Do it all with one program for one price:

• Consignment – Sell inventory belonging to others for a share of the sales proceeds.
• Layaway – ‘Finance purchases’ by accepting down payments and periodic installments with delivery upon the final payment.
• Rent merchandise with deposits, due dates, late fees
• Rent floor space or booths in mall and markets
• Resell (buy outright) merchandise purchased from people
• Retail – resell stock purchased from businesses/suppliers

Consignment Software

• Records inventory and consignors
• Discounts aged inventory (automatically)
• Prints agreements, labels, tags, receipts, checks and reports
• Processes sales
• Splits sales proceeds between consignor and consignee
• Processes settlements
• Produces reports

Layaways

Layaways are a feature within Best Consignment Shop Software allowing stores to increase sales by allowing installment payments for purchases with delivery upon final payment. The software tracks buyers, items placed on layaway, the details of the transaction (date of purchase, schedule of payments, items purchased, price, sale tax) and provides reports on open and closed layaways and due dates.

Floor/Shelf Space Rental

The program records rental units, renters, the amounts of rent and due dates. It allows for late fees, customized fees and has a waiting list for spaces. The Virtual edition allows renters (vendors) to view their account information and add inventory online.

Merchandise Rental

Stores increase sales revenue by renting idle merchandise or those things that lend themselves to short-term use (like heavy equipment, vehicles, tools, videos, etc)

Resale (Buy Outright)

Buying merchandise from individuals (as opposed to businesses) is known in the program as ‘resale’ or ‘buy outright’. Sellers, their items and prices paid are recorded. Purchase agreements with items purchased are printed with provisions for signatures. Price labels and tags can be printed. Items can be sold at POS and the program records and reports profit/loss.

For each seller, create a client record and on the new-client screen, select ‘Save / Enter Buys’ to open the batch buy-outright screen. For an existing client select his/her record in the Clients Work Area then choose Batch Buy Outright in the lower-left menu.

Don’t use ‘house accounts’ for buy outright.

Retail

Retail is the purchasing and reselling of merchandise from businesses (suppliers, wholesalers, importers, etc.)

Create a client account and flag it as a ‘house account’ then use Batch Retail to open the batch-enter screen.

Multiple accounts can be created as a way of keeping track of sources of merchandise.

Consolidation

The results of all transactions (discounts, selling prices, inventory, employee commissions, sales tax) are combined in daily and periodic reports.

• Use function keys for quick daily reports (entered, sold, settled and daily recap)
• Use Reports to view activity for any period of time.
• Use buttons on report screens to view preformatted reports.

Here’s are instructions for compressing data files and storing them online in Google Gmail and Google Drive for free.

Requirements:

1. An external storage device (flash/pen/thumb drive, external hard drive, etc.)
2. Internet connection
3. Google Mail and/or Google Drive account(s)

1. Backup Data Locally

1. In the Windows search box, type ‘file’ and select File Explorer.
2. Locate the external drive link. (All of the following are examples of external-drive names:)
3. Click on the drive.
4. Right click on the white space in the drive window and select New, then Folder.
5. Type ‘Data – Do Not Remove’ (no quotes) and press Enter.
6. Double click on the folder and create new folders within it for each day of the week, naming the folders Monday, Tuesday, etc. (This will create a ‘rolling backup’ of data to prevent backing up ‘bad data’ over ‘good data’.)
7. In BCSS or PPSS click on Utilities then Backup Data Manually.
8. On the left under ‘Organize’ locate and select the external drive.
9. Select the folder just created named ‘Data – Do Not Remove’.
10. Select the folder named for the current day.
11. Choose Open.
12. A message must appear, ‘Backup complete’.
13. Click on the blue question mark to close the message window. (A copy of current data now resides in the folder named for the current day.)
14. Go to that folder on the external drive.
15. Right click.
16. Sent to
17. Compressed (zipped) folder.
18. Type a name like ‘data-08-31-19’ and press Enter. (The data is now ‘compressed’ (smaller in data size) and ready for emailing and online storage.)

2. Create Google Accounts

(Skip these steps if Google Mail and Google Drive accounts exist.)

Go to https://mail.google.com and https://www.google.com/drive/ to create accounts. Fifteen (15) GB (gigabytes) of storage is available in each account. (One thousand (1,000) songs is about 2 GB so this is plenty of storage for daily storage of BCSS/PPSS data.)

3. Store Data Online

Gmail: Simply send an email to your Gmail.com email address and attach the zipped file on the external drive. The email and the attachment will reside in your Gmail inbox. New folders can be created in Gmail and the emails with attachments can be moved to them.

Google Drive: Log into your Drive account, click on My Drive and use the ‘upload files’ option to upload the zipped file to Drive.

When data is moved or copied to a destination, it’s good practice to visit that location and verify that the files are there.

Caveat: Of course putting your data and your clients’ information ‘online’ exposes the data to hacking. Might be a good idea to at least notify your clients that their data will be ‘out there’ and include a disclaimer.

If the idea of online storage is appealing, search for ‘free online data storage’ for other such destinations.

Automate Local Backup

Settings can be made in BCSS/PPSS to automatically backup data to the external storage device.

1. Go to File (upper left) then Program Setup then General. At the bottom enter a time of day that the backup should take place (in 24-hour format). Of course the computer must be on, BCSS/PPSS must be open and the external drive must be plugged in at the time specified for the backup.
2. Save/Exit.
3. Go back to the General page and verify that the setting was saved. If not see this video: https://vimeo.com/134888785
4. In BCSS/PPSS go to File again then User Interface.
5. Navigate to the folder named ‘Data – Do Not Remove’ and select it.
6. Click Open.
7. Save/Exit.
8. Revisit the setting to verify it.

Each day (including weekends) at the time designated in Program Setup, a copy of the day’s data will be placed in the appropriate folder on the external drive in a folder named for the current day in the folder named ‘Data – Do Not Remove’. Visit those folders periodically to confirm that daily backups are successful.

Consignment is taking possession of and selling merchandise (inventory) that belongs to others (typically for a share of the sales proceeds).

‘Accounting’ is the act of keeping track of things.

‘Consignment Inventory Accounting’ is knowing all that is required to know about merchandise ‘on consignment’.

What is there to know?

• What is the item?
• How is it identified (item ID)?
• Who owns it?
• What is the owner’s contact information?
• What are its defining characteristics (description)?
• Where is it located (stored)?
• What is the selling price?
• How long is it to remain ‘on consignment’?
• What is to be done with the item if if doesn’t sell in the allotted time?
• What is the allotted time?
• How is the item to be sold? (online? physical store? auction?)
• What percentage of the sales proceeds is the owner to receive?
• What fees are applicable?
• How, when and how will the owner be paid?

All of these questions are answered by accounting for all information related to consignment inventory. Who are the parties? What is their relationship? What is the agreement? What items are being consigned? For how long? What happens to unsold items at the end of the consignment period?

Consignment inventory accounting is the recording of all information and transactions related to selling consigned merchandise for others.

Every software program has a mix of positive and negative comments. Many web surfers don’t even bother to read good reviews because they can’t be trusted. (They are often fake, paid for, or traded for something of value like discounts on purchases and reciprocal reviews.)

It’s also still a bit difficult to find several Clover reviews as they can be spread over a number of websites and not grouped neatly in one listing of search results.

The 4 common threads that run through dislikes of the Clover system are cost for the system, add-ons required for consignment (and the cost of them), the high cost of credit-card processing and the steadfast refusal to refund purchases and allow contract cancellations after discovering after-purchase surprises.

Clover and Consignment

An article at processwithturnkey.com headlines “Meeting the Challenges of the Consignment Industry with Clover™ POS Systems” and offers “If you’re interested in opening (or improving) your own consignment or thrift shop, there’s a lot that needs to be done right if you really want to succeed. Luckily, having the right tools at your disposal can make running your shop practically a breeze – like a Clover™ point of sale system.”

The article itself basically contradicts the claim by only briefly stating that Clover isn’t really suited for ‘consignment’ and an additional app would need to be added to manage consignors, sales history, commissions, floor space ‘and more’. The rest of the article veers off into ecommerce (selling online), paying taxes and using social media integration to communicate with clients with no further details as to how Clover improves a consignment shop.

Clover Reviews

Nadinruss on eBay advertised “Clover Mini C301 3G Touchscreen Credit Card POS System Unused, New in Box. Condition is New. It is a great device, easy to use. But I was told that it would work for my consignment shop and it doesn’t. The company does not accept returns.”

Laura B. on consignment-software site added, “We began using Clover as our POS system and while it was great at check out, it was very difficult to use for maintaining our inventory. Our gallery runs just like a consignment shop – members pay us a fee and we take a commission from their sales. We struggled with trying to figure out the best method to work with 50+ artists and an inventory of over 1000 items. The paperwork and daily struggle with our Clover system was a true nightmare. After deciding to take a hit on the initial purchase of the clover system, we began researching other POS systems with the goal of finding one that would work with our unique set up.”

Sylvia At Leet Vaping wrote: “…to get even what I would consider basic functions, purchase more apps that would raise the monthly cost out of reach”

Mitchell from Tap House: “Functionality is ok but you have to pay for apps in order to do stuff which increases the price. Then I was then raked over the coals with with First Data for over a year and a half where they were over charging my percentage.”

Carol at Encore Dance: “This is marketed as a state of the art POS system with added capabilities through apps. However the base system is so limited that i would not even consider it a POS system, but more of an expensive payment processor.”

Scott from Doodlebugs: “We own a boutique where we also offer screen printing and embroidery. The clover system was sold to us as full POS system. Not the case at all. When asked if we could return the 2 POS systems we bought we were literally told “they’re yours, you bought them, do what you want with them, you could try selling them on ebay”.”

Tory from T & L’s Zip Stop: “I purchased these clovers in full and was to have a one year warranty. but every time one didn’t function right they charged me for every one they sent me in first year. credit card service is way above other card swipe price.”

Joni from Buck’s steak House & Sports Bar: “Subscription prices for each app. it can quickly add up to a few hundred bucks and I wasn’t happy with their poor customer service. Hard to get help when you need it.”

Blake from Dreamland Studios: “The reality is Clover Has one of the higher processing rates out of a huge pool of processing systems. Unfortunately, I thought it was a good idea when I started to process credit cards. Every statement I received I couldn’t believe how much I was paying in fees. At least I had the common sense to call and get price quotes from other businesses. I am saving THOUSANDS a year after switching.”

Harry from Cross-Eyed Cricket: “First all it is important to note that once you sign an agreement with a Clover provider, the hardware and processor is locked forever. If you pay cash upfront, you won’t be locked in to paying, but you still cannot switch merchant service or sell the hardware; thus the hardware is all but worthless. Must add on third party apps to make the system usable. Some of the third party apps are expensive.

Vasif from Payless Repair Can not be used with different bank if you purchase from one bank If you change your bank (due to fees) whole your payment is gone to trash system fails very often. limited applications

What is Space Rental Management Software?

Space management software keeps track of the business of renting booth, floor, mall and market real estate. Our system includes inventory tracking, sales processing, consignment, resale, retail, merchandise rental and QuickBooks compatibility.

Rental Software Pricing

We make it easy to know just how much our rental software is going to cost by stating the one-off price before telling you how wonderful the software is: $595 once for lifetime use. No ongoing fees. No prepayments for support. No ‘call for pricing’.

That’s for the ‘Diamond edition’ which installs on your computer and runs without dependence upon the Internet – or even electricity (if run on a laptop with batteries) – no down time at crucial times like events, sales, weekends… Your data and your clients’ information can be safe from intrusion.

The Virtual edition of the software is a step up in features and price. It also installs locally with the same safe guards and reliability and adds online access to you and your vendors to view account information and add inventory (to be downloaded to your computer). One payment of $795 plus $25/mo for server access.

Rent Mall & Market Space

• Record information about spaces, rents and renters
• Sell vendors’ merchandise at POS (or not) and deduct rent from sales proceeds
• Customize fees to be collected in addition to rent
• Produce reports showing who’s short on rent and how much
• Maintain a waiting list for units
• Sell (and rent) your own merchandise
• Buy from individuals for resale (buy outright)
• Buy from suppliers for resale (re

Support for Your Rental Software

Prices for our software are considerably less than other programs because prices are not padded with prepayment for support. Included with purchase is 30 minutes of setup and instructions – about 15 minutes more than needed – and thereafter, there are no support prepayments so if support is never needed, money will not have been wasted. Conversely payment is requested when support is requested, generally at $20/15 minutes.

Setup includes help with equipment (scanners, drawers, printers) purchased from us but we can help with equipment purchased elsewhere. Please refer to hardware for a list of recommended makes and models.

Switching from another program? Tech support can convert data from most database formats.

Purchase Software

Equally as important, it’s preferable to not purchase the software until the owner of the business is satisfied (if not thrilled) that the program does all that is needed and works properly. To that end the program here’s the downloaded link and an overview video.

Money Back Guarantee: Take a couple of weeks to evaluate the software. When you’re ready, purchase it and if something comes up within 30 days, just return it and the software will cease to work.

FAQ

Oh we’ll spend a fortune in support cost!

• This is sometimes a piece of demagoguery offered by competitors hoping to discourage you from buying this software. The fact is we rarely hear from purchasers after purchase because there’s just no need for support, and when there is, the total spent on ‘support’ is minor. Training videos and a well-illustrated detailed user’s guide are all the help most clients need.

In consignment ‘booking’ can mean a couple of things:
Consignment: Selling merchandise for others and keeping track of consignors, inventory, sales, amounts owed, payments, etc.
Consigning: Placing merchandise on consignment with one or more consignors (resellers) and keeping track of inventory, locations, sales, etc.

Consignment Software is a computer program (used by consignment-resale-thrift stores) to manage the business of reselling others’ belongings. The best app for the job (Best Consignment Shop Software) records consignors and their inventory, prints price labels, hang tags, agreements, receipts, reports and checks, and processes sales and settlements (paying consignees for finalized sales).

Consigning Software (called ‘Consignment Sales Tracking Software‘) is used by consignors to keep track of their items on consignment, where the items are located, quantities, prices and sales.

Gladly, still, both programs are still available for a one-off cost with lifetime ownership/use and no trailing support fees. This is in stark contrast to the web-based offerings requiring endless monthly payments for only use of software.

Best Consignment Shop Software is a Windows-based program that installs on user’s computer(s). Internet service is not required and data is stored securely on the computer. Web-based software, on the other hand, resides on a ‘foreign computer’ of which software users have little or no knowledge. Clients data (contact information, addresses, account information) is also stored ‘remotely’ and out of the store owner’s control or supervision. (Any store owner using web-based software might be well served to have written permission from every consignor to place his/her information online.)

BCSS is one of the last-known software programs still available for one (low) price. The Diamond edition, for example, at $595 supports networking, thermal label and receipt printing, employee management, mall-space rental, automatic daily backup, QuickBooks export and free software updates – a veritable bargain compared to web-based software costing $6,000 over 5 years ($100 per month for 60 months) – and beyond.

The highest edition of the program (BCSS Virtual) allows consignors to view their account information online and add inventory online (to be downloaded at the shop). (This edition does require a monthly server rental of $25.)

Going the other way, the Deluxe edition prints ‘everything’ (agreements, receipts, labels, tags, reports, checks) using any black and white ink printer (bubblejet, inkjet, LaserJet) and 8.5 x 11 paper and sheets of price labels and hang tags.

All editions of the program utilize barcodes, cash drawers and receipt printers.

In business since 2001, Best Consignment Shop Software has saved each and every consignment-store owner hundreds of dollars in ‘service fees’ and monthly software rental payments. With over 4,000 copies sold, it’s estimated that collectively shops have saved $4,000,000 (four million dollars) opting for BCSS.

Tons of software features out there for consignment, resale, thrift and retail as well as mall-space rental, layaways, etc. — but at what cost? Best Consignment Shop Software does it all with one payment for lifetime use.

Consignment (resale, retail) software programs pretty much do the same things: keep track of clients and inventory, process purchases, sales and settlements, print price labels/tags, agreements, receipts, checks and reports and crunch data into useful information (reports) about the business.

Stepping up a notch, current-day programs print thermal price labels and tags, and thermal receipts. They export data in data formats (.txt, .csv, .iif) so data can be employed in other programs like Excel and QuickBooks. Multiple computers (at the same location) can be connected to share one database simultaneously.

Here’s how to get some of those ‘web-based features’ free of cost’:

Work Remotely – Work from Home

Purveyors of ‘web-based’ or ‘cloud’ software promote ‘work from anywhere’ as a software so cool that it warrants an exorbitant cost $100 per month (just to use the software – not own it mind you) when in fact it has been possible (long before cloud software) to work remotely for free and that remains true today. BCSS (Best Consignment Shop Software) or any program can be operated from anywhere in the world on a computer with an Internet connection – without the risk of having your clients information and your entire business information online where it’s subject to hijacking.

Combine Multiple Store Locations

Here again it is not necessary to donate $1,200 every year to the bottom line of software vendors to combine multiple stores – not to mention that because inventory in consignment stores tends to be unique, the value of stuffing everything into one burgeoning database (and slowing things down) hardly warrants the huge added expense of ‘cloud software’.

Savvy store owners use programs like QuickBooks to import data from multiple stores where more sophisticated financial reports (balance sheets, profit/loss, etc.) can be generated.

Need to know if an item is in another store? (How often does this really happen?) Frequently? OK, again, using free remote-pc software, log into the remote store’s computer and take a look, or text or… pick up the phone – to save $1,200 or more every year.

Liability

Apparently many store owners using web-based software don’t bother to disclose (to their patrons) the risk of placing the latter’s contact information on a remote server that the store owner knows nothing about. “Let’s wing it and hope for the best!” Those pushing web-based software offer meaningless assurances of ‘up time’ and ‘security’ while operating as LLC’s with zero money backing their comforting words.

A program like BCSS installs (securely) on a computer that can be isolated from the risks of the outside world just by keeping it disconnected from the Internet, or by protecting it with a robust anti-virus program like ESET. Windows (and ESET) also make it possible to prevent others from downloading anything to the computer, or accessing specific websites.

$100 per month times 12 month times (how long are you intending to remain in business) 10 years = $12,000 at today’s quoted prices. Note that software vendors pushing SaaS (Software as a Service) may not commit to NOT raising the monthly stipend after you’re well entrenched in the program. Rest assured most store operators are loathed to convert their data to another program and repeat the learning curve when the burden on profits for software (and service) becomes insufferable.

Smarter Management / Better Decisions

Let the ‘consignment software’ do the heavy lifting for a one-off cost. There’s plenty of free phone and web apps these days for convenience that don’t need to be wrapped into the software. Use Mailchimp or something similar for free email communication. Use Photobucket for pointing to pictures of inventory online. Use Team Viewer or other remote-pc programs for ‘mobility’ – or use a laptop and take BCSS and your apps with you!

The best software delivers all necessary features and support at the lowest cost.

There are basically 2 groups of software:

• Pay once.
• Pay forever.

Pay Once Software

A software program for one payment that will last a lifetime and meet your needs is ideal:

“We paid $595 once for our software in 2004 and have been using it ever since at no additional cost.” Sheila Roy, Boston Consignment

This can be your experience with a little home work so here are questions to ask to unearth those post-purchase fees:

1. Are there any fees after purchase?
2. If there are ‘optional fees’ what are the consequences of not paying them?
3. Do you have a history of increasing the amounts of your fees?
4. What is the cost of adding stations at the same store?
5. What is the cost of the software for opening another store?
6. How much do upgrades cost? (‘Upgrades’ are changes in the program that add or enhance program features and functions.)
7. What is your hourly rate for support?

Here’s a list of things software vendors come at us with in their attempts to disguise the ongoing never-ending cost of using their software:

1. Two vendors in Florida claim that their ‘annual support fee’ is “optional” in pre-sales efforts without disclosing the consequences of not paying the annual fee:
   • Calls for help after purchase will be greeted with the question, “Have you paid your annual support fee?”. If not, you’ll be charged a lot more for service or you will be denied service until you do.
   • Software updates for any program are essential if for no other reason than to remain compatible with changes in other software, like Windows. Knowing this, such vendors deny software updates and craftily state the ruse by heralding “Fee software updates with paid annual support”.
2. Choosing any software program that has a ‘support plan’ subjects one to future increases in the support fee. It also leaves the door open for the vendor to segregate some segment of service and begin charging extra.
3. Purveyors of web-based software have their own strategies for attempting to soften the blow of high ongoing software costs.
   • One such vendor charging a minimum of $100/month (ok, $99) exclaims, “Free support included!”. (Are we really so gullible?)
   • The ‘trick’ is to bait new users with lower starting prices and switch to higher costs as businesses grow (adding more users, more stations, more locations). One vendor charging $99/month (ok, $100) charges $200 per month for adding just one more store location.
   • As with fee-based support programs, users of web-based software might be subject to future rate increases.

Pay Once Software Ownership

Typically even though you may own the software, your copy of the software cannot be sold, transferred, lent or otherwise made available to another. There may be exceptions but this is a minor detail when compared to other more important considerations like support longevity and surprise fees after purchase.

Pay Forever Software

Might sound ‘silly’ but “How long do you intend to be in business?”. Endless software payments cost a fortune over time. Good for the software provider. Not so good for business profits.

As the name implies there is no end to payment for most consignment-resale-buy-outright-antique-auction-secondhand programs on the market today.

Back in the day all software was ‘pay once’ and was ours to use for a lifetime, for as long it would continue to work on every-changing computers.

Now, Photoshop, Outlook, anti-virus and yes, even consignment software have become some cockamamie ‘software as a service’ which is nothing more than a twist to wring more money out of end users of software.

Yes, software developers have an ongoing cost to maintaining software, but for those charging $1,000 and more up front, shouldn’t some of that cost be factored in already?

Bottom line: All pay-as-you-go software will cost way more than pay-once apps over time.

Software Vendors’ Hidden Secret

Software vendors watch every day as new users of their programs struggle to become familiar with program features and procedures.

It’s an arduous task for most store owners and employees – one which they will be reluctant to repeat any time soon.

Vendors are very keenly aware, which is why they make every effort to minimize the pre-sale negatives. Once you’re in, you’re likely to stay no matter how offended you might feel about having been deceived about pricing, support dependability and vendor reliability.

Imagine in your initial phone conversation with the software salesperson you hear, “Hey, my ‘software company’ is comprised of me and some telephone help. I wrote the program and when I’m gone, so will be support for this software. You’ll be taking a big risk of losing the $1,300 I’m asking for my software if I’m no longer around to fix it when it breaks, and it will break.”

Nearly every program for consignment, resale, etc. has been written by an individual and can only be supported (repaired) by that person. “Who stands behind the software?” is a very important question to ask. Would you knowingly choose to make your business completely dependent upon a person of whom you know nothing about?

Guarantees

Software vendors make concerted efforts to work the word ‘free’ into the sales advertising – for a product that clearly is not free: “Free software demo!” “Free support for 30 days!” “Free software updates with paid support!” (which is another way of saying ‘There will be no software updates if annual support fees aren’t paid.’)

‘Guarantee’ is the 2nd most popular word salespersons try to work into their pre-sale representations. Aside from a money-back guarantee which they can’t avert, any other guarantees are hollow promises. Who’s making the guarantee? Is there money and company assets backing the guarantee or is it just lip service? Are they guaranteeing things over which they have no control (like “100% up time!” or “Guaranteed data backup!”)? When your data disappears or you can no longer access that web-based program hosted on some computer that you know nothing about, what’s your recourse? Law suit? Extremely unlikely and vendors know that, so they can be somewhat unabashed in tossing this word around carelessly. “When my business loses money because of your software, are you going to compensate me for my losses?” Not.

The Future Is The Past

In the past those pushing software have found ways to maintain endless streams of income from their program users and because 1) they have gotten away with it and 2) they are confident no one will call them on the carpet, we can expect the shell game to continue.

You can protect yourself:

• Get promises, offers, statements, guarantees, quotes and all representations in writing. These days an email from a person (not an ambiguous ‘company’) including a statement that all possible fees and adverse policies have been disclosed – should do.
• Pay by credit card, then, when a fraud is discovered, send it to Visa for a full refund.

Shouldn’t choosing a software program for your business be a simple task? It can be, if you avoid all the hoopla and go with an honest vendor that discloses everything up front.