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What is an EPOS system?
A till that knows what it just sold. EPOS stands for electronic point of sale, and the short version is that it records what left the shelf rather than only what went in the drawer.
What EPOS actually means
EPOS stands for electronic point of sale. In practice it describes a till that identifies each item as it is sold — usually by barcode — and keeps a record of it. A cash register records that £4.50 was taken. An EPOS system records that a 4-pint milk and a loaf of bread were sold, at what price, at what cost, by which member of staff, at 8:14 on a Tuesday. Everything useful follows from that difference.
You will also see POS used to mean the same thing. In the UK, EPOS is the older and more common term in retail; POS is more common in hospitality and in software sold from the United States. There is no technical difference between them.
EPOS, cash register and card reader are three different things
These get mixed up constantly in sales conversations, so it is worth being blunt about which is which.
- A cash register totals a sale and opens a drawer. It has no product file, so it cannot tell you what sold or what you have left. Cheap, and a dead end the moment you want to count stock.
- A card reader takes a payment. On its own it knows the amount, not the basket. Free or near-free apps from payment companies sit here, sometimes with a simple product list bolted on.
- An EPOS system holds a product file, prices the sale from it, records the line detail, controls stock and reports on it afterwards. The card reader is one part of it rather than the whole thing.
If someone offers you “free EPOS software” with a card reader, read what it does with stock. Free normally means a product list and a sales total, not purchase orders, deliveries, spot checks or margin.
The three parts of a working system
1. The till software
What the counter sees. Scanning, weighed lines, manual price entry, held baskets, refunds, split payment across cash and card, and any prompts the law requires — age checks being the obvious one. This is the part your staff judge you on, because they use it three hundred times a day. Ours is described on the till software page.
2. The product file
The list of everything you sell, with barcode, description, pack size, cost, retail price and VAT rate against each line. It is the single most important asset in the system and the thing that makes migration painful if you ever leave. A supplier price file — Booker’s, for symbol stores — keeps it accurate without anyone typing.
3. The back office
Where the recording turns into something you can act on. Purchase orders, deliveries booked in, stock counts, branch transfers, promotions, and reporting on sales, margin and shrink. Usually a website you can open at home. Stock control and back office covers what ours does.
What it changes in a real shop
- You find out where the margin went. Cost and retail sit against every line, so a category that is busy but unprofitable shows up instead of hiding inside a good week.
- Ordering stops being a guess. The system knows what sold and what is on hand, so a purchase order starts from a number rather than a walk round the shelves.
- Shrink becomes visible. A spot check on forty lines takes ten minutes and tells you the difference between what should be there and what is.
- Cash-up ties out. Expected takings against counted takings, per shift, with the difference named. A shop running three shifts a day gets three of those rather than one at closing.
- Age checks are enforced, not remembered. A restricted line stops the sale until someone authorises it, and the refusal is recorded. See the age verification guide.
What a small shop actually needs
Most independent retailers need less than they are sold and more than the free option gives them. A workable minimum is: a product file you own and can export, barcode scanning, stock control with purchase orders and spot checks, age verification prompts, sessions and shift ends, card payment integrated with the till so the amount is never keyed twice, and reporting you will actually open. Table plans, kitchen displays and loyalty schemes are worth paying for only when you can name the problem they solve for you.
The two things worth being fussy about are the card rate, because it scales with your takings rather than sitting flat — see card processing rates explained — and the contract, because that is where the cost you did not expect usually lives. EPOS contracts and lock-in covers what to check.
What it costs
Roughly £400 to £1,500 for hardware and £25 to £120 a month per till for software, with card processing charged separately as a percentage of takings. The EPOS cost guide breaks that down properly, and our own numbers are published in full on the pricing page rather than quoted on a call.
Questions
The ones people ask next.
Is EPOS the same as POS?
Yes. EPOS is the older British term and POS is more common in hospitality and in American software. They describe the same thing: a till that identifies what it sells and records it.
Do I need EPOS if I only have one till?
If you sell more than a few dozen distinct products, yes. The benefit comes from knowing what sold and what is left, and a single shop feels that as strongly as a group does. If you sell five things and take card, a reader and a spreadsheet may genuinely be enough.
Will it work if the internet goes down?
It depends entirely on the system, and it is worth asking directly. A till that holds the product file locally keeps selling; a purely cloud-based one stops. Ours keeps selling — card payments need the line, and the sales sync back once it returns.
Can I keep my existing barcodes?
Yes. Barcodes are a global standard, so any EPOS system reads the same ones. What matters is whether the supplier will import your existing product file for you rather than leaving you to key it.
How long does it take to set up?
A single shop is typically a day, most of which is preparing the product file beforehand rather than anything happening in the shop. Changing from an existing system is usually done overnight so no trading day is lost — how switching works describes it.
Want this applied to your own shop?
Tell us the trade, the number of tills and who takes your card payments. You get a written quote back on one page.