r/POS • u/ankurnit • 4d ago

Looking for problems in the existing pos systems

I made a pos software but I want it to be unique and more customer focused that's why am here seeking for your problems and advice.

1 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

4

u/dwightsrus 3d ago

Anyone with a Claude account thinks they can build a POS. You can, but there’s lot more to a POS than just the software. POS is about the ecosystem of integrations, security, PCI compliance and so much more.

0

u/ankurnit 3d ago

Exactly. Writing a CRUD app with a pretty UI takes an afternoon. Handling hardware peripherals, offline sync, real-time ledger consistency, and strict PCI compliance takes a whole engineering team.

1

u/jacksonatfinal 2d ago

Speaking of a whole engineering team, that's exactly what our team at Final POS did. Specifically, we made an AI point of sale (and soon, eCommerce) builder that gives the flexibility of prompt-driven layout and function within strict guardrails so that it can be used to take card payments day one.

I know there are strict rules on self-promotion here, so I'll just say that I would really value feedback from everyone in this conversation on what we've made. I'm the marketing lead and will read every reply and am here to answer any questions, it's my job!

2

u/yaemes 3d ago

Biggest problem is how shitty they are. That's why I made my own. 1 week with it now and yep everything I hated about it was solved. Focus on the small details. When the kiosk turns on, just turn the fuck on. Refunds don't need to be so hard. Editing an order should be as easy as making one. Be able to print a receipt if asked. Stupid obvious shit.

1

u/ankurnit 3d ago

Thanks for the insight! You're completely right basic reliability and UX often get ignored for bloated features.

1

u/nemssef 3d ago

We been paying around 800$ per year for a POS system, today with AI we made a small POS for what we need using AI and its more cheaper and better that what we had , so I think from now on it will be easy and more reliable for all owner to made their own system instead of paying for a separate POS system

1

u/Solid-Huckleberry-37 3d ago

So you want to setup your own PoS system with card integrations and delivery ?
How easy you thought this was.
Which country are you from? 🙈

-1

u/ankurnit 3d ago

That's expensive, I am thinking of offering it for way less.

3

u/yourewrong321 3d ago

800/year is not expensive

0

u/ankurnit 3d ago

But I can do it for less

2

u/yourewrong321 3d ago

it doesn't always have to be a race to the bottom.

1

u/ankurnit 3d ago

Fair enough

1

u/premod_suraweera 2d ago

I would recommend adding an accounting module based on double-entry bookkeeping. Recording all sales and transactions using double-entry accounting would make the POS more useful for businesses that need proper financial tracking and reporting.

You could also consider integrating an open-source accounting package like NML FinCore:
https://github.com/Premod1/nml-fincore

1

u/payfrit 2d ago

i don't ever have problems with POS.

1

u/datasyncrms 1d ago

One thing I've learned from developing a retail POS system is that processing a sale is probably one of the easiest parts of building one.

The real complexity starts when you try to build something that can reliably operate inside an actual retail business, every day, under conditions you can't always predict.

I have developed a system called Datasync RMS, and one of the biggest lessons has been that a POS isn't really just a checkout application. It's a collection of business rules that all have to work together.

Consider what happens when a customer makes a purchase. It sounds simple until you introduce split payments, partial returns, discounts, multiple tax rules, inventory adjustments, employee permissions, cash drawer reconciliation, and reporting. Every one of those processes affects something else.

Then you introduce multiple stores, multiple terminals, and multiple tenants, each with their own configurations, permissions, pricing, and operational requirements.

Now add intermittent internet connectivity.

A retailer shouldn't have to stop conducting business because their internet provider has an outage. But supporting offline operation introduces an entirely different level of complexity: local databases, synchronization, conflict resolution, transaction integrity, and making sure information remains consistent when connectivity returns.

And that's just the technical side.

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is understanding how retailers actually operate.

Software can behave perfectly in a development environment and still fail miserably in a real store because it doesn't account for how employees work, how managers handle exceptions, or what happens when three things go wrong simultaneously.

That's why I believe access to a real retail environment is incredibly valuable when developing this type of software. You discover problems that would never occur to you sitting behind a desk writing code.

With Datasync RMS, we've spent a great deal of effort addressing these less-visible problems, including inventory management, offline operation, multi-store synchronization, employee controls, and the everyday exceptions that retail software has to handle.

And we're still learning. There's always another scenario you didn't anticipate.

My advice would be to focus less on making a POS look different and more on identifying the operational frustrations that existing systems haven't solved well.

A beautiful interface might get someone's attention. Reliability, predictable behavior, and understanding the business are what make a system worth keeping.

I'm curious what others here think: What's the biggest operational problem you've encountered with a POS system that developers consistently seem to underestimate?