2019 Review of Keystroke Advanced POS

From the July 2019 Review of Point-of-Sale Systems

Keystroke Advanced is one of three point of sale offerings from Specialized Business Solutions. Also available is Keystroke Express, ideal for smaller retail businesses, while Keystroke Point of Sale is a good fit for growing retail businesses. Keystroke Advanced is well-suited for large retail businesses with multiple locations that also desire e-commerce integration. All Keystroke offerings are designed to be installed on a local computer, workstation, or network.

Keystroke Advanced contains an easily navigated user interface where all system modules can be accessed, including receivables, purchasing, and reports. The point of sale interface can be completely customized, with users able to add buttons and edit toolbars to better suit their needs. Keystroke Advanced accepts a variety of tender types including cash, debit and credit cards, gift cards, and a variety of custom tender types. Users can easily process a variety of transaction types including customer orders, special orders, payments on account, both cash and customer sales, returns, voids, and layaways.  The product also supports multi-jurisdictional sales tax rates, with the ability to create automated recurring transactions as needed. Users can easily search both customers and products while processing a sale, or enter new customers and products on the fly. The product also contains a Sales Script feature that can prompt cashiers to upsell or offer additional items during the sale, while also prompting cashiers to request a valid I.D. when selling age-restricted items.

All editions of Keystroke can be used with a standard computer monitor or touch screen monitor, with the built-in Touch Screen Editor allowing users to easily customize on-screen toolbars and macros to expedite the sales process.  Keystroke Advanced offers the ability to manage all locations from a single location, polling data into the main location nightly, though users will have to purchase the Multi-Store module in order to utilize this feature. 

Keystroke Advanced has good customer management capability, with users able to access customers to track personal information or add notes to each customer file. Users can also access a complete customer purchasing history. The product also includes excellent inventory management features, including the ability to assign up to six different pricing levels for each product entered into inventory. Users can also choose to group similar items into categories, with product serial numbers easily tracked in the system if desired.   All inventory is tracked in real time, with users able to track inventory levels at each store using the Multi-Store module.

Keystroke Advanced offers good reporting capability, with both sales and inventory reports available, including a Department Sales Report, Customer Activity Report, and a Salesperson Report. A transaction history report is also available that displays transaction by item, day, or week. Users can use the Report Editor to modify reports or create custom reports from scratch, and all reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel for further customization if desired.

Keystroke offers excellent scalability, with three editions available, making it easy to scale up to a more powerful version if necessary. Keystroke POS and Keystroke Advanced both offer the Accounting Link, which provides integration capability with third-party accounting applications such as QuickBooks. Users can also choose to use the Data Import Utility to easily import or update inventory, customers, and transaction data as needed. Keystroke also integrates with the Digital Sign Controller, which allows users to advertise item specials, display details on upcoming sales, and display images of items being purchased. Keystroke also integrates with all common hardware peripherals including barcode scanners, label printers, signature capture devices, PIN pads, receipt printers and cash drawers. eWallet transactions including Apple Pay® and Android Pay® are supported as well.

Solid help functionality is available throughout Keystroke, with the vendor website offering a variety of application resources including FAQs, a How-To section, as well as the Keystroke YouTube channel, that offers a variety of short videos. Training options are also available from Keystroke, and a free demo of the product can be downloaded on-demand to try out prior to purchasing. A Software Maintenance program is available to be purchased separately, with the plan offering interim software updates and all major releases, as well as toll-free technical support, which is available during regular business hours. Email support is available as well. 

Keystroke Point of Sale is a scalable point of sale application well-suited for small to mid-sized retail businesses. Keystroke Point of Sale is currently available in three versions; Keystroke Express, for smaller businesses, runs $495, Keystroke POS runs $1,295, and Keystroke Advanced; designed for larger retailers with multiple locations, currently runs $1,895. Support is purchased separately with annual support plans for Keystroke Advanced currently running between $595 to $995.

2019 Rating – 4.75 Stars