The notebook and the calculator have run shops since long before phones, and they will run them for a long time yet. Before saying that software does better, you have to say honestly what the notebook does well. Here is the comparison we make with shop owners, without exaggerating on either side.
What the notebook does better
It never breaks down. No battery, no update, no cracked screen. A wet notebook dries.
Everyone knows how to use it. No training, no first week of learning.
It costs nothing. 500 FCFA a notebook, and it lasts six months.
It is yours, physically. Nobody can shut it down remotely, and it depends on no company.
These four points are true, and a shop that runs well on its notebook is under no obligation to change. The change is worth it when the notebook starts costing more than 500 FCFA. Here is when.
Where the notebook loses: the three moments
In the evening, at the drawer. The notebook says what was sold, if everything was written. It does not say what should be in the drawer. To know that, you have to add up the day on the calculator, hoping you forgot nothing, then count the notes. Most shops do not do it every evening, because it takes long. Result: a 2,000 FCFA shortfall a day goes unseen, and makes 60,000 at the end of the month.
On Saturday, at the debt book. A notebook kept by date forces you through three weeks of pages to know what a customer owes. You end up asking the customer. See how to keep a book that adds up.
With two people. As soon as there are two sellers, or a seller and an absent owner, the notebook has two authors. Both write differently, at different times. Nobody knows who sold what, and the evening shortfall becomes an argument.
Point-by-point comparison
| Notebook + calculator | Remora Sales | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ~500 FCFA / 6 months | Subscription per shop, or licence (see Pricing) |
| Hardware | None | An ordinary Android phone |
| Breakdowns | Never | Works offline; depends on the phone's battery |
| Training | None | First week accompanied by Remora |
| What should be in the drawer | Calculated every evening | Shown at closing, compared with the count |
| What each customer owes | Searched through the pages | On the customer's account, updated at every sale |
| What is left on the shelf | By heart, or by counting | Item by item, updated at every sale |
| Two sellers | Two handwritings | One account per seller, every sale signed |
| Two shops | Two notebooks, a phone call | The same stock and the same book, transfers recorded |
| Receipt to the customer | Paper, if written | On their phone (Nyocte, WhatsApp, SMS) |
| Credit reminder | From memory, face to face | From the account, in one tap |
| If you stop | The notebook stays | Your data exported as a file before closing |
This table has no "winner" row. It depends on the shop.
For which shop the change is worth it
Three signs, any one of which is enough:
- You no longer count the drawer every evening, because it takes too long, and you no longer know exactly how much the shop earns.
- You have more than about twenty credit customers, or a single large debt that keeps you awake.
- You are not always at the shop: a seller, a second point of sale, a partner.
If none of the three applies to you, keep the notebook, keep it per customer, and come back when the shop has grown. If one of the three applies, the notebook is already costing you more than 500 FCFA a month, you just do not see it in the drawer.
What does not change
The software writes nothing on its own. If the seller takes cash beside it, the software lies just as well as the notebook. The discipline "I write before I hand over" is the same with a pen and with a phone. What the software changes is that writing is faster than speaking, that it updates three things at once, and that it cannot be "forgotten" between the customer and the drawer.
And what does not change either: the shop remains yours. Sales, stock, customers are yours, exportable at any time, and nobody at Remora sells them.
To see the difference on your own figures rather than in a table, request a setup: we come with your notebook, and load the shop from it.