The short answer
A butchery POS is software that records meat the way you really trade: bought by the animal or by weight, sold by the kilo and by the cut, with credit customers and a clean cash count at night. Growth Informer Business is our own cloud POS. It lets you set up products with units such as kilograms, keep stock in the shop and the cold room as separate locations, sell on credit to hotels, and close the register each day. It also fits into wider stock control.
It will not do your butchery for you, and we say so plainly. It does not tell you how much meat a carcass should give, and splitting one animal into many cuts takes some set-up. What it does is show you the gap between kilos bought and kilos sold. Before you pay for any system, start with the daily yield sheet below. If the sheet shows a leak, software helps you close it.
Where the loss happens between carcass and counter
Most butchers do not lose money in one big way. They lose a little at six points, every day. Walk the meat from the gate to the till and you will see them.
Trimming, bone and fat
You pay for the whole carcass, but you cannot sell all of it as meat. Bone, fat and trim leave the shop in a bucket or as cheap bones. If you price every kilo of meat as if the carcass were all meat, you sell below cost without knowing.
The counter scale
A heavy hand on the scale, a thumb on the pan, or an extra piece "for the customer" adds up over fifty sales. Small gifts are part of trade. Unrecorded gifts are a leak.
Drying and drip
Meat loses weight as it hangs, sits in the display, or is kept overnight. A day-old kilo is not a fresh kilo. If your power is unreliable, the loss is bigger, and our guide on what to do when power or internet fails in your shop is worth reading.
Sales that never reach the book
Cash taken and not written down is the oldest leak in any shop. We cover the signs and the fixes in how to stop stock theft in a shop.
Credit that is never collected
Hotels, restaurants and canteens often buy on credit. Without a clear list of who owes what, old debts get forgotten and the cash you needed for tomorrow's animal is stuck in somebody's kitchen.
Wrong prices on cheap cuts
If mince, bones and offal are priced by guess, the cuts that look busy may earn nothing, while a slow cut earns well. You cannot see this without cost per cut.
A daily yield sheet you can start with today
You do not need software to find your biggest leak. Use a notebook with these lines, one page per animal or per delivery. Fill it in the same day, while the meat is still on the hook.
- Line 1, bought: date, animal or supplier, and weight bought in kilos, plus what you paid in total.
- Line 2, saleable meat: total kilos of cuts you can sell as meat, weighed after trimming.
- Line 3, bones and offal: kilos you sell as bones, offal or cheap cuts.
- Line 4, fat and waste: kilos you throw away or cannot sell.
- Line 5, unexplained: Line 1 minus Lines 2, 3 and 4. This is the number to watch.
- Line 6, sold: at closing, kilos sold per cut from your sales book or till, and kilos left.
- Line 7, cash: money counted, compared with what the sales book says you should have.
Here is an example with made-up numbers. You buy 120 kilos. Saleable meat is 96 kilos, bones and offal 14 kilos, waste 6 kilos. That leaves 4 kilos unexplained. If that happens once, it is trimming error. If it happens every day, someone or something is taking 4 kilos.
If you buy a live animal, weigh the carcass after slaughter and write that on Line 1. Live weight still includes the hide, head and insides, so it overstates the meat you can sell. Weigh again after the meat has been in the cold room, because a cold carcass weighs a little less than a warm one.
The sheet also tells you your real cost. If you paid for 120 kilos but only 96 kilos is saleable meat, each saleable kilo carries a quarter more cost than the price you paid per kilo (120 divided by 96 is 1.25). Money from bones and offal brings that cost down a little, so subtract it first. Price your cuts from that number, not from the buying price.
Pricing by the kilo and by the cut
Start with your real cost per saleable kilo from the sheet. Then set a price for each cut, not one price for all meat. Steak and fillet carry more of the cost than bones and mince, so they should earn more per kilo. Review the prices when your supplier price changes, not once a year.
Different buyers can pay different prices. A walk-in customer, a regular, and a hotel buying fifty kilos a week should not all pay the same. In Growth Informer Business you can use selling price groups, so the hotel gets its price and the counter gets another, without changing the product each time.
Units matter. You set meat as a kilogram product and, where the unit allows decimals, sell part kilos such as 1.5 kilos. The system does not claim to connect to a weighing scale. You weigh on your scale and the weight goes into the sale. If a connected scale matters to you, ask us in the demo, and we will tell you plainly what the product does today.
Payments are simple too. Cash, card and Mobile Money are recorded as methods when you take payment, and a customer can split one bill across them. The system does not send a payment request to the customer's phone. Your cashier confirms the Mobile Money payment as before and then records it.
How Growth Informer Business handles a butchery
Our cloud POS at growthinformer.com is used by 6,500+ businesses, with Android and iOS apps, so you can check your shop from your phone. These are the parts a butcher uses most.
- Products with units: set up each cut with a kilogram or piece unit, and add variations where you need them.
- Purchases and suppliers: record each delivery with its weight and who supplied it, so bought kilos are on the system.
- Stock per location: keep the shop and the cold room as separate locations and move meat between them with transfers.
- Expiry dates and alerts: add an expiry date to a product and get a stock-expiry alert before old meat is forgotten at the back.
- Customers and credit sales: sell on credit to hotels and regulars, see who owes what, and record each payment against the sale.
- Register open and close: start the day with an opening cash amount, close with a count, and see the difference between expected cash and counted cash. Payments are shown by method, so you compare the cash in the drawer with cash sales only.
- Users and roles: a cashier can sell but cannot change prices or delete a sale, if you set it that way.
- Reports: see what sold and what earned. Ask to see the product report on your own cuts in the demo.
- Multiple branches: if you have a second shop, stock and sales can be seen across both.
One honest limit. Our Manufacturing module uses a recipe that lists ingredients and one finished item. Splitting a carcass into ten cuts is not one click. Some butchers set a recipe per main cut. Others keep it simple and track total kilos bought against total kilos sold by group, such as meat, bones and offal. We will help you choose the way that fits your shop.
The same system also runs supermarkets, so a butchery inside a larger shop is not a problem. Mobile Money shops can read more in our guide to Mobile Money in a POS.
Notebook, spreadsheet or a system: what fits your shop
A notebook is a good start and costs nothing but your time. Move to a system when the notebook stops answering your questions.
| What you need | Growth Informer Business | Notebook or spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Sell by the kilo and by cut | Each cut is a product with a kilogram unit and its own price | You write each sale and add up by hand |
| Kilos bought against kilos sold | Purchases and sales sit in one place for comparison | Possible, but you must copy numbers every night |
| Hotel and regular credit | Customer list with credit sales and payments recorded | Debts are easy to lose or argue about |
| Daily cash up | Register close shows expected cash and counted cash | You work it out yourself after a long day |
| Which cuts earn | Reports by product, once costs are entered | Hard to see without a lot of sums |
| Staff control | Roles and permissions for each user | Anyone can change the book |
| Best for | Shops with several staff, credit customers or more than one location | A single stall, one person, a few sales a day |
When not to hire us
If you run a small stall alone, serve cash customers, and the yield sheet already keeps you honest, stay with the notebook. If your main need is a scale that talks to the till, ask first, because we do not claim that today. And if no one in your shop will enter purchases and sales every day, no system will fix that.
How to start with us
We are Growth Informer Software Services, a US-based company with remote teams around the world, including a team in Kampala, Uganda. A US team member joins client video calls when you want one. You get a fixed quote before work starts, and you own your data.
Start with one number on WhatsApp: how many kilos of meat you buy in a week. Add your main cuts and whether you sell on credit if you can. We will set up a demo with your cuts so you can see the sale, the credit and the cash up on your own numbers. For the price, ask for a quote, because it depends on your shop.
Frequently asked questions
What does butchery POS software cost in Uganda?
It depends on your business: the number of shops, users and what you need set up. We do not give a figure on this page. Message us on WhatsApp +256 702 946 946 or use the form, and we will give you a quote or a demo.
Can the system connect to my weighing scale?
We do not claim a scale connection. You weigh the meat on your scale and enter the weight in the sale. If a connected scale matters to you, ask us in the demo and we will tell you plainly what the product does today.
Can it split one carcass into different cuts?
Not in one click. Our Manufacturing module uses a recipe with ingredients and one finished item, so some butchers set a recipe per main cut. Others track total kilos bought against kilos sold by group. We help you choose what fits.
Can I sell on credit to hotels and restaurants?
Yes. You can add customers, sell on credit, see what each one owes, and record payments against the sale. You can also give a hotel its own selling price group.
Can I record Mobile Money payments?
Yes, as a payment method alongside cash and card, and you can split a bill across them. The system does not send a payment request to the customer's phone, so your cashier confirms the payment and records it.