How to Find the Best Point of Sale System for Your Business

A Point of Sale system is also sometimes referred to as a POS system and is found in most business brick and mortar locations. It is the hardware and software systems that work together to accept payment for products and services purchased in your business establishment. There are hundreds of Point of Sale systems to choose from. Below we help you understand what questions to ask when purchasing a Point of Sale system and which accessories you should consider purchasing with your system.

Questions to Ask

Before you purchase entire Point of Sale system for your brick and mortar establishment, we recommend that you consider the following questions to help you purchase the right system that will meet the needs of your business.

Consider an Industry Specific Point of Sale System

It is not uncommon for companies that sell Point of Sale systems to have both hardware and software that is customized to handle your specific industry. For example, if you own a grocery store business, then you may want to consider a Point of Sale system that can track customer purchasing trends to help you anticipate your future inventory needs. Most grocery store items are purchased by scanning a bar code found on the product. Therefore, you will need a Point of Sale system that can scan the bar code or serial numbers of each product and report to the system what kind of product is being purchased as well as the price of the product.

If you run a restaurant, your Point of Sale system will need to handle gift cards, calculate tips received by your employees as well as assist you with many other Restaurant related functions that cater to this specific business type.
If you are not sure what type of industry category your business falls under, then you may want to consider a general Point of Sale system that can manage customers and employees and provide real time reporting options in the back end of the system.

Will You Need a Point of Sale System That Manages Multiple Locations?

The right Point of Sale system can keep track of sales and inventory at multiple brick and mortar locations. It can feed all the data to one location where you will have access to a detailed reporting system pulled from real-time information. Additionally, the inventory for each store can be located in one database. This is great if you run out of product at one location. Your employees will have the ability to check multiple locations to see if the product is in stock.

Are You Looking for a Cloud Based Solution?

Point of Sale Cloud base solutions are becoming more popular with businesses. You no longer have to manage and maintain a server on site to store and back up important data. It will all be stored for easy access in a convenient location for you.

Is It Compatible with Your Accounting Software?

We recommend before purchasing your Point of Sale system that you consider how you might integrate your current accounting system with information gathered through your Point of Sale system. With so many Point of Sale options out there, find a system that can also communicate with your accounting system. It will save you time and money down the road.

Hardware That You Will Need for Your Point of Sale System

There are many accessories that you may need with your Point of Sale system. We recommend that you look at some of the following hardware options that you may need when purchasing your Point of Sale system.

Terminal or PC System
The terminal or PC system is the interface that you will use to interact with your Point of Sale System. The terminal or PC system is designed specifically for a Point of Sale system. It is not uncommon to see most PC or Terminal Systems make use of touch screens to enter in product information. A terminal or PC can also be a tablet carried by a waitress to collect orders or payments. Or it can also be your mobile phone with a Point of Sale system interface and a credit card processing attachment.

Cash Registers
Cash registers simply store your cash and checks securely until they can be deposited securely into the bank. When you purchase a complete Point of Sale system most often the cash register will be programmed to open automatically at a certain point during the transaction process to allow you to securely store funds in the register.

Printers
Printers are essential in recording the transaction that took place through the Point of Sale system. Often times, customers are comforted to have these receipts in case they are unhappy with their purchase. We recommend that you find a printer that will be durable enough to manage the transaction volume that runs through your store. Most recent printers use thermal technology instead of ribbon cartridges. This produces less mess and you will only have to worry about purchasing receipt paper.

Card Readers and Barcode Scanners
Card readers do exactly what they say, they read the information stored on your credit card. They pass that information to a bank or financial institution and receive either an approval or a denial that you have enough funds to purchase a product.

A bar code scanner is a simple laser that will read the barcode found on each product. It will quickly pass information to your Point of Sale system about the product you wish to purchase including the price of the product. Scanners can be hand held or built into a counter.

Software That You Will Need for Your Point of Sale System

Most Point of Sale software systems automatically come with some of the following features:

Inventory management – You should be able to easily add and manage all of the products in your store. You can see what is being bought and what is being sold.
Employee management – You should be able to track and manage your employees through your Point of Sale system including clock in and clock out times.
Customer management – Your Point of Sale system should be able to track and manage your customers. You should be able to track purchase history as well as track any customer specific programs that you implement.
Real Time Reporting – You will be able to quickly access information and compile it in easy to understand reports.
Merchant Account – Your merchant account should be able to interact with your Point of Sale system to process credit cards.

SecureGlobalPay offers a comprehensive Point of Sale system for your business. Call us today at +800-419-1772 about options that are available.