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Guide

How to choose a POS system for a small business

Choose a POS system by checking it against how your business actually trades: it should keep selling when the internet drops, take every way your customers pay, track stock with real costs, close each day balanced, handle your branches and currencies, limit what staff can see, export your data, and cost a clear amount per year rather than per user per month.

Updated 17 October 2026

The checklist

Ask every system you consider these questions, and test them with your own products during a free trial.

  • Does the till keep selling offline, and send the sales by itself when the connection returns?
  • Does it take cash, mobile money, card, split payments and credit?
  • Does it track stock by batch, with expiry dates and real cost, so profit is true?
  • Is there a daily close that checks cash and each payment channel?
  • Can each branch keep its own currency and books?
  • Can you stop staff seeing cost prices and profit?
  • Can you get your products in and out with Excel, without duplicates?
  • Is the price per year clear, or per user per month and growing with your team?
  • Can you set it up yourself in a day, without a partner?

Test it with your own numbers

A demonstration with sample products always looks good. Load your real catalogue, ring a day of real sales and close the day. If the close does not balance, or you cannot tell why, the system will not help you when it matters.

Think about the next branch

A system that works for one shop can become a problem at the second: separate subscriptions per company, stock that cannot move between branches, or figures added across currencies. Check how the second branch works before you choose.

Questions

What is the most important feature in a POS for a small shop?

That it keeps selling when the internet drops, and that every sale updates stock and the day's balance. Everything else builds on those two.

Should a POS be priced per user?

Per user pricing grows with every cashier and helper. A flat price per plan is easier to plan for a business with a busy team.

How Owwel handles this

  • Point of sale

    A point of sale for shops and service businesses: barcode and camera scanning, product photos, retail and wholesale prices, split payments, credit, sales on hold and receipts on a thermal printer or A4.

  • Offline POS

    Owwel's point of sale keeps selling without an internet connection. Sales are kept on the device and sent automatically when the connection returns, each recorded exactly once.

  • Stock control

    Stock control that tracks every delivery as a dated batch with its cost and expiry, sells the oldest first, warns before stock runs out and explains every unit that came in or went out.

  • Excel and CSV import

    Download your stock to Excel, change names, prices, categories and quantities, and upload it back. Owwel shows exactly what changes on each product first and never creates a second copy.

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