Frequently asked questions

HortiOwl is built specifically for the UK horticultural trade. UK VAT rules (0% on most plants, 20% on standard-rated goods), UK Plant Passport compliance, and GDPR data residency in the UK are all handled by default. We do support multi-currency for businesses that trade internationally, but the platform is optimised for UK nurseries and garden centres.

Yes. HortiOwl includes an optional online webstore — a branded public storefront at your own web address that lists your catalogue with live stock availability and, if you choose, prices, alongside your own product photos and About-us and care-guide pages. Customers browse and place orders online, which arrive in a review queue for your team to accept; accepted orders then flow into the normal sales, picking, and invoicing workflow. There's also a dedicated wholesale trade mode with fast tray-by-tray ordering and a CC/Danish trolley calculator. The webstore is a paid add-on — ask us about availability when you book a demo.

Yes. If you already sell on Shopify, you can keep your shop and connect it to HortiOwl: your stock stays in step, and Shopify orders are recorded in HortiOwl automatically. Refunds become credit notes, and you can add products to Shopify from HortiOwl. The Shopify connection is an optional add-on — mention it when you book a demo. More about HortiOwl and Shopify

The Point of Sale is a paid add-on, as is the online webstore — neither is part of the core subscription. The core plan covers quotes, orders, customers, stock and batch tracking, purchasing and goods-in, picking and delivery, invoicing, VAT and accounts exports, labels and reporting. The Point of Sale adds a fast shop-floor sales screen that draws from the same live stock and posts to the same accounts, with card payments through Stripe readers, sessions with an opening float, an end-of-day Z-report, automatic cash-variance reconciliation, and permission-controlled refunds and discounts. Both add-ons are quoted alongside your plan rather than sold at a fixed list price, so tell us whether you need them when you book a demo.

Yes. HortiOwl has a phone app for out on the nursery: look up a plant, take an order, update stock or add a photo without going back to the office. It works on iOS and Android, and the full system runs on any computer or tablet.

Let's have a chat about it. HortiOwl prints the labels you need straight from the job, with nothing retyped, and works with the label printers nurseries already use. Tell us what you've got when you book a demo and we'll go through it with you.

Yes — and we do the importing for you. Most nurseries come to us from spreadsheets or an older system, and we can import from other tools: your product list, customers, suppliers, price lists, current stock, and open orders and quotes. There's nothing for you to format and no import tool for your team to learn — send us what you've got and we'll bring it across, checked against your own records before you rely on it. It's worth a conversation early on, so bring a sample of your data to your demo and we'll tell you straight away what comes over cleanly and what needs a bit of work. More on switching to HortiOwl

No. HortiOwl runs in the cloud and opens in your web browser — there's no software to install on an office PC, no server to run in the back room, and no updates to chase. New features and fixes are rolled out automatically, so everyone is always on the latest version without lifting a finger.

Nothing is lost. Your data lives securely in the cloud in the UK, not on any single machine, and is backed up automatically. If a PC dies, is stolen, or simply won't start one morning, you just sign in from another computer, tablet, or phone and carry on exactly where you left off.

HortiOwl exports files formatted for Sage 50, Sage 200, Sage Business Cloud, Xero, QuickBooks and KeyAccounts. Sales and purchase invoices, credit and debit notes, customers and suppliers can all be exported in the correct format for each package. There is no live API sync at this stage — exports are on-demand from the platform.

Yes. Each product in your catalogue is assigned a VAT rate — typically 0% for live plants and 20% for standard-rated goods such as pots, compost, and hard landscaping. VAT is calculated per line on quotes, sales orders, and invoices, and the invoice totals break out net, VAT, and gross figures exactly as HMRC requires.

UK Plant Passports are legally required labels for regulated plants traded commercially in Great Britain, showing the botanical name, the registration number of the business issuing the passport, a traceability code such as the batch number, and the country of origin. HortiOwl captures these details at the purchase order stage and carries them through Goods Received Notes, batch records, and onto customer documents automatically. Plant Passport rows render on every relevant printed document without manual re-entry. More on plant passport software

Yes. One account covers all your sites, with stock and orders kept by site, and you decide what each member of staff can see and do.

Every plant is tracked by batch from the day it arrives, so you always know how much is ready to sell and which supplier's plants went to which customer.

Invoices, sales orders, purchase orders, and plant-passport records are retained for seven years to align with HMRC's invoice and trading-records requirement and Defra Plant Health's plant-passport traceability requirement. Throughout that period the records stay live in the application — there's no archive tier and no restore window. Older records can be searched, viewed, and exported exactly like recent ones.

Open the customer record and click Generate GDPR data export. HortiOwl produces a single file containing the customer's record plus every quote, order, invoice, picking list, delivery note, and credit note linked to them. The export is restricted to admin users and every request is logged for your own audit trail, so you can evidence that the request was fulfilled.

Yes — and you never have to think about it. Backups run automatically in the cloud; there's nothing to remember to do and nothing living only on an office PC, so a broken or stolen computer never costs you data. Backups are encrypted and stored in the UK, and we retain data to meet HMRC's seven-year invoice and trading-records requirement and Defra Plant Health's plant-passport traceability requirement.

We don't currently offer a self-serve free trial. Instead we run personalised one-to-one demos so you can see the workflows that matter to your specific operation — batch tracking, order fulfilment, invoicing, or whatever is most relevant. Demos are free and there's no commitment. Email hello@hortiowl.co.uk or visit the Book a Demo page to get started.

Demos run for 30–45 minutes over a screen-share. Tell us a little about your business when you email and we'll tailor what we show you. We're happy to focus on specific workflows — there's no fixed script.

Yes. Each account can be set up for produce instead of plants. Batches carry a harvest date, products are sold by weight, by the unit or by the pack, and orders are packed from a tick-box packing list, whether they're collected or delivered. Plant passports and APHA quarantine are there for seed potatoes. The till and webstore sell from the same stock, so the shop, the website and your trade orders always agree.

HortiOwl is primarily designed for wholesale and retail nurseries and garden centres — businesses that quote, sell, and invoice plants and related products in volume. Landscaping companies that maintain a plant catalogue, raise quotes, and invoice customers do use the platform, but if your business is predominantly labour-based project management you may find the workflow less of a fit. The best way to find out is a demo.