POS vs the khata register: should you switch?

Should I move from a khata register to POS software?

Move to POS software when the register can no longer answer your questions: you can't say what you're owed without adding up a column, more than one person writes in the book, stock runs out without warning, or a lost page would cost you real money. Stay on the register while your shop is small enough to hold in your head: mostly cash, a few udhaar customers who settle within days, stock you can see from where you stand, and one person at the counter. A register works up to a certain size, and switching is only worth it once your shop has passed that size.

Where does the paper register still win?

People selling software skip this part, but the register has real advantages:

• It needs no power. In a long load-shedding blackout, when the phone is dead and the UPS ran out an hour ago, the register still works. In Pakistan that counts for a lot.
• It costs nothing to run: no monthly fee, no hardware, and no subscription charging you in a slow month.
• There is nothing to learn. Anyone who can write can use it, and a new helper can add an entry correctly on their first day.
• It never crashes, never logs you out, and never asks for an update in the middle of a rush.
• It's fast for tiny sales. For a Rs 50 sale to a regular, writing one line is quicker than any screen.
• Some customers trust it more. They are more comfortable with their name in a book than in a system, and that comfort is part of your relationship with them.

If nothing about your shop contradicts that list, you have your answer and can stop reading here.

Where does software do better?

Paper can only hold what someone had time to write, exactly as they wrote it. Software does better wherever that limit gets in the way:

• Search. Finding one customer's history in a book means turning pages. In software you type a name and it's there in a second.
• Totals that stay right. Each customer's running balance updates on every sale and payment, so it doesn't matter when someone last added it up.
• Dates on everything, automatically. "Kuch mahine pehle" becomes a real date, and you can see at a glance which debts are old, which is what gets them chased.
• More than one person. When two people write in one book, both can get the total wrong. With one shared ledger, the son and the father see the same number.
• Nothing gets lost. A torn or soaked page takes a real debt with it. A backed-up record doesn't.
• Stock. A register tracks money, not shelves. Software tells you what's running low before a customer does.
• New questions. Which items make money, what sold last Thursday, who has owed the longest: a register can't answer these.

What are the signs you've outgrown the register?

If three or more of these are true for your shop, software will pay for itself. If none are, it won't.

1. 1You can't say right now what your customers owe you in total without sitting down to add up a column.
2. 2More than one person writes in the book, and the totals sometimes disagree.
3. 3You've written off a debt because you couldn't remember or prove it, or the page was gone.
4. 4Stock runs out without warning, and you find out when a customer asks for something you don't have.
5. 5You've had to guess whether a day, a week or a particular item made a profit.

Who shouldn't switch yet?

Some shops would be worse off with software:

• A very small shop with a few credit customers who settle within days. You would pay a monthly fee to solve a problem you don't have.
• A shop where power is unreliable and there is no UPS or charged backup device. Fix the power first. Offline software keeps working without the internet, but nothing works on a dead device.
• A shop you are about to hand over, close, or change a lot. Don't start a move you won't finish.
• A shop where the person on the counter can't or won't use a screen, and there is nobody else. Software nobody uses is worse than paper, because the record ends up in two places and neither is complete.

How do most shops make the switch?

You don't have to switch everything on day one, and shops that do it well rarely try. The usual path is to start with today's real balances instead of typing in years of history, run both for a week or two, then stop writing in the book once you trust the new numbers.

1. 1Enter your regular udhaar customers with their current balance as an opening amount. That is the only history worth typing.
2. 2From day one, record new sales and payments in the software instead of the book.
3. 3Keep the register as a backup for a week or two. Don't use it as a second ledger; it is only there while you learn to trust the software.
4. 4After two weeks, compare. If the software's numbers match what you expect, put the book in a drawer. Don't throw it out.
5. 5Keep a paper pad by the till for blackouts. Write sales on it while the power is out, and enter them afterwards.

If you want to try this, do it in your own shop, not on a demo. NexusTill has a 7-day free trial that needs no card to start and doesn't turn into a paid plan on its own. That is long enough to start the comparison above with your own numbers.

Written by The NexusTill team.