Most of what's written about choosing a POS system assumes you're starting from paper. A fair number of businesses reading this are actually on some other system already, and considering a switch — a genuinely different, higher-stakes decision, because there's existing data and existing staff habits at stake, not just a blank slate.
What should transfer with minimal friction
- Your menu or service catalogue — items, prices, categories — can be rebuilt quickly during setup rather than re-entered by hand from scratch.
- Your general sense of what sells — carried in your own head regardless of system, not something you lose in a switch.
What usually doesn't transfer automatically, and what to ask about
- Historical sales data and reports — ask directly whether your existing vendor will export this, and in what format, before you commit to switching.
- A customer list, if your current system has one — same question: can it actually be exported, or does it stay locked in the old vendor's system.
The real cost of switching isn't the software, it's staff relearning
The biggest friction in any POS switch is rarely the data — it's staff who've built muscle memory on one system's screens and flow having to relearn a different one, usually during the first few busy shifts after the switch. A short, in-person walkthrough before go-live matters more here than almost anything else in the whole process.
What we'd actually ask you
What don't you like about your current system? That answer, more than anything generic we could say about TU2, determines whether switching is actually worth the disruption for your specific situation — sometimes the honest answer is that your current system is fine and the problem is something else entirely.