Computerlink NEWS POS — bank compatibility

Computerlink NEWS is a point-of-sale system for general retail, newsagencies and retail. Rocklea, Queensland, and its software has been going into newsagencies since 1979 — one of the last independents still standing in that niche.

Tyro only. Tyro is its own middleware and its own acquirer, so this one comes with the bank attached — moving bank means a new integration.

Computerlink operates from Dollis Street in Rocklea, Brisbane, and its software has been implemented in newsagencies, bookshops, card and gift stores, specialty coffee shops and general retail since 1979. The product is properly called ComputerlinkNEWS, with a sibling, ComputerlinkBOOKS, for booksellers. It is a Windows system built as integrated modules covering point of sale, inventory, stock receipting, purchase orders, customer order processing and customer control, and it scales from a single small newsagent up to multi-site operators and buying groups.

The context that matters is consolidation. Australian newsagency software has been shrinking for over a decade — Tower Systems bought the NewsPOS business in 2012 and claims somewhere around 1,750 to 1,800 newsagents, with POS Solutions the next largest. Computerlink is one of the handful of systems recognised by core industry suppliers as a genuine newsagency platform alongside those two, which makes it a surviving independent in a market where most of the alternatives have been absorbed. It does not publish customer numbers, so take any market-share claim you read with caution.

On the payments side, it integrates PC-EFTPOS directly so transactions are not double-keyed on a separate terminal, and lists an online EFTPOS interface, touch screen as standard, EDI compliance, a MYOB interface, loyalty, supplier file downloads and a web shop interface. It is also listed as a Zeller-integrated partner.