The Company

• Petaluma Pie Company (PPC) is a small pie shop in downtown Petaluma, California that joined SalesVu in July to cut their business expenses. PPC has served handmade sweet and savory pies (everything from butter scotch cream to cheeseburger pie) using local and organic ingredients since December 2010. PPC not only serves an assortment of pies, but also salad, coffee, tea and beverages, hot chocolate and the occasional cookie. Taking the idea of “farm to table” seriously, they purchase many of their ingredients directly from farmers and other producers.

The Needs

• PPC Owner Angelo Sacerdote needed the ability to access data quickly and efficiently, such as menu items, sales reports, sales tax information, etc. Prior to joining SalesVu, they used a SAM4S cash register.

“We are a small shop and there is no room for a second POS station and we also don’t have room for lines to form,” said Sacerdote. “SalesVu has given us the ability to add a cash register at a moment’s notice when the store gets busy by picking up an iPod touch and helping the next customer.”

“When it comes time to report our sales tax, it just takes a minute to get the information I need.”

The SalesVu Decision

• PPC looked into Square, Revel iPad POS, POS Lavu, Shopkeep and Isis POS. However, most POS systems feature a high upfront cost and monthly fee. Additionally with Square, Sacerdote did not want to have to manually enter all menu items and use iTunes to back them up. With SalesVu’s iPad POS, he could use cloud for data entry. Therefore, should something happen to his iPad or iPod, he can add another device and instantly have all of their data on it; thus, be back up and running much quicker.

“This ability to add and sync other devices also means that when we have a big crowd at our shop, the main POS does not have to be a bottleneck. I can just pick up an iPod Touch and ring up the next customer.”

• According to Sacerdote, the best SalesVu feature is the robust reporting.

“It gives us the ability to track things on a micro and macro level. Being away from the shop and being able to check on things is invaluable,” he said. “Introducing a new product and seeing how well it sells is super helpful. Comparing sales month to month or day to day really gives us a clear idea of how we are doing.”

The Results

• Petaluma Pie Company spends less on merchant processing now due to SalesVu’s flat rate.

“The flat rate that SalesVu charges is lower and easier to understand,” said Sacerdote.

• With the SAM4S cash register, they had to run a series of reports daily and save them to a thumb drive. In using those electronic reports, a small error could essentially make the data irretrievable. Also, all files had to be converted to CSV after having someone write the code for it. To track sales over time, Sacerdote then had to manually create “complicated” spreadsheets.

“It was a real nightmare,” he says of the experience. “With SalesVu, it just takes a minute to get any kind of report I need.”

• Sacerdote claims that SalesVu iPad POS has saved him hours of tedious work dealing with spreadsheets; he has recommended it to many of his customers who are also merchants.

To find out more about Petaluma Pie Company check out their website: www.petalumapie.com, follow them on Twitter: @petalumapie or like their Facebook page!