Leading convenience retailers have joined forces with a former Torex and Oracle developer to launch a new back-office system that helps ease the administrative burden on store owners.

Retail Guardian has been developed over the past 14 months with input from retailers including Dee Sedani, who runs two stores in Derbyshire.

Sedani told Retail Express that the system was designed to do four things: increase visibility of staff behaviour, increase productivity, be easy to use and create reports and evidence. “This replaces the shop manual,” he said.

The system is run via a tablet and allows you to log daily, weekly or monthly store tasks for employees, manage time sheets and payroll, and measure illness and holiday.

This system allows you to become reactive instantly. This will change staff mentality and standards

It has tools that enable you to store fridge and freezer temperatures, and receive text alerts if one breaks down.

It acts as a front end system that allows you to hook up fingerprint recognition technology to help with age verification and store a refusals log.

It also allows you to keep your staff training up to date, ensuring employees watch training videos on topics such as cleaning or checking ID when they finish their shift.

The multi-faceted system has already helped Sedani save money, as he used it to find a member of staff that was leaving one of his stores at 1pm every day, despite being paid until 2pm.

“This system allows you to become reactive instantly,” he said. “This will change staff mentality and standards.”

Developer Ian Woolfenden said that the system initially started as a simple tool to help track paper rounds – but grew over time.

“This solves every gap in retail,” he said. “Every retailer we’ve spoken to finds something valuable in it, whether that’s age verification or managing payroll.”

The system is available from the end of May, with prices starting at £1,200. More details can be found at retailguardian.com.