Benefits of a Point of Sale (POS) System
Save money with a POS system:
A computerized point of sale system can cut down on shrinkage (the
inventory that disappears from your store or restaurant) due to theft,
waste, and misuse. It can also ensure that every item in your store or
on your menu sells for the correct price and generate detailed sales reports that can help you focus on higher-margin items.
Get more information with a POS system:
Know where you stand at any point of the day. A POS system can
instantly tell you how many of a particular product have sold today (or
last week, or last month), how much money you have in your cash drawer,
and how much of that money is profit. Detailed sales reports make it
much easier for you to keep the right stock on hand. Track inventory, spot sales trends, and use historical data to better forecast your needs. Often, POS software
can alert you to reorder when stock runs low. Plus, it allows you to
collect the names and addresses of your best customers as part of
standard transactions, which you can then use for targeted advertising
and incentive programs.
Increase productivity with a POS system:
POS systems can dramatically reduce the time you have to spend doing
inventory, sales figures, and other repetitive but important paperwork.
The savings here: time and peace of mind. In retail settings, barcode scanners
and other POS features make checkout faster. Restaurants will find
their order process greatly streamlined as orders are relayed
automatically to the kitchen from the dining room. In both cases, your
customers get faster, more accurate service.
Evaluate Point of Sale (POS) System Hardware
Most basic POS systems consists of a cash drawer, receipt printer, monitor, and an input device. Employees can use touch screens, programmable keyboards, scanners, or handheld terminals to enter data into a POS system.
A cash drawer is generally a compartment underneath a cash register in which the cash from transactions is kept. The drawer typically contains a removable till. The till is usually divided into compartments used to store each denomination of bank notes and coins
separately to make counting easier. The removable till allows moneys to
be removed from the sales floor to a more secure location for counting
and creating bank deposits.
A cash drawer is usually of strong construction and may be integral
with the register or a separate piece that the register sits atop. It
slides in and out of its lockable box and is secured by a spring-loaded
catch. When a transaction that involves cash is completed, the register
sends an electrical impulse to a solenoid to release the catch and open the drawer.
Cash drawers that are integral to a stand-alone register often have
a manual release catch underneath to open the drawer in the event of a
power failure. More modern cash drawers have eliminated the manual
release in favor of a cylinder lock,
requiring a key to manually open the drawer. The cylinder lock usually
has three positions: locked, unlocked, and release. The release
position is an intermittent position with a spring to push the cylinder
back to the unlocked position. In the "locked" position, the drawer
will remain latched even when an electric signal is sent to the solenoid.
Many users find touch screens
more intuitive to use than keyboards and touch screens provide flexible
user interfaces and programming. Most touch screens are sleek
flat-panel LCDs, which cost slightly more than traditional CRT monitors,
but last longer, use less electricity, and take up less space. With
both CRT and LCD displays, avoid "overlay" touch screens added on to
regular monitors. They can be prone to breakdowns.
POS System Keyboards:
Grocery stores often prefer programmable POS keyboards
that allow you to program individual keys for specific item codes and
prices. Some POS keyboard models are standard 101-key models that you
find with any computer. Others are smaller, more POS-specific devices,
such as the flat-panel membrane keyboards common in fast food outlets.
Often, POS keyboards come with built-in magnetic stripe readers for
processing credit cards.
Scanners
read a bar code and send the resulting numbers back to your POS system
computer, improving speed and accuracy during checkout. They typically
connect to the system through Y-connectors called wedges that make them
function as an extension of the keyboard. Choose a scanner based on
your average customer volume at checkout.
Several customers: If you do not usually have more than a customer or two in line, CCD scanners or
entry-level laser scanners should meet your needs.
Constant flow of customers:
A fairly constant flow of customers might call for auto-sensing CCD or laser
scanners. Auto-sensing CCD and laser scanners turn themselves on when an item is
placed in front of them, scan the code, and then turn off again.
High-volume businesses: Very high volume businesses should investigate omnidirectional scanners
and embedded scanners. Omnidirectional scanners send out 15 or 20
lasers simultaneously, letting you scan a bar code from any angle.
Top-of-the-line embedded scanners, popular in supermarkets, are
omnidirectional scanners installed below a counter.
Every POS system needs a printer to create credit card slips and receipts for customers. Many restaurants also use POS printers to send orders to kitchen and bar staff. You'll find dot matrix printers and thermal printers.
Inexpensive dot matrix printers, also known as impact printers, use
pins and an ink ribbon to print on regular paper. They are better
suited for kitchens where ambient temperature can prevent thermal
printers from working effectively. Thermal printers use heat and
special heat-sensitive paper to generate receipts. They cost slightly
more than dot matrix printers, but are faster, quieter, and generally
more reliable because they have fewer moving parts. Over several years
of use, the higher costs for thermal paper are just about balanced out
by the need to buy both paper and ribbons for dot matrix printers.
Also known as pole displays,
customer displays show item and price information to the customer and
some support advertising (often called secondary displays). Compare size and display appearance and make
sure your software is compatible with the display's emulation.
A
cash register is a mechanical or electronic device for calculating and recording sales transactions, and an attached cash drawer for storing cash. The cash register also usually prints a receipt for the customer.
In most cases the drawer can be opened only after a sale, except when using a special keys, which only senior employees and the owner have. This reduces the risk of employees stealing
from the shop owner by not recording a sale and pocketing the money,
when a customer does not need a receipt but has to be given change
(cash is more easily checked against recorded sales than inventory). In fact, cash registers were first invented for the purpose of eliminating employee theft or embezzlement, and their original name was the Incorruptible Cashier. It has also been suggested that odd pricing
came about because by charging odd amounts like 49 or 99 cents, the
cashier very probably had to open the till for the penny change and
thus announce the sale.
POS software processes credit cards, but you'll still need a magnetic stripe reader
to read the credit cards. Keyboards and touch screens often have
built-in readers. If your input device does not, you'll need to
purchase a standalone magnetic stripe reader.
Finger ID Reader:
For added security, you may also want to add a fingerprint ID reader
to your POS system that limits which employees can access the POS
terminal. Unlike PIN codes that can be read over someone's shoulder or
magnetic swipe cards that can be forgotten by employees, stolen, or
lost, fingerprint ID boxes read thumbprints and ensure the right
employees can log on.
POS Features:
