Retail software for shops that also have to keep proper books
Most point-of-sale software ends at the receipt. The takings then get summarised into a cash book, the stock gets counted quarterly, and the shop's actual position — margin by line, shrinkage, what is about to run out — is a matter of the owner's instinct. That works at one counter and stops working at three.
What a counter needs beyond taking money
- 01Fast billing that a new staff member can learn in an afternoon
- 02Stock that moves when a sale happens, not at stocktake
- 03Reorder levels that raise their hand before the shelf is empty
- 04Margin visible by line, not just revenue by day
- 05The day's takings posting into the ledger, automatically
- 06More than one counter, or more than one shop, on one set of books
Stock is where retail actually makes or loses money
Revenue is easy to see and mostly out of your control. Stock is the opposite: unglamorous, entirely in your control, and where the margin quietly goes. A till that decrements stock on every sale turns shrinkage from an annual surprise into a weekly number.
Why the ledger matters even for a small shop
A cash book tells you what came in. It does not tell you what you owe suppliers, what your stock is worth, or what the business made after everything. Ofivio POS posts into Ofivio Books so the shop has real accounts rather than a summary.
A shop attached to another business
Plenty of firms here run a counter alongside something else — a builder with a materials shop, a practice with a print counter. Because POS is a product on the same spine, that shop is a room in the same workspace instead of a separate system with its own login and its own books.
The three numbers a counter should see every day
- Margin, not revenue. Takings tell you how busy you were. Margin by line tells you which shelf is paying for the shop and which one is renting space in it.
- Shrinkage since the last count. The gap between what the system says you hold and what is on the shelf. Weekly it is a manageable number; annually it is a shock with no cause attached.
- What is about to run out. Reorder levels are the only one of the three that changes tomorrow’s revenue rather than explaining yesterday’s.
Where a shop outgrows a cash book
One counter, one owner, a handful of suppliers: a cash book is honest and enough. It stops working at the point where somebody else is behind the till, stock comes from many suppliers, or the shop is one of two. Those are the three thresholds — not a revenue figure — and crossing any of them is when the counting has to move into a system.
Who this is not for
If you are on this list, Ofivio is the wrong purchase and we would rather you know now than in month three.
- Restaurants and food service needing table management and kitchen display
- E-commerce as the primary channel — this is a counter, not a storefront
- Supermarket-scale operations needing weighing-scale and shelf-label integration
- Businesses needing manufacturing, assembly or a bill of materials
The products behind this
Questions people actually ask
Does it work offline?
Can I run more than one shop?
Is stock the same as the construction store?
Keep reading
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