The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

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How the end of day process has changed in retail this year

July 23, 2026
4 Min read
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The end of day process in retail used to be entirely physical. Count the cash, enter the details in your POS software, run the report, lock up, go home.

The counting and the keying are still there. What has changed this year is what happens next.

Smart POS software today can give you text commentary on how the day has transpired, rather than leaving you to read a report and work out the story for yourself. The report is still there for those who want it. But the AI analysis provided by the Tower software is ready the moment the day is done, written in plain language, easy to understand.

That matters at 5.30pm when you are tired and the last thing you feel like doing is decoding rows of numbers.

Here an example of what it looks like

This is a real example from a newsagency business for which we had permission to run their data. Staff and product details have been anonymised.

Business Analysis — The following analysis is AI-generated

Key Performance Highlights

  • Total sales for the day amounted to $2,398.35, with a significant variance of -23.97% from the average Thursday sales.
  • The top-selling department was Magazines, with 86 items sold, generating $676.62 in sales.
  • Staff F led in sales volume, contributing to 85 sales transactions and a total sales value of $1,179.71.

Notable Trends in Sales, Staff, and Time of Day

Sales Trends

  • Magazines and Cards & Wrap were the most popular categories, though both experienced a decline compared to average sales.
  • Collectibles showed a significant drop in sales, with a -31.12% variance.

Staff Performance

  • Staff B achieved higher total sales ($1,218.54) compared to Staff F, despite fewer transactions.
  • Both staff members did not attract any new customers during the day.

Time of Day

  • The peak sales hour was 11:00 AM, with $550.99 in sales.
  • Sales significantly dropped after 3:00 PM, with the lowest sales recorded at 5:00 PM ($29.27).

Operational Issues

  • Discounting was applied to 3 sales, totaling $25.91 in discounts.
  • Cash variance was noted, with an actual cash shortfall of $112.90.

Online vs In-Store Sales Commentary

  • All sales were conducted in-store, with no online sales recorded for the day.
  • 63 vouchers were issued, but none were redeemed, indicating a potential area for improvement in voucher utilization.

Recommendations for Management Action

  • Investigate the reasons behind the significant sales variance in Collectibles and Magazines to address potential issues.
  • Enhance staff training to improve customer engagement and attract new customers.
  • Review cash handling procedures to minimize cash variances.
  • Develop strategies to increase voucher redemption rates.

Weather-Related Impact on Trade

  • The overcast and rainy weather may have contributed to lower foot traffic and sales, particularly in the afternoon.

Summary and Highlights

  • Sales were below average, with a -23.97% variance from typical Thursday sales.
  • Magazines and Cards & Wrap were the top-selling categories, despite a decline in sales.
  • Staff performance was strong, but no new customers were acquired.
  • Cash handling discrepancies need to be addressed to prevent future variances.
  • Weather conditions likely impacted customer turnout, especially later in the day.

Audit Analysis — The following analysis is AI-generated

Excessive Cancellations

  • At 08:51, a sale was cancelled on terminal POS1 by a staff member. The amount involved was $12.80.

Stock Quantity Adjustments

  • Five stock items had their quantity on hand changed to zero on terminal POS2 within a ten minute window, including one item adjusted from 446 to 0.

Discounts Below Cost Price

  • Two sales on terminal POS1 contained items discounted below cost price, totalling $57.49.

Why this matters

Look at what the commentary surfaced without anyone asking. A cash shortfall of $112.90. Sixty-three vouchers issued and none redeemed. Stock quantities zeroed out in a tight window on one terminal. Items sold below cost.

Any one of those could sit unnoticed in a traditional report for weeks. Here, they are called out in plain language on the day they happen, with recommendations attached.

The commentary reaches beyond traditional reporting. It does not just tell you what you sold. It tells you where the day was won, where it leaked, and what deserves your attention tomorrow morning. These are insights retailers can leverage for profit, and they arrive without you having to go looking for them.

Reports tell you what happened. Commentary tells you what to notice. That is the shift this year, and we think it changes the end of day from a chore into a moment of genuine business insight.

If your end of day still finishes with a report you rarely read, it might be time to look at what smarter software can do.

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Innovation for firearms dealers in Australia

July 20, 2026
4 Min read
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We are grateful to work with Gun Traders Australia to offer an integration between our firearms dealers software and their marketplace platform to help Aussie firearms dealers reach more customers online.

We recorded a podcast episode yesterday with Gun News Australia in which we talk about the link between our firearms dealer software and Gun Traders Australia.

POS software for firearms dealers: compliance first, then everything else

Running a gun shop is not like running any other retail business. Every firearm you buy, sell or take on consignment has a serial number that has to be recorded properly, and the regulator expects your records to be right every time. Get that wrong and nothing else in the business matters much.

That is where we started when we built our firearms dealer software, and it is still the first thing dealers ask us about in demos.

Serial numbers, tracked properly

Our software tracks every serialised item from the day it arrives to the day it leaves, including second-hand stock. When you need to report, the records are there and they are accurate. The age-check prompt at the counter is mandatory for age-restricted items, so the check happens on every sale rather than relying on whoever is serving that day.

The rest of the shop

Most gun shops sell far more than firearms. Ammunition and bulk supplies can be sold by weight or measure, in whole numbers or fractions. Apparel is handled by colour, size and style. It is one system across the whole shop, which matters when you are trying to see what is actually making you money.

Gunsmith and workshop work

If you do repairs or custom work, the workshop tools are included at no extra cost. A job is tracked from check-in to collection, you can schedule technician time, and customers can be kept up to date without anyone chasing paperwork.

Recurring billing is built in too. Plenty of dealers charge for locker space or storage, and the software handles those charges automatically each cycle. It is a small thing that adds up to reliable revenue and less admin.

AI in the software

The software connects directly to ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropic. The most popular use by far is invoice import: a supplier invoice that used to take an hour to key in arrives as stock records in minutes. Dealers also use the AI tools to write product descriptions for their website and to interrogate their own sales data in plain language.

Club pricing

The best gun shops we know are close to their local clubs. Club pricing profiles let you set pricing by customer type, so members get their pricing automatically at the counter. Bundle packs, like a starter kit sold at one package price, lift the average sale and are harder for customers to price-compare item by item online.

Selling beyond the counter

The Retailer Roam app runs sales at trade shows and club events with stock kept in sync with the shop. Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce connections keep a web store on the same data as the counter. Xero covers the accounting link, and Tanda and Deputy cover rosters.

The Gun Traders Australia link makes it easy for your products to be found online.

On payments: you choose your own EFTPOS provider. We do not clip your sales and we do not charge per transaction. We think that is how it should work.

Have a look

The best way to judge POS software is to see it answering your questions, in your context. Book a demo and we will show you the software live, no obligation.

Call 1300 662 957 (AU) or 0800 444 367 (NZ), or email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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POS software pricing should not be a secret

July 20, 2026
2 Min read
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If you have shopped around for POS software lately, you know the drill. You find a website, you like what you see, you go looking for the price and there isn’t one. There is a form instead. They want your contact details before they will tell you what their software costs. Then the calls start.

We don’t do that here at Tower Systems. Our prices are on our website, in full, at towersystems.com.au/pricing.html.

No fuss. We don’t need to know who you are. The pricing is there for anyone to see.

Our Startup plan is $145 a month including GST. Our Ultimate plan is $298 a month including GST, billed annually. The other plans sit between. The page also shows the things a headline price can hide. We charge 0% transaction fees on EFTPOS. We don’t charge based on your turnover. Optional extras like cloud hosting and our Roam cloud POS have their costs listed too. Anyone can look, any time. No salesperson required.

Why hidden pricing is a problem

When a software company hides its pricing, it has decided the sales process matters more than your time. It wants to qualify you as a lead before you have information. In some cases it wants room to quote different prices to different businesses for the same product.

Think about a retailer doing research after close on a Tuesday night, which is when this research usually happens. Hidden pricing turns a ten minute job into a week of phone tag.

It should feel odd to any retailer. Every product on your shop floor carries a price ticket. Customers can see it, compare it and decide whether to buy. The companies selling software to retailers should extend the same courtesy.

Sunshine is good for everyone

Publishing our prices keeps us honest. They have to stand up to public comparison every day of the year. Every customer knows they paid the same as the next. And when retailers call us, they already know what we charge, so we can spend the call talking about their business.

We would like to see every POS software company serving local small business retailers do the same. If your pricing is fair, showing it costs you nothing. If it is not, retailers deserve to know that before they hand over a phone number.

Our prices are on our website today. We think that is where they belong.

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Newsagents made us the industry standard, not the other way around

July 17, 2026
3 Min read
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More newsagents have chosen Tower Systems than any other POS software. We didn’t set that label ourselves. Newsagents did, one shop at a time, by choosing us over everything else on offer.

We don’t take that lightly, and we don’t think it happened by accident.

We know the shop floor because we’ve stood on it

We’re the only POS company in this space that has owned and run its own newsagencies. Our founder bought their first shop in 1996 and built our software off the back of what that business actually needed, not what looked good in a sales pitch. That’s still true of every update we ship, even though our company today does not own a newsagency.

Newsagencies aren’t standing still, and neither is the software

The traditional core of a newsagency, magazines, papers, lottery, is a smaller part of the business than it used to be, and it keeps shrinking. The newsagents doing well are the ones shifting shelf space and attention toward gifts, cards, stationery and collectables. Software built for a magazine-and-lottery counter doesn’t help with that shift. Software built by people who’ve made that shift themselves does.

That’s where features like our loyalty tools earn their keep. You can market to a customer based on what they’ve bought, which means turning a regular lottery shopper into someone who browses the gift wall, or a magazine reader into someone who tries the stationery range. That’s not a feature for its own sake. It’s the whole point of the software.

The parts that just need to work, working

A newsagency runs on integrations most other retail software doesn’t bother with. We link directly to The Lott through XchangeIT, so lottery sales are captured without manual entry. Magazine arrivals and returns run through XchangeIT too, so your stock and your credits stay accurate without someone doing it by hand. Greeting card suppliers load in as electronic invoices in seconds instead of an afternoon of data entry.

Beyond the newsagency-specific stuff, the software connects to Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce if you sell online, to Xero for your books, and to EFTPOS with every major bank. If you pass on card fees, the system calculates the surcharge for you. We don’t charge a fee per transaction, ever.

AI tools built into the day-to-day

The AI tools built into the software write product descriptions for new gift lines, help you compare prices, and turn a stack of sales data into something you can act on, which categories are growing, which need attention, without you having to dig for it.

None of this makes us the biggest software company. It makes us the one most newsagents chose. If you want to see why, we’re happy to show you.

Book a free demo, or call 1300 662 957 in Australia and 0800 444 367 in New Zealand.

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Getting the most out of a call to our POS software help desk

July 16, 2026
2 Min read
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Our help desk is human, and it’s local: people in Australia and New Zealand, not an offshore call centre reading from a script. That matters because retail is personal, and so is fixing it when something goes wrong.

But even a good help desk can only work as fast as the conversation allows. A lot of what determines how quickly a problem gets solved isn’t the technician, it’s how the call itself goes.

Retail interrupts everything, including the fix

Support calls usually happen while the shop is open, which means a customer at the counter, and the customer always comes first. Fair enough. But every time a call gets put down mid-troubleshooting, the technician loses the thread. Getting back to where you were takes longer than the interruption itself did. A five-minute pause can turn a ten-minute call into thirty.

Nobody’s fault. It’s just what happens when technical support runs into a trading floor.

What actually speeds things up

A few habits make a real difference to how fast a fix comes through:

  • Start with email where you can. It’s often faster than a phone call, not slower.
  • Include a screenshot and a proper description in that email. No pressure of a live call, so you can properly explain what’s happening.
  • With the details in hand, our help desk can sometimes solve it before anyone picks up the phone.
  • If you do need to call, try to call when you can give it your full attention.
  • If the shop gets busy mid-call, say so. Offering to call back later is usually faster than trying to push through.

Just tell us

If you’re short-staffed and it’s not a good time, say that. It costs nothing, it lets us manage the queue properly, and when you do call back, you get someone’s full attention instead of a rushed half-conversation.

None of this is about making things easier for us at your expense. A call that isn’t interrupted gets solved faster. That means less time away from your counter. Everybody’s better off.

That’s the kind of help desk we’re trying to run: local, human, and worth your time.

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What actually goes into a Tower Systems software update

July 15, 2026
3 Min read
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We’re deep into building our next update right now, which seemed like a good reason to explain what that actually involves. It isn’t someone sitting down and writing new code for a few days. It’s a process, and most of it happens before a line of code changes.

We start with what customers tell us

Every update begins with a review: ideas submitted through Software Ideas, feedback from customers directly, and what our own support team hears on the phones every day. We look at what’s urgent and what will genuinely benefit customers, not just what’s easiest to build.

This step takes longer than people expect. We test what we’re told against the software itself before we act on it, because a suggestion that sounds right in a phone call doesn’t always hold up once you’re inside the actual system. Thoroughness costs time here, and we spend it.

Planning it properly

Once we know what we’re building, we scope it: what the change actually involves, and what else in the software it touches. A newsagency’s software talks to a lot of different parts of itself, magazines, lottery, gifts, loyalty, so a change in one place can affect something you weren’t expecting elsewhere. Understanding that before we start building saves everyone trouble later.

Building it, then testing it, and testing it again

This is the part most people picture when they think of software development, and it’s the smallest piece of the whole process, by far. After the build comes testing. Then more testing. Then testing again. It’s repetitive by design.

We document it before we release it

Once the change is solid, we write it up properly, so it can be explained clearly to customers rather than dropped into an update with no context. Good software isn’t just software that works. It’s software people understand how to use.

Beta testing, in real shops

Before anything goes to every customer, it goes to a small group of engaged customers in live, trading shops. Real stock, real customers, real Saturdays. That’s a different test than anything we can run in-house, and it catches things our own testing sometimes doesn’t.

Only then do we release it

All of that has to happen before an update reaches your till. It’s slower than just shipping code, but it’s why updates tend to work the way they’re supposed to when they land.

We’re in the middle of this right now, building the next one. It’s the same process every time, because it’s the one that works.

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If you’re considering switching to Tower, here’s what happens to your data

July 14, 2026
3 Min read
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The question comes up in almost every conversation with a retailer thinking about switching software: what happens to everything I’ve already got in my current system?

In most cases, you can bring it across. Not all of it, and not automatically, but the parts that matter most usually make the move.

What we can convert

Stock is the file we convert most often: SKU, barcode, description, buy and sell prices, GST status, tags and variants where they apply. If you can export it from your current system in a form we can read, usually a spreadsheet, we can generally load it.

Customer sales history and loyalty balances are a different story. Every POS system stores that data differently, which makes an accurate conversion hard to guarantee. We’ll do our best with loyalty balances. Sales history, usually not. Outstanding account-customer balances do transfer. Laybys don’t, particularly from older software, so plan on those not coming across.

How it actually works

We assess your data first, free of charge, before you commit to anything. That way you know what will convert cleanly before you decide whether to switch at all.

The conversion itself is a paid, fixed-price service. You’ll know the cost upfront. It’s typically done in about half a day, with no downtime, and it’s ready by your go-live.

Should you bring your old data across at all?

Not necessarily. If it’s clean and reliable, bring it. If it’s messy, out of date, or full of dead stock lines nobody’s looked at in years, a fresh start in the new system can be the better move. Carrying old problems into new software doesn’t fix them. Only you know how good your current data really is.

One more thing worth knowing: we don’t log into your current software and export the data ourselves. You, or your current provider, need to export it. It’s your data, and getting it out sits within your relationship with them. If your current software won’t let you export it easily, that’s worth noticing. Some providers make it difficult on purpose, as a way to keep you. If that’s happening to you, it’s as much a reason to leave as anything else.

Getting started

If you want to talk through what a conversion would look like for your business before deciding anything, we run obligation-free discussions over Microsoft Teams at a time that suits you. If it turns out we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so.

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand, or email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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Payment choice: why the freedom to choose your processor can save you thousands

July 10, 2026
3 Min read
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When you choose POS software, you are often also choosing who processes your payments. With some systems, that choice is made for you. The software and the payment processor are bundled together, and the rate is set by the vendor. At Tower Systems, you keep the freedom to choose your own provider and negotiate your own rate.

That freedom has a real dollar value.

One retailer switched from software that locked them in on a payment platform and is not saving thousands of dollars a year.

Many international POS platforms tie their software to their own payment processing. To use the software, you use their payments, at their rate. It is easy to set up, and that is partly the appeal. Easy can be expensive.

This is like a tax on every sale.

When your sales grow, the money the software company makes from you grows. What are they selling: software, or a taxation system on your success?

When one vendor controls both the software and the payments, there is no pressure on the rate. You cannot shop around and you cannot negotiate, because the processor is built into the system you depend on. A small margin on every transaction across a year’s trading adds up.

A worked example

A specialty retailer turning over $1.5 million a year in card payments, on a bundled platform-tied processor, might pay an embedded margin of around 0.7% above the underlying cost of acceptance:

  • $1,500,000 in card turnover
  • 0.7% embedded margin
  • Around $10,500 a year

If that same retailer can choose their processor and negotiate directly, moving to a competitively priced provider could save more than $10,000 a year. That stays in the business.

The exact figure depends on turnover, card mix and the deal negotiated. The basic calculation is the same for any retailer: when you can shop and negotiate, you can lower the cost. When that option is gone, you pay what you are charged.

Why we leave the choice with you

We could bundle payments into our software. We chose not to.

You know your turnover, your margins and your existing banking relationships better than any software vendor. Keeping that choice with you means you can shop the market, compare providers on rate and service, negotiate using your own volume as leverage, and change processors later without changing your POS software. When payments are locked to the software, switching processor can mean switching systems entirely. When they are separate, your options stay open.

A locked-in processor takes a quiet margin on every sale. Over a year, for a busy specialty retailer, that can be more than ten thousand dollars. The freedom to choose and negotiate puts that decision back where it belongs.

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Small business retailers in control: Software Ideas: how our customers help shape what we build

July 9, 2026
2 Min read
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Most software companies decide what to build behind closed doors. A roadmap is set somewhere, customers find out when a feature appears or does not, and the cycle continues without them. At Tower Systems, our customers help decide what we build next, openly and on the record.

We call it Software Ideas.

Transparent and democratic software enhancement discussion.

Software Ideas is many years old and remains a key tool that Tower Systems customers love.

How it works

Any customer can submit a suggestion — large or small, anything that would genuinely help their business. Before it goes anywhere, our team checks that it can realistically be built. Once it passes that check, it opens for all customers to vote on.

The ideas with the most support move up the list. That list shapes what we develop next.

Why we built it this way

We could have kept our roadmap private. Most companies do.

We did not, for a straightforward reason: customers deserve to see what has been suggested, what others are supporting, and where the software is heading. We also check viability before a suggestion goes to a vote, so we are not raising expectations for things we cannot deliver. What goes to a vote is something we can actually build.

Priorities are not set by the loudest voice or the largest account. Every customer gets a vote.

What it means in practice

The people who understand a trade best are the ones working in it every day. They see the small frictions and missed opportunities long before any vendor would. Software Ideas gives that knowledge a direct path into the product, rather than leaving it in a support ticket or a conversation at a trade event.

Why it fits how we work

We build, sell, train and support our software ourselves, here in Australia, because we want a direct relationship with the retailers we serve. A system that lets customers suggest, check viability, and vote on what gets built next is a natural part of that.

If you want a software partner that builds with you rather than at you, Software Ideas is worth a look.

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What makes Tower Systems different: our positioning, in plain terms

July 8, 2026
2 Min read
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Every software company says it is different. Few say clearly how. This post sets out what Tower Systems stands for and why it matters to the specialty retailers we serve.

First up though, here at Tower Systems we’re not about cliche-heavy corporate speak. Our customers are local small business retailers, independent retailers. They like direct talk.

Our positioning, in one sentence

Tower Systems is specialty retail POS software, built, sold, trained and supported in Australia, that helps independent retailers turn their specialist knowledge into a stronger business.

That’s it. Plain and simple. That’s us.

The one thing to remember

We go deep, not wide.

We do not try to be POS software for every business. We build for specific specialty retail trades, and we own the whole relationship with our customers: the software, the training, the support. That focus is what holds everything else together.

The four pillars

Deep niche specialisation. We build for defined specialty retail channels, not retail in general. The workflows, language and reports are shaped around how each trade actually operates. The retailer works the way they already think, rather than bending their business to fit generic software.

Full local stack control. We build our software, sell it, train on it and support it — ourselves, in Australia. There is no offshore call centre and no third party between us and the retailer. When you need help, you reach the people who made the product.

Freedom of payment choice. We do not lock retailers into a platform-tied payment processor. You choose your provider and negotiate your own rates. Many international platforms tie the software to their own payments. We do not.

Tools built for the owner. Beyond the sale, we build tools that help owners run a better business: an insights dashboard that surfaces the numbers that matter, stock and replenishment tools that save time, and reporting tuned to your trade. The software has to earn its place every day, not just at the counter.

Why this matters to specialty retailers

Specialty retailers do not win by being everything to everyone. They win on product knowledge, specialist services, supplier relationships and the way they deal with customers.

That is the kind of retailer we build for. Software that understands your trade. Support from the people who built it. No lock-in to payment platforms you did not choose.

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Why deep niche specialisation matters in retail POS software

July 7, 2026
3 Min read
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Most point of sale software is built to handle everything for everyone.

Generic is good if you run a generic business.

The same system serves a cafe, a clothing boutique and a hardware store from the same generic template. That works fine — until a retailer needs their software to actually understand how their business runs.

At Tower Systems, we build POS software for specific specialty retail channels. Newsagencies, jewellers, bike shops, garden centres, pet stores, toy shops, gift shops, produce and farm supply. Each operates differently. We build for each one specifically.

Generic software solves generic problems

A generic POS system handles the basics. It processes a sale, takes a payment, records the transaction. For a simple business, that is often enough.

Specialty retail is not simple. A newsagency manages put-away and returns for hundreds of magazine titles on different supply cycles. A jeweller handles repairs, quotes, laybys and special orders, each with its own workflow. A garden centre sells by weight, by season and by plant variety, with stock that lives and dies. A bike shop books workshop jobs and tracks serial numbers for warranty claims.

None of these needs is unusual within its trade. Generic software treats them as edge cases anyway. The retailer ends up working around the software rather than the other way around.

Specialisation is built in, not bolted on

There is a real difference between software configured to approximate a specialty workflow and software built for it from the start.

Configuration asks the retailer to bend a general tool toward their needs — custom fields, manual workarounds, compromises on how things are named. Purpose-built means the workflow is already there, designed around how that trade operates, tested by retailers in that field, refined over years of real use.

When the software is built for a specific trade, the language matches. The reports answer the questions that trade actually asks. The daily tasks follow the rhythm of the business. Less time adapting.

Specialisation compounds

Deep specialisation is not something you add once. Every year spent serving a particular trade teaches more about how it works, what is changing, and where retailers need support next.

That shows up in practical ways. A supplier integration that cuts hours of manual entry. A stock tool tuned to seasonal buying. A report that flags slow lines before they tie up cash. Each is modest on its own. Together they produce software that genuinely fits the business — and that is hard to replicate by configuring a general platform.

What this means for specialty retailers

The retailers who do well in specialty channels are not competing on price with the chains. They compete on what the chains cannot easily copy: product knowledge, specialist services, supplier relationships, the way they deal with customers.

Good specialty software should support those strengths. Software that does not understand your trade asks you to do the opposite.

The Tower Systems approach

We go deep rather than wide. We serve a defined set of specialty retail channels, and we build, sell, train and support our software in Australia. That focus is deliberate.

If you run a specialty retail business, ask any POS system this: does it understand my trade, or am I expected to adapt to it? The answer usually becomes clear quickly.

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POS software pricing explained: What’s included in each level of Tower Systems POS software

July 6, 2026
5 Min read
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Tower Systems comes in four levels: Startup, Standard, Advanced and Ultimate. Each one builds on the level below it, so you are never paying for a stripped-back version of the software — you are paying for the full system at that level, with every feature that level includes.

This post walks through what each level does, who it suits, and what changes as you move up.

What every level includes

Before getting into the differences, it helps to know what stays constant across all four levels.

Every Tower Systems plan includes unlimited products, unlimited customers and unlimited turnover. There are no per-transaction fees on EFTPOS sales, and no charge based on how much you sell. The software connects to the major banks and payment terminals — CBA, ANZ, Westpac, Suncorp, St George and Zeller via Linkly, plus Tyro, Shift4 and others directly.

Every level also includes 24/7 support from real people based in Australia and New Zealand, a dedicated onboarding specialist, one-on-one training and free e-learning. There are regular group training sessions open to all customers, and a suggestion portal where you can propose software improvements and vote on the ideas of others.

One thing worth mentioning: there is no lock-in contract. Tower Systems runs month to month. You can start, cancel or change your plan on 30 days’ notice.

The software is purpose-built for specialty retail — newsagencies, gift shops, garden centres, jewellers, bike shops, produce stores — rather than a general POS product adapted for retail. That distinction matters in areas like stock management, loyalty and specialist sales functions.

Startup — for new and smaller businesses

Startup is the entry-level plan, designed for new businesses and smaller shops running one or two counters. It includes the full core point of sale system: integrated EFTPOS, layby management, gift cards and vouchers, customer invoice accounts, catalogue and promotions, scale integration, specialist label printing and customer displays.

On the stock side, Startup includes advanced stock management with images, extended descriptions and bulk price changes, along with automated reordering, customer special orders, barcode lookup (over a billion records), stocktaking and manufactured goods or hampers.

Loyalty is included too — discount vouchers, trade pricing, pricing profiles, loyalty points, targeted marketing, VIP pricing, customer segmentation and purchase reminders.

Reporting covers more than 80 business performance reports, plus the Insights dashboard, which runs automatically and surfaces dead stock, lost-sale stockouts, basket analysis, theft detection and staffing patterns without you needing to generate reports manually.

Accounting connections include Xero (free direct integration) and MYOB, Reckon and others via ABCIS Ezylink. Deputy and Tanda integrations for rostering are also included.

The main limitations at Startup: it is capped at two terminals, and it does not include e-commerce integrations, stock item variations, stock reservations, quotes, recurring billing, AI tools, serial number tracking, kits or repairs management. Those features come in at Standard and above.

Standard — the complete core retail system

Standard is the plan most general retailers land on. It adds three things to Startup: unlimited terminals, e-commerce integrations and stock variations and reservations.

Unlimited terminals means you can add counters as your business grows without a plan change. E-commerce integrations connect Tower Systems to Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce — your in-store stock and your online store stay in sync. Stock item variations let you track and sell products by colour, size, style or any other attribute. Stock reservations let you hold items against a proforma invoice so they cannot be sold while a customer order is pending.

Everything in Startup is included. Standard is the right choice for gift shops, garden centres, toy stores and homewares retailers who want the full system with no per-sale fees and no terminal limits.

Advanced — for retailers that quote, repair or sell serialised goods

Advanced adds AI tools and a set of features for businesses with more complex sales processes — jewellers, bike shops, electronics stores and similar retailers.

The AI tools let you post blog content, import supplier invoices from PDF, get price suggestions, generate product descriptions and summarise reporting data. ChatGPT integration supports document handling and task automation.

Beyond AI, Advanced adds quotes and proforma invoices (with the ability to reserve or order stock from a quote), recurring billing for subscriptions or services, tax and duty-free sales tracking (including flight numbers for customs), serial number management from arrival to sale, kits for bundle selling, and a full repairs and job management module.

Repairs management covers the full workflow: logging the job, communicating with the customer, allocating parts, tracking history and storing images. It is designed for bike shops, watch repairs, electronics servicing and similar counter-based repair work.

Ultimate — for newsagencies and delivery-based retailers

Ultimate includes everything in Advanced and adds tools for channels with specific operational needs: newsagencies, produce businesses and rural retailers managing freight and deliveries.

Newsagency tools cover phone recharge, lottery terminal integration, XchangeIT automation and home delivery management. Freight invoice management lets you split delivery costs across supplier invoices and adjust pricing accordingly — useful for produce and rural retail where freight is a significant variable. Dispatch management tracks delivery resources and runs, produces driver run lists and pick slips, and integrates with Allotrac. Valuations are also included, for jewellers tracking item valuations.

Choosing the right level

The level you need depends on your business type and the features you actually use.

Startup works for new or smaller businesses running up to two terminals that do not need e-commerce or stock variations. Standard is the practical choice for most established retailers — it covers the full system with no limits on terminals or turnover. Advanced makes sense if you quote, repair, sell serialised goods or want AI tools built into your workflow. Ultimate is built for newsagencies and businesses managing freight, dispatch or home delivery.

For current pricing and to see a full feature comparison, visit towersystems.com.au/pricing.

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Advice for retailers: The numbers that warn you before the bank balance does

July 3, 2026
4 Min read
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By the time the bank balance looks wrong, the trouble started weeks back. Money in the account is a lagging number. It tells you what already happened, not what’s about to. Run a shop on the bank balance alone and you’re forever finding out too late to do much.

The early warnings live in the trade, not the account. They turn up small, and they turn up first, if you know where to look.

We have been asked for help by many small business retailers where this is the case. We’;re not accountants or business consultants but day to day we do get into discussions with retailers and we help where we can, drawing on our experience in retail from years back and the support we offer today with our POS software.

One is basket size easing off. People still coming in, still buying, just spending a bit less each time. The day’s total holds for a while because the traffic covers it, right up until it doesn’t. Spot the slip while it’s small and you’ve got room to move.

Another creeps in through how often people come back. A regular who was in twice a week is now in once. Weekly becomes fortnightly. No single customer tells you anything, and that’s the trap, because the ones drifting off are the ones you stop noticing. Put them all together and it’s a trend you needed to see a month ago.

Then a category goes quiet while the busy parts of the shop cover for it. The overall figure looks fine. Underneath, something you lean on is fading, and you won’t feel it in the takings until it’s well down the track.

The catch is that finding any of this means running reports, lining up one period against another, and knowing what you’re hunting for in the first place. Most retailers haven’t got the time. Plenty were never shown how. So the warnings just sit in the data until they finally show up as a number too big to miss.

That’s the gap the Insights Dashboard closes.

It’s a business intelligence dashboard, free to every Tower Systems customer. It uses smart AI tools and a good deal of built-in retail know-how to watch your trade as it happens and tell you what’s worth knowing, the good and the bad. You don’t run a report. You don’t go digging. The insights are curated as the day goes on, kept fresh, and sitting there when you look.

So the slipping basket, the lengthening gaps between visits, the category drifting off the boil, it all surfaces on its own, while there’s still time to act. You get to spend your attention on the decision instead of the digging.

For a small shop that’s what business intelligence ought to be. Not one more report to find an hour for. Something keeping watch on the trade and tapping you on the shoulder while the warning is still early enough to use.

The retailers who get ahead aren’t drowning in data. They just catch the right thing at the right time. The Insights Dashboard puts that in reach of any retailer, free, and built into the software you’re already running.

…

The right POS system or website for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the business. Tower offers POS software and websites made specifically for local small business retailers in a selection of retail channels. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.  

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Advice for local retailers: What the chains get wrong, and how you turn it into an advantage

July 2, 2026
3 Min read
A

The big chains are good at what they do. Buying power, slick fit-outs, ad budgets you’ll never touch. It’s easy to look at all that and feel like the small shop is on the back foot.

You’re not. The things that make a chain efficient are the same things that make it slow. Most of their weaknesses you can use.

Our customers here at Tower Systems are local small business retailers, independent retailers. This issue of big versus small is on our minds because we see too many small business retailers get in their heads about big competitors.

A chain runs on uniformity. Every store the same, every price set by head office, every range decided by someone who has never set foot in your suburb. That’s how you keep a thousand stores consistent. It also means the manager on the floor can’t change a price, can’t bring in a line a local keeps asking for, can’t back a hunch. They send it up and they wait. Usually the answer is no, or it comes too late to matter.

Small business retailers are not bound by the inflexibility of the chains and heavy structure. You can decide something at nine and have it live by ten.

That’s the advantage, and it’s where the right software earns its keep. Flexibility is only worth anything if you can act on it before the moment passes, and that’s the part plenty of small retailers leave sitting on the table.

Pricing is the obvious one. A chain sets a price nationally and leaves it there for months. You can put a special on the slow stock this afternoon, match a price for the shopper standing in front of you, or build a bundle that suits your local trade. Our POS software lets you set that up in a few minutes. The chain physically cannot move that fast, no matter how big it is.

Range is the same story. A chain ranges for the average store in the average suburb, which doesn’t exist. You range for the actual street you’re on. When a local asks for something three times in a week, you bring it in, watch how it sells, and decide whether it earns its place. The numbers are right there in the software. No committee. No national rollout. Just you reading your own shop.

Then there’s the customer. A chain has a loyalty number and a postcode. You know Margaret buys the same card every month for her grandkids and would want a heads-up when the new range lands. Our software remembers what people buy, so you can do something with it. That’s a sale the chain can’t see, from a relationship you already have.

Loyalty is another. You could decide right now to implement our most popular loyalty facility (it’s available free in our software) and you could be live in 5 minutes. Bam!

None of this is about beating the chains at their own game. You won’t, and you don’t need to. Play the game they can’t play instead. They’re built to be the same everywhere. You’re built to be right for one place, and good local software is what lets you move as fast as being small allows.

That’s what local POS software for local retailers actually means. Not a longer feature list. The freedom to back yourself, and the speed to act before the chance is gone.

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What’s one key thing retailers tend to forget when considering Point of Sale software that if they had considered it, it would make a big difference?

July 1, 2026
2 Min read
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Today, let’s look at one thing too many retailers do not consider when looking at POS software and it is one thing that could make the world of difference to the value they harvest from using the POS software.

What to look for when choosing POS software

Choosing a POS software company deserves more scrutiny than most retailers give it. A polished website or a free hardware deal can look attractive upfront. Neither tells you much about what happens once you are a customer.

Customer service is where it counts

When something goes wrong mid-shift, a retailer often needs to talk through a problem before they can clearly describe what they need. That kind of back-and-forth is how the real issue gets identified. A chatbot cannot do it. An email queue rarely can either.

Some POS providers have removed phone contact entirely. For retailers who think better in a conversation, that creates friction — and it tends to show up as wasted time rather than anything that appears on a quote.

Tower Systems keeps the line open

Clients can reach Tower Systems by phone, email, or chatbot. Contact details for the leadership team go to every customer from the start, so there is a clear path for anything that needs more than a standard reply. Call us and see for yourself how easy it is to speak with someone.

Before signing, ask the basics

Is the support team local? Do they know standard retail terminology? Do they work in the same time zone? A scripted offshore call centre and a direct conversation are not the same thing, and the gap becomes obvious the first time something urgent needs fixing. Personal service matters when it comes to helping retailers since retail is personal after all.

Support is part of the cost

A POS system that is difficult to get help with ends up costing more than it looked on paper. Retail runs on relationships, and the relationship with a software provider is one a business relies on most when things are not going well.

Tower Systems has supported independent retailers across Australia for decades. Visit towersystems.com.au to find out more.

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POS software advice: It’s EOFY. A few things worth doing today.

June 30, 2026
2 Min read
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End of financial year is here. It always seems to sneak up, and then it’s a scramble. An hour today saves you a fortnight of it later.

First up though, take a moment, breathe. You made it through another financial year!

Run your stock listing. You want an accurate, properly valued picture of what’s on the shelves as at today. Your accountant will want it too, and pulling it together now is far easier than reconstructing it in August. If you’ve got time for a stocktake, even across just your bigger categories, do it.

Take a special backup. Capture your year-end position and keep that one separate from your daily backups. Our latest software does this for you, so if you’re on it, that box is ticked. Still worth a glance to confirm it ran.

Then there’s dead stock. Today is a good day to be honest about what isn’t selling. Stock that’s sat untouched for months isn’t an asset, it’s a shelf you’re paying for. Mark it down, bundle it, run a clearance, or send it back if your supplier takes returns. Shifting it helps your closing figure and gives you cash and room for the new year. Your POS reporting will tell you exactly what’s been dragging.

While you’re at it: reconcile your supplier accounts, chase up any laybys and outstanding customer accounts, and have a look at your best and worst sellers for the year so it feeds your buying. Tidy your loyalty data too. And if you can still get your accountant on the phone today, take the call now rather than after the books close.

One note. We are not accountants. Treat the tax side of this as a reason to ring yours, not advice from me.

Do the basics today and 1 July starts clean.

…

The right POS system or website for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the business. Tower offers POS software and websites made specifically for local small business retailers in a selection of retail channels. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.  

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Free POS software training from Tower Systems. Still free, still regular.

June 29, 2026
2 Min read
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Most POS software companies sell you the software and leave you to work it out. Tower Systems doesn’t. We run free training for our customers, on a regular schedule, and we have done for years.

Training long after you have started using POS software is valuable. We know and this is why we continue to offer free training to our customers.

This isn’t a one-off or a sweetener to close a sale. It’s an ongoing part of being a Tower Systems customer. Sessions run often enough that you can pick the topic you need, when you need it, rather than waiting for an annual roadshow.

The part people value most is the Q&A. You’re not watching a recording. There’s a real person running the session, and you can ask your own question about your own shop and get an answer on the spot. That’s rare. A lot of companies charge for it, or don’t offer it at all.

The training suits everyone. New staff finding their feet on the counter. Owners who want to use a part of the software they’ve never touched. People who’ve used Tower for years and want to sharpen up on the features added since they last looked.

Here’s what’s coming up.

  • Getting more from your sales reporting
  • Stock control that actually saves you money
  • Running a stocktake without closing the doors
  • Managing repairs and the jobs that come with them
  • Tracking the KPIs that tell you how the shop is really going
  • Loyalty and customer marketing built into your POS
  • New features you may have missed in recent updates

Topics rotate, so if the one you want isn’t listed this round, it’ll come around again. You can also tell us what you’d like covered. A lot of our sessions started life as a customer request.

It costs you nothing. It’s there because retailers who understand their software run better businesses, and that’s good for everyone. The shops that get the most out of Tower are almost always the ones that turn up to a session or two a year.

Click here to see the full list of sessions.

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Saturday trading is its own thing

June 27, 2026
2 Min read
S

Saturday is not a weekday. Anyone who has worked a counter knows that. The flow is different, the basket is different, and people ask for different things.

Most shops are open today. Yours probably is. Trouble is, being open all day doesn’t tell you much about how the day actually traded and how it compared to other Saturdays.

Here’s a fair question. Can your POS software show you how today stacks up against your recent Saturdays? Not the last few days. The last few Saturdays, because Saturdays are different.

A Tuesday won’t tell you anything useful about a Saturday. The two days don’t trade the same way, so comparing them is a waste of time. Put a Saturday up against other Saturdays and you can see what’s really going on.

Tower Systems POS software does exactly that. It compares a single day of the week against itself over time. Line up today against your recent Saturdays in a few clicks and you’ll spot things. Maybe the morning carries the day and the afternoon drops off. Maybe a category sells on a Saturday that barely moves midweek. Those are the openings you miss when every day blurs into one number.

It’s this type of granular insight that can show you opportunities into which you can lean. We created the single day performance comparison because retailers had the need. This was back when Saturdays were completely different to the weekday for certain types of retailers.

It’s specialist insights like this that can really matter in local small business retail. They are insights that generic software tend to not cover because, well, they are generic after all.

One more thing about today. Our help desk is open. Real people, working this Saturday, ready to help retailers who are trading right now. Local support for local retailers. Some software companies don’t bother on a weekend. We do.

So, having said all that and rambled a bit, have a good Saturday. Trade well. Make it could. And, leverage your data for today and see how it compared to other Saturdays.

We’re working too. Give us a call.

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Hey retailers: Your backup is possibly broken and you don’t know it yet

June 26, 2026
2 Min read
H

Most retailers assume their backup is running. It’s a fair assumption because it does work most of the time. The thing is, it’s the time it doesn’t work that causes stress and loss.

Retailers set backup up once, see a confirmation somewhere, and move on. The problem shows up later — usually when they desperately need to restore data — and they find out it’s been failing quietly for months.

It happens more than you’d think. A process that worked fine gets interrupted by a software update, a network change, a setting nobody touched but somehow shifted. The confirmation messages keep appearing. The actual backup stops working. Nobody checks because it never occurs to anyone to check.

By the time it matters, the data is gone.

Tower Systems cloud backup runs continuously through the day. No end-of-day process, no manual trigger, nothing to schedule or remember. Every change made in your system is captured as it happens. Two copies — one onsite, one offsite. If your hardware dies, your premises flood, or your internet drops, the other copy is there.

That difference is real. A backup running once at midnight leaves a full day of trading exposed. A backup running perpetually through the day means the worst case is losing minutes, not hours of transactions.

We also offer a free backup check service. We test-restore your backup to confirm it’s actually working — not that it appears to be working. Those are different things. A backup you haven’t tested is not a safety net. It’s a hope. This service exists because we’ve seen too many retailers discover the hard way that what they thought was protecting them wasn’t.

Your POS data is the record of your business. Sales history, customer data, supplier records, stock on hand figures built up over years of trading. Losing it isn’t an inconvenience you recover from in an afternoon. For most small retailers it’s simply gone.

Backup doesn’t bring in new customers or lift your margin. It protects everything you’ve already built. Talk to the Tower Systems team about cloud backup and the free backup check service — both are straightforward, and one of them might save your business.

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Is staying with your current POS software costing you more than a switch?

June 25, 2026
3 Min read
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This question came up yesterday. We’ve demonstrated our POS software to a retailer. They love it. At the end though they thought it best to stick with what they have because it’s less hassle.

Switching POS software is stressful, for sure. It costs money. It disrupts your day. And there is the discomfort of walking away from a system you have run for years and know inside out, and maybe relationships you appreciate.

Resistance to switching POS software is normal. Most retailers who stay put do so because change feels like too much hassle.

The cost of comfort

Sticking with old software is a choice. You are choosing comfort over growth. If you are happy with how the business is performing, there is no reason to change anything. Leave it alone. But if you want the business to be worth more, the tools you use matter.

Old software tends to leave money on the table. Workflows that should take seconds take minutes. Pricing that should move with your costs sits still. The numbers you rely on to make decisions are often old, partial, or both. You end up running the shop on a hunch. There are things old software misses.

Rent is up. Wages are up. Most of your costs are up. A small retailer cannot stand still in that environment. You have to find profit just to cover the increases landing on you each year.

You need software that can help you make more money.

The quicksand in the middle

When retailers think about changing software, they get stuck on the transition. The install. The training. That first week where nothing feels familiar. The hump is real and I will not pretend otherwise.

But the hump is temporary. Look past it and good software gives you the tools to actually compete. A current system lets you change markups across a whole product range in a few clicks, so you can lift the margin on each item without scaring off customers. Do that across the shop and the gain adds up fast.

The point of upgrading is not the software. It is a business that makes more money and, honestly, is more enjoyable to run.

Three questions worth answering

Want to know if your current software is costing you? Answer these.

  1. Is it serving the business well today?
  2. Is the support there when you need it?
  3. Is it helping you make smart decisions with good data?

Three yeses and your system is doing its job. Keep it. A single no means it is worth looking at what else is out there. No drama, just research.

There is one more question: are you happy? If the answer is no, focus on what happy might feel like.

Why local matters

If you do decide to move, the friction is mostly in the changeover, and that is where a good supplier earns its keep. At Tower Systems we convert your data, train you one on one, and back it with a large library of how-to videos so you are not stuck waiting on hold.

We are Australian made and Australian supported, with our development and support folk also in New Zealand. We work with independent local retailers, not big franchises. A lot of the software in this market is run by offshore companies with a remote help desk and a queue. When something goes wrong at 9am on a Saturday, who picks up matters.

Do not let a temporary hurdle talk you out of a more profitable business.

We’d love to see if our POS software could make you happy. sales@towersystems.com.au

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