On Monday 06 November 2006 11:53, Kimball Larsen wrote: > So, we are beginning a redesign of our retail store software, from > the ground up. There are plenty of off the shelf products I can use > for the basis of my store, but I'd rather build it all myself and > thereby completely understand everything it does. > > A visit to my local Barnes and Noble store along with a pretty good > question answer period with Dr. Google leads me to believe that > nobody has written a book on the best practices for building a web- > based retail POS. Anyone ever heard of such a thing?
No, there isn't. Especially nowadays with interesting things such as Sarbox coming into play even for smaller groups. The industry had nothing good out before, and it's just getting muddier. > > Specifically, I'm looking for pointers to ensure that the system: > > A) Accurately tracks customers and their invoices > B) Allows for our business model that centers around the concept of > in-store credit > C) Keeps the accountants happy. :-) > > The major failing of our current incarnation of home-grown software > is in letter C above, but it could stand to improve in A and B as well. The biggest issue is the accounting. While good programmers will come up with a nice relational model for their data, that expresses itself well for your data storage, it often fails concepts such as GAAP, Sarbox, and all sorts of other fun. There is a very small group of people who are good progammers/architects/engineers (stress those last two) who really have an understanding of true business accounting principles. It does make for a nice market for us though :) Seriously just knowing some double-entry can help, but actually designing from an accounting model is very different than what most programmers will do. You need people with that experience, or who at least can work with accountants who can explain things very well. This is almost never done right, even in large scale billing packages (not just POS, but anything billing related). Just look at crap like Quickbooks, or the plethora of horrid billing packages out there (I can think of many offhand). If you aren't positive you understand accounting, and how your business accounting works, get a consultant. Do it right, it'll make itself up over time. -- Jayce^ /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
