How to Choose a POS System
When you get the right point-of-sale (POS) system, you reduce your employees’ workload and improve your customers’ shopping experiences. While new businesses routinely seek POS systems, so do existing ones that wish to upgrade to newer technologies. If you’re wondering how to choose a POS system, you need to consider its cost, inventory management, tax reporting, and customer payments. Since you get multiple options from which to choose, you need to take your individual requirements into account as well.
Cost
Different factors have a bearing on POS system costs. These include software fees, hardware costs, and payment processing fees. For instance, every sale you make through a POS system requires that you pay a transaction fee. In addition, a handheld unit is more affordable than a countertop dual-screen unit.
Inventory Management
Managing inventory is typically a labor-intensive task and a good POS system can simplify how you keep track of stock, sales, and returns. Some systems give you easy means to track top-selling items, create categories/sub-categories, and set item availability by store. Some of the more advanced POS systems give you the means to track quantity and receive inventory-related alerts.
Tax Reporting
You may integrate a POS system with your accounting software to simplify how your business handles taxes. Some of the basic POS systems let you set multiple tax rates for different items and they also generate tax reports. Depending on your needs, you may also consider getting one that is capable of handling taxes for multiple stores, creating tax exempt orders, and generating tax exempt sales reports.
Customer Payments
The POS system you select has a bearing on how you may accept payments and how you deal with different payment-related matters. For example, most POS systems let you accept payments via credit and debit cards, track cash payments, issue refunds for complete orders, and generate sales reports. However, you’ll need more than a basic POS system if you wish to accept split payments, carry out partial refunds, or need cash drawer management capabilities.
Other Factors That Need Your Attention
Depending on the type of business you run, here are two more aspects that need your attention in selecting a POS system.
- Customer experience. Determine if you want to give your customers the ability to give tips through your POS system or if you want mobility so they don’t have to make their way to your checkout counter/billing desk.
- Scalability. The best POS systems are ones that effectively address your existing needs and can scale up as your business grows. For example, while you might need no more than a handheld system as of now, your requirement may move to a countertop alternative in the future.
Conclusion
Not all types of businesses have the same requirements when it comes to POS systems, so it’s important to determine just what you need at the very onset. If you’re still not sure about how to choose a POS system for your business, consider discussing your specific needs with a reliable POS systems provider as this will help you arrive at a well-informed decision.
