A point of sale that is the books

Most shops run a till and an accounting package and a job at the end of the day to make them agree. The interesting question is what happens the day they do not.

There is nothing to reconcile

The POS, the reports and the ledger in Elvira are three views of one record. A sale at the counter is a posted document the moment it is taken: the same document the profit and loss reads, the same one the stock comes off. They agree because they are the same thing, not because something synchronised them.

What it does at the counter

• Scan-first selling, weighed items and combo boxes.
• Shifts with a float, and a Z report at the end of one.
• Returns, waste, stock counts and stock requests, from the counter.
• Cashier PINs, and a supervisor to approve what needs approving.
• Thermal receipts, and a cash drawer that opens on cash and stays shut on card.
• It keeps selling with the internet down, and catches up when it returns.

Setting one up

Install it on the machine and it shows a short code. The owner claims that code from their own books, from anywhere: no site visit, no configuration file, nobody signing in at the counter. Revoke it remotely and it stops selling.

And it warns before it is too late

Sell more than the shelf holds and it asks first, naming the item and the figure the stock would end on. Whether the counter is asked at all is the owner’s setting: the books always are.