Integrating Point of Sales and Inventory

Keeping track of your sales and the cash flowing in is one of the most important features of your point of sale software system. However it is only half of the story, a good point of sale system doubles as an inventory management system. Tracking an item from the moment you order it to the moment it is sold makes point of sale software the single most important tool for retail business today.

Integrating inventory into your point of sale system can be a huge time consuming task. Many companies have thousands of potential inventory items; larger companies can have hundreds of thousands. The most important aspect is keeping track of the product from it?s creation to beyond the sale. Knowing who manufactured an item and their specifications for its use allows you to provide a service aspect to your customers. If today?s point of sale systems for larger companies didn?t track this then recalls would be almost impossible to issue and manage.

Employee theft is one of the biggest hits companies can take. Hundreds of thousands of dollars could escape large retailers through the sticky fingers of dishonest associates. New technologies being incorporated into the sales aspect are slowing moving over to inventory management and theft prevention. RFID tags imbedded in the products packing from the manufacturer can allow an entire truckload of incoming products to be counted and added to the inventory at record time. Sensors placed strategically can prevent products from walking out the wrong door unpaid and pay for the cost of system quickly with the savings from fewer thefts.

Any technology has its issues and inventory management can run into lots of bumps. In many cases inventory items can be purchased from multiple vendors and supply chains can change. Your point of sale software system needs to take these changes into account. Prices can also change sometimes on a daily basis. You not only have to keep track of the cost of the item and the price it was sold at, but you have to do this every time the item is brought into inventory. For large companies this can create huge amounts of data and the more data your system holds the slower it can become. So we tread this fine line between capturing the information and keeping ourselves from retaining too much data. Experienced data base programmers have tricks and methods to keep the actual amount of data retained to a minimum while still supplying the functions required in a point of sale system.

To any company that sells retail products inventory management is just as important as sales management. When shopping for a new point of sale software system I suggest you pay particular attention to the inventory and product management features. Having a system that performs a quick sale and manages the cash to the penny is great, but if it can?t help you track your inventory in a method that makes you feel secure then I suggest you keep looking. Finding the right software for your business can be a time consuming process but believe me when I tell you it is the single most important decision you can make.

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.

Point of Sale: No Longer Just a Place Where You Take the Customer's Money

POS is the holy grail. One popular easy to implement system is Quickbooks. Quickbooks Point of Sale is the answer for those who want to move away from a calculator and regular, analog cash register. Microsoft Point of Sale is a more costly, yet friendly retail-management package for mom-and-pop shops. Point of Sale is a fairly ethereal concept, as we really do not know where exactly the "sale" is made in the buyer's mind. The point of sale is the most visible and important contact you have with your customers. It is similarly becoming more flexible itself. In addition to software, the location of your POS system in your business is important. Colorful logos and graphics should be used to direct the attention and improve message retention of the visitors and prospects. The touch screen point of sale is ideal for working restaurants and growing restaurants looking for a better restaurant register. What it comes down to is this: In a well-run establishment, the point of sale is more than just the place where the money comes in. Extending the point of sale is something retailers have been trying to do for years.

Few purchases can have as dramatic an effect on your retail or hospitality venture as a point of sale (POS) system. Be sure to invest in integrated business processing rather than simple exchanges of information in a basic cash register. Get the software component you need to streamline your business process and improve customer service.

If you?re involved with a business that holds inventory, that?s another area to be concerned about. How do you make sure that the inventory at each ecommerce site is accurate? Whether your establishment has a small gift shop or a larger sales item inventory, look for a point of sale module that makes sales inventory management easy. This will allow you to offer improved customer service by viewing real time inventory information.

The point of sale is the location where the transaction takes place. It is going to be a point where a whole new form of `marketing-at-retail' is set to emerge - in our service businesses and supermarkets alike. Keep in mind the important things to look for in POS. Protecting credit card tabulations at the point of sale is challenging. One of the biggest benefits of QuickBooks Point of Sale is that it integrates with QuickBooks Financial Software and merchant accounts to make this easier for you. Remember, choosing the right spot for a new point of sale is a key decision for a company. In summary, point of sale is giving way to point of service.

Before you purchase a POS system make sure to visit SoftwarePointofSale.com where you will quickly and easily find resources and information on point of sale systems, label printers, flat screen monitors, and other useful links that will help you make your decision.

Point Of Sale Displays

 In a competitive market, point of sale displays help solve several of a marketer?s short-term hurdles. The impact of sales promotion measures is not durable like the results obtained through advertising and personal selling. Sale displays by and large are understood and practiced as a catalyst and as a supporting facility to advertising and personal selling.

Point of sale displays differs from advertising in many ways. Whereas advertising is mostly an indirect and subtle approach towards persuading consumers to buy a product, sale displays is a direct and almost open inducement to consumers to immediately try the product. Secondly, advertising normally has long-term objectives like building brand awareness or building consumer loyalty or repositioning a brand, sale displays performs an immediate task of increasing current sales. Finally, advertising helps sales by adding some durable and long-term value to the product, while point of sale displays aid selling by temporarily changing the existing price-value relationship of the product.

While continuing to use advertising to build long term patronage of the consumer, sale displays will come handy to give the occasional spurt required to boost up current sales. Marketing man resort to sale displays to meet several marketing needs such as introducing new products, overcoming a unique competitive situation, unloading accumulated inventory, overcoming seasonal slumps, getting new accounts, retrieving lost accounts and for persuading dealers to buy more/ increase the size of the orders.

The above categorization is based on the marketing problem to be tackled. If we look at the target group to whom sale displays measures are normally aimed at, we find four broad target groups, viz. the consumer, the trade or channel and influential groups. Bulk of the sale displays effort is aimed at the consumer and the trade.
Point Of Sale Displays provides detailed information on point of sale, point of sale displays, point of sale hardware, point of sale marketing and more. Point Of Sale Displays is affiliated with Affordable Point Of Sale Systems.

The Top 10 Reasons You Need A Restaurant Point Of Sale System

After over 25 years of consulting and helping business owners like yourself analyze their business and decide to invest in a point of sale system I have found that many reasons drove their decision. I have seen their problems, listened to their complaints and caught quite a few employees taken extra benefits directly from the cash register. To simplify things just a little, let's look at the top 10 reasons you need a point of sale system.

10. You have employees.

If you have employees you are open to theft, sweet-hearting and careless mistakes. You need a point of sale system to manage your employees, enforce your policies and insure that your money gets to you.

9. Pricing and Math Errors.

It is still amazing how many restaurants still use a calculator and hand written tickets. According to studies done by various institutions you are open to math and pricing mistakes totaling in excess of 1% of your annual volume. In a restaurant doing as little as $1,300 per day that would add up to $4,700 per year. (Less than the price of our 2-terminal Sweet Deal Package) To eliminate pricing and math errors you need a point of sale system.

8. Time In Attendance.

Employee payroll is one of the most overlooked and most easily managed portions of your profit and loss statement. If you have 12 employees and each of them clocks in 5 minutes early a day, that equates to 1 hour per day of extra payroll. Even with minimum wage plus benefits this could add up to $6 - $8 per day or over $2,900 per year. This figure doesn?t take into account the total man-hours it takes to compute time cards and then report on the hours worked for each employee. This is time that you could be spending elsewhere. If you have a few as 5 employees you need a point of sale system.

7. Reducing Theft.

This is the original reason for the invention of the cash register back in the late 1800?s. Even when most of the businesses were family owned and run there was a need for a cash register to reduce theft. In today?s world of hiring employees to help staff and manage your store there is even greater need for this type of control. For years we have known about the tendencies of people with regard to theft. 10% of the people wouldn?t steal if giving the opportunity. 10 % of the people are going to steal no matter what safeguards are in place. 80% of the people will steal if given the opportunity. Point of sale systems are put in place to guard against the 80% and make it more difficult for them to steal from you.

6. Speed of Service.

There is only 1 thing we can think of that will drive customers away faster than bad food and that is slow service. When a customer places their order their own internal clock is running in overdrive. No matter how long they took to look over the menu and to place their order, once they have given your server or cashier their order their hunger clock is speeding along faster than a fan on high! You need a fast, reliable way to get orders into your system. This should mean a terminal that is fast, easy to understand and quick to respond to the touch of the server, cashier or bar tender. The system should also distribute the order properly to the kitchen prep station or bar. Your point of sale system should also measure your speed of service and report on how you are doing. Reducing the time it takes to get your customer?s their food is critical and can even make up for less quality. For proof I give you some of the major fast food chains. Is their popularity based upon the best tasting, best dressed and best served burger or speed of service? If you want to speed up your customer service you need a point of sale system.

5. Enhanced Reporting.

What is the use of having a computer and not taking advantage of the power? If all you need is to have a total amount of cash in the drawer that sometimes matches to the amount of sales shown you probably don?t need a point of sale system. However, if you want more detail and information to help manage your operation and make it more profitable then you need a point of sale system. It used to be that having a good product was enough to get you by. Now it takes a lot more information in order to compete with all the other restaurants in your market that are all looking for the same customer you have seated in your restaurant. You need to understand the buying habits of your customers. What are they ordering? When are they ordering it? What is your most profitable item? How many of it did you sell? What items on your menu are not selling? If you cannot answer all of these questions with total confidence in your answers then you need a point of sale system. If you hesitate to correctly answer (without guessing) any of these questions you need a point of sale system.

4. Exporting of Data to Other Systems.

Even most small businesses today have some form of electronic accounting in place either in their operation or through an accounting service. In addition, most businesses have an electronic payroll service or software that creates payroll. Point of sale systems capture critical data for you and then export this data in formats that automatically put this information into accounting and payroll packages, eliminating hours of tedious manual input that often leads to mistakes and human error. If you have an electronic accounting or payroll service/software or even if you want to track your sales in Excel, you need a point of sale system.

3. Integrated Credit Cards.

If you are not currently taking credit cards as a form of payment you need to start today. Never mind the fees. The loss of business that you are suffering in today?s plastic minded economy will more than compensate for the fees charged. If you are currently taking credit cards through a stand-alone terminal you could be being charged exorbitant fees for the terminal when you could be processing through your point of sale system. In some cases, the elimination of the terminal rental will pay for the credit card interface in less than a year. With integrated credit card processing you are assured that the amount of the sale will match the amount charged on the credit card, eliminating the need to go back and match individual sales when the credit card batch does not match credit card sales. When high-speed Internet connections are used to process credit cards we receive approvals in less than 2 seconds. No longer is slower speed of service an excuse not to take credit cards. If you want to quickly, accurately and smoothly process credit cards you need a point of sale system.

2. Competitive Marketing.

a. Frequent Diner Modules. Who are your customers? What do they buy? How often do they visit? Of your frequent visitors, who hasn?t been in to see you during the past month? Of your frequent visitors, who has a special day coming up this month? These are questions that you should have the answer to. All the major chains and all of your competitors are after the people who come to your restaurant. They want to take them for themselves. How are you going to compete with the billions of dollars being spent to draw your customer away? By marketing your operation and your menu. Your point of sale system should be able to manage your customer base, keep up with their buying habits, how often they visit, when was their last visit and what special occasions they have coming up. Your point of sale system then should be able to sort these into groups that should be sent mailers, coupons, invitations to special events or simply told that they are appreciated and asked to visit you again. If you have competition you need a point of sale system.

b. Gift cards have become the norm for so many businesses today. An entire industry has been formed around the old concept of giving a paper gift certificate. Today, you will find gift cards at most major checkout lines. A point of sale system should be able to sell, redeem and control balances for your own gift card program. No longer do you need a book of certificates that are kept in the safe. Today, all you need is a stack of blank plastic cards with your colorful logo on them. These cards carry no balance and have no cash value until sold and a balance placed on account. As an owner you should keep a few of these cards with you. Each of these cards might have a small balance on them for you to hand out to pull customers to your restaurant or to give in case of a poor experience to help bring someone back. Think of these cards as your personal marketing tool. When the customer looks in their purse or wallet and sees your logo they will be reminded to come visit you. If you use gift certificates or gift cards you need a point of sale system.

1. You Don?t Need Any More ?Partners?.

Sure you need gift cards. Yes you need to better understand your customer?s buying habits. You absolutely need to have credit cards integrated with your point of sale system. You need enhanced reporting and export of these reports to electronic accounting and payroll services. You need to eliminate errors, reduce mistakes and keep track of your payroll. But more than any of these you don?t need any more partners. Especially the ones that take their portion of the profits before you get yours. We are talking about the servers, waitresses, bartenders and cashiers who:

a. Undercharge customers in order to enhance their own tips. Show a $5 tab and a $50 tip. (Yes, I have seen this!)

b. Deliberately void or delete an item after it has been paid for.

c. Stuff coupons into the cash drawer in exchange for cash.

d. Don?t charge customers for soft beverages to enhance their tips.

e. Ring up a lower priced item (well brand) and serve a higher priced item (premium brand)

f. Give discounts to their friends.

g. In a buffet line, ring up a buffet and a tea. Reprint this ticket 10 times and sell and collect for themselves these reprinted receipts instead of ringing up new customers.

If you want to stay in business, you need a point of sale system.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 http://www.directouchpos.com or http://www.directretailpos.com for more information.

Why An Efficient POS (Point of Sale ) Cash Register System May Be The Best Investment You'll Ever Make

The Slope Report read, "excellent conditions". It was cold but sunny and the slopes were full of skiers and snowboarders. The powder? Perfect. I could see out the window a group of skiers were headed toward the lodge bar. Inside the bar they waited patiently as the bartender keyed in their seating numbers, drinks and bar tab. It took over four minutes for them to get their drinks; the same amount of time it took for them to decide on dinner at another pub.

Capturing the skiers during a weather-perfect season is simple. Capturing their food and beverage business isn't always so easy. It requires not only need a customer-friendly environment, but also a user-friendly POS (point of sale) cash register system for efficiency. Today's technology provides this...and more. POS cash register terminals that continuously synchronize with each other, endless report options, alcohol inventory controlled by bottle weights and computerized tap monitors, staff time and attendance, ski, school, and guest database management, and so much more are available. Let's face it. It takes more than cooperative weather to run a ski resort.

So, when choosing a POS software system, be certain to explore all the options. Cost is always a factor, but unless the software gives you all the management tools you need and is fully supported, an initially less expensive system can end up costing you much more. There are as many point of sale cash register systems available as there are skis and choosing the right one can be confusing and time-consuming. Aside from meeting technological requirements, your POS system must remain easy to use, with speed and accuracy. Customers, Employees, Managers and Sales Staff are all affected by a point of sale system. So, imagine first what you would like the ideal computer cash register system to do for your resort; make a list of features you hope to find. Chances are you'll find all of them on today's market.

One software company that stands out above the rest is a Canadian-based company called Tesoro Technologies, Incorporated. Wired or wireless, Windows or Linux, networked or independent terminals, their Volant? POS System is up for any challenge. Since 1993, Volant? System developers have been designing equipment that is "cash register tough and computer smart" to serve some of the biggest and best.

Snow Valley Ski Resort, located in Barrie, Ontario, wanted a POS system that could produce ID cards and time passes, manage a client database and ski school, as well as handling all their food and beverage and retail services. The geographical location had Director, Peter Haney, concerned at first. " Like most ski resorts, we are very remote. We needed a satellite tower and wireless system. We also looked at a lot of providers and found that most of the companies didn't offer the hospitality end we needed. Volant? is hospitality."

Tesoro had to install a fail-safe, independently running system for the remote summit area that could also be integrated with the high volume operations below. Using both wired and wireless network topology, their system has operated without software failure despite the unstable power and network issues. Snow Valley Ski Resort also utilizes the database of guests and 5,800 pass holders to generate email broadcasts, which enhances their marketing plan. "We're real pleased with Volant?. It's an entity that grows and evolves along with our business," says Haney.

In fact, Volant? has revolutionized the wireless POS industry. Their creative approach to wireless mobile computing makes Volant? the perfect POS software choice for not only ski resorts, but for other venues as well, such as stadiums, trade shows, casinos, arenas, race tracks and outdoor sales areas where conventional POS cash register systems aren't practical nor feasible.

Tesoro Technologies, Inc. may be at the forefront of a new generation of guest management technology, but they're still producing. Recent breakthroughs in point of sale development are allowing a full range of services and back office capabilities never before considered. For more information on how Tesoro and Volante POS systems can help your business, contact them through their website, www.volantesystems.com, or email them at sales@volantesystems.com.

So, when you're looking for a more efficient POS cash register system that can create "excellent conditions" at your resort, spend the extra time researching your options - it may turn out to be the best investment you're resort has ever made.

Why Are Your Cash Registers Empty? 8 Reasons Why Your Site is not Getting Sales

Ok, you've got your webpage up and running and you have submitted your site to the search engines, now it is time to make that money! Right? Well then, how come your virtual cash register has that hollow ring to it everytime you open it? Your site is not making sales and there are at least 8 reasons why and 8 simple fixes you can implement in order to immediately remedy anything you are doing incorrectly.

1.You have relied on a passive promotion strategy to get the word out about your site. Many of you assume that simply putting up a website will cause tons of visitors to flock to your site with cash in hand practically begging to buy your products or services.

Sorry, a passive marketing strategy may bring you in a trickle of sales or absolutely none at all. Alternatively, by utilizing an active marketing strategy, you do not wait for visitors to come to you, you do everything in your power to bring targeted visitors to your site. Active marketers utilize methods such as ezine advertising and article submissions to targeted ezines in order to draw traffic to their site. They will also use free publicity tools such as press releases in order to get the word out about their site to an audience that cares.

2.You do not offer a simple and secure method of online ordering or accept different forms of payment.

This could be easily solved by getting set up with a merchant account provider that enables you to accept checks and all the major credit cards and provides you with a secure website to process transactions automatically. The best company for this in my opinion is ECommerce Exchange. You can learn more about them here:
http://www.qcaffiliate.com/qc/goldbar

3.You do not have a method of capturing your prospects names and email addresses when they visit your site.

Get this set up immediately and start building a mailing list of interested prospects.

The best way to do this is to offer a mailing list that people could subscribe to. You could offer either a newsletter about a topic that interests your audience or even a small tips sheet that sends people interesting and useful information related to the topic of your website. When you've built up your list to over a few hundred people, then you can begin to send commercial information regarding the products and services you offer. As long as you are also offering quality information for free, your audience will be more responsive to your commercial solicitations.

4.You do not offer enough methods for people to contact you.

You should offer people as many different ways of contacting (and ordering) from you as possible. Here are some cost effective contact methods you can implement: the most natural one on the web is of course email. However, you should also include your phone number for those who prefer to speak with a human being. If you have one, provide a fax number. There is an inexpensive fax solution available from a company called JFax. They will allow you to receive both fax and voice messages in your inbox for an extremely low monthly fee. To learn more visit: http://www.j2.com Lastly, you should always list your snail mail address on your website.

5.You only advertise online.

Big mistake. There are millions of people offline who might be interested in your site and your information. They are often more likely to order immediately as opposed to someone who surfs the web regularly and who knows they can always "come back sometime in the future".

One of the best ways to reach an audience and bring them to your site is to put your URL and your email address on every piece of correspondence you send out. I know of one person who adds his URL to every bill he sends out hoping that it will cause someone to visit. The best part is that this type of promotion is free so you have nothing to lose. One of the most effective offline advertising techniques involves getting your ad onto a card deck that reaches a targeted audience. This is a great way to spread the word about your site to many interested prospects who otherwise may not have had the chance to find out about you.

6.You do not rely on the power of joint ventures to get the word out about your products and services.

Joint venture endorsements have the power to bring in more visitors and sales to your site than any other method I know of. Joint Venture Marketing involves 2 parties: a list owner and someone who wishes to have his product or service introduced and endorsed to the members of the mailing list. This has the ability to pull in a large amount of sales due to the trust built up between the members of the list and the list owner. When he endorses your products or services in his own words to his list, he conveys your legitimacy and in turn they transfer their trust to you. If you have ever heard radio shows like Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern, you will notice that the ads that receive the most response are the ones that these disk jockeys read themselves and almost make a part of their "shtick". They are in effect endorsing a product and in turn generating interest and sales for it.

7.You do not follow up when people ask you for more information.

Huge mistake. That person has indicated that they are interested in what you have to sell. Statistics show that people have to be exposed to your marketing message at least 7 times before they will respond. Sending one email explaining your product is not enough. You must follow up with a prospect and make a concerted effort to close the sale. Explain the benefits of your product or service, refer them to testimonials of satisfied customers, ask if you can call them to explain your product in greater detail. If people see this as badgering and they ask you to stop bothering them by all means do so. A great idea is to automate all of your follow-up by using autoresponders. There are some great tools on the market to help you with this, we highly recommend using GetResponse. Discover some of the great benefits of using this sequential autoresponder by clicking here: http://www.getresponse.com?13323

8.You try to sell too many products and services from your website.

This may work for a site selling books or toys or vitamins where people may be looking for a large variety of products. However, on a site that is geared towards business, too many product offerings can give the impression that your business lacks focus. If someone gets to your site and is immediately bombarded with marketing material, they may become overwhelmed or even annoyed at the commercial nature of your site. Offering many products and services takes away from your credibility by giving the impression that you will sell anything just to make a buck. Instead, develop your site around one or two complementary products and services and offer lots of free, related information. That is sure to build up your credibility with your potential customers. Try to develop a traffic magnet (such as a discussion board or related articles) so you can bring back your targeted audience time and again.

Marc Goldman, Goldbar Enterprises
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