The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.

Categorypoint of sale software

POS software user support Knowledge Base makes customers happy

June 9, 2015
1 Min read
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Screen Shot 2015-05-27 at 12.03.41 pmWe are thrilled with the feedback from our customers about the ever expanding Knowledge Base accessible framer POS software support website.

Packed with proprietary information, this Knowledge Base is a wonderful resource as we can share with customers in response to queries where documentation supporting an over the phone answer helps.

What is especially good is the feedback from customers that helps us enhance the Knowledge Base experience further.

This is another benefit of the proprietary and exclusive Tower AdvantageTM program.

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POS software company helps small business retailers cut EFTPOS mistakes

June 6, 2015
1 Min read
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EFTPOS processing mistakes at the retail sales counter can cost small business retailers dearly. POS software company Tower Systems helps retailers cut mistakes thanks to its integrated EFTPOS solutions.

Connecting directly with broadband EFTPOS bank Tyro as well as other banks, retailers using the Tower software are able to easily and quickly process credit card / EFTPOS payments without additional keystrokes.

Eliminating keystrokes is key to cutting mistakes. Eliminating the use of a separate EFTPOS device is key to eliminating mistakes. This saves time and money but most important it cuts mistakes.

In addition to cutting expensive mistakes, the integration delivered by Tower Systems streamlines customer flow at the counter and this improves the overall customer experience. It’s a win for the customer and a win for the retail business.

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How small business retailers can quit dead stock and free up cash in their businesses

June 5, 2015
3 Min read
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Small business retailers  could have thousands of dollars of stock sitting on their shelves taking up space. If stock is not selling, it’s costing you. Once you have identified stock that is not selling you can begin to quit this stock, by putting the stock on clearance and continually reducing pricing until it’s sold out. Even if this means selling it below cost, it will save you money in the long run.

Tip: You can work out how much your shop space is worth by dividing the rent by how many square meters of space you have.

If a product hasn’t sold for six months then it’s costing you money to warehouse it. Quitting the stock will stop the cost from building up further and allow you to replace it with stock that will sell. Here is advice on quitting dead stock using our smart POS software.

NOTE: To effectively use this advice you need accurate stock on hand levels. Poor stock management will mean the results here can’t be used. You need to be able to trust your QOH figure is correct for this advice to be useful.

Finding The Stock

Use the ranked sales report with the following settings to work out what isn’t selling and put that stock on clearance.

Go to Reports > Sales Reports > Ranked Sales Report.

Set your Start date back six months from today and the end date to today’s date. Set the rest of the report settings as below.

When the report runs you will see the following:

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Here you can see when the last time an item was sold (if at all) and the last time it was arrived.

Note: Items can show up that have only recently been arrived.

Ignore these items unless they haven’t sold in 4 to 5 months, then you may want to look into them.

The bottom of the report will give you a total cost of stock Inc and Ex GST. Consider this figure the value of dead stock in your store. You need to reduce this as much as possible.

Once you have the report print it out and start working through the list.

Set up a clearance table or bin somewhere in store and put product there with a clearance price. Simply advertise the area as Clearance Stock, Prices as Marked.

Keep discounting the product until it sells. Set a goal to get rid of the stock within say two weeks, if stock is still there after one week, discount further.

Now you can start filling that empty space with stock that is selling well. Use the Ranked Sales Report to show you top selling items and begin to build up those lines.

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Retailers loving our free POS software training

June 4, 2015
1 Min read
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Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 12.41.31 pmWe keen addicting additional free live training sessions for our POS software customers and they keep filling up. So, guess what, we are adding more.

These sessions are more about leveraging the software in the business than how to do this or that. They contain considerable retail business management and operational advice.

We are thrilled with the support from ur customers and grateful to be in a position to offer this training by our skilled training team.

This is POS software customer service at its best. This is the Tower AdvantageTM

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Disaster planning advice for small business retailers

June 4, 2015
3 Min read
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Disaster planning is vital for any retail business.  Too often, the need for good disaster planning is realised after a disaster has hit the business.  This advice from our POS software company offers business and computer related advice which is designed to mitigate the impact of a disaster on your business.

Insurance Protection

Insurance coverage is vital  to helping a retail business overcome any type of disaster.  In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:

  1. Business interruption.  The amount should equal your anticipated gross profit for whatever period you choose to be covered.
  2. Data recovery.  Including the hiring of experts to recover data from backup sources or the manual entry of data which cannot be automatically recovered.  It needs to ensure that you are covered to the point of recovered data being useable in transacting business.
  3. Lost stock.  This is stock stolen, lost from the business.
  4. Damaged and unsaleable stock.  This is stock which is water damaged, scuffed or dented and which will not attract full price.
  5. Dated stock.  This is stock which you cannot sell by the due date.
  6. Glass. Many policies require explicit statement of glass coverage.
  7. Temporary trading premises.  Business interruption may cover this.  Ensure that it is explicitly stated.
  8. Key person injury and/or death. This will usually be a separate policy.  Depending on the disaster, coverage may also be available through the overall business policy.

Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items.  Talk with your insurance company about the best approach to track this on an ongoing basis.

Insurance brokers can provide access to assessors who can advise on the appropriate level of insurance for your situation.

Use your Point of  Sale system to track all stock movements in and out.  The stock on hand in  your software should be your coverage.

Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business

Data Protection

Business data is one of the most valuable assets of the business.  Like insurance, the value is often not understood until you need what you do not have.  Retailers who are serious about protecting their business data in the event of any disaster follow these steps:

  1. Backup your business data every day, at the end of the day, without fail. Our cloud based backup service is ideal.
  2. Maintain a separate backup for each day of the week.  Consider a separate backup for the last day of each month.
  3. Remove the backup medium, usually a USB stick, from the business premises each day.
  4. Store the backup in a safe, dry place.
  5. Check the usefulness of the backup by restoring and checking the data.
  6. Store original business software in a safe off-site location

Disaster Planning

Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster.

  1. Keep off site copies of: Business contracts and agreements; employee contact details, business account and other passwords, insurance details, recent photographs of fixtures, fittings and stock.
  2. Maintain a register of all employees in the business at any time.
  3. Prepare and place in a prominent place an evacuation plan.
  4. Maintain a professional grade OH&S compliant first aid kit.
  5. Regularly maintain all fire extinguishers.
  6. Ensure that the business premises is safe and maintained to the local building codes and OH&S regulations.
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How to find stock in your POS software

June 3, 2015
1 Min read
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Finding stock is easy for those using the Tower Systems POS software. While we have comprehensive training, sometimes it is brief top level training that front line employees need. Here is a new brief video created specifically for the front line. It’s fast and easy to learn and is back by far more training in video, text and line one on one form.

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How small business retailers can eliminate the need for an End of Financial Year stocktake

June 2, 2015
2 Min read
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Retailers can save thousands of dollars by using the Tower Systems POS software to undertake a stocktake rather than using in an external stock taker as retailers have traditionally used for decades.

External stock takers often deliver s little outcome except a stock value for the end of the financial year. By using Retailer for the stock take retailers get accurate on-hand data which is vital for reporting on a range of retail performance metrics.

Smart Point of Sale software offers a range of stock taking options from the portable to the hard wired. Regardless of the hardware technology you use, the result is the same: an accurate stock on hand count and value plus updated stock details.

Every time a count is done using Point of Sale software there are anomalies discovered in the stock database.  The stock take is a good opportunity to address this.  A manual stock take loses this opportunity.

Our recommendation is that once a business has undertaken a full stock take once using their Point of Sale software and if they have good processes around receiving, selling and returning stock,  a process of rolling stock takes would serve the business well in maintaining an accurate stock on hand figures.

Through the stock take facilities in our software, our retail partners have access to a suite of tools with tremendous flexibility, allowing a retail store to count in a way which suits their operational needs.  many of our customers operate with a program of rolling spot stock takes.  These are designed to ensure accurate stock on hand figures in the system as well as identify theft situations.

Expensive and single purpose stock takes can be eliminated from any retail business with the proper use of quality Point of Sale software. Through our advice sheets, training videos, online training workshops and other opportunities, Tower Systems helps its retail customers to access the benefits of accurate stock on hand data.

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How POS software can inspire small business retailers

June 1, 2015
1 Min read
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The POS software from Tower Systems can inspire small business retailers to do great things. A bold claim to be sure but a claim rooted in valuable practical help embedded in the smart POS software from Tower Systems.

Small business retailers can do great things thanks to smart tools in the Tower software such as:

  • Revealing valuable product adjacencies.
  • Spotlighting time hotspots in the day.
  • Tracking employees and revealing top performers.
  • Showing the best supplier in a competitive supplier situation.
  • Stopping the business making poor inventory buying decisions.
  • Guiding the business to mitigate a poor performing stock situation.

In these and other ways the Tower Systems software helps small business retailers leverage inspiration to greater success.

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The NEW Loyalty: a fresh approach for small business retailers

May 30, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems develops software for small and independent businesses in specialist retail channels.

Our jeweller software is just for jewellers, our bike shop software is for bike retailers, our pet shop software is for pet shop retailers, our newsagency software is for newsagents, our garden centre software is for garden centres and our gift shop software is for gift and homewares shops.

Each of our customers has common challenges: BIG business and online business.

We can help you compete with BIG business and online businesses.

Our POS software offers four approaches to loyalty. One, the NEW loyalty, is fresh, unique and loved by shoppers.

We are seeing small and independent retail businesses enjoy double digit growth on the back on our approach.

We back our terrific Aussie software with practical training. We even help you train your employees. Click here to see one two minute video we produced for our customers to share with their employees on our unique Discount Voucher facility (the NEW loyalty). We explain how your employees make make this work for you.

We are not your average software company. We care about independent small businesses. Our software is tailored to the needs of specialist retail channels.

We’re here to help.

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Free marketing resources for small business retailers

May 29, 2015
1 Min read
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Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 8.17.28 pmTower Systems is thrilled with the use small business retailers are making of the free small business marketing resources we have made available in our website.

These free resources are another practical way Tower Systems helps small business retailers beyond our terrific POS software. 

Our development and free access to these resources demonstrates are acre for and commitment to the small business retail channels in which we serve. It is easy for a business to say they support their customers in a variety of ways. This investment by us is us being true to our words – walking the walk if you will.

We have happy for these and other free downloads we place on the site to be used widely.

Note we have not included our branding as we don;t want to get in the way of the businesses using the materials.

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Small business retailers love free End of Financial year POS software training

May 28, 2015
1 Min read
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Retailers are embracing the FREE POS software training from Tower Systems in End of Financial Year processes. Developed specifically to serve retailers this year in the run up to June 30, this session is an all you need to know approach to stock, business data and other factors that are vital to being prepared for EOFY.

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 8.06.07 pm

This training is a continuation of the weekly POS software training tower Systems launched years ago, training the company happily and willingly offers to provide our customers with more free learning opportunities through which to love our software and love our company.

When we say this training is free, there is truly no cost. we even pay for the phone call to provide audio access – anywhere in the world. This is another Tower AdvantageTM .

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POS software helps small business retailers handle secondhand goods and leverage the sharing economy

May 27, 2015
1 Min read
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With more retailers trading in the secondhand goods area. POS software company Tower Systems is poised to help with its robust Australian designed and developed secondhand goods facilities in its POS software.

Using the secondhand goods facilities retailers can undertake appropriate record keeping where required, tack the goods and manage them through the business.

The sale is documented as thoroughly as the purchase, handling both sides of the secondhand goods life in a dealer’s business.

Whether the core business function or part of a larger business, the secondhand goods facilities in the Tower software are mature yet evolving as more and more businesses play in this lucrative space which is more popular than ever thanks to the sharing economy movement.

The sharing economy interest is seeing more people purchase, use and return to retail for resale. This is where the secondhand goods facilities or a treat as they manage for retailers new to this space processes and requirements that are unique to secondhand goods.

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Retailer frustration at POS software which changes without notice

May 26, 2015
1 Min read
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We have been asked to help several retailers in recent weeks who discovered their POS software had been changed by their supplier without reference to them. The changes occurred overnight without forewarning. They introduced changes unexpected by the businesses, changes they need to adjust so they worked how the business would want.

One of the retailers commented to us they felt helpless with this change by their POS software company to a core management tool in their business without discussion or permission.

Tower Systems does not do this – we do not unilaterally make software changes in client locations without permission nor without full disclosure in advance so our customers can decide whether the changes would be useful to the businesses.

We think small business retailers should control the software they run. By this we mean – they should control when they update the software, always. This is a fundamental of good customer service in our view.

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Sunday retail management advice: keep your loyalty pitch simple for success

May 24, 2015
1 Min read
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A loyalty program is only as good as the over the counter pitch through which you seek to engage shoppers. Check out this brief video we created to train retail employees on what has to be the easiest to use over the counter shopper loyalty offer.

Tower Systems leads with professional employee training videos which help retail employees leverage more value for the business from our software.

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POS software help desk live Saturday support

May 23, 2015
1 Min read
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Today, as is usual, the office based POS software help desk of Tower Systems is up and running and providing live assistance to retailers using our POS software.

This office based service is in addition to our after hours service and our senior management escalation service.

Saturday POS software support is loved by retailers. It demonstrates an understanding of the different work cycle of retail versus office based businesses. being office based means it can achieve more than a mobile service and this enhances the customer experience.

This is another Tower AdvantageTM .

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150 software enhancements in POS software update

May 19, 2015
1 Min read
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The majority of the 150 POS software enhancements (new facilities as well as expanded facilities) in the latest POS software from Tower Systems have come from suggestions from users and as voted on by users – through our transparent and loved Software Ideas online portal.

Feedback from customers with early access to this update has been thrilling.

We are proud to have delivered more business enhancing facilities to our 2,800+ small business customers.

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Smart POS software helps retailers as policing of under-age retail sales increases

May 19, 2015
1 Min read
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Policing of age-restricted products has increased this year with considerable undercover detection action in several states.

Retailers using our smart POS software benefit from being able to tag products as having an age restriction. This results in a pop-up requiring an age check prior to proceeding to process the sale.

Our age-check is a procedural intervention on which retailers can rely to reduce under-age selling mistakes by employees. It is also evidence they can provide to authorities to indicate that the business has processes to stop under-age selling.

Easily setup, the age-check facility in our software is another way business owners can establish processes and facilities through which their business can be professionally managed in their absence.

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POS software training video library helps retail employees gain skills

May 19, 2015
1 Min read
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Retailers using the Tower Systems POS software have access to a training library of more than 130 training videos. These videos are professional in production and valuable in the content offered.

The videos can be accessed from any computer, anywhere and at any time.

The video training resources are comprehensive. They are also loved by our customers.

Regularly enhanced, the Tower Systems POS software video training library is a real asset to our business – allowing us to show a point of difference which wins us business.

In addition to POS software training, our library also includes training on business use of the software – covering how to engage on the shop floor. This is an area many POS software companies neglect in their training.

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Smart reports in POS software help small business retailers unlock value

May 18, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems hosted a free online training workshop last week on key reports in our software that can change how a retailer views and engages with their business.

This session sounded boring in that it was about report, what for some appears to be a dry aspect of POS software. The reality is good reports can be sexy in design and sexy in the numbers they present.

On top of training how to access the reports, our training took people into the value of the data in the reports, talking about the business decisions that can be made based on data points in the reports.

We selected a small number of reports so as to not overwhelm.

The reports are the icing on the cake of our software – they help retailers to learn things about their businesses they did not know, to be able to plot a path ahead for their businesses.

We do these training sessions every week and they are always free. Our customers love the diversity of training available and that we are consistent in our scheduling.

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Sunday retail management advice: helping small business retailers love their businesses

May 17, 2015
3 Min read
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I hate going into work. These words from a friend reflected a long-held feeling, a feeling held with some shame.

Here was a retail business owner who hated going into his own business.  He had fallen out of love with what he had created. The bitterness he felt towards his business had soured to hatred.

Why do some retailers hate going to work? It is an interesting question which needs exploration before we look at strategies for countering this.

There is usually a trigger – supplier fatigue, tough economic conditions, personal challenges away from the business, a partner dispute, tiredness… there could be any combination of reasons.

If you have reached the point where you hate going into work each day it is important to take time away from the business for an honest assessment as to why you hate the business. Until you can answer the question – why do you hate going into work? – you cannot begin to work on resolution.

Once you know the reasons, think about a series of small and achievable steps you could take to turn the situation around. No matter how challenging the situation, there are always steps you could take. Focus on these, start work on them and in some instances that alone will be enough to move you through the fog of anger and ill-feeling toward the business.

If finding small steps to take does not work, get together with a trusted friend and tell them how you feel toward the business. Ask them to talk with you about the business. Reminisce about why you started or purchased the newsagency. Remember your dreams and hopes. Use the conversation to explore your emotion at the moment you decided to open or purchase the retail business.

The best advice to to get professional help from a psychologist or professionally qualified counsellor to explore your feelings for the business. Your doctor could help you access a government funded mental health plan.

Understanding your hatred for your retail business is the first step. This will usually, of itself, reveal the first steps you can take to turn the hatred around. Be open to that. Take small steps and see where they lead. The change in feeling toward the business may not be immediate so do not expect too much too soon.

If you do nothing, the hatred will be more and more reflected in the business and in your own person. Neither benefits from this.

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How POS software can help small business retailers change shopper loyalty

May 16, 2015
1 Min read
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POS software can do more for small business retailers than they may think. Good POS software, like that from Tower Systems, goes deep into the business, away from the sales counter, helping in many ways.

Help with leveraging shopper loyalty.

  1. Reward to drive deeper shopper engagement.
  2. Track your loyalty liabilities to understand risk.
  3. Track shopper engagement through comprehensive date, time and person engagement to understand the loyalty buttons to push.
  4. Choose the loyalty offer right for you – good POS software will offer multiple loyalty offers for you.
  5. Be consistent in your loyalty offer such that every shopper is offered a consistent pitch.
  6. Un a loyalty program that is different to those around you. For example, if others nearby offer a points based program, go with something different.
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Some post budget commentators fail to understand the benefits of the small business instant asset write off

May 15, 2015
4 Min read
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I write this as the owner of an Australian POS software company serving several specialist retail channels, as a newsagent and as the owner os a couple of other businesses serving small businesses in Australia.

I am disappointed at some of the commentary about the instant asset write offannounced in the federal budget this week. I have heard media commentators call it a tax break, a gift, a hand out, a return to the age of entitlement and a more. I have also heard commentators question whether small business owners will do the right thing and spend the money honestly.

These comments are ignorant, they do not reflect the thinking of small business owners. Small business owners are a passionate breed, usually putting the needs of our businesses ahead of much else in our lives. We don’t engage in tax schemes to avoid paying Australian taxes, we don’t domicile in tax havens to avoid tax, we don’t use visa programs to import workers ahead of Australians.

Most small business owners are too busy in their businesses to even dream of the schemes we read others use.

Small business owners work long hours, usually for below award rate wages – because they love the independence of working for themselves and, yes, the feeling of making a genuine contribution. I happily work a minimum of 80 hour s a week and have done for decades.

Let’s look at what the instant asset write off actually is. Check out this from the federal government’s budget website:

ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION
All small businesses will get an immediate tax deduction for any individual assets they buy costing less than $20,000. (Currently, the threshold sits at $1,000).

This $20,000 limit applies to each individual item. Small businesses can apply this $20,000 rule to as many individual items as they wish. These arrangements start from Budget night and continue until the end of June 2017.

There is no extra money, no grant or gift. All that is being done is speeding up the writing off of the expense. The budget measure improves cash flow.

A small business owner wanting to buy a new TV, to take one comment I heard several times, will still have to fund the TV – meaning they will want a business purpose for the TV.

I own a few businesses and while none is eligible for the instant asset write off, they serve small businesses which will be eligible for the instant asset write off.

Based on comments from small business owners to me since the budget, I am confident the instant asset write off is a valuable step needed to get many small business owners thinking about their businesses, considering what investments they could make knowing they get a deduction in the year of purchase and not spread over time.

Yes, I am conflicted as I stand to benefit. I mention this in case it has not been clear up to now. The economy benefits too. Take my POS software company:

  1. More small business owners like newsagents, bike retailers, pet shop owners, jewellers, gift shop owners and others will purchase our POS software.
  2. Used how we train them, our POS software will help the businesses:
    1. Cut costs.
    2. Increase sales.
    3. Reduce theft.
    4. Make better quality business decisions.
    5. In short, their businesses will be worth more. I have seen newsagents do this and hire more staff. Others have paid off loans sooner – making more funds available to banks for more lending.
  3. My software company benefits from more revenue and more customers. More customers = more staff. We benefit, the new staff benefit and the economy benefits.
  4. The software we sell is Australian. Any support for this is good for the country.
  5. The tax we pay is higher as a percentage of sales than the big companies in the news recently. Boos us and you boost the economy. You boost us by supporting our customers. You support our customers by encouraging them to invest in their businesses.

To the commentators making noise about a possible surge in TV and car sales, take a moment to think that there are ethical Aussie companies with productivity tools servicing small Aussie businesses – and that together we can deliver measurable economic benefits.

Commentators: stop talking us down.

Now, to my politics. I voted Greens at the last election as I thought their small business policy was better than the major parties. I have not voted Liberal for many elections. While this is none of your business, I felt it important to say to show I am not writing this as an ideologue.

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How POS software can help small business retailers match online services

May 15, 2015
1 Min read
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POS software can do more for small business retailers than they may think. Good POS software, like that from Tower Systems, goes deep into the business, away from the sales counter, helping in many ways.

Help with competing with online competitors.

  1. Connect with your own web store easily.
  2. Have a common stock file for online and high street retail.
  3. Offer value-add on your receipts, at the counter and elsewhere thanks to prompts and the ability for you to encode your IP for more consistent delivery to shoppers.
  4. Be flexible on pricing and manage this through your technology.
  5. Connect with shoppers based on purchases.
  6. Bundle products such that what you sell is unique and not easily compared to online.
  7. Pitch the physical presence difference and reinforce this through shopper touch points.
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How POS software can help small business retailers manage specific locations

May 14, 2015
1 Min read
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POS software can do more for small business retailers than they may think. Good POS software, like that from Tower Systems, goes deep into the business, away from the sales counter, helping in many ways.

Help with managing specific locations in-store.

  1. Know what sells from what location in your retail business.
  2. Stock-take by location in your business – it could be a cabinet or a shelf or some other unique and specific location.
  3. Track not only the location but each item in the location and product adjacencies.
  4. Manage products in multiple locations in store and understand the role location could play in the performance of a product.

Location specific management is helping retailers we are directly working with to improve revenue.

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