What the scan has to do
A barcode is a number. Nothing more. The gun reads the bars, sends the number as if it had been typed, and the software has to turn that number into the right line with the right price before the next packet is in the hand.
That is the whole job, and it is where most packages are judged. If the counter has to look at the screen, pick from a list and then type a quantity, the scan saved nothing. The scan should write the line and move on.
Barcode billing software earns its name on the second and third scan, not the first. A carton of forty packets should go through as forty scans with no taps in between.
The same packet has four barcodes
This is the part that quietly breaks a shop's books.
A soap comes in a carton this month with one code. Next month the company changes the wrapper and the code changes with it. The counter scans the new one, finds nothing, and adds a new item. Now there are two items in the books for one thing on the shelf. Stock splits in half, the reorder list goes wrong, and the profit report counts the same soap twice.
The fix is not discipline. It is to let one item carry as many codes as the world gives it. Scan any of them and the same line comes up. Two items that turn out to be one are merged, and the bills from both follow the item they were merged into.
A second code is not a second product. It is the same soap in a new wrapper.
Half a kirana shop has no barcode at all
Dal off a sack. A loose bar of soap. Dhoop, moli, a clay diya from the local market. None of it carries a printed code, and no amount of software changes that.
So the shop prints its own. NSHOP makes an eight digit code from the item itself, which is short enough to fit on a small sticker and long enough never to repeat. The shop prints the label, sticks it on the box, and from then on it scans like anything else.
A code the shop makes is not a GS1 code and it is not meant to be. It works inside this shop and nowhere else, which is exactly what is needed for goods that never leave it.
What a barcode costs
Two different questions get mixed up here.
- A real GS1 code, the kind printed on a packet that will be sold in other shops, is bought from GS1 India. There is a joining fee and a yearly fee, and the amount depends on turnover and how many numbers are wanted. Only a company that manufactures something needs this.
- A code for your own shelf costs nothing. The shop makes the number itself and prints it on a label roll. A roll of labels and a thermal printer is the only spending, and the printer pays for itself the first time a shelf is counted properly.
A shop that is buying and reselling never needs to pay GS1 anything. The packets it buys already carry their codes, and the loose goods get the shop's own.
Which scanner to buy
A barcode gun is a keyboard as far as the computer is concerned. Plug it in, it types the number and presses Enter. There is nothing to install and nothing to configure, which is why the cheap ones work.
- Wired, one dimensional. Reads the striped codes on packets. Enough for a kirana counter and the least that can go wrong.
- Wireless. Useful for counting stock on the shelf away from the counter. Needs charging, which is a thing somebody has to remember.
- Two dimensional. Reads QR as well. Worth it only if QR is actually being scanned, for payments or for a customer app.
The phone camera also works and is free, and it is slower than a gun. For a counter with a queue, buy the gun.
What free barcode billing software leaves out
Free packages are easy to find and most of them stop at the invoice. Scanning works, printing works, and then the questions start.
- Can one item hold four codes, or does every new wrapper become a new item?
- Can the shop print a code for goods that have none?
- Does stock come off as the bill is cut, or is it counted once a month?
- When a scan matches nothing, does it say so, or does it quietly do nothing?
Those four are the work. The invoice is the easy half, which is why it is the half that gets given away.
What it costs
NSHOP is a monthly price with the counter, the labels, the stock and the reports in it. There is no charge per bill, no charge per item and no charge per code printed.
The shop that wrote it is a kirana shop in Bhilai, and it scans its own goods on it every day.
Questions people ask
Which is the best barcode billing software for a retail shop?
The one that lets a single item carry every code the company has printed on it, and lets the shop print its own code for goods that carry none. Both decide whether the stock figure stays true after a year. Scanning itself is the part everybody does.
Can I use barcode billing software free of charge?
There are free packages. They usually scan and print an invoice and stop there, and the work in a shop is in the stock, the loose goods and the many codes one packet collects. Ask what happens in the second month before paying nothing.
How much is a barcode for a product?
A GS1 code, the kind a manufacturer prints on a packet, is a joining fee plus a yearly fee from GS1 India, and the amount depends on turnover. A code for your own shelf costs nothing, because the shop makes the number itself and prints it on a label.
How can I make a barcode for free?
NSHOP makes an eight digit code from the item itself and prints it on a label. It is unique inside the shop, which is all a code on your own shelf has to be. No fee and no registration.
Does barcode billing software need a special scanner?
No. A barcode gun behaves like a keyboard. It types the number and presses Enter, so any ordinary wired scanner works with no driver and no setup.