A point of sale (POS) system is where most of your money comes in, so it pays to choose carefully. A good POS does more than print receipts: it keeps stock right, shows you what sells, and makes closing the day quick and honest. These are the questions worth asking before you buy.
1. Does it keep selling when the internet goes off?
Connections drop. A POS that stops working when they do means lost sales and long queues. Ask whether the till can keep selling offline and catch up once the connection is back.
2. Is stock connected to every sale?
If the POS and your stock records are separate, someone has to reconcile them by hand. Look for a POS that shares one item list with your inventory, so every sale, receipt of goods and count lands in the same place.
3. Can it handle more than one branch?
Even if you have one shop today, choose a system that can add branches and warehouses later, with stock kept per location and a single view for head office.
4. Which payment methods can you record?
Customers pay with cash, mobile money and cards. The POS should record each payment by method, so the cash in the drawer and the money on your phone or in the bank can be checked against sales at close.
5. What reports will you actually use?
Ask to see the daily sales report, sales by item, sales by branch and stock levels. If the reports need exporting and rebuilding in a spreadsheet every day, the system will cost you time.
6. Does it connect to your accounts?
A POS that feeds your accounting saves hours at month end. Sales, payments and purchases should reach the books without being typed in again.
7. What hardware do you need?
Most counters need a computer or tablet, a receipt printer, a barcode scanner and a cash drawer. Check what works with the system before buying hardware, and plan for power backup.
8. Who sets it up and supports you?
Setting up items, prices and users, training staff and getting help on a busy Saturday matter as much as features. Ask who does the set up, how training works and how quickly support responds.
What changes by type of business
| Business | Look for |
|---|---|
| Shop or supermarket | Fast checkout, barcode scanning, reorder alerts, several tills and branches |
| Pharmacy | Batch and expiry tracking, oldest expiry sold first, expired stock blocked |
| Restaurant or café | A POS built for restaurants, kitchen stock control and spoilage records |
How Smart Suite fits
Smart Suite has a POS for retail, pharmacies and general stores and a Restaurant POS built for restaurants. Both are part of the same platform as Inventory, Procurement and Finance, the POS is offline-ready, and the platform runs several branches from one account. Smart Click also supplies counter hardware and trains your team.