Guide / POS, honestly
POS inventory software, free: the honest boundary
POS software is the counter; inventory is the room behind it. Free POS bundles cover the counter thinly — here is what the stock side needs, and where BSimple honestly stops.
The key facts
- Two products, usually bundled: the counter (payments, receipts, card-present) and the stock record behind it.
- Free POS tiers exist — the caps land on transactions, locations, users and reporting history.
- What stock needs regardless of counter: live quantities, reordering, counts, batches — the paid layer in most bundles.
- BSimple is not a POS: no cash register or card-present checkout. It runs the stock, purchasing and invoicing record — from $180/month (AUD), free to trial.
- The full picture: how the inventory record works is the hub page for everything above.
- 01The key facts
- 02What "free POS inventory" bundles actually give you
- 03The honest boundary: counter versus record
- 04Choosing the free path deliberately
What "free POS inventory" bundles actually give you
A point-of-sale system with inventory built in is the standard retail bundle: sell at the counter, quantities deduct, maybe low-stock flags. Free tiers of these are real — and capped the usual way: monthly transactions, registers or locations, users, and how far back reporting goes. The inventory half of the bundle is where the caps bite hardest, because reordering, supplier management and multi-location stock are the features paid plans exist to unlock. The free-tools landscape maps the cap patterns, and the free ladder explains the structure of free in this market.
The evaluation that matters: when the counter is closed for the day, can you trust the quantities it left behind? That requires counts, reorder levels and purchasing — the parts most free POS tiers treat as upsell.
The honest boundary: counter versus record
POS is a defined job — card-present payments, receipts, register hardware, staff shifts at the counter. It is regulated payment territory and hardware territory, and it deserves dedicated software. BSimple is not that software: there is no cash register, no card-present checkout, and we do not claim front-of-counter features. Saying so plainly is more useful than quietly pretending.
What BSimple does run is the record the counter depends on: live stock across locations, purchase orders from reorder levels, goods receipts, counts from any browser, batches where expiry matters, and invoicing with the Xero or MYOB handoff — from $180/month (AUD). If you sell online as well as at a counter, the Shopify connection shows how store orders flow into the same record, and the Xero integration keeps the books joined. The composition most businesses land on: a POS of their choice at the counter, one honest record behind every channel.
Choosing the free path deliberately
If volumes are small, a free POS tier plus honest counts is a legitimate start — the caps are visible and the failure mode is gentle. The triggers to move are the usual ones: quantities nobody trusts between counts, purchasing from memory, or a second channel (online, wholesale) the counter bundle cannot see. At that point the question becomes the record, not the register — and a trial of the record side answers it in an afternoon on your own stock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there free POS with inventory management?
Yes — free POS tiers commonly include basic stock deduction. The caps land on transactions, locations and history, and the purchasing/counting half of inventory is typically the paid upsell. Read the cap list before the feature list.
Is BSimple a POS system?
No. BSimple is not a point-of-sale register — no card-present checkout or counter hardware. It runs the stock, purchasing and invoicing record behind your sales channels, with the Xero or MYOB handoff, from $180/month (AUD).
Can I use BSimple behind my existing POS?
For the stock record, yes — that is the honest composition: the counter does the sale, the record keeps quantities, reordering and counts true across every channel. How your POS connects is a question worth testing in the trial with your real flows.
What does POS inventory software need beyond the counter?
Live quantities per location, reorder levels that raise purchase orders, counts with an audit trail, and an accounting handoff. Those four are the paid layer in most bundles — and the part that makes the counter's numbers trustworthy.
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