Retail POS system software for one store or many branches. Your Till Never Stops.
Even When the Internet Does.

A single shop can get by with a till that keeps its own list. A group of shops cannot. If each branch counts stock separately, the same item sells out in one store while it gathers dust in another, and head office only finds out at month end. The test for any retail POS system you shortlist is simple: does a sale in one branch change the stock figure everyone else sees, and does that branch keep trading when its connection fails?

Five things to check before you choose

1. One stock figure across every branch. Every location should write to one set of records. In TimeWorks, branch tills sync to a central SQL database, so a sale in your Northern Suburbs store shows in the stock that head office and your other branches see. Our multi-site stock control guide explains how the shared stock file works.

2. Stock transfers between stores. Moving stock between branches should be a recorded transaction, not a phone call. TimeWorks books stock out of one branch and into the next as an inter-branch transfer, so it stays accounted for while it is in transit.

3. Head-office reporting and pricing. You should be able to see the whole group's sales and margin, then drill down to one branch or one till. TimeWorks consolidates reporting across branches while each branch manager sees their own stock and sales. Head office can push price updates and promotions to every branch in one action, and a loyalty customer is recognised at any branch.

4. Trading through outages. A till that needs the internet for every sale stops when the line drops. Load shedding has eased: Eskom reported only 26 hours of load shedding in winter 2025, against 176 days in the 2023/24 summer. But a branch can still lose its fibre line or its power on any day. TimeWorks tills keep processing sales locally and sync to the central database when the connection returns.

5. The same product data in every branch. Each item needs the same barcode number and VAT rate in every store. GS1 South Africa explains that the barcode number is a GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), and that it is the only registered GTIN provider in the SADC countries. VAT on every slip must be right too: SARS charges VAT at the standard rate of 15% or the zero rate, so the rate belongs on the product record, not on the cashier's memory.

Which retail businesses this fits

Clothing groups need a size and colour for every barcode and laybys that any branch can take payment on; see POS for clothing stores with several branches. Supermarkets need scales, zero-rated lines and price changes pushed to every lane; see our grocery and supermarket POS. Each branch also needs its own terminals, scanners and receipt printers, which you can see on our POS hardware range.

Customer records travel between branches too, so protect them. Section 19 of POPIA requires a business to secure the integrity and confidentiality of personal information with reasonable technical and organisational measures. Ask any supplier who in each branch can see customer data.

What it costs with TimeWorks

The software is R350 per month excluding VAT for the Cloud-Based Entry POS (up to two users), or R500 per month excluding VAT for the Full Business Solution, and both are priced per branch. A group with several tills and cashiers in each store needs the Full Business Solution for its unlimited users, advanced stock control and comprehensive reporting. If you would rather not buy hardware, you can rent the hardware, software and support together from R995 per month excluding VAT. Tell us how many branches and tills you run and we will quote the setup. Weighing up an international cloud system? See how TimeWorks compares with Lightspeed.