Primary and backup connectivity
A second line from a different provider with automatic failover, because the registers, terminals and online sales all depend on it. We test the switchover for real rather than assume it works.
In most companies downtime means work shifts to later. For you it means the sale does not happen, the customer buys elsewhere and often does not come back. This is the one industry where the cost of an hour of failure can be worked out on the spot, and that figure should decide how much a second internet line and spare hardware are worth, rather than general talk of reliability.
We are not the maker of your trading software, we do not run online shops and we do not do marketing. We handle the layer underneath: connectivity, hardware, the server, backups and making data move between systems without being retyped. This page is about selling; if you are looking for IT to support warehouse operations, we cover that separately.
It is the one device in the company where internet access is not a convenience but a statutory duty. Three things are worth knowing, because this is where the most confusion has built up and where some of it is being sold to you.
The duty covers not only the moment of sale but readiness to sell, so in practice the register must be online whenever the outlet is open. Data goes automatically on a schedule, in practice roughly every two hours. That is why we treat connectivity in a shop differently from an office.
If the line goes down for reasons outside your control you may keep selling; you record sales as usual and must restore the connection promptly once the fault ends, and the register sends the backlog itself. A failure of the device itself is entirely different: sales must stop, and writing receipts in a notebook or a spreadsheet is not allowed.
Where connection is permanently impossible, at an outlet with no coverage for instance, there is a formal route: an application to the head of the tax office for consent to transmit data at intervals agreed with him. That is a legal remedy rather than a technical one, but worth knowing before opening such a location.
Something you may be sold on: integrating the fiscal register with a payment terminal is not compulsory. The rule was due in July 2022, was postponed twice, and the act of 24 January 2025 repealed it along with the five thousand zloty penalty before it ever took effect. What remains is the duty to let customers pay cashlessly, which is a different matter entirely. Integration is worth doing where it saves cashiers time and removes mistakes in amounts, not because somebody is invoking an inspection. Basis: article 19a of the Entrepreneurs Law and article 111(3ab) of the VAT Act.
You sell from the wholesale counter, in the shop, on your own site and on a marketplace. Each of these has its own idea of how many units are left, and the gap between them costs you either a cancelled order or goods you failed to sell although they sat on the shelf.
The first decision is organisational, not technical: which system is the source of truth about stock. Usually it is the trading software, and everything else adapts to it. Until that is settled no integration will help, because it will only distribute contradictory numbers faster.
If stock figures move once a day, you spend the whole day selling against yesterday numbers. With fast-moving goods that is enough to sell the last unit twice. Shortening that window is usually cheaper than changing the system, and it is where we start.
Orders copied from a panel into the trading software are tens of seconds and one typo apiece. It is worth working out how many hours a month that is, because the figure usually settles the matter faster than arguments about modernity.
Honestly: some integrations already exist and only need setting up properly, some have to be built, and with certain older trading programs nothing sensible can be done because they expose no data at all. We say so at the outset rather than promising and ending at a file export. Where building is needed we use a tool that runs on your own hardware, so customer data and purchase prices never pass through somebody else's service.
Retail has no such thing as even load. There are a few weeks carrying half the annual turnover, and the rest of the year when anything can safely be changed. Confusing the two is the commonest mistake we see.
From an agreed date until the end of the season we make no changes on our side beyond patching holes already being exploited. We set that freeze date together and write it into the contract, because otherwise somebody always decides a small update does not count as a change.
The backup line tested by actually switching over, not merely named in a contract. Restoring the trading database rehearsed on a copy. Spare hardware in stock, because at the peak nobody will deliver a printer the next day. Those three we always do.
Round-the-clock readiness all year rarely justifies itself, but for a few peak weeks it can pay for itself with one evening of selling saved. So we offer it seasonally rather than as a permanent addition to the retainer.
We do not promise a hundred per cent availability or restoration in fifteen minutes, because with one server and one line that is untrue. Instead we ask what an hour without selling costs you at the peak and pick the solution to fit. If the answer is modest, we will advise against a second server and say so plainly.
Six areas we usually start from. Under each one is a link to the page with the detail.
A second line from a different provider with automatic failover, because the registers, terminals and online sales all depend on it. We test the switchover for real rather than assume it works.
Separate networks for registers, office equipment, cameras and guests, so an infected office computer has no route to the devices on the sales floor.
Choosing a machine for a database that grows every year, with server licences costed and a replacement plan before the hardware starts slowing down mid-season.
Stock, orders and customer data moving between the trading software, the shop and the marketplace via a tool that runs on your own server.
Copies that survive an encryption attack and a rehearsed database restore, because in trade losing a day of documents means losing a day of settlements with suppliers.
Help available when the shop is working, Saturdays included, plus on-call cover for the seasonal peak priced separately.
What we do not do: build online shops, run campaigns or marketplace operations, or service the fiscal registers themselves, which is reserved for an authorised service. We do make sure the register has a line and that its data reaches where it should.
We arrange the first visit outside the peak season and away from a Saturday, because nobody has time to talk then. A small thing, but it shows whether a supplier understands this rhythm.
We ask about sales channels, the trading software, the number of registers and what an hour without selling costs at the peak. We come back with a list of risks ordered by that figure. Free, and the list stays with you whatever you decide.
We check what happens when the main line is unplugged and whether the trading database can actually be restored from the existing copies. Those are the two things that fail most often and most painfully in retail.
We settle which system is the source of truth about stock and shorten the window between updates in the other channels. Along the way we count the hours going into retyping orders by hand.
Requests, updates outside the season only, restore tests and a report. We agree the change freeze date in advance and hold to it even when a change looks minor.
Pages that come up in conversations with wholesalers and shops.
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No. The rule that was to require it was repealed by an act of January 2025 along with the five thousand zloty penalty, and it never took effect. Something else still applies, namely letting the customer pay cashlessly. Integration is worth considering if it speeds up the checkout and removes mistakes in amounts, but that is a business decision, not an obligation.
Yes, if the cause is outside your control. You record sales as normal and must restore the connection promptly once the fault ends; the register sends the backlog itself. A failure of the fiscal device is different, because then sales must stop and transactions may not be recorded outside the register.
Overselling almost always comes from a delay in passing stock figures around rather than from human error. We start by settling which system is the source of truth, then shorten the window between updates in the other channels. That is usually cheaper than replacing the trading software, which tends to get sold at this point.
We check that at the outset and say so plainly, because the answer is sometimes no. If the program offers an API or even a regular export, something sensible can usually be built. If it offers nothing but a printout, we honestly advise against spending on workarounds that will break with every update.
It depends on the cost of an hour without selling. A second line from another provider usually costs about as much as a phone plan, so in a shop with registers it almost always justifies itself, whereas in a wholesaler working on transfers it does not always. What matters is that the switchover is automatic and tested, because a manual one does not work in practice.
Outside the season and away from Saturdays, and during the peak a change freeze applies, which we write into the contract. The exception is patching a hole already being exploited; then we call and agree a time case by case, usually after the shop closes.
This one is about selling: registers, channels, stock and the season. The warehouse page is about handling goods on site: terminals, scanners, coverage between racking and the warehouse system. Many companies need both, and then we treat it as one project.
We price from the number of workstations and the scope. In trade two items usually come on top of the standard retainer: the server running the trading software under ongoing care, and on-call cover for the seasonal peak. We price both separately so it is clear what you are paying for.
The first meeting takes 30 minutes and commits you to nothing. We will tell you straight whether we can help and what we would propose.
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