Sage Line 50 As An EPOS?

[The Display Centre]

My small business uses Line 50 for book-keeping but has hand-wriiten
processes for SOP/POP and no stock control system.

I am considering using Line 50 for all of these functions but wonder whether
this will provide as good a solution as an EPOS System.

My business sells mail-order and across the counter; approx 3000 product
lines, 20 new customers per day. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience
which they can share with me on this?

Thanks in anticipation.

Chris

 

[John]

My small business uses Line 50 for book-keeping but has hand-wriiten
processes for SOP/POP and no stock control system.

I am considering using Line 50 for all of these functions but wonder whether
this will provide as good a solution as an EPOS System.

My business sells mail-order and across the counter; approx 3000 product
lines, 20 new customers per day. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience
which they can share with me on this?

Thanks in anticipation.

Chris

Looking at your product range, I think Line 50 would do the job that you
need it to. Your stock would be quite easy to code and control
automatically.

The main problem I see with using Sage in this instance is its lack of
versatility. If you want to integrate your web site with the rest of
your systems, or use one database to hold all your product information
then you will struggle. Anything requiring automatically sending emails
(invoices, statements, order progress reports etc) will also be
difficult to implement.

Having said that, Line 50 will do what you /need/ it to, and is cheap.

Out of interest, how many sales transactions do you process in a day,
and what's the split between over-the-counter and mail/telephone orders?

John

 

[The Display Centre]

Hello John,

Approximately 50 sales transactions, 10 purchase transactions and 75% of our
business is mail order.

Regards

Chris

 

[Dave]

My small business uses Line 50 for book-keeping but has hand-wriiten
processes for SOP/POP and no stock control system.

I am considering using Line 50 for all of these functions but wonder whether
this will provide as good a solution as an EPOS System.

My business sells mail-order and across the counter; approx 3000 product
lines, 20 new customers per day. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience
which they can share with me on this?

Thanks in anticipation.

Chris

sage support is next door at: http://www.sageforum.co.uk

in here there's usually only peeps that play with accountancy and tax
thingies.... although some of them purport to be jack of all trades ;p

 

[John-Smith]

My small business uses Line 50 for book-keeping but has hand-wriiten
processes for SOP/POP and no stock control system.

I am considering using Line 50 for all of these functions but wonder whether
this will provide as good a solution as an EPOS System.

My business sells mail-order and across the counter; approx 3000 product
lines, 20 new customers per day. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience
which they can share with me on this?

Thanks in anticipation.

Chris

I reckon easily, I do the same as you, but Sage 50 isn't the quickest
thing for entering new customer details into. If we have 20 new
customers per day we would spend all day creating new accounts... I
don't know of a faster way - can you get them to enter details into a
website and then feed that into Sage?

 

[Keith]

I reckon easily, I do the same as you, but Sage 50 isn't the quickest
thing for entering new customer details into. If we have 20 new
customers per day we would spend all day creating new accounts... I
don't know of a faster way - can you get them to enter details into a
website and then feed that into Sage?

Yes. You'll need a SSL - for confidential data - and a CSV programme to
'import' into Sage.

Err, that's the theory anyway...

 

[John-Smith]

Yes. You'll need a SSL - for confidential data - and a CSV programme to
'import' into Sage.

Err, that's the theory anyway...

CSV import is clumsy - has to be done manually. This is OK if one is
processing online orders say 5pm every day but most people ordering
online expect immediate shipment.

Isn't there a way to create customer records directly in the Sage
database format? I expect they would prefer using ODBC...

Alternatively, one could write a windows program which opens up Sage,
presses the Customers button, etc, and creates customer records by
faking keystrokes. This will work perfectly, until Sage change their
layout. There used to be a brilliant piece of freeqare called Flute
which did this for any windows application.

One problem I can see is how to check whether the customer already has
an account...

Of course there are more expensive accounting packages, ten grand
plus, that do have support for online shopping, but there is always
something more expensive...

I still run version 5! Not using payroll, we don't need anything else.