Why is ProphetLine point of sale software better than our competitors? We often are asked that after an online demonstration of our pos system. We never say ProphetLine is better than another point of sale software company, only that we know we have a quality product with many features, and a great support staff. A customer has to choose a pos based on functionally, budget, training, support and especially references from other retailers using the product.

The best way for us to make sure that we have a happy customer is to be totally upfront with what ProphetLine point of sale can do and can’t do. If you are looking for a certain feature and we don’t have it, we tell you. So the next time you ask about our competitor’s product, you will probably hear us say, it’s not up to us to judge their software, but we know how good ProphetLine is.

Everyday retailers ask “Does the software do ‘such-and-such’?” In the case of ProphetLine, our software is a very rich and proven software package that has been on the market for many years. It is designed for retailers of hard- and soft-goods, such as apparel, sporting goods, and other types of specialty retail. These retailers typically have certain features that are required, such as size-color matrix, serial number tracking, customer tracking, accounts receivable, and multi-store support. Any worthwhile point of sale system in the market will have these features and others considered mission-critical for the specialty retail market. If your business is mostly accounts receivable, then it is imperative that the software properly manage accounts receivable, such as invoicing, statement generation, and reporting. ProphetLine also has many features not found in other systems, especially for many micro-verticals within specialty retail, so it is literally designed for hundreds of different types of retailers and is rarely a bad fit for most of them.

However, sometimes retailers get caught up in the minutiae of the function points of the software, thinking that every single thing about their business must be automated, and forget that there are enormous gains in automating just the larger parts of their business. Often, and regrettably, some get so consumed with finding this perfect software package (that often does not exist or is cost-prohibitive) they spend months or years searching without success to find a pos application that performs this function exactly how they think it (so obviously!) should work. I have known some to search for years, and every year I ask them “Bob, have you found what you are looking for yet?” Invariably, the reply is “Not so far, but there is this new pos software company that looks like they have it right.” Next year, same story, and Bob never buys. His clerks fill out invoices by hand, he has no idea of what is in stock and merchandise and cash walks out the store everyday.

If you’ve been searching for months or years, spoken with over 5 or 10 companies, and have yet to find the perfect software, you may be over-analyzing function points – RELAX.

As you evaluate software, when a feature is missing, ask yourself how important that feature is. Weigh this feature against the big picture. In fact, you should make a list of features that are mission-critical, needed but not critical, and nice-to-have. Assign a weight value to each so that you can score pos software packages as you evaluate them. Features, while certainly important, are not the only things you should evaluate, either. Ask the vendor what platform the software runs on; what database; how long has it been on the market (for the current architecture), programming language, support hours and costs, upgrade policies, and most importantly, a list of references from other retailers in your market. Try to obtain you own references as well. Manufacturer sales reps are a great start – they can turn you on to retailers just like you that have pos software systems.

Choosing and buying a point of sale system is an important task – just don’t be overcome with analysis paralysis.

Setting up your business in a Point of Sale system can be a daunting task.

ProphetLine POS software aids in this task through our Getting Started section and the use of ‘Steps’ to complete the tasks of entering data to avoid the pitfalls of needing to add an entity before you can complete your next task. Example – Departments and Classes should be added prior to adding Inventory Items or each item will need to be re-visited to assign Departments and Classes.

With this being said, there is still another step that can greatly reduce the amount of time and frustrations setting up your system could cause. Although it may seem archaic, the best way to do this is with Pencil and Paper. Do your home work on your business before you start entering data. You should ask yourself questions such as…

• How do I want to report on my data?
• How do I want to give group discounts for sales and/or
  ‘special customers’ such as ‘club members’?
• Am I going to put my items on a web shopping site now or in the future?

Once these and similar questions are answered, look at ProphetLine’s structure and see how you can get this functionality in the software. ProphetLine POS software also provides ‘Testing’ or ‘Training’ data for you to use to see how your ‘ideas’ will work when put in practice. If you are unsure of your setup, add them in the Testing/Training Data and check them out. This gives you the ability to test your setup without creating invalid entries in your ‘live’ data in case you change your mind.

To get an idea of what ProphetLine entities are and what they effect, consider the following…

Departments and Classes are for reporting and/or Web Shopping classification

If you wish to group like items, be more generic on your departments and specific on your classes

Example – Consider the two Department and Class lists below. If you wanted to report on Cameras broken out by brand, set your department and classes up as on the left. If you wanted to report on Canon products broken out by type of product, you might use the setup on the right.

As you can see both the above lists hold the same information, but allow reporting in different formats. Other report groupings in ProphetLine are ‘Brand/Vendor Groups’ and ‘Movement Groups’. The use of these two additional groupings can add extremely flexible reporting on your inventory.

Inventory Groups are primarily for discounting like items. If you put all your Cameras in an Inventory Group of Cameras it would be very easy to give a discount on the entire group rather than updating each item individually. It is important to be mindful of the type of discounts you give when setting up Inventory and Customer Groups.

Do you give professional customers (photographers, golfers, etc) discounts on items they typically purchase a lot of? If so, do you give them discounts on the entire line (all film or clubs) or specific types (only pro grade film or high end balls and or clubs)?

Do you give discounts to specific types of customers? Club Members, Employees, Senior Citizens If so, these would become Customer Groups. When used with Inventory Groups, setting up and/or changing discounts for specific types of customers can be extremely flexible and easy.

As you can see, doing some ‘extra’ work up front, you can save yourself a lot of time and have your data in a format that will give you the reports/flexibility you desire.

How much does it cost is the first question asked by many retailers inquiring about ProphetLine POS/Retail Management Software. In the context of your business, the first question should be how can I transform my business processes and improve my profitability? The only two reliable and efficient ways to improve your business sales and cash flow are to market more to existing customers or expand your geographical territory by making your products and services available through the Internet.

Capturing information at the point of sale is essential to mining more business from your existing customer base. Your customers will gladly give you some personal information if they know that preferential treatment or special pricing is the end result. Notifying them of new product arrivals, private showings or a pending sale are a few of the ways to build your customer loyalty and keep them shopping with you and not your competitor.

The next best way to improve your business is to implement an easy to maintain and efficient Internet presence. A brick and mortar retailer can expect a ten percent increase in sales, according to industry averages, within the first year if the web store is properly worked and maintained. It’s just another way to get your product line in front of the buying public.

Now back to the first question, how much does it cost? If you are not interested in doing the above mentioned business improvement processes, cost should be your main concern and a two hundred dollar cash register should work just fine.