Guides and industry insights
Practical guides for independent merchants
Long-form pieces on the decisions merchants face when replacing an ageing system — what each trade needs, how stock and credit should work, and the technical choices that decide whether your counter keeps running on a bad day.
By trade
What each kind of merchant needs from a system.
- Electrical
Electrical wholesaler EPOS software
EPOS software for independent electrical wholesalers: contract pricing, trade accounts and credit limits, cable off the drum, quotes, deliveries and supplier price-list imports. Offline-first, cloud-hosted.
Read the guide - Builders merchants
Builders merchant software
Builders merchant software for independent yards: account customers, credit control, delivery scheduling, branch stock, quotations, bulk pricing and invoice management in one cloud platform.
Read the guide - Plumbing
Plumbing merchant EPOS software
EPOS software for independent plumbing and heating merchants: live stock, trade accounts, quotations, click & collect, special orders and purchasing. Offline-first and cloud-hosted.
Read the guide - Trade counter
Trade counter software
Trade counter software for decorating centres, timber merchants, ironmongers, hardware stores, agricultural merchants and tool suppliers. Configurable products, trade accounts, stock and reporting.
Read the guide
By capability
Going deeper on stock, accounts and customers.
- Stock
Merchant stock control software
Stock control software for trade merchants: live quantities across locations, an append-only movement ledger, minimum stock alerts, purchase orders, goods received and stock valuation.
Read the guide - CRM
Merchant CRM
CRM built into merchant software: customer records, lead tracking, notes, tasks, marketing permissions and a full communication history, joined to the sales and account data you already hold.
Read the guide - Accounts
Trade account software
Software for running trade credit accounts: terms, credit limits enforced at the till, aged debt, payment allocation, statements, credit notes and a customer portal.
Read the guide
How it is built
The technical decisions that change how a counter works.
- Platform
Barcode EPOS for trade merchants
Barcode EPOS built for trade counters: scan anywhere on the sales screen, barcode goods-in against purchase orders, label printing, and barcodes for products sold in units you did not buy.
Read the guide - Platform
Cloud EPOS for trade merchants
Cloud EPOS for trade merchants: no back-office server, continuous updates and backup, multi-branch reporting from anywhere — combined with offline-first tills that keep trading without a connection.
Read the guide - Platform
Offline EPOS — a till that keeps trading
Offline-first EPOS for trade merchants: sell, price, discount and receipt with no internet connection, then synchronise automatically without duplicates or gaps in your invoice numbers.
Read the guide
Choosing and switching
PlanIt EPOS against the other systems, and what a move involves.
- Switching
Switching from Unleashed to PlanIt EPOS
Moving a trade merchant off Unleashed: export four CSVs, import products, barcodes, suppliers, customers, credit limits and stock on hand into PlanIt EPOS, and get a trade counter till Unleashed never had. £149 a month, everything included.
Read the guide - Comparison
The best builders merchant software in 2026 — and how PlanIt EPOS compares
An honest comparison of builders merchant software for independent yards in 2026: Klipboard K8, Merchanter, GenetiQ (Intact), Border CounterAct and Unleashed against PlanIt EPOS — what each does at the counter, on the van board and at month-end, and what it costs, with every price dated.
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What is new
Recent changes, where to find them, and what a yard does differently.
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