I walked into an independently owned sub food shop last week.It had what seemed to be all natural meats, cheeses, soups, and more.The staff was polite and the chicken salad was great.While waiting in line, I glanced toward the cashier’s spot and much to my amazement I saw acash register.Not like the old tap & ‘ca-ching’ registers, it was electric, but a cash register no less. The register looked like on that belonged in a small retail store that may be open twice a week or perhaps a mall kiosk, not a natural foods sub shop.There was nothermal printer, nowashable/flexible keyboard, no computer software, and no touch screen!This got me thinking and I asked myself the following question.When is it time to upgrade to aPoint of Sale, and abandon that old cash register? Well here are a few reasons to switch: 1. When you are willing. Owing a POS can be much like owing a full-size pickup truck.If you aren’t going to use the bed, you’re better off getting an economy car (you’ll save gas and they are easier to park).However, owning a POS system can be used to increase your productivity, track sales & inventory, offer great reporting, and much more.These can add up to faster transactions, better customer service, and more sales.The key is if you are willing to use it. 2. When you want more. Most cash registers are good for doing one thing; collecting cash and checks.Collecting money is fine and most necessary, butcash drawersdo this just fine.Point of Sale systems do much more than collect money.As mentioned earlier, they can be used to not only record transactions but save them for later use.This is because POS systems useoperating systemslikeMicrosoft Windows®orLinux®.With these operating systems the POS can run different software that can open up many more possibilities.These can include accounting integration, employee tracking, security features, inventory management, and more.Just make sure you have the correct software for your needs. 3. When you have multiple stations. Chances are two or more electric cash registers cannot be linked together.This task can be done effectively for most Point of Sale systems.This is advantageous if you wish to store information from multiple POS systems (work stations) to later compare data.Also if there is more than one location, and an Internet connection, it is possible to store data to a central server and compare data for all of locations to keep track of multiple locations. There are many other reasons to upgrade to a point of sale system and abandon the cash register; including security integration and the evolvingWireless POS (wPOS).I will more than likely write about these other reasons in the future.I’m sure you can think of others and I welcome your e-mails and/or comments.
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