EPOS Software Recommendations

Ashlinggnilsia

Hi Guys,

I am looking for epos software that will do the whole shabang, print barcodes, do sales reports, stock reports etc. First business so not a clue what is good, whats not and whats a rip off, don't want to pay hundreds of euro for something that turns out to be a pile of ****e.

I am going to get all the rest of the stuff myself separately like the cash drawer, monitor etc. Want to run it off a pc don't want one of those all in one jobs... too expensive, have the bones of everything else anyway.

Thanks in advance for all your help,

The business would be in IT selling computer products and doing services and repairs so need something that will cover it all.

Thanks

Owen

Google open source epos software - there's a glut of applications out there.

smokiebeverage

You could try http://forge.openbravo.com/projects/openbravopos. Don't write off proper pos hardware, having it all in one can be really handy. To be honest if you are going down the line of just using a PC you would be just as well using your accounts software to produce invoices and skip the whole POS expense. You wont need to print barcodes, I haven't see an IT part without a pre printed one in years.

Ashlinggnilsia

well ya but basically so i can scan in the bar code assign it to a product and stock etc.

Didn't actually know there was open source epos software... Thanks for that, that will be handy anyway cos i could download a couple of em and test em and see if they are any good.

smokiebeverage

Ashlinggnilsia wrote: »

well ya but basically so i can scan in the bar code assign it to a product and stock etc..

The barcode is just a list of numbers which you either type in from the barcode, or scan them in (The scanners look like a keyboard to the PC, thats all they do)

Ashlinggnilsia

tried that bravo one, problem with the file, any other suggestions, tried googling the free ones but all i could find was ones that wouldn't really suit or that would only cover part of it like sales reports or whatever....

was.deevey

Its worthwhile getting a decent ePOS control system from the get-go and investing in it - if its a good one it'll save you money in the long term by way of simplifying things, Speeding up your transactions, being robust and handling your stock management / transfers / repairs.

Trust me when I say It'll be more hassle than its worth a year or two down the line if you want to switch to something else and your entire accounts and stock are set up on a crap ePOS system database.

Think about what happens when you need to scale up / add branches / add reports / integrate with your accounting software use stock control scanners etc.

As for hardware, a decent Spec PC (not a Dell in otherwords!) should get you going .. specific "epos" hardware is little more than generally low (under) powered and un-upgradable Small form factor PC's. The all-in-one models are a pain in the arse when something goes wrong unless you're going for the expensive (IBM / Epson) models.

I'm gonna suggest you have a peek at Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management (there's a Trial version).

Reasons:
Flexible
Scalable to multi cashpoint / multi-branch
Lots of third party Integration / Addons / credit card terminals / chip&pin etc
Few Issues with third party hardware / drivers
Robust Ms SQL database
Huge Userbase.
Reasonably easy to set up and get started out of the box.
Not "That" expensive depending on the scale of your company.

Probably the best piece of software thats come out of Microsoft in a long long time and well worth a look.

OpenPos is another one to have a look at - I've seen it used in supermarkets before (not in ireland however).

Ashlinggnilsia

Wow thats great thanks so much for that

johnsmith13

Instead of going straight for Microsoft whay not first try Irish companies first the two front runners in Epos are Retail Solutions and CBE. Both companies do a software only package which is very reasonable.

I have only used Retail Solutions and they have the features listed in the Microsoft package.

Alo if you only want to run their Epos on the PC then a standard (and yes a DELL) PC would be perfect.

Ashlinggnilsia

Most definitely will give the Irish Companies a call first. Must make a couple of calls in the next few days and see where it gets me. Seeing as we are in the IT business we could most definitly be able to make up our own computer, and get a touch screen monitor so all we need is the software.

Thanks for you suggestion!

Its all greatly appreciated. And I must say I love that so many people are willing to give advice and help each other out.