Best POS software for your business in Australia in 2022

Odoo and Square Point of Sale comparison

January 10, 2022 by

Dr Mohammad Motahar

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Introduction

For small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the retail industry like chained restaurants and cafes, the point of sale (POS) system is the key to business development as it plays a vital role in the daily operation of the business. A powerful and user-friendly POS system for restaurants and cafes can help the business grow by providing fast service, operation analysis and Management for each trading day. Nowadays, there are many popular POS systems that SMEs adopt, such as lightspeed, ConnectPOS, Hike, TouchBistro, Square, and Odoo. Technology is changing very fast and this article will focus on comparing the new trends Odoo and Square POS to give SMEs an idea about the new features of the best POS system for their restaurants or cafes that they need to consider based on their business needs and the latest development in the POS software market.

Overview

Odoo Point of Sale (POS) is part of Odoo’s integrated suite of business applications suited for SMEs with multiple stores. It allows any transaction, automatically registers moves in your stock, and gives you realtime statistics and consolidated data across all stores. Besides, it also stays reliable when it’s offline. Odoo was founded in 2005, and more than 7 million customers use its products for now. It is a user-friendly and straightforward solution to meet your business’s precise needs.

Compared with Odoo POS, Square Point of Sale is also a cloud-based solution for SMEs founded in 2009 to monitor their business. It is an integrated POS system with payments, items, inventory, analytics, and eCommerce. Square POS is a good start for small businesses to set up since it is free to get essential functions. Like Odoo, Square POS is also operational when the connection is offline. However, it does not integrate many operation modules such as accounting in the system like Odoo. Instead, it has a lot of APIs to connect to other essential operation applications such as Xero for the business.

“Which one is more suitable for my business in Australia?” You may ask. This article will help you assess these two POS systems based on different features of POS below.

1. Ease-of-Use

Odoo POS is popular for its ease of use as it is based on a smart interface that any company can use without difficulty. Moreover, it is very flexible and can work online and even offline. Employees want the POS to be easy for them to learn and use for each trading day they work. Odoo POS is an application that provides top-notch usability to make running your business easier.

Regarding Square POS, it is also a user-friendly application with a simple UI and provides a stress-free user experience. Like Odoo, it starts with an interface connection but stays reliable when it disconnects.

2. Value for Money

Economic value measures the benefit provided by a good or service. Whether it is value for money is very important for SMEs to pick a POS as their budget is limited.

For Odoo, there is a 15 day free trial for new customers. After that, new customers get a discount on the initial number of users purchased. After that, the set-up fee for new customers is $25 per month. After that, customers can customise the subscription of applications based on their business needs. All the hardware you need to purchase is the IoT box and Adyen payment terminal. Besides, Odoo does not charge a single cent for every card payment. Instead, Adyen will charge the processing fee ($0.12 per transaction) and payment method fee for every cashless payment. However, different payment methods charge differently—for example, Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos charge interchange++ rate. According to the interchange rate listed by RBA, the highest rate for interchange++ is still less than 1%.

For Square, there is no set-up fee. Customers can use the free version forever if they do not want extra features. Customers also need to purchase the IoT box and payment terminal. Besides, square charges for every cashless transaction by itself at the same rate of 1.9% on Square Reader and Square Stand and 1.6% on Square Terminal and Square Register for every payment method.

3. Customer Support

Customer support is one of the most critical factors for customers to choose a POS system for their business. Each trading day may have different issues happen while using the POS system. Customers will feel supported if they can solve their problems within a reasonable time. The more support they get, the more dependence they have on the POS. Both of POS systems provide support and training for customers in different ways. The support includes Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, and Chat. Both offer Live Online, Webinars, Documentation, and Videos training for training. However, Odoo also offers In-Person training while Square does not.

4. Functionality

Odoo and Square POS almost cover everything you need for your business on each trading day. They both contain the main features of POS, including Barcode / Ticket Scanning, Discount Management, Electronic Signature, Gift Card Management, Loyalty Program, Multi-Location, Restaurant POS, Retail POS, Returns Management, and eCommerce Management. However, Square also has Commission Management and Customer Accounts functions while Odoo does not have.

5. Compatibility

It is very convenient for business if its POS can be compatible with different devices in the Mobile era now. Both POS systems are Cloud, SaaS and Web-Based. They can be deployed on mobile and tablets under Android and iOS systems. However, Odoo also can be deployed on the desktop under Windows and Mac systems while Square cannot. So in terms of compatibility, Odoo is more flexible.

6. Pros/Cons

According to the top features listed above and user reviews for both POS systems, Odoo has a robust integration to meet your business’s needs. It also has excellent compatibility with a variety of devices. The Adyen payment terminal adopted by Odoo accepts almost all contactless payment methods globally. All the features of Odoo make your business run smoothly. However, the UI of Odoo still needs to be improved. The reporting dashboard can be upgraded as well as there is no hourly report and comparison report.

In contrast to Odoo, Square has an intelligent analytic report. It also has a well-organised but straightforward UI. Therefore, users are easier to learn by themselves without any training. Also, there is no contract with Square if SMEs only want to use the free version. Then, SMEs can set up their business efficiently in minutes. However, the processing fee charged by Square is high, so that SMEs have low sales may not have the ability to afford it for a long time. Besides, Square does not fully integrate all the operation applications like Odoo. Customers need to link to other applications such as Xero by using the API supported by Square. Therefore, customers may have data consolidation issues while syncing to other applications because of different servers used by various companies. Square has to rely on the other applications while connecting to them.

Conclusion

To conclude, both Odoo and Square Point of Sale systems are good choices for SMEs as they are powerful and user-friendly. For SMEs, value for money is probably the most important thing. Since they have a limited budget for investment in their growth, it is significant for them to pick a value-for-money POS to make each trading day profitable.

Square POS is a good start for small businesses to set up since it is free to get essential functions. Considering the development of the business, Odoo has full integration of all kinds of powerful applications to meet all the needs during the growth phase of business. There is no need for a separate app for accounting, a separate app for bills and a separate app for timesheets, a website builder app to run the website and another warehouse management app. There is no hassle in integrations and there is no double entry of orders from one system to another as all apps are internally connected. It means that the order from the POS will ultimately post the entry in real-time in the accounting app and therefore, the reports and dashboards in the system can demonstrate a 360 view of the business. Meanwhile, its cost is reasonable and worthy for restaurants and cafes looking to scale up their operations and consolidate their reports hassle-free without worrying about any integration complexities. Management of the warehouse across all branches becomes central which will lead to an increase in efficiency of the purchase processes across all branches

Cathy Yang, Business Analyst

Cathy is an IT business analyst at High Tech Masterminds assisting on implementation of Odoo for customers in the hospitality and retail industry. Cathy holds her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Technology from Weinan Normal University in China, first master’s degree in Actuarial Science from Heriot-Watt University in the UK and second master’s degree in Business Informatics from the University of Canberra in Australia.

Linkedin profile | Sharon