What is a POS or a Point-of-Sale System?
This is actually a system that helps businesses reduce their paperwork, be able to track inventory and market to their clients or customers through an easy process. Having said that, it gives way for most business owners, especially in the retail industry here in Singapore, more time to manage their business rather than getting tied down to the details.
Most of the POS systems Singapore markets have available are made to assist small businesses, and a lot of these are industry-specific. Such industries differ in requirements and applications and so the POS systems are varied. You have florist POS, beauty POS, restaurant POS, catering POS, F&B POS, spa POS, and so on.
The great thing with POS systems Singapore industries provide and the rest of the POS systems overall contain all the information into one database, which makes it easy to search for any data needed and connect it to others with its reports making your business run smoothly.
Setup and Installation
The POS system is made of the main server, printer, card swiper, cash drawer and the terminal station(s).Buying a POS system does not come cheap, but it has become a requirement for a lot of small business owners and installation costs as well as setup and training usually comes included in the package. So the POS vendor sets up your system which will include any hardware, software and training manuals and training services.
Data Entry Work
POS machines are made to minimize the time you spend in entering data of customers and their corresponding purchases. However, at the start, it takes you some time and a commitment on your part to enter these data into your system – both old and new, to be able to track the data later. A lot of these POS systems lets you pull up information when you need them, which can save you a lot of time and energy compared to doing manual filing work and searching through stacks and stacks of papers.
Most industry-specific systems have a time-saving inventory features like those POS systems used in a mechanic shop or in a bookstore. So any new data entered into the inventory database takes only a single click of a button and then you’ll be able to track them when necessary.
Inventory Management
One main feature in all the POS systems is the inventory management system and they can be specific or general depending on the type of business being run – an example would be a spa POS. So tracking is easy and simple and once your spa stocks are almost out, it creates and alerts to let you know that a certain amount has been reach that will prompt the owner that the stocks are low. It’s really easy and customizable.
Allows Customer Marketing
For some businesses like a floral shop, automotive shops, as well as bookstores, would need some tracking features to track their customer’s purchases and help with marketing to customers sending special announcements to their email or perhaps postcards – something to build customer rapport.
Reporting Features
Another important feature that all POS systems have is the ability to generate reports, most especially on financial reports, which can be transferred automatically to your bookkeeper or accountant – is it’s a paperless transaction.