www.retailsoftware.com

INTRODUCTION

Retail Plus 2.0 is a retail management program, that will help you make up puchase orders, counting stock, tracking sales and customers and preparing invoices. Among all the features is for instance the ability to create multiple users with different permission, regarding what options can be used/accessed.

INSTALLATION

It can't be more simple than this. Just like you're used to: Press the "Next" button a few times and you're done. The installer didn't place an icon on my desktop (thank you!) but it put the manual in the root of my Start menu. I don't like that. The manual should just be in the folder with the rest of the icons. Anyways, it's not that difficult to remove if you, like me, don't like it.

CONFIGURATION

The configuration is easy once you find out what to do. In the setup menu you will find options to configure your business, tax, POS, printer, users, hardware, and numerical information, I must admit I have no experience with programs like this, but I just took a quick look in the manual, and that was a big help. You might find yourself looking in the manual a lot, because you wont find any tips when you hover the tools with the mouse. That would have been nice, however, when you get used to the program and the tools, you would probably just find it annoying. Instead you will find a small icon featuring a "?", and by clicking it you can get the different tools/options explained shortly. Probably a better solution than having tool tips like the above mentioned.

INTERFACE

The interface is as simple as it gets. Not a lot of fancy colors to draw your attention. All the options are nicely layed out, and you can easily find what you need. When you start the program it opens in full screen and then you have to choose what to do. All the program windows opens in the main screen, and they are resizable, but (and that's a big "but") when you for instance open the inventory window you can resize the window, but the table with the inventory doesn't resize. This means you wont be able to use the full potential of a big monitor. A minor drawback in an otherwise good interface.

FUNCTIONALITY

As I wrote before I have no experience with programs like this, but I will try to list the features that I think will be very useful in your everyday management: Easy to add a new item to the inventory; different users with passwords and different user levels; you can send your sales log and/or your stock levels, and you can view remote sales logs and/or stock levels. Furthermore you have the option to backup/restore your files. Finally you can print some neat invoices. They are like the rest of the program: rather simple, but they get the job done. Retail Plus 2.0 has more features, but I think that were the main ones. Like I mentioned in the "Configuration" paragraph, the program doesn't tell you what to do, which can be good once you know what to do, but to get started you have to look in the manual.

CONCLUSION

I like this program. It seems like a very powerful tool, with a tool list that just goes on and on. Furthermore it doesn't use a lot of memory, and it's kind of easy to use, once you know where to begin. The documentation, however, is just great, and it will provide you with al you need to know. The visual appeal isn't overwhelming, but the simple layout is probably better because I think you would get tired of a lot of fancy colors, icons and images if you have to work a lot in this program. Overall this program deserves a good rating.

PROS: a. Many very useful tools/options. b. Simple layout. CONS: a. Not so easy for the first time.