Currently the Coffee Shop is using an old windows 2000 system with 2 POS PC’s and 1 Server, that currently runs an outdated version of Coffee Shop Manager. Our store has opened up 2 new locations that use nothing but a “Square and an Ipad” to make sales… They are looking at starting over but due to funding are looking into open Source options. The whole idea is to have the same setup at all 3 locations and then designate 1 location to house the Main Server in which all transactions will be downloaded to each night after closing!
The main problem with moving to a new system is that with the Coffee Shop Manager Software we have given out and store hundreds of bonus cards that keep up with free coffees when you buy 10 get 1 free and gift card type items…
Does anyone on here know of a coffee shop that has successfully implemented SambaPOS into their Business and if so can I get some advice on how to start this migration?
Thanks for all the replies! I am more interested in the POS at each location running independently during the daytime then when the shop is closed all the data is then centralized to a Dedicated location… I assume most guest don’t use all 3 shops on a given day and even if they do that will only account for 1 or the hundreds that visit… I am more interested in setting up each location as identical triplets that upload their daily data to a central database… I am thinking that as for the rewards cards they may not be cross location as unless verified by the other location via a phone call and then manually updated at the other store as if the transaction occurred at the other location. In a perfect world the 3 coffee shops will all operate during the store hours as separate units then if and only if possible sync up in the off hours by uploading their workload to a chosen location and once that sync is complete then the data will then be re-downloaded to the 3 coffee shops before the next business day opens… The only info I can see that would have to be sent back out after the nightly backup to the data store would be the “rewards card data” if and only if the customer choose to use a different shop the next day or any other day there after…
Am I making any sense or am I making this too complicated! Any and all advise needed and welcomed. I understand that operating all 3 shops as if they were one unit would take alot of work “network wise” such as configurations, speed, and data transfer… which may be more expensive and troublesome than just letting the shops operate as single units.
I want to clear up a few things:
SambaPOS is not open source. Version 3 was the last open source version. Current version is 4.1.82 and version 5 is due to release very soon. Even though it’s not open source it is so configurable it really does not need to be.
Yes hundreds of coffee shops use SambaPOS all over the world. Probably thousands. Currently Sambapos does not support a branch system that can aggregate data to a central office. It does allow reporting for anything you want and those reports can be viewed remotely, emailed etc.
Check out the tutorials category of forum. Also use search it helps find discussions often showing implementations.
With what you want to do, your setup can be achieved with the right type of configuration.
If you checkout the tutorials tabs, and search the questions tab, you will find many users who have requested similar types of setups that have been achieved.
For starters i would recommend checking
This should give you an idea on how to have a setup and have data centralized at one location.
As for keeping up with coffee card. this is doable, but in a slightly different variation to your system. I personally haven’t tested yet but I intend to test it for coffee shop clients I intend to attract in the near future. Just waiting for the release of V5 .
If you get stuck anywhere, samba forums have a very active forum with it’s developers responding and community users responding and helping all the time
Even with department per location the current samba with that setup would be less than desirable speed wise connecting to a remote database.
Would not even attempt via broadband with VPN.
When discussed before I’m sure someone said they tried on a dedicated 10mb up/down line and if I remember right even then was less than ideal.
Remember if the database is remote you will have coms both ways all the time.
I believe functionality for multi site setups is planned for distant future but that is more than just a quick mod so don’t expect it anytime soon.
Reports via email is probably best/easiest option for now.
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