Question 1

How does the offline-first POS work?

Accepted Answer

Momentum's POS processes every transaction locally on your device — the device is the primary store of truth. When your internet connection drops, nothing changes for your staff or customers. Transactions, inventory lookups, customer profiles, loyalty redemptions, and receipt printing all continue normally. When connectivity restores, all data syncs with the cloud automatically and idempotently — no duplicate charges, no lost sales.

Question 2

What is the difference between offline mode and offline-first?

Accepted Answer

Offline mode (used by most cloud POS systems) is a fallback: the system queues transactions and disables features it cannot process without connectivity. Offline-first means the local device runs the entire application independently — there is no reduced feature set when offline. Momentum is offline-first: every feature available online is available offline.

Question 3

What happens to a transaction if I lose internet in the middle of a sale?

Accepted Answer

Nothing — the transaction completes normally. Momentum uses idempotent transaction fingerprints (a unique ID assigned at the moment of commitment) to ensure that even if a transaction is submitted more than once during reconnection, it is only applied once. There is no risk of double-charges or duplicate inventory adjustments.

Question 4

Do you charge per user or per device?

Accepted Answer

Neither. Momentum charges per location. You can have unlimited checkout registers and unlimited user accounts at each of your locations under all standard pricing plans. Adding a seasonal cashier, a store manager, or granting your accountant reporting access costs nothing extra.

Question 5

What plans does Momentum offer?

Accepted Answer

Momentum has three plans: Starter at $89/location/month, Growth at $150/location/month, and Enterprise with custom pricing. All plans include unlimited users and registers per location. The Growth plan adds advanced forecasting, priority support, and expanded API access. Enterprise adds custom SLA, dedicated onboarding, and single-tenant deployment options.

Question 6

How does per-location pricing compare to per-user pricing in practice?

Accepted Answer

A 3-location retailer with 12 staff on a $25/user platform pays $300/month in user fees alone. On Momentum's Starter plan, those same 3 locations cost $267/month — and adding 5 more staff costs nothing. Per-location pricing means your software costs grow only when you open a new location, not when you hire new people.

Question 7

Does Momentum handle GST, HST, and PST correctly for Canadian retailers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum's 3-tier tax engine applies the correct federal and provincial taxes automatically based on the province of sale. This includes HST provinces (Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador), dual-tax provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), and Quebec's QST. No manual tax code management is required.

Question 8

Does Momentum support French-language operation for Quebec retailers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum is fully bilingual — English and French — across the entire platform including the POS interface, receipts, reports, and customer-facing elements. This meets the requirements of Quebec's Charter of the French Language (Bill 96) for retail software used in Quebec.

Question 9

Does Momentum support Interac payments?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum supports Interac Debit natively alongside Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. This is built into the payment processing layer — not a split-terminal workaround.

Question 10

Is Momentum PIPEDA-compliant?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum is built and hosted in Canada with Canadian data sovereignty. Customer and business data is stored on Canadian infrastructure and does not cross the border. The platform is designed in compliance with PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act).

Question 11

Is my financial data secure?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum's accounting engine uses a tamper-evident cryptographic ledger — each journal entry is SHA-256 hashed, with the hash embedded in the header of the next entry. Modifying any historical record breaks the chain and is programmatically detectable. This means retroactive financial manipulation cannot go undetected. All data is also encrypted in transit and at rest.

Question 12

What is a tamper-evident accounting ledger?

Accepted Answer

A tamper-evident ledger uses cryptographic hash chaining to make historical record modification detectable. Every journal entry produces a SHA-256 hash. That hash is stored in the next entry's header, creating a chain. If any historical entry is modified, its hash changes — breaking the chain at that point. Momentum's verification endpoint can traverse the entire ledger and identify any broken links, providing auditable proof of ledger integrity.

Question 13

Does Momentum support role-based access control?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum has a 4-tier RBAC system: Owner/CFO (full access), Accountant (financial reports and accounting, no POS), Store Manager (location-level operations, no cross-location financials), and Cashier (POS transactions only). Permissions are granular and can be customised per user.

Question 14

Can Momentum replace my QuickBooks subscription?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum includes a full double-entry accounting engine with chart of accounts, general ledger, journal entries, bank reconciliation, accounts payable/receivable, and financial reporting (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow). For most retailers, Momentum replaces both their POS and their accounting software — eliminating the integration between them entirely.

Question 15

Does Momentum support batch and lot tracking?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum tracks inventory at the batch, lot, and serial-number level with full traceability from supplier to customer. This includes expiry date management, batch-level costing (FIFO, AVCO, LIFO), and recall management. This is designed for food, supplements, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and any product category requiring lot-level traceability.

Question 16

What inventory costing methods does Momentum support?

Accepted Answer

Momentum supports FIFO (First In, First Out), AVCO (Average Cost), and LIFO (Last In, First Out) costing methods, configurable at the product category level. Costing is applied at the batch and lot level where batch tracking is enabled, ensuring accurate COGS reporting for complex inventory.

Question 17

How does Momentum's demand forecasting work?

Accepted Answer

Momentum's ML-powered demand forecasting runs against your live transaction data to generate purchase order recommendations by SKU and location. The model accounts for sales velocity, lead time variability, seasonality, and day-of-week patterns. Purchase orders are pre-filled with recommended quantities — you review, adjust, and submit rather than calculating from scratch.

Question 18

How does multi-location management work in Momentum?

Accepted Answer

All locations in Momentum share a single data model — one product catalogue, one customer database, one loyalty program, and one chart of accounts. You manage pricing, promotions, and products centrally and push changes to specific locations or all locations simultaneously. Each location has its own performance reporting, and consolidated cross-location reporting is always available in real time.

Question 19

Can stock be transferred between locations?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum includes a 7-state inter-location transfer pipeline: Draft, Submitted, Approved, Dispatched, In Transit, Received, and Completed. Each state transition is logged with a timestamp and user. The pipeline supports partial transfers, transfer discrepancies, and landed cost allocation.

Question 20

How long does it take to add a new location?

Accepted Answer

Adding a new location in Momentum is a configuration task, not an implementation project. The product catalogue, pricing, customers, and accounting structure are already in the platform. You configure the new location's tax settings, assign staff, connect hardware, and go live. Most operators launch a new location in 1–3 days.

Question 21

Does Momentum support wholesale and retail from one platform?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum supports both retail POS and wholesale B2B operations natively. B2B customers can have their own pricing tiers (fixed price lists or percentage discounts), net payment terms, and order history. All wholesale and retail sales draw from the same inventory record in real time — no sync window, no oversell risk.

Question 22

What hardware is supported?

Accepted Answer

Momentum is a progressive web app that runs on any modern browser. It is compatible with iPads, PC terminals, and MacBooks. Standard peripherals — receipt printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, and card readers — connect via USB or Bluetooth using standard protocols. No proprietary hardware is required.

Question 23

Do I need to install software?

Accepted Answer

No. Momentum runs entirely in a browser as a progressive web app. You can add it to your home screen on any device for an app-like experience, but no download, installation, or IT support is required. Updates are automatic.

Question 24

Do you assist with data migration?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Momentum's White-Glove Onboarding includes complete data migration. Our team imports your existing product catalogue, customer records, chart of accounts, historical transactions, and loyalty data. Most businesses complete migration and go live within 1–2 weeks. We handle the technical heavy lifting so your team can focus on learning the platform.

Question 25

How long does onboarding take?

Accepted Answer

Standard onboarding takes 1–2 weeks from contract to go-live for most single and multi-location retailers. This includes data migration, configuration, staff training, and a parallel-run period. Enterprise implementations with complex accounting structures or very large product catalogues may take 3–4 weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Offline & Architecture

Pricing

Canadian Compliance

Accounting & Security

Inventory

Multi-Location & Wholesale

Migration & Onboarding

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