Customer Reviews

Sharp XE-A203 Thermal Printing High Contrast Cash Register

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first register i've owned. And it's a charm, i though the programming would be hard. But it is super easy with the included software. Use the software, trying to program and set up things like your logo for receipts will take a lot of time, using the register. Connect the included USB cable to the register and your pc and it becomes a breeze. Programming the tax, reciept logo, PLU (price look up) and Departments was fun.

No only was i up and running in no time, one click and all the days sales is downloaded directly into quickbooks. I don't need a printout from the register. I get full data on all the days sales, from the time they were made, the clerk, how much each department sold, etc etc. You can also download this information to a SD card to read and print from another pc. So far everything is running smooth, I don't have any complaints. Even giving a % discount works correctly, read the manual it will help you understand how to get that done.

This register is perfect for small business such as retail stores. You can even program this register with an ID just in case you have more than one register in your store.

I really enjoy the use of the sharp xe - 203, as i stated in the beginning, this is my first register, so i do have a lack of experience with other register. I'm a pc guy so i know good tech products when i see them, but i know them better once i use them. I recommended this for any and all small business owners who need a cash register. And the price is also another good selling point.

All in all this is a good cash register, easy to program.

I researched cash registers before choosing this model from Sharp. It
has just what I need, and many features that I found on more expensive models, for a good price. It's a Sharp, so it should be reliable and last.

It's nice looking sitting on the counter in our shop, and it has the customer display window on the back of the unit. A big thing to me -- this model does not have the inconvenient roller-ink system that comes on so many of the cheaper machines. I don't have to deal with re-inking periodically. It's perfect for my small family business, I would choose the same machine again, and buy it from Amazon.

I gave it a four-star rating instead of a five-star due to the instructions. We struggled with those until we realized that what is written on the quick-start sheet is not exactly the same as the manual, or perhaps we needed more detail because cash registers are new to us. We learned to refer to the manual on everything. This Sharp is easy to program and use following the manual, and getting the routine down. Just take an hour or so and work with it. When you make an error it shows on the display and with a beep, you clear it and try again. This cash register will do logos also, a nice feature others in this price range do not offer. We are working with it on our logo graphic now, but the receipts look fine and professional without it.

Amazon.com (the merchant was Buy.com) had the best price on
this Sharp new in the box, I found the same thing in stores for over $[...]. I paid around $[...] and got free and quick shipping, a great deal for this cash register brand new. There are refurbished units widely available at various dealers online, and on eBay, for even less. We thought a new machine, with full warranty and support, was the right choice for us.

Sharp is maybe the oldest electronic cash register manufacturer in the world and the best of all of them. This cash register is a little titan that packs simplicity of operation, sturdiness, and reliability. For an about to open small business is more than enough. You will not need more than this machine in a long, long, long time. I assure you may, God forbid, go out of business, close the store, go to something else, and she will still be there.

This register, overall, is very easy to use. Setup was a little complicated, but once I got the hang of it, no problem. It works for our everyday operation and I'm sure can do much more than we're asking it to do.

The BIGGEST problem we have is that it isn't compatible with our Windows 7 (or Vista) operating system. I had to override the software to even use it to program the register, and we can't do anything with quickbooks. Connecting the register to the computer directly does nothing. So for our reports we have to manually enter all of the values we need into spreadsheets, then upload to quickbooks. I've spent literally hours on the phone with Sharp and they can't do a thing.

Honestly, if we stay on top of inputting the info into a spreadsheet every day, it's fine, but if we fall behind it's a total pain in the rear.

I would buy this again, but only going into it knowing what a challenge getting information from the register was. To find that out the hard way was *not* fun!

The Sharp XE-A203 has some good functionality for a small business. It can create about 100 different departments with open pricing and about 1200 PLUs (fixed price items). The challenge is learning how to set it up right. I've used the software that came with it, but it's not exactly the most simple thing to use. Fortunately the tech support at Sharp has been great. I've called them about four times and each time they have been able to help with the programming issue I was having. The down side would be for a restuartant needing to record tips. Unless you made "tips" a seperate department, it's not really set up to handle this. The other downside would be for running Z1's and Z2's. The machine will only run an X1 and X2 via a computer. As far as I could tell, the Z1 and Z2's must be performed manually. I don't have any experience with this adapting to quickbooks so I can not attest to this.

After my "ROYAL alpha583cx Heavy Duty Cash Register" died we purchased this sharp XEA203. Well... it's been about a week and it's been really frustrating. My fiance is a computer programmer and he helped me program both registers. He thought the Sharp was easier to program than the Royal, but I believe the exact opposite. The Royal was much easier to understand, in my opinion!

The Z reports don't make sense to me. Net sales, gross sales and department total sales don't add up. There are 3 different kinds of voids and I can't figure out if it's adding all the voids together or repeating the types of voids. With the Royal, at the end of the day you have one option... to run a Z report and zero it out for the day. The Sharp has several options for zeroing out the register. Monthly, daily etc etc. And it doesn't spit out a report that is similar to the one the Royal did so I have to change the way I do my bookkeeping a bit. The number one frustrating thing about the Sharp... if you ring something up for say, $10.00 and take off 20% because the item is on sale or the customer presents a coupon (NOT a manufacturer's coupon), the register should tax the $8.00, right? Well, the Sharp is calculating the tax for the $10.00 and adding it to the final total, even after the $2.00 is deducted. I have yet to find a way to easily correct this, I've had to resort to manually entering the sale price from square one, which is time consuming and the customer asks "Did I get a discount on this item?" since the discount is not reflected on their receipt. Also, this register saves each transaction in memory. You cannot keep a paper copy of your transactions AND give a receipt to your customer. It's one or the other.

So, bottom line, in my opinion, if you are used to using Royal, stay with Royal and when it comes to cash registers, the simpler the better! Also, my Royal had an extra drawer for extra rolls of coins and keys, this one does not.

On the plus side, this register is very quiet and holds a charge of 48 hours on 2 AA batteries, something the Royal could not do. It also has a slot for an SD card to save up to a year of data but up until today, all the reports are wrong so that doesn't really help. It also comes with a USB cord to plug the register into your PC and get your logo onto your receipts and it's supposed to aid in the programming of the register. I haven't touched that yet so I can't comment on it.

decent not great. some are easy to program and some are hard to understand and program. overall, am happy with the product. the thermal papers are too expensive and am glad there is an option to turn the receipt on and off.

I recommend this product to any small business and the people who have to use it. Once it arrives, you need to plan on taking several hours to read through the programming book in order to set up departments for sales, create reports, and familiarization in general. It actually took me half a day or so, but I'm slow with new stuff, especially anything tech.

I personally popped off the plastic covers on the keys and added my own little hand written department names so that employees don't have to remember numbers. As far as actual use, my employees love it and it makes data entry for bookeeping on my end a whole lot easier, simply because the register does the math and it is presented in an organized manner.

Love the thermal printer as well. Simply reload receipt paper with EXACT SIZE THERMAL PAPER when you run out and you're good to go. No need to mess with ribbons.

I bought this particular model because of the download capabilities to my quickbooks and the ease it said of programing the register. The operation book is not very clear as to how to operate the register. I had to call to get it out of training mode and now I can't get it into training mode again! I think this register will be great when I can understand how to do all the operations but the manual is not clear at all. It isn't that easy to program from the computer but again that could be due to the manual.

This register was puchased for my work, the Bedford County Historical Society. We had a Sharp register before, and this is very similar. There's not much to learn for simple functions. We've only been using it a day so far, but we are very pleased. I would recommend this register to any small business owner. There are many features I'm sure we'll never use, but we like the possibilities. It is very easy to do simple set-up and be able to use right away.