Begin with the way the business trades
A corner shop, clothing reseller, market trader and tradesperson all hold stock, but their daily problems differ. Write down how goods arrive, where they are stored, who records a sale and whether the customer pays immediately. Then list the information you genuinely need at closing time.
That map prevents two expensive mistakes: buying an oversized system for features the business will never use, or choosing a simple counter that cannot represent customer accounts, several locations or supplier payments.
Run a test designed to find weaknesses
Create a handful of actual products, including a fractional unit if you sell by weight, length or time. Record a delivery, a sale, a sale on account, a part-payment and a transfer between two locations. Cancel one sale and inspect the movement order. Export a report and open it.
Temporarily disconnect the mobile. A credible offline-first flow should distinguish a record stored on the handset from one confirmed by the server.
Similar product labels may mean different things
| Claim | What to test |
|---|---|
| Barcode | Reads an existing code or also creates and prints labels? |
| Offline | Records new work or only displays cached information? |
| Multi-location | Links transfers or only shows one total? |
| Staff access | Separate accounts and permissions or a shared login? |
| Documents | Commercial PDF, VAT invoice or till receipt? |
| Reports | Detailed rows, date logic and a usable export? |
Salelog reads supported existing barcodes, offers specific offline-first mobile flows, location transfers, role-based access and supported Excel exports. It does not inherit every neighbouring feature implied by these category labels.
When a different system is the right answer
Choose a specialist if the business depends on integrated card processing, VAT filing, ecommerce order sync, colour-and-size variants, lot and expiry tracking, label production, manufacturing or warehouse picking and despatch. Honest fit matters more than the length of a feature list.