The modern POS system is so much more than just point of sale!

This month while writing an article for the monthly newsletter about the additional benefits of a point of sale system I was surprised by the number of ways a POS system can help a business. In the article I was restricted by the word count so I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss the additional benefits of a POS system in greater detail. The most obvious advantages are the point of sale advantages:

- The POS system speeds up customer checkouts allowing a greater number of customers to be served in a shorter time helping to make the customers experience more enjoyable.
- The POS system can allocate discounts to specific customers or customer groups.
- Can help to deliver orders promptly and accurately.
- The POS system can produce professional and personalised invoices and receipts.
- Makes it easy to manage customer credit and orders at the point of sale.
- The POS system allows the user an easy way to update prices and discounts from one location.

The POS system can also help with customer relationship management by providing a place to store the customer’s details along with information about purchase preferences and activities. This information can then be used by the marketing department for a variety of different marketing functions such as:

- Undertaking personalised and targeted direct marketing efforts. For example, sending out specific discounts and offers to different segments of the customer base encouraging the price sensitive customers to buy while not losing profits from the less price sensitive segments.
- The sales information can be used to keep track of large purchases in order to send out a thank you letter or reward.
- The POS system can also give upper management the tools to determine the effectiveness of a specific marketing campaign. For example, management can determine the increase in sales after a television advertising campaign.

Another function the POS system can help with is inventory management. As most retail owners and manages will know, successful inventory management is extremely important. By having too much stock on hand you are tying up money and storage space and by having too little you are missing out on potential sales. A POS system can:

- Provide your organisation with detailed information on what products you have on hand and the popularity of specific products. This allows management to only order the products that sell and to discontinue products that are not selling.
- The POS system can also provide information on the speed with which inventory is turning over. This allows businesses to order stock to arrive just before the organisations inventory runs out.

This can save the business a large amount of cash by decreasing the need for storage space, decreasing the possibility of goods becoming out of date or out of fashion and decreases the need for cash to be tied up in inventory allowing it to be spent on other business activities.

- The POS system can even help with the reordering by allowing “reorder” levels to be set in the program. Once a products stock on hand level falls below a defined number the POS system can automatically reorder those products.
The final function a POS system can help with is aiding your organisations book keeping and accounting. The POS system can provide your organisation with timely and accurate reports that allow greater accuracy and efficiency with your book keeping. A POS system can provide:

- A range of reports such as the amount of sales for a period, the amount of receivables for a period and the amount of debts accrued for the period.
- The POS system can alert you to when your accounts payable and receivable come due.
- The POS system provides a clear audit trail.

As you can see the modern POS system offers an organisation much more than just a point of sale facilitator. The modern POS can save you a huge amount of time and money and increase the efficiency and accuracy of your organisation.