The first question: what kind of shop is it?
On the first run, right after you create the manager account, PosMasr shows a grid of shop types with a picture and one line each: grocery or supermarket, café, restaurant or takeaway, canteen, pharmacy, clothes or shoes boutique, mobiles and electronics, bakery or pastry, butcher or greengrocer, warehouse or wholesale, and general shop for everything else. Pick the closest one and press it.
The type is not a lock. It only flips a set of optional switches and a few defaults — kitchen or no kitchen, tables, sizes and add-ons, sale by weight, how many days before expiry to warn you. Every feature still works on its own, and you can turn any of them on or off later in Settings → Features, or pick another type in Settings → General. PosMasr Online asks the same question in “Set up your shop” and uses the same types.
What each type switches on
These are the program's own one-line descriptions under each type:
| Type | What it switches on |
|---|---|
| Grocery / supermarket | Barcodes and scale, sale by weight, expiry (warns 14 days ahead), credit for regulars, suppliers and expenses |
| Café / coffee shop | Kitchen screen, sizes and add-ons, tables and held orders, product pictures |
| Restaurant / takeaway | Kitchen, tables, add-ons, service charge, suppliers and expenses with net profit, delivery clients |
| Canteen / cafeteria | Simple and fast: kitchen, credit for staff and students, no discounts or returns |
| Pharmacy | Early expiry alerts (30 days), returns, discounts, supplier invoices, customer credit |
| Boutique (clothes / shoes) | Sizes and colours per product with their own stock, pictures, discounts and returns, sold-out items hidden |
| Mobiles and electronics | Barcodes, colours and capacities per model, A4 invoices, returns, pictures, suppliers |
| Bakery / pastry | By weight and by the piece, scale, short expiry (3 days), kitchen for special orders |
| Butcher / greengrocer | Everything by the kilo, scale barcodes, short expiry, credit, suppliers |
| Warehouse / wholesale | Large and fractional quantities, clients on credit, supplier invoices, returns |
| General shop / other | Just the basics; turn on what you need later |
Supermarket and grocery: barcodes, scale, labels, stock
- Barcodes and the ready catalogue. Any USB scanner works like a keyboard. The ready catalogue of more than 50,000 products with pictures fills your list in an evening; scan an item you have not added yet and, if it is in the catalogue, its picture and name come up and you only type your price. Products with no barcode of their own can get one from the program for printing — see barcodes for everything.
- The scale. Either a scale connected to the till that sends the weight, or a label scale that prints a barcode with the weight or the price, which the till reads in one scan. Both are explained in scale barcode labels and serial scales.
- Shelf labels with the name, the price and a barcode, from a label printer or the receipt printer.
- Stock and running low: receive by scanning, count a stock-take, and a “running low” list with the quantity to order.
- Credit for the neighbours instead of the notebook.
Selling with barcodes and the catalogue is in every plan, from Retail Silver, on the PC and online. Stock, expiry and credit are in Retail Silver too; labels and the scale come with Retail Gold. More in PosMasr for supermarkets and the online version for supermarkets.
Pharmacy: expiry dates and the expiring list
In a pharmacy the money is lost on the shelf: a box that expires is a box you paid for and threw away. What PosMasr gives you:
- An expiry date on every product, typed or set while receiving the goods.
- The expiring soon list, expired first, with the warning period one tap away: 3, 7, 14, 30 or 60 days. The pharmacy type starts at 30.
- A ⚠ badge with the count on the selling screen, and once a day, at the first manager sign-in, a short list of what is about to expire.
- A warning in the cart when an expired item is scanned, so it does not leave without somebody noticing.
- A pharmacy label size ready among the label presets, supplier invoices, returns and customer credit.
The shelf rule that goes with it is FEFO — first expiry, first out: the nearest date goes in front. The list tells you which boxes those are; the expiry dates article has the weekly routine. All of this is in Retail Silver, on the PC and online; a pharmacy rarely needs Retail Gold. See PosMasr for pharmacies and the online version for pharmacies.
Café and restaurant: tables, sizes, the kitchen
- Tables and held orders: up to 60 table buttons plus takeaway; a busy table turns orange with its running total, and more items on the same table join the same order.
- Sizes and add-ons: a large cappuccino with an extra shot is one tap each, with the price difference added by itself.
- The kitchen: a screen with New, Preparing and Ready, or a ticket on a second printer. Only the items that need cooking reach it, so a bottle of water does not bother the chef — screen or tickets compares the two.
- Service charge on the receipt, and split payment between cash and card.
- Online: a menu on posmasr.com with the till's prices, ordering from the table by QR code, and an online shop with cash on delivery — see the menu and table ordering article.
Sizes and add-ons are in every restaurant plan, from F&B Silver; the kitchen screen and tables come with F&B Gold, on the PC and online. The online menu and table ordering are online only: included from F&B Gold and sold as a monthly add-on on F&B Silver; the online shop is included in F&B Platinum and F&B Chain, and a monthly add-on on F&B Silver and F&B Gold. F&B Chain also sends you printed table QR codes. More in PosMasr for cafés, PosMasr for restaurants and the online version for restaurants and cafés.
Clothes, bakery, butcher, mobiles, wholesale
- Clothes and shoes: one product with its sizes and colours, each with its own barcode, price and stock. Type the sizes and the colours once and “generate combinations” makes every pair; a size that sold out can hide itself from the selling screen.
- Mobiles and electronics: the same for colours and capacities, with an A4 invoice on request.
- Bakery and pastry: by weight and by the piece in the same receipt, the scale, a 3-day expiry warning, and the kitchen for special orders.
- Butcher and greengrocer: everything by the kilo, and the scale's barcode read in one scan.
- Warehouse and wholesale: large and fractional quantities, clients on credit, and two price levels — wholesale and retail — that switch by themselves when a wholesale client is picked (Retail Gold; see wholesale and retail pricing).
A bakery or grocery that delivers can take orders in the online shop, cash on delivery; an accepted order becomes an ordinary sale.
Which package or plan has what
Each plan includes everything of the plans below it in its line, and the names are the same on the PC and online unless the table says otherwise. On the PC it is a one-time licence per shop; online it is a monthly plan per shop.
| What you need | Shops and services | Restaurants and cafés |
|---|---|---|
| Selling, receipts, barcodes, products with pictures, discounts, returns, the ready catalogue | Every plan, from Retail Silver | Every plan, from F&B Silver |
| Customers and credit, shifts and cash control | Every plan, from Retail Silver | Every plan, from F&B Silver |
| Stock, receiving, stock-take, expiry, suppliers, labels, scale | Stock, expiry and suppliers in every plan, from Retail Silver; labels and the scale from Retail Gold | On the PC from F&B Silver, online from F&B Gold |
| Kitchen, tables, sizes and add-ons, wholesale and retail prices | Wholesale and retail prices from Retail Gold; the kitchen, tables, sizes and add-ons are restaurant features | Sizes and add-ons from F&B Silver; kitchen, tables and wholesale prices from F&B Gold |
| Watching the shop from the phone | Online: every plan; on the PC: Retail Platinum | Online: every plan; on the PC: F&B Platinum |
| E-receipts, e-mail reports | Retail Platinum | F&B Platinum |
| Online menu, table ordering, online shop | Online only: the online shop is in Retail Platinum and Retail Chain, an add-on on Retail Silver and Retail Gold | Online only: menu and table ordering from F&B Gold (an add-on on F&B Silver); the online shop in F&B Platinum and F&B Chain, an add-on on F&B Silver and F&B Gold |
| Several branches with one report | Online only: Retail Platinum up to 3 branches, Retail Chain up to 10 | Online only: F&B Platinum up to 3 branches, F&B Chain up to 10 |
Every feature, package by package, is on the compare page, the full list of what the program does is on the features page, and chains have their own page: PosMasr for chains. Not sure where you stand? Start small and move up when you are ready — your data comes with you.
Quick answers
I picked the wrong type on the first day. What now?
Nothing is lost. Pick another type in Settings → General, or turn single features on and off in Settings → Features. Your products and sales stay exactly as they are.
My café also sells packaged snacks with barcodes. Which type?
Café. Barcodes work in every type, so the scanner reads the snacks while the kitchen, tables and add-ons serve the drinks. The type is a starting point, not a box.
Does a pharmacy need Retail Gold?
Usually not: expiry, stock, suppliers and credit are in Retail Silver, on the PC and online. Retail Gold helps if it also sells wholesale or prints its own shelf labels.
My supermarket has a bakery corner. Can one shop mix two types?
Yes. Pick grocery, which already turns on sale by weight and the scale. The kitchen screen belongs to the restaurant plans (from F&B Gold): if the bakery corner takes special orders on a kitchen screen, choose the restaurant line.
Is PosMasr Online the same program for all these shops?
Yes: the same types in “Set up your shop”, the same switches, the same till screens. The plan decides which features are available, as in the table above.
Try it with your own kind of shop
The PC trial and PosMasr Online both give 14 days of Retail Platinum or F&B Platinum, whichever fits your business, no card. Pick your type on the first run and see what it switches on.
