Convenience stores
Back office software for convenience stores
The register handles the sale. The back office is where you find out what moved, what has to be reordered, what a vendor changed, who touched a transaction and which location needs attention. In a store with thousands of small lines and deliveries arriving all day, that is where the money is.
Remote setup and training nationwide. Onsite service across Tampa Bay.
What does convenience store back office software do?
It holds the item file, the vendors and the costs, takes deliveries in against what was ordered, runs the counts, schedules the price changes and reports what actually sold. The register is the front of the same system: what happens at the counter moves the numbers the back office reads, which is the difference between a back office and a spreadsheet.
A convenience store has more distinct lines than almost any other trade its size, and most of them are low-value and fast-moving. That is what makes the back office decisive: nobody can hold a c-store item file in their head.
- One item file, not threeThe price at the register, the cost on the order and the quantity in the count are the same record.
- Deliveries checked against ordersShort deliveries and cost increases are found at the back door, not in next month’s margin.
- Counts that can be done in sectionsNobody closes a c-store to take stock.
- Reporting somebody actually readsDepartment, item movement, margin and the lines that stopped selling.
What your current system can export, and how much of the item file survives the conversion, is settled before anything is loaded rather than assumed here.
What the back office covers
The work that happens away from the counter
Each of these is a workflow in the system rather than a separate exercise, and each one is where a c-store either keeps control or loses it.
The item file
Item file setupUPCs, descriptions, departments, prices, costs, taxes and suppliers on one product record, which is what the register resolves a scan to.
Purchasing and receiving
Purchase ordersOrders prepared against costs and pack sizes; deliveries received against the order, with shortages identified and costs updated.
Counts and variances
Stock takeFull counts, department counts and cycle counts during trading, with variances reviewed before adjustments are posted.
Price changes and labels
Label printingPrice changes scheduled in batches, with the shelf labels printed from the same change.
Reporting
Retail reportingSales by department and item, movement, margin, discounts and the lines that have stopped selling.
Shrink and exceptions
C-store shrinkage reportingCounts between deliveries and shifts, and the transactions that moved a number, traced to who entered them.
What convenience store owners bring us
-
The item file has grown by accretion
Duplicates, wrong departments and prices nobody can account for.
The file is reviewed and mapped before it is loaded, not copied across with its history of mistakes.
Data conversion -
Deliveries are signed for and checked later, or never
Shortages become normal and cost increases arrive as a margin surprise.
Receiving against the purchase order, with the shortage identified while the driver is still there.
Purchase orders -
Counting means closing
A full count is a Sunday nobody gives up, so it stops happening.
Section and cycle counts taken during trading, with variance review before anything is adjusted.
Stock take -
Reporting is exported and re-sorted every month
The report is a week old by the time it means anything.
Department, item movement and margin reporting inside the platform rather than beside it.
Retail reporting -
More than one store, and no consolidated view
Each location is managed separately and nothing is comparable.
What a multi-location setup needs is specified against the stores you actually run, rather than assumed.
Infinity POS
Convenience store back office questions
Is the back office separate software?
No. It is the same Infinity system the register runs on, seen from the office rather than the counter. That is the point: a separate back office means two item files and two versions of the truth.
Can I see what changed a quantity?
Yes. Sales, receiving, transfers, counts and adjustments are transactions against the item, recorded with the user who entered them, which is where an investigation into a wrong number starts.
What can be converted from my current system?
It depends entirely on what the current system exports. We read the export first and tell you what can be mapped, what has to be cleaned and what has to be rebuilt, before anything is loaded.
Can I manage more than one store?
Tell us how many locations you run and how they differ, and we will say what that changes about the specification before quoting it. What a multi-location configuration needs is settled against the stores rather than assumed.
Do I need to be in the store to use it?
What is available from where depends on how the system is set up and networked, which is part of the specification. We settle it with you rather than describing a setup you may not have.
Is this the same platform as your other retail systems?
Yes. Convenience stores run on Infinity, the same retail platform as our grocery, liquor, apparel and specialty systems.
Start with the item file
Tell us roughly how many lines you carry and what your current system can export, and we will say what the back office work actually involves before anything is quoted.