Demos without a brief waste weeks.
Include
Roles, daily workflows, integrations, offline needs, and acceptance tests.
Next step
Use scenarios to compare POS and ERP vendors
Use the following worksheet to turn this article into an operating decision. It is a practical plan for a Bangladesh small business, not a claim about a particular client or an industry benchmark. Adapt it to your current workflow and constraints.
Write a complete daily scenario: receive stock, sell, return, reconcile and close the day. Include who is allowed to change a price.
Ask vendors to demonstrate an offline failure, reconnect and duplicate submission if these risks matter to the business.
Clarify data export, licence, device compatibility and support ownership. Reject proposals that cannot explain how acceptance will be measured.
Write this before requesting proposals
Describe the current process, the failing step, the intended users and what a correct outcome looks like. Prepare representative test data so suppliers can demonstrate the same task. Ask separately about recurring costs, third-party dependencies and work excluded from support.
When to change the plan
Resolve missing access, failed acceptance checks or unclear team ownership before paying for the next stage. Use evidence from a small pilot. If scope grows, agree revised time and costs rather than relying on unsupported guarantees.