Custom point of sale software

Start here: you probably should not replace your POS

We will say this plainly because it saves people money. Square, Toast, Clover, Shopify POS and Lightspeed are mature products. They handle card payments, hardware, offline mode, tax, tips, receipts, refunds and the security rules around card data, and they keep improving. Rebuilding all of that yourself is a large project, and the part that matters most, handling card payments securely, is something you want a processor to own.

For most small businesses, the better answer is to keep the POS for checkout and build custom software for the things it does not do. Nearly every major POS offers a developer API that lets outside software read sales, items and customers, and in many cases create orders. That is enough to build almost anything around it.

What custom software around your POS can do

• Combine sales from several locations or several different POS systems into one set of reports.
• Track inventory the way you actually work: by lot, serial number, weight, recipe or consignment, with reorder alerts and purchase orders.
• Send sales and fees into your accounting software with the categories your accountant wants.
• Run online ordering, catering, preorders or wholesale accounts that flow into the same POS.
• Calculate commissions, tip pools or payroll from POS data.
• Add loyalty, memberships or gift cards that work across channels the POS cannot see.
• Connect the POS to booking, rental, production or delivery software so an order triggers the next step.
• Build a customer-facing app for ordering and rewards under your own brand.

When full custom point of sale software makes sense

Sometimes the checkout itself is the problem. A custom POS is worth considering when the way you sell does not fit any POS: pricing by weight, measurement or a formula at the counter; selling rentals, deposits and returns of the same item over and over; consignment or resale where every item is unique and pays out to a different owner; a kiosk or self-checkout experience built around your product; or a counter that also has to run scheduling, production or dispatch.

Even then, a custom POS should not touch raw card numbers. It connects to a payment processor’s terminal products, such as Stripe Terminal or a processor’s card readers, so the reader and the processor handle card data and most of the PCI compliance burden. Your custom software handles everything else: items, pricing, taxes, the cart, receipts and the records behind them. Have your processor and accountant confirm the payment and sales tax setup before launch.

What we build

• Integrations with Square, Toast, Clover, Shopify POS and other systems that offer an API.
• Back office web apps for inventory, purchasing, reporting, staff and commissions.
• Custom POS apps for tablets and phones, using processor-certified card readers.
• Self-service kiosks and customer ordering apps.
• Dashboards that combine POS sales with labor, inventory and marketing data.
• AI that forecasts what to reorder or reads supplier invoices into inventory, where it saves real time.

How a POS project works

1. Find the real gapWe watch your counter and back office and decide whether the fix belongs around your POS or in a new one.
2. Check the POS APIWe confirm what data your current POS lets outside software read and write before promising anything.
3. Design the screensCashiers and managers click through the new screens before code is written.
4. Build in roundsThe piece that saves the most manual work comes first, then reporting and the rest.
5. Launch outside rush hoursWe go live on a slow day with someone on hand, and keep the old process available until the new one is proven.