Someone mentioned "till software", a "POS", a "cash register", a "management app". Four words, and nobody told you what it concretely changes for a neighbourhood shop, a salon or a pharmacy. Here is the plain version.
What till software does, in one sentence
Till software writes down every sale for you, at the moment it happens, and derives everything else from it: what is left in stock, what should be in the drawer, what each customer owes, and how much the shop made today.
That is all. The rest is variations. The difference from the notebook is not that the software "calculates": it is that it writes immediately, and that a single entry updates the till, the stock and the debt book at the same time. With a notebook, that is three notebooks, kept at three moments, by a person who has other things to do.
Cash register, terminal, app: not the same thing
The cash register is a machine with a drawer and a paper roll. It prints a ticket and adds up. It does not know what is left on the shelf, it does not know your customers, and if it breaks, everything stops.
The payment terminal takes a card or, increasingly, a Mobile Money payment. It collects; it manages neither stock nor credit. Some terminal vendors add software to it, and that is where the words get mixed up.
The till app runs on a phone or a tablet. It is what keeps the sale, the stock, the debt book and the reports. It can print a ticket if you have a printer, or send the receipt to the customer's phone. That is what people mean by "till software" today.
A neighbourhood shop needs neither the machine nor the terminal to start. It needs the app, and an Android phone.
What it changes, day after day
In the morning. The seller opens the till by declaring what is in the drawer. That figure is written, dated, under their name.
At every sale. They tap the items, take cash, Mobile Money or credit. Stock goes down on its own. If it is credit, the customer's account goes up on its own. The customer gets their receipt.
In the evening. The seller closes the till by counting the drawer. The software compares with what should be there. If 3,000 FCFA is missing, you know tonight, not at the end of the month.
On Saturday. You look at what sold, what did not move, what to reorder, and who owes money. A quarter of an hour, instead of an evening copying figures.
What till software does not do
It does not sell for you. It does not bring customers in. It does not replace the seller, or your eye on the shelf. And it does not fix a shop where nobody writes anything down: if the seller takes cash "beside" the software, the software shows wrong figures with great confidence.
That is why the first week matters more than the software itself. See below.
Five questions to ask before choosing one
- Does it work when the network drops? Not "it works in degraded mode", not "it comes back on its own": can the seller take the sale, print or send the receipt, and close the till, without a bar of signal? In Cameroon this is the first question, and we give it a whole article.
- Who installs it? Does someone come to load your products, prices, sellers and credit customers, then make the first sales with you? Or do you receive a link and a password?
- Is the debt book built in? Much software comes from Europe or Asia, where customer credit does not exist. Here it is half the trade. If it needs a "module" or a "workaround", move on.
- How much does it cost, all in, and what happens if I stop? A price per month, per year, hardware to buy? And your data: can you get it back as a file the day you leave?
- Where does the receipt go? On paper, you need a printer and rolls. On the customer's phone, the software needs to know how to send it, and through which channel. A receipt the customer keeps in their pocket is worth more than a ticket they throw away.
Where Remora Sales sits
Remora Sales is a till app in the sense above: it runs a shop's till, stock and debt book on an Android phone, including with no connection, and sends the receipt to the customer's phone through Nyocte, WhatsApp or SMS. There is no hardware to buy and no self-signup: someone comes to set the shop up, and the first morning at the till is a real morning of selling.
To see what it looks like in your shop, request a setup. To compare honestly with what you do today, read Remora Sales against the notebook and the calculator.