While we never want it to happen and know it is extremely rare, we regularly remind our POS software customers they ought to be prepared to trade manually should they not have access to their POS software for some reason. Here is our advice, which has not changed in many years.
If you lose power, have a major hardware failure or have some other unexpected problem, your computer system on which you rely to record sales may not be available for some time. Here is our advice on how to handle such a situation:
- Track all sales. Write down the barcode of every item you sell and the price. When you are back up and running, enter these in. This maintains an accurate stock on hand count. When you are back online, enter the barcodes, ring up the sales.
Yes, that is it. Very simple. Also, very easy to not do and thereby compromise your business data.
To prepare you for this, do the following:
- Create a ruled sheet to use. Two columns: barcode, price.
- Copy the sheet a few times and setup on a clipboard. With a clipboard made up for each register you have.
- Tie a pen to each clipboard.
- Place the clipboards in an easily accessible space.
- Take out the clipboards and place next to each register in the event of your system being down and you needing to transact.
- You are good to go.
Recording sales on scraps of paper is not good business management. It invites error and fraud.
While no one wants your computer system to be down, being prepared for this is important business planning.
Footnote: knowing a competitor as we do, they are likely to point to this post as us identifying a weakness in our software. This would be untrue. This advice is an example of our POS software company providing whole of business advice for any contingency. It is what we do and for which we are appreciated.
