Setting Up a POS System for a Small Shop

Start With the Till Point Itself

Before you buy a single piece of kit, stand where your till will live and think about the space. You need a flat, stable surface at roughly waist height, at least two plug sockets within easy reach, and either a network point or a reliable Wi-Fi signal. Cable routing matters more than most people expect — a trailing USB lead across a walkway is a trip hazard and the fastest way to break a printer port.

Check the light too. Direct sunlight across a counter feels pleasant until you notice that thermal receipts left on the surface fade to a blank slip within a few weeks. A spot out of direct glare, near enough to the door for a quick card tap, is usually the sweet spot. If you serve food or drink, keep the till away from the fryer or coffee machine — steam and grease wreck both printers and paper.

Choosing Till Rolls and Receipt Paper

Getting the paper wrong is the most common early mistake, and it is entirely avoidable. Rolls are described by width, diameter and core size, and all three must match your printer.

• 57mm x 40mm thermal rolls suit compact card terminals and small handheld printers.
• 80mm x 80mm thermal rolls are the standard for countertop EPOS printers and give you room for itemised receipts.
• 76mm x 76mm bond rolls fit older dot-matrix tills and some legacy card machines.
• Core size is usually 12.7mm (half inch) or 25mm (one inch). A roll with the wrong core will rattle, jam, or refuse to sit on the spindle.

Thermal paper is coated rather than inked, so it prints silently and needs no ribbon — but it also reacts to heat, friction and light. Buy phenol-free or BPA-free stock where you can; it is kinder to staff handling rolls all day and increasingly expected by customers. Look for a weight around 48–55gsm. Anything much thinner curls, jams and prints faintly, which costs you far more in wasted time than you save per box.

What a Good Receipt Needs to Say

A receipt is a legal record, a returns document and a marketing impression all at once. If you are VAT registered, it must show your VAT number and a clear VAT breakdown. Beyond that, include your trading name, address and phone number, a unique transaction number, the date and time, itemised lines with prices, the payment method, and your returns policy in plain words.

Do not cram it. A 57mm roll with six lines of tiny text is harder to read than a clean 80mm slip with generous spacing. If you print a logo, keep it small and high-contrast — fine grey detail often prints muddy. Test a real receipt on your actual printer before you order a year's worth of paper, and check whether you want a duplicate copy for the till file or a gift receipt without prices.

Hardware That Earns Its Keep

You do not need a lot, but you do need reliability. A typical small shop setup is a tablet or terminal, a card reader, a receipt printer, a barcode scanner and a cash drawer that opens on command. Add a label printer if you sell weighed goods or loose items.

Buy one spare of the two things that fail most: a spare printer and a spare power supply. Both are cheap compared to a queue forming while you troubleshoot. Keep the printer on a small stand or shelf so the roll feeds cleanly downwards, and leave enough clearance for the paper to exit without snagging on the counter edge.

Training Staff and Building Routines

Write a one-page till card and laminate it. It should cover the opening float count, how to log in, how to void or refund an item, how to change a till roll, and how to run the end-of-day cash-up and Z report.

Changing a roll is worth practising properly. Open the cover, drop the old core, drop the new roll in with the paper feeding from the bottom, pull a short leader through and close the lid until it clicks. Never pull the paper backwards through a thermal printer — it can damage the print head. If the paper runs out mid-queue, know where the spare rolls live, and keep at least one under the counter at all times.

Staying Stocked Without Overbuying

Work out your average daily use, then order roughly six to eight weeks of cover. Most suppliers sell in boxes of 20 or 50 rolls, and the price per roll drops sharply at box quantities, so buy a box rather than singles once you know your pattern.

Store paper flat, upright, in a cool, dry cupboard between about 15°C and 25°C. Heat, damp and direct sun all spoil thermal stock before it is ever used. Check lead times well before your busy periods — late November is not the moment to discover a two-week delivery delay. A tidy till, the right rolls and a team that knows the routine will keep your queue moving and your customers happy.