[Hidden-tech] Looking for POS software for retail business.

[Chris Hoogendyk]

Michael Eger wrote:
> Microsoft Accounting has a good POS add on. MS does a awlful job 
> marketing this product but it got a SQL database back end and it looks 
> to be coded better then Quickbook. I am currently using MS Accounting 
> for my own bookkeeping. 

I haven't been involved in this stuff for more than 10 years, however, . . .

I think generalized accounting solutions are usually not right for 
specific POS applications.

When I was in this stuff, I wrote custom database software for Specular 
that might be called Call Center Sales -- they didn't have a store 
front, but they did take calls from customers (both support and sales) 
and needed to have that all at their fingertips. When they went to trade 
shows, I had a trimmed down version that allowed them to do really fast 
transaction processing where they had lots of people crowded around 
their booth wanting to get the latest software.

At that time, I was involved in an interest group of people doing that 
sort of programming and support. There was one guy who taught database 
design and who ran his own software business specializing in POS 
software for bookstores. They needed to deal with lots of special 
aspects of books, ISBNs, etc. They handle what's in stock and so on and 
barcode scan the ISBN to put books in stock when you are opening a 
shipment from a publisher. Someone else had POS software that was 
specialized for Beauty Salons. That software had to handle calendars, 
appointments, tips, etc. and would be very different from the needs of a 
bookstore, focusing more on customer relations, tracking customer 
preferences, hair color codes, and so on. A general store or toy store 
might be similar to one another, but would have a number of differences 
from a bookstore and would be quite different from a Beauty Salon.

I think POS software is something that branches into many 
specializations and feeds back to the accounting software. If accounting 
software provided an API for POS, that would be something different. 
Then programmers or VARs could produce special modules for different POS 
applications that would feed back into that accounting software more 
easily. I wonder if anyone has done that? Seems it would be a way for 
some accounting software vendor to get a competitive edge in the POS arena.

To provide a proper recommendation would require more information about 
the type of store and specific needs. Then, I have to confess that I am 
now out of touch with this stuff, so I would have to start googling and 
then I'm not necessarily going to be able to judge what I'm looking at. 
First page of a google for "pos software" turns up this -- 
http://www.possoftwareguide.com/. I don't like the hard sell (he has a 
book he wants you to buy), but it does make the point that there is a 
plethora of specialized POS software out there, and it is not easy to 
search through it and select what is appropriate for your own situation. 
Nevertheless, it is important to make a good decision. Hmm, google "pos 
software bookstore" and the page fills up with choices, including a 
specialized one for Christian bookstores. I'm wandering here, but you 
get the point.


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Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

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Erdös 4