You have three provider tabs open and they all say roughly the same things. Fast, reliable, easy to use, trusted by thousands of merchants. Every demo looks good, because demos are built to look good, and none of them answer the question you actually have, which is what this will be like to run in eighteen months.
This guide is for you if you are actively choosing. Not researching the category, not wondering whether to upgrade, but comparing real options and trying to work out which one you will not regret. It gives you eight things to check and the questions to put to any provider, including this one.
The stakes are higher than the monthly fee suggests. Your POS decides how long a transaction takes, whether you can answer a question about stock without walking to the back, whether you own your customer data, and how much work a second outlet creates. Changing it later is possible but nobody enjoys it, so the aim is to get it right once.
Below is the checklist, in the order that matters.
Every POS Demo Looks Good. The Differences Show Up in Month Seven.
Nobody chooses badly because they were shown a bad demo. They choose badly because the things that eventually cause pain are invisible during a sales conversation. Nothing in a demo reveals what happens when your loyalty provider raises its price, when your settlement report and your sales report disagree, or when you open a second outlet and discover it counts as a second everything.
So evaluate for month seven rather than for day one. The right question is not whether the system can do what you need today. It is what this will cost, in money and in hours, once you are relying on it completely and switching again has become expensive. Every item below is chosen because it does not show up until then.
What Your First Month Looks Like When You Choose Well
Your catalogue and staff accounts are set up during onboarding while your old system is still running, so you go live on a quiet day rather than closing for one.
In week one your daily sales report matches your till at close and your first settlement lands the next business day for the amount your report said it would. That single check retires the reconciliation problem you were living with.
By week three your customer database has built itself from your own transactions, without anyone at the counter asking a single person to sign up.
By the end of the month you have your first view of which products actually earn their space, which hours are genuinely busy, and which customers came back. None of that required a single manual action from you.
Ask for the Annual Cost, Not the Monthly Price
Headline pricing is the least useful number in this decision. What you want is the total you will pay over twelve months once everything you actually need is switched on.
Ask any provider to write down five things: the base subscription, every add-on required for the features you saw in the demo, transaction fees on payments, hardware costs and whether support is included or tiered. Then ask whether the price is per outlet or per business, and what happens at renewal. Modular pricing is not dishonest, but a demo showing loyalty, ordering and integrations can easily be showing you several line items at once, so get them written down.
Qashier starts at RM5 a day on the Essential plan and RM8 a day on Growth. Add-ons including Qashier Treats, Qashier Bookings, QR code ordering and integrations with your accounting, e-commerce and food delivery platforms come at a small daily price on top, all on one bill and one login. Ask us for your specific combination in writing, the same way you should ask anyone else.
Find Out When You Actually Get Your Money
Payment acceptance is where the differences are largest and least advertised. Two providers can quote similar rates and treat your cash flow very differently.
Ask when funds settle, whether settlement timing changes over weekends and public holidays, and who holds the regulatory licence for the money in transit. Ask whether payments come from the same company as your POS or from a partner, because that determines whether your sales report and your settlement report will ever agree without manual work.
QashierPay settles T+1, so today's takings arrive the next business day. Because payments run on the same platform as the sale, your settlement figures and your sales figures come from one source rather than from two companies with two definitions of a completed transaction.
Check Whether Loyalty Is Built In or Bolted On
Almost every provider will tell you they have loyalty. What matters is whether the loyalty programme knows what was bought, and whether the customer has to do anything to join.
Ask three questions. Does the customer need to download an app or fill in a form at the counter. Does each customer profile carry a purchase history, or only a name and a balance. And who owns the customer database if you leave. A loyalty product that sits beside the POS rather than inside it cannot time a win-back message, cannot tell you which products create repeat customers, and cannot be measured against sales.
Qashier Treats is payment-linked, so the card or wallet a customer pays with enrols them during a transaction that was going to happen anyway. No app, no form, no stamp card. The database belongs to your business and builds from your own transactions.
Make Sure It Works the Way Your Industry Works
Generic systems fail on specifics. A retail POS handling variants and sizes well can be poor at modifiers and course timing. A food system can be poor at appointments and staff calendars.
Go into the demo with the three most awkward things you do and ask to see them, not described but performed. A complicated order with modifiers and a split bill. A refund on a partially returned multi-item sale. A delivery order arriving during a lunch rush. If a provider talks around any of those rather than showing you, that is your answer.
Qashier runs point-of-sale, payments, bookings, loyalty and marketing on one platform, with QR code ordering and delivery, e-commerce and mall integrations available as add-ons, so F&B, retail and service businesses work from the same system rather than from an industry-specific edition at a different price.
Ask What Happens When You Grow
The most expensive mistake in this decision is choosing a system that fits the business you have rather than the one you are about to have.
Ask what adding a second outlet involves and what it costs. Ask whether stock can move between locations with the movement recorded on both sides. Ask whether one dashboard covers every site or whether each reports separately. Ask whether a customer known at one outlet is recognised at another. And ask whether staff can work across locations on one account with permissions you control.
On Qashier, adding an outlet means adding a location to an account that already exists, so your catalogue, pricing, staff roles and loyalty programme carry over. QashierHQ shows every outlet in one view, Stock Request and Transfer moves stock between them, and Treats runs one customer database across the whole business.
Read the Contract Terms Before You Read the Feature List
This is the section most buyers skip and most regret skipping.
Ask for the minimum term, the notice period, what happens at automatic renewal and whether the price is fixed for the term. Then ask the question almost nobody asks: if I leave, what data can I take with me and in what format. A provider who is comfortable answering that is telling you something useful about how they expect to keep you.
Ask about hardware separately. Find out whether you are buying, leasing or renting, what happens to the hardware if you leave, and whether the software runs in a browser or requires a specific device. Qashier runs in a web browser, so there is nothing to install and nothing to reinstall if your hardware changes.
Check That Support Exists When You Are Actually Trading
Support quality is impossible to assess from a website and easy to assess with two questions.
Ask what hours support operates and compare them honestly against your own. A provider available on weekday office hours is not much help to a business whose hardest moments are Saturday evenings. Then ask how many companies you would need to contact if your terminal stopped working during service. If your POS, your payments and your loyalty come from three vendors, the answer is three, and each will be able to suggest that the problem belongs to one of the others.
With Qashier there is one platform and one team, because the sale, the payment and the customer are one system rather than three that have been introduced to each other.
Ask How Long Setup Takes and What Migration Includes
Finally, ask what the first week looks like in practice. How long until you are trading. Whether your product catalogue, staff accounts and existing customer records are moved across or rebuilt by you. Whether you can run both systems in parallel while you build confidence. And whether onboarding happens before your changeover date or on it.
Most Malaysian merchants are trading on Qashier within a day, because catalogue, pricing and staff configuration happen during onboarding while the current system is still running. Existing product and customer data can be moved across, and running in parallel for a few days is a sensible way to switch.
Everything Connects, Which Is the Whole Point
Read the checklist again and notice how many items are really the same question asked in different places. Does the payment know about the sale. Does the loyalty know about the purchase. Does the second outlet know about the first. Does the report know about all of it.
A platform where the answer is yes gives you a fast counter, a settlement that matches your report, a customer database that builds itself, a stock count you can trust and a second outlet that costs you a setup rather than a project. A collection of separate tools gives you a demo that looked identical and an evening of reconciliation every day for the next three years. That is the actual difference you are choosing between, and it does not appear on any comparison table.
With Qashier, everything you switch on appears on one bill and runs from one login, so you add capability without adding a vendor.
One login. One view. One platform.
Getting Started
QashierPOS, QashierPay and QashierHQ are available to Malaysian merchants now, from RM5 a day on the Essential plan and RM8 a day on Growth, with Treats, Bookings, QR code ordering and your integrations switching on as add-ons for a small daily price. Bring your checklist to the demo and ask about the awkward parts first.
Book a free demo and put every question on this list to us directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose a POS system for my business?
Evaluate for month seven rather than for day one, because the things that cause problems later are invisible during a demo. Check the total annual cost with every needed feature switched on, settlement timing and licensing, whether loyalty is built in or bolted on, how the system handles growth, contract and exit terms, support hours against your trading hours, and how long setup takes. Ask each provider to demonstrate the three most awkward things your business does rather than describe them.
What should a POS system cost in Malaysia?
Compare annual totals rather than headline monthly prices, including add-ons, transaction fees, hardware and support tiers. Ask whether the price is per outlet or per business and whether it is fixed for the contract term. Qashier starts at RM5 a day on Essential and RM8 a day on Growth, with add-ons at a small daily price on top and everything on one bill.
What questions should I ask a POS provider before signing?
Ask for the total annual cost with everything you saw in the demo switched on, when funds settle and who holds the payment licence, whether customer data belongs to you and what format you can export it in, what a second outlet costs and involves, the minimum term and notice period, support hours, and how long setup takes. The export question is the most revealing one, because it tells you how a provider expects to retain you.
Should my POS and payment provider be the same company?
It removes a category of ongoing work. When they are separate, your sales report and your settlement report are produced by two companies that count differently, so reconciling them becomes a recurring task and support issues can be passed between vendors. QashierPay runs on the same platform as QashierPOS, with T+1 settlement.
What is the difference between built-in loyalty and a separate loyalty app?
A built-in programme records the customer as part of the sale, so each profile carries a purchase history and marketing can be triggered by actual behaviour. A separate app knows who someone is but not what they bought, which means it cannot time a return message or show you which products create repeat customers. Ask whether customers must download anything, since sign-up friction is what causes most programmes to stall.
What payment methods does QashierPay accept in Malaysia?
QashierPay accepts Visa, Mastercard and AMEX, along with DuitNow QR, GrabPay, ShopeePay, Touch 'n Go, Setel, Boost, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. Settlement is T+1, so your takings arrive the next business day. Every method is accepted on the same terminal.
Can a POS system connect to delivery apps and my online store?
It should, otherwise each channel keeps its own stock count and overselling becomes a matter of time. Qashier offers Food Delivery Integration, E-commerce Integration and GTO Mall Integration as add-ons for a small daily price, so those channels draw from the same inventory and report into the same system as your counter sales.
What happens if my internet goes down during trading?
Ask every provider this before you sign, because cloud systems handle it very differently and few volunteer the answer. QashierPOS has an offline mode that keeps taking sales when the connection drops and syncs them to the cloud once you are back online, so nothing is lost and your reporting stays complete. Ask specifically what is still possible offline and what happens to the records afterwards.
How long does it take to set up a new POS system?
Most Malaysian merchants are trading within a day, because catalogue, pricing and staff configuration happen during onboarding while the current system is still running. Existing product and customer data can be moved across, and running both systems in parallel for a few days is a sensible way to build confidence before switching fully.