What is POS?

Point Of Sale Software

     An acronym for Point Of Sale. POS is both the time and place in which a transaction is made and it describes a special terminal used in computerized accounting systems. POS computer systems include cash registers, optical scanners, BAR code equipment, special printers, magnetic card readers, and special monitors or terminals. Reading merchandise tags, updating inventory, checking credit and directly or indirectly interfacing with an accounting system are some of the operations performed by the point of sale system.
     Point of sale (POS) software is utilized at the physical location at which goods are sold to customers. In other words... POS software takes the place of your cash drawer. All sales and transaction are made through your computer. You tell the computer what you're selling, the selling price, and the quantity sold. Then it calculates the total, including tax, and tells you how much change is due. It also records every sale and tracks everything.
     Since the computer remembers every sale, it can automate all kinds of tasks for you. For example, it will calculate your sales for the day, your sales tax totals, and tell you how many times you sell an item for a given time period. This is an example of POS software in its simplest form, but there's a lot more to it. In fact, POS software can serve as complete business management system that will automate several areas of your business. The software might include:

Point of Sale
Inventory Control
Automatic Purchase Order Creation
Automatic price updates
Bar code scanning
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
General Ledger
Payroll
Customer Tracking and Follow Up
Shop Management
EDI (Electronic Ordering)
And much more!

Many people think that POS software simply tracks your inventory, tracks your books and all POS systems do basically the same thing. This is a common misconception. Every POS system has different features, strengths, weaknesses, and intended uses. For example, some POS systems will work great for a retailer that sells large ticket items and only makes a few transactions each day. But this same software would cause nightmares for a store that does over 200 transactions each day.
Every system has distinct differences. These differences can have a huge impact on your business.

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