How to choose the best charity till for you

How to choose the best charity till for you

Finding the right charity till solution can sometimes be a bit of a minefield. With so many options on the market to choose from and so many boasting the latest thingamajig, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here we’ve outlined some things we recommend you think about when choosing which charity till is right for you:

1. What do you actually need your charity till to do to ensure your day to day needs are covered?

It seems obvious but we can often get caught up in fun marketing and clever salespeople. Before looking into choosing your till, have a good think about what it is you need it to do to ensure all of your basic daily needs are covered. Need to know how many socks sell on Tuesdays? Need it to track stock between stores? Or do you just need it to make sales and tell you how much change to give?

Knowing what it is you need it to do will help ensure you don’t end up paying for features you don’t need and won’t use.

2. What do you want it to do and what do you want to achieve?

When embarking on any new project, you should always think about what you want to have achieved by the end of it.

There’s no need to buy an electronic till just because you think you should. Although we’d obviously recommend it (it greatly reduces admin and helps save on costs!), sometimes technology just isn’t for everyone. Therefore, we’d urge you to think about what you want to achieve when switching to a new charity till. Do you want to reduce costs? Save time on admin and reporting? Boost Gift Aid revenue?

An electronic charity till can help you do all of these things, and we’d urge you to make sure you know what features you need to achieve your goals.

3. Don’t pay for legacy

There’s a lot of till solutions on the market that boast years of experience and charge huge fees because of it. Often this technology, while tried and tested, can be a little dated, slow, and with the speed technology moves, can soon need updating. Currently a lot of people are having to replace fully functional technology because they need to update from Windows 7 to Windows 10, something they didn’t expect and haven’t planned for.

Make sure to ask how regularly the software might need updating and if it has any cost to you. Also, it’s worth looking into what hardware it runs on – if it runs on traditional bulky POS hardware, think about what you’re going to do with this hardware when it needs a refresh. You don’t want to be left with old receipt printers and broken POS machines taking up space in your back room!

4. What preparations will you need to make beforehand?

Moving across to a new system can be as easy as pie but there’s still some things you’ll want to bear in mind. You probably want to think about how your volunteers will react to a new system, and if you’ll need to prepare them or train them in advance.

You’ll also need to think about what data you will need transferring or inputting into the new system. It’s likely you’ll want to input all of your historical data which means it needs to be in an accessible format for your new supplier. Don’t worry too much about this, any good supplier will be able to help you!

So there you go – our advice on what you should think about before searching for the best charity till for you. If you’d like some more information or tips for finding your ideal solution, just drop us a line on info@wil-u.com or our live chat and we’d be more than happy to help!