All - After much negotiation and a sure bout of insanity, we are about to buy a bike shop. It has been in operation for more than 30 years and has a loyal following, but the previous owner has been running it basically out of a 70's era dumb cash register. Do any of you that have worked in shops have recommendations for a modern Point of Sale system you like or do not like? Please be as specific as you can about what you like or dislike.

Thanks!

What do your suppliers use, specifically your bike brand? If you're going to sell one of the big bike brands they will pressure you to use their own system. If not just make sure whatever system you end up with can interface with suppliers like QPB, J&B as example. Otherwise your account might have some input to consider. Andy.

I will agree about one thing: you're insane.

But back to the original question: many local Portland shops don't have any sort of POS system at all. Until fairly recently, River City Bicycles (a top 100 in the U.S. bike shop) did not. What's required to run a bike shop is a moderate amount of passion and a lot of (small) business sense... "know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em".

A POS system will help if you have a large or multi-site operation... if it's been running with just a cash register, why change? IMO, setting up and maintaining a POS system takes a large amount of effort and you have to balance that cost with any benefit. I think you should get in there, run the business for a while, then look around for a system. Like Andy said, if you have a main supplier they'll probably steer you to their system but may offer help in getting you set up.

Ask your accountant what system will make your and his work easier and produce more useful reports. Doing it all by hand will get old fast.

Our accountant has no experience with bike shop specific POS systems. They just recommend a system that interfaces with quickbooks which is basically all of them.

The current 'system' the owner has does not track cost of goods sold, or anything at all that is normally used to tightly manage a large shop. We plan to run it much more tightly than it has been run in the past. with modern accounting and tracking.

I am not aware of any brand-specific point of sale systems, but will liik into it. None or our brands have mentioned this as yet.

One of the more commonly used bike shop specific systems is Lightspeed POS. It has a lot of functions for repairs, layaway, deposits, etc. Do any BF contributors have any comments on this system? Easy to use, Hard to learn, lockups, etc.? There are only a few systems that are really tailored for bike shops.

Both Trek and Giant have their systems and I believe Specialized does too. Have none of the principals or key management worked in shops which sell these brands?

Go to an electronics store such as Office Depot. They should be able go guide you to a system that will work for you.

I think that's part of my point- is the business big enough that the effort of running it "more tightly" will pay off on the bottom line? It takes time and labor to set up a POS system and continued time and labor to keep it correct. Even if you go with a major supplier's system (so wholesale cost, pricing, barcodes, etc. would be automatically updated) you'll need to devote some time maintaining costs, pricing, barcodes,etc. for stuff that you don't get from that major supplier.

For a bike shop, I would think you'd want a basic management system to add/track/relieve inventory, apply proper tax rates to sale types (i.e. parts vs labor), track cash and generate information for your bookkeeping. Depending on your size, this system would also be your customer database with CRM tools, service tracking and your payroll system.

You might look at software that auto/truck/motorcycle dealers use. These are typically ERP-like systems that cost several thousand per month but maybe they offer scaled down versions for smaller businesses like yours. Companies like CDK, Karmak, Reynold & Reynolds and DealerTrack come to mind.

All this said, I have to imagine someone has developed management software specific to bike shops. My wife did direct sales beauty products and there were management software vendors specific to that! Good luck with the business.

BRAIN has had a review (perhaps on an annual basis) of the more popular POS/POP systems. While they mostly all do the same basic procedures there can be differences, too many for any of us to really know all about. Hence our less then complete answers. But like picking a chain lube, it can be more about how you use what you have then what you pick. I strongly suggest you spend some time in a shop or two with a system or two before you pick. This is a big expense in man hours, let alone cost. Andy.

I think the direct sales beauty products marketplace is far larger than retail bicycle shops.

The Shop I work for uses Lightspeed. Works great and their support is excellent.

You can get a cash register at Office Depot, but not a Point of Sale software system. These products are sold directly and often through regional manufacturer reps. We have talked to a few but they all obviously have a bias to their own systems. I am hoping to get some independent info here to add to the decision mix.

Yes, that is part of our considerations and the purpose of my post. Do you have any specific experience with any of the main Bike Shop POS systems?

Yep, there are shop-specific systems I am aware of, just trying to get independent comments on any of them from some folks with any experience.

I do bookkeeping/some mechanics at our shop. We are switching to Lightspeed. The catalog search alone is impressive. You can search through 3000 vendor catalogs instantly. It doesn't have auto sync with Quickbooks like Square does but you can import/export data to Quickbooks.

Thanks! Are you switching from Square then? Can you give me a rough idea how big your shop is (over or under $1M)? I am trying to zero in on whether this is the right thing for our shop. It is a significant commitment to switch over and I do not want to take on something that is not worth the conversion.

I have worked in two shops that use Lightspeed Retail POS. Great stuff, especially from a labor/repairs and bookkeeping perspective. I am a tax accountant who paid for school working in bike shops. So I feel like I have a decent, get realistic outlook on both sides. The mobile app for Lightspeed is great. My last shop had iPads for the mechanics to track parts used in tuneups/assembling bikes for the floor. Kept inventory real tight.

Yes, we're switching from Square. Square is good. They aren't focused specifically on what a bike shop needs, though. Lightspeed has work order tickets for repairs, hook in/hook out, and the way the invoicing is displayed on the screen seems more fluid and streamlined. Our shop is under $1M/year at this time.

Good luck with the shop, and keep us abreast of how it's going. I suggest starting a blog for the shop.

Nope. I'm retired from the bicycle business. I dispense free advice nowadays. It wouldn't be fair to charge for it.

Thanks!