How to choose POS software — eight questions that decide it
Most "best POS software" lists rank whoever paid to be on them. This one is a set of questions you can put to any vendor, including us — and a straight answer about when we are the wrong choice.
Choosing a till is not really a feature comparison. Every system on your shortlist will bill a sale, print a receipt and show you a sales report; the differences that matter turn up three months in, on the day the internet drops, or the day you hire a fourth cashier, or the day you try to get your own data back out.
So the useful thing is not a longer feature table. It is a short list of questions that separate systems which look alike on a website. Here are the eight we would ask if we were buying.
Can it sell when the internet is down?
Ask for a demonstration with the network cable unplugged. A cloud till stops; a local one does not. This matters more than any feature if your area has load-shedding, an unreliable line, or a shop in a basement.
Codipy POS: Codipy runs entirely on your own PC. Internet is used only for WhatsApp, tax reporting, backups and the phone app.
What happens to your data if you stop paying?
With most subscriptions the answer is that you lose access to your own ledger. Ask specifically: can I export everything, and in what format, and does the software keep working at all?
Codipy POS: The data file is on your disk. Backups are yours, every report exports to CSV, and nothing is switched off remotely.
Does it price per user, per till, or per shop?
Per-user pricing looks cheap with two staff and expensive with eight — and it quietly punishes you for growing. Work out the five-year cost, not the monthly one.
Codipy POS: One-time licence per shop, with unlimited counters on your network.
Does it handle your trade, or just "retail"?
A pharmacy needs batches and expiry. A mobile shop needs IMEIs. A garment shop needs size and colour under one product. Software that treats all three the same makes all three work around it.
Codipy POS: Eleven business-type presets that switch modules on and off. See the trade pages for exactly what each one gets.
Is the accounting real, or a sales summary?
Ask to see a trial balance. Many "ERP" tills produce sales reports and call it accounting, which means your accountant re-keys the year into something else anyway.
Codipy POS: Double-entry that posts itself, with trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and party ledgers.
How does it handle credit?
If a good share of your sales are on account, this decides more than the billing screen does. Ask to see ageing by 30/60/90 days and how a part payment is applied.
Codipy POS: Balances per party, ageing, a daily call list, and payments that always clear the oldest bill first.
Will it set itself up for your country?
Currency, tax rate, whether tax is inside the price or added at the till, and what the tax number is called — four things that should follow from one answer, not four separate questions you have to research.
Codipy POS: Pick your country and all four are filled in. 66 countries, and the rate stays yours to change.
Can you get your old data in?
The cost of switching is almost always the data, not the licence. Ask what an import actually covers: products only, or customers, suppliers and opening balances too.
Codipy POS: A migration wizard for products, parties and opening balances, plus CSV import — and setup help comes with the licence.
Cloud subscription or offline licence?
This is the real fork in the road, and neither answer is universally right — they fail in different ways. Pick by which failure you can least afford in your shop.
| Cloud subscription | Offline licence | |
|---|---|---|
| Internet drops | Selling stops | Selling continues |
| Your data lives | On the vendor's servers | On your own disk |
| You stop paying | Access usually ends | It keeps running |
| Cost shape | Low monthly, forever, often per user | Higher once, then nothing |
| Backups | Vendor's job | Yours — set them up on day one |
| Updates | Automatic | You choose when |
| Reaching it from home | Works out of the box | Needs setting up |
| New PC in the shop | Just log in | Install and point it at the server |
Codipy is the offline side of that table, because of where it was built. In markets where the power and the line both go several times a week, a till that stops is not a minor inconvenience — it is a queue of people leaving. If your connection is genuinely reliable and you value never thinking about a backup, a cloud product may suit you better, and we would rather say so here than after you have paid.
When Codipy POS is the wrong choice
- You want somebody else to own the backups and the server. Ours run on your machine, and you have to set the off-site copy up.
- You need a Mac or a tablet as the main till. It is Windows on the counter; phones and tablets are companions, not registers.
- You run a single mobile stall with fifteen products. A full ERP is more machine than that needs.
- You need certified fiscal integration in a country we do not yet cover. We ship FBR for Pakistan and ZATCA for Saudi Arabia — ask before assuming yours is in.
- You want a direct live link into Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB. We keep our own books and export CSV; there is no direct integration today.
How to test a system properly
Demos are designed to go well. The only test that tells you anything is a real day, run in parallel with whatever you use now:
- ✓ Bill twenty real sales at your normal speed, with your own scanner.
- ✓ Take a return — once with the bill, once without it.
- ✓ Give a regular customer credit, then take a part payment against it.
- ✓ Receive one supplier delivery, with the batch or serial numbers you actually record.
- ✓ Close the day and tally it against the drawer.
- ✓ Unplug the network cable and try to sell.
That takes an afternoon and tells you more than a month of feature tables. Codipy is free to download for exactly that reason — we would rather you found out on your own counter.
Common questions
Is cloud POS better than offline POS?
Neither is better in general; they fail differently. Cloud is easier to reach from anywhere and updates itself, but it stops selling when the connection stops and your data sits on somebody else's server. Offline keeps selling through an outage and keeps the data on your disk, but backups are your job and reaching it from outside the shop takes setup. Choose by which failure you can least afford.
How much should POS software cost?
Compare five-year totals, not monthly prices. A subscription billed per user is often several times the cost of a one-time licence once you count three or four staff over five years — and at the end you own nothing. A one-time licence costs more on day one and less by year two.
What is the most important feature?
For most shops it is not a feature — it is billing speed and whether the system works on a bad day. After that, whatever your trade genuinely needs: batches and expiry for a pharmacy, IMEI for a mobile shop, variants for garments. Long feature lists are easy to write; test the five things you do every day.
Should I pick software made for my country?
It matters more than people expect. Currency, whether tax sits inside the price or is added at the till, what the tax number is called, and whether invoices are reported to a government service are not cosmetic — getting them wrong is a compliance problem, not a display problem. Ask to see an invoice for your own country before you decide.
Can I move my data from my old software?
Ask exactly what an import covers — products only, or customers, suppliers and opening balances too. The cost of switching is almost always the data rather than the licence, and a vendor who is vague about it is telling you something.