Set Up Your POS to Help SIMPLIFY the Canadian GST Holiday Process – Our Team Can Help!
We are just a few weeks in to the Canadian GST holiday and if you’re struggling with the process in your store, you are NOT alone! Small businesses across Canada are having a hard time adapting to this 2-month tax break on the specific items that qualify and it’s creating a lot of pain for store owners trying to get through the holiday shopping season.
Now that the holiday rush is over, it is a great time to set up your point of sale software to help simplify the process for you and your team. Depending on your system, you should be able to specify exactly which items would receive a tax discount so that when the items are scanned in at check out, it will happen automatically.
The GST/HST break applies to the following products (with limitations and restrictions):
• Food
• Beverages
• Restaurants, catering, and other food or drink establishments
• Children’s clothing and footwear
• Children’s diapers
• Children’s car seats
• Children’s toys
• Jigsaw puzzles
• Video game consoles, controllers and physical video games
• Physical books
• Printed newspapers
• Christmas and similar decorative trees
If you carry any of these products in your store, then you are responsible for applying the GST/HST discount at the time of sale until February 15, 2025. For Heartland Retail POS and Retail Pro users, our team can help you get this set up directly in your system if you require assistance.
Contact Us Learn MoreCRS Welcomes Owen Lane to the Team
We are extremely pleased to welcome a brand new member to the CRS team – Owen Lane! Based out of Ontario, Owen is joining us on the sales team as an Account Manager – POS Specialist for Eastern Canada and the United States!
Based in southwestern Ontario, Owen brings a wealth of experience in business development, having excelled in his previous roles at Cavelo Inc. and SciLeads. In these roles, he consistently surpassed targets and built strong, lasting relationships with clients and partners. With his expertise in the tech and SaaS sectors, as well as a collaborative mindset developed through many years’ experience in hi-level competitive sports, Owen is well-equipped to make a meaningful impact here at CRS.
With welcoming Owen to the team, we wanted to take this opportunity to launch a brand new employee spotlight campaign and kick it off by getting to know our newest team member a little better! I had the pleasure of chatting with Owen a little further to gain some insight.
Q: Thanks for chatting with us a bit Owen! So you’re quite new to the company, but can you tell us a little bit about what your role at Canadian Retail Solutions will be and what your typical day would look like for you?
A: As an Account Manager, I help retailers and restaurants streamline operations and grow through tailored solutions. My day involves prospecting new leads, connecting with clients, and attending trade shows to stay on top of trends and build relationships. It’s a mix of strategy, communication, and creativity, which keeps things exciting.
Happy New Year to All of Our Valued Partners, Retailers, and Subscribers
From all of us at Canadian Retail Solutions, we wish all of our valued partners, retailers and subscribers a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2025! As we set our personal resolutions and goals for this coming year, why not add “increasing the selling potential and profitability of my retail business” to the list?
As a Retail Operations Partner, we can help you reach that goal in 2025 in a variety of different ways
- Getting You on the RIGHT POS for YOUR Specific Business Needs
- Expanding Your POS Capabilities Through Integrations, Add-Ons, and Plugins to Improve Business Operations
- Updating Your Tech Hardware to Work FOR You, Instead of Against You
- Offer Ongoing POS Support and Training for Our Heartland and Retail Pro Users
- Provide Game-Changing Reporting Capabilities for Shopify Users to Make Intelligent, Data-Driven Decisions
- Streamline Your Omnichannel Operations with Seamless Integration Solutions
- Future-Proof Your Business Through the Use of the Modern-Day Tech, Aligning Your Business with Consumer Trends
- Provide Advanced Data Back-Up, Anti-Virus, and Monitoring to Protect Your Business
- Establishing a Partnership Together, Bringing More than 30 Years of Expertise to Your Toolbelt
Let’s grow together in 2025 – give our team a shout to book a FREE, no-obligation discovery call to learn about how we can help improve YOUR retail business!
Contact UsGet Ready for Physical Inventory Season
Retailers – we survived the holiday shopping season! Let’s take a second to pat ourselves on the back and take a breath….but we can’t rest for too long, because year end physical inventory counts are coming up QUICK!
For some retailers, especially independent retailers, the technical side of the task may seem more daunting than the task of counting products itself. For other retailers, it might be a piece of cake. No matter what your technical ability or skill level is, our team can assist in several different ways, as you need it!
BEFORE Your Inventory Count
Gone are the days of manually counting and recording stock. Living in the digital age gives us the advantage of time saving technology – barcode scanners. If you don’t have the hardware you need, we can help you source the best product for your retail business. Our team will also provision, support and warranty any hardware purchased through CRS, giving you peace of mind that your tech investment is covered.
Our team can also provide RFID solutions for the simplest and quickest inventory management solution on the market!
While every retailer’s needs vary, prior to performing your counts, you can book some time with our team to do some pro-active maintenance, ensuring a smooth and efficient execution with minimal hiccups (if any at all). For instance:
- We re-initialize scanners purchased through CRS to ensure they are in working order, and any previous memory has been cleared on the devices that store it
- We ensure connections to wireless hardware are functioning correctly
- We go through the count and upload process to verify everything is uploading correctly, and you’re clear on what to do
DURING Your Inventory Count
Our team is always on standby to help our retailers with their tech needs. This includes during your inventory count. While we can hope we’ve worked out all the bugs BEFORE you started your inventory count, if anything goes awry, our team has your back! A misconnection, an error code on the scanner, a data import fail – whatever may happen, you can call our support line for assistance.
AFTER Your Inventory Count
Reconciliation and discrepancy identification are crucial to the effectiveness of your personal inventory. After you’ve completed your count, you can reach out to our team to assist in a variety of ways, such as:
- We review your discrepancies with you and discuss resolutions
- We make copies of the count and apply them to your system
- We verify that the new quantities in your system match the new count
- We take data from all kinds of formats to shape it and match the importing map
- We assist in importing data into your system
These are just some of the common ways our technical support team assist retailers during this busy time of year. No matter what assistance you may need, we can help! Give us a shout today to learn more!
Merchants must be on a CRS support plan or have pre-paid tech hours on file in order for our support team to assist with physical inventory needs.