If you are a professional retail manager, a Point of Sale system may be very familiar with you. However, perhaps, for starters, it’s still an equivocal concept. Although you usually see it at the supermarkets, department stores or restaurants, you might now know what exactly it is, how it works, how beneficial it is, and how a point of sale process flow looks like. This article was created to help you discover these questions.
What is a Point of Sale?
Via cdnid.techinasia.com
Point of Sale (POS) system is a combination of various devices, which is used to create transactions, record sales, and keep track to inventory at retail stores, supermarkets, department stores, clothes stores, restaurants, hospitals, and so on.
What are Components of a POS?
Hardware
Includes several devices called peripherals and a host computer with one or more terminals depending on how many devices it connects with. The host computer includes a central system unit, a display monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. Peripherals are various depending on specific needs of business, but general, they include a PDQ machine (also known as credit card reader), a barcode scanner, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, and a weighing scale.
Many up-to-date POS systems feature more than just that. The most outstanding trend is to make them more portable by using wireless technology, which means that the devices don’t need wires to connect to the central terminals. Another trend is mobile-friendliness, allowing managers can interact with the POS via mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.
Software
Via plexispos.com
Can be customized in terms of functions and interface depending on the business requirements. Some across various industries, while the others are niche-centric. But, in general, it must be able to store product’s information, control stock, record financial, etc. within a database. Additionally, the software in a POS can be on-premise (installed) or cloud-based.
What can a POS do?
Sales Report
This basic feature allows you to analyze sales data to find out how many items were sold, how many are on the shelves, and so on. All the data is updated automatically, from daily to annual, with a great extent of accuracy. As a result, you can be able to get the deepest sales insights and know how their business are running.
Stock Control
Another key function lets you know how many items are still in stock. This kind of data is useful because it implies how good products were sold so that you can be aware of the customer demands and adjust the buying quantity on time. Instead of having to count manually, the POS helps you do this job on a complete autopilot.
Financial Record
A POS provides you with in-depth financial reports about how many card swipes, which products are making you the most money, how much profit was earned via transactions, etc. This way is, of course, much quicker and easier than having to write tax reports manually. It also helps to reduce the possibility of mistakes.
Customer Management
A POS can easily harvest customer data via credit card transactions, giving you the capability to keep in touch with clients through marketing tools, spot the most enthusiastic clients and offer them with valuable bonuses. Some POSs featuring a barcode scanner can also speed up the check-out process, and thus, improve the customer satisfaction.
Employee Management
Each employee interacts with POS via a secure PIN entered before clocking in or out. It gives the POS the ability to automate the process of keeping track of employees and managing their schedule by providing information about what time they started working, what time they left the store, how many hours they worked, who should be at work on any given time, etc. As a result, you can run payroll more precise and fairer.
Point of Sale Process Flow
Read the following phases to discover how a point of sale works.
- Enter Receipts or Invoices: Whenever a transaction is started recorded, a receipt will be entered into the machine.
- Print Receipts or Invoices: After the receipt is entered, the point of sale will start printing the names of the products and their prices on it. When it’s done, it will look like the receipt you receive at the supermarket when buying goods.
- Enter Return Receipts or Invoices: If a customer decides to return the product he buys, you can start creating a return receipt to give his money back.
- Print Return Receipts or Invoices: Print that receipt out as a proof that you have given money back to the customer.
- Print Revenue Journal: At the end of the day, all of the transactions will be recorded into its revenue journal. You can print it out or leave it in there until you need to make monthly income statement.
- Backup Data: The transactions will be backed up by recorded into the memory of the point of sale, in case the data could be lost.
- Post Invoices or Receipts: After the transaction is memorized, a receipt having the name of goods and their prices will be sent to your accountant. Meanwhile, the Client files, Inventory, Accounts Receivable, and Checkbook will also be updated.
After that, all of that information will be sent to your accountant to make journal entries and calculate the account balances. Eventually, the transactions will be recorded into the general ledger of your company. These steps require much knowledge in accounting so try to search for them a little before using. It will help you a lot.
Conclusion
Have you been enjoying my article so far? I hope you have. And it will be so much more interesting if you can practice right after reading. Try to have a chance to practice with your Point of Sale, and I believe your customers will be surprised at your high-speed-serve.
If you like my writing, please share it with your friends and family. It is worth sharing knowledge for anyone. Furthermore, comment under these lines if you have any questions or opinions. I would be glad to reply.
Lastly, thank you for reading my article. Hope to see you in my subsequent ones! Goodbye!