Casio cash registers

Casio SE-S10 Cash Register Review

Casio SE-S10

Casio SE-S10 Cash Register

The Casio SE-S10 cash register has been around for a number of years, more than we have been blogging for at least! It has proved to be an extremely popular cash register over the years and we thought it worthy of a somewhat late review.

The SE-S10 replaced the out-going TE-M80 model in the Autumn of 2010 with its first stand out feature being a full size cash drawer. Five years on it remains the cheapest cash register available in the UK with the full number of coin (8) and note (4) compartments. Not having to mix your coin is an often over-looked feature – having a pot for each coin saves your cashiers time in dispensing change and cuts down on embarrassing change errors.

The next big feature on the SE-S10 is its fast, silent thermal printer. The standard receipt header message can be customised to your requirements. The five lines of text can be personalised with your shop name, address details and or promotional message. Having your receipts personalised adds a level of professionalism and prevents confusion around refunds and exchanges. The cash register is supplied with a take up spool enabling it to be used in journal mode. However, the most popular use is receipt mode. The SE-S10 can only issue one receipt per transaction – this can be automatically done with every sale or only on customer request, but once the receipt has been issued no duplicate is available.

The SE-S10 has five department buttons (with the use of the shift button this can be up to 20), which can each be custom programmed with a description and price. If no preset price is applicable the department button can be left open for variable sales amounts.

The SE-S10 has a number of useful functions including a discount (or surcharge) button, refund mode, single item sale and low battery indicator. The secure key lock ensures manager control over sales reports, refunds and programming. The SE-S10 is also capable of supporting up to 500 PLU’s.

The SE-S10 has a ‘number only’ LED customer and operator display. Both are fixed in position, but it does allow both the operator and customer to see the sales total as each line is entered. The operator display also shows the department number the current transaction line has been assigned to.

Casio SE-S10

Casio SE-S10 Operator Display

As with any cash register that can have it’s printer ‘de-activated’ so it issues receipts and reports only on request, the running costs for the SE-S10 are relatively low. SE-S10 till rolls are available in boxes of 20 for around about the £10-£12 mark depending on how many boxes you order.

The base and cash drawer are of a robust plastic construction and we reckon the register is suitable for any premises requiring a professional cash register capable of processing somewhere in the region of 80 transactions per day. Should your business be processing a higher volume of transactions we would recommend investing in a cash register with a heavy duty metal base. Retailers with busy shops could consider either the Casio SE-S400 or the Sharp XE-A207 cash registers. With both of these tills you also get substantially more detailed reporting, significantly more sales department buttons (16 on the XE-A207 and 25 on the SE-S400), both support SD card use (for exporting sales information to a PC and for backing up the programming information). In addition to this the Sharp XE-A207 is supplied with a onsite warranty.

In summary the SE-S10, after five years on the market, remains a competitive model and we would recommend for any retail premises processing medium volume of transactions, requiring ‘on-request’ receipt issuance. However, if you require more than five department buttons, duplicate receipt functionality, SD card compatibility or a heavy duty cash drawer then there are other cash registers that will prove a better fit for your business.  For more information on the SE-S10 or to view other cash registers please visit the shopstuff website.

Casio SE-S100 Cash Register Review

In the spring of 2015 Casio released a brand new cash register model, the SE-S100, to sit neatly in their retail cash register range between the SE-S10 and SE-S400.

The first point of note about the SE-S100 is that it is available in a range of colours. Taking on from their success with the multi-colour basic cash register, the SE-G1, Casio launched the SE-S100 in a choice of black, silver, gold and red. All four tills have the same black base.

Once you’ve chosen the colour that best suits your shop interior its time to look at the key functions. The first instinct is to reckon that the SE-S100  is a SE-G1 on a large base. This would do the new model a great disservice. Like the SE-S10 and SE-S400 the SE-S100 does feature a full size lockable cash drawer with space for all 8 coin types and 4 note holders, but the range of features on the SE-S100 put it far ahead of not only the SE-G1, but also the Sharp XE-A107, and the Casio SE-S10 cash registers.

The SE-S100 has several advantages over these models, making the additional £20-£30 cost over the SE-S10 well worth the investment. First of all the SE-S100 has 12 sales department buttons compared with only 5 on the SE-S10. Each button can be programmed with a description and price (if necessary). When the button is pressed the description and price appears on the receipt and operator display. With the shift key the number of departments is easily increased to 24. There is also a PLU button enabling you to program and sell up to 2,000 different PLU’s.

Casio SE-S100

Casio SE-S100 Cash Register available in black, gold, red and silver.

The thermal receipt printer on the SE-S100 is also a lot faster than other cash registers of this class. Unlike the SE-G1 cash register the receipt on the SE-S100 can be switched off and issued on request. Alternatively, the printer can be set to work in journal (audit) mode, but this would mean that you would be unable to issue any till receipts. As with the SE-S10 the receipt header can be custom programmed with up to 5 lines of text about your business. This is a really useful function for both advertising your business and encouraging repeat custom, but also it prevents non-customers returning items under fake receipts.

The operator and customer displays on the SE-S100 are amazing for a cash register at this price level. The operator display is two line so the most recent entered item is shown on the top line, and the running total on the second line. The fixed customer display is numeric and displays the sales total clearly for the customer to see.

Probably the biggest advantage the SE-S100 has over the SE-S10 and other cash registers of this class, is the SD card back up feature. This allows sales data to be uploaded from the till and viewed on a PC. Moreover, if you have multiple till points once you have programmed your first cash register you can make a copy of the program to your SD card and then use the card to program all the other registers – saving time and money!

The SE-S100‘s are bright, functional easy to use cash registers and for the prices advertised online represent a worthwhile investment to any start up retail business. The only slight downside we can find is that their is no barcode scanner connectivity and we would prefer the cash drawer and base to be metal, but for the money the SE-S100 represents excellent value.  For a full run down on the key features and for the best prices in the UK please visit our SE-S100 website listing.