I’ve been looking at Openbravo as a possible POS system. – it seems to be the only open source piece of software that is functional.

Yet I’m very unimpressed by the usability of the damn thing. Just try add a new category – how confusing! and you don’t know what the buttons do, as there are no tooltips for mouseover(I know it’s supposed to be touch screen – but I’ll assume you will be using mouse and keyboard for product setup!)

Yes, it seems much too complicated than what it has to be, and I’ve managed to find at one bug so far from my limited playing.

The plus side is that it’s open source, and I’m a programmer.

The lack of documentation for open bravo is a bit of a worry – I’m always bought over by good documentation, and OpenBravo isn’t winning me over. I might consider donating some time to the project.

The bottom tier of POS needs is just one step removed from a carbonless receipt pad or a single cash register. The customer wants a hardcopy receipt detailing what was purchased, any taxes, and the total for goods. The retailer must have a record of what was sold and the taxes collected for the state. And of course the same information applies to customer refunds. End of day totals are needed to balance the cash box and prepare a bank deposit. At the end of the month, the retailer needs totals for all goods sold (taxable and non-taxable) and taxes collected. The monthly totals are then used for excise tax reporting and for general ledger accounting. In all likelihood, the retailer runs a one or two person shop. Credit/debit cards are usually handled through a credit card terminal.

The second tier of POS needs gets a bit more sophisticated. If we have records for what we have sold for a given period of time, we can use the information to help place orders for goods. We may also wish to record information about our special customers. This is the point in time where a computerized POS begins to assist the retailer.

The third tier of POS needs is characterized by business growth. It is when a second clerk is hired and a second cash register is needed. Record keeping begins to get a little more tedious and information from two sources needs to be combined to produce reporting totals. At this point if we were using two PC’s for cash registers, we would probable need a backroom server. Barcoding, display pole, credit/ debit card integration and other features would not provide any benefit at this point since the stock keeping Unit(SKU) count is not particularly high.

The fourth tier represents retailer needs for a business that has survived for more that two years. Success means inventory and capital growth. It is time to introduce the levels of sophistication currently offered POS developers.

During the first three tiers of retail needs, most small businesses have a limited amount of capital and credit. Most businesses fail during this period. There is a market for inexpensive, simple, POS software to help these folks along the road to success, and to provide an upgrade path for more sophisticated systems.

Thanks!

We have also had great success implementing OFBiz POS as well. OFBiz is well worth looking at too.

Feel free to contact me for a features and benefits white paper or to ask any questions about the various open source solutions.

We work with a number of options.