Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

smart.tohands.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 89 posts

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#31

Post by detourdog »

anujdeshpande wrote: post #2

Syncs with their phone app, to keep a track of bills and expenses. Based on the Espressif ESP32. Quite handy for small shop owners who can't have a full-blown computer+screen cash register. Disclaimer: I am working as a freelancer for their next version of hardware that will be based on Linux.

I think moving to a full blown operating system is moving in the wrong direction. I think moving in the other direction towards a strictly hardware double entry book keeping system would be progress.

I think any operating system over complicates and encumbers the idea with un-needed dependices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#32

Post by account_created »

Nice project.

Few suggestions: 1. Change/Update your logo. I find it hard to read it the font is not best for alphabets. 2. In the product itself, the brand name is reversed for the shopkeeper. I initially thought maybe it's some smart name that could be read in reverse as well (like 1300135 lol). It is overengineered, just keep it simple it. 3. Add a real use-case demo in your website. It is currently filled with garbage/gibberish.

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#33

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

robertlagrant wrote: post #29
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Thats never the case. you'd just open an api which hopefully the devs will make a connector for.

Sorry - what does "open an API mean"?

What I mean is, how would your device send data to a software? Open an api meant this interaction from hardware to mobile or computer is documented somwhere with all parameters and auth tokens and such.

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#34

Post by anujdeshpande »

scoot wrote: post #7
anujdeshpande wrote: post #2

Syncs with their phone app, to keep a track of bills and expenses. Based on the Espressif ESP32. Quite handy for small shop owners who can't have a full-blown computer+screen cash register. Disclaimer: I am working as a freelancer for their next version of hardware that will be based on Linux.

/disclaimer/disclosure/

Noted :)!

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#35

Post by aniforprez »

Closi wrote: post #25
tralarpa wrote: post #5

[Serious] Can you not just connect a physical numpad to your phone and use the phone screen as display?

Because these are businesses that are probably using a calculator anyway. It's very much a cultural thing - punch numbers into the calculator and pass it back and forth when negotiating on a price, or add up the costs on a physical calculator on your market stall. You aren't giving receipts or anything, so hard to keep track. I'm in the UK so don't see it often, but if you go to India / Vietnam / Thailand etc you see…

One of the big draws is a tactile interface that you don't have to look at while you punch in the numbers. Smartphone touch screens don't offer that and brick phones are too dumb or the models that do have some form of smart OS are not available in these places. This seems like a good way to tap into an existing market that's fairly huge while adding smart features

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#36

Post by anujdeshpande »

nojvek wrote: post #23
anujdeshpande wrote: post #2

Syncs with their phone app, to keep a track of bills and expenses. Based on the Espressif ESP32. Quite handy for small shop owners who can't have a full-blown computer+screen cash register. Disclaimer: I am working as a freelancer for their next version of hardware that will be based on Linux.

Anujdesh, this is amazing. Is the calculator being manufactured fully in India or shipped from China? Curious. Love the WiFi connected ability. Does the user have any choice on what api they want to export to? Or it has to be a specific app? Even in the US, 90+% of gifts bought for Christmas are made in China. Almost anything containing electronics, plastics and some kind of plush fabric / faux leather seems to be ma…

Components are from China - everything is assembled in India (Bengaluru). It's probably impossible to manufacture with locally sourced components in India in 2023(especially displays, processors, memories).

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#37

Post by santhoshr »

I think this is a ridiculously brilliant idea. It's probably hard for Americans and folks in the West to imagine why this is a big deal. There are millions of vendors who basically dominate India's retail market, which is probably one of the largest unorganized corners of the global economy with the world's largest population. There have been tons of efforts and a significant amount of VC funding to digitize unorganized retail (the Kirana segment) in India, and many of these companies have struggled. I think part of the challenge is that they were trying to get shopkeepers to change behavior and force them away from their existing sales and checkout process. The elegance of the Kirana sale/checkout is efficiency - no barcodes to scan, no POS to deal with, and it's probably 3-4x faster than any modern checkout process. However, there is one tool they always use - a calculator.

This product basically enables me to do what I already do as a shopkeeper and maintain existing efficiencies while I also have the opportunity to digitize my transactions. I think it could be a game-changer.

Full disclosure: I grew up in a tiny town in India, and this was pretty much 100% of my retail experience!

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#38

Post by robertlagrant »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #33
robertlagrant wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry - what does "open an API mean"?

What I mean is, how would your device send data to a software? Open an api meant this interaction from hardware to mobile or computer is documented somwhere with all parameters and auth tokens and such.

As in call an API via IPC of some sort, e.g. HTTP? I thought that AGPL meant that the copyleftness of the licence would survive that.

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#39

Post by detourdog »

2Gkashmiri wrote: post #9

i have a fundamental problem with "accounting" for small businesses. 1. if they are registered with GST, they should probably start maintaining inventory and for that,this device is not useful. 2. if they are NOT registered with GST, they can't even bother with this because nowadays UPI is becoming the norm and all sale gets recorded there anyway. this would only serve the niche of "not-registered for GST and using c…

USA, no idea what a GST is or it's requirements.

Re: Tohands – Smart calculator for small businesses

#40

Post by detourdog »

cnu wrote: post #15
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #9

i have a fundamental problem with "accounting" for small businesses. 1. if they are registered with GST, they should probably start maintaining inventory and for that,this device is not useful. 2. if they are NOT registered with GST, they can't even bother with this because nowadays UPI is becoming the norm and all sale gets recorded there anyway. this would only serve the niche of "not-registered for GST and using c…

I think having a single place to record all your transactions would be a good feature. And if they have a way to send receipts to customers via SMS/whatsapp, it would be a great.

I would like a simple record keeping box that can be shared with more complex devices for applications requiring messages or complex reports. I would like to see the device maintain a simple "Datagram" approach for each transaction with text file export of grouped transactions.
Post reply on HN