There's no doubt that a POS is the way to go, for a lot of reasons. Once you use one for a short period, you won't want to go back
It gives the client confidence that you have consistent set prices so they're less likely to play "lets-make-a-deal", saves time at the design counter, makes it easy to compare several frames or glass types with the same dimensions, eliminates calculation errors, keeps a history of forever-to-date for customers and orders(mailing list database, etc), makes daily/monthly/yearly tax time easier by having all the numbers ready, most pos's will automatically adjust the vendor prices and products as they change (weekly), most of them will generate a materials purchase list to make weekly ordering a breeze, most will generate a "workorder" with instructions for the framer, most automatically handle scheduling loads and will shift to a different due date when a pre-set daily limit has been reached, quote printing, corporate billing, inventory, art sales, source tracking and statistics, promotion/coupon/discount ability for whole order or a specific component, monthly/yearly history reports/comparisons, reports of what sells and what doesnt, commission tracking for consignments and sales people, etc. Your accountant and the IRS will be very pleased. Many pos's have additional options such as a cash drawer, barcode system(we recently installed and love this), CMC interface, updates via internet, time clock for employees, receipt printer, etc
POS systems ARE expensive (up to 2k) - but worth every penny in my opinion. It's just as important, if not more important, than any piece of equipment in the back room. Unfortunately, there is only one program that I know of that is designed to run exclusively on the Mac. Framesmart is in the top 4 as far as popularity, and also makes a more popular PC version. The Mac represents 3-6% of the pc market, so developers are not attracted to it unfortunately. Lifesaver used to have a Mac version. My advice is to consider investing in a PC for this purpose. You can find new Dells for $250-$400 at
www.thedailydeals.com, www.techbargains.net, etc With the pc, you'll be open to more options. Then again, FrameReady and the Mac are a good combo too! I would just ask them to make sure they plan to keep development alive in the future, before making the investment.
Every pos vendor on the list offers a free downloadable demo (or they will mail it). My advice is to take them up on this offer and test drive all of them. Each of them have an incredibly different process, and it's important to go with something you are comfortable with.
Happy POS hunting,
Mike
[ 01-10-2004, 07:57 AM: Message edited by: Mike-L@GTP ]