2 min read MALVERN RETAIL SYSTEMS
01Discover before scheduling a changeover
Start with the current arrangement, not an installation date. Establish who owns the equipment, when agreements renew, what notice is needed and how your existing records can be exported. Ask the current provider for written answers where the contract is unclear. This guide is a planning checklist, not advice on a particular contract.
- Inventory equipment, integrations and trading-critical functions.
- Record renewal, rental and payment-provider dependencies.
- Request sample product and price exports in a documented format.
- Assign one shop contact and one technical contact for the migration.
Prepare and reconcile the catalogue
Keep the original export unchanged and work on a separate copy. Agree how barcodes, product descriptions, selling prices and tax categories map into the new catalogue. Identify missing or duplicate identifiers before import. Staff should check a representative set of products, including awkward cases, rather than relying only on a total record count.
- Compare input and output product counts and investigate differences.
- Check sample prices, barcode lengths, leading zeroes and duplicate records.
- Keep tax-category decisions with the business’s responsible adviser.
- Document excluded historical data and retain any records you still need securely.
Rehearse the complete trading process
Test the proposed system on the actual devices before live trading depends on it. Walk through normal sales and exceptions with the people who will use the till. Confirm that receipts, payments and closing totals reconcile. Malvern will need to assess the requested workflows; a requirement in this checklist is not a promise that it is included in a particular release.
- Complete sales, cancellations, returns and end-of-day checks.
- Test each printer, scanner, drawer and payment arrangement.
- Record any internet or equipment failure behavior demonstrated by the supplier.
- Train staff and keep a short recovery/contact sheet beside the till.
Make go-live a controlled decision
Agree a changeover window, who can approve it and what would cause a rollback. Keep the old arrangement available until you understand the impact of retiring it. Define how catalogue changes made between rehearsal and launch will be transferred. After opening, reconcile the first trading period and review issues with named owners.
- Confirm backup/export, rollback method and decision deadline.
- Assign responsibility for final data changes and device setup.
- Record known limitations and a route for urgent support.
- Review early trading results before declaring the migration complete.
