Why a checklist beats a demo
Every POS demo looks fast with five products and a polite salesperson. The differences that matter show up at item number four thousand, on a rainy day with no internet, at month-end when the VAT return is due. A checklist forces those conditions into the conversation before you pay.
The 12 points
- 1. Offline billing: can the till scan, price and print with the internet completely down, then sync later? Ask to see it with the router unplugged.
- 2. Speed at the counter: barcode-first flow, keyboard shortcuts and split payments without menu-diving.
- 3. Bangla and English: can cashiers work in the language they are fastest in?
- 4. bKash, Nagad and cards: native tenders with clean day-end reconciliation, not a note in the remarks field.
- 5. VAT and Mushak: Mushak 6.3 challans and NBR-ready reports produced by the system, not rebuilt in Excel.
- 6. Real inventory: batches, expiry dates, multi-unit packs (carton, dozen, piece) and stock transfers between outlets.
- 7. Multi-outlet control: one product catalog and price list from HQ, branch-level stock, consolidated reporting.
- 8. Customer credit (baki): a proper ledger per customer, because that is how much of Bangladesh actually trades.
- 9. Roles and audit: cashiers cannot edit prices or delete bills silently; every void leaves a trail.
- 10. Hardware freedom: works with standard scanners, printers and scales you can buy anywhere.
- 11. Data ownership: full export in open formats at any time, free, including if you cancel.
- 12. Support that answers: a phone number or chat with a human in your timezone, with onboarding included.
How to weight the points for your shop
A pharmacy should weight batches and expiry above everything except offline billing. A fashion retailer cares most about variants and exchanges. A wholesaler lives and dies by customer credit and multi-unit pricing. Score each system 0 to 2 on every point, double the points that define your trade, and the spreadsheet usually makes the decision for you.
Red flags that end the conversation
- No offline mode, or an offline mode that cannot print receipts.
- VAT reports promised on the roadmap rather than shown in the demo.
- Data export only available by request, for a fee, or in a proprietary format.
- Pricing that only appears after a sales call.
- A demo account they will not leave with you overnight.
Run the two-week test
Shortlist two systems and run one real counter on each for two weeks, with your products, your staff and your busiest hours. Count three things: seconds per bill, mistakes per shift, and how many times someone needed help. The winner is usually obvious by day four.
MondayPOS is built to win exactly this test, which is why we offer a free start with one outlet and a demo on your own price list rather than a canned dataset.