Starter
Everything you need to run one shop
$20/month
1 till
- Full point of sale on one till
- Works offline, syncs automatically
- Stock tracking & low-stock alerts
- Unbiased stock counts
- Multi-currency pricing
- Sales & revenue reports
- Stock list scanner
The heart of your sales
Run every sale with confidence.
Essence POS brings your till, stock, staff and cash-up into one system. Sell fast, know what is happening in your shop, and keep going when the internet drops.
14 days freeNo card requiredNo setup fees
- Sell
- The till your staff use all day.
- Stock
- Know what you have, everywhere.
- Money
- What you actually made, not just what you took.
- People
- Who did what, and what they're allowed to do.
What it does
Everything a shop needs, in one book
Not a list of buzzwords — this is what is actually in the till and the dashboard today.
Sell
The till your staff use all day.
- A fast till
- Search or tap through your products, or punch in a price. Runs on any Android phone or tablet you already have.
- Keeps selling offline
- Power cut or network down, the till still rings up sales. Everything syncs by itself once you reconnect, and you can see exactly what's still waiting.
- Park a sale
- Hold an order, serve the next person, come back to it. Nothing lost when a customer goes back for one more thing.
- Receipts, printed or shared
- Thermal printers over Bluetooth, USB or network — or send a PDF straight to the customer's phone.
- Refunds with a record
- Refund at the till within your window, and every refund is logged against the person who made it.
- More than one currency
- Price and take payment in the currencies you actually trade in, at the rates you set.
Stock
Know what you have, everywhere.
- Load your stock from a photo
- Photograph a handwritten or printed stock list and we type it up — item names and quantities, line by line. This is how most shops get started without a week of data entry. Try it free →
- Stock on hand
- What's in each shop and warehouse, updated as you sell.
- Alerts before you run out
- Set a level per product and get told while there's still time to reorder.
- Counts you can trust
- Stock counts hide the expected figure, so staff record what's actually on the shelf instead of confirming what the system already thinks.
- Move stock between shops
- Transfer stock from one branch to another and keep both sides accurate.
- Purchase orders that suggest themselves
- Order from your suppliers, and let the replenishment worksheet propose what to reorder based on what's moving.
Money
What you actually made, not just what you took.
- Profit, not just turnover
- Margins by product and by shop, so you can see what's worth selling.
- What sold today
- Sales by day, shop and till, without exporting anything into a spreadsheet first.
- Cash accounted for
- Every cash movement recorded, and shifts that reconcile at close.
- Every price change, on the record
- Who changed a price, when, and what it was before.
- Expenses from the floor
- Staff log expenses at the till; you approve them in the office.
- What actually sells
- Product intelligence on your best and worst lines.
People
Who did what, and what they're allowed to do.
- A PIN for each cashier
- Staff sign in with a PIN on a shared till, so every sale has a name against it.
- Permissions by role
- Each person gets only what their job needs — voids, refunds, price overrides and approvals are all separately controlled.
- Shifts that close properly
- Open a shift, close it, and reconcile the cash drawer against what was rung up.
- How your team is doing
- Performance per employee, so you know who's carrying the shop.
- You approve every till
- A new device registers itself and waits for you to let it in.
Today · Main shop
Till 1
Mazoe Orange Crush 2L
×2
$7.00
Brown sugar 2kg
×1
$2.40
Cooking oil 750ml
×3
$5.00
Bar soap
×4
$3.20
Cooking oil is down to 4 — reorder
- Sales today
- $17.60
- Items sold
- 10
- Shift
- Open · Rudo
Offline — will sync
$17.60
An illustration of one day's trading, not a screenshot.
Getting started
From set-up to first sale
- 1 · Create your business
- Sign up with your shop's details. No card, nothing to install first.
- 2 · Load your stock your way
- Add products yourself, pick an industry template, or photograph your stock book and let us type it up for you. Load stock from a photo →
- 3 · Hand a till to your staff
- Install the app on any Android phone or tablet, approve the device, and take your first sale. Get the app →
Pricing
Pay for the tills you run
Every plan includes the cashier app, the admin dashboard and ongoing updates.
Growth
For shops with more than one till or location
$60/month
10 tills
- Everything in Starter
- Up to 10 tills
- Multiple locations & warehouses
- Purchase orders & suppliers
- Expense tracking & approvals
- Staff roles & permissions
- Employee performance reports
Scale
For multi-branch retailers that need the full picture
$100/month
Unlimited tills
- Everything in Growth
- Unlimited tills
- Profit reporting
- Full data export & API access
- Tax rates & fiscal receipt fields
- Unlimited analytics history
- Priority support
Running more than a few branches? Talk to us about a plan that fits.
Questions
Before you sign up
What does Essence POS cost?
Every plan is listed in full on our pricing page, billed monthly or yearly. Plans differ by how many tills you need and which tools you get. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no card is required to begin.
What payment methods can I take from my customers?
Cash, today. The till is built for shops that trade in cash: it works out change, reconciles the drawer at cash-up and holds up through a shift without a network. Card and mobile money collection at the till are in development — we would rather list them when the money genuinely moves than take a sale on a promise.
Does it work without an internet connection?
Yes. The cashier app is offline-first, so you can keep ringing up sales, adjusting stock and serving customers straight through a network outage or a power cut. Everything syncs automatically once you are back online.
Can I load stock from a photo?
Yes. Instead of typing a handwritten or printed stock book into the system line by line, photograph it and Essence POS reads the item names and quantities. You can try the import free at essenceofsale.com/scan without creating an account.
Can I sell in more than one currency?
Yes. You can enable the currencies you actually trade in and set the rate for each. Product prices, purchase orders and reports all use those rates.
Can I manage multiple shops from one account?
Yes. You can add locations and warehouses as you grow and run all of them from a single admin dashboard, with products, prices and staff permissions kept in sync. How many tills you can run at once depends on your plan.
Can I get my data out again?
Yes. You can export your business data whenever you want it, and you keep that right for as long as your account is open. There is no lock-in and no charge to leave.
Can I cancel at any time?
Yes. You can cancel whenever you like and it takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. There is no long-term contract and no cancellation fee.
What hardware do I need to get started?
Any reasonably modern Android tablet or phone for the till, and any computer with a browser for the admin dashboard. An iOS version of the till is on the way. Most standard thermal printers and cash drawers are supported.
Is my business data secure?
Your data is encrypted in transit, access to production systems is tightly restricted, and backups run automatically. Inside the product, role-based permissions mean each staff member only sees what their role allows.
Are there any hidden fees?
No. The plan price covers the admin dashboard, the cashier app and ongoing updates. There is no setup fee, and we take nothing per sale — what you ring up is yours.
Ready to open your shop?
14 days free. No card. Cancel whenever you like. Essence POS is built by Essence of Sale, for shops across Southern Africa and beyond.