A point of sale (POS) system can be a great way for you to gain better control over your business. In fact, converting from any manual system to something that is essentially automated like a POS system will provide you with a large number of advantages. For example, you will no longer need to rely on manually counting and calculating your sales. Inventory tracking and management using paper and pen will also be a thing of the past. In short, you will likely end up having much more time to do more important things, like thinking about strategies to expand your business.
Accept Credit Cards
If your business has yet to start accepting credit cards, this alone is a huge reason to implement a solid POS system, according to Next Web.
One of the pieces of equipment that should come included with your new POS system is a credit and debit card reader. This might be attached to the POS computer, monitor or keyboard. In fact, it might even be freestanding in order to allow you to take customer orders anywhere throughout your business.
The great thing about accepting credit card payments is the speed of the transaction. Once you are paid, the card processing will happen online and you will receive an almost instant confirmation message. Then, a receipt will be printed automatically as well. Your money will normally be deposited into your bank account within 24 to 48 hours, depending on your bank and the specific POS system you have.
Basic System Now, Upgrade Later
Using a POS system is also quite flexible, according to Barcodes Inc. For example, you could get started with just the basic components such as the computer, monitor, keyboard, card reader and receipt printer. Then, when you are ready in the future, upgrade and add other components such as a barcode scanner, customer display and even a signature capture pad. All of these things can make your life easier and provide for a faster, smoother transaction, but they don’t need to be added all at once.
Properly Record Sales
One of the main advantages of using a POS system is that it enables your business to record sales properly. No more having to go through receipts or register tapes in order to find out a daily tally or total. Nope, the POS software actually makes all of this bookkeeping effortless. You can also run reports and even specialized queries.
You can look over these reports and even compare all the transactions made at a specific point in time. This also allows you to be able to compare sales to your inventories. This way you can track how things are going and notice if there are any discrepancies. It is also much easier to get to the root of any problems you might be encountering, due to the powerful searching and reporting options available with even standard POS software.
Manage Inventory
Any decent POS system will also enable you to better manage your inventory. In fact, once you enter the inventory into the system, it should be able to track exactly how much is still on hand and the specific levels of stock for each item. Not only that, but your system should even be able to send alerts indicating when levels of certain items reach a low point. Of course, as the owner or manager, you have the ability to set and establish these alerts. This is also a great method of determining shortages and shrinkage.
A POS system also makes it incredibly easy to make price adjustments. If you want to have a sale on a particular category or even just specific items, you can easily change this in the system. Then, there is no need for employees to make individual pricing adjustments, since the items will ring through at your sales-adjusted pricing levels. You can opt for a simplified POS equipment like those offered by premiere companies like Shopify that is simple and easy to operate and can help manage your inventory better; thereby allowing you to concentrate on the other aspects of your business.
Using the Scanner
One piece of POS equipment that store owners tend to overlook is the scanner. This is a great piece of equipment because it can speed up your work so much. You could simply take your scanner and scan the barcode on your inventory as it is received. This then enters the item into your system and it is ready to be placed on display and sold. This makes adding new inventory items much less time consuming than entering them by hand. The best suggestion here is to use a wireless scanner since this will allow you to move around rather than remaining tethered to the computer.
Conclusion
There are a number of reasons to consider using a POS system. The bottom line is that it comes down to being able to automate many of your repetitive tasks and help free up your time for higher level thinking. A POS system can make it so much easier to get out of being buried under minutia and into doing things that actually help your business to grow
