ERPLY POS Review

Erply POS interface on a desktop computer.

When I launched the POS app, many default settings were already loaded. However, there were still several function and customization options available, including:

• Order Management: Create and save orders for later. Assign orders and issue store credit to established customers and create new ones during orders. Print or email receipts to customers.
• Invoicing: Attach customers to quotes, invoices, and layaway orders. Accept prepayments by dollar amount or percentage, set payment due dates, and attach notes to invoices, which can be printed or emailed to customers. View outstanding and paid invoices by person or company in your customer database.
• Cash Management: Generate cash reports when the day opens/closes, when an employee logs out of a register, and on-demand. Set maximum variance amounts and require a written reason for when a drawer is over or under the maximum amount. Cash in/out at the beginning of the day and when needed.
• Employee Management: Restrict user permissions on everything from accepting returns to cashing drawers in/out, to editing price and layaway orders.
• Marketing: Add custom or predetermined coupons, create discounts by dollar amount or percentage, and view active promotions. Accept loyalty cards, look up a customer’s loyalty account, and redeem points at the register.
• Inventory Management: Transfer inventory across locations, generate purchase orders, and accept transferred inventory at the POS.

The company also offers a self-checkout kiosk that business owners in a variety of settings can use to speed up the checkout process. You can set your self-checkout to require age verification, accept loyalty cards and numbers, sell weighted items like produce, and require manager overrides for things like coupons and price corrections. These features make Erply a great grocery store POS system.

Erply self-checkout app admin settings.

While Erply’s self-checkout software is good, these are the best self-checkout kiosks if you’re looking for the best retail and restaurant self-service software and hardware.

Erply POS eCommerce integration with WooCommerce.

Erply did lose points in the online sales category because you cannot create your own eCommerce store with Erply. You may integrate your store with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magneto, or (with some custom coding) another site-building platform, but it does add to the configuration steps and monthly cost. I also found that syncing up products and services was not a very smooth process.

You can choose which Erply inventory products and price lists to display on your online store, which locations your products should be shipped from, and the languages your products should be shown in. You can also allow backorders, choose how related items appear online, and set invoice features. Depending on your eCommerce platform integration, you can integrate your POS with the best shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, DHL, and Canada Post.

Erply does include shipping and delivery setup details in the invoice/order manager. You can dropship orders to customers when creating a purchase order, designate order timetables, generate tracking information, and create shipping labels.

Since the software’s eCommerce functions are limited, I believe that Erply POS software is best for businesses that primarily accept custom orders, dropshipping orders, bulk orders, service orders, and mail/telephone orders. If you want to focus strongly on direct-to-consumer sales, I recommend using a different POS provider.

If you have extensive inventory and warehouse management needs but want a strong eCommerce presence, I recommend choosing Erply’s eCommerce inventory management plan and integrating the software with a Shopify eCommerce plan. All Shopify eCommerce plans come with free in-person POS software so you can sell online and in-person.

Erply POS enter new inventory item.

Erply’s best features are definitely in the areas of inventory management, invoicing, and warehouse management.

I created several inventory items, listed supplier information, and created/received test purchase orders, and these were the most unique features I found:

• Custom Units: Inventory units can be by pieces, inches, feet, square feet, cubic feet, pounds, or custom units. You can designate length, height, width, volume, weight, and weight with packaging, which makes Erply a great option for stores selling unique items like yarn by the foot.
• Barcode Tagging: If you’re selling items by weight, you can create a barcode for an item that dynamically changes when you weigh it in real-time on a scale. You can also incorporate RFID tagging to reduce internal and customer theft.
• Write-offs: You can more effectively manage your inventory with write-offs. It’s possible to write off inventory based on several preloaded reasons such as sample or item depreciation, or a custom reason code. You can break down assemblies if you sell cases of an item that can be broken down into individual products and designate whether a customer received the item being written off. I used this function when writing off sample tiles of wood and paint.
• Purchase Orders: You can generate purchase orders, track purchase orders while they’re in transit, receive full or partial purchase orders, institute minimum/maximum inventory amounts to ensure you have the right amount of stock, and set purchase orders to be dropshipped to a customer.
• Transfers: With Erply, you can transfer inventory and monitor the status of movement, note who packs, ships, and receives transferred inventory, and get inventory transfer reports to find any instances of product theft or spoilage.

Erply POS creating a new invoice for an established customer.

The RFID tagging to avoid theft, the extensive cash management, and the age verification requirements for certain inventory items make Erply a good convenience store POS system.

I also created invoices like the one above and ran into these great invoicing features:

• Quotes To Invoices: Create quotes that expire after a designated amount of time, note whether quotes are won or lost, and then convert quotes into invoices.
• Invoice Documents: Customize your invoice documents and email invoice settings/payments to customers.
• Add New Items To Drafts: Streamline the invoicing process by adding new inventory items or customers in an invoice draft so you don’t have to switch back and forth between tabs. This is especially helpful for creating invoices while talking on the phone to a customer.
• Repayment Terms: Create custom repayment terms and daily late fees as a percentage of the sale price.
• Customer Groups: Pull price lists associated with customer groups to get accurate pricing for B2B customers. Add loyalty member information so members can collect points on their invoice payments.

The extensive invoicing features make Erply a good POS system for rental businesses that require deposits for rental items and a good POS system for garden centers that provide retail items and landscaping services.

Erply has excellent automated inventory tracking and manual stocktake features, plus pick-and-pack order fulfillment, which are both great features for fulfilling orders at warehouses.

There are also reports available on everything from the amount of packaging material you’re purchasing, to late deliveries, to employee commissions and timeclocks, to unpaid invoices, to sales promotion performances. These reports will help a business owner with a lot of inventory and moving parts understand any potential areas of profit loss and opportunities to grow their business.

Note: Erply integrates with QuickBooks and Xero, so you can continue using these products if you want to add Erply’s store management functions to your accounting software.

Erply POS work order creation.

Erply has several niche features that make this software an excellent choice for service-based businesses and large-scale sellers.

First, there’s the service booking app, which allows you to create detailed service orders and schedule services with a live calendar. The service booking app is geared towards vehicle maintenance but I used it for creating a custom cabinet installation order and just left the vehicle information fields blank with no problems.

I liked these service booking features:

• Parts and services are added to an estimate and sent for approval with potential prepayment terms.
• Purchase orders can be created while you’re making the service order, so you’ll have the parts on hand when you’re ready to start the project or service.
• The service order updates when parts or products are ordered and received, when the project or service starts, when it’s complete, and when the entire service is paid for.
• Add individual tasks or pre-scheduled service dates on a calendar and attach them to customers or projects. Attach employees to different tasks and service dates as well to easily coordinate your labor.

Erply POS warehouse management software.

Then, there’s the warehouse management app. It’s a mobile app that warehouse employees can install on an iOS or Android device and use to adjust stock, pick and pack orders, receive orders, and transfer inventory. You can also use the warehouse management software on a desktop device and use a Bluetooth or USB barcode scanner.

Finally, of the most attractive features for large businesses include:

• Franchise and multi-store large-scale business management and data exchange
• Custom coding features such as API access, webhooks, and the ability to build your own custom applications
• Sandbox account creation to set up custom features before making your account live