What are you using for Point of Sale?

[PapaSmiff]

What is everyone using at the Point of Sale?
Cash Register
Adding Machine
POS Software System (Free, Low Cost, Commercial)
Excel Spreadsheet
Hand Written Records / Receipts

I've been looking for a low cost (free) POS system or Excel spreadsheet template that I could use at POS.

[Haynes Forest Products]

What I don't like is waiting 10 min for someone to make up a bill/receipt on there new shinny laptop. I understand good record keeping and calculating taxes BUT having people leave your booth because you cant get a bill made up quick is dumb.

[Dennis H.]

Taxes?? Haynes I did not think that we had to coolect taxes on syrup sales??

I believe in cash sales! I keep records in a spreedsheet that I made up in excel that show my daily sales of each size container that I offer. It shows a daily total and then a running total for that page.

[Butch]

Papa - since we sell at my father's marina/c-store, we still hand ring-up sales on a cash register. The kids that work there point out when we made a syrup sale - I leave 2 bucks in the till for the ole man and pocket our part...

[PapaSmiff]

Haynes - I agree that I don't want to have my POS system increase the amount of time that people need to wait to ring up a sale. That's why I'm looking for options in June, not in February. I'm assuming you keep track of your sales using the manual, handwritten method, right?

I want to find something that will allow me to track my sales - by container size (as Dennis H. mentioned) without a lot of manual entry. Then I want to analyze it in Excel. My handwriting is slower than operating a cash register or computer program, and much less legible.

I'm considering just creating an Excel spreadsheet that has a data entry form, but I'm curious what everyone else is doing.

Dennis H. - Yes, I'll be "Cash Only" at first. But I expect that at some point I'll need to accept plastic. Hopefully I'm several years from that point.

[maple flats]

I only give receipts if asked and that is rare. If asked for a receipt I hand write them. For the math my head works faster than most calculators.I record totals as bottled and labeled and count any remaining at the end. The difference is sales. I keep sales for each month and every 3 for sales tax reports. No syrup is not taxable, but some things I sell are and the report requires total sales in one column and taxable in another.
Just a side note on calculators. When I was in college (business management) I had a professor who picked on us kids (the 60's) who used calculators. He periodically had one student write a whole column of 4 digit numbers on the board, while we nor he could not see them. Then he challenged us to add them. He always had the answer (and always right) way faster than even the fastest of us. He told us to do it like he does. He looked at a number but did not take time to say it in his head, then he looked at the next, a total registered, and worked down thru the whole column, adding all 4 digits at once, not 1 column at a time. He would write the total out of sight and cover it. Then after we were finished he would ask for the answers. We were maybe 75-80% right but he was 100% right, and he took 1/3 to 1/2 the time. He tried to teach that method. Just look at the whole number, look at the next and so forth. He said "do not say the number, your brain knows it without taking time to say it, as you look at the next a total is in your brain. Don't take time to say the number until the final answer. He truly impressed me. I never got that good, but I do far more adding in my head than with a calculator.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I only say taxes as a side point. I do all my billing by hand because I never know what the total is at the end of the job, Big jobs are bid so its already determined. Roth Sugar Bush my evil supplier does all the invoicing buy hand on a 3 part carbonless sheet at its easy to keep track of my purchases. Its like going to the county fair and getting 3 corn dogs and 2 cotton candies and a big Coke for the flask of rum........I never get a receipt:) YUP cash is king

[OneLegJohn]

Papa Smiff, You need to look into the Square. I use it like a cash register on our iPad. Check out www.squareup.com. I download a spreadsheet every month and use excel to track sales. It is a free app and only charges 2.75% of the transaction. If you have thousands in monthly sales, a bank may be more competitive. As a small business, I don't like paying unnecessary fees - Square works for me. I truly believe this app is going to cut into banks' profits.

If I had to do it again, I would have gotten the 3G version of the iPad. You need to have an Internet connection to use Square, unless you use an iPhone or the 3G iPad. Customers like signing their name with their finger and the app sends the receipt to the customers' email address, if they would like.

[PapaSmiff]

OneLegJohn . . . Square looks interesting, and would make sense if/when I accept plastic, but at this point i'm only interested in Cash sales and tracking my sales by container size.

I'll probably just use a Calculator, with a paper printout. And keep a running total of container sales. But I'm still interested to hear what others are doing.