What should the best cannabis POS have?
Start with a difficult sale, a short delivery and a report you need to reconcile. A practical demo tells you more than a feature list.
Read the buyer’s guide
Practical guides for your cannabis business.
Choose hardware that fits your counter. Understand wallet passes and gift cards. Bring the right questions to your next POS demo.
Written by PURP for the people running cannabis businesses. Use these guides to compare your options and test the work that matters to your team.
Hardware that fits your counter
Windows, iPad or Android: choose your register
Compare register devices and confirm how your receipt printer, scanner and cash drawer will connect before buying.
Receipt printers and cash drawers
Understand the connection choices, then test receipt readability, drawer opening and reconnect behaviour on the exact setup.
Barcode scanners for cannabis stores
Test merchandise labels, gift cards and phone screens. Learn why a scanner that works in one connection may need a different setup at another register.
Payment terminals: what to confirm first
Check the processor, merchant account, country, currency and terminal model together. Rehearse a refund and an interrupted request before launch.
Loyalty, wallet passes and gift cards
Apple and Google Wallet loyalty cards
Learn how a branded membership pass helps identify a customer at checkout, what it displays and how it differs from a payment wallet.
Physical, digital and reloadable gift cards
Follow a card from its first funded sale to balance checks, partial redemption and reloads. Plan the rules for your own programme.
Points, store credit and customer rewards
Test points, credit and gift cards separately, then use a partial return to check what happens to the customer’s balances.
Buying and running your POS
Offline selling: prepare, sell and reconnect
Keep eligible sales moving on a prepared register during an internet outage. Rehearse cash checkout, reconnecting and checking that saved sales have synced.
Returns, refunds and exchanges
Follow the original sale through a partial return, refund destination and replacement purchase. Check the receipt, stock outcome and customer balances.
Sales, tenders and margin: reconcile your reports
Understand why sales, payments and the cash drawer can show different totals. Compare the same dates, locations and currency, then inspect the transactions behind a number.
Delivery orders, drivers and customer tracking
Walk through preparation, dispatch and delivery attempts. Decide what customers should see and rehearse the exceptions before a busy shift.
Staff permissions: a practical role checklist
Map checkout, refunds, stock changes and reports to the people who need them. Test approval steps and location access with real staff accounts.
Receiving, stock counts and inventory
Follow a sample order from 12 units ordered to 10 received, one sold and a stock count that comes up short.
Switching POS without losing the detail
Agree the import scope, compare a trial with the old records and confirm opening balances before choosing a launch date.
Guides for your market
Canada, the United States, Thailand and Germany have different operating models. See examples for your market and confirm your own requirements before go-live.
Choosing a cannabis POS in Canada
Check provincial reporting, minimum ages, tax and purchase-limit workflows against the requirements for each store.
An Alberta cannabis POS checklist
Check an AGLC report against sample sales and inventory, then test receiving, age checks and a basket near the purchase limit.