This page, as an agent reads it

---
title: "Syria"
description: "One offline-first point of sale across the Gulf and Levant — pick your country for local details on currency, tax, receipts, and multi-store operations."
canonical: "https://sandooq.app/pos-system/syria"
locale: "en"
---

# Syria

- **Multi-currency support** — Handle Syrian pounds alongside USD and EUR with a daily exchange rate you set in the dashboard, frozen on every transaction. Receipts show both the SYP total and the tendered currency clearly, and the daily Z-report breaks revenue out per currency so the bookkeeping handoff to the accountant takes minutes, not hours.
- **Truly offline-first** — Built for Syria's network and power realities: checkout can continue through weak connectivity, work is stored locally, and the back office syncs when service returns. Damascus and Aleppo retailers can plan around outages without turning the public site into a certification claim.
- **Bilingual Arabic-first** — Arabic-first interface tuned to Syrian retail terminology, with English fallback for staff serving expat and aid-worker customers. Receipts can be prepared in Arabic with English secondary lines, in Arabic alone, or in English alone depending on the counter workflow.
- **Resilient hardware** — Works on basic Android tablets, low-spec laptops, and older desktops — the kind of hardware actually available in Damascus and Aleppo retail. Connects to standard ESC/POS receipt printers, HID-mode barcode scanners, and basic cash drawers. No proprietary equipment requirement, no need to import expensive Western terminals.
- **Multi-store ready** — Manage Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, and Homs stores from one back office with per-store inventory and inter-branch transfers. Consolidated reporting rolls up the chain while per-store user permissions keep branch cashiers scoped to their own daily report and stock. One back-office login, full picture for the owner.

## The redenomination, and what it does to a price list

- **100:1** — Redenomination ratio
- **January 2026** — When it took effect
- **August 2026** — Status described as of

In January 2026 the Syrian pound was redenominated at 100 to 1 — two zeros removed — with a dual-circulation period during which both note series were legal tender. As of August 2026 that transition is behind most counters, but its consequences are not, and the schedule and current status are worth confirming with the Ministry of Finance rather than with a vendor.

### What a redenomination actually breaks

We are writing about it because nobody else selling POS software in Syria has, and because a redenomination is one of the few events that breaks a point-of-sale system in ways the sales demo never shows. Four things go wrong, and they are worth naming before you buy anything:

- **The price list is the smallest problem.** — Changing prices is a bulk edit. What hurts is everything downstream that was written in the old units — printed shelf labels, barcode-encoded prices, supplier price agreements, and a customer's memory of what a thing costs.
- **History becomes two-scaled.** — Last year's sales in old pounds and this month's in new pounds are not comparable unless something records which scale each figure was in. A report that silently mixes them produces a growth number that is pure arithmetic fiction.
- **Two note series at one till.** — During dual circulation a cashier is taking both, and the drawer count at close has to make sense across the two. This is the moment a system that assumed one currency per drawer starts costing you real money in reconciliation time.
- **Round numbers move.** — Prices that were psychologically round in the old scale are not round in the new one, and every shop re-prices at slightly different moments.

### Where our design happens to help

Where Sandooq's design happens to help, stated narrowly because the redenomination is not a feature we built for: the counter is multi-currency by design rather than by workaround, so more than one tender scale at a single till is the normal case rather than the broken one.

Every transaction stores the rate that applied at the time of sale, so a reporting period spanning a scale change reports each sale against what it was actually worth. Bulk price editing runs from the back office across every branch at once rather than terminal by terminal. And receipts print the total and the tendered amount separately, which is what makes a mixed-note transaction legible to a customer standing at the counter.

### What we do not claim

What we do not claim: there is no automatic redenomination migration, no button that rewrites your history, and no conversion service. If you are carrying old-scale data, that is a data question to work through during onboarding, and we would rather scope it honestly with you than sell it as a checkbox.

## Selling on 2-on / 4-off power

- **2 on / 4 off** — Widely reported rationing pattern, in hours
- **Cash sales** — What still completes through a connectivity drop

Rationing schedules of roughly two hours on and four hours off have been the widely reported pattern in Syrian cities, varying by area and by season. Every retailer reading this already knows their own local rhythm better than any vendor does. What matters here is what a POS system does with it — and the honest version is more useful than the marketing version, so here is exactly what keeps working and what does not.

### What keeps working, and what does not

- **What keeps working through a connectivity drop.** — The checkout loop: building a cart, attaching a customer, and taking a cash sale. Those are captured on the terminal and queued locally. When the connection returns the queue replays in order, with deduplication on the server, so queued sales aren't lost and nothing is double-counted from a retry.
- **What needs the network.** — Signing in, manager and device PIN checks, opening and closing a cash session, looking up an earlier receipt, voids, exchanges, and card payments. These are online-only by design — each one either moves money through a third party or changes control state the server has to arbitrate between terminals.
- **What a power cut specifically does,** — and this is the part most vendors will not tell you: a power cut is not a network drop. It reboots the terminal. Reloading the browser while offline signs the cashier out, so the practical failure mode of a hard power loss is that someone has to sign in again — which needs a connection. That is a real limitation, we are not going to dress it up, and it is why the battery matters more than any software promise.
- **The practical shape of that,** — for a shop on a rationing schedule: run the terminal and the receipt printer on a battery or inverter so that grid loss is not terminal loss. Open the cash session at the start of the on-window rather than mid-outage. A drop mid-shift does not stop cash checkout. Save card payments, returns, and receipt lookups for when connectivity is back, and close the session in an on-window.

That is a narrower promise than "works completely offline", which is what most of this category claims. It is the one we can actually stand behind, and it covers the case that costs you money — a customer standing at the counter with cash in hand. The longer version of the reasoning:

- [Our guide to offline POS](https://sandooq.app/blog/offline-pos-benefits)

## Two currencies at one counter

- **SYP + USD** — Both in play at a single counter
- **One daily rate** — Set centrally; a cashier cannot change it

Cash dominates Syrian retail, bank transfer is used, and card acceptance is limited. That is the starting condition, and it means the interesting problem is not payment integration — it is running a counter where the pound and the dollar are both in play and the rate between them can move inside a single business day.

### How a two-currency till actually runs

- **How the rate works.** — You set the daily rate once, centrally, from the back office. It applies across every store, every terminal, and every receipt from that moment. You do not set it per terminal, and a cashier cannot change it — which is the point, because a rate a cashier can edit is a margin leak with a friendly interface. Every transaction freezes the rate that applied when it was made, so historical reporting uses the rate at time of sale rather than today's.
- **What that gives you at close.** — The daily report breaks revenue out per currency rather than collapsing everything into one converted total, so the drawer count is against what is physically in the drawer. If you are running a pound drawer and a dollar drawer, they reconcile separately. The bookkeeping hand-off to your accountant becomes a report rather than an evening of arithmetic.
- **What the customer sees.** — Receipts show the total and the tendered currency clearly, so a customer paying dollars against a pound-denominated price can see the arithmetic rather than trusting it. In a market where the rate is a daily conversation, showing the working is worth more than hiding it.
- **On hardware,** — because it is a real constraint here and not a footnote: Sandooq runs in a browser on basic Android tablets, low-spec laptops, and older desktops — the hardware actually available in Damascus and Aleppo trade. It connects to standard ESC/POS receipt printers, HID-mode barcode scanners, and basic cash drawers. There is no proprietary terminal to import, which matters when importing anything is the expensive part.

For the operational side of running a dual-currency till:

- [Cash management](https://sandooq.app/blog/cash-management-retail-store)
- [Multi-store inventory](https://sandooq.app/blog/multi-store-inventory-management)
- [POS hardware guide](https://sandooq.app/blog/pos-hardware-guide-printers-scanners-terminals)

## Common questions about POS in Syria

### Does it work during power and internet outages?

Cash checkout does. Carts, customers, and cash sales are captured on the terminal and queued locally, then replay in order when the network returns, so queued sales aren't lost. Signing in, opening or closing a cash session, receipt lookup, voids, exchanges, and card payments all need a connection. A power cut reboots the terminal, and reloading while offline signs the cashier out — so run the terminal on battery or inverter power if you are on a rationing schedule.

### Can it handle Syrian pounds and dollars on the same counter?

Yes, and this is a designed-for case rather than a workaround. You set a daily rate centrally from the back office; it is frozen onto every transaction, so reporting uses the rate at time of sale. The daily report breaks revenue out per currency, and receipts show the total and the tendered amount separately.

### What happened with the redenomination, and does the system handle it?

The Syrian pound was redenominated at 100 to 1 in January 2026, with a dual-circulation period. Confirm the current position with the Ministry of Finance. Sandooq's multi-currency counter and frozen per-transaction rates mean a reporting period spanning a scale change stays coherent, and bulk price edits run across all branches from the back office. There is no automatic migration of old-scale historical data — that is scoped during onboarding.

### Is there VAT in Syria?

As of August 2026 there is no value-added tax. Indirect taxes vary by category and by locality, and there is no mandatory e-invoicing framework. Confirm your own obligations with the Ministry of Finance rather than with a software vendor — including this page.

### Is the system available in Arabic?

Yes, and Arabic is the primary interface rather than a translation layer. It is tuned to Syrian retail terminology. Staff switch language per session without restarting, receipts print in Arabic, English, or both, and a layout that reads right to left is how the product was designed rather than a mirrored version of an English screen.

### What hardware do I need?

A tablet, laptop, or desktop with a browser, a receipt printer, and a barcode scanner. Sandooq works with commodity ESC/POS printers and standard USB or Bluetooth scanners, and runs on basic Android tablets and older machines. No proprietary terminal is required and nothing needs importing. Confirm your specific models during setup rather than assuming compatibility.

### Can I run several branches from one account?

Yes. Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, and Homs stores run from one back office with per-store inventory and inter-branch transfers carrying an audit trail. Consolidated reporting rolls up the chain, while branch cashiers stay scoped to their own daily report and stock.

### How do I get started?

Book a guided demo. We walk through your current setup, load a sample of your own products, and show you the flows your staff will actually use. If it fits, onboarding configures branches, currencies, and staff roles before you go live.