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Re: POS Software
> open source POS software/inventory manangement software
"open source" as in when you purchase a license you get a source code
license?
"open source" as in "free as in beer"?
There are numerous companies that sell POS and IM (Inventory Management)
software.
They tend to be modules added onto a basic accounting package.
Typically, you start with G/L.
Then you add A/R and I/'M. POS ties the two together.
You _really_ need to nail down your requirements a bit more. Functional
requirements. Real business requirements, not "nice to have"
*attributes* of whatever you pick.
Do you need to integrate with a G/L? Does your current G/L vendor have
I/M and POS modules?
Do you need to provide quotes (that can then turn into sales) in the POS?
Do you need to integrate the POS with contact managers?
Do you have salespeople that get commissions and SPIFs?
Do you have tiers of salespeople? i.e. customer+regional rep splits?
Do you have multiple locations and different tax jurisdictions?
Does your inventory have different tax rates (i.e. medical devices,
services, milk)?
Do you run sale prices?
Do you have tiered customers?
Do you have tiered, quantity or lot pricing for your inventory?
Do you have shipping options?
Do you need to integrate with payment networks?
Do you need to integrate a check acceptance service?
Do you have accrued or cash basis accounting?
Do you have balance forward accounts?
Do you apply finance charges or have varying terms (COD, pre-pay
discounts, Net30, etc.) in your sales?
Do you accept coupons, gift certificates, multiple and partial payment
methods?
Having an open source POS system that does none of the above when you
need some (or all) of the above is going to leave you in a not very
happy place, since most people are willing to pay money for software
that does the above than to use "free" software that doesn't. And if it
does the above for a reasonable amount of money (<$500 or so, usually,
depending on features), then the CFO and COO usually don't give a rip
about the Free as in speech "features" of your solution. All they know
is they didn't pay for it, but it still doesn't work. And that pain
makes them willing to pay to get a working system. And they're not
interested in getting into the software development business or "writing
it themselves".
If the point is that you want to run Linux, get Win4Lin and run
QuickBooks or GreatPlains or MAS90 or OracleFinancials or whatever
POS+I/M system fits your *functional requirements*. Unfortunately, in
the real world, "open source" is /not/ a functional requirement for most
small/medium businesses. They want economy of scale and automated core
business functions, not to go d*cking around in the source code or
testing nightly builds from CVS until some feature is finally implemented.
I know. I *wrote* I/M and POS systems for eight years. You need better
requirements gathering. Whatever you wind up with, open source is just a
gravy feature, not a primary requirement.
That said, have you looked at anything in Freshmeat? Did you Google on
"GPL point-of-sale"?
http://freshmeat.net/browse/79/?topic_id=79
Mike/
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