The Power of the Till

with Kudos Software

Hand in hand with the amazing growth of charity shops on the high street goes the increasing need for volunteer help to make them successful – even viable.

While you’re competing for donations and for sales, you’re also competing for volunteers.

Whenever we discuss systems for gift aid processing and, increasingly nowadays, to streamline multi-store systems administration and control, volunteers’ needs are on the agenda. There is nervousness as to how volunteers will take to new computer-based tills and systems.

It’s a sensible concern, but as it turns out, an ill-founded one: in practice an almost immediate reduction in till errors of up to 90% has been reported, the ultimate proof of ease of use and acceptance.

Not merely acceptance, there’s even enthusiasm. It seems that when you’re giving your time you want it well used – and volunteers appreciate the time-saving benefits of improved systems as much as managers and fundraisers.

The growth of IT in charity shops started with Retail Gift Aid processing, with its offer of increased revenue from the same turnover. Some early systems often added to the workload as sales had to be recorded twice – once for the cash, once for the gift aid. With Kudos there is no need for this type of duplication, saving your volunteers time and your organisation money.

Read more of our guest blog on the CRA website.