POS system vs Excel for sales and stock: an honest comparison
ShelfWise ·
Excel is a great tool, and many shops keep their stock list in a spreadsheet. It struggles at the counter: it can't take payments, it doesn't change by itself when you sell, and only one person can safely edit it at a time.
| Excel | POS (ShelfWise) | |
|---|---|---|
| Product list | Easy to build | Import your Excel file as it is |
| Selling at the counter | Slow; easy to make mistakes | Fast till with barcode scanning |
| Stock updates | Typed in by hand | With every sale, delivery and count |
| M-Pesa | Not connected | Matched to each sale |
| Several staff or branches | Copies that disagree | One live record for everyone |
| History of changes | Hard to see who changed what | Every change recorded with who did it |
| Reports | Build them yourself | Ready: sales, profit, best sellers |
Keep using Excel for
Planning, budgets and one-off analysis. ShelfWise exports sales and stock to Excel or CSV whenever you need them.
Common questions
Can I import my Excel stock list into ShelfWise?
Yes. Import products and stock from Excel or CSV, or from another system's export.
Read next
- POS system vs a notebook: which is right for your shop?Keeping sales in a notebook vs using a POS system in Kenya: cost, time, stock, M-Pesa, theft and what changes when you switch. An honest comparison.Read
- Cloud POS vs desktop POS in Kenya: which should you choose?Cloud POS vs desktop (installed) POS for Kenyan businesses: cost, power and internet cuts, backups, branches, M-Pesa and updates compared.Read