Optical Point of Sale Systems

[RP]

I'm looking for Windows-based point of sale systems for opticals/chains. Got a system that you like, with a reasonable client distribution (I'd like to stay away from one-off solutions)? Please post here, or email me privately.

Labs, which ones work best for you, as the RECIPIENTS of lots of this stuff?

Thanks for the help.
RP

[RichardS]

One of the things that you might want to consider doing is having one custom made for you. I work with an OD now who is looking at a few of them, everyone has something good but not exactly what they are looking for.

Those that say that they will customize it for you will charge you an arm, a leg and a few toes before they do it.

With MS Access and Excel being so user friendly and so many books that are out there that will teach what you need to know, this might be your best bet.

I don't know if this is what you were hoping to hear, but to tell you the truth, it's probably going to be your best bet!

Richard

[chip anderson]

E. Mail Adam Waxman
waxman@ev1.ntet

Offering free software for beta test. All you have to do is sign an agreement and report. FREE!

[sukh_d]

My Vision Express Software

You may want to order FREE Demo of My Vision Express Software for Opticians from www.myvisionexpress.com . It is loaded with features and reasonably priced.

[Johns]

RP:

I test drove quite a few systems, from $259.00 to $19,000.00. We ended up with using Quickbooks ($149) for the business end, and a $800 optometric pkg for the optical side of it. (The $800 pkg was supposed to do it all, but was to bulky at the point of sale). I am glad that we are on a 2 pkg system. I can get a ton of reports that no others seemed to care about, and the invoicing an receivables tracking is awesome.

The one thing everyone seemed to agree on is to not have custom software made. The cost is usually prohibitive, nobody knows the business needs unless they are involved in it, one it's written and your needs change, it's expensive to change. The plug and play versions that are out today seem to be so far superior to the programs that the big chains were using only a few years ago, it's a no-brainer to buy a pre-packaged sysytem.

[Robert Martellaro]

I am also using Quickbooks for the financials, and EZframe (dos version, the same as Alpha Bytes) for the optical.

Make sure that the customer/client information can be easily exported and is not in a proprietary format. Data retrieval can be very expensive. I keep my clients address info in a simple excel spreadsheet format.

Robert

[ryan morris]

My father uses the Smart POS system. It's windows-based and is pretty easy to setup and use. If I'm not wrong it's pretty affordable, father is pretty happy with it.