DARK MATTER Point of sale · 5 min read · Updated
Custom point of sale, or Square and Clover?
Short answer
Square or Clover are enough if you sell in a standard way in one or a few stores. A custom POS pays off when you sell by weight or on credit, run wholesale and retail prices, track shifts, commissions or cash per employee, or need the POS connected to inventory, payroll and reports across locations.
Also asked as
- What is the best point-of-sale system for my business?
- Is a custom POS worth it?
- Differences between an off-the-shelf POS and a custom one.
What an off-the-shelf POS solves
Taking cards, printing receipts, basic inventory and daily sales. For many shops it is enough and quick to set up.
Where it falls short
- Customer credit and receivables.
- Different wholesale and retail prices.
- Selling by the pound with a scale.
- Shifts, cash closings and envelopes per employee.
- Commissions and payroll tied to sales.
- Several cities or locations with different rules.
What your business gains with a custom one
One system that records every sale, payment and cash movement with your rules, and reports that show what you actually need to decide, without exporting to Excel.
Hardware
A custom POS can work with receipt printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners and scales, and with well-known payment processors.
How we solved it
HospitalityParty 360 POSParty 360 POS is the platform we built for a restaurant photo business across several cities: shifts, sales, payments, payroll and cash are recorded and reported in one place.See the project →Illustrative image with sample data; the real screens are private to the client.
Related questions
Can I keep my payment processor?
In most cases, yes. A custom POS integrates with well-known payment processors.
Does it work offline?
It can be designed to keep recording sales offline and sync when the connection returns.
Does it work for restaurants and butcher shops?
Yes. It adapts to how each business sells: tables and shifts, or weight, wholesale and credit.
Does your business have this question?
Walk us through your operation in a free assessment and get a written proposal with scope, phases, timeline and investment.
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