handles unknown barcodes and items with no barcode | Most counter time is spent finding the product |
| Stock link | Every sale takes stock off; receiving goods puts it back on | Without it you know what you sold, not what you have |
| Customer credit | Account customers, credit limits, balances, who owes what and for how long | Credit you cannot see is credit you cannot collect |
| Price lists | Different prices for different customers; discounts and offers | Trade and retail prices on one till is common and easy to get wrong |
| Reports | Sales, profit by product, stock value, end-of-day totals | You should not need a spreadsheet to see last week |
| VAT | Correct rate on each line; VAT shown on receipts and invoices | Wrong VAT is a cost you pay later |
| Support | Who answers, how fast, and in which hours you trade | Your busiest hour is when things break |
| Data export | Products, customers, sales and balances out as CSV | Your records should never be held hostage |
| Cost of switching | Import tools, setup time, training, contract length | The fee is often the smallest part of the cost |
A worked scoring example
Say you are comparing three tills for a shop that also sells to a few trade customers on account. You score each area 0, 1 or 2 and double the weight on the three areas that matter most to you: stock link, customer credit and price lists.
| Area | Weight | Till A | Till B | Till C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Offline | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Barcode | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Stock link | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Customer credit | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Price lists | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Reports | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| VAT | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Support | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Data export | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Cost of switching | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Weighted totals: Till A scores 2+2+2+2+0+2+2+2+2+1+2 = 19. Till B scores 2+1+2+4+2+4+1+2+1+2+1 = 22. Till C scores 1+2+2+4+4+4+2+2+1+2+1 = 25.
Till A looked the slickest in the demo, but it cannot track what account customers owe. For this shop that is a deal-breaker, and the scoring shows it plainly. Change the weights for your own business; the point is to make the trade-offs visible.
Does a POS system need to work offline?
Yes, if losing the internet would stop you trading. Ask exactly what happens when the connection drops: can you still scan, take cash, print a receipt and save the sale? And what happens when it comes back?
In the demo, ask the seller to turn off the Wi-Fi and carry on. Then check that the sales made offline arrive in the reports and that stock comes off. If the answer is "it needs a connection", know that before you sign, and decide whether a backup mobile connection is enough for you.
Why does the link between sales and stock matter so much?
Because it is the difference between a cash register and a business tool. When each sale takes stock off and each delivery puts it back, you can see what is running low without counting shelves.
Check the whole loop, not just the sale:
- Receive a delivery against a supplier. Does stock go up?
- Sell five units. Does stock go down by five?
- Refund one. Does it go back on?
- Count the shelf and find two fewer than the system says. Can you record the adjustment with a reason?
If you keep stock in more than one place, check that the till sells from the right location and that you can move stock between them. Our stock control guide explains the habits that keep these numbers honest.
Do you need customer credit and price lists?
You need them if any customer pays later or pays a different price. Many shops start with cash only, then take on a few trade accounts and end up tracking them in a notebook.
For credit, look for a credit limit per customer, a running balance, payments recorded against specific invoices, and an ageing view that shows how long each amount has been owed. Without ageing, a customer who always buys but never quite pays can drift a long way before anyone notices.
For pricing, check that the till picks the right price automatically once you choose the customer. A cashier should never have to remember that one shop gets 8% off. Our guide on how to price products covers how to set those lists up in the first place.
What reports should a POS system give you?
At minimum: sales by day and by product, profit by product, the value of your stock, and an end-of-day total you can check against the cash drawer. If you sell on credit, add who owes what.
Profit by product only works if the till knows your cost prices, so check how costs get in. Ask whether reports can be exported to CSV so your accountant can use them. And ask for an end-of-day close that locks the day, so yesterday's numbers cannot quietly change. See end-of-day cash-up for what a good close looks like.
What questions should you ask in a POS demo?
Ask questions that make the seller show you, not tell you. Bring your own product list and two or three real sales from last week, and ask them to put those through.
Good questions to ask:
- "Can you scan this barcode from my shelf?" Bring a few real products.
- "Show me a refund, then a part refund."
- "Show me a sale to an account customer who is over their credit limit. What happens?"
- "Show me the same product sold to a trade customer and a walk-in customer at different prices."
- "Turn off the internet and take a sale."
- "Show me where VAT appears on the receipt and on an invoice."
- "How do I export all my products, customers and sales? Show me the file."
- "What does support look like at 7 in the evening on a Saturday?"
- "What exactly is included in the price, and what costs extra?"
- "How long is the contract, and what happens to my data if I leave?"
Write down the answers during the demo. A week later, three demos blur together.
What are the red flags when choosing a POS system?
The biggest red flag is a seller who will not let you try the awkward cases. Others to watch for:
- No way to export your data, or export only "on request".
- Long contracts with exit fees, especially on hardware you would own anyway.
- Hardware that only works with one system, so leaving means throwing it away.
- Features that are "coming soon" and are central to how you sell. Buy what exists today.
- Card processing bundled in with no way to compare rates. Ask for the full fee table.
- Reports that need a separate paid add-on for things like profit or stock value.
- No clear answer about offline use.
None of these is automatically fatal. Each is a question you should get a straight answer to before you commit.
What does it really cost to switch POS systems?
More than the monthly fee. Add up the time to clean and import your product list, set up prices and customers, carry over customer balances, train staff, and run both systems side by side for a short while.
A rough worked estimate for a shop with 1,500 products and 4 staff:
| Task | Hours |
|---|---|
| Clean product list (names, barcodes, costs, prices) | 12 |
| Import and check products | 4 |
| Set up price lists and customer accounts | 4 |
| Carry over customer balances and check them | 3 |
| Train 4 staff at 1.5 hours each | 6 |
| Run both systems for the first few days, extra checks | 6 |
| Total | 35 |
At 15 an hour of your own time, that is 525 of effort before the new till has paid for anything. It is usually worth it, but plan for it. Most of the work is cleaning your product list, which is worth doing whichever till you choose.
When is a till not enough?
When you start running the business from spreadsheets beside it. If you are keeping customer balances, purchase orders or stock across sites in separate files, you may need a till that is part of a wider business system. We cover that choice in POS vs ERP.
Questions people ask
What is the most important feature in a POS system?
Speed and reliability at the counter. If a sale takes too long or the till stops when the internet drops, nothing else matters. After that, the link between sales and stock is what saves the most time.
Do I need special hardware for a POS system?
Not always. Many tills run on an ordinary tablet, computer or phone. You may still want a barcode scanner, a receipt printer and a cash drawer, so check which models the system supports before you buy any.
Should a small shop pay for a POS system or use a free one?
Compare the total cost over two or three years, including card fees, hardware, add-ons and the time it takes to set up. A free till that cannot handle your price lists or stock can cost more in staff hours than a paid one.
How long does it take to switch POS systems?
It depends mostly on how clean your product list is. Importing products, prices and customer balances, then training staff, is usually the bulk of the work. Plan a quiet day to go live and run the old system beside the new one for a short time if you can.
