5 Reasons Why the Right Point of Sale Equipment Increases Profits

Whether you own a restaurant or a retail outlet, the right point of sale (POS) hardware and software can increase your bottom line. Here are five reasons why:

1. Return on Investment. While there are POS systems at many different price points, there are inexpensive software solutions that have great functionality, work with a wide variety of types of hardware, and can integrate with other business software. For example, if you are looking for pizza shop software, Point of Success is a low-priced restaurant POS software package that has a wide range of features. Similarly, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (also known as Microsoft RMS) is a cost-effective solution for a clothing boutique.

2. Enhance Customer Service. If you're a restaurateur or a retailer, your relationships with your customers are paramount. POS equipment can ensure that your employees can spend more time interacting with customers and less time entering information into equipment. Restaurant POS software, for example, allows employees to enter and track orders, so mistakes are minimized and customers aren't kept waiting. Similarly, retail point of sale software can give your staff immediate access to availability, prices, and the location of inventory. This means that your customers can get a high level of service, increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

3. Increase Efficiency. If you can increase the efficiency of your restaurant or retail store, you'll soon see increased profits through a decrease in staffing costs, losses due to errors, and improved accountability. Microsoft POS, for example, allows your employees to quickly and efficiently check out customer purchases with built-in credit and debit card processing. It also enables you to do everything from tracking work hours with a time clock to tracking cashier tasks. This kind of transparency enables you to make informed decisions about policies and procedures, as well as to track problems back to their source.

4. Lower Training Costs. With point of sale software and hardware, you have a standardized training approach for your employees. By customizing the software to correspond to your menu items, for example, a trainee can quickly and easily enter orders. That same software can print preparation tickets or display orders on a kitchen monitor. With pizza shop software, you can easily train delivery drivers to pick up delivery dispatches and note their availability when they return from deliveries.

5. Improved Reporting. One of the primary benefits of point of sale software is its reporting capability. Better reporting gives you the information you need to do everything from making buying decisions to preparing your tax returns. Reporting capabilities vary from software package to software package, and the type of business you have will most likely dictate the type of software you need. For example, Microsoft POS and Microsoft RMS both allow you to manage and track inventory, generate purchase orders, track customer purchase histories, and track employee hours. Microsoft RMS offers even more reporting options, including customized reports, the ability to track backorders and layaways, and the capability to manage account receivables of customers.

The importance of point of sale equipment and software can't be overstated. It may seem like a significant investment, but it will more than pay for itself with increased sales, efficiency, and reporting.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Point of Sale Equipment or Majon's Business and Entrepreneurs directory

Employee Time Clock And Restaurant Point of Sale Systems - A Perfect Marriage

The History Of The Employee Time Clock And Point of Sale

The concept of punching a time clock has been around since the industrial revolution of the early 1900's. However, it was not until the invention of the electronic cash register in the early 1980's that employees could clock in/out on the cash register. This eliminated the need for a punch card and greatly increased accuracy and reduced manpower needs in calculating time worked for payroll purposes.

While the need for employees to clock in and out on a terminal started off simple the requirements of government have greatly increased the demands placed upon management. There are a host of different labor laws, tip reporting requirements and labor restrictions governing the number of hours to be worked in a day/week and even when minors are allowed to work.

The Need For An Employee Time Clock

What started off simple has quickly become complex. Your needs are far greater than a simple time clock that tracks the clock in and out times for your employees. You need help with the government regulations regarding different aspects of your labor pool.

Tip reporting and handling have become a huge issue in the restaurant business. You need help tracking tipped employees and what they declare as tips earned.

Tracking employee breaks has become a bigger and bigger hassle. Some states govern the length of breaks and whether they are paid or not. I know of one state that requires a minimum of a 20 minute unpaid break per employee. If that employee clocks back in 1 minute early, their entire break is paid. Who has time to monitor every employee's break?

And we have just now gotten to the problem of employees clocking in early, riding the clock or simply having a friend clock them in when they aren't even there!

You need help. You need an integrated time clock and you need it bad.

The Solution Of The Employee Time Clock

Some point of sale systems come standard with an employee time clock feature that is designed specifically for restaurants and the goofy requirements placed upon restaurant owners.

All employees can clock in/out on any terminal in the system. There is no set terminal that must be used by all employees. Any employee may clock in on any terminal.

Security and secrecy should be a concern and point of sale software products have different ways of accomplishing this.

• Secret 4-digit employee code for clock in/out.
• Optional magnetic card reader and magnetic cards for employees to use when clocking in/out.
• Optional biometric reader which recognizes individual fingerprints for employee clock in/out.
• Employee breaks are tracked and various rules can be set depending upon your own state's regulations.

Tipped employees are required to declare their tips earned when they clock out for the day. These declared amounts are then reported with their time worked.

What good would all this data do if we didn't report on it? Most software products are able to track and report on all time clock data and use weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly and monthly payroll cycles. Be sure to verify that the product you are looking at will meet all of your requirements before purchase.

Some point of sale products will also export all time clock data to file for import into several different accounting packages.

The Benefit Of The Employee Time Clock To You

This feature has several benefits. Let's list a few:

• Increased accuracy over punch cards and manual time tracking.
• Reduced rounding errors in computing time.
• Reduced time for management to compute employee hours.
• Enforce break rules.
• Enforce tip tracking and declaration for tipped employees.
• Eliminate buddy punching with optional biometric scanners.
• Export time clock data to payroll software or payroll service.

Jerry D. Wilson is Director of Internet Sales for DirecTouch Restaurant Point of Sale. With over 25 years of hospitality point of sale experience, he has written several articles explaining the benefits of touch screen and retail point of sale software. Please visit DirecTouch Do It Yourself Restaurant Point of Sale or DirectRetail Do It Yourself Retail Point of Sale for more information.

How Avoiding These Shopping Pitfalls Can Save You Big Money at the Cash Register

The following tips can you aware of your shopping and spending habits, and how manufacturers try to influence you, the consumer. Being a conscientious shopper can help you stay on your monthly food budget.

Beware Grocery Aisle Layout and Item Displays: Brand names pay stocking fees to stores so that their products are placed at appropriate eyelevel. Adult products are placed higher, while products for children are placed lower. Products placed at eyelevel are often the most expensive, because of the stocking fees, and the fact that manufacturers know that the consumer is more like to buy a product from eyelevel while walking down the aisle.

Solution: Take a few extra seconds and look at the shelved above and below the featured product. Chances are you will find the same product at a better price.

Avoid "Sale" Merchandise: Stores advertise items known as "loss leaders" that are features at rock bottom prices, or even free with purchase. Occasionally, these can be bargains, but remember aisle ends are reserved for these items or the bargain priced product is features next to a higher priced product. You usually can find similar items in the regular aisle section that may be cheaper than the "sale" item.

Solution: Be wary of sale ads. Focus on the price of the product, and not the advertising or fancy packaging. Compare brands. Remember, if you buy a product you wouldn't normally use, you are not saving any money, and it isn't a bargain no matter the price.

Beware of Product Appearance and Packaging Tricks: Companies can be very clever when packaging their product. Bright colors attract attention, especially red and yellow. Oversized packages are also a draw for consumers. Shoppers assume that larger packaging means more product and a better deal. This is often not the case. The "Buy in Bulk" mantra has been pounded into the average shopper for years. Advertisers know this, and the larger quantity package may have a cheaper counterpart in smaller packaging.

Solution: Always compare unit price or per weight cost. Regularly products that have smaller packaging feature a better deal than buying the bulk version.

Avoid Impulse Buying at Checkout: The checkout aisle is a mini store. They have captive shoppers that are forced to look at the products while they wait. Hundreds of items can be crammed into this tiny space, and the profit margin on such items is extremely high.

Solution: Make a conscious decision to not buy from the checkout lane before you enter it. You can also speed through the line during off peak hours. Many stores are now open 24 hours a day, so early morning or late evening shopping can make your stay in the checkout aisle easy to bear and the products easy to resist.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as buying groceries online at http://www.buygroceriesdirect.com

Building a Restaurant Point of Sales Software Application

Five years ago I began searching for an easy way to track my customers, my accounts receivable, and all the other aspects of my business. I wanted to be able to share this information and access it from anywhere on a wide variety of systems. The end result was the HotPotato Restaurant Point of Sale.

My search ended with me designing and developing my own modular Point of Sale. I spent a great deal of time considering the coding technology I would use. In the end I was swayed to develop my application in visual basic with an HTML front end. Using HTML to design the user interface gave me a very simple way to use the application on a wide variety of platforms. The server may need to be Windows based system, but client machines can be any platform. Pocket PC development became a snap and Linux becomes a viable operating system for any client machines.

At first I thought this development angle might pose problems. But after using the system I can say nothing but positives about it. A web server based application defeats all the problems associated with client installation, multi-location support and ability to access from anywhere.

HotPotato can be installed either locally or on a web server, this gives it the advantage of being on a closed network or accessed off-site. Multi-location support and reporting abilities were some of the features I added first.

Over the last five years I've seen HotPotato go through a wonderful evolution that has produced it's most current version. It is easy to install and so simple to deploy that I?m embarrassed to brag about it. Truths when I say the features developed into the application are cutting edge and developed with the latest software methodologies. A great amount of time went into considering the platform for its development. There was a lot of worry that the business community wasn?t ready for a distributed web server based application. However current trends from larger software companies confirm this is not only a viable option but also how future software applications will be developed.

Being able to easily deploy, support and update thousands of systems with one install and being able to back, manage and analyze their data is the kind of power people once dreamed of. Those powers and abilities are now here in viable applications.

Restaurants are one business that can truly take advantage of using hand held PCs for order placement. The cost savings and profit increase are too obvious to ignore. Developing a system that was easy to install, deploy and maintain I looked to lead of large companies and have been more than satisfied with the results. A true multi-platform application that speeds the order process and refines the work flow to allow for better staffing, a better customer experience and a high profit.

Managing inventory was simplified by associating menu items with one or multiple inventory items supplied by specific vendors. This creates a recipe for the menu item and an accurate accounting of the inventory. By setting minimum stock number and restocking levels a restaurant can maximize their revenue by creating accurate orders that reflect the sales patterns the software reveals.

Customer management tools, delivery management, waiting lists and a wide range of catering features were all developed to round off the software. Centralizing the most common tasks and providing information on time management and sales records gives the restaurant the ability to make strategic decisions regarding their business. No piece of software is perfect and they all require good user feedback to refine them. Developing several Point of Sale Software applications has taught me just how special each business is and just how much power their software can give them.

Low Cost Point of Sale Systems and Software

Now the last thing I want is for this be a shameless promotion of the software we develop. But my position gives me a unique insight in the business models followed by different software companies. We produce a no cost point of sale software package and can testify that the free and low cost software model is a viable enterprise. Instead of focusing on selling the product and slowly building a user base and then relying on selling upgrades to continue the momentum we?re finding that charging a steady monthly fee for support and updates actually reduces customer cost and increases the quality of service we can provide.

Look at the commercial viability of Linux and you understand what?s going on. Free software is free to use, but if you need help (and everybody does) then support plans are available from industry experts for a monthly or single incident fee. By sending software out into the world you capture a large audience and can quickly establish a presence on the market.

Point of Sale systems can be especially expensive for small businesses and most resellers offer so many options that it can be easy to get lost. You not only have software to consider by the wide range of hardware available. We focused our products on two vertical markets; Computer Service & Retail Point of Sales and Restaurant Point of Sales. Both businesses can be very expensive to setup and maintain. Saving costs and increasing profits is vital and many software companies position themselves to provide Point of Sale Software that forces you into expensive service agreements and fees. Often times this goes beyond the reasonable fees assumed for support. A small business should not have to pay for an entire support division just for their point of sale software.

Business managers need to look at the lifetime cost of the Point of Sale Systems. Is the hardware efficient or overpriced and way too powerful for the task? Is the software streamlined for my vertical market? Will it increase costs and lower expenses? Will it provide statistical sales data that can be imported into accounting packages? What is the true cost and savings of the system? What kind of support is available and is it priced reasonably? If you can answer those questions and feel satisfied with the answers then you?ve found the right system for you.

So the price of the software is only a concern for those tight on budget for getting started. The real cost is in the efficiency of the software and the support network it provides. Take time and evaluate several of the tools available on the market for your point of sales system. Learn what makes each one special and has the features that most closely match your business. Find out what kind of support you get and decide if email only is really support. If every business took the time to evaluate their point of sale software and the true cost then we?d find a lot of companies changing software.

Please consider this article for publication in your newsletter or on your website. Permission is granted to reprint for free with author box and byline intact. Please send me a copy of your publication if you choose to include my article. TITLE: AUTHOR: Ed Duval URL: www.AndTechComputers.com

MAILTO: support@andtech2020.com

Author Box - ? Ed Duval (2006) Ed Duval is contract writer and software developer for www.AndTechComputers.com and Creator of the HotPotato Restaurant Point of Sale Software System. With over a decade of experience in software development he shares his unique insight on today's point of sale software systems.

Why You Need To Advertise Beyond The Cash Register

Advertising campaigns need clearly defined objectives, especially when the offer is a low margin sale on single (or a few) items. Most ad efforts by small to mid-size businesses leave the real money on the table. Here's how to extend your strategy beyond the initial sale.

Advertise Beyond The Cash Register
Most of the retail ads I see offer ?bargain basement? discounts with painfully low profit value to the seller. Sure, there?s the expectation that a buyer will make an additional purchase, but as someone very accurately said, ?hope is not a strategy?!

While it might be a moderately safe ?percentage play? to hope that a buyer will make multiple purchases?a more proactive conversion strategy will produce more impressive, and far more profitable results. Formulating longer-range objectives in all of your ad campaigns will, ultimately, lower your overall marketing costs by increasing the profitability of each campaign.

You Know They?re Coming, So ?Bake A Cake?
Attracting buyers isn?t the same as acquiring a customer, and your marketing strategy has to take this distinction into account. A business that?s not converting buyers into customers is just an endless series of promotions!

Why not have your salespeople ready with pre-planned up-sell and cross-sell strategies, as well as bundled offerings to go along with your initially advertised ?specials?? Granting authority to offer discretionary ?one-off? discounts to complete a bundle can add tremendous power to your sales force and turbo charge their effectiveness.

When an ad campaign is well thought out, your product offering gives a lot of clues about what the buyers who respond really want to accomplish. Instead of thinking about the products you?re selling, consider what problem your buyers want to solve as a result of the purchase.

When you think like a solutions provider, you can create upselling and cross-selling tactics in advance, and instruct your sales force accordingly. This is where discretionary ?one-off? discounts come in handy. Your sales staff can then construct a personalized bundled solution that may have otherwise been missed.

Show The Advantages Of Being A Customer
Do you sell to a return trip by offering a ?first time buyer?s certificate? that is good for some special offering if redeemed in the next 15 or 30 days? What about a ?bring a friend coupon? that may get a response from an additional buyer that your campaign may have either missed or failed to convince.

Your sales staff should have a range of 'bounce-back' options since the same offer isn?t going to be attractive to everyone. Just guessing by what is being bought at the time is a very inaccurate way to judge. After all, the guy whose buying exterior paint supplies for his home isn?t going to be doing that again for a long time!

Capture Their Personal Data
Do you enroll them in your automatic ?birthday discount shopping spree? program to capture their personal information? You?ll need it in the future to involve your new buyer in your relationship marketing efforts.

When you can correlate this data with their first purchase, purchase amounts, etc., you can begin to develop accurate individual customer profiles. As time goes by you?ll know the buying patterns and preferences that will let you deliver laser focused, irresistible offers that generate high volume, high profit responses.

The Takeaway
The deliberate planning of the micro-steps all along the conversion process will generate higher returns on your advertising investments and ensure a continuously widening customer base. You?ll soon see a dramatic upsurge in revenue that you may have otherwise thought impossible!

Kamau Jackson is a Chicago marketing consultant who helps business owners leverage their existing assets to dramatically increase profits?without increasing advertising costs. Get more info about online and offline small business marketing strategies at www.internetknowledgesolutions.com. ? 2006 Internet Knowledge Solutions.

Retail POS Software

There are a number of channels of distribution available to the producer that may be employed by persons or companies to bring products to the market. Consumer goods may be distributed through channels. The channels used are producer-consumer, and there is no middleman involved. Sales are made from house to house or by direct mail. Point of sale software provides the best benefits that programming technology and client/server databases have to offer to retailers. It is designed with a high degree of proficiency that allows the user to access data and ask questions about the database.

Secondly, producer-retailer-consumer are when goods are purchased directly from manufacturers or retail stores opened by manufacturers. Thirdly, producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer is the traditional and most economically used channel. There is also producer-agent-retailer-consumer channel, whereby producers use manufactures agents and brokers to reach the retail market. Finally, the producer-agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer channel uses the services of agents by smaller retailers who purchase from wholesalers and sell to small stores.

A large number of channels of distribution are available to the manufacturer to bring products to the consumer. Efficient distribution at the least cost and at the desired volume of sale can be secured only after experience, study and analysis.

A retailer does retailing by selling to consumers. In the distributional hierarchy, retailers are below the level of distributors or wholesalers. Sometimes, retailers are termed dealers or authorized representatives. The retailer often operates in a smaller territory or at a specific location and earns less commission compared to higher levels in the channel.

POS Software provides detailed information on POS Software, Free POS Software, Retail POS Software, POS Restaurant Software and more. POS Software is affiliated with Bar Code Printing Software