What are the 6 essential features of the best POS systems?

Point of sale systems are essential in running a business, and despite its simple name, it is a lot more than just the place where you sell your products. A POS System can be responsible for inventory management, accounting, employee management and much more to help you grow your business. Every business is different, so the question you need to be asking when considering POS systems is What do I need in a POS System to functionally help run my business?  And after you have thought about everything the POS system needs to do, the next question should be How will these features help my business grow? 

At Acumen Computer Systems, we develop standard and custom point of sale software for a range of growing retail businesses and have done so for over 25 years. We understand that sometimes it can be challenging to determine what your business needs your POS System to do, so here is a list of 6 must-haves when considering investing in a new Point of Sales.

The 6 Essential Features of the Best POS Systems

1. Quick Product Look Up

One of the most essential elements of a POS System is an easy product lookup that features commonly sold products and services as a single button on the screen. This is a time-savvy tactic that allows your employees to efficiently process sales and upsell customers.

Additionally, you should also be able to find your entire and most up-to-date product catalogue through the search function on your POS system. An easily navigated search system is vital to your business’s success as it can assist your employees in ringing up sales with accuracy and maintaining good customer service.

When looking at the navigation for a POS system to suit your business, a general rule of thumb is one with the fewest amount of clicks to add to sales will be the most beneficial.

2. Multiple Payment Methods

As we continue to develop new technologies, the way your customer is paying is changing. Now more than ever, mobile payments are the preferred method of payment. While you cannot discount cash, you need a system that is able to process different types of payments such as gift cards, trade credit, Apple Pay, and AfterPay.

The more flexibility you have in payment methods, the better it is for business, as you won’t be turning anyone away.

3. User Accounts

Unless you are the sole operator of sales, inventory and accounting for your business, you will need separate user accounts within your pos system. Believe it or not, this is not a standard feature in pos systems. User accounts allow businesses to manage multiple stores and hundreds of employees while maintaining a high level of security to protect your business.

Here are some of the critical benefits of user accounts:

• Employee Productivity

By having separate user accounts, you can track employee productivity and determine the highest-selling employee and when they sell the most. By understanding these metrics, you will be able to better organise your roster, so your best employees are on during peak time, and in off-peak time you are conducting other business activities such as stocktaking. With each unique login, you are also able to reward outstanding employees and pinpoint issues to address them if they should come up.

• Built-In Security

With separate user accounts, you can add security to your pos system so that only designated people can access certain information or perform actions such as refunds. These user accounts also come embedded with unique passwords and PIN codes, which further protects your sales process from miscellaneous sales, dishonesty, theft and other human errors that may occur.

• Set Accurate Sales Goals

With built-in user accounts, you have accurate data on how well your employees are able to sell your products and services. Therefore, you can forecast accurate sales goals and hold your team accountable in meeting and exceeding those goals each week.

4. POS Reports

Reporting tools are essential in any modern-day business, and they shouldn’t be excluded from your POS system. With Standard POS reports, you are able to see how your sales are going, which products are selling and when they are selling and which products are slow to sell or not selling. You can also determine recurring seasonal trends and where there may be gaps in your business. It allows you to accurately forecast your business growth and your profitability.

At Acumen, we have over 200 standard reports to choose from, and you are able to customise and build your own POS reports so you can see all the metrics you want to be able to see in one report.

5. Inventory Management

A POS system without integrated inventory management capabilities should be considered archaic. The best POS system will have an inbuilt inventory management system that syncs online orders with a brick-and-mortar store so that you can stay up to date with the status of your products.

Historically inventory management tasks such as stocktaking, spot counts and order and purchasing have been the biggest headache for retail stores. With an integrated POS system, there are fewer human errors, and some inventory management tasks can be done anywhere, including at home or on the road.

The inbuilt inventory management system allows you to better manage your business and success.

6. Multi-Store Management

One of the greatest features that a POS system can have is the scalability model, which allows you to seamlessly integrate your POS system software as you expand to new stores or new terminals within the same store. With a multi-store management system, the amount of set-up and work to run your POS system will be greatly reduced and more centralised to ensure the best functionality.

A multi-store management feature also allows you to manage and optimise your inventory across all your stores and factories, centrally adjust pricing structures when needed and customise the product lookup to meet the needs of each store. It is one of the best features to have in your POS system so you know it will grow at the same time your business does..

Considering a New POS System?

If you are considering a new POS system with all of the best features but need even more to meet the demands of your daily business needs, give us a call. Acumen Computer Systems specialises in developing POS software to meet the needs of complex retail stores so they can better deliver their products and services. We are locally based in Geelong, so you can talk directly to the people that have built your POS system.

Want to know more? Get in touch now.