Welcome to EpoS Wizard!
Hello,
We have an NR-520R (approx 2 years old) and approximately 1000 Unique products in a Toy Shop, retailer.
We started initially with this to carry on a per department takings daily accounts, that has been the system going for almost 20 years; without having to use individual scanned products and a BarCode Scanner. (A lot of added hassle we thought)
So we are thinking of using a product called pointy. (Main launch at the moment is in the USA)
And to use that we need to be scanning products into the Till
So there are a few questions:
1) What software can we use to program products to barcodes on a laptop with prices and upload them to the till ?
I have seen this (EBAY Item 320453402763) but seems expensive, is there not any proprietary or open source software that could program this till ?
2) Is it worth even attempting this with this till or should we just look at a PC Based EPOS system and not try to program the NR-520R ?
3) What is the best scanner to use with this till, if we can easily program and update PLU's on the NR-520R or will any USB scanner do ?
Thanks in advance
Robert
If you're looking to set up a system with barcodes, and actually get any useful information out of it, then I'd strongly suggest you look at switching to a PC based system, such as ICR Touch.
the utility you have found on e-bay should not normally be sold!!!
the correct way to go is with the back office component - for sam4's - theres 2 flavours - 1 with stock control, one without - called samstock & samlight. However, if you thought the software you found on ebay was expensive, then you are going to have a stroke at this stuff!!!!
It does however offer everything you need in terms 0f stock management - best and worst sellers, low stock level items, generating shelf edge labels and also bar-code labels to name but a few.
"Pointy" sounds like a children's game - Whereas in terms of software, Samstock has been around for many years and is tried and tested.{i agree that ICRTouch is a better front end option, but you still need a back office solution than samstock already delivers and interfaces with what you already own}
All your products are entered via samstock then transferred to the cash register - its very simple.
The only issue i foresee is that the nr is a little under-powered for full blown scanning and you may run out of available memory - but then that will be the case with whatever utility you use.
in terms of q3, I have yet to make a usb scanner work on an NR and stick to rs232 communication - good quality single line scanner - such as the honeywell voyager or - for multiline, an Orbit scanner should be used.
USB scanners should really be only used on PC based equipment - using a cheap and cheerful one on the samstock end of your setup should work just fine.
Thanks for your help so far with this.
I tried to find somewhere selling SAMS Lite, so far I cannot, so no idea on pricing for it.
We wouldn't need granular stock control I am just trying to find a cheap way of somehow integrating Pointy (which is not a children's game btw) but does look like a good way for bricks and mortar retailers to leverage position on the internet without too much investment in time or money.
I guess one way of doing it without having to go down the PC based EPOS route would be to scan products to some software on a PC using the pointy device in the mix and continue with the manual method of taking money and ringing amounts into the NR Cash Register, a bit arse about face though.
If that was doable though all I would then need is a bit of software to continually collect scanned barcodes which I guess would be fairly simple.
Having written all that I think it may be worth going back to the Pointy People and asking some more questions.
Thanks Again
