Startups, small business owners, freelancers and other entrepreneurs are familiar with the difficulty of processing payments. Finding a POS system that can support their unique payment needs and doesn’t break the bank is an issue for many smaller enterprises.
The cross-platform POS software, eHopper is hoping to bridge the gap between available (and affordable) POS solutions and the needs of business across the board. Most of these groups have the same complaints, including high cost, incompatible POS software and limiting payment processing capabilities. eHopper’s innovative design and free pricing options remedy these common issues and many more, let’s drive in.
What Can It Do?
The first words that greet visitors on the eHopper website are "Free POS software for small businesses" (more about the pricing later) and at first glance, it almost looks too good to be true. These concerns are not without good reason, small businesses, startups, and individuals are regularly forced to choose between good and cheap (or free) meaning they often have to sacrifice functionality and resources to make ends meet.
This is not the case with eHopper, which offers a range of payment processing features for free on a basic plan and even more on a well-priced paid plan. So what features does eHopper offer?
Point of Sale Features
eHopper’s POS platform works on a multitude of devices, works offline, can generate custom receipts, helps manage sales and has a built-in cash management system. In addition to these features, users have access to regular payment processing options like assessing taxes and tips in-app and voiding transactions.
POS activity generates reports, which allow users to access their sales data and increase and track profits. The reports that can be generated include inventory reports, sales reports, orders reports, tax and tips reports, serial item reports, time clock reports and export reports. They make everything from viewing the most popular products to backing up data across multiple apps and devices easier than before.
Order Management and Tracking
A true breath of fresh air for freelancers, small restaurants, and others are eHopper’s order management features. Orders can be taken for shipment or delivery at a later time and customer information is saved during the process. These orders can be reopened and fulfilled if they have to be processed at a later date and previous order information can be emailed or printed at any time. Past orders can also be refunded using the app.
The order status can be updated when a customer’s order has shipped or when the items have been delivered or returned. Since business owners have an all-in-one view of their orders, it’s easy to track orders, export them to a .csv file for record keeping or sort them to easily access relevant information. Orders can be sorted by variables like customer name, UPC or tracking ID but also by fulfillment/order type or according to the user’s preferences.
All About the Customers
Although they’re not the ones using the interface, eHopper realizes that customers are what makes a business function and it shows in their customer-centric design. In addition to some of the POS features mentioned earlier, eHopper enables better customer service through personalized customer service options. For instance, users can easily search for customer information, input customer notes relevant to their specific needs and purchases and send customers targeted marketing materials that better suit their purchase history and needs.
The customer list can even be exported or imported so any change of business or recordkeeping retains important customer details like phone numbers, addresses, and customer notes. The payment options are also created for the ease of customers because the software works easily for whatever payment method customers prefer. Customers can pay with credit and debit card as well as cash and EBT card and customers can even split their payments or pay with their mobile device or contactless card.
Inventory and Ingredients Management
Proper inventory management is essential for businesses and eHopper helps businesses keep track of their inventory and ingredients. Stock shortages are prevented with features that keep track of purchase order receiving, store transfers and other inventory changes. Users can also adjustment stock items and use their menu builder so customer orders reflect ingredient use.
Creating and managing ingredients lists right from the app ensures that businesses in the food and beverage industry never run out of ingredients and properly track what they do use. Businesses also have access to stock and vendor management tools to do things like set the cost and price of stock items or enter vendor pricing details. eHopper assists with everything from creating and printing barcodes to ingredients reporting, making it one of the most comprehensive POS programs for those in the food and beverage industry.
Employee Management
More than just a POS system, eHopper helps manage employees as well. They can check in and track their hours with the Time Clock feature and their information, like their role, duties, software language and contact information is saved securely in the app. Employees can enter their own tip information and employers can easily track this and other information to ensure appropriate staffing and recognize good workers.
Localization
For businesses that operate in different countries or regions, eHopper has special offers as well. Businesses can select from multiple languages to use on their POS system, receipts, and even back-office operations. The time and date format, currency type and inventory available can also be changed to suit the region.
Are We Compatible?
A big complaint many small businesses and startups have is the cost of purchasing equipment to run POS programs. Users can use eHopper on all devices (iOS , Android, Windows, PC) and it’s compatible with a variety of POS hardware, like all-in-one POS systems, Poynt terminal, PCs Android tablets, and iPads. eHopper even works with QuickBooks, so businesses can easily keep track of details like sales revenue, expenses and other transaction data on systems that they already use and are comfortable with.
Put a Price On It
By now most businesses may be convinced that a program with so many features must be as expensive as similar programs on the market but as mentioned at the beginning of the article eHopper is free. For the most essential basic features, users don’t pay anything, however, they can upgrade to a paid plan for additional features like unlimited registers, EBT payment processing, phone and chat support and QuickBooks integration. All of the additional features are outlined on their pricing page. To access them, users pay $39.99 a month, per register- much cheaper than similar options on the market.
With this introduction to eHopper, there’s no reason to keep waiting on it. Try out eHopper POS for free.
