Tailor shop management software: what it does, and download vs online

A retail till handles a sale that ends at the counter. A tailoring shop also has work that lasts days or weeks: the customer is measured, the garment is cut and stitched, there may be a fitting, and the balance is paid at pickup. Software for a tailoring shop has to hold both kinds of work, which comes down to these jobs:

Our tailor shop management software page goes through how TailorSync handles each of these. The rest of this guide is about a question that comes up early: whether to download a program or work online.

A downloaded program is installed on one computer and saves your records on that computer's disk. Its strength is that it keeps working when the internet drops. The rest is up to you. You make the backups, and a failed disk or a stolen laptop can take years of measurements with it. A second computer, a phone or a second branch usually needs its own copy or a network set up between them, and new versions have to be installed by hand.

An online system keeps your records on the provider's servers, and you open it in a web browser. Every device you sign in from sees the same customers and orders, so the counter computer, the owner's phone and a second branch all work from one book. Updates arrive without anyone installing them, and the provider runs the backups. The trade-off is that it needs an internet connection, and it is usually a monthly subscription.

TailorSync is online. It keeps your shop's records on its servers and backs up the database every night. It needs a working internet connection to load and save sales, orders and payments, so if your shop's line is unreliable, keep a phone hotspot ready. When there is an update, TailorSync shows a message with a Refresh button and waits for you to press it, so an update never reloads the screen in the middle of a sale.

There is no free-forever version of TailorSync, and nothing to download. There is a free trial: 30 days with the core modules, for up to five users at one shop. Choose the Trial plan when you sign up and no card is needed. To keep going after the 30 days, choose a paid plan in Billing: Starter for a single shop, Expansion for up to 20 users and more than one branch, or Enterprise for larger groups. Current prices, in AED, are in the pricing section of the home page.

You can add TailorSync to the home screen of a phone, a tablet or a computer straight from the browser, without an app store. It gets its own icon and opens full screen, without the browser's address bar around it, so a counter tablet behaves like a till.

Install it on as many of the shop's devices as you need. Everyone works from the same records, and each member of staff signs in with their own login, so the counter tablet, the workshop computer and your phone all show the same orders.

Whichever software you try, run a real week of the shop through it during the trial and check these points:

To sign up you enter your shop name, a web address for your shop and your email, then verify the email and sign in. The setup guide covers the first week, from business details and VAT to the first order. If your customers are in a spreadsheet now, moving off spreadsheets shows how to import them in one go.