Desktop apps

We build desktop apps for Windows and Linux with Flutter for people who spend the working day at a cashier screen or a reception desk, and we share code with your mobile app where that helps.

Who it is for

Businesses whose staff spend the working day at one screen: shop and branch counters, reception desks, warehouse receiving stations and dispatch rooms that assign trips and orders. It fits a business that wants to replace old cashier software, or a browser tab that stops working whenever the branch internet drops.

It also fits a company with a web or mobile product that needs a desktop version beside it.

If your team only needs a dashboard, is online all day and uses no printers or scanners, a web app is the simpler choice, with nothing to install on each machine. We will say so on the call.

What we build

• Counter and point-of-sale apps. A keyboard-first screen that reads barcode scanners, prints receipts and labels, and keeps selling when the internet drops, then uploads what it recorded once the connection is back.
• Dispatch and monitoring consoles. A wide layout with a live map beside the queues and status panels, desktop notifications and sound alerts that do not get lost in a hidden browser tab, and keyboard shortcuts that speed up assigning work.
• Reception and intake stations. Fast keyboard entry, quick look-up of returning customers, and printed tickets and tags.
• A desktop version of your mobile app. The same data, rules and sign-in as your Flutter mobile app, with screens designed for a large monitor, a mouse and a keyboard.

How we build it

We build with Flutter and Dart, and one codebase produces both the Windows app and the Linux app. We can also build for macOS.

If you have a mobile app, the desktop app can share its data models, API layer, state management, sign-in and translations, so a price or a business rule is worked out the same way on the phone and on the desktop. The screens are designed for the desktop rather than enlarged from a phone: tables, split views, keyboard shortcuts and right-click menus.

For offline work, we keep data in a SQLite database on the machine itself, and sign-in tokens and keys in the protected store of the operating system. Work done offline waits in a queue and syncs in order when the connection returns. Because scanning, printing and saving happen on the machine, the cashier does not wait on the internet to ring up items.

The app can print to ESC/POS receipt printers over USB, serial or the network, and work with label printers, barcode scanners and cash drawers. Tell us your models and we check what they support while we write the scope.

Windows apps ship as an MSIX package or a standard installer, Linux apps as a .deb package or an AppImage. Windows installers can be signed with a code-signing certificate your company obtains, so Windows shows your company as the publisher. The app can check for new versions by itself, so updates reach your machines without a visit to the branch, and it can require an update when all machines must run the same version.

Tests cover calculations, the local database, sync and keyboard flows, and before release we try the app on real Windows and Linux machines.

Timeline and cost

Time and cost depend mostly on:

• how many operating systems you need
• the hardware: standard scanners and printers are simple; scales, card terminals and other special devices need more testing
• offline sync: one machine working offline is simpler than several tills that keep selling during an outage and must reconcile stock and invoices afterwards
• whether a backend or a Flutter mobile app already exists for the desktop app to reuse
• signing, installers and the way updates reach your machines

After the free call, you get a written scope with the timeline and the price, before you pay any deposit.