The “best” POS software is not the most-advertised one — it is the one that keeps your till running when the internet drops, actually handles bKash and Nagad without a manual workaround, and reports on the numbers you personally check every night. Here is the checklist to run against any POS vendor before you sign, us included.
The five-question checklist
Does checkout keep working when the internet drops?
The system caches locally and keeps billing during an outage, syncing to the cloud once connectivity returns.
A dropped connection means the till stops working entirely — a real risk during Dhaka's regular outages.
Are bKash and Nagad actually built in, or bolted on?
Mobile financial service payments are a native part of checkout, not a manual note the cashier writes down separately.
MFS payments are "supported" only as a line item you have to reconcile by hand at day's end.
What happens as you add a second branch?
The vendor can show real multi-branch inventory sync — one stock position, not two systems that quietly disagree.
Multi-branch is a vague future upgrade with no concrete architecture behind it today.
Do you own the hardware and the data?
Barcode scanners, receipt printers, and the till itself work with standard hardware you can replace from any local shop — and your sales data exports on demand.
Proprietary hardware you can only buy from one vendor, with data locked inside their system.
What is the real cost after installation?
Any recurring fees — cloud hosting, MFS gateway charges, support retainer — are disclosed before you sign.
The upfront price looks attractive because the recurring costs are not in the conversation yet.
Different retail, different priorities
A restaurant weighs this checklist differently than a pharmacy — kitchen routing matters more than batch expiry, and vice versa. See restaurant POS or pharmacy POS for the specifics of each, or read our POS vs. cash register comparison if you have not decided to digitize the till at all yet.
Comparing us against a quote you already have?
Send us the proposal. We'll tell you honestly how it stacks up against this checklist.